Waiting for Jim Doyle on his mahogany desk, on top of a Sports Illustrated and just beneath a note reminding him to pick up milk on the way home, is a bill that could alter the makeup of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. The proposal would require at least one member of the 18-person board be appointed from each of the seven pre-defined geographical regions of the state.

Most people seem to think this would be a good idea. The Senate and Assembly both passed the bill, which was co-sponsored by a Democrat and a Republican. Then again, Kevin Bacon (or as he likes to be known, “Bargnes”) is not most people.

As any 12-year-old can tell you, we are a democracy, and that means majority rules gosh-darn it! Bacon (“Bargnes”) was certainly paying attention during his eighth grade civics class, because that’s exactly what he is going to argue. Got a question? Vote on it! Got a governing body? Allocate seats by population, regional interests be damned.

Unfortunately, Bacon didn’t pay attention in high school when he should have learned that our democracy was more about making sure the majority didn’t go nuts and disregard the minority. In principle, that is what this move seeks to do — preserve and protect voices across the state, not just in Madison and Milwaukee.

More practically, the move makes sense because the UW System Board of Regents is charged with making decisions for the entire university system. Since each university is affected by those policies, it is necessary that each have some qualitative representation. Having a regent from every region of the state will allow the board to remain better connected and more accessible to all the bodies they govern. The fact that UW-Parkside and Whitewater, as well as the entire northwestern part of the state, don’t have a regent located near them speaks to the necessity of this legislation.

Regents do not act as representatives of universities in their vicinity. Their job is not to secure the most funds and benefits for their particular constituency. Rather, they act as trustees; their main interest is to make sure the state university system serves the needs of the entire state. While having a member from each of the seven corners of the state (yes, Wisconsin is a heptagon) on the board is neither a guarantee nor a necessity for the university system to be an asset to every denizen of Wisconsin, it is certainly a good first step.

Those who are worried about a radical restructuring of the UW System Board of Regents have overblown the effect of this legislation. Currently, Madison and Milwaukee have a supermajority of regents on the board (12 out of 18). Subtracting two regents to account for the lack of representation in Whitewater/Parkside and the northwestern corner of the state, the city bloc still holds a majority of the votes on the board.

Regardless of the composition of the board, the appointment process should not change. Perhaps drunk on the elixir of fame, or swayed by the overwhelmingly well-informed and honestly contested judicial election of recent memory, Bacon advocates for a fundamentally flawed position. First and foremost, direct election of regents will not address the issue at hand.

Second, those judicial elections were neither clean nor honest, and if we have learned anything from such festivals of soil slinging, it is that politicizing a non-political position is a dangerous decision. Members of the UW System Board of Regents should work to preserve and grow our university system, not to set themselves up for the next election cycle. The worst possible scenario for UW-Madison, as well as the rest of the system, would be if students and professors were forced to answer to grandstanding politicians at the top of Van Hise, as well as at the top of State Street.

To fundamentally rearrange the framework for our board of regents would be foolhardy. The system is not broken; it just needs a little tweak. While mandating representation from across the state may not be an absolutely necessity for a well-functioning system, it is the hallmark of a system that is making a conscious effort to ensure that it serves all members of the state. Plus, we don’t want those Hollywood types coming in here and telling us what to do.

Joe Labuz (labuz@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering.