Months of lobbying and the sympathetic ears of an Arizona regent have landed a UA student an official seat at the table where a plan to change the face of the state university system will take shape.

Nonvoting student regent and second-year UA law student Ben Graff will be the only student on the now 19-member workgroup. The group is charged with the yearlong task of studying and recommending how to redesign the state university system to the Arizona Board of Regents.

Graff will be expected to analyze data and give input on the 16 proposals to transform the Arizona university system as its student body almost doubles in the next 15 years.

"He will do an absolutely superb job," said Gary Stuart, president of the Arizona Board of Regents, who appointed Graff to the workgroup Friday.

Stuart said he spoke with Graff and voting regent Wes McCalley about the addition, along with Regent Chris Herstam, the architect of the original proposal and the only regent on the workgroup until now.

McCalley, an NAU business administration graduate student, will serve as the chair of the student stakeholder group, made up of students from all three universities.

Stuart said because Graff will assume voting powers in the board when McCalley's term ends, Graff was chosen to serve on the workgroup to keep a consistent student presence on the redesign study.

McCalley's two-year term with the board will end in July just as the workgroup will start to turn in the first redesign proposals.

"It made sense to me that the student regent who sits on the workgroup should vote on those issues," Stuart said.

Graff said he was pleasantly surprised when Stuart called him Friday and pitched the idea to him.

"I said 'absolutely, of course,'" Graff said. "It's great. It's no longer a question whether or not student representation on the inner workgroup is going to happen."

Last month, Graff said he was satisfied after he, McCalley and Herstam agreed the two student regents would make sure all workgroup meetings would be attended by at least one of them.

But being an official member, Graff said, is even better.

"Students need to have a legitimate marked voice in this process for the next two years," Graff said.

Graff said student lobbyists continued to put "positive pressure" on regents to get a named student member on the workgroup.

Maceo Brown, executive director of Arizona Students' Association, said ASA board members lobbied for a student seat on the workgroup since it was formed at a board meeting in June.

The difference between having student regents sit in and having an official seat is big, Brown said.

"They're at the table, they're viewed as being equals; that's the great achievement of all this," Brown said. "They're not outside of the circle."

Last month Herstam said he didn't think it was necessary to include a student in the workgroup.

Herstam wasn't available for comment yesterday.

As the only student on the workgroup, Graff will be representing students at all three universities.

Graff said he plans on having a couple of open forums at all of the state university campuses each semester where students can learn about redesign plans and will be able to provide comments and suggestions.

"I'm excited about having forums to invite students to come and discuss," Graff said.

Graff said he's also relying on student government from the three campuses to clue him in on what matters to students statewide.

"I plan on taking a very active role in getting the pulse of student opinion," Graff said.

Graff said, as a regent, he also needs to weigh in the university system as a whole and the needs of the state in the future.

"I have to make sure I represent all of my regental responsibilities, but I also have to pay slightly closer attention to the student voice," he said.

Stuart said he hopes there won't be further additions to the workgroup.

"We need to get this thing going and get people in the workgroup working," he said. "Let's let them do their work."

The workgroup will meet Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. at ASU.

"I'm extremely excited to convey the student voice at that meeting and all other meetings in the future," Graff said.