Although it can still be used as a bully pulpit and sometimes extract concessions by producing enough bad press or student anger, I think alas that a lot of wha

Although it can still be used as a bully pulpit and sometimes extract concessions by producing enough bad press or student anger, I think alas that a lot of what you mention in your last sentence has already happened. On the University of California Board of Regents, for example, students have 1 out of 26 seats, and in recent years are usually in the minority on votes, so the student representative is there more or less to cast a token protest vote against something that happens anyway. (The real power is held by a bunch of political nepotists, cronies, donors, and hedge-fund moguls who have no experience in education, and were appointed due to qualifications like "is Dianne Feinstein's husband" and "donated a lot of money to Arnie's campaign".)