The Regents are Coming: Nov. 18-20, 2025

The Regents will be meeting at UCLA November 18-20 and their preliminary agenda is now posted. 

Note: As yet, the underlying documents in the various sessions are not available.

===

Agenda: November 18-20, 2025 - Luskin Conference Center, UCLA

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

---

2:30 pm Health Services Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 16, 2025

Public Comment Period (30 minutes) 

---

Upon end of open session:

Health Services Committee (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 16, 2025

H1(X) Discussion: Litigation, Collective Bargaining, and Financial Risks to the Academic Medical Centers

NOTE: Presumably, "Financial Risks" involve uncertainties about federal funding. "Collective Bargaining" presumably includes the strike scheduled to overlap the Regents sessions.

H2(X) Discussion: UC Health Litigation Update

---

Upon end of closed session:

Health Services Committee (open session) 

H3 Discussion: Medical Center Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2024-25

===

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

---

8:30 am Board (open session - includes public comment session) 

Public Comment Period (30 minutes)

• Remarks of the Chair of the Board
• Remarks of the President of the University
• Remarks of the Chair of the Academic Senate

B1 Discussion: UC Inspires: UC Nobel Laureates—A Legacy of World-Changing Achievement and Impact 

---

10:30 am Board (closed session) 

B2(X) Discussion: External Funding Litigation and Legal Issues

NOTE: Refers to the current conflict with the federal government.

---

12:30 pm Board (open session) 

B3 Action: Renewal of the University of California Tuition Stability Plan

---

Concurrent Meetings

---

1:30 pm Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 17, 2025

F1 Action: East Campus Student Housing, Santa Barbara Campus: Budget, Scope, External Financing, Long Range Development Plan Amendment #8, and Design Following Consideration of Addendum No. 6 to the 2010 Long Range Development Plan Environmental Impact Report Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act

F2 Action: University of California Consolidated Capital Report and Approval of the 2025-31 Capital Financial Plan

F3 Action: University of California Financial Reports, 2025

F4 Action: University of California 2026-27 Budget for Current Operations and State Request for Capital Projects

NOTE: Just as UC has budget plans for next year, so, too, must UCLA. The UC budget is the sum of the campus budgets plus certain systemwide programs. As blog readers will know, there is a pending demand at the UCLA Academic Senate for access to campus budgets and projections following claims of an undefined "deficit" and related cuts.

F5 Action: Consent Item: University of California Retirement Savings Program – Plan Provision and Operational Amendments

F6 Discussion: Annual Actuarial Valuation of the University of California Retiree Health Benefit Program

F7 Discussion: Annual Actuarial Valuations for the University of California Retirement Plan and Its Segments and for the 1991 University of California – Public Employees’ Retirement System Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program [VERIP]

NOTE: Various pension-related incentives termed "VERIPs" to encourage early retirement were given in the early 1990s during a budget crisis of that era to reduce payroll costs.

---

1:30 pm Academic and Student Affairs Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 17, 2025

A1 Discussion: Joint Academic Senate-Administration Task Force on UC Adaptation to Disruptions (UCAD Plus)

NOTE: This task force deals with disruptions in federal funding resulting from the current conflict with the Trump administration.

A2 Discussion: UCLA Research Informing Post-Fire Rebuilding and Resilience

---

3:30 pm Joint: Health Services Committee and Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (closed session) 

J1(X) Action: Lease of Clinical Support Building and Budget for Tenant Improvements, San Francisco Campus

---

4:00 pm Investments Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2025

I1 Review of First Quarter 2025-26 Fiscal Year Performance for UC Retirement, Endowment, and Working Capital Assets

===

Thursday, November 20, 2025

---

8:30 am Board (open session - includes public comment session) 

Public Comment Period (30 minutes)

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meetings of July 17 and September 17, 2025

Remarks from Student Associations

---

9:15 am Compliance and Audit Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 17, 2025

C1 Discussion: Ethics, Compliance and Audit Services Annual Report 2024-25

C2 Discussion: Annual Report of External Auditors for the Year Ended June 30, 2025

---

Upon end of open session:

Compliance and Audit Committee (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 17, 2025

C3(X) Discussion: Annual Consultation with Regents’ Auditors Concerning Performance of University Personnel

C4(X) Discussion: Compliance and Audit Personnel Matters

C5(X) Action: Recommended Settlements for Board Action: 

NOTE: Includes cases involving employment discrimination, workers' compensation, and medical malpractice.

C6(X) Discussion: Appellate, Trial Court Developments and Updates

NOTE: Includes cases involving complaints of use of affirmative Action: in medical school admissions, the Heaps medical malpractices cases at UCLA, Pasadena's case against UCLA involving the Rose Bowl, litigation related to federal fund cutoffs, protest-related cases, the case that forced UC to release the demand letter from the federal government, and a case involving blockage by authorities of a pro-Israel program at UCLA. Oddly, the Gordon Klein case from UCLA that resulted from the 2020 George Floyd events - now awaiting a judge's decision - is not included. Also includes various employment-related and medical malpractice cases.

C7(X) Information: Settlements and Separation Agreements under Delegated  Authority Reported from August 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025 

---

10:50 am Governance Committee (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 17, 2025

G1(X) Discussion: Collective Bargaining Matters

G2(X) Discussion: Market-Based Salary Adjustment for Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Berkeley Campus

---

Upon end of closed session:

Governance Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of September 17, 2025

G2 Action: Approval of Market-Based Salary Adjustment for Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Berkeley Campus as Discussed in Closed Session

G3 Action: Dates of Regents Meetings for 2027 

---

11:30 am Board (open session) 

Committee Reports Including Approvals of Recommendations from Committees:

• Academic and Student Affairs Committee
• Compliance and Audit Committee
• Finance and Capital Strategies Committee
• Governance Committee
• Health Services Committee
• Investments Committee

Officers’ and President’s Reports: Report of Materials Mailed Between Meetings

---

Upon end of open session:

Board (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meetings of August 11,

September 17, October 14, and October 23, 2025

Committee Reports Including Approval of Recommendations from Committees:

• Compliance and Audit Committee
• Finance and Capital Strategies Committee and Health Services Committee
• Governance Committee
• Personnel matters 
• Health Services Committee

Officers’ and President’s Reports:

• Personnel Matters
• Report of Interim, Concurrence, and Committee Action:s
• Report of Materials Mailed Between Meetings

Coming Soon to Berkeley

From CalMatters: Two months after conservative advocate Charlie Kirk’s assassination during a tour stop at a Utah university, his organization, Turning Point USA, will conclude its “American Comeback Tour” at UC Berkeley on Nov. 10 with heightened security. Turning Point USA is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote conservative values on high school and college campuses. It was co-founded by Kirk and his late mentor, Bill Montgomery, in 2012. The Berkeley stop will be Turning Point USA’s first event at a California college campus since Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10. Kirk’s killing has intensified concerns about political violence and renewed debate over how universities balance security and free speech...

The Berkeley event will feature comedian and actor Rob Schneider and Christian apologist speaker Frank Turek at Zellerbach Hall. Both Turek and Schneider were friends of the late conservative activist, with Turek being a longtime mentor to Kirk and present when he was assassinated. Dan Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesperson, said, as of Oct. 14, the Berkeley chapter expected 300 attendees, though the hall has a capacity of nearly 2,000. The chapter has not responded to requests for the number of people registered for the event...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/2025/11/uc-berkeley-turning-point-charlie-kirk/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 155

From the Wall St. Journal: At first, the idea of skipping college to take a fellowship for Palantir Technologies seemed preposterous to Matteo Zanini. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. “College is broken,” one Palantir post said. “Admissions are based on flawed criteria. Meritocracy and excellence are no longer the pursuits of educational institutions,” it said. The fellowship offered a path for high-school students to work full time at the company. After deciding to apply, Zanini found out he got the fellowship at around the same time he learned of his admission to Brown University. Brown wouldn’t allow him to defer and he had also landed a full-ride scholarship through the Department of Defense.

“No one said to do the fellowship,” said Zanini, who turned 18 in September. “All of my friends, my teachers, my college counselor, it was a unanimous no.” His parents left the decision to him, and he decided to go with Palantir. Zanini is one of more than 500 high-school graduates who applied for Palantir’s “Meritocracy Fellowship”—an experiment launched under Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s thesis that existing American universities are no longer reliable or necessary for training good workers. Some fellows applied because college wasn’t interesting to them. Others applied after getting rejected from target schools.

Palantir is a data-analytics company that has become known lately for its government contracts, including with the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Its work with immigration enforcement authorities and in other arenas has drawn criticism, but Karp and other executives have leaned into a pro-America ethos. The company also has many commercial clients.

... “It’s been a source of conflict between me and my parents,” said Zanini. His mother was under the impression that he would do the fellowship as a gap year, and then reapply to return to college. But if he gets a full-time offer, that might no longer be the case...

Full story at https://www.wsj.com/business/palantir-thinks-college-might-be-a-waste-so-its-hiring-high-school-grads-aed267d5.

Two Suits Settled

As blog readers will know, we often use the services of the Internet Archive to preserve recordings of Regents meetings and for other purposes. Many people use the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to locate web sources that no longer currently exist. The Internet Archive was threatened by two lawsuits dealing with its library lending practices of books and its preservation of 78 rpm recordings.*

We now have assurance from the Archive that it has survived settlements of the two lawsuits. From Ars Technica:

Last month, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine archived its trillionth webpage, and the nonprofit invited its more than 1,200 library partners and 800,000 daily users to join a celebration of the moment. To honor “three decades of safeguarding the world’s online heritage,” the city of San Francisco declared October 22 to be “Internet Archive Day.” The Archive was also recently designated a federal depository library by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who proclaimed the organization a “perfect fit” to expand “access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape.”

The Internet Archive might sound like a thriving organization, but it only recently emerged from years of bruising copyright battles that threatened to bankrupt the beloved library project. In the end, the fight led to more than 500,000 books being removed from the Archive’s “Open Library.”

“We survived,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told Ars. “But it wiped out the Library.”

An Internet Archive spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the archive currently faces no major lawsuits and no active threats to its collections. Kahle thinks “the world became stupider” when the Open Library was gutted—but he’s moving forward with new ideas...

Full story at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/the-internet-archive-survived-major-copyright-losses-whats-next/.

====

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/09/one-suit-settled.html.

Cornell Deal

From the Cornell Daily Sun: The University reached a settlement* with the federal government to restore over $250 million in federal funds, according to a statement sent by President Michael Kotlikoff to the University community on Friday. Cornell has agreed to give $30 million to the federal government and invest an additional $30 million into research to strengthen U.S. agriculture over the next three years. The settlement stipulates that all funding to Cornell will be restored for grants that were paused and those that were yet to be funded. Grants that were previously deemed ineligible for funding will also be restored in full. 

The federal government also agreed to close all ongoing Civil Rights Title VI investigations into Cornell. The University does not admit to any wrongdoing and “expressly denies liability with respect to the subject matter of the Investigations,” according to the settlement. Under the agreement, the University must provide the federal government with anonymized undergraduate admissions data, including race, grade point average and standardized test scores broken down by specific colleges on a quarterly basis in compliance with existing regulations. The data will be subjected to a “comprehensive audit by the United States.” However, the information will be “maintained confidentially and exempt from public disclosure,” according to the agreement.

The settlement states that “no provision of this Agreement, individually or taken together, shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate the content of academic speech or curricula.” However, Cornell agreed to include the Department of Justice’s “Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination,” released on July 29, as a training resource for all faculty and staff. The memo announcing the guidance says, “The federal government will not stand by while recipients of federal funds engage in discrimination,” noting the “significant legal risk of initiatives” such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the allowance of transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams...

Full story at https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2025/11/cornell-reaches-settlement-with-trump-administration-to-restore-federal-funding.

====

*https://ia800402.us.archive.org/9/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/Cornell-settlement-agreement%2011-7-2025.pdf.

Angry Judge

From the NY Times: A federal judge on Thursday excoriated the Trump administration’s blitz of hardball tactics against elite universities, warning that the government’s threats and investigations were undermining academic freedom at the University of California. Judge Rita F. Lin, of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, did not immediately order the government to curb its pressure campaign against the university system. But it was only minutes into a hearing on Thursday before Judge Lin, her voice crackling with anger, began depicting the Trump administration’s methods as potentially lawless and deeply detrimental.

...What was emerging, she said, is “a classic, predictable First Amendment injury, and it’s exactly what the administration has said that it intends.” The White House did not immediately comment on Thursday.

...Thursday’s hearing focused on a request for Judge Lin to issue a preliminary injunction. Although the judge, an appointee of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said that she did not expect to rule until at least late next week, a barrage of sharp questions suggested that she was immensely skeptical of the government’s approach to schools like the University of California.

...The university system itself did not join [this] case that was before Judge Lin on Thursday. But system leaders have spent months in talks with the government about a possible settlement. The system has said little about those negotiations, and it tried unsuccessfully to keep the Trump administration’s U.C.L.A. settlement proposal out of view, fighting a public records lawsuit all the way to the California Supreme Court...

Full story https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/us/trump-pressure-free-speech-university-of-california-lawsuit.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 154

From the Williams Record: The [Williams College] faculty approved a series of motions to remove language from the faculty handbook about the use of race in College’s decision-making on hiring and admissions at the Oct. 7 faculty meeting. At last month’s meeting, the faculty declined to pass the amendments and deferred them to this month for more substantive deliberation. The revisions are part of a broader effort to ensure the College’s compliance with current federal laws and policies in order to recertify as a recipient of new federal research funding, President Maud S. Mandel told the Record in September. The recertification process was halted in May because of new federal guidelines targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

Seven motions pertaining to the handbook, which outlines College governance and faculty employment, were approved at the meeting. Two of them removed references to affirmative action and rewrote the relevant section to focus on “non-discrimination.” Another motion struck language that oriented the Bolin Fellowship toward underrepresented groups, and another removed racial provisions from the description of the faculty hiring process. The other three motions contained minor updates or were unrelated to DEI. Discussion at the meeting was muted and the changes were widely approved. The motion about the Bolin Fellowship, which passed by the narrowest margin, passed in an 81-15 vote with seven abstentions... 

Full story at https://williamsrecord.com/470677/news/faculty-votes-to-alter-handbook-remove-dei-references/.

From the Daily Bruin: A national free speech advocacy group alleged that segments of the UC’s online anti-harassment training restrict students’ speech. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said it is concerned about a part of the mandatory training that says deadnaming – intentionally calling a transgender person by the name they used prior to their transition, as opposed to their lived name – “‘may’ be considered a form of sexual harassment,” in an Oct. 31 post on X. The group called for the UC to “clarify that dead-naming or using the wrong pronouns can only be punished if they are a part of a larger pattern of harassment,” in a threaded reply on X.

Students across the UC system are required to take the Sexual Violence and Harassment, Anti-Discrimination, Prevention and Education training annually. Students who do not complete the training can see their accounts placed on hold, which prevents them from enrolling in classes or accessing recreational campus facilities. UCLA Media Relations referred the Daily Bruin to the UC Office of the President for comment. Rachel Zaentz, a UCOP spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that the UC created the SHAPE training to comply with California requirements...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/11/03/free-speech-group-alleges-shape-training-restricts-uc-students-speech.