Watch the Regents Meeting of May 5, 2026

We're catching up with the Regents' May 5 meeting, the first of two days. The meeting began with public comments. Topics included complaints about an ICE official who spoke at a UCLA law school program, a UC-Davis family center (??? speaker was unclear), anti-Israel, resident doctor negotiations, termination of the UC-Davis equestrian team, ICE notifications, divestment, divestment from Apollo, disabled student programs, names of protesters shared with federal government, revisiting UC hiring of undocumented students, AFSCME negotiations, and a proposal for a second student regent.

The Health Services Committee heard a report on the strategic plan for UC Health. It was noted that ERs are getting more patients due to federal cutbacks. 

At the full Board, Chair Riley noted that this would be her last meeting as chair and reflected on UC's contributions. She welcomed newly-appointed Regents. UC President Milliken took note of the significant legal expenses incurred as a result of the conflict with the federal government. He referenced public concerns about higher ed as described in the recent Yale report. Problems mentioned were complicated pricing, campus climate, and opaque admissions standards. He suggested a need for more transparency with regard to pricing and admissions. With regard to the latter, it's not clear what that would mean as long as subjective judgments are made. Faculty representative Palazoglu discussed the need for a new Master Plan and wanted the Academic Senate to be involved in developing such a Plan. There was then a tribute to selected UC and UCLA alumni. Finally, there was a celebration of UCLA women's basketball and a presentation by coach Cori Close followed by brief remarks by Chancellor Frenk.

The Governance Committee proposed the appointment of a new director for the Berkeley National Lab and the full Board reconvened to ratify the appointment.

The Investments Committee hear a brief report by CFO Bachhar covering the first 9 months of the fiscal year in which returns looked good thanks to the stock market. A disturbance at the meeting halted the session and the room was cleared. Bachhar cited the usual uncertainties: war, inflation, AI. It was noted during the discussion that the Blue and Gold Pool, which is a simple indexed fund, i.e., no stock picking, nothing but equities and fixed income, performed very well at very low administrative cost. It was suggested that maybe other funds managed by the CFO's office might be run that way.

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As always, we preserve recordings of the Regents sessions since the Regents have no policy on retention and their YouTube recordings are unlisted. The sessions described above are at:

https://archive.org/details/regents-may-5-2026.

Straws in the Wind - Part 343

From the Yale Daily News: Yale postdoctoral researchers opted to unionize in a landslide vote... The University’s postdoctoral associates and research fellows cast votes... to decide whether they would join UNITE HERE Local 33. The union, which represents Yale’s graduate and professional student workers, ratified its first contract with the University in 2023. In [the] vote, 859 postdoctoral researchers voted in favor of joining the union and 31 voted against, according to union spokesperson Ian Dunn. Yale has around 1,200 postdoctoral researchers in total, according to Yale’s Office for Postdoctoral Affairs.

The vote means that Local 33 will represent postdoctoral researchers in negotiations to seek a contract with Yale. A page on the union’s website under the heading “Yale Postdoctoral Scholars United” lists concerns regarding pay, job security and the handling of grievances.

...The vote aligns Yale with some peer universities. In April 2024, the National Labor Relations Board recognized a union including postdoctoral researchers at Harvard, according to the union’s website. Princeton postdoctoral researchers voted to be represented by a union the following month...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-postdoctoral-researchers-vote-overwhelmingly-to-unionize.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 158

From the Harvard Crimson: The Faculty of Arts and Science plans to increase Ph.D. admissions next year, partially reversing steep reductions imposed across its divisions this academic cycle, FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra announced... Hoekstra said... that the FAS is “on track” to admit more graduate students next year after cutting Ph.D. admissions by roughly half across its divisions last fall — one of the school’s most dramatic cost-saving measures as it worked to close a looming $365 million structural deficit.

The planned increase marks the latest retreat from a policy that drew swift backlash from faculty, especially in the Sciences Division, and generated months of tension within the FAS’s senior leadership...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/6/fas-increases-phd-slots/.

News while traveling

Yours truly is currently in transit. However, two items are in the news today:

1) The AFSCME strike is now off. A settlement was reached at the last minute. (It is not unusual for negotiations to conclude at deadlines.)

From the LA Times:

A strike that would have disrupted operations affecting thousands of University of California hospital patients and students was averted at the 11th hour Thursday morning after UC and leaders of 40,000 union members reached a tentative agreement, winning raises and capped healthcare costs for workers...

From the NY Times:

The University of California, Los Angeles, should toughen its approach to combating antisemitism, an internal committee recommended Thursday, after the Trump administration and many students and faculty members said it had not done enough to curb harassment of Jews on campus...

Some of the recommendations in Thursday’s report fall beyond U.C.L.A.’s authority. For example, the group suggested that the University of California as a whole consider using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism....

Dozens of American universities have adopted the definition, including Columbia and Harvard last year. In March, the University of California, Berkeley, agreed as a part of a legal settlement that it would continue to consider the definition and its examples “whenever investigating or assessing claims of discrimination or harassment against Jews or Israeli individuals.” The president of the University of California system, James B. Milliken, did not immediately commit to embracing the definition across its 10 campuses. But Mr. Milliken hailed U.C.L.A.’s efforts as “important and impressive” and said, “Antisemitism is antithetical to the core values of the University of California, and it is essential that we continue to demonstrate this principle through our policies and actions.” ...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/us/ucla-considers-new-tactics-to-combat-antisemitism.html.

Degree+

From a May 1 news release by the governor's office: Governor Gavin Newsom... highlighted the efforts of the University of California (UC) system to better prepare undergraduate students for a rapidly changing workforce influenced by tech-driven economic change. The UC Degree Plus Program, launched in 2025, is a two-year pilot program currently available at no additional cost to UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and UC San Diego (UCSD) students, combining a UC bachelor’s degree with skills-based certificates and paid internships to strengthen workforce readiness, connect students with employers, and improve career outcomes in an increasingly competitive labor market. The UC Degree Plus program will serve 480 students across both campuses from 2025-2027 and is already in high demand...

Full release at https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/01/new-uc-degree-plus-pilot-program-shows-demand-for-career-readiness-training/.

More detail on the program at:

https://www.ucop.edu/academic-affairs/initiatives/degree-plus.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 342

From the Brown Daily Herald: In a United States Senate Appropriations Committee hearing..., Alabama Sen. Katie Britt attacked Brown’s security preparedness for the Dec. 13 shooting. Britt stated that Brown violated the Clery Act — which the University is currently under investigation for — which stipulates requirements for security and safety on university campuses. Britt is a Republican senator from Alabama, the home state of Ella Cook ’28, who was killed in the shooting. 

...“Public reporting from local stations and student news outlets has made it clear to me that the murder of Ella Cook, her fellow classmate and the wounding of nine others were entirely preventable,” Britt said in the hearing. “They were the predictable result of more than a decade of ideological degradation and the vilification of police and law enforcement at Brown.”

“Brown did nothing,” Britt repeated throughout her statements. University spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in a statement to The Herald that “there should be no ambiguity about Brown University’s enduring commitment to maintaining a safe and secure campus.” ...

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2026/04/alabama-sen-katie-britt-attacks-brown-s-preparedness-response-to-dec-13-shooting.

Last Cash Before Revise

The governor will present his May Revise budget proposal later today. As noted in a prior blog posting, yours truly will be on an airplane at the time so any analysis of the proposal will be delayed. However, we do have the state controller's cash report through April, the big month for income tax receipts. And the story of above-forecast revenues continued.

Revenues for the current fiscal year through April, i.e., through the first ten months, were $12.1 billion above what the governor projected in January, and $23.7 billion above what was projected at the start of the fiscal year.

The major contributor to both excesses over projections was the personal income tax, so stock market gains. Both projections got the sales tax about right, so the underlying economy was performing about at levels estimated.

Finally, the state is sitting on $87 billion in unused borrowable resources, so there is lots of internal liquidity.

We'll see how the governor and legislature react to these developments shortly.

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The state controller's report through April is at:

https://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/April2026StatementofGeneralFundCashReceiptsandDisbursements.pdf.

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Note: There is one dark spot with regard to revenue and that is from the cap-and-trade program that provides revenue for various programs, notably the high-speed rail. Revenues from cap-and-trade are falling below projections. The rail project is proving embarrassing for the governor's non-campaign for president and threats to revenues for it don't help. See:

https://lao.ca.gov/handouts/resources/2026/Amendments-to-Cap-and-Invest-050626.pdf.