As promised, we archive the audio of the Regents meeting of
Wednesday, May 20. A link to the audio is below. The Wednesday meeting was only
for the Committee on Grounds and Buildings. Despite the topic – review of various
capital projects – the meeting’s public comment period was mainly dominated by
speakers favoring having the Regents adopt the U.S. Dept. of State’s definition
of anti-Semitism. (One speaker was opposed. We have already posted the audio
for Thursday morning’s session in which the opponents spoke during public
comments.) In an NPR interview with UC prez Napolitano, referred to by some
speakers, she endorsed the proposal.*
The main part of the meeting dealt with various construction
projects at UC-SF, Berkeley, San Diego, Davis, and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab.
We have noted our general concerns about the Regents’ reviews of big bucks
capital projects. The Regents have no independent review capacity. When
questions are raised about projects, even if there is critical discussion, in
the end the projects are endorsed. For example, at this meeting a new building
at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab raised issues about safety in relation to seismic
and landslide risk. The building is to be constructed at the expense of the
Dept. of Energy. But when questions were raised about whether there would be UC
liability in the case of a seismic or landslide mishap, no clear answer
emerged. The Davis project involved allocating land for a campus of a local
community colleges. It was pointed out that if UC-Davis needed the land in the
future for expansion, it would not be available and that acquiring other land would
be costly. But the issue was left hanging.
You can hear
the audio at the link below:
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*http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/05/21/janet-napolitano-anti-semitism-definition.
The NPR program indicates the issues will be discussed at the July Regents
meeting.
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