The meeting began with public comments which were mainly
statements by reps from the Interns and Residents union about contract issues.
The TA union supported the tolerance/intolerance resolution (which the Regents
later rejected). Urban planning options at Merced were also mentioned. In
addition, there was discussion of student mental health, cost of student
housing at UC-Santa Cruz, graduate student career planning, and disability
access at UC-Irvine. UC prez Napolitano delivered a general report on UC. Senate
rep Dan Hare noted issues of faculty total compensation, particularly in light
of the pension cutbacks for new hires.
A session of the Committees on Governance and UC Health
discussed the proposal – from past Regents meetings – for more autonomy and
delegation of authority for the various campus health enterprises. Several
regents expressed concerns about such delegation, particularly grants of
authority to non-regents. It appears that this issue is headed for some
decision at the November meetings.
The Committee on Grounds and Buildings continued discussion
of the proposed public-private partnership to build out the UC-Merced campus
over the next 35 years. Issues related to the cost of borrowing and who would
carry the risks involved were raised.
Chief Investment Officer Bachher largely repeated his
earlier (Sept. 9) report to the Committee on Investments, but also plugged what
his office could do (and is doing in some cases) to manage campus endowments.
He also offered services to evaluate financing of campus real estate projects.
Bachher repeated his announcement that he had divested the UC portfolio of coal
and oil sands stocks. In answer to a question, it was noted that the pension
assumed rate of return was being cut back from 7.5%/annum to 7.25%. One regent
noted the potential impact on the unfunded liability but otherwise there was
little discussion. This was in contrast to the Sept. 9 meeting in which Bachher seemed to agree with the notion that maybe the rate should be 6%. (See the second link below.)
You can hear the meeting at the link below:
Six percent? (from Sept. 9, 2015):
Six percent? (from Sept. 9, 2015):
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