Listen to the Regents Morning Session of Nov. 19, 2015

As blog readers will know, yours truly preserves audio recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents refuse to "archive" their own recordings for more than one year.

Below is a link to the audio for this morning's session. (You might ask what happened to the audio from yesterday's opening session. Yours truly recorded it in absentia and will eventually listen to it and provide a summary.)

The public comments period actually occurred in two segments. The first segment ended in a demonstration, a long pause, and then other business. After some other business, more public comments were allowed.

Public comments in both segments combined dealt with statements in favor of the Merced public-private capital plan, concerns about the university possibly offering a defined contribution pension for new hires (opposed by union spokespersons), contract workers, issues of diversity and affirmative action, antisemitism, and student aid.

The Committees on Governance and Health Services presented proposals for more autonomy for the hospitals. These proposals had been aired in the past and were changed to given only Regents voting rights on the oversight committee (that would still have non-voting, non-Regents). The proposals were approved with only minor reservations expressed.

President Napolitano made remarks addressing the stabbing incident at Merced and the French terrorist attacks. She then previewed remarks made in the afternoon about admitting more in-state students, a tuition freeze, and other matters. Faculty rep Dan Hare made a report in defense of tenure.

The Committee on Educational Policy was mainly devoted to a review of its ongoing effort to come up with a policy on antisemitism and intolerance. It appeared initially that this would largely involve a brief report on the process currently underway. However, there were some impassioned speeches.

Following the Committee on Educational Policy report, the UC-Merced public-private partnership capital plan was approved. It was noted that some risks to UC remain despite modification of the plan from prior meetings. Regent Hadi Makarechian ended the session saying that the planned looked great on paper but if there is a failure in "execution" it could be a disaster. A cheery thought!

You can find the link to the audio: