Listen to the Regents' Presidential Search Meeting of Dec. 13, 2019

As blog readers will know, the Regents are currently searching for a new UC president to replace Janet Napolitano - who will be stepping down over the summer. The last time there was a search for the UC president, former governor Jerry Brown was taking an active role on the Board of Regents (which most governors haven't done). The Regents thus decided to hire a former governor (of Arizona), as opposed to an academic: a governor to deal with the governor. This step was a deviation from the past in which UC presidents had been academics.

This time around, there is an effort to be more "transparent" in the search. So a series of public hearings are being held by the Regents to discuss what considerations the search committee should take account of in the selection process. Note that these are not hearings in which specific candidates are to be discussed. Exactly what the Regents will do when there is a short list of actual candidates remains to be seen. However, it was said that by summer 2020, there would be nominees.

In any case, the first hearing was held on Dec. 14 at Davis. The next will be at UCLA on Jan. 14.

During the public comments period, speakers talked about upholding the old Master Plan vision and improved labor relations. Formal witnesses then spoke representing various organizations. There was a presentation by the California Student Aid Commission about the importance of affordability. A program at UC-Davis called "Wheelhouse" deal with issues related to community colleges and a spokesperson from that organization talked about the UC connection to the community colleges. Representatives of the UC-Santa Cruz student government spoke about diversity, legislative relations, and suggested that candidates should have higher ed experience. An organization that goes by the name JFF was represented and spoke about the economic and labor market impacts of UC. (JFF stands for Jobs for the Future - although you really have to hunt around on the JFF website to find out what the abbreviation means.) Presentations were also made by representatives of the Fresno Black Chamber of Commerce and Education Trust West dealing with recruitment of underrepresented students.

You can hear the meeting at:

or direct to:
https://archive.org/details/regentsprezsearch12132019