Listen to the Regents Appoint a New UC Prez: 7-7-2020

As noted in a post yesterday, Michael Drake was appointed as the new UC president at a special Zoom meeting of the Regents. Even though it was a special, one-purpose meeting, it had a public comments section at the beginning of the open portion. Comments were made on climate change, labor relations, coronavirus, the Hawaiian telescope, affirmative action, and the new federal policy that would require international students taking online courses to return home.

After the public comments, the new appointment was announced and various Regents made complimentary remarks. Then incoming UC president Drake spoke.

You can hear the meeting at the link below:

or direct to https://archive.org/details/regents-7-7-20-uc-prez.

Note: What was the Drake record at Irvine? A quick perusal of news accounts from that era hit on three controversies. Of course, news accounts are more likely to pick up on things that went wrong rather than things that went right. But here are the three:

1) Hiring-Unhiring-Hiring of Chermerinsky

From California Today of New York Times:  7-7-20

...(Drake) tangled briefly but famously in 2007 with Erwin Chemerinsky, a well-known liberal law professor, after recruiting him to start the (UC-Irvine) law school and then rescinding the offer. Amid national academic furor, Dr. Drake reconsidered, Mr. Chemerinsky became the dean, the dispute blew over and the two went on to teach a civil rights class together. On Tuesday, Mr. Chemerinsky, now the dean of the law school at U.C. Berkeley, expressed delight at Dr. Drake’s hiring...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/new-university-california-president-michael-drake.html

And, from the New York Times of  9-18-07

...In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Professor Chemerinsky and Irvine’s chancellor, Michael V. Drake, gave few details about what had led to their reconciliation. But it was clear that Dr. Drake had gone to considerable lengths to patch things up, flying to North Carolina and spending the better part of Sunday with Professor Chemerinsky, a member of the Duke law faculty, at his home in Durham. “I needed more comfort,” Dr. Drake said. “I have developed that comfort.”

Professor Chemerinsky was first offered the job in August. After weeks of discussion about his role and the mission of the new law school, which is to open in 2009, he signed a contract on Sept. 4. A week later, Dr. Drake flew to North Carolina to withdraw the offer. By Professor Chemerinsky’s account, which he reaffirmed yesterday, Dr. Drake said the professor was “too politically controversial,” pointing to an Aug. 16 op-ed article in The Los Angeles Times in which he criticized a plan to speed up death penalty appeals. In an interview last week, Dr. Drake said the problem was not the substance of Professor Chemerinsky’s views but rather “his larger-than-life voice.” Professor Chemerinsky has for decades been a prominent liberal public intellectual and litigator, and he has written scores of opinion articles taking liberal positions.

Dr. Drake denied yesterday that he had been urged to withdraw the appointment by conservative donors. “There was no pressure to withdraw the offer,” he said. But he indicated that he had at least listened to some critics. “Since Professor Chemerinsky is a public figure, people have different opinions,” Dr. Drake said...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/education/18professor.html

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2) Irvine 11 Disruption Case

Students Convicted in Irvine 11 Case

...Even after misdemeanor convictions, Akhtar and the other UC Irvine students who disrupted  a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States last year, felt they were the victims. That's not how the jury saw it. They were all sentenced to three years probation and ordered to complete 56 hours of community service...

The students, known as the "Irvine 11," were each charged with one misdemeanor count of conspiracy  to disturb a meeting and one misdemeanor count of disturbing a meeting. Each student could have received up to six months in  jail. The jury began deliberations Tuesday in a case stemming from the interruption of a February 2010 speech by Ambassador Michael Oren. The students -- many of whom belong to the Muslim Student Union on campus -- stood up, minutes apart, and yelled slogans. Their actions were described by prosecutors as a "heckler's veto" of the speech, which was attended by about 500 to 700 people. Prosecutors argued that the rules of the meeting were spelled out when the students were admonished by UCI  professor Mark Petracca and UCI Chancellor Michael Drake after the first interruptions. Wagner had to prove to jurors that the students were aware of the rules,  conspired to break them and had no other outlet to carry out their protest...

UC Irvine officials released the following statement after the verdicts were announced: "UC Irvine, which fully and actively supports the lawful expression of free speech, completed its disciplinary procedures in this matter last year and considered those sanctions sufficient. We nurture a campus climate that promotes robust debate and welcomes different points of view." The school revoked the Muslim Student Union's charter for a quarter and placed it on two years of probation...

Full story at https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/verdicts-in-irvine-11-case/2104992/

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3) Inherited Scrambled Eggs Fertility Scandal

From the LA Times:  1-20-06

When revelations surfaced a decade ago that fertility doctors at UCI Medical Center had stolen eggs and embryos from patients, the university vowed to find the women who may have been victims. But UC Irvine acknowledged this week that it failed to contact at least 20 couples, some of whom have learned only in recent years that their fertilized embryos produced children born to other women more than 15 years ago. “I have children, and I don’t know where they’re at,” said Rosalinda Elison, who learned in 2002 that her eggs and embryos had been stolen and implanted in another woman, who gave birth to twins. “I feel so cheated and so betrayed.”

Lawyers are scheduled to meet today to discuss a possible settlement. The meeting will follow a recent flurry of letters sent by attorneys for the former patients to UC Regents and university attorneys, accusing them of stalling...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jan-20-me-uci20-story.html