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Monday, August 3, 2020

Listen to the Regent Afternoon Session of July 30, 2020

Note: Our photo for Regents sessions often show someone listening to an old radio or other sound device. As it happened, Chancellor Block was one of the speakers at the budget discussion (see below) and he spoke with a background containing three old radios. (The middle one is a Zenith Transoceanic shortwave radio from the 1950s. The one on the left looks like something from the 1960s. The one on the left seems to be from the 1920s.) It appeared that the wall of books and radios was a "green screen" background, i.e., not what was really behind the chancellor. (You can put any background you like on a Zoom session if you have a green screen behind you or if you have a computer with sufficient power so that it can insert a background without use of a green screen. Some other presenters and participants also used green screen backgrounds.)

The full board discussed the UC budget outlook. Yours truly notes that the figures were presented in a way that tended to minimize or obscure the magnitude of the possible cuts if Congress does not provide sufficient additional funds. Chair Pérez was anxious to note that the budget as ultimately signed by the governor in late June was better for UC than in the May Revise. However, absent additional federal funding, there are significant cuts which should not be downplayed. To see them, go to our blog post on the subject which is based on actual figures from the enacted budget and compares the current fiscal  year with last year:

Nathan Brostrom indicated that there was contingent planning going on in case the coronavirus crisis caused continued revenue losses beyond this year. He mentioned "progressive" pay cuts (bigger percentage cuts at higher pay levels), etc., as possible responses. There might be more discussion at the September meeting of the Regents when more will be known about the possible congressional funding. Whether the Academic Senate is involved in such contingency planning was not stated.

When in came to use of reserves at the campus level, Regent Makarechian indicated that campus reserves should be shared systemwide so that cuts at one campus would not be more severe than at others. Chair Pérez endorsed that idea. Yours truly must note that if such a policy were followed, it would diminish the incentive at the campus level to put aside reserves for the next crisis, whenever that occurs. In effect, reserve accumulation would have to be done at the systemwide level. Yet recent history suggests that reserve accumulation at the systemwide level becomes a target of the state auditor. In short, some attention to the long-term consequences of a decision to redistribute campus reserves needs to be paid.

We posted on Saturday about the approval by the full board of the governance change that - over the objection of the Senate - tended to diminish the role of the faculty in chancellor selection.* As we noted on Saturday, this action does not bode well for shared governance. If you didn't see the Saturday post, scroll down for the link and the video response of the faculty representative. The full board session ended with a tribute to outgoing UC president Napolitano and a quote from recently-deceased congressman John Lewis by Chair Pérez. 

At Academic and Student Affairs, there was reference to the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis and possible repeal of Proposition 209. A planned pharmacy program at Irvine was discussed, including diversity of the planned program's students. There was later discussion of senior management, staff, and student diversity.

You can hear the full board and the Academic and Student Affairs sessions at:
or direct to:
and
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We repeat the video excerpt embedded on this blog on Saturday:

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