More UC Students: Legal Review

One of the legal cases the Regents will be discussing in closed session is Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods vs. UC Regents. The Berkeley case, as the article below notes, has implications for all campuses that have been increasing their enrollments. 

Neighborhood group wins round in suit with UC Berkeley over impact of rising student population

Bob Egelko,  San Francisco Chronicle, 9-10-20 

 The California Supreme Court is allowing a neighborhood group to sue UC Berkeley for allegedly failing to consider and reduce the local impacts of an enrollment increase of more than 8,000 since 2005. Among those effects, according to the suit by Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, are increased use of off-campus housing by students, displacing tenants and adding to homelessness; more noise, trash and traffic; and greater burdens on Berkeley’s police, fire and ambulance services. 

 An Alameda County judge rejected the group’s demand for an environmental impact report last year, saying enrollment increases are not a “project” that requires review under state law to study and limit the potential harms. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled in June that a rising student population is part of campus growth that requires environmental review when its impacts are significant. The ruling became final Wednesday when the state Supreme Court denied review of the university’s appeal. Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar voted to hear the case, but three more votes were needed to grant review by the seven-member court. Justice Joshua Groban did not participate, for reasons not publicly disclosed. 

 “The Supreme Court has vindicated our efforts to hold UC Berkeley accountable for the severe impacts on our community from its massive enrollment increases, which they made without public notice or comments,” said Phillip Bokovoy, the neighborhood group’s president. “UC Berkeley, and all other UC campuses, will now be required to study the environmental impacts and implement mitigation for enrollment increases.” 

 The case is not yet fully resolved, however, as a Superior Court judge must still decide whether Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods has enough evidence to support its allegations of potential environmental harm...  

The case is Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods vs. UC Regents, S263673. 

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Neighborhoods-group-wins-round-in-suit-with-UC-15557648.php. Reference to the case is at https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept20/auditx.