Upcoming Regents Meetings: Agenda Now Available

Below is the agenda for the upcoming Regents meetings of May 11-13. Some selected items of special interest are noted. Special attention should be paid to the Pension Administration Project to be discussed at the closed session of the Compliance and Audit Committee - precisely because the session is closed and this item is repeatedly on the Regents' agendas without explanation.

Regents Agenda: May 11-13, 2021

Tuesday, May 11 

10:00 am Investments Committee (open session - includes public comment session) 

Apart from the usual report on past performance of the various portfolios, there is an action item that pushes the Blue and Gold Endowment toward more public equity and less fixed income, i.e., more risk in exchange for (hoped for) greater return.

12:30 pm Compliance and Audit Committee (closed session) 

Apart from the usual listing of various cases under litigation, there continues to be the undisclosed "Pension Administration Project." Whatever it is, there is apparently litigation about it since the litigation of the Education Code is listed as a reason for the discussion of the Project in closed session. Indeed, there are two code sections referenced. The other suggests that the undisclosed litigation involves a personnel matter. Check out:

https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/education-code/edc-sect-92032.html. Subsections 5 and 7 are referenced.

Earlier blog posts about this matter can be found at:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2021/03/annoyed-about-pension-administration_15.html and

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2021/03/annoyed-about-pension-administration.html.

Wednesday, May 12

8:30 am Board (open session - includes public comment session)

9:30 am Public Engagement and Development Committee (open session)

Includes a discussion with State Senator Monique Limón in which she will share her insights on how the UC can work with policymakers in Sacramento to pursue policies that benefit our students, workers, patients, faculty and the state as a whole.

BACKGROUND

Senator Limón is a UC Berkeley alumna and co-chairs the UC Legislative Roundtable. Senator Limón served two terms in the Assembly before being elected to the Senate this past November. Prior to being elected to the State Legislature in 2016, she served as assistant director of the McNair Scholars Program, and the director for diversity recruitment and retention in the Graduate Division at UC Santa Barbara. In the Senate, Senator Limón currently serves as Chair of the Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, and as a member of the Senate Health Committee and the Committee on Natural Resources and Water. The Senator is also currently serving on the Special Committee on the Pandemic Emergency Response. Senator Limón has long been a champion of student basic needs, among other issues, including need-based student financial support, that benefit UC and its students. She was instrumental in UC receiving $2.5 million in one-time funds for the hunger-free campus initiative. This initial investment paved the way for the $15 million in ongoing funds for student basic needs, which she also supported, that UC now receives from the State.

11:30 am Governance Committee (open session)

The report of the Regents Working Group on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship recommends the establishment of a Regents special committee in order to ensure that its goals and recommendations are successfully implemented.

Upon end of open: Governance Committee (closed session)

Concurrent Meetings

1:00 pm Academic and Student Affairs Committee (open session)

This item provides an overview of the University of California’s Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC) program. Since 2000, this program has allowed UC to offer admission to students from high schools throughout the state and to recognize outstanding academic performance relative to the educational context and opportunities available at individual high schools in California. In its recent report regarding UC admissions, the California State Auditor noted that UC had discontinued the practice of actively reaching out to schools not participating in ELC, and as a consequence, was potentially denying students access to UC. This item describes how UC is addressing the audit recommendation, as well as the current context and scope of ELC school participation and admission outcomes as a result of the ELC program.

1:00 pm Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (closed session)

Upon end of closed       

Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (open session)

The University of California Office of the President (UCOP) is submitting a budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2021-22 (FY21-22) during a time that the State of California and the UC system are undergoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed budget remains conservative in prioritizing and budgeting revenues and expenditures, but also reflects renewed optimism as the State has signaled it will restore $43.2 million in three direct State appropriations.

 Thursday, May 13

 8:30 am Board (open session - includes public comment session)

This item describes a proposed multi-year plan for three systemwide student charges—tuition, the Student Services Fee (SSF), and Nonresident Supplemental Tuition (NRST)—and the estimated increases in student financial aid and campus resources that the plan would generate. Under the plan, adjustments to these charges would be assessed on a cohort basis for incoming undergraduate students and on a uniform basis for graduate students, effective fall 2022. The features of the proposed cohort model for undergraduate students reflect the discussions of a systemwide working group on cohort-based tuition and were shared with the Regents at the November 14, 2019 and January 22, 2020 meetings of the Board. A similar plan was brought to the Board for action in March 2020, but consideration of the plan was deferred due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Upon end of open: Board (closed session)

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The full agenda is at:

https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/agendas/may21.html. More detailed links are available at this address.