We conclude our coverage of the September Regents meetings with the final session on September 22. That session was the one in which the UCLA/Big Ten matter was discussed behind closed doors. We have already covered what leaked out, the letter from the Pac-12 commissioner to the Regents.* So, what happened at the open meetings? The answer is "not much."
Public comments included fossil fuel, contracting out, labor relations, student housing guarantees, the Big Ten matter, anti-abortion, and animal research. After some speechmaking, student awards were presented.
There was some anticipation that at the open joint session of Academic and Student Affairs and Finance and Capital Strategies, the Big Ten matter would come up since the initial topic was delegation of authority by the Regents. That topic had developed as a result of the special August meeting of the Regents that had been triggered by the governor's closed session complaints about the UCLA move to the Big Ten in July. But Regent Chair Leib made it clear from the beginning that there would be no discussion in open session about the Big Ten matter and that the issue of delegation of authority was only for discussion and not decision. So, at the session, there was information from the general counsel's office about the ability of the Regents to delegate.
General Counsel Robinson noted in August there were mixed views expressed about whether changes in delegation policy were needed and, if they were needed, what those changes might be. He noted that the Regents could reverse decisions made pursuant to delegations of authority. But he also noted that there might be "consequences" were such reversals to occur. He was alluding to the Big Ten decision, of course, a deal that had been made pursuant to an authorized delegation. Were it to be reversed, there would likely be litigation consequences. But none of this was said, at least in the open session. In the end, Leib suggested that the topic of delegation was too big and too vague to be discussed and it should be referred to future meetings of the Governance Committee. Members agreed and the discussion ended.
The session continued with approval of reports from the various committees. Then there was a report from the Berkeley chancellor about the strategic plan for that campus. She painted a dark picture of insufficient revenue and deferred maintenance leading to unsafe buildings with seismic risks.
As we always do, we have preserved the recordings of the Regents sessions since the Regents keep them for only one year. The general link address for the September 22 sessions is:
https://archive.org/details/board-9-22-22-first-session
The Board's morning session is at:
The joint session of Academic and Student Affairs and Finance and Capital Strategies is at:
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-uclabig-ten-move-what-happened.html.
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https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/regents%20sept%2022.mp3
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