The Regents had an off-cycle meeting on January 27th (last Friday) at UC-Riverside for two committees: The Special Committee on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship and Public Engagement and Development. As always, we preserve the recordings of these meetings indefinitely since the Regents - for no obvious reason - delete them after one year.
The Innovation meeting began with public comments. Unlike most meetings, where the comments are largely devoted to complaints about aspects of UC, this particular segment was mainly boosterism for UC-Riverside and the Inland Empire region. Some of the topics were community college transfers, asylum seekers, wind energy, the City of Riverside, greentech, business development in agriculture, underserved students, the fast-food worker referendum that will be on the ballot, science and technology funding, the Inland Empire economy, a refugee from Afghanistan, and global warming and agriculture.
UC Chancellor Kim Wilcox gave an historical overview of UC-Riverside, which started in the early 20th century as a citrus experimental station. Agriculture remains an important focus. Agricultural products developed at the university have become commercial. There is also research on air quality and on minerals in the area - notably lithium used in batteries. There was also discussion of a UC-wide program on Inclusive Innovation (and) Equitable Development. A full report is due out on this program in the summer.
The afternoon session (Public Engagement) began with a discussion with State Senator Richard Roth who was instrumental in the establishment of a medical school at Riverside. He spoke about economic development in the region and about the need for more mental health care resources. Regent Leib suggested that local county funds from Prop 63 might be obstained by UC-Riverside. But Chancellor Wilcox thought there were other, higher priorities for those local funds. Dean Deborah Deas of the medical school described its progress. She was followed by a presentation by the former dean of engineering discussing a program whereby science students learn to be policy advisors and advocates in Sacramento.
The full session is at https://archive.org/details/special-committee-on-innovation-transfer-and-entrepreneurship.
Public Engagement is at https://ia801604.us.archive.org/11/items/special-committee-on-innovation-transfer-and-entrepreneurship/Public%20Engagement%20and%20Development%20Committee.mp4.
There will be another set of off-cycle meetings next month:
February 15: Health Services Committee (UCLA)
February 16: Special Committee on Innovation Transfer & Entrepreneurship (UC-Irvine)
The full board will meet in mid-March for its regular sessions.
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