The Regents held a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to discuss a proposed new residence for President Drake after issues of security were raised by racist vandalism at his current house in the spring. The proposal was rejected. From the LA Times:
A University of California regents late Wednesday rejected a proposal to buy a new home for President Michael V. Drake after his current Berkeley residence was defaced by racist graffiti and came under other attacks this year. The purchase of a new residence would have been financed with private funds but regents, meeting in closed session, voted 13-7 against the proposal, according to board minutes, and will seek other alternatives to secure safe housing for Drake and his family.*
Drake, the UC system’s first Black president in its 155-year history, was not at home when a vandal spray-painted racial slurs and profanity on the front and back of the home in May. But the attack horrified the UC and Berkeley community, led to an ongoing hate crime investigation by local law enforcement and fueled alarm over the need for better security for Drake and his wife, Brenda.
The racist attack followed other incidents, including the smashing of one of the house windows and intrusion onto the property by trespassers during the five-week strike by UC academic workers late last year. UC erected a fence around the perimeter in March, but a UC official said the vandal involved in the racist graffiti jumped over the fence to deface the property.
Talk about the housing proposal began circulating in public earlier this week. State Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City) blasted UC in a committee hearing Monday for considering buying a “close to $12-million home” for Drake even as the university, she said, was opposing a proposed constitutional amendment to strengthen state labor rights for its workers.
UC Regents Board Chair Rich Leib declined to confirm or deny a $12-million price tag, nearly twice the cost of the current presidential residence, which was acquired in 2021 for $6.5 million. “We are very concerned about making sure President Drake and his family are safe and secure based on the horrific attack that occurred,” Leib said, “but we will not be going forward with this proposal.”
In the May vandalism, the perpetrator also spray-painted “Jan. 6, 2021” — the day of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — on Drake’s residence and other homes in the area, according to the Berkeley Scanner, which first reported the attack...
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*Board vote: Regents Chu, Cohen, Elliott, Ellis, Guber, Matosantos, Sherman voting “aye.”
Regents Anguiano, Batchlor, Kounalakis, Leib, Makarechian, Park, Pérez, Raznick, Reilly, Sarris, Sures, Tesfai, and Thurmond voting “no.”
Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/aar/septs.pdf.
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