We have been summarizing the meetings last week of the UC Regents in somewhat piecemeal fashion because certain issues stood out separately from others. Here we summarize other matters that came up during the morning meeting of January 24th (some of which drifted into the afternoon).
Public comments were largely anti-Israel speakers along with some pushing for the "Opportunity for All" proposal allowing UC hiring of undocumented students. As blog readers will know, the latter proposal was later shelved by the Regents for one year, probably killing it. Other topics included the UC-San Francisco takeover of St. Mary's and St. Francis hospitals, Teamster negotiations, aid to Black students, general student aid, reinstatement of a public service program at UC-Berkeley law school. A demonstration occurred after public comments which led to the room being cleared.
After the session resumed, Regent Chair Leib spoke about enrollment data and endorsed the proposal on the agenda to ban departmental political statements. As blog readers will know, that proposal was deferred to March amid controversy that was partially tied to the undocumented issue. President Drake referred to the deferral of the incremental contribution to the UC budget due from the state under the "compact" and said he was assured the deferred amount would be paid in the year after it was due. (As blog readers will know, there can be no guarantee that such an assurance will come to pass.) Faculty representative Steintrager went over current Senate guidelines concerning department statements, hinting at his later position that the matter should be further reviewed by the Senate. He also alluded an item that was on the agenda later: online education.
The Health Services Committee had only a short public session approving an executive pay matter.
At Finance and Capital Strategies, there was a review of the cost and planning for seismic upgrading. In some cases, buildings can be upgraded but others have to be replaced to meet standards. Current policy requires all buildings to meet standards by 2030, but lack of sufficient funding will likely delay full compliance.
The discussion on the state budget referred to the above-mentioned compact deferral along with other smaller cutbacks. UC is continuing with enrollment increases under the compact even though the state commitment has been "deferred." Regent Pérez noted that UC had better work on alternative planning in case we don't get the deferral or even any increment at all in the second year.
At Academic and Student Affairs, tuition (fee) increases were increased for nine professional graduate programs. The discussion then turned to a report on students with disabilities which can be found at:
https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan24/a2.pdf
and
https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan24/a2attach1.pdf.
Generally, the Regents praised the report. The committee also heard a report on online education at UC. Over 40% of students took at least one online course during 2022-23, i.e., after the period in which the pandemic forced courses online. A strategic plan for the future was said to be under development.
Finally, the National Labs committee heard that the three UC labs received very high performance ratings from the Dept. of Energy. The methodology behind those ratings was not explained.
As always, we preserve Regents meetings indefinitely since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention.
The morning board meeting is at:
https://ia601304.us.archive.org/5/items/board-1-24-2024-am/Board%201-24-2024%20am.mp4
Health Services is at:
Academic and Student Affairs is at:
Finance and Capital Strategies and National Labs are at:
The general web link for the morning session is:
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