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Monday, March 25, 2024

Watch the Regents Afternoon Sessions of March 20, 2024

The afternoon meeting of the Regents on March 20th partly picked up material delayed from the morning due to a disturbance at the morning meeting. Regent chair Leib took note of antisemitic incidents as did President Drake in remarks. Faculty rep Steintrager expressed concerns about the issues of the chancellor selection process and debate about online degrees in which there was a clash between the Regents and the Academic Senate. He indicated that faculty might turn to unionization if the Academic Senate was continually overridden. There was then a disturbance causing the room to be cleared.

When the meeting turned to item J1 (departmental political statements) when the meeting resumed, Regent Sures - who had developed the revised version noted it was an action item but that he would be willing to have it reviewed as a discussion item if that were necessary. The revised version essentially took the version from the January meetings and incorporated the 2022 guidelines of the Academic Senate (which have largely been ignored). But the guidelines would be mandates under J1. Steintrager wanted to have the new version sent back to the Senate. UCLA Dean of Humanities Alex Stern described some steps already taken by UCLA. President Drake said the new version was not yet ready for adoption. Ultimately, the options boiled down to adopting J1 or delaying decision to the May meeting and having a Senate review of the new version within that time period. The latter approach was adopted.

At Finance and Capital Strategies, there was reluctant approval of a seismic upgrade project at the UC-Davis hospital whose costs rose dramatically, leading to the firing of the team in charge and new management being brought in. In response to questions, it was reported at there would be legal action taken to try and recover some of the overrun. Other projects were approved without considerable debate. In response to a question about UC-Merced finances from a student rep, Regent PĂ©rez made the point that student tuition covers the cost of student education and is not used for additional projects. (There is more to be said about that assertion, largely over the difference between marginal and average. The average cost includes a certain amount of overhead which is also needed for non-teaching functions.)

As always, we preserve the meeting since the Regents have no policy regarding recording retention. The general link for the afteroon session is at:

https://archive.org/details/regents-board-joint-meeting-academic-and-student-affairs-compliance-and-audit-pt-1-3-20-2024

Discussion of J1 is at:

https://archive.org/download/regents-board-joint-meeting-academic-and-student-affairs-compliance-and-audit-pt-1-3-20-2024/Regents-Board%2C%20Joint%20Meeting_%20Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20%26%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%20pt%201%203-20-2024.mp4

and

https://ia800209.us.archive.org/29/items/regents-board-joint-meeting-academic-and-student-affairs-compliance-and-audit-pt-1-3-20-2024/Regent-Joint%20Meeting_%20Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20%26%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%20pt%202%203-20-2024.mp4.

Finance and Capital Strategies is at:

https://ia800209.us.archive.org/29/items/regents-board-joint-meeting-academic-and-student-affairs-compliance-and-audit-pt-1-3-20-2024/Regents-Finance%20and%20Capital%20Strategies%203-20-2024.mp4.

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