Interim Chancellor Hunt held an online "town hall" for academic senate members dealing with the new campus safety rules put in place for the fall. Below are the slides he used for his opening presentation.
Having looked at the slides, you probably didn't learn anything you didn't know. When asked about policies related to what happened last spring, the chancellor mainly referred to a forthcoming UCOP report and said until we have that report, we don't know all the facts. When you cut through all the appeasing rhetoric, it is clear that the interim chancellor and other campus administrators have concluded that it was a mistake in the spring to allow the encampment, particularly when it blocked walkways, doorways, and committed other violations of university rules. The incoming chancellor has been on campus at least once for sure on Sept. 4, so it is quite likely he agrees. But this is not new news.
The Regents also seem in accord. At the meeting last Thursday when a disruption occurred during a discussion of acquisition of campus police equipment, the room was quickly cleared by police, and the meeting resumed. One consequence was that while the Regents had questions of police officials at the meeting, the acquisition was swiftly approved without questions being asked or responded to:
The legislature is withholding $25 million from the UC budget until a plan for dealing with the kinds of issues that arose in the spring is developed.
It might have been best had the interim chancellor simply expressed these facts more directly than he did.
If there was anything new, there was a off-hand reference to the lawsuit against UCLA which resulted in a temporary injunction that the university decided not to appeal. However, the appeal of the underlying case is going forward. Hunt said something about settlement talks. So maybe something is happening on that front.
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