The meeting at UC-San Francisco began with public comments. Many were phoned in and the audio quality was often poor to inaudible. Since that problem problem appeared on many calls, it is likely that the technical fault was on the Regents side. Nonetheless, it is advisable for callers either to use landlines when they phone in or to make sure their cellphones have a strong signal.
A number of the comments were in some form anti-Israel regarding the Gaza war. Others involved staff pay, union issues, basic needs of students, antisemitism, undocumented students, response to the LA-area fires, contracting out, textbook costs, campus safety plans, and tuition. A disturbance occurred, temporarily shutting down the meeting.
Regent Chair Reilly spoke positively about UCLA's fire response. Another disturbance occurred and the room was cleared. Afterwards, UC president Drake also spoke positively about UCLA's fire response and noted that the outgoing Biden administration had renewed UC's management contracts for Berkeley National Lab and Lawrence Livermore, with five-year extensions. He also touched on the state budget process, noting we are at athe beginning of that process (not the end). Finally, he alluded to difficulties potentially facing undocumented students.
Faculty rep Cheung had laryngitis so his statement was read by the Senate's vice chair. He noted the time-place-manner rules that had been created in the fall on the various campuses. Much of his remarks were devoted to defending faculty disciplinary procedures which were to be taken up later in the day as item A5.* He emphasized due process and innocent until proven guilty standards and warned convictions would be overturned by litigation of these standards were not followed.
Incoming UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk was introduced and made brief remarks, particularly with regard to the campus fire response and the temporary lending of University Park (former Westside Pavillion) for local emergency services.
There followed a presentation on the state "College Corps" program of which UC is a part, a kind of state Peace Corps which young people can volunteer for and receive assistance in attending college.
Nathan Brostrom reviewed UC's sustainability program. Capital projects - including some for UCLA - were approved. There was a review of the governor's January budget proposal and the so-called "compact" for UC funding. Although no one quite said the contract had been breached, the proposal defers some funding due to UC for 2025-26 to the future. To yours truly, that is a breach. The legislature - not part of the compact - allocated funds annually. What a future legislature will do cannot be set by an enforceable contract. Of course, the state could say UC did not meet all of its goals, notably the ratio of transfer students to others. But at least some of the problem is pandemic-induced reductions in community college students.
Finally, a brief presentation on the National Labs indicated they had high ratings in various categories.
As always, we preserve Regents' recordings because the Regents have no policy with regard to duration of retention. Most of the morning's proceedings can be seen at:
The National Labs presentation is at the beginning of:
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*We have previously covered the discussion of A5:
https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/no-numbers.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/no-numbers-part-2.html.
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