The first day of the Regents meetings at UCLA - March 18 - consisted of sessions of the Investments Committee and the Health Services Committee.
At the Investments Committee, we have already posted about CIO Jagdeep Bachhar's statement at the end that he was looking at reinvestment in fossil fuels, given the changed policy coming from Washington, DC.* However, the meeting began with public comments. Several speakers called for anti-Israel divestment. Representatives of UPTE - which recently carried out a systemwide strike - spoke about staffing and other labor issues. Other topics included funding for undocumented students, funding for disabled students, Cantonese language instruction, and a UCLA sexual abuse scandal at a daycare center.**
CIO Bachhar then provided updated data through mid-March on returns of the various portfolios. The pension fund earned 4.1% over the previous year and the endowment earned 4.5%. As we noted in a prior post, documentation provided to the Committee indicated that the two portfolios had underperformed their benchmarks over 10 years and 5 years respectively.*** However, members of the Committee did not raise this issue or ask for any discussion of it.
Bachhar indicated that he thought that investments abroad were looking more attractive than in the past. Regent Makarechian pushed investment in tech stocks, but Bachhar pointed to the danger of stock picking. There was a lot of discussion of the turmoil coming out of Washington but no conclusions - other than the above-mentioned reconsideration of fossil fuels.
The Health Services Committee heard a discussion of maternal care with an emphasis on the high mortality rate of Black pregnant women compared with the general population. It was noted that lack of prenatal care was associated with high-risk pregnancies as conditions that contributed to the risk were not treated.
The Committee then turned to student health care systems. It was noted that these systems operate differently on each campus and can have complicated governance. Economic viability is becoming a concern. Students are going to emergency rooms, adding to costs. Money is left on the table because third-party payers (insurance companies) are not being billed. The chair of the Committee, Regent Sures, pushed for third-party billing, integration with campus health centers for those campuses with such centers, and obtaining funding that is apparently available for mental health services from counties.
Finally, with time running out, a segment on use of masks to reduce infection was postponed.
As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meeting since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention. You can see the March 18th program at the links below:
General website: https://archive.org/details/2-health-services-committee-3-18-2025
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/03/reversal-of-divestment-in-fossil-fuels.html.
***https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/03/were-waiting-for-explanation.html.
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