The Regents meeting on Sept. 17th was a one-day affair rather than the usual two days. Chair Reilly explained the change saying her goal was to make the meetings more efficient. (It might be noted, however, that the next meetings in November are scheduled for three days, presumably an abbreviated day 1 and then the regular two days following.) She also referred to the Charlie Kirk shooting and made anti-violence remarks.
Public comments followed. Many were on behalf of Teamster issues. These included pay (including for translators), health insurance costs, and parking. There were also complaints about management bonuses and reference to the Teamsters' involvement in a lawsuit against the feds. Other comments were made asking for protections for grad student affected by funding cuts and for immigrant students, changes in the cohort model of tuition and concerns about student debt, student graduation rates, religious accommodation for Muslim students, gender-affirming care, Berkeley's giving of certain student names to the feds, military equipment by UC police, textbook costs, staff pay, protections for TAs and RAs, anti-Israel, slow processing of antisemitism complaints, and generalized comments urging resistance to the Trump administration.
After public comments, chair Reilly welcomed new president Milliken, new chair of the Senate Ahmet Palazoglu and vice chair Susannah Scott. Various chancellors were in attendance. Chancellor Frenk could be seen in the background. President Milliken spoke about the risks to UC from the confrontation with the feds, but also a longer-term loss of public confidence in higher ed. Other topics were free expression, the Charlie Kirk shooting, and opposition to violence.
Senate Chair Palazoglu spoke about the benefits of UC research to the larger society, the benefits to students, and a theme that "change" has to happen.
There was then a presentation on student-initiated and run charitable programs such as teaching in prisons, online lessons for girls in Afghanistan, food recovery to avoid waste, and other efforts. Student leaders spoke about resistance to the feds, concerns about fund and budget cuts, tuition and affordability, a desire to be consulted in some way concerning negotiations with the feds, trust, and Berkeley's provision of certain student names to the feds.
Undoubtedly, however, the most interesting discussion went on behind closed doors after the open session on the conflict and negotiation with the feds. The Regents have a kind of committee of ten that has held a series of closed meetings since the confrontation began. Presumably, the other Regents (not just the ten) were present for this session.
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As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings indefinitely since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention and because even the YouTube recordings of Regents sessions are unlisted on that platform and may be difficult to find. The recording of the open portion of the Regents morning meeting of Sept. 17th is at:
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