Update on Vote

We noted in an earlier post that the Senate seemed slow in getting the results of a vote at the special meeting of Sept. 30, particularly since the vote was taken by electronic means. The vote was on whether the powers-that-be should release the text of the demand letter from the US Dept. of Justice that was leaked to the LA Times.

While you probably could guess what the results were, here is the official tally from an email late this morning:

September 30, 2025, Special Legislative Assembly Meeting

Notification of Actions

1. Resolution to Request the Department of Justice Letter

Legislative Assembly members voted via the Academic Senate Data Management System on the Resolution to Request the Department of Justice Letter. The Legislative Assembly received a total of 116 votes cast: 116 Approve, 0 Oppose. This Resolution required a majority of votes cast by present members to be approved. [AIPSC (2nd ed.) 5.1]. All eligible votes cast (100%) were to Approve this Resolution.

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Here's the thing. If the letter had not been leaked, perhaps there would be a justification in not disclosing it while discussions with the feds continued. However, it was leaked. And the likely source was someone either at UCLA, UCOP, or maybe the Regents, i.e., someone in the UC/UCLA community with access to the letter. It seems unlikely that the leak came from DOJ, since the LA Times article characterized the letter as having grammatical and factual errors, not a fine piece of work DOJ would want to brag about in public.

Apparently, Public Records Act requests for the letter have been rejected on the grounds that it would be improper to provide it. That's a funny argument from an organization which most was the source of the leak.