Watch the Regents Meeting of July 15, 2026

The second day of the Regents meetings of July 14-15 began with public comments. Public comments dealt with the SAT issue, the Hawaiian telescope, funding for professional students, public transportation, a "boarding" crisis in ERs, UC hiring of undocumented students, a project labor agreement for UC, and remote work at UC. There was a brief demonstration thereafter but a warning seemed to bring it to a halt without a full halt of the meeting. (It was unclear who was demonstrating.) 

There were then presentations by representatives of student government, grad and undergrad. There is a certain kabuki element in these presentations. Students denounce the Regents and/or their policies, and then they are thanked for their service. It's a bit like the budget kabuki in which the governor is always thanked for whatever allocation he proposes, and then UC lobbies for more. (Maybe yours truly has grown a bit jaundiced about these traditions!) 

Various student awards were presented including one to a UCLA student who has assisted in advocacy in the face of federal grant cuts.

A report on retention and graduation rates was presented. Among UC's goal is a 90% 6-year graduation rate. The current rate is 86%. One Regent indicated that there was a conflict between the advocacy for returning to the SAT and the fact that graduation rates were generally rising. Another Regents asked, however, whether it is getting easier to graduate.

At Academic and Student Affairs, there was a review of high school A-G courses needed to qualify for admission to UC.  A = History and Social Science, B = English, C = Math, D = Science, E = Language, F = Visual and Performing Arts, G = College Prep Electives. These standards go back the late 19th century and have evolved over time. Most high schools offer A-G. Those that don't can take advantage of online versions. There is a teacher shortage problem with regard to some topics. Also, there are dual enrollment options with community colleges. A concern now is incorporating AI into the curriculum.

As the agenda suggested, there was not a discussion of the SAT, although a student observer opposed going back to the SAT requirement.

The Committee also heard discussion of international education including study abroad programs and exchange students from abroad who come to UC. 

Finally, there was discussion of the return on investment in a UC degree. It was acknowledged that graduating students are facing a low-turnover labor market and that AI is being used to screen job applicants.

At Finance and Capital Strategies, Regent Makarechian - who is often critical of UC construction cost estimates - praised a UC-Irvine project for its low cost and high quality. The state budget allocation for UC was praised despite the "deferral" of certain compact payments. (See the kabuki comments above.) It was noted the although UC has been successful in getting existing grants restored, federal approval of renewals and new grants is sluggish. 

The Regents endorsed the housing bond on the November ballot which contains funding for student housing. National Lab fee income was budgeted. New Regents were excluded from access to classified information. And committee reports were approved.

As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on retention duration. You can see the July 15th meeting at the link below:

https://archive.org/details/regents-7-15-2026.

Scrutiny

From CBS News: Major U.S. universities have received millions of dollars in funding from foreign entities that are on U.S. government watch lists, according to a CBS News review of university funding records submitted to the Department of Education.

...Universities have been required to disclose foreign gifts of $250,000 or more to the Department of Education under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act since 1986. But disclosures sometimes lapsed and there was no government system in place for accountability, according to current and former State and Education Department officials, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and independent analysts who track Section 117 compliance. 

They say no one was cross-referencing the donors against U.S. government watch lists, allowing for institutions directly linked to foreign militaries to fund programs and professorships at R-1 universities. National security and intelligence analysts say the stakes are high, and increased scrutiny on funding from China flowing to programs at top American universities is better late than never...

Among the watch-listed entities putting money into U.S. universities, the majority of which is from China, is Aviation Engine Corporation of China, known as AECC, which develops engines for various Chinese military aircraft, including the J-11 fighter jet and the Z-10 attack helicopter. Given the AECC's direct ties to the People's Liberation Army, the Treasury Department lists it on the Foreign Assets Control List as well as another list of companies tied to the Chinese military-industrial complex. It is considered a "Military End-User Entity" by the Department of Commerce, making it subject to strict export licensing requirements.

AECC's research institutes paid Northwestern University, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Connecticut a combined $7.8 million, according to the universities' records submitted to the Department of Education. The money was sent in multiple increments over several years. ...UC Irvine received almost $4 million in contracts between 2018 and 2020, according to the records. UC Irvine did not respond to CBS News' requests for comment. 

...UC Berkeley, which manages the Department of Energy's primary high-performance computing facility, has received more than $25 million in contracts dating back to 2016 from China-based entities that are on U.S. government watch lists, according to disclosures to the Department of Education. That includes a grant of $7.6 million from Sun Yat-sen University, host of China's National Supercomputing Center. Sun Yat-sen University also appears on the Department of Defense's "1286 List," a roster of foreign academic and research institutions identified as engaging in "problematic activities," and a Commerce Department list of entities whose legitimacy the U.S. government has been unable to verify. UC Berkeley did not respond to CBS News' request for comment...

Full story at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/universities-foreign-funding-government-watch-lists/.

Milliken-Gillman-Chermerinsky on Free Speech and Academic Freedom Issues

The UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement sponsored a webinar-conversation on free speech and academic freedom on April 22, featuring UC President Milliken, UC-Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman, and Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chermerinsky. The three speakers were introduced by Center director Michelle Deutchman.

Below you can find an audio link to the program. The tendency was to focus on legal issues and the distinction between free speech and academic freedom. Yours truly would have preferred more emphasis on higher education values - not legal rights - of knowing what you are talking about before opining. But that's just me.

The one area of controversy that surfaced is the use of departmental political statements. Gillman indicated some reservation about where the Regents wound up on that issue, i.e., banning such statements if they appeared on the landing page of a department's website. He suggested that he would have gone further because such statements may impinge on the freedom of minority views. Milliken indicated that the issue might be revisited in the future. You can hear that exchange at the link below:

The entire one-hour event can be heard at:

https://ia801506.us.archive.org/0/items/newsom-03-04-2026/Milliken-Gillman-Chermerinsky%20free%20speech%204-22-2026.mp4. The excerpt above occurs around minute 27.

Fast Movers

The San Francisco Chronicle notes there is a small but rising group of undergrads who finish in three years:

"Of the 31,550 students who began studying at a UC campus in 2005, fewer than 1,000 of them, 3%, went on to earn a diploma in three years. By 2021, more than 3,300 students — 6.4% of the 51,934 students who entered UC that year — had their a degree by 2024, just three years after landing on campus."

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/college-admissions/article/uc-three-year-graduation-21251145.php.

UCLA ahead in the Wikipedia editing sweepstakes

The Daily Cal calculated the total number of Wikipedia edits - additions and deletions - by campus IP addresses across the UC system. It turns out that since its inception to late 2025, UCLA addresses made over 54,000 edits.

It's not clear whether that's a Good Thing, a Bad Thing, or just a Thing. Below is a chart from the article which can be found at https://data.dailycal.org/2025-12-24-wikiedits. 

Graduate Degrees After Undergraduate

The San Francisco Chronicle provides a listing of the percent of undergrads who go on to get graduate degrees from the various UC campuses. (UC-San Francisco is excluded because it has no undergraduate program.) The chart below highlights Berkeley, but all the other undergraduate campuses are shown:

Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2025/uc-graduate-degrees/.

The Numbers

Note: UC-Merced is listed separately at $28.6 million.

Source - EdSource: https://edsource.org/2025/california-research-grants-federal-funding-trump-administration/733468.
 

Low Applications Campuses Grow the Most

The San Francisco Chronicle provided the table above. It shows:

1) UCLA received the most applications of all the undergraduate campuses.

2) The low application campuses (Merced and Riverside) experienced the largest increases in applications, whether gauged from last year or pre-pandemic 2019. (Merced provided free applications to drive up applications this year.)

3) All campuses have significantly increased applications since 2019. But growth over last year at the high-application campuses stalled relative to last year.

Reminder: Applications are not the same as final enrollments. Enrollments are determined by the acceptance rate of the campus and within it, the acceptance rate of applicants.

Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/college-admissions/article/uc-applications-20238586.php.
 

Investigation

From Reuters:

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday launched investigations into Stanford University and three University of California schools to ensure they comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-conscious admissions. The 2023 ruling effectively prohibited affirmative action policies that were long used to raise the number of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students on American campuses...

In addition to Stanford, the review will cover the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Irvine...

The University of California said it has adhered to a ban on affirmative action in admissions since California voters approved one in the ballot initiative Proposition 209 in 1996...

Full story at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-dept-probing-admissions-policies-stanford-university-california-2025-03-27/.

Lost Funding

The NY Times provides a search option that allows information on how much NIH grant recipients would lose in fiscal year 2024 under a cap of 15% on indirect costs. Yours truly focused on UC in the table below. As can be seen, the total loss for all institutions in California is almost $800 million, about half of which falls on UC:

Loss of NIH funding in fiscal 2024 if indirect costs limited to 15%.

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University of California, San Francisco   -$121 mil.

University of California, San Diego       -$102 mil.

University of California, Los Angeles      -$65 mil.

University of California, Davis            -$49 mil.

University of California, Irvine           -$41 mil.

University of California, Berkeley         -$25 mil.

University of California, Santa Cruz        -$7 mil.

University of California, Riverside         -$7 mil.

University of California, Santa Barbara     -$3 mil.

UC Lawrence Berkeley Lab                    -$6 mil.

University of California, Merced            -$1 mil.

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  Total UC                                -$427 mil.

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Total State of California                 -$796 mil.

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Note: UC as percent of California               54%

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/13/upshot/nih-trump-funding-cuts.html.

Watch the Afternoon Meeting of the Regents: Jan. 22, 2025

We're catching up with the Regents - when we can. Below is a brief summary of the afternoon of January 22nd. Our earlier review of the morning sessions included a bit of the National Labs review.* And we separately reported on item A5, faculty disciplinary procedures.** Here is the remaining review.

The National Labs committee heard a presentation on research related to development of fusion energy. There is a plan to set up some kind of public-private entity to work on this project.

Tuition plans for various professional degree programs were approved. 

A review of humanities research was presented including a description of a UC-Irvine Shakespeare program.

Finally, there was a review of financial aid for students and particularly the FAFSA program which, as blog readers will know, had major website problems that hindered applications. Given more recent political developments, there was discussion of whether DACA students could safely enroll. It was noted that students would have to make individual decisions but that some had already provided their information.

A separate meeting of Compliance and Audit reviewed the safety plans on the various campuses. It was noted that several campuses already had "accredited" plans.*** There was discussion of campus police accountability systems and creation of data dashboards. It was said that the report on UCLA that followed the events of last spring is being used as a guide on other UC campuses.

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As always, we preserve the recordings of the Regents meetings indefinitely, because the Regents have no policy on duration of preservation. 

National Labs, Academic and Student Affairs Committee, Governance Committee:

https://ia800109.us.archive.org/18/items/regents-board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-joint-meeting-academic-an/Regents%20National%20Labs%2C%20Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20Committee%2C%20Governance%20Committee%201-22-2025.mp4

Compliance and Audit:

https://ia800109.us.archive.org/18/items/regents-board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-joint-meeting-academic-an/Regents%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%20Committee%201-22-2025.mp4

General website for morning and afternoon of Jan. 22, 2025:

https://archive.org/details/regents-board-1-23-2025.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/02/watch-jan-22-2025-morning-meeting-of.html.

**https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/no-numbers-part-2.html.

***We noted in an earlier posting that UCLA seems to be lagging behind on accreditation. See: https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/lagging-indicator.html.

Something's Happening - Part 2 (Where's UCLA?)

We noted on Monday that an unusual meeting of the systemwide Academic Senate had been called for this coming Friday by petition.* The meeting was called to discuss faculty unhappiness with regard to three issues:

1. The lack of consultation for implementing the Information Security Investment Plan and the potential negative effects of the plan on faculty’s research, teaching, and merits and promotions.
2. UCOP’s differential treatment of faculty and administrators regarding compensation and cost-of-living adjustments.
3. The University of California’s continued decrease in percent contribution to medical plans.

When you look at the petition (attached to the meeting agenda), you find the names and campuses of those who called for the special session.** Represented among the petitioners are Davis, Irvine, Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Riverside. Merced, Santa Cruz, and UCLA are not represented. So, that does mean that at UCLA in particular, nobody was particularly concerned with at least one of the three issues? Is UCLA somehow out of the loop? Just asking...

It might be noted that yours truly became aware of this matter after being forwarded an announcement from UC-Irvine's Senate, not from the UCLA Senate. 

NOTE: I notified the UCLA Senate about the upcoming systemwide meeting on Jan. 13.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/somethings-happening.html.

**https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/assembly/assembly-agenda-special-meeeting-1-17-25.pdf.

Something's Happening

Yours truly received the notice below from the UC-Irvine Academic Senate, but it refers to a systemwide Senate meeting. I won't provide the Zoom link since only Senate members can attend:

Systemwide Academic Senate Chair Cheung received a letter signed by over twenty-five voting members of the Academic Senate requesting a Special Meeting of the Assembly to discuss the following topics:

 

1. The lack of consultation for implementing the Information Security Investment Plan and the potential negative effects of the plan on faculty’s research, teaching, and merits and promotions.
2. UCOP’s differential treatment of faculty and administrators regarding compensation and cost-of-living adjustments.
3. The University of California’s continued decrease in percent contribution to medical plans.

In accordance with Senate Bylaw 110.A.3.c, a special Assembly meeting has been scheduled for Friday, January 17, 2025, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

 

Systemwide Assembly meetings are open exclusively to Academic Senate members and invited guests.

Multicampus Research

The University of California Office of the President has awarded $15.5 million in grants to teams of UC researchers on the cutting edge of medicine, artificial intelligence, agriculture and climate justice.

Awarded every two years through a highly competitive process, the Multicampus Research Program Initiative (MRPI) draws on the world-class resources and capabilities of UC’s $7 billion research enterprise, uniting teams of cross-disciplinary experts from at least three UC campuses to pursue ambitious questions with immediate applications.

“The MRPI program funds discoveries that are made possible only by the convergence of disciplines to improve the lives of Californians and draws world-class student, faculty and staff talent to our university and our state,” said UC Vice President of Research and Innovation Theresa Maldonado. “UC programs like this help keep California at the forefront of breakthrough research, technological innovation and equitable opportunities to thrive.”

Since 2009, the university has made 125 MRPI grants totaling $156.6 million and involving 739 UC faculty members. This year, 153 teams applied for grants. These are the 14 winners.

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Four teams will advance health and medical science, studying autism, active matter, sepsis and maternal health.

Scientists from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco will use cell samples from patients with autism spectrum disorder to grow self-organizing, 3D clumps of neurological tissue in a lab. These “brain organoids” are an efficient, less invasive way to narrow the search for the molecular, cellular, and developmental factors that lead to autism spectrum disorder, an untreatable condition that affects 1 in 22 California kids.

Organoids are one example of active matter, an emerging paradigm at the intersection of physics and biology that studies instances of individual entities organizing themselves into coherent structures. Scientists at UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego will use MRPI funding to establish the UC Active Matter Hub, seeding global leadership in a field with potential to reshape adaptive technologies and wearable devices.

A team from UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UCLA aim to scale up a proven method for detecting sepsis, an infection so dangerous that it kills 16 percent of people who contract it. UC scientists developed a life-saving algorithm that scans real-time data from electronic health records, assessing over 150 variables to detect early signs of infection so doctors can begin treatment. By rolling out this algorithm to more emergency departments across California, researchers aim to save 8,000 lives annually. 

A lack of maternal health data is making it harder to fight the nation’s escalating rates of illness and death among pregnant and postpartum patients. Experts from UC San Francisco, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego are joining forces to create a central clinical data repository for every pregnancy and birth across four major hospitals, which they’ll use to study variations in care within the system and the impact on maternal and neonatal health outcomes.

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Three teams will make advances in agriculture.

Experts from UC’s five Agricultural Experiment Stations will convene to study barriers and opportunities for California farms to adopt practices and principles of agroecology. The team from UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, UC Riverside and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources aims to boost the agriculture industry’s climate resilience, biodiversity, equity and economic viability.

Researchers from UC Riverside, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara will develop and test new ways to decontaminate wastewater, destroying or filtering out toxic “forever” chemicals and disease-causing microbes so the water can be used to irrigate crops. That should ease water scarcity, a major constraint for California farmers that will only get worse as the climate warms.

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside aim to climate-proof agriculture by redesigning dirt. They’ll use the grant to develop 3D-printable hydrogels to use in place of soil in hydroponic or vertical farms. This high-tech dirt substitute will be infused with microbes that will help crops resist stress, grow faster and use less water.

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Four teams are devising solutions to challenges facing Californians on the front lines of climate change.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC San Francisco aim to better understand how hotter and more frequent heat waves are affecting California’s 6 million public school students. Working with students, teachers, administrators and families at nine schools across the state, they’ll gather data on heat stress and pilot school-level changes that communities can use to protect themselves.

UC scholars have long engaged in climate justice partnerships across California. A team from UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA will analyze existing youth climate engagement programs at each campus and develop common principles to replicate these programs’ impacts in California and around the world.

As record numbers of people seek asylum in the U.S., climate change multiplies the forces that cause people to leave their homes. Immigration scholars from UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara are teaming up with asylum organizations in the U.S. and Mexico to better understand how federal policies and practices affect migrants, particularly kids and families.

Led by UC Santa Cruz, eight campuses aim to use arts and culture to spur climate action. The UC Climate Action Arts Network will build on a previous MRPI grant to fund artists and communities across California to design creative approaches to grappling with the stark realities of climate change and injustice.

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Four teams are breaking new ground in AI and basic research.

California is America’s most linguistically diverse state: nearly half of us speak a language besides English. And yet language-based artificial intelligence like ChatGPT has overwhelmingly been trained on English — which could become a problem as AI’s influence expands into government, health care and culture. A six-campus team led by UC Santa Cruz will study whether and how prevailing AI technologies leave Californians behind and propose new ways to develop large language models that work equally well, no matter the user’s mother tongue.

Scholars from UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC Davis are taking on what they call “one of the grand challenges of algorithms research.” The team aims to speed up one of modern computing’s foundational processes, matrix multiplication. Streamlining matrix multiplication could break through a bottleneck that’s limiting advances in machine learning, data mining, physics simulations, ushering in the next generation of computational discovery.

Physicists use photons, or light particles, to investigate the fundamental laws of nature, gleaning insights on everything from gravitational waves to supernovae. But the photon-emitting X-ray devices used for research are big, expensive, finicky and hard to control. A team from UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Diego aims to bring emerging quantum X-ray technology from theory to reality. By demonstrating quantum X-ray emission, they’ll open the door to advances in basic sciences and commercial and medical applications.

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Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-awards-155m-research-grants-tackle-big-questions-health-ai-agriculture-and-climate-justice.

Application information for new proposals: https://www.ucop.edu/research-initiatives/programs/mrpi/files/mrpi-rfp.pdf.

Rankings

From Santa Monica Patch: UCLA Health Santa Monica Medical Center is among the top 10 hospitals in California, according to a new ranking released this week from Newsweek. It's one of two Santa Monica hospitals to appear on the statewide list. The publication worked with data firm Statista to analyze hundreds of medical facilities across the country to create the America’s Best In-State Hospitals 2025 report, based on metrics from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the AHA Annual Survey of Hospitals Database, patient experience surveys, and a nationwide online survey of medical professionals...

Full story at https://patch.com/california/santamonica/santa-monica-hospital-among-10-best-california-new-ranking.

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From: https://r.statista.com/en/healthcare/americas-best-in-state-hospitals-2025/ranking/ 

Spring Repercussions

From the Mercury News: Ten protesters will face misdemeanor charges in connection with a May 15 pro-Palestinian protest at UCI that police declared an unlawful assembly, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday. They were charged with failure to disperse at the scene of a riot, while two also were charged with resisting arrest, prosecutors said.

The defendants include an associate professor, a lecturer and four UCI students, according to information released by prosecutors. The ties of the remaining four defendants to UCI, if any, were not immediately clear. All 10 were ordered to appear in court on Oct. 16, DA officials said.

Prosecutors are still reviewing potential evidence related to another several dozen who were arrested during the May 15 protest.

In a statement Wednesday, UCI officials wrote that the university “has a long history of supporting free speech and peaceful protest,” but added that “all members of the UC Irvine community remain subject to all applicable laws, policies, and relevant codes of conduct while engaging in protest activities …

“As part of ongoing efforts across the University of California system, UC Irvine is clearly communicating with all members of the university community regarding campus policies, their enforcement, and the balance between free expression and campus safety,” the statement read.

Those charged with the single failure to disperse charge will likely be eligible for a court diversion program rather than face time behind bars, prosecutors confirmed. But it wasn’t immediately clear what impact, if any, the charges will have on the status of those who are current UC Irvine faculty or students. UC Irvine officials did not respond to direct questions about whether criminal charges or a conviction could jeopardize any of their academic careers...

Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/09/19/10-protesters-tied-to-pro-palestinian-demonstration-at-uci-in-may-now-face-misdemeanor-charges/.

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You may have noted that the various Faculty Associations have filed a complaint with PERB concerning matters related to recent protests. None of the associations have contracts with UC.* Only Santa Cruz ever achieved representation rights and it appears that there have been no contracts there for over two decades. So it may seem surprising that a complaint could be filed with PERB. However, state labor law is largely taken from federal private-sector law which protects "concerted activity" of workers, whether unionized or not. Concerted activity mainly means some collection of employees pursuing some goal related to wages, hours, or working conditions.

However, labor law has evolved to recognize management rights, things like deciding what products or services to produce. There is also a tendency of agencies such as PERB to defer to internal processes such as contractual grievance procedures. The associations don't have contracts so there are no contractual grievance procedures. But there are various mechanisms in the Academic Senate. PERB might well prefer that Senate mechanisms be used. This is in part a practical issue. Does PERB really want to entangle itself into the nitty gritty of deciding whether the concept of academic freedom, for example, prevents the UC administration from saying faculty can't use classes for "indoctrination"? And then the nitty gritty of definiing what that means? PERB might well look at teaching as a service UC delivers and view regulation of such teaching as a management right. To the extent UC and the Regents have delegated interpreting that right in the context of academic freedom to the Senate, the Senate might be viewed as the place to adjudicate what that means.

The case of the UAW, which does have a contractual relationship with UC, is somewhat different. But what PERB will be looking at is whether the grievance process included in the various contracts is the proper forum for determining issues that arise during the life of the contracts. Whether engaging in protests about foreign policy can be viewed as a working condition is another issue, but again, it's something that could potentially involve PERB in inserting itself into the basic operation of UC, i.e., something PERB - as a practical matter - might want to avoid.

Finally, marching through the mechanisms and levels of PERB and then potentially through the courts will take time.

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*The PERB filings are at:

https://ia600402.us.archive.org/9/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/UCLA-FA-ULP%206-3-24.pdf; and

https://ia600402.us.archive.org/9/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/FA%20PERB%20ULP%20charge%209-19-2024.pdf.

Watch the Afternoon Meeting of the Regents: July 17, 2024

We have been summarizing the July Regents meetings as time permits. The afternoon of July 17th is the missing piece. It contained a series of committee meetings. Some highlights below:

Public Engagement and Development included a presentation on the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. One of the findings was that AI could reduce the time doctors currently spend on the computer and thereby increase time interacting with patients.

Compliance and Audit held a four minute open session approving UC's plan for the current year, including cybersecurity.

Academic and Student Affairs had a presentation on UC Press which is mainly self-funded. The Press was said to have a special focus on publishing the works of "FirstGen" authors. More controversial was the BOARS report on high school math requirements which reitererated the importance of algebra and calculus for students who want the option of STEM majors and careers. There was also discussion of campus-level "Collegiate Recovery Programs" that help students with substance abuse issues. Moving testimony by a recovering student was presented. Not all UC campuses have such programs. Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, and UC-San Francisco are said to be "developing" programs. The other campuses including UCLA do have them.

Finance and Capital Strategies heard a report on the budget outlook for UC, a topic we have previously covered in various posts. Regent Pérez expressed concern that UC had been omitted from an education bond measure the legislature has put on the November ballot and suggested the omission reflected some dissatisfaction with UC. The committee approved an expansion of UC-SF's Children's Hospital in Oakland. As we have previously noted, the takeover of two hospitals in San Francisco entailed incorporation of employees there into the UC pension system. It was said that the pension system would be reimbursed for the added pension liability. 

Finally, there was some controversy over the design and costs of a proposed dorm at Davis. Questions were raised primarily by Regent Makarechian who has expertise in real estate matters. Those presenting the dorm proposal really had no good answers to his questions. Ultimately, the committee endorsed the recommendation with Makarechian abstaining. This episode is illustrative of a problem the Regents have when such issues come up. They have no independent research capacity. Some Regents may happen to have expertise when major proposals come up, but the Regents are heavily dependent on what they are told. In some respects, the Regents are a mini-legislature for UC but unlike the state legislature, they have no Legislative Analyst's Office to provide detailed reviews of proposals.*

Since the Regents have no official policy on retention of recordings of their meetings, we retain them indefinitely. You can see the various committee meetings described above at the link below:

https://archive.org/details/01-compliance-and-audit-7-17-2024.

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*Long-time blog readers will recall the controversy over the location, design, and cost of the Grand Hotel at UCLA. The Regents at one point halted the proposal. But in the end, they went along, although the need for the structure - particularly during the ongoing budget crisis of the so-called Great Recession - was never established. In a similar vein, we continue to wonder what UCLA will do with its more recent $80 million purchase of a defunct Catholic college in Palos Verdes which is inaccessible from Westwood. The purchase was said to be responsive to pressures for enrollment growth, but the inaccessibility casts doubt on how it will help with that concern.

Statement of UC President Drake on UC-Irvine

UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D., statement on free speech and campus protests at UC Irvine

May 16, 2024

UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D., issued the following statement today (Thursday, May 16, 2024):

The University of California has a long and proud history of supporting freedom of speech and First Amendment rights. We readily accept our obligation to protect the rights of our students, faculty, staff and visitors to our campuses. The right to protest and demonstrate against policies and practices of governing authorities is among the most important privileges of a democracy. This right is not, however, absolute. We must exercise our rights within the broad confines of the laws and policies we ourselves have established.

On Wednesday afternoon, several dozen protestors at UC Irvine illegally occupied and barricaded entrances and exits to an academic building. This led to the cancellation of classes for the remainder of the day and an advisory to exit all buildings in the vicinity of the protest due to safety concerns. Later that evening, UC Irvine Police, supported by several local public safety agencies, worked to safely clear the building. I support the campus and Chancellor Gillman in taking these steps to restore access to educational facilities for members of our campus community.

The University of California must be as flexible as it can be involving matters of free expression, including expression of viewpoints that some find deeply offensive. But when that expression blocks the ability of students to learn or to express their own viewpoints, when it meaningfully disrupts the functioning of the University, or when it threatens the safety of students, or anyone else, we must act.

There are countless ways to protest lawfully, and UC campuses will work with students, faculty and staff to make space available and do all we can to protect people’s ability to hold these protests and demonstrations. But unlawful protests that violate the rights of our fellow citizens are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.

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Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-president-michael-v-drake-md-statement-free-speech-and-campus-protests-uc-irvine.

Statement of UC-Irvine Chancellor

May 15, 2024 

Today's Challenging Campus Events

Dear Campus Community,

What a sad day for our university. I’m brokenhearted.

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, we, along with most other UC campuses, received the latest "demands” from the protesters. The protesters orchestrated a swift departure from their encampment. In a coordinated fashion they moved out of the encampment to the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall, where a small group barricaded themselves in, supported by a large group of community members who had gathered for a scheduled rally.

For the last two weeks, I have consistently communicated that the encampment violated our policies but that the actions did not rise to the level requiring police intervention. My approach was consistent with the guidelines of UC's Robinson/Edley Report, which urges the UC to exhaust all possible alternatives before resorting to police intervention.

I was prepared to allow a peaceful encampment to exist on the campus without resorting to police intervention, even though the encampment violated our policies and the existence of the encampment was a matter of great distress to other members of our community. I communicated that if there were violations of our rules we would address them through the normal administrative policies of the university and not through police action.

And so after weeks when the encampers assured our community that they were committed to maintaining a peaceful and nondisruptive encampment, it was terrible to see that they would dramatically alter the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission.

The latest campus-specific and systemwide demands made by our encampers and their counterparts across the University of California attempted to dictate that anyone who disagreed with them must conform to their opinions. They asserted the right to oversee many elements of university operations involving the administration, faculty, students, and staff, bypassing customary campus protocols and ignoring the function of the Academic Senate.

Most importantly, their assault on the academic freedom rights of our faculty and the free speech rights of faculty and students was appalling. One can only imagine the response if people on the other side of these issues established an encampment to force me to censor all anti-Zionist academic and student programming.

But my concern now is not the unreasonableness of their demands. It is their decision to transform a manageable situation that did not have to involve police into a situation that required a different response. I never wanted that. I devoted all of my energies to prevent this from happening.

I’m sorry this campus I love so much had to experience this terrible and avoidable situation. I remain steadfast in my commitment to protecting the rights of all members of our community to express whatever viewpoints they believe are essential for others to hear and engage. And I remain steadfast in my commitment to defend our faculty and students from efforts to prevent them from having the same rights of academic freedom and free speech as everyone else on this campus.

My hope is that we can find our way to a culture of peace, mutual respect, and shared commitment to addressing our differences through the norms of scholarly inquiry and debate.

Fiat Lux,

Chancellor Howard Gillman

Source: https://chancellor.uci.edu/communications/campus/2024/240515-campus-events.php.

Student-Worker Strike Repercussions - Part 27

Repercussions of the student-worker strike at UC continue. Blog readers may recall that during the strike, campus payroll systems continued paying strikers; apparently, UC in many cases had no way of determining who was on strike. UC-Irvine it seems subsequently required student-workers to report whether they participated in the strike. Grievances were filed regarding these requirements, resulting in the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decision below:

Decision 2889H – Regents of the University of California (Irvine)

LA-CE-1395-H

Decision Date: February 9, 2024

Decision Type: PERB Decision (Non-Precedential)

Description:  Charging Parties, five UC Irvine (UCI) employees in two UAW-represented bargaining units, filed grievances alleging that UCI violated the applicable MOU for each bargaining unit by requiring Charging Parties to report their participation (if any) in a strike. UCI refused to process Charging Parties’ grievances because UAW had filed a systemwide grievance regarding the same violations. Charging Parties allege that UCI violated HEERA by refusing to allow them to present grievances through a representative of their own choosing. PERB’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) dismissed the charge for failure to state a prima facie case.

Disposition:  In a non-precedential decision, the Board reversed and remanded to OGC to issue a complaint. The applicable MOUs permitted Charging Parties to file their own grievances and pursue them via a representative of their own choosing, at all stages prior to arbitration. Therefore, the charge stated a prima facie case that UCI failed or refused to process Charging Parties’ grievances in violation of HEERA’s qualified right to self-representation.

Source: https://perb.ca.gov/decision/2889H/.

Note that issuing a complaint does not resolve the case, one way or another. It is just the start of a PERB review. Apparently, the OGC initially thought there was no obvious violation of the applicable state labor law, but the Board reversed, setting in motion a more thorough review.