June Conversation

Chief Investments Officer Jagdeep Bachhar held another of his "conversations" on the economy, this time with John E. Waldron, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs. The threat of a recession did not arise. (We'll see what the UCLA Anderson Forecast has to say on June 18th about that.) Of course, tariffs and all that came up. But there was a lot of discussion about technology such as AI and advances in the health sciences in particular - which both connected to the current cuts to higher ed and STEM-type research - and a hint that Big Pharma and the like might somehow be reaching out to the Trump folks to say that the cuts are a Bad Thing. 

You can hear an audio of the conversation (actually a video with still pictures) at:

https://ia600107.us.archive.org/25/items/becerra-announces-for-governor-4-2-2025/Bachhar-Waldron%206-2-2025.mp4.

Note: Waldron came on about 5 minutes into the Zoom webinar.

Watch the Regents Meeting of May 14, 2025

On the second day of the May Regents meetings - May 14 - the session began with public comments at the full Board. Topics included union negotiations with resident physicians, support for UC-Riverside's med program, PhD student support, undocumented student support, concerns over takeover of Children's Hospital-Oakland by UC-San Francisco, opposition to the Hawaiian telescope (TMT), state budget issues, academic freedom, support for a community garden at UC-Riverside, anti-Israel divestment, food insecurity, litigation by researchers over federal cuts, DEI programs, international student safety, basic needs, poor quality of construction at UC-Santa Cruz, and nurse union negotiations.

Regent Chair Reilly referenced the state budget in her remarks and the hiring of James B. Milliken as the new UC president. President Drake had nice words about the governor and legislature with regard to the May Revise budget. He referenced federal grant cuts and visa revocations but said most of the latter had been restored. Senate Chair Cheung supported the pension funding delays (about which we have blogged previously). He supported "bridge" funding to make up for federal research grant cuts.

Much of the interesting discussions in the morning following the open session will not be known due to the closed format. But they likely covered the legal landscape and funding cuts coming out of DC as well as upcoming collective bargaining issues.

At the Governance Committee, alternative housing arrangements for chancellors at Davis and Santa Barbara were approved while their official residences were being reconstructed. There was also a discussion rather than a planned action item for a change in procedures regarding settlements of litigation on malpractice from the health sciences. The idea seemed to be involving both the Health Services Committee and Compliance and Audit in approving such settlements with an eye toward prevention. Details of the procedure are now planned for the July meeting.

Compliance and Audit approved an external audit plan for the year. Regent Makarechian raised the issue of whether the plethora of executive orders coming out of Washington might generate new liabilities and risk for UC and if the proposed cost for the external audit included such risks. It was said that if a "material change" was required in the scope of the audit, the cost would be renegotiated.

At Academic and Student Affairs, various professional tuition requests were approved. There was a lengthy presentation on Quantum Information Science. According to UCLA Chancellor Frenk, the new UCLA Research Park (old Westside Pavilion) facillity would be involved. It was noted that quantum computing could potentially cut the energy usage now being caused by conventional computers handling AI. 

There was also a discussion and preview of recommendations regarding the speeding up of faculty disciplinary procedures being assembled by a Joint administration-Academic Senate working group which will be presented at the July meeting. The proposal involves various deadlines for the various steps in the process. If a delay is caused by an inability of a campus to form a Privilege and Tenure committee to deal with charges, a systemwide standby P&T committee would apparently intervene. (As noted in an earlier post, there is a substantial audio gap in the recording of this discussion which continued into a subsequent discussion of BOARS admissions processes, processes which have created concerns and bills in the legislature.)

At Finance and Capital Strategies, additional funding for planning of the UCLA Research Park was approved. There was then discussion of the budget for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and construction of two educational structures. The budget for UC ANR is a separate line-item in the state budget. Patent revenues - mainly from new plants - flow back into that budget. The proposal was approved with Regent Elliot voting "no" without explanation.

The May Revise now cuts the UC budget by 3% instead of January's proposed 8%, so there were lots of thank-yous from President Drake to the governor and legislature. (We'll say more about this in a later post.) There will be a report in July with recommendations to improve management efficiency in July. NOTE: An awful lot of important stuff seems to have been deferred to July. UCOP's budget was approved.

The pension funding delay and deferral was approved. Two Regents abstained for the obvious reason. There was also an audio gap in this segment of the recording but it lasted only a couple of minutes.

==

As always, we preserve the recordings of Regents meetings indefinitely - even the ones with audio gaps - because the Regents have no fixed policy on storage duration.

Board meeting including public comments at:

https://ia800101.us.archive.org/14/items/3-board/3-Board.mp4

--

Governance and Compliance and Audit at:

https://ia600101.us.archive.org/14/items/3-board/4-Governance%20Committee%2C%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.mp4

--

Finance and Capital Strategies at:

https://ia800101.us.archive.org/14/items/3-board/6-Finance%20and%20Capital%20Strategies%20Committee%201.mp4

--

The general website for May 14:

https://archive.org/details/3-board.

Yesterday's Town Hall on Undocumented & International Students

Yesterday's Town Hall on issues facing undocumented and international students was presented online with Mary Osako, VC for Strategic Communications, as the emcee. An audio link is available below in this post.

Before getting into the substance, yours truly must note that actually getting the Zoom link for the Town Hall after registering was a problem. There was no problem going through the registration process, but no link resulted. Emails to the Senate office went unanswered. A phone call to the Senate office produced a recording saying to use email. Re-registering using a different UCLA address eventually produced a link that required setting up a new Zoom account. All this suggests that many in the target audience who wanted to participate may not have succeeded. 

The main messages were that no new reports of cancelled visas at UCLA appeared last week. Visa processing at US embassies and consulates now takes longer than in the past. There could be a new travel ban to selected countries according to rumors. International students were cautioned about international travel. ICE agents can operate on campus in public spaces. UCPD, however will not assist immigration agents. UCLA employees, if confronted with immigration agents requesting information should obtain their names, etc., ask if they have warrants, and get in touch with the general counsel's office. UCLA does not give out student information unless there is a legally-mandated request.

You can hear the Town Hall (actually a video with still pictures of the participants) at:

https://ia600107.us.archive.org/25/items/becerra-announces-for-governor-4-2-2025/UCLA%20Town%20Hall%20-%20Undocumented%20%26%20Foreign%20Students%204-17-2025.mp4.

Today's Town Hall on the Fire

It seems to take a day or so for the recordings of the various Town Halls on the fires to be uploaded to the UCLA website. In the interim, here is an audio recording of today's Town Hall:

https://ia600105.us.archive.org/29/items/newsom-1-2-25-new-laws/UCLA%20Town%20Hall%20on%20fires%201-16-2025%20%28audio%29.mp4.

The Recording Option to Protect Against False Claims

Yours truly has received reports that some faculty were being "dinged" by students on course evaluations for fall quarter, due to their (the faculty's) perceived position on the current Israel-Gaza War, even if the instructor didn't discuss the conflict and the course was unrelated to it. There have been reported to be false claims of course content referenced in the evaluations. 

Clearly, there are larger issues regarding course evaluations and their use in academic advancement that long predate the current tensions. However, a simple approach for instructors going forward in the current period is to record their courses and let students know that the recordings are being made. Indeed, the recordings can be put on course websites for the convenience of students. If false claims are made in evaluations about course content, the recordings will refute such claims.

Video recordings of classes can be complicated to make unless the classroom is set up with equipment for such recordings. However, audio recordings are easy to make using inexpensive (or fancy) audio-recorders. Basically, you just turn them on at the beginning of class and turn them off at the end. Smartphones can also be used as recording devices. (You may have problems in getting lengthy recordings off your phone, however, so audio-recorders may be a better option.)

Note that just as it is easy for instructors to record classes, it is also easy for students (although there are legal restrictions against students doing so without permission). Having a complete recording provides some protection against misleading edited versions winding up on social media.

Instructors who bring in guest speakers should, of course, record only with permission of the guests.

A related issue: I have been told of veiled threats and menacing in written evaluations. Evaluations are anonymous but threats are nonetheless illegal and there may need to be some general cautioning on evaluation forms about making such statements. Note that UCLA is reported to be among the various universities under federal investigation so permitting such activity is at best a Bad Look.

In the end, if the problem persists, the Academic Senate would be wise to consider it and adjust the use of evaluations as needed.

UCLA's Med School Has a Dartmouth Experience

In past blog posts, we noted that Dartmouth seems to have had a more constructive approach to tensions resulting from the Israel-Gaza War involving scholarly panels that have had a civil discussion of the issues and background.* The UCLA Geffen School of Medicine hosted such a panel a week ago via Zoom (image above). The program was recorded although yours truly doesn't know when or where it will be posted for general viewing. A video recording was placed in a UC Health box account which yours truly can't access. I notified the person who placed it there, but with UC largely shut down, it may be some time before I get a response. In the interim, here is an audio recording (actually a video with still pictures):

https://archive.org/details/ucla-med-school-dialogue-12-20-2023 [one hour]

The two guests:

Dr. David N. Myers is a Distinguished Professor of History and holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History in the UCLA History Department. He is the founding director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Myers’ scholarly work has touched on a number of key themes in modern Jewish history, including the history of Jewish historiography, the history of Zionism, and modern Jewish intellectual history. In addition to Re-Inventing the Jewish Past, he has also written Resisting History: Historicism and Its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought (Princeton, 2003), Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz (Brandeis University Press, 2008), Jewish History in the Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series, and The Stakes of History: The Use and Abuse of Jewish History for Life (Yale University Press, 2018). Most recently, he is the author with Nomi Stolzenberg of American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton, 2021). Additionally, Myers has edited 11 books, taught at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and the Russian State University for the Humanities, visited at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Jerusalem), and been a fellow twice at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (Philadelphia). Since 2003, he has served as co-editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review. Myers is an elected fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. 

Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha is a physician, specializing in internal medicine, who is currently acting as the Executive Director of Rodaina, an NGO she founded that aims to prevent genetic diseases in the Middle East, especially in the Bedouin community, by spearheading premarital genetic testing and matching. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Project Wadi Attir, Yanabia, Tamar Center, and AJEEC-NISPED, all are social projects and NGOs aiming to improve Bedouin lives in Israel. She has won several awards, including the 2007 Ramon Award for quality, leadership, and excellence, as well as the 2015 Travel Grant Award for outstanding young investigators at the 38th European Cystic Fibrosis Society conference, and was also chosen to be part of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list. Yasmeen has authored multiple op-eds about Palestine and Israel and has been recently cited in the New York Times and on NPR. Yasmeen holds a BSc in Medical Science and an MD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently pursuing an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/12/dartmouths-example-in-dealing-with_02027536794.html.

Notice: We Are Dropping the Text-to-Speech Option

As blog readers will know, back in August 2022, we began adding an option to hear the text of the blog as an experiment. 

The time involved in adding that option to each post and problems that have occurred with using archive.org to store the sound files have led yours truly to decide to discontinue the option as of today. We will, of course, continue using YouTube and archive.org links with sound for such purposes as recordings of Regents meetings.

Note that your computer probably has a text-to-sound option built into its operating system or available as a download. You can always cut an paste the text of the blog into that option and hear the text.

Navitus Concerns Discussed by Drake

UC switched to a new pharmacy provider last January 1 and the transition did not go smoothly. Although there had been assurances that there would be substantial overlap with the prior provider in terms of drug coverage and approvals, there were substantial complaints from plan participants about denials and coverage. 

At a joint Zoom meeting of CUCEA and CUCRA yesterday, UC president Drake expressed concern about the bumpy transition and indicated that if the problems could not be fixed in the short term, a new pharmacy provider might be needed.

You can year the audio of his remarks below. At one point, Berkeley Professor Bob Anderson asks a question:

Or direct to https://archive.org/details/cucea-drake-on-navitus-4-27-22/CUCEA+drake+on+navitus+4-27-22.wmv.

The UC Prez on Use of SAT Scores for Admissions

We have been posting excerpts from UC president Michael Drake's comments on various issues to groups of emeriti and retirees (CUCEA and CUCRA) on April 28. One issue raised was UC admissions policy with regard to use of the SAT and ACT. The use of these tests was dropped for the current admissions cycle, resulting in a significant increase in applicants. Drake did not expect that UC would return to using the tests in the future. 

One related matter which he did not touch on is that when you do something to raise the number of applicants, but not the number of available slots, the university ends up sending out more rejections, which complicates matters from a PR viewpoint for a public university. When their kids receive rejections from UC, parents are likely to be less supportive of state support to UC. The dropping of the SAT/ACT permanently was not the original recommendation from an Academic Senate study of the effect of such a decision.*  

You can hear Drake's comments at:

https://archive.org/details/drake-cucea-cucra-4-28-21-full/drake+CUCEA-CUCRA+4-28-21+SAT+admissions.wma

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*Some of our earlier posts on this subject can be found at:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/05/listen-to-regents-meeting-of-may-21-2020.html;

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/05/no-sat-act.html;

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-evel-knievel-approach-to-testing-at.html;

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/02/faculty-committee-says-keep-satact-for_4.html;

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/02/faculty-committee-says-keep-satact-for.html.

You can find still other posts using the search engine on this blog.

Drake on the Recall and Other California Politics

UC President Michael Drake spoke to a virtual meeting of emeriti and retiree groups on April 28 (CUCEA and CUCRA). Among the topics that came up was the recall campaign against Governor Newsom. Not surprisingly, Drake chose his words carefully noting that the recent coronavirus year posed challenges to the governor and indicating that he had a cooperative relationship with the governor. Drake also spoke about other politics-related matters regarding the legislature.

You can hear his remarks at:

https://archive.org/details/drake-cucea-cucra-4-28-21-full/drake+CUCEA-CUCRA+4-28-21+Recall+and+other+politics.wma

Note: In his remarks, he refers to the APLU and the AAU. The abbreviations stand for, respectively, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and the Association of American Universities.

The UC Prez on the Accellion Data Breach

As noted in a prior posting, UC President Michael Drake spoke to a virtual meeting of emeriti and retirees groups (CUCEA and CUCRA) on April 28. One of the topics he touched on was the Accellion data breach. Mainly, he talked about it in general terms referencing other such breaches in other organizations and recommended using "consumer protections" (which seemed to refer to the one year of Experian monitoring UC is offering). He made a reference to a forthcoming communication from UC. (In another session of the meeting - not with the prez - there was reference to some kind of notice that would be coming to those affected in 45-60 days.)

You can hear his comments at:

https://archive.org/details/drake-cucea-cucra-4-28-21-full/drake+CUCEA-CUCRA+4-28-21+Data+Breach.wma

Time for UC to Ask for More - Part 3

 

With the upcoming May Revise budget proposal by the governor (some time in mid-May), we have noted that the improved state budget situation and the recall make this an optimum time for UC to ask for "more" from the state.* At a joint meeting of organizations representing emeriti and retirees at UC (CUCEA and CUCRA, respectively), the UC prez indicated that indeed UC is asking for more. Its request to the governor is to be made whole for cuts this year, to receive some adjustment for inflation, and for "one-time" funding for deferred maintenance including seismic upgrades and specialized programs such as returning Native American artifacts. You can hear an audio of what President Drake said about the UC budget request at:

https://archive.org/details/drake-cucea-cucra-4-28-21-full/drake+CUCEA-CUCRA+4-28-21+budget+excerpt.wma

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2021/04/time-for-uc-to-ask-for-more-part-2.html

Watch or listen to the Regents session of Jan. 21, 2021

We continue archiving the Regents meetings indefinitely, since they delete their recordings after one year. And we provide video so you can watch or listen. (Up until this meeting, we provided only audio.) Links are below. And we turn to the Daily Cal again for a summary of what happened last Thursday:

BY MAYA AKKARAJU, TARUNIKA KAPOOR, OLIVIA MOORE AND ANNIKA RAO

On its final day of virtual meetings this week, the UC Board of Regents discussed university donations, alternatives to college entrance exams and the state of the COVID-19 pandemic. As discussed during the Public Engagement and Development Committee meeting, the UC system received a total of $2.9 billion in donations over the past fiscal year, according to UC Office of the President, or UCOP, Senior Vice President of External Relations and Communications Claire Holmes. Almost half of this money was given in support of health sciences and medicine at UC medical centers and campuses. John Cash, Marts & Lundy consultant, noted that the majority of donations are restricted to research and department support, and less than 8% of the money was donated for student support. He added that just more than 8% of the donations are to campus improvement efforts. “Many people are under the impression that donors love to give to buildings, that’s really not true,” Cash said at the meeting. “Raising capital dollars is very, very challenging.”

As for UC Berkeley, Vice Chancellor for University Development and Alumni Relations Julie Hooper reported that $4.1 billion has been raised in the “Light the Way” campaign, which launched last year and aims to raise $6 billion. The “Light the Way” campaign aims to raise $400 million in scholarship support, according to UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ. “Often our graduate students really suffer from shortages in basic needs, and a robust graduate scholarship program is essential in both being competitive for the best graduate students and making sure their needs are well attended,” Christ said at the meeting. Christ added that UC Berkeley has received two philanthropic housing gifts — one that will fund an apartment house for graduate students, and one for a transfer student resident hall.

During the public comment portion of the general board meeting, several called upon the UC system to withdraw involvement from the Thirty Meter Telescope project and make Election Day a noninstructional academic holiday. In the Compliance and Audit Committee meeting, Alexander Bustamante, the UCOP chief compliance and audit officer and senior vice president and chief, presented the Ethics, Compliance and Audit Services annual report. “Our continued vigilance on cybersecurity issues is of importance,” Bustamante said during the meeting. “I think foreign influence is one, as I’ve flagged in the report, and also the COVID-related issues, as well. It’s just a changing regulatory landscape, and we just need to stay on top of it.” Bustamante added that there has been an increase in workplace harassment reports, which indicates the public is aware of the university’s communication systems.

During the afternoon board meeting, the regents discussed the aftermath of their decision to suspend the use of the ACT and SAT in UC admissions until 2024. A committee was formed in May to examine three options: create a new admissions test, leverage another existing test or cease using standardized testing entirely. The committee concluded that developing a new test is not feasible within the time frame, but the Smarter Balanced assessment, which is already taken by all public school students in California, could be modified into a useful admissions tool. UCOP Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Brown stressed that no concrete plan currently exists. If the modified Smarter Balanced test is deemed viable after further research, the UC system will decide on how to use it, if at all. Some representatives from the committee expressed the desire to create a “low stakes” assessment, which could determine eligibility for the UC system as a whole, but not for individual campuses.

“We want to try to create avenues into the university that are not biased against certain subgroups, certain populations within us,” said UC President Michael Drake at the meeting. “And I think this assessment is a part of that.”

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Carrie Byington, executive vice president of UC Health, presented an array of statistics and stressed the importance of pandemic safety as vaccine distribution continues. All UC campuses are in counties with COVID-19 rates classified as “widespread,” and Byington said the health department is working to make it safe for students to return to campus. Byington recommended people wear two masks when indoors, a surgical mask below and a cloth mask above and add a face shield in situations where it is difficult to maintain distance.

At the end of the meeting, the board honored the contributions of Regent George Kieffer and Regent Charlene Zettel, who are retiring from the board when their 12-year terms expire March 1.

Source: https://www.dailycal.org/2021/01/21/uc-board-of-regents-discusses-funding-pandemic-entrance-exams/

For the Thursday session, go to:

https://archive.org/details/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-1-21-21

or separately:

Full board and Compliance and Audit:

https://archive.org/details/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-1-21-21/Board%2C+Compliance+and+Audit+Committee+1-21-21.mp4

Public Engagement and Development:

https://archive.org/details/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-1-21-21/Public+Engagement+and+Development+Committee+1-21-21.mp4

Board - Second Session:

https://archive.org/details/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-1-21-21/Board-2nd+session+1-21-21.mp4

Listen to, or Watch, the Regents Sessions of Jan. 20, 2021

 

We continue our indirect practice of relying on the Daily Cal to summarize what the Regents did, in this case on Wednesday of this week. As we did yesterday, we have preserved the video of the Zoom meetings so you have a choice of watching or listening. Links are below the text.

BY ALEXANDRA FELDMAN, CATHERINE HSU AND DINA KATGARA, 1-21-21

At its virtual meeting Wednesday, the UC Board of Regents discussed allocations of state general funds and sustainable practices. At the general board meeting, the regents discussed the UC system’s Annual Report on Sustainable Practices, focusing on how the UC system worked to reduce waste through reusing N95 masks or bulk purchases in the face of supply changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report on sustainable practices also prompted many UC community members to call for the UC system’s divestment from the Thirty Meter Telescope project. “The UC’s impact extends beyond campus,” said campus undergraduate student Livia Jones-Solari at the meeting. “Sustainability is about how we can live in a way that protects rather than destroys life, how we can keep living. We cannot keep living by ignoring Indigenous voices.”

During public comment, several members of the UC community also advocated for Election Day to be a UC-wide, noninstructional academic holiday, voicing concerns that coursework reinforces existing voting inequities. Following a closed session, the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee passed the external financing of $500 million in taxable bonds that will be available in February. The working capital created by these bonds will be used to help UC campuses stabilize during the ongoing pandemic.

The committee also debated the financial distribution tactic presented by UC Executive Vice President Nathan Brostrom. State allocation of funds depends on each student’s discipline. Doctoral students will be weighted more than undergraduate students, Brostrom added. “If you look in the health sciences and the cost of providing the faculty to do the teaching that is required for the accreditation, you’d actually find out that this funding falls well short of that,” said UC President Michael Drake. “These are extraordinarily complex issues.”

Regent George Kieffer suggested that a smaller group of regents come together to do an in-depth examination of the welfare of each campus. The committee also moved forward the allocation of funds and approval of plans for UC Irvine’s Medical Center Irvine-Newport project. CEO of UC Irvine Health Chad Lefteris said the center is planned to have 140 beds with expansion space and reach Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold sustainable rank.

In a concurrent session with the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee, the Academic and Student Affairs Committee approved Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition, or PDST, for a new Doctor of Pharmacy program at UC Irvine.

The Doctor of Pharmacy program “builds on the strategic direction of the campus to increase the impact of UC Irvine Health, expand graduate education in California and serve diverse communities statewide,” said UC Irvine Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Hal Stern at the meeting. The approved PDST will support the start of the program by funding student financial aid, the hiring of faculty and staff and technology and other resources for students. During the question period, some regents expressed a desire for the program to aim for stronger diversity targets. “I recognize that this is a difficult major to diversify, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t reach higher,” said Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley at the meeting. The item ultimately passed with an amendment stating that the diversity numbers in the program’s proposal are a “minimum” and that it will also incorporate aspirational numbers.

The Academic and Student Affairs Committee also saw four discussion items centering around student diversity and equity. As part of the first discussion item, representatives from UC Irvine discussed the importance of mentoring programs in doctoral education as a way to reduce inequities among graduate students. UC Irvine Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate Division Gillian Hayes spoke in favor of expanding and increasing funding for these graduate mentor programs.

UC Irvine Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Michael Dennin also spoke to the Academic and Student Affairs Committee about the lessons learned so far from the COVID-19 pandemic about incorporating technology-enhanced learning to design “equitable classrooms.” 

“I hope we’re never back to fall 2019,” Dennin said at the meeting. “I hope we go back to no concept of a single type of course.”

Following Dennin’s presentation, some regents raised concerns over the loss of accessibility gains during remote instruction when students return to in-person learning. Student observer and UC Santa Cruz junior David Shevelev noted that certain aspects of remote instruction have allowed students with learning disabilities or work and family obligations to be much more successful academically. “Will recordings and flexible attendance policies continue as the norm when we return to the classroom?” Shevelev said at the meeting. “Equity cannot be something that faculty simply opt into.”

Source: https://www.dailycal.org/2021/01/20/uc-board-of-regents-allocates-funding-discusses-equity-sustainability/

Links to the various sessions can be found at:

https://archive.org/details/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-1-20-21

Academic and Student Affairs:

https://archive.org/details/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-1-20-21/Academic+and+Student+Affairs+Committee+1-20-21.mp4

Full Board:

https://archive.org/details/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-1-20-21/Board+1-20-21.mp4

Finance and Capital Strategies:

https://archive.org/details/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-1-20-21/Finance+and+Capital+Strategies+Committee+1-20-21.mp4

Listen to, or Watch, the Regents Sessions of Jan. 19, 2021

In the past when we have indefinitely archived Regents meetings, we have only offered the choice of listening. We now unveil an additional choice: You can watch (or listen) at the links below:

Yours truly is teaching this quarter so he has been archiving but not watching or listening. When time is available, he will see if anything happened that the Daily Cal didn't pick up in its description of the Tuesday (Jan. 19) session. But for now:

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BY JASMINE LEE, LAUREN GOOD AND NATALIE LU, 1-20-21

At its first virtual meeting of 2021, the UC Board of Regents approved funding for a technology fellowship pilot program, discussed telehealth developments and listened to concerns regarding racial discrimination. The National Laboratories Committee approved a proposal to fund $200,000 to establish a pilot program for a postdoctoral fellowship in technology and international security. Craig Leasure, vice president of UC National Laboratories, said the pilot program would use funds from the Capital and Campus Opportunity Fund. The fellowships would be for those at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — an offshoot of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — and the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at UC San Diego. The fellowship program would also bring benefits, according to Leasure, such as developing collaborations between campuses and labs, in addition to creating opportunities for students interested in national security and other social sciences.

Leasure said the program would also come with the impact of “building intellectual capacity across the UC system in the nexus between science, technology, nuclear and international security issues.”

During the public comment portion of the board meeting, former UCSD health employee Tamara Totten said she was laid off by UCSD Health alongside another Black coworker. She reflected on her experience at UCSD Health, alleging that out of the 32 member unit, the only two employees who were laid off were Black women.

“I endured harassment, threats, criticism and isolation, and rather than getting relief, I was served with a layoff notice a month later,” Totten alleged. “This happened even though we have more seniority. UCSD chose to hire and keep a non-African American contract employee and assigned her to my work after I was laid off.”

Two other main concerns raised during the public comment session were the UCSF Medical Center expansion plan and animal agriculture cruelty within the UC system. San Francisco resident Robert Goodman urged the regents to consider deferring UCSF’s expansion plans. On the other hand, San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council secretary-treasurer Rudy Gonzalez voiced support for the construction of UCSF medical buildings.

The Health Services Committee presented a UC health update on telehealth innovations, which entails health care services that are provided electronically. According to Lawrence Friedman, associate dean of clinical affairs at UCSD Health, the UC health system has “become an industry leader,” publishing more than 40 articles on COVID-19 telehealth. More than 7,000 providers and staff have been trained on telehealth across the UC system, and 11 languages and interpreter services are offered within telehealth, according to Friedman. Through telehealth, services such as clinical consultations, virtual family visits for COVID-19 patients and physical therapy group sessions are offered to inpatients. Across all campuses, ambulatory patient visits were almost all in person until March 2020, and by April, nearly half of the visits were through telehealth, according to Friedman. Currently, about 20% to 25% of ambulatory visits are via telehealth, which Friedman said he expects will continue past the COVID-19 pandemic, as he noted that both patients and providers find telehealth visits “convenient” and “efficient.”

“Telemedicine is here to stay, but many of our students would benefit from resuming in-person activities,” said Brad Buchman, chief medical officer of UC Health’s student health and counseling.

According to Buchman, telehealth mental health visits outnumbered other medical visits in a three-to-one ratio. Anxiety was the top mental health concern for those who use telehealth services, followed by depression.

UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and UCSF have been chosen as pilot virtual care clinics for the UC Virtual Care Collaborative for student mental health due to their readiness and willingness to participate, according to Friedman.

“This is the wave of the future,” said Regent Sherry Lansing. “This is one of the good things that has come out of this crisis — the benefits of telemedicine and telehealth.”

Source: https://www.dailycal.org/2021/01/20/uc-regents-approve-funding-technology-fellowship-pilot-program/

Links to the sessions are below at:

https://archive.org/details/board-health-natl-labs-1-19-21

Board, Health, National Labs at:

https://archive.org/details/board-health-natl-labs-1-19-21/board%2C+health%2C+natl+labs+1-19-21.mp4

Governance at:

https://archive.org/details/board-health-natl-labs-1-19-21/Governance+Committee+1-19-21.mp4

Listen to the Regents Meetings of Dec. 14, 2020

The full Board of Regents and its Health Services Committee met via Zoom on Tuesday, December 14. The full Board met twice. In the morning, it heard public comments. After the Health Services meeting, it approved an item protecting UC employees' retirement benefits from adverse impacts of temporary furloughs and layoffs due to the coronavirus crisis. There were also closed session described - based on the agenda - in a prior posting on this blog.*

During public comments, the Regents heard statements on student health, infertility benefits for students, neurodivergent student accommodations, disabled students, patient safety and overworked nurses, exposure to coronavirus and testing of nurses for coronavirus, PPE, a discrimination grievance, and a UC-San Francisco construction project.

During the meeting of Health Services, there were statements by UC president Drake on health care and on climate change. Executive VP Carrie Byington spoke generally about the coronavirus situation, lost UC Health revenue due to the coronavirus, and the new vaccines. UCLA Assistant Professor Tranh Neville spoke about ICU issues and end-of-life care.

As usual, yours truly has preserved the audio of the sessions indefinitely since the Regents keep their recordings for only one year. You can hear the audio of the first full Board meeting and the subsequent Health Services meeting at:

https://archive.org/details/1-board-health-services-committee-12-15-20/1-Board%2C+Health+Services+Committee+12-15-20.mp3

You can hear the second full Board meeting at:

https://archive.org/details/1-board-health-services-committee-12-15-20/2-Regents+12-15-20+Board.mp3

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/12/mini-regents-meeting-on-tuesday.html

Listen to the Afternoon Meeting of the Regents of Nov. 18, 2020

We conclude our review of the recent Regents meeting with the afternoon session of November 18:

From the Daily Cal: The Academic and Student Affairs Committee discussed Native American student admissions, 21st-century skill development for UC students and supporting UC students with disabilities, among other topics. The board expressed support for a debt-free path to UC institutions. The committee also addressed survey results indicating students feel that they lack information literacy, or the ability to organize information one receives. According to (UC Provost) Brown, UC Berkeley’s data science initiative, which expanded from a course to a college, addresses “information literacy analysis.”

...The Finance and Capital Strategies Committee discussed 2020 UC finances. UCOP Financial Accounting Associate Vice President Peggy Arrivas said the university finances “remain very stable.” Despite university expenditures increasing by about $4 billion in the past year, revenues increased by $1.7 billion. The committee also approved the 2020-2026 Capital Financial Plan. In addition to more seismic evaluations being done on campuses, the committee addressed how more housing projects are being deferred due to limited occupancy on campuses and the university’s need to rely on reserves during the pandemic...

Full article at https://www.dailycal.org/2020/11/19/uc-regents-approve-uc-berkeley-data-hub-building-discuss-uc-admissions/

Finance and Capital Strategies approved all capital projects including two that seem to be controversial with neighborhood groups: Davis' "Aggie Square" project and San Diego's "Theater District" project.

Links to the audio of the Regents sessions are below for listening and/or downloading:

Academic and Student Affairs:

https://archive.org/details/1-regents-academic-and-student-affairs-committee-11-18-20/1-Regents+-+Academic+and+Student+Affairs+Committee+11-18-20.mp3

Finance and Capital Strategies:

https://archive.org/details/1-regents-academic-and-student-affairs-committee-11-18-20/1-Regents+-+Finance+and+Capital+Strategies+Committee+11-18-20.mp3

Listen to the Regents Meeting of Nov. 19, 2020 (and an unusual hearing)

In this posting, we jump over the Regents' afternoon session of Nov. 18 and go straight to Nov. 19. (We will post on the afternoon of Nov. 18 in a subsequent post.) Audio links to the various sessions are provided below.

The full board met twice on Nov. 19. Initially, it heard public comments dealing with the Hawaiian telescope, disabled students, basic needs including child care and internet access, labor relations issues including pay for lecturers in summer and pay cuts, and UC-San Francisco expansion.

Unusual Hearing:

The main part of the first full board meeting was quite unusual. A tenured faculty member of the engineering school at Santa Cruz was recommended for firing by the chancellor and UC president. He requested an open board hearing. (Normally, such matters are handled in closed session, as are other personnel matters.) The hearing was held and ran over two hours. In general terms, the matter revolved around a reorganization in the engineering school that produced a new departmental structure. However, the faculty member was not placed in a new department but was given a divisional appointment, i.e., reporting directly to the dean. 

Ultimately, in 2019-20, he refused to teach three courses assigned by the dean on the grounds that only a department chair could assign courses. In the course of this dispute, which ran over several years, there were internal academic senate reviews and litigation outside the university. The upshot was the recommended firing. The grievance and his lawyer both testified and answered questions from the Regents. In the end, the board went into closed session to decide the case. There is no public record of the outcome.

When the meeting resumed, there was discussion of reports from the Governance Committee and the Special Committee on Basic Needs. These sessions are summarized below:

Governance Committee

Executive Summary:

As a result of a discussion on effective board governance at the Board of Regents’ retreat in fall 2019, a Regents’ Working Group on Committee Structure was formed. The Working Group met several times, conducted interviews with two committee chairs and sent a survey on committee structure to all Regents and Chancellors. It developed several recommendations that can be implemented immediately to address issues identified in the survey and interviews.

Because all of the recommendations are operational practices that are within the discretion of the Board, the recommendations do not need to be formally adopted. The Working Group also recommends that another group or the Board as a whole convene to engage in a broader discussion of the role of contemporary university governing boards and whether this Board’s structure is appropriate for meeting the strategic priorities of the University and challenges facing higher education. 

Excerpts:

The Working Group recommends the following actions that can be implemented immediately at the Board’s discretion:

1. The Board review committee/meeting structure at either a retreat or Governance Committee meetings or form another working group or subcommittee to examine the role of the Board and its strategic priorities.

2. The Board make greater use of subcommittees, special committees or working groups to improve efficiency.

3. Regents identify a mechanism to communicate across committees, perhaps off-cycle Governance Committee meetings to facilitate communication between committee chairs.

4. Committee chairs and vice chairs should play active roles in shaping their committees’ agendas.

5. The connection between the UC strategic plan and the role of the Board should be included as part of new Regent orientation

==========

Special Committee on Basic Needs

Apart from the items below, the report recommends measures to enroll students in need in the CalFresh program, the state's name for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP ("food stamps"). In the short term, there was also note taken of the need to assist some students with internet access during the coronavirus crisis.

Excerpts:

Executive Summary:

This action item presents recommendations regarding the issuance of the Special Committee on Basic Needs’ report (Attachment 1) and outlines the purpose of the report, the report’s contents, and additions to the report since September. Developed throughout its two years of meeting, the report represents the Special Committee’s conclusions about student basic needs and vetted solutions to successfully reduce basic needs insecurity at the University and beyond.

Recommendations:

The Special Committee on Basic Needs recommends that A) The Regents accept the report of the Special Committee, The University of California’s Next Phase of Improving Student Basic Needs, and B) An annual report on basic needs be presented to the Academic and Student Affairs Committee beginning in 2021...

The report establishes that the University will present an update on student basic needs at UC to the Academic and Student Affairs Committee at least once a year beginning in 2021. Consistent with its Charter, the Special Committee on Basic Needs shall sunset after this meeting.

==========

The full board met (again) after the two committees above. An important element was approval of the budget ask from the state for the next fiscal year (2021-22). As the chart below shows, UC is asking for over $500 million from legislature and governor to make up for the cut this year and more. We noted in an earlier post on the state budget outlook that for various reasons - mostly more state revenue than anticipated flowing in despite the coronavirus crisis - the legislature will have what the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) describes as a "windfall." So UC has a reasonable shot in asking at least for some kind of backfill for the cuts this year. In addition, it is asking for $250 million in what are termed climate-focused deferred maintenance projects (not shown on the chart). Whether it gets all that it asks for is another matter. Regent Cohen - a former state budget director - called the budget ask a "wishlist."

Click on chart to clarify and enlarge.

The full board also approved temporary changes in the retirement system to shield UC employees who might be affected by furloughs and temporary layoffs from reductions in pension and retiree health care.

==========

Below are audio links to the sessions:

Initial Full Board:

https://archive.org/details/2-regents-board-11-19-20/2-regents+-+Board+11-19-20.mp3

(Faculty grievance starts at about minute 55.)

===

Governance, Basic Needs, second session of the full board:

https://archive.org/details/2-regents-board-11-19-20/2-Regents-Governance+Committee%2C+Special+Committee+on+Basic+Needs%2C+Board+11-19-20.mp3

==========

*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-state-budget-outlook.html

Listen to the Morning Session of the Regents: Nov. 18, 2020

As always, we have preserved indefinitely the audio of the recent UC Regents meeting of Nov. 18-19 via Zoom. The Regents - for no good reason - keep their recordings for only one year.

The full board met on the morning of Nov. 18. The official segment was largely ceremonial with statements by board chair Pérez and UC President Drake. Pérez did note the defeat of Prop 16 which would have permitted affirmative action for UC admissions. However, the reasons for the defeat were not explored. (As blog readers will know, yours truly has suggested that the Regents' action in ending use of SAT/ACT combined with their endorsement of Prop 16 may have played an inadvertent role in that defeat.) President Drake referred to the importance of a flu shot in the context of the coronavirus crisis. The public comments period featured speakers discussion labor relations issues - notably the "curtailment" program implemented to produce budget savings and allowance for paid leave due to the coronavirus - healthcare of nurses including testing for coronavirus, treatment of autism at UCLA, financial aid for undocumented students, tuition for Native American students, transfers from community colleges, the SAT, funding for UC-Riverside, UC-San Diego's Theater District project, and the Aggie Square project of UC-Davis.

The Public Engagement and Development Committee was largely devoted to transfers from community colleges and roadblocks to such transfers. At Compliance and Audit, there was discussion of the UC admissions process in the context of a report recently issued by the state auditor in the wake of the admissions scandal. UCOP (in the person of Provost Brown) indicated that the report of the auditor had just been received and that there will be a more complete analysis for the Regents at a subsequent meeting. 

Finally, the Health Services Committee approved a $560,000 salary for a chief information officer at UC-Davis' health system to be paid out of nonstate funds. Although the salary was above the median for a salary survey of such officers, it was said that Davis had experienced a problem in recruiting for the position.

You can find audio recordings of the various sessions at the links below for listening and/or downloading:

Full Board followed by Public Engagement and Development:

https://archive.org/details/regents-board-public-engagement-and-development-committee-11-18-20/Regents+-+Board%2C+Public+Engagement+and+Development+Committee+11-18-20.mp3

Compliance and Audit:

https://archive.org/details/regents-board-public-engagement-and-development-committee-11-18-20/Regents+-+Compliance+and+Audit+Committee+11-18-20.mp3

Health Services:

https://archive.org/details/regents-board-public-engagement-and-development-committee-11-18-20/Regents+-+Health+Services+Committee+11-18-20.mp3

Listen to Regents' Public Engagement & Development meeting of Oct. 6, 2020

The Regents' Public Engagement and Development Committee met yesterday with the subject largely being alumni relations. Public comments, however, dealt with animal agriculture, the Hawaiian telesceope police, nurse staffing and PPE supplies, and President Drake when he was at UC-Irvine.

After the public comments, Drake referenced the two Nobel prizes awarded to Berkeley and UCLA faculty. After his brief remarks, the alumni topic was discussed involving engagement, fund raising, and campus activities.

There was some review of California budget matters related to federal and state actions. It was noted that the state budget enacted last June contained a provision for a restoration of certain funding, including for UC, if Congress provided sufficient money to the state by October 15. It appears that such funding will not be forthcoming by that deadline. However, it was noted that if funding came later, the state legislature could in some way respond when it comes back into session.

You can hear the Committee at the link below:

https://archive.org/details/regents-public-engage-dev-10-7-2020

[As noted in previous posts, Blogger no longer accommodates direct embedding of these recordings.]