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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Next Week's Regents Meeting

Regents visit planned site of UC-Santa Cruz in 1962
The Regents are meeting next week, July 19-21. (They will be competing with the Republican convention for your viewing enjoyment.) Some highlights in no particular order:

The UC-Merced public-private partnership is up for adjustment. The cost seems to have risen and the "assignable square feet" involved seem to have fallen:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/j1.pdf

Some tightened guidelines for outside income and board memberships for the "senior management group" are to be approved. This item is fallout from the Katehi/UC-Davis affair, an affair which is still a work in progress:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/c3.pdf
Part of this item cuts the allowable outside boards from three to two:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/c1attach1.pdf

There is a report on student "food insecurity" on the agenda:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/e1.pdf
This item has gotten news media attention:
...(F)our in 10 University of California students do not have a consistent source of high-quality, nutritious food. The startling results from the survey of nearly 9,000 students, believed to be the nation’s largest look ever at campus food security, found that 19% of respondents went hungry at times. An additional 23% were able to eat but lacked steady access to a good-quality, varied and nutritious diet...
From: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-uc-food-insecurity-07112016-snap-story.html

The Regents are to approve their new procedures and bylaws. Among them are concurrent committee meetings, which may make it hard for the news media to cover what is happening in a timely manner. The procedure also seems to have enshrined the notion of "archiving" such meetings for only one year. Any Regent can still add an item to the agenda subject to some control as to scheduling:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/g1.pdf

Two UCLA construction projects are up for approval. There is the new Geffen Academy for grades 6-12 which is to occupy the Kinross building after renovation. And there is renovation of an arts facility in Culver City owned by UCLA which is now conveniently on the Expo Line. In both cases, although alternatives are ostensibly considered, the conclusion is that the projects are best done as proposed. Alternative costs are said to be unavailable. And - as usual - although they are supposed to be doing due diligence - the Regents have no independent facilities to assess these claims:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/gb5.pdf
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/gb6.pdf

Finally, there is a review of the new UC budget for 2016-17 as part of the state budget that was recently signed. There are - as now seems to be the norm - a whole bunch of string attached and reporting requirements linked to the budget reflecting whatever is bugging the legislature at the moment:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july16/f1.pdf

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