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Thursday, November 19, 2015

Listen to the Regents Initial Afternoon Session of Nov. 19, 2015

Although the Regents originally planned to meet on Friday, they got done sooner than expected and so finished with two afternoon sessions today. Below is a link to the initial afternoon session.

The initial afternoon session began with a review of the UC budget for 2016-17. President Napolitano repeated the plan for no tuition increase and the plan for adding 5,000 in-state student (and then another 5,000). There were concerns expressed about the capacity to add these students and the impact on the student/teacher ratio. It is evident that there are doubts among existing students about the wisdom of such expansion. See, for example, http://dailybruin.com/2015/11/18/casey-kovarik-uc-does-not-have-adequate-resources-to-enroll-extra-10000-students/. The student Regent went along with the resolution approving the increase but indicated he had doubts.

The meeting then turned to a presentation on university finances. Finally, pension funding Item F2 was taken up. As we have been noting, the item contained a sentence that appears to commit the Regents to offering a defined-contribution pension to new hires despite the fact that the committee appointed by President Napolitano has made no such recommendation. There was no reference to this matter in the discussion. No oral correction was offered. As has occurred in the past, the idea that there were going to be multiyear contributions from the state to the pension continued to be discussed as a done deal although the legislature provided only for one year and explicitly indicated there was no commitment beyond that contribution. Item F2 was passed as presented and written.

You can hear the session at the link below:

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