UC Regents OK Fewer Meetings on Business

The University of California Board of Regents on Friday approved a controversial plan to reduce its number of business meetings by one-third.

Many board members had said privately that they opposed the plan on the grounds that it would appear they were abdicating some of their power to UC President David P. Gardner, who proposed the meeting change.

Under the new schedule, three of the board’s nine business meetings will be replaced next year with policy sessions.

Edward W. Carter, chairman emeritus of Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc., the most outspoken critic of the change, said he was supporting the plan “primarily because the president wants it and primarily because of my confidence in the president.”

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith, whose term on the board is about to expire, said he would support the proposal only if it were viewed as “an experiment, not a change.” He said he feared that any so-called policy meeting, unless “really well led, will devolve into a bull session.”

The regents have been criticized recently for not taking a more active role in university policy matters. The critics have cited low attendance at regular board meetings as evidence of the regents’ indifference.

At Friday’s meeting, which was held on the UC Riverside campus, there were not enough regents present to vote on a request from students to speak on the university’s investments in companies that do business with South Africa.

To put an item not already on the agenda before the board requires a two-thirds vote of the full board. That would have required approval from 20 regents, but at Friday’s session, there were only 19 voting members present.

The students who asked to speak said they objected to how slow the university is moving in divesting itself of funds in South Africa. If the university does not move more quickly on the matter, students warned that there are likely to be more campus demonstrations.