Regents’ Disclosure of Holdings Urged

After the disclosure that family members of a UC regent acquired an interest in land near a possible UC campus site, the chairman of the Board of Regents said he will ask fellow regents to disclose specific financial interests they have near proposed UC campuses.

Roy Brophy said Monday he decided to make the request because of a report last weekend that members of Regent Leo Kolligian’s family have acquired an interest in 755 acres of land near a proposed UC campus site in northern Merced County.

Brophy said he intends to ask the regents at their meeting in Los Angeles on Jan. 18-19 to approve a resolution calling for all board members to provide a special statement of economic interest in property, business interests or financial holdings of a type that might be affected by the selection of a new UC site before voting on specific sites.

On Sunday, Kolligian denied that there is any conflict of interest in the fact that members of his family have acquired an interest in Merced County land over the last 18 months, saying the land deals had nothing to do with the proposed campus site.

He said he did not realize that his family’s property holdings were so near the proposed UC Merced site and that none of the acquisitions were made because of the possibility of the university locating a campus in that area.

The 755 acres in question is within a mile of, and on the main road to, a proposed UC site on the eastern shore of Lake Yosemite, seven miles north of Merced.