The University of California Board of Regents met Thursday for a third day of meetings to discuss a multiyear supplemental tuition plan and student athlete mental health.
The day began with a public comment period. UCLA students asked the regents to invest in rape test kits for campuses, while other commenters encouraged the university to divest from BlackRock and a few expressed support for the UC Berkeley clean energy project that Gov. Gavin Newsom put on hold.
Dennis McIver, chair of the Council of University of California Staff Assemblies, also spoke, calling staff retention a “crisis.”
“Every week we are losing important institutional knowledge and operational experience as these people leave for opportunities they believe to be better,” McIver said. “Their colleagues are left to fill in the gaps … meanwhile, the university is left with a cost of 2.5 times the employee’s salary to hire a replacement who may take months or years to reach the level of their predecessor.”
As a solution, McIver suggested a 7.1% salary increase for all policy-covered staff in good standing, as well as a one-time bonus of $1,500 for all staff making $60,000 or less in 2023.
The regents approved multiyear plans for professional degree supplemental tuition, or PDST, for seven UC-wide graduate professional degree programs, including the Teacher Education, Educational Administration/Principal Leadership Institute and journalism graduate schools at UC Berkeley.
PDST is supplemental tuition paid in addition to regular tuition in order to allow the UC system to offset reductions in state support.
The 5-year plan maintains $6,000 in PDST for educational programs in order to encourage applicants to attend despite careers after offering low wages. However, the journalism graduate school will see a 16% increase in PDST to $9,586.
The regents also discussed student athlete mental and physical health support.
Several speakers emphasized the need for mental and physical health support for student athletes, who devote up to 50 hours per week to their sport during the season, according to Eddie Comeaux, associate dean of graduate education at UC Riverside.
At the meeting, the regents also discussed the Systemwide Advisory Workgroup on Students with Disabilities. Regent Maria Anguiano said there was a “lack of urgency” regarding the data needed to understand the needs and experiences of students with disabilities.
The university is also working to improve community college to UC transfers by reducing cost barriers, starting advising earlier and increasing outreach. However, some brought up concerns about the difficulty of transferring from a community college to a UC campus.
“The item acknowledges that transferring is what some would call a confusing maze of options as difficult to navigate,” Regent Lark Park said. “We acknowledge that, but rebrand and call it a richness of educational opportunities available to students, and somewhere in the middle lies the truth.”
