Regents to vote on divestment

The UC Board of Regents is expected to vote on divestment of
university investments from companies with business operations in
Sudan and to take further action toward clarifying University of
California compensation practices at its Wednesday and Thursday
meeting at UCLA.

A policy recommendation on divestment will be presented to the
regents by a study group established by the board at its last
meeting, and a vote on divestment is expected to follow the
presentation.

A scheduled vote on divestment during the last board meeting was
postponed because the UC Office of the President could not provide
the regents with enough information on possible divestment
options.

The UC Sudan Divestment Taskforce estimates nearly 1,000
students will gather in support of divestment at Thursday’s
meeting in Covel Commons, with some students attending from
campuses as far away as UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

Those who support UC divestment hope that economic pressure will
encourage the Sudanese government to stop what the U.S. government
has recognized as a genocide in Darfur. An estimated 400,000 people
have died in the conflict and the situation has worsened in recent
weeks with Sudanese-sponsored militia crossing the border into
neighboring Chad.

Student Regent Adam Rosenthal, who submitted the initial
proposal for a report on UC divestment in November, said he hopes
the board will support divestment, adding that the UC cannot afford
to wait any longer to act.

But divestment could become a financially complicated matter
because the university does not invest in individual companies. The
UC would have to divest from indexes made up of many companies,
rather than just the offending companies themselves.

Adam Sterling, co-chair of the divestment taskforce and a member
of the study group on divestment, said the group has balanced
community concerns of the situation in Darfur with the financial
obligations of the university.

“I think the regents will be presented with something that
they can attach themselves to,” Sterling said.

Starting out as a student-led initiative, the move for UC
divestment began in 2004 and has steadily gathered support. The
board was initially reluctant to consider divestment, but its
members have now commented favorably on divestment in recent
meetings.

At the last board meeting, Regent Chairman Gerald Parsky said
divestment is a serious matter that should not be considered
lightly, but that the situation in Sudan is unique and in need of
action.

The board has only divested twice in its history, once to
protest the apartheid in South Africa and once from tobacco
companies.

Sterling said he feels the regents’ final decision will
depend largely on how strong of a message students can send to the
board Thursday.

The regents are also scheduled to decide on compensation matters
with several meetings of its special committee on compensation
planned for Wednesday and Thursday.

The regents will review and discuss the UC compensation
structure and approve individual compensation for top officials in
closed sessions Wednesday.

The special committee on compensation, established by the Board
of Regents in response to recent criticism of UC compensation
practices, will meet again on Thursday in a public session.

The committee is scheduled to update the board on the status of
the state’s audit as well as the UC’s own audit of
university compensation and provide a report from the Taskforce on
Compensation, Accountability and Transparency.

But some topics that students would have liked to see discussed
at the meeting, such as a proposed student compact for student
access and affordability, did not make their way onto the
agenda.

UC Student Association President Anu Joshi said she had planned
to speak on the proposed student compact, but her request was
denied by the UC Office of the President.

She said this is the first time in at least two and half years
that the president has denied a UCSA president’s request to
speak.

“I think that this is a wake up call for students that the
Office of the President feels like they can silence us and that
they think we don’t have a right to speak to the Board of
Regents even though we are the largest constituency,” Joshi
said.

Joshi said UC President Robert Dynes cited the board’s
meeting agenda as the reason her request was denied.

Wednesday and Thursday’s meeting will focus largely on
compensation matters, with meetings of the special committee on
compensation updating the board on the status of audits and policy
reforms.

Instead of presenting the compact, Joshi will present
students’ views on executive compensation issues to the
board.

“I think that as students we really try to take the higher
road and not become embroiled in the compensation debate besides
stating our position that we don’t think student fees should
increase while executive compensations are so high,” Joshi
said.

But Joshi said Dynes is effectively forcing her to discuss
students’ views on compensation matters.

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