The UC Board of Regents convened for a meeting on Wednesday morning via teleconference to discuss the UC Regents’ portfolio in the wake of national economic hardship.
During the meeting, a large focus was placed on the University of California Retirement Plan fund and on the divestment operation in Sudan.
In the past quarter, the retirement plan reported negative overall earnings.
The plan fund is used to pay retirement benefits, and a drop in its value could potentially startle retired UC employees.
With this in mind, the board wanted to reassure UC employees that the fund would be kept secure.
In order to do this, the UC Regents consulted their financial advisers to form a plan of action to promote security of the retirement plan amid current economic uncertainty.
The financial advisers expressed confidence that careful management of the fund and diversification of investments could ensure its success even in volatile market conditions.
The UC Student Regent D’Artagnan Scorza said that even in the past quarter when the entire economy did poorly, there was still some positive growth.
“Some areas of the UCRP fund still had positive growth, such as fixed income investments,” he said.
In light of the input by the financial advisers, the UC Regents were confident that the retirement plan could still have success, and they vowed to protect its security.
The other item of business that received a lot of attention during the meeting was the Sudan divestment operation.
During the meeting, the UC Regents voted to reinvest in four companies that had been taken off the divestment list since the companies withdrew business holdings in Sudan.
The idea of divestment is essentially to put pressure on the Sudanese government to devote more attention and resources to solving the genocide in Darfur by pulling money out of companies that are invested in the infrastructure of the country.
The campaign began as a student movement spearheaded by Adam Sterling several years ago, later gaining support from the UC Regents, who became participants in the operation.
By taking part in the divestment operation, the theory is that companies who help support the Sudanese government will want to pull out of Sudan in order to avoid losing shareholders.
The board will also vote at the next meeting on whether or not to divest in four other companies which are currently doing business in Sudan.