After serving two and a half years as the chairman of the UC
Board of Regents, Gerald Parsky will be replaced by Richard Blum
this January during the next regents meeting, which will be held at
UC San Francisco.
Blum, who has served as vice chairman since July 2005, was
elected chairman last May.
The chairman is elected by the board for a one-year term and
acts as the presiding officer during meetings when the governor is
not in attendance, according to the regents’ bylaws. An
individual may serve as chairman for up to two years.
Recommendations for chairman are decided by a committee and then
brought to a vote by the entire board, said Trey Davis, a
University of California spokesman.
Traditionally, as Blum has for Parsky, the vice chairman becomes
the chairman, though this is not always the case, Davis said.
As head of the board, the chairman works closely with the UC
president and the regents to form an agenda for the year. The
chairman has an important role in determining which issues the
regents will address during their meetings, student regent Maria
Ledesma said.
Parsky was asked to stay last year past his elected term given
the compensation controversy surrounding the 10-campus university,
Ledesma said.
The controversy stemmed from the university’s spending of
millions of dollars on employee benefits, such as bonuses and
sabbatical stipends, for administrative compensation packages
without obtaining proper authorization.
Though a chairman may only serve for two years, Parsky’s
term was extended by a vote of the regents last year in order to
maintain leadership and consistency during this major issue, Davis
said.
Ledesma said that, under Parsky’s guidance, the regents
gained further details on the money that had been spent and a
specific permanent committee was formed to provide consistent
monitoring on future compensation practices.
Blum’s term will begin now that the compensation issues
are being “wrapped up or close to being wrapped up,”
Ledesma said.
With Parsky’s active position on issues such as UC
compensation and response to the concern over the low number of
minority students admitted, Ledesma praised his leadership and said
he was a “fair and balanced” chairman.
Parsky was particularly concerned with creating a university
diversity study in an attempt to increase diversity throughout the
UC, and he worked closely with Ledesma in this area, she said.
And with Parsky’s term coming to an end, Ledesma said she
is interested in how Blum will address the financial state of the
university to ensure that “students, employees and everyone
in the state of California will be as well-funded as
possible.”
“Blum will be a very effective leader and I look forward
to what he will do,” Ledesma said.