UC President Drake – Opening Remarks UC Board of Regents Meeting

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Thank you, Chair Reilly.

I want to begin by acknowledging the tragic wildfires that devastated communities in Southern California. Many of us were in Southern California, many of us live and work there, and others were visiting there as a part of the UC Riverside search process and certainly experienced the historic winds. Both the power and the length of those winds was something that we’ve not experienced before. We saw the devastating effect that this had on the fires, and our thoughts are with everyone who was impacted, including the many UCLA employees who lost their homes to the fires, many who were evacuated, many others in the LA community who lost their homes or their business, and of course those who were injured or lost their lives. I also want to acknowledge the responders – the people who came from all across California but all across this country and other countries around the world to lean into fighting the fires, and then doing all they could to make the community safe. Thinking about the thousands of people who are there working twenty-four hours a day to try to beat back this incredible natural disaster was inspiring – tragic and inspiring at the same time.

As Janet did earlier today, I wanted to welcome our new chancellor, who, this was your first full week in the job, Chancellor Frenk, and let me just say on behalf of everyone here, welcome to the University of California. And really appreciate all that you’ve brought to us. And we will say your experience as the president of the University of Miami and perhaps more as the health minister for Mexico for all those years really made you a calming voice, and a voice of wisdom and experience and guidance, during the time we were dealing with this natural disaster, so we appreciate that.  Happy to have you here, sorry to have such a challenge for all of us at the very beginning, but it was remarkably comforting to have a person of wisdom and vision in place at the time, so thank you for that.

I know many of you, all of us, are closely watching the executive orders and other actions that are coming out of the new presidential administration. These actions could have profound impacts on many people in our UC community. We are closely monitoring the executive orders and actions for any potential impacts to the University.

I want to acknowledge that many people in our UC community are experiencing fear and uncertainty. Feeling under threat – for being who you are, or because of your loved ones – is extraordinarily challenging, makes it hard to study, teach, to work or to thrive.

We don’t know yet what lies ahead, but we remain steadfast in our values, our mission, and our commitment to caring for and supporting our entire UC community. 

For more than 150 years, the University of California has focused on teaching, research, scholarship, and public service for the greater good. Our longstanding pathway has been through knowledge creation. And we’re preparing the next generation of students to go into the world and be ethical, fact-based leaders. We remain grounded in our integrity. And we will keep working to make sure the University remains a beacon of light for California and the world.

Now, for some update news.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy extended the University’s contract to manage and operate the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for another five years, effective June 1.

And the National Nuclear Security Administration in November executed a noncompetitive extension for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC manages the lab, with the University as a key partner. This is a five-year extension through September 30, 2031.

You’ll hear more about our National Labs later today when June Yu, Vice President for UC National Laboratories, will share the annual performance ratings for our national labs, and I’ll say everyone did incredibly well, we’re very proud of this.

I’m very pleased to see the high marks all our UC-affiliated national labs received. They are doing important work across an array of science and engineering fields in public service to our nation. Congratulations to all of them, and all of you.

I’m also pleased to report that we are working with Chancellors to strengthen our academic and internship program at UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento to ensure there’s a vibrant program year-round.

The Center plays an important role in educating California’s future leaders in politics and policy making. With its proximity to the State capitol, the center also serves to raise awareness about UC scholarship and research, and to connect our esteemed UC faculty with decision makers in the Legislature.

In the coming weeks you’ll hear more about our plans to operationalize the Center’s academic program to include students from more of our campuses and to support yet another incredible program that exemplifies UC’s educational excellence and foundational connection to the state of California.

Let me briefly now mention the state budget. As you know, Governor Newsom announced a proposed budget for 2025-26 year earlier this month. It includes a proposed funding reduction of 7.95%, or $396.6 million, to the University’s ongoing budget. Following restoration of the one-time reduction of $125 million last year, this reflects a net reduction of $271.6 million relative to last year’s funding.

Obviously we are very concerned about this proposed funding reduction, but we also understand this is the beginning of the budget process. We will continue our work to support campuses as we learn more. I look forward to working with the Governor and our partners in the State Legislature to mitigate any harmful impacts to the University and to continue to invest in higher education and California’s students.

At the same time, the University is continuing to grow its student body. Just this month, we announced record-breaking enrollment of California students, with significant increases in students from underrepresented groups, transfer students, and Pell Grant recipients.

In 2024, students from underrepresented groups increased by 2,568, growing their proportion from 31.6 percent to 32.3 percent among undergraduates. African American student enrollment rose by 4.6 percent, American Indian student enrollment by 12.9 percent, and Latino student enrollment was up by 3.1 percent.

Finally, I want to echo Chair Reilly’s comments about our support for the undocumented community. 

This support goes deep, and it reflects our beliefs and values, which are firmly aligned with our undocumented students. These students have cleared a very high hurdle just gaining admission to the University. We owe it to them to do everything we can to provide an equitable educational experience.

We’re committed to making our arguments in the courts in those cases we have now pending before the courts, and we will work to achieve a resolution that provides all the students that we can with the opportunities they deserve.

Chair Reilly, that concludes my remarks. Thank you.