UC Regents sued by Daily Nexus
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 19, 1996 9:00 p.m.
UC Regents sued by Daily NexusUC Santa Barbara staff reporter
claims board violated rules
By Michael Howerton
Daily Bruin Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — University of California, Santa Barbara’s
student newspaper filed a lawsuit against the Board of Regents,
claiming that the board violated the open meeting rule when they
voted to eliminate affirmative action from the university’s
admissions and hiring policies.
The suit, which seeks to overturn the board’s July decision, was
filed Friday in the San Francisco Superior Court by Daily Nexus
staff reporter and campus editor Tim Molloy with the aid of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
Molloy charged that the regents, the university’s supreme
governing body, voted to end race- and gender-based criteria after
Gov. Pete Wilson called a number of regents on the telephone in
attempts to line up a victory before the vote was called in
session.
This behavior is contrary to the Bagely-Keene Act that maintains
that the regents’ votes must be conducted in an open meeting,
Mallory charged in his suit. The lawsuit is challenging how the
regents went about making their decision, he stressed, not the
decision itself.
Wilson, who is a regent by virtue of his office, was one of the
main proponents of eliminating affirmative action.Since the
controversial vote in July, there have been many accusations that
the regents voted with political motivations and were swayed by
Wilson, who was then considering a run at the Republican nomination
for president.
Since they are defendants in the case, the 26 members of the
board have been advised not to make any public comments about the
lawsuit. But at the regents February meeting last week, Wilson’s
press secretary Sean Walsh said it was ridiculous to read any kind
of political agenda into Wilson’s efforts on the board.
"The governor has taken every effort not to politicize the Board
of Regents and has tried to reaffirm the regents right to make
their own policies for the university," he said.
In addition to setting up votes prior to the meeting, the suit
charged the regents with other violations.
The regents conferred with Wilson in a series of "back-door"
meetings that were closed to the public, the suit contended.
Molloy, who has been seeking an order to force Wilson to release
his recorded phone conversations, also said that these must be
released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The board has come under heavy fire for their decision to repeal
affirmative action by campus groups which claimed their opinions
were not consulted. Faculty members were also angered that their
long-standing tradition of shared governance with the regents was
ignored.
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© 1996 ASUCLA Communications Board
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