Napolitano discusses protests, tuition, student relationships

University of California President Janet Napolitano said she thought the protest that accompanied the March UC Board of Regents meeting was over the top.

“Public comment for some has become an opportunity to not be communicating with the regents,” she said in an Editorial Board interview with The Bruin Thursday. “Maybe the point is not that they are heard, but that they are not being agreed with.”

Students stripped off their clothes and threw money in the air during the regents meeting to protest the University’s potential tuition hike proposal that can increase tuition by up to 5 percent annually for the next five years contingent on state funding. They also called for the University to engage the community more in its development of a new campus in Richmond.

Some students have criticized Napolitano for calling the protest “crap.”

Addressing concerns from students who say she doesn’t pay enough attention to them, Napolitano said she talks with students and other UC stakeholders regularly.

“I believe it’s really important to talk with students more than about students,” she said.

She added that she will meet with members of the University of California Student Association next week.

UCSA, which advocates for University students in higher education-related issues, also has called for Napolitano and Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss their findings in the Select Advisory Committee on the Cost Structure of the University, also known as the “committee of two.” The committee formed after the University’s tuition hike proposal sparked protests and cries to reexamine the UC budget.

Napolitano said she would be open to talking with Brown to bring students to the committee meeting. She did not set a deadline on when the committee would release its findings, but said she is interested in having the committee continue beyond this year.

“This isn’t just a one-year issue,” Napolitano said. “It’s really designed to help the two of us to … look over several years and see what is in the best interest for the University.”

She also addressed the recent Legislative Analyst’s Office report claiming the University has violated several provisions of the state law when it announced the tuition hike proposal.

She said the University wanted to release the proposal at the November regents meeting before it had to submit a sustainability budget by Dec. 1. The sustainability budget requires the University to assume no additional increase in state funding and tuition.

“Once we release the sustainability budget, the state will say that’s going to be your budget,” she said. “We wanted to submit an honest budget.”

Napolitano said the University thinks it adhered to the spirit of the law.

“I would say if we can do it better, we will, but I do think we adhered to the spirit of the law,” she said. “What happened happened.”

At the Editorial Board meeting, Napolitano also addressed other University issues, such as campus climate.

In light of recent incidents, such as the controversial questioning of a Jewish student by the UCLA undergraduate student government, she said she wants students to work on improving campus climate. She also praised student governments at the UC passing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

“We can say from up high to do something, but to me, there’s an ongoing educational issue here,” she said. “Students need to own the issue more.”

She also said she thinks the University should not be paying salaries to student-athletes, though she called for the revision of some NCAA rules, such as restriction on meals athletes can receive.

“A rulebook from NCAA is too thick,” she said.

Addressing some alumni’s and students’ call for boycott of Indiana following the state’s passage of Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Napolitano said she thinks the University should promote academic freedom.

“I would have vetoed that bill in a nanosecond,” she said. “(But) we have faculty and students in countries that we have a lot of disagreement with right now. I don’t suggest that as a University we should cut off our right to travel.”

Napolitano also said the regents will hear updates on UCPath in July. The project, which seeks to consolidate campuses’ payroll and human resources system, has been criticized for its repeated delays and mounting costs.

Compiled by Jeong Park, Bruin senior staff.