The UC Board of Regents met this week to discuss new appointments, California budget allocations and the current hotel workers strike.

The meetings were held Tuesday through Thursday in the Robertson Auditorium at UC San Francisco.

Tuesday’s meeting began with public comment, where the regents heard from an Opportunity for All advocate calling for recognition and continued support for students without legal status after the board voted to approve the Regent’s Policy on Equitable Student Employment Opportunities in May. In the Special Committee on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship, the board also discussed UCLA’s licensing and auditing practices, which they seek to replicate at other UC campuses.

[Related: Student rally calls for UC to hire students without legal status, fair union wages]

The board and the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee opened with public comment in a joint meeting Wednesday. The board heard from a representative of UNITE HERE Local 11 – a union representing hotel, airport and restaurant workers in Los Angeles County, Orange County and Arizona – who expressed disapproval of the UC’s investment in companies that the union believes have not provided fair wages and benefits for striking hotel workers, such as Blackstone. United Auto Workers Local 2865 union representatives also voiced frustration with the recent arrest of three UC San Diego academic workers for allegedly chalking union slogans on campus buildings.

After public comment, Richard Leib, chair of the Board of Regents, welcomed new members Nancy Lee and Gregory Sarris to the UC Board of Regents. The regents also voted to declare Josiah Beharry, a UC Merced graduate student, as the 2024-2025 student regent. Beharry will be allowed to vote and deliberate as a student representative member of the board for the next two years, according to the UC Merced newsroom.

The Financial and Capital Strategies Committee approved $40 million in funding for the UC Berkeley Clean Energy Project. This funding is for the preliminary planning phase to create an electric healing and cooling plant, cold water distribution system and energy resources that would reduce carbon emissions and support future campus growth.

The committee also approved the annexation of several parts of the city of Merced to expand housing and retail projects for the UC Merced campus.

The regents also discussed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget plan, which allocated $329.2 million in ongoing funds to UC to assist with enrollment growth, student housing projects and other core operations on campuses, a decrease from the $360.3 million in ongoing funding from the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The budget will also include an additional one-time $142.5 million in funding for programs.

Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators, spoke on behalf of the UC Office of the President about the creation of a more comprehensive financial aid report for students with increased clarity and information. This would include additional materials that detail terms of loan debt, employment information and actionable steps.

At the meeting, the board also discussed the reengagement consortium – an educational effort designed to target students who stopped attending UCs and provide pathways to degree completion.

Also on Wednesday, the Public Engagement and Development Committee heard from emeritus faculty advocates who shared UC-wide survey results. Advocates recalled the increased involvement by retired professors in furthering the UC’s educational mission.

Kathleen Fullerton, associate vice president and director of UC’s State Governmental Relations, reported updates the UC must make in line with state policy. The UC must adopt a new state requirement for UC employees to adhere to state labor standards, rather than by each university’s discretion.

Fullerton also said the UC opposed the SB 525 to make UC employee minimum wage $25 per hour and opposed AB 1749 to use the same transfer system as California State University. This system allows guaranteed admission to a CSU once an associates degree is attained in one of 40 subjects.

UNITE HERE Local 11 said in a tweet that strikers urged UC Board of Regents to assist in resolving hotel disputes and drop charges against the UC San Diego academic workers. On Thursday, the board began with public comment in which they heard advocates from UNITE HERE Local 11 following the strike outside of the meeting with UAW 2865 on Wednesday.

[Related: Hotel workers march across LA in ongoing strike for increased wages, benefits]

UC President Michael Drake also announced that Abiel Malepeai-Alesana, a rising fourth-year UC Davis neurobiology, physiology and behavior student and Maribel Patiño, a UCSD graduate neuroscience student, are the recipients of the President’s Outstanding Student Award. The UC Board of Regents also announced Merina Smith, a fourth-year UC Berkeley psychology and legal studies student, as the recipient of the Foster Youth Award.

The next board meeting will be held September 19 to 21 at UCLA.