This post was updated Jan. 27 at 2:36 p.m.

UC community members called on the University to negotiate contracts with unions and support students’ mental health during two public comment sessions at the UC Board of Regents’ January meeting.

The board met Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center for its bimonthly meeting.

Diana Dayal, an emergency resident physician at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, alleged that the UC has delayed bargaining in contract negotiations with physicians in the Committee of Interns and Residents Service Employees International Union, which she called “disrespectful.” Dayal alleged that UCOP did not present any proposals or counterproposals at the two parties’ most recent meeting.

“We do not have time to drag our feet in negotiations,” Dayal said. “We need to get back to our patients.”

The union is asking for a pay increase, better retirement benefits, safety equipment, meal support and safer staffing conditions, Dayal added.

Dr. Brendan Cohn-Sheehy, a resident physician at the medical center, called on the regents to ensure UCOP bargains fairly. He added that members of the union will strike in July if an agreement is not reached.

Michael Avant, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 – a union that represents about 40,000 patient care, service and skilled craft workers across the UC and has been in contract negotiations with the UC for more than a year – said the University has the resources and finances to meet the union’s demands but chooses not to.

“It’s not a question about money,” Avant said. “It’s about choices.”

UC students are facing food insecurity and some employees sleep in their cars, he alleged, adding that he believes the UC could prevent these circumstances.

Members of AFSCME Local 3299 began chanting “shame, shame, shame on UC,” while exiting the session after several members from AFSCME Local 3299 spoke.

Dr. Varykina Thackray, a professor at the UC San Diego school of medicine, said via phone that the regents should work with individual campuses to reduce emissions, defend academic freedom so professors can continue instruction on climate change and work with chancellors to “mitigate fossil fuel industry influence.”

“Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we need the UC to also prioritize climate action,” Thackray said.

Michael Fenne, a representative from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project – an organization that monitors and addresses the effects of the private equity industry – said the UC should stop investing in Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, for its involvement with RealPage – a property management software that has been involved in multiple lawsuits for violations of antitrust laws.

Aradhna Tripati, the director of the UCLA Center for Developing Leadership in Science, said the CDLS previously had four federal grants from the National Science Foundation. While a judge temporarily restored federal research grants at UCLA that the federal government previously revoked, Tripati said the federal programs that supported her specific grants no longer exist.

The federal government froze $584 million in UCLA’s research grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, alleging that the university allowed antisemitism, affirmative action and “men to participate in women’s sports” in late July. A federal judge temporarily reinstated grants from the NSF and NIH on Aug. 12 and Sep. 22, respectively.

Tripati called on the regents to support the CDLS, a center she founded that supports students throughout the UC, California State University and California Community College systems.

“We need support from the regents, from UCOP and UCLA, to help save our center,” she said.

Jack Feng, the external vice president of the UCLA Graduate Students Association, urged the regents to increase affordable graduate and family housing options at the first public comment session.

Feng said at the second public comment session that some political demonstrations on campuses can cause students harm, alleging that anti-LGBTQ+ internet personalities have gathered near the UCLA LGBTQ Campus Resource Center.

“UC Time, Place, Manner policies exist to balance freedom of speech with the right to peaceful assembly,” Feng said. “Policy alone is not enough.”

Multiple UCLA students called upon the UC to divest from Blackstone, which allegedly has ties to the Israeli military, throughout both public comment sessions and asked the regents to meet with the UC Divest coalition.

William Simpson, the undergraduate chair of the UC Council of Presidents and student body president of Associated Students of UC San Diego, urged the regents to increase accommodations and accessibility for students with disabilities.

Multiple parents of students from UC Davis expressed their displeasure with the demotion of the UC Davis equestrian teams from Division I to club teams.

Daniel Sepulveda, a doctoral student in geology at UCLA, called on the UC to support graduate students – especially international students – facing delays in funding by creating systemwide protocols meant to mitigate late payments timeline uncertainty.

Stephanie Ha, a member of Survivors + Allies at UCLA, said the regents should update UC Title IX policies to include technologically perpetrated sexual violence such as AI-generated sexual abuse.

Namrata Deepak, a fourth-year political science and linguistics and anthropology student, asked for Compassionate Response – a mobile response team which provides compassionate interventions to students experiencing mental health crises – to be implemented systemwide. Deepak added that CORE teams can support students when Counseling and Psychological Services – which offers short-term counseling – cannot.

Multiple people asked the regents to not invest in the Brookfield Corporation, an investment firm, alleging that its property subsidiary mistreats tenants.

Shir Diner, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at UC Irvine, said via Zoom that the regents should institute a systemwide antisemitism task force to investigate antisemitism across the University.

Maliha Sharma, a third-year public affairs student at UCLA, spoke on behalf of the office of the Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative 3 Brett Berndt. She said there is a gap in the medical care students can receive at UCLA and asked the regents to direct UC Health to include ketamine and GHB testing in toxicology screens for people suspected of intoxication due to drugs.

UC Student Association President Aditi Hariharan called on the regents to have UCOP present its accountability data with a focus on how it plans to close gaps in the enrollment of underrepresented populations.

[Related: UC Regents review systemwide, health clinical quality committee reports]

“It is vital for the UC to protect the very mission of the institution: providing quality education and targeted services to students no matter where they come from,” she said.

She also said the proposed faculty code of conduct and disciplinary procedure policies could limit faculty expression and free speech.

[Related: Regents authorize new disciplinary timeline, intercampus hearing committees]

Stephanie Valadez, the president of the UC Graduate and Professional Student Council, said the council has developed regular communication with UCOP, which she believes could help the regents rebuild trust with UC students.

She said UCGPC will meet with legislators in March to advocate about students’ needs.

“It’s my hope – in the second half of my term – that it becomes clear for both sides that we, the students, and you, the administration, have more things in common than not,” she said. “That we have shared goals, shared values and shared experiences to bring us together.”