At its January meeting, the UC Board of Regents, with strong support from President Dynes, adopted a new two-year pilot program, effective July 2005, designed to improve direct communication between UC employees and the Board and to help facilitate staff input into the Board’s deliberations and decisions. Under the pilot program, two individual staff and/or non-Senate academic employees will attend, as non-voting advisors, two Regental committees: the Committee on Educational Policy and the Committee on Grounds and Buildings.

The first two staff advisors will be the two most recent past chairs of the Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA): Dave Miller of UCLA, the 2004-05 CUCSA chair; and David Bell of UCSF, the 2003-04 chair. The two past CUCSA chair positions were selected to serve for the first year of the pilot program for their demonstrated leadership and because their organization has a long-standing familiarity with the process and protocols of regents’ meetings.

Details about the pilot program, including information about how UC employees may communicate with the staff advisors, will be available at University of California websites that will be announced and accessible in July.