UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

BERKELEY • DAVIS' IRVINE' LOS ANGELES' MERCED • RIVERSIDE' SAN DIEGO' SAN FRANCISCO SANTA BARBARA' SANTA CRUZ

OFFICE OF THE SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT­ OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT EXTERNAL RELATIONS 1111 Franklin Street, 12th Floor

Oakland, California 94607-5200 (510) 987-0060

November 4,2009

PRESIDENT YUDOF

Dear Mark:

I am writing to provide an update on activities of the Division of External Relations over the last several months. Given the rush of daily events, I thought it useful to provide a periodic overview of activities, accomplishments, and upcoming initiatives. I am taking the liberty of copying other senior University leadership on this document, given that so many activities around the Office of the President have external relations components. I expect to provide this update every two months and welcome your comments.

Below are highlights of External Relations activities in recent months:

• New home page: Based on new messaging and creative branding being developed in the Communications unit, we have begun the long-term project of overhauling UCOP's web presence by redesigning the home page. The new page emphasizes the coordinated editorial packaging of stories, photos, and videos that we are employing in many places on the web and uses imagery to focus on the people who are part of, and benefit from, the work ofUC.

• Announcement of Project You Can and Blue & Gold expansion: Communications coordinated this twin announcement, from the T-shirts worn by the students at the Fresno high school assembly, to the Project You Can web site linking donors to the campus giving sites, to the news stories and photos covering the Fresno event that went up on the web just hours after the event concluded.

• Financial aid videos: Communications produced nine videos for Student Affairs with accessible and engaging information about financial aid and about writing the personal statement in the undergraduate application - two areas of high anxiety for prospective students and their families. The videos introduced UC admissions staff in a warm, personal, and reassuring light, and showcased real students from four UC campuses who shared their own experiences and advice. The videos have been posted to our sites and to YouTube.

• Social media: Our social media presence is robust and growing. From our launch in early July we have more than 1,500 fans/followers of President Yudof (555 on Facebook and 978 on Twitter), and even more with the UC for California

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advocacy network (3,065 on Facebook and 1,119 on Twitter). These tools are useful for communicating directly with our constituencies, providing rapid response, and directing friends of UC to compelling new content on the web.

• New ueop electronic newsletter: We have launched a new weekly electronic newsletter for UCOP employees - something that previously did not exist. The newsletter consolidates the myriad emails on UCOP issues that previously dribbled out over the course of each week, and it places a priority on enhancing the workplace culture by telling the stories of the people who make up UCOP.

• Media relations: Media interactions with President Yudof have been arranged with The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and a variety of other outlets in addition to our ongoing contacts with California media. Op-eds advancing UC's positions have been placed in The Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. The team has taken an aggressive approach to inaccurate or incomplete reporting. In August, an opinion piece by Regents Gould and Varner was placed in the San Francisco Chronicle to counter a report that confused stipends with pay raises. In September, two corrections were published in the same paper on the union no­confidence vote and student fee increases. In October, a letter to the editor in the same paper corrected the confusion of a coach with an administrator and provided a more accurate picture of salaries.

• Student newspaper outreach: Leading up to the November Regents' vote on fees, we have arranged interactions between President Yudof and campus student leaders, including student newspaper editors and student government leaders.

• Legislative outcomes: The governor's actions on bills adopted by the Legislature this year were overwhelmingly supportive of the University's policy positions. Among his actions, the governor:

o Signed SB 113 (Local Government Committee), which will assist UC in the renovation of historic structures, including California Memorial Stadium;

o Signed AB 20 (Solorio), which will streamline the contracting process between the University and the State of California, resulting in multi ­million-dollar savings to both entities;

o Signed AB 1383 (Jones), which imposes a hospital fee and stimulates federal matching funds to generate supplemental payments to hospitals to ensure access to care for the state's Medi-Cal and uninsured populations;

o Vetoed SB 86 (yee), which sought to impose caps on executive compensation at UC and CSU;

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o Vetoed SB 218 (Yee), which would have applied the Public Records Act to auxiliary organizations supporting UC's mission, potentially threatening the anonymity of donors to University foundations;

o Vetoed SB 219 (Yee), which would have allowed UC employees who register a whistleblower complaint and are retaliated against to sue for damages regardless of the outcome of the administrative review held to consider such a complaint; UC proposed amendments that would have preserved the administrative process in a fashion identical to that followed by CSU, but the amendments were not accepted by the author; and

o Vetoed AB 690 (Ammiano), which expressed legislative intent that each ex officio member of the Regents be allowed to send an alternate to Regents' meetings, raising concerns about Board accountability as well as the integrity of attorney-client privileged discussions of the Regents.

The governor did veto AB 1222 (Lowenthal), a UC-supported bill that would have allowed UC and CSU to continue providing affinity programs to alumni. The governor indicated the bill is premature because the existing program does not expire until 2011. We anticipate that the provisions of the bill will be re­introduced next year.

The legislative year ended without passage ofSCA 21 (Yee) or ACA 24 (Nestande), which would repeal the University's unique constitutional status. Friends of the University undertook significant advocacy efforts against these measures this year. The bills remain in their respective Rules Committees but could be taken up anytime during the 2010 legislative session.

• Legislative district visits: We have stimulated campus visits in the legislative district offices of state legislators this fall during the recess, using the opportunity to remind elected officials of the importance ofUC to their home communities and educating them on the impact of UC budget cuts to date.

• Budget messaging: We have provided the campuses with systemwide talking points on our state budget request for the coming year - the $903 million request - to ensure consistency of messaging and to foster a common voice in petitioning the governor and state legislators for restoration of the funds needed to sustain access and excellence at UC.

• E-advocacy: Building on the success of our late-summer letter-writing campaign that generated more than 26,000 emails to Sacramento, we are building our online community of UC for California advocates as well as targeted groups of advocates who hear personally from the president. We are reaching out to Regents, alumni, faculty, campus leaders, and students to encourage them to identify and develop their connections with elected officials who have a voice in the budget process.

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• Coordination with CSU and CCC: We are meeting with counterparts in the CSU and community college systems to develop joint approaches to budget communications and advocacy in the coming year, emphasizing the value of the California public higher education system as a total entity and the importance to each segment of the success of the other segments.

• Dinners and receptions for the president: Alumni Affairs has coordinated a series of dinners and receptions connecting President Yudofwith key constituencies around the state, including leaders in health, the legal profession, alternative energy, the community colleges, and the UC alumni community.

• Engagement with AAUC: Alumni Affairs also has facilitated close coordination with the new leadership of the Alumni Associations of the University of California, building common approaches to advocacy and support-building on the state budget and other public policy priorities important to the University.

• Federal appropriations: October 1 marked the beginning of the 2010 federal fiscal year. While the appropriations process remains underway, highlights for UC and California thus far include:

o The Agriculture appropriations bill now signed into law includes increased funding for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, which is the flagship competitive grants program of the National Institute on Food and Agriculture; as well as funding for research associated with Pierce's Disease research, the Viticulture Consortium, and Fresh Produce Food Safety.

o The Homeland Security appropriations bill includes $49 million for university programs funded by the Science and Technology Directorate.

o The Energy and Water appropriations bill is on the President's desk for signature. The bill includes $66 million to fund three hubs focused on overcoming the most significant challenges to achieving national energy and climate goals. This was a major legislative achievement, since the original House bill included funding for only one hub.

• Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act: The House recently passed legislation that would save nearly $90 billion in federal funds by converting student loans from the bank-run Federal Family Education Loans or "FFEL" to Direct Loans administered by the U.S. Department of Education, and attention is now focused on the Senate. H.R. 3221 would use $40 billion of the savings to raise Pell Grant funding and strengthen the program in future years, and UC has communicated its support for the plan. UC is working closely with colleagues in the higher education community and Senate staff as a bill is developed on the Senate side. As part of the University's advocacy efforts, the Office of Federal Governmental Relations (FGR) widely distributed President's Yudofs white paper, "Exploring A New Role For Federal Government In Higher Education," to Capitol Hill, national association leaders, and members of the Administration.

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• Health care reform: FGR is working with members of the California Congressional delegation and others on Capitol Hill to advocate for issues of importance to UC and, with Senior Vice President Stobo, is developing a formal letter outlining the University's priorities and areas of concern. The Senate and House are expected to take up legislation on their floors prior to Thanksgiving.

• Congressional briefings: UC continues to bring its expertise to a variety of public policy discussions in Washington. For instance, FGR recently organized a health care reform briefing attended by approximately 90 congressional staff featuring Dr. Tom Rosenthal, Chief Medical Officer of the UCLA Health System, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory participated in a briefing on the future of biofuels with the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus.

• Washington advocacy events: All ten campuses recently participated in "Back to School Night" on Capitol Hill, an event widely attended by Congressional members, staff, and UC alumni. UC joined with the Science Coalition to recognize Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California as a "Champion of Science" for her leadership in supporting sustained research funding. Associate Vice President Gary Falle presented Speaker Nancy Pelosi the Richard W. Riley Career Service Award at the Committee for Education Funding's annual legislative conference.

• Chancellors' advocacy in Washington: We continue to work with campuses as chancellors visit Washington to advocate on issues and update members of Congress and the Administration on campus activities. Chancellors Birgeneau, Block, and Kang have all recently done so; Chancellor Katehi has visited a number of times for meetings on Capitol Hill and to testify at a Congressional hearing and before the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on STEM education; Chancellors Desmond-Hellman and White are coming soon.

In the weeks ahead, External Relations plans aggressive implementation of our efforts to expand our advocacy networks in support of restored state funding, including a redesigned advocacy web site and ads in student newspapers and on Facebook aimed at expanding our corps of advocates. We also will be completing a strategic communication and messaging plan by the first of the year and will be developing the content of the campaign desired by President Yudof to tell Californians a more comprehensive story of how their lives are impacted and improved by the work of UC. We look forward to continued collaboration with you on these efforts.

~ Daniel M. Dooley Senior Vice President

cc: President's Cabinet