UC student activists lose on weapons and campus jobs

I’m CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn, filling in for Lynn, who will return to your inboxes on Tuesday:

Student advocacy was no match against institutional forces: The University of California Board of Regents approved the purchase of less-lethal weapons, and Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have let undocumented students work on public campuses.

Last week, UC regents heard the annual report on the “military equipment” UC police possess, then OK’d additional less-lethal munitions, including pepper bullets and sponge rounds, plus aerial drones.

As I reported, representatives of the UC’s student governments decried the proposals, particularly in light of last spring’s incidents of police using force against students protesting against the war in Gaza. Other students briefly shut down the meeting. Read the story to learn more.

Students halting regents’ meetings is nothing new. It was a tactic that organizers used to seek approval for the plan to allow undocumented students to work on UC campuses, a novel legal theory proposed by UCLA scholars. Prevailing legal thinking says no employer can hire an undocumented person in the U.S.

The UC board shot down the idea in January, citing fear of federal government reprisal. Students in the regents meeting space sobbed; they have few options to afford the full cost of college without jobs because they’re ineligible for federal financial aid (but get state support).

The students regrouped and paired with Asssemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat from Chula Vista, who wrote a bill to allow undocumented students to work not only at UC, but also the California State University and the state’s community colleges. The systems didn’t officially oppose the bill, but listed a bevy of concerns, which the Senate’s judiciary committee staff analysis said were largely misplaced. The bill sailed through the Legislature, even getting some Republican support.

But Newsom vetoed the bill Sunday, echoing the concerns that the bill may expose UC staff to prosecution. Newsom wrote that the UC should ask the courts to test the theory’s legality.

Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the theory’s UCLA authors, said that Newsom’s decision is “truly ironic” because a state law would have shielded individuals; no one has “ever been prosecuted under federal law for doing what state law required them to do.”

Alvarez said he’ll try again next year.

Alvarez, in a text: “Governor Newsom’s veto is a profound disappointment because it denies students the opportunity to better themselves through education. Students who are legally allowed to study at California’s public colleges and universities should also be allowed to work to pay for their own education.”

Meanwhile, a new study by UC scholars shows that Cal State and UC saw enrollment of new low-income undocumented students decline by half between 2016 and 2023 — which coincides with the federal constraints on the “Dreamers” program that allows certain undocumented immigrants to work. There was no similar decline among other low-income students.

And though the UC board dismissed the ability for undocumented students to legally earn a paycheck this year, last week it approved a round of raises for campus and system leaders, several who now earn more than $1 million in base pay. Outgoing UC President Michael Drake got a $300,000 raise and now collects a salary of $1.3 million.

The raises came in two waves: 4.2% and extra raises, including for most chancellors — from 16% to 33% — paid by private sources, not tuition or state support. The updated salaries range from $785,000 to nearly $1.2 million.

With some 875 bills still on his desk Friday morning, Gov. Newsom had to get busy, facing a Sept. 30 deadline to act. He certainly did:

Friday night, he announced vetoes of 24 bills, including Senate Bill 804 to allow civilian officers to testify in preliminary hearings, and a bill to create a task force to study reparations for families displaced from Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles, now home to the Dodgers. He also said he signed 32, including SB 976, the latest attempt to protect children from addiction to social media. 

Newsom, in a statement: “Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night. With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits.”

On Saturday, he signed a dozen related to aging on World Alzheimer’s Day. And Sunday came a deluge of more than 210 bill decisions. Newsom signed about 160, including ones to expand California’s ban on single-use plastic bags and two election-related measures to stop candidates running for multiple offices simultaneously and to allow candidates to use campaign cash for security. And Newsom vetoed 54 bills in all, including one to test in-person voting at county jails to make sure that incarcerated Californians who are eligible to vote get a chance.  

Lemon law: One bill the governor hasn’t decided on yet would make it more difficult for California car buyers to get their money back for defective vehicles. CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow explains that the measure was written behind closed doors by lobbyists for automakers and attorneys’ groups and hastily approved by lawmakers with little debate.

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, during a committee hearing in the final days of session: “There wasn’t a single person who represents the people of California who knew about this and was a part of those conversations.” 

Read more on how the bill ended up on Newsom’s desk in Ryan’s story.

How well does California ensure access for voters with disabilities or who don’t speak English fluently?

To find out, the Asian Law Caucus and California Common Cause dispatched more than 300 volunteers to 850-plus polling sites in 25 counties during the March primary. 

The big takeaway: Most counties are following federal and state accessibility laws, but they still need to improve language services, disability access and poll worker training, according to their new report. The groups say they hope the changes are made in time for the November election.

Among key findings and recommendations:

Bilingual poll workers should wear identification indicating the languages they speak, they should be assigned to voting sites with high need for their specific languages and elections offices should recruit ones who speak underrepresented languages.

Elections offices should provide poll workers with an illustrated checklist of accessibility materials, including magnifying glasses and signature guides, and should make sure that curbside signs have a phone number to call for assistance.

Elections officials should make sure that voting areas are spacious enough so that voters can cast their ballots privately, and train poll workers in de-escalating conflict.

CalMatters has also been looking into whether all California voters have full access, with stories on the hurdles for the visually impaired and for people who are in jail, though Newsom vetoed that in-person test.

Speaking of running elections: CalMatters’ Sameea Kamal reports that while state law says it’s due within six months of an election, the Secretary of State’s office is again late with its March primary report on counties under the Voter’s Choice Act, which allows for more early voting. The report provides data on whether those counties have better voter participation among different age groups, racial and ethnic groups, and political parties. 

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Shirley Weber said via email that the law provides flexibility and that some demographic information was not available. The supplemental report for the November 2022 general election, which also has not yet been published, is scheduled for release in October, Weber’s office said.

The number of community land trusts in California — a key tool to preserve affordable housing — has tripled over the last decade, many of them in working class Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. CalMatters reporter Felicia Mello and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Felicia’s story about the challenges these trusts can face. Watch the segment, part of our partnership with PBS SoCal.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.