UC regents’ emails link donations, admissions
University of California Regent Richard Blum wrote UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ in support of admitting the relative of a family friend, and suggested to her that the applicant might donate money to the campus after graduating, new records reveal.
“Beyond college, I can see [name redacted] as a devoted alumnus who will greatly contribute to the Cal community,” Blum wrote to Christ sometime between 2016 and 2018, according to emails released by California’s independent state auditor as part of a Chronicle request for public records.
On Monday, Regents Chair John Pérez announced a 90day, twopart investigation into whether Blum violated policy and, if so, what the regents should do about it.
“The UC Board of Regents takes such matters very seri
ously, and any violations will be promptly and appropriately addressed,” Pérez said in a statement.
Blum issued his own statement over the weekend, saying,“It was never my intention to circumvent or unfairly influence the admissions process,”
The emails released by the auditor also reveal a cozy relationship between the admissions office and the UC Berkeley Foundation responsible for raising money. The documents include a letter to Christ from an unnamed former regent inquiring about a different applicant and reminding her, in a brief postscript, that he had recently gotten a client of his to donate to the university.
The Chronicle has learned that the former regent is William Bagley, who said in an interview that the donation was for $1 million. It’s not clear whether UC Berkeley admitted the student.
Blum’s email suggests not only that he violated UC policy prohibiting current regents from using their influence on behalf of applicants, but that UC Berkeley also broke the rules simply by accepting the recommendation. UC’s policy 2110 bars any letters of recommendation from being considered except when solicited by admissions officers under rare circumstances — an exception that the regents approved in July 2017. Waitlisted students may not receive recommendations.
UC Berkeley accepted Blum’s waitlisted family friend even though the applicant had only a 25% chance of getting in, according to a state audit of UC admissions.
Because the audit revealed an overlap between admissions and donations, California’s independent auditor, Elaine Howle, used her report to try to end that relationship.
“All communications between Admissions and Fundraising about applicants or prospective applicants (should) be strictly prohibited,” Howle recommended in the audit she released on Sept. 22, noting that “ultimately, it is the UC system’s responsibility to ensure fairness in its admissions process.”
The audit, which looked at four UC campuses, found that UC Berkeley improperly admitted 55 underqualified, often wealthy students based on insider connections between 2013 and 2018. Another nine incidents were spread among UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara. The audit raises questions about the legitimacy of hundreds of other admissions at Berkeley and three other UC campuses that investigators could not confirm.
Blum, a regent since 2002, told The Chronicle on Thursday that he’d been writing such letters to chancellors “forever. For years,” adding, “Nobody told me that that was wrong.” One letter was for a cousin, which prompted former Regent Ward Connerly to accuse Blum of nepotism.
Such letters have been prohibited at UC since 1996, when the regents approved policy 2201 barring them from seeking to influence admissions decisions outside the “regular admissions process and officers.”
In an interview, Blum a financier, said he would stop writing recommendations.
The story has made news across the country in part because Blum’s wife is U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Also, the state audit was prompted by last year’s “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, a criminal sting operation that crushed public confidence in the integrity of admissions at some of the nation’s most elite universities, including UCLA and Stanford. The scandal ensnared dozens of wealthy parents, including Hollywood’s Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, who bribed and cheated to get their children into the schools. Many of the parents are cooperating with federal investigators and have pleaded guilty.
Blum’s actions don’t involve illegal activity. But the idea that influential people can use clout to help applicants get around the usual process can similarly undermine confidence that the public university has a fair admissions system.
The university turns away more students than it admits, including many lowincome people of color who don’t have the same personal access to regents as their friends and family.
Christ did not respond to a request for comment. But a UC Berkeley spokeswoman said the chancellor’s staff “routinely directs correspondence it receives to other campus offices, as appropriate, for response and action.”
UC Berkeley handled at least one more recommendation linked to a donation, this one from Bagley, who left the governing board in 2002. Bagley confirmed he wrote it.
Former regents are no longer bound by the rules of the regents, and the First Amendment allows them — and anyone else — to dangle whatever tempting incentives they like before university leaders.
In a graciously worded letter to Christ congratulating her on being named UC Berkeley chancellor, Bagley tells her he has a request, “not a favor.” He’s asking that a “poised, polite and public spirited” applicant who has been waitlisted “be given a full and insightful review.”
Bagley’s signature is blacked out. He then adds “a small ps,” and reminds Christ that he recently urged a client to donate [redacted] dollars to the Berkeley Law School.
In an interview, Bagley said the donor gave $1 million, which created the Wheeler Water Institute on campus. Although it’s not clear whether UC Berkeley accepted the applicant, who turned out to be Bagley’s neighbor, he said the student enrolled in UC Davis.
Bagley also defended Blum, saying: “He certainly didn’t do anything wrong” and that Blum made an “innocent mistake.” He said he, too, was unaware of the policy.
Asked if there were other policies regents didn’t know about, Bagley laughed and said yes. “There’s no such thing as a school for regents.”