University of California Board of Regents Chair John A. Pérez and UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D., today (June 15) issued the following statement regarding California’s 2021 budget:

All three of the campus’s newest peregrine falcons — male triplets born in April — are in flight school.

Drake, the current UC president, led campus during era of unprecedented growth.

The University of California is deeply grateful to Gov. Newsom for proposing the largest state investment in UC’s history: more than $807 million, which includes more than $506 million in ongoing funding for core campus operations, student needs and medical training. The budget, with the support of legislative leadership, reflects an earlier agreement to fully restore more than $300 million in budget reductions that were enacted in the 2020 state budget.

University of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D., and UC Board of Regents Chair John A. Pérez released the following statement today (April 20) regarding the Chauvin trial verdict.

The University of California today (April 20) announced its second class of UC President’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows, an extraordinary group of 30 young scientists selected from the 10 UC campuses and three national laboratories to attend invitation-only lectures and small seminars with some 40 Nobel laureates from around the world.

University of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D., issued the following statement today (April 13):

Sunday’s killing of Daunte Wright is yet another senseless tragedy that tears at our hearts and reopens deep wounds. Even as Americans follow the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, this latest horror vividly conjures the trauma and heartbreak of the killing of George Floyd just a few miles away. And so many, too many, others.

As the nation’s premier public research institution and California’s third-largest employer, the University of California has taken bold steps to confront the existential threat of climate change and to harness the power of science to create solutions. While UC is a national leader among universities in its efforts to lower its greenhouse gas emissions and to invest in clean energy, the University recognizes it will take collective action to pull us back from the brink of disaster given the scale and severity of the climate crisis. The University therefore welcomes a stronger partnership with the federal government to embark on a new period of innovation and discovery and looks forward to seeing how our renowned faculty contribute to addressing this crisis.

The University of California today (March 16) announced a pioneering open access agreement with the world’s largest scientific publisher, Elsevier, making significantly more of the University’s research available to people worldwide — immediately and at no cost. The deal will put more UC research into the hands of individuals across the globe at a time when international collaboration to fight COVID-19 has illuminated the value of open access to scientific findings.

The University of California announced today (Feb. 8) that it is launching the Double the Pell campaign to urge Congress and the new federal administration to charter a more affordable pathway to higher education for America’s students and families.

The University of California announced today (Jan. 28) that the system received for fall 2021 admission the highest number of undergraduate applications in its history, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Highlights among California freshmen include a jump in overall applications and surges among African American and Chicano/Latino students, while California Community College transfer applications also grew by an impressive margin.

UC is a major contributor to the state’s vitality, generating $82 billion in economic activity per year and supporting 1 in 45 jobs.