Chancellor Mnookin’s reaction to Dec. 13 Regents vote

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin shared the following reaction to the Dec. 13 Regents vote endorsing the legislative compromise package. The regents voted 11-6 to endorse the proposal.

“I want to thank every member of the Board of Regents for the thoughtful engagement that they have brought to their consideration of the issues we face and to their difficult but important conversations. Compromise is never easy and this compromise is far from perfect, but I continue to believe this pathway will permit us to hold onto our core values – including our firm commitments to diversity and belonging – while also allowing us to move forward.

“Moving forward includes ensuring our hard-working employees receive their approved pay increases, especially critical in these inflationary times; funding the engineering building to allow us to grow and meet the state’s demonstrated workforce needs; and making much-needed infrastructure investments to address facility issues that have been deferred for far too long.

“At the same time, we can and must remain steadfast in our commitment to serving students of all backgrounds, including those underserved by higher education, and those who hold a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives. We must also continue to seek ways we can further improve this work to best serve our underrepresented communities.”