University of California is Being Sold to Businesses

Here is the first step.

UC Regents recently approved a new corporate entity that will likely give a group of well-connected businesspeople control over how academic research is used.

Despite the sweeping changes the program portends for UC, the regents vote received virtually no press coverage. UC plans to first implement Newco at UCLA and its medical centers, but some regents, along with influential business leaders across the state, want similar entities installed at Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, and other campuses. UC Regents Chairwoman Sherry Lansing called Newco at UCLA a pilot program for the entire UC system.

Records show that wealthy investors and influential businessmen with close ties to UCLA and one of the UC Regents Alan C. Mendelson are financially invested in companies that currently license university-owned patents under exclusive financial arrangements. Mendelson, who also is a trustee for the UC Berkeley Foundation and has investments of his own in businesses that profit from university-produced research, was one of the main backers of the Newco proposal and cast a vote in favor of it.