Instructions to submit written testimony to the UC Board of Regents: 

 

Click above or send an email to regentsoffice@ucop.edu with subject line: Written comment urging the new UC President to withdraw from TMT

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A few additional notes for those sending a written testimony: 

• Deadline to submit an email for the July 2020 meeting is Monday July 6 by 3:00pm PT / 12:00pm HT

• Each communication should include a subject line identifying the specific agenda item being addressed; failure to do so could prevent delivery of your comments. 

• Emails received will be included, as appropriate, in the Secretary's summary of communications to the Regents.

• Every email will not be responded to individually; however, emails will be shared with Regents and, when appropriate, forwarded to appropriate University administrative offices.

 

Copy and paste the sample email template below or write your own note: 

 

Dear UC Board of Regents and the UC Office of the President,

 

I am writing to call on the next UC President to champion Indigenous rights by ending the UC’s involvement in the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna a Wākea, land that is sacred to Native Hawaiians! The UC is currently using UC students funds to move ahead with this project without the consent of the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi. I demand that a complete board discussion is held on the UC’s involvement in this project during the July 28-30 UC Board of Regents meeting with full representation of the issue from Native Hawaiian protectors whose rights you are violating. Chair Pérez called for a discussion on this matter at the Board of Regents meeting on January 23, 2020.

 

The next UC President MUST do better. In this moment of global change and awakening, the UC must participate in the dismantling of white supremacy that keeps Black, Indigenous, and marginalized people in a position of disadvantage. Despite claims of transparency, the University of California has spent more than $68 million on the TMT Project since 2016, and an additional $10 million as recently as February 2020. Even in the midst of workers fighting for fair contracts, UC grad students demanding a liveable COLA, and preparations for major COVID-19 financial losses, the UC is still invested in a project that cannot even break ground without cultural genocide and violence against the Native Hawaiian people, protectors, and elders who have physically blocked construction for nearly a year at this point. Furthermore, the funding of the TMT directly violates your own Standards of Ethical Conduct and UC’s responsibility as a land-grant university to serve native students, whose voices you ignore.

 

When this discussion is held, it must genuinely represent the true impacts of the project, including the human rights violations outlined by the United Nations, and the full spectrum of opposition to TMT.  It must also include the voices of Native Hawaiian protectors, who know this issue best, along with UC student representatives who have been leading a system-wide movement to oppose this project. 

 

Most urgently, I demand that the UC President immediately send a letter to Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige, stating that UC, as a major partner of TMT, does not endorse any use of force against Kanaka Maoli on Mauna Kea, as it is in the process of discussing the matter internally.  

 

Respectfully,

[name]

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