NAGPRA, AI, and Our Responsibility: UCGPC President’s Address to the Regents

Piyalli and good morning Regents,

  We meet again- for the fifth time out of six.  Each time I have come before this board, I have made a conscious effort to remind everyone, myself included, that this land is not meant to be owned.  I would like to acknowledge that the Ramaytush Ohlone people are the traditional custodians of this land. But I also want to be clear: we are not speaking about history, but about real people, alive today.  “Native” does not mean “past” or “gone”. These fleeting moments that I am given to address all of you will never be enough to carry the hundreds upon thousands of stories from which I draw my words. I have the honor of hearing their triumphs, their songs, their praises, as well as their complaints, the cries, and their rage. 

I come into this space not only as a representative of my academic community, but as an advocate for the communities bound to my ancestors through kinship, blood, and language. Sitting at this table is a privilege, one that comes with immense guilt and responsibility.  Knowing I am a guest on these lands, lands upon which my ancestors once walked, I carry awareness with every word I choose, every story I choose to tell.

  Yesterday and today, I listened to Miss Johnson speak during public comment. She said, “I have never heard any of our songs, and I have never known the sound of my own language, but UC Berkeley has.”  She told you, “My grandfather’s voice does not belong caged up like a trapped bird in a colonial land-grant institution that is only ever benefitted from the dispossession of native land, identities and people.”

  She asked you to disrupt the cycle of theft and dispossession and to begin the cycle of healing between the Universities of California and Native Californians by supporting stronger implementation of NAGPRA within the UC system. There is no reason to turn her down, the ask before you is quite clear- put this item on the agenda for May. It is time the Board takes responsibility for the atrocities of which it is complicit and becomes a part of the solution. NAGPRA compliance is not a nuisance, it is not something to get around, but at the campus levels we receive emails warning researchers to put things away or take them out of their offices when NAGPRA officials come by.

            Additionally, I have a few related asks.  In the coming year, knowing that our time in this relationship is finite, I urge this Board to implement a policy to consciously acknowledge the stewards of this land in this space, and make serious efforts toward the promises in each campus “Land Acknowledgement.”  This work begins with NAGPRA, but it doesn’t end there. 

The UC is moving full speed ahead in the field of AI.  For months now, I have listened to your plans and initiatives, and I am deeply concerned with the lack of attention to their ecological consequences.  Setting aside the issues of bias, cognitive harm, and the erosion of human connection, I ask that the Regents and UCOP remain vigilant about the very real toll AI is taking on our planet. As you lead AI innovation, I urge you to work in concert with the Native peoples of these lands to confront its environmental impacts, extreme water usage, harmful electronic waste, and rapidly increasing energy consumption. In these efforts, make UC the leader of, not just AI, but sustainable AI.

  At the same time, sustainability must extend beyond the environmental to the social and ethical consequences of these technologies. The rapid advancement of AI has introduced new and deeply concerning risks, including its misuse in AI-facilitated sexual harm. From the creation of non-consensual intimate imagery to tools that enable coercion, harassment, and exploitation, AI is already being weaponized on our campuses in ways that disproportionately impact women and marginalized communities. 

  UC has both the responsibility and the opportunity to lead in shaping policy and influence new technological developments to actively combat AI-assisted sexual assault. This means providing support at the state level to student initiatives led by Survivors+Allies, supporting survivor-centered research, and establishing clear ethical standards that prevent misuse before it occurs. It also means ensuring accountability, so that those who use these technologies to harm other students are held accountable for the harms they enable.

I bring these concerns to you all, because we are in an unprecedented year here at UCGPC.  To ground this discussion, I want to share a brief update on the shift of UCGPC to become student-centered, all while UCOP has inadvertently been holding one hand behind our backs. Excluding internal UCGPC meetings, since the start of the academic year, approximately 70% of all dollars spent have gone directly to support students or student advocacy.  This includes $15,000 spent in advocacy events and $31,000 in stipends to students. We are planning to spend $12,000 to organize our advocacy trip to Washington D.C. to defend research funding along with nearly $10,000 in grants to take students with us who would otherwise not have the means.

  Though our budget is small, we have optimized our mighty efforts to promote students through advocacy trips to Sacramento and Washington D.C., the Student Advocates initiative in collaboration with FGR, and consistent representation in the Regent and UCOP spaces.  We look forward to working in concert with the UC over the next month to promote research funding and the importance of higher education.  

  As we finish out the year strong, I only ask that the Regents and staff of UCOP support our efforts through attention on concerns raised.  These concerns have resulted in a serious amount of unpaid labor, have taken an emotional toll on my board, and leave many of our tools inaccessible.  Please work with us to fix what is broken so we can continue to uplift students and advocate for the University of California.

Thank you.

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