Report 2021-047 All Recommendation Responses

Report 2021-047: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: Despite Some Recent Improvements, the University of California Has Not Yet Taken Adequate Action to Ensure Its Timely Return of Native American Remains and Cultural Items (Release Date: November 2022)

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To ensure that the university continues its recent progress in returning remains and cultural items to tribes, the Legislature should amend state law to require the university to periodically report its campuses' progress towards completing repatriation.

Description of Legislative Action

AB 226 (Ramos, 2023) would strongly urge the University of California to, on or before June 30, 2024, and annually thereafter, report each University of California campus's progress toward completing repatriation pursuant to the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001. As of January 18, 2023 this bill is pending in the Assembly.

In addition, SB-61 (Dodd, 2023) would declare the Legislature's intent to ensure that the University of California reports each institution's progress towards completing repatriation. As of January 18, 2023, this bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Education.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To ensure that campuses have adequate funding to fully repatriate their collections in a timely manner, the Legislature should amend state law to require the Office of the President to provide sufficient funding to support campuses' repatriation efforts.

Description of Legislative Action

AB 226 (Ramos, 2023) would strongly urge the University of California Office of the President to provide available funding to sufficiently support each institution's efforts toward completing repatriation pursuant to the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001. As of January 18, 2023 this bill is pending in the Assembly.

In addition, SB 61 (Dodd, 2023) would declare the Legislature's intent to ensure that the Office of the President should provide available funding to support each institution's efforts towards completing repatriation. As of January 18, 2023, this bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Education.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To ensure that the systemwide and campus NAGPRA committees have members with diverse backgrounds, the Legislature should revise CalNAGPRA to allow individuals with more types of educational backgrounds to qualify for committee membership.

Description of Legislative Action

SB 61 (Dodd, 2023) would declare the Legislature's intent to ensure that membership of the University of California's systemwide and campus-level NAGPRA committees have individuals with different types of educational backgrounds. As of January 18, 2023, this bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Education.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Legislation Introduced

Recommendation #4 To: University of California

To ensure that Santa Barbara has identified all the items in its NAGPRA collection, the Office of the President should monitor Santa Barbara's efforts to review its collection and ensure that the campus completes this process by July 2023.

1-Year Agency Response

All of UC Santa Barbara's inventories and summaries are now accessible to tribes through NAHC's Tribal Resource: Collections Inventories and Summaries Database. Copies of the inventories and summaries have also been sent to potentially culturally affiliated tribes to initiate consultation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

UCOP's Systemwide Repatriation Coordinator (SRC) visited UCSB on April 26, 2023 to assess the collection and meet with campus repatriation staff. As advised by the UCOP SRC, by July 2023, UCSB will submit general descriptions of the materials to NAHC so that NAHC can add them to their tribally accessible library. UCSB will also simultaneously notify all potentially culturally affiliated tribes to initiate consultation, first on handling, as required by CalNAGPRA, followed by consultation to identify additional cultural items and determine cultural affiliation. This will bring UCSB in line with other campuses, which have reported their collections to NAHC and begun consultation to finalize NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA inventories and summaries.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

UCOP's new Systemwide Repatriation Coordinator is set to start on February 6, 2023. Soon thereafter, she will visit UC Santa Barbara to review their collection and efforts to identify all NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA eligible items.

In addition to these actions, we note as an information item that UCOP regularly meets with all campus Repatriation Coordinators, and individually as needed. UCOP previously provided $4.4 million to all campuses over the last two years in support of repatriation efforts, and requested fy23-24 budgets to review the need for ongoing support. UCSB received $435,600 over the last two years to ramp up their repatriation program. This allowed UCSB to hire a NAGPRA project manager and a curator. The campus has hosted multiple listening sessions with the California tribes. These sessions have focused on providing campus updates, while also soliciting input and questions from tribal partners. The campus is consulting on multiple accessions.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #5 To: University of California

To ensure that campuses appropriately respond to any remains or cultural items they find in the future, the Office of the President should issue guidance by February 2023 about how campuses should proactively work with partner institutions to facilitate repatriation of those items.

1-Year Agency Response

Guidance on responding to newly identified remains or cultural items, and guidance on proactively working with partner institutions, have been finalized and shared with campus Repatriation Coordinators.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

UCOP has created two pieces of guidance, one for campuses responding to newly identified remains or cultural items and a second on how campuses can proactively work with partner institutions that control collections in UC's custody to facilitate repatriation. The drafts will be reviewed by the Systemwide NAGPRA Implementation and Oversight Committee. We expect to finalize by June 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

UCOP met with campus Repatriation Coordinators who have the most recent and successful experience working with partner institutions and who have gained from the advice of their campus committees to develop guidance on how all campuses should proactively work with partner institutions to facilitate repatriation. The guidance is in progress.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #6 To: University of California

To ensure that its campuses comply with CalNAGPRA and appropriately consult with California tribes, the Office of the President should immediately establish a uniform process that campuses must follow when consulting with tribes about the campuses' inventories.

1-Year Agency Response

Guidance on the tribal consultation process has been finalized and shared with campus Repatriation Coordinators. This includes a step-by-step checklist to promote greater consistency across campuses.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

UCOP has created a guidance document that provides procedures for campuses to implement a consistent approach to tribal consultation. The draft is under review by the Systemwide NAGPRA Implementation and Oversight Committee and is expected to be finalized by June 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Section V.B of the existing UC Policy on Native American Cultural Affiliation and Repatriation contains extensive implementation guidance on how campuses are to conduct consultation with Native American tribes. Additionally, in order to address this recommendation, UCOP will consolidate various materials to develop a new uniform process for tribal consultations as required by CalNAGPRA. UCOP is in the early drafting phase of this project.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #7 To: University of California

To ensure that campuses provide appropriate resources and oversight to the administration of NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA, the Office of the President should require campuses with more than 100 sets of remains or cultural items to have full-time repatriation coordinators by July 2023.

1-Year Agency Response

With UC Santa Barbara's recent hire of a full-time repatriation coordinator, all campuses with more than 100 sets of human remains or cultural items now meet this recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

UC Santa Barbara has opened the hire for a full-time repatriation coordinator and is reviewing applications. The hire is expected to be completed by July 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

UCOP communicated this requirement to Campus Chancellor Designees and Repatriation Coordinators on December 14, 2022. (Of the campuses that this requirement applies to, only the UC Santa Barbara campus does not have a full-time repatriation coordinator. However, they have started the HR process to hire for this position by July 2023.)

As noted above, in UCOP has provided $4.4 million to all campuses over the last two years in support of repatriation efforts (including appropriate personnel) and requested fy23-24 budgets to review the need for ongoing support.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

As the Office of the President notes in its response, Santa Barbara has not yet hired a full-time repatriation coordinator. Until Santa Barbara has filled that position, we will continue to assess this recommendation as not fully implemented.

Recommendation #8 To: University of California

To ensure that campuses fully repatriate their collections in a timely and consistent manner, the Office of the President should require the campuses to complete and submit detailed repatriation plans by February 2023 for review and approval by the campus NAGPRA committees and review by the systemwide NAGPRA committee. The repatriation plans should include a detailed budget.

6-Month Agency Response

All campuses have submitted Repatriation Implementation Plans approved by their campus committees. UCOP has reviewed the plans and provided feedback to campuses. The repatriation plans have been provided to the Systemwide NAGPRA Implementation and Oversight Committee for their review.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

UCOP sent a communication to Campus Chancellor Designees and Repatriation Coordinators on December 14, 2022, requiring Repatriation Implementation Plans be submitted to UCOP by January 31, 2023. Such plans must include estimated repatriation timelines and detailed budgets. Once received, UCOP will review all plans and share them with the Systemwide Committee for review.

As noted above, UCOP has provided financial support since fy21-22, and is reviewing ongoing needs.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #9 To: University of California

Until such time that the Legislature requires the Office of the President to provide funding to support campus repatriation efforts, the Office of the President should ensure that campuses identify adequate funding sources in their detailed budgets.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From May 2024

To satisfy the CSA recommendation that the UC Office of the President (UCOP) should ensure that campuses identify adequate funding sources in their detailed budgets, UCOP has taken the following actions.

First, UCOP committed $5.7m to support campus repatriation efforts over fiscal years 2023-2026. UCOP contributions to campus repatriation budgets will gradually decrease each year, ceasing by the end of fiscal year 2026. Campus contributions will increase as necessary to ensure that repatriation budgets remain fully funded. This transition will allow campuses time to identify long-term funding sources so they may eventually assume full responsibility for their repatriation budgets.

UCOP has also developed a process for annual reviews of campus budgets for NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA activities. Under this new process, campuses must annually submit their budgets for NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA activities to UCOP. UCOP will then review the budgets to ensure that they (1) are reasonable and adequate to maintain or accelerate the pace of repatriation, (2) align with the goals and timeline of the campus's Repatriation Implementation Plan, and (3) Clearly identify funding source(s). UCOP will then share the campus budgets with the Systemwide NAGPRA Implementation and Oversight Committee for input. Based on these review activities, UCOP will provide feedback to the campuses and require them to resubmit their budgets with any requested revisions. UCOP will work with campuses to resolve any outstanding issues.

Documentation of this new process was provided to the State Auditor's Office.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From December 2023

UCOP has allocated $5.7m to support campus repatriation efforts over the next three years. UCOP contributions to campus repatriation budgets will gradually decrease each year, ceasing by the end of FY 2026. Campus contributions will increase as necessary to ensure that repatriation budgets remain fully funded. This transition will allow campuses time to identify long-term funding sources so they may eventually assume full responsibility for their repatriation budgets. By January 2024, UCOP will establish a process for annual review of campus repatriation budgets to ensure that repatriation activities are adequately resourced and that funding sources have been secured.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

UCOP staff has received and reviewed all campus budgets, which identify funds to be contributed from the campus and those that are being requested from UCOP. Funding decisions will be finalized by August 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

UCOP requested campus FY 23-24 estimated budgets on October 6, 2022. These budgets identify resources projected to be contributed by the campus and resources requested from UCOP. During our January 9, 2023 regularly scheduled call with campus Repatriation Coordinators, UCOP also communicated that budgets in Repatriation Implementation Plans should clearly identify funding sources. As stated above, these plans are due January 31, 2023. UCOP will review all budgets and make funding decisions by May 2023.

As noted above, UCOP has provided financial support since fy21-22.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2021-047

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.