Lipow

This is an appeal from a judgment below denying a petition for a writ of mandate to compel the Regents of the University of California to set aside the final revised version of section 52 of the university’s Administrative Manual issued on February 1, 1973. The section in question deals, inter alia, with appointment and reappointment of instructors and professors.

The University Council of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, was the sole petitioner when the proceedings were first commenced in 1971 for the issuance of a writ of mandate to compel respondent, by and through its representatives, to meet and confer with the council over any proposed changes in the academic personnel rules. The council is a labor organization representing a large number of the faculty members at the university. Arthur Lipow and John G. Leonard were added as petitioners by amendment to the petition filed over a year later. There was a pretrial conference at which a joint pretrial statement was filed in which the facts referred to hereinafter were admitted. At the subsequent trial, judgment was in favor of the respondent.

The crucial question here is as to whether or not the Regents…