> how do we explain how so many votes are unanimous when, on the day of the vote, some regents express opposing views?

That reminds me of the Politburo voting scene in The Death of Stalin. Small group politics at their finest.

Anyway, the UC Board of Regents is full of political hacks and corrupt cronies. Diane Feinstein's husband was famously a regent, while simultaneously serving as Chairman of both CBRE and his own leveraged buyout private equity firm.