While the Board of Regents governs the University of California, and has as one of its main functions the insulation of the University from the most capricious aspects of state politics, the University, as a major public institution, is occasionally in a central role in the major controversies of the larger society. Nevertheless through the turmoil of the last seventy years, the University has maintained its relevance to society and its independence. The setbacks that it has experienced have all proved to be temporary and have served to forge consensus on and commitment to its central values.