The University of California may be forced by a state superior court judge to divulge transcripts of closed-door meetings at which the UC Board of Regents made a controversial move to shift management of its pension fund investments to outside firms.

A UC spokesman said that unless the university receives a last-minute reprieve by the California Supreme Court, on Monday it will release more than 100 pages of documents that have been at the center of a nine-month legal battle.

The minutes of the meetings, held in 2000 and 2002, could shed light on the decision by the regents to farm out oversight of the funds to the financial consulting firm Wilshire Associates, headed by Dennis Tito.

That decision prompted allegations that Gerald Parsky, a member of the regents' investment committee, had steered the lucrative UC contract to Wilshire in exchange for a contribution from Tito to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, which Parsky headed in California.

The funds, which previously had been managed by the UC treasurer's office, are now worth more than $35 billion.

Wilshire, based in Santa Monica, has since been disciplined by the New York Stock Exchange and is being investigated by securities regulators for alleged improper stock trades made by Tito, its founder and chief executive.

Tito, a onetime aerospace scientist, in April 2001 became the first tourist in space when he paid $20 million for a round trip to the International Space Station.

UC paid Wilshire at least $38,000 per month in consulting fees last year, according to invoices obtained by The Chronicle.

The release of the transcripts was sought in a lawsuit filed in April by the Coalition of University Employees, which represents 18,000 current and retired UC clerical workers and other plaintiffs.

UC lost the suit and in October released detailed data regarding the performance of its investments in private venture capital funds, which the plaintiffs had also sought.

Yet it refused to divulge the minutes of the meetings and argued that doing so would violate the privacy of UC personnel whose performance was discussed by members of the regent's investment committee.

Instead, UC asked Superior Court Judge James Richman to delay his order to release the documents while UC petitioned an appellate court to keep the documents sealed.

The judge granted the stay and, after reviewing the transcripts, also allowed UC to submit an edited version of the minutes in which discussion of sensitive issues could be redacted.

"There are all sorts of matters that are appropriate for closed session," including personnel matters and discussion of prospective real estate and investment transactions, said Trey Davis, a spokesman for the UC treasurer's office.

"We don't want to set the precedent of opening everything up," Davis said.

The appeals court denied UC's request on Dec. 31, letting stand Richman's ruling that the transcript, excluding the redactions he approved, be made public.

The plaintiffs had argued that citizens have a right to know the reasons and process behind the regent's decision to change the investment management policy.

"When they change how they do business, the public should know why," said Mary Higgins, an executive board member of the employee coalition who has worked for UC for 31 years.

The transcript ultimately may show nothing improper was done, but the coalition's members have the right to see that for themselves, Higgins said.

"It's our money," she said.

She said the coalition's concerns go back to 2001, when former UC Treasurer Patricia Small was ousted after Wilshire was hired to evaluate UC pension fund performance.

"We don't trust the regents," Higgins said.

Davis said the university's decision to diversify its portfolio by spreading it out among several fund managers was "the logical and prudent thing to do."

"It makes sense to bring in outside expertise," he said.

The coalition has called on UC to end its relationship with Wilshire, which was fined $50,000 in October by the NYSE for failing to provide reasonable supervision of certain business practices and for failing to provide the exchange with written notice of material changes in the stock holdings of some of its allied members.

A phone call to Wilshire's offices in Santa Monica was referred to a public relations firm in Chicago. Two phone calls to that firm, Dilenschneider Group, were not returned.

Davis confirmed that the university would file a petition with the California Supreme Court this week in an 11th-hour attempt to reverse or delay the ruling.

If the high court denies the petition, the documents must be made public by Monday, the day after Richman's stay expires.