ICE Barrier

Note that the item below, while referring to UC-Berkeley, presumably would apply to all UC campuses.

From the Daily Californian: Campus international undergraduate students can no longer receive academic credit for most internships completed in study abroad programs, including the University of California Washington Center program, or UCDC. This comes as a response to two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance memos sent to campus in August. The federal guidance memos stated that international students can only use internship experience to receive academic credit if it is integral to the completion of their degree, and is “directly related to the student’s major area of study.” If campus does not ensure this requirement is followed, it may lose its ability to enroll international students.

As a result, campus indefinitely paused the processing of applications for Course Credit Curricular Practical Training, or CPT, a program that allows international students to receive credits toward their degree when pursuing internships and work experience. “We will need more time to consult with legal counsel, and to develop new processes that align with ICE requirements,” said Berkeley International Office Director Ivor Emmanuel.

Under Department of Homeland Security standards, international students living in the United States through an F-1 visa are required to enroll in a full-time course load to keep their visa status, unless exempted by special circumstances. According to Emmanuel, international students who had planned to use current internships for academic credit still have to meet this requirement and “will have to identify alternate courses.” ...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/administration/international-students-interning-abroad-lose-course-credit-due-to-ice-warning/article_ffbcd825-4248-4aec-8b60-c5319d9d713c.html. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 458

From the Brown Daily Herald: It is “highly unlikely” that the Dec. 13 mass shooting could have been prevented by Brown, according to the executive summary of an after-action review conducted by global consulting firm Teneo. But Teneo found that low DPS staffing levels were disadvantageous to their response and the University’s siren system should have been activated in the wake of the shooting...

The summary identified leadership gaps and understaffing in the Brown Department of Public Safety as well as a history of trespassing in Barus and Holley — the site of the shooting — but ultimately concluded it is unlikely that these security concerns affected the outcome of the shooting... Teneo found that DPS officers responded “rapidly, effectively and heroically” to the shooting...

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2026/08/external-review-finds-dec-13-shooting-likely-could-not-have-been-prevented.

Ad Hoc or Master Plan - Thanks, but no thanks

Assemblymember Dorothy M. Donahoe
who pushed the 1960 Master Plan through the 
Legislature (Donahoe Act)
 but died before it was signed.

We have been noting the erosion of the old Master Plan and the substitution of ad hoc legislative enactments, essentially at the behest of the community colleges. It seems the community colleges got the bills they wanted through the legislature and now that they are sitting on the governor's desk, they don't like what they got. From CalMatters:

California’s community colleges have been trying for several years to offer more bachelor’s degrees. This year, they put their hopes in two sweeping bills designed to help them do that. But lawmakers made massive, last-minute changes that prompted the state’s community colleges to now oppose the legislation. The abrupt change of heart, spurred by new limits on how much the colleges could grow their bachelor’s programs, didn’t influence the outcomes of the bills, Senate Bill 960 by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Democrat from Napa, and Assembly Bill 2694 by David Alvarez, also a Democrat from Chula Vista. Both passed...

Colleges would be able to offer an additional two to 12 bachelor’s degrees starting in 2028 depending on their students’ certificate, degree and transfer completion rates. No college district could propose more than three new degrees per year and districts would need to prove that there’s a workforce need in their region to justify the creation of a bachelor’s degree. That’s a claim the state’s labor secretary would step in to validate if the California State University system objects, as has regularly occurred in the pitched policy disputes between the community colleges and the university...

“We’re being asked to … support a process that is not completely understood or vetted at the last minute, and so that’s just not great policymaking,” said Larry Galizio, president and CEO of the Community College League of California, an association representing community college presidents and board leaders...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/09/community-college-bachelors-degrees-california/. 

Parallel Blogs / Subscribing

We have been putting out this blog since 2009 under the heading "UCLA Faculty Association" using the link:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/

The blog site was originally created by the then-executive director of the Faculty Association. As such, yours truly does not have control of the site; he is simply a blogger on it. So when technical issues arise, that can be a problem. Given that issue, we have been adding a parallel site with the same blog entries since July 23rd:

https://danmitchellsblogcontinues.blogspot.com/

We will be running the two in parallel for the indefinite future. Possibly, at some point we will switch to the new link.

If you read the blog using the Facebook page of Yousee Elayemeriti, you can continue to do so:

https://www.facebook.com/yousee.elayemeriti

===

Want to subscribe?

You can't subscribe directly. But you can subscribe indirectly to this blog via a service called Blogtrottr. Go to blogtrottr.com and fill in the URL for the blog:

https://danmitchellsblogcontinues.blogspot.com/ 

or

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/

and put in your email address. 

You will then receive an email at the email address you provided asking you to confirm. After you confirm, you will receive an email notification of new postings whenever they appear. If there are, say, three postings on a particular day, you will receive three notifications (one for each one). 

Note and full disclosure: There are ads on these notifications.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 197

From the Harvard Crimson: Faculty soured on Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra amid broad-scale austerity measures this year, according to The Crimson’s annual FAS survey. Thirty-one percent of respondents said they were either “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with Hoekstra’s tenure as FAS dean, a sharp reversal from last year, when 57 percent said they were satisfied with her leadership. That figure marks the lowest approval rating she has had on the survey since stepping into the role.

Satisfaction with Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 also saw a notable dip, falling from 74 percent at the acme of Harvard’s battle with the White House to roughly 56 percent this spring. Hoekstra drew the highest dissatisfaction of the three senior administrators measured in the survey: 43 percent said they were “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied with her tenure, compared with 35 percent who said the same of Harvard Provost John F. Manning ’82 and 26 percent of Garber...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/4/fas-2026-survey-hoekstra/. 

Ad Hoc or Master Plan

Assemblymember Dorothy M. Donahoe
who pushed the 1960 Master Plan through the 
Legislature (Donahoe Act)
 but died before it was signed.

In an earlier post (Aug. 26), we noted that bills were moving through the legislature that would enhance the ability of community colleges to offer 4-year degrees. And we called for a new Master Plan process rather than ad hoc policy from the legislature. The bills are now on the governor's desk. Whether he will sign or veto is unknown. The immediate issue regarding community colleges is more a concern for CSU than UC. But the absence of a Master Plan is a long run concern for UC.

From the LA Times: ...Newsom has not signaled his view. He has rejected previous attempts since 2024 to let community colleges grant nursing bachelor’s degrees, when he warned such moves could cause conflict among the state’s three higher education systems...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-01/california-community-college-bachelors-degrees-newsom-bills. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 457

From the Cornell Daily Sun: All first-year undergraduate students at Cornell will be enrolled in the University’s newly-developed AI Critical Literacy Program after its Spring 2026 launch... The two-hour long Canvas course discusses four different topics related to AI: how AI works, the ethical implications of AI, the impact of AI on education and tools to create a personal “AI policy.” The course is required for all first-year students at the beginning of the fall semester. The program aims to “help participants make more informed decisions about how and whether to use AI in general, and to inspire conversations where faculty and students can learn from each other,” according to its website.

While first-year undergraduate students are automatically enrolled in the course, other members of the Cornell community, including upper-level undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff, are able to self-enroll in the course for their own personal interest...

Full story at https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/08/cornell-launches-ai-critical-literacy-program-for-all-first-year-undergraduate-students. 

You surely know not to respond or even click on this email

There are lots of variations of such malicious messages. In all cases, you will be sorry if you do anything other than delete them. One version seems to contain an invitation to an event that looks genuine. But when you click on the invitation, it innocently asks you for your email password. Do I have to tell you what happens if you provide the password?

There is also the text message variant which you should also delete:

Mysterious inquiries as above should be deleted. Do not respond.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 196

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard College student organizations must coordinate with University officials before accepting external donations under a new requirement in the 2026-27 student handbook. A draft version of policy updates to the handbook circulated at a May Faculty of Arts Sciences meeting only stated that student organizations would be “strongly encouraged to adopt policies consistent with Harvard’s university-wide guidance.” But the final handbook language goes further, dropping the encouragement language and instead requiring groups to “coordinate” with the College’s development office before accepting external donations...

The policy notes that those restrictions may apply particularly when an international program involves compensation. Federal sanctions broadly restrict certain financial transactions, services, and other activities involving sanctioned individuals, entities, or countries... The policy changes come amid heightened federal scrutiny of Harvard’s financial and academic ties abroad...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/4/external-donation-new-policy/.

Less than meets the eye - Part 2

Undoubtedly, there will be public comment on AB 713 now on the governor's desk for signature or veto at the September Regents meeting (unless he vetoes it before the meeting). As we have noted previously (see Aug. 13 on this blog), the bill actually leaves the decision on whether UC can hire undocumented students to the Regents. It is a mandate for CSU and the community colleges but permissive for UC. 

From CalMatters: Is this the year that Gov. Gavin Newsom allows students without legal status to legally work at California’s public colleges and universities? A state bill with wide support from Democrats but opposed by Republicans seeks to do just that by adopting an untested legal theory that argues a 1980s federal law banning employment for people without legal status doesn’t apply to state agencies. But university leaders and Newsom worry that acting on the theory could put the state on another collision course with the Trump administration.

The bill easily cleared the Legislature Friday, including a yes vote from one Republican. The bill now heads to Newsom’s desk. Assembly Bill 713 by Assemblymember José Luis Solache, a Democrat from Lakewood, is seemingly straightforward: The University of California, California State University and community colleges cannot disqualify students without legal status from campus employment. If it becomes law, it would kick in Jan. 6...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/08/students-without-legal-status-california/.

===

Bill at https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB713/id/3191073. "This article shall apply to the University of California, unless it is found to be inapplicable to the university, then, consistent with Section 67400, this article shall apply to the university only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make it applicable." 

Straws in the Wind - Part 456

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Barnard quietly paused approvals this month for Curricular Practical Training, a program many international students rely on for internship eligibility... The pause comes after the federal government sent a pair of memos to Barnard and other colleges and universities on Aug. 12 and 24 threatening to cut off international student enrollment if the schools do not adopt stricter rules for approving international students’ work authorizations. The pause, which other institutions have adopted amid the federal government’s threat, raises concerns of international students losing work opportunities in an increasingly difficult job market.

All pending and new CPT approvals are on hold as Barnard reviews and updates its institutional protocols, Joanna Kang, associate director of Barnard’s International Student Services office wrote in the email to [an] international student. The student shared a portion of the email but declined to share its full text. A Barnard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pause...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/08/29/barnard-quietly-pauses-international-student-internship-approvals-following-federal-memos/. 

Yale Deal - Part 12

From the Yale Daily News: For the first time, first-year students were mandated to attend an orientation event that asked them to consider the interplay between higher education and democracy. The conversation — led by Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis and History professor Beverly Gage ’94 — took place in two sessions... The conversations, which centered on the relationship between higher education and American democracy, touched on topics including campus protests and free speech — which were also discussed at a teach-in marketed as an alternative to the panels themselves...

Hours before the first session began, over 300 alumni, students, professors and local union members gathered on Cross Campus in a teach-in, headlined “Democratize Yale,” to demand the protection of student free speech and assembly, the democratization of the University board of trustees, the codification of academic freedom and that Yale not settle in negotiations with the Trump administration.

...Lewis said during the later session that protest regulations were necessary to “ensure the ability of each student to get an education, the ability to back them, and to teach.” He noted Yale has “rules regarding the time and place and manner, not content related rules,” and that protesters can protest an issue from both sides...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/first-years-attend-panel-on-protests-and-yale-s-place-in-democracy.

===

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: ...There were... indications that at least one national organization is interested in the fight. Indivisible, an anti-Trump advocacy group founded during President Trump’s first term, previously bought billboards on Interstate 95 to urge Yale not to settle. It provided signs and T-shirts for this rally. The event seemed to go off without a hitch, although [Alex Chen, Yale’s undergraduate student-body president] said later that “free expression facilitators,” staff members trained in Yale’s free-expression policies, had approached him to ask what was going on. “It’s a little bit chilling,” he said, “to have them watching your every move.”

In addition, two people identifying themselves as staffers from the Office of Public Affairs told reporters that they could not be on Yale’s grounds. Instead, journalists had to stand on a public sidewalk, about 250 feet away from the protest. “It’s to protect the privacy of the students and faculty,” one of the staff members said.

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/yale-activists-defy-rules-to-warn-against-deal-with-trump.

Regents at UCLA: Sept. 14-16, 2026

The Regents will be meeting at UCLA Sept. 14-16, 2026. Below is the preliminary agenda.

Regents: September 14-16, 2026 at UCLA Luskin Conference Center - Agenda

===

Monday, September 14, 2026

3:00 pm Investments Committee (open session- includes public comment session) 

Public Comment Period (30 minutes)

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of May 5, 2026

I1 Discussion: Review of Investment Performance for Fiscal Year 2025–26

===

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

8:30 am Board (open session - includes public comment session) 

Public Comment Period (30 minutes)

Remarks of the Chair of the Board

Remarks of the President of the University

Remarks of the Chair of the Academic Senate

B1 Discussion: UC Inspires: Pulitzer Prize Winners – Chasing Truth and Knowledge

B2 Discussion: Annual UC Accountability Report

---

10:15 am Joint: Health Services Committee and Finance and Capital Strategies Committee (open session) 

J1 Action: La Jolla Outpatient Pavilion, San Diego Campus: Budget, Scope, External Financing, and Design following Consideration of an Addendum to the La Jolla Campus Long Range Development Plan and Subsequent Environmental Impact Report Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act

J2 Discussion: Update on Integration of the UCLA West Valley Medical Center, Los Angeles Campus

---

10:55 am Health Services Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 14, 2026

H1 Discussion: Public Payor Policy Updates Amid Federal and State Disinvestment

---

11:35 am Governance Committee (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of May 5, 2026

G1(X) Discussion: Collective Bargaining Matters I

---

1:00 pm Compliance and Audit Committee (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 14, 2026

C1(X) Discussion: Updates on Health-Related Litigation Matters

C2(X) Discussion: Methodology and Valuation of Settlements in Professional Liability Cases

C3(X) Action: Recommended Settlement for Board Action:

Early Care and Education Pre-Litigation Claims (Child A and Child B) – Proposed Settlement – Sexual Misconduct – Los Angeles

C4(X) Discussion: Appellate, Trial Court Developments and Updates, Many Cases Including:

CALMATTERS v. REGENTS – Complaint Filed – California Public Records Act – Los Angeles

CITY OF PASADENA, et al. v. REGENTS, et al. (Rose Bowl Litigation) – Proceedings Informally Stayed – Breach of Contract – Los Angeles

DEFENDING EDUCATION v. ANGUIANO (Viewpoint/free speech issues regarding transgender individuals)

DO NO HARM, et al. v. REGENTS, et al.; STUDENTS AGAINST RACIAL DISCRIMINATION v. REGENTS, et al.; ZHONG, et al. v. REGENTS, et al. (Admissions Litigation) – Various Activity – Racial Discrimination – All Campuses

FEDERAL FUNDING LITIGATION – Various Activity – Contracts and Grants – Systemwide

OSAKO v. REGENTS, et al. – Temporary Restraining Order Issued – California Public Records Act – Los Angeles (Withholding of a report on a UCLA administrator)

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY PRA COLLECTIVE v. REGENTS – Order to Show Cause Issued re Petition for Writ of Mandate – Office of the President

PROTEST-RELATED CASES – Various Activity – Multiple Campuses

GENERAL COUNSEL’S UPDATE ON LITIGATION

C5(X) Information: Settlements and Separation Agreements under Delegated Authority Reported from June 1, 2026 to July 31, 2026

---

2:30 pm Board (closed session) 

B3(X) Discussion: External Funding Litigation and Legal Issues

---

3:15 pm Governance Committee (closed session) 

G2(X) Discussion: Collective Bargaining Matters II

G3(X) Discussion: Incentive Compensation for Fiscal Year 2025-26 for Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President – Investments, Office of the President

--- 

3:55 pm Governance Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2026

G3 Action: Incentive Compensation for Fiscal Year 2025-26 for Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President – Investments, Office of the President as Discussed in Closed Session

G4 Action: Amendment of Bylaw 40.2 and Regents Policies 2304 And 2306; Adoption of New Regents Policies on Equivalent Ranks, Academic Senate Membership, and Academic Units and Functions; and Rescission of Related Standing Orders

Note: Matters relating to Academic Senate are always worth tracking.

===

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

8:30 am Board (open session - includes public comment session) 

Public Comment Period (30 minutes)

Approval of the Minutes of the Meetings of July 14 and 15, 2026

Remarks from Student Associations

B4 Discussion: Update on Artificial Intelligence

B5 Discussion: History and Background of Standardized Testing at UC

---

10:45 am Academic and Student Affairs Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2026

A1 Discussion: UC STEM Outcomes and Math Innovation

A2 Discussion: What Future is UC Preparing Students For?

---

1:00 pm Special Committee on Nominations (closed session) 

S1(X) Action: Appointment of a Regent and Regent-designate to Standing Committees and Resignation of a Regent from a Standing Committee for 2026-27

---

1:05 pm Finance and Capital Strategies (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2026

F1(X) Action: Authorization to Form a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation Utilizing Recently Acquired Assets from a Commercial Party to Create a cGMP Facility to be Located at 777 Mariposa Street, San Francisco Campus

NOTE: cGMP stands for Current Good Manufacturing Practice, a system of regulations enforced by agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure the safety, purity, and quality of products like pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and food.

---

1:35 pm Board (closed session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2026

Committee Reports Including Approval of Recommendations from Committees:

-Compliance and Audit Committee

-Finance and Capital Strategies Committee

-Governance Committee

Officers’ and President’s Reports:

-Personnel Matters

-Report of Interim Actions

-Report of Materials Mailed Between Meetings

---

Upon end of closed session:

Finance and Capital Strategies (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2026

F2 Action: Berkeley Air & Space Center, Berkeley Campus: Certification of an Environmental Impact Report Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act and Authorization for Submittal of the Project to the National Aeronautics And Space Administration

F3 Action: UCLA Research Park East Core and Shell Improvements, Los Angeles Campus: Working Drawings Funding, Scope, and Design Following Adoption of a Mitigated Negative Declaration Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act, and Advanced Work Phase Construction Funding

F4 Discussion: Preliminary Discussion of the University’s 2027-28 Operating Budget

---

3:35 pm National Laboratories Committee (open session) 

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of July 15, 2026

N1 Discussion: State of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

---

4:05 pm Board (open session) 

Agenda – Open Session

Committee Reports Including Approvals of Recommendations from Committees:

-Academic and Student Affairs Committee

-Finance and Capital Strategies Committee

-Health Services Committee

-Governance Committee

-Investments Committee

-Joint Meeting: Health Services Committee and Finance and Capital Strategies Committee

-National Laboratories Committee

-Special Committee on Nominations

Resolution

Officers’ and President’s Reports:

-Report of Interim, Concurrence, and Committee Action:s

-Report of Materials Mailed Between Meetings  

===

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/agendas/sept26.html.

Missing

From the Sacramento Bee: Two professors at the University of California, Davis are among the thousands still missing after catastrophic flash floods swept through parts of Nepal on Aug. 26. Nearly 1,300 people have been killed in the disaster and more than 5,000 remain missing, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency. Rao and Vasu Unnava, both professors at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, were staying in a hotel in Timure, Nepal, when the flash floods occurred, according to a message from the university’s chancellor and provost. Only a few kilometers from the border of Nepal and Tibet, they have not been located or heard from since then...

Rao Unnava stepped down as dean of the Graduate School of Management on July 1 after serving in that position for a decade... Vasu Unnava is an adjunct associate professor at the same school, where she teaches marketing and studies consumer behavior...

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article317131341.html.

Will a Retreat Solve the Budget Problem?

From time to time on this blog, we have taken note of UCLA's budget travails and the absence of up-to-date budget documentation. We have noted that while UCLA at one time published annual budgets on a regular basis, that practice seemed to stop. A new CFO, under pressure from the Academic Senate, finally published a budget book which we subsequently analyzed. But then he said Very Bad Things about the older budget documents which got him fired. We now have a new interim CFO and a pledge by the administration to be "transparent" about budgetary matters:

https://dn720904.ca.archive.org/0/items/ucla-budget-book-v-final-feb-2026/Budget%20Transparency%20Protocol%204-21-2026.pdf.

The pledge includes a schedule of budgetary reveals, starting with a "retreat" that will take place this month. (We already noted this retreat in our Sept. 1 post about the new Athletics Director.)

Sitting in the background is ongoing concern about a deficit in the Athletics Department which is not supposed to be a cost to the university:

https://dn720904.ca.archive.org/0/items/ucla-budget-book-v-final-feb-2026/UCLA%20Athletics%20Department%20Deficit%206-10-2026.pdf.

In her final report to the Academic Senate and community, outgoing Senate Chair McAvoy included this message about budgetary matters:

Budget: Over the course of the academic year, Administration shared more budgetary information with the Council on Planning and Budget (CPB). This information has included both written documents (overall budget pictures, unit level budgetary information, etc.) and productive conversations with interim VC/CFO Reem Hanna-Harwell and others. Senate Leadership and EVCP Hunt developed a Budget Transparency Protocol that describes expectations for sharing budget information to support Senate consultation. An inaugural annual budget retreat with Senior Administrators and CPB/Senate leadership is scheduled for September that will allow a retrospective of the past year and to plan for a productive year ahead. In these times of fiscal strain, it is imperative that the CPB is engaged in these difficult deliberations to fulfill its advisory role, which we will continue to emphasize.

Full report at https://senate.ucla.edu/news/august-2026-ucla-academic-senate-updates.

While we await the retreat, we note that there is no actual budget information in the statement above or the earlier documents. As blog readers will know, we have been retaining budget information in a page on the Internet Archive so that nothing gets lost or disappears:

https://archive.org/details/ucla-budget-book-v-final-feb-2026.

Yours truly is aware of a longstanding Public Documents request for budgetary information from UCLA that keeps being met with apologies for delay, but no documents. This could be the result of stalling, or it could be that Murphy Hall really can't readily produce the numbers. So there remains the question of just how much information Murphy Hall has about the budget, a large portion of which is in the health enterprise. (The Health Enterprise seems to have its own CFO and more command of its own information.) In this age of computerization and AI, one might think that a simple command would produce estimated income statements and balance sheets, historical, present, and projections of the future. However, there is the possibility that although one might reasonably think that is the case, one might be wrong.

At the retreat, Senate representatives might want to look at the accounting system as well as whatever accounting numbers are presented. If the system can't produce timely estimates on command, being transparent about unavailable information won't be helpful.

Maybe the ultimate question is whether we have a retreat or an advance. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 455

From the NY Times: After 17 years of teaching science at West Point, Dr. Adam Kalkstein says he was suddenly ordered last year to cut from his curriculum information about the human causes of climate change, according to a new lawsuit filed against the U.S. Military Academy. The change was immoral and potentially illegal, Dr. Kalkstein says he told Brig. Gen. Shane R. Reeves, who at the time was dean of West Point. Instead of upholding Army values, Dr. Kalkstein said he felt like a liar and a fraud. General Reeves stormed out of the room when Dr. Kalkstein declined a suggestion that he resign, according to the lawsuit. Six months later, the tenured professor was told his contract would not be renewed.

Filed in the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit accuses West Point of breaking the law by violating Dr. Kalkstein’s First Amendment rights by forbidding him from teaching about human-driven climate change, an order that required him “to omit a massive, fundamental, essential component of the court and to defy science,” according to the suit...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/us/politics/west-point-climate-professor-lawsuit.html.

Quantum

Some funding is flowing from the feds. From the Daily Californian:

The U.S. National Science Foundation renewed its support for the UC Berkeley-led NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation, awarding the initiative $37.5 million. For the next five years, the funding will help the institute build quantum technologies, explore their applications and discover new ways quantum computing can be used to better understand nature. The initiative spans across California, encompassing research at UC Berkeley as well as at universities such as Caltech, UCLA and Stanford.

“The idea behind a quantum computer is to build a computer that takes advantage of some of those weirder, strange aspects of quantum mechanics to do computations that are hard or impossible on the computers that we have today,” said UC Berkeley associate professor of physics Shimon Kolkowitz, who is conducting research on atomic clocks for the institute. Kolkowitz expressed his hopes for future applications of quantum computing, including its use in the discovery of new materials and drugs, as well as in the improvement of chemical reactions’ energy efficiency. Kolkowitz described the institute’s research as interdisciplinary, spanning many departments including chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, computer science and material science...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/research-and-ideas/nsf-awards-37m-to-its-uc-berkeley-led-quantum-computing-research/article_0ef2bbde-c234-42ee-bb33-c7f4963f87e6.html.

Tempest in a Teapot?

From L.A. Material: For nearly seven years, UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako has led communications and marketing for the University of California, Los Angeles. She is, in essence, the top person in charge of safeguarding the highly-ranked public university’s reputation. But as of this week, she is also waging a legal battle against her employer to stop them from releasing a report she says would cause her “irreparable reputational harm.” ...Osako’s lawyers asked for an urgent temporary restraining order and an injunction against the Regents of the University of California to prevent the university system from releasing an investigatory report involving Osako. Her lawyers argue that the December 2025 report — which was created by an outside law firm that specializes in workplace investigations — contains “sensitive personal information, anonymous accusations, and unsubstantiated allegations.”

University leadership had notified Osako in late July that they planned to release the report in response to seven requests made under the California Public Records Act, according to the filing... Osako’s lawyers argue that disagreement between the vice chancellor and this group of employees motivated the employees to file public records requests for the investigatory report. The filing also suggests that these employees “may be prospective plaintiffs in anticipated litigation against the university,” arguing that they are seeking the report to secure early access to evidence ahead of their potential lawsuit and generally further their personal disagreements with Osako.  

...UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk lauded Osako in a statement to L.A. Material.

...The court granted Osako’s temporary restraining order... and set a hearing on the preliminary injunction for late September, meaning that UCLA is barred from releasing the report in the interim.

Full story at https://lamaterial.com/p/ucla-mary-osako-lawsuit-regents.

Straws in the Wind - Part 454

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: University President Jennifer Mnookin announced the members of the presidential task force on shared governance..., providing updates on the body charged with evaluating “the duties and powers of the University Senate.” The task force is expected to deliver its “findings and recommendations” about changes to the senate’s powers in a report to Mnookin by spring 2027. Recommended in April by the board of trustees’ senate review committee, the task force is charged with reexamining the structure and power of the senate. The move has drawn criticism from student senators who question its purpose and legitimacy as a presidentially appointed group reviewing the University’s largest democratically elected governing body. The University Senate is made up of 111 elected faculty members, students, and staff who set policy and advise administrators and trustees on University issues.

...The University Senate released its own report, called the “Sundial Report,” in March 2025, alleging Columbia had a “lack of transparency and disregard for democratic processes and shared governance” following campus protests between October 2023 and December 2024...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/08/26/mnookin-appoints-presidential-task-force-to-review-university-senate/.

Admissions

From the California Post: A father in Palo Alto, California, is declaring a victory in court after a federal judge allowed a civil rights lawsuit alleging anti-Asian bias in college admissions to move forward. Nan Zhong and his son, Stanley Zhong, filed federal lawsuits against several elite institutions, including the University of California system, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan and Cornell University. The complaints allege the universities engaged in “racially discriminatory admissions practices that disadvantage highly qualified Asian-American applicants.”

One of their cases will now proceed in part against the University of Washington after a federal judge granted the university defendants’ motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part...

A 2023 graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Stanley scored a 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT (99th percentile), held a 4.42 weighted GPA, ranked in the top 9% of his graduating class and had launched a free e-signing startup featured by Amazon Web Services. Shortly after the college rejections, Google hired Stanley as a full-time software engineer in a position that his family’s court filing says typically requires a Ph.D. or equivalent practical experience...

Spokespersons for the University of California system have previously denied the allegations, maintaining that its admissions policies strictly comply with state and federal laws prohibiting race-conscious decisions...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/08/30/us-news/california-student-stanley-zhong-gets-legal-win-in-racial-discrimination-against-colleges/.

Note: It is unclear what the status of the UC element in the lawsuit is. But the point of the suit seems to be to open the door to "discovery" of internal documents pertaining to admissions. Such discovery will now go forward with regard to the U of Washington. For UC, it touches on the SAT issue and other admissions matters currently under review.

Numbers

We seem to get budgetary numbers on the fiscal condition of the UCLA Athletics program from external sources, but not from UCLA. CBS News carries a story concerning the recent firing and replacement of the UCLA AD.* It notes that there was donor dissatisfaction building with the old regime, expressed as declining donations:

UCLA's donation rank was towards the bottom of the Big Ten:

It appears the Athletics program was a chronic money loser through June 30, 2025. UCLA provided some offsetting subsidy money, mainly in the last two years available. No data were provided for 2025-26.

It would be nice if these numbers were readily available from UCLA - as opposed to CBS News. And it would be nice to have data for last year. It would be nice to know exactly what the definitions are of revenue and expenses. It would be nice to know exactly where the money to finance the reported deficits came from since the cumulative deficits substantially exceed the "subsidy." Is all this going to be revealed during the upcoming budgetary "retreat"?

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*https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ucla-money-problems-donors-martin-jarmond-firing-athletic-director/.

Digital Humanities

From CalMatters: UCLA is launching the nation’s first digital humanities department and bachelor’s degree this fall. The new discipline combines classical humanities with technical know-how to examine a digitized and increasingly AI-enhanced world. The major fuses technological tools for statistical analysis, coding, 3D mapping and data visualization with traditional humanities subjects like history, literature and global cultures. It’s a multidisciplinary approach to education that capitalizes on employers’ growing desire for recent graduates to think critically while also being able to harness new technology. And the major requires a great deal of teamwork among students, another skill hiring managers seek. 

Students will learn how new technologies shape culture and the human biases that enter into the use of these new tools. Top of mind is the rise of generative artificial intelligence and training students to use it ethically while also understanding how easily it can produce misleading content...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/08/ucla-digital-humanities/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 453

From Inside Higher Ed: Twenty-three percent fewer student visas were issued in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to newly released Department of State figures. Some countries, like Iran, Myanmar and Venezuela, saw declines over 70 percent from year to year. India, the second-largest supplier of international students to the U.S. in 2024, also experienced a precipitous 56.6 percent drop. An Inside Higher Ed analysis of the data shows that visa issuances were essentially in line with the previous year for the first several months of 2025 but dropped in May—the same month President Donald Trump paused all student visa interviews to implement new social media screenings for those applicants. The number of student visas issued remained below 2024 levels for the remainder of the year.

The largest decrease was among F-1 visa holders, who are in the U.S. seeking a degree and who are at the center of concerns about how the Trump administration's international student policies will impact enrollments; those visas declined by 33.4 percent, versus 9.9 percent for J-1 and 6.7 percent for M-1 visas. (J-1 visas are for students and scholars in certain exchange programs, including the Fulbright program, while M-1 visas are for students in nondegree or vocational training.) ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/international-students-us/2026/08/26/new-student-visas-dropped-23-2025. 

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 195

From the Harvard Crimson: Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh told Peer Advising Fellows... that Harvard plans to enforce its new cap on A grades by automatically converting all of a course’s A’s to A-’s if professors refuse to bring their grades under the limit — but backtracked in [a later] interview..., saying the mechanism remains only a proposal. Claybaugh told PAFs that professors who entered too many A grades would first receive an alert instructing them to bring their course into compliance. If they nevertheless submitted grades above the limit, she said, all of the course’s A grades would automatically become A-’s, according to four students in attendance and a recording of the event obtained by The Crimson.

...The comments, made during a fireside chat that attendees had been told was off the record, offer the clearest indication yet of how Harvard could enforce the controversial cap once it becomes mandatory, answering a question that has loomed over the policy since faculty approved it in May. Claybaugh [later] backed away from the certainty of her...  remarks, saying the automatic conversion mechanism was only one option under consideration. She said a committee is still considering how to enforce the cap. While she said the mechanism “seems like the easiest enforcement option,” she added that she was unsure whether it was “physically possible in our system.”

“It sounds mean to hold a gun to the student’s head, but the thing about our faculty is they really care about our students,” Claybaugh said... The enforcement question has taken on added urgency as some professors have publicly said they may refuse to follow the cap...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/8/28/harvard-grade-cap-enforcement/. 

Only NFL?

From the NY Times: Since the degenerative brain disease known as C.T.E. was first scientifically linked to football about 20 years ago, and as hundreds of former professional football players have been diagnosed with the disease after their deaths, a haunting question has lingered: Just how many N.F.L. players will end up with C.T.E.? New data provides a sobering indication: At least one in four of all the people who have played in the N.F.L. might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period.

Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between. The study’s main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E. ... C.T.E. is a progressive neurological disease caused by repeated impacts to the head. It can be definitively diagnosed only by examining the brain after death. Studies have shown that the rate of C.T.E. in people who have not sustained repeated impacts to the head is nearly zero...

Experts say that the rate of brain disease represents an occupational safety hazard with little comparison in the American workplace...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/us/nfl-cte-brain-disease.html.

As the distinction between professional football and college football becomes murkier, with NIL, etc., is there anyone who seriously believes CTE is somehow a risk only to players in the former? 

Straws in the Wind - Part 452

Ronald Daniels, President of Johns Hopkins in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education: We developed the partnership with the American Enterprise Institute. We recognized it was going to take time to see a shift in the recruitment of faculty, but we wanted to move with some dispatch to make sure that our students and faculty were exposed to these ideas. 

The fact that conservative scholarship is underrepresented in our institutions ultimately means that the left gets flabbier because it’s not being tested and challenged in the way it ought to be. At the same time, the right, to the extent that it moves outside the university and finds itself in think tanks and is not subject to challenges or critiques from the center and the left, becomes more radicalized. This is not just a problem for our institutions. It’s a problem for America. So I do feel urgency in trying to remedy this issue. It was my colleague Steve Teles, who wrote in The Chronicle about this, who said he was hard pressed to identify a single tenured conservative scholar in the social sciences and humanities at Hopkins. I took that as a very serious critique.

Interviewer: A recent article about various political-diversity initiatives at Hopkins describes the university under your leadership as being on “an ambitious and uncharted journey to transform itself into a citadel of ideological pluralism.”

Daniels: I take it as a compliment. That’s something that I proudly embrace...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/conservative-scholars-are-rare-johns-hopkins-wants-more-of-them. 

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 194

From the Harvard Crimson: The Department of Justice appealed the dismissal of its antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard... seeking to revive a sweeping case accusing the University of violating federal civil rights law in its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students. The government filed a notice Thursday afternoon asking the First Circuit to review U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns’ August 13 decision granting Harvard’s motion to dismiss the case. The appeal comes two weeks after Stearns dealt a major blow to one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive legal efforts against Harvard, finding that the incidents cited by the government were “too isolated and episodic” to prove an ongoing violation of Title VI...

Stearns left open the possibility that should the government be able to present compelling instances of ongoing noncompliance, their case might be seen in a different light. And he did not quarrel with the government’s assumption that it could recuperate previously awarded funds under the Title VI or breach of contract arguments outlined in the original complaint...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/8/28/doj-harvard-antisemitism-appeal/.

The SAT Goes Political

We live in a world in which there is no issue that can't be politicized. If Trump says the sky is blue, Republicans see it that way and Democrats don't. If he says the sky is green, the same occurs. And no one bothers to look up. There was even a movie five years ago titled "Don't Look Up" about this tendency. The thing is, the color of the sky is a matter of observation.

Apparently, the SAT issue at UC is becoming politicized. From the LA Times:

Three Republican state senators are pressing the University of California to reinstate SAT and ACT scores in undergraduate admissions, urging the Board of Regents to act “as soon as possible” and warning that six years without the tests has left students underprepared. “Please re-instate the SAT or ACT ASAP,” wrote the three legislators — Sens. Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks), Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) and Steven S. Choi (R-Irvine). Ochoa Bogh is vice chair of the Senate Education Committee and Choi is a member. Injecting legislative politics into what has so far been a largely academic debate about UC admissions policies, Ochoa Bogh also said in a statement that she plans to introduce a bill next session on testing...

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-26/gop-senators-uc-sat-testing-legislation.

A related letter was sent to UC President Milliken and others to the same effect by Ochoa Bogh and Niello:

https://sr19.senate.ca.gov/sites/sr19.senate.ca.gov/files/OCHOA%20BOGH%20AND%20NIELLO%20Letter%20to%20the%20UC%208.20.26.pdf. 

So he's not Co-CFO? He's the AD.

Blog readers may remember the image above from our Aug. 21st post concerning Tim Harris and whether he was being brought to UCLA as a kind of co-CFO, as suggested by an item in the California Post. Turns out he was brought in as the new (replacement) Athletics Director. From the Daily Bruin:

Martin Jarmond is out of Westwood. Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a campuswide email and written statement that Jarmond, who has served as UCLA’s athletic director since 2020, was dismissed from his position Monday. Jarmond will be replaced by former Los Angeles Lakers executive Tim Harris, who will serve as both director and CEO of UCLA Athletics on a pro bono basis, Frenk added. Jarmond has $6.5 million remaining on his contract...

In the 2024-25 fiscal year, the program ran a $21.6 million deficit – down from $51.8 million in the previous cycle. Most of that reduction came from media rights revenue upon joining the Big Ten, which provided more than three times what UCLA procured in the Pac-12. The university itself also provided $30 million in direct institutional support to pay for the remaining deficit and balance it out to zero...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/08/31/ucla-athletics-director-martin-jarmond-dismissed-from-position-after-6-years.

By the way, if the last paragraph makes no sense to you, you are not alone. As yours truly reads it, we had a deficit of $21.6, added $30, and got zero. (Maybe this is yet another argument for at least the math part of the SAT to be restored!) The problem, however, isn't arithmetic. It is the absence of budgetary numbers (once again) beyond June 30, 2025 - more than a year ago. We need a 2025-26 income statement, a balance sheet, and a breakdown by unit - including athletics as a unit. And we need projections for 2026-27. If Tim Harris is being brought in to deal with the financial side of athletics, he, too, will need up-to-date numbers.

So far, all we have is a promise that all will be disclosed in an upcoming "retreat" this month.

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Note: Chancellor's message at https://chancellor.ucla.edu/messages/building-the-next-chapter-of-ucla-athletics or https://archive.org/details/ucla-budget-book-v-final-feb-2026/UCLA%20Building%20the%20Next%20Chapter%20of%20UCLA%20Athletics%20-%20Office%20of%20the%20Chancellor%208-31-2026.pdf.

Picking Dates

The Regents pick tentative dates for their regular meetings a year or so in advance. But the dates tend to shift for unknown reasons as the original selections grow nearer. For example, the upcoming September meetings at UCLA were originally set for Sept. 15-17. Then the last day was lopped off and the schedule became Sept. 15-16. Why? Not enough business to do? Your guess is as good as mine. But recently, a day was added back, but this time it is earlier. So now the schedule reads Sept. 14-16. Why the addition after the subtraction and the time shift? Who knows?

The schedule is at https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/. The Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive was used to track the changes: https://web.archive.org/.

Union News: Police Contract

From UC News: The University of California and the Federated University Police Officers’ Association (FUPOA) have reached a tentative agreement on a new systemwide contract covering approximately 273 sworn, non-supervisory police officers across the University.

The four-year tentative agreement, which will run July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030, provides significant wage increases and includes enhancements to longevity pay, additional compensation and allowances. The agreement follows six months of bargaining and reflects the parties’ shared effort to address priorities on both sides...

Full news release at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-and-federated-university-police-officers-association-fupoa-reach. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 451

From Inside Higher Ed: A number of faculty members at Texas A&M University–Victoria have quit after the university announced in late June that full-time faculty are required to be on campus for eight hours a day, five days per week this fall. As a result, multiple classes have been canceled and some departments are nearly empty...

According to a June 26 email from the provost... “faculty are expected to have day-to-day physical presence on campus for in-person interaction with students, administration, other employees and the community,” and “to be on campus 5 days a week and maintain a 40-hour workweek.” Failure to comply “may subject an individual to discipline, up to and including termination.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/2026/08/25/faculty-quit-texas-university-orders-them-back-campus. 

Supreme Court Appeal

From E&E News/Politico: The Trump administration this week asked the nation’s highest bench to overturn a lower court ruling that said agencies’ termination of grants because they are “DEI” violated the First Amendment. The Constitution’s protections against free speech generally prohibit the government from showing “viewpoint discrimination.” This case the administration has presented to the Supreme Court could determine whether that includes terminating grants a new administration does not like, which President Donald Trump directed en masse after returning to power last year.

The petition was filed by several University of California researchers whose grants from EPA, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities were terminated, some allegedly because of a nexus to diversity, equity or inclusion, known as DEI.

Source: https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-let-him-terminate-dei-research-grants/.

They asked but got NIL

From CalMatters: CalMatters filed a lawsuit against UCLA [last] Monday after nearly a year of attempts to obtain information about how the university pays its student athletes. Last fall, CalMatters submitted records requests to 16 University of California and California State University campuses, seeking information about payments to their Division I athletes, but many schools provided little or no information in response. The lawsuit states that taxpayers are entitled to know the names of players who have received money and the teams they play on...

The universities pay student athletes for the right to use their name, image and likeness — NIL — in promotional materials. The payments also help recruit top athletes or dissuade them from seeking better pay elsewhere. UCLA and UC Berkeley, which have the most competitive and most lucrative athletics programs among the state’s public universities, initially rejected CalMatters’ records requests. They argued that sharing information about their payments to students would put their players at a competitive disadvantage or violate students’ right to privacy in education. 

After meeting with attorneys at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, which represented CalMatters, both universities provided some records, which give a first-of-its-kind glimpse into the new dynamics of college sports. They each said they spent about $20.5 million paying athletes in the 2025-26 academic year, which is the maximum amount allowed. UCLA said it paid 229 athletes. UC Berkeley said it paid 147...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/08/student-athlete-payments-california/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 450

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The University of Chicago’s undergraduate social-sciences division will go “analog” this fall, implementing a blanket policy banning technology in class and AI assistance on coursework across the division’s core courses. New restrictions apply to students and faculty members in required social-sciences core sequences, which students typically complete in three phases during their sophomore year. The university’s law school announced earlier this summer a similar ban in required first-year core courses.

While many professors across the country have taken to banning tech in their classrooms and adding AI policies to their syllabi amid students’ increasing use of large language models, or LLMs, on coursework, the new policy at Chicago is among the first to articulate a coordinated prohibition. The university provides free Claude subscriptions to all students and faculty members through a contract with Anthropic, which has spurred debate over the role of AI and tech in learning.

The undergraduate social-sciences division will also ban in-class audio or video recording and prohibit faculty members from using generative AI to assist in grading. The policy memo outlining the changes, obtained and published on Sunday by the university’s undergraduate student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, specifies that “wearable AI,” such as Meta’s AI glasses, are also prohibited in class...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/u-of-chicagos-social-sciences-division-bans-tech-ai-in-core-courses. 

Alternative Advice

If you go to Yale, you should embrace uncertainty. But if you go to Penn, you can explore bravely.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 193

From the NY Times: One of Harvard University’s biggest federal funding streams is down sharply, according to a New York Times analysis of government data. The declines have persisted even after a federal judge forced the Trump administration to reverse drastic cuts to the university last year. The funding, from the National Institutes of Health, currently lags about 18 percent behind the average pace of grants during the Biden administration, the analysis shows. Last year, Harvard successfully sued the Trump administration, after the government announced it had frozen more than $2.2 billion in 2025, from multiple federal agencies. But unlike then, when Trump officials made a public spectacle out of announcing the cuts, the N.I.H. is mainly delaying, reducing or rejecting grant requests, often leaving researchers and university leaders in the dark about what is happening...

The reduction appears to be the latest front in the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again war with Harvard and other elite universities. It is a new, more subtle tactic that is harder to fight in court, but that could be just as damaging if cuts and uncertainty build... As the Trump administration has pulled multiple levers to try to bring Harvard and other schools to heel, Harvard has often pushed back. It was the first institution to sue the Trump administration, has won in court on a number of occasions and has not reached a settlement with the federal government, as other prominent schools have done. Now, however, the university faces cuts that may be harder to counter. Last September, a judge ruled that the administration had improperly cut off funding to Harvard when it ended all of its grants in 2025, finding that the government had violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights.

But in the ruling, the judge suggested that there were lawful means the government could pursue if it wanted to restrict Harvard’s money, should it choose to. That is what is happening. Through June 30 of this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the N.I.H. provided Harvard 309 awards worth a total of $200 million. The amount is down from an average of roughly 440 awards worth $246 million for the same nine-month period in 2021-2024, according to the latest data available...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/harvard-trump-costs.html.