Stanford as the next Cornell

On its face, the Stanford case seems less legally fraught than the Cornell case:

From the California Post: A Stanford graduate who was allegedly raped in her dorm room at 19 has blasted the school for its handling of her case — revealing her attacker can finish his degree this fall. The woman, who has remained a Jane Doe, detailed her ordeal in a blistering first-person account published in The Stanford Daily, the student-run campus newspaper, accusing officials and cops of repeated delays and mistakes that left her fighting for accountability for years.

“Over the last four years, I have struggled to make sense of what happened to me, and what continues to happen,” she wrote, questioning why the student was allowed to retain a path to graduation after Stanford found him responsible for “vaginally, digitally and orally raping her.” ...

The survivor also questioned why the university did not expel the student, asking: “If finding a student responsible for vaginally, digitally and orally raping their peer didn’t warrant an expulsion, what would?”

Stanford said the decision wasn’t its to make.

“Independent outside arbitrators—not the University—conduct Stanford’s Title IX hearings, impose sanctions, and hear appeals from either party,” the university said in a statement to The California Post.

University policy states that rape and domestic violence are “particularly egregious and likely warrant separation/termination or expulsion,” according to the statement, with the arbitrator applying that policy to the facts of each case...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/10/18/us-news/stanford-girl-scorches-elite-college-after-traumatic-dorm-room-rape-as-she-slams-cornell-7-case/. 

The Stanford Daily story is at https://stanforddaily.com/2026/10/15/a-stanford-jane-doe/. "In response to The Daily’s request for comment on this op-ed, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office wrote that the office has filed a criminal case and is preparing for trial..."

NOTE: A follow-up story in the Stanford Daily refers to documents that suggest university authorities have a less passive role than just following the decision of an outside arbitrator. See https://stanforddaily.com/2026/10/18/stanford-responds-rape-case-failures/.

H-1B at UC-D

From the NY Times: Vice President JD Vance announced [last] Thursday that Microsoft would be suspended from using a visa program that allowed foreign workers to permanently reside in the United States after an investigation found that the tech giant had “abused” the system... Mr. Vance took aim at the embattled H-1B visa program, which allows companies to hire skilled foreign workers in hard-to-fill jobs...

Schools [also] under investigation are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Arizona State, Brown, M.I.T., the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California, Davis, and the California Institute of Technology... UC Davis... said [it has] complied with visa program rules...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/politics/microsoft-visas-green-cards.html.

While we ponder...

From the LA Times: California high school students are increasingly taking the SAT, as more universities are again requiring standardized tests for admission and as the University of California is debating whether to reinstate its test requirement amid concerns over academic preparedness. In all, 138,763 California class of 2026 students took the SAT, up 12.6% from the prior year — and the largest gain in three years — according to data released Tuesday from the College Board, the nonprofit organization that develops and proctors the SAT.

Though the UC and California State University systems do not use the SAT or other standardized tests in admissions decisions, an increasing number of universities have reinstated testing requirements after many suspended them during the height of the pandemic, including the University of Texas, all Ivy League schools, Stanford and Caltech...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-29/sat-test-free-college-admissions-uc-csu. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 463

From the LA Times: The Trump administration is proposing a new rule that would strip private colleges and private grade schools of their tax-exempt status if they provide targeted help to students based on their race, a significant escalation in the White House’s campaign to eradicate diversity programs directed at Black, Latino and other minority students... The Treasury Department proposed the change... in a new regulation that, if made final, would take effect after May 2027. The rule is broadly aimed at ending any policies or programs that help students because of their race, and it specifically says such benefits in admissions, scholarships and facilities “would be incompatible” with the rule...

The proposed change would not only impose a tax bill on schools, but also could discourage donors who would lose the advantage of deducting the donation to lower their taxes. A public comment period is expected to last until early November. In California, the proposed changes would cover more than 85 nonprofit colleges and universities, among them Stanford and USC. The proposed rule also affects private K-12 schools — in all, more than 18,000 institutions nationwide. Public colleges, such as UCLA, and public school districts would not be affected, although Trump has separately threatened to pull their federal funding over race-based assistance...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-09-03/trump-tax-exempt-status-schools-race.

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.

Straws in the Wind - Part 433

From the Mercury News: Stanford University has ditched its Flock camera system and hired a new license plate reader firm following controversy over who can access the images captured. The South Bay university signed a contract with Genetec Cloudrunner to provide cameras that can read license plates, collecting images its public safety department can use to investigate crimes, Stanford University said in a press release. “Unlike the Flock system, the new system is designed for use within a single institution,” said Patrick Dunkley, Stanford’s vice provost for institutional equity, access, and community.

Slightly under two years ago, Stanford University installed the Flock camera system at university entrances. Stanford, at the time, said it wouldn’t share any information harvested from the Flock cameras with other police agencies. Over the past several years, concerns have emerged nationwide over Flock camera systems. Its systems, critics say, allow law enforcement to access images from other agencies via the networked license plate readers...

“These license plate reader cameras are an important investigative tool,” Stanford Department of Public Safety Chief Laura Wilson said. “They are just one of the ways that DPS is leveraging technology to help keep our community safe.”...

Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/08/08/police-stanford-flock-camera-school-safety-crime-privacy-internet-ice/.

UC & Other Universities Support Harvard

From The Dartmouth: [Dartmouth] signed onto an amicus brief filed July 22 with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Harvard University’s April lawsuit against the Trump Administration. Thirty-five other colleges and universities also signed the brief, including all Ivy League universities except Harvard. In the ongoing case, the Trump administration is appealing a September 2025 ruling in favor of Harvard after the administration froze $2.2 billion in federal grants because the university refused to comply with federal demands to make institutional changes such as reforming admissions and hiring practices, shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion practices and addressing antisemitism “or other bias” in campus programs. 

The brief argues that “even temporary cuts” to federal research funding could have “permanent effects” which “endangers” the “life-changing and history-altering innovations” that arise from “basic research” conducted at colleges and universities... Amici institutions listed advancements in “scientific progress” made possible by federal funding — such as the computer, DNA sequencing, the pacemaker and the “decades-long collaboration among academia, government and industry” which produced the internet — as “enormous long-term benefits” of university research...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/08/flavin-dartmouth-signs-brief-in-support-of-harvard-in-research-funding-lawsuit-against-trump-administration. 

List in image above and brief at:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca1.53667/gov.uscourts.ca1.53667.00108480602.0.pdf.

Straws in the Wind - Part 419

From iHeartRadio: Stanford University football players are taking a significant step toward collective bargaining in college sports. They have established the first campus chapter of the College Football Players Association (CFBPA), aiming to lay the groundwork for eventual unionization. The initiative, announced on Monday (July 27), does not seek to form a union or classify players as school employees. Instead, it hopes to inspire similar movements at other schools...

The CFBPA's executive director, Jason Stahl, views this player-led chapter as a precursor to a collective bargaining agreement at the conference level. The association is actively engaging with players from other schools to form additional chapters, with the goal of eventually negotiating with conference leadership. ESPN reports that this initiative comes amid ongoing debates about how to regulate college sports. Some stakeholders advocate for federal legislation, while others see collective bargaining as a viable solution. The Protect College Sports Act of 2026, currently under consideration in Congress, is one such legislative effort...

Full story at https://1340wraw.iheart.com/content/2026-07-27-stanford-football-players-push-for-collective-bargaining/.