Where the money is - Part 2

From the Daily Californian: Four Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers have received Early Career Research Program awards from the U.S. Department of Energy. Each scientist will receive $875,000 from the department to pursue their desired research over the next five years. The awardees — Asmit Bhowmick, Bingqing Cheng, Marcus Noack and Dan Wang — will focus their research on applying artificial intelligence, which the federal administration has labeled “superintelligence,” in the fields of physics, biology and chemistry. Both Wang and Noack will focus on developing AI systems that are guided by physics, with Wang’s research focusing on AI’s possible use to control particle accelerators. Cheng, an assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, will use AI to try to find how electric fields affect chemistry...

The awards were dispensed by the Office of Science of the DOE, which describes itself as the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences nationwide, supporting 32,000 researchers...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/doe-awards-4-berkeley-lab-uc-berkeley-scientists-funding-for-ai-research/article_12c21622-ed5b-4ffd-9ec4-bd307d2ff6e6.html. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 501

From Inside Higher Ed: The National Institutes of Health awarded nearly 12 percent fewer grants in fiscal year 2026 compared to the year before President Trump took office... The data from the Association of American Medical Colleges shows that NIH obligated all of its funds for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, but the way in which the agency is awarding grants continues to cause uncertainty for research institutions. NIH is funding more grants up front—a practice that allows the agency to get more money out the door but supports fewer projects over all. And the agency has yet to reinstate hundreds of grants that were frozen or terminated early in the second Trump administration.

AAMC has been tracking NIH funding for the past two years, and this latest brief offers a “look at the funding trends that have reshaped the research environment” since Trump returned to the White House. In fiscal year 2026, NIH awarded 56,600 grants, which was a slight drop from the 58,500 awarded the previous year. But in fiscal year 2024, the agency awarded 64,000 grants...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/10/16/new-analysis-finds-nih-awarded-7400-fewer-grants. 

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 207

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard’s endowment grew up by more than $11 billion to nearly $68 billion in fiscal year 2026 after posting a roughly 27 percent investment return, its highest since 2021, according to the University’s annual financial report... Harvard also reported a $100 million operating surplus — a modest 1.5 percent margin on $6.7 billion in revenue — following a major deficit last year. The $2.6 billion endowment distribution now makes up nearly 40 percent of the University’s operating revenue...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/10/16/harvard-68-billion-endowment/.

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From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard received a record $684 million in current-use gifts in fiscal year 2026, a 9 percent increase that marked the second consecutive year of record giving, according to the University’s annual financial report... But after donors redesignated $41 million in gifts from previous years to the endowment, Harvard recorded just $643 million in current-use operating revenue — an increase of roughly 2 percent from the $629 million reported last year. The University reported more than $1.5 billion in total gifts for fiscal year 2026, and philanthropy now accounts up 48 percent of operating revenue, including both current-use gifts and endowment distribution.

The two consecutive years of record giving stand in stark contrast to fiscal year 2024, when major Harvard donors paused or withdrew gifts following the University’s response to campus antisemitism. Though current-use gifts still increased that year, total philanthropic contributions fell significantly by $151 million, one of the steepest drops in a decade...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/10/16/harvard-current-use-gifts-2026/.

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From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard reported sharp declines in federal sponsored research revenue and overall research activity, according to the University’s annual financial report... Harvard’s federal research revenue fell by nearly 20 percent to $506 million, while federally sponsored research activity fell by roughly one-third on a comparable basis, according to the report. Total sponsored research support dropped 14 percent, from just over $973 million in 2025 to about $839 million this year...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/10/16/harvard-federal-research-revenue-2026/. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 498

From the Daily Princetonian: Princeton is evaluating the future of the Center on Science and Technology as part of broader University budget reductions, with administrators considering a reorganization that could shift parts of the center’s work to other campus units... Staff and faculty of the StudioLab, a creative technology space operated by the Center on Science and Technology received an email from the StudioLab manager, Brendan Byrne, informing employees that University budget cuts will impact the CST. 

In an email obtained by The Daily Princetonian, Byrne wrote that further University budget cuts will be made and that the CST will “experience a reorganization in the coming months.” Following the suspension of several federal research grants in April 2025, the University has issued budget cuts across several departments... 

Full story at https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026/10/princeton-news-center-on-science-and-technology-being-evaluated-budget-constraints. 

Saying No to ICE

From the Daily Californian: The UC Berkeley International Office plans to oppose a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement proposal that would require colleges and universities to pay a $70,000 fee before recommending an international student for work authorization.

Optional Practical Training, or OPT, allows international students to work in their field of study for up to one year after graduation. Graduates with eligible STEM degrees can apply for a two-year extension. Under the proposal, universities would also pay $30,000 for individual students’ subsequent OPT recommendations, including STEM extensions, after paying the initial fee. ICE said schools could pass the costs on to students or employers. BIO told students in an Oct. 7 email that the proposal has not taken effect and current OPT procedures remain unchanged...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/administration/uc-berkeley-to-oppose-70k-ice-fee-on-international-student-work-visas/article_6fadb723-a66c-47d8-a24a-698f5f0549d3.html.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 206

From the Harvard Crimson:

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/10/16/harvard-legal-fees-2026/. 

The Bond - Part 2

Gov. Newsom has come out in favor of Proposition 38 on the November ballot: a measure to authorize $8.4 billion in state general obligation bonds for immunology and immunotherapy research, split between a University of California-affiliated nonprofit institute and a grant program for public or nonprofit research institutions. The Institute will be housed at the former Westside Pavilion site now owned by UCLA.

Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/gavin-newsom-ballot-propositions-22470170.php. 

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 205

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard is privately weighing a rapid-fire fundraising push to secure $500 million for University-wide scientific research priorities, according to two people familiar with the matter. The $500 million target has been floated internally in recent conversations, the two people said, but is not a finalized goal. The two said the University was hoping to raise the money by the end of the academic year. The short-term fundraising campaign would arrive in tandem with a sweeping University effort to rethink how Harvard will support its science and medical research in the wake of massive federal grant cuts.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 initiated a faculty Science Advisory Committee this summer to map out a long-term vision for scientific research, and the University set aside $150 million last week to fund cutting-edge projects. The tentative fundraising initiative mimics a successful Faculty of Arts and Sciences campaign this spring to raise $100 million for endowed Ph.D. fellowships. That campaign, launched in February, met its goal within four months, and the FAS promptly announced another $100 million challenge. The newest push appears to apply that template — short-term fundraising for targeted needs — more widely. As it stands, the University will seek fundraising support for defined scientific research occurring across Harvard, the two people said...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/10/9/science-fundraising/. 

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.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 203

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 said... that she has not met with members of the Trump administration recently but would be open to meeting with top White House officials in the future. Pritzker’s brief remarks came as she left a weekend convening of the University’s two highest governing boards and as Harvard continues to stare down several legal battles with the Trump administration.

Approached by a Crimson reporter as she departed a dinner at the Faculty Club following a day of meetings, Pritzker said she was “always open to meeting with people.” Asked specifically about a meeting with Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon, she again said she was open to any meeting... Top Harvard leaders have not met publicly with members of the Trump administration since the White House began their pressure campaign against the University last year, though [Harvard President] Garber spoke by phone with McMahon that spring...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/28/pritzker-open-to-white-house-meetings/.

The Bond

From the Sacramento Bee: The Yes on Proposition 38 campaign has raised more than $38 million and spent nearly $20 million of it on television advertisements in support of the $8.4 billion immunology research bond on the November ballot. The No on Proposition 38 group had raised less than $640 by Sept. 19. Instead of funding ads, the group is focused on letter-writing campaigns to highlight possible issues with the ballot initiative. On Oct. 6, they wrote a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleging that the measure may violate the state constitution...

Only one research institute in California appear[s] to meet the criteria for half of the immunology bond’s funds: the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, an independent medical research organization affiliated with UCLA. Gary Michelson, a billionaire philanthropist and medical inventor, is both the co-founder of that institute and the chief backer of Prop. 38...

A section of the California Constitution that says an initiative that identifies a private corporation to perform any function or have any power may not be submitted to voters. While Prop. 38 does not name any private corporation, [opponents] asked if it “makes any legal difference when the requirements effectively identify it.” ...

The campaign had raised more than $38 million, as of Sept. 19, of which more than $33 million has come from billionaire philanthropist Gary Michelson and his nonprofit Michelson Center for Public Policy. Another $5 million was donated by Meyer Luskin, co-founder of the institute...

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article317528464.html. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 492

From Inside Higher Ed: Cornell University will re-examine its sexual assault prevention and response efforts and take a “serious look at the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life,” President Michael Kotlikoff said in a video statement... Kotlikoff called what happened to the student, known as Jane Doe, “deeply disturbing.” ...

In the weeks since Doe made her experience public in a lawsuit against Cornell and the seven men she alleges raped her, the Ivy League university’s response to sexual assault on campus—as well as its efforts to prevent sexual violence in the first place—have come under intense scrutiny from students, employees, alumni and the general public.

...Campus tensions ran high [last] Monday. Anonymous activists smashed a glass door and spray-painted “SMASH THE PATRIARCHY” and “AT CORNELL RAPISTS ARE PROTECTED PROTESTORS ARE EXPELLED” on the walls of an administrative building... “We wanted to ensure that Day Hall, the center of Cornell’s administrative function, was not able to continue business as usual,” the activists wrote in a statement...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced... that Cornell had agreed to an independent investigation of how it handled the rape allegation; Kotlikoff said... that the Board of Trustees plans to share details about that investigation this week...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2026/10/06/cornell-will-take-serious-look-role-greek-life. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 491

From the Yale Daily News: Yale has already made 78 percent of the budget cuts it planned to implement over three years in response to last year’s endowment tax hike, according to Yale’s fiscal year 2027 budget that was released last month. The endowment tax hike, which was part of President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is costing Yale $247 million this fiscal year, after the tax jumped from $52 million to $299 million, according to the budget. The increased figure represents 3.6 percent of the University’s total spending this fiscal year. The cuts leave 22 percent left to achieve for the remaining two years of the three-year target...

Yale spokesperson Karen Peart wrote in a statement to the News, on behalf of University Chief Financial Officer Katrina Spencer and deans of several schools the News contacted for comment, that “some areas of the university will feel more financial strain than others.”

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-already-made-majority-of-cuts-to-offset-trump-s-tax-budget-shows. 

Where the money is

From the Daily Californian of 10-6-2026: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills at a quantum lab at UC Berkeley on Sept. 30 to accelerate the development of fusion energy in California... “UC is poised to lead in quantum and fusion energy research,” said UC Office of the President spokesperson Omar Rodriguez in an email. “This statewide investment will keep California at the forefront of this field by growing California’s future workforce, accelerating scientific discovery and advancing clean energy.” 

According to an email from the CEC [California Energy Commission], UC Berkeley was chosen as the place of signing due to its status as the lead university for the National Science Foundation Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation, a multi-institutional research center spanning universities across the state. The NSF just renewed its support for the NSF CIQC with $37.5 million in funding over the next five years to further quantum research...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/newsom-signs-legislation-at-uc-berkeley-to-accelerate-fusion-energy-grants-30m-for-quantum-research/article_9c0a8e0c-1793-4d8e-bb72-8a6f1a0351a1.html.

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President Trump Executive Order 14413

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  Purpose.  America stands at the cusp of a quantum revolution.  Quantum information science and technology (QIST) will provide transformational capabilities that will drive American innovation, power economic growth, generate high-paying jobs, and bolster national security.  In 2018, I laid the foundation for United States leadership in QIST by signing into law the National Quantum Initiative Act and doubling Federal investment in QIST research and development.  Today, as other nations move quickly to challenge American leadership, the United States must take a cohesive, whole-of-government approach to accelerate deployment and commercialization of quantum computing, sensing, and networking.

In addition to continuing trailblazing quantum research, we must act to solidify the Nation’s position as the world’s QIST superpower and deliver the commercial and research benefits of quantum innovation to the American people.  Equally important, we must protect sensitive technologies and work with allies to ensure adversaries cannot use QIST to undermine national security.

Sec. 2.  Policy.  It is the policy of my Administration to ensure that the United States maintains a strategic technical advantage in QIST and leads the development of a robust and trusted quantum ecosystem across QIST research, manufacturing, commercialization, and application...

Full text at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/ushering-in-the-next-frontier-of-quantum-innovation/. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 490

From Inside Higher Ed: The Department of Homeland Security is appealing a federal court’s ruling in a lawsuit contesting a regulation that would limit how long international students can stay in the U.S... DHS filed its appeal with the First Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking to reverse a preliminary injunction that blocked the regulation from going into effect. The regulation, which was finalized over the summer and slated to take effect in September, would cap the amount of time international students can remain in the U.S. at four years, unless they get permission for an extension. It also placed other new limitations on international students, such as preventing graduate students from changing their course of study. A preliminary injunction granted by a federal judge last month prevented the rule from taking effect...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/10/05/dhs-appeals-block-international-student-time-limits. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 489

From the NY Times: The National Science Foundation, one of the biggest sources of federal research funding, withheld $1.4 billion that Congress had intended for research over the course of the past year... The extraordinary move — holding back about one-fifth of the N.S.F.’s primary research budget — is the latest sign of how the Trump administration is finding creative ways to work around Congress. Lawmakers from both parties have consistently opposed White House-led proposals to cut funding to major science agencies, including the N.S.F. and the National Institutes of Health.

...The White House wants to redirect the money to a limited set of administration priorities, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing, according to two people with knowledge of the administration’s plans. Congress appropriates money to the N.S.F. on two-year cycles, so the agency could still spend the held-over money in the new fiscal year... The White House and the N.S.F. said that diverting the money was allowed under Congress’s two-year appropriation...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/us/politics/national-science-foundation-research-funds.html. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 488

From Inside Higher Ed: The Department of Justice... filed its 26th lawsuit targeting policies that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates. The lawsuit, against the University of Delaware, is the first of these DOJ cases to target an individual institution rather than a state or municipal government.  The lawsuits have already ended in-state tuition for undocumented students in Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, impacting an estimated 180,000 undocumented students. Florida pre-emptively eliminated its policy in February 2025 and recently barred undocumented students from enrolling in any selective public university. At least 220,000 other undocumented students live in states where litigation is ongoing, according to data from the Higher Education Immigration Portal.

The complaint against the University of Delaware specifically seeks to prevent the institution from offering in-state tuition to undocumented students, even if they are lawfully present in the United States, and stop them from enacting any new policy that would “favor illegal aliens over U.S. citizens,” according to a news release...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/10/02/u-delaware-sued-offering-noncitizens-state-tuition. 

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 202

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 quietly convened a University-wide committee of faculty members to develop a new vision for scientific research over the next several years, according to six people familiar with the matter. The group, known as the Science Advisory Committee, formed over the summer, one person said, and includes roughly 15 to 20 faculty members. It is chaired by former Provost Steven E. Hyman and Immunology Department Chair Arlene H. Sharpe ’75, that person and one other said...

The push to develop a coherent, University-wide strategy for the next era of scientific research — and one explicitly tied to fundraising — is the most concrete step the University has taken to rethink its approach to research since the government froze nearly $2.7 billion in Harvard’s funding in spring 2025. University officials have said for the past year that Harvard will need to diversify its funding sources in response to unreliable government support for scientific research... There are now early signs of that work around the University. The Alumni Affairs and Development office launched a new team focused on “transformational giving” after a spring reorganization...

Earlier this week, one of the University’s biggest donors, Kenneth C. Griffin ’89, who paused his giving to Harvard to 2024, announced a $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest single gift in the history of U.S. higher education...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/10/2/garber-science-advisory-committee/. 

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 201

From the NY Times: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked a federal judge to compel Harvard to hand over records in the agency’s investigation into what it described as “systemic discrimination” in the university’s employment practices, particularly against white men. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts, the E.E.O.C. accused the university of noncompliance, escalating a legal battle that has been brewing for more than a year, court filings show.

Lawyers for Harvard have called the E.E.O.C.’s investigation part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to bring the university to heel. “The government has not concealed that its all-out campaign targets Harvard for the assertion of its constitutional rights,” the lawyers wrote in a June motion, which the agency included in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday. Harvard’s lawyers noted that Andrea Lucas, the Republican chair of the E.E.O.C., filed her civil rights charge against Harvard in April 2025, four days after the university sued the federal government for freezing $2.2 billion in funding.

...Ms. Lucas has been keen to use what are known as commissioner’s charges — allegations based not in a complaint from an employee, but on an E.E.O.C. commissioner’s belief that a violation of the law may have occurred...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/business/economy/harvard-eeoc-diversity-hiring.html.

Newsom in the 3rd Quarter

 

As blog readers may know, we keep track of Gov. Newsom's activities, particularly his not-a-campaign for president, on a regular basis, combined with other related political events. He doesn't pay much attention  to UC, except mentioning it in extolling the California economy. Unless there is some highly unlikely event, Xavier Becerra will be the next governor. However, he will be coming in to office in January facing a constitutional requirement to present a budget. Much of the legwork will, of necessity, have been done in the next few months by Newsom's Dept. of Finance group. In any case, our Newsom & related files on the Internet Archive for July-September can be seen at:

https://archive.org/details/newsom-7-1-2026-savings-accounts-for-kids.