Dan Mitchell's blog about UCLA and UC. The original goes back to 2009 at uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com.
Daniel J.B. Mitchell is a Professor-Emeritus in the Anderson and Luskin Schools at UCLA.
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...
Campus cooling measures will be in place through at least Oct. 9 as the region prepares for prolonged extreme heat.
This BruinADVISORY is being issued on behalf of UCLA Facilities Management.
Dear Bruin Community:
To protect critical campus facilities during times of high heat and humidity, UCLA has established a three-stage cooling response plan for non-critical spaces.
In anticipation of a major, prolonged heat wave, UCLA will implement Stage 1 of the cooling curtailment plan beginning Saturday, Oct. 3 at 6 a.m., through at least Friday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m.
The National Weather Service is forecasting significant heat across the Los Angeles region beginning Friday and expects to issue Extreme Heat Warnings for parts of Los Angeles County beginning Saturday.
Implementing Stage 1 proactively will help UCLA manage campus cooling demand and preserve chilled water capacity for critical facilities and operations as temperatures rise.
What to Expect During Stage 1
Under Stage 1, fan systems in impacted buildings serving non-critical areas will be reset from their existing temperature settings to 74°F. All exterior windows and doors in impacted areas must be closed immediately and remain closed to help maintain cooling efficiency.
Students, staff and faculty in these spaces should be prepared for the adjusted indoor conditions, use fans if available and dress lightly and appropriately for warmer temperatures.
Critical facility areas — including hospital and patient care settings, research spaces, vivariums, general assignment classrooms and data centers — will continue to receive priority cooling.
UCLA Facilities Management will closely monitor weather conditions and campus cooling capacity throughout the heat event. Stage 1 is expected to remain in effect through at least Friday, Oct. 9. The university will provide additional updates through Bruin Advisory if conditions require a change in the cooling response stage or when curtailment measures have ended.
Preventing Heat Illness
With cooling reduced in some spaces, indoor temperatures may be warmer than normal. UCLA Environment, Health & Safety maintains guidance on recognizing and responding to heat illness, including symptoms, first-response steps and the temperatures that trigger employer requirements.
Keep cool water within reach and take rest breaks in a cooled area as needed.
Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, including heavy sweating, dizziness, nausea, headache, or hot, dry skin. Heat stroke is a medical emergency; call 911.
From the Columbia Daily Spectator: In early September, we—the chairs of Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization—announced to our fellow instructors a new policy restricting the use of digital technology in the two Core Curriculum courses we oversee, respectively... As instructors, we have witnessed firsthand the gradual deterioration of collective intellectual exchange in classrooms hastened by the widespread presence of networked technologies. A number of Core instructors had already adopted similar policies before our announcement. In short, a broad consensus on the deleterious effects of screens is beginning to emerge.
We decided it was time for Columbia to establish a precedent for itself and for higher education: to adopt a consistent and general policy for the use of technology in Core classrooms and to take back student attention being lost to screens. What does this mean? No more temptation to skim social media feeds, shop, doomscroll, work on problem sets for other classes, and everything else devices are used for in class other than taking notes. No more reading pirated copies and bad translations of Plato and Kant downloaded from the dark corners of the web. No more staring and tapping furtively at one’s lap as the instructor competes with virtually the entire world for students’ attention.
Now all in-class texts must be in print. Notes must be written by hand. What this decision means most of all is that students must bepresent in the moment—in mind, in body, and for each other...
After all the controversy about A-G admissions requirements and reliance on high school grades versus SATs, this item about UC-Berkeley seems to have passed under the radar. From the Daily Cal:
The [UC-Berkeley] College of Letters and Science has changed how students can fulfill foreign language requirements. For those admitted fall 2026 and beyond, L&S students now must complete two semesters of a college-level foreign language course, or meet an equivalent competency through various exam scores. Accepted exam scores that fulfill the requirement include specific AP, IB or SAT subject tests and scores. For students admitted before fall 2026, three years of high school foreign language instruction still satisfies the requirement. The requirement is also fulfilled “by completing at least three years of secondary school in which the primary language of instruction was a language other than English, starting from grade 6 or above as verified by transcripts,” said campus spokesperson Sarah Fullerton.
The change reflects the shift to California General Education Transfer Curriculum, created by Assembly Bill 928, which standardized transfer requirements needed to enroll in a UC or a CSU, according to UC Office of the President spokesperson Omar Rodriguez... The L&S Executive Committee also determined that high school language instruction is not consistent or standardized, so students could come in with the same amount of language instruction time, but varying degrees of ability...
From the U.S. Bureau of the Census: How are new college graduates affected by the rise of artificial intelligence, and what can this tell us about the mechanisms behind AI's overall labor market effects? ...Administrative records on college graduates [indicate] how economic outcomes among college majors with differing levels of labor market AI exposure have evolved since large language models became available.
...Post-graduation employment, earnings, and job switching patterns among the most AI-exposed college majors began to diverge immediately following the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022. In regression-adjusted estimates, the most AI-exposed decile of college majors saw their likelihood of initial employment decline by five percentage points, while full-quarter initial earnings declined by thirteen percent. This earnings decline is comparable in magnitude to the earnings losses associated with graduating into a large recession. Roughly half of the decline in earnings is attributable to lower earnings within the industry sectors that employ these graduates, with the remainder resulting from a shift in the industry mix into lower-wage sectors such as restaurants and retail. The effects attenuate as graduates move further from labor market entry but remain substantial for the most exposed majors.
If you get an email with an "invitation" that is supposedly from someone you know and might really be sending you an invitation, do not click on it or any link provided. Instead, directly get in touch with the purported sender by phone or email (NOT a direct reply to the "invitation"). If the purported sender knows nothing about it, tell him/her that a hacking has occurred and all contacts should be notified and warned. Then delete the invitation.
Some hints that the invitation is phony: 1) It comes from a weird email address. The one above came from a .vu address. .vu = Vanuatu. (It may show the purported sender's legitimate address as the inviter. But where did the invitation come from?) 2) The email is also addressed to a large number of people. Even if neither #1 nor #2 is involved, you should still assume the worst and get directly in touch with the purported sender.
Finally, given the large number of these scams going around, you might think twice about sending out invitations, greeting cards, etc., through commercial services. Recipients may be suspicious and just delete them. Younger folks may want to ask their grandparents about envelopes, letters, and postage stamps. They'll tell you now it is done!
From an Anderson news release of 9-30-2026: The UCLA Anderson Forecast’s September 2026 outlook finds an economy that has largely weathered a series of disruptions, with economic growth remaining resilient, even as inflation and interest rates have risen and labor markets nationally and in California remain weak... Nationally, the Forecast expects growth to remain above 2% for the remainder of 2026 and near 2% in 2027 and 2028, supported in part by continued investment in AI infrastructure and the wealth effects associated with rising technology equity valuations. Inflation, meanwhile, is expected to move higher again this winter, keeping interest rates elevated and prompting the Federal Reserve to raise rates accordingly...
California continues to present an unusual combination of superior economic growth and inferior employment performance... Much of [the] growth reflects California’s concentration in technology and other high-productivity industries... Aerospace is also benefiting from increased commercial aircraft production, defense purchases, space exploration and satellite production. But that strength has not translated into broad employment gains. California’s unemployment rate has remained above 5% for 31 months and stood at 5.1% in August, one percentage point above the national rate... The Forecast assumes AI-related hiring and the end of contraction elsewhere in the technology sector will produce employment growth beginning in 2027 and accelerating in 2028.
Housing remains another constraint. New-home construction has changed little since June, with the annual pace of permits around 110,000 units, well below the level needed to address the state’s housing shortage. Elevated mortgage rates, tariffs on imported building materials and the loss of construction workers through deportations are expected to continue limiting new construction. Overall, the September 2026 California outlook is slightly weaker than the June forecast, largely because of continued disruption in energy markets...
