Everybody's Doing It

Either going neutral or settiing up a committee to tell you to go neutral. Columbia is the latest:

The Appointment of the Co-Chairs of the President’s Advisory Committee on Institutional Voice

September 17, 2024

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:

Throughout the events of the past year, our Columbia community has been engaged in an ongoing discussion about how the University can best fulfill its academic mission of teaching, learning, and research while creating and sustaining an environment that enables free expression, rigorous debate, and open dialogue. Similar discussions have taken place at other universities, and some have adopted principles of institutional neutrality or restraint as a way of protecting and enabling free expression by faculty and students on their campuses.

Given our storied history; the extraordinary scope and depth of our scholarship, disciplines, curricula, and programs; and the unique position of our community, Columbia also has a distinctive role to play in advancing this critical discussion. Determining whether and to what degree Columbia should take an institutional position on public matters is a vitally important question, and it is central to our commitment to enabling open discourse and the exchange of ideas in our community.

I am pleased to share with you that Daniel Abebe, Dean of Columbia Law School and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law, and Mark Mazower, Ira D. Wallach Professor of History and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Director, Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, have accepted my appointment to serve as Co-Chairs of the President’s Advisory Committee on Institutional Voice. Under their leadership, the Advisory Committee will be tasked with providing me with a set of recommendations on the proper role of institutional voice in advancing Columbia’s academic mission and its commitment to open inquiry and free expression. The additional members of the Advisory Committee will be appointed and announced in the near future.

We are fortunate to have scholars of Dean Abebe’s and Professor Mazower’s stature and expertise leading this critical work for Columbia. Once the Advisory Committee is formed, the Co-Chairs plan to commence a consultative process through which they will engage our faculty, students, and staff, as well as the University Senate and other relevant groups within our community. I am confident that Dean Abebe and Professor Mazower and the Advisory Committee will lead a rigorous and deliberative process and provide me with sound and thoughtful recommendations that are reflective of Columbia’s history, mission, and academic values, and will contribute to its continuing intellectual vitality.

I want to thank Dean Abebe and Professor Mazower for their leadership and their commitment to Columbia’s future. The work of the President’s Advisory Committee on Institutional Voice is important to all Columbians as it will help to guide the ways in which we protect and enable free expression and vigorous debate in our community. I hope that you will take the opportunity to engage in the Advisory Committee’s consultative process and support its service on behalf of Columbia.

All my best,

Katrina Armstrong

Interim President, Columbia University in the City of New York

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Source: https://president.columbia.edu/news/appointment-co-chairs-presidents-advisory-committee-institutional-voice.

It's getting to be an old idea:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVmmNmYPRzU.

Antitrust Suit Against Journal Publishers

Uddin

From Inside Higher Ed: A group of scientists and scholars are accusing six academic journal publishers of working together to exploit their labor, in violation of federal antitrust laws. 

The scientists filed a class action lawsuit against Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, John Wiley & Sons, Sage Publications, Taylor and Francis, and Springer Nature last week. The complaint outlines “a scheme” that they say resulted in “perverse market failures that impair the ability of scientists to do their jobs and slow dramatically the pace of scientific progress.” The lawsuit accuses the publishers of diverting billions of dollars from “scientific research into their pockets.”

The complaint argues that the publishers fixed the price of peer-review services at zero and  agreed not to compete with each other by requiring scholars to submit their manuscripts to only one journal at a time. The lawsuit also accuses the publishers of prohibiting scholars from freely sharing their findings while those manuscripts are under peer review.

Justice Catalyst Law, a nonprofit, and lawyers from the law firm Lieff Cabraser filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of scientists and scholars, but the lead plaintiff is Lucina Uddin, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. She’s published more than 175 academic articles, according to the lawsuit. The complaint doesn’t say how many people are part of the class action suit, though lawyers said the number of those who are potentially eligible is “at least in the hundreds of thousands.” ...

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/09/16/scientists-file-antitrust-lawsuit-against-journal-publishers.

Something for the Regents

The Regents' Special Committee on Athletics will be meeting tomorrow. Here's a note from the Sacramento Bee committee members might want to ponder:

...Former UCLA Football Coach Chip Kelly earned more in 2023 than the combined pay of all 10 chancellors in the University of California system...

Kelly left UCLA last year and is now the offensive coordinator at the Ohio State University. His record at UCLA last year was 8-5. His record from 2018 through 2024 was 35-34. He was replaced by DeShaun Foster, who reportedly makes less than half of Kelly’s annual salary — $3 million. Funding for athletics often comes from boosters, sponsors, TV revenue and ticket sales — not taxpayers or students. However, UCLA’s athletic program reported a $36.6 million deficit in the 2023 fiscal year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Athletics received about $2 million from students fees and direct institutional support in a recent budget, and the university forgave about $10 million in debt on athletic facilities, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Chip Kelly’s $7.1 million pay package last year would put him among the 20 highest-paid coaches in the nation, based on lists compiled by Front Office Sports and 247 Sports. He made $5.8 million in 2022. In total, he earned about $30.5 million during his tenure from 2018 through 2023 — equivalent to roughly $870,000 per win.

Other UC coaches also raked in huge salaries. UC Berkeley Football Coach Justin Wilcox earned about $4.4 million last year. His team was 6-7 in 2023. UCLA Basketball Coach Mike Cronin earned $4.3 million. His team won 16 games and lost 17 last year. Rounding out the top five highest paid coaches were UC Berkeley Basketball Coach Mark Madsen, who earned $2 million, and former UC Berkeley Basketball Coach Mark Fox, who earned $1.7 million. Madsen’s team won 13 games and lost 19 in 2023. Fox’s team was 3-29 in his last season...

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article292259030.html.

Repercussions of Not OK

Blog readers may recall events at UC-Santa Barbara last spring that - in an understatement - we deemed "Not OK."* Memories of those Not OK events seem to be having repercussions this fall on that campus. From the Santa Barbara Independent:

UC Santa Barbara’s New Student Convocation, which was scheduled for Monday, September 23, has been quietly canceled by the university. Two weeks after the cancellation, the university has finally responded to the Independent’s request for comment, stating a desire to focus on “interactive events” in lieu of a “more formal session with speeches.”

New Student Convocation is the annual induction ceremony for incoming first-years and transfer students. Last year’s convocation took place on Commencement Green and included remarks from Chancellor Henry Yang and a keynote speaker. This year’s convocation was initially planned for late September, but some observant internet sleuths noticed that webpages for the event, which were live back in May, have been down since then. The Instagram page UCIntelNetwork and users on the UC Santa Barbara subreddit have been posting updates about the situation and revealing defunct links. For example, the link to the main New Student Convocation webpage, ucsb.edu/convocation, now automatically redirects to the UCSB Orientation Programs and Parent Services webpage, which makes no mention of the convocation. And the New Student Convocation webpage on the UCSB Housing website is unavailable. 

While a brief email was sent out at the end of August to notify staff that the convocation would not be held this year, no official public announcement was provided by the university at the time. The Office of Public Affairs & Communications at UCSB declined to answer specific questions about the cancellation, namely the reason and why no notice has been sent out to students...

Full story at https://www.independent.com/2024/09/13/uc-santa-barbara-quietly-cancels-new-student-convocation/.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/03/this-is-not-ok-part-2.html.

Rising Toward Parity

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept24/f8.pdf. 

The chart above, available now to the Regents, indicates that faculty salaries are rising toward parity with the "Comparison-8" benchmark that is said to be recognized by the California Dept. of Finance. The Comparison-8 universities are shown below. 

Public universities:

University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, and SUNY Buffalo

Private universities:

Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Yale University

In case you were wondering, or even if you weren't...

One of the topics at the upcoming Regents meeting this week is a requirement that police departments, including at UC, disclose any military equipment they use persuant to AB 481. The various campus departments all seem to use "Def-Tec eXact Impact 40mm munitions," shown in the illustration and generally described as less-than-lethal weapons:

The 40mm eXact iMpact™ Sponge Round is a “point-of-aim, point-of-impact” direct fire round that is most commonly used by tactical teams in situations where maximum deliverable energy is desired for the incapacitation of an aggressive, non-compliant subject. In many municipalities, these are being selected for both tactical call outs and as an available option for patrol.

The 40mm eXact iMpact™ Sponge Round is intended for direct fire deployment. The operator should be adequately trained in the use of Less Lethal Impact Munitions and have a thorough understanding of the round and considerations for selecting shot placement such as level of threat, target distance, size and clothing.

The 40mm eXact iMpact™ Sponge Round will prove most successful for incapacitation when used within its optimal energy range of approximately 5 – 40 meters, although it may used in situations from 2 – 50 meters. The optimal zone offers the necessary energy and accuracy to target the large muscle groups of the buttocks, thigh, and even the knees of the subject.

These areas provide sufficient pain stimulus, while greatly reducing serious or life-threatening injuries.

The 40mm eXact iMpact™ Sponge Round can also be deployed in crowd control situations to protect the riot line, cover or enhance chemical munitions, or targeting specific agitators and organizers of the crowd. When used in this fashion, it is primarily both a psychological deterrent and physiological distraction serving as a pain compliance device to either get the crowd or subject moving or keeping them at a designated distance...

Source: https://www.defense-technology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/40mm-eXact-iMpact-Sponge-Round-6325.pdf.

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The official report also indicates an interest in robots for potential bomb situations and drones:

Request For Category 1 - Unmanned, Remotely Piloted, Powered Aerial or Ground Vehicles—The Use of Drones by University of California Police Departments

(a) UCB is requesting to purchase a second hazardous devices robot to update their current technology and prepare for any potential failures of the existing robot that is 20 years old.

(b) UCB, UCLA, UCSC and UCSF, collectively UCPD are requesting to purchase drones. In 2023, UCD and UCSC were approved to purchase this equipment to research its use under existing UC guidelines. UCD purchased two and UCSC did not make any purchases. UCD did not operate the equipment during the year. 

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept24/c1attach2.pdf and https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept24/c1.pdf.

Retirement Information Programs

Two online programs for those considering retirement in the near future are available this month:

Retiree Health Benefits

This webinar is intended for those considering retirement from UC within the next 4-12 months. We’ll provide an in-depth review of the eligibility rules for retiree health coverage, your health plan options (including Medicare coordination), how to determine your premiums and answers to commonly asked questions.

Date: Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Time: 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

https://ucop.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KpETRz4EQVS-DoKDp9OA_w#/registration

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The UC Retirement Process – From Start to Finish

This webinar is meant for UCRP members who are planning to retire within the next 4-12 months. We’ll explain everything you need to know about the retirement process, including required forms, important deadlines and helpful resources.

Date:  Thursday, September 26, 2024

Time: 10:00 a.m. – noon

https://ucop.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_07WWIZhlR-GEV3GyNXrfgg#/registration