I Never Promised You a Rose Bowl? - Part 6

From Pasadena Now: Kroenke Sports & Entertainment LLC and Stadco LA LLC have joined the UC Regents in asking a judge to compel arbitration of the Rose Bowl Operating Committee’s lawsuit concerning the dispute over UCLA’s contract to play at the historic venue. The RBOC and the city of Pasadena contend in their three contractual claims that UCLA is wrongfully exploring options for a new home football venue, specifically SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. In court papers filed Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner, the Kroenke-Stadco lawyers say the RBOC’s claim against their client is “predicated entirely” on the contractual claims against UCLA and the UC Regents...

The Kroenke-Stadco defendants were added as defendants in an amended complaint filed Dec. 4, alleging that the UC Regents and the Kroenke-Stadco parties explored the possibility of relocating UCLA’s home football games to SoFi Stadium allegedly in breach of an agreement. A hearing on the UC Regents’ and the Kroenke-Stadco’s motions to compel arbitration is set for Jan. 22. The suit originally filed Oct. 29 seeks to enforce the terms of a lease agreement the plaintiff claims locks UCLA into playing football at the venue until 2044...

Full story at https://pasadenanow.com/main/operators-of-so-fi-stadium-join-uc-regents-in-asking-court-to-ok-arbitration-in-rose-bowl-lawsuit.

Presumably, the object is to get to arbitration and then let an arbitrator decide what dollar penalty UCLA must pay to get out of its lease. Arbitration, however, doesn't mean that the amount of penalty won't be (very) large. But hey, it's only money!

4th Quarter 2025 Wrap-Up on the Governor

As blog readers will know, we keep track of the video doings of Gov. Newsom on a quarterly basis, along with other items that seemed relevant during those time periods. The fourth quarter of 2025 is now available at:

https://archive.org/details/united-we-can-yes-on-50-united-we-can-10-3-2025

It includes the beginnings of the race to become the next governor in the forthcoming 2026 primary and general elections, the campaign for Prop 50 (which gerrymandered the congressional districts in response to other states' gerrymanders), the governor's apparent campaign for president in 2028, and a comment on the UC/UCLA conflict with the feds. 

Gov. Newsom, when we started tracking such matters during the pandemic, was given to long and detailed statements with lots of facts and figures he had memorized. As the end of his governorship and the prospect of the presidential race approached, he moved toward shorter statements and soundbites.

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PS: Yours truly tried to get various AI programs to show a slice of pie that was one fourth of the entire pie but was unsuccessful. The programs could easily draw pie slices but could not "grasp" the one fourth part, even when told to make it 90 degrees out of 360 degrees of the circle. I finally got one program to draw a complete pie divided into fourths. But note that the details of the image are really of four slices from similar but different pies stuck together, i.e., the pieces don't quite match at the cuts. That observations should remind us that one concern going into 2026 is that the state budget (and thus the UC budget) is heavily dependent on capital gains from the stock market and the stock market in turn seems vulnerable to an AI bubble bursting. For a skeptical view on current AI hype, consider Harry Shearer's interview with Gary Marcus:

https://ia600103.us.archive.org/6/items/united-we-can-yes-on-50-united-we-can-10-3-2025/Harry%20Shearer%20interview%20on%20AI%2012-21-2025.mp4.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 107

From the Harvard Crimson: The National Labor Relations Board found last week that Harvard violated federal labor law by refusing to share the findings of an investigation into a dispute between officers in the Harvard University Police Department with the union representing the police force’s rank-and-file members. The Dec. 23 decision by Paul Bogas, an administrative judge at the NLRB, requires the University to immediately provide the Harvard University Police Association with a copy of the investigative report. Bogas wrote that Harvard violated federal labor law by refusing to provide the union with requested information necessary for its role as the employees’ exclusive bargaining representative...

The union’s grievance dates back to an April 2024 disagreement between HUPD Captain John F. Fulkerson and former detective Kelsey L. Whelihan about how a reported sexual assault involving a Harvard student was handled... 

Bogas ruled that Harvard “utterly failed” to prove that the report was confidential after [Zachery] See [associate director of Harvard’s Office of Labor and Employee Relations] — the only witness called to testify on the report’s contents — admitted in the hearing that he had not read the report before refusing to provide it to the HUPA. Bogas added that See’s testimony “brings to mind a child who covers both ears and hums to avoid understanding an unwelcome communication.” ...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/12/31/nlrb-finds-harvard-violated-labor-law/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 212

From the Daily Princetonian: Three lawsuits have been filed against Princeton over concerns about the handling and protection of personal data after the University disclosed a cybersecurity breach in November. On Dec. 5, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) released a follow-up update concerning the cybersecurity breach that occurred earlier last month. The breach involved an individual accessing a University Advancement database, with information about students, faculty, alumni, and donors potentially at risk. The University confirmed there was no direct evidence any sensitive information, such as social security numbers, passwords, or credit card information, was leaked. Faculty and staff received additional information on how to avoid “phishing” attacks and maintain the security of University systems...

An order by Judge Robert Kirsch on Dec. 9 consolidated the three cases into a single master lawsuit... University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote to The Daily Princetonian that the University “believes these claims are without merit, and we plan to contest them vigorously.”

Full story at https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025/12/princeton-news-adpol-lawsuits-university-post-cybersecurity-incident. 

Charter Day, 1964

Caption: Mexican President Adolfo Lopez, UCLA Chancellor Franklin Murphy, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and UC President Clark Kerr, Charter Day, Feb. 21, 1964.

Source: https://picturingucla.library.ucla.edu/photos/ark:/21198/z1x41738.

UCRAYS Alert

Yours truly received this alert for emeriti and retirees from CUCEA:

Hacking has been discovered in UCRAYS* that has changed an individual's email and bank deposit details!  This was found as normal pension deposits to banks were absent. Members should be alerted that they need to verify they have received expected deposits and contact UCRAYS ASAP if not received on time. 

I might note that UCRAYS automatically sends out automatic emails January 1 reminding members that they have to sign in at least once every 24 months or their accounts will be locked. If you get an emailed message from UCRAYS, rather than click on anything in the message, separately sign in and check your account.

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*UCRAYS = UC Retirement at Your Service: https://retirementatyourservice.ucop.edu/ or (800) 888-8267.

More on the need for a new Master Plan

UC President Clark Kerr hand the
Master Plan to Gov. Pat Brown

Yesterday, we posted about the need for a new Master Plan. In that post, we noted that community colleges were seen as competing with CSU by offering 4-year undergraduate degrees, to the dismay of CSU authorities. But, in a way, CSU is striking back through a program of automatically admitting high school students, some of whom might alternatively go to a local community college.

From CalMatters: What’s good for Riverside County is good for the whole state: After a pilot to automatically admit high school students into the California State University system in the Inland Empire county took off last fall, lawmakers this year passed a law to greenlight a similar program statewide next fall. Leaders at the California State University last year launched the pilot to attract more students to the university system and to steer some to campuses that have been struggling with enrollment declines.

The pilot worked like this: University officials and high schools in Riverside County pored over student course completion and grade data to identify every county high school senior who was eligible for admission to the 10 of 22 Cal State campuses chosen for the pilot. Then the students received a brochure in the mail last fall before the Nov. 30 submission deadline, plus digital correspondence, telling them they were provisionally admitted as long as they submitted an application to one or more Cal State campuses, even those not in the pilot, and maintained their high school grades.

Starting next fall, all students in California will be eligible for the automatic admissions program, which will expand the roster of participating Cal State campuses to 16. Cal State will release more information on the program’s implementation in February, its website says...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/12/cal-state-admission/.

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In theory, UC might also be affected by community colleges diverting students into their bachelors programs or by CSU automatically admitting high school students, although the competitive nature of admissions to UC acts as a shield. But apart from students, there is also the question of limited state dollars going into higher ed, and who gets them.