They're searching

 

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN307ssGLuc.

The (Seemingly) Endless Story - Part 3

A little over a month ago, we posted an update about the case of Harvard's Francesca Gino - the prominent researcher in the field of honesty who is accused of dishonesty.* Here is an update from the Harvard Crimson:

Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino filed a motion on Monday to amend her $25 million lawsuit against the University to include Title VII and discrimination claims. This motion comes more than a month after U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun dismissed Gino’s defamation charges against Harvard. Still, Joun allowed a key portion of Gino’s lawsuit to proceed: the claim that Gino’s contract with Harvard was breached by allegedly subjecting her to unfair disciplinary actions.

Gino currently faces the possibility of her tenure being revoked over allegations that she committed data fraud in her academic work. In July 2023, the University’s top administration began a review of Gino’s tenure as professor at Harvard.

Gino, who has denied all allegations of academic misconduct, revised her initial complaint alleging Title IX discrimination to incorporate Title VII claims that specifically prohibit sex-based discrimination as it applies to discipline and firing in the workplace...

===

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-seemingly-endless-story-part-2.html.

The pop-up scam

Many computer users subscribe to services such as McAfee and Norton that are supposed to protect from malicious software.

So, it shouldn't be a surprise that there are scams related to services that are supposed to protect from scams.

One such scam is illustrated here and involves pop-ups that appear indicating your subscription has expired. Just click here to renew. An example is shown with this posting. The name McAfee is incorrectly spelled with a lower-case "a" as a clue that something is not right.

In any case, if something like this pops up, contact the company directly rather than clicking on any options. Or just delete it. Depending on what browser you use, you can block such pop-ups going forward.

Source: https://www.mcafee.com/support/s/article/000001899.
 

♫Take Us Out of the Ball Game♫ - Part 5 (Maybe the ball isn't over)

From the LA Times: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs filed an appeal Friday seeking to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that ordered the agency to build more than 2,500 units of temporary and permanent housing on its West Los Angeles campus and invalidated leases of VA land to UCLA and a private school. 

Attorney Brad Rosenberg, representing the U.S. Department of Justice, said the government would file an emergency motion Wednesday asking the judge to stay his order pending a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

In the same hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter indicated he may soon temporarily allow UCLA’s baseball team to resume use of its Jackie Robinson Stadium, which he had closed, while a permanent settlement with UCLA is negotiated...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-10-25/va-appeals-judgment-ordering-thousands-of-housing-units-built-on-its-west-los-angeles-campus.

It's hard to keep the lid on - Part 8

Every once in a awhile, we come back to the Amarasekare case - a faculty member suspended for uncertain reasons who seems to be the center of discord in her department for reasons unclear. And always there is the official disclaimer that it's a personnel case so it cannot be made clear. Of course, if it ends up in court, lots of dirty laundry will be on display - personnel cases or not.

The Bruin recently picked up the story (again):

A prominent UCLA ecologist on involuntary leave filed a lawsuit against the University earlier this month, alleging wrongful suspension, harassment and racial discrimination. Ecology and evolutionary biology professor Priyanga Amarasekare joined UCLA in 2005, but she was suspended in July 2022 for a year with no pay by then-Chancellor Gene Block. He escalated recommendations made by an Academic Senate committee months earlier to censure Amarasekare, a widow from Sri Lanka with two children, and dock her pay.

Amarasekare told the Daily Bruin earlier this year that her punishment was retaliation for speaking out against a departmental culture of racism and that it damaged her and her students’ careers. “Amarasekare was subjected to discriminatory, harassing and retaliatory conduct on the basis of her gender, race, color, ethnicity, ancestry and national origin,” reads the complaint, which was filed at the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Oct. 10. “Amarasekare was also retaliated against and subjected to multiple adverse actions over the course of her employment for opposing discrimination, harassment and retaliation and/or making complaints.” ...

Amarasekare’s lawyers are seeking damages in excess of $35,000 and a trial by jury, but they declined to say whether they were open to a settlement...

Amarasekare has exhausted all other available avenues to push back on the charges, including filing complaints with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Civil Rights Department, according to the lawsuit. The agencies have declined to investigate her charges and have given her the opportunity to file her own suit, according to the complaint...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2024/10/22/ucla-accused-an-ecologist-of-harassment-shes-now-suing-for-discrimination.

One suspects there is some room for settlement here.

Goal vs. Actual

Note: The current average graduation time for 4-year students is 4.06 years.

The current average graduation time transfer students (2-year students) is 2.36 years.

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/ug-outcomes.

The FAFSA Drama Continues - Part 17 (echo)

Blog readers who followed our various posts on the FAFSA screw-up last year may wonder what the consequence was. For those who were responsible for the screw-up, it's not clear there were consequences. However, it did affect potential students - probably permanently.

From Inside Higher Ed: Higher ed institutions this fall experienced the steepest drop in first-year enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center... Four-year institutions saw the largest decline, with an 8.5 percent drop at public colleges and a 6.5 percent decline at nonprofit privates. At institutions that serve the highest numbers of Pell-eligible students, first-year enrollment fell by more than 10 percent.

The declines appear to be part of the fallout from last cycle’s bungled rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which many observers predicted would result in a devastating setback to low-income and underrepresented student enrollment. FAFSA completion rates for incoming first-year students—who were high school seniors during the previous financial aid cycle—still lag about 9 percent behind last year, according to data from the National College Attainment Network...

The compounding enrollment declines aren’t likely to reverse without significant shifts in the next few years, [National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Doug] Shapiro said—a daunting prospect considering the traditional college-going population is predicted to fall off a cliff next year. “The nearest precedent we have for this is fall 2020, when we saw a 7 percent plunge in freshmen,” he said. “We tracked them for the next two years and found an infinitesimal number of them coming back next year or the year after. Based on that, prospects of a rebound are low.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2024/10/23/after-fafsa-issues-steep-drop-first-year-enrollment.