Excuse me. Can you tell me how many CFOs we have?

This blog from time to time has pointed to the lack of up-to-date campus budgetary numbers, particularly at a time when cutbacks are being justified as due to the "deficit." As blog readers will know, we got rid of one Chief Financial Officer for saying Very Bad Words about previous budget releases. We then got an interim CFO as a replacement. Now we seem also to have a supplemental CFO. From the California Post:

Former longtime Lakers executive Tim Harris has found a landing spot — at his alma mater. The UCLA alumnus is consulting for Chancellor Julio Frenk, a role that allows the veteran marketing and business operations specialist to share his expertise on a volunteer basis, the California Post has learned. Reached by phone, Harris confirmed to The Post that he was doing some consulting work for the university but referred all questions to the chancellor’s office. One person familiar with the situation told The Post that Harris would examine revenue streams involving various aspects of campus operations, including athletics...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/08/20/sports/ucla-getting-consulting-advice-from-ex-lakers-exec-tim-harris/.

An interesting question is how one can "examine revenue streams" without a budget.

Traveling

From the California Post: There’s one national ranking that USC and UCLA football are almost guaranteed to finish in the top 20 every year now – miles traveled. That’s the case again in 2026. USC will rank No. 8 among the 138 Football Bowl Subdivision teams with a whopping 16,290 round-trip miles for its five road games, according to TripBalls. The Trojans will travel to face Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin, Indiana and rival UCLA. Not far behind is UCLA, which ranks No. 12 with 13,636 round-trip miles for its five road games. The Bruins’ road schedule includes games at California, Maryland, Oregon, Minnesota and Michigan...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/08/13/sports/usc-ucla-football-among-most-well-traveled-teams-2026/.

As blog readers will know, these travel distances are the result of the move of both universities to the Big Ten.

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5ywcLXv-SA.

Straws in the Wind - Part 440

From the Cornell Daily Sun: Cornell alumni and students who received financial aid anytime between Fall 2003 and February 2024 are beginning to receive payments from a suit alleging Cornell and 16 other institutions conspired to price fix tuition and aid. The suit, Corzo et. al v. Brown University et. al, alleges the universities worked together to favor wealthy students and reduce financial aid to students through an organization known as the 568 Presidents Group — ultimately violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits entities from cooperating to limit competition. The group was named for an exemption to the Sherman Antitrust Act that allows need-blind institutions to collaborate on financial aid principles to make financial aid similar among universities.

In the lawsuit, a group of student plaintiffs alleged that the universities did not act need blind and instead considered potential admits’ ability to pay, collaborating to set their aid at similar levels — thereby limiting the choices a student might have in receiving financial aid. Overall, the plaintiffs said, aid was lower than it would have been without the collusion. On July 2, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois Matthew Kennelly ordered the first distribution of settlements to be sent out to affected alumni and students, Cornellians included. Though Cornell has not yet settled, students and alumni are receiving payments because, under antitrust law, any co-conspirator is held liable for the overall harm, regardless of if a specific university has settled or not...

Full story at https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/08/payments-go-out-in-financial-aid-price-fixing-suit-but-cornell-has-yet-to-settle.

===

From The Dartmouth: On July 20, 3,988 Dartmouth students and alumni began receiving settlement payments from the class action lawsuit Henry, et al. v. Brown University, et. al, in which the plaintiffs alleged that 17 universities, including Dartmouth, colluded to lower admitted students’ financial aid awards. The 17 universities comprise the 568 Presidents Group, which claimed protection from antitrust laws under Section 568 of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 by devising “a set of common standards” to determine students’ financial aid, described as the “consensus approach.” All 17 members were accused of having violated the 568 Exemption’s need-blind admissions requirement by considering applicants’ financial circumstances. The group disbanded in 2022; College spokesperson Jana Barnello declined to comment on why Dartmouth joined and left the 568 group.

According to the settlement’s website, the first rounds of payments — which average $2,000 per claimant — was sent electronically on July 20. Payments for claimants who requested a physical check were mailed on July 28. On Feb. 25, 2024, Dartmouth agreed to a settlement payment of $33.75 million. Dartmouth’s settlement, along with settlement claims from nine other universities, contributed to the checks distributed to affected students this July...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/08/dartmouth-students-begin-receiving-payments-from-2022-financial-aid-class-action-settlement.

No More - Part 2

From the Daily Bruin: About 60 parents rallied outside Murphy Hall on Monday to protest the closure of two UCLA childcare centers. The Krieger and University Centers, which are under UCLA’s Early Care and Education Program, will close June 30, 2027 because its operations are no longer sustainable, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt announced in a Thursday email to parents... The closure of the childcare centers also came as UCLA faces broader budget concerns, including a $220 million deficit, according to interim CFO Reem Hanna-Harwell...

Anna Markowitz, an associate professor at the School of Education and Information Studies and the president of the UCLA Faculty Association, said seeing faculty from various departments come together to support childcare at UCLA was empowering. Markowitz said she appreciated a speaker who challenged the university’s reasoning for closing ECE because of budgetary constraints...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/08/17/parents-protest-sudden-announcement-of-ucla-childcare-center-closures.

As blog readers will know, our previous post on this matter of Aug. 16 noted that we do not have budget estimates for 2025-26, the year that ended last June 30. Nor do we have an estimated budget for the current fiscal year. Whether these numbers are available to the folks in Murphy Hall is unclear. We also noted that the last two years for which we do have budgets 2023-24 and 2024-25) showed surpluses, not deficits. (The $220 "deficit" cited by the Daily Bruin is undefined.)

Defense Audit

From DefenseScoop: Defense Department leaders instructed 30 American universities and specialized technology institutes to immediately audit their academic, financial and research connections to foreign entities that the government considers too risky or hostile to engage with. The initiation of these probes, revealed [last] Monday, marks DOD’s latest move in a yearslong effort to counter what it views as adversarial influences infiltrating U.S. academia...

Full story at https://defensescoop.com/2026/08/17/pentagon-probes-30-u-s-academic-institutions-for-potential-ties-to-adversaries/.

The institutions - which include UCLA, UC-Berkeley, and UC-San Diego - are:

Bryant University, Cornell University, Drake University, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Northeastern State University-Tahlequah, Oklahoma State University, Penn State University, Portland State University, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Stony Brook University, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UC-San Diego, University of Cincinnati, University of Delaware, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The A-G Charge

Yesterday, we noted that on August 11, the Academic Council had charged BOARS with analyzing the possible return of the SAT for admissions purposes. The Council also charged BOARS with analyzing the A-G requirements for high school students seeking admission to UC:

The Academic Council charges the 2026-27 Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) to: 1) initiate an overarching review of UC’s A-G framework to determine whether the number and general subject areas of currently required and recommended A-G courses adequately prepare first-year applicants for academic success at UC; and 2) submit an initial report to the Academic Council by May 14, 2027. BOARS should recognize, per Senate Bylaw 145.B.7, that “[t]he committee shall consult with representatives from the State Board of Education and K-12 

subject matter specialists on proposed changes to course requirements for undergraduate admissions.” As appropriate, BOARS may convene one or more subcommittees and identify subject matter specialists and partners or consultants from other California education segments (e.g., California State University, California Community Colleges) to assist in their study.

Full document at https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/council-chair-to-boars-charges-on-undergraduate-admissions.pdf.

Straws in the Wind - Part 439

From the NY Times: The president of the major sociology association, Shelley Correll, had just taken the stage at the discipline’s big annual conference in New York City on Sunday when a few dozen sociologists began chanting “Free Palestine” and unfurled a banner. The short disruption was partly drowned out by turning up Dr. Correll’s entrance music, Dolly Parton’s “Big Dreams and Faded Jeans.” Tuning out the broader cacophony around sociology is not so easy, however.

Republicans in some states have singled out sociology as a poster child of everything that is wrong with academia, saying that it has become a hotbed of leftist activism. And rifts have formed within the discipline over whether to take political stances on issues like the war in Gaza. At the same time, fewer students are signing up for sociology classes, making the debates feel all the more urgent.

...“We lost something through this pursuit of partisanship,” said Fabio Rojas, a professor at Indiana University who writes about schisms in sociology, adding, “There are a lot of people who are just like, ‘I want to go to work and not hear about Palestine.’”

Sociology is sprawling. It includes ethnographers who conduct in-depth interviews, data-driven researchers and those who do both. Many sociologists study crime, demography, religion and other topics that do not generally irk conservatives. Sociology has also become a home for scholars who examine sexism, racism, policing, immigration and other politically charged topics... Many sociologists argue that it’s impossible to study human society deeply without seeing inequality and discrimination. And those who support activism argue that it is not a big step to then use that knowledge to push for public policy changes...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/us/activist-sociology-independent.html.