People's Park

Meanwhile, back at the park...

From the San Francisco Standard: Over the decades, People’s Park at UC Berkeley has been different things to different people: a physical manifestation of the Free Speech movement, a place for teens to light a joint and throw DIY concerts, a neglected magnet for criminal behavior. Since January 2024, however, the main symbol for the park’s future has been a 17-foot wall of 160 stacked shipping containers erected around its rectangular perimeter. At the site, a red crane now extends into the sky and tall towers of glass have emerged from behind the barrier.

The city’s most controversial housing project is set to be completed by the time students arrive for next year’s fall semester. The $312 million Judith E. Heumann House, named for the disability rights pioneer, will offer apartment-style housing for more than 1,100 undergraduates. However, a long-promised project meant to house the people the development displaced has yet to begin...

No Berkeley housing fight has been this bitter... Protesters tore down a fence the university erected for preliminary soil testing in January 2021, months before the UC Board of Regents approved the project. What followed was years of sustained protest and escalating legal challenges from a coalition of NIMBY and activist groups, including Make UC a Good Neighbor and the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group.

On Jan. 4, 2024, the university moved to clear the park overnight during winter break, cutting down trees and erecting the shipping-container barrier. Seven protesters were arrested, some of whom had chained themselves to trees and equipment. State lawmakers rushed to pass laws to allow for the development, and a June 2024 California Supreme Court ruling put a nail in the coffin of the legal avenues to pushback. The law, Assembly Bill 1307 — the Make UC a Good Neighbor Act — negated one of the primary arguments against the project. The case, Make UC a Good Neighbor v. Regents of the University of California, was decided unanimously...

Full story at https://sfstandard.com/2026/08/06/peoples-park-berkeley-dorm-unhoused/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 437

From Inside Higher Ed: A judge has dismissed the Common Application Inc. and two other nonuniversity defendants from a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy among 32 selective private colleges and universities to use early-decision admissions to increase tuition. But Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts denied the institutions’ request to also dismiss the suit against them, allowing the case to continue.

At selective institutions, an applicant who takes the early-decision route generally has a better chance of acceptance, but they must promise to attend if offered admission. The students who filed this suit last August allege that—even though early-decision policies aren’t legally binding—the 32 institutions have agreed not to recruit or admit students who are accepted early decision to other colleges and universities, allowing institutions to charge the accepted students more...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/08/13/early-decision-lawsuit-proceeds-some-defendants-dismissed.

Less than meets the eye

On Aug. 13, the state senate Appropriations Committee passed AB 713 which has as its goal the hiring by UC of undocumented students. The Regents originally were moving to allow such hiring but halted the effort after the UC general counsel opined that it would violate federal law. Note that when you read the actual provisions of AB 713, it still leaves the decision to the Regents. (There is no such exemption in AB 713 for CSU or the community colleges.) The bill still needs the approval of the full state senate and the governor's signature.

See the full text of the bill below:

Text of AB 713 - AB-713 Public postsecondary education: student employment

Article  3.8. Employment

66029. (a) The University of California, California State University, or California Community Colleges shall not disqualify a student from being hired for an employment position due to their failure to provide proof of federal work authorization, except in either of the following cases:

(1) Where that proof is required by federal law.

(2) Where that proof is required as a condition of a grant that funds the particular employment position for which the student has applied.

(b) The University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges shall treat the prohibition on hiring undocumented noncitizens in Section 1324a(a) of Title 8 of the United States Code as inapplicable because that provision does not apply to any branch of state government.

(c) To the extent student employment is considered a “benefit” for purposes of federal law, this statute shall constitute authorization to provide that benefit for purposes of Section 1621(d) of Title 8 of the United States Code.

(d) The University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges shall implement this article by January 6, 2027.

(e) This article shall apply to the University of California, unless it is found to be inapplicable to the university, then, consistent with Section 67400, this article shall apply to the university only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make it applicable.

SEC. 2. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.

Source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB713.

Online UC Retirement Program

Your UC Retirement System

Description: The Your UC Retirement System class offers an overview of retirement benefits offered by UC.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? This class covers UC’s primary retirement benefits that provide a foundation for retirement income, and voluntary retirement benefits that offer additional saving opportunities in UC’s 403(b), 457(b) and DC plans.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Employees who want to learn about the benefits offered through the primary and voluntary retirement programs and how they work together to help prepare for a financially secure retirement.

DATE AND TIME: August 19, 9 AM

Sign up for Online Program at:

https://fmr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ijclrx04Q7mPZlMcKN-2Yw#/registration.

Hitting the Target

In the recent past, we have gotten used to state revenue forecasts falling below actual results due to unanticipated capital gains in personal income tax receipts from AI. We now have one month's cash report for July - the first month of the current fiscal year. Revenues were a bit ahead of the forecast made when the state budget was enacted last June. But the overage is not from income taxes which fell a bit short of forecast estimates. Corporation taxes were the main source of the overage. And the sales tax ran a bit ahead of forecast values, and by more than pure inflation would suggest compared to the same time last year. So the general economy, as opposed to the world of finance, seems to be doing OK.

It's only one month, of course, but if this becomes a trend, it would mean no unpleasant surprises from the state for UC while the governor finishes out his term, i.e., until January. (There is always room for federal surprises, however.)

The July 2026 controller's cash report is at:

https://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/July2026StatementofGeneralFundCashReceiptsandDisbursements.pdf.

Straws in the Wind - Part 436

From the Kansas Reflector: An anonymous tip accusing a Chinese-American chemist and researcher of espionage spurred the University of Kansas into action, notifying the U.S. Department of Justice and building a case against its own employee, Feng “Franklin” Tao said in a lawsuit. Tao was a tenured chemical engineering professor at KU in 2019 when he became one of the first professors arrested under the first Trump administration’s “China Initiative,” a DOJ campaign purportedly created to thwart economic espionage and intellectual property theft.

After a federal indictment, a criminal conviction and an acquittal by an appeals court, Tao said in a lawsuit filed July 21 in federal court that the university violated state and federal workplace discrimination protections and caused harm to his reputation and career prospects. The lawsuit is Tao’s second against KU. He sued in 2025 in an attempt to regain his job and claimed the university discriminated against him. The July lawsuit accused KU of retaliating because of the 2025 discrimination complaints...

Full story at https://kansasreflector.com/briefs/kansas-professor-falsely-accused-of-espionage-wants-university-to-pay-for-firing-harm-to-reputation/.

Bond

From the Daily Bruin: The California Assembly Appropriations Committee voted [last] Thursday to advance a UC-sponsored bond measure that would fund scientific research across the state. The California Science and Health Research Bond Act – or Senate Bill 895 – would create the California Foundation for Science and Health Research to award $5 billion in grants and loans to public and private research institutions, including UC campuses. The foundation would prioritize projects affected by federal funding cuts and support research in fields including biomedicine, public health, climate science and wildfire prevention. The committee approved the measure 12-1 after lawmakers amended it to reduce the bond from $12 billion...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/08/13/5-billion-science-research-bond-clears-california-assembly-committee.