Heaps Returns

The Heaps case seems never to go away. From the Daily Bruin:

James Heaps – a UCLA gynecologist and a faculty member in the David Geffen School of Medicine from 1989 to 2018 – was convicted on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual exploitation of an unconscious victim in 2022. He was originally sentenced to 11 years in state prison in 2023 but will now face a retrial. The university agreed to pay nearly $700 million in settlements to Heaps’ patients after he faced more than 500 sexual misconduct lawsuits. 

The appeals court cited a note from the foreperson – the juror charged with overseeing deliberations – which said one juror experienced a significant language barrier and was unable to deliberate as reasoning for the retrial...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/02/02/court-reverses-former-ucla-gynecologist-sexual-battery-conviction-orders-retrial.

Global Penn

The student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania made the tabulation shown above of the Undergraduate degrees of undergraduate faculty. Note that fully a third had their undergraduate education outside the US. Note that some faculty who attended US institutions may also have been from foreign countries. So the third may be an underestimate of faculty of non-US origin. One suspects that if a similar tabulation were made for UCLA, the importance of international faculty would also be highlighted. Maybe someone would like to get the data for UCLA?

The chart is from https://www.thedp.com/article/2026/01/penn-professors-undergraduate-institution-degree-data.

Straws in the Wind - Part 242

From Inside Higher Ed: Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered all state colleges and universities to freeze their applications for new H-1B visas... The pause... will last until May 31, 2027, though some institutions may be able to proceed if granted written permission by the Texas Workforce Commission... Texas’s halt on hiring visa holders comes on the heels of a proposed pause in Florida. Colleges and other industries use the visa program to attract skilled workers. To qualify for one, a worker must be employed in a “specialty occupation” that requires “highly specialized knowledge,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

In an effort to restrict access to the visas, the Trump administration added a $100,000 fee for new applicants in September, which colleges have said would be detrimental to the recruitment and retention of international faculty, researchers and staff members. The decision in Texas came less than 24 hours after Abbott first announced publicly that he was considering such a move and had requested records on all H-1B visa–holding employees at the state’s public universities and K–12 schools.

...On [a] radio show, Abbott suggested that some visa holders may have overstayed their legal welcome, adding that those are “the type of people that the Trump administration is trying to remove.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/01/28/texas-pauses-use-h-1b-visas-state-universities.

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From the NY Times: Texas A&M University said [last] Friday that it would end its women’s and gender studies program, and that the syllabuses for hundreds of courses had been altered under new policies limiting how race and gender ideology may be discussed in classrooms. The university said that six courses had been canceled entirely because of the new rules, out of the roughly 5,400 that were planned for this semester at one of the nation’s largest public universities.

The A&M system’s regents — all of them appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican — approved the restrictive policies late last year, and officials have been scrambling since then to interpret and enforce them. Supporters contend that the rules are appropriate measures to prevent political ideologies, especially those often associated with the left, from entering classrooms. Opponents say the approach encourages self-censorship and is itself ideological. A top-down demand to scrutinize a university’s entire course catalog in so short a time is extraordinarily rare in the United States, where professors have long had sweeping control over their syllabuses...

...Tommy Williams, the university’s interim president, said in a statement that he had directed the closure because of low enrollment and “the difficulty of bringing the program in compliance with the new system policies.” He said that students who were already pursuing degrees or certificates in the program would be able to complete them. In 2024, the regents ordered A&M to drop its minor in L.G.B.T.Q. studies. But ending a full bachelor’s degree program represents a sharp escalation in the debate over what should be taught at public universities in Texas, the nation’s most populous conservative state...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/us/texas-am-gender-ethnic-womens-studies-academic-freedom.html.

I'm Rich! (Or maybe not.)

You know better than to respond to an email such as this one. Or do you?

Pension Payments at Risk - Part 3

We have been cautioning UC pensioners about a security breach whereby pension payments are diverted from the bank to which they are supposed to go to some other account held by a scammer.

More cases of such diversion are being reported. If you get a UC pension, your February payment should have been sent to your chosen bank over the past weekend. You should verify that the transfer occurred.

If you did not get your payment, notify RASC. See our prior post on this matter for contact information.* We have been told that UC will reimburse diverted payments - but how long that process might take is unclear.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/pension-payments-at-risk-part-2.html.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 114 (New Development Reported)

From the NY Times: President Trump has backtracked on a major point in negotiations with Harvard, dropping his administration’s demand for a $200 million payment to the government in hopes of finally resolving the administration’s conflicts with the university, according to four people briefed on the matter. Harvard has been the top target in Mr. Trump’s sweeping campaign to exert more control over higher education. Hard-liners in his administration had wanted Harvard to write a check to the U.S. Treasury as part of a deal to address claims that university officials mishandled antisemitism, The New York Times previously reported. But Harvard, wary of backlash from liberal students and faculty, has rejected the idea.

Trump administration officials have indicated in recent days that the president no longer expects such a payment, according to the Harvard and Trump officials briefed on the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. The White House’s concession comes amid sagging approval ratings for Mr. Trump, and as he faces outrage over immigration enforcement tactics and the shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents in Minnesota. A deal with Harvard would hand the president a victory at a difficult time in his presidency. But those same factors could also torpedo a deal, as some Harvard leaders now consider the risk of backlash even higher if they are seen as having any hand in easing the pressure on Mr. Trump, according to one person familiar with their thinking.

Some connected to the university, however, think Harvard has no option but to eventually cut a deal. The administration has repeatedly attempted to cut off research grants, which would be an untenable crisis. Like many major research universities, Harvard relies on federal funding for its financial model. Harvard’s top governing board was scheduled to meet Monday [today] and was expected to discuss Mr. Trump’s concession on money, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. A Harvard spokesman declined to comment about the latest shift in the talks...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/politics/trump-harvard-payment.html.

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Note: Dropping the money at Harvard could affect the situation with regard to UC - with the $1 billion+ demand currently on the table. Harvard had in the past reportedly been willing to spend $500 million for "workforce development," whatever that means, but not willing to pay money directly to the feds. UC/UCLA doesn't have a handy $500 million to divert to some non-UC use, even if its not paid to the feds. Still, it's likely that the news above has caught the attention of the UC Regents. 

I Never Promised You a Rose Bowl? - Part 11

From Pasadena Now: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge questioned Thursday whether the [Pasadena] City’s advance breach claim that UCLA signaled it would abandon the Rose Bowl years before its stadium agreement expires fits within the contract’s narrow arbitration clause. Judge Joseph Lipner took the matter under submission after oral arguments last week. City officials are now awaiting a ruling on the motion, which could ultimately open the door for UCLA to move its football games from the Rose Bowl to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood... City attorneys argue that mechanism applies only to routine, curable performance issues, not to efforts to terminate the agreement...

UCLA currently pays no rent to play at the Rose Bowl and does not receive revenue from the stadium’s luxury suites... Even if the judge orders arbitration, UCLA could still face substantial financial penalties if it ultimately leaves the Rose Bowl.

Full story at https://pasadenanow.com/main/judge-questions-whether-pasadena-ucla-dispute-belongs-in-arbitration.