Assembly Meeting Today

There is a meeting of the Academic Senate's systemwide Assembly today via Zoom. Any Senate member can attend, although only Assembly members can vote. Information on how to attend is at:

https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/assembly/assembly-agenda-06-11-26.pdf.

The meeting does not seem to have especially controversial items on the agenda. There is, however, a report from BOARS. As blog readers will know, STEM faculty have signed a letter asking for a reinstitution of the SAT requirement for undergrad admissions of STEM majors. The last yours truly saw from news accounts, there were over 1,400 signatures. We have noted in past posts that instituting a requirement by major field when incoming freshmen either don't know what major they will follow or may change their minds, raises issues. Nonetheless, we urged some kind of response by the Senate; perhaps a special committee that would look at the matter of the summer and report to the Senate and the Regents in September, could be a response.

The BOARS report on the Agenda was developed before the SAT matter developed. However, nothing would prevent some ad hoc discussion of the new item, either in the BOARS segment or as New Business. There is an opportunity to discuss New Business at the end of the agenda. Just saying...

Revived

From the LA Times: ...There is still hope for the Village Theatre, which recently received a breath of new life thanks to some of Hollywood’s biggest names. For the first time since 2024, the theater opened its doors early last month for the Los Angeles debut of Billie Eilish and James Cameron’s co-directed concert film, “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. ” Hundreds of fans filled the college town’s sidewalks, and streets were closed for the black SUVs that dropped off A-listers and executives on the bright blue carpet.

The event was the first of a limited number of premieres and screenings planned for this summer to support a 12-month renovation set to begin this fall. In July, the theater will host a special three-week run of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” in 70 mm format. The revival is being led by Village Directors Circle, a group of 35 filmmakers who purchased the theater in 2024. They include prominent directors Jason Reitman, who is leading the effort, and Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, Judd Apatow, Steven Spielberg and Chloé Zhao...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-06-03/westwood-village-theater-plans-its-2027-reopening.

Straws in the Wind - Part 369

From Forbes: ...Dartmouth College [has] announced a landmark $25 million gift from Karen and Jim Frank and their son Daniel Frank to support Dartmouth Dialogues, the college’s initiative focused on civil discourse, bridge-building, and the free exchange of ideas. The gift, one of the largest ever made at an American university specifically dedicated to civil discourse programming, will help endow the initiative and expand its reach across campus.

...The announcement reinforces a trend emerging across highly selective universities. While students often assume colleges are looking for entrepreneurs, researchers, or changemakers, they are also increasingly drawn to applicants who demonstrate something rarer: a genuine love of learning paired with the humility to question assumptions, revise beliefs, and continue growing. Increasingly, supplemental essays reward students who can wrestle with this complexity.

Last year, Harvard University asked applicants to describe a time they strongly disagreed with someone and explain what they learned from the interaction. Amherst College similarly invited students to reflect on engaging with viewpoints different from their own. George Washington University went even further, explicitly framing civil discourse as a defining characteristic of its community and asking students to reflect on meaningful dialogue that created new perspectives or deeper relationships.

...Admissions officers are often less interested in whether a student changed someone's mind than in whether the student demonstrated the maturity to engage a challenging idea without dismissing it. Can they seek understanding before judgment? ...

Full story at https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/06/02/what-dartmouths-25-million-gift-signals-to-applicants/.

Delays

Some blog readers may have noticed that the blog has been delayed in posting some news and has been delayed in being sent to a related Facebook account. It's all due to medical issues in the yours truly household. 
We may be delayed in picking up items or may miss usual timelines for several more days or more.

Let's not forget about Canvas

Remember when the various Canvas plans were hacked and many higher ed institutions, including UCLA, came to a halt?

EdSource has information on what it costs. A bigger issue is that the hacking of Canvas creates questions about dependence on that company, data security, etc.

...Last month, a data breach by hacker group ShinyHunters upended access to Canvas and led to service disruptions around the world at thousands of schools. California’s public colleges and universities were preparing for exams at the moment when Instructure was held ransom: pay up, or terabytes of private data, including student and staff records, would be leaked, the group threatened...

[State] Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat, has called for a legislative audit into Canvas. “The Canvas breach exposes the growing risks of concentrating massive amounts of student records, academic systems and institutional operations into a single platform,” she said.

Full story at https://edsource.org/2026/how-much-do-california-colleges-and-universities-spend-on-canvas/759415.

Straws in the Wind - Part 368

From Inside Higher Ed: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that undocumented students in Nebraska can no longer pay in-state tuition rates, a win for the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued the state over the issue in April, The Nebraska Examiner reported. At the time, state leaders sided with the DOJ in a joint consent decree.  The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Buescher quashes a two-decade-old state law that allowed noncitizens to pay in-state tuition if they lived in the state for at least three years and graduated from a Nebraska high school, among other criteria.

Buescher wrote in his 54-page opinion that permitting undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates while out-of-state citizens pay more “blatantly” violated federal law... Nebraska is the latest state to topple in a series of lawsuits filed by the DOJ targeting in-state tuition benefits for undocumented students...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/06/05/federal-judge-ends-state-tuition-nebraska-noncitizens.

Interview

UC President Milliken interviewed UCLA Chancellor Frenk on May 22nd. The interview did not get a lot of publicity. You can see it at the link below. Frenk discusses antisemitism, the wildfires, the Olympics, the conflict with the feds, and other topics.

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq-PYYp1WUc or https://ia601802.us.archive.org/14/items/newsom-may-june-2026/UC%20President%20Milliken%20in%20conversation%20with%20UCLA%20Chancellor%20Frenk%205-22-2026.mp4.