Dissolving a Bond?

According to the Daily Bruin, the chancellor will deal with a deficit in the athletics program by "dissolving a bond." Does anyone have any idea what that means in this context? Now, I've heard of floating a bond. But you don't normally float (offer to sell) new bonds to deal with an ongoing budget deficit. I've also heard of "the bonds that tie," but not ones that dissolve.

Poking around on the web, yours truly found that "dissolving a bond" might mean selling bonds that you already own as part of your financial assets. So what bonds is UCLA holding that it plans to "dissolve"?* Basically, if selling off assets is being used to finance a deficit, it doesn't really matter what assets are being cashed in. What matters is that you are running down assets (reserves) which can't go on forever.

The Bruin also talks about a campus-wide "deficit." But without a complete financial statement, who knows what that means? The last time we had a financial statement was when then-CFO Agostini produced one. But then he was quickly fired for saying some Very Bad Words, as blog readers will know. And, as blog readers will further know, his estimates for revenue and expenditure were as of last September. Presumably, someone has updates. Or maybe not. As we have also noted on this blog, it is not clear that Murphy Hall has the ability to produce up-to-date numbers.

Excerpts from the Bruin:

UCLA will dissolve a $50 million bond to reduce UCLA Athletics department’s budget deficit and consolidate its chief financial officer and administrative vice chancellor roles, Chancellor Julio Frenk announced in a Tuesday morning State of the Campus address. Frenk outlined a three-step plan to address UCLA’s financial shortfalls at the inaugural address, which university administrators, student government leaders, faculty and UC Office of the President representatives attended. Frenk said in the speech that curtailed state and federal funding and rising operational costs impacted UCLA’s finances...

The consolidation of administrative roles [of CFO and Administrative Vice Chancellor] comes as Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck announced that he will retire at the end of 2026. Frenk said the university hopes to increase efficiency with the combination of offices...

UCLA is projected to generate a $220 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 academic year, UCLA’s Interim CFO Reem Hanna-Harwell said in a March 26 campuswide email. Hanna-Harwell’s figure came more than a month after former CFO Stephen Agostini alleged to the Daily Bruin that financial mismanagement from administrators led to a projected $425 million deficit for the same year...

Frenk also said the university is reviewing its real estate holdings, including by evaluating the financial performance and longevity of university-owned properties and seeking out opportunities to diversify its holdings...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/05/26/ucla-to-combine-administrative-roles-give-ucla-athletics-50-million-frenk-says.

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PS: Just a final question: Did any of the "university administrators, student government leaders, faculty and UC Office of the President representatives" who attended the talk ask what dissolving a bond means or, more importantly, what the heck is going on with UCLA's budget?

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*According to the chancellor's speech, some funds from past litigation are being held in the form of bonds. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/julio-frenk-2026-state-of-the-campus-full-speech.

IT workers unionize at UC

From the San Francisco Chronicle: As AI continues to shake up the tech sector and fuel mass layoffs, more than 2,000 University of California IT and technical workers have voted to unionize, expanding what organizers say is now the largest tech worker union in the U.S.

University Professional and Technical Employees-CWA 9119 said Thursday that 2,100 IT and technical employees across the UC system voted to join the union, bringing the union’s tech bargaining unit to about 8,400 workers... 

The newly represented tech workers include application programmers, business systems analysts, data systems analysts, database administrators and other IT workers, the union said...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/uc-tech-worker-union-california-22269143.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 354

From Science: Grants managers at two of the U.S. government’s largest funders of scientific research have recently placed unprecedented limitations on the ability of U.S. scientists to publish with co-authors from other countries, researchers say. Units of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are privately directing grantees to request permission in advance for any co-authorship with a scholar affiliated with a foreign institution, even if all the work was done in the United States. NASA, meanwhile, is reportedly telling some grantees that papers co-authored with researchers in China may have violated its rules.

Neither agency has publicly issued new formal guidance describing these requirements. Instead, officials are informing grantees individually, leaving researchers confused and concerned. In several cases, NIH grantees say they have been asked to remove published papers with foreign co-authors from annual progress reports to the agency. Observers say the policy creates an incentive to preemptively remove foreign co-authors from forthcoming papers.

...Since at least 2003, NIH has required U.S.-based investigators to obtain agency approval before publishing a paper with a “foreign component,” defined as “performance of any significant scientific element” of the research outside of the U.S. But now, NIH managers appear to have changed the definition of foreign component to include any co-authorship with a scientist affiliated with a foreign institution, even if all work for the project occurred in the U.S., says Kristin West, director of research ethics and compliance at COGR, a nonprofit that represents research universities on regulatory matters...

Full story at https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-researchers-face-new-restrictions-publishing-foreign-collaborators.

Lawsuit

From the Daily Cal: The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the UC system [Tuesday] alleging an antisemitic and “hostile educational environment.” The lawsuit alleges that pro-Palestinian protests beginning after Oct. 7, 2023, caused systemic discrimination and violence against Jewish and Israeli students at UCLA and that UCLA neglected those concerns. Additionally, the suit alleges that UCLA faculty is systematically biased against Israelis. It claims that many faculty supported the encampment, used discriminatory hiring practices in the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Cultural Affairs Commission against “Zionist” students and “failed to consider the depth of UCLA students’ racism against Jews and Israelis.”

This suit comes following the DOJ’s investigation into UCLA’s compliance with Title VI, which prohibits federally assisted organizations such as universities from discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. The lawsuit argues that Jewish and Israeli students at UCLA were subjected to harassment and a hostile environment created by the pro-Palestine encampment, impeding their access to educational opportunities and resources...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/uc/doj-sues-uc-over-alleged-antisemitism-at-ucla-for-2nd-time-this-year/article_9c1c573d-f839-4d30-9769-21e3191b15a6.html.

Text of lawsuit: https://dn721605.ca.archive.org/0/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/UCLA_us_v_regents_of_university_of_california%205-26-2026.pdf.

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It might be noted that - as this blog reported yesterday - the Regents committee dealing with the conflict with the feds met Tuesday, i.e., the day the lawsuit was filed. Possibly, the Regents had some advance notice of the filing. But since the meeting was closed-door, we will never know.

No Passing Zone

The Legislative Assembly met on May 14 via teleconference. On the agenda was a consolidation of Senate committees, primarily justified by the difficulty of getting all the seats on committees filled by faculty. However, after much prior effort, there apparently was doubt that the consolidation would fulfill the goals of committees that would be abolished:

From the official report on the vote (distributed via email):

Proposal to Realign Select Committees of the Academic Senate

Legislative Assembly members voted via the Academic Senate Data Management System on the motion to repeal Divisional Bylaw 67.1 International Education (commonly known as Committee on International Education) and amend Divisional Bylaw 65.1 Undergraduate Council. The Legislative Assembly voted 35 Approve, 71 Oppose, and 33 eligible members abstained. This motion included divisional bylaws and thus required a 2/3 affirmative vote of 139 eligible voting members present for approval. As only 25% of eligible members present voted in favor, the Legislative Assembly did not approve this motion.

Legislative Assembly members voted via the Academic Senate Data Management System on the motion to repeal Divisional Bylaw 75.2 Library and Scholarly Information (commonly known as the Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication) and amend Divisional Bylaw 75.3 Council on Research. The Legislative Assembly voted 56 Approve, 44 Oppose, and 39 eligible members abstained. This motion included divisional bylaws and thus required a 2/3 affirmative vote of 139 eligible voting members present for approval. As only 40% of eligible members present voted in favor, the Legislative Assembly did not approve this motion.

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The Assembly DID approve a new Digital Humanities undergrad degree and department.

Straws in the Wind - Part 354

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees [last] Wednesday voted to reject the appointment of a women’s studies professor whose hire had been approved by faculty and administrators. The decision is the latest example of the UNC trustees using what is typically a rubber-stamp vote to deny the hire of a green-lighted faculty candidate. Kiran Asher, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, first interviewed for the distinguished professor position in January 2025 and followed what she called a “perfectly normal” hiring process. Provost Magnus Egerstedt told her two weeks ago that her hire would be put up for the board’s approval at the May 13 meeting. During an open-session voice vote at the meeting, one unnamed tenure candidate was rejected.

[As of] Saturday, Asher had yet to receive an official notification about her employment outcome... 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/tenure/2026/05/19/unc-board-rejects-hire-women-and-gender-studies-professor.

Two (Closed) Meetings Today

#1: NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING 

There will be a Closed Session1 meeting of the Special Committee on the Selection of a Student Regent on May 26, 2026, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland.

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may26/notice-special-committee_may-26.pdf.

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#2: TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 

Because the membership of the Advisory Group on Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues (“Advisory Group”) includes five members of the Regents’ Governance Committee, there exists the potential for having present a quorum of a Regents’ Committee when the advisory committee meets.

This notice of meeting is served in order to comply fully with pertinent open meeting laws. 

On Tuesday, May 26, 2026, there will be a Closed Session, Special Meeting of the Regents’ Governance Committee concurrent with the Advisory Group to discuss Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues 

(Closed Session Statute Citation: Litigation [Education Code section 92032(b)(5)].) 

The meeting will convene at 4:00 p.m. at 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland and adjourn at approximately 5:00 p.m. 

(Advisory Group members: Regents Anguiano, Cohen, Hernandez, Matosantos, Milliken, Reilly, Robinson, Sarris, and Sures)

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may26/meeting-notice_federal-may-26-2026.pdf.