Hines

From the NY Times: Thomas S. Hines, [a UCLA] architectural historian whose thorough research, crystalline writing and unending passion for the urban landscape of Los Angeles did much to cement the region’s reputation as a global center for modernist design in the 20th century, died on July 26 in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 89. His son, Taylor Hines, said the death, at a hospital, was from complications of pneumonia...

Professor Hines’s achievement was twofold: He not only demonstrated that the modernist architecture of midcentury Southern California was worthy of systematic historical attention, but he did so by expanding the scope of his field to include economic, social and cultural history. Rather than seeing the architecture of Los Angeles as an outlier to European and New York modernism — or the region as merely a refuge for European architects fleeing fascism — he showed that California modernism had its own history and dynamics...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/books/thomas-hines-dead.html.

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Lecture on LA architecture by Hines (2010):

https://dn800307.us.archive.org/0/items/sacramento-city-at-risk/Hines%20on%20LA%20architecture%205-15-2010.mp4.

Straws in the Wind - Part 432

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The Department of Education’s... letter outlining principles for “every postsecondary institution” in the country was a bombshell for two reasons. One: The Trump administration was asking college presidents to sign onto its overarching vision for the sector. Two: Several prominent higher-ed leaders were reported to have helped draft it. The Association of American Universities was reportedly the primary partner... Douglas A. Girod, chancellor of the University of Kansas, was supposed to have been another major player. The very idea caused “great consternation to the KU faculty,” said Ronald M. Barrett-Gonzalez, a professor of aerospace engineering there.

...Andrew D. Martin, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, issued a statement saying: “For several months, I have participated in broader discussions with the White House and other higher-education leaders about issues affecting the sector. I expect those conversations helped inform the administration’s thinking around their Monday letter. I was not involved, however, in the drafting of the letter.” ...In an interview with The Chronicle, Barbara R. Snyder, president of the AAU, described a complicated feedback process with the Trump administration in which AAU representatives had little control over drafts. She, Girod, and Ronald J. Daniels, president of the Johns Hopkins University, met with officials from the Education Department and the White House two or three times in person and a couple of times over the phone, she said. Girod and Daniels were acting in their capacity as chair and vice chair of AAU’s board. They always met with Trump officials as a group of three, Snyder said.

They provided feedback on drafts, which they did not receive copies of. They were allowed to see them only during the meetings. Without access to past drafts, Snyder said she couldn’t exactly recall what changed over the course of their meetings, but she said: “The first draft we saw was already quite different from the compact, and the final draft is quite different from the first draft. Did they listen to some of our suggestions? Yes. Did they take all of our suggestions? No.” Asked if Snyder’s description of the meetings was accurate, a spokesperson for the Education Department answered with a short statement: “We appreciate the candid dialogue with bold university leaders who are helping refocus higher education on its foundational commitment to academic excellence.” ...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/college-leaders-play-down-their-involvement-in-compact-2-0.

Music Money?

From the San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley is close to reaching an agreement to host the first major concert at Memorial Stadium in 36 years, in an effort to generate fresh revenue for the school’s financially stretched athletic department. If the deal is finalized, it would mark the first concert at the stadium since Paul McCartney came to Berkeley for two sold-out shows in the spring of 1990...

The Panoramic Hill Association, comprised of homeowners near the stadium, filed a lawsuit (along with the city of Berkeley and California Oak Foundation) against UC in 2006 and reached a settlement four years later. That settlement, which included a commitment to prohibit “amplified music concerts” according to the university, expired in January...

Cal officials clarified... saying the concert with an undisclosed performer is not yet a done deal.

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/college/article/cal-close-landing-memorial-stadium-s-first-22375938.php.

Going Down

We now have some numbers on federal funding cutbacks:

From the San Francisco Chronicle: 

Citing a steep reduction in federal research grants to the University of California under the Trump administration, UC President James Milliken is asking California’s congressional delegation for help in freeing up the stalled science funds. Grants from the National Science Foundation are down 39% from recent years, while funding from the National Institutes of Health has fallen by 22% as of July 13, Milliken told 54 members of Congress in a letter sent July 29, noting that these rates are a “substantially slower pace than historical norms.”

The slowdowns not only hamper UC by forcing hiring freezes and research delays, Milliken wrote, but they also “affect the economy, biomedical advances, technology commercialization, national security research, and partnerships between academia and industry” across the country...

UC spent $102.4 million on outside legal counsel alone in fiscal 2025-26 — a nearly 57% increase from the $65.4 million spent the year before, UC told the Chronicle...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/uc-congress-trump-research-funding-22376388.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 431 (going beyond campus)

From The Dartmouth: Dartmouth Dialogues, College President Sian Leah Beilock’s signature initiative, is getting new leadership... Day-to-day operations on campus will be overseen by Stephanie Glaros, who previously worked with Dartmouth Dialogues as the facilitator of Story Corps One Small Step, a non-profit that organizes conversations across political differences. 

...[Former Executive Director Kristi Clemens said] that the next executive director, who will “optimistically” begin serving by spring 2027, will be better equipped to take Dartmouth Dialogues’s “specialness” and “apply” it to a broader model that could work in other institutions and even high schools. “We’re looking for somebody to be a national thought leader, to be somebody who has been doing this work across institutions, who’s been doing this work across different fields, and can take Dartmouth Dialogues, with their expertise and their national or international connections, to the next level,” she said.

Clemens said Jim Frank ’65, Karen Frank and their son Daniel Frank ’92’s $25 million gift to the initiative — $10 million of which permanently endowed the executive director role — “allowed” the College to begin searching for a candidate with “national recognition” to fill the role...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/08/weaverbell-new-executive-director-will-build-dartmouth-dialogues-into-national-model.

Somehow, money, football, and lettuce connect at Berkeley

From the Daily Californian: Before its recent distribution of produce contaminated with cyclospora and salmonella, Taylor Farms filed a lawsuit against former executive Brian Thure, alleging more than $32 million was embezzled for unauthorized purchases including a $1 million endowment for the Cal football team. According to the lawsuit filed in June, Thure and his wife, Julie Thure, embezzled $32 million over five years by moving money through the alleged “sham entity” MTS Building and Electrical...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/city/law-and-justice/taylor-farms-sues-uc-berkeley-alumnus-over-embezzlement-including-1m-to-cal-football/article_b6f95e18-a766-4c65-b8fc-15ad9694bc20.html.

Congressional Mail

Letter from UC President James B. Milliken 

Re: Slow Spend Rate of Federal Scientific Agencies 

UC Office of the President, July 29, 2026

California Congressional Delegation

Dear Members of Congress:

On behalf of the University of California (UC) — a system of over 300,000 students, 266,000 faculty and staff, and 2.5 million alumni across ten campuses and six academic health centers — I write to express my deep concern regarding the significant slow spend rate of the federal science agencies.

The federal government’s partnership with UC has always been essential to America’s unmatched leadership in science and innovation, and today the significance of our work together is more important than ever. Reliable federal investment is essential to sustain American innovation in science and technology, train the students who will become the country’s future workforce, retain and attract researchers who are working on our country’s complex challenges and support the patients whose lives depend on this partnership. Federal investments in research have helped make UC America’s leading public research university while generating discoveries, technologies, medical advances, and economic growth that benefit the entire nation.

Unfortunately, UC’s status as the national leader in research, and America’s position as a global research powerhouse, are increasingly at risk. Across multiple agencies — and most notably at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) — funding decisions, award processing, competitive renewals, and the release of new funding opportunities appear to be proceeding at a substantially slower pace than historical norms. At NIH, as of July 13, the agency’s new award rate is 22% below pace relative to typical rates in past years. At NSF, as of July 13, the agency’s new award rate is 39% below pace relative to typical rates in past years. While NIH’s rate is improving, the pace continues to have a detrimental impact on UC and the biomedical research community’s efforts to develop new cures and vaccines to address diseases.

As a top recipient of both NIH and NSF funding, UC’s researchers and graduate students are disproportionately affected by these delays. But the consequences extend well beyond universities. Delays in federal research funding affect the economy, biomedical advances, technology commercialization, national security research, and partnerships between academia and industry. Our campuses are already experiencing the consequences of the slow spend rate. Some examples of impacts reported by some UC campuses include:

Significant delays in new awards, funding for recompetes and new research opportunities from NSF and NIH. These delays are forcing a systemwide reduction in facilities and administration costs, which support the broader research ecosystem. 

Effectively freezing the hiring of new postdoctoral and graduate students, limiting job and economic growth and reducing our ability to train the next generation of scientists. Federal grant funding supports both advanced education and the development of the skillsets needed as part of the future STEM workforce. 

Delays in onboarding faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, which are disrupting workforce continuity and making it more difficult to recruit and retain top talent. 

Weakening university and industry research partnerships, which are critical to developing new technologies and supporting the future STEM workforce pipeline. 

Strain on critical scientific infrastructure, which depends on stable and predictable funding to maintain research capacity and operational readiness.

If not addressed in the immediate future, the slow spend rate will detrimentally impact our ability to lead the nation and the world in scientific research. I respectfully ask that you use every mechanism available to ensure that the science agencies are implementing enacted appropriations consistent with congressional intent and processing awards, renewals, and funding opportunities in a timely manner.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if there is anything the University can do to assist with your efforts. We appreciate your long-standing support.

Sincerely,

James B. Milliken

President

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Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/letter-uc-president-james-b-milliken-re-slow-spend-rate-federal-scientific-agencies.