Balanced Approach

From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Sense and Sensibility and Science” was started 13 years ago by a team of UC Berkeley professors, including a Nobel laureate, who wanted to give students the tools to combat misinformation and improve their communication skills in an increasingly confusing world. They did not expect the class to become so popular — it’s now taught at a handful of other schools including Harvard and the University of Chicago — or for their lessons to become even more urgent.

The class is part philosophy and part behavioral science. It’s meant to help students make more thoughtful decisions, look and listen past their biases, and embrace humility and the idea that they may not always be right. Assignments include attempting challenging conversations with friends or family. It’s a course, say the professors who run it, with the ultimate goal of bettering the world.

Saul Perlmutter, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011 for his work studying distant supernovas to determine how the universe is expanding, helped start the class in 2013. He said he did so because he recognized that the tools that scientists use to communicate and share ideas could help people have more productive conversations on all kinds of practical, everyday topics.

“There are very few things we can fix in everybody’s life by getting to the bottom of the Big Bang,” he joked. “In my grandiose optimistic picture,” he said, “eventually everybody is learning this stuff and can go into conversations feeling like their job isn’t to convince everyone that they’re right, but to figure out where they’re making mistakes and hearing everyone out.” ...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/uc-berkeley-class-saul-perlmutter-22237250.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 346

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: An Indiana University biology professor who has condemned the U.S. government’s prosecution of Chinese scientists now finds himself locked out of his lab amid a federal investigation. The closure of the lab and other research space at the Bloomington campus marks the latest step in months of scrutiny of Chinese researchers and, by extension, American colleagues who have come to their defense.

Neither federal authorities nor the university, whose police department closed the labs on Thursday night, have offered a reason for the lockout, the chair of Indiana’s biology department said. But it came weeks after one of the professor’s postdoctoral students was ordered deported to China for allegedly smuggling biological materials into the United States, a move criticized by the professor, Roger W. Innes.

“It seems pretty obvious that this is an attempt by the current administration to silence people that question their activities,” Innes told The Chronicle.

Meanwhile, the indefinite closure of multiple labs, offices, and storage facilities — many of which have no affiliation with Innes or his lab — has hampered the work of approximately 50 other individuals at Indiana, said the department chair, Armin P. Moczek. And although the university has said it shut down the facilities at the order of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the department told The Chronicle it had issued no such order...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-professor-defended-a-postdoc-who-was-deported-now-his-lab-has-been-suddenly-locked-down.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 161

From the Harvard Crimson: Former Harvard President Claudine Gay earned more than $1.5 million in 2024, according to Harvard’s annual tax filings, receiving a higher compensation package in the year after she resigned from the presidency than she did during her six months in Massachusetts Hall. Gay’s compensation rose from the more than $1.3 million she earned in 2023 — which spanned the end of her term as Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean and all six months of her presidency. Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 earned more than $1.6 million in 2024, his first compensation reported while serving at Harvard’s helm. Garber served as interim president from January to August 2024, when he was appointed to the position permanently.

And Harvard Management Company Chief Executive Officer N.P. “Narv” Narvekar — the highest-paid employee across HMC and Harvard — earned more than $6.2 million in 2024, a slight increase from his $6 million payout in 2023. The compensation, released as part of the University’s Form 990 tax filings for fiscal year 2025, is required annually by the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt entities. Salaries are reported for the 2024 calendar year...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/15/harvard-form-990-gay-garber-2024/.

Wait!

The Wall St. Journal ran an article about college waitlists for admission. Selective schools offer many rejected applicants the option of being on their waitlists.* Why not? Those rejected applicants who receive such offers will often accept waitlisted status unless they are completely happy with a school they did get into. But very few on the waitlist are accepted. At UC-Berkeley, as the chart above shows, the number who got in via the waitlist last fall was Zero.

UC President Milliken has talked about public discontent with higher ed with opaque admissions being one of the causes. A waitlist with a Zero probability - or even a close-to-zero probability - isn't likely to improve the situation.

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*https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/college-waitlists-national-decision-day-4cb7b5d8.

Straws in the Wind - Part 345

From George Washington University media relations: The university is aware of reports that at Israel Fest..., individuals dropped vials containing an unknown substance, in an apparent attempt to disrupt the festival.

At least one student was injured by this incident, which is now under an investigation that will examine among other things whether individuals were targeted based on their Jewish faith. The university condemns this reprehensible and criminal action. Acts like this have no place in our community, which is a safe and inclusive place for individuals of all backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.

The university, in cooperation with law enforcement as appropriate, will utilize all available avenues to investigate these concerning reports thoroughly and hold any perpetrators who are identified accountable to the fullest extent under university policies and applicable law.

Full release at https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/university-statement-israel-fest.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 160

From the Harvard Crimson: At least 259 Harvard officials enslaved more than 1,600 people over a 229-year period. Researchers expect both numbers to grow as they continue working to identify enslaved individuals. Harvard officials enslaved more than 1,600 people from 1636 to 1865, new research released Tuesday shows. Harvard University shared details in a new database about the people who were enslaved as well as those who owned them. Researchers with the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative say they’ve found at least 259 Harvard university leaders, faculty, staff and board members who enslaved individuals. 

The initiative, which began in 2022 as a way to identify the descendants of enslaved individuals, partnered with American Ancestors, a national genealogical nonprofit, on the project. Harvard officials said the database is expected to grow beyond the initial 1,613 people. In a 2022 report, the university identified 70 people who were enslaved... Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor who directs the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research and serves on the initiative’s advisory council, said in the university’s news article that he hopes Harvard will be a leader “in demonstrating institutional honesty and humility in confronting the complexities of our institutional past...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/05/13/harvard-tallies-how-many-people-officials-enslaved.

Watch the Regents Meeting of May 6, 2026

We are again catching up with the Regents, this time for their second-day meeting of May 6. The meeting began with public comments covering disabled students, complaints about ERs being well-above capacity, support for the AFSCME negotiations,* lack of budget information for student government, revisiting the issue of hiring undocumented students by UC, student affordability and basic needs including housing costs and childcare, revisiting the issue of departmental political statements, two thank-yous to Regent Sures for statements on antisemitism, and divestment. There was a brief AFSCME protest at the end of the public comment session.

Grad student Valadez spoke about federal cutbacks, advocacy for a second student regent, and made a veiled criticism of an unnamed Regent. (This may have been Sures for the same reason he received praise in public comments.) Undergrad student rep Hariharan spoke about federal cutbacks, disabled student funding, Native American students, a need for ICE warnings on campus, and support for union workers. 

There was then a presentation about the research "landscape" which included reference to federal cutbacks and support for the proposed state bond for research. There was an emphasis on medical research, scientific patents, and commercialization of such research and patents. Following that presentation was one on campus energy systems referencing emissions reductions, decarbonization over twenty years, and UC-Santa Barbara's purchases of renewable electricity and a new heating and cooling system. Regent Makarechian wondered whether new developments in small nuclear power plants should be considered.

In the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee, some items were pulled off the consent calendar for more detailed discussion. These items included expenditure rates from the General Endowment Pool for UC usage and administrative purposes. Modified version of these items were approved although Milliken voted "no." Exactly what his concerns were was unclear. This episode seemed unusual. First, apparently controversial items were initially put on the consent calendar. Second, approval over opposition by the UC president - one newly appointed - would seem to be significant.

New student housing for UC-Santa Cruz sparked some controversy. Regent Makarechian, who has more knowledge of real estate development than many other regents, noted that with land costs for campus housing being zero, the proposed housing seemed expensive compared with the private sector (which has to deal with land costs). He also noted that the housing proposed was bare bones, with 3 in a room sharing a bathroom, unlike the private sector. Ultimately, he abstained from voting. UC-Santa Cruz spokespersons said the "geology" of the campus was more difficult than in the City of Santa Cruz. In contrast, a building for UC-San Francisco for hearing disorders was quickly approved.

Item F4 - suspension of STIP loans to the pension for a year - was approved without much discussion. Regent Cohen said that UC needed to have liquidity given the current budgetary pressures. The consultant/actuary noted that this suspension was not the first to occur and that going forward estimates of the calendar of pension funding would be made without assuming further STIP usage. This was another issue that seemed to merit more discussion than it got.

The final item was the UCOP budget. Makarechian asked about legal costs, given the current conflict with the feds. Were lawsuits aimed at particular campuses being handled at the systemwide or campus level? The answer he got was fuzzy. It was said that campus lawsuits that had systemwide implications would be handled at the systemwide level. But it was never clear which those were.

Regent Hernandez asked whether there was still funding for the Hawaiian Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT). It was said by Nathan Brostrom that there was no cost at this time (although some funding had been set aside in the past), and that planning had shifted to the Canary Islands location. It was unclear if this shift was now a definite decision or just an option - but it sounded more like the former than the latter. If that is so, it is a Big Deal for the project. But this was again a matter than seemed to float by with little attention.

Academic and Student Affairs featured a review of UC's student programs in Washington, DC and Sacramento.

Public Engagement and Development had a report on state government relations. Note that this session occurred before the governor's May Revise budget proposal. There was discussion of the proposed research bond and repeated notes that the campaign in the legislature to put the bond on the ballot was being undertaken in cooperation with UAW. There is also support for a housing bond that might provide some student housing support. It was noted that UC can advocate for bills to put things on the ballot. But if they actually make it to the ballot, UC as an institution cannot provide support.

The May 6 meeting ended with full board approval of the various committee reports and tributes to various outgoing regents and representatives.

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As always, we preserve recording of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on retention and their YouTube recordings are unlisted. You can find the May 6 meeting at:

https://archive.org/details/regents-finance-and-capital-strategies-academic-and-student-affairs-5-6-2026.

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*In a prior post last Tuesday, we noted that an AFSCME spokesperson indicated that UC wanted to push AFSCME-covered staff out of Kaiser and into UC providers.