Novel Regent

Usually, stories about UC regents don't appear in the Entertainment section. But Regent Greg Sarris is an unusual exception.

From the LA Times: On a Monday morning in California, Sarris sits in his sleek office at the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Rohnert Park. Sarris, 74, has served as chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria for more than 30 years. In his office, diplomas and academic certificates crowd the walls. A framed poster for the 2023 film “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise” hangs nearby — she’s a close friend. Behind him, an American flag ripples in the distance outside the window, blurred by the summer heat. Just up the road sits a multibillion-dollar tribe-owned casino, Graton Resort & Casino — a project the writer oversees. “I had never been in a casino. I have a PhD in modern thought and literature from Stanford,” says Sarris.

How does an accomplished author find himself at the helm of a multibillion-dollar casino enterprise? It’s a question that still puzzles Sarris. “I told them if we can raise our people and become a platform for social justice and environmental stewardship to benefit Indian and non-Indian alike, I’ll do it.” ...

Before his stint as a reluctant casino mogul, Sarris was a prolific author and university professor at UCLA and Sonoma State. In 2023, he was appointed a regent of the University of California by Gavin Newsom. Over the course of his career, he published six books, and his novel “Grand Avenue” became an HBO original film in 1996...

In 1952, Sarris’ teenage mother gave him up for adoption, her family hoping to evade the embarrassment of their Jewish daughter becoming pregnant by a Native American Filipino man. Sarris grew up in a white family in Santa Rosa alongside three siblings. His adopted father, George Sarris, became abusive, causing Greg to flee the house with his adopted mother’s blessing. “God bless her. She let me go out and live on ranches and run with other people to get away from him.”

At age 30, Sarris uncovered the identities of his birth parents and learned of his Native heritage. He learned his birth mother was buried in a pauper’s grave at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Santa Rosa, with “nothing to mark her grave but an upside-down horseshoe that has her name in it.” In the opening pages of the novel, a dedication to her: Bunny Hartman...

...The Graton Resort & Casino, launched by Sarris over 12 years ago, now plays a vital role in supporting the Pomo Indian community. “I promised early on: roof over everyone’s head, an insurance policy in every pocket and a college degree paid for,” he says. “We give $2.5 million a year in perpetuity to the University of California, so that all California Indians can go to the University of California tuition-free.” The casino has funded theater programs, youth writing intensives and revenue sharing with neighboring tribes...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2026-06-24/graton-resort-casino-greg-sarris-native-history-author.

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As blog readers will know, the feds are looking into Gov. Newsom's finances and those of his wife. It is unclear that anything illicit has been found. The California practice of "behested" payments, although not illegal, doesn't have a good look. Regent Sarris may be pulled into that issue. From the LA Times:

...In 2020, [Jennifer] Siebel Newsom founded the California Partners Project, a nonprofit focused on improving gender equity in the workplace and the safety and well-being of children in online spaces. She does not collect compensation from the nonprofit or serve on its board. It hosts an annual “gender equity summit” and provides resources for parents on issues such as social media safety and child mental health. The California Partners Project also does not publicly disclose its donors in its tax filings, but much of the nonprofit’s funding appears to come from behested payments. Siebel Newsom does not receive a salary from the organization.

Since its founding, the Newsoms have steered more than $5 million to the nonprofit via behested payments, according to a review of the disclosures. While many donations to the California Partners Project come from charitable foundations, it also received hundreds of thousands from companies including Silicon Valley Bank, Pinterest and the charitable arm of Blue Shield of California. 

Its biggest funder is the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a Sonoma County tribe that operates a casino in Rohnert Park and spends heavily in state and federal elections. The tribe has given $2.3 million to the nonprofit since 2022. In June 2023, Newsom appointed tribal Chairman Greg Sarris to the University of California Board of Regents. Newsom has also supported efforts by the tribe to block a smaller tribe from building a casino in nearby Vallejo...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-06-25/newsom-says-wife-is-target-of-trump-heres-what-we-know-of-her-finances.

Straws in the Wind - Part 394

From Inside Higher Ed: An 11th-hour change to Iowa legislation last month required almost all University of Iowa undergraduates to complete courses in American history and in American government. And the provision, which became law, said only the Center for Intellectual Freedom—the civics center Republican lawmakers previously created at the university—could offer these mandated courses, starting in fall 2028. 

Now, the advisory council overseeing this civics center faces a logistical issue. The university had more than 22,000 undergrads this past spring, per the Iowa Board of Regents. And the civics center officially has just one faculty member: its interim director... The Iowa center’s interim director, Luciano I. de Castro, said it only taught 19 students last semester in its two courses, Political and Economic Institutions of the U.S. and American Culture and Values. Now, the center needs to hire more faculty, or somehow get more affiliated instructors, to significantly expand its capacity, all while searching for a permanent director...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/state-policy/2026/06/24/iowa-civics-center-must-teach-thousands-it-has-one.

Just so you know...

Source: https://www.ppic.org/publication/higher-education-funding-in-california/.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 177 (Insecure)

From the Harvard Crimson: Each time John F. Carbone Jr. started a shift, he said, Securitas asked him to confirm he had the equipment needed for the job: keys, a work phone, and a working radio. But for years, the 18-year Harvard security guard and union steward said he has signed in at posts across campus the same way: “no radio, no radio, no radio.” The problem stretched across much of Harvard’s undergraduate campus.

As of June 15, only 19 of the 49 radios required at Securitas Security Services posts across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were operational, according to interviews with more than 15 Securitas employees and visits by The Crimson to more than two dozen posts. Thirty of the 45 sites staffed by Securitas had no functioning radios, leaving guards assigned to residential Houses, labs, and academic buildings without one of their most basic tools for emergency communication. The gaps were especially stark in undergraduate housing. Just four of the 14 radios required across Harvard’s 12 Houses, DeWolfe, and Cronkhite were present when The Crimson conducted its inventory.

Two days after The Crimson completed that inventory, Securitas distributed radios to all 14 residential posts, according to a person familiar with the matter and two longtime Securitas guards. By Friday, nearly all FAS sites had a working radio...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/6/29/securitas-radios-gap/.

Baseball Question

As blog readers will know, UCLA has used the Jackie Robinson Baseball Stadium on the nearby VA property for team games. At various points, its use of the stadium was in question. That issue seems to have quieted down.

However, the LA Times recently carried an article about lack of law enforcement in the newly-built VA housing (with its increased veteran population). Apparently, the LAPD does not have jurisdiction, the LA County Sheriff is nominally in charge but operates out of West Hollywood and doesn't show up, and VA's own police department is focused on just the VA hospital. As a result, there has been a climate of lawlessness and lack of responsibility.*

It was unclear from the article who - if anyone - provides security at the stadium when it is in use by UCLA. Does UCPD have jurisdiction? It might be a good idea to clarify who is in charge before there is an unfortunate incident.

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*https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-06-26/in-law-enforcement-desert-hundreds-of-disabled-veterans-are-moving-in.

Straws in the Wind - Part 393

From the Detroit News: The University of Michigan plans again to offer the choice to apply for "early decision" admissions, a binding commitment to the school for applicants, despite a request by the university's Faculty Senate to reevaluate the option. Nearly three-quarters of the Faculty Senate — more than 1,300 members — approved a resolution in April that said the admissions practice gave an unfair advantage to students from "affluent" families, and the university adopted the practice without conversations with faculty and staff. The resolution was moved by Chemistry Professor Neil Marsh. The Faculty Senate asked the university to "immediately halt" early decision admissions pending "broad and substantive consultation" to determine whether it aligns with the educational values of UM. The request came as the university encountered issues with the rollout of the early decision program.

Early decision is a college application option commonly used at elite, mostly private institutions. It "binds" prospective students to enroll if they receive acceptance offers. The practice is meant to benefit those students who are entirely committed to the university, because once the offer is made, the student is expected to immediately enroll and rescind all applications at other universities...

Generally speaking, students from wealthier families are most likely to benefit from the early decision program... Applying early decision is off-putting for those who depend on financial aid...

Full story at https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/06/24/university-michigan-early-decision-admissions-faculty-pushback/90559687007/.

New Berkeley Institute

From the NY Times: The University of California, Berkeley, will open an institute named for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who rose to become the first woman to lead the House and one of President Trump’s most ferocious adversaries. Campus officials are billing the institute as a nonpartisan, academically rigorous operation focused on the tending of American democracy. But the announcement comes as the university faces extraordinary pressure from the Trump administration, which has spent months pelting the campus with investigations...

The institute’s emergence comes as dozens of schools have started civics programs. Many are in Republican-controlled states and are often perceived as having a conservative bent. Centers in places like North Carolina and Ohio regularly focus on Western civilization and civil discourse, with supporters hoping that they will act as counterweights to academic cultures many conservatives view as ideologically intolerant.

...Ms. Pelosi insisted that she viewed her role in the institute as “almost an emancipation from partisanship.” ...Although some details are still being discussed, Berkeley officials said they expect the institute to offer undergraduate students a public leadership track that will begin as a certificate program and could someday evolve into a major or a minor. The institute, also slated to include a visiting fellows program and research opportunities, will feature a course taught by Ms. Pelosi and Eric Schickler, a U.C. Berkeley professor who has written extensively about Congress and who said he was eager to test political science theory against Ms. Pelosi’s in-the-room recollections. Berkeley said it had already raised $35 million for the institute. The university declined to identify the donors, but Ms. Pelosi, among the wealthiest members of Congress, said she would be contributing and helping with fund-raising...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/us/berkeley-pelosi-democracy.html.

Announcement video:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkww2gWKbbc or https://ia601802.us.archive.org/14/items/newsom-may-june-2026/UC-Berkeley%20Pelosi%20Institute%20for%20Representative%20Democracy%206-29-2026.mp4.