Fast vs. Slow: Maybe That's Not the Question

There seems to be confusion in news accounts - as blog readers will know from past postings - over whether the decision regarding the SAT is moving faster or slower than before. The chair of the systemwide Senate issued two statements regarding the SAT issue. 

What seems to be the bottom line is that a more detailed timeline will be released after the Academic Council meets on July 22nd. How long after the 22nd there will be a release is unclear.

Statement #1:

Statement from UC Academic Senate on admissions review

UC Office of the President, July 13, 2026

After published reports emerged today (July 13) that the University of California’s Academic Senate voted on July 10 to rescind its review of standardized testing admissions, Ahmet Palazoglu, the University of California’s Academic Senate Chair, issued the following statement:

“The Academic Senate is not rescinding its commitment to a comprehensive review of standardized testing in admissions. Recognizing the significance of this issue, the Academic Senate is revising its timeline while ensuring the forthcoming review is thorough, evidence-based and informed by faculty expertise.”

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/statement-uc-academic-senate-admissions-review.

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Statement #2:

Statement from UC Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu on review of UC admissions

UC Office of the President, July 14, 2026

“The Academic Senate’s comprehensive review of the University’s undergraduate admissions policies will align with the Board of Regents’ timeline to deliver a policy recommendation on the use of standardized tests in admissions by the end of the 2026–27 academic year (June 2027 for our campuses based on the quarter system). The separate review of UC’s A-G framework is not tied to the same timeline. A new plan from the Academic Senate will be available after the Academic Council meeting on July 22, 2026. The goal of this A-G policy review is to consider how UC defines and evaluates college readiness in a rapidly changing educational environment.”

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/statement-ahmet-palazoglu-chair-ucs-academic-senate-review-uc-admissions.

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Perhaps more significant than the statements above is the statement of the new Regents Chair, Maria Anguiano. She essentially declared the old Master Plan dead. And then she proposed, without explicitly saying so, that the Regents spend the next year coming up with a substitute, although she did not mention the other two components of higher ed in California: CSU and the community colleges. Nor did she mention the state legislature which has been doing ad hoc tinkering with the old Master Plan, as blog readers will know. The SAT decision is to be but one element in the year-long review she announced.

Although her statement was a personal one, it's hard to imagine she didn't discuss what she was going to say with President Milliken and other Regents. An excerpt from her statement is below:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXplgoFlCc or https://ia600703.us.archive.org/14/items/regents-7-14-2026/Anguiano%20on%20Master%20Plan%2C%20SAT%2C%20%26%20Priorities%207-14-2026.mp4.

ICYMI - Library Thief

From KTLA: A Bay Area man was sentenced to a year of home confinement and three years of supervised release for stealing rare and historical Chinese manuscripts from the UCLA library.  The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday the sentence was handed down to Jeffrey Ying of Fremont after he pleaded guilty to one count of theft of major artwork, a felony, in October. 

More specifically, the DOJ said Ying’s guilty plea relates to a theft that occurred in December 2024 in which he stole a 17th century Qing dynasty manuscript. Ying, 39, who used several aliases including “Jason Wang,” “Alan Fujimori” and “Austin Chen,” admitted during his guilty plea hearing that he stole the rare manuscripts from the UCLA library between December 2024 and July 2025. Since they are so valuable, they are not in regular circulation and thus must be reserved and checked out...

Ying would rent them – bringing them home for days at a time – and then returned a “dummy manuscript” to the library instead of the authentic one. According to the Justice Department, Ying would travel to and from China “within several days of the thefts.” ... According to the DOJ, restitution in the case will be determined at a later date. Previous reports indicate that the value of the stolen items exceeded $215,000. It was unclear whether any of the manuscripts have been recovered.

Full story at https://ktla.com/news/local-news/man-gets-366-days-in-federal-prison-for-stealing-rare-chinese-manuscripts-from-ucla/.

Yale Deal - Part 6

From the Yale Daily News: Yale President Maurie McInnis is arranging to meet with graduate and undergraduate student leaders in a confidential meeting as the University pursues a settlement with the Trump administration. The proposed meeting will include McInnis, Yale College Council President Alex William Chen ’28, YCC Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28, Graduate and Professional Student Senate President Raekwon Fuller DRA ’27 and Graduate Student Assembly chair Anushka Potdar GRD ’29. According to Fuller, the meeting date has yet to be determined. Undergraduate student leaders have been vocal opponents of any settlement with the Trump administration that would compromise Yale’s independence...

Potdar declined to comment on the future meeting, citing its confidentiality...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/mcinnis-to-meet-with-undergraduate-graduate-student-government-leaders.

Straws in the Wind - Part 404

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Texas has paid for journalism professor Tracy Everbach and her colleagues to attend a certain conference every year since she started at the university in 2004. Until this year. In a June 30 memo to Everbach and at least five other journalism professors, university administrators said that funding membership or sponsorship costs for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the organization that hosts the conference she plans to attend and present at next month, violates a Texas law banning diversity, equity and inclusion measures at public institutions.

Scheduled for early August in New Orleans, the AEJMC conference has a Jazz & Jambalaya theme, which showcases the “rich histories” and “diverse contributions” of community members, according to the association’s website. The schedule says it will feature “thought-provoking programming, diverse voices and exciting opportunities to learn and connect.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/academic-freedom/2026/07/09/north-texas-denies-faculty-conference-funding.

Grants' Tomb - Part 2 (follow-up)

From Inside Higher Ed: The White House in late May proposed a rule that would cement its control over essentially all federal grant making, including research funding and Education Department grants. Among other changes, the proposal from the Office of Management and Budget says political appointees, not peer reviewers, would be the primary deciders of who gets grants, and says officials could yank funding even after it’s awarded and research or another project has begun. 

Opponents in and outside higher ed say the politicization could undercut research and all the societal benefits that flow from it, and the possibility of more midgrant cancellations could inject further instability into a sector the Trump administration has already destabilized.

Through social media, video calls, Substacks and petitions, scientists, universities and groups representing them have called for a flood of public comments. They’ve shared resources listing objectionable provisions they’ve identified in the more than 400-page proposal...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2026/07/07/comments-flood-omb-proposal-political-control.

Our earlier post on this matter is at:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/07/grants-tomb.html.

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Note: The deadline for public comments was July 13th.

Yale Deal - Part 5

Message from the president of Yale

Monday, July 13, 2026

Dear Members of the Yale Community,

Many of you have written to me in the past week regarding investigations by the Department of Justice (DOJ) into the admissions processes of Yale School of Medicine, Yale College, and Yale Law School. At Yale, our standard is to refrain from commenting on ongoing legal matters to protect the integrity of the process for Yale. I am making an exception in this instance because I am seeing speculation and misinformation spreading, and it is causing concern in our community. I recognize that this can happen when there is an absence of information, so I want you to hear the facts directly from me.

On May 14, the DOJ issued findings based on its investigation into the admissions policies and practices of the Yale School of Medicine. The DOJ also has pending investigations into the admissions processes of Yale College and Yale Law School.

These investigations concern university compliance with federal law; specifically, a federal statute, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court required colleges and universities across the country, including Yale, to adhere to new legal standards in admissions in its 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. As a university committed to the rule of law, we take that obligation seriously.

When the DOJ issues findings of an investigation, federal law provides a process for the parties to engage in seeking a voluntary resolution. It is a standard and important practice that lawyers for the involved parties and the government participate in conversation and exchange of information to determine whether they can resolve the matter without further legal action. Yale is currently engaged in this process of talking and listening. It is a required and reasonable step, and we are participating in good faith.  

We are approaching these matters with five fundamental principles. First, we are wholeheartedly committed to safeguarding academic freedom. Our students and faculty have the intellectual freedom to study, teach, and publish according to their scholarly interests in keeping with the standards of their discipline. Second, Yale must maintain the right to decide who we admit and hire in accordance with the law. Third, we hold dear our university’s tradition of protecting free expression on our campus. Fourth, we are determined to continue advancing Yale’s mission of education, research, and scholarship. And fifth, we make all our decisions by prioritizing our responsibilities to our students, faculty, staff, and patients, as well as the university as a whole.

These are the principles that guide us in how we engage in any legal inquiry, but they are not the whole of what we ask of ourselves. We are also guided by the long-time efforts of our faculty, students, staff, and alumni who help us engage in a process of continual self-assessment. The most recent examples of such reflection relevant to admissions culminated this past spring, with the Presidential Council on Yale College Admissions and the Committee on Trust in Higher Education.

Guided by their recommendations, we began refining our admissions processes based on a high standard of candor and on an unambiguous fact: We are proud of our students, who come from across the country and around the world and bring a multitude of talents, experiences, and ideas. For example, we have further clarified on Yale College’s admissions website the magnitude of academic achievement of our current students, so applicants are aware of what they need to accomplish. We now state explicitly that academic strength has long been the predominant criterion in our holistic evaluation of applicants, and the overwhelming majority of admitted students score in the ninety-fifth percentile or higher on the SAT or ACT. Throughout the university, we have bolstered our training so that readers and decision-makers understand the law and federal guidelines for admissions, and our faculty and staff in admissions will keep studying how to continually enhance the admissions process based on our own high standards and the requirements of the law.

I know there are divergent views about admissions policy in general and these investigations in particular. I very much want to hear those views and welcome your reply to this message. And I am so grateful to everyone who has already sent me their thoughtful questions and advice.

I will update you when I have more news to share. In the meantime, I will continue to draw on my experience as a student, professor, and university leader to navigate the present moment. Amid this uncertainty, you can be certain of my promise to the entire Yale community: my decisions will be guided by what I believe is in the best interests of our university.

Sincerely,

Maurie McInnis

President

Professor of the History of Art

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Source: https://president.yale.edu/posts/2026-07-13-message-from-the-president.

Today at Noon

What will you learn in this seminar

Actionable steps to help you make the most of your retirement income and savings by understanding how to address key challenges like inflation and market volatility.

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in a more financially secure retirement.

Go to:

https://fmr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iC9_nSdvTQatNxNTCBtOWw#/registration.