Big

On Wednesday, UCLA is seeking Regental approval to go ahead with a student housing project at 901 Levering Avenue in Westwood. A current low-rise structure at that location would be replaced with a 19-story apartment house containing 142 apartments with 1,130 student inhabitants. (The existing structure - shown below - to be replaced contains 52 students.) An additional 4 apartments would be for supervisory personnel. Financing costs would be almost $281 million with addition funding from housing "reserves" of around $70 million. All borrowing would be undertaken by the UCLA housing enterprise; UC (the Regents) would not be at risk.

The business plan for the property promises that the apartments would rented for 18% below market.

A full description can be found at:

https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar26/f4.pdf.

Existing Structure at 901 Levering Ave.

     

Straws in the Wind - Part 284

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Barnard reopened select campus entrances to Barnard and Columbia ID holders following the completion of new perimeter security upgrades, Kelli Murray, Barnard executive vice president for strategy and chief administrative officer, announced in a March 2 email to the Barnard community. Under the new policy, Barnard and Columbia ID holders will have expanded access hours to the single-entry turnstile doors at the Milbank Hall entrance on West 120th Street and at the 40 Claremont Avenue entrance to the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning. The Milstein entrance is open to faculty, staff, and students around the clock; while faculty and staff have 24/7 access at both locations, student access at Milbank is limited to weekdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Murray wrote in the email that the entrances are now equipped with “fully operational, actively monitored camera systems and single-entry turnstiles,” adding that the combination of the two systems is “what allows us to provide 24/7 perimeter access safely at these locations.” The expansion comes amid a years-long tightening of Barnard’s campus perimeter, largely driven by the college’s efforts to suppress on-campus protest activity. The college initially closed secondary entrances in anticipation of fall 2023 protests over the war in Gaza, but took further action during the spring 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Columbia’s campus by narrowing access to the main gate at 117th Street and Broadway for Barnard and Columbia ID holders and shutting down all others.

...The upgrades reflect Barnard’s broader move toward automated campus entry systems, following changes to its security staffing. In July, amid a financial debt crisis, the college laid off 77 staff members—including desk attendants who previously monitored entrances to the Barnard Quad residence halls. Those positions were then replaced with ID scanners at the Quad’s entry points...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/03/09/barnard-expands-access-hours-at-select-entry-points-following-security-upgrades.

The Budget: First, let's preserve. Then let's question - Part 4 (adding revenue & expense)

In our last iteration of looking at UCLA budget documents versus UC's version of UCLA's budget, we focused on the expense side. It appeared that the (unaudited) financial statements issued before former CFO Agostini came on board tended to produce higher expenditure figures than those arising from (audited) UC documents. CFO Agostini called into question the validity of past UCLA statements (implicating administrators who had responsibility for accurate reporting), and got himself fired.

Let's now look at expenditures (previously discussed*), revenues, and surpluses and deficits (revenues minus expenditures).

The top chart below - which blog readers have already seen - shows the expenditure side. The middle chart shows revenues. And the bottom chart shows surpluses and deficits.

 

The top chart shows expenditures as UCLA presented them running above UC's version of those expenditures. In contrast, the middle chart shows that the revenue figures from the two alternative sources run close together. The bottom chart shows that UCLA's pre-Agostini figures show the campus to be running a chronic deficit. But UC's version of the financials, with their lower expenditures, shows a mix of surpluses and deficits. It appears that Agostini based his budget book figures for 2023-24 on UC's figures since his estimates seem to match UC's figures for that fiscal year.

There are some caveats to note. First, none of the figures are current. Agostini's budget book had macro figures for 2023-24, but only unit (micro) figures for 2024-25. The old UCLA-derived series ends in 2022-23. 

Second, when you look at the macro level, you are seeing everything from hospital revenues to state allocations to professional school supplementary tuitions, etc. Many of the revenue sources are not fungible, i.e., you can't take someone's payment for cancer treatment at the hospital and use it instead to hire an administrative assistant for the English Department. 

Third, the unit level (micro) figures that Agostini provided show some units with surpluses and others with deficits. But at the unit level, revenues are often allocations by someone. For example, the Academic Senate is said to be running a deficit, i.e., expenditures > revenue, in the budget book. But the revenue of the Senate is an allocation. The Senate isn't a fee-for-service operation. If it were given a bigger allocation, it could be in surplus. Some other unit, of course, would presumably get less as a result, were such a reallocation to the Senate made. Thus, much of a unit's financial position is really a choice of allocation, i.e., a judgment as to what a particular activity is worth. It is not the same as a commercial business running in the red or in the black. The budget book does not reveal how the unit allocations of revenue are made.

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NOTE: We have taken Agostini's budget book data for units and aggregated them using an AI program. Some analysis will be presented in a later post.

New Off-Campus Health Complex

As we noted when we posted the preliminary Regents' agenda for this week, UCLA is proposing a new Sports Medicine complex at an off-campus location.* More detail is now available. The complex - to be placed in an existing structure near the junction of the 405 and 105 freeways - will include other elements of healthcare apart from sports medicine:

UCLA Sports Medicine Institute: The new UCLA Sports Medicine Institute will be a state-of-the-art facility serving a growing number of patients and athletes, featuring an ambulatory surgery center, outpatient clinic, advanced imaging, and rehabilitation for comprehensive musculoskeletal care. By uniting specialists in sports medicine, orthopedics, radiology, anesthesiology, and physical therapy in the same facility, it will provide complete care for musculoskeletal needs. This expansion will improve access to orthopedic services in an outpatient setting, relieving demand at UCLA’s Santa Monica and Ronald Reagan Medical Centers.

UCLA Clinical Microbiology Laboratory: The UCLA Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, also known as the Brentwood Laboratory, provides comprehensive testing for infectious agents and select autoimmune disorders and hosts an accredited Clinical Microbiology Postdoctoral Training Program. The renovated space would consolidate several off-campus leased laboratories currently housed in older buildings that do not comply with UC Seismic Safety Policy standards.

Community Fill Pharmacy and Specialty Pharmacy: With the Peter Morton Medical Building nearing capacity, the pharmacy department needs additional space to meet rising demand. Currently serving both inpatient and outpatient needs, the department is also preparing to handle the new prescription volume from UCLA's employee health plans and local employers. The renovated property will become a centralized fulfillment center for UCLA Health’s retail and specialty pharmacy services...

The $298.2 million total project budget would be funded by external financing supported by revenues of the UCLA Hospital System ($293.2 million) and grant funds ($5 million)...**

Full report at https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar26/f3.pdf.

All financing comes from the UCLA Hospital System. Regents' proposed approval includes a statement that UC (the Regents) is (are) not to be at risk.

As blog readers will know, the UCLA Hospital System has been an expansionary mode, buying existing facilities and renovating or repurposing them. In part, this expansion might be seen as related to UCLA's offering of a Medicare Advantage plan to LA County residents.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/03/march-regents-meetings-at-uc-san.html.

**The $5 million is a grant from UCOP for environmental features.

Straws in the Wind - Part 283

From The Dartmouth: The College is requiring Dartmouth Libraries to cut its budget over the next two fiscal years, according to emails sent by dean of libraries Susanne Mehrer to library staff and obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth. While a Dec. 1 email from Mehrer stated the required cuts totaled $2,614,000, Mehrer wrote in a March 5 email that the “FY27–FY28 budget planning figure is $1 million lower” than the initial $2.6 million cut...

In an email statement to The Dartmouth, College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote that “all units across campus are participating in annual budget planning for FY27” as the College “work[s] to align expenses with revenue growth.” “Our financial position remains healthy, and this year’s budget planning will help Dartmouth better navigate cost pressures, including inflation and healthcare expenses, to ensure we stay in a strong financial position,” Barnello wrote...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/03/pierry-dartmouth-libraries-faces-more-than-1-million-in-budget-cuts-over-next-two-fiscal-years.

There's one thing you can be sure of...

...Contrary to what it says, this message did not come from "your health plan." Do not click. Delete.

UC Hospital Scrutiny Coming

As blog readers will know, the UC Regents will be meeting this coming week. In particular, the Health Services Committee will be meeting and will be discussing a new system of cost controls being implemented by the state:

The Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) was established by California’s Health Care Quality and Affordability Act as part of the 2022–23 State budget to address rapidly rising healthcare costs and improve affordability for consumers and purchasers... 

A core mechanism in OHCA’s strategy is the establishment of healthcare cost growth targets designed to cap the annual rate of increase in per capita healthcare expenditures across the system. In April 2024, the Health Care Affordability Board (Board) approved a target that starts at 3.5 percent annual growth for 2025 and 2026, declines to 3.2 percent for 2027–28, and ultimately reaches three percent by 2029, aligning spending growth with typical household income growth...

The Board identified seven hospitals as high-cost hospitals based on a pricing analysis and set lower spending targets for these facilities (1.8 percent in 2026, 1.7 percent in 2027–28, and 1.6 percent in 2029). Annually, OHCA will update the list of hospitals meeting the high-cost criteria and the factors used in that determination. UC hospitals are included in the hospital sector, and none have been designated as high-cost hospitals... [underline added]

Enforcement of spending caps could strain hospital finances if reimbursement and operational costs continue to rise faster than permitted spending levels... 

Full Regents item at https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar26/h1.pdf.

As blog readers will know, UCLA has been adding to its hospital enterprise at a time when increased cost controls and scrutiny of costs are being imposed.