Tempest in a Teapot - On Hold

We last looked at the Osako matter on Sept. 26 and before that Sept. 4. But the matter doesn't go away and apparently will return in December. From the Daily Bruin:

A judge extended a block on the release of an investigative report detailing the workplace conduct of UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications Tuesday. Mary Osako, who has served in the role since 2019, filed a lawsuit Aug. 26 against the UC Board of Regents and requested a preliminary injunction to block the report’s release, arguing that its publication would degrade her reputation and violate her privacy. The judge’s decision prolongs the block until Dec. 8, after the Los Angeles Superior Court granted Osako a temporary restraining order Aug. 26... The judge also ordered Osako and the regents to submit unredacted and redacted versions of the 264-page report within one week for review... 

“The burden is on Ms. Osako to indicate and demonstrate that she’s entitled to this relief and that she is likely to have a reasonable probability of prevailing,” [Judge Curtis] Kin said at the hearing. 

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/29/judge-extends-block-on-release-of-report-into-ucla-head-of-strategic-communications. 

Somebody at Berkeley Dropped the Ball

From SFGATE: There’s a reason Joe Roth has the only retired number in Cal football’s history. Following a prolific junior season that saw him lead the Golden Bears to the best offense in all of college football and a Pac-8 co-championship, Roth entered his senior campaign a Heisman favorite and the likely first pick in the 1977 NFL Draft. Just two games into his final season, Roth was diagnosed with a recurrence of melanoma — a cancer he’d hoped he’d beaten a couple of years earlier. He kept the terminal diagnosis to himself as it ravaged his body during a final year that saw him improbably finish ninth in the Heisman voting while he was fighting the disease.

News of his condition finally leaked two months after the season ended while he was preparing for a college football all-star bowl game in Japan. After the bowl, he spent time at UC San Francisco getting chemotherapy before doctors suggested amputating both of his legs to keep the cancer at bay. Roth declined, checked himself out of the hospital on Feb. 18, 1977, and, upon returning to Berkeley, was carried up three flights of stairs by his teammates to his apartment. Roth died the next day.

Roth’s courageous story united the college and led to a yearly Joe Roth Memorial Game in Berkeley (played between Cal and UCLA or USC annually until the Bears moved to the ACC), a fund that has supported countless Cal football scholarships through the years (and currently supports two full-ride football scholarships each season), as well as a Joe Roth team award for the player who best demonstrates courage, attitude and sportsmanship.

This season, nearly 50 years later, it also led to the first-ever Joe Roth Collection, a capsule of three shirts celebrating Roth, including one with his face on it — the first time his likeness has ever appeared on Cal merchandise, Associate Athletics Director Jonathan Okanes confirmed to SFGATE. The collection was heavily marketed by the athletic department ahead of the return of the Joe Roth Memorial Game on Sept. 5 — Cal’s season-opening 45-24 loss to UCLA — and sold both at the stadium and at the Student Store on campus.

To the surprise of Tom Roth, Joe’s now 82-year-old brother, none of the proceeds from the Joe Roth Collection go back to melanoma cancer research or even to the Joe Roth scholarship fund. Cal instead is pocketing all of the revenue, and Roth hasn’t heard from Cal for months since the school first contacted him about the Roth Collection... A Cal football staffer [said] that they thought Tom Roth was dead.

After receiving SFGATE’s request for comment, ...the university is now again trying to reach Tom Roth, who, as of this publication, remains alive and well.

Full story at https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/cal-profiting-revenue-joe-roth-22442272.php. 

Straws in the Wind - Part 480

From the Yale Daily News: A Yale committee is set to release recommendations on grade inflation in November but could face an unclear implementation timeline, according to administrators. The announcement arrives as grade inflation remains a top issue for universities across the nation, some of which have taken action... It is “hard to say” when new grading guidance would go into effect, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News after a closed-door faculty meeting about grade inflation in Luce Hall... 

The standing Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising anticipates to release specific recommendations for grade reform in November, Paul McKinley, a Yale College senior associate dean, wrote in [an] email to the News. That committee is chaired by economics professor and former University provost Benjamin Polak and includes Yale College Council President Alex William Chen ’28 and YCC Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28, in addition to faculty members. In April, the Committee on Trust in Higher Education released a sweeping report that acknowledged declining national trust in universities and proposed measures to address this problem. One of its suggestions was to impose a “3.0 mean, or some other college-wide standard, so that letter grades can once again be used in a reliable and comparable way.” 

...Ultimately, it’s the Yale College Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising that’s gonna make recommendations that the faculty will consider,” Lewis said in an interview with the News...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-committee-set-to-release-grade-inflation-guidance-in-november.

Union News

The Daily Bruin has this follow-up to our posting of Sept. 17: UC communication workers voted [Sept. 24th] to join a union representing more than 60,000 student employees, researchers and educators across the University. UC Communication, Marketing and Sales Specialists ratified a union contract [on that date] to join United Auto Workers Local 4811. The contract will cover about 1,600 workers across the UC. The Public Employment Relations Board – a state agency responsible for ensuring fair labor practices – certified ComMaS in March, and the union began contract negotiations with the University in May, according to UC-UAW’s website...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/25/1600-communication-workers-ratify-contract-to-join-ucs-largest-union. 

Belated 90th Birthday

An all-day symposium was held on campus for Professor-Emeritus Judea Pearl who has turned 90. The symposium was held on Sept. 6.* Yours truly hoped that a complete recording would become available. So far, however, there are only excerpts. However, one is of the remarks of Chancellor Frenk:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnCaFEslWt0.

Other excerpts can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/@CausalAI.

===

*The symposium agenda is at https://causalai.net/jp90/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 479

From Forbes: Add Vanderbilt University to the ever-lengthening list of premier institutions that are expanding their offers of free tuition to undergraduate students. The university announced last week that it was revising its Opportunity Vanderbilt financial aid program and will provide tuition-free scholarships to students from families with incomes up to $200,000 and typical financial assets. The previous threshold for free tuition was $150,000, which Vanderbilt established just two years ago, in 2024. The new eligibility criteria will take effect in fall 2027, and it will apply to both current undergraduate students as well as those who enter Vanderbilt next fall.

...Between 2024 and 2025, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Texas, Brandeis University, the University of Utah, Smith College, Bryn Mawr College, the Stevens Institute of Technology, Wake Forest University, Emory University and The Ohio State University all rolled out their versions of free college tuition. The current year has seen a quickened pace of new offers. First, Yale University announced it was expanding its financial aid program and would offer free tuition to entering undergraduates from families with annual incomes below $200,000 and cover all the costs of attendance for those from families with incomes below $100,000. Two months later, the University of Notre Dame enhanced its undergraduate financial aid program so that students from families with annual income below $150,000 would have all their tuition costs covered starting in the 2026-27 academic year.

In May, the University of Chicago unveiled one of the most generous aid packages, guaranteeing free tuition starting in the fall of 2027 for undergraduate students from families with annual income less than $250,000. As part of its plan, Chicago promised it would cover tuition plus the costs of housing, meals and other fees for students from families with income less than $125,000. Rice University followed suit in August, announcing that it was expanding its major financial aid program and would, starting with students who enter in fall 2027, offer free tuition to those from families earning up to $200,000 annually...

Full story at https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2026/09/21/vanderbilt-to-pay-tuition-for-families-with-income--of-200000-or-less/.

Yale Deal - Part 15

From the Yale Daily News: Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis stayed silent on the federal investigation into Yale College admissions during his first interview with the News this academic year. Though he declined to comment on the Department of Justice’s inquiry into whether Yale discriminates against white and Asian applicants, Lewis said he has always valued diversity “of all kinds.” ...

When asked... if Yale College admissions discriminated against white and Asian applicants, Lewis declined to comment on the investigations. “I think, on that, I just should refer you to President McInnis’ comments because of the ongoing nature of that,” Lewis said. McInnis also said... that she believes Yale’s admissions practices follow the law but that she does not know how courts will interpret the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling. She added that she does not comment on ongoing legal matters...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/lewis-mum-on-federal-inquiry-but-stresses-diversity-by-legal-means.