Word Shift

As blog readers will likely know, UC-San Diego received much bad press when an internal report noted that many incoming freshmen were arriving without a working knowledge of high school math.*

Now the systemwide Academic Senate is being asked to deal with recommendations to deal with the issue.** Comments are due May 19.

Some of the proposed changes seem to be to find euphemisms for the word "remedial." Coursework in that category is now referred to using phrases such as "pre-college-level preparatory." However, the policy remains that college credit is not to be given for such courses. 

Much of the proposal is focused on clarifying responsibility and making technical updates with regard to writing courses. 

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*Example: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/math-decline-ucsd/684973/.

**https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview/council-chair-systemwide-senate-review-revisions-sbl-192-sr-636-761.pdf.

Straws in the Wind - Part 262

From the Yale Daily News: Yale College staffing will decrease by roughly 7.5 percent in response to the Trump administration’s endowment tax hike, according to Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis. Aside from financial aid programming, the “biggest expense” for the College is the payment of staff salaries, Lewis said in an interview last week. The Yale College operating budget, which totals approximately $80 million this academic year, is separate from the $275 million annual financial aid budget that Lewis’ office also oversees.

...According to the Office of the Provost’s website, the increased federal endowment tax will result in a 12.5 percent decrease in the University’s ability to spend from its roughly $44 billion endowment. Lewis said last week that this reduction will result in a 7.5 percent cut to the Yale College budget, adding that the “only way” to meet this reduction was to employ fewer staff...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-college-staff-to-shrink-by-7-5-percent-amid-budget-cuts-dean-says.

Amazon Recall Scam

If you get a text message purportedly from Amazon about some recalled product, delete it. It's a scam. The message will invite you to click for a refund. If you follow the instructions, you will be giving out your credit card and other information to thieves. Text messages from Amazon, other companies, banks, etc., should not be answered directly. Contact the purported sender directly. Look up the phone number or other contact information on the web.

More details at https://www.cheapism.com/amazon-scam-recall-texts/.

I Never Promised You a Rose Bowl? - Part 14

UCLA will be playing at the Rose Bowl next year despite the ongoing litigation regarding a potential move to SoFi Stadium, according to a report in the California Post:

... “UCLA will play the upcoming football season at the Rose Bowl,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor of strategic communications, said in a statement provided to the California Post. “We know how much game day means to Bruins — to our students, alumni and fans who plan their autumn around Saturdays together.

“Our priority is delivering a strong season experience for our student-athletes and our community, and we have great momentum in our football program. During this unprecedented time in college athletics, UCLA will always be guided by what’s best for our student-athletes and the Bruin community.” ...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/02/21/sports/ucla-bruins-to-play-at-rose-bowl-in-2026-instead-of-sofi/.

The Slide

From the San Francisco Chronicle: For the first time since the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, undergraduate computer science enrollment across the UC system declined in 2025, data show. Only one UC has defied the downward trend: UC San Diego, the sole campus to have launched an AI major. David Reynaldo,the founder of admissions consultancy College Zoom, said he’s seen this play out in his work with students applying to college. But the biggest shift, he said, is coming from parents.

In past years, parents saw a computer science degree as a clear path to a high-paying job: They might push their children to apply and enroll in those programs. But now those parents are turning toward hard, physical sciences, like mechanical or electrical engineering, as the better option. “Parental pressure plays a lot — a lot, a lot, a lot — on the kids,” he said.

UC admissions officers first flagged the shift in September at a college counselors conference in San Jose. “The biggest surprise is us trying to fill computer science,” UC Santa Barbara’s admissions director, Cuka Acosta, told a roomful of student advisers from high schools and community colleges. “Changing times! Students are looking at more AI programs.”

It’s not just the UCs. A recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that enrollment in computer science programs declined across different types of institutions in the fall...

Full story https://www.sfchronicle.com/college-admissions/article/uc-major-computer-science-ai-21284464.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 261

From CNN: Military officers could soon find dozens of top colleges and universities across the United States abruptly off limits for tuition assistance as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign against schools he describes as being biased against the US military and sponsoring “troublesome partnerships with foreign adversaries.” The uncertainty about tuition assistance and eligible programs for Defense Department funding has led to confusion and concern amongst service members who have already applied or been accepted to these schools. Officials also said they were concerned it amounted to an attempt to purge diversity of thought from the military.

The policy was rolled out in a memo signed by Hegseth last week saying that beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, the Pentagon would be severing its relationship with Harvard University and discontinuing all graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs there for active-duty service members. Hegseth ordered the military services to “evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty members at Ivy League universities and any other universities that similarly diminish critical thinking and have significant adversary involvement, and determine whether they deliver cost-effective, strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to public universities and military masters programs,” according to a source familiar with the memo...

Full story at https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/politics/us-military-top-universities-tuition-assistance.

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From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design removed an art exhibit that includes anti-ICE artwork, the artist told The Denton Record-Chronicle. The exhibit, Ni De Aquí Ni De Allá (“Not From Here, Not From There”), by Brooklyn-based artist Victor Quiñonez, was scheduled to open officially on Feb. 19. The works explore Quiñonez’s Mexican and Mexican American identity and his experiences as an undocumented person in East Dallas, The Dallas Observer reported. Several pieces in the exhibit, which was originally organized by Boston University, appear to criticize United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement... 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/17/u-north-texas-cancels-exhibit-anti-ice-art.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 125

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard administrators pushed a faculty committee to cancel a long-running, biannual symposium featuring tenure-track women’s research, citing legal concerns about hosting a single-gender event, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Standing Committee on Women, which had hosted the symposium for roughly 15 years, ultimately decided to stop running the event after Faculty of Arts and Sciences leadership advised against selecting speakers based on gender. The FAS will now host a new gender-neutral version of the program, Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser wrote in a Wednesday email to faculty...

The symposium, held twice yearly, traditionally featured tenure-track women faculty, though it was always open to the full FAS community. Past invitations explicitly listed women speakers selected by the committee. At an Oct. 3 meeting of the Standing Committee, Zipser advised the committee against holding a single-gender event, suggesting that it host the symposium without gender-based selection or have the FAS take over the event.

...Faculty members expressed frustration with the guidance at a Nov. 7 meeting of the committee, according to a faculty member familiar with the matter...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/2/20/fas-ends-womens-symposium/.