Confident Retiree Webinars

Confident Retiree Webinars provide you with the knowledge, tools and resources to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

Attend the final webinar in our new Legacy Planning series, Essential Steps for Survivors of UC Retirees: Accessing UC Benefits and More and learn about: 

• What UCRP (pension) payments are made after a retiree’s passing
• How to apply for UCRP benefits
• Important documents needed to access UCRP benefits 
• Health and Welfare benefits for survivors  
• Other sources of income 
• Important contacts and resources 

Thursday, June 11, 2026 
1:00 p.m. PT
Register

Friends and family are encouraged to attend.

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About the Legacy Planning Series
This webinar is the last in UC’s three-part Confident Retiree series called Legacy Planning–Peace of Mind for You and Your Loved Ones. 

Together, these sessions are designed to help UC retirees and their families prepare for the future by protecting savings, organizing personal affairs, and ensuring survivors can access UC benefits when it matters most.  

Additional resources 
We’ve included some helpful links below to resources mentioned in the upcoming Part 3 webinar, Essential Steps for Survivors of UC Retirees: Accessing UC Benefits and More: 

• Essential Steps to Access UC Benefits: A Checklist for Survivors of UC Retirees

• UCRP Special Durable Power of Attorney Fact Sheet

• Social Security Administration

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Taking Control of Your Finances: Help for Surviving Spouses

The slide decks and recordings for Part 1: Preserving Your Savings for Future Generations and Part 2: Getting Your Affairs in Order: Essential Planning for Peace of Mind are currently being updated to meet accessibility standards. Once available, they will be posted on the  Webinars Overview page of myUCretirement.com.  

Straws in the Wind - Part 352

From the Washington Post: MIT is doing less research and enrolling fewer graduate students as a result of federal actions, the university president warned... Federally funded research on campus is down more than 20 percent compared to this time last year, MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, told the campus community in a video message, and the number of new federal research awards is also down more than 20 percent. ...Graduate student enrollment will also decline significantly in the coming academic year, she said; outside of two programs that are still in the midst of admissions, the number of grad students will be 20 percent less than it was in 2024 — about 500 fewer students. MIT’s loss is emblematic of the shrinking of American science caused by Trump administration actions that are affecting labs across the country.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said he expects to hear similar assessments coming from other leading research universities. “This is the first of many of these kinds of alarms that will be ringing," he said. But at MIT, the reduction in research funding is exacerbated by the impact of a sharply increased tax on its endowment returns. Most colleges and universities are exempt from taxes because of their nonprofit status and educational mission. MIT expects to pay about $240 million a year for that tax, which was increased to 8 percent this year by Congress and applied to only a handful of elite schools...

Full story at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/05/15/mit-president-blames-federal-policy-shifts-big-drop-research-campus/.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 165

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard faculty voted to impose a roughly 20 percent cap on A grades beginning in fall 2027, approving the College’s most aggressive attempt in decades to reverse grade inflation and reshape academic standards. Faculty voted 458 to 201 for the first plank of the three-part proposal, which will limit A grades in undergraduate courses to 20 percent of enrollment, with flexibility for up to four additional A’s. The measure passed with 69.5 percent of votes cast.

Faculty also approved a companion measure to use average percentile rankings, rather than GPA, to determine internal awards and honors. That measure passed 498 to 157, with 76 percent of participating faculty in favor. But faculty rejected the proposal’s third plank, which would have allowed courses to petition to opt out of the A cap if they were graded on an unsatisfactory, satisfactory, and satisfactory-plus basis. That measure failed 292 to 364.

Together, the votes represent a sweeping intervention in Harvard College’s academic culture — one that will sharply reduce the share of A’s and place new constraints on grading decisions traditionally left to individual instructors...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/20/fas-passes-a-grade-cap/.

Row

From the California Post: Claire Prindiville wakes up not knowing if this will be the day. The day that her symptoms come back. The day that her legs betray her again. The day that her vision falters, or her ability to use the bathroom is out of her control. Doctors have told her there’s a 60% chance that she’ll have to battle these same despicable conditions again, and if they return they might be worse than the first bout. Somehow, none of those possibilities crosses the UCLA rower’s mind as she rises at 5:28 every morning except Sunday thanks to an alarm that beats the roosters...

When Prindiville was a junior in high school, persistent headaches landed her in the emergency room. Doctors just sent her home with medication. Her pediatrician diagnosed her with a stiff neck, and she started acupuncture, thinking nothing of it.

Eventually, [after a major attack, her familly] learned that Claire was suffering from a rare neurological autoimmune disorder called myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease, or MOGAD. There is no known cause or cure for the disease in which the immune system attacks the protective coating of nerves in the central nervous system, impairing their ability to send signals from the brain to the rest of the body...

Having rowed for Gonzaga, Matt Prindiville told his daughter that his old sport might be an option at [UCLA]. Even though she clocked an exceptional time on a rowing machine, coaches felt her form was too raw and she was too prone to injury. They cut her. Devastated, she wrote an email asking for another chance to prove herself. Her coach called two hours later, accepting the offer. “With Claire,” her father said, “there’s a strong component of just advocating for herself.”

Showing continual improvement, she not only made the team but eventually landed a scholarship. Combining superb strength, endurance and a relentless pursuit of mastering proper technique, she’s now one of the top rowers on [the] team... 

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/05/16/sports/why-ucla-rower-claire-prindiville-isnt-disheartened-by-rare-disease/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 351

From Reuters: A longstanding diversity and inclusion requirement for U.S. law schools is teetering amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration and Republican states. The American Bar Association council that oversees law school accreditation voted... to eliminate a ​rule that requires law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, and student programming. The ‌rule has been suspended since February 2025, after Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts...

The change would not become final until the ABA's House of Delegates begins ​to consider it as early as August and then debates revisions. That approval process could push the diversity rule's elimination to sometime ​in 2027...

Full story at https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/american-bar-association-votes-eliminate-dei-rule-law-schools-2026-05-15/.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 164

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss the Department of Justice’s lawsuit accusing the University of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students, arguing that the Trump administration’s claims are outdated and legally deficient. In a 49-page motion filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, Harvard’s lawyers argued that the government failed to plausibly allege a continuing violation of Title VI, which bars discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. They also contended that the Justice Department cannot use the lawsuit to claw back nearly $1 billion in already spent federal grant money. The motion is Harvard’s most forceful response to the DOJ’s March lawsuit, which alleged that the University was “deliberately indifferent” to antisemitic and anti-Israeli harassment after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The government has asked the court to impose sweeping remedies, including the appointment of an outside monitor, a bar on future federal funding, and restitution of federal grants issued during the period of alleged noncompliance. Harvard’s lawyers rejected that account..., writing that the complaint relies on “a snapshot in time that does not exist today” and ignores a long list of steps the University says it has taken to combat antisemitism...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/19/harvard-doj-antisemitism-dismissal/.

Life around Harvard Square

Seen on the bulletin board of an ice cream shop.