Poof! You're a Pauper!

The link to the article shown in the image is below. It's a sad tale of a computer SNAFU that isn't fully explained but was eventually corrected. However, in between the point where the accounts disappeared and when they were resurrected, there was a lot of anxiety, to say the least.

Some UC employees and retirees have their tax-favored savings accounts at Fidelity. And Fidelity provides other services for UC related to retirement accounts. But the glitch seems like something that could occur in any large computer system.

The moral of the tale would seem to be that it would be a good idea to keep some kind of external record of your accounts so that when someone tells you that they can't find any trace of your accounts in the system, you have a screenshot or a paper copy to prove otherwise. In this case, the victim of the SNAFU was told that because there was no record that she ever had existed, there was nothing to be done.

You can find the story at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/your-money/fidelity-investments-fraud-alert.html.

===

 

Straws in the Wind - Part 330

From Fortune: The assignment involves no laptop, no chatbot and no technology of any kind. In fact, there’s no pen or paper, either. Instead, students in Chris Schaffer’s biomedical engineering class at Cornell University are required to speak directly to an instructor in what he calls an “oral defense.” It’s a testing method as old as Socrates and making a comeback in the AI age. A growing number of college professors say they are turning to oral exams, and combining a variety of old-fashioned and cutting-edge techniques, to help address a crisis in higher education. “You won’t be able to AI your way through an oral exam,” says Schaffer, who introduced the oral defense last semester.

Educators are no longer naively wondering if students will use generative AI to do their homework for them. A big question now is how to determine what students are actually learning. College instructors across the U.S. are noticing troubling new trends as generative artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated. Take-home essays and other written assignments are coming back perfect. But when students are asked to explain their work, they can’t...

At the University of Pennsylvania, Emily Hammer, an associate professor of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, now pairs oral exams with written papers in her seminar classes...  Hammer forbids AI use on all writing assignments but tells her class she knows she can’t enforce that. However, if they haven’t written their papers themselves, defending the material face-to-face will likely be “a very stressful situation.”

Hammer’s class is part of “a massive shift toward in-person assessments,” both written and oral, at Penn, says Bruce Lenthall, executive director of the school’s Center for Teaching and Learning. The Ivy League school is one of a small but growing number of universities that have started running faculty workshops on oral exams...

Full story at https://fortune.com/2026/04/23/the-gen-z-stare-meets-the-mysterious-perfect-homework-assignment-in-the-age-of-chatgpt-enter-the-oral-exam/.

The Way We Live Now

A message from Associate Vice Chancellor Steve Lurie

Dear Bruin Community, 

The UC Regents will hold a two-day meeting at the Luskin Conference Center from Tuesday, May 5, through Wednesday, May 6, 2026. We are excited to welcome University leaders as they convene to do their important work. Traditionally, these meetings have been a focal point for individuals and groups who wish to express their concerns, goals, and vision for the University of California.

For those who wish to communicate with the Regents, public comment periods will be available to address the Board directly. For details on how to sign up, please click here: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/public-comment.html.

There will also be designated areas for public expression activities near the Luskin Conference Center. Signs will be posted to delineate these zones. If you plan to engage in First Amendment activity during the Regents meeting, please take a moment to review our time, place, and manner policies and related laws at https://tpm.ucla.edu/.

To ensure a safe, successful meeting, the Office of Campus and Community Safety will partner with other UC campuses, the California Highway Patrol, and contracted security personnel to increase available resources during the two-day event. Our community members will see officers in police vehicles, on bicycles, and on foot, as well as security officers throughout the area.

We remain committed to implementing UCLA's tiered response to all events and will utilize uniformed police officers only when absolutely necessary.

Please join me in welcoming the Regents to UCLA, and feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Steve Lurie

Associate Vice Chancellor, Office of Campus & Community Safety

Problems on the 405 this weekend

From Santa Monica Patch: Traffic will be affected on the 405 Freeway and nearby roads this weekend when construction will shut down several lanes of the interstate near the Sepulveda Pass beginning Friday.The northbound freeway will be reduced to three lanes from 10 p.m. Friday, May 1 through 5 a.m. Monday, May 4. Additionally, one ramp will be closed. 

The planned closures are as follows:

Northbound 405 Freeway

• The interstate will be reduced to three lanes between Skirball Center Drive and Ventura Boulevard.
• The Skirball Center Drive on-ramp to the northbound 405 will be closed.

The southbound freeway will not be affected by the closure...

Full story https://patch.com/california/santamonica/s/k9gav/major-lane-closures-to-snarl-405-freeway-this-weekend-what-to-know.

Klitzner

From a recent email:

The Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award, established in 2015, recognizes UCLA emeriti for exemplary service by an emeritus/emerita professor to the academic enterprise after retirement. The award honors outstanding service in professional, University, Academic Senate, emeriti, departmental or editorial posts, or committees.

UCLA Professor Emeritus Thomas S. Klitzner has been selected to receive the 2025 – 2026 Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award, which includes a prize of $1,000.

Thomas S. Klitzner, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics retired in 2016. Dr. Klitzner has sustained a vigorous record of service to UCLA, the medical profession, and the broader community. At UCLA, he remains an active research collaborator focused on complex care for children, advancing national models for home and care coordination. In 2022 he endowed the Thomas Klitzner Medical Home Lectureship for Complex Care, bringing leading scholars to campus to strengthen education and practice. Beyond campus, Dr. Klitzner serves on the Strategic Planning Committee of the Venice Family Clinic and chairs the board of Seeds to Plate, a nonprofit providing garden-based education in Los Angeles public schools, fostering meaningful engagement between UCLA pediatric residents and local students. His continued participation in professional and advisory roles reflects decades of leadership in pediatric health system innovation.

Please join me in wishing Professor Emeritus Klitzner a well-deserved congratulations for outstanding service to UCLA since retirement and for serving as a powerful example of intellectual and professional achievement.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Levine

Chair, Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award Selection Committee

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs & Personnel

Straws in the Wind - Part 329

From California Post: A growing revolt is unfolding at the the University of Southern California’s prestigious Marshall School of Business, where faculty are warning of the program’s downward slide. In a sharply worded letter to USC Dean Geoffrey Garrett, 52 tenured professors flagged falling enrollment and graduate program cuts as signs of deeper trouble at the school, according to L.A. Material. “There are clear signs of our downward trajectory in terms of academic reputation, commitment to excellence in research, and the demonstrated academic excellence of the students which graduate from our programs,” the letter states.

While faculty pushback isn’t unusual on college campuses, current and former USC administrators described the warning as rare, high-level rebuke that could force leadership to take a hard look inward. The tensions have arisen amid a strained financial backdrop at the college. USC carried out layoffs last July to close an operating deficit that had swelled to $251 million...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/04/24/us-news/doomsday-letter-from-faculty-at-usc-business-school-warns-of-distrubing-trend/.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 155

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard faculty are weighing an amendment to a proposed cap on undergraduate A’s that would substantially reduce the number of A’s awarded in smaller courses, the latest revision to a policy faculty have debated for months. The current proposal would cap the number of A’s in any course at 20 percent of enrolled students plus four. The amendment, drafted by Physics professor Matthew D. Schwartz, would replace the flat addition of four with 0.6 times the square root of the total number of students.

Across all courses, the two formulas would produce roughly the same overall share of A’s — 31 percent under the amendment, compared with 32.3 percent under the current proposal. (The current share of As awarded to undergraduates is substantially higher at 63 percent.) But the amendment’s impact would be far more pronounced in smaller courses. In courses with 12 or fewer students, the maximum allowed share of A’s would fall from 70.8 percent to 51.1 percent. In larger classes, Schwartz’s formula would slightly increase the cap, raising the allowed share of A’s by one to three percentage points in courses with more than 30 students...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/27/grade-cap-amendment/.

===

From the Harvard Crimson: Enrollment in Harvard’s Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program has fallen to a more than 15-year low, as cuts to teaching positions and federal scrutiny of gender and sexuality-related programming raise questions about the program’s long-term sustainability. 22 undergraduates are currently concentrating in WGS, including joint and double concentrators, according to data from current and past concentration handbooks. The figure is the lowest since 2010 and represents a more than 50 percent decline from the program’s 2022-23 peak of 55 concentrators.

Only two are sophomores — the most recent class to declare their concentrations...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/22/wgs-concentrators-drop/.