Graduation Speakers

We noticed two announcements of UCLA graduation ceremony speakers recently:

One of UCLA’s most iconic alumni is coming home to celebrate the next generation of Bruins. Six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee will deliver the keynote address at the 2026 UCLA College commencement ceremonies on Friday, June 12, in Pauley Pavilion... 

“It is truly an honor to return to my alma mater, UCLA, and speak to such an extraordinary group of graduates,” Joyner-Kersee said. “UCLA helped shape not only my athletic journey but also the woman I have become. To stand before the students and share a message of perseverance, purpose and belief reminds me that greatness begins with faith in yourself. Always believe that your dreams are possible and then go out and make them a reality.” ...

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Dr. Julio Frenk will deliver the keynote address for the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s commencement ceremony on Friday, June 12, 2026. Frenk, chancellor of UCLA and a distinguished professor in the department of health policy and management at the Fielding School, is also a fourth-generation physician.

Prior to joining UCLA as chancellor in January 2025, Frenk served as president of the University of Miami, from 2015 to 2024, and was the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health from 2009 to 2015. In addition to Frenk’s leadership in higher education, he served as the federal secretary of health of Mexico, from 2000 to 2006, and was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in low- and middle-income countries... 

Full announcements at https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/jackie-joyner-kersee-speaker-2026-ucla-college-commencement; and https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/julio-frenk-2026-ucla-fielding-school-commencement-address.

Straws in the Wind - Part 353

From The Dartmouth: Former communications office assistant director of social media Micky Bedell posted three projects she used as part of a “knowledge base” to create and edit social media content for the College on the Dartmouth Claude enterprise portal. One of the projects, titled “Dartmouth Social Caption Writer,” was last edited in March 2026, while the two other projects — titled “Dartmouth Social Carousel Brainstorm” and “Dartmouth Social Caption Editor” — were last edited in April 2026, according to documents obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth. 

A “knowledge base” consists of prompts and files uploaded to a Claude project, which other members of the enterprise group with access to the project can use to “provide context” to the Claude chatbot in their own individual chats, according to Anthropic’s website. In this case, the enterprise group includes “all campus community members,” including students, professors and staff, according to an email announcing the creation of the enterprise group sent to campus by the Information, Technology and Consulting office on March 30.

College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that Bedell... departed for reasons unrelated to her use of AI...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/05/dorton-sapper-claude-comms.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 166

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences could lay off up to one quarter of its staff this summer as part of a sweeping administrative overhaul that would consolidate departments, centers, and institutes into shared administrative “clusters,” according to two people familiar with the plans. The proposed structure, developed by the FAS Task Force on Workforce Planning with support from McKinsey & Company, would likely replace many unit-level administrative roles with staff who serve multiple academic units, according to an internal slide deck obtained by The Crimson.

The overhaul is intended to help close FAS’s projected $365 million budget deficit. But it would also mark one of the school’s most significant staff reorganizations in years, with layoffs likely to strongly impact department administrators — staff members who manage finances, human resources, and personnel matters for individual FAS units...

The proposed reductions in FAS staff positions would follow similar cuts at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which laid off roughly 15 percent of its staff in October. But many FAS department administrators are not represented by a union, leaving them with few formal protections if their positions are eliminated. Several have worked at Harvard for decades...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/20/administrative-restructuring/.

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/.