Free

From the LA Times: In a bid to pack the Rose Bowl and Pauley Pavilion, tickets to all UCLA home football and men’s and women’s basketball games will be free for undergraduate, graduate and extension students going forward... Previously, the Bruins had to purchase a Den Pass for $199 to gain access to home football and men’s basketball games. Students who have already purchased the Den Pass for the 2026-2027 academic year will be reimbursed...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2026-09-16/ucla-to-give-all-students-free-tickets-to-football-basketball-games.

Straws in the Wind - Part 472

From Inside Higher Ed: For more than a year, the U.S. Justice Department has steadily worked its way through the list of states that allow eligible noncitizens to pay in-state college tuition. The agency sued first Texas and then Kentucky, arguing that the policies violated federal statute. Now, DOJ has sued 24 states and Washington, D.C., in what advocates call a coordinated assault on the rights of undocumented students. The last batch of lawsuits was filed Thursday against Arkansas, D.C., Hawaii and Utah.

...Of the roughly 525,000 undocumented college students in the United States, more than 180,000 go to school in the seven states that already ended the discounted rates, and 220,000 others live in states where litigation is ongoing, according to data from the Higher Education Immigration Portal...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/courts/2026/09/14/doj-sues-all-states-state-tuition-noncitizens. 

Moneyball

From Inside Higher Ed: The Senate voted 74 to 24 Tuesday [of last week] to move forward with voting on the Protect College Sports Act, a bill to establish federal guidelines on player eligibility, compensation, conference realignment, in-season coaching moves, student transfers and other changes. The bill would also grant the NCAA some antitrust protections that the association has said are critical to governing college athletics. If the legislation does advance out of the Senate... the House likely won’t vote until after the November midterm elections, and it’s unclear whether lawmakers in the lower chamber will rally around the bill. But this issue is a top priority for President Trump, who has warned that college athletics threatens to bankrupt higher education institutions without significant changes.

...The proposed changes come at a financially precarious moment for college sports, with most athletic departments operating in the red as they respond to new pressures such as revenue-sharing... Opponents of the bill, like Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, believe that the bill favors monied interests in college sports, such as coaches and executives, at the expense of the players...

As the bill moves forward, hundreds of colleges, coaches, conferences and the NCAA have thrown their support behind the bill in closed-door conversations and national ad campaigns... The NCAA, which lobbied for the bill, launched an ad campaign in support of the legislation. Like the bill’s sponsors, the NCAA says it is necessary to provide stability to college sports... Joining the NAACP in opposing the bill [are the] AFL-CIO and the National College Players Association. Opponents have argued that the legislation extends too much legal protection to the NCAA while diminishing the leverage players have. All three organizations joined Murphy and athletes... urged senators to vote against the legislation...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2026/09/17/money-ads-and-star-power-push-remake-college-sports.

Bye Bye Master Plan

Whatever the details, the Master Plan for Higher Education is fast disappearing:

From the LA Times: California community colleges will be able to offer bachelor’s degrees that duplicate programs at California State University and University of California schools... under legislation approved [last] Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The pair of bills scraps the state’s ban on community colleges offering any bachelor’s degree already available at CSU or UC, and replaces it with a system built around regional workforce needs and a district college’s performance. They cleared the legislature earlier this month after CSU and UC withdrew objections... The laws will take effect Jan. 1, 2028.

Chancellor Sonya Christian, who leads the community college system, had come out against the two related bills in the final days of the session. She said the versions lawmakers passed — and Newsom has approved — could create “more barriers” than currently exist for community colleges moving to provide new degree programs...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-18/california-community-college-bachelors-degrees-newsom-law.

Veto

From CalMatters: California college students without legal immigration status still cannot work at public colleges and universities after Gov. Gavin Newsom again vetoed a bill Sunday that would have given them that right. Assembly Bill 713 would have adopted an untested legal theory that argues that a 1986 federal law barring employers from hiring workers in the country without authorization doesn’t apply to state governments. The logic? That 40-year-old law doesn’t mention state governments as a type of employer that cannot hire workers without proper status.

But for the second time in three years, Newsom decided that adopting that theory for California would expose the state’s higher-education system to the wrath of the federal government...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/09/newsom-veto-students-wtihout-legal-status/.

As we have pointed out previously, the bill did not in fact impose a mandate on UC, unlike CSU and the community colleges. It left the ultimate decision to the Regents:

This article shall apply to the University of California, unless it is found to be inapplicable to the university, then, consistent with Section 67400, this article shall apply to the university only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make it applicable.

See https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB713/id/3191073.

News accounts tend to omit this fact. Presumably, it was included in the bill because of the constitutional autonomy of the Regents.

All I know about Bloat... - Part 2

Yesterday, we posted a Boston Globe op ed of Sept. 9 from Prof. Barry Lam of Riverside concerning administrative bloat. As if on cue to illustrate his point, only a few days later, a 185-page document appeared on the systemwide Academic Senate website. We reproduce below just the 3-page cover letter that was part of that document. Should you want to read the full 185 pages, the link is at the bottom of this post. (But you shouldn't.)

===

September 11, 2026

CHANCELLORS

ACADEMIC COUNCIL CHAIR SCOTT

LABORATORY DIRECTOR YELICK

ANR VICE PRESIDENT HUMISTON

Re: Systemwide Review of Proposed Presidential Policy: Relocation Assistance Act Policy for Real Estate Acquisitions and Leases

Dear Colleagues:

Enclosed for systemwide review are proposed revisions to Presidential Policy: Relocation Assistance Act Policy for Real Estate Acquisitions and Leases (Relocation Policy or Policy). The University is required to comply with the California Relocation Assistance Law (California Government Code Section 7260 et seq.), which requires that all public entities adopt rules and regulations to administer relocation assistance and to implement the payments under this law. The University approved its Relocation Policy in 1974 and last updated it in 2013.

The Relocation Policy is very technical and is required to conform to the Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Guidelines (“Guidelines”) adopted by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Where possible, the Policy has been revised to address common University situations including the standard process for acquiring property, the expiration of long-term ground leases, and dealing with UC affiliated tenants in housing.

The University hired outside counsel to support the Policy revision process. The selected outside counsel worked on the 2013 update to the Policy and has had several minor engagements with campuses concerning the Policy interpretation. The revisions have been closely coordinated with UC Legal and the campus real estate offices and have been discussed at two systemwide conferences for UC real estate staff. No concerns have been expressed to date.

Systemwide Review

Systemwide review is a public review distributed to the Chancellors, the Chair of the Academic Council, the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Vice President of Agriculture and Natural Resources requesting that they inform the general University community, especially affected employees, about policy proposals. Systemwide review also includes a mandatory, 90-day full Senate review.

Employees should be afforded the opportunity to review and comment on the draft policy. Attached is a Model Communication which may be used to inform non-exclusively represented employees about these proposals. Systemwide Labor Relations at the Office of the President is responsible for informing the bargaining units representing union membership about policy proposals.

We would appreciate receiving your comments no later than December 10, 2026. Please submit your comments to julie.wong@ucop.edu. If you have any questions, please contact Julie Wong at julie.wong@ucop.edu or (510) 987-0374.

Sincerely,

David Phillips,

Associate Vice President, Capital Programs, Energy and Sustainability

Enclosures:

1) Draft Presidential Policy: Relocation Assistance Act Policy for Real Estate Acquisitions and Leases (clean copy)

2) Draft Presidential Policy: Relocation Assistance Act Policy for Real Estate Acquisitions and Leases (tracked-changes copy)

3) Model Communication

cc: President Milliken

Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Hexter

Executive Vice Chancellors/Provosts

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Nava

Executive Vice President Rubin

Senior Vice President Bustamante

Vice President Brown

Vice President and Vice Provost Gullatt

Vice President Henderson

Vice President and Chief of Staff Kao

Vice President Maldonado

Academic Council Vice Chair Nuru-Jeter

Vice Provost Varsanyi

Vice Provosts/Vice Chancellors of Academic Affairs/Personnel

Deputy Provost Lee

Associate Vice President Matella

Associate Vice President McRae

Deputy General Counsel Woodall

Assistant Vice Provosts/Assistant Vice Chancellors for Academic Personnel

Executive Director Anders 

Executive Director Lin

Executive Director Menezes

Chief of Staff Beechem

Chief of Staff Levintov

Chief Policy Advisor McAuliffe

LBL Chief Human Resources Officer Crosson

Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Hairston

Director Chin

Director Garcia

Director Lavin

Director Weston-Dawkes

Associate Director Dicaprio

Associate Director Soria

Associate Director Woolston

Assistant Director LaBriola

Policy Analyst Durrin

Program Policy Analyst D’Agostino

Policy Advisory Committee

===

Source: https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview/systemwide-senate-review-relocation-assistance-act-policy.pdf.

Don't call. Don't click. Delete.

Don't call. Don't click. Delete.