Full story at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8pwjdp6do.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Straws in the Wind - Part 341 (Let's just play Pomp & Circumstance and go home)
From Inside Higher Ed: The Rutgers University at New Brunswick School of Engineering canceled a pro-Palestinian alumnus as its convocation speaker after, the university says, some graduating students complained about his social media posts. In March, the school’s website published an “Alumni Spotlight” interview with Rami Elghandour, chairman and chief executive officer of biotechnology company Arcellx. The piece touted his social justice and humanitarian advocacy and noted he was an executive producer of The Voice of Hind Rajab, an Oscar-nominated film about a Gazan girl killed by Israeli forces in the recent war.
Elghandour was set to speak at the school’s May 15 convocation, but the school canceled. In a statement to Inside Higher Ed, the university said the “School of Engineering was recently informed that some graduating students would not attend their graduation ceremony due to concerns about the invited speaker’s social media posts, including one that shared an inflammatory claim.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/05/07/rutgers-disinvites-grad-speaker-after-he-criticizes-israel.
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From the Jewish Journal: When Georgetown Law School announced recently that Dr. Morton Schapiro, Professor and President Emeritus of Northwestern University, would be its commencement speaker, Interim Dean Joshua C. Teitelbaum noted that Schapiro is “highly informed about the challenges facing colleges and universities today,” and that “there are few who can speak to it with as much clarity and insight as he can.”
...[But] in his Jewish Journal column, Schapiro has written about a range of subjects, including the need for hope and optimism and improving the public discourse. ...He has also expressed supportive views of Israel. That was a bridge too far for a group of law students... The outcry became loud enough that Schapiro could only imagine what was reserved for him on the day of the address. ...He felt he had little choice but to withdraw...
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Stopped
From the LA Times: The National Science Foundation suspended at least 18 research grants to UC Berkeley last month despite a court injunction restricting such suspensions, according to an attorney representing university scientists in a class-action lawsuit. The NSF declined to comment on the suspensions.
The grants include at least one that the NSF had previously canceled and was compelled by a federal court order to restore, for a series of mixed-reality exhibits at the Lawrence Hall of Science showcasing Indigenous Ohlone knowledge about the natural world, said one of the project’s leaders, Jedda Foreman...
The University of California is ramping up efforts to find alternative funding for its multibillion-dollar research enterprise as federal support becomes less reliable. On Monday [of last week], UC President James Milliken spoke alongside state Sen. Scott Wiener and United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain at a Sacramento rally in support of state legislation to create a $23-billion fund for scientific research...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-05-10/trump-administration-again-suspends-uc-berkeley-research-grants.
Paid Off
It turns out that Instructure, the supplier of Canvas, paid a ransom to get its data back, presumably thereby protecting all the students and faculty in the various universities that use Canvas. From Inside Higher Ed:
Instructure has paid a ransom to a gang of cybercriminals that have twice hacked the company’s learning management system, Canvas, over the past week and a half. nstructure has paid a ransom to a gang of cybercriminals that have twice hacked the company’s learning management system, Canvas, over the past week and a half. According to an update published by the education-technology company Monday night, the deal means that the hackers have returned the compromised data of some 275 million users across more than 8,800 institutions...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/administrative-tech/2026/05/11/instructure-pays-ransom-canvas-hackers.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Is AFSCME being pushed out of Kaiser?
Of course, we don't know what is happening behind closed doors at negotiations between UC and AFSCME. But one of the AFSCME commenters suggested that UC is trying to push the 70% of AFSCME workers that now choose Kaiser as their health provider into plans that utilize UC providers.
See an excerpt from his comment below:
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Note that if there is a UC push away from Kaiser regarding AFSCME-represented staff, the same might occur for other groups, actives and retired.
Straws in the Wind - Part 340
From the LA Times: ...Today’s college students say that picking a major that’s “AI-proof” feels like shooting at a moving target as they prepare for a job market that could be fundamentally different by the time they graduate. As a result, many are reconsidering their career paths. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, while recent Gallup polling found that U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being replaced by new technologies. The uncertainty appears most concentrated among those pursuing degrees in technology and vocational areas of study, where students feel a need to develop expertise in AI but also fear being replaced by it.
A recent Quinnipiac poll found that the vast majority of Americans believe it’s “very” or “somewhat” important for college and university students to be taught how to use AI, as Gallup Workforce polling has found that AI is getting adopted in technology-related fields at higher rates. Meanwhile, students studying healthcare and natural sciences may be less affected by AI overhauls, Gallup found.
...A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youths and adults ages 14 to 29 found increasing skepticism and concerns about AI. Although half of Gen Z adults use AI at least “weekly,” and teenagers report higher use, many in this generation see drawbacks to the technology and worry about AI’s effect on their cognitive abilities and job prospects. About half, 48%, of Gen Z workers say the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh the possible benefits.
Part of the challenge for college students is that the experts they would typically turn to for advice, such as advisors, professors and parents, don’t have any answers...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-05-05/college-students-are-in-search-of-ai-proof-majors.
Former Westside Pavilion
Urbanize LA is running an article on the research facility UCLA is developing at the former Westside Pavilion with these images.
Source: https://la.urbanize.city/post/heres-closer-look-plans-ucla-research-park.
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The article also notes UCLA's purchase of the campus of a defunct Catholic College in Palos Verdes which - as far as yours truly knows - nobody has figured out yet what to do with. So no dramatic future images of that facility are available.
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