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The systemwide Senate wants a greater role in UC's online education program:

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July 23, 2026

Yvette Gullatt

Vice President for Graduate and Undergraduate Affairs Vice Provost for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Re: Recommendations for UC Online

Dear VP Gullatt:

At the June 24, 2026 meeting, the Academic Council endorsed recommendations developed by the University Committee on Educational Policy (UCEP) regarding the governance and oversight of UC Online. Background Council’s endorsement follows several discussions this year regarding UC Online’s evolving role, services, and governance. In March, Council met with UC Online’s associate vice provost to discuss the unit’s strategic direction and the broader context for its work, including persistent challenges related to cross-campus enrollment, course articulation, funding models, data, and operations. In April and June, Council considered UCEP’s analysis of deep concerns about UC Online’s transparency, the availability of data detailed enough to allow meaningful assessment of its services and outcomes, the lack of independent advisory oversight, and the need for greater Senate consultation and involvement in UC Online initiatives at both the systemwide and campus levels. These discussions informed the recommendations in this letter.

Council recognizes that UC Online can play an important role in supporting faculty, students, and cross-campus educational opportunities. However, as online and hybrid instruction becomes more widespread at UC, the Council is extremely troubled that longstanding issues identified by UCEP and in prior external reviews have not yet been resolved. These include unanswered questions about UC Online’s costs and deliverables, and especially its relationship to the Senate in terms of the faculty’s authority over academic programs and courses. Council views these as structural and governance problems, not simply matters of communication. They call for a much stronger and more structured partnership between UC Online and the Senate to clarify responsibilities, address recurring problems, and better align UC Online with UC’s educational mission.

Request for Comprehensive Assessment of UC Online

Council recommends that the Office of Graduate, Undergraduate and Equity Affairs (GUEA) initiate a comprehensive assessment of UC Online or conduct a formal external audit. It should examine the unit’s organizational structure, budget and expenditures, services to faculty and students, and active course offerings. It should also analyze data sufficient to understand how UC Online is being used, including the number and types of active courses; the academic credit students receive and requirements those courses satisfy; course-level patterns of cross-campus enrollment, including the factors driving growth and areas that may warrant review; and the distribution of UC Online’s services across campuses and student populations.

The assessment should do more than restate issues identified in numerous previous reviews. It should identify the corrective actions needed to address ongoing problems, including those related to course articulation, data reporting, funding flows, and evaluation of educational outcomes, and the offices responsible for carrying them out, and a timeline for doing so. Advisory Oversight and Reporting Council also recommends restructuring the UC Online Advisory Council to ensure it has sufficiently independent leadership and a defined responsibility for more objective review and oversight. The Advisory Council should serve as a forum for regular, two-way communication between UC Online and Senate representatives, with an established process for considering Senate concerns and priorities.

An independent advisory structure would help ensure that the council can provide meaningful advice regarding UC Online’s strategic direction, performance, and relationship to broader UC educational initiatives. In addition, Council recommends that UC Online address the inadequacy of its current documentation by committing to providing significantly more complete and accessible information about its activities on a regular basis. This should include substantive annual reports with relevant data, analysis, and evaluation; an up-to-date catalog of active course offerings; a detailed organizational chart with specific roles and areas of management; and a user-friendly navigation dashboard with clear descriptions of both the services available to faculty and students and how to access them. These resources should be made available to enable campuses, faculty, and students to understand what UC Online offers, how to access its services, and how its activities contribute to the University’s educational mission.

Shared Governance

Council recommends that GUEA establish clearer processes for partnering with the Senate on educational initiatives that involve UC Online, particularly as UC Online is increasingly asked to support initiatives beyond its original role in online course development and cross-campus enrollment. Some recent initiatives, including the Global Language Network, the National Education Opportunity Network dual enrollment pilot, and cross-segment online course development efforts, lacked the necessary Senate consultation. These examples illustrate the need for clearer roles, timelines, and collaborative processes.

While the initiatives may advance legitimate educational goals and provide opportunities for UC Online to offer valuable operational support, they also raise questions about course development, instructional standards, credit and articulation, and faculty participation in the development and delivery of courses and programs, all of which require early and sustained engagement with the Senate. While Council does not aim to direct UC Online’s administrative operations or limit its capacity to support systemwide initiatives, it does seek to ensure that initiatives affecting academic programs, course development, instructional standards, credit, articulation, or related educational policy are initiated only after timely and substantive faculty engagement.

Early consultation would allow UC Online to contribute its operational expertise while ensuring that initiatives appropriately reflect Senate authority, campus processes, and faculty perspectives.

Ongoing Assessment of UC Online

Finally, Council recommends that UC Online, with guidance from GUEA, develops a more systematic approach to assessing outcomes. Relevant measures should include student and faculty experiences with UC Online, course completion and subsequent academic performance, the effectiveness of instructional and technical support, and the costs and educational benefits associated with cross-campus course offerings. These assessments should inform strategic planning efforts and provide a sound basis for future decisions about UC Online’s role and resource needs.

Council also recognizes that the Senate has work to do. Council will ask UCEP, in consultation with Senate leadership and Senate divisions as appropriate, to identify relevant Senate policy questions, gather campus-level information about the use and impact of UC Online, and recommend any Senate processes needed to support more effective oversight, and online and cross-campus instruction. The Academic Council appreciates the work of GUEA and UC Online in advancing educational access and innovation.

We share these recommendations to foster a productive conversation and subsequent action so that UC Online can better serve faculty and students while operating within a transparent and effective shared governance framework. Council requests that GUEA and UC Online develop a concrete plan for resolving these issues and report back to Council within the next academic year. Council expects the plan to be developed in consultation with appropriate Senate bodies. We welcome the opportunity to discuss these recommendations with you in more detail and identify immediate next steps.

Sincerely,

Ahmet Palazoglu

Chair, Academic Council

cc: Academic Council Provost & Executive Vice President Newman, Associate Vice Provost Moe, Senate Division Executive Directors, Senate Executive Director Lin

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Source: https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/council-chair-to-guea-uc-online-recommendations.pdf.

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Curious about the image above? Today's online education had a predecessor: College education for credit on TV in the 1950s:

https://dn601209.us.archive.org/0/items/labor-classes/Online%20education%20predecessor%20Sunrise%20Semester%201950s%20TV.mp4.

Watch the Regents Meeting of July 15, 2026

The second day of the Regents meetings of July 14-15 began with public comments. Public comments dealt with the SAT issue, the Hawaiian telescope, funding for professional students, public transportation, a "boarding" crisis in ERs, UC hiring of undocumented students, a project labor agreement for UC, and remote work at UC. There was a brief demonstration thereafter but a warning seemed to bring it to a halt without a full halt of the meeting. (It was unclear who was demonstrating.) 

There were then presentations by representatives of student government, grad and undergrad. There is a certain kabuki element in these presentations. Students denounce the Regents and/or their policies, and then they are thanked for their service. It's a bit like the budget kabuki in which the governor is always thanked for whatever allocation he proposes, and then UC lobbies for more. (Maybe yours truly has grown a bit jaundiced about these traditions!) 

Various student awards were presented including one to a UCLA student who has assisted in advocacy in the face of federal grant cuts.

A report on retention and graduation rates was presented. Among UC's goal is a 90% 6-year graduation rate. The current rate is 86%. One Regent indicated that there was a conflict between the advocacy for returning to the SAT and the fact that graduation rates were generally rising. Another Regents asked, however, whether it is getting easier to graduate.

At Academic and Student Affairs, there was a review of high school A-G courses needed to qualify for admission to UC.  A = History and Social Science, B = English, C = Math, D = Science, E = Language, F = Visual and Performing Arts, G = College Prep Electives. These standards go back the late 19th century and have evolved over time. Most high schools offer A-G. Those that don't can take advantage of online versions. There is a teacher shortage problem with regard to some topics. Also, there are dual enrollment options with community colleges. A concern now is incorporating AI into the curriculum.

As the agenda suggested, there was not a discussion of the SAT, although a student observer opposed going back to the SAT requirement.

The Committee also heard discussion of international education including study abroad programs and exchange students from abroad who come to UC. 

Finally, there was discussion of the return on investment in a UC degree. It was acknowledged that graduating students are facing a low-turnover labor market and that AI is being used to screen job applicants.

At Finance and Capital Strategies, Regent Makarechian - who is often critical of UC construction cost estimates - praised a UC-Irvine project for its low cost and high quality. The state budget allocation for UC was praised despite the "deferral" of certain compact payments. (See the kabuki comments above.) It was noted the although UC has been successful in getting existing grants restored, federal approval of renewals and new grants is sluggish. 

The Regents endorsed the housing bond on the November ballot which contains funding for student housing. National Lab fee income was budgeted. New Regents were excluded from access to classified information. And committee reports were approved.

As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on retention duration. You can see the July 15th meeting at the link below:

https://archive.org/details/regents-7-15-2026.

Straws in the Wind - Part 418 (The Role of Madagascar in the Industrial Revolution)

From TechSpot: ...Modern problems require modern solutions – according to the meme. In this case, the issue is students using AI to cheat on assignments. The solution, used to great effect by one professor, was to hide a white-colored font in the assignment prompt telling the AI to talk nonsense about an unrelated subject. In an online discussion post, Alcorn State University history professor Dr. Jason Gibson posed a question that represented part of his students' midterm. It was about the Industrial Revolution, but knowing how many students now rely solely on artificial intelligence for their answers, he secretly embedded instructions telling the AI to include information about Madagascar in a way that makes no sense.

Being written in white text meant the instructions were invisible. Sure enough, 32 out of the 35 students across two classes simply copied the question, pasted it into a chatbot, then copy and pasted its output into the answer window. Had any of these cheaters even bothered to check what the AI had generated, they'd likely have noticed the strange references to the island country constantly appearing in an essay about the Industrial Revolution...

Full story at https://www.techspot.com/news/113243-professor-invisible-prompt-trap-catches-32-students-cheating.html.

See it to believe it:

https://dn800307.us.archive.org/0/items/sacramento-city-at-risk/AI%20Cheating%20-The%20Role%20of%20Madagascar%20in%20the%20Industrial%20Revolution.mp4.

Admits

UC news release: The University of California announced today (July 29) a record year for California admissions, offering 102,031 California first-year students admission for fall 2026, the highest number in University history. The preliminary admissions results reflect UC's long-standing commitment to serving California, where approximately 85% of the University's currently enrolled undergraduate students are state residents.

The number of California first-year students admitted increased by 1,458 from fall 2025 when the University admitted 100,573 students. The fall 2026 admission rate for first-year California residents increased to 78% from 77% the prior year. The University received over 205,000 first-year applications for fall 2026, demonstrating sustained demand for a UC education. Overall, the University accepted 153,272 first-year students — including California residents and nonresidents.

The University is committed to expanding access for qualified California residents. The UC 2030 capacity plan set a goal of adding 17,000 in-state undergraduates by 2030, and the University is currently on track to meet that target. This aligns with UC’s Multi-Year Compact with the state, which requires UC to increase California undergraduate enrollment by at least one percent annually to receive state funding increases...

Full release at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-admits-record-number-california-students.

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Data tables at https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/factsheets/2026/admissions-fact-sheet-data-tables.pdf.

More Union News

From KQED: The University of California is confronting a large unionization effort among employees who have historically stayed outside of unions: doctors. At Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Thursday, doctors and physicians announced their plans to form a union with SEIU Doctors United — a partnership between Doctors Council, Service Employees International Union and Committee of Interns and Residents that represents more than 45,000 doctors nationwide. The move points to a marked shift in the healthcare industry, where in the past, it has been somewhat rare for generally highly paid doctors to form unions. 

...Attending physicians at UC, who make clinical decisions and often supervise residents and medical students, said they are stretched thin with unsustainable patient loads, understaffing and less decision-making power — concerns often echoed by nurses and other patient care workers with higher union participation rates... UC declined to comment on the attending physicians’ organizing campaign. About $24 billion, nearly 40% of the university’s total revenue last year, came from its six academic health centers, serving 2.5 million Californians. UC is the state’s second largest employer...

Full story at https://www.kqed.org/news/12092485/uc-doctors-seek-to-unionize-10000-colleagues-in-massive-campaign.

Noon and 5 PM Tomorrow

The 2026 UCLA Journey Toward Retirement Series Tomorrow, July 30 Steps to take as you prepare to retire with UC:  Noon registration: https://fmr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Wm31fp4DSv2vY-X0zC-DZg#/registration --- 5 PM registration: https://fmr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iT6UvUHnTfixeqCENvFN3g#/registration

Straws in the Wind - Part 417

From Inside Higher Ed: Colorado is the latest state targeted by the Department of Justice for its in-state tuition policies for undocumented students. The DOJ has sued 14 other states for allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, three of which quickly agreed to end those policies. One case was dismissed and another ended in a win for the DOJ in federal court. Colorado passed a law in 2013 establishing that undocumented students could qualify for in-state tuition if they met certain residency requirements or had graduated from a high school in Colorado. In its filing, the DOJ argued that the state’s policy is unlawful because it extends lower tuition rates and state financial aid opportunities to undocumented students that are not available to out-of-state students who are U.S. citizens. It also claims the policy encourages illegal immigration...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/07/28/doj-sues-colorado-over-state-tuition-noncitizens.