State Audit of UC and CSU Sexual Harassment Cases

June 30, 2026

2025‑050

The Governor of California

President pro Tempore of the Senate

Speaker of the Assembly

State Capitol

Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:

As required by Education Code section 67382.1, my office conducted an audit of the efforts of the University of California (UC) and the California State University (CSU) to address and prevent sexual harassment. In general, we determined that UC and CSU have improved their responses to sexual harassment but should take further action to protect their campus communities.

Our review included a selection of two campuses in each system—UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Sacramento State—and primarily focused on how these four campuses responded to reports that students or employees (respondents) had engaged in sexual harassment toward others (complainants). We reviewed 97 cases and found six with substantive issues. For example, in one case that a campus closed without taking formal action, it was unclear whether the campus had met with a complainant who was interested in pursuing a formal process and had requested a meeting. In another case, a complainant stated that she wanted the campus to investigate her report, but the campus appeared to have pressured her to pursue an alternative resolution agreement instead. We also observed inconsistencies in the discipline that campuses imposed on respondents following investigations.

Campuses could more consistently implement best practices to better prevent and address sexual harassment. For instance, the campuses closed several cases without taking formal action because complainants had not responded to email outreach, but the campuses did not document consideration of any other outreach methods, such as phone calls or text messages. Additionally, although investigators or hearing officers reached reasonable determinations in each investigation case we reviewed, some case reports contained analytical gaps or problematic language that may have reduced the involved parties’ confidence that the outcomes were fair.

The UC and CSU system offices oversee campuses’ efforts, and we make several recommendations to these offices to develop or update guidelines for their campuses, including to help improve campuses’ communication with complainants, ensure the quality of hearing officer reports, and increase consistency in disciplinary outcomes.

Respectfully submitted,

GRANT PARKS

California State Auditor

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Source: https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2025-050/.

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Full report at https://www.auditor.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2025-050-Report-WP.pdf.

Pension Payments at Risk - Part 4

Blog readers may recall our earlier postings on a pension fraud involving UCRP. The fraudsters used persuasive tactics to gain access to various retiree pension accounts and diverted their payments.*

We now have a more complete understanding of the various failures that allowed the fraud to occur courtesy of Professor-Emerita Amy Block Joy of UC-Berkeley. (She is also chair of CUCEA.) Her "case study" of the fraud is at:

https://www.acfe.com/acfe-insights-blog/blog-detail?s=direct-deposit-social-engineering-case-study.

Excerpt: Investigations found that this scheme resulted in 345 cases of suspected fraud. A total of $885,939 in fraud was intercepted and stopped across 47 accounts, with $154,507 in funds lost in 10 of them. (The Pension Office later reimbursed all members who endured losses to their accounts.) 

If you are receiving a UC pension, you should check each month that the appropriate funds were transferred to your bank.

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*Our earlier postings on this pension fraud are at:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/02/pension-payments-at-risk-part-3.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/pension-payments-at-risk-part-2.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 416

From the NY Times: The Middle East campuses of American universities are expecting — or perhaps just hoping — to be open for classes as usual for the coming semester, even as the United States’ conflict with Iran poses new risks in the region. Some American schools have long run programs in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The war, however, meant that students spent much of the spring semester enduring shutdowns, evacuations, online courses and other emergency measures. But the unraveling of the cease-fire between Washington and Tehran is not yet curbing universities’ ambitions to teach as they ordinarily would in the Middle East.

...For American universities, campuses in wealthy Persian Gulf states can offer new revenue and welcome clout. Those perks, though, come with sporadic political headaches at home, reputational perils and regional safety concerns. After a strike on a physics building at a university in Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps warned in March that “American universities in the West Asia region are legitimate targets for us.” By then, American schools had begun closing campuses and turning to remote classes. But the relative lull of recent months left many administrators encouraged and publicly optimistic that the campuses would be able to run normally as students return for another semester...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/us/middle-east-campuses-american-universities.html.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 184

From the Harvard Crimson: Roughly 150 staff in Harvard’s Alumni Affairs and Development office will be required to work in person twice a week beginning the week of Oct. 5, prompting fierce pushback from employees who accused administrators of ignoring contractual flexible-work protections. Employees in the FAS Development and AA&D’s Advancement Communications, Events, and Donor Relations teams were informed by their supervisors Tuesday of the new requirement, according to emails obtained by The Crimson. The policy was initially scheduled to take effect in September. But AA&D leaders later pushed the start date to Oct. 5 after realizing the first required in-office day for some staff would fall on Yom Kippur.

...AA&D leader Jim Husson had begun shifting the organization toward in-person work months before this week’s announcement, according to six people familiar with the office. Some teams were encouraged — or strongly encouraged — to come in for in-person “anchor days” earlier this year... Still, the decision drew immediate pushback from staff and union representatives. During an all-staff town hall Wednesday, Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers representative John Baglione addressed his “union siblings” after Husson delivered opening remarks. Senior Director of Human Resources Shannon Gerah told Baglione that there was only time for a short comment on the new policy and said HUCTW had been consulted about the change...

Baglione called the return-to-office requirement a “regressive pay cut” that could “destroy productivity” and “hinder our climate goals.” ...Baglione argued that AA&D leaders had failed to demonstrate a need for more in-office work... “It’s not good enough that ‘everyone else is doing it,’” he wrote. “This is Harvard, we set the standard.” ...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/7/27/aad-office-mandate/.

Short on Funds

From the Daily Bruin: UCLA’s political science department cut teaching assistant and reader positions in response to a budget deficit... Each teaching assistant position cut by the department reduces enrollment capacity in political science courses by roughly 60 students...

UCLA is projected to run a $220 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 academic year, Interim Chief Financial Officer Reem Hanna-Harwell announced in a March 26 campuswide email. Hanna-Harwell’s estimate came more than a month after former CFO Stephen Agostini alleged to the Daily Bruin that the university had a $425 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 academic year. Chancellor Julio Frenk announced Agostini was no longer CFO days after the Daily Bruin published his allegations. Hanna-Harwell said higher deficit estimates previously reported were inaccurate, as they included spending requests that had not yet been approved.

The political science department said in an emailed statement that it does not plan to reduce undergraduate seminars for the 2026-27 academic year but did not answer specific questions about whether or not it cut teaching assistant and reader positions. The UCLA Department of Mathematics also limited hours for teaching assistants and eliminated paid graders – who read and grade students’ exams – in response to university-wide budget cuts...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/07/22/amid-budget-deficit-political-science-department-cuts-tas-shrinks-course-capacities.

Comment: It would be nice to see final the UCLA budget numbers for last year as well as estimates for the current year. Might be helpful for, you know, like planning.

Do the Math

A Call for the Ethical Use of AI in Mathematics

The Leiden Declaration provides a framework for human-centered math research

Published Date: July 20, 2026

Story by: Michelle Franklin

UC-San Diego Today 

There is not an industry or field of research that hasn’t been upended by the rapid development of artificial intelligence. The speed with which AI is changing the landscape of every facet of life makes it difficult to create thoughtful, human-centered policies around its use.

The field of mathematics finds itself at an inflection point. AI would not exist without math but there is concern that AI is being positioned as a replacement for mathematicians–able to solve longstanding open problems in a fraction of the time it would take a human. Yet AI corporations are less than transparent about their methodologies: how the problems are solved, which data the AI was trained on, and how the data will be used.

To create a framework for thoughtful consideration of AI use in the field, a group of mathematicians created the Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics. The declaration, named for Leiden University in the Netherlands, calls on AI corporations and practitioners to act responsibly to ensure the continued flourishing of mathematics as a discipline.

One of the authors is Karthik Ganapathy, Stefan E. Warschawski Postdoctoral Fellow in UC San Diego’s Department of Mathematics. In this 1Q, 1A, he tells us why the Leiden Declaration was necessary.

What are the dangers of unchecked AI use in mathematics?

Mathematics is a remarkably deliberative field; the direction of research is often the result of years of deep thought among subcommunities of mathematicians across generations, a process that remains the hallmark of basic research. While many of us welcome new technology that can help advance human knowledge, the economic and political factors at play are a cause for concern. Specifically, the increased intervention of AI companies poses a direct challenge to the autonomy of the discipline due to a stark imbalance of power between these companies and the mathematical community.

In an era of underfunding for higher education and precarious academic employment, the tech industry has successfully offered intellectually stimulating opportunities that many researchers find attractive. This growing corporate involvement, however, raises the critical risk that research questions may come to be prioritized because of their amenability to automated mathematics rather than their deeper intrinsic value.

This threat is further compounded by strong incentives for the technology industry to overstate the capabilities of their products and prematurely claim breakthroughs through press releases and blog posts, driven by the constant pressure to outpace their competitors.

This asymmetry is precisely why the Leiden Declaration is necessary. By establishing minimal baselines for scientific integrity that have obtained broad agreement among mathematicians, the declaration hopes to insulate the discipline from market forces, ensuring that the scope and depth of mathematical research remain guided by intellectual significance.

Source: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/leiden-declaration.

Straws in the Wind - Part 415

From Reuters: The U.S. Department of ​Education said on Wednesday it launched new probes into five medical schools over their ‌admissions practices, marking the latest attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to crack down on diversity initiatives. The Education Department's office for civil rights launched probes against the Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine, East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine, ​St. Louis University School of Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences, and William Carey ​University College of Osteopathic Medicine, the department said in a statement.

The statement ⁠said the probes were linked to alleged racial discrimination in admissions but it did not elaborate ​further, opens new tab or provide evidence for those allegations. It noted Trump's broader crackdown on diversity, equity ​and inclusion practices. East Carolina University told local media it complied with state and federal law as well as court rulings and that it would respond accordingly to the Education Department. Dartmouth College also said it ​remained confident in its admissions practices...

Full story at https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-education-department-probes-five-medical-schools-over-admissions-practices-2026-07-23/.