Panunzio Awards

The 2025-2026 Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award honoring Emeriti Professors in the University of California system has been awarded to Professor Emerita of Anthropology Monique Bogerhoff Mulder (UC Davis) and Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics Alain de Janvry (UC Berkeley).

UC Emeriti Professors Borgerhoff Mulder and de Janvry are the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh recipients of the Constantine Panunzio Award. Both awardees have especially long and notable records of research, teaching, and service to the University of California, their disciplines, and their communities. The late Dr. Panunzio, a Professor of Sociology at UCLA for many years, has been described as the architect of the UC Retirement System and was particularly active in improving pensions and stipends for his fellow Emeriti. The award bearing his name was established in 1983 and includes a $5,000 prize. The Panunzio Award exemplifies the tremendous contributions of Emeriti to the continued excellence of the UC System.

 

Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, UC Davis, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, retired in 2018. She has sustained an extraordinary level of scholarly productivity and leadership in the interdisciplinary fields of human behavioral ecology, conservation science, and sustainability studies. Her research continues to illuminate the intersections of poverty, inequality, and environmental conservation, particularly in East Africa, where she has conducted long-term collaborative fieldwork with pastoralist, fishing, and forest dependent communities. Professor Emerita Borgerhoff Mulder has secured multiple competitive research grants from the National Science Foundation, the UK Natural Environment Research Council, and the Global Challenges Research Fund. These awards, totaling several million dollars in research support, reflect the confidence of international funders in her methodological rigor and interdisciplinary vision. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021, she continues to shape global scientific discourse through invited lectures, international workshops, and leadership roles in organizations such as the Cultural Evolution Society and the Santa Fe Institute. Her work also has substantial impact beyond academia. Through organizations she co-founded and advises, such as Watu Simba na Mazingira (WASIMA) and the Ngezi‑Vumawimbi Heritage Organization, she has advanced community driven conservation efforts in Tanzania and Zanzibar, strengthening local governance and supporting sustainable livelihoods. Her editorial work has set field standards and amplifies emerging voices, broadening interdisciplinary dialogue, and accelerating community engaged research.

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Alain de Janvry, UC Berkeley, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural & Resource Economics, retired in 2017. Professor Emeritus de Janvry has sustained a field defining presence in development economics, agricultural policy, poverty alleviation, and the political economy of institutions. Through ongoing collaborations with scholars and international development organizations, he remains an influential voice in the global conversation on economic development, evidence-based policy, and risk management for vulnerable populations. Additionally, he has published landmark studies in the American Economic Review and AEJ: Applied Economics on bureaucratic incentives, disaster recovery, technology diffusion, and insurance adoption. His service on scientific councils has anchored rigorous, policy relevant editorial curation and broadened access for applied research communities worldwide. Professor Emeritus de Janvry’s field experiments on subjective performance evaluations in China, index-based disaster funds in Mexico, and the diffusion of climate resilient rice varieties in India exemplify his rigorous empirical approach. He has shaped research agendas through major monographs on disaster risk finance, and impact evaluation methodologies. His experimental and quasi experimental studies, ranging from randomized farmer training interventions to regression discontinuity analyses of disaster funding, have directly influenced program designs across governments and NGOs. He remains a dedicated mentor, advising graduate students, junior faculty, as well as practitioners, and continues to advance the use of evidence in policy design and implementation.

Straws in the Wind - Part 323

From the Daily Californian: The number of computer science graduates at UC Berkeley is expected to decrease to 851 for the 2025-26 academic year, down from 1,029 graduates in 2024-25. According to electrical engineering and computer sciences chair Jelani Nelson, as of late March, the CS department is slated to graduate approximately 350 students in 2027. These figures represent a 59% decrease in CS enrollment from the 2025-26 to 2026-27 school years. The decline in campus computer science graduates mirrors a trend across the UC system, with CS major enrollment across the university decreasing in 2025 for the first time since the early 2000s. It also contributes to a larger nationwide decline in CS majors, with an 8.1% drop at four-year colleges in fall 2025.

...Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, employment for computer science and math majors aged 22 to 27 has fallen by 8%. However, campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore noted that student interest in CS-related majors is “still strong” despite the rise of AI. Gilmore cited rising instructional costs, campus budget constraints and faculty availability as contributing factors in the reduction in enrollment.

...In an X post, [Electrical engineering and computer sciences chair Jelani] Nelson identified the high cost of instruction as the primary cause of campus’s decision to reduce CS major enrollment. Undergraduate teaching assistants now cost the department between $71.95 and $80.51 per hour. Since winning a grievance in January 2020, campus EECS and data science undergraduate TAs receive proportional tuition waivers depending on how many hours they work. According to Nelson’s post, this change significantly increased department costs, which led campus to reduce undergraduate CS enrollment and decrease the number of undergraduate TAs...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/academics/uc-berkeley-cs-major-enrollment-on-pace-to-drop-by-59-as-part-of-nationwide/article_8ceded3c-d939-4f60-8aa4-110be003c4e3.html.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 149

From the Harvard Crimson: A Harvard Medical School working group on open inquiry found that students and faculty frequently self-censor on controversial topics and recommended a series of changes to strengthen classroom and laboratory discourse, according to a report released Tuesday. The 16-member group, chaired by former HMS Dean Jeffrey S. Flier, called on the school to host regular public forums modeling debate on controversial issues, expand a recently adopted non-attribution rule for classroom discussions, and develop explicit guidelines on the boundaries of student and faculty activism in clinical settings.

...The institution’s push to examine open inquiry followed sustained pressure from the White House last spring to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and what the administration called left-leaning political bias in higher education. But Flier said in an interview before the report’s release that the effort was driven by concerns internal to HMS, not federal pressure. “There was an obvious need for internal reform, unrelated to the Trump administration,” Flier said. “Some people will look at some of the things that are recommended and say, isn’t that something similar to what is being demanded? Maybe that’s true in a few instances, but that just is not a reason to deny the issues that we take up.”

...Anonymous feedback indicated that students struggled to “disagree respectfully and understand other perspectives” and often hesitated to share views on controversial topics. Faculty reported similar reluctance, citing fear of offending colleagues or facing backlash. Flier described the findings as “major issues” for the school. Self-censorship was especially pronounced in required courses on medical ethics, health care policy, and social medicine — topics the report described as “politically and socially charged.” Some students felt those courses presented contested topics without sufficient viewpoint diversity, while others felt there was too much.

...Recommendations include articulating informal “social compacts” to guide classroom and laboratory interactions and establishing awards recognizing affiliates who advance open inquiry. Some of the working group’s recommendations are already underway at HMS. The school updated application essay prompts for its M.D. and master’s programs in late 2025 to place greater emphasis on applicants’ ability to engage across difference, and it has partnered with the outside organizations to train faculty, staff, and student leaders...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/22/hms-open-inquiry-findings/.

The deadline that wasn't

As blog readers will know, April 24 - today - was supposed to be the deadline for converting all instructional materials to meet disability access standards.* But the deadline has been postponed one year. From Inside Higher Ed: 

Citing heavy administrative burdens for institutions, the government is giving colleges, universities and other public entities another year to comply with new federal accessibility guidelines designed to reduce the hurdles students with disabilities face in accessing increasingly complex information on web pages and mobile apps.

The Department of Justice “overestimated the capabilities (whether staffing or technology) of covered entities to comply with the rule in the time frames provided,” the department wrote in an interim final rule published to the Federal Register [last] Monday. “This [interim final rule] will lead to greater predictability and certainty as covered entities work towards accessibility of their websites” and “greater accessibility for individuals with disabilities.” ...

Though there are some exceptions for “archived” content, compliance with [the regulations meant] that every PDF file must be accessible to a screen reader, every video accompanied by captions and audio descriptions, every photograph coded with alternate text, and every sound clip paired with a transcript. All third-party platforms have to meet the guidelines, too...

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/04/coming-april-24th-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/12/coming-april-24th.html. 

Caution Advised

There have been reports of phone calls that purport to be from Navitus, the company that manages drug costs for some of UC's health insurance plans.

If you get a call that indicates a problem with your prescriptions, the best thing to do is to avoid responding directly. The general number for Navitus for those covered by its plan is 844-268-9789. If you get a message on your voicemail, call that number - not the number that may have been indicated in the phone call message - and ask if there is really a problem. 

If you answer the original call, do not provide any information to the caller. Call back at the 844 number above.

Straws in the Wind - Part 322

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: A state legislature says a new ban on “staging walkouts” at public universities will protect free speech by preventing protesters from disrupting campus speakers. But some faculty members and speech advocates believe it’s inappropriate to prohibit what they see as a legitimate form of protest at public campuses. That, and they argue that a walkout is one of the most peaceful and least disruptive forms of protest. The Tennessee legislation, sent to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk Friday, is dubbed the Charlie Kirk Act — adding to a growing number of red states that are using the conservative activist’s legacy to reform campus speech. Despite HB 1476’s name association, Tennessee Rep. Gino Bulso, a Republican and the bill’s sponsor, said it is nonpartisan in nature.

The legislation directs public colleges to formally adopt certain elements of the University of Chicago’s policy on free expression, including one stating that students and others “may not obstruct or otherwise interfere” with viewpoints they don’t like. The Chicago Principles have been embraced by a number of colleges in the past dozen years. The bill then describes what it considers to be obstruction, including “staging walkouts” during an event or in the middle of an invited speaker’s remarks. It defines walkouts as “considerable disruption or distraction or the need to pause the event for any period of time, however short.” If a student or faculty member violates the walkout provision, they may be subject to disciplinary probation, followed by suspension and expulsion for subsequent violations, according to the legislation.

HB 1476 also prevents colleges from disinviting speakers due to their beliefs or in response to opposition from students or faculty...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/sit-and-stay-seated-walkouts-at-one-states-public-universities-could-soon-be-banned.

Milliken-Gillman-Chermerinsky on Free Speech and Academic Freedom Issues

The UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement sponsored a webinar-conversation on free speech and academic freedom on April 22, featuring UC President Milliken, UC-Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman, and Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chermerinsky. The three speakers were introduced by Center director Michelle Deutchman.

Below you can find an audio link to the program. The tendency was to focus on legal issues and the distinction between free speech and academic freedom. Yours truly would have preferred more emphasis on higher education values - not legal rights - of knowing what you are talking about before opining. But that's just me.

The one area of controversy that surfaced is the use of departmental political statements. Gillman indicated some reservation about where the Regents wound up on that issue, i.e., banning such statements if they appeared on the landing page of a department's website. He suggested that he would have gone further because such statements may impinge on the freedom of minority views. Milliken indicated that the issue might be revisited in the future. You can hear that exchange at the link below:

The entire one-hour event can be heard at:

https://ia801506.us.archive.org/0/items/newsom-03-04-2026/Milliken-Gillman-Chermerinsky%20free%20speech%204-22-2026.mp4. The excerpt above occurs around minute 27.