The One That Didn't Get Away (but is behind closed doors, too)

Unlike our previous post about last week's Regents meeting about the conflict with the feds, we caught this one just in time, since the meeting is later today. But like all the other ones, it is behind closed doors, so we don't know if there are really any new developments.

TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: 

Because the membership of the Advisory Group on Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues (“Advisory Group”) includes five members of the Regents’ Governance Committee, there exists the potential for having present a quorum of a Regents’ Committee when the advisory committee meets. 

This notice of meeting is served in order to comply fully with pertinent open meeting laws. On Tuesday, May 19, 2026, there will be a Closed Session, Special Meeting of the Regents’ Governance Committee concurrent with the Advisory Group to discuss Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues 

(Closed Session Statute Citation: Litigation [Education Code section 92032(b)(5)].) 

The meeting will convene at 4:00 p.m. at 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland and adjourn at approximately 5:00 p.m. 

(Advisory Group members: Regents Anguiano, Cohen, Hernandez, Matosantos, Milliken, Reilly, Robinson, Sarris, and Sures)

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may26/meeting-notice_federal-may-19-2026.pdf.

The one that got away

The announcement of the (closed-door) Regents meeting above somehow got away from us. So, for the record, here it is. As blog readers will know, at the regular May 5-6 meetings at the Regents, there was also discussion (behind closed doors) of the conflict with the feds. Did some new development occur between those meetings and the May 9th announcement above?

== 

The link (for the record) to the announcement is:

https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may26/meeting-notice_federal-may-12-2026.pdf.

I Never Promised You a Rose Bowl? - Part 17

As blog readers will know, after former UCLA CFO Agostini was fired for saying Very Bad Words, it was said that the idea of moving UCLA from the Rose Bowl to the newer SOFI stadium was his baby. Blog readers will also know that that threat of such a move has sparked litigation against UCLA. A reported $30 million is being spent to snazz up the Bowl based in part on UCLA's long-term lease.

In case you missed it, the LA Times recently carried a report that suggested maybe UCLA is reconsidering its proposed departure from the Rose Bowl:

Last October, in the wake of UCLA’s threats to terminate its contract with the stadium, the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena filed a lawsuit to force the Bruins to honor the remaining two decades of their deal and keep their home football games at the historic venue through 2044. UCLA is staying put for next season and there are indications the sides could be quietly heading toward a settlement that would keep the Bruins in place for the foreseeable future, ending their flirtation with SoFi Stadium.

Speaking to the media at UCLA’s recent spring game, coach Bob Chesney heaped praise on the Rose Bowl, saying, “To get a chance to walk in here and just feel this ... is pretty special, we addressed that last night as a team and made sure we understand the respect that this place deserves and understand the attitude of gratitude we should have.” ...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2026-05-11/inside-rose-bowl-30-million-renovation-ucla-football.

Straws in the Wind - Part 347

From the Boston Globe: When Gaurav Jashnani was offered a position as an assistant professor at Hampshire College, he saw it as a good move: Even though the iconoclastic liberal arts school doesn’t have a tenure system, the job would put him on a forward-moving track at a forward-looking institution. So in 2024, he relocated his family from Belmont to Northampton, where he became a first-time homeowner. Now, less than a month after Hampshire announced it would close, he’s staring down unemployment. Like most of the school’s roughly 250 employees, he will have no paycheck, no severance, and few job prospects after June, since the hiring cycle for the coming academic year has already closed.

“It’s been kind of a train wreck,” said Jashnani, who teaches psychology, Black studies, and disability studies. For some faculty members, “we just don’t know how we’re going to pay our bills.” Like students, many Hampshire faculty and staff thought the college was on the upswing after nearly closing in 2019. The school, however, was not able to recruit enough students to stabilize its finances, and it failed to secure much-needed debt refinancing and a crucial land sale in recent months. Administrators nevertheless remained optimistic, inviting alumni to brainstorm on Zoom about Hampshire’s “next three to five years” as recently as March 25. Less than three weeks later, on April 14, Hampshire announced it would close.

Now some faculty wonder how Hampshire went from projecting confidence to pulling the plug so quickly — with nothing left to offer its employees...

Full story at http://bostonglobe.com/2026/05/07/metro/hampshire-college-employees-closure/.

Balanced Approach

From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Sense and Sensibility and Science” was started 13 years ago by a team of UC Berkeley professors, including a Nobel laureate, who wanted to give students the tools to combat misinformation and improve their communication skills in an increasingly confusing world. They did not expect the class to become so popular — it’s now taught at a handful of other schools including Harvard and the University of Chicago — or for their lessons to become even more urgent.

The class is part philosophy and part behavioral science. It’s meant to help students make more thoughtful decisions, look and listen past their biases, and embrace humility and the idea that they may not always be right. Assignments include attempting challenging conversations with friends or family. It’s a course, say the professors who run it, with the ultimate goal of bettering the world.

Saul Perlmutter, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011 for his work studying distant supernovas to determine how the universe is expanding, helped start the class in 2013. He said he did so because he recognized that the tools that scientists use to communicate and share ideas could help people have more productive conversations on all kinds of practical, everyday topics.

“There are very few things we can fix in everybody’s life by getting to the bottom of the Big Bang,” he joked. “In my grandiose optimistic picture,” he said, “eventually everybody is learning this stuff and can go into conversations feeling like their job isn’t to convince everyone that they’re right, but to figure out where they’re making mistakes and hearing everyone out.” ...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/uc-berkeley-class-saul-perlmutter-22237250.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 346

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: An Indiana University biology professor who has condemned the U.S. government’s prosecution of Chinese scientists now finds himself locked out of his lab amid a federal investigation. The closure of the lab and other research space at the Bloomington campus marks the latest step in months of scrutiny of Chinese researchers and, by extension, American colleagues who have come to their defense.

Neither federal authorities nor the university, whose police department closed the labs on Thursday night, have offered a reason for the lockout, the chair of Indiana’s biology department said. But it came weeks after one of the professor’s postdoctoral students was ordered deported to China for allegedly smuggling biological materials into the United States, a move criticized by the professor, Roger W. Innes.

“It seems pretty obvious that this is an attempt by the current administration to silence people that question their activities,” Innes told The Chronicle.

Meanwhile, the indefinite closure of multiple labs, offices, and storage facilities — many of which have no affiliation with Innes or his lab — has hampered the work of approximately 50 other individuals at Indiana, said the department chair, Armin P. Moczek. And although the university has said it shut down the facilities at the order of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the department told The Chronicle it had issued no such order...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-professor-defended-a-postdoc-who-was-deported-now-his-lab-has-been-suddenly-locked-down.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 161

From the Harvard Crimson: Former Harvard President Claudine Gay earned more than $1.5 million in 2024, according to Harvard’s annual tax filings, receiving a higher compensation package in the year after she resigned from the presidency than she did during her six months in Massachusetts Hall. Gay’s compensation rose from the more than $1.3 million she earned in 2023 — which spanned the end of her term as Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean and all six months of her presidency. Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 earned more than $1.6 million in 2024, his first compensation reported while serving at Harvard’s helm. Garber served as interim president from January to August 2024, when he was appointed to the position permanently.

And Harvard Management Company Chief Executive Officer N.P. “Narv” Narvekar — the highest-paid employee across HMC and Harvard — earned more than $6.2 million in 2024, a slight increase from his $6 million payout in 2023. The compensation, released as part of the University’s Form 990 tax filings for fiscal year 2025, is required annually by the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt entities. Salaries are reported for the 2024 calendar year...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/15/harvard-form-990-gay-garber-2024/.