New Dean Today

From the Daily Bruin: A distinguished professor in urban planning will become the permanent dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs on June 1. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, who has worked at UCLA for 35 years and served as the interim dean since January 2023, said her appointment represents a continuation of initiatives she began as interim dean – including new academic programs and expanded student support... 

During her time as interim dean, the school launched a Master of Real Estate Development program and approved a Master of Global Public Affairs degree, which Loukaitou-Sideris said is expected to begin in two years. The school also introduced a certificate program in artificial intelligence for public affairs with UCLA Extension, which is the university’s continuing education institution...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/05/24/interim-dean-of-luskin-school-of-public-affairs-soon-to-be-permanently-instated.

Straws in the Wind - Part 359

From the Yale Daily News: Conversations around grade inflation in the Ivy League turned into action... when Harvard announced that 70 percent of its faculty voted in favor of a policy to cap A grades at 20 percent for each course, allowing for up to four additional A’s per class, beginning in fall 2027. [The] vote marked a major shift by Harvard to confront grade inflation that coincides with similar efforts at Yale, which are in earlier stages. Yale professors, while decrying that grade inflation contributes to student stress, perfectionism and difficulty distinguishing academic performance, have described the issue as a collective action problem, in which stricter grading by individual faculty  — and universities — comparatively disadvantages their own students.

...In interviews with the News, Yale professors expressed support for Harvard’s new grade cap as a meaningful step by a leading university to combat grade inflation. Many still pointed out what they described as imperfections in the system, including a lack of nuance between seminars and lectures, the possibility of a proliferation of A-minuses and a focus away from intellectual growth. 

...According to a 2023 report..., 79 percent of grades in Yale College in the 2022–23 school year were A’s or A-minuses.

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/after-harvard-passes-grade-cap-yale-faculty-say-bravo-for-first-step.

The Budget Process

After having received the governor's May Revise budget proposal for 2026-27, the two houses of the legislature have been formulating their own versions. Under the state constitution, the legislature must pass a budget by June 15 or be penalized. But it is left to the legislature to define what a "budget" is, thanks to court decisions. So it is possible for discussions with the governor to continue after that date, if the legislature passes something labeled a budget. 

Because Democrats dominate the legislature, it is essentially Democrats that matter in the process. Senate Democrats have produced a budget document that is mainly a shopping list of proposals without a complete tabular presentation. It appears from the document that reserves will be falling under their plan (i.e., the budget is in deficit). 

The higher ed portion doesn't mention UC and mainly concerns adjustments for community colleges. It does contain an increase in the Middle Class Scholarship program which has some benefit for UC indirectly. You can find the Senate Democrats' document at:

https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/system/files/2026-05/may-28-2026-foundation-for-the-future-senate-version-of-the-budget_0.pdf.

In theory, the legislature could pass a budget and the governor could veto it. That is not going to happen. The governor could use his line-item veto to trim some elements. However, what is more likely to occur is that the two houses and the governor will get together, reconcile differences, and then enact a budget, even if the actual process extends beyond June 15.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 167

From the Harvard Crimson: The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers plans to picket through Commencement after its 27th bargaining session with Harvard ended Thursday without a contract, pushing the walkout into its 31st day — the longest strike in the union’s history. In an email sent two days before Thursday’s session, HGSU-UAW told the University it would consider a membership vote to end the strike if Harvard moved on five core issues: paid immigration leave, an agency shop, a grievance process for harassment and discrimination, paid medical leave, and pay parity between teaching fellows and research assistants.

University representatives held firm on two of those demands Thursday, declining to advance proposals on an agency shop or a union-supervised grievance process for Title IX cases, according to HGSU-UAW president Denish K. Jaswal. Harvard’s lawyers told the union the prior week that they were “considering” the grievance proposal but were not prepared to make a counteroffer...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/26/hgsu-strike-longest-history/.

Speaks for Itself

The chart above from the Daily Cal doesn't need an explanation. It speaks for itself. But if you need more explanation:

https://www.dailycal.org/news/uc/uc-legal-budget-increases-by-30m-after-tumultuous-year-in-courtroom/article_057aa51b-d1f7-467e-b0be-e09c001efda3.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 358

From The Dartmouth: On May 21, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression president and chief executive officer Greg Lukianoff, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Commencement next month, condemned the state of freedom of speech in higher education at an event in the Hanover Inn... [Dartmouth] was the only Ivy League university to receive FIRE’s “green light” rating for its free expression policies in 2025. 

...The Dartmouth Dialogues event — which was co-moderated by distinguished fellow Ezzedine Fishere and Middle Eastern studies professor Jonathan Smolin — was attended by 80 people, according to School of Arts and Sciences event coordinator Tammi Klotz. At the event, Lukianoff argued that higher education must take “seriously” points of view that many would “find deeply offensive” because “you only know what is true when you’re allowed to actually test it.”

“Unfortunately, I think way too many campuses have taken on this moral role where they actually think that, ‘because my norms find what you might want to say highly offensive, I am going to stop it,’” he said. He criticized administrators in elite academic institutions who try to “rebalance” the unequal power they see in American society with “[their] judgement on what must and must not be allowed.”

“That kind of thinking is almost always motivated reasoning and … self-serving, and frankly, overwhelmingly represents the point of view of upper-class Americans,” Lukianoff said. “It ends up being a cultural imposition of the upper-class norms on everybody else.” ...

Full story at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026/05/sanchez-the-worst-of-both-worlds-fire-president-and-2026-honorary-degree-recipient-greg-lukianoff-condemns-the-state-of-higher-education-at-dartmouth-dialogues-event.

Money Blocked

From Inside Higher Ed: The Trump administration’s use of funding freezes to take aim at higher education institutions continues as the National Science Foundation has placed limits on new grants for four highly selective universities, Nature reported. As of April 9, the NSF has placed a “hold” on future awards to Duke, Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities, according to internal agency documents obtained by Nature. Since then, minimal new funding has been allocated to those institutions, the documents show.

In 2024, the four received a combined total of 218 new NSF grants, for which researchers are still able to access funds, Nature reported. But this fiscal year they only received 13 new grants, with none awarded to scientists at Duke or Harvard since April 9... It is unclear how long the limitations will last or why those four institutions were singled out...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/05/29/nsf-freezes-new-funding-4-institutions.

Note that while litigation over freezes of existing grants tends to be successful, it is more difficult to deal with delays or just negative decisions on new grants or grant renewals using litigation.