I Never Promised You a Rose Bowl? - Part 14

UCLA will be playing at the Rose Bowl next year despite the ongoing litigation regarding a potential move to SoFi Stadium, according to a report in the California Post:

... “UCLA will play the upcoming football season at the Rose Bowl,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor of strategic communications, said in a statement provided to the California Post. “We know how much game day means to Bruins — to our students, alumni and fans who plan their autumn around Saturdays together.

“Our priority is delivering a strong season experience for our student-athletes and our community, and we have great momentum in our football program. During this unprecedented time in college athletics, UCLA will always be guided by what’s best for our student-athletes and the Bruin community.” ...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/02/21/sports/ucla-bruins-to-play-at-rose-bowl-in-2026-instead-of-sofi/.

The Slide

From the San Francisco Chronicle: For the first time since the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, undergraduate computer science enrollment across the UC system declined in 2025, data show. Only one UC has defied the downward trend: UC San Diego, the sole campus to have launched an AI major. David Reynaldo,the founder of admissions consultancy College Zoom, said he’s seen this play out in his work with students applying to college. But the biggest shift, he said, is coming from parents.

In past years, parents saw a computer science degree as a clear path to a high-paying job: They might push their children to apply and enroll in those programs. But now those parents are turning toward hard, physical sciences, like mechanical or electrical engineering, as the better option. “Parental pressure plays a lot — a lot, a lot, a lot — on the kids,” he said.

UC admissions officers first flagged the shift in September at a college counselors conference in San Jose. “The biggest surprise is us trying to fill computer science,” UC Santa Barbara’s admissions director, Cuka Acosta, told a roomful of student advisers from high schools and community colleges. “Changing times! Students are looking at more AI programs.”

It’s not just the UCs. A recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that enrollment in computer science programs declined across different types of institutions in the fall...

Full story https://www.sfchronicle.com/college-admissions/article/uc-major-computer-science-ai-21284464.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 261

From CNN: Military officers could soon find dozens of top colleges and universities across the United States abruptly off limits for tuition assistance as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign against schools he describes as being biased against the US military and sponsoring “troublesome partnerships with foreign adversaries.” The uncertainty about tuition assistance and eligible programs for Defense Department funding has led to confusion and concern amongst service members who have already applied or been accepted to these schools. Officials also said they were concerned it amounted to an attempt to purge diversity of thought from the military.

The policy was rolled out in a memo signed by Hegseth last week saying that beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, the Pentagon would be severing its relationship with Harvard University and discontinuing all graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs there for active-duty service members. Hegseth ordered the military services to “evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty members at Ivy League universities and any other universities that similarly diminish critical thinking and have significant adversary involvement, and determine whether they deliver cost-effective, strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to public universities and military masters programs,” according to a source familiar with the memo...

Full story at https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/politics/us-military-top-universities-tuition-assistance.

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From Inside Higher Ed: The University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design removed an art exhibit that includes anti-ICE artwork, the artist told The Denton Record-Chronicle. The exhibit, Ni De Aquí Ni De Allá (“Not From Here, Not From There”), by Brooklyn-based artist Victor Quiñonez, was scheduled to open officially on Feb. 19. The works explore Quiñonez’s Mexican and Mexican American identity and his experiences as an undocumented person in East Dallas, The Dallas Observer reported. Several pieces in the exhibit, which was originally organized by Boston University, appear to criticize United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement... 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/17/u-north-texas-cancels-exhibit-anti-ice-art.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 125

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard administrators pushed a faculty committee to cancel a long-running, biannual symposium featuring tenure-track women’s research, citing legal concerns about hosting a single-gender event, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Standing Committee on Women, which had hosted the symposium for roughly 15 years, ultimately decided to stop running the event after Faculty of Arts and Sciences leadership advised against selecting speakers based on gender. The FAS will now host a new gender-neutral version of the program, Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser wrote in a Wednesday email to faculty...

The symposium, held twice yearly, traditionally featured tenure-track women faculty, though it was always open to the full FAS community. Past invitations explicitly listed women speakers selected by the committee. At an Oct. 3 meeting of the Standing Committee, Zipser advised the committee against holding a single-gender event, suggesting that it host the symposium without gender-based selection or have the FAS take over the event.

...Faculty members expressed frustration with the guidance at a Nov. 7 meeting of the committee, according to a faculty member familiar with the matter...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/2/20/fas-ends-womens-symposium/.

Brave New World

Watch what happens: (video) 

Source: https://x.com/yanagizawad/status/2022034189395407093 or https://dn710108.ca.archive.org/0/items/labor-classes/Generate%20macro%20labor%20paper%202-12-2026.mp4. Musical version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMRyLzUzpuU. Result:

 

Straws in the Wind - Part 260

From Inside Higher Ed: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has banned university-funded “identity-based Graduation Achievement Ceremonies,” the institution announced on its website... “The decision aligns with guidance from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which states that federal civil rights law prohibits using race in decisions related to graduation ceremonies and cautions that such practices may be perceived as segregation,” the university said in its announcement. But it’s unclear what guidance it was referencing.

A year ago, the Office for Civil Rights told universities that identity-based graduations were illegal. “In a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies,” the office wrote in a Dear Colleague letter. Some universities canceled similar ceremonies. But, last April, a federal judge blocked the department from enforcing that guidance and, on Jan. 21—five days before Virginia Tech’s statement—the department gave up defending it...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/12/virginia-tech-bans-university-funded-affinity-graduations.

Security Concerns - Part 2

Statement from UC President James B. Milliken on UCLA event with Bari Weiss

UC Office of the President, February 20, 2026

UC President Milliken released the following statement Feb. 20:

“I was disappointed to learn that representatives for journalist Bari Weiss canceled her planned lecture at UCLA due to security concerns. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk informed me that Ms. Weiss remains interested in speaking at UCLA, and that they are already working to make sure the event on campus will proceed at a mutually convenient time. 

“Chancellor Frenk and I are in complete agreement on this matter; the University of California will be resolute in protecting free expression on our campuses, and we will take all steps necessary to ensure the safety of speakers, those attending events, and the members of our community. We will do everything we can to make sure speakers are not prevented from speaking on our campuses because some disagree with the content of constitutionally protected speech. That is the essence of the First Amendment and the obligation of universities.”

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/statement-uc-president-james-b-milliken-ucla-event-bari-weiss.

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Part 1 is at https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2026/02/security-concerns.html.