Rare Books Donated

From time to time, this blog takes note of donations to the university that don't involve bricks and mortar. Here is one such donation acknowledged in a College news release:

UCLA’s Clark Library receives centuries-old rare books from longtime donor

A scan from “Certaine errors in navigation, detected and corrected” by Edward Wright (1558?–1615), a new addition to the Paul Chrzanowski Collection. | UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

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Margaret MacDonald | June 27, 2022 

A new donation of 40 historical texts from Paul Chrzanowski further bolsters an already remarkable collection of early English texts at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

The newly added items — including a 17th-century parchment with the seal of Queen Elizabeth I and a handwritten manuscript describing precious metals and gems — have been prepared for use by scholars as part of the library’s Paul Chrzanowski Collection.

“This donation reflects the broader interests and learning needs of English readers at the time,” Chrzanowski said.

A scan of the cover of “Certaine errors in navigation.” | UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

A physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, Chrzanowski began donating rare books from his collection to the Clark Library in 2009; he made additional donations in 2014 and 2018.

As a collector, his main focus is texts that Shakespeare likely read or could have read. Some of the donated items have been identified as source material Shakespeare used to write his plays; others are equally important due to their role in the development of English language, literature and history, including the earliest book in the collection, 1479’s “Cordiale quattuor novissimorum,” printed by William Caxton and one of only 12 known copies.

“The Chrzanowski Collection contains a remarkable diversity of material that supports a broad range of research topics, from animal care to politics in early modern England,” said Anna Chen, the Clark Library’s head librarian. “The quality and depth of the collection make the materials invaluable for teaching and research. The collection is consulted by a wide range of users, including high school students and research fellows, and we are thrilled by the uses that this new trove of material will make possible.”

Chrzanowski’s most recent gift includes the only known surviving printed copy of “Soliloquies” by 17th-century author Edward Topsell, joining a handwritten manuscript copy of the work already held by the Clark; and 1610’s “Certain Errors in Navigation” by Edward Wright, an important early modern contribution to the field that includes one of the first maps of Virginia.

“Paul Chrzanowski’s generous gift, which builds on his already phenomenal collection, further elevates the Clark’s role as a steward of rare, historical print works for the benefit of future generations of scholars and members of the public alike,” said Bronwen Wilson, director of the UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies and of the Clark Library. “This is truly an exciting moment.”

Plates from “La clef des champs with additional woodcuts of insects, reptiles, and amphibians,” from approximately 1586 by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (1533?–1588).

UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

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The new donation, appraised at a value of more than $600,000, brings the total value of Chrzanowski’s in-kind donations to more than $2.9 million. But its value as a scholarly resource is immeasurable; it would be nearly impossible to build a comparable Shakespearean library today.

“We are grateful for Paul Chrzanowski’s additional donation of so many wonderful and rare books,” said David Schaberg, senior dean of the UCLA College and dean of humanities. “Thanks to his generosity, the Clark has become an even more impressive resource for scholars of 17th- and 18th-century studies.”

Source: https://www.college.ucla.edu/2022/06/27/clark-library-rare-books-paul-chrzanowski.

Leaks and (Maybe) Disappointment?

The contemporary budget process no longer has the drama of years ago when there could be lengthy delays after July 1 - the start of the fiscal year - in getting an actual agreement between the governor and legislature. In those days, failure to come to an agreement would cause crises as the state was increasingly unable to fund various services.

Nowadays, thanks to voters who made it possible to enact a budget with a simple majority and thanks to the one-party dominance of the state, such things don't happen. Nonetheless, there is a period following the mid-June deadline for the legislature to enact a budget and the governor to sign it in which there are leaks of information about what the legislative leaders and the governor are agreeing to in detail. We are in that period.

So, you probably know from news reports that there will be a rebate to most taxpayers that is supposed to be an offset for inflation.* (The proliferation of rebates - whatever they are called - has to do with the Gann limit on state revenue.) But what about higher ed?

The latest leak is that there will be an enhancement of the Cal Grant program.** There is reason to believe UC was disappointed with what seemed to be on the table in mid-June when the legislature enacted a "budget." Here is what UC President Drake said at that time:

University of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D., today (June 13) issued the following statement on California’s 2022-23 budget:

The University of California is grateful to the state Legislature for passing a state budget that strengthens the University and enhances its impact on the lives of Californians.

The University will continue to engage with the Governor and state legislative leaders to ensure a final budget agreement reflects our shared priorities for higher education and student success in California.

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-statement-2022-23-california-budget.

The expressed need to "continue to engage" suggested some disappointment in the enacted budget.

Now you might wonder how continuing to engage could add anything to the enacted budget. The legislature is required to produce a budget by mid-June. But, thanks to some litigation, it gets to define what a budget is. So, it passes something by the deadline called a "placeholder" budget. But in the continuing talks with the governor, there can be further deal-making, and presumably UC is able to try in the post-placeholder period to obtain some enhancements if it is disappointed. 

A more detailed budget deal was reached on Sunday. But the details - at least for higher ed and UC - are murky, even though there is budget language. As columnist Dan Walters put it:

...On Sunday night, they emerged with a deal... that included two “budget bill juniors” to modify the placeholder version and more than two dozen “trailer bills” to implement the budget’s provisions but also containing an unknown number of policy decrees, some of which had little or nothing to do with the budget. On Monday, just hours after the agreement was announced, legislative committees staged pro forma hearings on the budget deal — after giving the public, the media and affected interests almost no time to assess what was being proposed. In stark contrast to Newsom’s lengthy dog-and-pony shows in January and May, there was no detailed presentation of the final budget’s provisions. There was just a joint statement from Newsom, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins congratulating themselves...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/06/newsom-legislators-fast-track-state-budget-deal/.

If you look at the Sunday budget deal,*** it does appear that some extra money was allocated to UC:

But below the topline shown above, there are lots of very detailed qualifications. One, for example, seems to say that if tuition goes up, the allocation could go down:

2.1 Notwithstanding any other law, the Director of Finance may reduce funds appropriated in this item by an amount equal to the estimated Cal Grant and Middle Class Scholarship Program cost increases caused by a 2022–23 academic year increase in systemwide tuition. No reduction may be authorized pursuant to this provision sooner than 30 days after the Director of Finance provides notice of the intended reduction to the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

Exactly what is entailed here is unclear. And there are even typos in the Sunday budget which will need correcting: (Note the extra zero below.)

There is no further word from the UC prez as to whether he is happy or disappointed with what emerged. We do know that CSU was not entirely happy:

In a statement, CSU interim Chancellor Jolene Koester said significant investments are needed for staff compensation, deferred maintenance and to close equity gaps in student achievement. “Considering the state’s unprecedented funding surplus, it is disappointing that additional support to address these important priorities was not allocated,” Koester said.**

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*https://calmatters.org/politics/2022/06/california-budget-deal-2/.

**https://edsource.org/2022/gov-newsom-strikes-deal-on-state-budget-big-increase-for-k-12-maybe-for-cal-grants-too/674680.

***The Sunday bill is at:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB178.

UC-Santa Cruz History: Development Boom Forecast

On October 4, 1964, a story in the San Francisco Examiner forecast a boom in the area of the then-under-construction UC-Santa Cruz campus. Included is a projection that by 1975, student enrollment at Santa Cruz would be over 33,600. 

In fact, the most recent data available show an enrollment of under 20,000. Nonetheless, the basic idea that locating a UC campus in an area - under the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Ed - would stimulate economic growth and development was in general true. 

The Examiner story goes on to note that the area is served by the new freeway system that was at the time expanding in the state. The concept of campus = boom in development had worked for the area around UCLA when it moved to Westwood in the late 1920s. And when the idea of the most recent UC campus at Merced was still in the gestation phase, state legislators vied to have the new campus located in their districts.

Interested readers with UC library access can find the article above through ProQuest.

Coming Soon from the Supreme Court?

The US Supreme Court has been much in the news in the last few days with its rulings on guns and abortion. In the past, we have noted the University of North Carolina and Harvard admissions cases - essentially tests of affirmative action in admissions - will be before the Court in the fall. If you read yesterday's print LA Times - and got to the very end of the front-page analysis article by David Savage (most people don't finish long articles) - you would have read:

...The new court is also prepared to knock down another 1970s-era compromise on the role affirmative action plays in admissions to colleges and universities. In 1978, the court was split on whether to reject a University of California policy that set aside several slots for minority students at the UC Davis Medical School. Four justices thought this was an illegal quota, and four others thought it was reasonable affirmative action.

Powell was in the middle. He thought the set-asides were illegal, but he wrote approvingly of an admissions policy that used a student’s race as one “plus” factor to bring about diversity on campus. In Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke, Powell set the standard for admissions policies, and it was upheld later by O’Connor and Kennedy.

This fall, the justices will take up anti-discrimination challenges to the admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. They are almost certain to rule that any use of race in admissions is illegal and unconstitutional...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-06-25/supreme-court-is-bold-confident-and-conservative-determined-to-move-the-law-to-the-right.

We have noted in prior postings that UC might be insulated from such an expected decision by California's Proposition 209, since it bans affirmative action in admissions and the university could thus argue that it complies with 209.* There is some irony in that situation since the Regents unsuccessfully supported voter repeal of 209 in the general election of 2020. Had voters obliged, that defense would have been eliminated. Whether 209 will fully insulate UC's admission practices remains to be seen, since there could be challenges to actual admissions practices, i.e., arguments that there are de facto preferences.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/05/briefs-on-pending-harvardu-of-north_24.html;

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/05/briefs-on-pending-harvardu-of-north.html.

Swimming in Scandal - Part 5

We have been tracking the controversy revolving around suspended swimming coach Teri McKeever at UC-Berkeley. Below is the latest development:

From the LA Daily News (6-26-22): Allegations that University of California women’s swimming head coach Teri McKeever bullied dozens of swimmers over a decades-long period are clouded by gender bias in the standards female coaches are held to, according to her attorney. What nearly 60 people have described as verbal, emotional and physical abuse by McKeever, the 2012 U.S. Olympic team head coach, is actually accepted coaching methods approved of by the university that have been mischaracterized by female athletes socialized to react to coaching and stress differently than male athletes, Thomas Newkirk, McKeever’s attorney, maintained in an interview with the Southern California News Group and documents sent to Cal administrators.

Cal placed McKeever, who has guided the Golden Bears to four NCAA team titles, on paid administrative leave on May 25 and commissioned an investigation by a Los Angeles law firm into allegations raised in an SCNG report that the coach has routinely bullied athletes throughout her 29-year career at Berkeley. To date 36 current or former Cal swimmers and divers, 17 parents, a former member of the Golden Bears’ men’s swimming and diving squad, two former coaches and two former Cal athletic department employees have told SCNG that McKeever routinely bullied swimmers, often in deeply personal terms, or used embarrassing or traumatic experiences from their past against them, used racial epithets, body-shamed and pressured athletes to compete or train while injured or dealing with chronic illnesses or eating disorders, even accusing some women of lying about their conditions despite being provided medical records by them. Nine Cal women’s swimmers, six since 2018, have told SCNG they made plans to kill themselves or obsessed about suicide for weeks or months because of what they describe as McKeever’s bullying.

But Newkirk portrayed McKeever, 60, as the victim of both a double standard in how female and male coaches are viewed and judged, and a double standard in how female athletes are socialized from a young age to report stress, injuries and frustration differently than male athletes. Newkirk in a nearly hour-long interview and in documents sent to Cal chancellor Carol T. Christ and athletics director Jim Knowlton said top university officials were not only aware of McKeever’s coaching methods but have rewarded her. Cal gave McKeever a two-year contract extension in January 2020. The contract expires on April 30, 2024. The contract has an annual base salary of $242,000 and includes an additional $55,000 in potential bonuses.

The “Administration has been aware of Teri’s approach for years and recently awarded her a new contract,” Newkirk wrote in a recent document sent to Christ and Knowlton. “This award was based on hundreds and thousands of interactions with students, parents, and peers over many years. Coach McKeever does not coach in secret. There are several hundred witnesses to her methods and her behavior that will verify what she said, how she said it, and whether any of that was over the line of coaching standards. The administration is also aware and approves of Teri mentoring other coaches regarding their approach to leadership. Why would it permit that if there was the slightest concern about some pattern of behavior?”

Cal, citing the ongoing investigation, declined to comment on Newkirk’s statements. “The campus is required by law to refrain from commenting upon personnel matters.  As a result, we are precluded from responding to these claims and allegations,” the university said in a statement. “UC Berkeley, along with all of its constituent programs and departments, is committed to supporting, protecting and advancing gender equity, and to providing students with what they need to thrive in every aspect of their lives on campus...

Full story at https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more_/attorney-alleges-uc-berkeley-coach-teri-mckeever-is-the-victim-of-gender-bias/ar-AAYRL5Q.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/06/swimming-in-scandal-part-4.html; 

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/05/swimming-in-scandal-part-3.html;

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/05/swimming-in-scandal-part-2.html;

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/05/swimming-in-scandal.html.

Proposal for supplemental faculty pay in STEM fields

The systemwide Academic Senate has under review a proposal for supplemental faculty pay in STEM fields similar to programs in the health fields. Comments on the program are due July 19th. Excerpts from the review document can be found below:

Our review of the NSTP [Negotiated Salary Trial Program] reveals that it is a program that is generally well received on the six campuses (Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Santa Cruz) where it is used. Its utilization is somewhat limited, involving from just 1.0 to 12.3% of the faculty on any given campus (6.4% of all eligible faculty across the six campuses participate). Yet it provides considerable amounts of additional compensation to the participating faculty ($41,280 additional compensation on average among the participants and representing an augmentation of more than 20% of salary for 63.2% of the participants).

Survey results indicate that it is very popular with participants. Non-participants are more mixed in their attitudes toward it: some non-participants see it as a valuable way for the campuses to compete with other universities to attract and retain the best faculty; other non-participants see it as unfair and arguably at odds with the University’s ethos and mission.

As detailed below, the available evidence, while not perhaps as conclusive as might be desired, indicates that the NSTP is not harmful to the University’s mission. It does not appear to result in reductions in teaching nor in graduate student support. There is some evidence to suggest that it may even expand the research enterprise, thereby enhancing graduate and postdoctoral education. Clearly, at least in terms of pay, participants find the program beneficial. 

The open question is whether the program provides benefits in terms of enhancing faculty recruitment and retention. Arriving at a definitive answer for that question is challenging. There is no clear statistical or other quantitative evidence to say that the program does. At the same time, many participants and department chairs aver that the program has been an important component of attracting and retaining the best faculty. As we discuss below, we conclude that the program likely helps with keeping program participants at UC. The impact of the program on junior faculty recruitment appears to be minimal since they typically need several years to expand their research program to be able to participate. We note, too, that there appears to be little effect of the program on recruitment and retention for non-participants, who are the overwhelming majority of UC faculty... 

After considerable discussion and review of materials, the taskforce has concluded that ending the negotiated salary program would be so disruptive that we cannot recommend such a course of action. Rather, accepting that it needs to continue, we have addressed how it can be improved and expanded...

In the 2020-21 academic year, Federal contract and grants (C&G) provided the bulk of the funding support for the NSTP negotiated component, with significant contributions also coming from gift funds and private contracts and grants...

Source: https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview/nstp-tf-phase-2-report.pdf.

A lesson from the Stanford power outage for VoIP at UCLA

You may not know it, but Stanford has been in the dark due to a power outage. Apparently, the problem won't be resolved for several days.* The power failure there raises an interesting question. UCLA has been substituting VoIP telephone service for traditional landlines. (VoIP essentially is phone service that depends on the internet.) So what happens to VoIP in an emergency situation such as a big earthquake which disrupts power service?

Yours truly poked around on Stanford's website to find an answer:

University IT (UIT) offers Cisco VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for faculty and staff requiring telephone service... In the event of a power outage, telephone and network service in most locations should be available for approximately 20 minutes via a UPS (uninterruptible power source). It is important to know the location of an analog phone (also known as "plain old telephone service or a landline") for use in an emergency; consult your Department IT Contact if you're not sure where to find one. Depending upon the extent of the emergency, e.g., a major earthquake, cellular service may also be unavailable.

Source: https://uit.stanford.edu/service/phone/facultystaff.

The problem is that UCLA is eliminating "plain old telephone service." So, come the Big One, don't count on your office phone to work. And don't count on your cell phone. UCLA used to have an emergency low-powered AM radio station, but it seems to have gotten rid of that, too.

We have warned about both reliance on VoIP and abandoning the AM radio station in numerous past posts. Use the search engine on this blog for past posts.

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*Stanford University, the intellectual core of Silicon Valley, is struggling with something basic: electricity. Why is it taking so long? In normal times, Stanford powers its campus with 100% renewable energy — a milestone it achieved this year. Most of it is solar power. But only a small portion of the solar — less than 10%, according to Stanford civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Jacobson — is on campus, on building roofs. The rest comes from two massive solar plants in Kern and Kings counties. Because the power is not produced right on campus, Stanford relies on the state power grid to transport the electricity. In other words, Jacobson said, there is no direct power from the solar plants to the campus. So “if there is a grid outage, the university’s going to be affected as well,” he said.

Stanford has been able to turn on some power. It’s using a few hundred diesel generators for key services, Jacobson said. PG&E has also been able to send some power to campus, though not enough for the university to fully reopen. Two transmission lines feed the campus, and PG&E said it had de-energized one due to the fire. Cal Fire is not currently permitting PG&E to access equipment near the fire where repairs are needed, the utility said on Thursday, but as soon as those restrictions are lifted workers will go in. “We understand how disruptive it is to be without power and are using every tool at our disposal to restore power as quickly as possible,” PG&E said. On Thursday night, Stanford said in its update that PG&E was “working to repair damaged equipment.” ...

Full story at: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Here-s-why-Stanford-can-t-get-its-power-back-17261627.php.

Title IX (once again)

We seem to go round and round with federal standards for Title IX case processing in situations of alleged sexual harassment or assault. The latest developments from Inside Higher Ed:

The Biden administration on Thursday proposed major changes to Title IX that would make it easier for victims of sexual harassment to report possible harm and expands protections to students based on sexual orientation and gender identity, reversing many of the current regulations created by former president Trump. The new rule expands the definition of sexual harassment that was narrowed by the Trump administration as well as throwing out requirements for in-person hearings and cross-examinations. “This is very much a step forward—it has more robust provisions for both complainants and respondents and more specific responsibilities for institutions,” said S. Daniel Carter, president of Safety Advisors for Educational Campuses... 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/06/24/biden-expands-protections-sexual-harassment-lgbtq-students.

We have said it before* and we'll say it again. No matter what rules are adopted by the federal government, courts will look for due process. That's their culture. UC and many other universities that have union-represented employees already have a model of dispute resolution to which courts generally defer: grievance arbitration for employees. A key element in such systems is that if the matter cannot be settled, it goes to an outside neutral professional arbitrator for a final and binding ruling. Such arbitrators are skilled in conducting hearings, evaluating witnesses and evidence, and generally providing due process. If UC modeled its Title IX process on its already-existing grievance arbitration process, it will essentially insulate its procedures from external court review. It doesn't have to wait for new rules to be enacted the federal authorities.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/01/courts-look-for-due-process-in-title-ix.html.

No Change

As noted in our previous posting, there is a lot of economic uncertainty about the future course of the economy. But the present isn't showing much movement one way or another, at least using the latest data on new weekly California claims for unemployment insurance (through the week ending June 18). The state's labor market is essentially running at pre-pandemic levels by this measure.

As always, the latest claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.

Uncertainty

As just about everyone knows, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future course of the economy and - therefore - investment strategy for those with UC 403b plans and the like, and for the pension plan and endowment. Such concerns are generally reviewed by the Investments Committee of the Regents. However, yesterday, the Regents' Chief Investment Officer, Jagdeep Bachhar, had a Zoom conversation with the chair of the Regents' Investments Committee, Richard Sherman, and Torsten Slok of Apollo Global Management. About 200 viewers were on the call.

The most general take-away is that there is indeed a lot of uncertainty stemming from inflation, the Federal Reserve's response to inflation, global factors such as the war in Ukraine and supply-chain disruptions, domestic political developments such as the upcoming midterm elections, etc. Bachhar and Sherman emphasized long-term investment strategy over trying to time the markets.

You can hear an audio recording of the one-hour conversation at:

https://ia902505.us.archive.org/23/items/regents-health-services-committee-6-15-22/Bachhar-Sherman-Slok%20audio%206-22-22.mp4.

No Oil - Part 2

Follow-up: In an earlier post this month, we noted that oil-related investments were removed from the various UC-operated savings plans.* CalPERS and CalSTRS, meanwhile, seem to have fought off a legislative attempt to order them to drop oil-related investments. (They have very small oil-related investments compared with their overall portfolios, mostly through index funds which they hold.) From the Sacramento Bee:

A bill that would have forced California’s public pension systems to sell their oil and gas holdings has been dropped from a state Assembly committee agenda for Wednesday, signaling that it won’t move forward this year. Senate Bill 1173, introduced earlier this year by Senator Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, would have required the Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to sell a combined $11.5 billion worth of publicly traded securities by 2030. The bill cleared the state Senate at the end of May on a 21-10 vote with nine abstentions, but was pulled Monday from a Wednesday hearing in the Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement, which is chaired by Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove. Cooper’s office didn’t immediately return a call Tuesday...

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article262741417.html.

The bill in question included a provision protecting members of the boards of the two funds from lawsuits if it turned out that such divestment harmed the funds.* The bill did not refer to UCRP, presumably because of the assertion that UCRP has already divested and because of the constitutional autonomy of the Regents.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/06/no-oil.html. See section 2 for the protection provisions.

UCLA History: Student Complaints About Free - But Hard to Find - Parking in 1949

A student-made film from 1949 complains about how hard it is to find parking at UCLA, even in the open fields of Westwood. One solution it notes is to have a small car that could squeeze into small spaces as below. The small car (below) appears to be a Crosley.

The Crosley was an experiment in subcompact car manufacturing in the U.S., mainly after World War II. Apparently, the public wasn't ready for subcompacts and the line was discontinued in 1952. A few years later, the VW Beetle was introduced and was a success, so Crosley was ahead of its time. The Crosley firm made radios and appliances before getting into the car business. Yours truly had an uncle who owned one. 

By the way, the cars in the film arrived on local streets, even if coming from a distance. The freeway system in LA was in its infancy at the time.

The film briefly refers to the ice skating rink in Westwood where parking was allowed.*

You can see the film at:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38AYjpf8w28.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/12/ice-skating-in-westwood-1949.html.

Watch the Regents' June 16 Meeting of the Committee on Innovation Transfer & Entrepreneurship

Yesterday, we posted about the Regents' off-cycle meeting on June 15th of the Health Services Committee. Today, we report on the meeting of the Regents' Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship special committee which met the next day.

Unlike the Health Services Committee, there was no announcement that future meetings would be entirely in-person with all members and guest speakers required to attend. This meeting was definitely hybrid with some in the room and others on Zoom. There were no public comments, perhaps because anyone who wanted to speak did so the day before.

Yours truly should note that this committee is peculiar. Its task seems to be to oversee a transfer of responsibility for dealing with patents and potentially-commercial technology at UC from UCOP to the campuses. That process seems to be something that a board such as the Regents would normally leave to the UC president to handle. Put less gently, it seems to be micromanagement on the part of the Regents. In any case, the new goal seems to be more responsibility at the campus level with UCOP left with patent tracking and administration, i.e., seeing that royalties are paid, seeing that the terms of licensing agreements are carried out, etc. The patent tracking function involves developing a new computer system, and you can see why the Regents might be nervous about that, given the UCPath fiasco and other matters related to building new computer systems. Still, all the Regents can do is ask "how is it going" to which UCOP says "it is moving along." (Not in those words, of course.)

The committee uses "entrepreneurial" and "commercialization" more or less interchangeably. But the big opportunities for money-making come primarily from medical schools, engineering schools, and some of the sciences. So what happens to the arts, humanities, and social sciences? There is discussion of technology applied in those fields at the committee. But it seems disconnected from the role of the committee. At the meeting of June 16th, there was discussion of technology applied in the library system. So, yes, we don't have card files nowadays and a lot of stuff is online. But there really isn't entrepreneurial activity in the commercial sense arising from such changes. One of the Regents asked if students still use the library in the sense of entering the building and going to the stacks. The response was that there are lots of students in the building - but they are using it as a study hall. (Yours truly might note that the UCLA main library installed a coffee shop inside.)  

The Regents asked if the Academic Senate's criteria for promotion and tenure need to be revised to recognize entrepreneurship. Apparently, the Senate came back and said "no," it can be recognized under existing criteria. The Regents seem to have accepted that response, but want some additional program of "recognition" for entrepreneurship. So, again, the problem of potentially disadvantaging faculty in the arts, humanities, and social sciences arises.

There was also some discussion of whether Regental funds (pension, endowment) could be invested in UC-related entrepreneurship. It was said that the Chief Investment Officer regards such internal investment as risky and thus has limited interest.

In short, if you watch the committee, you will see lots of enthusiasm from the Regent-members although the raison d'être for the existence of the committee is unclear. As always, yours truly preserves the recordings of the committee indefinitely since the Regents delete their recordings for no particular reason after one year.

You can find the June 16th meeting at the links below:

https://archive.org/details/regents-health-services-committee-6-15-22/Regents+Special+Committee+on+Innovation+Transfer+and+Entrepreneurship+6-16-22.mp4

or

https://ia802505.us.archive.org/23/items/regents-health-services-committee-6-15-22/Regents%20Special%20Committee%20on%20Innovation%20Transfer%20and%20Entrepreneurship%206-16-22.mp4.

Going up a bit, but could be noise

We track new California weekly claims for unemployment insurance as an indicator of the state of the labor market and general economy. Claims popped up a bit in the week ending June 11th but the series is noisy and still roughly in the pre-pandemic range. So let's track it awhile before drawing any conclusions of a slowdown.

As always, the latest data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.

Watch the Regents' Health Services Committee Meeting of June 15, 2022

We are catching up with the Regents and their two off-cycle meetings last week, one being the Health Services Committee on June 15th. (We will post about the other off-cycle meeting at a later time.) 

The meeting began with an announcement that the meeting would be the last hybrid session. From now on, all members must attend in-person and those who testify must also attend in-person. However, public comments will continue in both in-person and by-phone formats. (There may be exceptions to these rules.)

The public comments dealt with the "affiliations" issue, i.e., Catholic and other religious hospitals that don't provide certain services such as abortions. 

Some of the highlights of the various agenda items:

• Uncompensated care - which is characterized as a community benefit - was said to be 10% of revenues. It was said that this percentage put UC at the 75th percentile among comparable institutions. There were some questions about the calculation and the identity of those systems that were higher than 10%.
• There was discussion about "long COVID" (long-lasting after-effects of COVID) including among children. The mechanisms by which long COVID occurs are not understood. A common symptom is fatigue.
• There was an overview of UCLA Health's strategic planning. It was said that the power plant at UCLA poses a capacity limit on expansion at the Westwood campus. There is a plan for building an off-campus mental health facility. Telehealth is now much more in use since COVID.
• There will be a full report on the "affiliations" issue at the August meeting.
• There is concern about a capacity limit on the ability to handle out-of-state abortion patients after the Supreme Court issues its expected decision voiding Roe v. Wade.

As always, we preserve the recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents - for no particular reason - delete them after one year. You can see the Health Services meeting at:

https://archive.org/details/regents-health-services-committee-6-15-22/Regents+Health+Services+Committee+6-15-22.mp4

or

https://ia902505.us.archive.org/23/items/regents-health-services-committee-6-15-22/Regents%20Health%20Services%20Committee%206-15-22.mp4.

Berkeley Housing Litigation Aftershock

After a local group's almost successful lawsuit to block a Berkeley enrollment expansion, the legislature stepped in:

From the Sacramento Bee: California’s’ public colleges and universities, plagued by a shortage of student housing, would be permitted to expedite construction under a bill cleared by an Assembly committee Monday. SB-886, sponsored by state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco), would require the state to grant UC, CSU and Community College campuses an exemption from regulations under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.* 

The bill, which has already passed the Senate, cleared the Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee Monday afternoon. “SB 886 is designed to address a very real issue in California, and that is the profound lack of available student housing,” Wiener told assembly members on Monday. “We have high rates of student homelessness, students that are living in their cars, living from motel to motel, couch surfing, living in very overcrowded situations — which is not conducive to actually learning.” 

The legislation follows a major lawsuit that illustrated just how crowded California schools are becoming. The suit, spearheaded by NIMBY group Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, alleged that the University of California, Berkeley was admitting too many students for its available space. After the California Supreme Court ruled that the university would have to cut its student enrollment by several thousand — meaning it would need to revoke acceptance letters — the legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly passed legislation effectively reversing the court’s decision through a CEQA exception. The Berkeley case underscored the vast reach of CEQA. Outraged legislators said that it demonstrated the need for revisions to the law...

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article262520122.html.

Since the governor has not been a fan of the use of CEQA in blocking projects, it seems likely that he would sign the bill.

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*Text of the bill is at:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB886.

More Awards

From a recent announcement:

The Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award is funded from a gift endowment established by the late Edward A. Dickson, Regent of the University of California, to honor outstanding research, scholarly work, teaching, and service performed by an Emeritus or Emerita Professor since retirement.

Three UCLA emeriti professors have been selected to receive the 2021 – 2022 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award, which includes a prize of $5,000: Distinguished Research Professor Andrew Christensen, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Brian Copenhaver, and Distinguished Research Professor Roger Detels.

Andrew Christensen, Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology retired in 2014 and is most widely known for developing an intervention for couples called Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT). Conducting clinical trials documenting the effectiveness of that approach, IBCT is the largest and longest RCT of couple therapy. Since retirement, Dr. Christensen has continued to focus on the research and dissemination of IBCT so that his treatment methodology can assist populations in the United States that previously have not had access to such effective therapy. Prior to his retirement, the Veteran’s Administration (VA) selected IBCT as its intervention to support military veterans and their families. Each year Dr. Christensen provides multi-day workshops to teach therapists in the VA system about IBCT, meeting every other week with a core group of IBCT consultants who supervise these therapists as they implement IBCT with couples in their home facility, and providing additional, special topics workshops for therapists as they implement couple therapy in the VA. He has continued attracting federal support to further examine the outcomes of this approach. Dr. Christensen’s scholarly work is recognized nationally and internationally, and in the years since retirement, he has given many invited talks and workshops, published numerous articles and book chapters, as well as published an update to his Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy: A Therapist’s Guide to Creating Acceptance and Change (Christensen, Doss, & Jacobson, 2020). On a recall basis, he has taught his popular Marital Therapy graduate seminar four times in clinical psychology. He has continued to supervise graduate students in clinical psychology as these students see couples in the within-department psychology clinic. In 2016, he was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Psychological Association. In short, Dr. Christensen’s work, before and after retirement, has had a dramatic impact on the lives of thousands of couples.

Brian Copenhaver, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and History held the Udvar-Hazy Chair of Philosophy and History until his retirement in 2017. Since retirement, Professor Copenhaver has been exceptionally active and continues to enrich scholarship and impact his field. He is considered the world’s leading expert on the history of magic and his works reveal its role in the understanding of Renaissance thought and the rise of early modern science. During this less than five-year period he has published four substantial books with a fifth ready for the press. For example, his Magic and the Dignity of Man: Pico della Mirandola and His Oration in Modern Memory (Harvard University Press, 2019), an enormous volume, is a major piece of scholarship explaining the connection of Pico’s Oration with later philosophical traditions of human dignity, in particular Kantian tradition, Hagelian idealism, and twentieth century existential philosophy. The work has received much acclaim in scholarly reviews, is the subject of a very favorable review in the New York Review of Books, and was the subject of an author meets critics session at the Pacific meeting of the American Philosophical Association in April 2021. Additionally, he published five book chapters and articles, and has five works in progress. Professor Copenhaver continued teaching, and has been involved with his online undergraduate course, Phil 3, as well as regularly co-teaching the Philosophy 206 graduate course. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; past President of the Journal of the History of Philosophy; a member of the Council of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in Italy; and the editor of the prestigious journal, History of Philosophy Quarterly.

Roger Detels, Distinguished Research Professor of Epidemiology retired in 2019. Since retirement, Dr. Detels continues to be actively engaged in research, receiving a total of $31 million in research funds as the PI for his HIV/AIDS research with the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study. Post-retirement, Dr. Detels remains among one of the best funded and most active professors at UCLA. He has published twenty-eight peer-reviewed scientific research articles and five book chapters on HIV/AIDS and is a senior editor on the seventh edition of the three volume Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health (Oxford University Press, 2021. Dr. Detels serves as a peer reviewer to several journals. His research is widely recognized in the field of HIV/AIDS and he continues to maintain high international status as a leading expert on global public health. Dr. Detels carries a considerable teaching load, having taught ten courses since retirement, including a course on contemporary health issues (PH150) with more than 350 students. He has been continuing to mentor Ph.D. students and the training of health professionals. The exceptional accomplishments of his trainees are a testament not only to the hard work and determination of his students, but also to Dr. Detels as a distinguished teacher, educator, mentor, and collaborator. He organized an international workshop on Research Methods in Guangzhou, China in December 2019 and delivered the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s 47th Annual Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture on "Recognizing Opportunities," February 9, 2022. Dr. Detels currently serves on seven university committees, is exceptional in every aspect of his career, with outstanding performance in teaching, research, and community service.

Please join me in wishing them all well-deserved congratulations for outstanding contributions to their respective fields since retirement and for serving as powerful examples of intellectual and professional achievement.

Sincerely,

Kathleen L. Komar
Interim Vice Provost, Academic Personnel

Source: https://apo.ucla.edu/news/Edward-A-Dickson-Emeritus-Professorship-Award-Recipients-2021-22.

UC Regents Ortiz Oakley resigns as head of Community Colleges

From the LA Times: California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, a champion of equity and access for underserved students, announced Thursday that he is stepping down from the helm of the nation’s largest two-year public college system amid rising academic achievement but declining enrollment. Oakley, the son of a Mexican immigrant who rose to become the first Latino chancellor of the 116-campus community college system nearly six years ago, will become president and CEO of College Futures Foundation, an Oakland-based nonprofit focused on college success for the state’s diverse students.

Oakley, who also serves as a University of California Board of Regents member, has been a force to reduce barriers to college access, including eliminating the SAT and ACT as admission requirements and better supporting students aiming to transfer to UC and other four-year universities. He said he would continue that work at the foundation in a role that would allow him to work with all colleges and universities, along with Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-16/california-community-colleges-chancellor-eloy-ortiz-oakley-to-resign.

Where will it lead? - Part 2

Blog readers will know that on June 4th we posted about an effort to get extra funding from the legislature for UC-Riverside on the grounds that Riverside gets less out-of-state tuition money (because it is not in high demand for out-of-state students). We also noted that the Riverside chancellor seems to be staying aloof from the legislative campaign for the additional funding.

Finally, we noted that UCOP was being cautious about a situation in which individual UC campuses go to the legislature for a bigger share of the budgetary pie. There could be a zero-sum element to such a process, particularly in periods of fiscal stringency.

According to EdSource, the Riverside extra funding was incorporated into the budget sent by the legislature to the governor to comply with the June 15th deadline for budgetary enactment.** The governor could use his line-item veto to eliminate the Riverside funding. Or not.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/06/where-will-it-lead.html.

**https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/06/uc-riverside-funding/.

Movie Time

You can tell when we are between spring quarter and summer session by the presence of movie trucks on campus, taking advantage of unused classrooms and other facilities. A bunch of them arrived yesterday. 

Note: The Regents were also on campus yesterday and will be again today for two off-cycle committee meetings. We will be catching up with them in due course.

Award

The Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award, established in 2015, recognizes UCLA emeriti for exemplary service by an emeritus/emerita professor to the academic enterprise after retirement. The award honors outstanding service in professional, University, Academic Senate, emeriti, departmental or editorial posts, or committees.

UCLA Emeriti Professor Harry Vinters has been selected to receive the 2021 – 2022 Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award, which includes a prize of $1,000

Harry Vinters, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, retired in 2016. He is a nationally and internationally respected neuropathologist, with expertise in several neurodegenerative diseases including vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s and AIDS associated dementia. For the past three years, Dr. Vinters has been providing University service as an active member of the Committee on Privilege and Tenure. He continues to serve on the MSTP Admissions Committee and the IDP Neuroscience Committee in the School of Medicine. In his department, he agreed to serve as the Interim Neuropathology Service Chief (2020-2021) and chaired the search committee for the new Chief. Dr. Vinters has been continuing to provide academic/research mentorship to junior faculty members and has worked to help them get funding for their projects. He also advocated for the creation of two separate research core laboratories in Neuropathology to create a stronger, more effective Neuropathology Core Resource laboratory.

Dr. Vinters has won two major lifetime achievement awards, one from the American Association of Neuropathologists for Meritorious Contributions to Neuropathology (March 2017) and the Alfred Meyer Medal from the British Neuropathology Society (June 2017). He has contributed to his field by publishing over 25 articles since retirement and continues to be a sought-after speaker, nationally and internationally. Dr. Vinters is dedicated to mentoring junior colleagues, to advancing knowledge through research, to ensuring the highest quality clinical care for our UCLA patients and to providing service to UCLA, the Academic Senate, and his profession. 

Please join me in wishing Distinguished Professor Emeritus Vinters a well-deserved congratulations for outstanding service to UCLA since retirement and for serving as a powerful example of intellectual and professional achievement.

Sincerely,

Kathleen L. Komar
Interim Vice Provost, Academic Personnel