That notice seemed to stop the posting of such comments until recently when they reappeared.
So we say again, commercial comments will be deleted. And if you spot a commercial comment before yours truly gets around to delete it, do not click on whatever is ostensibly being sold. It is likely to be malware.
There seem to be two answers whenever there is a problem of service or availability these days. One is "supply chain" if it's a good. The other is "labor shortage" if it's a service. Apparently, the latter is said to be the hang-up for the campus bus. From the Bruin:
Passengers of BruinBus have experienced frequent issues with the year-round shuttle service, including scheduling issues and roughness boarding buses. Students said the shuttle has been inconsistent in getting them to class on time and that there are not enough buses for the number of students who use the service, particularly at the U1 line’s Weyburn Terrace stop, where UCLA’s newest university apartments house thousands of students. “There’s not a lot of buses, and everybody’s pushing toward the front,” said Delilah Sandoval, a second-year sociology student. Students aren’t able to get on the bus because of these circumstances, Sandoval said. She added she has seen people having to walk to campus instead after the BruinBus doors close.
UCLA established BruinBus over 30 years ago, and its five lines now serve the main campus, Westwood Village and Wilshire Center. The complimentary service has changed over the years to include zero-emission electric buses, higher passenger capacity, faster wheelchair handling and improved safety measures, according to UCLA Transportation’s website. UCLA spokesperson Katherine Alvarado said UCLA Transportation works hard to provide services that support the community. She added they have worked to maintain a bus schedule that benefits UCLA community members and meets customer demand. However, she acknowledges that routes and frequency of buses may be impacted by staffing levels and bus serviceability...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2023/02/26/ucla-students-raise-complaints-about-bruinbus-scheduling-overcrowding-issues.
From Inside Higher Ed: The University of California system has never had any fully online undergraduate degree programs at any of its 10 campuses. But a loophole existed in which a student or department could have crafted—either inadvertently or intentionally—a stealth, fully online undergraduate degree through individually approved online courses.
That loophole was closed this month when the University of California Academic Senate approved Senate Regulations 610 and 630, which instituted an undergraduate residency requirement. Students must now earn a minimum of six course credits per quarter (or semester) for three quarters (or two semesters) in courses where at least half of the instruction is in person on a UC campus, according to the Senate document. This corresponds with one out of the four undergraduate years, according to Melanie Cocco, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at UC Irvine. Those studying in prison are exempt...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/27/university-california-system-bans-fully-online-degrees.
You can find the data above in more detail by campus at:
Keep in mind that applications, admissions, and enrollments are three separate things. Applications simply start the process.
Michael J. B. Allen, distinguished professor, engaging teacher, accomplished scholar, dynamic raconteur, avid hiker, and loving family man, passed away peacefully of natural causes February 25, 2023 in his Santa Monica home. 81 years old at his death, he is survived by wife Elena, sons Ben and Will, sister Patricia, daughters-in-law Claudia and Melanie, grandchildren Paloma, Moses, and Ezra, and dog Wiglaf.
Michael was born on April 1, 1941 in Lewes, East Sussex, England to Frederick "Jack" and Ena Muriel (nee Bridgman) Allen, who imparted to him a love of learning, history, literature and the countryside. Michael contracted polio as a young boy, an ailment that impacted his arm strength for the rest of his life. Nursed back to health by his devoted mother, Michael excelled in school, was one of the top students at Lewes Grammar School and a Queen Scout, eventually enrolling at Wadham College, Oxford University, where he earned his Bachelors (1964) and Masters (1966) degrees in English. Many years later, in 1987, he was granted a distinguished D.Litt. in history from his alma mater in recognition of his exceptional academic and scholarly work.
Allen made his way to the United States, teaching at Ohio University before enrolling in the English Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan, earning his doctorate in 1970... Professor Allen's many prestigious honors included a Guggenheim Fellowship; the Eby Award for Undergraduate Teaching (UCLA's top teaching honor); UCLA's Faculty Research Lectureship; numerous international guest lectureships; the Commendatore decoration from the Italian Republic (2007); the International Galileo Galilei Prize (2008-for his work on Florentine Platonism); election as Fellow of the British Academy in London (2012); Scholar in Residence, American Academy in Rome (Spring 2013); and the Renaissance Society of America's Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award (2015).
In addition to inspiring generations of UCLA students through his legendary English 10A course, where he taught a cross-section of English literature from Beowulf through Milton, along with popular Shakespeare and Chaucer classes, Allen served as a faculty lecturer with UCLA Travel for many years, enthralling alumni travelers with funny, engrossing, and sophisticated but accessible lectures on historical, philosophical, and literary topics relevant to the places they were visiting.
His love of travel, adventure, and interesting places, literatures, and cultures was infectious. He also was a fixture at the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare summer school, and then later at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where he held seminars focused on the plays that were being performed that season. Member of the English, Italian, and Comparative Literature Departments, his title upon his retirement from UCLA was Distinguished Research Professor of English and Italian Renaissance Studies. Allen also took on many leadership roles through his career, serving as Director of UCLA's Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (CMRS) (1988-93); Senior Editor of Renaissance Quarterly (1993-2001); Phi Beta Kappa National Visiting Scholar (2007-08) and President of the Renaissance Society of America (2006-08). He was a sought-after lecturer, and his dramatic readings of Pepys' journals of life in 17th-century London at CMRS dinners became the stuff of legend.
He wrote or edited some 21 books, some of his authoring highlights included: The Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, University of California Press (UCP-1984); Icastes: Marsilio Ficino's Interpretation of Plato's Sophist, (UCP-1989); Nuptial Arithmetic: Marsilio Ficino's Commentary on the Fatal Number in Book VIII of Plato's Republic (UCP-1994); Synoptic Art: Marsilio Ficino on the History of Platonic Interpretation. Olschki Press, 1998; Marsilio Ficino: Platonic Theology, 6 vols. with James Hankins, Harvard University Press (HUP-2001-2006); Marsilio Ficino: Commentaries on the Phaedrus and Ion (HUP, 2008); and Marsilio Ficino: Commentaries on the Mystical Theology and the Divine Names of Dionysius the Areopagite, 2 vols. (HUP, 2015)...
Once a week, we look at new weekly claims for unemployment insurance in California for signs of the much-rumored recession. But despite the continuing rumors, and despite the headlines about tech layoffs, nothing shows up in the claims data; we're still running at pre-pandemic (boom) levels, at least by that measure.
The UCLA Anderson Forecast will produce its next prognostications in mid-March, so we'll see then what the outlook seems to be from that perspective.
As always, the latest claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.
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You can watch former UCLA Anderson Forecast Director Ed Leamer interviewed on Feb. 16 by yours truly and then his presentation to a group of emeriti and retirees on the recession outlook at:
https://ia601406.us.archive.org/20/items/forecast-2011/Leamer-Mitchell%20Emeriti%26Retirees%20Assn%20video%202-16-2023.ia.mp4 (with video - limited slide visibility)
https://ia601406.us.archive.org/20/items/forecast-2011/Leamer-Mitchell%20Emeriti%26Retirees%20Assn%20slides%202-16-2023.mp4 (slides only - no sound).
We're catching up with the Regents' most recent off-cycle meeting of the Special Committee on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship. As always, we preserve the recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents - for no good reason - delete them after one year.
This particular special committee, as we have noted in past coverage, seems to be an exercise in more detailed micro-management than seems desirable, given the host of other matters facing the university. However, the Regents can do what they like - and they do.
One difference between this committee's meetings and others is that the public comments segments tend toward bland puffery of local entrepreneurial activities. All the controversies that are typically raised at other public comments sessions - abortion, union negotiations, etc. - are absent. The only comment on a controversy this time was one regarding an economic research center at UC-Riverside. So one has to conclude that this committee just doesn't attract interest from the general public.
In the regular session of the committee after public comments there was a presentation on entrepreneurial activity at UC-Irvine. Afterwards, it was announced that there would be an Entrepreneurial Council set up that would mentor faculty on setting up companies. Funding strategies for taking academic research to market were discussed. As an example of valuable research, there was a presentation on research on treatments for Huntington's disease.
The committee turned to discussion of the patent tracking process which seems to be shifting from centralization at UCOP to the campus-level. Since this is a computer-based process, there is some nervousness that we don't slip into the kinds of fiascos that have characterized such endeavors in the past - such as UCPath. Finally, it was reported that conflict of interest and disclosure policies at UCOP are being revised.
You can watch the session at:
From the UCLA Newsroom:
Key takeaways
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A $20 million gift from Andrea and Donald Goodman and Renee and Meyer Luskin will fund a new center at UCLA focused on the microbiome and its effect on health.
Investigators at the new center will study the microbiome’s role in disease prevention and the body’s immune response.
The enterprise will be led by Elaine Hsiao, UCLA’s De Logi Professor of Biological Sciences.
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Among the most promising areas of scientific inquiry is the study of the human microbiome and its effect on health. To fuel more rapid progress in this field, Andrea and Donald Goodman and Renee and Meyer Luskin have made a $20 million gift to establish the UCLA Goodman–Luskin Microbiome Center.
Research at the center will focus on the microbiome’s role in disease prevention and the body’s immune response with the goal of developing new treatments for a range of conditions including inflammatory bowel disease; obesity and eating disorders; neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, such as autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases; irritable bowel syndrome; and substance use and psychiatric disorders. There are also gender differences in the microbiome.
“The Goodmans and Luskins have been enduring supporters of UCLA Health’s mission to heal humankind and we are deeply grateful for this visionary gift,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “This is an investment in our distinguished researchers and their ability to find new pathways that advance patient care.”
The microbiome is composed of the microbes — bacteria, fungi, viruses and their genes — that reside in and on our bodies. Microbial organisms in the human gastrointestinal tract, commonly referred to as the gut, are essential to human development, immunity and nutrition. Autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia are all associated with dysfunction in the microbiome.
Scores of investigators at the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases and across the campus are working to “fingerprint” the brain and gut microbiome to elucidate the role microbial diversity plays in resistance to disease, and whether lifestyle interventions can reduce the risks for and symptoms of chronic diseases. “Further study of the relationship between the microbiome and the brain is critical,” said Dr. Steven Dubinett, interim dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the Goodmans and the Luskins for their commitment to this innovative field.”
Donald Goodman is the president of Don Lee Farms, a multigenerational family food company he founded in 1982. The company produces food products for the country's top retailers, including Costco, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Kroger and Albertsons. He and his wife, Andrea, have been recognized by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank for their longstanding philanthropic efforts, and by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters for their support of scholarships for exceptional high school students in Inglewood, California.
“Renee, Meyer and I have had a friendship that spans back to my childhood,” Donald Goodman said. “Meyer and I later served together on UCLA Health’s Advisory Board for over a decade. His insights and leadership have been an inspiration for me.
“It has been incredible to see the tremendous impact of UCLA’s scientific advances on the health and well-being of so many people. This gift reflects our families’ dedication to fostering innovative research that will continue to enhance health care.”
Renee and Meyer Luskin earned degrees from UCLA in 1953 and 1949, respectively. Meyer Luskin is an industry leader in the business of recycling and processing food waste. In 2011, the couple made gifts to name the UCLA Luskin Conference Center and the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
“Our families have witnessed the profound difference philanthropy makes in research and the development of new treatments,” said Meyer Luskin. “This pioneering center will help scientists expand their knowledge about a wide range of diseases and find cures. For us, this is an investment in the future of medicine.”
Geffen School of Medicine scientists collaborate on microbiome-related research with faculty members from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and the UCLA College divisions of life sciences and physical sciences. The gift funds a new headquarters in the UCLA Center for Health Sciences to support collaboration among numerous labs and brain-gut investigators engaged in seven focus areas. Elaine Hsiao, UCLA’s De Logi Professor of Biological Sciences, will lead the comprehensive enterprise. In 2022, Hsiao was one of three researchers nationally to be recognized by the New York Academy of Sciences with a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists.
The gift also funds a fellowship to train and mentor physician-scientists, an early-career research fund to support promising scientists, an endowed chair in brain-gut-microbiome research and an annual symposium — all aimed at fostering a fuller understanding of the brain-gut-microbiome interface and its role in human health. “The center’s initial focus on brain-gut-microbiome research will build on our existing strengths and advance UCLA’s collaborations with other microbiome research centers across the nation,” said Dr. Eric Esrailian, UCLA’s Lincy Foundation Professor of Clinical Gastroenterology and chief of the division of digestive diseases, which is ranked No. 3 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
“This is only the beginning, and we appreciate the friendship and generosity of the Goodman and Luskin families as we explore this incredible scientific frontier.”
Source: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-establishes-goodman-luskin-microbiome-center.
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| People's Park confrontation last summer |
A state appellate court on Friday evening issued a final ruling that stops UC Berkeley from building badly needed student housing at People’s Park and opens controversial new paths to block development using the state’s environmental law. UC Berkeley said it would appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court and reiterated its commitment to reshape the park into a space for student dorms and supportive housing for low-income residents. The plan also includes the creation of a commemorative display honoring the park’s iconic legacy of free speech and civil rights and an open space with landscaping and trees. The court said the decision does not require UC regents to abandon the People’s Park project but to return to the trial court and “fix the errors” in the environmental review...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park.
As we have noted, this affair is connected indirectly to the push by the legislature and governor to increase enrollment at UC and especially the hard-to-get-into campuses. There is always the possibility that the legislature could step end, as it sometimes has done in cases where environmental reviews block desired projects.
In March 2022, a committee at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), found that ecologist Priyanga Amarasekare had breached the faculty code of conduct, most notably by violating confidentiality and procedural rules when criticizing her colleagues and department policies, according to documents obtained by Nature. The committee recommended she be given a letter of censure and five years of probation. UCLA chancellor Gene Block instead issued much harsher penalties, including a one-year, unpaid suspension that effectively stranded her research projects and cut off communication with her students.
The documents received by Nature — including the letter of censure — contain no accusations of academic misconduct or illegal behaviour, and instead focus on personnel and procedural issues. “Priyanga is not a warm, fuzzy person, and she does not suffer fools,” but that is not a crime, says a long-time UCLA faculty member who declined to be named out of fear of retaliation. Like many institutions, UCLA has been promoting its efforts to increase equity and diversity, and Amarasekare “is being sacrificed because she’s upsetting that picture,” the faculty member says...
In a statement, however, the university raised questions about one of the documents obtained by Nature, a report from the hearing committee that was redacted to remove specific names, allegations and testimonies. The unauthorized release of such a report “risks presenting an incomplete and misleading characterization of proceedings and infringing on the confidentiality of witnesses,” the statement says. The university also says it supports freedom of expression and does not condone retaliation of any sort. Amarasekare declined to comment...
Full story at https://www.nature.com/
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We have no special insight into this matter and no information beyond what has appeared in news reports. But given the strong external support for the individual in question, and given the fact that she seems now to be strictly avoiding making public statement (something a lawyer would likely advise), this affair seems to be a case that is ripe for external litigation. The court system, however, may not be the best forum for reaching a settlement. Issues such as maintaining "the confidentiality of witnesses" may not be seen to be as important in a court setting as they are in academia. Outcomes of court decisions can be unpredictable, embarrassing, and potentially costly. Sometimes the parties involved in complicated disputes need to rise above their cherished principles in order to avoid court determination.
Years ago, Prof. Warren Schmidt, who taught at both UCLA and USC, wrote an essay in the LA Times which in turn was developed into an Academy Award-winning cartoon of 1970, "Is It Always Right to Be Right?" Although the film refers to conflicts that were raging back then, yours truly suggests it is worth considering now and in this matter:
Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbWCjQ5L0ZY.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/01/its-hard-to-keep-lid-on-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/01/its-hard-to-keep-lid-on.html.
Buried in a Wall Street Journal article about Stanford is a sentence that UC campuses are somehow outsourcing a bias complaint system to an outside private firm. We reproduce excerpts from the article as it appeared today in UCOP Daily News Clips. Is it true that UC is engaging in such outsourcing? Apart from the obvious free speech issues discussed in the article, exactly what the role of a private firm is in the process raises questions.
A group of Stanford University professors is pushing to end a system that allows students to anonymously report classmates for exhibiting discrimination or bias, saying it threatens free speech on campus. The backlash began last month, when a student reading “Mein Kampf,” the autobiographical manifesto of Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, was reported through the school’s “Protected Identity Harm” system.* The reporting system has been in place since the summer of 2021, but faculty say they were unaware of it until the student newspaper wrote about the incident and the system, spurring a contentious campus debate. “I was stunned,” said Russell Berman, a professor of comparative literature who said he believes the reporting system could chill free speech on campus and is ripe for abuse. “It reminds me of McCarthyism.”
The system is designed to help students get along with one another, said Dee Mostofi, a Stanford spokeswoman. “The process aims to promote a climate of respect, helping build understanding that much speech is protected while also offering resources and support to students who believe they have experienced harm based on a protected identity,” she said. The Stanford faculty’s effort is part of broader pushback against bias-reporting systems around the country. About half of college campuses have one—more than twice as many as five years ago—according to a 2022 survey by Speech First, a conservative nonprofit. Free-speech advocates have taken several schools to court and forced them to change their systems, alleging they inhibit the exchange of ideas.
The systems were more widely used during the pandemic, when students were encouraged to report on classmates for not wearing masks, said Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First. The pandemic also coincided with a spike in hate crimes. At Stanford, students can report a “Protected Identity Harm Incident,” which is defined as conduct targeting an individual or group on the basis of characteristics including race or sexual orientation. The system is meant to “build and maintain a better, safer, and more respectful campus community,” according to the school’s website. The system defaults to anonymous reporting and most students file that way. They use an online form to describe how the bias was demonstrated, which triggers an inquiry within 48 hours. Both parties are contacted.
Participation in the inquiry is voluntary. But it may not feel that way to accused students, said Juan Santiago, a professor of mechanical engineering who favors getting rid of the system. “If you’re an 18-year-old freshman and you get contacted by an administrator and told you’ve been accused of some transgression, what are you going to do?” Prof. Santiago said. “They may not call that punitive but that can be very stressful.”
Prof. Santiago said he is wary that anonymous complaints could be exaggerated or used to attack someone. He helped collect 77 faculty signatures to petition the school to investigate free speech and academic freedom on campus, the first step to getting rid of the anonymous-reporting system...
The reports are stored in a platform operated by a third party called Maxient, a Charlottesville, Va.-based company that has contracts with 1,300 schools—mostly colleges and universities in the U.S., said company co-owner Aaron Hark. Only Maxient and a small number of people within the student affairs office have access to the records, said Ms. Mostofi. She declined to say how long they are stored. A dashboard maintained by the school lists a few incidents students have reported using the anonymous system, including the removal of an Israeli flag and a racial slur written on a whiteboard hanging on a dorm-room door.
At the University of California, which includes 10 campuses, the reporting system collected 457 acts of “intolerance or hate” during the 2021-22 school year. Of those, 296 were defined as offensive speech. The UC said those incidents include “gestures, taunts, mockery, unwanted jokes or teasing, and derogatory or disparaging comments of a biased nature.”...
Full story at https://www.wsj.com/articles/stanford-faculty-moves-to-stop-students-from-reporting-bias-anonymously-cbac78ed.
Are the academic senates at the various UC campuses aware of the system and the outsourcing?
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*The incident's context has never been clear, since the book is assigned in classes. For information on the incident: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/30/stanford-questioned-over-response-mein-kampf-photo.
There continue to be repercussions from the student-worker strike including protests of potential cutbacks in graduate PhD admissions and a legislative warning that the state won't come with added funding and that in fact UC may get less in the coming fiscal year than promised in the "compact" with the governor:
From the Bruin:Around 100 UCLA community members gathered Wednesday afternoon at Murphy Hall to protest reports of administration-backed cuts to graduate student admissions in light of recently won wage increases. The protest comes two months after a nearly six-week strike across the University of California, in which a coalition of United Auto Workers unions representing more than 48,000 academic workers called for more equitable salaries, better working conditions and increased benefits. The strike drew participation from various academic employees, including student researchers, teaching assistants and postdoctoral scholars. It ended in late December with historic increases in wages for multiple bargaining units as well as improved workplace protections, alongside other benefits.
However, some academic departments across UCLA and at other UCs have recently notified their members that they will be admitting fewer graduate students to accommodate the increased wages, said protest organizer Jacqueline Perez, a social psychology doctoral student and member of the UAW Local 2865 union – which includes teaching assistants and graduate student instructors. Protest leaders demanded that the UC maintain current enrollment and staffing levels, ensure departments have enough resources to support the new contracts’ wage increases, and create a general fund supporting lab workers. They delivered a letter to Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt’s office, walking from Murphy Hall to Haines Hall around 1:30 p.m. The letter was signed by UAW Local 2865 and UAW Local 5810, the latter of which represents postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers...
UCLA Faculty Club General Manager Resigns
The UCLA Faculty Club’s General Manager, Luciano Sautto, has resigned from his position following a leave of absence. We wish Mr. Sautto well in his future endeavors, and we will be in touch with the membership about the search for a new General Manager.
We appreciate your understanding and support.
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The message is a bit cryptic. Love to know more.
Apart from the Blackstone BREIT, which UC bailed out with a $4.5 billion investment, Blackstone seems to be having problems with other real estate investments. See below. So it's time for the members of the Regents' Investment Committee in March to ask tough questions about the financial and legal aspects of the bailout by UC and not just have a lovefest* centered on landlord-tenant relations, as occurred at their last meeting. No more diversions. No more PR. And no more phony anonymous complaints to Blogger about this blog. Just straight, hard questions.
Is it really necessary to point out that the Regents have a fiduciary duty to ask such questions?
From Commercial Observer, 2-16-23:
The $270.3 million commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan on Blackstone’s Manhattan multifamily portfolio has been sent to special servicing,** according to a Trepp alert, CRED iQ data and sources familiar with the transfer. The loan backs the BX 2019-MMP CMBS deal and is collateralized by 11 multifamily properties totaling 637 units in Chelsea, the Upper East Side and Midtown South. “We continue to focus on delivering a best-in-class experience for our residents while we work with our lenders on the capital structure,” a Blackstone spokesperson told Commercial Observer Thursday, declining to comment further.
The loan was still marked as current as of this month, and — according to CRED IQ data— a specific transfer for the special servicing transfer wasn’t given in commentary. The loan was, however, put on the servicing watch list in November for tripping its floating-rate debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) trigger. As the real estate industry continues to grapple with a series of interest rate spikes, plus a scarcity of debt capital, Blackstone is currently facing a couple of struggles specific to the deal itself and the broader market environment. Specifically, sources said the portfolio currently requires higher capital expenditure than expected while the firm simultaneously faces higher borrowing costs associated with floating-rate debt.
One source said that while Blackstone continues to lean into multifamily overall as a high conviction theme, it doesn’t believe the best use of its capital is to continue to fund cash-flow shortfalls within this specific multifamily portfolio. As such, Blackstone transferred the loan to special servicer Mount Street to allow the firm time to work with its lenders and decide how best to move forward in today’s bumpy market environment, sources said...
Full story at https://commercialobserver.com/2023/02/blackstone-cmbs-loan-multifamily-special-servicing/.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/01/still-more-on-regents-blackstone.html; http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/01/watch-regents-investment-committees.html.
**Special Servicing means the oversight and management of the resolution of Mortgage Loans by workout or modification of loan provisions, foreclosure, deed in lieu of foreclosure or otherwise, and the control of decisions with respect to the preservation of the collateral generally, including property management and maintenance decisions.
Our best guess, based on comments made by Regent Cohen, a former budget director for the state, is that this matter has been percolating at the Dept. of Finance for some time and that someone stuck it into the governor's budget proposal.
The LA Times now joins the LAO and others in raising questions. It's worth noting that budgets are ultimately enacted by the legislature and that won't happen until June.
For thousands of community college students who vie each year to transfer to ultracompetitive UCLA, it sounds like a dream: Complete required coursework, meet a specified grade-point average and earn guaranteed admission to the most popular university in the nation. That’s what Gov. Gavin Newsom directed UCLA to do in his proposed budget last month — or risk losing $20 million in state funding. Newsom, along with legislators and many equity advocates, have been pushing the University of California to simplify its transfer process and widen entry to more state students, especially at UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, the system’s three most selective campuses.
Newsom’s proposal blindsided UCLA and set off a scramble to understand the governor’s intent. Neither Newsom’s office nor the state Department of Finance responded to a request for comment about the directive, which lacked details such as admission targets...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-21/conflict-brews-over-governors-plan-for-ucla-guaranteed-transfer-student-admission.
The fact that there are no details available suggest that it was not only UCLA that was "blindsided," the governor may have been blindsided by his own Dept. of Finance. If that is the case, the proposal may quietly disappear from the governor's May Revise budget proposal without further explanation. And someone at the Dept. of Finance may be called on the carpet - or worse.
Forbes describes its methodology as follows: Forbes partnered with the market research firm Statista to compile our list of America’s Best Large Employers. The ranking is based on a survey of about 45,000 workers at American companies and institutions with 5,000 or more employees. Participants were asked if they would recommend their current employers to friends and family (on a scale of 0 to 10), and to cite any other employer they would also recommend. The final list ranks the 500 large employers that received the most recommendations.
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| Click on image above to clarify. |
Yesterday, we called on the anonymous complainer who filed a complaint about a 2018 post on this blog that reproduced a news article about the operations of the office of the UC chief investment officer (CIO) to reveal himself/herself/themselves and apologize. The complaint that was filed indicated that there was a violation of Blogger standards (which, as you might expect, mainly have to do with pornography and such). It meant that anyone who wanted to read that posting had to first read a warning and agree to see the posting despite it. We went back to the post and added language saying that the complaint was invalid, and also requested a review by Blogger. As you can see from the email above, the meritless complaint has been now been voided, after the review.
PHILADELPHIA — Steven Katz, a lawyer representing the N.C.A.A., had barely cleared his throat Wednesday while appearing before a three-judge panel for a federal appeals court when he was peppered with questions. As Katz was asserting that the case before the court — the former Villanova defensive back Trey Johnson argues he and other Division I athletes should be considered employees and thus entitled to be paid a minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act — would set off a cascade of inequities between men’s and women’s collegiate sports, Judge Theodore A. McKee cut him off. “Don’t we already have that?” he asked, referring to the highly publicized disparities between the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments two years ago. “The women’s weight room was basically a closet with dumbbells, and the men’s weight room looked like the spa at the Four Seasons.”
A few beats later, Judge L. Felipe Restrepo, noting that the service academies pay their athletes — without any problems from the N.C.A.A. — wondered about athletes raking in significant endorsement contracts: “How are they not employees of the universities given the regimes they report to?” The third judge, David J. Porter, eventually picked away at how the big business of college sports might be considered. “There’s arguably a market for world-class musicians to get scholarships, for people who have perfect SAT scores and 4.0 averages,” Porter said. “They get scholarships. How are those people different than student-athletes?” ...
The hearing was merely a procedural step — the N.C.A.A. telling the appellate judges that a U.S. District judge had erred when he did not throw out the suit — in a case that has broad implications. It is only one of several working their way through the judicial system that threatens to upend the collegiate-sports model. The three judges are expected to rule within the next few months whether the case can proceed, but what stood out in Wednesday’s hearing was how more and more judges are being less and less sentimental about an enterprise that is amateur in name only...
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/sports/ncaa-federal-court-athletes.html.
All of which suggests that UCLA's move to the Big Ten could simply turn out to be a temporary net revenue gain.
We have gone back to that post and added the following language:
Note: You may have seen a notice on this post - added on or about Feb. 18, 2023 - stating, "This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains sensitive content as outlined in Blogger’s Community Guidelines." Actually, there is no violation. The post reproduces an article from a national investment newsletter which is still available on the web. The same article was also reproduced by the University of California's email clipping service and circulated to its subscribers. One interpretation is that our coverage, over 4 years later, of an investment policy by the chief investment officer of the University, led some unknown person to rummage through the blog and file a complaint. We urge the anonymous complainer to come forward, withdraw the complaint, and apologize.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2018/09/dirty-laundry-at-uc-investment-office.html.
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Note: The blog is available quarterly in pdf format. You can find the post in question as it originally appeared at:
https://archive.org/details/UCLAFacultyAssociationBlog3rdQuarter2018/
Go to pp. 123-131.
Our weekly look at new unemployment benefit claims in California continue to show no sign of recession. There was a program for retirees and emeriti on this topic featuring a presentation by Prof. Ed Leamer with yours truly as emcee. Eventually, the video will be put online. For now, however, you can hear the audio at:
As always, the latest claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.
Some anonymous critic went combing through back posts of this blog to find something to object to and found a 2018 reproduction of an article, published in an investment newsletter and reproduced by an email clipping service of UC's own Office of the President (UCOP). He/she/then got a warning put on the 2018 posting.
Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, known as Breit, had a negative return of 0.2% in January, badly lagging publicly traded real estate investment trusts, which showed gains of about 10% in the month. This marks a change from the situation in 2022 when the $71 billion Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust was up 8.4% based on its largest share class, while comparable public REITs in the apartment and warehouse sector were down around 30%.
The January performance supports the argument that Breit was overvalued relative to public-market peers. Breit reports its performance monthly and the January figures were reported recently. BREIT had negative returns of 0.7% in the fourth quarter. In a statement, Blackstone said: “BREIT’s monthly return in January was 0.7% before the short-term impact of lower interest rates on the hedges that protect our investors.”
Blackstone said its “valuation multiples have been adjusted to reflect the higher rate environment” and that it “has sold more than $6 billion of property since 2022 at a premium to our carrying values.” Those sales represented about 5% of Breit’s total assets of $125 billion. BREIT had substantial debt of $65 billion at the end of 2022. The firm stated that “[public REITs] have enormous volatility often uncorrelated with underlying real estate values.”
In early December, Breit capped monthly withdrawals after investor redemption requests exceeded a 2% monthly limit of the fund’s net asset value in November. There also were redemption limits imposed in December and January. There were $5.3 billion of redemption requests in January and Breit met just 25% of them. Breit caps monthly redemptions at 2% of its net asset value and 5% in a quarter. Blackstone said that “repurchase requests in February are trending significantly lower than they were in January at this point in the month.“
In January, Breit got a boost and vote of confidence when UC Investments, a big pension and investment fund for the University of California, agreed to buy $4 billion of BREIT, an investment that was later boosted to $4.5 billion. The California fund got a favorable deal because Blackstone guaranteed a minimum return by pledging $1.1 billion of Breit stock over a holding period averaging six years to support a targeted annualized minimum return of at least 11.25%.
Barron’s has written critically about Breit, arguing that comparable public REITs like apartment owners Mid-America Apartment Communities... and AvalonBay Communities..., or warehouse operator Prologis... are better bets. They have lower fees, less leverage, and greater liquidity than Breit. Blackstone has pointed to the strong performance of Breit, which has returned 13.3% a year over its six-year history, above REIT benchmarks. The Vanguard Real Estate exchange-traded fund... which has broad ownership of REIT shares, has returned about 9% annually since the end of 2016. Blackstone also highlights its strong sector selection with Breit holding about 80% of its assets in apartment complexes and warehouses, which have performed better than such areas as office buildings. Breit’s same-property net operating income was up 13% in 2022.
Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/breit-blackstone-january-return-b3c6ee8b.
We hope our anonymous critic wasn't too triggered by the above piece or found a safe space in which to read it. We thank him/her/them for triggering us to return to the BREIT affair. Without the reminder, we might never have found the Barrons article.
So, we can speculate on what might have triggered someone recently to go combing through the blog looking for something to object to about regental investment policy. And the only such items of late are our posts about Blackstone, its BREIT, and the risk apparently taken by the chief investment officer to bail out the BREIT to the tune of $4.5 billion. (Use the search engine on this blog to find that coverage.)
In any case, yours truly got an email notice about the 2018 entry:
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Your post titled "Dirty Laundry at the UC Investment Office" was flagged to us for review. This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains sensitive content; the
post is visible at
http://uclafacultyassociation.
Your blog readers must acknowledge the warning before being able to read the post/blog.
Anyway, here's a little music for our thin-skinned anonymous critic:
Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1AHec7sfZ8.
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PS: Blog faithful can always read back posts on this blog by going to the alternative quarterly "book" versions of this blog posted elsewhere - without warnings.
However, in the case of the governor's strange budget proposal to single out UCLA among the campuses to rearrange its transfer policy, even the LAO is unhappy. We reproduce first the LAO's statement in the initial summary and then the more detailed statement in the report:
Recommend Rejecting Transfer Proposal for UCLA.
The Governor proposes trailer bill language requiring UCLA to participate in the Transfer Admissions Guarantee (TAG) program and Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) program. The proposed language makes $20 million of the campus’s ongoing core funding contingent on meeting the new requirements. We recommend the Legislature reject this proposal and instead consider whether to require all UC campuses to participate in the TAG and ADT programs. We also recommend the Legislature have a broader discussion regarding whether it would like to develop a performance-based budgeting model for UC...
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Governor Proposes to Require UCLA to Participate in Certain Transfer Programs.
The administration proposes to place certain new requirements on the UCLA campus with the goal of facilitating community college students’ ability to transfer to the campus. Specifically, by 2025-26, the campus would need to (1) enact and maintain policies to participate in the TAG program as well as (2) create and maintain pathways for students transferring with an ADT. By March 31, 2024, the campus would need to submit a report to the Director of Finance indicating its commitment to meeting these requirements.
Governor Links Requirement With Campus’s Base Funding. The Governor does not provide a General Fund augmentation to UC for meeting the new transfer requirements at the Los Angeles campus, but he proposes trailer bill language making $20 million of that campus’s ongoing core funding contingent on it meeting the new requirements. Based upon the UC Office of the President’s determination, if the campus does not meet the new requirements, UC is to redirect the $20 million to the other nine UC campuses using its regular campus allocation model.
Assessment
UCLA Does Relatively Well on Enrolling and Graduating Transfer Students. In 2022-23, UCLA expects to enroll approximately 3,300 new transfer students—more than any other UC campus. (UC San Diego expects to enroll the next largest group of new transfer students, approximately 2,700.) Even more importantly, UCLA has the lowest ratio of freshmen to transfer students. The UCLA ratio is 1.53—much better than the systemwide target rate of two freshmen to one transfer student, as well as notably lower than any other campus. (UC Davis has the next best ratio, 1.90.)
Furthermore, transfer students at UCLA graduate at higher rates than the system overall. At UCLA, 74 percent of transfer students graduate within two years, increasing to 91 percent graduating within three years—compared to 63 percent and 85 percent, respectively, systemwide.
No Compelling Justification for Singling Out UCLA.
UCLA is one of four campuses (together with Davis, Irvine, and San Diego) that already meets the compact goal of having a freshman-to-transfer ratio of 2.0 or below. Together with its relatively good transfer and graduation rates, the campus does not show evidence of requiring special rules to promote better transfer access or outcomes. Moreover, UCLA is not anomalous in its participation in transfer programs.
Two other UC campuses do not participate in the TAG program, and no UC campus currently participates in the ADT program. UC Transfer Pathways, for which all nine UC general campuses participate, effectively are UC’s alternatives to CSU’s ADT pathways.
Governor’s Approach Sets Very Poor Policy Precedence.
The Governor proposes linking base funding to a very narrow set of outcomes at a single campus. Such an approach is particularly myopic. It also is of questionable design in terms of promoting appropriate incentives.
The Governor’s approach focuses solely on inputs (participating in certain transfer programs) rather than outcomes, which is counter to the basic notion of performance-based budgeting. Moreover, the Governor’s approach violates the basic tenet of fairness in that it potentially punishes a single campus for not doing certain things, while other campuses acting in the same ways would experience no state repercussions.
Recommendation
Recommend Rejecting Proposal and Considering More Holistic Approach. For all the reasons discussed above, we recommend the Legislature reject this proposal. We recommend the Legislature consider whether it would like to require all UC campuses to participate in the TAG and ADT programs. If the Legislature is interested in pursuing these new requirements, we encourage it to coordinate with UC on how best to navigate the associated transitions. In the case of both the TAG and ADT programs, affected UC campuses would need to make important changes to their admission requirements. We also recommend the Legislature have a broader conversation regarding whether it would like to develop a performance-based budgeting model for UC.
If the Legislature is interested in linking funding to performance, we recommend it focus on a set of key expectations and apply the model to all UC campuses. As with the funding model the state uses for CCC, the Legislature could consider having both access and outcome components embedded in the model, along with further incentives to serve underrepresented students.
Full publication at https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2023/4684/UC-Budget-021523.pdf.
An interesting question is where the UCLA proposal came from. I think Regent Cohen, who was at one time head of the Dept. of Finance, let the cat out of the bag. At the January Regents meeting, he spoke out in favor of the general idea.* So, it appears this proposal has been simmering at the Dept. of Finance for some time - perhaps not specifically focused on UCLA - and finally surfaced after he left. The Dept. of Finance is part of the executive branch under the governor, so there is a bit of governor vs. legislature at work here.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/01/watch-third-day-regents-meeting-of.html. See his comments in https://ia804705.us.archive.org/31/items/board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-1-19-23/Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20Committee%201-19-23.mp4 at about 2:47.20.
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