Incident in UC-Berkeley Housing

From the Mercury-News:

ALBANY — Arson and domestic violence investigations are underway after an apartment fire prompted evacuations at a UC Berkeley housing community Monday morning, authorities said. According to the University of California Police Department, officers were called at 10:41 a.m. to a home in the 700 block of Ohlone Avenue at the University Village apartment complex for a report of a family disturbance. Responding officers found two people, one adult and one minor, who were treated on the scene for minor injuries by the Albany Fire Department. During that initial response, officers learned one more resident, also an adult, was still inside, and tried to contact that person. But moments later, they smelled smoke coming from inside the apartment, and both Albany and Berkeley firefighters went into the apartment and rescued the resident.

Firefighters limited the fire to the room where it started, but not before three buildings at the complex — 105, 106 and 107 — were fully or partially evacuated as the fire was being extinguished. While the complex was given an “all clear” shortly after 2 p.m., the apartment where the fire occurred, and another unit that sustained water damage, were not immediately deemed safe for the residents to return.

Police said the UC fire marshal and a Cal Fire arson investigator are examining the fire, and that the person who was inside the apartment at the time of the 911 call was “being detained for domestic violence battery, pending a medical evaluation.” A specific cause of the fire, including whether it was intentionally set, was not disclosed by authorities Monday...

Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/29/fire-forces-evacuations-at-uc-berkeley-housing-in-albany/.

Yours truly could not find any follow-up stories on the incident. One news report gives 755 Ohlone Avenue as the address of the incident. See image below from Google maps.*

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*https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/fire-erupts-uc-berkeley-university-village-housing-complex/.

Still a concern - Part 2 (but on the other hand)

A couple of days ago, we ran a piece - "Still a concern" - about some students who were still concerned with COVID.* Whatever the merits of their concerns, UC seems to be moving in the opposite direction:

UC updating COVID-19 vaccination policy to systemwide opt-out program

Since the University’s COVID-19 vaccine policy was first issued in December 2020, UC has continued to review and adjust UC’s COVID-19 vaccination requirements as public health conditions have evolved. With the changes to federal and state public health guidance and the end of the federal Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023, UC is moving to a systemwide COVID-19 vaccination opt-out program for UC students and employees.

Under the revised policy that will be circulated for review, the University will require students and employees to either receive or affirmatively decline COVID-19 vaccination. It is expected that the revised policy will require covered individuals to be vaccinated consistent with applicable public health recommendations or opt out. Neither the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has yet made a recommendation on the frequency of vaccination...

The Policy on Vaccination Programs – With Updated Interim Amendments will be revised to reflect the new opt-out program and circulated through the policy review process...

Full UC news release at https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2023/05/uc-updating-covid-19-vaccination-policy-to-systemwide-opt-out-program.html.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/05/still-concern.html.

Pre-Retirement Webinars for Faculty & Staff in June

The UC Retirement System offers monthly webinars to help you plan for your retirement and answer your questions. There are three webinar presentations offered: Preparing for Retirement Retiree Health Benefits The UC Retirement Process – Step-by-Step

The Preparing for Retirement presentation will provide you with a broad overview of the retirement benefits offered by UC and will lay the foundation for the Retiree Health Benefits and UC Retirement Process presentations. To maximize your retirement planning process, it is recommended, but not required, that you attend the webinars in the order listed. Information on dates and times of webinars at: https://uc-rasc.cmail20.com/t/r-e-ttjilro-nlywkrthi-r/.

 

State Caste Discrimination Bill

The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran an article about caste discrimination, mentioning - without naming it - SB 403 which would explicitly ban it in California in all state-funded agencies (which would include UC).* SB 403 was passed overwhelmingly in the state senate on May 11 and is now pending at the state assembly. Gov. Newsom has not indicated a position on the bill, should it make it to his desk.

CSU has already enacted a ban on caste discrimination as has UC-Davis. The Council of UC Faculty Associations called on UC to adopt such a ban in March: https://cucfa.org/2023/03/call-for-including-caste-in-anti-discrimination-policy/.

From the bill:

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) “Caste” refers to an individual’s perceived position in a system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status. A system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status may be characterized by factors that may include, but are not limited to, inability or restricted ability to alter inherited status; socially enforced restrictions on marriage, private and public segregation, and discrimination; and social exclusion on the basis of perceived status.

(b) Caste discrimination is present across South Asia and the South Asian diaspora and is found in all diaspora, as well as around the world. While caste systems are strongly associated with South Asia, similar systems exist in regions including, but not limited to, South America, Asia, and Africa. Caste discrimination is also found across communities of religious practice...

Full text of bill at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB403.

It might be noted that the state currently has a ban on religious and other forms of discrimination. The bill states (Section 1[g]) that adding caste explicitly does not indicate that caste discrimination is not already illegal under that ban:

This act shall not be construed to mean that caste discrimination is not already prohibited under existing law, including by protections for religion, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, race, color, or any other protected characteristic under existing law.

====

*The article is at https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/casteless-utopia-california-religious-group-18124209.php.

Still a concern

From the Bruin: The Undergraduate Students Association Council proposed a resolution calling for UCLA to expand COVID-19 protection measures. The resolution – sponsored by Cultural Affairs Commissioner Alicia Verdugo and General Representative Eliana Sisman – calls for the reintroduction of a mask mandate, the continuation of vending machines for COVID-19 tests and the reinforcement of isolation guidelines. The university ended the mask mandate along with other COVID-19 protection measures in August.

For students who are at a high risk of infection or serious illness – such as those who are immunocompromised – the lack of masking on campus is particularly worrisome, said Sisman, a third-year sociology student. As a result, students who are at high risk may feel excluded from many spaces on campus, she added. Sisman said she thinks UCLA administration is ignoring the issue of COVID-19 and other issues facing the disabled community on campus. She added she felt the administration has not made satisfactory changes in response to student demands for hybrid access to class and better ventilation...

In an emailed statement, UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez said while there is currently no mask mandate at UCLA, the university strongly recommends masks. He added that the Infectious Diseases Management Team has not received any formal proposals from students to reinstate masking...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2023/05/25/usac-proposes-resolution-for-expansion-of-covid-19-protection-measures/.

Note: Under state law, the university continues to send out notices of campus COVID cases. Page 1 of the most recent multi-page listing is shown in the second image on this posting.

The trend is flat

We continue to monitor new weekly California claims for unemployment insurance for signs of the much-rumored coming recession. But the trend in such claims remains flat: little bumps up and down but, in the end, new claims remain at pre-pandemic boom levels. See the chart below. What is true for California is also true at the national level.

Despite concerns about Fed policy and rising interest rates, bank failures, tech layoffs, and stalled debt ceiling negotiations, the overall labor market - at least by this measure - has not been affected.

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

Blackstone REIT Keeps Paying Dividends in Bad PR

Although on this blog, we have focused on the risk/reward issue surrounding UC's sudden $4.5 billion pension and endowment investment in the Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust (BREIT), much of the bad PR that has resulted has centered on landlord-tenant issues. (If you are unfamiliar with the issue, put "BREIT" in the search option on this blog.) The bad PR shows no signs of going away. From CalMatters: [Excerpt from lengthy article.]

Gladys Balcazar says she can barely afford food after paying rent to her new landlord, Blackstone Inc, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. Balcazar, a 60-year-old janitor, lives with her 27-year-old son in a two-bedroom apartment in Imperial Beach. She supports her son, who has a disability, on a salary of $2,800 a month. 

Blackstone bought her building and 65 others in San Diego County in 2021, becoming one of the region’s biggest landlords and alarming lawmakers, affordable housing advocates and Balcazar. In March Balcazar’s monthly rent rose $200 to $2,000. “All of this has really depressed me because I don’t see a way out,” she said in Spanish. “I only earn enough to pay the rent, and after that there is nothing left.” Adding to her stress were large swaths of dark mold outside her building, on walls and window ledges, climbing to a roofline. A building manager said she would be responsible for mold remediation in her unit if she moves out, Balcazar said. “They said we’re responsible because we’re not ventilating the unit,” she said. 

When asked by CalMatters, Blackstone said in a written statement that Balcazar would not be responsible for mold remediation. “This is not something that would be required of our residents in any scenario,” the statement reads. “In the event where any issues like this are raised to management, the team addresses the situation as quickly as possible.”

Balcazar isn’t the only tenant getting the squeeze from Blackstone, advocates say. Two years ago, Blackstone bought a portfolio of 66 relatively low-rent apartment buildings in San Diego County from a well-known charitable foundation for $1.48 billion. This year, tenants of those 5,800 dwellings say they’re worried about rent increases, maintenance issues and potential evictions. And advocates and tenant groups have mounted an organized campaign, warning that thousands of previously affordable homes are becoming less affordable as Blackstone’s influence grows. Residents have protested a $4.5 billion investment in Blackstone by the University of California. They staged a public town hall with San Diego’s city council president, and they lobbied state lawmakers to increase renter protections.

Some lawmakers share their concerns. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego, said so many affordable units under one corporation’s control is cause for “major concern,” especially if the company is raising rents. “Unlike many of our mom-and-pop property owners, who themselves may be trying to stay afloat in today’s economy, Blackstone is a huge company, and should not be building its portfolio on the backs of working Californians,” Atkins said...

Jagdeep Singh Bachher, head of UC Investments, told the Board of Regents the decision to invest in a fund with an annual rate of return of 11% was a “capitalistic” one in the best interest of UC pensioners. “The job of this team, day in and day out, is to pick assets that are going to be accretive to future generations and future retirees,” Bachher said. “And to do that … I have to make some capitalistic decisions.” ...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/05/california-renters-fear/.

As we have pointed out in past postings, it is not clear how "capitalistic" the decision to invest was. BREIT was experiencing a run on the bank. Thus, its "guarantee" of a super-normal return for UC in exchange for a bailout raises questions of both the risk/return tradeoff and the legal risk. As we have pointed out, the Regents are the trustees of the pension and endowment funds. But only one seemed to raise this issue.*

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/03/hernandez-approaches-right-question-on.html.

Do you have a sense that with AI things are out of control?

A cautionary tale comes from the NY Times today - for academics and students - about what can happen when you leave it to artificial intelligence programs to do the heavy lifting:

The lawsuit began like so many others: A man named Roberto Mata sued the airline Avianca, saying he was injured when a metal serving cart struck his knee during a flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York. When Avianca asked a Manhattan federal judge to toss out the case, Mr. Mata’s lawyers vehemently objected, submitting a 10-page brief that cited more than half a dozen relevant court decisions. There was Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines and, of course, Varghese v. China Southern Airlines, with its learned discussion of federal law and “the tolling effect of the automatic stay on a statute of limitations.”

There was just one hitch: No one — not the airline’s lawyers, not even the judge himself — could find the decisions or the quotations cited and summarized in the brief. That was because ChatGPT had invented everything...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html.

What Do We Do Now?

UCLA paid $80 million for a defunct college campus in Palos Verdes, not easily accessible from Westwood. The purchase was ostensibly to accommodate increased enrollment. But the former college had only a few hundred students when it closed. 

From an email received yesterday:

To: Deans and Department Chairs

Dear Colleagues:

As UCLA continues to evolve and pioneer new ways to deliver high-quality education, we are delighted to invite you and your faculty to contribute to our understanding of the options for the academic program(s) for UCLA’s newest campus, UCLA South Bay.

The South Bay campus has been established through the acquisition of the former Marymount California University campus and facilities in Ranchos Palos Verdes and San Pedro. To consider optimal academic programmatic uses of the newly acquired spaces, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt and Academic Senate Chair Jessica Cattelino have charged the Joint Task Force on the Academic Mission of Campus Expansion to lead a process of ideation and consultation with the UCLA community.

In establishing a small, dynamic and focused campus, we have an opportunity to bring UCLA's distinctive academic excellence closer to diverse communities, to foster new collaborations and enhance our mission of public service.

To this end, we are seeking proposals for innovative academic programs that can be offered at UCLA South Bay. This presents an exceptional opportunity to reimagine the possibilities of how we teach and learn, and engage with our broader community, harnessing UCLA’s commitment to inclusivity, academic excellence and social impact. To learn more about the newly acquired campus, you can watch a brief introductory video or read an overview document (PDF).

We encourage you to share your creative and innovative ideas, outlining academic content, target student group(s) and the unique benefits of your proposed program. Please also include a general overview for potential implementation. Keep in mind that programs with a sustainability, climate change and environmental justice focus are of great interest.

We expect that submissions will not exceed two pages. If you so choose, please submit collaborative, multi-department or school-level proposals.

The deadline for submissions is Saturday, June 10, 2023. Please email your submission to: CampusExpansionTaskForce@conet.ucla.edu.

We strongly believe that our departments will bring forth pioneering academic programs that push the boundaries of traditional models of teaching and learning in higher education and address the evolving needs of our students and communities. Please help us chart a new path for UCLA’s academic growth that is both impactful and innovative.

Thank you for your time and partnership. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Sincerely,

Christina Christie

Co-Chair, Joint Task Force on the Academic Mission of UCLA Campus Expansion

Dean, School of Education and Information Studies

---

Andrea Kasko 

Co-Chair, Joint Task Force on the Academic Mission of UCLA Campus Expansion

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Academic Senate

Professor, Bioengineering

More Subway Art: Gala Porras-Kim

We continue our presentations - on this blog from time-to-time - about the artists who will decorate the subway station now under construction at Westwood and Wilshire.

Gala Porras-Kim is an interdisciplinary artist living in Los Angeles. Her work is made through the process of learning about the social and political contexts that influence how such intangible things as sounds, language, and history have been represented through methodologies in the fields of linguistics, history, and conservation... Porras-Kim’s work has been shown at Colombia’s AÚN 44 Salón Nacional de Artistas, Frac des Pays de la Loire, the Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice 2019 exhibition,​ the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Seoul Museum of Art, the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, and the Whitney Biennial. She received a Los Angeles Artadia Award and a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Los Angeles Grant in 2017, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in 2016, a Creative Capital Award and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award in 2015, and a California Community Foundation Fellowship in 2013. She received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and an MA in Latin American studies from UCLA.

Full biographical note at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/gala-porras-kim.

Source: https://camstl.org/exhibitions/gala-porras-kim/.

Racist Graffiti on UC President Drake's House

From NBC Bay Area: A hate crime investigation is underway after University of California officials say vandals painted racial slurs on the home of the UC president. The hate-filled graffiti has left a Berkeley neighborhood outraged and on edge... While the graffiti’s has now been removed, Berkeley police said vandals painted racial slurs, profanity and symbols on the home of UC President Michael Drake last week.

The UC office of the President said they’re working with investigators to find those responsible. They released the following statement: “The University of California condemns all hate crimes committed against members of our campus communities. We will continue doing everything possible to create a safe and welcoming university community for all.”

Neighbors said the house has been targeted before. They said someone recently smashed the windows prompting University officials to install a fence around the home. Residents said that they want Drake and his family to know they are welcome there and hope whoever’s responsible is caught.

Full story at https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/university-california-president-berkeley-home-vandalized/3238101/.

Student-Worker Strike Repercussions - Part 12 (Leg Assembly Statement)

According to an email circulated on May 25, the Legislative Assembly has endorsed the statement at the end of the letter from the UCLA Academic Senate Executive Board below 84 In Favor, 2 Against, 2 Abstained, and 19 were present but did not vote.

===

April 27, 2023

Legislative Assembly

Los Angeles Division

Re: Post-UAW Strike Concerns and Finances

Dear Members of the Legislative Assembly,

UCLA and the University of California are at a crossroads: PhD training models are transforming in real time, and as we address the funding and policy consequences of UAW academic worker contract settlements our core values and academic mission are at stake. The divisional Academic Senate Executive Board (EB) hereby conveys related letters from several Senate committees and invites the Legislative Assembly to endorse a statement found at the conclusion of this memorandum.

A letter from the Council on Planning and Budget (CPB) proposes a path forward as UCLA considers how to fund costs associated with the contract settlements: “CPB members expressed to [Interim Vice Chancellor Baird-James] their view that the campus should be pursuing targeted cuts to non-academic units in order to help fund the increased costs of graduate education.” Such targeted cuts, the Senate recognizes, require analysis, staff time, political prowess, and difficult decision-making, but our times call for prioritizing this effort alongside seeking increased public funding. The Academic Senate stands ready to support such efforts and appreciates the openness of the Interim Chief Financial Officer and the Office of Academic Planning and Budget to restoring the Academic Senate’s involvement in campus budgeting. As CPB put it, “The view of CPB is that it is only through a deeper and consistent involvement of faculty in campus budget processes that we will be able to influence resource allocation decisions for graduate student funding.”

The Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CODEI) “views the expected budgetary shortfalls as a threat to this university’s continuing support for the combination of excellence and inclusion that has been the hallmark of a UCLA education.” The committee “is concerned that passing the costs of these new contracts on to the already precarious finances of departments, research centers, and individual faculty stands to disproportionately impact URM graduate students and faculty. The Committee is also concerned about the threat posed to a central charge of the CODEI committee, which is to support the recruitment and retention of an increasingly diverse faculty.” CODEI described issues including undermining recent successes in diversifying UCLA’s PhD education, slowing the transition to Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) status, increasing burdens on faculty just as UCLA is making progress in diversifying our faculty, and harming undergraduate education as we aim to educate a diverse undergraduate student body.

The Council of Faculty Chairs summed up the concerns of many Senate faculty: “The financial responsibility for reinvesting in graduate education and postdoctoral training in the wake of the related contract settlements must not be borne disproportionately by academic units and faculty PIs.” Toward that end, “Every budget must be on the table, including administrative budgets, as our campus and UC system address cost increases.” Like CODEI, “members expressed concern that labor and graduate education are changing at a moment when UCLA has committed to graduate student and faculty diversity and becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).”

Faculty recognize that money does not grow on trees. However, it may be time to make hard decisions because, as these Academic Senate bodies have suggested, taking no major action leads to a default outcome of real cuts to academic units and research, cuts to our academic mission. Cutting non-academic programs may be painful, but there are real costs to choking the PhD pipeline, including to the lives of talented potential students. There are real costs to shrinking UCLA’s research profile, and there are real costs to losing faculty because of the ways that the faculty and the academic mission are being stretched and, it sometimes seems, sidelined. Faculty Rebuilding and Renewal is essential. For many colleagues, the experience of being a faculty member at UCLA has changed profoundly in recent times, as state funding per student has decreased, the student-to-faculty ratio increased, salaries lost ground, and, for many colleagues, demands grow and grow. As the Faculty Welfare Committee knows and a systemwide Academic Senate survey showed, burnout is real.

UCLA and the University of California face an existential challenge, one that requires a bold response that centers the academic mission and its core elements of research, teaching, and service. The Executive Board asks the Legislative Assembly to endorse the following statement:

The Legislative Assembly of UCLA’s divisional Academic Senate calls on our campus and the University of California to center the academic mission in our responses to the budgetary and policy challenges arising in the wake of contract settlements with UAW academic workers. Academic units, PhD training, and faculty research must not be undermined, either by design or by default. The faculty stand ready to support efforts to increase public funding in support of our academic mission, and we urge the Administration to take bold approaches to meeting funding needs by making targeted cuts to administrative budgets and non-academic programs rather than from academic budgets. Nothing less than the future of education at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels, and higher education more generally, is at stake. Should we make the wrong choices now, there will be dire consequences in the future for the state’s social, intellectual, and economic vibrancy.

Sincerely,

Jessica Cattelino

Chair

UCLA Academic Senate

===

Source: UCLA Academic Senate, Data Management, Meeting of May 18, pp. 692-693. Files available to Senate members via Senate website. 

The Regents' Special Committee on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship Will Meet on June 2, 2023

The agenda for the June 2nd meeting of the Regents' Special Committee on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship is now available online:

Agenda: SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON INNOVATION TRANSFER AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Date: June 2, 2023

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Location: Clark Kerr Campus, Berkeley Campus

Teleconference meeting conducted in accordance with California Government Code §§11133

Agenda – Open Session

Public Comment Period (30 minutes)

Action: Approval of the Minutes of the Meetings of January 27, February 16, and April 6, 2023

S1 Discussion: Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley

S2 Discussion: Entrepreneurship Council Update

S3 Discussion: Recognition Plan [Unclear what this item entails]

S4 Discussion: Speaker Series: UC Berkeley Professor Ana Claudia Arias

S5 Discussion: Measuring the Economic and Societal Impacts of UC Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship – Part II

S6 Discussion: Updates: (1) Amgen v. Sanofi* and (2) Federal Grant Guidelines – Department of Energy-Funded Technologies

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/june23/innovation.pdf.

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*This U.S. Supreme Court case involved patent rights which Amgen recently lost. From the Court's opinion:

This case concerns patents covering antibodies engineered by scientists that help reduce levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, sometimes called bad cholesterol because it can lead to cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and strokes... After Amgen obtained the 2014 patents, it sued Sanofi for infringement. Sanofi replied that it was not liable to Amgen for infringement because Amgen’s relevant claims were invalid under the Patent Act’s “enablement” requirement. That provision requires a patent applicant to describe the invention “in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art . . . to make and use the [invention].” ... Held: The courts below correctly concluded that Amgen failed “to enable any person skilled in the art . . . to make and use the [invention]” as defined by the relevant claims...

Full opinion at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-757_k5g1.pdf.

I guess they paid the bill

We noted on Monday and again on Wednesday that the Daily Bruin's website www.dailybruin.com was producing an error message. We wondered if the Bruin hadn't paid its light bill.*

Well, the website is now up again, so our best guess is that it was paid, absent any other explanation. (None was provided on the website.)

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/05/did-someone-not-pay-light-bill-at-bruin.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/05/no-bruin.html.

Watch the Regents Meeting of May 18, 2023

In this post, we finish our summarizing of last week's Regents meetings. The May 18th session began with public comments at a meeting of the full board. Topics included the Hawaiian telescope, diverse enrollment, LSAT staff shortages, disability resources, undocumented student hiring, affordable textbooks, Munger Hall at UC-Santa Barbara, Israel-Palestine conflict, trans students, Blackrock and Blackstone, soda contracts, classes online during emergencies, the transfer program, post-strike cutbacks, UC-Berkeley student safety, and gun investment policy.

Afterwards, a committee to study the hiring of undocumented students was set up. The report of the Task Force on Institutional Growth which dealt with general UC goals through 2050 was endorsed. The report can be found at:

https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may23/b3attach1.pdf.

It included goals under the following five headings:

(1) Reimagine how and where UC happens

(2) Reflect the diversity of California

(3) Achieve equitable student success

(4) Advance UC’s academic and research excellence

(5) Apply UC research and thought leadership to California’s biggest challenges.

The Governance Committee recommendations (postponed from the prior day) included some executive matters and creation of a committee to deal with athletics. The full board then approved the various committee reports and approved officers and committee members for the coming year. Finally, a joint meeting of Academic and Student Affairs and Finance and Capital Strategies focused mainly on the establishment of a nonprofit entity dealing with the Central Valley food system and other matters.

We continue to preserve videos of the various Regents sessions indefinitely since the Regents have no specified policy concerning retention of their videos online.

Videos of the May 18th meeting are at:

https://archive.org/details/board-5-18-23.

The morning Board session is at:

https://ia802606.us.archive.org/8/items/board-5-18-23/Board%205-18-23.mp4.

Governance, the joint meeting of Academic and Student Affairs and Finance and Capital Strategies, and the afternoon full Board is at:

https://ia802606.us.archive.org/8/items/board-5-18-23/Governance%2C%20Joint%20Meeting_%20Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20%26%20Finance%20and%20Capital%20Strategies%2C%20Board%205-18-23.mp4.

Did someone not pay the light bill at the Bruin?

We noted on Monday that the Daily Bruin website produced an error message since at least Sunday. 

Now it's Wednesday and the same error message appears. 

Did someone forget to pay the light bill?

Just wondering...

 

LAO Cautions the Legislature

The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has issued a report on the governor's May Revise state budget for 2023-24. Its general theme is that the outyears don't look good and, therefore, there should be reductions in spending below what the governor has proposed.

It might be noted that the revenue side of the budget in California is heavily driven by the direction of the overall economy and movements in financial markets. Economic forecasting of the general economy is difficult and financial markets are erratic. That's why, for example, the UCLA Anderson Forecast has been offering two scenarios - recession and no recession - rather than a firm single forecast. (We'll see if the Forecast continues this practice when it issues its next report in June.)

As blog readers will know, there was some hope expressed at last week's Regents meetings that the legislature might provide some additional funds to UC at the margin. If the legislature follows the advice of the LAO, such extras would be unlikely to be forthcoming.

You can read the LAO report at:

https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2023/4772/Multiyear-Budget-Outlook-052323.pdf.

Rankings, Rankings

As blog readers will know, there has been a brouhaha about US News & World Report rankings of law schools and med schools, with some of the schools refusing to participate. The resulting fuss led to US News making some changes in methodology. Apparently, to preempt a similar episode with regard to its college rankings, US News announced changes in methodology for that set (which has yet to appear):

The 2024 Best Colleges methodology will place greater emphasis on outcomes for graduating college students. Updates will include:

• Increased weighting on a schools' success in graduating students from different backgrounds; and
• Removing the following factors as ranking indicators: alumni giving, faculty with terminal degree, class size and high school standing; such factors will be included in school profiles and comparison tools for students.

Full release at https://www.usnews.com/info/blogs/press-room/articles/2023-05-19/u-s-news-announces-survey-distribution-date-and-outcomes-focused-updates-to-methodology-for-upcoming-best-colleges-rankings.

The last time the rankings were released (2021), Berkeley and UCLA tied for #20. By the way, US News is not all that keen on California as a state, ranking it #33 in its "best states" listing, with affordability - a component of "opportunity" - being the main drag:

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings.

(We haven't heard from the governor about the state's rank.)

Interesting Podcast

If watching Regents meetings - see our previous post - is not your thing, you might be interested in a podcast from the New York Times ("The Daily" series: When the Culture Wars Came for NASA. If you play the podcast audio towards its conclusion, the NASA issue spills over into higher education institutions (George Mason University, Florida Institute of Technology, U of New Hampshire). 

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful ever made, has revolutionized the way we see the universe. The name was chosen for James E. Webb, a NASA administrator during the 1960s. But when doubts about his background emerged, the telescope’s name turned into a fight over homophobia.

The audio can be found at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/james-webb-telescope-nasa.html.

If you prefer to read it rather than listen, the transcript is at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/james-webb-telescope-nasa.html?showTranscript=1.

There is a somewhat truncated version in the NY Times at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/james-webb-telescope-gay-rights.html.

Watch the Regents Afternoon Meetings of May 17, 2023

We continue our review of last week's Regents meetings, this time with the afternoon of May 17. The open Governance Committee meeting for this afternoon segment was postponed until the next day.

At Finance and Capital Strategies, preliminary plan funding was approved for a lab/research facility at UC-Santa Cruz. The facility it will replace was said to fall short in its seismic rating but will continue to be used in the transition. Faculty housing was approved for UC-Irvine.

The UCOP budget for 2023-24, a total of $1.2 billion, was discussed along with the overall UC budget in the governor's May Revise. As some blog readers will recall, there was a period in which the legislature separately appropriated for UCOP. But currently, the UCOP budget is part of the overall appropriation and then worked out with the campuses regarding systemwide services. UCOP's budget is proposed to increase by 3.9% including (nonunion) staff pay increases of 4.6%. A $10 million increase is designated for "pension administration," said to be for a combination of computer-related costs and staffing. There were concerns expressed by Regent Chu about cybersecurity. On the more general UC budget, Regent Leib and others indicated a wish to be able to have involvement in budget priorities before this late date. It was noted that there may be some marginal additions to the budget from the legislature. The fact that some projects are to be debt-funded with debt service financed by the state was said to benefit UC because the debt service will be rolled into the core funding to which the governor's 5%/year is applied. Finally, Regent Cohen indicated that the issue of increased funding for disabled students - the subject of earlier public comments - will be taken up in July.

At Academic and Students Affairs, tuition, etc., reviews of various graduate programs were taken up with representatives of various programs. Berkeley Engineering was grilled about low female and underrepresented enrollments. Various outreach plans were put forward. On the other hand, Berkeley got approval of its new College of Data Science without controversy.

The process of transfers from community colleges to UC was discussed. As noted in a prior post, the governor's specific targeting of UCLA remains as part of the May Revise. Also discussed was a UC Extension program whereby college dropouts - now termed "stop-outs" - were enabled to complete the credits needed for their BA degrees. Finally, information was presented on the UC abroad programs which essentially died during the peak of the pandemic but have now recovered.

The overall link to the afternoon of May 17 can be found at:

https://archive.org/details/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-5-17-23-pm.

Finance and Capital Strategies is at:

https://ia802601.us.archive.org/8/items/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-5-17-23-pm/Finance%20and%20Capital%20Strategies%20Committee%205-17-23PM.mp4.

Academic and Student Affairs is at:

https://ia902601.us.archive.org/8/items/academic-and-student-affairs-committee-5-17-23-pm/Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20Committee%205-17-23PM.mp4.

No Bruin

 

Since at least Sunday, the error message above is what you get on the Daily Bruin's website. Different devices and browsers produce the same error.

Watch the Regents Meetings of the Morning of May 17, 2023

The full board met on the morning of May 17, first to hear public comments. Comments included the topics of undocumented student hiring, staff shortages, textbook costs, staff minimum pay, Blackstone, student rape tests, pathway for transfer students, gun investments, lecturer layoffs, management bullying behavior against staff, resources for disabled students, debt collection against students, Hawaiian telescope, and student safety at UC-Berkeley. A demonstration followed focused on minimum pay for staff leading to the room being cleared.

Regent chair Leib made mainly ceremonial remarks and took note of the later agenda item endorsing a bond, and of the establishment of a Special Committee on Athletics. He also mentioned the recent stabbing attacks at UC-Davis.

President Drake, as predicted, gave thanks to the governor for his proposed May Revise budget allocation for UC. And faculty representative Cochran spoke about the lingering effects of the pandemic on students and faculty.

Various committee meetings followed. 

The Health Services Committee, in a 3-minute open session, approved various executive pay recommendations. 

Public Engagement and Development heard a lengthy presentation on citris research at UC-Riverside. The committee endorsed SB 28 which would put a bond measure on the ballot that would benefit UC along with other elements of education. The May Revise budget proposal of the governor was reviewed. It was noted that if revenues fell short of expectations, there could be reductions through budget triggers or other revisions. It was said that the January proposal's transfer requirements for UCLA remain in the May Revise (although our preliminary review on this blog could not find reference to them.) Various bills in the legislature were reviewed including SB 295 that would allow UC to regulate e-scooters and the like on campus and AB 1307 which removes noise from CEQA reviews, thereby addressing the People's Park delay at UC-Berkeley.

At Compliance and Audit, it was noted that several campuses were falling short of their mandatory training requirements, namely UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and UC-Santa Barbara. Some explanations were that people who were about to leave employment didn't get trained, UCPath issues, and the presence of short-time temporary employees. However, the committee apparently plans to call the chancellors from the three campuses on the carpet at future meetings to explain their training issues. President Drake said he would like to see research on whether the various trainings in fact change behavior. There was also discussion of UC contracting out policies, pay standards for contractors, and whether employees of contractors accept UC employment when it is offered. The issue was raise of whether small minority contractors were not bidding on UC contracts due to complex compliance rules. It was said that most contracting out - especially in health services - was because of labor shortages, i.e., difficulties in hiring employees by UC directly. Regent Pérez suggested that if contractor employees were turning down offers of direct hiring by UC, it could be because of inadequate pay.

The full morning program is at:

https://archive.org/details/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-5-17-23-am.

The full board and Compliance and Audit are at:

https://ia601600.us.archive.org/19/items/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-5-17-23-am/Board%2C%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%20Committee%205-17-23AM.mp4.

Health Services is at:

https://ia801600.us.archive.org/19/items/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-5-17-23-am/Health%20Services%20Committee%205-17-23AM.mp4.

Public Engagement and Development is at:

https://ia601600.us.archive.org/19/items/board-compliance-and-audit-committee-5-17-23-am/Public%20Engagement%20and%20Development%20Committee%205-17-23AM.mp4.

(Re)Dividing the Athletic Revenue Pie - Part 3

Yesterday, we posted about a California bill that would change student-athletes into professionals with revenue sharing. Today, we note a case before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that would make student-athletes into employees of private colleges and universities. UC, as a public-sector entity - would not be directly affected. However, California labor law for the public sector in many respects follows federal law. The state's PERB would likely follow the NLRB precedent, assuming the NLRB ultimately rules student-athletes to be employees.

From Politico: The University of Southern California, a major sports conference and the governing body of big-time collegiate athletics are violating federal labor law by restricting athletes’ social media activity, the National Labor Relations Board alleged on Thursday. An NLRB official in Los Angeles issued a complaint against USC, the Pac-12 Conference and the National Collegiate Athletics Association in a case that could clear the way to unionization — at least at private universities that are subject to National Labor Relations Act. The board wants an administrative law judge to order the NCAA, USC and Pac-12 to “cease and desist from misclassifying” players as student-athletes and instead label them as employees.

The NLRB’s complaint alleges the three entities maintained illegal “handbook rules” that violate federal statute, and misclassify both scholarship and walk-on athletes in football and basketball as non-employees, thereby denying them their right to unionize. The labor board specifically targeted USC social media and interview policies that require athletes to “be positive,” use private posts, and “don’t do anything to embarrass yourself, the team, your family or the University.” ...

An NLRB victory would further upend a college sports landscape that is already undergoing significant changes, though the ramifications for public universities are somewhat uncertain. Public schools would remain subject to the laws of their respective states, as opposed to federal law, though if the NLRB judge upholds the joint employer designation then schools affiliated with the NCAA or conferences like the Pac-12 could also face similar action...

Further complicating matters, USC is planning to leave the conference in 2024 along with rival UCLA. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Nov. 7 in Los Angeles, according to the NLRB complaint.

Full story at https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/18/nlrb-usc-ncaa-athletes-rights-00097794.

Sorry, nothing happened

Our weekly search for signs of recession in the latest data on California weekly claims for  unemployment insurance continues to reveal nothing. No sign has appeared. Claims continue at pre-pandemic (boom) levels:

But we will persevere in our quest.

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

Pedestrian Area

From the Bruin: The Westwood Village Improvement Association received permits from the city of Los Angeles to implement the Broxton Plaza Project, a plan to transform part of Broxton Avenue into a pedestrian-only walkway by summer.

Broxton Plaza is a collaborative project between the WVIA and the LA Department of Transportation as part of LADOT’s People St Program, which aims to improve the safety and security of neighborhoods while also creating aesthetic and vibrant public spaces. According to the program’s website, communities seeking to enhance their outdoor atmosphere and add liveliness to their public spaces can apply to have the city implement parklets, plazas, colorful intersections and extended bike parking.

The pedestrian-only area will be between Weyburn and Kinross avenues in Westwood...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2023/05/19/westwood-village-improvement-association-obtains-permit-for-broxton-plaza-project.

(Re)Dividing the Athletic Revenue Pie - Part 2

Faithful blog readers will recall our posting in January about AB 252, a bill in the state assembly that would give student-athletes a share in the revenue they generate.* At present, thanks in part to the Supreme Court, student-athletes can cash in on their Name-Image-Likeness (NIL). But AB 252 would essentially convert them, at least those players in major revenue sports, into commissioned professionals. Obviously, such a shift would be a Big Deal for college athletics.

The bill - The College Athlete Protection Act - was amended this past Thursday and survived a critical hurdle, passing in the Appropriations Committee. It now goes to the full assembly and would have to pass by June 2 to move to the state senate.

References: https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/16/pac-12-economic-threat-new-california-legislation-attempts-to-redirect-operating-revenue-to-athletes/.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/01/redividing-athletic-revenue-pie.html; https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/ca/2023-2024/bills/CAB00028290/.

Diversity Lawsuit

From Higher Ed Dive:

A former University of Toronto psychology professor sued the University of California system Thursday over its use of diversity statements in its hiring process. These statements typically detail job applicants’ commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, and how they have furthered these ideals in their careers. But the ex-professor, J.D. Haltigan, in court documents alleged they are “loyalty oaths,” likening them to the ones that proliferated during the Cold War.

A UC spokesperson declined to comment Thursday, saying the system has not yet been served with the lawsuit.

Dive Insight:

Conservatives lawmakers across the U.S. have taken aim at a range of colleges’ DEI efforts, with some going so far as to ban them altogether. These legislative campaigns have targeted diversity statements. But other groups have snubbed them, too. The Idaho State Board of Education recently banned four-year public colleges from using DEI statements in hiring. And last year, an academic freedom group representing hundreds of current and former faculty members publicly urged colleges to drop the statements.

Critics like Haltigan argue the statements force job applicants to pledge to progressive views. His lawsuit, alleging constitutional violations, is being backed by a conservative nonprofit, the Pacific Legal Foundation. Specifically, he is suing UC President Michael Drake, as well as officials at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where Haltigan applied for a job...

Full story at https://www.highereddive.com/news/former-professor-sues-university-of-california-system-over-diversity-statem/650705/.

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Lawsuit at https://pacificlegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2023-05-18-JD-Haltigan-v-michael-drake-stamped-Complaint.pdf.

Regents Working Group to Study UC Hiring of Undocumented Students

The Regents yesterday responded to calls for UC to employ undocumented students by creating a committee - a working group - to study the legalities of doing so. See below. (We will be reviewing the May 18 and 19 Regents meetings as time permits. As always, we have preserved recordings of the meetings indefinitely on the Internet Archive since the Regents have no policy on the duration of their preservation.)

UC statement from President Michael V. Drake, M.D., and Board of Regents Chair Richard Leib

UC Office of the President, May 18, 2023

University of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D., and Board of Regents Chair Richard Leib today (May 18) issued the following statement on student employment opportunities:

The University is committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of their immigration status, can pursue and attain a world-class UC education. This should include providing enriching student employment opportunities to all students. After an in-depth discussion, consistent with the adopted policy statement, the Board of Regents appointed a Regents working group that, by the end of November of this year, will consider relevant issues and develop an implementation plan and a legal strategy. The working group will determine whether, how and when to implement next steps.

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-statement-president-michael-v-drake-md-and-board-regents-chair-richard-leib.

The Regents could have just gone ahead and green-lighted the hiring. Since they did not do so, we can infer that in their closed discussion of this issue, some potential legal obstacles were presented by the general counsel. When in doubt, create a committee.

AI Policy at UCLA: No TurnitIn Detector - Part 2

In a prior post, we noted that official UCLA policy is not to use TurnitIn's supposed detector of AI-generated content in student writing.* The Academic Senate indicated that instructors should announce that students shouldn't submit AI-generated content, but it did not get into how such work might be detected.**

While an essay that is grammatically perfect but contains factual errors is suggestive of AI content generation, use of AI can't be proved.

Inside Higher Ed today has a story about an instructor at another university who inputted student papers into chatGPT and asked it if the essays were AI-generated. He then sanctioned many students who denied using AI.*** The problem with this method is that chatGPT, just as it is capable of making errors or seeming to make stuff up, cannot be relied on as an AI detector.

Yesterday we posted a video from a segment of a Regents meeting on AI in which a Berkeley expert slammed those telling sci-fi stories about AI potentially becoming sentient and taking over the world.**** However, apart from saying that the usual way of teaching writing was no longer going to work, his suggestion for dealing with that development was limited. He suggested presenting students with an AI-generated essay and asking them to critique it. It's not clear that such an approach is a full substitute for learning basic writing skills. The sad fact is that other than telling students not to submit AI-generated content, we don't yet have a simple answer to the problem.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/04/ai-policy-at-ucla-no-turnitin-detector.html.

**https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/03/ucla-senate-guidelines-regarding-ai.html.

***https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/19/professor-students-chatgpt-told-me-fail-you.

****If you didn't see it in our earlier post, here it is again:

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

People's Park Case to State Supreme Court

From the San Francisco Chronicle: The state Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to consider UC Berkeley’s plan to take over the historic People’s Park and build housing there for students and the homeless, setting aside a lower-court ruling that would have required the university to consider alternative housing sites. UC Berkeley now provides housing for only 23% of its students, the lowest rate in the UC system, and says the new development would help to meet that need. Its $312 million project would build housing in the park for 1,111 students in a 17-story, 148-unit building.

A separate building would contain 125 beds, with either half or all going to homeless people, depending on financing. During construction, the university says, it would provide shelter for about four dozen unhoused people who now sleep at the park. More than half of the 2.8 acres would remain open space, with a new grove of trees. But neighborhood groups want to preserve the park and say the university has less-disruptive options to build housing elsewhere. In February, the state’s First District Court of Appeal said UC Berkeley had failed to consider those options in its legally required environmental review of the project.

In a 3-0 ruling, Justice Gordon Burns said the university’s own development plan had identified several other nearby properties as potential housing locations, but the UC Regents refused to assess alternative locations or provide any “valid reason” for that decision. Burns also said the environmental report “failed to analyze potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential areas near the campus” or propose any measures to reduce the noise. He said the court was not requiring UC Berkeley to abandon the housing project, but instead to conduct a new study and see if alternatives exist that would minimize harmful impacts.

On Wednesday, the state’s high court voted unanimously to hold a hearing on UC Berkeley’s appeal, an action that set aside the appeals court’s mandate to conduct a new review and adequately consider alternatives before going ahead with the project. The court denied review of a separate appeal by neighborhood opponents of the plan arguing that the university should also be required to consider addressing its housing shortage by limiting enrollment...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/supreme-court-peoples-park-housing-18105284.php.

Note: That even if UC wins at the state supreme court, it will still have to deal with the inevitable demonstrations that brought things to a halt when construction was attempted. The situation could end up comparable to the Hawaiian telescope (TMT) situation in which the project got a legal go-ahead but could not proceed because authorities did not want to remove demonstrators blocking the project.

You Can Bet Other UC Chancellors Are Paying Attention

UC-Berkeley gets front-page PR in LA where the Regents are meeting this week:

From the LA Times: ...UC Berkeley’s faculty and students are marshaling the vast power of data science across myriad fields to address tough problems. And now the university is set to accelerate those efforts with a new college, its first in more than 50 years — and is providing free curriculum to help spread the gospel of data science to California community colleges, California State University and institutions across the nation and world. 

As data floods society faster than ever before, demand has surged for specialists who can organize and analyze it with coding skills, computing prowess and creative thinking. To meet the “insatiable demand,” as university officials put it, UC Berkeley will open a College of Computing, Data Science and Society. 

The University of California Board of Regents is expected to approve the plan Thursday, following approval by its Academic and Student Affairs Committee on Wednesday. A new college building is scheduled to open during the 2025-26 academic year and will house the data science major, first offered five years ago, with other degree programs in computer science, statistics, computational biology and computational precision health. Some of the programs will be run jointly with the Berkeley College of Engineering and UC San Francisco. UC Berkeley says no new state funds will be required; the campus has raised private funds for 14 new faculty positions and about $330 million so far in gifts for the new building...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-18/uc-berkeley-spreads-the-gospel-of-data-science-with-new-college-free-curriculum.

Watch the Regents' Investments Committee of May 16, 2023 (and its interesting deflections)

We noted that the material provided in advance to the Regents' Investment Committee included - as it always does - rates of return over various durations on the pension, endowment, and other funds. In our posting of May 11th, we noted substandard investment returns were being reported. This is what we said:

...The pension fund and the endowment fund have different mixes of assets in their portfolios, each mix presumably assumed to be appropriate for the two purposes. According to the table available in the detailed agenda, the pension return is below the benchmark for all durations shown up through the 5 years ending March 31.

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may23/i2.pdf (p. 3).

The returns for the endowment are below benchmark for durations through 3 years...  Will any Regents ask questions about the below-benchmark returns? (Boldface added)

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Source: https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/05/investment-performance-above-or-below.html.

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Short answer to the question above: No. 

So what did happen at the meeting? In public comments, there were remarks on staff burnout and pay, staff shortages, hiring undocumented students, Blackrock and Blackstone, the student-worker strike, affordable student housing, antisemitism, student food needs, Hawaiian telescope, UC fossil fuels emissions, climate change, and disabled student funding.

The official program then opened with an approval of a policy change allowing somewhat longer duration investments in the working capital funds. Lots of interesting material was presented about diversity in the investments industry, medical advances at Irvine, and artificial intelligence. In the midst of these interesting presentations, there was a brief review of investments performance. However, the charts that were put on the screen showed absolute amounts in the portfolio over time, but not the benchmarks. In principle, the committee members had the pre-meeting materials and could have asked about the below-benchmark returns. No one did. 

Again, we point to the role of the Regents as trustees of the pension and endowment. Isn't the prime function of this committee to ask critical questions about the earnings of those funds? There is nothing wrong with taking up topics de jour such as artificial intelligence. But such topics should not be deflections from the prime function. Surely in a meeting that ran over three hours, the committee members should have ample time to ask the critical questions.

You can see the meeting at:

https://archive.org/details/investments-committee_202305.

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And by the way, the segment on artificial intelligence was interesting. Below is an excerpt. The artificial intelligence (AI) presentation was by UC-Berkeley Professor Michael Jordan. In response to a question by Regent Hernandez, Jordan criticized the sci-fi hyping of AI and slammed Geoffrey Hinton (formerly of Google), Elon Musk, and Sam Altman as misrepresenting or not understanding the technology.

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