Our weekly look at new California weekly claims for unemployment insurance continues to show no sign of recession. But let's wait for the fall UCLA Anderson Forecast to see what the folks there have to say. As blog readers will know, recent forecasts have provided for scenarios - with recession and without - without calling it either way.
As always, the latest claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block spoke at the conference and described UCLA's admission policies after the ban on affirmative action under California's Prop 209 in 1996. He did not reference the prior ban on affirmative action by the UC Regents which effectively led to Prop 209.*
You can see his remarks at the link below:
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*You can see the Regents' action in 1995 at the link below:
Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBB1vM6RNZA.
After years of pandemic declines, enrollment at California’s community colleges may finally be starting to rebound in a significant way. Several colleges across the state, from San Diego to San Jose, are reporting that their enrollments are up by double digit percentages this fall. Statewide data for the fall isn’t yet available, but enrollment in the spring was up 8% across the system of 116 colleges, according to a memo prepared by the state chancellor’s office. College officials cited the expansion of dual enrollment and more interest in career-focused programs as being among the main drivers of the enrollment growth.
“In conversations with CEOs for fall 2023, I’m hearing good news, positive trends. And in fact, many of the districts are telling me that they’re seeing double-digit enrollment growth,” Sonya Christian, the statewide chancellor for the system, told the system’s board of governors Tuesday.
Given that, the memo prepared by the chancellor’s office says the system now has “a meaningful positive enrollment outlook for the first time in over five years.”
Still, enrollment across the system as of the spring was down 16% compared to pre-pandemic levels. And although the colleges are seeing big increases in dual enrollment and more enrollments from some older students, other students have not returned. Among students between the ages of 20 and 24, enrollment was down 27% as of the spring compared with pre-Covid levels. It was also down 22% among students between the ages of 25 and 34...
Full story at https://edsource.org/2023/why-enrollment-is-rebounding-at-californias-community-colleges/697875.
Note that older students and those pursuing vocational objectives are unlikely to be part of the transfer base.
You can find the story behind the cubby holes above at https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/rent-bed-pods-downtown-techies-18388110.php.
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/if-we-cant-shrink-room-maybe-we-could.html.
The morning of Sept. 20 began with a meeting of the full board to hear public comments. Comments covered climate change issues at UC, complaints concerning a student dismissal, union issues, pay issues, Black student issues, UC employment of undocumented students, graduate student financial issues, disciplinary actions taken againt graduate students in the post-strike period at UC-San Diego, a science project at UC-San Diego, child care facilities, a sports connection between UC-Merced and New University in Florida, anti-semitism, handling of grievances related to the student-worker contract settlement, and the current hotel strike. Regent Pérez interjected in response to the last issue that he is available for mediation of that dispute. After a demonstration, the room was cleared.
After that point, President Drake gave a review for the new academic year. Regent Pérez asked that public comments be resumed because some speakers had been excluded due to unexplained confusion about admission to the conference room. The comments - about the hotel strike - were then heard.
At Finance and Capital Strategies, project requests were reviewed and accepted except for a proposed UCLA. We have previously blogged about that issue which involved a proposal for a building with small room and three-in-a-room. After various objections were raised, the issue was deferred to the next day.*
Academic and Student Affairs reviewed various programs including Climate Action, preparation of pre-K-12 teachers, and UC-assisted college level courses available in some high schools. There was also a budget preview with more to be presented in November.
As always, we preserve recordings of Regents sessions since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention. Below are links to the morning sessions of Sept. 20:
Board and Finance and Capital Strategies:
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Academic and Student Affairs:
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General web page for morning session:
https://archive.org/details/regents-board-finance-committee-9-20-23
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*See https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/if-we-cant-shrink-room-maybe-we-could.html.
The looming government shutdown could wreak havoc on the U.S. Education Department’s jam-packed fall plans. Student loan payments resume Sunday—the day after funding for the government will run out unless Congress acts this week—and the agency is set to start negotiations over a new plan for student loan forgiveness in a few weeks. Department staff members are also working to issue final rules on Title IX and gainful employment. Plus, a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is set to launch in December.
All this means that an October shutdown could cause a mess for the agency, depending on how long the funding lapse persists, though student loan payments will restart regardless of whether the government stays open. Higher education industry groups and think tanks are expecting the department to issue the gainful-employment rule this week to beat the shutdown, though the negotiated rule-making sessions and some planned regulatory actions would likely be put on hold...
The specifics of the shutdown contingency plan haven’t been released, but under the department’s recent shutdown plan from September 2021, about 90 percent of its staff would have been furloughed. A skeleton crew would remain to maintain the student loan program...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2023/09/27/how-shutdown-could-affect-education-department-and.
Medicare Advantage plans effectively are supplanting traditional Medicare with wraparound private insurance to cover things that Medicare doesn't or that still leave significant expenses for patients. They promise enrollees that they will provide everything that Medicare does along with extras such a gym memberships.
As the chart shows, the rapid growth of Medicare Advantage has continued regardless of which party is in control of Congress or the presidency.
Why has Medicare Advantage grown so fast, given that it is targeted to older and disabled people who are most likely to have big medical expenses? Why do private insurance carriers find it so attractive that they actively compete for new clients? Medicare pays the private carriers a risk-adjusted premium for each enrollee. Experts who have looked at this matter believe the federal government is overpaying the carriers for the risks and expenses they take over. They also have narrower networks of health providers than the traditional arrangement does. As a result, they are typically cheaper than the traditional Medicare plus wraparound options.
Some of the cheapness of Medicare Advantage plans may also arise from low-balling to attract a larger market share.
As blog readers may know, at one point there seemed to be a push at UCOP to put all retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan to reduce costs. This effort was halted by resistance. But Medicare Advantage is offered as the cheapest option to UC retirees.
Unfortunately, the party may be ending as relatively few carriers dominate the market and now begin to clash with healthcare providers over rates the carriers will pay for services. The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that a major provider in that area is now refusing to continue servicing Medicare Advantage patients:
Scripps Health confirmed Tuesday that its clinic and coastal medical groups — which have been the provider’s most popular options for many patients — will stop participating in Medicare Advantage plans starting Jan. 1, 2024. The move, which first surfaced publicly in early August, has been estimated to affect about 32,000 San Diego County seniors enrolled in a range of plans from organizations such as SCAN, Anthem, Alignment, MediBlue, Blue Shield, Health Net and United Healthcare. Rumored for months, Chris Van Gorder, Scripps’ chief executive officer, confirmed the decision Tuesday. This, the executive said, is not a negotiating tactic...
Of course, it is possible that despite the CEO's remarks, it is a negotiating tactic and a deal will be struck. Even so, if it isn't struck soon, open enrollment will be a problem since you can't offer an option that isn't available. Anyone choosing Medicare Advantage and relies on Scripps Health currently will not know whether that relationship will be available in 2024.
We have word that similar issues, i.e., health providers refusing Medicare Advantage, may be occurring in other areas of California. In short, the Medicare Advantage party may be ending for UC retirees, dependents, and survivors.
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Source of chart: https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/medicare-advantage-in-2023-enrollment-update-and-key-trends/.
The Daily Bruin takes note in a recent editorial of the August announcement by Chancellor Block that he would be stepping down at the end of this academic year. It starts in a lauditory tone, then provides a laundry list of things the outgoing chancellor should do in the coming year, and ends on a bit of a sour note. You can read it all at:
Well, as they say:
From Monday's LA Times:
...More and more of California’s 116 community colleges — struggling to remake themselves under pressure from declining enrollment — are venturing into higher education territory traditionally reserved for four-year institutions, offering bachelor’s degrees that lead to careers in high-demand fields: dental hygiene, bio-manufacturing, automotive technology. In 2021 the state authorized community colleges to offer specialized degrees as long as they did not duplicate those offered by Cal State and University of California campuses.
But the new offerings have stirred friction among Cal State University administrators, who have pushed back on some proposals, arguing they too closely resemble bachelor’s programs offered by Cal State, a skirmish between the two giant systems that highlights their territorial competition for students — and shortcomings in the way the new degrees are approved...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-25/california-community-colleges-baccalaureate.
BERKELEY — Police here are investigating the theft of a $25,000 sign that was stolen from outside a university dormitory and ended up on the roof of a nearby fraternity house, authorities said.
In a Sept. 13 law enforcement operation, UC Berkeley police recovered the sign from the Sigma Chi fraternity at 2345 College Ave., authorities said. The sign had been stolen five days earlier from the Christian Hall dormitory on Durant Avenue, authorities said.
While the incident has all the makings of a fraternity prank, UC Berkeley police treated it as a felony investigation. The sign was bolted into the cement and cost roughly $3,000 to install, well past the $400 threshold for felony vandalism in California. With an estimated value of $25,000, it also qualifies as a felony grand theft under state law...
Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/09/25/uc-berkeley-frat-house-raided-police-seize-stolen-sign-worth-25000/.
They may need a sweetheart deal to get out of trouble:
Public comments covered such topics as Blackrock, the current hotel strike, Palestinians, military investments, staff pay, People's Park, union issues, student-workers at UC-San Diego, and pension contributions.
After public comments, there was the usual presentation of past results, this one covering the year ending June 30, 2023. Although returns were up in that period, they were notably below the benchmarks included in the written materials for the meeting. However, the slide show that was presented showed the returns but not the gap between those returns and the benchmarks. For example, the pension return was 10.1% but the benchmark was 11.6%. One had the sense, however, that the gap was hanging over some of the questions about discretionary investings versus passive. The gap seemed to stem from such areas as private equity and real estate. (The endowment showed similar results.)
Apart from that issue, Regent Makarechian took note of the underfunding of the UC pension, an issue that will come up with an actuarial review at the November meetings. Makarechian mused that maybe pay would have to go up to offset higher contributions.
Not discussed here except in passing, but likely to come up in November, is the matter of the two-decade long contribution holiday. The only Regent who goes back to that era is Makarechian, originally appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. There is a tendency on the part of some of the more recent Regents to view current retirees as having "gotten away" with something because of the contribution holiday. First, the decision to implement the holiday and then to delay its end was made by the Regents, not by retirees. Second, throughout the entire period, faculty pay was below the comparison-8, i.e., lack of contributions were in part making up for too-low pay. There is still more to the story and, hopefully, the complete and accurate story will be aired in November.
As always, we preserve the recordings of the Regents indefinitely since the Regents have no policy regarding retention. You can see the Sept. 19th session at:
https://archive.org/details/regents-investments-committee-9-19-2023.
More bits and pieces from last week's Regents meeting, this time from the San Francisco Business Journal. The project described is to be located near the People's Park proposed project, but should not be confused with it:
The University of California Board of Regents approved more than $7 million in predevelopment funding Thursday for the latest student housing project to enter UC Berkeley’s pipeline, a development that would add 1,400 beds to the university’s thinly stretched portfolio. The funding will go toward site surveys, design and other preliminary work for a proposed 1,400-bed project at 2200 Bancroft Way, a 0.8-acre, Regents-owned site across the street from the southern edge of UC Berkeley’s campus. UC Berkeley expects to return to the Regents in the fall of next year to request approval for a full budget for the project, which, pending various approvals, could begin construction in the fall of 2025 and open by fall of 2028.
The additional 1,400 beds would join the university’s existing 3,500-bed student housing pipeline, per a report provided to the Regents’ Finance and Capital Strategies Committee. For decades, growth of UC Berkeley’s enrollment outstripped the pace at which the university added new housing, and today it can house just 21% of its 45,000-person enrollment, the lowest proportion of any campus within the UC system.
The dynamic has created what observers describe as a housing crisis within a housing crisis, wherein UC Berkeley students must scramble to find student-appropriate housing in Berkeley, a city already struggling with its own broader shortage of homes. Rents for student-aimed units in Berkeley have soared, with some three-bedroom apartments, for example, renting in 2022 for as much as $9,150 a month.
The 1,400 beds proposed at 2200 Bancroft could also allow for the university to make repairs to aging housing stock, work that could require some student housing to shutter during the academic year. The project could provide “future surge space required to move student beds from facilities undergoing renovation or redevelopment” should the university choose to pursue that work, the report said...
Full story at https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2023/09/22/uc-berkeley-2200-bancroft-student-housing.html.
More leaks (or speculation?) on what happened behind closed doors at the Regents last week concerning the sports realignment involving UC-Berkeley and UCLA. From the Mercury News:
The University of California regents did not finalize the so-called Berkeley tax when they gathered Thursday at UCLA, but they made plans to wade deeper into the world of college sports. Much, much deeper.
The regents have created a special committee designed to “assist the Board in fulfilling its responsibilities for oversight of intercollegiate athletics programs,” according to the website... As the schools prepare to enter new conferences next season, their governing board is expected to require UCLA to provide Cal with financial support. The amount has not been determined. Nor have the regents offered a clear timeline for resolution to the controversial issue, which amounts to an unprecedented subsidy between UC athletic departments...
The regents met Thursday in closed session to discuss what the agenda described as “UC Berkeley Atlantic Coast Conference Membership.” No details were provided after the fact, but the board’s upcoming calendar now includes an Oct. 11 meeting of a “special committee on athletics.”* The special committee, which was approved in May, has a two-year charter. Regent Jose Hernandez, who earned his undergraduate degree from the University of the Pacific and a masters from UCSB, will serve as the chair of the seven-personal committee. Chancellors Gene Block (UCLA), Carol Christ (Cal) and Gary May (UC Davis) will advise.
...There is nothing in the charter about the so-called Berkeley tax, by which UCLA would funnel millions of dollars in Big Ten revenue to the Bears as a “contribution” to their athletic department. And the University of California’s office for strategic communications did not respond to a request for comment on the committee’s role in crafting the subsidy. But sources expect the committee to delve into the issue...
Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/09/22/uc-regents-meet-mull-confer-and-ultimately-decide-to-take-more-control-of-cal-ucla-athletics/.
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*Note: The October 11th date was already calendared for the Health Services Committee (at UC-San Francisco).
Our weekly quest for signs of a recession once again produces no signs. California weekly claims for unemployment insurance remain and pre-pandemic (boom) lows. We'll see what the UCLA Anderson Forecast has to say about a broader range of measures in a week and a half.
As always, the latest claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.
The issue of UCLA's use of portions of the West LA Veterans Affairs property for althetics is back on the legal agenda. From the LA Times:
A federal judge has set the stage for a possible trial next year in a lawsuit challenging leases of land on West L.A.’s Veterans Affairs’ campus to UCLA and a private school and the slow progress of the VA’s promise to build housing for homeless veterans. In a tentative ruling he warned he may change, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied motions to dismiss key portions of the class-action lawsuit that seeks to declare the leases illegal and compel the VA to expeditiously provide housing for thousands of homeless veterans. Carter handed out the pre-written tentative ruling following a 3½-hour hearing [last] Monday in which, he said, arguments by lawyers representing the veterans and the VA had caused him to “rethink the entire jurisprudence.”
Without indicating which way he might have been swayed, Carter gave the parties until Sept. 29 to respond to the tentative ruling before he makes it final. In a quip characteristic of the mercurial judge, Carter warned reporters after the hearing to be wary of describing the ruling with a finality that could turn out wrong.
...Carter wrote that he was inclined to uphold the veterans’ contention the VA has a fiduciary duty to “evaluate management of leases or land use to ensure that they advance the purpose of providing housing and services that principally benefit veterans and their families.” He would allow the veterans to go forward with their cause of action alleging that leases to the Brentwood school and a company that operates a public parking lot breach that duty, which is laid out in the West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016.
...If adopted, the ruling could lead to a trial over whether to invalidate leases under which UCLA and the Brentwood Academy have built extensive athletic facilities on the VA land. Zachary Avallone, trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department, argued during the hearing that the leases were serving veterans by providing exclusive access to facilities at specified times. Carter’s tentative ruling rejected that argument.
...Carter urged the parties to work out an agreement to avoid a trial, but said he would schedule one for early next year if they do not...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-20/veterans-claims-over-misuse-of-the-va-west-los-angeles-campus-may-go-to-trial.
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| Affordable housing? |
UCLA has been planning the best deal in town for student housing: a new residence hall featuring shared living, study and socializing spaces with most rooms going for just $600 a month — 66% below projected market rates in the pricey Westwood neighborhood where the campus is located. But the eight-story, 545-bed project hit a roadblock Thursday, when the University of California Regents deferred a vote on its budget and design after raising crucial questions about whether the rooms were too small and what potential impact that might have on student mental health. The planned space is 265 square feet for three beds, desks, closets, storage space and a refrigerator.
“I don’t want to call these jails,” Regent Hadi Makarechian said during finance committee discussions Wednesday, “but ... these aren’t really good dorms.”
Regent John A. Pérez noted that research has found that “micro-units” have been linked to negative mental health effects. When a UCLA official said he was trying to keep costs down for low-income students, Pérez took umbrage at the implication that “for poor kids, this density is OK.” This prompted an apology from the official, Pete Angelis, UCLA assistant vice chancellor of housing and hospitality.
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, an ex-officio regent, lamented the trend of “smaller and smaller” spaces as campuses cram more students into rooms to address the affordable housing crisis.
“It really is worrisome,” she said. “What it comes down to is your efforts to use every square foot of land to produce space for as many students as possible. But there is a limit that can get us to the point where students can ... really experience negative mental health impact by the way that they’re being asked to live.”
The regents asked UCLA to come back with more information comparing the project’s room size and cost per bed to others across the UC system, along with student feedback on their living spaces. They will reconsider the project in November...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-22/uc-regents-question-small-room-size-of-new-ucla-dorm-delaying-approval.
If past history is any guide, there will be some modification and reframing and the project will be approved. At least, that was the history of the UCLA Grand Hotel (at which the Regents met) when in was up for approval, as long-time blog readers will know.
You can read more about the controversies - somewhat similar to the earlier controversies concerning law schools and med schools at:
But rather than get into the weeds, yours truly thought we might benefit from looking at comparisons and equivalencies. As you likely know, both UCLA are touting themselves as the best public university. But the public qualifier actually means both tied for 15th.
But that means the two are not quite so good as Chicago, but are a bit better than Rice.
Moving down the list we find that UC-Davis and UC-San Diego at #28 are equivalent to each other and also to the U of Florida.
UC-Irvine and UC-Santa Barbara are equivalent to NYU at #33.
Blog readers may recall our earlier post about a "toxic" website known as Economics Job Market Rumors (EJMR).* The ostensible point of EJMR is (was) what the title suggests: provide an informal source of information about the academic labor market for economists. But, as we noted, postings are anonymous and may contain racist or misogynistic statements. Authors of an NBER working paper were able to "crack" the sources of about two-thirds of the postings and attribute them to various universities. They did not disclose particular identities.
The disclosure sparked news media attention and demands that the American Economic Association (AEA) - which has no connection to the website and no authority to take it down - do something.
Meanwhile, similar websites were set up for political science and sociology - see the image above - by the same source. Presumably, there will also be complaints that someone in those fields should do something although, again, it's not clear what that might be in practice.
When you look at these websites, there are lengthy rules that forbid bad behavior which presumably reassure advertisers. If you look at the images above, you will see ads by World of Work (an organization of human resource professionals) and Office Depot. It is likely that such advertisers would not want to be associated with toxic websites. Below is an image we showed for EJMR in our earlier post, featuring an ad from the Wallis theater which is probably totally unaware of where its ad is going.
It would seem as though the route to "doing something" would go through the advertisers rather than professional associations such as the AEA.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/07/toxic-econ.html.
From the NY Times: U.S. News’s adjusted methodology, a response to years of criticism, places increased emphasis on what the company labels “social mobility,” measured through graduation rates for low-income students as well as for first-generation college students... As part of this new focus, the organization also discarded five factors that had often favored wealthy colleges, including undergraduate class sizes, alumni giving rates and high school class standing.
...These are the rankings of California schools that made the top 100 this year, along with their previous rankings:
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/us/california-universities-us-news-rankings.html.
According to legislative records, it did pass and now awaits a decision by the governor to sign or veto. It seems likely that he will sign, given overwhelming support in both houses (which would technically render the bill veto-proof).
As we also noted, there is nothing in this bill that creates more slots for admission and enrollment. So if more come in through one door, fewer come in from some other portal.
A legislative history of the bill can be found at https://legiscan.com/CA/votes/AB1291/2023.
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/keep-stuffing-but-theres-only-so-much.html.
U.S. News & World Report – a media company that releases news, rankings and analyses – releases yearly rankings of the top universities in the United States based on differing measures of academic quality. Rankings are based on aspects such as graduation rates, financial resources per student and retention rates, according to the report released late Sunday.
UCLA has also tied with UC Berkeley in the 15th spot for best national university. UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC Irvine also ranked in the top 10 public schools, according to the report...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2023/09/18/ucla-named-no-1-public-university-in-the-us-for-7th-consecutive-year.
When the Regents this week contemplate UC-Berkeley's move to the ACC and the travel implications of that move, they will undoubtedly have seen either the analysis below from the San Francisco Chronicle or something like it. The Chronicle article compares UC-Berkeley in the ACC with the travel issues faced by U of Hawaii teams that must fly to the mainland for competitions:
...Just look at Hawaii’s travel itinerary this past weekend for its game at No. 13 Oregon. After losing 55-10 on Saturday in front of 52,779 fans at Autzen Stadium, the Rainbow Warriors took a bus an hour north to Salem, Ore., where they stayed the night before riding another hour north to Portland and boarding a six-hour Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu. Such logistics often put Hawaii at a competitive disadvantage, but that’s reality for a cash-strapped athletic department located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As Vallejo native and Rainbow Warriors men’s basketball guard JoVon McClanahan put it, “No one’s going to feel bad for us that we have to travel further than other schools. We just have to be pros about it.”
Cal and Stanford must adopt a similar mindset as they prepare to join the Atlantic Coast Conference next August. With far less TV revenue about to come in than many of their ACC peers, and travel schedules that could rival Hawaii’s as the most burdensome in Division I, the Bears and Cardinal have a lot to hammer out over the next 11 months. Every current ACC school, including non-football member Notre Dame, is more than 2,000 miles from the Bay Area and in the Eastern Time Zone. Like Hawaii has done for decades, Cal and Stanford figure to touch down in cities two days before conference away games so they can rest up for competition and acclimate to the time difference.
Commercial flights, the mode of travel for almost all the Bay Area duo’s non-revenue sports, could also force the Bears and Cardinal to stay an extra night. This means more days in hotels, more team-provided meals and more classes missed — a daunting proposition for academically rigorous universities like Cal and Stanford that were so eager to stay at the Power 5 level that they settled for only a 30% share of TV revenue during their first seven years in the ACC.
USC and UCLA, which join the Big Ten next summer, reportedly plan to ease cross-country travel concerns by spending eight figures annually to bolster academic tutoring, mental health support and flight arrangements. But while the Trojans and Bruins are poised to more than double their yearly TV revenue thanks to a Big Ten media-rights deal that will net each of them between $65 million and $75 million, Cal and Stanford are about to earn way less money than they did in the Pac-12...
Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/college/article/cal-stanford-acc-travel-hawaii-18367174.php.
And there is this chart to contemplate:
I am happy to announce that we (think we) have a solution to the improper cancellation of survivor health insurance under the retiree health plan. When I last registered to speak to the Regents at their retreat, that request triggered an inquiry from the Regents' office to UCOP which in turn set in motion a process, including a Zoom consultation with administrators of the plan. What emerged was a three-part solution:
A longer-term fix;
An interim fix;
An interim-interim fix.
When a retiree dies, an eligible survivor converts from dependent status to survivor status. The documents assume that, thanks to computers and computer records, this conversion happens quickly. In effect, the computer "knows" in advance who is eligible for survivor coverage. So, upon the death of the retiree, there is a one-month grace period in which dependent coverage continues. That coverage is then seamlessly cancelled and survivor coverage begins with no interruption of coverage.
The longer-term fix is to make UC's computer and administrative system operate as described above. And the current problem is that it doesn't.
UC's computer system doesn't "know" prior to the death of the retiree who is an eligible survivor of that retiree. As a result, manual processing is set in motion when a death report comes in. If the manual processing takes longer than the one-month grace period, the eligible dependent-survivor is cancelled as a dependent but is not picked up as a survivor. The survivor goes into a no-coverage limbo and is effectively cancelled. That is the root of the current problem. The manual processing takes too long.
So, the interim fix is to have the one-month grace period extended to two months. That extension, we were assured, will allow the current slow manual processing to occur. We have been told that the extension of the grace period to two months can happen as early as November 1 but not later than December 1.
Assuming the interim fix is put in place some time in November, there might still be some survivors who are cancelled between now and then.
The interim-interim fix is to create a temporary arrangement so that any survivor who finds his/her insurance has been cancelled and who calls to complain will immediately default to restored coverage. The manual processing of their case will then proceed. But the default will be that any survivor who complains of cancellation will get immediate coverage until the interim fix is implemented.
Yours truly will make a brief public comment to the Regents later this week. He will thank them and everyone else involved for their assistance, and will give an abridged description of the three fixes above. Assuming everything goes as plans, he will not need to revisit the Regents on this matter thereafter.
From time to time, we have noted that in Title IX cases, due process that outside courts will recognize as such is important. The Biden administration is expected to come out with guidelines that shift away from the Trump guidelines that shifted away from the Obama guidelines. But no one has shifted the kind of sniff tests external courts are likely to apply when such cases are appealed to them. Here is yet another illustration from the NY Times:
In a 2018 disciplinary hearing at Yale University, Saifullah Khan listened as a woman accused him of raping her after a Halloween party. The woman, who had graduated, gave a statement by teleconference to a university panel, but Mr. Khan and his lawyer were not allowed in the room with the panel. Nor could his lawyer, under the rules of the hearing, cross-examine her. Instead, they were cloistered in a separate room, as her testimony piped in by speakerphone. He felt, he said, “there is absolutely nothing I can do to change my situation.” As he feared, Yale expelled him.
Mr. Khan’s criminal trial, months earlier, was markedly different. His lawyer cross-examined the woman in ways that horrified women’s rights advocates: How were you dressed? How much did you drink? Did you send flirty texts? And unlike the Yale hearing, the prosecutors had to prove his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” After barely three hours of deliberations, Mr. Khan was acquitted.
The difference between those two hearings — in process and outcome — led Mr. Khan to make an unusual move: He sued his accuser for defamation for statements she had made during the Yale hearing. That lawsuit, filed in 2019, is challenging the way universities across the country have adjudicated such sexual assault hearings. Normally, such a lawsuit would not have much of a chance. In Connecticut and other states, witnesses in such “quasi-judicial” hearings carry absolute immunity against defamation lawsuits.
But the Connecticut Supreme Court in June gave Mr. Khan’s suit the greenlight to proceed. It ruled that the Yale hearing was not quasi-judicial because it lacked due process, including the ability to cross-examine witnesses...
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/17/us/yale-rape-case-defamation.html.
As part of our harping on the need for due process, we have also noted that courts generally do defer to union-management grievance-and-arbitration cases of the type found at UC and other universities with unionization. Those mechanisms are not as formal as external courts, but do feature such characteristics as final decisions by outside neutrals, cross-examination of witnesses, etc.
A bill sent to the governor would create a $25/hour minimum wage for health care workers. According to a news report in the Sacramento Bee, one byproduct of the bill, if signed by the governor, would be a subsidy payment to UC Health:
Hundreds of thousands of health care workers in California are likely to secure a new minimum wage of $25 an hour as the Legislature successfully sent the bill Thursday night to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. One caveat, though, is workers would have to wait between three and 10 years to see the full wage. Senate Bill 525, introduced by Los Angeles Democratic Sen. Maria Elena Durazo and backed by unions, would ensure a minimum wage of $25 for a wide variety of employees at covered health care facilities. The wage floor applies to direct patient care providers, such as nurses, physicians and medical residents, but also to workers in support positions, such as janitors, housekeepers, food service workers, medical billing personnel and gift shop clerks...
An analysis from the Assembly’s appropriations committee estimated it would cost the state at least $970 million a year to raise wages for all affected state employees. Analysts caution that the state could also incur billions of dollars in increases to Medi-Cal provider reimbursement rates. The state isn’t required to increase provider rates to keep up with state-mandated changes, except for certain long-term care facilities. But the Department of Health Care Services said that rate increases would likely be necessary to maintain patient access to providers, especially given that the Medi-Cal program covers approximately a third of Californians. The state would also need to pay an “unknown, but definitely significant” sum to increase wages for University of California health system employees.
Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article279229709.html.
Court documents reveal more detail about the internecine fight over the assets of the soon-to-be-defunct Pac-12. The information comes as the Regents will later this week discuss UC-Berkeley's move to the ACC and its financial repercussions. Those repercussions depend in part on who controls the assets of the Pac-12. And it appears that little will be decided in time for their meeting. Jon Wilner of the Mercury News reports:
Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, a named defendant in the complaint filed against the conference by Oregon State and Washington State, did not attend the hearing Monday in which the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order was granted. When the defense attorney noted that Kliavkoff is in a “terrible position” in the internecine dispute over the makeup of the governing board, Whitman County (Wash.) Superior Court judge Gary Libey interrupted. “He’s in Montana,” Libey said. Montana, Michigan, Mars — anywhere but the courthouse.
Kliavoff is attempting to stay neutral as the 10 departing universities and the two remaining schools plot their divergent futures and determine control of the conference, according to documents obtained by the Hotline. In a declaration to the court on Sept. 11, the day of the hearing, Kliavkoff stated:
“Neither the Conference nor I have a position with respect to the proper composition of the Pac-12 Board. This is fundamentally a dispute among members. As Commissioner, I will follow lawful directives of the Board pursuant to the Constitution and Bylaws and consistent with my duties in the best interests of the Conference.”
The “dispute among members” is focused on which schools possess voting rights and control of the Pac-12’s assets.
According to the bylaws, any school that gives “notice of withdrawal” prior to Aug. 1, 2024, relinquishes its position on the board of directors.
Washington State and Oregon State have argued the 10 outbound members gave “notice of withdrawal” upon announcing their moves to new leagues — even if they did not submit legal documents to the Pac-12 stating their intentions to leave.
As a result, the Cougars and Beavers believe they are the only remaining members of the board.
The stakes are high. If all 12 university presidents and chancellors retain their board seats, the 10 departing schools could vote to dissolve the conference and split the assets equally.
If WSU and OSU are the sole members of the board, they will control the Pac-12’s assets, including NCAA Tournament revenue worth tens of millions of dollars over time. That money could be used to fund their athletic departments or rebuild the conference after the 10 schools depart next summer.
Where does Kliavkoff stand on the makeup of the board? Is he siding with the 10 or the two? With the schools that have their futures secured or those left behind?
Kliavkoff has not spoken publicly since Aug. 4, Black Friday, when his plans to finalize a media rights deal imploded and five schools withdrew. But his view of the board’s makeup is outlined, in detail, in a letter to Washington State and Oregon State that was included in his court declaration. The letter is dated Sept. 8, two days after WSU president Kirk Schulz and OSU president Jayathi Murthy drew their line in the turf.
The two presidents sent a letter (via email) to Kliavkoff and their peers that highlighted the wording in the bylaws and asked the conference to confirm the 10 outbounds schools had, in fact, given their “notice of withdrawal.” Schulz and Murthy requested an answer within two days, by 10 a.m. on Sept. 8. Lacking a response to their liking, they were prepared to proceed with legal action. Kliavkoff’s response to their request, marked as Exhibit 15 in his declaration, was obtained by the Hotline on Wednesday.
In a letter to WSU and OSU (via email), he disputed the notion that the 10 outbound schools have relinquished their board positions:
“Your suggestion that ten of the Conference’s 12 members have ‘withdrawn’ from the Conference within the meaning of the Bylaws is mistaken. Not one member school has signaled any intention — or actually attempted — to leave Conference play at any time prior to the end of the current fiscal year on July 31, 2024, or to take back and exploit their media rights.
“We simply cannot accept the suggestion that only two members. — Oregon State University (OSU) and Washington State University (WSU) — now have the right to determine by themselves all issues affecting the Conference, and determine the course of all revenue coming into the Conference, to the exclusion of the other ten member schools.”
The wording is important, and it undoubtedly will be discussed in upcoming court hearings intended to determine the makeup of the board.
Kliavkoff writes that the 10 departing schools have not “withdrawn” from the Pac-12 “within the meaning of the bylaws.” But in their letter of Sept. 6, WSU and OSU requested confirmation that the 10 had given “notice of withdrawal” — the exact phrase used in the bylaws. (Italics ours.)
What accounts for the apparent discrepancy between Kliavkoff’s declaration of neutrality — “Neither the Conference nor I have a position with respect to the proper composition of the Pac-12 Board” — and the Sept. 8 letter in which he states the 10 schools have not “withdrawn” and WSU and OSU are “mistaken”? In the letter, he was stating the position of the outgoing presidents, who are contesting the notion that they have withdrawn, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
(Kliavkoff declined to comment for this story.)
Key point: The bylaws do not define “notice of withdrawal” and whether it must come in writing. Washington president Ana Mari Cauce held a news conference on Aug. 5 in which she discussed UW’s move to the Big Ten. Does that constitute “notice of withdrawal”? The Big 12 released a video on social media welcoming Colorado to the league on July 27. Does that serve as CU’s “notice of withdrawal”? That’s for the attorneys and the court to determine.
WSU and OSU believe the 10 departing schools are conflicted — that their allegiance is now to their new conferences. If allowed to remain on the Pac-12 board, the 10 could vote as a bloc in a manner that harms the two remaining schools, financially or otherwise. After explaining that the 10 have not “withdrawn,” Kliavkoff then acknowledges the nuanced nature of the situation. The letter continues:
“That said, I do have the view that there are decisions (for example, which, if any, schools to invite to join the Conference after July 1, 2024) that should solely be made by OSU and WSU, to the exclusion of our ten other members.”
Then he addresses the middle ground:
“There may also be other decisions that don’t clearly fall within the purview for either all 12 or just the 2 to decide and will be contested. Regardless, it is the Board that should and will determine its governance pursuant to the rules set forth in the Bylaws.”
“My recommendation is that all 12 Presidents and Chancellors should use the opportunity of next week’s Board meeting to see if we can agree on which decisions get decided by all 12, which get decided by just OSU and WSU, and further discuss whether the 12 can agree on a process to consider and decide the contested issues.
“We also plan to distribute, in advance of Wednesday’s Board meeting, a suggested conflict of interest policy that addresses how we might think about the 12 schools agreeing on governance issues to avoid conflict.”
That meeting never happened. Kliavkoff’s letter was deemed unacceptable by WSU and OSU. Moments after the 10 a.m. deadline on Sept. 8, attorneys for the plaintiffs walked into Whitman County Superior Court and filed the complaint. On Monday [of last week], the judge issued the temporary restraining order preventing the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors from holding any meetings until the legal process determines the proper makeup of the board. The sides are expected to schedule a preliminary injunction hearing for later this month.
Note that since the eventual court rulings on this conflict are not going to happen before the Regents meet, making a final decision on what UCLA has to pay to UC-Berkeley would seem to be premature. Both might get some remaining assets from the Pac-12 - or not - depending on court rulings that have yet to occur.
With the April 2023 passage of the UCLA undergraduate student transit pass referendum, undergrads have fare-free access to all transit agencies throughout LA County including those serving UCLA through the new Bruin U-Pass program. Students can enjoy unlimited rides on the local lines serving UCLA: Los Angeles Metro bus and rail lines, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, and Culver CityBus; the four commuter lines with direct access to campus: Antelope Valley Transit, Santa Clarita Transit, Long Beach Transit, and LADOT Commuter Express; and more!
This new Bruin U-Pass transit program allows students to commute to campus or travel throughout Los Angeles County without a car...
Source: https://transportation.ucla.edu/getting-to-ucla/public-transit/bruin-u-pass.
Now it's just a matter of getting on the right bus:
Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd4mveP5Aq8.
We continue our weekly watch for signs of a recession in California data on new weekly claims for unemployment benefits without seeing any (through the week ending Sept. 9).
As always, the claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf. The UCLA Anderson Forecast will be presented in early October. We'll see if the forecasters have continued their two-scenario approach (recession, no recession), or whether they will come down on one side or the other.
