As 2023 comes to a close, we look ahead to discover what 2024 will bring. What could possibly go wrong? (Lots of things.) Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 31, 2023
UCLA History: The Return
At the end of World War II, the War Relocation Authority - which managed the various camps in which Japanese Americans from the West Coast were interned, was apparently anxious to show that all was well and released the photos above at UCLA.
The caption of the upper photo reads:
Nisei students arriving on the campus at the University of California in Los Angeles. In the foreground is Michiko Kataoka. Behind her are Mr. Evan Oyakawa and Miss Meriko Hoshiyama. The girls are from Manzanar, and Evan is from Heart Mountain. Royce Hall is in the background. These three Nisei are thoroughly at home at U.C.L.A., one of the largest, most beautiful state universities in the nation. It is at Westwood Village, just off busy and fashionable Wilshire Boulevard, between Los Angeles and the ocean.
The caption of the lower photo reads:
Michiko Kataoka, a freshman, and Meriko Hoshiyama, a junior, both from Manzanar (left to right in picture), with fellow students at the entrance to the campus library at the University of California at Los Angeles. These Nisei are quite at home at U.C.L.A., one of the largest and most beautiful state universities in the nation. It is just off fashionable Wilshire Boulevard in lovely Westwood Village, between Los Angeles and the ocean. Tuition is very reasonable at this big, modern university. It is easy to get part-time jobs, and the university has a department to take care of that.
Source: https://calisphere.org/item/
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Inconsistent Disclaimer Policy Across UC
It's unclear, however, what happens if a statement is posted without a disclaimer. When some Harbor-UCLA physicians posted a statement about the Israel-Gaza conflict, it was quickly taken down although, of course, nothing really dies on the web.** In that case, because Harbor-UCLA uses an LA County website, a County policy was violated. (It's unknown what penalty, if any, was imposed on the posters by Harbor-UCLA.)
In 2021 (well before recent events), a statement on Israel-Palestine was posted without a disclaimer on a UCLA website without any disclaimer where it remains.*** Apparently, there has been no requirement by UCLA powers-that-be to add a disclaimer or, alternatively, remove it.
In contrast, at UC-San Diego's Rady Children's Hospital, a statement was posted and then removed. (Yours truly could not find a copy on the web - but perhaps it is there somewhere.) An article about that affair appeared yesterday in the San Diego Union-Tribune:****
Rady Children’s Hospital and UC San Diego are taking steps to make it clear that a provocative letter calling for a cease-fire in Gaza was not a sanctioned communication of either organization after some in the community objected to the document’s contents. In a memo to all Rady staff sent on Nov. 27, Jill Strickland, Rady’s senior vice president and chief administrative officer, indicates that many in the community reached out “and communicated your concerns” after reading the letter, which was posted on the document collaboration site Google Docs.
On Friday, Rady reiterated its initial message, saying in a written statement: “We want to be clear. Rady Children’s name was used without our knowledge or permission. The letter was unauthorized, and in no way speaks for our institution. We are deeply committed to the children we serve and to the physicians, nurses and staff that help support our mission.” Late Friday afternoon, UC San Diego struck a similar note, issuing its own short acknowledgment that the letter was circulating before it was removed from Google Docs, but attempting to draw a line between official statements and personal opinion.
“The letter was authored by a few residents who were not speaking on behalf of UC San Diego or the residents in the program as a whole, and UC San Diego did not participate in the drafting of their letter,” the university’s statement said.
Entitled “A Letter on Behalf of the Rady Children’s Hospital/UCSD Pediatric Residents,” and signed only “UCSD Pediatric Residents,” the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune, does appear to attempt to speak for all of those currently doing their pediatric clinical rotations with Rady.
Residents are those who have earned their medical doctorates and who are progressing through the multi-year process of post-graduate training alongside medical professionals in settings from doctors offices to hospital units.
Efforts to reach several UCSD pediatric residents through their university-issued email addresses Friday were not returned.
The document cites health statistics from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, listing a death toll that “stands at more than 11,000 people, 68 percent of whom are children and women,” and also indicating that hospitals, especially Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, have suffered setbacks that have significantly increased the suffering and death of children, especially those treated in neonatal intensive care units. Letter writers indicate that circulating their statement “makes it clear that we stand with thousands of health care workers all over the country calling for a cease-fire.”
The message, which some are interpreting as indicating support for Hamas, the terrorist group that massacred civilians in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, is being taken that way by some of Jewish faith in the San Diego community. San Diego resident Jordan Rosenfeld said that he considers the statistics cited in the residents’ letter to have “literally come from Hamas,” calling the Ministry of Health in Gaza a “Hamas-controlled organization,” and the Al-Shifa Hospital “literally Hamas HQ.”
There has been enough local outrage over the letter, Rosenfeld said, that some have changed their behavior. “As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor with children of my own now, I’m exceedingly aware that the enormity of that atrocity happened because of ordinary Germans and Europeans who were willing to spread Nazi propaganda,” Rosenfeld said in an email. “It is horrifying to know how many doctors at Rady are willing to spread Hamas propaganda and show their sympathy with Nazi imitators.
“My son was in dire need of urgent care on Christmas, and my wife and I just couldn’t risk having him seen by these people. How could any Jewish San Diegan not worry they will be mistreated there?”
The student letter, though, makes no mention of treating Rady patients differently based on their perspectives on Gaza, instead appealing to end the humanitarian crisis that has been reported worldwide.
Rady’s memo to clinicians on Nov. 27 indicates that the organization tries to operate in an apolitical space between competing opinions: “While we respect people may have different perspectives on a variety of topics, we share a collective commitment to create a warm and welcoming place of healing where all children and their families feel empowered and supported as they received the highest quality care.” But Rady’s memo in response to the resident’s letter also states that the hospital is “taking steps to address this situation.”
What exactly those steps were is not specified. A hospital spokesman said that UC San Diego pediatric residents continue to do clinical rotations at Rady, but declined to say how many new doctors are currently filling shifts in its hospital and clinics. Asked whether the residents will face any sort of discipline from the university, UCSD’s statement indicates that it “does not comment on personnel matters.”
“UC San Diego unequivocally condemns all forms of hate, and the university will hold accountable to the maximum extent of its abilities anyone whose conduct violates the law or University policy,” the statement said.
There was an earlier controversy at UC-San Diego concerning a statement put out by the campus Ethnic Studies Department. A disclaimer does appear on the current version of that statement which was moved from its original link to another link.***** That statement led to a response - also with a disclaimer - from an individual at the UC-San Diego Rady management school.******
What seems clear is that the policy on statements by units within UC seems to vary from campus to campus. UCLA seems to have no policy regarding statements without disclaimers although its affiliated Harbor-UCLA does. UC-San Diego seems to require disclaimers and removes statements without them. There does not seem to be an overall UC policy although the Academic Senate's guideline applies systemwide.
It should be noted that none of the rules apply to individual faculty members who are free to write op eds, use private social media, etc. The problems arise when statements appear to represent the official policy of units within UC, either because they appear on official unit websites or because they say they represent some unit. The Academic Senate guidelines actually call for more than a disclaimer and include providing information on how the statement was agreed upon (voting procedures, etc.) and dissenting statements. It is unclear if any statements so far have ever complied with the full guideline. The only exceptions are official statements of the Regents which typically are adopted in an open public debate and voting process. (The Regents have taken positions on various ballot measures.)
====
*…Departments should use their right to issue political statements responsibly and judiciously. To this end, it is important for departments to include disclaimers with statements that make clear the department does not speak for the University as a whole… Source:
https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/rh-senate-divs-recs-for-dept-statements.pdf.
**The statement was preserved by a critic and can be seen at:
https://twitter.com/TyDurgen/status/1718747541460951405.
*****https://ethnicstudies.ucsd.
******https://rady.ucsd.edu/why/centers/us-israel-center/index.html. The disclaimer reads: Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this open letter belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views of all faculty or staff of the Rady School of Management or UC San Diego.
It was bound to happen...
===
*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-latest-on-harvard-data-manipulation.html. Gino was suspended for alleged data manipulation in various papers while the Gay matter has dealt with plagiarism. (She has revised some work in the light of plagiarism critiques.) But the dark corners of the internet are now buzzing with data manipulation allegations in Gay's work, too:
https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/claudine-gay-fabricated-coefficients-in-2001-apsr-article.
Swimming in Scandal - Part 10
From the Orange County Register: Former University of California women’s swimming coach Teri McKeever has admitted to emotionally and physically abusing Cal swimmers for more than 20 years as part of an agreement with the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, according to a confidential document obtained by the Southern California News Group. McKeever’s admission in SafeSport’s 18-page notice of decision this week marks the first time she has acknowledged abusing Cal swimmers since a May 2022 SCNG investigation first reported dozens allegations that she routinely bullied, emotionally and physically abused swimmers, pressured them to compete and/or train while injured and directed profanity and racist language toward them.
McKeever’s admission was part of a deal in which she agreed to a three-month suspension from participating in any events sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and was placed on probation for 12 months following an 18-month investigation by the Center. She is also barred from contacting the swimmers who made allegations against her to SafeSport...
Full story at https://www.ocregister.com/2023/12/28/teri-mckeever-suspended-by-the-u-s-center-for-safesport/.
===
*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/05/swimming-in-scandal-part-9.html.
Friday, December 29, 2023
About Yesterday's Post on the Purchase of Westside Pavillion...
Roses are red;
Violets are blue.
What UCLA calls a rumor,
Seems to be true.
===
The statement that the purchase of Westside Pavillion by UCLA is just a rumor appeared in the LA Times:
Again - Don't Reply - Delete
Another scam alert:
Yours truly is clearly on somebody's sucker list. But as we noted last week, if you get one of these notices as a text message, do not reply to it. Instead, delete it. Despite my previous advice, the scammers keep sending. This one arrived just this morning.The message doesn't come from the US Postal Service as a quick inspection of the supposed originating email address reveals. It is doubtful that the Postal Service would even have my cellphone number to send me a message.
AB 1291 Passed - Part 2
One result is a new task force:
From an email:
Undergraduate Council
Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools
To: Academic Senate Faculty, Administrative Officers, Deans, Department Chairs, Directors, Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts
Dear Colleagues:
With the recent passage of AB 1291, UCLA will pilot a new Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) Program for the University of California in the 2026–27 academic year.
We are pleased to announce that the Undergraduate Council and Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools (CUARS) of the UCLA Academic Senate have jointly charged a senate task force to carry out this important initiative. In consultation with campus units and departments, the task force will recommend a series of UCLA majors to launch the program and an implementation plan that aligns transfer curricula with UC admissions criteria and academic requirements. It will also formulate goals and evaluation metrics for the pilot, anchored in the University’s academic mission as well as our commitment to increasing access and opportunity for community college transfer students. Subsequently the Undergraduate Council and CUARS will make decisions based on the task force recommendations.
The ADT Pilot Program Task Force is co-chaired by Connie Kasari, professor of education and psychiatry and Alexander Spokoyny, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Members include Scott Brandenberg, professor of civil and environmental engineering; Edith Omwami, associate professor of education; Cristobal Silva, associate professor of English and Luke Yarbrough, associate professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures.
The task force will convene during winter and spring 2024 and offer opportunities for campus partners to share ideas and feedback in support of enhancing transfer pathways to UC.
Sincerely,
Catherine Sugar, Chair, Undergraduate Council
Lynn Vavreck, Chair, Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools
===
*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/ab-1291-passed.html.
Thursday, December 28, 2023
Another UCLA real estate purchase: Westside Pavillion
 |
At least, you can get from the Westwood campus to the Pavillion by public transit in a reasonable amount of time.
From Urbanize LA: Nearly five years ago, developer Hudson Pacific Properties kicked off the new year by announcing a landmark deal to transform the shuttered Westside Pavilion shopping mall into a more than 580,000-square-foot office campus for Google. Now, that deal appears to be in doubt as an L.A. institution takes control of the property.
An environmental notice published earlier today states that UCLA is acquiring the former Westside Pavilion for an undisclosed sum from Hudson Pacific Properties and Macerich. The purchase will include the eastern half of the mall at 10800-10830 W. Pico Boulevard, which has been gutted and converted into office space, as well as the largely unchanged western portion of the mall at 10850 W. Pico Boulevard.
The university's plans for the site are not set in stone at this point in time. "The University will make no decision to undertake further development until it has complied with CEQA and an overall site development plan has been approved..." reads the notice.
The purchase does not appear to include the West End, formerly the Westside Pavilion's Macy's, which has been converted to a separate 240,000-square-foot office complex by GPI Cos. A parking garage that once served the mall has since been razed, and is now being redeveloped with a mixed-use apartment complex by GPI.
...The Westside Pavilion may be the largest acquisition yet for UCLA, which has gone on a buying spree over the past two years, acquiring the historic Trust Building in Downtown Los Angeles for a satellite campus and the former Marymount California University campus in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Full story at https://la.urbanize.city/post/breaking-ucla-buying-westside-pavilion.
Regent Sures & Los Alamos Management
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| Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer at UC-Berkeley from the 2023 film "Oppenheimer" (above and below) |
From a recent Los Alamos news release:
Triad announces Jay Sures as new chair of the board
“We are grateful to have Jay at the helm of the Triad Board,” said Thom Mason, president and CEO of Triad, as well as director of Los Alamos National Lab. “He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from his career as a business executive, as a UC Regent and his leadership at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is a strong supporter of the Laboratory’s national security mission and a proven leader. We look forward to working with him as the board chair.” ...
Full news release at https://discover.lanl.gov/news/1214-jay-sures/.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
The Recording Option to Protect Against False Claims
Clearly, there are larger issues regarding course evaluations and their use in academic advancement that long predate the current tensions. However, a simple approach for instructors going forward in the current period is to record their courses and let students know that the recordings are being made. Indeed, the recordings can be put on course websites for the convenience of students. If false claims are made in evaluations about course content, the recordings will refute such claims.
Video recordings of classes can be complicated to make unless the classroom is set up with equipment for such recordings. However, audio recordings are easy to make using inexpensive (or fancy) audio-recorders. Basically, you just turn them on at the beginning of class and turn them off at the end. Smartphones can also be used as recording devices. (You may have problems in getting lengthy recordings off your phone, however, so audio-recorders may be a better option.)
Note that just as it is easy for instructors to record classes, it is also easy for students (although there are legal restrictions against students doing so without permission). Having a complete recording provides some protection against misleading edited versions winding up on social media.
Instructors who bring in guest speakers should, of course, record only with permission of the guests.
A related issue: I have been told of veiled threats and menacing in written evaluations. Evaluations are anonymous but threats are nonetheless illegal and there may need to be some general cautioning on evaluation forms about making such statements. Note that UCLA is reported to be among the various universities under federal investigation so permitting such activity is at best a Bad Look.
In the end, if the problem persists, the Academic Senate would be wise to consider it and adjust the use of evaluations as needed.
Who's in Control? - Part 5
Oregon State and Washington State have come to an agreement in principle with the 10 departing Pac-12 universities that will end ongoing litigation related to control of the conference, the 12 universities announced [last] Thursday. The agreement comes in the wake of the Washington state Supreme Court's decision last week not to review a lower court's decision that granted control of the Pac-12 board of directors to OSU and WSU. As part of the agreement, the 10 departing schools will forfeit an undisclosed portion of revenue distributions over the rest of the 2023-24 school year and have provided "specific guarantees against potential future liabilities."
"In September, as the two remaining members of the Pac-12 Conference, Oregon State University and Washington State University were forced to act swiftly to protect the future viability of the Pac-12. Thanks to the determination and strength of Beaver Nation and Cougar Nation and the excellence of our student-athletes, coaches and staff, we are now closer to achieving our goal," OSU president Jayathi Murthy and WSU president Kirk Schultz said in a joint statement. "Today's news marks a huge victory for our universities and a significant step toward stabilizing the Pac-12 Conference and preserving its 108-year legacy."
The Pac-12 will retain all its assets and future revenues, the presidents added...
Full story at https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39164107/oregon-state-washington-state-settle-departing-pac-12-schools.
===
*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/11/whos-in-control-part-4.html.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
UCLA's Med School Has a Dartmouth Experience
In past blog posts, we noted that Dartmouth seems to have had a more constructive approach to tensions resulting from the Israel-Gaza War involving scholarly panels that have had a civil discussion of the issues and background.* The UCLA Geffen School of Medicine hosted such a panel a week ago via Zoom (image above). The program was recorded although yours truly doesn't know when or where it will be posted for general viewing. A video recording was placed in a UC Health box account which yours truly can't access. I notified the person who placed it there, but with UC largely shut down, it may be some time before I get a response. In the interim, here is an audio recording (actually a video with still pictures):
https://archive.org/details/ucla-med-school-dialogue-12-20-2023 [one hour]
The two guests:
Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha is a physician, specializing in internal medicine, who is currently acting as the Executive Director of Rodaina, an NGO she founded that aims to prevent genetic diseases in the Middle East, especially in the Bedouin community, by spearheading premarital genetic testing and matching. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Project Wadi Attir, Yanabia, Tamar Center, and AJEEC-NISPED, all are social projects and NGOs aiming to improve Bedouin lives in Israel. She has won several awards, including the 2007 Ramon Award for quality, leadership, and excellence, as well as the 2015 Travel Grant Award for outstanding young investigators at the 38th European Cystic Fibrosis Society conference, and was also chosen to be part of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list. Yasmeen has authored multiple op-eds about Palestine and Israel and has been recently cited in the New York Times and on NPR. Yasmeen holds a BSc in Medical Science and an MD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently pursuing an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.
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Monday, December 25, 2023
Sunday, December 24, 2023
No recession stirring, but...
Our weekly look at new weekly California claims for unemployment insurance once again shows no sign of recession. That's the Good News. The Bad News, as blog readers will know, is that state is facing a budget squeeze due to a drop in personal income tax revenue. Such squeezes can occur, even without a recession, due to the progressive nature of the California income tax and its reliance on high income taxpayers whose incomes reflect the volatility of the stock and other financial markets. We'll have more details in early January when the governor delivers his budget proposal for 2024-25,
As always, new claims data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Hint: Freeze Your Credit or the Extraction from Your Wallet May Be Painful
UC recently learned that between May 27 and May 30, 2023, our dental insurance carrier, Delta Dental, experienced a data breach in their MOVEit file-transfer software program. (This incident is separate from the Delta Dental/Orrick breach that occurred in March of this year). This newly reported Delta Dental breach impacted many organizations, including corporations, government agencies, insurance providers, financial institutions, state education systems and other entities, and more than 6.9 million people, including approximately 190,000 UC employees, retirees and dependents.
The breach compromised personal identifying information including name, address, social security number, date of birth and health care information.
Delta Dental has been working with local and federal law enforcement and third-party vendors to investigate this incident, to assess the information that has been compromised, and to limit the release of stolen information. They will mail letters to all affected individuals within 10 business days.
If you receive such a letter, it will detail the type of information that was compromised in your account, as well as instructions and a pin number for enrolling in 24 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection through Kroll.
UC is monitoring this situation closely and will inform the community if we learn of any further details.
If you have questions about the breach, or need additional information on the identity theft protection program, the Kroll customer service team is available Monday through Friday at 1-800-693-2571, from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (PT), with the exception of holiday closures on Dec. 25, 2023, and Jan. 1, 2024. Please note that UCPath Center and UC Retirement Administration Service Center (RASC) representatives do not have additional details regarding this incident.
What you should do to protect your personal and financial information:
If you receive a letter from Delta Dental, take advantage of the free credit monitoring and identity theft protection: Information and a unique pin code for registering will be contained in the letter from Delta Dental. You must activate this protection within 90 days of receiving the letter.
Monitor and set up alerts for bank account(s): Monitor your bank account(s) for suspicious transactions and report any to your bank. Ask the bank for online monitoring and alerts on your account. This will give you early warning of any fraudulent transactions.
Watch out for suspicious emails: It is possible that the person(s) behind this attack may send threatening mass emails in an attempt to scare people into giving them money. If you receive such an email, forward it to your local information security office or simply delete it. Please do not engage or respond.
Place a fraud alert on your credit file: We recommend you place a fraud alert on your credit file by contacting one of the three nationwide credit bureaus listed below. If a fraud alert is placed on a consumer’s credit file, certain identity verification steps must be taken prior to extending new credit.
https://www.equifax.com/personal/
Important reminders about protecting yourself: These incidents are reminders of the importance of doing everything possible to protect your online information. We recommend that you take the identity theft measures described at https://www.identitytheft.gov/databreach
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Source: https://mailchi.mp/ucop.edu/may-new-dimensions-553790.
The UC message recommends putting a fraud alert on your credit. Yours truly recommends going further and freezing your credit. It's better to stop fraud from occurring rather than being alerted about it possibly happening.
==
*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/12/delta-breach.html.
===
UPDATE of 1-9-2024: I’m Caitlin from Delta Dental of California and affiliates, it’s nice to e-meet you. I’m following up on the article you published on Dec. 23, 2023, and am hoping you can issue some corrections.
- Please amend all references of “Delta Dental” to “Delta Dental of California and affiliates” or “Delta Dental of California” in the title and body of the article. The broad “Delta Dental” refers to the Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA). They are two different companies. Delta Dental of California and affiliates provides quality oral health care to 45 million people across 15 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories. The Delta Dental Plans Association (“Delta Dental”) is a network of dental insurance companies composed of 39 independent Delta Dental member companies that operate in all 50 states and serves more than 80 million Americans.
- Will you please rephrase the last sentence in the first paragraph to accurately convey that Delta Dental of California and affiliates was one of thousands of organizations impacted by a global data security incident resulting from a previously unknown vulnerability in the widely used MOVEit file transfer software, made by Progress Software? Noting that Delta Dental of California and affiliates’ investigation found that approximately 7 million individuals were impacted. However, the overall impact of the MOVEit data breach is greater than that. TechCrunch reported a couple of weeks ago that the totality of the MOVEit breach has impacted almost 84 million individuals.
- In the third paragraph, the last sentence could be updated to, “They are in the process of mailing notification letters to impacted individuals.”
- In the fourth paragraph, please replace “pin number” with “membership number”.
UC Office of the President has updated the article on their website to reflect these changes: https://ucnet.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Caitlin
Caitlin Dong | Corporate Communications | cdong@delta.org
Delta Dental of California | 560 Mission Street, Suite 1300 | San Francisco, CA 94105
Don't Reply!
But if you get a text message such as the one shown here, do not respond.
It's a fraud. Only bad things can happen if you do respond.
Clue: Would the Postal Service really be sending you a text? Would the Postal Service even know your phone number? Would a message from the Postal Service come from "mailsac.com"?
Probably not.
Burying the Math Requirement Controversy?
Did the University of California Try to Bury a Consequential Vote on Math?
Chronicle of Higher Education, Stephanie M. Lee, 12-19-2023 via UCOP Daily News Clips, 12-20-23
This summer, a University of California panel voted to set the record straight on a controversial math admissions requirement. The vote had timely implications for K-12 schools across California: The state was days away from adopting new guidelines for math instruction, based partly on criteria that the UC system had been advertising. But the group did not disclose the vote right away. Emails obtained by The Chronicle show that after the committee’s July 7 meeting, members repeatedly pushed their chair, Barbara Knowlton, a psychologist at UCLA, to broadcast what they had decided: that courses billed as “data science” would no longer count as a substitute for algebra II, one of the UC system’s longstanding requirements. They cited widespread concerns that the courses were not preparing students for college-level math.
“Barbara, I think it would be dishonest to delete the language regarding the vote and withhold this information from the communication to the state Board of Education,” wrote one member of the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS), the UC faculty committee that oversees admissions policies. “We do not get to rewrite what took place.” But the group’s internal emails, obtained through public-records requests, show that to the chagrin of members, Knowlton proposed issuing a statement that left out any mention of the vote, instead saying merely that data science was under discussion. A UC spokesperson then issued a similar statement to the press and to the state Board of Education.
News of the committee’s vote first became public through media reports, including in The Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, and EdSource. The exchanges illustrate how the most technical debates in the so-called math wars can arouse strongly held passions between camps with the same goal: to expand the pipeline of students entering STEM. In this case, faculty members who felt they had raised important concerns about courses labeled as “data science” reportedly spoke of “a conspiracy to silence the committee.”
Knowlton said by email that she thought the vote “was not sufficiently thought through,” making it premature to communicate it to the education board. She also wrote that she “strongly disagreed” with any perception that she tried to hide the July 7 vote. Ryan King, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, said that BOARS had taken an “action” that “established a policy direction” for math admissions, “but key implementation details had not been determined at that time.”
“One of the university’s highest priorities is to ensure that California high-school students are fully informed about UC admissions requirements and prepared to apply and enroll at UC,” he said by email.
‘We Are Complicit’
The UC system has traditionally required applicants to pass at least three years of math, including a second year of algebra or algebra II. But in August 2021, citing a decision made the previous year, BOARS announced that the UC system would accept a broader array of advanced math courses that could be taken instead of algebra II, a move it called an “equity issue” that could help send more students to college. Data science was promoted as one of the alternatives.
Robert L. Gould, a UCLA statistics instructor who developed the course “Introduction to Data Science,” wrote in 2021 that alternative math pathways are “important because algebra II has a high failure rate.” He added, “Many educators are justifiably concerned that the calculus pathway institutionalizes racial inequities by decreasing the number of Black and Latino students in college,” and that data-science courses could help diversify enrollment “by strengthening connections between students’ everyday lives and their academic careers.”
Hundreds of courses labeled data science have popped up across California, offering a blend of math, namely statistics, and computer science. Data science in some form is available in high schools in 19 states, including California, Oregon, and Ohio, which offer it as an alternative to algebra II, according to Zarek Drozda, director of Data Science 4 Everyone, a group based at the University of Chicago. He noted that students in those states can take algebra II before or after data science, if they have the desire and the space in their schedules.
“We do not get to rewrite what took place.”
But California has not established guidelines for what these courses should teach. Some of the most popular courses, such as “Introduction to Data Science” and “Explorations in Data Science,” which was developed at a research center at Stanford University, contain little algebra II and do not require it as a prerequisite, according to their syllabi, even though UC admissions policy requires advanced math courses for juniors and seniors to “build upon” algebra II.
So critics, led by STEM professors and professionals, say that students could be unprepared to take math courses that require an understanding of algebra II concepts, like logarithms and trigonometric functions. To major in data science and other quantitative fields at a UC campus, students generally need to arrive able to take calculus. Professors from across the UC system began writing to BOARS last year to express their concerns. By this summer, complaints had poured in from faculty at the Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Riverside, and Santa Barbara campuses. The Academic Senate of the California State University system, which had adopted UC’s admissions requirements, passed a resolution that protested the “unilateral changes” that the UC system had apparently made.
On Friday, July 7, BOARS members gathered over Zoom to discuss their concerns about data-science courses and to hear from two UC professors with opposing views. The deadline for public comment for the third draft of the California math framework, which the state Board of Education had released the week before, was noon that day. The nonbinding policy said in part that data science could be offered in place of algebra II, citing the UC’s guidance.
Just before noon, BOARS sent a short statement to the state Board of Education saying there was “significant discussion” on data science. Then its members voted to no longer allow the current approved data-science courses to validate algebra II. They also voted to set up a work group to better define standards for advanced math, according to meeting minutes later posted online.
The day after the meeting, emails show, two members shared with the group a draft letter to send to the state Board of Education. The letter made clear that the group had unanimously voted “to remove existing data-science courses from the set of advanced mathematics courses that can substitute for algebra II,” a decision that was “effective immediately.” It explained that “the existing courses are not sufficiently rigorous and do not contain sufficient content in the topics of advanced algebra.”
On July 9, Knowlton proposed minor edits, some of which the authors made. The next day at 3 p.m., two days before the education board was to vote on the math framework, one author asked if the letter was ready to be sent, noting that “time is of the essence.” Knowlton responded that night with a new proposed statement of her own. Instead of mentioning the data-science vote, it echoed what the group had already said publicly — that data science was under “significant discussion” — and added that a work group would iron out the details.
The other BOARS members had also proposed recommending that the education board tweak the math framework in a few ways: Remove references to the UC allowing data science to stand in for algebra II and add language clarifying what math incoming UC students should know. But Knowlton told the group that it wasn’t worth suggesting the latter, as “the deadline has also passed for edits.” This did not go over well.
“On Friday we voted — unanimously — that current data-science courses no longer validate algebra II,” wrote Joshua Berke, a neurology professor at UC San Francisco, adding, “I ask that you ensure all public communications clearly, openly, unequivocally, and immediately convey this unanimous BOARS decision.” Others chimed in to agree. “If BOARS does not inform [the state Board of Education] about Friday’s vote and the additional problems with the [framework] language,” wrote Laura Giuliano, an economics professor at UC Santa Cruz, “then we are complicit in misleading California high-school students and creating barriers to their success as potential UC students.” Knowlton stood firm: “I do not think we have the power to do this.”
According to their mission statements, BOARS sets admission policies and a separate administrative office carries out those policies by approving courses that count toward the requirements. Knowlton argued that BOARS was assuming the authority of the latter. So she chose to “consider the vote” as an expression of “unanimous concern about data-science courses,” she wrote.
The group pushed back. “I do not believe it is up to you … to choose whether to implement this unanimous BOARS decision or not,” Berke wrote. (Berke did not return a request for comment.) Berke and others also expressed alarm about what they perceived as a lack of transparency. BOARS was not consistently approving meeting minutes, they wrote, and spotty record-keeping could potentially allow UC staff to incorrectly interpret the group’s decisions. “In light of the apparent disagreement over how to interpret what was voted on,” Giuliano wrote, “I would like to request a copy of the minutes and request that they not be formally approved — and the recording of the meeting not be deleted — without the consent of all BOARS members who were in attendance at Friday’s meeting.” (Giuliano declined to comment.)
Sophie Volpp, a comparative-literature professor at UC Berkeley, added, “I want to emphasize that it would truly be of grave consequence if we send a statement to the state Board of Education that misrepresents the content of a two-part vote.” (Volpp declined to comment.)
'A Conspiracy'
On the evening of Tuesday, July 11, The Chronicle reported that BOARS had voted to disqualify data science as an algebra II replacement, citing internal emails and people who attended the meeting. An hour later, an email from the chair of the UC Academic Senate admonished BOARS members that “protocols regarding confidentiality have been violated” and that sharing the group’s posts was “subject to disciplinary action.” Later that night, a UC spokesperson sent a statement to The Chronicle and other outlets, reiterating that BOARS had “continued an ongoing dialogue” about what courses would satisfy the math requirement and that it had voted to set up a work group.
When the state education board met the next day, the board president read the statement aloud. The board unanimously approved the math framework, which was edited at the last minute to remove references to the UC endorsing data science as an algebra II substitute. Knowlton told The Chronicle by email that “data science” was not an official category of courses used by admissions, so UC staff would not have had an easy way of sorting out which courses did or did not qualify, and that a work group consisting of subject experts was more qualified to determine those criteria. The vote also did not specify a timeline, which would have indicated to current UC applicants that their courses were suddenly ineligible, she wrote. “Some members perceive a conspiracy to silence the committee or to misrepresent its position.”
“Given the lack of clarity about how the motion would be implemented, it seemed that it would not be helpful to transmit to the [state Board of Education] at that point,” she said. James Steintrager, who was vice chair of the UC Academic Senate at the time, said by email that “at no point did the UC Office of the President hide the July vote.” From the Senate’s perspective, he wrote, “the action that was voted on was not implementable.”
On July 17, BOARS met again and doubled down on its July 7 vote. This time, it clarified some exceptions: Data-science courses that have algebra II as a prerequisite would be allowed, and high-schoolers who took data science in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years would have validated the algebra II requirement. Meeting minutes indicate that tensions were running high: “Some members perceive a conspiracy to silence the committee or to misrepresent its position.”
Knowlton told The Chronicle that the July 7 vote would be reported in the meeting minutes and that she was simply trying to formulate the vote “in a way that could be implemented.” Five months later, BOARS is still debating the future of data science. By the end of December, its math work group is planning to issue recommendations, including on what data-science courses should teach in order to qualify as advanced math, according to documents posted online. That won’t be the final step: It will meet with a group of Academic Senate members from the UC and CSU systems, as well as California’s community colleges, to “align expectations of college preparation in math.” A report with the work group’s recommendations is expected to be issued by May 2024.
King, the UC spokesperson, said that the university “remains committed to ensuring that all students aspiring to attend UC have ample advance notice to enroll in and complete all courses required for admission.”
Friday, December 22, 2023
UCLA out - USC in: UCLA could eventually be drawn back in
The future of collegiate athletics, for all anyone knows, was sealed a decade ago in a slew of union ballots that has never seen the light of day. Let’s travel back here for a moment to 2015, when a long-suffering labor movement by Northwestern athletes chasing employee status – led by quarterback Kain Colter – steamrolled all the way to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). According to a Sports Illustrated story a few years ago, players had assembled in 2014 at a hotel to cast votes in favor of unionizing. But in August a summer later, the NLRB unanimously declined to assert jurisdiction – anticlimactically ending a landscape-changing movement.
...Here’s the kicker, though: the NLRB came to that decision because it would essentially be too complicated to promote labor rights at one university, but not across an entire Big Ten conference or the NCAA. Importantly, they never ruled on whether or not those athletes were, in fact, employees.
...This is all relevant, ultimately, because of a quietly earth-shattering complaint being brought by the NLRB against USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA arguing USC’s “student-athletes” should be classified instead as employees. After an initial hearing on Zoom in early November, the trial will resume with in-person witness testimony on Monday.
It’s a case that could spiral into the weeds, a process likely to drag through appeals and discovery that Michael LeRoy – a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois – estimates could take anywhere from three to seven years. But that process will be hugely important in the direction of collegiate athletics. If the NLRB eventually rules in favor of classifying USC athletes as employees, it would set a precedent for players to be able to unionize and collectively bargain for wages and other protections at private universities...
In Sept. 2021, Jennifer Abruzzo – tabbed just a few months earlier by President Joe Biden as the NLRB’s general counsel – issued a memo advising her prosecutorial stance on collegiate athletes as having full employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act. That opened a door for Ramogi Huma, once a football player at UCLA and formerly on the front lines of the Northwestern fight, and the organization National College Players Association (NCPA) to file a complaint in 2022 against USC, UCLA, the Pac-12 and the NCAA to the NLRB – a complaint LeRoy said had to arise from athletes coming forward to discuss forming a union.
Eventually, Huma and the NCPA decided to drop charges against UCLA due to its status as a public university. And after a few months of investigation, the NLRB decided to file an official complaint in May that set the case against USC into motion...
Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/18/a-losing-hand-legal-experts-examine-uscs-push-against-players-being-classified-as-employees/.
Note that if the NLRB were to rule that student-athletes at private USC were employees, it is very likely that the California PERB (which covers public employees including at UC) would follow the precedent. Both schools are now, and will be, part of the same conference.
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Aftershock at Berkeley?
From the San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland leader disinvited from UC Berkeley talk due to Israel support
Rachel Swan 12-18-23
A UC Berkeley instructor disinvited Oakland city council member Dan Kalb from speaking to his environmental policy class in November, after students objected to Kalb’s social media posts in support of Israel. Kalb, a UC Berkeley alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in conservation of natural resources, was scheduled to deliver a talk on climate change on Nov. 21. The day before the lecture, instructor Kurt Spreyer sent Kalb an email asking him not to come after students submitted a letter to protest the council member’s appearance.
“Considering your active role in retweeting and spreading pro-Israeli propaganda, which often equates pro-Palestinian as ‘anti-Semitic,’ on social media, questions arise regarding the validity, legitimacy, and authenticity of your views in regard to the advocation of our community,” the letter read. It raised concerns about Kalb’s endorsements from Jewish organizations that support U.S. military funding for Israel.
Last month, Kalb and other Oakland city council members unanimously approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “It was disappointing,” Kalb said of the letter, adding that because he supports “the existence of Israel as a Jewish homeland,” he had been denied the opportunity to speak on an unrelated subject.
“One lesson that we have in politics is that you can disagree with somebody on something, but you have to work with them on other things,” the council member added. “The real question is not whether I and (the students) disagree on something regarding Israel; the real question is — is that a legitimate reason to not let me come and talk about climate change?”
He accepted Spreyer’s decision to cancel the talk, acknowledging that the instructor was under pressure and had tried — unsuccessfully — to get the students to back down. “I think he felt that if I showed up, I would never get a chance to talk about climate change,” Kalb said. “They would have pulled the discussion into the Middle East.”
Spreyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. A spokesperson for UC Berkeley criticized the instructor’s handling of the situation in a statement. “What happened in this class is not consistent with the university’s values, particularly because the class discussion had nothing to do with the war between Israel and Hamas,” the statement from university spokesperson Dan Mogulof read. It went on to say that UC Berkeley Provost Benjamin Hermalin learned about the matter on Dec. 12 and wrote to Kalb to express regret on behalf of university leadership. Additionally, officials at the Rausser College of Natural Resources met with the instructor “to ensure nothing like this will happen again,” the statement continued.
Hermalin will send a message to every dean and department head, reminding them of “Berkeley’s support for an open exchange of ideas, and our rejection of political litmus tests when it comes to who can speak in our classes,” the statement concluded, characterizing the cancellation of Kalb’s talk as a moment to discuss the dangers of censorship.
Whether this is the end of the story is unclear. Kalb was quoted as saying:
“If someone wants to go speak about climate change—they are an expert on climate change—what the hell does Israel or Zionism have to do with that? Why not put a yellow star on our sleeve? How about we do that, too?”
Quote via UCOP Daily News Clips 12-19-23 via https://www.jns.org/berkeley-students-accuse-oakland-councilman-of-environmental-apartheid/.
Aftershock at Harvard?
From Inside Higher Ed: Early undergraduate applications to Harvard fell by 17 percent this fall, according to data shared by the university. Harvard’s early-action program drew 7,921 applicants this cycle, compared to 9,553 last year. It’s a marked decline amid a sea of rising troubles for the institution.
Harvard came under fire earlier this month for President Claudine Gay’s responses during a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. And this summer the university lost a landmark Supreme Court case on affirmative action, resulting in a nationwide ban on the practice.
The news also comes as early admissions policies are under renewed scrutiny; many critics believe they give priority to wealthy, white students. However, nationwide early applications increased from pre-pandemic levels by 38 percent this fall, according to preliminary Common App data provided to Inside Higher Ed.
Harvard admitted 692 students via early action, a little less than 9 percent of the pool. The university did not release the racial or demographic breakdown of those students, as it did last year.
It might be noted that early applications were due BEFORE the controversial Congressional hearing at which Harvard's President Gay testified, although Harvard in particular had been receiving negative PR on the same issues in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Watch the Regents Health Services Meeting of Dec. 13
Given world events, you might have expected some references in public comments, but there were none. Perhaps the end of the quater/exam week explains it.
Public comments referred to requests to retain the name of St. Mary's Hospital in some way after it is absorbed by UC-San Francisco, use of bicycles, student health care services regarding birth control, and CARE centers. The rest of the morning session was closed.
In the afternoon, there was an approval of an executive pay matter for UC-Irvine and then there was an overview of UC Health by new EVP for UC Health David Rubin. In his remarks, he noted there would be a review of the rising costs of providing health insurance and health services to UC employees. (Recent price increases for UC health insurance had led to complaints.)
The open part of the afternoon meeting then turned to health "equity" efforts. Dr. Medell Briggs-Malonson pointed to health discrepancies such as death rates for various diseases and conditions. It was not entirely clear how UC would address these issues, apart from the care it provides to its patients. Various regents expressed a desire for metrics and goals in the future.
Finally, a student representative reported in healthcare available to students and a desire for student participation in the equity program.
As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy regarding the duration of retention.
You can see the morning session at:
The afternoon session is at:
The general website for the entire meeting is at:
https://archive.org/details/regents-health-services-committee-morning-12-13-2023.
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