The photo on the left shows Royce Hall in an early stage of construction as seen from the bridge over the ravine that then ran through the new Westwood campus. After the campus opened in 1929, we see the same view from the bridge on the right.
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Unclear
From the Sacramento Bee: California would become the first state in the nation to employ undocumented college students without legal work permits, pending a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The landmark legislation, Assembly Bill 2586, passed the Legislature in a final 41-7 Assembly vote on Monday. The governor, who has not stated a position on the bill, has until the end of September to sign or veto it. ...If signed, AB 2586 would direct the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems to employ students who, due to their legal status, often struggle to secure paid on-campus jobs, internships and research opportunities. These institutions would have to begin hiring students by January 2025.
“California is leading on an issue that, unfortunately, the rest of the country is failing,” Assemblyman David Alvarez, D-San Diego, said on Monday following the bill’s passing. Alvarez introduced the bill earlier this year after University of California leaders scrapped a plan to hire these undocumented students. UC leaders, many of whom are Newsom appointees, had cited legal concerns including loss of federal funding and the exposure of undocumented students and their families to prosecution and deportation. A legal analysis developed last year by UCLA scholars counters that argument, saying there is no federal law prohibiting the UC from hiring undocumented students.
Under Alavrez’s bill, the University of California Board of Regents would still need to pass a resolution allowing the hires before moving forward with any action. In February, the San Diego lawmaker said that he expected the resolution to be passed...
Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article291514870.html.
Note: The actual bill says its "provisions would apply to the University of California, unless it is found inapplicable to the University of California and then only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make them applicable." Good luck untangling that sentence! But it seems to leave the decision to the Regents - where it has been all along - and the Regents previously have endorsed the view that hiring undocumented students would put UC funding from the federal government in jeopardy. Nonetheless, the bill goes on to direct that "the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges shall treat the prohibition on hiring undocumented noncitizens in subdivision (a) of Section 1324a Section 1324a(a) of Title 8 of the United States Code as inapplicable because that provision does not apply to any branch of state government." Whether the legislature's declaration/interpretation changes anything is at best unclear. The outcome of the upcoming presidential election is unclear so it is unknown who will be president when the bill would come into force. Nor is it clear that the governor - who is an ex officio Regent - will sign the bill.
The bill is at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2586.
Friday, August 30, 2024
UC's New Approach to Labor Relations - Part 2
Part of the approach has been to take more control of the narrative as the image with this post illustrates.** There are news releases stating the UC's position. And, of course, there is the still pending lawsuit alleging breach of contract that ended the strike this past June.
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/06/ucs-new-approach-to-labor-relations.html.
Broxton
By September, Broxton Avenue will only be accessible on foot, marking the beginning of a two-year trial period initiated by the Westwood Village Improvement Association that has the potential to become a permanent change.
Michael Russell, the executive director at the WVIA, said the association has planned events and programming to draw crowds to the new plaza, including a Cinema Under the Stars event with live music, raffles, activities and a 20-foot inflatable screen, as well as a vintage clothing market every third Friday of the month...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2024/08/29/new-pedestrian-only-broxton-plaza-aims-to-revitalize-westwood.
Crates
Before the Janss Steps - which apparently were never officially named the Janss Steps - were completed, there was some kind of crate structure constructed to get up the hill. No, I can't explain it further.
Team Problems
Source: The Rise of Teamwork and Career Prospects in Academic Science, by Mabel Andalón, Catherine de Fontenay, Donna K. Ginther & Kwanghui Lim, NBER Working Paper 32827, August 2024: https://www.nber.org/papers/w32827. [If you have a UC email address, you should be able to obtain the full paper from the link.]
Thursday, August 29, 2024
UC-Santa Cruz Enrollment Growth Lawsuit
Another environmental lawsuit against enrollment growth at UC, this one at UC-Santa Cruz, somewhat similar to one at Berkeley which led to legislative action to reverse a court decision. Could the same thing happen at Santa Cruz?
From Lookout Santa Cruz: A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge published a decision Monday in favor of the City of Santa Cruz in a lawsuit filed against UC Santa Cruz and the University of California Board of Regents. City of Santa Cruz attorney Anthony Condotti told Lookout the judge agreed with the city’s argument that the university’s environmental analysis of its enrollment growth was insufficient.Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Timothy Schmal sided with the City of Santa Cruz on Monday in a suit filed against UC Santa Cruz over the impact increased student enrollment would have on housing affordability and other community issues. Schmal ruled that an environmental analysis UCSC submitted with its Long Range Development Plan was “deficient.”
City Attorney Anthony Condotti said a hearing on the case is scheduled for Thursday. Condotti expects the judge will lay out next steps, including likely calling on the University of California Board of Regents to rescind its approval of the environmental analysis, known as an environmental impact report, or EIR, and the Long Range Development Plan.
...In February 2022, the City of Santa Cruz filed a lawsuit against UCSC over the university’s plan to increase enrollment by an additional 8,500 students by 2040. The plan, called the Long Range Development Plan, or LRDP, and its environmental impact report were approved by the UC board of regents in 2021. After the approvals, the city, county and a local group filed lawsuits – since consolidated into one lawsuit – over potential worsening impacts on the region’s housing market.
They argued that UCSC’s plans don’t sufficiently analyze and consider the impact on the surrounding community if the university failed to create housing for all of its projected additional students...
Condotti said he thinks it’s likely that the UC board of regents will appeal the decision...
Full story at https://lookout.co/judge-uc-santa-cruz-failed-to-gauge-impact-of-enrollment-growth/.
The Mask "Ban" at UC
On the mask "ban" (from the Daily Cal):
...UCOP spokesperson Stett Holbrook clarified in an email that while there is no masking ban, President Drake’s policy addresses mask prohibition for those who intend to intimidate another person or group, or to evade recognition and identification when violating the law. “Students and employees could be disciplined in accordance with the policies that apply to them, if they are found to be masking for the purpose of concealing their identity while violating law or policy,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof in an email...
However, he emphasized that repercussions will be determined on a case-by-case basis. In order to differentiate between protesters who wear a mask for medical or “other permissible reasons” and those hiding their identities, Holbrook said that campus officials will identify the “intent behind their use.” ...
Holbrook said that while UCOP’s mask policy is supported by both UC and state law, they will surveil doxxing reports. In addition, Mogulof noted that the policy does not explicitly ban masks in order to prevent doxxing, while stressing that protesters must follow UC policy and law when wearing masks. If it is determined that the wearer’s purpose was to “evade identification,” the offenders will be directed to “modify their behavior” and take disciplinary action, according to Holbrook.
“The University’s actions aim to protect UC’s time-honored tradition of free speech and cultivate a community that is free from intimidation, obstruction and public safety risks that hinder our academic, research and public service mission,” Holbrook said.
Note: State law:
California Code, Penal Code - PEN § 185
Section One Hundred and Eighty-five. It shall be unlawful for any person to wear any mask, false whiskers, or any personal disguise (whether complete or partial) for the purpose of:
One--Evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of any public offense.
Two--Concealment, flight, or escape, when charged with, arrested for, or convicted of, any public offense. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
Source: https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-185/.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
What the future may bring...
Coming soon in a classroom to you! (???) ...In the [UCLA] subcommittee on modernizing the classroom, there are 10 of us looking at the current state of our classrooms. We’re also looking at the trends in higher education to inform how we can make our classrooms more effective for new ways of teaching and learning. After this phase, we’ll be putting together our comprehensive strategic plan that my group then will be then implementing.
We’re going to look at social spaces and how we can integrate those into the residence halls. We’ve seen a big move toward group studies. If we look at the research library, there’s ergonomics to allow that collaboration. You have to be able to turn chairs around and push tables together easily. So, we’re really looking at this holistically. I think taking what we naturally want to do as humans and bringing that into teaching and learning is going to be how we can make it more effective.
For example, as more TVs are installed in residence halls, why not also integrate a hotel system that will allow students to flip on the TV in their room and scroll down a menu to watch their class from the day before? We could send messaging through it; they could order their Starbucks* through it because the system would start to understand them. You probably get in your car and it knows where you want to go because it gets used to your habits. Why not bring that into our campus experience? ...
Joe Way, UCLA’s executive director of digital spaces interviewed in:
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/to-modernize-classrooms-at-ucla-joe-way-is-looking-anywhere-but.
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*I guess the subcommittee is not boycotting Starbucks.
Big Donation
Interim Chancellor Hunt shared this message to the Bruin Community:
Dear Bruin Community:
With both gratitude and excitement, we write to announce a transformational $120 million gift commitment from inventor, surgeon and philanthropist Gary Michelson and his wife Alya to help kick-start the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, which will be housed at the recently announced UCLA Research Park. The gift, among the largest in UCLA’s history, designates $100 million to be shared equally between two of the institute’s entities – one focused on rapid vaccine development and the other on microbiome research in collaboration with the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center. An additional $20 million will be used to create an endowment supporting young scientists who are using novel processes to advance immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine discovery.
We are extremely thankful for the generosity and vision of Dr. and Mrs. Michelson, who believe deeply in UCLA’s mission and whose gift seeks to leverage UCLA’s strengths. With their remarkable gift, the Michelsons have made an unmistakable vote of confidence in UCLA’s ability to develop new therapies to fight cancer, neurological, cardiovascular, autoimmune and other diseases — and ultimately to advance human health for all...
Sincerely,
Darnell Hunt, Interim Chancellor
John C. Mazziotta, Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences CEO, UCLA Health
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
More to worry about...
Re: Experian – Response Plan for Anticipated Increase in Consumer Calls Due to National Public Data Breach
The recent National Public Data (NPD) breach that occurred in the spring and summer of 2024 has resulted in a significant amount of consumer personal information being exposed on the dark web. This breach is expected to trigger approximately 170 million dark web alerts in the coming weeks, likely leading to a substantial increase in participant calls to Experian’s call center; this influx of call volume may result in longer wait times.
To ensure UC participants receive clear guidance on these alerts and to minimize any potential disruption Experian is implementing the following actions:
- Enhanced CyberAgent® Dark Web Monitoring Alerts: Additional language will be included in Experian email alerts to provide clearer instructions and reassurance to participants
- Portal Dashboard Banner: A new banner will be added to the portal dashboard, offering members recommended next steps to take in response to the alerts
- Updated Call Center Resources: Experian is updating their call center's voice recording and phone tree to educate participants on the necessary steps to take and guide them to resources that can help, such as placing a fraud alert or credit freeze, without needing to speak directly to an agent
Experian contact number 1-888-397-3742.
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Players as Employees - Part 4
Dartmouth refused a collective bargaining order by a regional NLRB official. So the case will likely be tested, both at the full NLRB and the courts. From The Guardian last week:
The union representing the Dartmouth men’s basketball team on Wednesday filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the school because it has refused to negotiate with the players on a collective bargaining agreement. Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents other Dartmouth workers, said the failure to bargain was a violation of both labor law and the school’s own code of ethics...
A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled this spring that Dartmouth basketball players were employees of the school, clearing the way for them to unionize. The players then voted 13-2 to join SEIU Local 560. Dartmouth responded by announcing that it would not bargain with the players – a tactic designed to force the case into court in the hopes that a federal judge would overturn the NLRB decision. “This is the only lever Dartmouth has to get this matter reviewed by a federal court,” the school said at the time.
The school said players are “students whose educational program includes athletics.” ...
Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/21/dartmouth-basketball-players-union-unfair-labor-practices.
Monday, August 26, 2024
Dialog
Inside Higher Ed recently ran a lengthy item on university presidents wanting to promote "civic dialog" and colleges even offering courses in it, given the potential for campus unrest to resume in fall, due to a combination of the Israel-Gaza conflict and the upcoming presidential election.* In some cases, apparently, outside consultants are being hired.
We noted back in December that the UCLA medical school provided an online dialog on Israel-Gaza.** But the school put the recording in a difficult-to-access location that was available only to the med school. Yours truly, however, captured the audio and preserved it.*** Since it is just talking heads as the image shows, not much is lost without the video. This was done before UC President Drake provided a subsidy for such purposes, money which seems to have fallen into a dark hole. Nothing tangible has been produced, as far as yours truly can tell.
Perhaps President Drake might want to inquire about what happened to his money. Even better, perhaps something productive, visible, and accessible might be done with it.
Just a thought...
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**https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/12/uclas-med-school-has-dartmouth.html.
***You can see it at https://archive.org/details/ucla-med-school-dialogue-12-20-2023.
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Appealing was not appealing: Further Litigation might also not be appealing
There is a question about the timing of this appeal and withdrawal. The guidance was dated August 14th, the day after the injunction was issued. Its last sentence said there would be no appeal. But August 14th is also the date UCLA first filed the appeal that it later withdrew.*** Whether this is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing is unclear. Given the length and detail of the guidance, it seems unlikely that it was drafted and approved for circulation in one day; UCLA must have had some sense that an injunction would be issued despite its protest, and probably had the document ready to go just in case.
A larger question is whether UCLA is now intending to continue to litigate the underlying case. The university issued this statement in response to a question about its decision to withdraw the appeal:
“UCLA is committed to fostering an environment where every member of our community is safe and feels welcome. We are in full alignment with the court on that point. While we will always create conditions for the free expression of ideas, we will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia or any forms of discrimination or harassment. The University will forgo an appeal given UCLA’s own anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies and the current implementation of the directives issued by the UC Office of the President. We will abide by the injunction as this case makes its way through the courts.”****
So, since UCLA refers to the case making its way through the courts, it appears UCLA intends further litigation at this point. Of course, a settlement of this case - particularly since the university says it is in "full alignment" with at least some elements of the injunction - is possible. Letting the case go forward could lead to an airing of a lot dirty laundry which wouldn't make for good PR.
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/08/injunction-faq.html.
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Note: UCLA's original objection to the plaintiffs' request for an injunction is at:
The plaintiff's response to UCLA's objection is at:
The court's preliminary injunction of August 13th is at:
Let it not be said
Today we note another trend in higher ed: universities deciding they will no longer take official positions on events other than those immediately affecting the university. Here is the Johns Hopkins' version:
On institutional statements from the university
August 15, 2024
Dear Colleagues:
As leaders of Johns Hopkins University, we are often called upon in the face of global, national, or local occurrences to issue public statements on behalf of the institution. These requests are usually grounded in a sense of connection to the values and purpose of our university and our common humanity, and on the occasions when we have issued such statements, we have attempted to choose our topics and words carefully.
In recent years, requests for institutional statements have increased in frequency. The subjects upon which we have been urged to speak have varied widely—human rights violations, acts of discrimination, changes in health regulations, incidents of targeted violence, military conflicts, and natural disasters, among others, have led to calls for a university statement. Often those seeking such statements want us to identify and condemn the actors whom they regard as principally responsible. In other cases, those seeking statements simply desire an expression of concern or sympathy for the persons directly affected by the incident in question. However, we must recognize that taking institutional positions can interfere with the university’s central commitment to free inquiry and obligation to foster a diversity of perspectives within our academic community.
As is the case with many of our peers, we have been weighing the value, appropriateness, and limitations of such institutional statements. We—as university leaders and deans—have arrived at a strong commitment to make institutional statements only in the limited circumstances where an issue is clearly related to a direct, concrete, and demonstrable interest or function of the university. We write today to share our reasoning on this important issue and to clarify and deepen our commitment to a posture of restraint.
To begin, the very idea of an “official” position of the university on a social, scientific, or political issue runs counter to our foundational ethos—articulated most clearly in our Statement of Principles of Academic Freedom—to be a place where competing views are welcomed, challenged, and tested through dialogue and rigorous marshaling of evidence. The university is the site, more than any other institution in our society, where the process of truth-seeking through intense and open contestation is given pride of place. Although institutional statements may feel warranted, consoling, or, at times, even necessary to guide the university through difficult moments, experience has shown that they can be counterproductive, and even at odds with our core mission. These statements can too easily fuel a perception that there are approved or endorsed “institutional” views on political or social issues, which may, in fact, conflict with the views of members of our community. They risk interfering with our truth-seeking function and compromising the ethos and credibility of the institution in the process.
Additionally, institutional statements can be perceived as performative or rote: They can excuse the absence of meaningful action to bring the community together in challenging moments, take up difficult questions, and learn, discuss, and debate together in a mutually respectful and supportive manner. They also can unintentionally model for our students that the only, or best, avenue for engaging with issues is to make public statements, obscuring that there are more effective ways to make change in the world.
Moreover, such statements foster an expectation that the institution will speak on a wide range of topics and a perception that when we decline to do so, it is a signal that the issues or the concerns of affected community members are unworthy of our attention. Why do some domestic or international conflicts or crises command our institutional attention, while others are regarded as less salient? As the tide of statements has risen across the university, it has become clear that the more statements we publish, the more injurious the slight to members of our community when we decline to issue a statement in response to some other incident. This pattern not only undermines our commitment to inclusivity but also erodes trust in institutional leadership and, as noted earlier, compromises our core mission as a place of open inquiry and diverse perspectives.
For these reasons, we will restrict our communications to the standard we have articulated—limiting our statements to those occasions where an issue is clearly related to a direct, concrete, and demonstrable interest or function of the university. This means that not issuing a statement will be our default in the great majority of cases we are likely to face. We acknowledge that the line between those issues that implicate a core interest of the university and those where the impact is less direct is not always easily drawn. But the inevitability of hard cases is not an argument against the approach we are adopting, which we believe will address the lion’s share of cases that typically confront the university. Against this benchmark, for instance, a decision by government to reduce our permitted scope of activities might well justify a statement, but an event that has occurred internationally or nationally and that has no direct or concrete impact on our capacity to discharge our mission would not.
Critically, this posture of restraint does not mean the university will be unresponsive or unfeeling in the face of controversy or tragedy. Our priority is to respond to the events around us through the channels that are our university’s core strength and time-honored calling—creating knowledge, engaging with ideas, and bringing discoveries and care to the world. When an external event affects members of our community, our university’s focus will be to engage interested members of our community in educational and community programming that addresses the topic. Where appropriate, the university can offer direct support and engagement for those among us who are affected by the matter.
Further, our commitment as university leaders to embrace a policy of restraint is not meant to signal that members of the community should retreat from the world or the priorities of our institution. Indeed, our faculty, students, and staff engage the communities around us in countless productive ways, and we will continue to encourage our scholars to bring their ideas and expertise to inform the critical issues of the day. With the opening of the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, our capacity to serve as a platform to explore these issues has been magnified. And the university will remain unwavering in its commitment to values and aspirations in areas of strategic importance such as those embodied in foundational documents like the Ten for One and the Second Roadmap on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Finally, we are eager to engage faculty colleagues in an examination of whether this posture of restraint is appropriate not only for university leaders and deans but also for departments, centers and other units of the university. We will be working with the Johns Hopkins University Council to develop an answer to this question over the course of the fall term and to solicit broad input from the university, including divisional academic advisory boards and senates. Of course, the dedication to institutional restraint will not apply to any individual faculty member speaking in their own scholarly or personal capacity. Again, the intent of this commitment is to extend the broadest possible scope to the views and expressions of our faculty, bolstering the freedom for them to share their insights and perspectives without being concerned about running counter to an “institutional” stance.
Ours is an extraordinary institution, a place furthered by the courageous interrogation and boundless discovery of our colleagues. The project of the university as an institution is to create the conditions for that exploration, discovery, and engagement, even for controversial or disquieting ideas. Against that overarching and foundational goal, we believe that the policy of restraint to which we are now committing ourselves is timely, principled, and critical for the continuing relevance and mission of our university.
Sincerely,
Ron Daniels, President
Ray Jayawardhana, Provost
Fred Bronstein, Dean of the Peabody Institute
Christopher S. Celenza, James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
Theodore L. DeWeese, Dean of the Medical Faculty and CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Elisabeth M. Long, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Ellen J. MacKenzie, Dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health
Christopher C. Morphew, Dean of the School of Education
T.E. Schlesinger, Benjamin T. Rome Dean of the Whiting School of Engineering
James B. Steinberg, Dean of the School of Advanced International Studies
Sarah L. Szanton, Dean of the School of Nursing
Alexander Triantis, Dean of the Carey Business School
===
Source: https://president.jhu.edu/messages/2024/08/15/on-institutional-statements-from-the-university/.
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UC hasn't made a decision such as the one above. But the Regents did recently adopt a policy on departmental political statements which includes a requirement for a disclaimer stating such statements are not the official position of the university.
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Turning Left (on Wilshire)
Wilshire Bl near UCLA: Storm Drain Work
Summary
Metro contractors will continue working on the storm drain laterals and catch basin activities for the future Westwood/UCLA Station. Work will be done in phases with lane closures on Wilshire Bl between Veteran Av and Westwood Bl Utility services will be maintained.
For the next two, weeks work will be done at the intersection of Wilshire Bl and Westwood Bl causing reduction in lanes and left turn pockets leading into the intersection. As a result of the planned activities, left turn pockets will be impacted for eastbound and westbound traffic on Wilshire Bl, as well as northbound and southbound Westwood Bl. The work is starting tonight from 10 pm to 6 am.
Date:
Ongoing through August 31, 2024
Work hours:
Monday to Friday, 9 pm to 6 am and 9 am to 3:30 pm
Continuous Weekends, Friday to Monday, 9 pm to 6 am
Traffic Control:
Wilshire Bl will have lane reductions for eastbound traffic between Westwood Bl and Veteran Av.
Left turns may be closed at different times at Gayley Av and Westwood Bl.
Some intermittent crosswalk closures may be implemented. Three crosswalks will be open at each intersection at all times.
Noteworthy:
All work will receive the necessary permits and approvals.
Access to driveways, residences & businesses will always be maintained unless notified in advance.
Access for pedestrians will be maintained outside of construction zones.
Access for the Fire Department and emergency responders will be maintained.
Parking restrictions will be implemented in the immediate area of the work zone.
Construction is dynamic and schedules are subject to change.
- 24/7 Hotline: 213-922-6934
Source: https://cloud.sfmc.metro.net/GayleyAvandWilshireBl_StormDrainWork.
Do the Regents Read the News?
As blog readers will know, when UC was considering dropping the tests, the Academic Senate produced a report noting that in the way UC used the tests, they had the potential to increase enrollment diversity. Nonetheless, the Regents ignored the report - which they had requested - and dropped the tests.
Are the Regents now ignoring the news of other universities reversing course? Example:
Students applying for the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering will have to submit SAT or ACT scores beginning with those seeking admission for the fall 2026 semester, the university said on Friday. The policy change does not affect The Peabody Institute, which offers undergraduate degrees in music and fine arts. Students applying for fall 2025 admission are encouraged, but not required, to submit test scores.
Johns Hopkins was among many universities nationwide that stopped requiring standardized test scores during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hopkins announced a “test-optional” policy in June 2020. The policy was extended in February 2022, according to a university spokesperson. Test scores are an “imperfect” measure, according to a review published by Hopkins, but “stand out as a significant quantitative metric to assess the likelihood of students’ academic success” at the university.
“Test scores and GPA are just two components of the overall process, considered in context with multiple other factors, including an applicant’s circumstances and environment,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Some other institutions, like Yale University, have also recently announced they will once again require standardized test scores...
Full story at https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/higher-education/johns-hopkins-test-scores-LFWY5WNDDVHE3MJRI2ENG55ZFA/.
Reversing direction would suggest (Horrors! Horrors!) that a mistake was made. But apparently others are capable of doing it. Just saying...
Friday, August 23, 2024
Injunction FAQ
There is a statement in the last sentence that the university is NOT appealing the injunction, which seems contrary to news accounts and to a statement to the court of August 14th that an appeal is being filed. The statement may be a legalism; UCLA may be appealing the case but not the injunction.
UPDATE: Apparently, the appeal HAS been withdrawn:
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We have created an alternative source for downloading this document:
Now that's odd
Mayor Bass is saying the 2028 Olympics in LA will be carless. I'm not sure that will be literally possible, but LA Metro has released a map and video in response.
The map/video does not show UCLA as a site for anything. And the map and video do not include the subway extension now being dug along Wilshire Boulevard and the stations at Westwood and the VA.
You can see the video below:
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Santa Cruz as a Bellwether? - Part 2
In a Tuesday statement, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive said the 2024 fiscal year deficit was larger than officials initially projected. University officials said the campus will have to move forward with staff reductions but they didn’t provide details on how many or when.
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive on Tuesday said in a campus message that fiscal year 2024 closed with a larger deficit than expected, at $107 million, and that university officials are expecting another large deficit this year. “To fully address our budget shortfall, we will need to take additional steps this fiscal year, as well as in future years, to further reduce expenditures,” she wrote in the statement.
The university has used money in its reserves to ease past deficits, but because those reserves are now diminishing, Larive said campus officials will have to slow down hiring, not fill vacancies and implement layoffs, among other cost-cutting measures...
Full story at https://lookout.co/ucsc-chancellor-says-budget-deficit-larger-than-expected-layoffs-underway/.
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/08/santa-cruz-as-bellwether.html.
Creepy
In a document recently sent to the UC Provost by the Academic Planning Council, there is a discussion faculty "workload creep." An appendix to the document gives examples, many of which point to bureaucratic issues, computer systems that don't deliver, and mandatory training programs whose effects are not validated. We reproduce the appendix examples below:
Examples of faculty workload creep
Decisions made by higher level administrators without consultation have tremendous impacts. One faculty member reported that the UC Asset Protection Plan program (UCAPP) [equipment insurance coverage for repairs] was terminated. "The UCAPP program is unable to offer renewal terms and your coverage will terminate upon policy expiration." "Upon expiration of your UCAPP policy, if you desire to seek continuing coverage for your equipment, there are several alternative types of equipment maintenance management organizations that may be available to meet your needs." Thus up to the faculty to negotiate new terms. This kind of thing happens across campuses. One factor may be that administrators do not understand how, when, with what frequency, and why faculty use various systems.
The impact of student accommodation is overwhelming to some faculty. Reports from multiple faculty cite less than 40% attendance in classes and that students expect to receive help online to make up for the absences. This is outside of official accommodations. On some campuses there has been an increase in student affairs resources in light of increased student health needs, but often there is no corresponding support in the form of faculty resources. Nor is there help with managing student expectations.
Note: the well-documented increase in graduate student mental health needs affects faculty in myriad ways.
Human Resources and Hiring Practices. We no longer deal with people and the results are very bad. It is difficult to explain some positions, especially for short term undergrads, to HR staff in an easy way to get them hired. The back and forth and rejections that happen all take time. There are examples of postdoctoral researchers being hired and not getting access to the internet or lab training for weeks after their arrival. All of this requires additional faculty time. It is more difficult to hire GSRs. Additionally, bringing people on as consultants or paying stipends or honoraria has become harder. Among other impacts, this interferes with community-engaged research.
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Submitting Expenses
• Having to submit expenses/new hires/etc. in programs like Workfront (not sure if other UCs use this, but UCR does). At UCR, we are understaffed so often I will submit stuff on Workfront and then it will be months later, and I remember that the thing I submitted never got completed. I then must track down my request in Workfront and tag relevant folks to move it ahead. Sometimes this process repeats multiple times.
• Oracle is a disastrous system that has benefits for central accounting but nothing for the PIs or departmental accountants. Itemized spending is not available to monitor accounts, and there are multiple instances of accounts being overspent because of the failures of the system.
• Faculty encounter these systems as atypical users – often sporadic, with atypical uses, etc.
Given staff shortages at the department level, this means faculty are relearning systems over and over again, don’t know the shortcuts, etc. This is institutionally inefficient, as faculty spend more hours doing this work.
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Submitting Travel
• Oracle and Concur. Getting campus guests/visitors into concur. They need to be registered as vendors and the system is unwieldy and confusing for visitors (and these are faculty with PhDs mostly...). Our departmental staff can't help directly, and they are directed to contact customer service which apparently is not helpful. We cannot book plane tickets for visitors until they are registered, and the process has been dragging on for months! Some people have been able to register but others have had issues, and this is just unacceptable for a research university! I have spent hours sending emails back and forth and this is still not resolved adequately. This is just one example from a whole host of problems with the oracle transition.
• Oracle and Concur. Graduate student recruitment involves getting prospective students to campus. The office cannot prepay their airfare because of concur/oracle issues. This was standard practice before. It is faculty that are left trying to figure a way around this.
• Concur is a disaster that occupies considerable faculty time. First, it is like learning to walk every time when you only use the system very rarely. There is very limited administrative help and faculty flounder with entering data, getting rejected submissions with little or no explanation of the errors. It is also inflexible.
• Prior approval requests for travel authorized by FAO - why?
• Because submitting travel is challenging, faculty often can’t find the time to do it within the expected number of days/weeks/months after a trip. But then there’s another round of bureaucratic hurdles and sometimes shaming for being late. It should be noted that faculty are delaying their own reimbursements, often so as to prioritize other parts of our mission-driven work. Often, travel requires much money up front, out of pocket. Systems should help faculty get reimbursed quicker, rather than making it harder. And sending regular emails to multiple people whenever a submission is late (Concur) does no one any good.
• Reimbursement payments are being issued by check versus direct deposit, and multiple reimbursements are being combined into a single check with no explanation of what is being covered. Notably one faculty member reported having two checks stolen from their mailbox, resulting in further efforts to file an additional claim.
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UC Outside Activities Tracking System (OATS)
• Annual reporting
• Prior approval requests
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Time & Attendance
• Signing off on timesheets
• Needing to understand new rules for ASE and GSR timesheets Mandatory Trainings/Online Workshops
• For example, cyber security training is often comical in how silly the questions are (e.g., "someone randomly emails you and asks for your password. Should you give it to them?")
• Do these trainings really work, or do they allow the institution to say they did their best and point the finger at faculty, without fostering real institutional/cultural change? This is not meant to be a bitter question: I’d genuinely appreciate knowing the results of research on this.
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Multiple Committees, Many meetings
• Involves time and effort.
• Some committees are useful and have clear intentions (this one, for example, has a clear purpose and goal).
• Others, however, feel more like busy-work and often the meetings could have been an email.
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Increase in the number of questions received via email
• When I teach undergrad courses, I regularly have multiple people asking me (for an in person, synchronous course), "is attendance mandatory? I signed up even though I have work during class and can't come."
• I’m teaching 300 undergrads this quarter – the email volume is very difficult to handle, and students are less likely than they were years ago (in my experience) to ask peers or TAs for assistance before turning to the instructor. There’s a general expectation of faculty responsiveness that’s very different from how it was a generation ago, yet nothing is compensating for or redirecting these expectations.
• Is email broken? What can we do? I could spend 40 hours a week on email, and it’s not clear I’d ever catch up.
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Compliance Culture
• It seems like the pendulum has swung hard in the direction of compliance culture (with an emphasis on culture – this isn’t just about outside-imposed compliance requirements). Justifying uses for software purchases, etc. takes too much time and effort. What if we had a petty cash system? What if we erred on the side of assuming that faculty are doing things a certain way because it’s best for the mission?
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Research Administration
• Campuses are incentivizing faculty to do things by creating lots of small opportunities for grants, grad student awards, etc. However, each of these must be applied for. I routinely pass up such opportunities because I don’t think it’s worth my time to spend many hours on an application for, say, $1000. I routinely pay for research expenses out of pocket because it’s so much easier, but that’s not good for anyone. When grad students are applying and applying, we’re processing recommendation letters galore.
• Research administration rules are a better fit for lab research than for community-based research, ethnographic fieldwork, and the like. There’s little understanding of the latter, creating additional barriers.
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Increase in Student-Faculty Ratio
• The student-to-faculty ratio is going in the wrong direction on at least some campuses. Meanwhile, we’re supposed to grow enrollments. Classes get bigger, email loads grow, and tenure density decreases. With fewer ladder-rank faculty, undergrad and grad student research needs increase for each ladder faculty member, so there are more theses, capstone projects, etc. We’re doing more with fewer people. The numbers are stark on some campuses.
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Commute times cut into work
• On some campuses, faculty need to live further away from campus because of escalating housing prices. The commute time cuts into work and dulls the soul, for many. It contributes to making caregiving harder, too, leading to increased caregiving costs and/or a hit to wellbeing.
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Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Big - Part 2
It has now happened. The Daily Cal reports the new dorm - dubbed the Helen Diller Anchor House - has indeed opened today.**
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/08/big.html.
Watch the August 14, 2024 Session of the Regents' Health Services Committee
The meeting began with public comments. A group from the Teamsters complained about assignmnent for which sufficient training had not been provided. There were complaints in addition about antisemitism at UC-San Francisco and - related to an item on clinical training for medical students - complaints about improper programming relted to the Israel-Gaza conflict at UCLA. There were also pro-Palestine remarks and support for mental health services.
UC President Drake praised UC-Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang who is retiring. An approval was made for planning of a new medical facility for UC-San Diego.
Clinical training of med students was discussed, largely from the viewpoint of finding sites (hospitals) for clinical rotations in underserved area, particularly the Inland Empire and the San Juaquin Valley. Apparently, there are legal barriers to paying hospitals to take UC med students as well as concern for the quality of care provided at some facilities. It might be possible to deal with the payment issue via legislative means. It was also suggested that sites might be found that were not in the immediate area, but that approach would require dealing with housing for the students.
Finally, there was discussion of "integrative health" in various UC facilities including UCLA. What that seemed to mean was "eastern" therapies such as acupuncture and a "whole patient" approach which seemed to mean not just focusing on particular organs or systems.
As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings indefinitely since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention. You can find the August 14th meeting at:
https://archive.org/details/health-services-committee-10-am.
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Just so you know
Apparently, some folks are willing to make that bet.
Other university presidents you can bet on:
Northwestern, Indiana, Rutgers, U of North Carolina, and Princeton. (No UCs seem to be on offer.)
Just a little factoid for a slow news day.
More details at https://kalshi.com/markets/unipresidents/university-presidents-ousted.