The Forecast

The UCLA Anderson Forecast met yesterday on campus to discuss the economic outlook, despite gaps in federal data caused by the government shutdown.

From a news release by the Anderson School: The December 2025 UCLA Anderson Forecast for the United States and California describe a situation with two economic trends currently working in opposition. In some sectors of the economy, ongoing and optimistic investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure and rising income among high-wealth households drive the economy, while tariff-induced inflation, policy-driven uncertainty and a gradually weakening labor market indicate signs of sectoral weakness. The result is an economy expected to soften through the first quarter of 2026 before regaining strength later in the year.

In California, the outlook is further complicated by a bifurcated economy: AI, aerospace and other high-productivity

sectors continue to expand, while construction, non-durable goods, leisure and hospitality, and government-funded services face significant headwinds. Deportations, elevated input costs, and weak job growth prolong an employment recession expected to last into early 2026, even as the state continues to outpace the nation in overall productivity.

On balance, the Forecast does not expect an immediate downturn or an immediate resurgence. Instead, both the nation and the state are poised to muddle through early 2026 before experiencing stronger growth in 2026 and 2027...

Full news release at https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/press-releases/us-economy-slow-through-early-2026-while-california-navigates-two-speed-recovery.

You can see the full forecast conference - which includes discussion of cryptocurrency and private equity - at the link below:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks0Wu0fw3FI.

Straws in the Wind - Part 181

From the Daily Cal: UC Berkeley has indefinitely closed the Multicultural Community Center, a space known to students as the MCC that offers cross-cultural community building, due to “criticism received from a number of campus stakeholders.” The MCC... has been closed since the beginning of summer, and campus administrators have offered no solid return date. Interns at the center — who were initially not informed of the indefinite closure — were told by professional staff that the space would remain closed during conversations with the chancellor’s office regarding its current operating procedures. 

...The center had been used in the past as a meeting and organizing space for pro-Palestinian groups during the 2024 Free Palestine Encampments. Students had also faced pressure from administrators to remove signs from windows in support of progressive causes, to which they complied. 

...“We’re caught up in this antisemitism debate that’s going across all university campuses,” [a] junior intern said. “Because of the signage that was on our walls — even though we were open to let anyone put stuff on our walls — they (decided to) not have the space basically be open for any group, and label the campus as having transgender wellness initiatives, DEI-related initiatives and support for things that could be conflated with antisemitism.” 

...The MCC has been under scrutiny for alleged antisemitism. Interns mentioned that there were multiple instances of students coming into the space to confront interns regarding perceptions of antisemitism...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/student-life/uc-berkeley-administration-silently-shutters-student-multicultural-space/article_f1141eab-1212-46c0-a749-f5c7e0bf50ed.html.

Partial Restoration

You'd have to be a really faithful reader of this blog and someone with a very good memory to recall our postings from back in 2023 about UC-Berkeley's attempt to close an anthropology library. It resulted in an occupation by students and a promise of some kind of reading room.* Two years later, we have a follow-up:

From the Daily Cal: UC Berkeley’s anthropology department opened the refurbished Constance Chiang Pan Anthropology Reading Room, or CCPARR, through a gift from anthropology and economics alumna Constance Chiang Pan. Due to budget cuts, campus closed the original Anthropology Library as a circulating library in January 2023, which was considered a “big loss” for the campus and department, according to anthropology department chair Sabrina Agarwal... The initial announcement about the library’s closure in 2023 led to a months-long occupation and protest from students and faculty. Eventually, campus and then-Chancellor Carol Christ allowed the department of anthropology to keep the space to create a reading room...

It took almost eight months for the library staff to help retain and reorganize the “invaluable” collection of 20,000 historical anthropological volumes, selection of emeriti books and the UC Berkeley Folklore Archive that was saved by campus’s smaller renovation funds, according to Agarwal. The other 10,000 to 15,000 books were placed in another campus library or can be obtained at the Northern Regional Library Facility, where UC Berkeley archives are stored...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/following-spring-2023-protests-anthropology-library-reopens-as-constance-chiang-pan-reading-room/article_8d9d0b46-c8e7-4a32-ad05-bfc7240478e8.html. 

===

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/05/special-libraries-at-berkeley-going.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 180

From the Cavalier Daily: Some University [of Virginia] faculty have expressed skepticism about the intentions behind Freedom of Information Act requests they have received in recent years from Virginia residents and organizations. While acknowledging the right of individuals and organizations to file FOIA requests to obtain public records — such as course syllabi or emails — some faculty also claim that the law has been weaponized and created a sense of curriculum policing at the University.

According to the Code of Virginia, the Virginia FOIA law ensures access to “public records in the custody of a public body or its officers and employees.” FOIA says that “all public records shall be available for inspection and copying upon request,” unless there is an exemption invoked. Exemptions include certain personnel records, scholastic records, health records or other information which is shared with a public institution under the condition of confidentiality. Any Virginia citizen can file a FOIA request to receive records from a state public body.

...According to Assoc. Sociology Prof. Ian Mullins, recently some FOIA requests have targeted faculty within the College of Arts and Sciences Engagements program. The Engagements program is a yearlong sequence of small, seminar style courses for first-year College students that aims to introduce them to the liberal arts and sciences. Janet Spittler, Engagements program co-director and associate religious studies professor, confirmed via an email statement to The Cavalier Daily that every course in the Engaging Aesthetics Pillar — one of four pillars in the program which focuses on exploring the world through “the lens of human creativity” — has received a FOIA request for its syllabi. Spittler was not able to confirm when these requests were filed, nor whether the requests were limited to the Fall 2025 semester or not.

...Although [Media Studies Prof. Robin Means] Coleman emphasized that individuals and organizations have the right to access these records, and that these rights are crucial for holding public institutions accountable, she also stressed that this right has been abused to target certain offices and faculty at universities across the country. “I'm not opposed in any way to the spirit [or] the principles of what's behind [open records requests],” Coleman said. “The challenge that folks are facing is navigating the weaponization of that really useful tool … It becomes sort of de facto censorship that faculty have to worry about.” ...

Full story at https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/11/faculty-question-the-motives-behind-foia-requests-for-course-materials-text-messages.

Note: UC emails, etc., are subject to Public Records requests. You should not assume privacy.

===================

From the NY Times: A University of Oklahoma student says she is the victim of religious discrimination because a psychology instructor gave her a zero for an essay that cited the Bible and said that “the lie that there are multiple genders” is “demonic.” The complaint by the student, Samantha Fulnecky, follows a series of similar conflicts at colleges around the country over how professors should talk about gender in the classroom, a battle in which each side insists it is protecting academic freedom and First Amendment rights.

The instructor who flunked Ms. Fulnecky on the essay has been placed on administrative leave while the school investigates the episode, according to a statement the University of Oklahoma posted on social media. The instructor is a graduate student at the university. Dozens of professors have lost their jobs or been disciplined in recent months over issues related to political speech, often because of posts on social media. Texas A&M University fired a faculty member who was accused of teaching a course that recognized more than two genders, after a video of her discussing gender in class was posted online.

...The instructor, who was not named in the university’s statement, declined to comment, writing in an email that, “as advised by my lawyer, I will not be making any public statements at this time.” ...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/oklahoma-bible-essay-gender-teasing-zero.html.

In case you were confused...

As we noted in an earlier post, UCLA Health has created its own Medicare Advantage plan for those eligible for Medicare. However, the UCLA plan is NOT an option for those who are eligible for UC retiree health.

Many UC retirees may have received letters such as this one. At least 6 variants have appeared at the mailing address of yours truly. The fact that the letters say UCLA Health on the top and come at the same time that UC has its open enrollment was confusing. This blog warned its readers that if they were recipients of UC retiree health insurance, they should not sign up for the UCLA plan thinking it was an option.* Furthermore, on the reverse side of the letter shown, there is a cautionary note in small print indicating that those under any kind of employer-based group plan should not be enrolling in the UCLA plan. The UCLA plan is for individuals, not groups.

If you somehow signed up anyway despite these warnings, you will want to undo what you did.

===

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/reminder-dont-choose-whats-not-on-menu.html.

I never promised you a Rose Bowl? - Part 3 (Moving on edition)

Excerpt from Ben Bolch, sports columnist, LA Times:

 ...Who’s driving the proposed move to SoFi Stadium and what do the numbers look like? There’s been lots of chatter about chief financial officer Steven Agostini trying to clean up the financial mess you both inherited within the athletic department. I’m assuming there have been extensive calculations about a Rose Bowl payout and how much more money you’d make playing at SoFi Stadium.

But how much of that is SoFi spin and aren’t you worried that a judge could make you pay so much in damages that the whole thing would be a net negative? Yes, you’d presumably get suite revenue at SoFi Stadium, but would anyone want to buy one given what we’ve seen from this football team over the last decade? Shouldn’t you just go back to the Rose Bowl, football helmet in hand, and ask for a lease renegotiation that satisfies both sides?

Are you sure a big enough chunk of the fan base is on board with a move to Inglewood to justify such a jarring and abrupt abandonment of the school’s longtime home? If you indeed left the Rose Bowl, how would you compensate donors who contributed major gifts to the stadium for capital improvements on the premise that the Bruins would be a tenant through the 2043 season? And why would any business entity ever feel comfortable signing a long-term lease with the school again? ...

Full column at https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/newsletter/2025-11-24/ucla-unlocked-nov-24.

NOTE: As blog readers will know, the Academic Senate is already unhappy about lack of disclosure of financial information by Murphy Hall. A screw-up in the Rose Bowl/SoFi Stadium matter could end up costing big bucks. What exactly are the projections for staying in the Rose Bowl, moving to SoFi, and for potential legal liability costs? And what about the issue - raised above - about soliciting future donations from those "who contributed major gifts to the [Rose Bowl] for capital improvements on the promise that the Bruins would be a tenant through the 2043 season"? Enquiring minds want to know.

And meanwhile:

From the Bruin (excerpt):

...The City of Pasadena and the [Rose Bowl Operating Company] alleged in their TRO application that UCLA met with SoFi representatives as early as March 2025. They also claimed that UCLA informed the plaintiffs’ council Oct. 18 that it was “moving on” from the Rose Bowl...

Source: https://dailybruin.com/2025/11/29/it-is-our-home-students-react-to-uclas-possible-move-to-sofi-stadium.

Moving on? Seems to be the trend:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKfEDZ8Htjk.

Particularly true when you have no truck with staying:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYrwtpZ8IfY.

Straws in the Wind - Part 179

From Inside Higher Ed: As Duke University navigates a $108 million federal research funding freeze and multiple investigations by the Trump administration, administrators want faculty to avoid talking to the media about institutional operations, The Chronicle, Duke’s student newspaper reported... According to an August email obtained by The Chronicle, Jenny Edmonds, associate dean of communications and marketing at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, encouraged faculty to “continue to engage with the media to disseminate [their] research as [they] have always done,” while also cautioning that “media attention to institutions of higher education and discussions about institutional responses to policy changes have become more prominent than ever.”

...At an Academic Council meeting in October, Duke’s president, Vincent Price, and council chair, Mark Anthony Neal, commended faculty members for not speaking to a New York Times reporter; the reporter had visited the campus while working on a story about the Trump administration targeting Duke’s diversity, equity and inclusion program...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/26/duke-asked-some-faculty-avoid-talking-media.

From Inside Higher Ed: Hackers who attacked Dartmouth College in August stole information concerning more than 35,000 people from multiple states, according to The Record from Recorded Future News. The security breach was part of a larger attack by cybercriminals against Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) software, which Dartmouth and other higher ed institutions use to manage operations. Dartmouth, which confirmed the leak to SecurityWeek last week, discovered in late October that hackers had obtained files that contained individuals’ personal and financial details, including Social Security numbers. College administrators have since notified authorities in California, Maine, New Hampshire and Texas that residents of their states have been impacted...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/12/01/dartmouth-latest-college-be-targeted-hackers.

All in 30 Minutes - Part 3

The Regents are having yet another 30-minute meeting today about you-know-what, to which you are not invited:

November 29, 2025

TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA:

Because the membership of the Advisory Group on Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues (“Advisory Group”) includes five members of the Regents’ Governance Committee, there exists the potential for having present a quorum of a Regents’ Committee when the advisory committee meets.

This notice of meeting is served in order to comply fully with pertinent open meeting laws.

On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, there will be a Closed Session, Special Meeting of the Regents’ Governance Committee concurrent with the Advisory Group to discuss Research and Programs Funding Legal Issues 

The meeting will convene at 4:00 p.m. at 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland and adjourn at approximately 4:30 p.m.

(Advisory Group members: Regents Anguiano, Cohen, Hernandez, Leib, Matosantos, Milliken, Reilly, Robinson, Sarris, and Sures)

---

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/dec25/federal-12.2.2025.pdf.

Watch the Regents Meeting of Nov. 20, 2025

As noted in a post last Saturday, the big event of the November 18-20 Regents meetings was the approval of the cohort tuition plan on November 19. Thus, the business conducted on November 20 was more of a mopping up. There were public comments which mainly repeated themes heard on the previous two days: Opposition to a deal with the feds, support for undocumented and international students including issues of CalFresh, funding for disabled students, divestment from military, divestment from Israel, pro-Israel, low staff morale, Teamsters negotiations, post-doc funding, ICE on campus. 

Other topics included gender-affirming care, military equipment for UC police, opposition to the proposed investment in the Big Ten athletic conference and divestment from Blackstone (which - as faithful blog readers will know - got a quasi-bailout from UC in exchange for a promise of above-market returns). There may have been some confusion between Blackstone and Blackrock, two separate firms with similar names in the comments. (???) AFSCME negotiations were also mentioned.

The undergraduate and graduate students leaders both complained of lack of access to Milliken and the campus chancellors. Undergraduate complaints also included lack of access to collective bargaining sessions, lack of data on penalties imposed for protests, notification of ICE on campus. Proposals included having the newly-approved 1% surcharge on tuition go to student services and zero-cost textbooks. Graduate student complaints concerned data sharing with the feds, opposition to the tuition hike, lack of access to chancellors, a problem with Clery crime notifications, and ICE-on-campus notifications.

There was then a brief meeting of Compliance and Audit which consisted of presentation of annual and fiscal audit reports. It was noted that there is increased complexity in legal rules regarding research security with regard to certain foreign countries and companies. The Governance Committee then dealt with an executive pay adjustment and regental meeting dates for 2027. Finally, the full board reconvened to approve the various committee recommendations.

As always, we preserve Regents meetings indefinitely since the Regents have no policy on retention. The general site for the Nov. 20 meeting is at:

https://archive.org/details/31-regents-board-11-20-2025

The initial board meeting is at:

https://archive.org/download/31-regents-board-11-20-2025/31-Regents%20Board%2011-20-2025.mp4

Compliance and Audit, Governance, and the second board meeting are at:

https://archive.org/download/31-regents-board-11-20-2025/32-Regents%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%20Committee%2C%20Governance%20Committee%2C%20Board%2011-20-2025.mp4

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 95 (An off-the-shelf observation)

Our previous post on this blog dealt with partial restoration of a library at Berkeley. But what is the library situation at Harvard?

Well, according to an article in the Harvard Crimson magazine, freshmen at Harvard are supposed to be introduced to the very large library there through a special program:

"When new students arrive at Harvard, they face not only the steep adjustment to coursework and campus life, but also the challenge that comes with navigating the world’s largest academic library. To alleviate this, the First-Year Librarians program was born: an initiative that pairs groups of freshmen with a personal librarian... As librarian Lee LaFleur explains, the objective is to act as an “orientation lens” so that students can “learn about their new library, learn about the role of librarians in academia.” But despite these ambitious goals, most first-years on campus seem unaware of the initiative..."*

Perhaps if the reporters had spent more time with the first-year librarians, they would have found that "Shelf" is not a verb.

Just an impolite thought that yours truly will immediately shelve, and give them an A.**

===

*https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/27/first-year-librarians/.

**https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/us/harvard-students-absenteeism.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 178

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Columbia is absent from the list of 38 universities facing proposed suspensions from a Department of State federal research partnership program, according to an internal memo... The memo and an attached spreadsheet indicate that the department is looking to suspend institutions from partnering with its Diplomacy Lab program effective Jan. 1, 2026, because they “openly engage in DEI hiring practices.” Diplomacy Lab is an initiative between the federal government and over 60 universities that aims to harness “the expertise and fresh perspectives of students and faculty members to conduct research on key foreign policy topics,” according to an information sheet about the program.

A State Department spokesperson told Spectator that all agency programs are under review to ensure they are aligned with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration. The spreadsheet evaluated the hiring practices of 75 universities on a 4-point, color-coded scale... Universities showing “clear DEI hiring policy” were marked red for suspension from the program, whereas institutions showing “merit-based hiring with no evidence of DEI” were marked in green.

...In its July 23 $221 million settlement with the federal government, Columbia pledged not to consider “race, color, sex or national origin” as a factor in its hiring decisions. Columbia has also committed to submitting admissions data to the federal government, beginning with an initial October report...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/11/23/columbia-set-to-retain-embattled-state-department-research-partnership-as-other-universities-face-potential-suspensions-over-dei-hiring-practices/.

From The Guardian: More than three dozen universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke have their participation in a federal research partnership on the chopping block after the state department proposed to suspend them over their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices. Last week, the Guardian obtained an internal memo and spreadsheet showing that the state department is moving to exclude 38 institutions from the Diplomacy Lab program, which pairs university researchers with state department policy offices on foreign policy projects. The suspensions would take effect on 1 January, and because the list is not finalized, the schools have not yet been informed.

The targeted schools include elite universities such as Stanford University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Southern California, as well as American University, George Washington University, Syracuse University and several University of California campuses. 

Universities recommended to remain include Columbia University, MIT, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin. Several of these moved to comply with the administration’s anti-DEI demands earlier this year – Columbia agreed in July to pay more than $200m to the federal government and pledged not to use “race, color, sex or national origin” in hiring decisions, while the University of Virginia’s president resigned in June after the justice department demanded he step down over the school’s diversity practices...

Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/25/us-universities-cuts-dei-state-department.

The Northwestern Deal

Yesterday, in our "Straws in the Wind" posting, we noted that a deal between the feds and Northwestern was reportedly near. Now it is official.

From the NY Times: Northwestern agreed to pay $75 million to the federal government in a deal reached on Friday with the Trump administration that restores hundreds of millions in research funding and closes multiple investigations into antisemitism on campus. The deal was the sixth agreement that the Trump administration had reached with an elite university...

Henry S. Bienen, Northwestern’s interim president, said... “We understand how difficult the past seven months have been since our federal research funding was frozen, and that many of you have felt the impacts deeply and personally...”  in a letter to the Northwestern community. 

...Northwestern’s payments will be made to the U.S. Treasury over the next three years, according to the deal. The government agreed to close three federal investigations — by the Education, Health and Human Services and Justice Departments — without any acknowledgment of wrongdoing by the university.

...The Northwestern agreement also requires the university to revise all policies, protocols and public-facing materials on hormonal interventions and transgender surgeries for children at its Feinberg School of Medicine, and “ensure compliance with federal laws.” ...

The deal with the government also requires the university to revoke the so-called Deering Meadow agreement, which it signed in 2024 to end campus encampments in protest of Israel and the war in Gaza. Under the agreement, the university vowed to reverse all policies implemented under the 2024 accord. In the Deering Meadow agreement, named after a large green space on campus where encampments were set up, the university promised to increase transparency into its financial holdings and to provide support for Palestinians, including in the form of two slots for visiting faculty members and full scholarships for five undergraduate students. Some Jewish leaders, including officials from the American Jewish Committee, objected to the terms. The new deal requires Northwestern to survey the school body, asking whether students feel welcome and they feel safe reporting antisemitism, among other questions...

...In April, the Trump administration froze at least $790 million in federal research funding planned for Northwestern. In July, the university announced plans to eliminate about 425 jobs, about half of which were vacant...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/us/politics/northwestern-deal-trump-administration.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 177

From Inside Higher Ed: The Texas State University Board of Regents signed off on the decision to fire a tenured professor for his comments at a socialist conference... Texas State University president Kelly Damphousse accused professor Thomas Alter of inciting violence when he fired Alter and revoked his tenure in September. Alter sued and was reinstated while the university reviewed his case using the standard faculty investigatory process. The university upheld Damphousse’s decision in October... Alter, an associate professor of history, spoke at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference in part about how “insurrectionary anarchism” had gained ground recently.

“Many insurrectionary anarchists are serving jail time, lost jobs and face expulsion from school,” he said. “They have truly put their bodies on the line. While their actions are laudable, it should be asked, what purpose do they serve? As anarchists, these insurrectionists explicitly reject the formation of a revolutionary party capable of leading the working class to power. Without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven mad organization in the history of the world—that of the U.S. government.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/24/texas-state-board-upholds-firing-professor.

Watch the Afternoon Regents Meeting of Nov. 19, 2025

The main event of the November Regents meetings was renewal and approval of the "tuition stability plan" by the full board. The essence of the plan was that tuition goes up automatically by cohort. But once a student enters, the tuition is constant in nominal dollars thereafter. Each cohort pays more, but then the rate is fixed. As several speakers noted, the plan does not deal with non-tuition costs (living expenses, textbooks, etc.), which can be a significant element in the total cost. 

Given current fiscal stringencies and federal uncertainties, the proposed plan was less generous than the previous with a 5% cap on inflation but with "banking" of inflation above 5% that would be applied in lower-inflation years, a drop in the diversion of revenue to student aid dropping from 45% of incremental revenue down to 40%, and a 1% surcharge above inflation for capital needs (said to be student-oriented buildings, whatever that exactly means). There were several disruptions at the beginning of the presentation that led to the room being cleared.

Two changes in the proposal were eventually adopted. One set a 7-year deadline for revisiting the plan instead of no specific deadline. Another allowed campuses to use the 1% surcharge for whatever needs they had, rather than just capital.

The plan passed with a handful of negative votes.

At a meeting of the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee, a long-range plan for the UC-Santa Barbara campus was approved, but with a call for the campus to lower the proposed costs. Reports on capital spending and finances were passed. An operating budget for UC was passed. But Regents raised the question of whether there is really a "compact" with the state, given the propensity of the governor and legislature to "defer" compact obligation to the future when the budget outlook is constrained. It was noted that the outyear of the compact extends to the period when a new governor will be in place. Finally, it was noted that given the recent boom in the stock market, the pension is now funded at 90% on a market basis.

At Academic and Student Affairs, there was a report on the UCAD-Plus committee that is dealing with "disruptions" in state and federal payments to UC and their impact on research, the academic advancement on junior faculty (who must demonstrate research capability), and related issues. The new committee is composed of both administration and Academic Senate members. It is to deliver a report in January 2027. (Meanwhile, the Regents are negotiating behind closed doors with the feds so it is unclear how what UCAD-Plus will be doing relates to these negotiations.)

One hint of what's to come came in the form of references to cross-campus programs for low enrollment programs such as languages. Presumably, cross-campus means online education. 

Finally, there was a presentation on UCLA's program dealing with the aftermath of the Palisades and Altadena fires.

At the Investments Committee, everyone was cheerful because of recent gains in the stock market. The above-mentioned 90% funding ratio for the UC pension came up. There was vague discussion about the proposed investment in the Big Ten athletic conference - which has yet to happen. CIO Bachhar was upbeat about the prospect and no one seemed in a mood to challenge him. Basically, UC is 64% invested in public equity, 19% in private assets (which are harder to value - the word "opaque" came up -and create liquidity risks), 15% in fixed income, and 2% in cash.

===

As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings indefinitely since the Regents have no fixed policy on retention and the recording are on YouTube with unlisted addresses which cannot be searched.

The general address for the afternoon sessions of Nov. 19 are at:

https://archive.org/details/2-regents-board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-11-19-2025

The board and Finance and Capital Strategies sessions are at:

https://ia801703.us.archive.org/28/items/2-regents-board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-11-19-2025/2-Regents%20Board%2C%20Finance%20and%20Capital%20Strategies%20Committee%2011-19-2025.mp4

Academic and Student Affairs is at:

https://ia801703.us.archive.org/28/items/2-regents-board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-11-19-2025/3-Regents%20Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20Committee%2011-19-2025.mp4

Investments is at:

https://ia801703.us.archive.org/28/items/2-regents-board-finance-and-capital-strategies-committee-11-19-2025/4-Regents%20Investments%20Committee%2011-19-2025.mp4

Straws in the Wind - Part 176

From WFIU: Before creating new degrees, Indiana’s public colleges and universities will have to explain to the state how they will promote American values. The new degree proposal form issued by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education asks: “How does the proposed program cultivate civic responsibility and commitment to the core values of American society? For example, how does the curriculum include components that emphasize civic engagement and the duties of citizenship in a free society?”

...It is especially important because the government recently eliminated hundreds of degrees with low numbers of graduates, forcing the creation of many new consolidated programs that will need the Commission’s approval. This announcement also follows President Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which says universities that sign a compact agreeing to certain policy priorities will get preferential treatment for federal funding. The administration has not sent the compact to any Indiana schools...

Full story at https://www.ipm.org/news/2025-11-21/universities-must-explain-how-new-degrees-promote-american-values.

From the NY Times: Northwestern University and the White House are finalizing a deal that would end the Trump administration’s monthslong pressure campaign against the school, restore hundreds of millions in federal funding and close a potentially onerous federal antisemitism investigation, according to three people briefed on the matter. The terms of the deal have not been publicly announced. But two of the people briefed on the talks said that Northwestern would be assessed a $75 million fine to the federal government as part of the deal. That would be the second highest amount a school facing a pressure campaign from the administration had agreed to pay.

...Northwestern has endured months of pressure from the White House and fellow Republicans in Congress. In the face of that pressure, the university’s president, Michael H. Schill, abruptly announced on Sept. 4 that he would resign after three years in office. Republicans have accused Northwestern of not doing enough to address antisemitism during campus protests over the war in Gaza, and Mr. Schill faced a difficult hearing on Capitol Hill last year over whether the school had adequately protected Jewish students. In April, the Trump administration froze at least $790 million in federal research funding planned for Northwestern. In July, the university announced plans to eliminate about 425 jobs. University officials said nearly half of those jobs were vacant and described the layoffs as “a drastic step” and “the most painful measure we have had to take.”

Mr. Schill was replaced on an interim basis by Henry Bienen, who served in the role from 1995-2009. In October, Mr. Bienen told faculty members that he wanted to strike a deal to restore research funding but would not sign an agreement that “hinders the autonomy of the university.” ...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/us/politics/northwestern-university-trump-deal.html.

Funding Squeeze

From the Daily Bruin: Samantha Talbot said exploring humanities research felt daunting when she came to UCLA. Talbot added that because academia is a predominantly white field, she felt out of place as a student of color. But the First Year Scholars Program, which offers academic guidance to first-year humanities and social sciences students, provided her guest speaker opportunities to guide her through her research journey, making the process less intimidating. FYSP also provides first-year students with academic advising and peer mentorship.

...However, the UCLA Center for Academic Advising in the College – which runs FYSP – paused the program for the 2025-26 academic year, citing denied funding over the past several years as the reason for the pause, according to its website. The Center for Academic Advising temporarily paused the program to avoid a permanent shutdown, according to a March email sent to FYSP scholars. The program is seeking out external funding sources in an attempt to restart operations in the 2026-27 or 2027-28 academic year, according to FYSP’s website.

...UCLA Media Relations declined to answer specific questions about FYSP’s hiatus and denied funding requests, instead referring the Daily Bruin to a Bruin Post about Chancellor Julio Frenk’s new leadership coalition to manage the university’s ongoing budgetary constraints...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/11/21/ucla-first-year-scholars-program-goes-on-hiatus-after-years-of-denied-funding.

Straws in the Wind - Part 175

From the Wall St. Journal: While still taking core classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he wrote a paper on artificial intelligence’s workplace impact so rapidly influential it was cited in Congress. He appeared in the pages of The Wall Street Journal in December as the very picture of a wunderkind, in faded jeans with tousled hair, in between two of his mentors, including Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu. Toner-Rodgers’s work offered a surprising and even hopeful revelation about our high-tech future. He concluded that AI increased worker productivity and spurred innovation. Also, people didn’t like using it very much.

Within weeks, those mentors were asking an unthinkable question: Had Toner-Rodgers made it all up? By the spring, Toner-Rodgers was no longer enrolled at MIT. The university disavowed his paper. Questions multiplied, but one seemed more elusive than the rest: How did a baby-faced novice from small-town California dupe some of academia’s brightest minds? 

...Toner-Rodgers’s illusory success seems in part thanks to the dynamics he has now upset: an academic culture at MIT where high levels of trust, integrity and rigor are all—for better or worse—assumed. He focused on AI, a field where peer-reviewed research is still in its infancy and the hunger for data is insatiable. What has stunned his former colleagues and mentors is the sheer breadth of his apparent deception. He didn’t just tweak a few variables. It appears he invented the entire study. 

In the aftermath, MIT economics professors have been discussing ways to raise standards for graduate students’ research papers, including scrutinizing raw data, and students are going out of their way to show their work isn’t counterfeit, according to people at the school...

Full story at https://www.wsj.com/articles/aidan-toner-rodgers-mit-ai-research-78753243.

Happy Thanksgiving: Then and Now

Then

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Now

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Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YapYFYeb0g.

Straws in the Wind - Part 174

From the Brown Daily Herald: Brown will face a 4% tax rate on its endowment in the coming year, an increase from its current 1.4% endowment tax rate, according to the University’s annual financial report for fiscal year 2025 released early Thursday morning. The larger tax rate results from a growth in the endowment that has pushed the University’s endowment past the $750,000 per student threshold required to trigger a 4% endowment tax — a new limit established under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed by Congress in July...

In April, the White House announced plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding,  pausing reimbursements on existing grants from the National Institutes of Health and halting the awarding of new grants or routine grant renewals... Existing grants from the NIH comprised more than 70% of the University’s federal research funding, and totaled over $50 million in overdue payments by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Brown is around 10 percentage points more reliant on federal funding than peer institutions, according to the report. Sponsored research is the largest source of research funding for Brown, encompassing grants and contracts from federal agencies, foundations and corporations and accounting for 20.5% of the University’s revenue...

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025/11/brown-to-face-increased-4-endowment-tax-next-fiscal-year.

Bugged - Part 3

From Inside Higher Ed: The Department of Education is reviewing potential violations of the Clery Act at the University of California, Berkeley following violence at a campus protest. Fights broke out and four people were arrested at a Nov. 10 protest against an event for Turning Point USA, the conservative student group founded by Charlie Kirk, Cal Matters reported. The organization has received newfound attention after Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in September, exactly two months before the event at UC Berkeley. 

...ED also accused the university of having “a history of violating the Clery Act” in a news release announcing the investigation, citing a $2.4 million fine and settlement agreement in 2020 for UC Berkeley’s failure to properly classify 1,125 crimes on campus and insufficient record keeping... UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof told Inside Higher Ed by email that the university “has an unwavering commitment to abide by the laws, rules and policies that are applicable to the university” and “will continue to cooperate with governmental inquires and investigations.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/26/ed-investigates-berkeley-over-protest-violence.

Previous blog posts: https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/bugged-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/bugged.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/coming-soon-to-berkeley.html.

Watch the Morning Regents Meeting of Nov. 19, 2025

The morning session (open component) of the Regents meeting of November 19 consisted solely of a full board meeting beginning with public comments. Several comments dealt with the proposed tuition stability plan which escalates the rate for each new cohort of undergraduate students and then freezes it for their career at UC. Complaints revolved around the impact on low income students, the impact on international students, or just the general idea of tuition increases. 

Other comments dealt with support for undocumented students, support from SB 98 (notification of ICE agents on campus), complaints by the Carpenters union about inadequate medical coverage by a UCLA contractor, support for disabled students, loss of funding for employment of low income students, support for Latino post-docs, a complaint of anti-Israel indoctrination in a class, a UCFW dispute with an employer, anti-Israel divestment, and the high cost of textbooks.

There were then statements by Regent chair Reilly (who referenced the need for "fiscal prudence" in connection with the tuition stability plan) and by UC president Milliken (who spoke about the conflict with the feds, problems related to the state budget, a hiring freeze, and layoffs). Milliken advocated for full payment by the state under the "compact." These remarks suggested that the tuition stability plan was likely to be adopted in the afternoon session, maybe with small modifications. (There was a brief disturbance during Milliken's remarks.)  

Faculty representative Palazeglu said the Academic Senate opposed any deal with the feds that conflicted with academic freedom. He noted the move from UCAD to UCAD-Plus.*

There was a special presentation by Regent Makarechian - which we noted in an earlier blog post** - dealing with his treatment for paralysis at UC-San Francisco as an illustration of the value of UC research.

Afterwards, there was a program devoted to the achievements of UC Nobel prize winners:

• Laureate and UCLA Professor Andrea Ghez, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics
• Laureate and UCSF Professor David Julius, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
• Laureate and UCSB Professor John Martinis, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize for physics
• Laureate and UC Berkeley Professor Randy Schekman, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

The Regents then went into closed session and discussed the conflict with the feds - which would have been very interesting to watch had it been open. 

===

As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention. You can find the Nov. 19th morning session at:

https://archive.org/details/1-regents-board-8-30-am-11-19-2025_202511 or

https://ia801700.us.archive.org/1/items/1-regents-board-8-30-am-11-19-2025_202511/1-Regents%20Board%208_30%20AM%2011-19-2025.mp4.

==

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/08/ucad.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/09/ucad-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/successor-to-ucad.html.

**https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/makarechian-on-value-of-uc-and-of.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 173

From the Brown Daily Herald: Less than two years after its formation, the [Brown University] Third World Labor Organization is disbanding due to “systematically poor turnout,” the union’s leaders wrote in [an] email to members... The labor union represents about 50 student workers at the Brown Center for Students of Color who announced plans to unionize in February 2024. At the time, TWLO organizers cited a desire to “protect the center from censorship,” defend freedom of expression, “ensure Brown values the work of students of color” and “uphold the political legacy of the Third World Center,” the BCSC’s predecessor. But in recent months, low member participation and stalled bargaining with the University left few paths forward for the University’s smallest student labor union, according to organizers... 

Following an “emergency meeting” in early October, members “agreed that we needed to communicate, complete responsibilities and attend meetings,” organizers wrote in the email. But, they added, “This never meaningfully improved.” In early November, organizers told union members that at least 10 members needed to attend the next two union meetings, but this request similarly went unmet, union leaders noted in their email. The lack of attendance “makes this union not member-led and thus not sustainable,” organizers wrote. “The union only runs if we make it run.” ...

“The difficulty came with just being able to find workers who were ready to consistently step up and bargain this contract,” Local 6516 Executive Director Michael Ziegler GS told The Herald. The union was one of five bargaining units at the University represented by the Graduate Labor Organization-led RIFT-AFT Local 6516...

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025/11/bcsc-student-worker-labor-union-dissolves-citing-systemically-poor-turnout.

(Possible) Strike News

From the Bruin: UCLA representatives of United Auto Workers’ academic and non-academic units threatened to strike at a... rally [last Thursday] in Bruin Plaza if the University’s allegedly unfair labor practices continue. About 200 UAW-represented employees attended the rally amid ongoing rainfall – including those from UAW Local 4811 – which represents academic student employees [ASEs], graduate students and postdoctoral researchers – as well as its student service and advising professionals, and research and public service professionals [SSAPs and RPSPs] units.

UAW Local 4811’s contract – including that of the ASEs – with the UC will expire Jan. 1, 2026, and the union is currently bargaining for a new contract. SSAPs and RPSPs are currently negotiating for their first contract as separate units. The unions – which represent over 48,000 UC workers – held simultaneous rallies at 10 other UC campus locations to demand better wages, job security and protections for international workers...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/11/21/uaw-units-rally-threaten-strike-for-fair-wage-job-protections-in-new-uc-contract.

Straws in the Wind - Part 172

From the Daily Princetonian: A University Advancement database containing information about alumni, donors, students, parents, some faculty, and other members of the University community was compromised on Nov. 10, putting their data at risk of access by outside actors. According to [an] announcement from the Office of Information Technology (OIT), the breach occurred after outside actors targeted a University employee with access to the database through a phone-based phishing attempt. The incident began on Nov. 10 and was blocked within 24 hours.

The database compromised included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and home and business addresses, along with information about University fundraising and donations. It “generally” did not include sensitive information like Social Security numbers, passwords, or credit card and bank account numbers...

Full story at https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025/11/princeton-news-adpol-university-data-compromised-after-cybersecurity-incident.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The leading organization for music scholars is facing an uproar from hundreds of its members, who are threatening a boycott unless it meets a chorus of demands. Researchers are accusing the administrative arm of the American Musicological Society of mismanaging the association by, among other things, paying back-office staff disproportionately high salaries and corrupting the peer-review process of its annual conference, which was held in Minneapolis earlier this month, according to a petition that started circulating soon after...

The discord comes at a fraught time for musicology and the broader humanities. Many campuses are eyeing cuts to low-enrollment humanities programs, and shifting federal priorities have also left a mark on the discipline. In April, all four of the AMS’s grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, totaling more than $363,000, were terminated...

In social-media posts collected on a newly formed website, several... members have written that they recently resigned from their roles on various committees over alleged disagreements or miscommunications with the administration...

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-a-musicology-societys-members-are-in-revolt.

Tower

From the LA Times: UCLA, which has been on a campaign to vastly expand student housing around its Westwood campus, is planning a new 19-story tower that 1,150 students can call home... The latest new housing complex, recently revealed in a draft environmental study, calls for a 19-story student housing building for UCLA undergraduate students at 901 Levering Ave., adjacent to the school campus.* ...

Five existing university-owned apartment buildings with a total of 52 beds would be demolished to make way for the new building. Work could begin as early as next year and be completed by 2030... The 901 Levering Terrace tower would be the latest in a string of large student housing projects built by UCLA in recent years, including the 10-story Levering Place apartments next door and a 17-story tower across the street, real estate website Urbanize said. The university is working on another apartment building for 500 students on Gayley Avenue, set to be completed next September for $108 million...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-20/ucla-is-building-19-story-tower-for-students-near-westwood-campus.

===

*https://www.capitalprograms.ucla.edu/EnvironmentalReview/ProjectsUnderEnvironmentalReview.

Straws in the Wind - Part 171

From Inside Higher Ed: One week after President Donald Trump contradicted his own policies by stressing how important international students are to sustaining university finances, there’s new evidence that his administration’s crackdown on visas and immigration is hurting international student enrollment and the American economy.

While overall international student enrollment has declined only 1 percent since fall 2024, new enrollment has declined 17 percent, according to fall 2025 snapshot data in the annual Open Doors report, published Monday by the Institute for International Education. The 825 U.S.-based higher learning institutions that responded to the fall snapshot survey host more than half of all international students in the country...

The Open Doors data also confirms earlier projections from NAFSA: Association of International Educators and recent analyses from The New York Times and Inside Higher Ed about the Trump administration’s immigration policies leading to falling international student enrollment, as well as hardship for university budgets and the broader national economy.

According to the report, international students accounted for 6 percent of the total population enrolled in a higher education institution last academic year and contributed nearly $55 billion to the U.S. economy in 2024...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/international-students-us/2025/11/17/fewer-international-students-came-us-fall.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 94

From the Harvard Crimson: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein... Summers will also immediately go on leave from his role as the director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has led the center, which focuses on studying policy issues in the public and private sector, since 2011.

“Mr. Summers has decided it’s in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review,” the spokesperson wrote in a ... statement [last Wednesday]. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether Summers is planning on returning to the center in the future.

[Last] Monday, Summers — who served as United States Treasury Secretary under the Clinton administration — said he would step back from all public commitments, while continuing to teach undergraduate and graduate students and leading the Mossavar-Rahmani center, according to a spokesperson. But by Wednesday night — just one day after Harvard announced that it would probe his ties to Epstein — he had changed his mind amid mounting pressure...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/20/summers-leaves-teaching-at-harvard/.

News of Ratification

From the LA Times: Registered nurses who work at 19 University of California facilities have ratified a new contract after voting concluded Saturday. The contract will cover some 25,000 registered nurses and includes protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention through Jan. 31, 2029, according to the California Nurses Assn. The pact includes a minimum 18.5% increase in pay, caps on healthcare increases, restrictions on UC floating RNs between facilities, improvements to meal and rest breaks and workplace violence-prevention policies, the association said...

Under the contract, RNs were guaranteed a central role in selecting, designing and validating new technology, including AI systems, the CNA stated.

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-23/uc-registered-nurses-ratify-contract-that-guarantees-minimum-18-5-increase-in-pay.

Straws in the Wind - Part 170

From the NY Times: The former president of the University of Virginia, in his most expansive statement since he resigned in June, described in a letter to the faculty on Friday the immense pressure the Justice Department had directed at him and the school in his final days in the position and said that his ouster had been publicly mischaracterized. In an extraordinary 12-page letter, the former president, James E. Ryan, said the school’s board had been unwilling to take on the Trump administration and had essentially traded his resignation for a deal to spare the school investigations and fines.

The Justice Department has said it never told the school to oust Mr. Ryan. The school’s board, however, has said that the department wanted him to step aside. Mr. Ryan said in the letter that on June 26, a member of the board and two lawyers for the university told him that, following a call with a top Justice Department official, he had four hours to resign, or severe punitive measures would be leveled against the school by the Trump administration. “The call for my resignation, right until the end, seemed so outlandish as not to be entirely believable,” Mr. Ryan said. “It also felt like a hostage situation, where the kidnapper threatens harm if you do not keep information about the demands confidential. I was repeatedly told to keep this threat confidential and scolded for sharing the information with some close colleagues to help me think through the best path.” ...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/us/politics/uva-james-ryan-trump.html.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 93

From the Harvard Crimson: The State Department opened an inquiry into the Harvard Cognitive Aesthetics Media Lab, after a former employee filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that the lab mishandled the admissions process for its visiting scholars program. CAMLab, led and co-founded by History of Art and Architecture professor Eugene Y. Wang, supports multimedia art that explores “human consciousness” and hosts roughly two dozen visiting scholars annually, according to its website. When the lab was created in 2018, it was known as the Chinese Arts Media Lab and aimed to display interactive tributes to Buddhist artwork in China. The lab has since rebranded its Harvard website to refer to itself as the Cognitive Aesthetics Media Lab.

Yiyi Liang, a former fellow at CAMLab, filed her complaint with the State Department in May, the same month the lab opted against renewing her contract. Liang said in her complaint that some visiting scholars had used CAMLab’s program to receive a U.S. visa, even though they spent considerable time off campus. Her complaint also alleged that the lab charged unreasonable fees of $16,000 for visiting scholars, she said...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/19/camlab-china-open-inquiry/.

From the Harvard Crimson: Education Secretary Linda E. McMahon said Thursday that the Trump administration was close to finalizing a settlement with Harvard, renewing claims by the White House that Harvard is making progress toward a deal that would resolve a series of ongoing federal investigations. “They’re ongoing negotiations and I feel very comfortable that we are getting close to having those negotiations finalized,” McMahon said at a White House press briefing. “It’s been an open-door conversation all along.”

McMahon’s remarks Thursday aren’t the first time the Trump administration has said it is close to a settlement with Harvard. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the White House was on the verge of finalizing a deal with Harvard. When he first announced in June that talks had resumed, he predicted that an agreement would be reached “in the next week or so.” More than four months later, no deal has been announced.

...A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/22/mcmahon-harvard-deal-close/.

Lawsuit Targets UC, Others

From the NY Times: The Justice Department sued California in federal court on Thursday, claiming that providing in-state college tuition to unauthorized students is illegal and discriminates against Americans from out of state who pay higher rates. 

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, is the latest action by the Trump administration against California... The complaint refers to California’s exemption from out-of-state rates for applicants, including undocumented students, who have graduated from the state’s high schools or meet education requirements at other institutions in the state. It asks the court to declare this rule unconstitutional and invalid, and to bar the defendants from enforcing it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California; Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general; the University of California system; and California Community Colleges are listed among the defendants. Rachel Zaentz, a University of California spokeswoman, said it followed state and federal laws regarding eligibility for in-state tuition, financial aid and scholarships...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/us/politics/ucla-undocumented-students-tuition-doj-lawsuit-california.html.

Watch the Regents Health Services Committee Meeting of 11-18-2025

The first day of the November 18-20 Regents meetings consisted of only the Health Services Committee. The meeting was divided into three segments: public comments, a closed-door session, and a very short open session. 

At the last, a financial report for the various med centers was presented by VP David Rubin. However, he simply referred to the written report and noted "growth" in the UC health program. The student observer referred to a lack of integration between student health clinics and the UC health centers. it was all over in less than 9 minutes.

The middle segment would undoubtedly have been the most interesting had it not been closed. The obvious topics were the settlement of contracts with the Nurses and UPTE and the remaining contract with AFSCME that had led to a two-day strike which overlapped with the meeting. Also on the closed agenda - one would guess - was the current status of the ongoing dispute with the feds that led to disruption of research funding and recent related litigation.

The opening public comments segment had an inadvertent lesson for those who wish to speak at Regents meetings. There is an obvious constraint on what can be said, given the 1-minute limit. But here is some (unsolicited) advice from yours truly. Yes, you have to be organized and speak quickly. But if you do so, you still need to be understood. Several speakers used as an acronym that sounded like PTSD, but that was surely not what it was, for a program that might have had something to do with disabled students, based on the comments (???).* The speakers thanked President Milliken for approving the program's funding. However, they condemned VP Newman for doing something that wasn't clear, but that had violated shared governance in their view. Now maybe the Regents were very familiar with the issue and knew exactly what the complaint was about. But if they weren't, they - like me - would have had no idea what the issue was, or even what the program being referenced was.

Other comments involved urging the Regents not to make a deal with the Trump administration, support for undocumented students (including alternatives to CalFresh), current bargaining with medical residents through an SEIU local, rejection of the proposed extension and modification of the cohort tuition plan, basic needs of staff, lack of consultation with faculty and staff about the conflict with the Trump administration, and mental/medical health of LGTBQ teens. There were complaints of anti-Israel indoctrination in the UCLA med school, the continued use of department political statements as a violation of university neutrality, and an anti-Zionist program sponsored by various units at UCLA. Finally, there were speakers from AFSCME - which as noted above was on strike at the time - and complaints that some students who supported the strike had been arrested in a demonstration related to the strike.

As always, yours truly preserves the recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on retention. You can find the recordings of the November 18th meeting at the links below:

Public Comments: https://ia801408.us.archive.org/22/items/regents-health-services-committee-11-18-2025/Regents%20Health%20Services%20Committee%202.30%20PM%2011-18-2025.mp4

Short open meeting: https://ia601408.us.archive.org/22/items/regents-health-services-committee-11-18-2025/Regents%20Health%20Services%20Committee%204.00%20PM%2011-18-2025.mp4

General website: https://archive.org/details/regents-health-services-committee-11-18-2025

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*The answer to the riddle of what they were talking about is at:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/letter-from-prez.html.