A spokesperson for Undergraduate Admission – a department under Enrollment Management that student tour groups are a part of – said in an emailed statement that the budget cuts to student tour groups come as part of a broader effort to reduce operational costs across the university...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/10/27/student-tour-guides-voice-concern-over-reduced-operations-hiring-amid-budget-cuts.
From Inside Higher Ed: Texas governor Greg Abbott picked a regent from Texas Southern University to serve as the state’s first higher ed ombudsman, who will ensure state universities adhere to recent laws that restricted the role of faculty senates and banned diversity, equity and inclusion practices, the state announced in a news release last week. The new office, which will be housed under the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, will serve as a go-between for state lawmakers and colleges and universities. It also will manage complaints and investigations related to reported violations of either the DEI ban or some provisions of Senate Bill 37, which state lawmakers passed earlier this year and that requires state institutions to make a number of changes.
Brandon Simmons, a former tech company executive, corporate attorney and venture capitalist whom Abbott previously appointed to serve on the Texas Southern Board of Regents, will lead the ombudsman’s office. Simmons has also served as an entrepreneurial resident and distinguished professor of business at Wiley University in Marshall, Tex., since 2024...
The state Senate still has to sign off on Simmons’s appointment before he can take office...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/22/texas-governor-appoints-ombudsman-who-will-oversee-higher-ed.
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From the Guardian: Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, is urging the state’s universities to stop hiring international employees through the H-1B visa program. DeSantis said he wants the Florida board of governors “to pull the plug” on the practice. Nearly 400 foreign nationals are currently employed at Florida’s public universities under the H-1B visa program, reported the Orlando Sentinel. “Universities across the country are importing foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of hiring Americans who are qualified and available to do the job,” said DeSantis in a statement. “We will not tolerate H-1B abuse in Florida institutions. That’s why I have directed the Florida Board of Governors to end this practice.”
However, it’s unclear how such a move could be carried out. States do not have authority to revoke federal visas, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services regulations prohibit firing employees based on immigration status.
...DeSantis cited positions filled by workers from China, Argentina and Canada, arguing these roles were taken from qualified Floridians in favor of “cheap labor.” ... The University of Florida is one of the state’s largest users of the H-1B program, employing more than 150 staff members under the visa, according to an Orlando Sentinel review of federal data...
Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/desantis-florida-universities-visa-h1b.
https://dn720408.ca.archive.org/0/items/the-caterpillar/The%20Caterpillar.mp4
And please do not contact yours truly with the observation that the brain would not feel pain, e.g., RFK Jr.'s famous worm.
Statement on the release of proposed settlement agreement sent by the Department of Justice to the University of California
UC Office of the President - October 24, 2025
As required by the court, the University has released a copy of the proposed settlement agreement sent by the Department of Justice to the University on August 8, 2025. UC has been clear it must evaluate its response to the administration’s settlement proposal that, like all settlement communications, is confidential. As stated previously, the proposed $1.2 billion settlement payment alone would derail work that saves lives, grows our economy, and fortifies our national security. UC remains committed to protecting the mission, governance, and academic freedom of the University.
Some observations: 1) There is an assertion that the memo is "confidential," without any acknowledgment of the leak - which rendered it something less than confidential. 2) The only flat rejection in the statement is of the money involved. 3) Beyond the money, while there is a general reference to the "mission, governance, and academic freedom of the University," no other specific proposals/demands of the feds are listed as unacceptable. 4) There is no explicit rejection of some (modified) version of the deal. Number 4 is in contrast to the explicit rejections, e.g., by MIT, of a less elaborate deal offered to some universities.
It's hard to tell whether UC is saying it is still open to negotiation or whether we have arrived at a state of paralysis - particularly in view of the governor's seeming objection to any kind of deal.
From Inside Higher Ed: The University of Illinois system is telling its institutions they can’t consider race, color, national origin or sex in hiring, tenure, promotion and student financial aid decisions—a move that’s drawn opposition from a faculty union at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Aaron Krall, president of UIC United Faculty, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors, said the UI system circumvented shared governance...
The system implemented a policy saying it and its universities don’t consider race or the other factors in determining eligibility for need- or merit-based financial aid. In a statement, the system further said it “issued guidance to its universities to ensure that hiring, promotion, and tenure processes follow the same standards.” The statement said, “There may be some variation in how and when changes are fully operationalized” across its three universities: UIC, Springfield and Urbana-Champaign...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/22/ui-bans-considering-race-sex-hiring-tenure-student-aid.
The changes have been shared with alumni interviewers in a series of training sessions conducted this fall. They are also cemented in a new line in the alumni interviewer handbook: “Since race, ethnicity, and national origin may not be considered, interviewers should not reference them in the interview report.”
In a recording of one training session for interviewers obtained by The Crimson, interviewers were instructed by admissions office administrators not to report the languages applicants say they speak. They were told not to mention the religions applicants say they practice, the racial or ethnic organizations they are part of, or the countries their families come from. Interviewers should instead use vague language, referring to “affinity groups” and “faith events,” to describe applicants’ backgrounds, beliefs, and activities. Otherwise, their interview reports will be discarded, they were told...
Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/27/admissions-alumni-interviews-race/.
What we don't have is context, i.e., what was said by whom when this particular item was presented to UCLA/UC. (I am using "UCLA/UC" because it appears that decisions on the university side are being made at systemwide level, at the Regents, and even at the governor's office, not at the campus level.)
One thing that can be seen from the document is that it is marked "draft." That marking suggests that it was presented as a kind of official wishlist by the feds, but something that could be discussed or modified by negotiation.
Independent of what went to UCLA/UC, other universities received offers of a deal they could make with the feds. Most rejected the deal. Even the University of Texas' seemingly positive response was more in the vein of we are honored to be asked - as opposed to "Where do we sign?"
When you put all this together, my guess is that the wishlist and the deal will evolve into a kind of semi-official rating of universities by the feds. In effect, universities will be graded by how many of the various points they put into practice "voluntarily" and that grade will determine the likelihood of future grants or grant renewals. (You might recall UCLA Chancellor Frenk saying in an interview, for example, that UCLA doesn't have biological males on women's teams because of NCAA rules.) Of course, there could be legal challenges, but it will be harder to be successful in litigation over future grants than it is when existing contracts are voided by the feds.
In addition, UCLA/UC is a special case because of the $1+ billion demand. It's not clear, given that demand, how serious the feds are in negotiating because the magnitude is so large. Maybe, just maybe, they really don't want a deal with UCLA/UC at this point. There is the complication of Gov. Newsom's de facto presidential campaign and his high profile attacks on Trump. The governor, of course, is an ex officio Regent and, in his political role, he has much to do with the UC budget allocation from the state.
Most recently, Newsom has been criticizing anyone, including universities, that make deals with the Trump administration:
Or direct to https://x.com/gavinnewsom/status/1981167057959080225 or https://ia600103.us.archive.org/6/items/united-we-can-yes-on-50-united-we-can-10-3-2025/newsom%2010-22-2025%20Knee%20pads%20for%20CEOs%2C%20universities%2C%20law%20firms.mp4.
In effect for now, the equation is $1 billion + governor = no deal, apart from any other considerations.
From CalMatters: A scholarship for Black students at UC San Diego is now available to anyone, regardless of race, after students and a right-leaning nonprofit organization sued the university for discrimination this July. The plaintiffs argued that the scholarship fund violated a series of laws, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was put in place to protect Black Americans in the South... The Black Alumni Scholarship Fund for UC San Diego students is now called the Goins Alumni Scholarship Fund, named after its founding donor Lennon Goins, according to a press release last week. Its website says each scholarship is worth $2,500 and that nearly 275 scholarships have been awarded since 2016.
The rebranded scholarship program is just one of numerous initiatives in California that have come under scrutiny in the last two years. In 2023, the Supreme Court overturned precedent that allowed private universities in the state to use affirmative action, and this year, the Trump Administration has ended numerous campus initiatives promoting diversity...
Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/10/scholarship-lawsuit-california/.
From the NY Times: The board of a conservative magazine at Harvard known for its muckraking suspended the publication on Sunday, citing the printing of “reprehensible, abusive and demeaning material.” The magazine, The Harvard Salient, which was founded during the Reagan era and revived four years ago after a decade-long absence, is editorially and financially independent from the university. The statement from the board, which is made up of conservative alumni, did not provide any detail about what incident prompted the review, but the publication had recently been embroiled in a controversy over an article that included a line similar to one in a Hitler speech.
The article, written by David F.X. Army, a Harvard student, in the magazine’s September edition, included the line, “Germany belongs to the Germans, France to the French, Britain to the British, America to the Americans.” The article argued that Europe’s native populations were being displaced by migration from Africa and Asia. In a January 1939 speech that Hitler delivered to the Reichstag, in which he predicted that another world war would lead to the annihilation of Jews in Europe, he said, “France to the French, England to the English, America to the Americans, and Germany to the Germans.”
In a separate article in The Harvard Salient, Richard Y. Rodgers, the magazine’s editor, said the similarity to the Hitler line was not intentional. He wrote that “neither the author nor the editors had recognized the resemblance and that the phrase long predates the Third Reich.” The Salient article by Mr. Army also argued for values rooted in “blood, soil, language, and love of one’s own.”
“Blood and soil” was a nationalist phrase used extensively by the Nazis...
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/us/harvard-salient-hitler-suspended-magazine.html.
==
From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard Salient editor-in-chief Richard Y. Rodgers ’28 announced on Tuesday that the conservative student magazine would remain active despite a Sunday statement from its board of directors suspending its operations pending a conduct investigation. Rodgers wrote in an email to the Salient’s mailing list that the board’s decision to temporarily halt its operations was “an unauthorized usurpation of power by a small number of individuals acting outside the bounds of their authority.” ...
Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/29/salient-to-disregard-suspension/.
If you commute to UCLA from the Westside, the information below may be useful:
From Patch: Lane closures and parking restrictions on Santa Monica Boulevard are set to continue into next week as crews pave the busy road. The construction will occur between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. between Oct. 27 and Nov. 2.
On the Westside, Santa Monica Boulevard will be impacted just west of the 405 Freeway:
Up to one lane of eastbound and westbound Santa Monica Boulevard from Centinela Avenue to Amherst Drive will be closed during construction hours.
There will be no parking on either side of the boulevard between Centinela Avenue and Amherst Drive 24/7 during the construction period.
The San Francisco Chronicle provides a listing of the percent of undergrads who go on to get graduate degrees from the various UC campuses. (UC-San Francisco is excluded because it has no undergraduate program.) The chart below highlights Berkeley, but all the other undergraduate campuses are shown:
Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2025/uc-graduate-degrees/.
From Inside Higher Ed: Officials at the University of Texas at Austin blocked the Graduate Student Assembly from considering two resolutions against Texas state laws last week, arguing that the student-run body must follow institutional neutrality policies. Mateo Vallejo, a first-year master’s student and representative in the GSA for the School of Social Work, drafted two resolutions for the assembly to consider: one condemning Texas SB 17, which bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Texas public institutions, and another against Texas SB 37, a state law that, among other changes, put faculty senates at public institutions under the control of university presidents and boards.
On Oct. 10, GSA president David Spicer submitted the two resolutions to Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Christopher J. McCarthy for approval. According to the assembly bylaws, the dean of students’ office must approve all proposed GSA legislation before it can be considered by the full assembly, effectively giving the office an opportunity to veto, Vallejo explained. Once a bill is submitted to the dean’s office, the assembly cannot make any changes to the text. Vallejo, Spicer and the GSA vice president were careful to follow the bylaws during the drafting process to give administrators as little reason as possible to shut the resolutions down. Five days later, McCarthy nixed them.
“[The Vice President for Legal Affairs] considers the legislation to be political speech that is not permitted to be issued by a sponsored student organization in their official capacity,” McCarthy wrote in an email to Spicer, which Inside Higher Ed obtained. “This legislation should not be permitted to go forward.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/21/ut-austin-muzzles-grad-student-assemblys-political-speech.
The UCLA plan, however, is not among the health insurance options offered to emeriti and retirees under the UC retirement system. So, if you are Medicare-eligible and under UC retirement insurance, you should not sign up for UCLA's Medicare Advantage plan.* UC does offer a Medicare Advantage option, but the plan offered by UC is not UCLA's. Perhaps at some future date, the UCLA plan will be on the UC menu, but not in 2026.
In principle, a UC retiree would be told this information were he/she to call the number provided on the letter. But there is a difference between principle and practice.
===
*Note: Some emeriti and some retirees are not eligible for UC health insurance. Those persons, of course, should consider the UCLA plan as an option.
From Inside Higher Ed: The share of Black, Latino and international students in this year’s incoming Harvard University class declined from last year’s freshman class... Black students made up 12 percent of the Class of 2029, down two percentage points from the previous year; Latino students comprise 11 percent of this year’s incoming class, compared to 16 percent last year. International student enrollment is also down, from 18 percent of last fall’s freshman class to 15 percent this year. Only eight international students deferred their admissions, despite reports that many international students were unable to arrive in the U.S. in time for fall classes due to visa issues.
Harvard emphasized the incoming class’s geographic diversity, noting that students come from all 50 states and 92 countries. It also said 20 percent of the Class of 2029 are first-generation students...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/24/black-latino-international-populations-decline-harvard.
According to an email circulated earlier today, UCAD is being followed with UCAD-Plus. (I guess they liked the name so much that it continues.)
...UCAD Plus will focus on strategies to maintain UC’s position as the nation’s leading research university in light of resource constraints. Building on UCAD’s interim report, the task force will prioritize recommendations for sustaining the research enterprise and restructuring and resizing academic programs that require coordinated Academic Senate and administrative action. The five primary focus areas are listed here with specific goals for each area identified below.
1. Research activities and infrastructure: Addressing both broad and targeted budget cuts and grant interruptions with a direct impact on UC’s research mission, as well as follow-on impacts on research infrastructure due to changes in IDC (Indirect Cost) rates.
2. Academic personnel evaluations: Assessing how changes in the research funding landscape will impact UC faculty’s ability to conduct their research and to progress in their careers.
3. Academic program planning, evaluation, and alignment: Assessing financial limitations and seeking ways to ensure program sustainability while maintaining academic quality at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
4. Instructional opportunities and course offerings across modalities: Preserving course availability and instructional continuity amid both short-term disruptions and longer-term resource pressures.
5. The future of graduate education: Assessing the structure, delivery, and support systems for graduate education across UC.
UCAD Plus is expected to approach issues analytically, using data whenever possible. It will contribute ideas for near-term academic and operations restructuring, as well as recommendations for long-term planning. The Task Force will draw on the expertise of Academic Senate and administrative leaders and consider a broad array of perspectives through timely consultative outreach and engagement beyond its membership, as needed...
Full memo at https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/committees/council/ucad-plus-charge-membership-10-2025.pdf.
The complete set of charts is at:
The Regents have a duty of prudence when it comes to investment of funds. Pension funds are ultimately to be invested for the benefit of pension system participants. Investments that have some other purpose raise questions. In particular, investments aimed at bolstering the athletic program raise questions.
Recently, a group of retirees - suspicious of certain CalPERS policies - hired an independent investigator to audit activities in that retirement system.*
Unless what the Regents are planning to do with the funds to which they are entrusted is made clear, there could be similar pressures within the UC retirement system.
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*https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article312576983.html.
From the Duke Chronicle: Through petitions and committees, faculty members have urged Duke to reinstate their subject librarians after a budget cut of $4 million across Duke University Libraries (DUL) saw the termination of 40 staff positions. The librarians’ departures, as part of Duke’s effort to reduce its total expense base by 10% in response to federal funding shortfalls, caught faculty off guard. Many say they now navigate their teaching and research with uncertainty and lack of support.
The international area studies department (IAS), whose librarians provide research consultation and classroom instructional support related to global languages and cultures, was particularly impacted by the personnel cuts after four of its 10 librarians were offered and accepted voluntary severance packages. The department has since been renamed the global studies department.
...The University’s elimination of the librarian position for the department of Slavic & Eurasian studies (SES) raised alarms among interdisciplinary SES faculty and the SES academic community...In a letter addressed to University leadership, 16 faculty from Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and other graduate schools wrote that the termination of the role would “signal the demise” of SES at Duke...
Here is a summary of what the memo entails. (We leave out the various detailed processes and procedures in the summary as well as what appear to be some duplications.):
UCLA will pay $1 billion plus $172 million to settle "claims."
There will be an administrator to oversee the agreement.
Another administrator will be appointed to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws regarding:
Annual reports on antisemitism
Regental review of antisemitism
Policies for protests/demonstations:
External party to be engaged to evaluate campus climate including antisemitism
No diversity incentives for faculty
No race/ethnic scholarships
Merit-based admissions
No race/sex/ethnic preferences
No admission of foreign students with anti-Western, anti-American, or antisemitic ideas
Reporting of foreign gifts
No violations of laws dealing with sanctions, money laundering, or antisemitism
Whistleblower procedures for violation of agreement
No males in female sports
No males in female locker rooms or bathrooms
No transgender surgery or treatments for individuals under age 18.
==
You can read the actual agreement at:
===
You can read the LA Times report on this development at:
As we pointed out, there was an odd reference to a provision of the Education Code dealing typically with real estate transactions as the rationale for keeping the discussion closed.
Yours truly has now confirmed that the reference used was not a mistake. It was the correct reference, given the discussion.
But that adds to the mystery. What investment - one that apparently cannot be named for agenda purposes - is entailed?
There is, however, the item below from Yahoo Sports, which may well be what was discussed. Unfortunately, the article does not make clear exactly what the investment will entail:
From Yahoo Sports: A California pension fund may soon invest in the Big Ten Conference. An investment fund of the University of California pension system is in negotiations with the nation’s largest and perhaps most valuable collegiate athletic conference to infuse about $2.4 billion in immediate cash to its 18 schools and help create the conference’s long-discussed subsidiary, Big Ten Enterprises. Those with knowledge of the negotiations spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak about the potential 20-year agreement with the UC pension system’s investment fund, better known as UC Investments — a $190 billion entity responsible for managing the system’s portfolio. UC Investments manages the endowment and retirement savings of the UC system and is independent from the universities within the system, such as UCLA and Cal.
The Big Ten’s year-long exploration into the private investment world is at its seminal moment, with a decision expected in a matter of days. Under the proposal, UC Investments will finance the potentially groundbreaking deal with the league to deliver an average of $140 million to each of the conference’s schools in up-front payments...
In what is described as a minority investment, UC Investments will provide an infusion of roughly $2.4 billion in a one-time equity distribution to the conference to own a 10% stake in Big Ten Enterprises and receive a cut of the league’s annual distribution. The $2.4 billion will be distributed to the league’s 18 schools in an uneven way, with a portion also used to create Big Ten Enterprises, a private offshoot of the league intended to better monetize the conference’s assets in this more professionalized environment of college athletics.
All schools will receive at least $100 million in up-front, one-time payments with several programs’ payouts exceeding $150 million — a massive influx in cash at a financially stressful time for athletic departments. Eight-figure bonuses to schools are also expected in fiscal year 2037, when the Big Ten’s deal with TV partner FOX is scheduled to end, likely triggering a significant media rights fees increase...
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/behind-closed-doors-this-coming.html.
From The Dartmouth: The College rejected multiple requests for information over the past month from The Dartmouth about the Class of 2029’s racial and ethnic demographics. In previous years, Dartmouth admissions published a “class profile” that included data about demographics such as geographic, gender, income and racial and ethnic background. Last year, this information was released on Sept. 16, 2024. Though published data from Dartmouth admissions included the admitted Class of 2029’s geographic and income backgrounds, it did not include information about gender or racial and ethnic backgrounds.
...Since January, the Trump administration has put pressure on higher-education institutions to halt the use of proxies for race in admissions. Among the terms of the administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which was received by the College and eight other universities on Oct. 1, is a requirement that universities admissions decisions are “based on and evaluated against objective criteria.”
“No factor such as sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations or proxies for any of those factors shall be considered, explicitly or implicitly, in any decision related to undergraduate or graduate student admissions or financial support, with due exceptions for institutions that are solely or primarily comprised of students of a specific sex or religious denomination,” the compact states...
From the Harvard Crimson: The removal of a weeklong exhibit by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee in the Science Center plaza led to a confrontation between former University President Lawrence H. Summers and College administrators on Thursday afternoon. The “Wall of Resistance,” built of six painted wooden panels designed and installed by PSC members, was the latest iteration of the organization’s annual exhibit condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. This year’s wall featured artwork and text condemning Israel’s killing of young children and aid seekers in Gaza and calling for Harvard to divest from Israel.
The exhibit was erected on Sunday and scheduled for removal by PSC members on Thursday at noon. Less than two hours before the planned removal, Harvard Chabad announced an address by Summers criticizing the wall, which coincided with its scheduled takedown. The removal was planned in advance in accordance with University guidelines preventing the installation from remaining in place for longer than five days.
According to Harvard Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, it was Summers who had suggested holding an event at the wall in a phone call to him earlier that day, expressing his upset at the installation... During the event, attended by more than 50 Harvard affiliates, Summers condemned the installation as “antisemitic” and “the moral equivalent of racism.” “I do not believe that if the doctrines of the Ku Klux Klan were proposed for installation in the Science Center, that that would be permitted and that would be enabled by those who lead us in this community,” Summers said...
Several minutes after noon, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh and Dean of Students Thomas G. Dunne briefly interrupted the event to ask Summers to move away from the wall so that the removal could continue safely... Summers refused to move, saying “I am going to finish my remarks.” ... Shortly after his speech, Summers and Claybaugh engaged in a heated exchange over her intervention in the event...
Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/24/summers-confrontation-psc-wall/.
The University of California on Thursday made a last-minute plea to the state Supreme Court, asking justices to block the release of a $1.2-billion UCLA settlement proposal from the Department of Justice as UC battles faculty members who are calling for more transparency about negotiations with the Trump administration.
In the California Supreme Court filing, UC asked for an “immediate temporary stay” of a lower court decision ordering the university to give faculty, by Friday, a 28-page document of federal demands for vast policy changes at UCLA that are in line with President Trump’s vision for higher education.
If the information is released, UC said in the filing, it will “suffer irreparable harm” to its dealings with the Trump administration as well as to other potential settlement negotiations in the future with other parties...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-23/judge-orders-uc-to-go-public-with-trump-ucla-settlement-proposal.
Let's see if we understand this: UC is saying it will suffer "irreparable harm" from release of a document that someone has already shared with the LA Times.
Many of the items discussed in that report were things you might expect, such as the rising cost of health insurance. However, the report also contained a listing of some miscellaneous items that came up, some of which you might not expect:
- the continuing effects of the still relatively new graduate student contract,
- ongoing reviews of the performance of the Retirement Administration Service Center (RASC),
- the implementation of new legislative mandates around the disclosure of substantiated findings of misconduct during hiring,
- the implementation of new legislative requirements for letters of recommendation,
- new onerous requirements for faculty recalled shortly after retiring,
- the effects of budget cuts on faculty morale, workloads, and working conditions,
- the implementation of Trelix and systemwide policies on cybersecurity,
- rising hate speech against faculty in student evaluations,
- problems related to affordable childcare and housing access.
Today's miscellaneous issues may become tomorrow's major issues.
==
*https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/assembly/assembly-agenda-10-9-25.pdf.
From Pew Research: Seven-in-ten Americans now say the higher education system in the United States is generally going in the wrong direction – up from 56% who said this in 2020, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. In addition, many give colleges and universities negative ratings across a range of specific areas – from keeping tuition costs affordable to preparing students for jobs in today’s economy. The survey of 3,445 U.S. adults comes as the Trump administration has taken several high-profile actions related to colleges and universities. Recently, the administration proposed that nine universities agree to a set of policy changes in exchange for special access to federal funds. In the new survey, majorities across all major demographic groups share the view that the U.S. higher education system is going in the wrong direction. But some groups are more likely than others to say this. For example, adults who have a four-year college degree are somewhat more likely than those without a college degree to express this view (74% vs. 69%).
Similarly, 77% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the higher education system is going in the wrong direction, compared with a smaller majority (65%) of Democrats and Democratic leaners. In both parties, these shares have gone up by at least 10 percentage points since 2020 – and the gap between Republicans and Democrats has narrowed...
Full release at https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/15/growing-share-of-americans-say-the-us-higher-education-system-is-headed-in-the-wrong-direction/.
From the Harvard Crimson: The Trump administration has turned toward federal financial aid as a new pressure point for Harvard — but recent threats have yet to present a significant risk to Harvard’s financial footing or College students’ access to aid. The Education Department slapped a new sanction on Harvard when it placed the University on heightened cash monitoring status on Sept. 19. The classification, often applied to struggling technical and for-profit colleges, is typically used to ensure the federal government isn’t sending aid to schools that are likely to collapse midyear...
Under HCM1 status, the designation Harvard was placed in, there are no changes to the University’s payment method — unlike the more restrictive HCM2 status, which would require Harvard to use its own funds to cover aid for students eligible for federal grants, rather than first drawing down federal funding through the Advance Payment Method. But for Harvard, even that change would be unlikely to make much of a difference: Harvard has always first distributed aid to students and then requested federal reimbursement for financial aid awarded, according to a University spokesperson...
Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/22/Heightened-Cash-Monitoring/.
The date April 24, 2026 keeps appearing in the notice for review as a deadline for having documents accessible.
Faculty require and provide instructional material in written form (textbooks, readings from various sources), as well as video and audio material. Some courses are fully or partially taught online.
It is unclear to your truly exactly what will be required as of April 24, 2026. I suspect it will be unclear to others. And April 24, 2026 is not all that far away.
The item can be found at:
By the way, much of what is listed as under review by the systemwide Senate, even though comments are always invited, has unclear implications for faculty. It would be useful if the Senate adopted a general practice of annotating these postings so that the implications are clear.
From Inside Higher Ed: ...Officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill determined that [syllabi and other course materials] are not automatically subject to [public records] requests after the Oversight Project, founded by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, requested that the university hand over any course materials from more than 70 classes that contained one of 30 words or phrases, including “gender identity,” “intersectionality,” “queer” and “sexuality.” Officials ultimately denied the request, writing, “There are no existing or responsive University records subject to disclosure under the North Carolina Public Records Act. Course materials, including but not limited to exams, lectures, assignments and syllabi, are the intellectual property of the preparer.”
The requested materials are protected by copyright policies, a UNC Chapel Hill spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed. “The university has a longstanding practice of recognizing faculty’s intellectual property rights in course materials and does not reproduce these materials in response to public records requests without first asking for faculty consent,” they wrote in an email. But an hour’s drive west, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, officials decided just the opposite. Professors were asked to hand over their spring 2025 syllabi in response to a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this fall, said Chuck Bolton, a professor of history at UNC Greensboro and chair of the Faculty Senate. He is among dozens of faculty members who were asked to upload their syllabi into a central database.
“The Public Records Act is inclusive in its coverage and unless there is an explicit exception, which this is not, it is covered,” UNC Greensboro spokesperson Diana Lawrence said in an email. “As a matter of public policy, transparency should take [precedence] over questions where there is doubt and we do not believe that the Federal Copyright Act provides a specific exemption or preempts what has been passed in state law.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/10/17/unc-campuses-split-whether-syllabi-are-public.
October 14, 2025
RE: Anthropic class action lawsuit
Dear Colleagues:
A class action lawsuit is pending that may affect many UC emeriti. The CUCEA board wanted to make sure you were aware of this lawsuit and that you alerted your members. Feel free to forward this letter of explanation.
The lawsuit applies particularly to authors of books and revolves about Anthropic’s use of ~500,000 books to train its AI platform (“Claude”). At issue is whether this constituted fair use, piracy, and/or copyright violation. A settlement agreement has been preliminarily approved.
Authors/publishers whose work is covered by the settlement may receive ~$3,000/book.
The link below from the Authors Guild provides helpful information to determine what books are included in the settlement and how to complete a claim.
Given the enormous productivity of our faculty, I imagine this will be relevant to many of you.
Sincerely,
Joel E. Dimsdale, M.D.
From the LA Times: ...A state court on Wednesday ordered the University of California to release the $1.2-billion UCLA settlement proposal from the Department of Justice, handing a victory to faculty members who are pushing UC for more transparency in its negotiations with the Trump administration.
The one-sentence decision signed by 1st Appellate District acting Presiding Justice Carin T. Fujisaki means that UC has until Friday to disclose a 28-page document that describes federal demands for vast policy changes at UCLA that are in line with President Trump’s vision for higher education...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-23/judge-orders-uc-to-go-public-with-trump-ucla-settlement-proposal.
We don't know what was said because of the closed-door format. But it is evident that the "parameters" didn't please a minority. Below is the official result of the meeting:
BOARD OF REGENTS (CLOSED SESSION)
October 14, 2025
1. ATHLETIC CONTRACT COMPENSATION PARAMETERS FOR FOOTBALL HEAD COACH, LOS ANGELES CAMPUS
Board vote: Regents Anguiano, Hernandez, Komoto, Lee, Makarechian, Milliken, Myers, Park, Reilly, Robinson, Sarris, and Sures voting “aye,”
Regents Brooks, Cohen, and Wang abstaining, and Regent Batchlor voting “no.”
2. PARTICIPATION IN JOINT EXERCISE OF POWERS AGREEMENT TO FORM AN AUTHORITY, INVEST IN THE AUTHORITY, PROVIDE A LINE OF CREDIT TO THE AUTHORITY, AND OBTAIN EXTERNAL FINANCING FOR CAPITAL FUNDING FOR THE INVESTMENT, SAN DIEGO CAMPUS
Board vote: Regents Anguiano, Batchlor, Brooks, Cohen, Hernandez, Komoto, Lee, Makarechian, Milliken, Myers, Park, Reilly, Robinson, Sarris, Sures, and Wang voting “aye.”
Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/aar/oct25.pdf.
From Inside Higher Ed: Harvard University plans to drastically reduce the number of Ph.D. students it admits in the next two years, according to a series of emails obtained by The Crimson, the student newspaper. Within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, there will be a 75 percent cut to the sciences division and a 60 percent cut to the arts and humanities. The scope of cuts to the social sciences division remains unclear but is estimated to fall somewhere between 50 and 70 percent...
Five faculty members told The Crimson that it was left up to the various departments to decide how they allot the remaining admissions slots. Still, the cuts run deep. Any department left with just one slot for a new student after the percentage cuts were applied would not be allowed to admit any new scholars, one faculty member said. Friday is the deadline for departments to finalize how they want to distribute their slots...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/22/harvard-slashes-admissions-phd-candidates.
From the Guardian: Faculty at the University of Texas at Austin fear entire academic departments may be on the chopping block after the university quietly appointed a committee charged with studying the restructuring of its liberal arts programs. The university – the largest in the public University of Texas system – has not made any announcements about cuts or restructuring, but faculty there have learned the committee was established earlier this semester and tasked with a review that they believe is focused on ethnic and regional disciplines such as African and African diaspora studies, Mexican American and Latina/o studies, as well as women’s and gender studies.
The university did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment and faculty who asked administrators about the committee said they have received no clear answers. On Thursday, UT Austin also announced a taskforce to conduct a “thorough review” of the university’s core curriculum – a set of required courses taken by all students – “to better fulfill the purpose of this curriculum and identify gaps in quality, rigor, or intellectual cohesion”, the university’s president wrote in an email. The taskforce is made up of 18 professors – none from the departments where cuts are feared. Students have circulated an image in private emails and chats mocking the fact that almost all faculty on it are white...
Concerns escalated after a new state law went into effect on 1 September, disbanding the public university system’s long-established faculty senates and giving university administrators near-absolute control over university governance matters. While university senates hold advisory roles at most schools, they are generally a primary outlet for faculty to engage in decisions concerning the university. As the law kicked in, UT Austin’s new president – the first to be appointed without faculty input – announced the establishment of a 12-person faculty advisory board entirely selected by him and “charged with advising on institutional matters and focusing on the best interests of the entire University”...
Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/university-of-texas-cuts-liberal-arts.
From the NY Times: Seven of the nine universities that the White House initially approached about a plan to steer more federal money toward schools aligned with President Trump’s priorities have refused to endorse the proposal. On Monday evening, an eighth signaled that it had reservations about it. Only one, the University of Texas, suggested it might be open to signing on quickly.
The University of Arizona rejected the Trump administration’s compact on Monday, joining Brown University, Dartmouth College, M.I.T., the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and the University of Virginia. Vanderbilt University did not directly express a view about the plan on Monday — the deadline the Trump administration initially gave universities for feedback — but its chancellor suggested misgivings about parts of it...
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/us/politics/universities-funding-compact.html.
The former Faculty Club is now the University Club. UCLA seems to be anxious to promote the change.
Source: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-faculty-club-is-now-the-ucla-university-club.
From UCLA Newsroom: Kent Wong, former director of the UCLA Labor Center from 1991–2023 and professor of labor studies and Asian American studies, died Oct. 8. He was 69. An esteemed community leader, Wong was renowned across Los Angeles and the nation for his labor and immigrant rights advocacy. As director of the UCLA Labor Center for 32 years — and more recently, its project director of labor and community partnerships — Wong cemented the center as a groundbreaking hub for research and leadership development programs that serve workers and immigrants.
His deep engagement with working-class communities across Los Angeles was matched by his prominence on UCLA’s campus. A key founder of the UCLA Labor Studies department, Wong anchored the major’s popular introductory course, teaching thousands of students over three decades. He also developed and co-taught “Nonviolence and Social Movements” with his longtime mentor, the late civil rights icon Rev. James Lawson Jr. Over the course of his academic career, Wong authored and edited several books, including “Asian American Workers Rising” and “Revolutionary Nonviolence: Organizing for Freedom.”
“Kent’s tireless leadership and dedication helped place UCLA at the forefront of community engagement, academic research, and a push for a worker-centered economy in Los Angeles,” said Abel Valenzuela, dean of the UCLA Division of Social Sciences. “Because of him, a community asset bears Rev. Lawson’s name in the heart of MacArthur Park. For generations to come, Kent’s legacy will continue to endure through this center as a profound reminder of our obligation to support research and policy solutions that advance economic justice for all.”
Source: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/in-memoriam-kent-wong-69-former-director-ucla-labor-center.
From the Daily Pennsylvanian: Penn Abroad has discontinued funding for the Penn English Program in London, bringing an end to the English department’s study abroad program. According to English faculty members, the decision to end the nearly 40-year-old program housed by King’s College London was made abruptly by Penn Abroad at the start of the fall 2025 semester. Though students majoring and minoring in English will still be able to study at King’s College under a typical exchange format, students and alumni who spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian expressed disappointment towards the termination of the program.
In an interview with the DP, English department Chair Zachary Lesser said faculty were not consulted before the decision was finalized. He added that he had been in conversation with Penn Abroad over the summer about possible cost-saving measures, but that “the final word came down unexpectedly.” Although the department hopes the program could return someday, it will not be active for the foreseeable future, Lesser said...
2024 English program graduate Noah Lewine participated in PEPL during his senior fall... "Watching the administration continue to undervalue [the humanities] and cut away at them is really disappointing and honestly heartbreaking,” Lewine said.
Full story at https://www.thedp.com/article/2025/10/penn-english-in-london-program-termination.
Below is the notice:
NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Date: October 23, 2025
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center, San Francisco Campus
1111 Franklin St, Oakland, CA
400 Q Street, Sacramento, CA
6629 Round Oak Road, Penngrove, CA
1 Newbury St, Boston, MA
425 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles Campus
552 University Rd, Santa Barbara, CA
Agenda – Closed Session
B1(X) Action Authorization to Purchase Replacement Residential Property with External Financing: Current and Future UC Santa Barbara
Chancellors, Office of the President
Closed Session Statute Citation: Acquisition or disposition of property
[Education Code §92032(b)(6)]
B2(X) Discussion UCLA Big Ten Conference Membership – Legal Issues
Closed Session Statute Citation: Acquisition or disposition of property
[Education Code §92032(b)(6)]
--
Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/oct25/board23x.pdf.
From the Daily Princetonian: Princeton will require undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores beginning with the 2027–28 admission cycle, the University announced Thursday. The decision will end a seven-year stint of test-optional undergraduate admissions that began during the pandemic. Several peer institutions including Harvard, Penn, and Brown, have announced in the past year and a half that they would require standardized tests, with changes set to take place in the application cycles during the 2024–25 or 2025–26 school years. Yale, meanwhile, has adopted a test-flexible policy allowing students to choose from SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate scores to submit. Columbia has become permanently test-optional.
Many peer institutions had announced these changes in March or April to begin in the application cycle the next fall. [Princeton] University’s announcement is significantly early in comparison, applicable beginning with the entering Class of 2032, students who will matriculate two admissions cycles from now in the fall of 2028. Like many of its peers, the University said that test scores helped predict academic success among undergraduates...
Full story at https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025/10/princeton-news-sat-act-standardized-test-optional-required-admissions.
Note that the UC Regents dropped testing despite having commissioned a Senate report which suggested otherwise. Maybe now is the time to reconsider. Of course, the Regents have a lot on their plates at the moment. And folks don't generally like to consider the possibility that maybe in the past they made a mistake.
From the Daily Pennsylvanian: Philosophy professor and Perry World House Director Michael Weisberg was appointed to lead the implementation of recommendations from Penn's 2024 Task Force on Antisemitism and the Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community... “As we strengthen our community, combating antisemitism and other forms of hatred and bias are critical priorities for Penn,” Penn President Larry Jameson said in the announcement. “In spearheading our University-wide efforts, Professor Weisberg brings steady, trusted leadership and a deep commitment to advancing our highest aspirations for excellence, freedom of inquiry and expression, and mutual respect.”
...A fundamental question Weisberg seeks to answer moving forward is how Penn can best live up to its commitment to pluralism. Specifically, he seeks to find ways for individuals at Penn to “live well together,” despite having differences. "I’ve yet to meet a person at Penn who is not excited about building community and willing to lend a hand in combating hate," he said to Penn Today. "I would like to find ways to further enrich our community. Even those who are quite critical of the University or how we handled events on campus over the last two years still believe in the core project of building an academic community based on the shared values of academic freedom and mutual respect."
..."Universities are very special places," Weisberg said. "Here we can create our own campus based on our shared values. We are so privileged to be in a place where we have so many tools at our disposal, so much expertise, and people from so many countries in the world and from every state, with so much incredible knowledge and so many resources and experiences. We can make that the basis of how we build a wonderful community. But it is ours to build — it’s not simply given to us." ...
Full story at https://www.thedp.com/article/2025/10/penn-appoints-weisberg-continued-implemention-antisemitism-prevention.
From Inside Higher Ed: Harvard University ended fiscal year 2025 with a $113 million operating deficit, according to its annual financial report—the first such loss in more than a decade, Harvard Magazine reported. That follows a $45 million surplus in FY 2024.
The report, published [last] Thursday, showed that revenue and expense growth both slowed in FY 2025, which ended June 30, but expenses still rose twice as fast as revenue—6 percent versus 3 percent. The deficit reflects “some effects of the Trump administration’s unprecedented fiscal and regulatory assault” on Harvard and higher education more broadly, Harvard Magazine noted. While the report itself doesn't mention President Trump by name, it suggests that Harvard is steeling itself for more battles with the government.
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| TPM at Harvard |
“Structural changes and reductions across our Schools and units will be necessary, and they will not be easy. Our work is far from finished.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/20/harvard-runs-deficit-even-endowment-grows-sharply.
