From the LA Times: UC Berkeley on Thursday said it would revise campus nondiscrimination policies, prohibit student organization bylaws from banning Zionist speakers and pay $1 million in legal fees to settle a lawsuit by two Jewish groups over alleged antisemitic incidents following protests in response to the Hamas-Israel war in 2023. In addition, UC Berkeley said it would revamp an online nondiscrimination page to clarify that it considers an antisemitism definition promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance when evaluating discrimination complaints...
UC Berkeley has considered the IHRA definition since 2024, based on Department of Education guidelines. What is new is that the campus has agreed to refer to the definition on its Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination web page. The settlement is the latest among UC campuses that have closed out lawsuits and civil rights complaints stemming from contentious pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests that reached a crescendo in 2024 with pro-Palestinian encampments at all nine undergraduate campuses and a violent attack against pro-Palestinian activists at UCLA in April of that year... In a statement, UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said the settlement built upon work already underway...
Note: The Daily Cal attributes the decision to settle to the Regents in a closed-door session last Wednesday. While such a sequence is reasonable to assume, since the session was closed-door, it is unclear how that information could be known with certainty. See:
From Inside Higher Ed: Utah representative Mike Petersen was inspired to introduce new legislation after receiving a call from his daughter, a master’s student in social work in Louisiana. She was disturbed that a professor had asked the class to write to a local lawmaker in favor of LGBTQ rights. “She … said, ‘Dad, I just got told I needed to write a letter to my legislator advocating for some policies that don’t align with me,’” Peterson said. She didn’t raise her concerns to the instructor “because she was afraid.”
Petersen has since sponsored a bill, passed by the Utah Legislature this month, that would allow students in the state to opt out of some coursework that conflicts with their religious beliefs. The legislation now awaits the governor’s signature. The bill creates a process by which students at Utah public colleges and universities could request to skip upcoming assignments for a mandatory class or major requirement that go against a “sincerely held religious or conscience belief.” For example, a student could ask in advance to opt out of watching a sexually explicit film required on a course syllabus. A professor who denies a student’s request would have to explain the decision to a “neutral arbiter” assigned by the university, according to the bill. That person would assess whether nixing the assignment—or subbing in an alternative—counts as a “fundamental alteration” to the class’s learning objectives.
The bill also states that professors can’t “compel a student to publicly take or communicate a specified position,” such as requiring them to write a letter to a lawmaker or publish an article espousing a particular viewpoint. The bill leaves it to the Utah Higher Education Board to come up with more specific guidance on how these policies should be applied and requires the board to report back to the Legislature on how implementation goes...
From Santa Monica Patch: Traffic will be impacted on the 405 Freeway and nearby roads this weekend when construction will shut down several lanes on both sides of the interstate near the Sepulveda Pass. The freeway will be reduced to three lanes in each direction in the area of the Getty Center and Mulholland Drive from 10 p.m. Friday, March 20 through 5 a.m. Monday, March 23. Additionally, two ramps will be closed. The planned closures are as follows:
Northbound 405 Freeway
The interstate will be reduced to three lanes between a point just south of the Getty Center Drive/Sepulveda Boulevard off-ramp and a point just north of Bel Air Crest Road. The Getty Center Drive on- and off-ramps will be closed.
Southbound 405 Freeway
Reduced to three lanes between the Skirball Center Drive/Mulholland Drive on-ramp and the Getty Center Drive/Sepulveda Boulevard on-ramp...
From US Dept. of Justice Press Release: ...The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division [has] filed a lawsuit against Harvard University for race and national origin discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
After Hamas’ attacks on October 7, 2023, Harvard has tolerated antisemitic mobs of students, faculty, and visitors allegedly expressing their opposition to Israel by assaulting, harassing, and intimidating Jewish and Israeli students with perceived racial, ethnic, and national connections to Israel. Harvard has been deliberately indifferent to its Jewish and Israeli students’ plight and failed to prevent such conduct by selectively enforcing its campus rules to permit it to continue. Harvard ignored what its own Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias deemed the “exclusion of Israeli or Zionist students from social spaces and extracurricular activities.” Harvard failed to meaningfully discipline the mobs that occupied its buildings and terrorized its Jewish and Israeli students. Federal law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in schools that accept federal funding...
Harvard is currently set to receive more than $2.6 billion of taxpayer money under active grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, to say nothing of other federal agencies. The United States’ complaint seeks to compel Harvard to comply with Title VI, and to recover the taxpayer funds that Harvard accepted while in violation of Title VI...
There was a classic radio show in the 1940s and early 1950s called Duffy's Tavern. (It subsequently transitioned to TV.) The thing about Duffy's Tavern was that Duffy, the bar's owner, was never there. The show began with "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" as a theme song. A phone would ring and Archie The Manager would answer:
"Hello, Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'. Duffy ain't here—oh, hello, Duffy."
Archie would then tell Duffy, who wasn't there, about the day's events, which would form the story of the program. But we would never hear from Duffy. Of course, it was the fictional Duffy who created the place where the various stories would unfold. But he wasn't there to participate.*
We have been posting from time to time about UCLA's budget information. Former CFO Agostini said a Very Bad Thing to the Daily Bruin about how UCLA's prior financial statements were misleading due to bad management, words that got him canned. But as blog readers will know, he did leave us with a budget book legacy containing macro data for 2023-24 and unit-level data for that year plus 2024-25 and forecast data for 2025-26, the current fiscal year. Like Duffy, however, Agostini ain't here to explain and clarify what is in the budget book.
The budget book contains data on revenues and expenditures for 41 identified "units." Apart from numbers for revenues and expenditures with some detail, there are charts for each unit showing whether revenues exceeded or fell short of expenses. The units are not totaled in the book. That omission of a total may be because there were purportedly no data for one unit: "Basic Biomedical Sciences." (There is a blank page for that unit which, given its name, presumably receives significant research grant revenues.) Unit detail goes down to the school, but not the department. Presumably, one could in theory go down to the department level, but the book is what it is, and Agostini, like Duffy, ain't here to explain why it isn't more detailed. He also ain't here to explain some of the definitions of subcategories of revenues and expenditures.
A different problem is that the budget book came out as a pdf document, not an Excel sheet. But the wonders of AI allows us ("us" actually being my son - who knows how to use an AI program) to create an Excel sheet from the pdf. And from that, we can explore the data.
Former CFO Agostini was keen to tell the Academic Senate there was a major budget problem at UCLA requiring cuts in spending. But it was all expressed in general statements, not detailed accounts. The resulting pressure to produce actual numbers seemed to be the impetus for the budget book. So let's start with a macro look at the unit level data. Note that unlike the figures we have previously been looking at on this blog from other sources, the 41 units are basically academic components and exclude, for example, hospital revenues. And they also exclude the one missing unit.
As the chart above shows, expenditures for each of the three years significantly exceeded revenues,** at least by Agostini's figures. The chart below shows the deficits for the three years:
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Two deficits are shown. The smaller ones on the chart isolate the campus General Fund (GF). The larger bars show the overall funds (including the GF) but also from revenues and expenditures outside the GF.
The overall deficits shown are large: about $374 million the first year, $703 million the second, and $290 during the current year. Presumably, the reduction in the deficit this year compared with last reflects budget cuts that were made.
Note, however, that missing from the Agostini budget book are data on reserves. More than a billion dollars had to be drawn down from somewhere to cover the deficits for the last three years. Where did that billion come from? How much reserves are there in the kitty to cover deficits that might arise in the future? If I were on any Academic Senate committees tasked with budgetary oversight, I would ask for reserve data along with figures on revenues and expenditures.
Keep in mind the caveat we keep making. At the micro unit level, revenues attributed to any one unit are often a matter of somebody's discretion regarding allocation, especially of FTE. Thus, whether a particular unit shows a surplus or a deficit is also often a matter of discretion.
In future posts, we will look further at unit-level data. The fact that Agostini ain't here will be a complication in interpretation. But it (the inability to get clarification) is what it is.***
**I have subtracted withdrawals from unit reserves from the reported revenues. Depleting reserves is not revenue. (As blog readers will know from our past analyses of state budgets, it is common in state and local finance circles to confuse depleting reserves with revenue.) The depletion of unit reserves, however, was not a major factor at the macro level.
***The Excel spreadsheet from which the charts were derived can be downloaded at:
From Inside Higher Ed: The Republican-controlled Iowa House passed three bills last week that would order curricular and other changes at the state’s three public universities: the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Whether they will also pass the state Senate, which is also in GOP hands, remains unclear.
House File 2487 would require the universities to identify any general ed course requirements that “include diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory–related content” by the fall 2028 semester. The legislation says the Board of Regents “in its discretion shall direct an institution to eliminate such a course or course requirement.” The bill doesn’t define DEI or CRT. For new undergraduates enrolling at the universities after July 1, 2028, a second bill, House File 2361, would generally require they complete a “comprehensive survey of all American history” course, and another on “all” American government to earn a four-year degree. The universities would have to accept these courses as fulfilling their “general education or core curriculum requirement for social sciences or humanities.”
The civics centers at these public universities—faculty critics often dub them conservative centers—would designate courses that meet the mandates, according to the legislation, which also requires the Board of Regents to review all undergrad gen ed requirements and core curricula at those institutions.
The third recently approved bill, House File 2245, would require the board to use search committees comprised of five voting board members when undergoing university presidential searches. The bill would require presidential candidates to be kept secret unless all five members agree to make their names public...
From the Daily Bruin: UCLA’s Chicana/o studies department unanimously voted Wednesday afternoon to remove César E. Chávez from its name following sexual abuse allegations against the labor leader. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, the chair of the department of Chicana/o studies, said in an emailed statement that the department made the decision at an emergency meeting Wednesday. However, only Chancellor Julio Frenk and UC President James Milliken have the authority to rename UCLA properties and programs, according to University policy.
The Chicana/o studies department removed César E. Chávez from its name on its website as of Wednesday evening. However, Chávez remains on the website’s URL. The department also removed his name from its Instagram and plans to take it off any other online domains and places it has control over, Hinojosa-Ojeda said in an interview...
There is a not-so-nice history of making people who are out of favor disappear from history.* Maybe Chancellor Frenk and President Milliken would like to reflect on previous purges before making decisions.
When buildings or streets or UCLA units are named for some historical figure, presumably the reason is that the person being honored did something noteworthy and positive, at least as seen at the time of the naming. The problem is that there are no saints in this world.
If that statement offends you, you have the right to stop reading further in this post.
There ARE people who sometimes do some right thing for the right reasons. There ARE people who sometimes do some right thing for the wrong reasons. There are people who sometimes do the wrong thing for the right reasons (at least as they understood them). And there are plain old bad people who do the wrong things for the wrong reasons, or maybe for no reasons other than the psychological. Sometimes there are people who are a mix of good and bad.
So, now we have César Chávez, who turns out not to have been a saint. (If you don't know what I'm referring to, you must have been in a coma for the past 48 hours.) But there were warning signs well before:
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"The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement" by Miriam Pawel (2009): This book is considered one of the most comprehensive accounts of the UFW's rise and fall. Pawel chronicles how Chavez struggled to transition from leading a popular movement to managing a complex union, leading to the alienation of dedicated staff and the breakdown of union operations.
"The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography" by Miriam Pawel (2014): A follow-up that further explores Chavez’s flaws, including a "vicious and dictatorial" management style that grew worse over time.
"Trampling Out The Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers" by Frank Bardacke (2012): A detailed account by a former field worker that argues Chavez’s micromanaging and obsessive purges of staff destroyed the UFW as a worker-led organization. Bardacke describes the "two souls" as the union’s early, successful grassroots movement versus Chavez’s later, authoritarian control and focus on non-profits.
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These books are over a decade old. Their accounts of misbehavior are not new. No, we didn't know about the sex abuse. But is it really surprising that someone who was seen early on as a saintly figure, who likely began to see himself that way, and who carried on well-documented abuse of others of a non-sexual nature, might have also been guilty of sex abuse? In retrospect, are you shocked, shocked?
My modest proposal would be to leave the name on the buildings, streets, and university units as a constant reminder not to worship real human beings. But, of course, that isn't the likely outcome. The name will probably be changed. At UCLA, some kind of committee will probably be formed to come up with a permanent solution. Indeed, informally, the name has already been stricken as of today:
Today ========================
Yesterday ========================
Given the inevitability of a formal name change, here are some alternatives, courtesy of Google AI:
Saul Alinsky: The Architect. Often called the "father of community organizing," Alinsky founded the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). He developed the tactical framework for grassroots power described in his seminal work, Rules for Radicals. He trained Fred Ross - see below - who in turn trained Chávez.
Never heard of Saul Alinsky? Here he is on the Dick Cavett show (July 22, 1971):
Fred Ross: The Bridge. Ross was Alinsky’s protégé and a legendary organizer in his own right. He founded the Community Service Organization (CSO) in 1947 with Alinsky's backing to empower Mexican American communities. Ross is best known for recruiting and mentoring Chavez and Huerta, teaching them the "house meeting" method.
Dolores Huerta: The Leaders. After being trained by Ross in the CSO, Chavez and Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in 1962, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). Together, they led the historic Delano Grape Strike and the broader La Causa movement.
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Ross and Huerta
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In old western movies, the Good Guys wore white hats and the Bad Guys wore black hats, so you easily could know who was who. There were no grey hats for nuance. No hats that were half white and half black.
However, in the real world I am constantly amazed by the newspaper columnists and - dare I say - even university colleagues who are certain they can see into the future and determine, from that viewpoint, how history will have unfolded and who will be seen as wearing the white hats.
It must be nice to be so sure. So, maybe the legacy of César Chávez will turn out to be a cautionary lesson about too much certainty and too much self-worship.
The Legislative Analyst's Office has looked back at periods when the stock market dropped suddenly to see what happens to income tax revenue. There has been concern that the AI boom might turn into a bust, similar to the dot-com boom and then bust. When you look back at that period, income tax revenue dropped sharply, but with a lag. (Taxes are paid on past earnings.) Revenues did not recover for a prolonged period:
The adverse consequences of such an event on UC's budget are evident. So, if you want to worry about something, you can add this to your menu.
From Tuscon.com: Arizona’s public universities are required by state law to make decisions collaboratively between administration, faculty and staff, but faculty leaders say University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella has declined to sign a memorandum of understanding providing more detail on how that should work. Garimella is the first UA president “who has refused to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the faculty governance structure,” said Mona Hymel, chair of the UA Shared Governance Review Committee.
“If you don’t sign anything, you can’t be held to account,” Hymel said, adding, “It has absolutely hindered shared governance” not to have a document signed by Garimella, “because decisions, which used to be made together, are being made unilaterally.”
UA Faculty Chair Leila Hudson said Garimella’s first year as president led to some dissatisfaction among professors because he did not have elected faculty leadership participate in high-level hiring decisions. Mitch Zak, UA spokesperson, said Garimella and the university decline to comment on questions from the Star about Garimella’s reasons for not signing the memorandum, how important he thinks shared governance is to the functioning of a public university, and if he thinks memorandums such as this are necessary to practicing shared governance...
From the NY Times: In the Bay Area, at least two universities have student centers named for Cesar Chavez. In the San Diego area, at California State University San Marcos, a plaza and a statue honor Mr. Chavez. And the University of Texas at Austin similarly honors Mr. Chavez in a bronze likeness. But the outpouring of anguish about sexual misconduct accusations against Mr. Chavez may not lead to his swift erasure from American college campuses.
...At the University of California, Berkeley, where the student center has celebrated Mr. Chavez since 1997, a committee reviews proposals from students, employees and graduates about rechristening buildings. If the panel advances the proposal for wider consideration, a lengthy process of public feedback begins before the committee prepares for a recommendation for the campus’s chancellor. The final decision rests with the president of the University of California system. A spokeswoman for the university system, Rachel Zaentz, said Wednesday that the 10-campus U.C. system was “deeply concerned about these troubling reports.” She added: “We stand firmly with survivors and are evaluating these findings internally. We will communicate updates when appropriate.”
...Fresno State’s president, Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, said Wednesday that the campus would keep a statue of Mr. Chavez covered “while we determine appropriate next steps for its removal.”
“At Fresno State, our values are grounded in dignity, respect and care for one another,” Dr. Jiménez-Sandoval wrote. “When we become aware of reports of such a serious nature, we must acknowledge their weight and hold space for those who have been harmed.”
Cal State San Marcos did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. David Knutson, a spokesperson for San Francisco State, where the student center carries the Chavez name, said the university was “committed to thoughtful dialogue around complex historical legacies while continuing to foster an inclusive and supportive campus environment.”
In a separate statement, the Cal State system, which has 23 campuses, said that it was “considering appropriate courses of action” and that it was “firmly committed to fostering university environments centered on respect, integrity and the safety and dignity of all members of our campus communities.”
The University of Texas at Austin declined to comment on Wednesday. The university, though, has previously removed statues with little warning. In 2017, soon after the violent unrest in Charlottesville, Va., campus workers took down several Confederate monuments overnight at the direction of the university’s president at the time.
From the Harvard Crimson: Mady Corrigan, a Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, used to spend most of her time on research. Now, she spends a significant part of it fixing equipment. Since SEAS Dean David C. Parkes announced plans last October to lay off roughly 25 percent of the school’s clerical and technical union workers — along with other staff, totaling about 40 positions — Corrigan’s lab has lost both its research technician and its lab manager...
The layoffs followed a convergence of financial pressures on Harvard: a sharp increase in the federal tax on the University’s endowment, upended federal research funding, and what Parkes described in an October email as a budgetary gap the school could not close through other cost-cutting measures alone. In the months since the cuts took effect, the consequences have rippled beyond the school’s budget. In interviews, around a dozen students and staff members described a school grappling with diminished support and growing gaps in the day-to-day operations that keep labs running, courses staffed, and students advised...
There has been increasing concern about the rising proportion of undergraduate students claiming disabilities on college campuses. Most of the UC campuses show that trend. Disabled students can receive accommodations on tests and other assignments. But the rise seems prominent in a number of private universities. The San Francisco Chronicle has a search option for looking at the trend.
From Fall 2013 to Fall 2023:
Stanford (top of the list in Fall 2023): 7% to 38.2%
From Inside Higher Ed: Universities in Bangladesh and Pakistan have been forced to close campuses and move teaching online as governments introduce emergency measures to conserve electricity and fuel amid an energy crisis linked to conflict in the Middle East. Similar conservation measures are being introduced elsewhere in the region. In the Philippines, government agencies, including state universities, have been instructed to cut fuel consumption by at least 10 percent in recent days. Many Asian economies are particularly vulnerable to sustained oil price shocks because of their reliance on imported energy, according to ING, a banking and financial services group.
...University campuses consume large amounts of electricity to operate residential halls, classrooms, laboratories and air-conditioning systems, meaning the early closure could significantly reduce demand, according to officials...
On Wednesday, UCLA is seeking Regental approval to go ahead with a student housing project at 901 Levering Avenue in Westwood. A current low-rise structure at that location would be replaced with a 19-story apartment house containing 142 apartments with 1,130 student inhabitants. (The existing structure - shown below - to be replaced contains 52 students.) An additional 4 apartments would be for supervisory personnel. Financing costs would be almost $281 million with addition funding from housing "reserves" of around $70 million. All borrowing would be undertaken by the UCLA housing enterprise; UC (the Regents) would not be at risk.
The business plan for the property promises that the apartments would rented for 18% below market.
From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Barnard reopened select campus entrances to Barnard and Columbia ID holders following the completion of new perimeter security upgrades, Kelli Murray, Barnard executive vice president for strategy and chief administrative officer, announced in a March 2 email to the Barnard community. Under the new policy, Barnard and Columbia ID holders will have expanded access hours to the single-entry turnstile doors at the Milbank Hall entrance on West 120th Street and at the 40 Claremont Avenue entrance to the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning. The Milstein entrance is open to faculty, staff, and students around the clock; while faculty and staff have 24/7 access at both locations, student access at Milbank is limited to weekdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Murray wrote in the email that the entrances are now equipped with “fully operational, actively monitored camera systems and single-entry turnstiles,” adding that the combination of the two systems is “what allows us to provide 24/7 perimeter access safely at these locations.” The expansion comes amid a years-long tightening of Barnard’s campus perimeter, largely driven by the college’s efforts to suppress on-campus protest activity. The college initially closed secondary entrances in anticipation of fall 2023 protests over the war in Gaza, but took further action during the spring 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Columbia’s campus by narrowing access to the main gate at 117th Street and Broadway for Barnard and Columbia ID holders and shutting down all others.
...The upgrades reflect Barnard’s broader move toward automated campus entry systems, following changes to its security staffing. In July, amid a financial debt crisis, the college laid off 77 staff members—including desk attendants who previously monitored entrances to the Barnard Quad residence halls. Those positions were then replaced with ID scanners at the Quad’s entry points...
In our last iteration of looking at UCLA budget documents versus UC's version of UCLA's budget, we focused on the expense side. It appeared that the (unaudited) financial statements issued before former CFO Agostini came on board tended to produce higher expenditure figures than those arising from (audited) UC documents. CFO Agostini called into question the validity of past UCLA statements (implicating administrators who had responsibility for accurate reporting), and got himself fired.
Let's now look at expenditures (previously discussed*), revenues, and surpluses and deficits (revenues minus expenditures).
The top chart below - which blog readers have already seen - shows the expenditure side. The middle chart shows revenues. And the bottom chart shows surpluses and deficits.
The top chart shows expenditures as UCLA presented them running above UC's version of those expenditures. In contrast, the middle chart shows that the revenue figures from the two alternative sources run close together. The bottom chart shows that UCLA's pre-Agostini figures show the campus to be running a chronic deficit. But UC's version of the financials, with their lower expenditures, shows a mix of surpluses and deficits. It appears that Agostini based his budget book figures for 2023-24 on UC's figures since his estimates seem to match UC's figures for that fiscal year.
There are some caveats to note. First, none of the figures are current. Agostini's budget book had macro figures for 2023-24, but only unit (micro) figures for 2024-25. The old UCLA-derived series ends in 2022-23.
Second, when you look at the macro level, you are seeing everything from hospital revenues to state allocations to professional school supplementary tuitions, etc. Many of the revenue sources are not fungible, i.e., you can't take someone's payment for cancer treatment at the hospital and use it instead to hire an administrative assistant for the English Department.
Third, the unit level (micro) figures that Agostini provided show some units with surpluses and others with deficits. But at the unit level, revenues are often allocations by someone. For example, the Academic Senate is said to be running a deficit, i.e., expenditures > revenue, in the budget book. But the revenue of the Senate is an allocation. The Senate isn't a fee-for-service operation. If it were given a bigger allocation, it could be in surplus. Some other unit, of course, would presumably get less as a result, were such a reallocation to the Senate made. Thus, much of a unit's financial position is really a choice of allocation, i.e., a judgment as to what a particular activity is worth. It is not the same as a commercial business running in the red or in the black. The budget book does not reveal how the unit allocations of revenue are made.
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NOTE: We have taken Agostini's budget book data for units and aggregated them using an AI program. Some analysis will be presented in a later post.
As we noted when we posted the preliminary Regents' agenda for this week, UCLA is proposing a new Sports Medicine complex at an off-campus location.* More detail is now available. The complex - to be placed in an existing structure near the junction of the 405 and 105 freeways - will include other elements of healthcare apart from sports medicine:
UCLA Sports Medicine Institute: The new UCLA Sports Medicine Institute will be a state-of-the-art facility serving a growing number of patients and athletes, featuring an ambulatory surgery center, outpatient clinic, advanced imaging, and rehabilitation for comprehensive musculoskeletal care. By uniting specialists in sports medicine, orthopedics, radiology, anesthesiology, and physical therapy in the same facility, it will provide complete care for musculoskeletal needs. This expansion will improve access to orthopedic services in an outpatient setting, relieving demand at UCLA’s Santa Monica and Ronald Reagan Medical Centers.
UCLA Clinical Microbiology Laboratory: The UCLA Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, also known as the Brentwood Laboratory, provides comprehensive testing for infectious agents and select autoimmune disorders and hosts an accredited Clinical Microbiology Postdoctoral Training Program. The renovated space would consolidate several off-campus leased laboratories currently housed in older buildings that do not comply with UC Seismic Safety Policy standards.
Community Fill Pharmacy and Specialty Pharmacy: With the Peter Morton Medical Building nearing capacity, the pharmacy department needs additional space to meet rising demand. Currently serving both inpatient and outpatient needs, the department is also preparing to handle the new prescription volume from UCLA's employee health plans and local employers. The renovated property will become a centralized fulfillment center for UCLA Health’s retail and specialty pharmacy services...
The $298.2 million total project budget would be funded by external financing supported by revenues of the UCLA Hospital System ($293.2 million) and grant funds ($5 million)...**
All financing comes from the UCLA Hospital System. Regents' proposed approval includes a statement that UC (the Regents) is (are) not to be at risk.
As blog readers will know, the UCLA Hospital System has been an expansionary mode, buying existing facilities and renovating or repurposing them. In part, this expansion might be seen as related to UCLA's offering of a Medicare Advantage plan to LA County residents.
From The Dartmouth: The College is requiring Dartmouth Libraries to cut its budget over the next two fiscal years, according to emails sent by dean of libraries Susanne Mehrer to library staff and obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth. While a Dec. 1 email from Mehrer stated the required cuts totaled $2,614,000, Mehrer wrote in a March 5 email that the “FY27–FY28 budget planning figure is $1 million lower” than the initial $2.6 million cut...
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote that “all units across campus are participating in annual budget planning for FY27” as the College “work[s] to align expenses with revenue growth.” “Our financial position remains healthy, and this year’s budget planning will help Dartmouth better navigate cost pressures, including inflation and healthcare expenses, to ensure we stay in a strong financial position,” Barnello wrote...
As blog readers will know, the UC Regents will be meeting this coming week. In particular, the Health Services Committee will be meeting and will be discussing a new system of cost controls being implemented by the state:
The Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) was established by California’s Health Care Quality and Affordability Act as part of the 2022–23 State budget to address rapidly rising healthcare costs and improve affordability for consumers and purchasers...
A core mechanism in OHCA’s strategy is the establishment of healthcare cost growth targets designed to cap the annual rate of increase in per capita healthcare expenditures across the system. In April 2024, the Health Care Affordability Board (Board) approved a target that starts at 3.5 percent annual growth for 2025 and 2026, declines to 3.2 percent for 2027–28, and ultimately reaches three percent by 2029, aligning spending growth with typical household income growth...
The Board identified seven hospitals as high-cost hospitals based on a pricing analysis and set lower spending targets for these facilities (1.8 percent in 2026, 1.7 percent in 2027–28, and 1.6 percent in 2029). Annually, OHCA will update the list of hospitals meeting the high-cost criteria and the factors used in that determination. UC hospitals are included in the hospital sector, and none have been designated as high-cost hospitals... [underline added]
Enforcement of spending caps could strain hospital finances if reimbursement and operational costs continue to rise faster than permitted spending levels...
As blog readers will know, UCLA has been adding to its hospital enterprise at a time when increased cost controls and scrutiny of costs are being imposed.
From the Brown Daily Herald: Brown will offer optional hostile intruder training to students, faculty and employees... Students, faculty and employees can register online to attend the newly designed in-person or live virtual training sessions... All sessions will be led by FBI-trained instructors, Brown Police Chief Hugh Clements and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Sarah Latham wrote in the message.
Prior to the Dec. 13 mass shooting, the University had “not done active shooter training with students” unless a department requested a training session that included students, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 previously told The Herald. Training for faculty and employees was offered but not mandatory, Paxson said. After Dec. 13, “we know that building a sense of preparedness for such events can help contribute to an individual sense of safety and well-being,” the message reads. “At the same time, we understand that each person’s readiness to participate will vary.” ...
From the Daily Bruin: When a UCLA Early Care and Education teacher was arrested for child sexual abuse in 2024, the families of his former students expected the university to keep them informed about the case. But parents said the university did not contact them when the former teacher failed to appear in court last month...*
[Christopher] Rodriguez filed to appeal his conviction and was later released on bond, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department inmate locator. California law allows some people convicted of misdemeanor offenses to remain out of custody while their appeals are pending – with one condition of Rodriguez’s release being that he continued to provide regular updates to the court.
The LA County Superior Court issued a warrant for Rodriguez on Feb. 9 after he did not show up to a scheduled court appearance. Within a day, families of his former students began finding out Rodriguez did not appear in court through one another or their lawyers, but were surprised that the school did not send them any updates about the situation...
A UCLA ECE spokesperson said in an emailed statement Tuesday that while community safety is ECE’s highest priority, it does not receive updates on the criminal case. Families are encouraged to seek information from the court system directly, the spokesperson added in the statement...
From the LA Times: California and 16 Democratic states are suing to challenge a Trump administration policy requiring higher education institutions, including University of California and California State University campuses, to collect data — including student grade-point averages — to prove they don’t illegally consider race in admissions. Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta is among the state attorneys general who filed the suit [last] Wednesday against a Department of Education rule that asks colleges to submit “the race and sex of colleges’ applicants, admitted students and enrolled students.” Bonta called the requirement a “fishing expedition” that is “demanding unprecedented amounts of data from our colleges and universities under the guise of enforcing civil rights law.” ...
The policy, announced in August, requires schools to submit disaggregated data on gender, race, grade-point averages and test scores of applicants, admitted students and enrolled students by March 18...
The new policy is similar to parts of recent settlement agreements the government negotiated with Brown University and Columbia University, restoring their federal research money. The universities agreed to give the government data on the race, grade-point average and standardized test scores of applicants, admitted students and enrolled students. The schools also agreed to be audited by the government and to release admissions statistics to the public... The government made a similar ask of UC in August when it proposed a $1.2-billion settlement fine to resolve allegations of federal civil rights law violations at UCLA after cutting off more than half a billion dollars in federal medical, science, and energy research funding. UC President James B. Milliken said the university will not pay the fine but is open to talks with the Trump administration...
Note that it is unclear - apart from not being willing to pay $1.2 billion - what UC's position is with regard to the data request. Is it passively part of California's lawsuit? Did it have any input into the lawsuit? Any comments by UC on the specifics of the lawsuit? There are no recent statements on this matter posted on the UC news or federal developments websites.
The ongoing conflict with the feds is on the agenda of the Regents this week, but discussion will be behind closed doors.
From the Daily Bruin: The UC reached tentative agreements with three United Auto Workers units that had threatened to strike...The tentative agreement, if approved, will become the first contracts for Student Services and Advising Professionals-UAW and Research and Public Service Professionals-UAW, which were officially recognized by the University in April and September, respectively. Members of UAW Local 4811 – which represents academic student employees, including teaching assistants – also came to a tentative agreement for a new contract after theirs expired Feb. 28.
SSAP-UAW and RPSP-UAW will receive a minimum 27.8% raise over four years through a step wage system as well as a ratification bonus, caps on increases to health insurance premiums, greater job security, and protections for hybrid and remote work arrangements, according to a joint Instagram post.
UAW Local 4811’s tentative agreement terms include raises of up to 45% for TAs and graduate student researchers, as well as up to 62% for hourly workers over the life of the contract. The terms also eliminate pay disparities across all UC campuses. It includes a $400,000 legal fund for international workers – as well as guaranteed rehiring rights if an international worker loses and regains their visa – and three weeks of paid visa leave...
The email below, from UCLA’s Office of Export Control, contains important guidance pertaining to business we might conduct with foreign entities.
Some of you may have received this notice already, but given the current international landscape, we are now sharing this broadly. As you conduct business with foreign entities, please be mindful of sanctioned countries, regions, and in some cases, individuals.
Engaging in a sanctioned entity could result in significant penalties for the university. To help prevent this, please consult with your fund manager before initiating any business with a foreign entity. Your fund manager can support you with restricted-party screening to ensure there are no sanction-related concerns.
If you contact the Office of Export Controls directly, we kindly ask that you keep your fund manager included in that discussion.
Thank you for reviewing the information below and for completing the pre-screening procedure before engaging a potential foreign vendor or foreign individuals.
Kind regards,
xxx
-------------------------------------------
From: UCLA Export Controls <xxx@xxx.edu>
Date: February 13, 2026 at 5:10:19 PM PST
Cc: UCLA Export Controls <xxx@xxx.edu>, ...
Subject: Activity Restrictions with Sanctioned Countries
Dear CAOs and CFOs:
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) administers and enforces comprehensive sanctions on certain countries and regions. As of today, these are:
Cuba
Iran
North Korea
Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine
Please also note:
Russia remains heavily sanctioned. While not comprehensively sanctioned in the same way as the countries/regions above, many activities involving Russia are restricted.
Although no longer subject to comprehensive sanctions, targeted sanctions on Syria may still apply.
Please visit OFAC Sanctions Programs and Country Information https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information for current information.
Impact on UCLA
Comprehensive sanctions generally prohibit most activities with these countries and regions, including entities and individuals ordinarily resident/located there, unless specifically authorized by the U.S. government through a license. These prohibitions apply regardless of whether the performance of the activity uses UCLA funds or resources. The impacted UCLA activities include, but are not limited to:
Business or academic travel (including attending or presenting at a conference or award ceremony)
Imports/Exports (e.g., research samples, equipment, software, artwork)
Academic Collaborations (formal or informal, virtual or in-person)
Research Activities (data sharing, analysis, mentoring, joint publications)
Teaching or guest lecturing (including virtual talks/webinars to audiences in these locations)
Procurement of goods and services (including hiring remote independent contractors)
Sales and service activities
Paid or pro bono patient consultation and care
Remote work
Remote/online learning
The U.S. government has the discretion to impose civil and/or criminal penalties (financial penalties, imprisonment) on the institution and the individual(s) involved for violations of export controls and sanctions.
What To Do
The UCLA Export Control team serves as the campus point of contact for all export control and sanctions matters and is responsible for submitting license applications. While UCLA has been successful in obtaining licenses from the U.S. government in the past, the process can take several months, so early consultation is essential. Before initiating activities involving a comprehensively sanctioned country or region, please contact the UCLA Export Control team at xxx@xxx.edu. We would be very happy to work with you.
Please feel free to share this message with your faculty and staff.
From the Cornell Daily Sun: President Michael Kotlikoff fielded questions regarding Resilient Cornell, University restructuring efforts, fiscal policy and artificial intelligence in an Employee Assembly meeting... During the meeting, Kotlikoff responded to questions from E.A. members, who were invited to submit questions following a Feb. 4 meeting, where the E.A. discussed the University’s Committee on the Future of the American University, staff welfare and austerity measures.
Kotlikoff began his remarks by acknowledging that these are “challenging times for all of us.” Most of the questions that Kotlikoff answered regarded the University’s financial challenges and plans to address them. Kotlikoff specifically answered questions about Resilient Cornell, an initiative launched in October with the purpose of ensuring “Cornell’s long-term financial sustainability while reimagining how we operate across all campuses,” according to its website.
Kotlikoff said that throughout March and April, the initiative’s reorganizational and efficiency models, aimed at reducing spending, will be distributed to heads of units across campus. Then, in April and May, the administration will provide workforce planning and transitional support to programs affected by the initiative. In June, implementation of Resilient Cornell’s recommendations will begin. When asked how much money the University is seeking to save through restructuring, Kotlikoff responded “as much as we can.” ...
The Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation is proposing major traffic changes along Westwood Boulevard including in Westwood Village. There would be a separate bike land, bus-only lane, parking lane, and regular traffic lane. As you can see below, the plan in principle becomes final over the coming summer and is to be implemented in 2027.
There will be an online meeting to discuss this project (which extends beyond Westwood Village and also includes Ohio Avenue) on March 19 at 6 pm. You should be able to register at:
From the Daily Bruin: Union members representing UC academic and research employees said at a demonstration Thursday that they plan to strike as soon as next week if the University does not meet their contract demands. United Auto Workers represents more than 40,000 UC employees across three bargaining units, which are currently in negotiations with the University – UAW Local 4811’s academic student employees units, Research and Public Service Professionals-UAW and Student Services and Advising Professionals-UAW. The union authorized an unfair labor practice strike Feb. 13, with more than 93% of voting members authorizing the vote and announced a “last chance picket” on its accounts Feb. 23.
...UAW Local 4811 has filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against the UC, alleging that the University unilaterally increased fees on certain graduate programs, failed to sufficiently respond to more than 50 requests for information pertinent to bargaining and capped teaching assistant appointments. RPSP-UAW and SSAP-UAW also filed ULP charges against the UC for alleged bad faith bargaining and failures to respond to information requests. Heather Hansen, a UC Office of the President spokesperson, said in a Wednesday statement that the University strongly disagrees with the union’s ULP claims. RPSP-UAW and SSAP-UAW are both currently in the process of negotiating their first contracts, and UAW Local 4811 – whose current contract expired Feb. 28 – began negotiating its contract in July 2025...
In our last iteration of post-Agostini budget examination, we noted a discrepancy between UC's version of UCLA's expenses and UCLA's expenses as reported in the pre-Agostini period. As blog readers will know, UCLA CFO Agostini was terminated after he told the Daily Bruin that UCLA financial reports for the period before he arrived were inaccurate. That is a Bad Thing for a CFO to say because it suggests that administrators, some of whom are still on the payroll, produced misleading figures. (Bond holders might also be upset.) Just before his fatal remarks, however, he did produce a budget book with new data.
In our prior analysis of reported UCLA expenses as reported by UC versus those reported by UCLA, we found a UC series running from 2014-15 to 2024-25.* More recently, prowling around on UC website, we found an older series said to be updated through May 22, 2025.** It reported different numbers for UCLA that were somewhat higher. Further investigation found the discrepancy was caused by omission of interest expenses in the more recent information. We have redone our chart using the older series that includes interest. See below:
Note again that the UC and UCLA series in the pre-Agostini period do not agree. Why? Yours truly doesn't know, except that the discrepancy isn't explained by the omission of interest. Note that the Agostini numbers and the UC numbers are very close. It may be that he was relying on the same sources that systemwide UC did in producing his budget book.
We will look at the revenue side of the story in a later post. (Revenue and expense data from the older series go back to 2003-04.) But keep in mind that yours truly is not a forensic auditor. All yours truly can do is preserve public budget documents so they don't disappear. The older UC-derived expense series documents - which, as just noted, go back to 2003-04 - have been added to our preservation site:
