Another Pretendian - This One on the Regents?

Blog readers will recall our posting about faculty who had claimed to have Native American heritage and quit (maybe under duress due to the claim) when it turned out they didn't.* We noted at the time some complications that could arise in such cases under Prop 209, the state constitutional amendment banning racial preferences. At the political level, however, no such ban applies, as Governor Newsom's promise to select a Black woman for a US senate appointment showed recently.

Newsom also appointed a Regent who claims Native American heritage to the Board of Regents, Greg Sarris (who at one point taught at UCLA). But now questions have arisen. From Capitol Weekly:

An esteemed author and scholar as well as a long-time tribal leader, Greg Sarris would seem to be a natural fit on the UC Board of Regents. Sarris, 71, taught English and writing at three California universities, UCLA, Loyola Marymount and Sonoma State, for more than 30 years and authored several well-regard books, including Grand Avenue, a collection of short stories that was adapted into an HBO miniseries co-executive produced by Robert Redford. In 2020, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

His leadership of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Northern California has been no less impressive. Sarris is credited with securing federal recognition of the tribe in 2000, then leading it to build the ultra-successful Graton Resort & Casino in the Bay Area with the help of the ubiquitous Las Vegas gaming chain Station Casinos. He’s currently serving his 16th term as tribal chairman. So, it was no surprise to see in late June that Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint someone of Sarris’ stature and prominence to the Board of Regents. With that record, his confirmation by the Senate would seem to be a no brainer.

But scratch below the surface and you’ll find that Sarris has led such a controversial life that he could face scrutiny when his appointment is reviewed sometime next year. For starters, Sarris has been dogged for years by allegations that he’s not actually Native American, including in a 2011 story in Capitol Weekly...

Meanwhile, Donald Craig Mitchell, a California-educated attorney who once served as a former vice president and general counsel for the Alaska Federation of Natives, has accused Sarris of not only tricking Congress into recognizing his tribe and granting it gaming rights, but of also making up the very idea of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to begin with.

“Other than in Greg Sarris’ imagination,” Mitchell wrote in his 2016 book, Wampum: How Indian Tribes, the Mafia, and an Inattentive Congress Invented Indian Gaming and Created a $28 Billion Gambling Empire, the tribe “had never existed.”

But perhaps most glaring was Sarris’ tortured relationship with Sonoma State, where he taught for 16 years, until 2021.

Under Sarris’ leadership, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria donated $1.5 million to Sonoma State in 2003 to endow a chair in Native American studies – or, well, Station Casinos advanced the money to the university for the tribe, which at the time was still trying to get its own casino up and running. Who do you suppose Sonoma State eventually chose for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Creative Writing and Native American Studies? Why, Greg Sarris, the chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, of course...

Sarris has refused to take a DNA test of his own, saying he’ll only do so if his tribe permits it, and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs insists that sovereign tribes determine their own membership...

Full story (there is much, much more) at https://capitolweekly.net/questions-dog-new-uc-board-of-regents-appointee/.

It's hard to believe that whoever does the research on possible appointments for the governor could have been aware of this background. After all, Newsom is in the midst of his I-am-not-running-for-president campaign. But there is always the simple explanation:

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/be-careful-about-pushing-faculty-out.html.

Rank - Part 2

From the NY Times: U.S. News’s adjusted methodology, a response to years of criticism, places increased emphasis on what the company labels “social mobility,” measured through graduation rates for low-income students as well as for first-generation college students... As part of this new focus, the organization also discarded five factors that had often favored wealthy colleges, including undergraduate class sizes, alumni giving rates and high school class standing.

...These are the rankings of California schools that made the top 100 this year, along with their previous rankings:

• Stanford University: 3 (last year: 3)
• California Institute of Technology: 7 (9)
• U.C. Berkeley: 15 (20)
• U.C.L.A.: 15 (20)
• U.C. Davis: 28 (38)
• U.C. San Diego: 28 (34)
• University of Southern California: 28 (25)
• U.C. Irvine: 33 (34)
• U.C. Santa Barbara: 35 (32)
• Santa Clara University: 60 (55)
• U.C. Merced: 60 (97)
• Pepperdine University: 76 (55)
• U.C. Riverside: 76 (89)
• U.C. Santa Cruz: 82 (83)
• Loyola Marymount University: 93 (77)
• University of San Diego: 98 (97)

 Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/us/california-universities-us-news-rankings.html.

SMC to UC

From the Santa Monica Mirror:

Santa Monica College (SMC), for the 31st straight year, led all community colleges in transfers to University of California schools. 

Last month SMC officials announced that it maintained its 31-year consecutive streak as the No.1 transfer college to the University of California (UC) system. According to 2020-2021 transfer data released recently by the UC Information Center, SMC sent 1,186 students to UC campuses in the prior academic year—240 more than the No.2 feeder college.

“News of SMC’s transfer standing is each year highly anticipated throughout the college,” said SMC Superintendent/President Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery. “And again, we are elated to celebrate the accomplishment of SMC students propelled by their own motivation and potential, and nurtured by a focused ethic of care from Santa Monica College’s world-class faculty, counselors, and staff. Even a pandemic did not deter our student-centered community from fulfilling the college’s mission—ensuring that students transfer to their dream colleges and universities!”

In addition, SMC also maintained the No. 1 spot for African American and Latinx transfers to the UC, and remains the leading transfer college to the University of Southern California (USC) and Loyola Marymount University (LMU). The college is also the top feeder west of the Mississippi to the Ivy League Columbia University...

Full story at https://smmirror.com/2021/12/smc-once-again-leads-in-transfers-to-university-of-california-maintaining-a-31-year-record/. 

UC Vaccine Mandate: Why Wait?

UC is planning to require coronavirus vaccinations but only when the FDA approves the vaccine. But that raises the question of the rationale for waiting. What it FDA doesn't act by fall? What if it approves one vaccine but someone has received another?

From EdSource: Private universities like Chapman University and Loyola Marymount University are among the latest to announce such mandates, joining California’s public university systems and other private colleges throughout the state. The vaccine requirements proposed by the University of California and California State University systems came with a notable caveat: They will only take effect if the Food and Drug Administration gives full approval to one of the existing vaccines, something not guaranteed to happen by the fall. The vaccine requirements at some private universities, including Chapman and the University of Southern California, also came with that caveat.

Many other universities in California and elsewhere are choosing to require that students be vaccinated for the fall even if no vaccine gets full FDA approval by then, and legal experts mostly agree that it’s within their right to do so. The vaccines are currently authorized for emergency use. With UC and CSU among the universities that are waiting for full approval, it raises the possibility that their mandates won’t actually be in effect in the fall.

“It’s not something that is set in stone. We don’t have a crystal ball, and we don’t know when that’s going to happen,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for CSU’s systemwide chancellor’s office.

Neither UC nor CSU would clarify why they are waiting for full FDA approval...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2021/many-colleges-require-vaccines-immediately-but-csu-and-uc-stick-with-plan-to-wait-on-fda/654215