Getting In - Part 5

Professor Emeritus Dan Hare of UC-Riverside sent me a link to a San Francisco Chronicle article on the use of AI in college admissions essays:

...My students had already been using ChatGPT for months for their homework and personal advice. When application season began, the bot remembered these details. It knew their preferences and interests through the Memory feature and could tailor their essays accordingly. That wasn’t enough, though. Students first brainstormed essay topics and writing outlines without AI assistance. They then gave that information to ChatGPT along with past self-written essays. It began mirroring their voice. 

In a 2025 study, Cornell University researchers concluded that large-language model-generated college essays were generic compared to human-written ones, but they didn’t use elaborate prompting or engage with the models beforehand. That’s not the way people are using ChatGPT now. The college essay isn’t a novel or a blank canvas. It’s less ambiguous. It serves a purpose: to show who you are outside of grades and test scores. With a defined purpose, training and prompting, models can now write compelling essays for students to pick from and refine. 

Throughout the application cycle, I worried that my students would get caught using these tools. When submitting applications on the Common App, students sign a statement certifying that all the work is their own. But a policy is only as strong as its enforcement, which so far seems nearly impossible. The Common App and most universities likely don’t use AI detection tools because they’re unreliable. Despite warnings that admissions officers are trained to spot AI indicators, recent studies show that most people mistake AI-generated text for human writing. In fact, one study fine-tuned ChatGPT on award-winning authors’ works and found that readers favored AI-generated text over human writing for stylistic fidelity and quality. This suggests that students may actually gain an advantage by using these tools on their college essays...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/ai-college-admission-essay-application-22156396.php.

Bottom line: AI written essays are now not being written "cold." Instead, the models learn the style of the purported student author and "improve" it. So trying to detect them is very difficult, if not impossible.

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Meanwhile, there seems to be an endless supply of former admissions officer who will tell you how to get in. (There are so many former admissions officers. Are there any left who are still employed to staff the admissions offices?)

Fast Movers

The San Francisco Chronicle notes there is a small but rising group of undergrads who finish in three years:

"Of the 31,550 students who began studying at a UC campus in 2005, fewer than 1,000 of them, 3%, went on to earn a diploma in three years. By 2021, more than 3,300 students — 6.4% of the 51,934 students who entered UC that year — had their a degree by 2024, just three years after landing on campus."

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/college-admissions/article/uc-three-year-graduation-21251145.php.

UCLA ahead in the Wikipedia editing sweepstakes

The Daily Cal calculated the total number of Wikipedia edits - additions and deletions - by campus IP addresses across the UC system. It turns out that since its inception to late 2025, UCLA addresses made over 54,000 edits.

It's not clear whether that's a Good Thing, a Bad Thing, or just a Thing. Below is a chart from the article which can be found at https://data.dailycal.org/2025-12-24-wikiedits. 

Graduate Degrees After Undergraduate

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/.

Watch the Regents Afternoon Meeting of Sept. 17, 2025

We continue our coverage of the most recent Regents meetings with the afternoon of Sept. 17th. As blog readers will know, the Sept. 16-17 meetings were unusually truncated since there was no third day. This shortening meant that there were periodic references to things that would be more fully dealt with at the November meetings.

At Finance and Capital Strategies, the consent items approved included an upgrade to a power system for UCLA health. There was discussion of the state budget outlook. It was noted that the so-called "compact" expires at the end of the coming year. Of course, it is unclear that one can say the compact was actually honored, particularly by the governor. As for the feds and the conflict there, UC gets about $17 billion in federal revenue from all sources (and UCLA gets $2.8 billion). Enrollment is running ahead of what the compact required although the extra students are not funded. Capital spending is not getting supported by the state.

The tuition cohort plan is up for renewal in some form, although that was put off for decision in November. The proposal for its replacement on the table retains the 5% per annum cap, reduces the proportion of tuition that is recycled into student aid, contains an alternative to the Consumer Price Index as an escalator with a price index for higher ed plus 1%, with the 1% to go to capital spending and other purposes. One might have expected some pushback to be expressed to the plan but there was little discussion.

At Academic and Student Affairs, Regent Leib started with an explanation of what happened to the $7 million that former President Drake had allocated after the disturbances began post-Oct. 7, 2023. Drake seemed to want the money to support some kinds of educational programming related to the history of the Middle East conflict, more or less similar to what occurred at some other universities, notably Dartmouth. According to Leib, however, $5.3 million was spent on training in cooperation with Hillel, mental health, and a "climate" survey. The rest apparently has not been spent. More detail will be made public in November.

There was then discussion of programs of career paths for students in coordination with employers. They involve occupational certificates and internships. San Diego and Santa Barbara have pilot programs looking specifically at the implications of AI. There was also discussion of teacher preparation in K-12 at Riverside and Merced.

The full Board heard discussion of AI and UC partnerships with major corporations in the field. President Milliken said there would be more information in November. But there was talk about infrastructure needs, cybersecurity, training for UC employees at all levels.

The Compliance and Audit Committee approved police purchase equipment defined as military. Finally, the Governance Committee took some executive pay actions and the full Board approved the various committee reports.

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As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention. The links are below:

Finance and Capital Strategy: https://archive.org/download/2-board-8-30-am-9-17-2025/3-Finance%20and%20Capital%20Strategies%20Committee%209-17-2025.mp4

Academic and Student Affairs: https://archive.org/download/2-board-8-30-am-9-17-2025/4-Academic%20and%20Student%20Affairs%20Committee%209-17-2025.mp4

Board and Compliance and Audit: https://archive.org/download/2-board-8-30-am-9-17-2025/5-Board%201_30%20PM%2C%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%209-17-2025.mp4

Governance and Board: https://archive.org/download/2-board-8-30-am-9-17-2025/6-Governance%20Committee%2C%20Board%209-17-2025.mp4

General webpage for Sept. 17: https://archive.org/details/2-board-8-30-am-9-17-2025

As already noted

Blog readers will have noted yesterday our view that UCLA reaching a Columbia-type monetary settlement with the feds is hard to imagine.* Others agree. From the LA Times:

Mark Yudof, a former UC president who led the system from 2008 to 2013, said he felt the Trump administration was targeting a public university as a way to “make a statement” about the president’s higher education aims going beyond Ivy League institutions. “But this is not Columbia,” Yudof said, referring to the $221-million settlement the New York campus recently reached with the White House to resolve investigations over alleged antisemitism amid its response to pro-Palestinian protests...

“The University of California is much more complex,” said Yudof... “For one, an issue that may affect UCLA is not going to affect UC Merced or UC Riverside. But do you come to an agreement on all campuses? If there is a settlement payment, does it affect all campuses, depending on the cost?” 

George Blumenthal, a former chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, said he “just can’t see UC making the kind of deal that Columbia did or that Harvard contemplates. Committing public funds to Washington to the tune of tens or hundreds of million dollars strikes me as politically untenable in California.” ...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-02/ucla-doj-trump-settlement-or-lawsuit.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/08/no-relief-from-this-court-what-are.html.

Watch the May 28, 2025 Special Meeting of the Regents (Appointment of Riverside Chancellor)

The UC Regents met on May 28, 2025 in a special meeting to name a new student Regent (not yet announced) and to name the new UC-Riverside chancellor, Dr. Jack S. Hu, about whom we previously posted.*

Although time was allotted for public comments, there were no sign-ups.

In the open portion of the meeting, the new chancellor was announced and introduced. He made brief remarks and the session was adjourned.

During the closed portion, litigation was discussed. Although no particular case is recorded in the agenda, it is likely there was discussion of litigation related to the current conflict between UC and the Trump administration.

Below is the full agenda and a link to the recording.

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

Special Meeting: May 28, 2025

Meeting of the Special Committee on the Selection of a Student Regent in Closed Session at UC Center Sacramento, 1115 11th Street, Sacramento, 11:30 a.m.

==

Board Meeting: Agenda

Date: May 28, 2025

Time: 3:45 p.m.

Location: UC Center Sacramento, 1115 11th Street, Sacramento, and teleconference locations

Agenda – Closed Session

B1(X) Discussion: Appointment of and Compensation for Chancellor, Riverside Campus

B2(X) Discussion: Update on Chancellor Search, Santa Barbara Campus

B3(X) Discussion: Trial Court Developments and Updates

--

Agenda - Open Session

Public Comments (none were received)

B1 Action: Approval of Appointment of and Compensation for Chancellor, Riverside Campus as Discussed in Closed Session [Dr. S. Jack Hu]

Source: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may25/spclmay28.pdf; https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/agendas/may282025.html.

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As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings indefinitely because the Regents have no policy on duration of retention. You can see the open portion of the May 28th special meeting at:

https://archive.org/details/board_202506.

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

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/05/new-uc-riverside-chancellor.html.

The Numbers

Note: UC-Merced is listed separately at $28.6 million.

Source - EdSource: https://edsource.org/2025/california-research-grants-federal-funding-trump-administration/733468.
 

New UC-Riverside Chancellor

University of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D., announced... the selection of Dr. S. Jack Hu, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia, as UC Riverside’s next chancellor. The UC Board of Regents approved the appointment during a special meeting held at the UC Student & Policy Center in Sacramento.

In Dr. Hu, UC Riverside welcomes a leader with nearly 40 years of experience in higher education. He joined the University of Georgia as provost in 2019, following an illustrious tenure at the University of Michigan, where he began his academic journey as a graduate student in 1985, ultimately rising to serve as the university’s vice president for research. Dr. Hu will begin serving as UC Riverside’s chancellor on July 15.

“Over his distinguished career at leading public research institutions, Dr. Hu has championed innovation and academic initiatives that have increased opportunities for students and faculty and have positively impacted their lives and the communities they serve,” said President Drake. “UC Riverside has established itself as a global leader in providing world-class scholarship. Dr. Hu has the academic acumen and collaborative mindset to move the campus forward with integrity and purpose.”

Dr. Hu has served as the University of Georgia’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost since July 2019. In this role, he leads the academic enterprise by overseeing instruction, research, public service and outreach, information technology, and the 19 schools and colleges at the university. Since Dr. Hu began serving as provost, the University of Georgia has invested in multiple rounds of interdisciplinary faculty hires and increased its research and development expenditures year-over-year, exceeding $620 million in 2024. This significant investment in research has helped the University of Georgia maintain its status as a top U.S. university for research-to-market products every year over the previous decade, ranking first in 2024. Dr. Hu also serves as a UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor at the College of Engineering. 

“I am honored to join this outstanding University whose mission is to transform lives through discovery, dissemination and application of knowledge,” said Chancellor-designate Hu. “As a nationally recognized institution for academic excellence and social mobility and an engine for innovation and economic opportunity in the state, nation, and world, UC Riverside has immense potential ahead that I believe will put the campus at the forefront of shaping the future of higher education. Leading the campus into its next chapter of preeminence and realizing its ambitions is an exciting opportunity for which I am deeply grateful.”

As vice president for research at the University of Michigan, Dr. Hu oversaw a $1.5 billion research enterprise across the university’s campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint. In 2015, the university launched “MCity” as a public-private partnership to support innovation and testing of connected and automated vehicles. He also led the development of several international initiatives to support education and research. At the University of Georgia, Dr. Hu made strategic investments in electric mobility-related research projects a priority, working with several automobile companies with manufacturing facilities in the state and hosting regular summits that convened leaders of government, academia and industry. Faculty hiring initiatives in precision agriculture, Parkinson’s research, data science and artificial intelligence led to research centers and institutes in these areas to support and sustain interdisciplinary collaborations. In addition, Dr. Hu created the Humanities Council to support faculty research, scholarship and collaboration. The provost office also sponsors the annual Spotlight on the Arts festival in partnership with the UGA Arts Council as an annual celebration of the literary, visual and performing arts.

“On behalf of the UC Board of Regents, we are proud to welcome Dr. Hu as UC Riverside’s next chancellor,” said Janet Reilly, UC Board of Regents Chair and member of the search advisory committee. “Dr. Hu’s reputation as a results-oriented team player makes him the ideal partner to bolster UC Riverside’s impact on students and the region through robust research, economic development, and community engagement.”

Dr. Hu has dedicated his career to strengthening undergraduate and graduate education and promoting student success. While at the University of Georgia, he worked to expand experiential and engaged learning opportunities through research, internships and study abroad. Notably, his tenure concludes with the University of Georgia being one of only nine public universities in the U.S. with a six-year graduation rate of at least 90 percent. Graduate enrollment has also increased by more than 20 percent since 2019.

An area of focus for Dr. Hu has been increasing collaboration between the University of Georgia and rural communities in the state. Dr. Hu helped create the Rural Engagement Workshop for Academic Faculty as a means of expanding faculty understanding of rural needs to better develop research-focused partnerships. Since the program launched in 2021, workshop alumni have secured nearly $12.5 million in funding as a direct result of the projects they started in the program. The program also won the National Award of Excellence in the Innovation category from the University Economic Development Association.

“In Provost Hu we have found an energetic leader with an unwavering commitment to academic excellence, student achievement, and community engagement,” said Steven W. Cheung, M.D., chair of the Faculty Academic Senate. “His extensive experience supporting the interests of students and faculty for the betterment of universities and communities across the country gives me great confidence that he will advance UC Riverside to its next great chapter of impact and growth.”

Dr. Hu is renowned for his engineering research, with much of his work focused on the quality and productivity of manufacturing systems. As a researcher, he has secured $46 million in external funding from federal agencies and industry to support research conducted by students, faculty and staff in his laboratory. In 2011, he joined then-President Barack Obama’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a national initiative by the president to unite industry, universities and the federal government to strengthen American manufacturing. Dr. Hu is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and an elected fellow of four professional societies. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award and the DeVor/Kapoor Manufacturing Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Gold Medal from Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and several best paper awards.

Dr. Hu will become UC Riverside’s 10th chancellor, following the retirement of Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox. Appointed in 2013, Chancellor Wilcox has overseen tremendous growth at UC Riverside. Under his leadership the campus has added schools of medicine and public policy, increased overall enrollment more than 25 percent, and raised the campus’s four-year graduation rate by 18 percent. In 2023, UC Riverside was invited to join the Association of American Universities (AAU), a 10-year goal of Chancellor Wilcox, establishing the school as one of America’s leading research universities. Chancellor Wilcox will remain in his role as chancellor through July 14 to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

“I’m overjoyed that the selection committee has chosen Dr. Hu, one of our nation’s foremost academic researchers and leaders, to take the helm at UC Riverside,” said Chancellor Wilcox. “Dr. Hu has proven himself to be a thoughtful and collaborative leader who cares deeply about the faculty and students he leads and the communities he serves. With decades of academic leadership, his ability to translate vision into action positions the University for a promising future.”

Born in Hunan Province, China, Dr. Hu earned his bachelor’s degree from Tianjin University. Following his undergraduate studies, he moved to Michigan, where he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering.

Off campus, Dr. Hu’s interests include Chinese literature and Chinese calligraphy, which he practiced regularly during winters in Ann Arbor. His wife, Jun Du, is a pianist with a degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

The UC Board of Regents approved Dr. Hu’s annual salary at $824,000.

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Full news release at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-president-michael-v-drake-md-names-new-uc-riverside-chancellor.

Missing Persons?

The statement below was released this past week by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Lots of signatories from university and college leaders, but none from UC with the exception of Chancellor Kim Wilcox of UC-Riverside were on the original. UCLA Chancellor Frenk added his name subsequently as did the chancellors of Merced, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and San Diego. Still later, UC President Drake and the remaining chancellors signed on.

A Call for Constructive Engagement

As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.

America’s system of higher learning is as varied as the goals and dreams of the students it serves. It includes research universities and community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public institutions and private ones; freestanding and multi-site campuses. Some institutions are designed for all students, and others are dedicated to serving particular groups. Yet, American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom. Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.

Because of these freedoms, American institutions of higher learning are essential to American prosperity and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good. Colleges and universities are engines of opportunity and mobility, anchor institutions that contribute to economic and cultural vitality regionally and in our local communities. They foster creativity and innovation, provide human resources to meet the fast-changing demands of our dynamic workforce, and are themselves major employers. They nurture the scholarly pursuits that ensure America’s leadership in research, and many provide healthcare and other essential services. Most fundamentally, America’s colleges and universities prepare an educated citizenry to sustain our democracy.

The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society. On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.

Signed, [original signatures only]

Jonathan Alger, President, American University

Barbara K. Altmann, President, Franklin & Marshall College

Suzanne Ames, President, Peninsula College

Carmen Twillie Ambar, President, Oberlin College

Denise A. Battles, President, SUNY Geneseo

Ian Baucom, Incoming President, Middlebury College

Allan Belton, President, Pacific Lutheran University

Hubert Benitez, President, Saint Peter's University

Joanne Berger-Sweeney, President, Trinity College (CT)

Michael A. Bernstein, President, The College of New Jersey

Audrey Bilger, President, Reed College

Erik J. Bitterbaum, President, SUNY Cortland

Sarah Bolton, President, Whitman College

Mary H. Bonderoff, President, SUNY Delhi

Eric Boynton, President, Beloit College

Elizabeth H. Bradley, President, Vassar College

Brian Bruess, President, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University

Adam Bush, President, College Unbound

Alison Byerly, President, Carleton College

Wendy Cadge, President and Professor of Sociology, Bryn Mawr College

Nancy Cantor, President, Hunter College CUNY

Alberto Jose Cardelle, President, SUNY Oneonta

Brian W. Casey, President, Colgate University

Ana Mari Cauce, Professor and President, University of Washington

Andrea Chapdelaine, President, Connecticut College

Thom D. Chesney, President, Southwestern College (NM)

Bryan F. Coker, President, Maryville College

Ronald B. Cole, President, Allegheny College

Soraya Coley, President, Cal Poly Pomona

Jennifer Collins, President, Rhodes College

John Comerford, President, Otterbein University

Marc C. Conner, President, Skidmore College

Joy Connolly, President, American Council of Learned Societies

La Jerne Terry Cornish, President, Ithaca College

Grant Cornwell, President, Rollins College

Isiaah Crawford, President, University of Puget Sound

Gregory G. Dell'Omo, President, Rider University

Kent Devereaux, President, Goucher College

Jim Dlugos, Interim President, Landmark College

Bethami Dobkin, President, Westminster University

Harry Dumay, President, Elms College

Christopher L. Eisgruber, President, Princeton University

Michael A. Elliott, President, Amherst College

Alexander Enyedi, President, SUNY Plattsburgh

Jane Fernandes, President, Antioch College

Roland Fernandes, General Secretary, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry

Damian J. Fernandez, President, Warren Wilson College

David Fithian, President, Clark University

Lisa C. Freeman, President, Northern Illinois University

Robert Gaines, Acting President, Pomona College

James Gandre, President, Manhattan School of Music

Alan M. Garber, President, Harvard University

Jay D. Gatrell, President, Eastern Illinois University

Michael H. Gavin, President, Delta College

Mark D. Gearan, President, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Melissa Gilliam, President, Boston University

Lane A. Glenn, President, Northern Essex Community College

Jorge G. Gonzalez, President, Kalamazoo College

Jonathan D. Green, President, Susquehanna University

David A. Greene, President, Colby College

William R. Groves, Chancellor, Antioch University

Jeremy Haefner, Chancellor, University of Denver

Yoshiko Harden, President, Renton Technical College

Anne F. Harris, President, Grinnell College

James T. Harris, President, University of San Diego

Marjorie Hass, President, Council of Independent Colleges

Richard J. Helldobler, President, William Paterson University

Wendy Hensel, President, University of Hawaii

James Herbert, President, University of New England

Doug Hicks, President, Davidson College

Mary Dana Hinton, President, Hollins University

Danielle R. Holley, President, Mount Holyoke College

Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University

Robin Holmes-Sullivan, President, Lewis & Clark College

Robert H. Huntington, President, Heidelberg University

Nicole Hurd, President, Lafayette College

Wolde-Ab Isaac, Chancellor, Riverside Community College District

Karim Ismaili, President, Eastern Connecticut State University

J. Larry Jameson, President, University of Pennsylvania

Garry W. Jenkins, President, Bates College

Paula A. Johnson, President, Wellesley College

John E. Jones III, President, Dickinson College

Katrina Bell Jordan, President, Northeastern Illinois University

Cristle Collins Judd, President, Sarah Lawrence College

David L. Kaufman, President, Capital University

Colleen Perry Keith, President, Goldey-Beacom College

Marisa Kelly, President, Suffolk University

Julie Johnson Kidd, President, Endeavor Foundation

Jonathan Koppell, President, Montclair State University

Sally Kornbluth, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Julie Kornfeld, President, Kenyon College

Michael I. Kotlikoff, President, Cornell University

Paula Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association

Sunil Kumar, President, Tufts University

Bobbie Laur, President, Campus Compact

Frederick M. Lawrence, Secretary and CEO, Phi Beta Kappa Society

Linda M. LeMura, President, Le Moyne College

Hilary L. Link, President, Drew University

Patricia A. Lynott, President, Rockford University

Heidi Macpherson, President, SUNY Brockport

John Maduko, President, Connecticut State Community College

Lynn Mahoney, President, San Francisco State University

Daniel Mahony, President, Southern Illinois University

Maud S. Mandel, President, Williams College

Christine Mangino, President, Queensborough Community College

Amy Marcus-Newhall, President, Scripps College

Felix V. Matos-Rodriguez, Chancellor, City University of New York (CUNY)

Anne E. McCall, President, The College of Wooster

Richard L. McCormick, Interim President, Stony Brook University

Michael McDonald, President, Great Lakes Colleges Association

James McGrath, President and Dean, Cooley Law School

Patricia McGuire, President, Trinity Washington University

Maurie McInnis, President, Yale University

Elizabeth M. Meade, President, Cedar Crest College

Scott D. Miller, President, Virginia Wesleyan University

Jennifer Mnookin, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Robert Mohrbacher, President, Centralia College

Chris Moody, Executive Director, ACPA-College Student Educators International

Tomas Morales, President, California State University San Bernardino

Milton Moreland, President, Centre College

Kathryn Morris, President, St. Lawrence University

Ross Mugler, Board Chair and Acting President and CEO, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

Krista L. Newkirk, President, University of Redlands

Stefanie D. Niles, President, Cottey College

Claire Oliveros, President, Riverside City College

Robyn Parker, Interim President, Saybrook University

Lynn Pasquerella, President, American Association of Colleges and Universities

Laurie L. Patton, President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Beth Paul, President, Nazareth University

Christina Paxson, President, Brown University

Rob Pearigen, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of the South

Deidra Peaslee, President, Saint Paul College

Eduardo M. Peñalver, President, Seattle University

Ora Pescovitz, President, Oakland University

Darryll J. Pines, President, University of Maryland

Nicola Pitchford, President, Dominican University of California

Kevin Pollock, President, Central Carolina Technical College

Susan Poser, President, Hofstra University

Paul C. Pribbenow, President, Augsburg University

Vincent Price, President, Duke University

Robert Quinn, Executive Director, Scholars at Risk Network

Wendy E. Raymond, President, Haverford College

Christopher M. Reber, President, Hudson County Community College

Andrew Rehfeld, President, Hebrew Union College

Suzanne M. Rivera, President, Macalester College

Michael S. Roth, President, Wesleyan University

James Ryan, President, University of Virginia

Vincent Rougeau, President, College of the Holy Cross

Kurt L. Schmoke, President, University of Baltimore

Carol Geary Schneider, Acting Executive Director, Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement Coalition

Sean M. Scott, President and Dean, California Western School of Law

Zaldwaynaka Scott, President, Chicago State University

Philip J. Sisson, President, Middlesex Community College (MA)

Suzanne Smith, President, SUNY Potsdam

Valerie Smith, President, Swarthmore College

Paul Sniegowski, President, Earlham College

Barbara R. Snyder, President, Association of American Universities

Stephen Snyder, Interim President, Middlebury College

Rachel Solemsaas, President, North Seattle College

Weymouth Spence, President, Washington Adventist University

Terri Standish-Kuon, President and CEO, Independent Colleges of Washington

G. Gabrielle Starr, President, Pomona College

Karen A. Stout, President, Achieving the Dream

Tom Stritikus, President, Occidental College

Julie Sullivan, President, Santa Clara University

Aondover Tarhule, President, Illinois State University

Glena Temple, President, Dominican University

Steven J. Tepper. President, Hamilton College

Kellye Y. Testy, CEO, Association of American Law Schools

Tania Tetlow, President, Fordham University

Strom C. Thacker, President, Pitzer College

Scott L. Thomas, President, Sterling College

Stephen Thorsett, President, Willamette University

Joel Towers, President, The New School

Deborah Trautman, President and CEO, American Association of Colleges of Nursing

Satish K. Tripathi, President, University at Buffalo, SUNY

James Troha, President, Juniata College

Kyaw Moe Tun, President, Parami University

Brad Tyndall, President, Central Wyoming College

LaTanya Tyson, President, Carolina Christian College

Matthew P. vandenBerg, President, Ohio Wesleyan University

James Vander Hooven, President, Mount Wachusett Community College

Laura R. Walker, President, Bennington College

Yolanda Watson Spiva, President, Complete College America

Phil Weilerstein, President, VentureWell

Michaele Whelan, President, Wheaton College

Manya C. Whitaker, Interim President, Colorado College

Julie A. Manley White, Chancellor and CEO, Pierce College

Kim A. Wilcox, Chancellor, University of California, Riverside

Sarah Willie-LeBreton, President, Smith College

Safa R. Zaki, President, Bowdoin College

==

Source: https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement.

Low Applications Campuses Grow the Most

The San Francisco Chronicle provided the table above. It shows:

1) UCLA received the most applications of all the undergraduate campuses.

2) The low application campuses (Merced and Riverside) experienced the largest increases in applications, whether gauged from last year or pre-pandemic 2019. (Merced provided free applications to drive up applications this year.)

3) All campuses have significantly increased applications since 2019. But growth over last year at the high-application campuses stalled relative to last year.

Reminder: Applications are not the same as final enrollments. Enrollments are determined by the acceptance rate of the campus and within it, the acceptance rate of applicants.

Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/college-admissions/article/uc-applications-20238586.php.
 

Lost Funding

The NY Times provides a search option that allows information on how much NIH grant recipients would lose in fiscal year 2024 under a cap of 15% on indirect costs. Yours truly focused on UC in the table below. As can be seen, the total loss for all institutions in California is almost $800 million, about half of which falls on UC:

Loss of NIH funding in fiscal 2024 if indirect costs limited to 15%.

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

University of California, San Francisco   -$121 mil.

University of California, San Diego       -$102 mil.

University of California, Los Angeles      -$65 mil.

University of California, Davis            -$49 mil.

University of California, Irvine           -$41 mil.

University of California, Berkeley         -$25 mil.

University of California, Santa Cruz        -$7 mil.

University of California, Riverside         -$7 mil.

University of California, Santa Barbara     -$3 mil.

UC Lawrence Berkeley Lab                    -$6 mil.

University of California, Merced            -$1 mil.

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

  Total UC                                -$427 mil.

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

Total State of California                 -$796 mil.

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

Note: UC as percent of California               54%

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

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/13/upshot/nih-trump-funding-cuts.html.

Something's Happening - Part 2 (Where's UCLA?)

We noted on Monday that an unusual meeting of the systemwide Academic Senate had been called for this coming Friday by petition.* The meeting was called to discuss faculty unhappiness with regard to three issues:

1. The lack of consultation for implementing the Information Security Investment Plan and the potential negative effects of the plan on faculty’s research, teaching, and merits and promotions.
2. UCOP’s differential treatment of faculty and administrators regarding compensation and cost-of-living adjustments.
3. The University of California’s continued decrease in percent contribution to medical plans.

When you look at the petition (attached to the meeting agenda), you find the names and campuses of those who called for the special session.** Represented among the petitioners are Davis, Irvine, Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Riverside. Merced, Santa Cruz, and UCLA are not represented. So, that does mean that at UCLA in particular, nobody was particularly concerned with at least one of the three issues? Is UCLA somehow out of the loop? Just asking...

It might be noted that yours truly became aware of this matter after being forwarded an announcement from UC-Irvine's Senate, not from the UCLA Senate. 

NOTE: I notified the UCLA Senate about the upcoming systemwide meeting on Jan. 13.

==

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/somethings-happening.html.

**https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/assembly/assembly-agenda-special-meeeting-1-17-25.pdf.

Multicampus Research

The University of California Office of the President has awarded $15.5 million in grants to teams of UC researchers on the cutting edge of medicine, artificial intelligence, agriculture and climate justice.

Awarded every two years through a highly competitive process, the Multicampus Research Program Initiative (MRPI) draws on the world-class resources and capabilities of UC’s $7 billion research enterprise, uniting teams of cross-disciplinary experts from at least three UC campuses to pursue ambitious questions with immediate applications.

“The MRPI program funds discoveries that are made possible only by the convergence of disciplines to improve the lives of Californians and draws world-class student, faculty and staff talent to our university and our state,” said UC Vice President of Research and Innovation Theresa Maldonado. “UC programs like this help keep California at the forefront of breakthrough research, technological innovation and equitable opportunities to thrive.”

Since 2009, the university has made 125 MRPI grants totaling $156.6 million and involving 739 UC faculty members. This year, 153 teams applied for grants. These are the 14 winners.

--

Four teams will advance health and medical science, studying autism, active matter, sepsis and maternal health.

Scientists from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco will use cell samples from patients with autism spectrum disorder to grow self-organizing, 3D clumps of neurological tissue in a lab. These “brain organoids” are an efficient, less invasive way to narrow the search for the molecular, cellular, and developmental factors that lead to autism spectrum disorder, an untreatable condition that affects 1 in 22 California kids.

Organoids are one example of active matter, an emerging paradigm at the intersection of physics and biology that studies instances of individual entities organizing themselves into coherent structures. Scientists at UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego will use MRPI funding to establish the UC Active Matter Hub, seeding global leadership in a field with potential to reshape adaptive technologies and wearable devices.

A team from UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UCLA aim to scale up a proven method for detecting sepsis, an infection so dangerous that it kills 16 percent of people who contract it. UC scientists developed a life-saving algorithm that scans real-time data from electronic health records, assessing over 150 variables to detect early signs of infection so doctors can begin treatment. By rolling out this algorithm to more emergency departments across California, researchers aim to save 8,000 lives annually. 

A lack of maternal health data is making it harder to fight the nation’s escalating rates of illness and death among pregnant and postpartum patients. Experts from UC San Francisco, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego are joining forces to create a central clinical data repository for every pregnancy and birth across four major hospitals, which they’ll use to study variations in care within the system and the impact on maternal and neonatal health outcomes.

--

Three teams will make advances in agriculture.

Experts from UC’s five Agricultural Experiment Stations will convene to study barriers and opportunities for California farms to adopt practices and principles of agroecology. The team from UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, UC Riverside and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources aims to boost the agriculture industry’s climate resilience, biodiversity, equity and economic viability.

Researchers from UC Riverside, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara will develop and test new ways to decontaminate wastewater, destroying or filtering out toxic “forever” chemicals and disease-causing microbes so the water can be used to irrigate crops. That should ease water scarcity, a major constraint for California farmers that will only get worse as the climate warms.

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside aim to climate-proof agriculture by redesigning dirt. They’ll use the grant to develop 3D-printable hydrogels to use in place of soil in hydroponic or vertical farms. This high-tech dirt substitute will be infused with microbes that will help crops resist stress, grow faster and use less water.

--

Four teams are devising solutions to challenges facing Californians on the front lines of climate change.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC San Francisco aim to better understand how hotter and more frequent heat waves are affecting California’s 6 million public school students. Working with students, teachers, administrators and families at nine schools across the state, they’ll gather data on heat stress and pilot school-level changes that communities can use to protect themselves.

UC scholars have long engaged in climate justice partnerships across California. A team from UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA will analyze existing youth climate engagement programs at each campus and develop common principles to replicate these programs’ impacts in California and around the world.

As record numbers of people seek asylum in the U.S., climate change multiplies the forces that cause people to leave their homes. Immigration scholars from UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara are teaming up with asylum organizations in the U.S. and Mexico to better understand how federal policies and practices affect migrants, particularly kids and families.

Led by UC Santa Cruz, eight campuses aim to use arts and culture to spur climate action. The UC Climate Action Arts Network will build on a previous MRPI grant to fund artists and communities across California to design creative approaches to grappling with the stark realities of climate change and injustice.

--

Four teams are breaking new ground in AI and basic research.

California is America’s most linguistically diverse state: nearly half of us speak a language besides English. And yet language-based artificial intelligence like ChatGPT has overwhelmingly been trained on English — which could become a problem as AI’s influence expands into government, health care and culture. A six-campus team led by UC Santa Cruz will study whether and how prevailing AI technologies leave Californians behind and propose new ways to develop large language models that work equally well, no matter the user’s mother tongue.

Scholars from UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC Davis are taking on what they call “one of the grand challenges of algorithms research.” The team aims to speed up one of modern computing’s foundational processes, matrix multiplication. Streamlining matrix multiplication could break through a bottleneck that’s limiting advances in machine learning, data mining, physics simulations, ushering in the next generation of computational discovery.

Physicists use photons, or light particles, to investigate the fundamental laws of nature, gleaning insights on everything from gravitational waves to supernovae. But the photon-emitting X-ray devices used for research are big, expensive, finicky and hard to control. A team from UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Diego aims to bring emerging quantum X-ray technology from theory to reality. By demonstrating quantum X-ray emission, they’ll open the door to advances in basic sciences and commercial and medical applications.

==

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-awards-155m-research-grants-tackle-big-questions-health-ai-agriculture-and-climate-justice.

Application information for new proposals: https://www.ucop.edu/research-initiatives/programs/mrpi/files/mrpi-rfp.pdf.

It's your move, Chancellor Wilcox

On December 11th, an op ed appeared in the Wall Street Journal titled "UC Riverside’s DEI Guardians Came After Me: The university censured me after I spoke out against race taking over the faculty hiring process."* The author was Professor-Emeritus Perry Link, identified by UC-Riverside as a Chancellorial Chair for Teaching Across Disciplines, Ph.D. in East Asian Languages & Civilizations, Harvard University, 1976.** 

Prof. Link was recently the subject of a lengthy and lauditory article in the UCR Magazine which details his expertise in Chinese affairs and how he has been barred from China for his work on behalf of a Chinese dissident scholar.***

The Wall St. Journal op ed opens with: Kim Wilcox, chancellor at University of California, Riverside, wrote me a letter of censure on Aug. 16. I was, in the administration’s view, guilty of “discrimination” against “individuals seeking employment.” I had made “unwarranted comments” about race. Mr. Wilcox based his claim largely on the following statement, which I had written to colleagues on a faculty search committee in December 2022: “[Candidate X] is lively and charming—and yes, Black, which is great—but I can’t say that I found his sophistication and experience up to the level of our top candidates.” I expressed my worry that some of my colleagues would, as they had in the past, make the applicant’s race their “overriding criterion.”

It then goes on to describe various procedures and tribunals that became involved and the intervention of the chancellor. It closes with: 

As Mr. Wilcox was contemplating his final decision on my case, I offered to visit his office to hear face-to-face his decision and reasoning. He didn’t answer. A few months later I got a message from university counsel warning that all of what happened to me is confidential and that my writing about it “may result in discipline.”

By publishing his op ed, it appears that Prof. Link has now written about what happened, despite the warning. So now Chancellor Wilcox, who is due to retire at the end of the academic year, has to respond - or not. His choice. But if he doesn't respond, Prof. Link's version of the events he describes stands as the public record.

It's your move, Chancellor Wilcox.

===

*https://www.wsj.com/opinion/uc-riversides-dei-guardians-came-after-me-39d8e26e.

**https://complitlang.ucr.edu/people/faculty/link/.

***https://news.ucr.edu/ucr-magazine/winter-2024/the-accidental-dissident. The article begins: “Blacklisted by the Chinese Community Party” is a badge of honor Perry Link has worn for almost 30 years. On any night, Link, a UCR professor of comparative literature, may be heard on Voice of America or quoted in The New York Times. He’s a leading voice on the human rights violations of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. But reducing his role to that of a commentator on the CCP and the dissidence it has inspired does Link an injustice. He played a pro-democracy role in a significant episode of Chinese history, the spring 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy. In a series of events that could be storyboards in an espionage thriller, Link helped in the escape of the communist party’s “public enemy No. 1,” the dissident Fang Lizhi. In Link’s telling, he never intended any of it — he is an accidental dissident...
 

City of Riverside Sues UC-Riverside/Regents Over Growth

The City of Riverside is suing UC-Riverside and the Regents over that campus's long range growth plan.

Essentially, the City complains that the environmental impact report approved by the Regents was inadequate. It faults the Regents for relying in part on an environmental report made by the City itself, which seems a little strange, but there you go.

Oddly, the student newspaper at Riverside seems not to have carried anything about the lawsuit.

Anyway, those interested can see the suit at:

https://www.scribd.com/document/767900634/City-of-Riverside-vs-UC-regents-UC-Riverside.

Similar town vs. gown frictions have occurred at UC-Santa Cruz. And, of course, there is People's Park at Berkeley.

Watch the Afternoon Meeting of the Regents: July 17, 2024

We have been summarizing the July Regents meetings as time permits. The afternoon of July 17th is the missing piece. It contained a series of committee meetings. Some highlights below:

Public Engagement and Development included a presentation on the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. One of the findings was that AI could reduce the time doctors currently spend on the computer and thereby increase time interacting with patients.

Compliance and Audit held a four minute open session approving UC's plan for the current year, including cybersecurity.

Academic and Student Affairs had a presentation on UC Press which is mainly self-funded. The Press was said to have a special focus on publishing the works of "FirstGen" authors. More controversial was the BOARS report on high school math requirements which reitererated the importance of algebra and calculus for students who want the option of STEM majors and careers. There was also discussion of campus-level "Collegiate Recovery Programs" that help students with substance abuse issues. Moving testimony by a recovering student was presented. Not all UC campuses have such programs. Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, and UC-San Francisco are said to be "developing" programs. The other campuses including UCLA do have them.

Finance and Capital Strategies heard a report on the budget outlook for UC, a topic we have previously covered in various posts. Regent Pérez expressed concern that UC had been omitted from an education bond measure the legislature has put on the November ballot and suggested the omission reflected some dissatisfaction with UC. The committee approved an expansion of UC-SF's Children's Hospital in Oakland. As we have previously noted, the takeover of two hospitals in San Francisco entailed incorporation of employees there into the UC pension system. It was said that the pension system would be reimbursed for the added pension liability. 

Finally, there was some controversy over the design and costs of a proposed dorm at Davis. Questions were raised primarily by Regent Makarechian who has expertise in real estate matters. Those presenting the dorm proposal really had no good answers to his questions. Ultimately, the committee endorsed the recommendation with Makarechian abstaining. This episode is illustrative of a problem the Regents have when such issues come up. They have no independent research capacity. Some Regents may happen to have expertise when major proposals come up, but the Regents are heavily dependent on what they are told. In some respects, the Regents are a mini-legislature for UC but unlike the state legislature, they have no Legislative Analyst's Office to provide detailed reviews of proposals.*

Since the Regents have no official policy on retention of recordings of their meetings, we retain them indefinitely. You can see the various committee meetings described above at the link below:

https://archive.org/details/01-compliance-and-audit-7-17-2024.

====

*Long-time blog readers will recall the controversy over the location, design, and cost of the Grand Hotel at UCLA. The Regents at one point halted the proposal. But in the end, they went along, although the need for the structure - particularly during the ongoing budget crisis of the so-called Great Recession - was never established. In a similar vein, we continue to wonder what UCLA will do with its more recent $80 million purchase of a defunct Catholic college in Palos Verdes which is inaccessible from Westwood. The purchase was said to be responsive to pressures for enrollment growth, but the inaccessibility casts doubt on how it will help with that concern.

UC president, 10 campus chancellors issue statement on intolerance of campus bigotry

UC Office of the President, November 10, 2023

University of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D., and the 10 University of California chancellors sent the following message to members of the UC community:

===

To the University of California community,

We write today to condemn the alarming, profoundly disappointing acts of bigotry, intolerance, and intimidation we have seen on our campuses over these past several weeks. It is our shared responsibility to maintain a sense of community where everyone feels safe and welcome. Some of the rhetoric we have seen and heard over the past month at campus protests, online, in student government meetings, and in classrooms has been shocking and abhorrent. Let us be clear: There is no place for hate, bigotry, or intimidation at the University of California. Period.

Antisemitism is antithetical to our values and our campus codes of conduct and is unacceptable under our principles of community. It will not be tolerated. Similarly, Islamophobia is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We will work to ensure that those who advocate on behalf of Palestinians can also be confident of their physical safety on our campuses.

It is our collective responsibility to foster a safe and welcoming learning, living, and working environment while also promoting the principles of free expression and academic freedom. We take our obligation to uphold the First Amendment seriously, even when the viewpoints expressed are hateful or repugnant. We cannot censor voices or ban groups we disagree with, so long as those voices and groups comply with state and federal laws and with university policy.

But free speech is not absolute, and violations of policy or law will have consequences. Regents Policy 4403: Statement of Principles Against Intolerance calls on UC leaders “actively to challenge anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination when and whenever they emerge within the University community.”* We will uphold this policy. Our campuses have and will continue to impose consequences on behavior that crosses the line into unprotected speech, such as persistent harassment of individuals or groups, or credible threats of physical violence. We will also take steps against any violations of the law or university policy such as disruptions of university activity, violence, or vandalism. Our educators must continue to provide a supportive and welcoming environment for all students and avoid using classroom time for improper political indoctrination.

And while words matter a great deal — and we stand firmly by the words we share today — this is also a time for action. Over the coming days, President Drake will announce a series of initiatives to help us address the current climate on our campuses, provide additional support for our students, staff, and faculty, and improve the public discourse on this issue.

Members of the UC community may have differing opinions on the Middle East conflict, but our stand on intolerance and intimidation in our own community is unequivocal: We will not stand for it, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the University of California is a safe community for all.

Michael V. Drake, M.D., President, University of California

Gene Block, Chancellor, UCLA

Carol Christ, Chancellor, UC Berkeley

Howard Gillman, Chancellor, UC Irvine

Sam Hawgood, Chancellor, UCSF

Pradeep Khosla, Chancellor, UC San Diego

Cynthia Larive, Chancellor, UC Santa Cruz

Gary May, Chancellor, UC Davis

Juan Sánchez Muñoz, Chancellor, UC Merced

Kim Wilcox, Chancellor, UC Riverside

Henry Yang, Chancellor, UC Santa Barbara

===

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-president-10-campus-chancellors-issue-statement-intolerance-campus.

===

*https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4403.html.

===

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there is this from UC-San Diego via the San Diego Union-Tribune:

UC San Diego’s student council condemned antisemitism Wednesday night, under strong urging from Jewish students who said the board has been ignoring their existence and safety amid the hot rhetoric arising from the Israel-Hamas war. The action came after a month of growing concerns among both Jewish and pro-Palestinian students that inflammatory remarks are creating a hostile environment, and that the university’s administration has been slow to deal with the situation.

Associated Students, which helps oversee undergraduates, had decided against condemning antisemitism a week earlier during a vote taken in the middle of the night. Late Wednesday, the board reversed its decision after hearing speeches that included pro-Palestinian speakers who say they are the ones being ignored and persecuted. There were 21 yes votes, 1 no and 5 abstentions. The remarks represented some of the most charged political exchanges at UCSD since anti-Vietnam war protests half a century earlier. Those students speaking in support of Palestinians were largely represented by the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which did not respond to a request from the San Diego Union-Tribune for a comment on the vote.

Many of the nearly 40 students who spoke to the board said they been insulted, harassed or threatened since the war began on Oct. 7 and now fear stepping on campus. Some students told the Union-Tribune they are especially concerned about being safe on Library Walk, a corridor where pointed political conversations are not unusual. The area leads to UCSD’s most iconic building, Geisel Library.

Students from both sides have criticized Chancellor Pradeep Khosla’s public statements, which some have called insufficiently thorough, timely and empathetic. Other university leaders across the country are also receiving heat from students and faculty, including Harvard’s Claudine Gay, who was accused of being slow to respond to the Oct. 7 attack Hamas launched against Israel. Khosla has met with Hillel of San Diego. And he is scheduled to meet locally next week with the president of the University of Haifa, according to a spokesperson for the Israeli school. But it is unclear whether Khosla has met with pro-Palestinian groups. The chancellor has declined several requests from the Union-Tribune to talk about the situation on campus.

The controversy comes at a time when many students at the nation’s colleges and universities are being very cautious about what they say for fear of being ostracized on social media or in person. Earlier this week, Brandeis University outside Boston announced that it would no longer support its campus’ chapter of the National Students for Justice in Palestine. The school, which is roughly one-third Jewish, told the media that NSJP supports Hamas’ war against Israel.

During Wednesday’s Associated Students meeting at UCSD, most SJP members and some Jewish students declined to state their names. And many SJP members wore masks or kuffiyeh scarves to hide their faces for fear of being harassed. Pro-Palestinian supporters also have worn facial coverings during demonstrations at other schools, including Harvard, UC Berkeley and New York University.

Wednesday’s discussion stemmed from an incident at the AS board’s meeting on Oct. 25. Dozens of SJP members showed up during the board’s public comment period, stood behind student senators and pressed the board to endorse a statement in support of Palestinians, a university videotape of the meeting showed.

“The University’s disregard for the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza is irresponsible, biased, and dehumanizes Palestinian life,” that statement read in part. “Furthermore, the university’s implicit categorization of Palestinians as ‘terrorists’ and ‘antisemitic’ perpetuates the racist notion that the offensive was unprovoked and done solely to be ‘launched on a major Jewish holiday.’ ” A student who identified herself as Alicia, without giving her last name, told the board “almost everyone in this room disgusts me ... I have literally faced so much hatred ... I have seen mockery.”

AS later unanimously endorsed the SJP statement by a vote of 24 to 0. Several members later said they had felt pressured to do so. The vote angered Hillel of San Diego, which is located next to campus. There was particular concern about an SJP member’s use of false, antisemitic tropes about Jewish influence in the media and finance. The remark appears at the 22:49 minute moment of the video recording. One AS member, Ivan Ramirez, then co-authored a resolution condemning antisemitism on campus.

His statement also said, “Associated Students of UC San Diego apologizes for not properly researching and reviewing content contained in the Students for Justice in Palestine Statement Release and for not ensuring proper consideration and representation of the Jewish community at UC San Diego before approving an endorsement” for the SJP statement. Jewish students turned out in force for the board’s Nov. 1 meeting, telling AS that they’ve been been increasingly targeted in the wake of the war. Some used the term “Jew-hatred” instead of antisemitism.

The board defeated Ramirez’s resolution last week with 6 members voting yes, 11 voting no and 9 abstaining. But Ramirez re-introduced his resolution on Wednesday, and dozens of Jewish students and SJP members spoke, many reading impassioned statements off their cellphones. “We are only halfway through the quarter, and my friends and I have been called terrorists, murderers, rapists,” one unidentified pro-Palestinian speaker said. “We’ve received death threats, been followed to our cars, are constantly given looks.”

“Why is it that I have to miss class and work for the past month to fight for Jewish equality on this campus when it is (the board’s) job to represent all Jewish students equally?” an unidentified Jewish student asked. “The last time the world was silent to this extent of Jewish discrimination 6 million Jews were murdered.” When it came time to vote Wednesday night, the board removed references to Students for Justice in Palestine from the draft resolution, due to concerns they would be disparaging, and focused on condemning antisemitism.

Ramirez expressed ambivalence Thursday. “Overall, I think that the resolution that ended up passing was somewhat performative and did not achieve its intended goal of representing the specific concerns of the Jewish population,” he said. “While I am still glad that something was passed condemning Jew-hatred and antisemitism, we should not have removed an apology we were going to make for failing to research the information in the SJP letter we endorsed on Oct. 25.”

Source: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2023-11-09/tensions-flare-israel-hamas-jewish-palestinian-students-ucsd-unsafe.

Don't Panic Yet

We are getting to open enrollment season. Many UC employees and retirees have health insurance through Anthem Blue Cross and use UC health providers. However, there is a current contract dispute between UC Health and Anthem Blue Cross over the terms of continued coverage. It should be stressed, however, that such negotiations often reach agreement at the last minute. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

More than 600,000 Californians who get medical care at UC Health hospitals through Anthem Blue Cross ...may need to find a different health insurer or pay out-of-network rates for services at UC Health next year if the two parties cannot reach a new contract by February. UC Health and Anthem, two of California’s largest health industry players, are at odds over the terms of their future relationship. The current three-year contract was slated to expire at the end of December, but both sides last week agreed to extend the deadline to the end of February to allow more time for talks. 

Contract negotiations between health care providers and insurance companies are common and often involve disagreements over reimbursement rates. But the timing of this dispute is leaving many patients confused and frustrated because they are in their annual open enrollment period with their employers. The uncertainty over whether UC Health will remain in network with Anthem makes it hard to pick a health plan for next year. Those who want to continue seeing their same doctors at UC could choose to get coverage through another insurance provider, while those who wish to stick with Anthem Blue Cross could seek medical care elsewhere — meaning they’d likely have to find new doctors...

The number of patients who stand to be affected is also notable: The contract applies to all six UC Health academic hospitals which, in addition to UCSF, include UCLA Health, UC Davis Health, UC San Diego Health, UC Irvine Health and UC Riverside Health. It applies to Anthem Blue Cross PPO and HMO plans. 

Both sides declined to specify what terms they disagree about that are holding up a new deal. UC Health said Anthem terminated the agreement without cause, and only recently agreed to reopen talks. “We remain seriously concerned about Anthem’s decision to terminate the agreement and the potential impact on care for Californians,” said UC Health spokeswoman Heather Harper. An Anthem spokesman said such talks are a routine part of renegotiating contracts with providers and that the insurer is working in good faith to reach a new agreement with UC Health by the end of the year...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/uc-health-anthem-blue-cross-18431769.php.

Rank - Part 3 (comparisons and equivalencies)

As might be expected, the latest US News and World Report college rankings have created controversy, in part because of a shift in methodology that shifted ranks up and down compared with the prior year.

You can read more about the controversies - somewhat similar to the earlier controversies concerning law schools and med schools at:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/09/22/us-news-rankings-changes-spur-complaints-and-apologies.

But rather than get into the weeds, yours truly thought we might benefit from looking at comparisons and equivalencies. As you likely know, both UCLA are touting themselves as the best public university. But the public qualifier actually means both tied for 15th. 

But that means the two are not quite so good as Chicago, but are a bit better than Rice.

Moving down the list we find that UC-Davis and UC-San Diego at #28 are equivalent to each other and also to the U of Florida.

UC-Irvine and UC-Santa Barbara are equivalent to NYU at #33.

 

At #60, we find that UC-Merced is equivalent to Renssalear and Santa Clara U.

At #76, UC-Riverside is like SUNY-Buffalo.

And finally at #76, UC-Santa Cruz is like Rutgers and the U of Illinois-Chicago.

Go figure.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/search?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc.