Traveling

From the California Post: There’s one national ranking that USC and UCLA football are almost guaranteed to finish in the top 20 every year now – miles traveled. That’s the case again in 2026. USC will rank No. 8 among the 138 Football Bowl Subdivision teams with a whopping 16,290 round-trip miles for its five road games, according to TripBalls. The Trojans will travel to face Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin, Indiana and rival UCLA. Not far behind is UCLA, which ranks No. 12 with 13,636 round-trip miles for its five road games. The Bruins’ road schedule includes games at California, Maryland, Oregon, Minnesota and Michigan...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/08/13/sports/usc-ucla-football-among-most-well-traveled-teams-2026/.

As blog readers will know, these travel distances are the result of the move of both universities to the Big Ten.

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5ywcLXv-SA.

Defense Audit

From DefenseScoop: Defense Department leaders instructed 30 American universities and specialized technology institutes to immediately audit their academic, financial and research connections to foreign entities that the government considers too risky or hostile to engage with. The initiation of these probes, revealed [last] Monday, marks DOD’s latest move in a yearslong effort to counter what it views as adversarial influences infiltrating U.S. academia...

Full story at https://defensescoop.com/2026/08/17/pentagon-probes-30-u-s-academic-institutions-for-potential-ties-to-adversaries/.

The institutions - which include UCLA, UC-Berkeley, and UC-San Diego - are:

Bryant University, Cornell University, Drake University, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Northeastern State University-Tahlequah, Oklahoma State University, Penn State University, Portland State University, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Stony Brook University, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UC-San Diego, University of Cincinnati, University of Delaware, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Straws in the Wind - Part 329

From California Post: A growing revolt is unfolding at the the University of Southern California’s prestigious Marshall School of Business, where faculty are warning of the program’s downward slide. In a sharply worded letter to USC Dean Geoffrey Garrett, 52 tenured professors flagged falling enrollment and graduate program cuts as signs of deeper trouble at the school, according to L.A. Material. “There are clear signs of our downward trajectory in terms of academic reputation, commitment to excellence in research, and the demonstrated academic excellence of the students which graduate from our programs,” the letter states.

While faculty pushback isn’t unusual on college campuses, current and former USC administrators described the warning as rare, high-level rebuke that could force leadership to take a hard look inward. The tensions have arisen amid a strained financial backdrop at the college. USC carried out layoffs last July to close an operating deficit that had swelled to $251 million...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/04/24/us-news/doomsday-letter-from-faculty-at-usc-business-school-warns-of-distrubing-trend/.

Disability Creep

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%
• Dartmouth: 7% to 15.8%
• Cornell: 6% to 21.6%
• Harvard: no more than 3% to 21.0%
• Brown: 10% to 22.0%
• Yale: 8% to 19.8%
• Columbia: 6% to 14.3%
• Princeton: no more than 3% to 15.5%
• U of Pennsylvania: 6% to 15.0%
• USC: no more than 3% to 13.0%
• CalTech: no more than 3% to 11.7%

===

*https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/stanford-disabled-disability-student-21361362.php.

Straws in the Wind - Part 217

From the LA Times: When prospective Caltech students applied in the fall for early admission, some faced a new, technologically advanced step in the selection process at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. High schoolers who submitted research projects appeared on video and were interviewed by an artificial intelligence-powered voice that peppered them with questions about their papers and experiments, akin to a dissertation defense. The video-recorded exchanges were then reviewed by humans — faculty and admissions officers — who also evaluated test scores, transcripts, personal statements...

Virginia Tech debuted an AI-powered essay reader in the fall. The college expects it will be able to inform students of admissions decisions a month sooner than usual, in late January, because of the tool’s help sorting tens of thousands of applications...

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faced a barrage of negative feedback from applicants, parents and students after its student newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel, reported in January that the school was using AI to evaluate the grammar and writing style of applicants’ essays...

Georgia Tech is rolling out an AI tool to review the college transcripts of transfer students, replacing the need for staff to enter each course manually into a database...

Some of the most popular and prestigious colleges in California have so far eschewed AI in admission evaluations. 

USC, which received 83,500 applications in the last undergraduate admissions cycle, has dozens of full-time readers who work tens of thousands of hours to pore over grades, essays and other application elements. At UCLA, the most applied-to campus in the nation with more than 145,000 first-year applicants, a team of more than 300 readers handles the workload. Each student is evaluated twice by two people, typically high school counselors and retired high school counselors who are specially trained...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-02/ai-may-be-scoring-your-college-admissions-essay.

Straws in the Wind - Part 209

From the LA Times: A Stanford software engineering degree used to be a golden ticket. Artificial intelligence has devalued it to bronze, recent graduates say. The elite students are shocked by the lack of job offers as they finish studies at what is often ranked as the top university in America. When they were freshmen, ChatGPT hadn’t yet been released upon the world. Today, AI can code better than most humans. Top tech companies just don’t need as many fresh graduates.

...Stanford students describe a suddenly skewed job market, where just a small slice of graduates — those considered “cracked engineers” who already have thick resumes building products and doing research — are getting the few good jobs, leaving everyone else to fight for scraps... The shake-up is being felt across California colleges, including UC Berkeley, USC and others. The job search has been even tougher for those with less prestigious degrees.

...The engineers’ most significant competitor is getting stronger by the day. When ChatGPT launched in 2022, it could only code for 30 seconds at a time. Today’s AI agents can code for hours, and do basic programming faster with fewer mistakes.

Data suggests that even though AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring many people, it is not offsetting the decline in hiring elsewhere. Employment for specific groups, such as early-career software developers between the ages of 22 and 25 has declined by nearly 20% from its peak in late 2022, according to a Stanford study. It wasn’t just software engineers, but also customer service and accounting jobs that were highly exposed to competition from AI. The Stanford study estimated that entry-level hiring for AI-exposed jobs declined 13% relative to less-exposed jobs such as nursing...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-12-19/they-graduated-from-stanford-due-to-ai-they-cant-find-job.

Straws in the Wind - Part 202

From Inside Higher Ed: Current and prospective Purdue University graduate students say the institution rejected a slew of Chinese applicants from its grad programs for this academic year. Also, one grad student says the university told grad admissions committees in the past couple of months that it’s highly unlikely to accept students from any “adversary nation” for next year. Faculty were told those countries are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, said Kieran Hilmer, a teaching assistant on the leadership committee of Graduate Rights and Our Wellbeing (GROW), a group trying to unionize Purdue grad workers. That list broadly matches the commerce secretary’s catalog of foreign adversaries. Hilmer said the university conveyed this prohibition verbally. “They didn’t write any of this down,” he said.

Purdue isn’t commenting on the allegations. The university has faced scrutiny from members of Congress about its ties to China. In May, the Trump administration briefly said it would revoke Chinese students’ visas nationwide. The president has since changed his tune and said he would welcome more students from China. ...Purdue spokespeople also didn’t provide a response to the Lafayette Journal & Courier and the Exponent student newspaper when asked about this issue. The Journal & Courier, which first reported the story, cited four faculty members from “a wide range of departments” who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the university.

...While Purdue won’t explain what actions it’s taking or why, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said in a September report that it’s been investigating Purdue and five other universities—Stanford and Carnegie Mellon Universities and the Universities of Maryland, Southern California and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—all year “regarding the presence and research activities of Chinese national students on their campuses.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/graduate/2025/12/12/purdue-allegedly-rejecting-chinese-other-grad-students.

Straws in the Wind - Part 178

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Straws in the Wind - Part 164

From Inside Higher Ed: An independent arbitrator ordered Portland State University to reinstate 10 faculty members after determining the university violated its collective bargaining agreement with the Portland State University American Association of University Professors, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.  The faculty senate in April voted no confidence in the administration’s “Bridge to the Future” plan to address an $18 million budget deficit, and the vote “underscores the fact that the university made its layoff decisions before it had sufficient evidence to support them. That is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement,” the arbitrator wrote in her decision. 

PSU-AAUP filed a labor grievance after the university laid off 17 non-tenure-track professors at the end of the 2024–25 academic year as part of its plan to close the deficit before the end of the spring term. The remaining seven employees declined to grieve their layoffs... 

The union contract requires university officials to follow a specific, lengthy process to lay off faculty members for economic reasons—as opposed to eliminating courses or programs—which the arbitrator determined they did not do. Portland State is considering an appeal...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/11/13/portland-state-ordered-reinstate-some-laid-faculty.

From the LA Times: The University of Southern California is in the throes of its most aggressive cost-cutting drive in memory — a grinding period of financial austerity that has shaken the university’s moneyed reputation and raised doubts among faculty and staff about the school’s ability to sustain itself as a top-tier institution. Aiming to eliminate a budget deficit that ballooned to more than $200 million, the private school has cut nearly 1,000 positions, or almost 4% of its workforce.

Faculty and staff said that the layoffs have been especially stressful because they have been ongoing for months, although the university said last week that they are nearly complete — and that as many as 200 of those who lost their jobs could find new positions at the school. Other cost-saving measures have included restrictions on discretionary spending, such as travel for conferences...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-12/usc-layoffs-cuts-deficit.

Straws in the Wind - Part 160

From Inside Higher Ed: Colleges announced more than 850 job cuts last month amid a tumultuous year for the sector. The layoffs hit large, wealthy, research institutions, such as the University of Southern California and Harvard University, which have multi-billion dollar endowments but have been battered by federal research funding losses, as well as small colleges struggling with enrollment declines. Here’s a look at layoffs and program cuts announced in October.

University of Southern California: Grappling with a budget deficit of more than $230 million, USC announced a wave of layoffs last month that will see 259 employees lose their jobs...

Michigan State University: Squeezed by rising operating costs and federal research funding disruptions, the public university eliminated 99 positions as of Oct. 14, President Kevin Guskiewicz announced. Another 83 positions have been “lost due to federal funding cuts” this year, he added...

Carnegie Mellon University: Hit by a loss in federal research funds, the private university in Pennsylvania laid off 75 staff members at its Software Engineering Institute last month... Those cuts reportedly make up 10 percent of the institute’s total workforce...

University of Northern Colorado: Officials at the public university in Greeley announced last month that roughly 50 employees will be laid off due to financial challenges, including declining state funding and slumping enrollment... The university is looking to shed 80 to 100 jobs, between layoffs and eliminating vacancies...

University of Louisiana Lafayette: Facing a $25 million deficit, ULL plans to cut 70 jobs... The reductions will be achieved through a mix “of position eliminations, retirements, resignations and reassignments,” Interim President Jaimie Hebert wrote in an email last month...

Eastern Illinois University: Federal funding losses and decreases in international enrollment prompted layoffs at the public university in Charleston, which is cutting 44 jobs and closing 19 others, local TV station WCIA reported. Eastern Illinois plans to cut 23 instructors on annual contracts and 17 staff jobs, as well as not renew contracts for four academic support roles. Another 19 vacancies at EIU will not be restaffed...

Xavier University of Louisiana: The nation’s only historically Black Catholic university laid off 46 full-time employees last month—roughly 6 percent of its workforce—due to mounting financial pressures... 

Harvard University: Despite a booming endowment, Harvard is once again laying off employees. After an unspecified number of job cuts this summer, Harvard laid off roughly 40 employees in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences last month...

Siena University: More than three dozen administrators and multiple faculty members are set to exit the private Catholic university in New York following a round of recent buyouts, the Times-Union reported. The newspaper noted that enrollment at Siena fell by more than 9 percent this year, and university officials have cast the buyouts as a restructuring effort to “right-size” the institution...

Clarke University: Amid financial pressures, the private Catholic university in Dubuque, Iowa, is cutting 13 academic programs and up to 37 jobs at the end of the academic year... Officials announced the cuts last month in response to declining enrollment and rising costs. A frequently asked questions page on Clarke’s website also noted “a significant budget deficit.” ...

University of Wisconsin-Madison: Ongoing cost-cutting measures at the Wisconsin flagship will see 31 employees laid off and another 156 positions left vacant... Officials announced cost-cutting moves earlier this year but said layoffs would be “a last resort.” ...

University of Idaho: State budget cuts have prompted Idaho’s public universities to trim some positions, including 28 staff and faculty jobs at the public research university... The University of Idaho is making the cuts to shave $3.1 million in personnel costs...

Nebraska Wesleyan University: Cost-cutting efforts at the private university in Lincoln prompted the layoff of 14 staff members and another three positions were reduced from full-time to part-time status, the Lincoln Journal-Star reported. Faculty members were spared from cuts, though some academic programs could be axed in the future following a program review... 

Rhode Island College: Buyouts are on the table at the public college in Providence, which is making voluntary retirement incentives available to as many as 101 employees in an effort to cut costs...

PennWest University: Citing enrollment and financial issues, the public university plans to furlough more than a dozen employees at two of its three campuses starting Nov. 16...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/cost-cutting/2025/11/07/october-brought-deep-cuts-multiple-campuses.

Straws in the Wind - Part 151

From the Yale Daily News: In a recent push by the French department to make its offerings less daunting to students, the department has attempted to reduce the workload demands of some of its courses. This semester, many French courses designated as L1 through L4 have eliminated final exams and adopted a weekly “4 plus 1 model,” which consists of four days of in-person instruction and one asynchronous class on Friday. “We want to attract students to the study of French as they would to any other language,” Constance Sherak, the department’s language program director, wrote in a statement to the News. “Rigor doesn’t mean an unsurmountable degree of work and shouldn’t discourage students from pursuing a language they want to study for their own personal reasons.” ...

“There was definitely a sense among many students that while French language courses were rigorous and effective, they were too difficult in terms of workload and grading,” [Department Chair Maurice] Samuels wrote...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/10/24/to-woo-students-french-department-makes-courses-easier/.

From the LA Times: The University of Southern California has issued layoff notices to more than 900 employees since July amid a fiscal crisis that has battered morale and strained resources. The cuts, detailed in a Monday letter to the USC community by interim President Beong-Soo Kim, are central to an effort to erase a budget deficit that ballooned to more than $200 million. The layoffs have included employees across the university and its health system, including student academic advisers.

But Kim, who succeeded former President Carol Folt on July 1, wrote that as many 200 of those who received layoff notices could remain with the university in new positions. And he noted that the job cuts are nearly complete...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-03/layoffs-usc-fiscal-crisis.

Athletic Investments - Part 3

We are following up on the proposed investment of pension and maybe endowment funds in some kind of deal with the Big Ten athletic conference which UCLA joined - setting off a months-long brouhaha at the Regents after an intervention by the governor.*

There are questions, to say the least, about the use of pension funds to support the athletic program. Presumably, it was "sold" to the Regents during a closed-door meeting as a good deal by investment criteria. 

Yours truly does not know what "a 100-year investment" means. See below. Does it mean we have to wait that long to determine if it was a good deal? If so, a not-so-nice interpretation would mean that no one currently alive can be held responsible for the long-term results. Does it make sense to talk about 100 years in the context of college sports which are undergoing rapid change due to such factors the legal climate surround pay for players and the changes in technology for delivery of sports events to households?

From the Daily Bruin: UC Investments offered $2.4 billion for a 10% stake in a new entity that would manage the Big Ten’s league-wide media rights and sponsorship deals. The UC said it would use a pension fund to invest in Big Ten Enterprises, which would then direct funds to individual Big Ten schools’ athletic departments, according to ESPN. The UC’s investment arm manages investment funds for the University and provides fiduciary oversight, managing about $190 billion in its portfolio, according to the office’s website...

UC Investments considers Big Ten Enterprises “a 100-year investment,” a UC Investments spokesperson said in an emailed statement. They added in the statement that UC Investments has offered other Big Ten universities the chance to buy its stake if they are seeking a larger amount of ownership for themselves. “Our prospective partnership reflects our shared belief in stability, excellence, and purpose,” said Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the UC’s chief investment officer, in the statement. “UC Investments would be proud to support the Big Ten’s enduring legacy and its continued commitment to the success of student-athletes and scholars alike.” ...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/10/30/uc-investments-offers-2-4-billion-for-stake-in-new-big-ten-entity.

Note that ESPN reported that the University of Michigan and USC concluded that the deal was NOT a great investment. See:

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/46620086/proposed-big-ten-private-capital-deal-holding-pattern.

===

*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/athletic-investments-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/athletic-investments.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 139

From the Guardian: Faculty at the University of Texas at Austin fear entire academic departments may be on the chopping block after the university quietly appointed a committee charged with studying the restructuring of its liberal arts programs. The university – the largest in the public University of Texas system – has not made any announcements about cuts or restructuring, but faculty there have learned the committee was established earlier this semester and tasked with a review that they believe is focused on ethnic and regional disciplines such as African and African diaspora studies, Mexican American and Latina/o studies, as well as women’s and gender studies.

The university did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment and faculty who asked administrators about the committee said they have received no clear answers. On Thursday, UT Austin also announced a taskforce to conduct a “thorough review” of the university’s core curriculum – a set of required courses taken by all students – “to better fulfill the purpose of this curriculum and identify gaps in quality, rigor, or intellectual cohesion”, the university’s president wrote in an email. The taskforce is made up of 18 professors – none from the departments where cuts are feared. Students have circulated an image in private emails and chats mocking the fact that almost all faculty on it are white...

Concerns escalated after a new state law went into effect on 1 September, disbanding the public university system’s long-established faculty senates and giving university administrators near-absolute control over university governance matters. While university senates hold advisory roles at most schools, they are generally a primary outlet for faculty to engage in decisions concerning the university. As the law kicked in, UT Austin’s new president – the first to be appointed without faculty input – announced the establishment of a 12-person faculty advisory board entirely selected by him and “charged with advising on institutional matters and focusing on the best interests of the entire University”...

Full story at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/university-of-texas-cuts-liberal-arts.

From the NY Times: Seven of the nine universities that the White House initially approached about a plan to steer more federal money toward schools aligned with President Trump’s priorities have refused to endorse the proposal. On Monday evening, an eighth signaled that it had reservations about it. Only one, the University of Texas, suggested it might be open to signing on quickly.

The University of Arizona rejected the Trump administration’s compact on Monday, joining Brown University, Dartmouth College, M.I.T., the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and the University of Virginia. Vanderbilt University did not directly express a view about the plan on Monday — the deadline the Trump administration initially gave universities for feedback — but its chancellor suggested misgivings about parts of it...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/us/politics/universities-funding-compact.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 136

From The Athletic/NY Times: Penn State fired head coach James Franklin... despite being on the hook for $45 million remaining on his contract, according to a school source. It is the second-largest buyout in college football history, behind what Texas A&M owed Jimbo Fisher when it fired him on Nov. 12, 2023. The Aggies owed Fisher roughly $77 million on a contract that runs through 2031. Franklin’s buyout is only the third in college football history to surpass the $20 million threshold for a fired coach, joining that of Fisher and Gus Malzahten, who was owed $21.4 million when he was fired by Auburn in December 2020.

In 2021, Franklin signed a 10-year contract that paid him $7 million per year in annual compensation plus a $1 million annual loan for life insurance. There were also incentives and retention bonuses in Franklin’s contract, but only his annual compensation and loan are part of the buyout. The massive buyout figure comes as coaching salaries have skyrocketed in recent years. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the industry saw an increase in fully guaranteed contracts awarded to top coaches with buyouts that crept up into the upper eight figures...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6711634/2025/10/12/penn-state-james-franklin-buyout-explained/.

From the NY Times: The University of Virginia became the fifth school to rebuff a White House proposal to give universities preferential treatment if they uphold a set of White House demands. The White House offered the proposal to nine universities last week, asking them to sign on to a list of requirements laid out in a 10-page document in exchange for funds. In declining to sign on to the agreement, Paul G. Mahoney, Virginia’s interim president, said that while the university agreed with many principles outlined in the proposal, it wanted “no special treatment” in funding.

“A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of the vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education,” Mr. Mahoney wrote in a note to Linda McMahon, the education secretary, and two other administration officials. Mr. Mahoney’s announcement, which also went out to the campus community late Friday afternoon, followed similar decisions in the past week by other schools that received the government’s offer, including M.I.T., Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/us/university-of-virginia-white-house-compact.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 135

From Inside Higher Ed: California State University, Fresno, celebrated the launch of a new program this fall called Finish in Five, which allows students to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree within five years. University leaders were eager to offer students at the Central Valley campus—which serves large populations of first-generation and low-income students, many the children of local farmworkers—a streamlined pathway to high-demand STEM fields in an economically distressed region.

But less than a month later, the program’s funding, which came from a Hispanic-serving institution grant, abruptly ended. The Education Department stopped awarding grants for HSIs and many other minority-serving institutions last month, claiming the federal programs amounted to “discrimination.” Officials argued the programs are “unconstitutional” because they require institutions to enroll certain percentages of students from specific racial or ethnic backgrounds, among other criteria.

Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, president of Fresno State, said he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to the Finish in Five program now that the money is gone. In the past, the campus relied on about $5 million annually in HSI funding, which fueled a wide range of student supports and programs. The university was also expecting to receive $250,000 this fiscal year as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander–serving institution...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institutions/minority-serving-institutions/2025/10/14/csu-campuses-reel-blow-hsi-funding.

From the LA Times: The University of Southern California on Thursday rejected the controversial education compact the Trump administration offered it and eight other schools, saying it would undermine “values of free inquiry and academic excellence.” USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education turning down the Trump offer, which would give priority research funding access to universities that agree to follow the president’s mostly conservative vision of higher education. His letter, which USC provided to The Times, was addressed to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and said that the compact “raises a number of issues worthy of further discussion within both higher education and our nation.”

...White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement that universities “funded by American taxpayers should absolutely serve the national interest.” “As long as they are not begging for federal funding, universities are free to implement any lawful policies they would like,” she said. “However, the notion that universities should benefit from taxpayer money without responsibilities in return is terribly misguided.” ...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-16/usc-rejects-trump-education-compact.

Newsom on Federal Data Requests and Related Topics

At a news conference on October 9th dealing mainly with K-12 test scores and related topics, Governor Newsom was asked about a data request from the federal government for employee data at CSU, similar to a request from UC-Berkeley (that was granted).

He said he had received a legal analysis from UC that indicated that providing the data was legally-obligated and that he would be receiving a report from CSU.

In his remarks, he referenced the $1 billion demand from UCLA and the proposed "compact" offered by the feds to USC.

You can see and hear his remarks at the link below:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGJug9Mz1Q.

The full news conference is at https://ia800103.us.archive.org/6/items/united-we-can-yes-on-50-united-we-can-10-3-2025/newsom%2010-9-2025%20student%20scores.mp4.

Fully Aligned?

In an LA Times story mainly about USC and its potential response to pressure from the feds, there was also some information about UC, which you might have missed.

From the LA Times: ...In response to a question about the proposal to USC and whether Newsom would issue the same threat of removing state funding to UCLA — the subject of ongoing negotiations over a sprawling U.S. Department of Justice antisemitism investigation — the governor said he was “not concerned” about the UC system... As UCLA continues to negotiate with the Trump administration, Newsom said he has confidence in the university system, whose leaders have been working “collaboratively for weeks” to come to a resolution.

The governor’s more tempered remarks were a shift from his comments in August and September, when he said UC should “sue” Trump and should not “bend the knee,” a reference to his belief that the deals made by Brown and Columbia universities with the White House were bad moves that empowered the government to target more campuses. “Governor Newsom, [UC] President [James B.] Milliken and the board of regents are fully aligned in protecting the values, integrity and unparalleled quality of the University of California system,” UC Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly said [last] Friday in a statement to The Times following Newsom’s comments.

...While praising UC’s handling of federal negotiations, Newsom was less supportive of recent actions by UC Berkeley to release the personal information of 160 employees to Department of Education as part of a federal investigation into alleged campus antisemitism... Newsom said he “requested an independent review” of the data release in order to “make a judgment as to whether or not it was appropriate..."

Full story https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-03/newsom-usc-trump-campus-university-compact.

Confidence vs. Confidence

From the Sacramento Bee: Gov. Gavin Newsom said [last] Friday he was “confident” that California universities would reject federal attempts to condition educational funds, a day after the governor said he would block state funds to any California school that agreed to a White House compact in exchange for preferential funding treatment. ...USC told its on-campus newspaper it was “reviewing” the compact, which the federal administration also sent to MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and the University of Virginia.

Newsom said [last] Thursday in an all-caps Trump-emulating statement that any California university that signed the compact would “instantly” lose state funds, saying California would not “BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM.” 

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article312372038.html.

They must be somewhere

We're all looking for that 28-page letter from the Dept. of Justice with various demands for UCLA that the LA Times has seen.

We can now add to that the 10-point memo that has been reported in various news sources (Washington Post, NY Times, Wall St. Journal) from the Dept. of Education to nine universities on conditions for advantageous access to federal funds. No one else seems to have the actual memo. We seem to be in a period where things can be described but not seen.

From Inside Higher Ed:

...The proposal seeks an agreement with nine institutions that are being asked to commit to a 10-point memo referred to as the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

Among the various conditions, institutions are reportedly being asked to:

• Ban consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions processes
• Freeze tuition for a five-year period
• Limit international undergraduate enrollment to 15 percent of the student body
• Commit to institutional neutrality
• Require applicants to take standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT
• Clamp down on grade inflation
• Ensure a “vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus” 
• Restrict employees from expressing political views on behalf of the institution
• Shut down departments that “punish, belittle” or “spark violence against conservative ideas”
• Anonymously poll students and employees on compact compliance and publish the results

Another requirement mandates that signatories “deploy their endowments to the public good,” such as by not charging tuition to students “pursuing hard science programs (with exceptions, as desired, for families of substantial means)” for universities with more than $2 million per undergraduate student in endowment assets. Universities would also be required to post more details about graduates’ earnings and refund tuition to those who drop out in their first semester...

Institutions reportedly invited to join are: Brown University, Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/10/02/white-house-floats-compact-preferential.

And then there's this:

Source: https://x.com/CAgovernor/status/1973848963662172242.

Or direct to https://ia800103.us.archive.org/6/items/united-we-can-yes-on-50-united-we-can-10-3-2025/newsom%2010-3-2025%20universities%20should%20reject%20Trump%20offer.mp4.

Straws in the Wind - Part 50

News from the American Economic Association Committee on the Job Market

Unfortunately, this past job market season was a challenging one for candidates. In the second half of 2024, the total number of job openings listed on JOE [Job Openings for Economists website] was down 4.6 percent relative to the same period in 2023, and down 22.8 percent relative to the same period in 2022. Demand has remained weak in the first half of 2025, with the number of job listings on JOE down 14.4 percent relative to the same period in 2024, and down 39 percent relative to the same period in 2023.

To gain information about the prospects for the coming 2025-26 job market season, the committee will be surveying the chairs of US Economics Departments as to whether they are experiencing a hiring freeze, and if not, how their plans for faculty hiring compare to those in recent years.

The committee’s survey of job candidates on the market during 2024-25 is in the field and will conclude on Tuesday, August 5. If you were on the market this past year, please complete the survey so the committee and future cohorts can better understand your experiences on the market. Advisors and placement directors are asked to encourage their students on the market this past year to complete the survey.

Source: https://www.aeaweb.org/news/member-announcements/2025-jul-15. [Excerpt]

From the LA Times: Citing a budget deficit in excess of $200 million, the University of Southern California’s interim president said Monday that an undisclosed number of layoffs and other belt-tightening measures would be implemented to “deal decisively with our financial challenges.” Beong-Soo Kim wrote in a letter addressed to faculty and staff that USC is “experiencing significant shifts in federal support” for its research and other programs — a product of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to cut billions of dollars in grants — and also faces “potential decreases in international student enrollment.” At the same time, Kim said, USC’s expenses have “significantly outpaced” its revenue for several years...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-15/usc-budget-deficit-layoffs.