Straws in the Wind - Part 307

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Barnard will not host its annual financial aid fundraising gala this year, opting instead to focus its resources on a celebration for the fall 2026 opening of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Center and “smaller, more intimate” alumni gatherings. Alumni leaders who spoke to Spectator said that the college’s communication surrounding the gala’s cancellation, which Spectator learned about through two alumni leaders with knowledge of the matter, has highlighted a growing transparency problem between school leadership and alumni. The annual gala, which Barnard has held for over three decades, is the largest annual fundraising event hosted by the college. Last year, it brought in nearly $4 million.

Rona Wilk, BC ’91, told Spectator that Hillary Strong, vice president for advancement at Barnard, discussed the cancellation with the then-20-person board of directors of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College at a Feb. 3 board meeting. Barnard, however, has yet to notify the broader alumni community, though it did inform ticket purchasers for previous galas of this year’s cancellation on Dec. 9, 2025, according to a copy of the communication shared with Spectator. Wilk, who has been involved with alumni work at Barnard for 25 years, said that canceling the event “feels like a brushing aside” of Barnard’s commitment to financial aid.

The cancellation comes as Barnard has become increasingly reliant on student revenue to support its operations, with roughly three-quarters of its operating support coming from tuition and room and board, according to a financial summary sent to the Barnard community on Jan. 28...

Wilk was asked to step down weeks after having an “outburst” about her transparency concerns at [a] Feb. 3 meeting, she said. Hours after the meeting, which she had left early, she apologized in an email to the alumnae association board...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/04/01/amid-debt-crisis-barnard-quietly-cancels-annual-financial-aid-fundraising-gala/.

Donation

From the LA Times: UCLA, Cal State L.A. and Cal State Dominguez Hills will receive $110 million to bolster their mental health programs, providing financial assistance and clinical resources to students seeking to fill the gaps of a major statewide shortage in the field of social work. On Monday, the universities announced that the Ballmer Group — an investment group owned by Connie and Steve Ballmer, owner of the Clippers and former Microsoft chief executive — would support an effort to expand social work, youth counseling and mental health programs in underserved neighborhoods, including South and East L.A...

Cal State L.A. will receive $48 million to add more students to its master of social work programs and provide more than 1,000 scholarships and grants for prospective students...

CSU Dominguez Hills will use part of its $29-million grant to launch Toros Heal L.A., an initiative to grow mental health resources in South L.A...

UCLA [will] use its $33-million grant to provide scholarships and develop a minor in youth behavioral health...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-04-06/ucla-csus-110-million-donation-mental-health-ballmer.

Straws in the Wind - Part 301

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: With continued uncertainty about federal research funding, the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school [last] Friday launched a $200 million fund to finance innovative projects at their earliest stages. The initial fund will support research and educational advances at the School of Engineering and Applied Science over the next five years, the school said.

“The federal government is no longer a reliable partner,” said Vijay Kumar, Penn’s engineering school dean. “And what we’d like to do is to make sure that we can establish partnerships on which our faculty can rely on, going into the future. And that’s through philanthropy.”

It is the largest such venture ever launched by the engineering school and comes as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to threaten research funding at the nation’s universities. Penn earlier this year directed its schools and centers to cut 4% from certain expenses in the next fiscal year while keeping in place earlier reductions made in response to Trump administration’s policies and ongoing threats to federal funding. The new fund is not designed to replace lost federal funding, Kumar said. Penn traditionally has received about $1 billion in federal research funding annually. But he said it can fund early-stage research and back research areas the Trump administration may not support, such as climate change and vaccinations...

Full story at https://www.inquirer.com/education/penn-engineering-research-fund-trump-20260328.html.

They Got Him!

Our local component of the Epstein affair focused on an adjunct faculty member who has now resigned. As blog readers will know, yours truly views this affair as a witch hunt that has gotten way, way out of control, as witch hunts - including the famous one at Salem - are prone to do. 

Republicans thought that if all the Epstein files came out, they would embarrass the Clintons. Why they would think embarrassing the Clintons years after their political careers ended would somehow save Republican control of the House in the midterms is beyond me. So far, all they have gotten a photo of Bill Clinton in a hot tub. Democrats thought, with more relevance, that the files would embarrass President Trump - although he has shown no personal capacity for embarrassment. 

The underlying truth is that Epstein was a con man who started out as a high school math teacher (using false credentials), and inveigled himself into society and academia, became wealthy, and would hold out the prospect of handing out money for research grants. In some cases, money was actually raised from Epstein, enough so that academics and others would cater to him. In some cases, no money appeared. But many of the names that were shamed - including the one at UCLA - were mainly guilty of... fundraising. And the fact that many well-known academics and others have been caught in this affair has in fact diverted what attention there was from the Clintons and Trump to all the others. It's another version of flooding the zone. There is so much to talk about that the original intent has been lost and all kinds of other agendas are being advanced.

The faculty member at UCLA who got caught up in the Epstein affair had this to say upon resigning:

“Unfortunately, up to 100 arts and humanities students won’t be able to earn a Life Sciences core credit by taking my GE course this Spring as a result of the McCarthyism, hysteria, and prejudice promulgated by the media, including the Daily Bruin..."*

I'm not sure the 100 arts and humanities students that won't be taking the GE Life Sciences course would know what the word "McCarthyism" refers to. But maybe there should be a GE course on that, and not just for them.

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*https://dailybruin.com/2026/03/06/ucla-professor-to-retire-cancel-spring-class-amid-criticism-over-epstein-ties.

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There are a lot of reasons why this hysteria is being pushed; in fact, there are more due to recent events:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xpA433dKXko.

Big Health Donation

From the UCLA Newsroom:

UCLA Health today announced the single largest gift to advance mental health care in its history – $100 million from global philanthropists Stewart and Lynda Resnick, co-owners of Los Angeles–based The Wonderful Company, one of the nation’s largest privately held companies.

The Resnicks’ gift, made possible through their foundation, will help fund the expansion of mental and behavioral health services at UCLA Health and support completion of a new neuropsychiatric hospital and a comprehensive mental health campus. UCLA Health is one of the world’s leading centers for comprehensive patient care, research and education, and the initiative is designed to dramatically increase access to care, strengthen community-based services, and advance research and innovation to address the growing mental health crisis in our community...

Full story at https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/resnick-100-million-gift-to-ucla-mental-health.

The Drumbeat Continues...

Can the Epstein drumbeat sound like a witch hunt? It sure does to yours truly when anyone - no matter how peripheral - gets tainted whose name appears in an email. Example:

From the Daily Pennsylvanian: Penn Psychology professor and Director of the Undergraduate Honors Program Coren Apicella approached Jeffrey Epstein’s foundation for research funding in 2012, four years after his first conviction, according to a newly released email exchange. The email — which looked to garner funding for Apicella’s Human Behavioral Origins laboratory — was originally sent to Epstein’s foundation and forwarded to his personal email alongside a note describing the offer as “interesting.” Apicella personally thanked Epstein for “indirectly” supporting some of her previous research endeavors in the Nov. 15, 2012 message.

“I never knew Jeffrey Epstein,” Apicella wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I sent a single email to the Epstein Foundation in 2012 to ask whether it was accepting grant proposals. I received no follow-up correspondence or funding and I was certainly not aware of any of his horrific crimes when I sent the email.”

The email exchange is one of thousands of files released by the Department of Justice earlier this month. Apicella has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or his crimes...

Full story at https://www.thedp.com/article/2026/02/penn-professor-coren-apicella-solicited-donations-epstein.

Autism Donation

As blog readers will know, we like to salute donations to UCLA that don't involve brick-and-mortar construction. Private funding is especially important, given current tensions with the feds. From the UCLA Newsroom:

UCLA has received a $7.5 million grant from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) to serve as the Clinical Coordinating Center (CCC) for a landmark multicenter clinical research effort to accelerate clinical trial readiness and implementation for autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

The CCC will provide a centralized service for the Innovative Medicine and Precision Approaches Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Network, an international group of clinical trial sites working together to advance research. By ensuring standardization of clinical and data processes and efficient workflows for future clinical trials, the CCC will create an environment where clinical research can be effectively and efficiently designed, conducted and disseminated.

The CCC will be co-led by Dr. Shafali Jeste, chair and executive medical director of the department of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and executive director of the Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute, and Dr. Mustafa Sahin, neurologist-in-chief at Boston Children’s Hospital. Jeste and Sahin will manage participating sites within the IMPACT Network.

“This grant is a testament to Dr. Jeste’s distinguished career as a pioneering researcher and compassionate advocate for children with neurodevelopmental disorders,” said Dr. Steven Dubinett, dean of the Geffen School of Medicine. “Her leadership reflects UCLA’s enduring commitment to translating scientific discovery into meaningful improvements in patient care. Additionally, we are pleased for the opportunity to partner with Boston Children’s Hospital on this innovative model.”

Despite promising developments in therapies for autism with known genetic origins, the field lacks a unified framework for conducting rigorous, inclusive clinical trials. Most studies have focused on verbal, higher-functioning individuals, leaving those who do not rely on speech alone to communicate or who require significant assistance in daily life underrepresented. 

The ARIA IMPACT Network will address this gap by establishing a robust infrastructure for clinical trial readiness and implementation. Early next year, participating sites will be onboarded to begin standardized phenotyping and biomarker discovery. Each site will be expected to enroll a minimum of 125 participants for longitudinal study. 

“The Clinical Coordinating Center serves as the nucleus of the ARIA Impact Network,” said Dr. Ekemini Riley, managing director of ARIA. “We are proud to embark on this journey with Dr. Jeste, Dr. Sahin and future IMPACT Network investigators to contribute foundational datasets that will enhance our understanding of autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.”

The project places patients and families at the heart of its activities. UCLA, BCH and participating IMPACT Network sites will work closely with patient advocacy organizations to support outreach and enrollment. Enrolled participants will receive ongoing clinical care through the network.

“We envision a research and clinical care system working in concert to deliver therapies for autistic people seeking support, including people with co-occurring conditions like epilepsy,” said Jeste. “This collaborative, international network will advance these efforts.”

Jeste began her appointment as chair of the UCLA Department of Pediatrics on Oct. 1. She previously served as professor of pediatrics and neurology at the USC Keck School of Medicine, and as chair, chief of neurology and co-director of the Neurological Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). After earning a bachelor’s in philosophy from Yale University in 1997 and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 2002, Jeste completed a residency in child neurology and a fellowship in behavioral child neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital. She joined the faculty at UCLA in 2010, then moved to CHLA in 2021 as chief of neurology.

Source: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/7-5-million-grant-support-international-autism-clinical-trials-network.

Straws in the Wind - Part 168

From the Daily Pennsylvanian: Among the thousands of files leaked in an Oct. 31 cybersecurity attack on Penn were several memos that appear to have been internally circulated among employees with talking points about a range of controversial issues involving the University... One document outlined Penn’s policies on accepting financial donations from donor families with a child actively applying to the University.

“Given the important role that the college application process plays in the lives of so many of our donor families, we must take extra care to avoid the perception, on the part of any individual donor or our broader community, that philanthropy will influence an admissions decision,” the Jan. 20, 2023 document read.

The file added that “many alumni, parents and friends have established philanthropic relationships with Penn,” and that those connections — which include “annual gifts, payments or prior year pledges” — should not be prevented. The initial emails — sent by the alleged hackers — criticized the University’s policy on accepting legacy applicants and students of Penn donors. “We hire and admit morons because we love legacies, donors, and unqualified affirmative action admits,” the Oct. 31 email read...

Full story at https://www.thedp.com/article/2025/11/penn-cybersecurity-leaked-documents-biden-magill-palestine-writes.

Burnett

From time to time, we like to take note of contributions to UCLA that don't involve bricks and mortar. From the UCLA Newsroom:

Hollywood icon Carol Burnett has endowed a scholarship at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT). The scholarship will support high-potential undergraduate students in the school’s Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program. Thanks to the endowment from the beloved star of stage, film and television, the TFT department of theater, which houses the Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program, will administer the scholarship. Each year, with the Carol Burnett Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship in Music Theater, a new student will receive a substantial award to help offset the cost of tuition and fees, beginning this year with Alexa Cruz, a currently enrolled member of the class of 2029.

“I am so pleased that, with this endowment of the Carol Burnett Scholarship to the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, students will be given an opportunity akin to what UCLA gave me when I enrolled fresh out of high school,” Burnett said. “I found my true passion at UCLA, and in this scholarship lies the hope that it will do the same for many others for many years to come.” ...

Full story at https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/carol-burnett-endows-scholarship-ucla-theater-film-television-school.

Tao

From the Washington Post: Terence Tao is often called the “Mozart of Math.” A child prodigy born in Australia, Tao, 50, is now at the top of his field at the University of California at [sic] Los Angeles, working in the rarefied realms of partial differential equations or harmonic analysis on problems so hard it may take a PhD to understand them. But for the past few weeks, he’s been preoccupied with more run-of-the-mill pecuniary concerns: fundraising.

Being one of the world’s greatest mathematicians didn’t protect Tao from losing his National Science Foundation grant in late July, when the Trump administration froze about half a billion dollars in federal research funding after accusing UCLA of mishandling antisemitism and bias on campus.

A court order restored National Science Foundation grants, including Tao’s. But no new awards can be made, putting at risk the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), where he is director of special projects...

Math and politics don’t often intersect, but Tao is speaking out about how upheavals, delays and uncertainty in federal funding imperil the unique American ecosystem for science. He spoke to The Post about the events of the last few weeks, the appeal of doing research in the United States and why math matters. This interviewed has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Q: What happened to your current grant?

A: I got an email from a journalist from the Bulwark. He first told me that my grant had been suspended and … then he also mentioned casually that the IPAM, the math institute here also got defunded. And that’s a grant that’s 40 times bigger than my own. And much, much more serious. Suddenly, we didn’t have the operating funds to run for three months.

Because of previous delays in funding, I didn’t have enough money to fund my own summer salary. I was already delaying that for one month. And so, yeah, it’s still delayed, but that’s fine. I can take it. But IPAM, they didn’t have the reserves to operate for more than a few months. So basically, for the past two weeks or so, we’ve been in an emergency fundraising mode. I’ve been meeting with lots of donors...

Q: A lot of people that I’ve been speaking to, researchers in different fields, have said that they’ll be okay because they’re more senior. But they’ve expressed a lot of concern about early career researchers and scientists.

A: The NSF grant that I had, I mean its primary purpose was to support my graduate students, give them the opportunity to travel to a conference, which is really important for career development at that stage, to buy them out of teaching for one quarter so that they can work on research. And, you know, at that career level, having a paycheck for $3,000 really makes a difference...

Q: Do you have a sense of optimism or would you ever consider leaving the U.S.?

A: I’ve had a very positive experience at the U.S. for 30 odd years … It offers so many things that are definitely not perfect, but you feel like things can happen here, really good things... The things that you took for granted, there was bipartisan support to keep certain things in the U.S. running as they have been more or less for the past 70 years because the system worked. That’s not a safe assumption anymore.

Full interview at https://washingtonpost.com/science/2025/09/07/science-math-trump-federal-cuts-grants.

Donation

As blog readers will know, we like to take note of donations that don't involve brick & mortar construction. From the Bruin: 

The UCLA School of Nursing will be renamed after Joe C. Wen, following a $30 million donation... The donation was the largest-ever gift in the nursing school’s history, which will be UCLA’s first to be named after an Asian American. “For 76 years, there has never been a transformative donation,” said Lin Zhan, dean of the School of Nursing. “This is the first one.”

The donation was intended to increase the visibility of the nursing profession, alleviate structural barriers towards becoming a nurse and inspire other philanthropists to contribute to the School of Nursing, Zhan said. The donation will help support new doctoral students – particularly those in the school’s new dual nursing degree program – and fund enhancements to the School of Nursing’s skills lab and simulations, she added...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/08/15/uclas-school-of-nursing-adds-joe-c-wen-to-name-after-historic-donation.

$25 Million

From the LA Business Journal: Shirley and Walter Wang – the chief executive and president of Westchester-based plastic pipe maker JM Eagle Inc. – have agreed to give $25 million to UCLA Health to create the UCLA Walter and Shirley Wang Center for Integrative Digestive Health. The center will offer help to those living with gastrointestinal disorders. The center takes a holistic approach, looking at disorders in a variety of ways. For the Wangs, the decision to donate to UCLA was personal.

“My son was quite sick with stomach issues and almost couldn’t graduate,” Shirley Wang recalled. Enter Eric Esrailian, chief of the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases and director of the Melvin and Bren Simon Digestive Diseases Center. He encouraged the Wangs to bring their son to UCLA for treatment. Shirley said she appreciated the center’s holistic approach and how it “looks at things as a whole.”

“It really helped my son,” she said. While in the waiting room, Shirley Wang said she heard the receptionist tell someone they would have to wait a year for the center’s next appointment. “That’s why Walter and I decided to donate to this so more and more people could access this treatment and be looked at holistically,” she said, adding that her son was now doing well.

“Thanks to their visionary and transformational gift, the UCLA Walter and Shirley Wang Center for Integrative Digestive Health will be the undisputed global leader in this field,” Esrailian said in a statement about the donation. “Our clinicians and researchers have taught the world about digestive health and wellness for decades. The formalization of this endowed center is unprecedented.” ...

Full story at https://labusinessjournal.com/featured/ucla-health-gets-25-million-donation/.

The Penn Letter

The University of Pennsylvania received a nine-page letter dated May 8th from the US Department of Education requesting documentation of foreign funding donations.

The letter says that "incomplete" and "untimely" submissions of past required disclosures of such funding "may have" been submitted in the past, going back to 2017. It then includes a lengthy list of required documents to be submitted.

U-Penn is given thirty days to submit the documentation and ten days to request any clarification of what is required.

We have been collecting documents such as the Penn letter. It can be read at:

https://ia800402.us.archive.org/9/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/U-Penn%20notice-of-foreign-funding%20investigation%205-8-2025.pdf.

Lost Money

Local TV station KTLA put out a report recently headlined, "UCLA loses multi-million-dollar gift over handling of campus protests."* The report was based on documents obtained from UCLA under a public records request. It implies, but does not quite say, that UCLA is slow-walking the turning over of such documents. The multi-million dollar donation that was cancelled was apparently included in a "living trust" by a donor the report chose not to identify but that was contacted for verification.

Whether there will be additional information released to, and reported by, KTLA is unknown.

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*https://ktla.com/news/local-news/ucla-loses-multi-million-dollar-gift-over-handling-of-campus-protests/.

Watch the Afternoon Regents Meeting of Nov. 13, 2024

We (finally) conclude our coverage of the November Regents meeting with the afternoon of November 13th which included sessions of the Governance Committee, Compliance and Audit, Public Engagement and Development, and the Special Committee on Athletics.

Governance approved pay and position for a VP of PR and then turned its attention to diversity in executive hiring. It was reported that 27% of such hiring involved "underrepresented groups" and 41% female. Concerns were expressed by some Regents on low rates of Latino hiring. Regent Perez said that the DEI statements used in such efforts were becoming "performative." A proposal to include disability within the definition of diversity as approved.

At Compliance and Audit, Regent Makarechian noted that the frequency of "corrective actions" in response to audits was increasing along with periods of noncompliance. Regent Cohen said that while he was pleased that compliance with training requirements had improved, he was concerned about deficiencies in compliance concerning cyber training. There was in contrast no discussion or (apparently) concern about fiscal audits.

At Public Engagement and Development concern was expressed at various points about the outcome of the election and the potential impact on undocumented students. UC reported receiving across the system donations of $3.45 billion of which $1.8 billion came from foundations unrelated to alumni. The protests of last year were said to have a negative effect on philanthropy but specifics were not given. It was said that UC would be working with the legislature concerning budget cuts under the "compact." Finally, a presentation on wine research and teaching at UC-Davis was made. It was noted that the legislature had passed a "sip and spit" law allowing students in the program under 21 to sample the product. (Now there's something you probably didn't know!)

The Special Committee on Athletics heard reports on UC-Riverside and UC-Berkeley. The former reported a 6-year 92% graduation rate for student athletes. Berkeley reported 91%. Berkeley - after the tumult that followed UCLA's shift of athetic conferences - ended up in the ACC which entails considerable travel. But there was no aggressive questioning about the impact of such travel by Committee members. They were assured that nutrition and sleep support was being provided to athletes. The Committee met late in the day, which may have accounted for the lack of hard questions.

As always, we preserve recordings of Regents meetings since the Regents have no policy on duration of retention:

The general link for the afternoon of November 13 is:

https://archive.org/details/regents-public-engagement-and-development-11-13-2024.

Governance and Compliance & Audit are at:

https://ia600606.us.archive.org/26/items/regents-public-engagement-and-development-11-13-2024/Regents%20Governance%20Committee%2C%20Compliance%20and%20Audit%2011-13-2024.mp4.

Public Engagement and Development is at:

https://ia800606.us.archive.org/26/items/regents-public-engagement-and-development-11-13-2024/Regents%20Public%20Engagement%20and%20Development%2011-13-2024.mp4.

Athletics is at:

https://ia800606.us.archive.org/26/items/regents-public-engagement-and-development-11-13-2024/Regents%20Special%20Committee%20on%20Athletics%2011-13-2024.mp4.

Another Donation

As blog readers will know, we like to take notice of donations to UCLA that don't involve brick-and-mortar construction.

...Through a $5 million pledge by Haleh Emrani in honor of her late husband, Ahmad Gramian, UCLA will establish the Gramian-Emrani Center for Iranian Music in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The new center builds on the school of music’s Iranian Music Program, established after a 2018 gift from Farhang Foundation, a nonpolitical, nonreligious, not-for-profit community organization devoted to celebrating and promoting Iranian art and culture, which Gramian chaired...

Full story at https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/gramian-emrani-center-iranian-music-endowed-fund-gift.

Humanities Donation

We like to take note of donations to the university that don't involve bricks and mortar. 

From ABC-7: A billionaire Japanese businessman has donated $31 million to the UCLA College Division of Humanities, making it the largest gift in the program's history. The donation from Tadashi Yanai will support the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, which was created at UCLA - in partnership with Tokyo's Waseda University -- in 2014 thanks to a $2.5 million donation from the businessman. Yanai in 2020 donated $25 million to the initiative. The donation will support the initiative to promote the study of Japanese literature, language and culture.

Yanai, considered one of the richest -- if not the richest -- people in Japan, is the founder and CEO of Fast Retailing, the parent company of the Uniqlo clothing brand...

Full story at https://abc7.com/post/japanese-billionaire-tadashi-yanai-founder-uniqlo-donates-31-million-ucla/15388642/.

Big Donation

Interim Chancellor Hunt shared this message to the Bruin Community:

Dear Bruin Community:

With both gratitude and excitement, we write to announce a transformational $120 million gift commitment from inventor, surgeon and philanthropist Gary Michelson and his wife Alya to help kick-start the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, which will be housed at the recently announced UCLA Research Park. The gift, among the largest in UCLA’s history, designates $100 million to be shared equally between two of the institute’s entities – one focused on rapid vaccine development and the other on microbiome research in collaboration with the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center. An additional $20 million will be used to create an endowment supporting young scientists who are using novel processes to advance immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine discovery.

We are extremely thankful for the generosity and vision of Dr. and Mrs. Michelson, who believe deeply in UCLA’s mission and whose gift seeks to leverage UCLA’s strengths. With their remarkable gift, the Michelsons have made an unmistakable vote of confidence in UCLA’s ability to develop new therapies to fight cancer, neurological, cardiovascular, autoimmune and other diseases — and ultimately to advance human health for all...

Sincerely,

Darnell Hunt, Interim Chancellor

John C. Mazziotta, Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences CEO, UCLA Health

Another non-bricks-and-mortar donation

We like to take note of donations that don't involve bricks and mortar. Here is a recent one:

The Extension divisions of UCLA and UC Berkeley have received a $12 million gift from professor, author and entrepreneur Scott Galloway to fund the creation of a new program that gives non-traditional students access to the skills and resources they need to launch their careers. The gift, which will be split equally between the two universities, is one of the largest focused on University of California continuing and professional education, UCLA and UC Berkeley Extension leaders said.

“The accessibility and affordability of UCLA and UC Berkeley changed my life,” said Galloway, an alumnus of both universities. “I’m hoping this gift puts the educational resources of both universities within reach for more people and provides skills that lead to the growth of good jobs in the Main Street economy.”

The new UC Excelerator program, scheduled to begin this fall, is aimed primarily at community college graduates and those with limited college experience. The program will provide students with career-focused coursework, networking opportunities and access to industry leaders, all free of cost.

“Scott Galloway’s generous gift will help us continue to widen the doors of opportunity and provide our students with the tools and connections needed to thrive in today’s economy,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “Scott has been outspoken about the immense impact that UCLA and UC Berkeley had on his life and career, and we are extraordinarily appreciative that he is helping to extend the promise of public higher education to so many others.” ...

Full news release at https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-berkeley-extension-12-million-gift-scott-galloway.

Biggest donation in (Department of) History

As blog readers will know, we especially like to take note of donations to the university that don't involve bricks and mortar. So here is one from the LA Daily News:

The UCLA College Division of Social Sciences has received a $25 million donation from Meyer Luskin and his wife Renee to support faculty, students and public-oriented programs in the department of history, it was announced Tuesday. It is the largest single donation to the history department and to the College Division of Social Sciences at UCLA ever made. The funds are intended to guarantee UCLA’s role as a national leader in providing historical resources beyond its campus.

The Luskins are graduates of UCLA and among the university’s most generous donors, according to a release from the university. Meyer Luskin is a noted business leader in Southern California. “Meyer and Renee Luskin are cherished members of our Bruin family who have long helped UCLA live up to its highest ideals, changing countless lives through their generosity and leadership,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said. “This visionary gift speaks volumes about their dedication to our academic community and their recognition that both UCLA students and the general public benefit greatly from a rich understanding of history.” ...

Full story at https://www.dailynews.com/2024/07/16/luskins-donate-25-million-to-ucla-history-department/.