Stalling, but with some indication of good news

The latest weekly new claims for unemployment insurance data are out for the week ending August 29 and seem to indicate a stall. The U.S. Dept. of Labor has switched to an alternative method of seasonal adjustment as of September which makes weekly comparisons difficult. However, as can be seen below, absent seasonal adjustment, the numbers at the U.S. level are basically flat. The insured unemployment rate - which lags by one week - did fall, however. So those dropping out of the insured unemployment pool are exceeding those falling into it - which should be a Good Thing assuming they are getting jobs.

The story was much the same for California as can be seen below. However, California continues to account for a disproportionate roughly one fifth of those receiving unemployment benefits.

The latest new claims release is at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf. There is a link in that release to the database used to create the California chart above. We should get another indicator - the national unemployment data - tomorrow, although those data go back to mid-August.

Delete it

Click on image above to enlarge and clarify.

We noted yesterday the CalPERS was freezing access to its long-term health insurance plan and getting ready (again) to raise premiums.* Right on cue, the spam message above popped up in UC email accounts. The solicitation is not from UC. My advice: Delete it or risk malware or fraud.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/09/calpers-slams-door-prepares-to-raise.html

UCLA is the 3rd largest public employer in LA County

Click on image to enlarge and clarify.

UCLA remains the third largest public employer in LA County according to the LA Business Journal's most recent tabulation.

Coronavirus Kills UC's SAT/ACT Use in Scholarships & Admissions

From the LA Times: The University of California must immediately suspend all use of SAT and ACT test scores for admission and scholarship decisions under a preliminary injunction issued by an Alameda County Superior Court judge.

The ruling came in a lawsuit asserting that the use of standardized test scores is broadly biased — and particularly detrimental to students with disabilities who seek to take the test during the coronavirus crisis.

Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman said in his Monday ruling that plaintiffs had shown sufficient cause to stop the tests for now because applicants with disabilities had virtually no access to test-taking sites or legally required accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-01/uc-may-not-use-the-sat-or-act-for-admissions-scholarship-decisions-for-now-judge-rules

CalPERS Slams Door & Prepares to Raise Rates on Long-Term Care

Although UC is not part of CalPERS, when that organization began to offer long-term care insurance years ago, it allowed UC employees to participate. But then it substantially raised its initial premium rates, forcing participants either to pay or reduce or drop coverage. Whether what happened was a deliberate low-balling of rates initially or just a miscalculation of the actuarial costs of the insurance really doesn't matter at this point. Either way, participants got a bad deal.

CalPERS is now announcing that it has closed the door to new participants and is preparing to raise rates again:

The CalPERS Board has decided to temporarily suspend open enrollment in the CalPERS Long Term Care Program due to current uncertainty in the long-term care market. Therefore, effective June 17, 2020 and until further notice, the CalPERS Long-Term Care Program will not be accepting new applications for coverage. Applications presently in underwriting will not be processed. In September the CalPERS Board will be considering premium increases for its current Long-Term Care products.

Source: https://www.calperslongtermcare.com/

The notice is also on a UC webpage dealing with long-term care:
https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/tools-and-services/administrators/long-term-care-insurance-faq.html

Yours truly has never been enthused about long-term care insurance as a practical matter. While the issue is purports to address is real, the problem is that you have to assume that some private insurance company - at a point in your life where you may not have the capacity to advocate for yourself - is going to do the right thing for you years from now. By that time, the company may have merged or who-knows-what, even if you trust it today. It might have been thought that CalPERS, as a public entity, would behave more reliably. The record speaks for itself.

Here, There, and Everywhere

In (early) retrospect, the UCLA decision to continue in fall as it was in spring and summer seems wise:

From AP: As waves of schools and businesses around the country are cleared to reopen, college towns are moving toward renewed shutdowns because of too many parties and too many COVID-19 infections among students. With more than 300 students at the University of Missouri testing positive for the coronavirus and an alarming 44% positivity rate for the surrounding county, the local health director Friday ordered bars to stop serving alcohol at 9 p.m. and close by 10 p.m.

Iowa’s governor has ordered all bars shut down around The University of Iowa and Iowa State, while the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did the same in the hometown of the state’s flagship university.

“What we’re seeing in our violations is they’re coming late at night,” said Stephanie Browning, head of the health department for Columbia, Missouri. “Big groups gathering. They’re not wearing their masks, they’re not social distancing.”

In Utah, the city council in Provo overrode a mayoral veto to pass a mask mandate, which includes a $500 fine for organizing large mask-less gatherings, days before students return to Brigham Young University from around the country. But the council was nevertheless worried that college students sharing dorms, bathrooms and showers could become “super-spreaders” and bring the virus off campus, council chair George Handley said.

“We’re already seeing what’s happened across the country at other universities,” he said.

But a recent warehouse party organized by a BYU student’s promotional company called Young/Dumb also raised concern when pictures of hundreds of revelers without masks surfaced online...

Full story at https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/College-towns-growing-alarmed-over-outbreaks-15522146.php

Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Black Life

From an email circulated yesterday:

Dear Bruin Community:

Across our nation, and indeed the world, institutions of every type are wrestling with how to vanquish structural racism and inequality. The success of UCLA’s efforts in this realm is central to the overall success of our university’s mission.

To help UCLA become a more equitable institution, to build upon our support for Black scholarship and teaching and to help enhance the campus climate for all Black Bruins and their allies, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Vickie Mays as Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Black Life. This appointment is one of several commitments that Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emily Carter and I made to the UCLA community in our June 30 message, “Rising to the Challenge.”

A vital part of the UCLA family since 1979, Professor Mays is a highly regarded thinker, scholar and leader. Her work has focused on understanding the physical and mental health challenges of underserved populations, guiding policy to address these challenges and developing new methodologies to enhance the physical and mental well-being of vulnerable groups.

For the past 14 years, Professor Mays has directed UCLA’s BRITE Center for Science, Research & Policy, an NIH-funded center with approximately 60 faculty, staff, students and community partners working to eliminate physical and mental health disparities in racial/ethnic minority populations.

Professor Mays has long made vital contributions to university governance at UCLA. She previously served as assistant vice chancellor for research diversity as well as chair of UCLA’s Academic Senate and chair of the Undergraduate Council. She has chaired or served on a number of Senate and administration ad hoc committees and task forces focused on subjects ranging from responsibility-centered management to data governance. Her record of academic leadership and service on campus earned her the Academic Senate’s Lifetime Contributions Senate Service Award this year as well as its Lifetime Contributions to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award in 2019. For her academic work, Professor Mays has received the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research and Public Policy. This October, she will be awarded the American Public Health Association’s Carl Taube Award for her lifetime career contributions to mental health services research.

Professor Mays possesses an impressive combination of incisive intellect, deep leadership experience, substantive expertise and skillful advocacy. These qualities make her exceptionally well-qualified to work with leaders across campus to help guide and strengthen UCLA’s efforts to support our Black Bruin family and shine a light on the barriers to opportunity presented by anti-Black racism.

I am excited to have Professor Mays join my leadership team and greatly look forward to partnering with her.

Sincerely,

Gene D. Block

Chancellor