Tearing Up the Waiver

Press Release, U.S. Dept. of Education

U.S. Department of Education Revokes Waivers to California and Oregon Universities Using Federal Funding to Provide Services to Illegal Immigrants

March 27, 2025

Today, the U.S. Department of Education revoked waivers to California and Oregon colleges and universities that are using federal funds to provide services to illegal aliens under the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3). The mission of the P3 Program is to allow states and localities to integrate program funding across federal agencies to improve the systems serving disconnected youth, not provide entitlements to illegal immigrants. Through P3 waivers approved during the Biden Administration, colleges and universities diverted taxpayer-funded TRIO program services meant for low-income students, first generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to illegal immigrants. 

“American taxpayer dollars will no longer be used to subsidize illegal immigrants through Department of Education programs,” said Acting Under Secretary James Bergeron. “The TRIO Program was designed to provide support and guidance to disadvantaged Americans as they navigate the road to and through postsecondary education. The Department will not allow the true purpose of the program to be corrupted to advance an American-last agenda.” 

The U.S. Department of Education sent notices to the impacted colleges and universities through the California Higher Education Collaborative and Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission today. 

Background: 

The Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2014 created the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3), which authorizes states to enter into pilots to use funding from across multiple federal discretionary programs to support efforts to improve the systems serving America’s youth and their outcomes. 

Under the Biden Administration, the Department approved a P3 waiver allowing illegal immigrants to receive TRIO Program services. The TRIO Programs are federal student aid programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act designed to identify and provide additional academic and career services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes eight programs targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities through the academic pipeline from middle school to postbaccalaureate programs. 

California’s waiver began in November 2022 and was set to expire in September 2026. 

Oregon’s waiver began in October 2023 and was set to expire in in September 2027.

Source: https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-revokes-waivers-california-and-oregon-universities-using-federal-funding-provide-services-illegal-immigrants.

 

Letter to Columbia University Detailing Conditions for Restoration of Funding - Part 8 (Aftershock)

Columbia University: Shipman Named Acting President

March 28, 2025

Columbia’s Board of Trustees announced today that Interim President Katrina A. Armstrong is returning to lead the University’s Irving Medical Center. Board of Trustees Co-Chair Claire Shipman has been appointed Acting President, effective immediately, and will serve until the Board completes its presidential search.  

“Dr. Armstrong accepted the role of interim president at a time of great uncertainty for the University and worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community,” said David J. Greenwald, Chair of the Board of Trustees. “Katrina has always given her heart and soul to Columbia. We appreciate her service and look forward to her continued contributions to the University,” he added.

Acting President Claire Shipman said, “I assume this role with a clear understanding of the serious challenges before us and a steadfast commitment to act with urgency, integrity, and work with our faculty to advance our mission, implement needed reforms, protect our students, and uphold academic freedom and open inquiry. Columbia’s new permanent president, when that individual is selected, will conduct an appropriate review of the University’s leadership team and structure to ensure we are best positioned for the future.” 

Shipman (’86CC, MIA ’94) has served as Co-Chair since 2023, and has been on the Board since 2013. She is a journalist and author who holds a graduate degree in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Russian Studies from Columbia College.

Source: https://communications.news.columbia.edu/news/shipman-named-acting-president.

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From Wikipedia: Claire Shipman (born October 4, 1962) is an American television journalist and the former senior national correspondent for ABC's Good Morning America... She is also married to Jay Carney, President Barack Obama's former White House Press Secretary... Shipman, born October 4, 1962, in Washington, D.C., is the daughter of the late Christie (Armstrong) and Morgan Enlow Shipman, Professor of Law at The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law. She graduated from Worthington High School in Worthington, Ohio, in 1980. She is a 1986 graduate of Columbia College of Columbia University with a degree in Russian Studies and also earned a Master of International Affairs from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs in 1994.

Full profile at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Shipman.

2% to 6%

According to EdSource, in the academic year just before the pandemic, 2% of UC course sections were online. Although the vast majority of course sections went online in the pandemic period, in the last academic year (2023-24), 6% were online. So you could say the number tripled from the pre-pandemic period. Or your could say that after the dust settled, only 6% were online.

The article notes that the impact on community colleges was much greater (18% to 41%). In between was CSU, going from 11% to 22%.

Full story at https://edsource.org/2025/at-community-colleges-online-classes-remain-popular-years-after-pandemic/728458.

Rideshare Service from UCLA area to E Line

There is a rideshare program - a van that comes on call - that will take you from UCLA/Westwood to the E Line light rail. You can download the app for calling it from the Apple or Google stores. 

Alternatively: Call to book: 323.GO.METRO.

Error correction? Really?

The Academic Senate has under review proposed changes in the criteria for the hiring and promotion of librarians.* Accompanying the document on the changes is an explanation which frankly strains credibility. 

We are asked to believe that in 2016, nine years ago, someone made some transcription errors which nobody noticed or thought to fix until now.  And we are asked to believe that the changes proposed now are just corrections of what was really meant. But the transcription errors go way beyond mere typos. They appear to be substantive in nature.

Below is one example of a supposed correction of one such transcription error being proposed for correction:

...In APM - 360-4(d), “carrying out research and creative activity” in support of the professional services performed in the libraries has been modified to “acquiring information and knowledge” in support of the professional services performed in the libraries. The original Librarian definition referenced “research where necessary” and the Joint Task Force’s original proposed definition referenced “research in support” of the professional services performed in the libraries. However, when APM - 360 was issued in 2016, the reference to “research” was erroneously expanded to “carrying out research and creative activity” in support of the professional services performed in the libraries.

The research/creative activity mission of the University is not a subcategory under the broader category of professional library services, which is how the current policy reads. The substitution of “acquiring information and knowledge” for “carrying out research and creative activity” is intended to clarify this because the use of the word “research” in the original version of APM - 360 resulted in a misunderstanding of the intent of the word and was inadvertently expanded to include “creative activity.” ...

One does not accidentally change "research in support" to "carrying out research and creative activity." And there are more such purported "accidents" in the document.

There has to be a back story here. But it isn't being told. It should be told.

Comments are due by June 17th: SystemwideAP-PolicyReviewComments@ucop.edu 

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*The full document is at: https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview/systemwide-senate-review-apm-360-3-20-25.pdf.

Investigation

From Reuters:

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday launched investigations into Stanford University and three University of California schools to ensure they comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-conscious admissions. The 2023 ruling effectively prohibited affirmative action policies that were long used to raise the number of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students on American campuses...

In addition to Stanford, the review will cover the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Irvine...

The University of California said it has adhered to a ban on affirmative action in admissions since California voters approved one in the ballot initiative Proposition 209 in 1996...

Full story at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-dept-probing-admissions-policies-stanford-university-california-2025-03-27/.

Letter to Columbia University Detailing Conditions for Restoration of Funding - Part 7 (Zoom leak)

Various newspapers such as the Wall St. Journal have referred to a mysterious "transcript" of remarks made by the interim Columbia U president in which she seemed to contradict the deal she made with the feds. Below is apparently the source of the transcript:

...The Washington Free Beacon obtained a transcript of the meeting, which seems to have been created because Columbia administrators were unable to disable the Zoom function that generates an audio transcript. The transcript itself captures administrators struggling to prevent the software from creating a transcript and then moving forward without success.

"I am unable to turn it off, for technical reasons, so we’re all just going to have to understand," an unnamed administrator said at the outset. "This meeting is being transcribed. If you are the requester of this, I would ask you to turn it off."

"Yeah, that seems to be the default. I keep telling my people to stop this thing," Olinto, the provost, responded...

Source: https://freebeacon.com/campus/what-columbia-university-president-really-told-faculty-members/.

Moral: it's not just secret military conversations on Signal that leak out. Be careful what you Zoom!