Straws in the Wind - Part 470

From the Columbia Daily Spectator: Columbia has prohibited the use of electronic devices in all Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization sections starting this fall, 12 syllabi for the courses reviewed by Spectator show and a Columbia College spokesperson confirmed. The ban comes as Columbia continues to grapple with the impact of generative AI in the classroom and as several peer institutions have enacted similar policies restricting technology use in the classroom. Last month, the University of Chicago banned devices and the use of AI by both professors and students in its core social science classes.

Though according to the spokesperson, Music Humanities has had a device ban since 2025, the policy is the first of its kind for Columbia’s flagship first- and second-year Core Curriculum classes. In interviews with Spectator, five Lit Hum and Contemporary Civilization instructors welcomed the prohibition, saying that it was a necessary step toward ensuring students remain focused on discussions in class...

Full story at https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/09/10/columbia-prohibits-electronic-devices-in-all-literature-humanities-contemporary-civilization-sections/.

Slippage?

From SFGATE: ...UC Santa Barbara, known for its wild ragers, lost its title as the top party school in America to Florida State University, according to Niche. The beachside university plummeted to No. 26, even falling behind USC (No. 5) and San Diego State University (No. 18)...

Full story at https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/college-rankings-ucla-niche-22432023.php.

Just not like the old times:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkAkmL8_JKQ.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 199

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative announced last week the launch of a new Israel Program, expanding the center’s research, teaching, and engagement on Israel within its regional and global context. In a letter announcing the program, Middle East Initiative Faculty Chair Tarek E. Masoud wrote that interest in Israel has intensified “after Hamas’ terrorist attacks of October 7th, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent military campaigns, and particularly the devastating war in Gaza.” The program will be led by Barak Sella, a senior research fellow at the initiative and a Kennedy School graduate who previously served as executive director of the Reut Institute, an Israeli policy nonprofit. Masoud wrote that Sella has “long been a leading voice on U.S.-Israel relations and global Jewish affairs.” The program will also draw on existing initiative scholars, including senior fellow Edward P. Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria, and Kennedy School professor Lotem Bassan-Nygate.

A central piece of the program is the Shared Society Lab, which will be led by senior research fellow Dana Schleifer, another HKS graduate who previously served as chief innovation officer for the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipal government. According to Masoud’s announcement, the lab will focus on strengthening municipal institutions and building partnerships between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian citizens. The Israel Program will also introduce a new course, DPI-635: “Arguing Israel-Palestine,” and will launch an Israeli Research Fellowship beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year that will bring Israeli scholars and practitioners to the initiative for short-term residencies with other scholars from the region, as well as Harvard students and faculty. Masoud wrote that these initiatives will foster the “rigorous, open inquiry and civil, constructive debate that are the hallmarks of the Middle East Initiative.”

...The new program also arrives just over a year after Harvard announced a pair of new academic partnerships with Israeli institutions — a study abroad program with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a postdoctoral fellowship for Israeli researchers at Harvard Medical School. Harvard had agreed to partner with an Israeli university as part of a January 2025 settlement with two groups alleging it had slow-walked its response to campus antisemitism. A separate antisemitism lawsuit brought against Harvard by the Department of Justice was dismissed in August, and the department appealed the ruling to the First Circuit Court of Appeals later that month...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/17/harvard-middle-east-initiative-israel/.

I Never Promised You a Rose Bowl? - Part 20 (Vibe Shift)

When last we looked at the litigation regarding UCLA's desire to shift from the Rose Bowl to Sofi Stadium for football on August 1, it appeared there would be some kind of court activity in early September. Yours truly couldn't find any news sources about that activity occurring, but there seems to be a vibe shift with the advent of new personnel at UCLA: a new interim CFO, a new AD, and a new coach. The new AD, Tim Harris, bought 300 Rose Bowl tickets and distributed them for free (for one game):

https://nypost.com/2026/09/07/sports/how-uclas-new-ad-is-personally-invested-in-big-rose-bowl-crowd/.

The Rose Bowl unveiled a new Field Club facility for premium seat holders (revenue from which will benefit UCLA):

...New UCLA AD Tim Harris, noting that as a Lakers executive he had spent the last few decades around two of the most iconic arenas in sports in the Forum and Cryto.com Arena, said he “pinched myself” that he now got to be associated with the most iconic college football stadium in the country...

https://nypost.com/2026/09/10/sports/rose-bowl-unveils-impressive-field-club-ahead-of-ucla-home-opener/.

In short, maybe a deal can be reached involving continued use of the Rose Bowl.

Straws in the Wind - Part 469

From Wellesley College: Wellesley College today announced that it will guarantee a tuition-free education to U.S. students whose families have a total annual income of $200,000 or less with typical assets. Wellesley is the first women’s college—and only the second liberal arts college in the nation—to guarantee free tuition at the $200,000 level. The Wellesley Tuition Promise will apply automatically to all first-year and transfer students who are admitted to Wellesley, as well as returning students, beginning in fall 2027...

Nationally, 85% of all families in the U.S. earn less than $200,000 per year. Today, approximately 80% of Wellesley’s financial aid program is supported by the College’s endowment. Recent changes to college endowment tax rules are contributing to increased funding for financial aid, including the Wellesley Tuition Promise...

Full news release at https://www.wellesley.edu/news/wellesley-free-tuition-income-200k-or-less-fall-2027.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 198

From the Harvard Crimson: Almost four years after the public release of ChatGPT, nearly two-thirds of professors who responded to The Crimson’s annual Faculty of Arts and Sciences survey said they believe the prevalence of artificial intelligence has had a negative effect on their courses. Sixty-four percent of faculty respondents said AI had a “somewhat negative” or “very negative” effect on their courses this year — a sharp uptick from last year’s survey, when 42 percent said the same. The figures point to growing concerns about tools that allow students to complete assignments without fully absorbing content, even as professors adjust their courses to keep up with the technology.

Course-level policies are now commonplace: Only 3.5 percent of respondents said they have no explicit policy on AI tools in their courses, down from 10 percent last year. The percentage of respondents who said they “entirely permit” the use of AI tools in their courses was also roughly halved, from 8 percent to 4 percent. The faculty concerns come as Harvard coordinates broader curricular responses to AI. Harvard College added a required AI module to the first-year Expository Writing course this spring and phased in an AI chatbot to advise incoming students on course planning. The FAS also announced plans this spring to offer access to Anthropic’s Claude, while ending its institution-wide ChatGPT Edu pilot...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/14/fas-2026-survey-AI/.

Letter from Academic Senate to Chancellor / Letter from Chancellor to Senate

September 16, 2026

Dear Chancellor Frenk,

We are writing to express our concerns and reservations about the press release you issued on September 11, 2026, titled “Chancellor Julio Frenk comment regarding media coverage on Sept. 10.” The document contained several statements that have been interpreted as criticizing the law school event “25 Years After 9/11: Reimaging Freedom, Justice, and Security” and its organizers.

The University of California’s (UC) policy (APM 010) on academic freedom is clear and unequivocal:

The principles of academic freedom protect freedom of inquiry and research, freedom of teaching, and freedom of expression and publication. These freedoms enable the University to advance knowledge and to transmit it effectively to its students and to the public.

Academic freedom requires that teaching and scholarship be assessed by reference to the professional standards that sustain the University’s pursuit and achievement of knowledge. The substance and nature of these standards properly lie within the expertise and authority of the faculty as a body. [emphasis added]

The AAUP has long affirmed “its belief that the freedom to hear is an essential condition of a university community and an inseparable part of academic freedom” and that “the right to examine issues and seek truth is prejudiced to the extent that the university is open to some but not to others whom members of the university also judge desirable to hear.”

The UCLA Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) laid out guidelines last year for dealing with challenging material in the classroom, which also apply to other academic endeavors:

Classroom materials dealing with sensitive topics such as religion, nationality, ethnicity, or deeply held political views may sometimes be taken as disrespectful and hurtful. Those materials dealing with violent, even horrific, events may be emotionally disturbing and their sudden introduction may retraumatize survivors.

In a November 2025 response to CAF’s May 2025 statement “In Defense of Academic Freedom and the University,” you and EVCP Hunt wrote:

We fully agree that academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and shared governance are essential to the University's mission of discovery, learning, and public service. These values have long enabled UCLA to advance knowledge across disciplines and foster open, rigorous, and respectful debate in the pursuit of truth.

We recognize the challenges currently facing higher education, both nationally and globally, and share the committee's concern for preserving an environment in which faculty, students, and researchers can pursue their scholarly work free from undue interference. UCLA remains committed to these core values and to working collaboratively with the Academic Senate to ensure that they continue to guide our community.

As elected leaders of the Los Angeles Division of the UC Academic Senate, we reiterate and reinforce these foundational policies and values related to academic freedom. Particularly during times of grief, stress, political division and pressure, it is of the utmost importance for the UCLA Administration and Senate faculty to work collaboratively to uphold our deeply held principles and protect academic freedom. As you observed, “When we face difficult challenges and tough decisions, we find strength in staying connected.”

Sincerely,

Tim Groeling, Chair

Catherine Sugar, Vice Chair

Megan McEvoy. Immediate Past Chair

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

September 17, 2026

Dear Chair Groeling, Vice Chair Sugar, and Immediate Past Chair McEvoy,

Thank you for your thoughtful letter. I take the concerns you raise seriously, particularly because they touch upon one of the most fundamental principles of a university: academic freedom.

Let me begin unequivocally: UCLA is committed to academic freedom. It is a core tenet of our mission and a bedrock of higher education. My September 11 statement does not change that fundamental commitment or the protections it affords faculty, symposia organizers, speakers and participants.

Faculty must remain free to pursue difficult questions, organize academic programs, select speakers and engage ideas that may be controversial or deeply contested. Those protections are essential to the work of a great university, including the role of the School of Law in examining consequential questions of law, justice and policy.

The School of Law symposium operated within the protections of academic freedom and proceeded as planned, with its program, speakers and academic content unchanged.

The statement expressed my support for Professor Judea Pearl and others in our community who carry their own lived experiences of September 11 and its aftermath. It also reaffirmed UCLA’s opposition to antisemitism and terrorism.

I chose the words of my statement carefully and deliberately. Some subsequent accounts have characterized it as a condemnation, rebuke or repudiation of the symposium. A careful read of my statement will fail to find any of those words. Furthermore, the statement did not criticize the School of Law or question the validity of legal representation, including for individuals accused of horrific acts.

My statement underscores that UCLA’s protection of academic freedom does not constitute institutional endorsement of every speaker’s viewpoint or program presented under those protections. That principle applies broadly to events across our campus, and we will make that distinction clear in our communications.

The key point of my statement is that we can uphold academic freedom while also expressing support for members of our community who are hurting. A university is more than a collection of individual rights and freedoms. It is a community, and community carries with it obligations of reciprocity.

What do we owe one another, particularly when we profoundly disagree? For me, the answer begins with mutual respect, empathy and recognition of one another’s humanity. Academic freedom protects our ability to engage the most difficult ideas. It does not require indifference to one another or to the impact felt by members of our community. We must safeguard the freedom to pursue scholarship, invite speakers, test assumptions and express views that others may find deeply objectionable. At the same time, we must foster a culture of reciprocity in which those freedoms coexist with respect for the dignity and humanity of others.

At this moment of extraordinary polarization, reciprocity is essential to what holds a university community together. I am committed to safeguarding academic freedom and preserving free expression. I am equally committed to sustaining the mutual respect, care and reciprocity that allow those freedoms — and our community — to flourish.

Sincerely,

Julio Frenk

Chancellor

---

Source: https://dms.senate.ucla.edu/issues/issue/?11554.Academic.Senate.Leadership.Letter.on.Academic.Freedom.