Repeat from Sept. 20, 2022: Background About Admissions as the Regents Discuss the Topic

A new podcast called Gatecrashers is being unveiled about college admissions. At this posting, there are so far episodes about the history of such admissions at Columbia, Princeton, and Dartmouth - with more to come.* From the Gatecrashers description:

What topic is more controversial, sensational, and endlessly captivating than college admissions? It’s a billion-dollar industry. It sends celebrities to jail. The Supreme Court is weighing in on who gets in and why. We might think we have read all there is to read on the issue, and heard all there is to hear. But if you want to understand everything that’s going on with college admissions today—not just the battles over diversity, but the very existence of college applications, the essays and interviews and standardized tests—you have to look at the first group that tried to diversify elite schools. You have to look at the Jews. Gatecrashers, an 8-part podcast series launching September thirteenth, twenty twenty-two, tells the story of how Jews fought for acceptance at elite schools, and how the Jewish experience in the Ivy League shaped American higher education, and shaped America at large.

The Columbia episode, edited to remove extraneous announcements, follows and can be heard - along with the description above - at the link below:

https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/columia%20admissions.mp3

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*The full set of the Gatecrashers podcasts can be heard at:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gatecrashers/id1640617083.

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Originally at:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/09/admissions-history-you-didnt-know-about.html. 

25th Anniversary: September 11, 2001 - Part 3

The fallout from the Sept. 11th UCLA Law School event continues:

https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/12/julio-frenk-condemns-symposium-featuring-attorney-for-alleged-9-11-conspirator 

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-12/ucla-chancellor-law-school-9-11-event

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https://x.com/yudapearl/status/2098927762669215919

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https://newsroom.ucla.edu/chancellor-julio-frenk-comment-event-coverage-sept-10

Grad Housing

Apparently, despite federal cutbacks, UCLA expects to need more grad student housing. From the Daily Bruin:

UCLA will convert a newly acquired Sawtelle multifamily complex into graduate student housing over the next few months. UCLA purchased the building at 1775 Beloit Ave. in August for $8.5 million. The property is about three miles away from campus, and students will be able to move in in a few months, a UCLA Housing spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The acquisition – along with other purchases on Wilshire Boulevard, Venice Boulevard and Berryman Avenue – are part of UCLA’s goal to expand housing for graduate students, the spokesperson said in the statement. The university is converting Weyburn Terrace – which previously only served graduate students – from graduate housing into undergraduate housing over the next three years starting this fall...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/06/ucla-expands-graduate-student-housing-with-8-5m-sawtelle-property-acquisition.

Straws in the Wind - Part 463

From the LA Times: The Trump administration is proposing a new rule that would strip private colleges and private grade schools of their tax-exempt status if they provide targeted help to students based on their race, a significant escalation in the White House’s campaign to eradicate diversity programs directed at Black, Latino and other minority students... The Treasury Department proposed the change... in a new regulation that, if made final, would take effect after May 2027. The rule is broadly aimed at ending any policies or programs that help students because of their race, and it specifically says such benefits in admissions, scholarships and facilities “would be incompatible” with the rule...

The proposed change would not only impose a tax bill on schools, but also could discourage donors who would lose the advantage of deducting the donation to lower their taxes. A public comment period is expected to last until early November. In California, the proposed changes would cover more than 85 nonprofit colleges and universities, among them Stanford and USC. The proposed rule also affects private K-12 schools — in all, more than 18,000 institutions nationwide. Public colleges, such as UCLA, and public school districts would not be affected, although Trump has separately threatened to pull their federal funding over race-based assistance...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-09-03/trump-tax-exempt-status-schools-race. 

Parallel Blogs / Subscribing

We have been putting out this blog since 2009 under the heading "UCLA Faculty Association" using the link:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/

The blog site was originally created by the then-executive director of the Faculty Association. As such, yours truly does not have control of the site; he is simply a blogger on it. So when technical issues arise, that can be a problem. Given that issue, we have been adding a parallel site with the same blog entries since July 23rd:

https://danmitchellsblogcontinues.blogspot.com/

We will be running the two in parallel for the indefinite future. Possibly, at some point we will switch to the new link.

If you read the blog using the Facebook page of Yousee Elayemeriti, you can continue to do so:

https://www.facebook.com/yousee.elayemeriti

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Want to subscribe?

You can't subscribe directly. But you can subscribe indirectly to this blog via a service called Blogtrottr. Go to blogtrottr.com and fill in the URL for the blog:

https://danmitchellsblogcontinues.blogspot.com/ 

or

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/

and put in your email address. 

You will then receive an email at the email address you provided asking you to confirm. After you confirm, you will receive an email notification of new postings whenever they appear. If there are, say, three postings on a particular day, you will receive three notifications (one for each one). 

Note and full disclosure: There are ads on these notifications. 

25th Anniversary: September 11, 2001 - Part 2

From the California Post: UCLA’s top official has condemned a 9/11 event hosted by the college featuring a range of controversial speakers — including the defense lawyer for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The school’s chancellor, Julio Frenk, said in exclusive remarks to the California Post that he supported longtime UCLA professor Judea Pearl, who tore into the university for hosting the lawyer representing the jihadist behind the execution of his journalist son, journalist Daniel Pearl.

“Judea Pearl is a deeply valued member of the UCLA community, and I have profound respect for him, for the memory of his son Daniel, and for his decades-long commitment to combating antisemitism, terrorism and hatred,” Frenk said.

“The brutal murder of Daniel Pearl was an act of unspeakable evil, and I support Judea and his family. We also mourn the thousands of lives lost from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, as well as the suffering of countless families and communities.”

He went on to blast event, which covered two days and also included an appearance by a Yale professor who labeled post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts “racist.”

“UCLA’s values are clear. We reject antisemitism and terrorism in all their forms, and we believe our campus must be a place where the dignity of every member of our community is respected,” Frenk continued.

“Nothing about this event at the UCLA School of Law, which we do not endorse, changes or qualifies those commitments.”

Daniel Pearl was decapitated by Mohammed in Pakistan in 2002 after being lured there for a supposed interview with an Islamic scholar. One of Mohammed’s lawyers, Melanie T. Partow, was set to speak at the event on Friday.

Frenk suggested the event — which invited no victims of the attack, but welcomed leftist speakers, including one who said Israel “should be attacked”— had given voice to the wrong guests.

“Academic freedom does not require us to be neutral about antisemitism or terrorism,” said Frenk, who became UCLA’s seventh chancellor in January 2025.

“Speaking at UCLA should never be mistaken for the university’s approval, endorsement, or acceptance of an individual’s viewpoints, or our institution’s indifference to the pain their presence may cause members of our community.

“In this case, I understand why Professor Pearl and others are deeply hurt. Judea’s voice, and the history behind it, deserve to be heard with the seriousness and humanity they demand.”

Judea told The Post that he was taken aback by the event.

“Colleagues inform me that, sadly, UCLA Law School is guilty of such practice: Weaponizing the painful days of 9/11 and 10/7 to promote hateful ideologies,” he said.

He added: “Having lost a son to such an ideology, I stand ashamed of my university.”

The educator added that he felt any 9/11 event should commemorate victims of the attack.

“A September 11th event should be used to commemorate the victims of that attack: Innocent Americans,” he said...

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Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/09/11/us-news/ucla-chancellor-condemns-controversial-9-11-campus-event/.

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Note 1: Before the chancellor commented, a "spokesman" for UCLA had released the following statement, according to the article above:

“Events organized by an individual UCLA Law program, centers, or institutes — and the views expressed — do not imply endorsement by UCLA Law, and neither the language of this symposium nor the views of its speakers should be understood as representing the school as a whole,” the spokesman said. “UCLA Law does not review or approve these choices, nor does the school withdraw invitations because a speaker or viewpoint is sensitive or controversial.”

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Note 2: According to the Daily Bruin, Murphy Hall originally helped publicize the Law School event at a local neighborhood council:

...Carmen Zambrano, an assistant director for UCLA Government Relations, said... that the School of Law will host a symposium on the impacts of 9/11 on the United States’ legal and political systems after 25 years...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2026/09/09/north-westwood-neighborhood-council-recap-sept-2-2. 

Does the Barnum Rule Still Apply?

From the LA Times: 

Thousands of low-income patients, some seriously ill, are scrambling to find new doctors as they lose access to UCLA Health physicians after a longtime Medi-Cal contract was not renewed. Under the contract that expired June 30, UCLA had been providing specialty care to 9,000 medically frail patients from Health Care LA, an association of nonprofit clinics that serve patients covered by Medi-Cal, the state program for the poor. “Many of these patients have been waiting for months to be seen by UCLA specialty medicine providers and are now being told they cannot receive the care they desperately need,” Health Care LA said...

University officials... pointed to “capacity issues” at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, including in the emergency room and dozens of specialty clinics... [University spokesperson Phil] Hampton said UCLA had offered to extend the contract, but Health Care LA rejected the offer... 

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-09-05/low-income-patients-at-ucla-health-scramble-to-find-new-doctors-as-contract-ends.

NOTE: Keep in mind that negotiating tactics in these kinds of contracts can include PR.