Upheaval, pandemic weirdness and a fragile stability

Sivakasi is a City in Virudhunagar District
in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu

The fall opening of colleges: Upheaval, pandemic weirdness and a fragile stability
—WashPo
     For higher education leaders, the decision to teach primarily in person or primarily online is an extraordinarily difficult call. They face competing and overlapping pressures from governors, governing boards, faculty, alumni, neighbors, parents and students.

9-19: Power politics of the bare-knuckled kind

✅What pandemic rebound? Only 27% of Southern California’s lost jobs replaced 

—OC Reg 

     Local bosses added 315,100 jobs since a 1.19 million drop in March and April 

✅Pandemic timeline in Southern California: Here’s how it all happened 

—OC Reg 

     Looking back at key moments in the coronavirus pandemic so far shows the ups and downs of cases, closings and reopenings, and scientific breakthroughs. 

✅California job growth is sluggish — and experts say it may get worse -- California’s job market improved slightly in August, but the state has regained just a third of the jobs it lost since the COVID-19 pandemic forced thousands of businesses to close. Margot Roosevelt in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/20 

✅COVID testing of teachers, staff hotly debated as California schools reopen -- As schools throughout California tiptoe toward reopening, decisions about whether to routinely test teachers, staff and even students for the COVID-19 virus are proving controversial – and potentially costly. Barbara Feder Ostrov CalMatters -- 9/19/20 

✅Ruth Bader Ginsburg tributes from Obama, Clinton: ‘There will never be another like her’ -- As news of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spread Friday, she was remembered as a champion for gender equality by the worlds of politics, business, entertainment and beyond — a spectrum of voices that included former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Barbra Streisand, Lena Waithe, Tim Cook, Meghan McCain, Jennifer Lopez and Tracee Ellis Ross. Tracy Brown in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/20 

✅McConnell vows Senate will hold vote on Ginsburg’s replacement -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed Friday that President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court will be put to the Senate floor for a vote, setting off a titanic political clash over the future of the high court and plunging the Senate into a crisis less than 45 days before the voters head to the polls to pick the next president. Andrew Desiderio, John Bresnahan, Kyle Cheney and Marianne Levine Politico -- 9/19/20 

✅Ruth Bader Ginsburg Live Updates: As Nation Mourns, Trump Pushes to Fill Vacancy ‘Without Delay’ 

—NYT 

     Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has signaled that he would backtrack from his vow in 2016 that Supreme Court vacancies should not be filled during a presidential election year and would indeed be willing to move a nominee before the election. Mr. Trump, who rolled out a list of possible Supreme Court picks last week, seized the political initiative early Saturday, issuing a thinly veiled warning to any Republicans thinking about delaying a vote until after the election. 

✅Trump’s appointees sought to censor what government scientists said about coronavirus, emails show 

—WashPo 

     Their emails showed how they hectored government scientists even as the virus raged out of control. 

✅Princeton Acknowledged ‘Embedded’ Racism. The Education Dept. Says That’s Grounds for an Investigation. 

—CHE

✅UC Irvine ranked among nation’s top-10 public universities 

—LA Times

9-18: It's Cal State Fullerton! For Trump, It’s Not the United States, It’s Red and Blue States! It's the pandemic, stupid!

✅Where Are Coronavirus Outbreaks Happening Across OC? 

     Months Into Pandemic, Residents Still Don’t Know 

—Voice of OC

     As reopenings across Orange County continue, it remains unlikely residents will be able to track virus outbreaks at specific locations, continuing a trend since the pandemic began in March by the county health care agency to keep outbreaks secret. 

. . . 

     Last week, county Health Care Agency officials said there was an outbreak at a college. “One college had 3 or more cases within a 2 week period of time,” said county Health Care Agency Medical Director Dr. David Nunez. Agency officials are still mulling over whether to name the college. 

. . . 

     Meanwhile, The Daily Titan, the student newspaper at California State University, Fullerton, reported Wednesday that university officials confirmed a virus outbreak on the campus.

. . . 

     Since the pandemic began in March, the virus has killed 1,115 OC residents, including four new deaths reported Thursday, according to the county Health Care Agency. 

. . . 

     “The information would only be public if it affects the public. If the information doesn’t affect the transmission of disease in the public, then the public doesn’t need to know,” Chau said....

✅OC Supervisor Wagner asks President Trump to bypass state, send relief dollars directly to counties 

—OC Reg 

✅Orange County health officials warn of coronavirus and flu ‘twindemic’ 

—OC Reg 

Gauhar Jaan (1873 – 1930) was an
Indian singer and dancer from Kolkata.

✅Newsom signs bill requiring businesses to disclose coronavirus infections -- Supporters of the bill, AB685, say it is a crucial step in protecting many essential workers still on the job. Opponents say it is not clear when employers have to sound the alarm to workers and what exactly needs to be disclosed. Chase DiFeliciantonio in the San Francisco Chronicle$ - 9/18/20

✅Coronavirus: As deaths tick up in California, other metrics continue to improve -- Counties around the state reported another 3,472 cases of the virus, according to data compiled by this news organization — close to the daily average for the past week, which has fallen about 30% in the past two weeks and more than 60% from its peak. Evan Webeck in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/18/20 

✅UC should prepare for online classes, limited dorms beyond fall, UC Health chief says -- The University of California’s top health executive has told UC officials to prepare to continue online learning and limited access to campus beyond the fall as the COVID-19 pandemic will probably cause at least another year of disruption to university operations. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/18/20  

✅UC bans race-based quotas for admissions and hiring, setting limits for possible return of affirmative action -- University of California regents banned the use of quotas based on race and gender in admissions, hiring and contracting Thursday — underscoring their intent to limit how they would restore affirmative action if state voters approve its use again. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/18/20 

✅For Trump, It’s Not the United States, It’s Red and Blue States -- A statement by the president this week was an insight into how he views the country as composed of parts that either are for him or against him. Peter Baker in the New York Times$ -- 9/18/20 

✅Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him 

—NYT 

     President Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic has imperiled both his own re-election and his party’s majority in the Senate, and Republican lawmakers in crucial states like Arizona, North Carolina and Maine have fallen behind their Democratic challengers amid broad disapproval of the president, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College. 

✅Poll: Calif. Voters Likely to Reject Affirmative Action Proposal 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     …The poll, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that among likely voters, 31 percent would vote yes and 47 percent would vote no, with 22 percent undecided. Forty-six percent of Democratic likely voters support Proposition 16, compared with 26 percent of independents and 9 percent of Republicans. The San Francisco Bay Area (40 percent of likely voters) and Los Angeles (37 percent) are the only regions with more than one-third support for the measure….

✅Today's OC Covid numbers: 247 new cases; 8 new deaths

It's a Trump shite storm in Academia! —Trump says he'll push for 'pro-American' history in schools; he nixes diversity training; Princeton sucker-punched!

✅Trump says he will create national commission to push more ‘pro-American’ history

Trump alleges ‘left-wing indoctrination’ in schools, says he will create national commission to push more ‘pro-American’ history 

—WASHPO 

     President Trump characterized demonstrations against racial injustice as “left-wing rioting and mayhem” that are the result of decades of indoctrination in schools. The federal government has no power over the curriculum taught in local schools. 

✅UC national labs suspend diversity training after Trump administration order -- The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, managed by the University of California but federally funded, has suspended its employees’ diversity training program by order of the Trump administration, which recently called such programs “divisive, anti-American propaganda,” The Chronicle has learned. Nanette Asimov in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/17/20 

✅C.D.C. Testing Guidance Was Published Against Scientists’ Objections 

—NYT 

A heavily criticized recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, according to several people familiar with the matter as well as internal documents obtained by The New York Times. 

✅Trump blames blue states for the coronavirus death toll — but most recent deaths have been in red states -- For months, President Trump has been scrambling to deflect criticism for the breadth of the coronavirus pandemic toward whatever target might be available. During a news briefing Wednesday, he returned to one of his favorites: Democratic leaders. Philip Bump in the Washington Post$ -- 9/17/20

✅Princeton Admitted Past Racism. Now It Is Under Investigation. 

—NYT 

     The Trump administration opened a civil rights investigation into the university after its president acknowledged the role of systemic racism at the school.

9-17: How much worse off is America from COVID-19 than other rich nations? (Way!) Does Wearing Glasses Protect You From Coronavirus? UC Zooms until Fall 2021

✅10 days of distraction for Trump after early warning of virus threat
—WashPo
     The president told Bob Woodward he hid the true risk of the novel coronavirus to avoid public panic, but a key 10-day period shows he spent relatively little time on preparing the nation for its arrival.

✅Survey Sheds Light on Sexual Violence in Canadian Higher Ed
—Inside Higher Ed
     Eleven percent of women students and 4 percent of men enrolled in a Canadian postsecondary institution experienced a sexual assault “in a postsecondary setting” during the previous year, according to a 2019 survey by Statistics Canada that garnered almost 15,000 responses. A majority of students -- 71 percent -- said they had witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviors in their college setting in 2019, either on campus or in an off-campus setting involving students or others associated with their institution. Forty-five percent of women students and 32 percent of men said they personally experienced at least one such behavior in the context of their studies. The majority of women (80 percent) and men (86 percent) who experienced unwanted sexualized behaviors said the perpetrators were fellow students.

✅Trump’s Understanding of California Wildfires Is Way Off—Even for Him
—Mother Jones

     ...Experts who study climate change and wildfires say science, actually, does know, and the spike in wildfire prevalence is directly linked to global climate change. Earlier this week, Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Oakland-based think tank Breakthrough Institute, told the LA Times, “What we’ve been seeing in California are some of the clearest events where we can say this is climate change—that climate change has clearly made this worse.” ....

From Rough&Tumble: 

✅Hiltzik: How much worse off is America from COVID-19 than other rich nations? Much, much worse -- Mapping America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic compared with other countries hasn’t been a simple task, not least because of the densely obscuring smoke issuing from the Trump White House. But a new analysis points to an inescapable conclusion. Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/16/20

     Here’s Holzer’s bottom line: “Both employment and health outcomes for the U.S. during the pandemic have been worse than in almost any other high-income country in the world.”
     Had the U.S. merely matched the average unemployment rate changes among the richest members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, “at least 8.6 million more Americans would be employed today.” An equivalent record on COVID-19 deaths per capita would have resulted in the saving of 112,540 American lives.

✅Californians support COVID-19 restrictions and remain worried about outbreak, survey shows -- The survey by the Public Policy Institute of California showed 74% of respondents favor restrictions on public activity to mange the pandemic, or want more aggressive limitations. Lara Korte in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/17/20 

✅New poll finds shaky support for Proposition 16 to restore affirmative action in California -- The Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday night found that just 31% of likely California voters surveyed said they would vote for the proposal, Proposition 16, while 47% said they oppose it. The remainder, 22%, were undecided. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ Katie Orr KQED Emily DeRuy in the San Jose Mercury$ John Fensterwald EdSource -- 9/17/20 

✅Does Wearing Glasses Protect You From Coronavirus? -- When researchers in China were analyzing hospital data of patients with Covid-19, they noticed an odd trend: Very few of the sick patients regularly wore glasses. Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times$ -- 9/17/20 

✅Coronavirus precautions at UC system likely until fall 2021 -- Zoom classes will need to stick around for at least another year at the University of California, according to the system’s top health official. Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters -- 9/17/20 

✅Trump contradicts his CDC director over masks, vaccine timeline -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday twice contradicted his own CDC director — on mask-wearing and vaccine distribution — saying the country’s top public health official misspoke while testifying under oath before a congressional committee earlier in the day. Robert Redfield told the Senate Appropriations Committee that wearing a mask could be more effective than a coronavirus vaccine at keeping the pandemic at bay. Brianna Ehley Politico -- 9/17/20

"I think he just made a mistake.”

Trump Again Scorns Science on Vaccine and Masks

—NYT

     President Trump slapped down Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC chief, saying his emphasis on masks and his projected vaccine timeline were wrong. It was perhaps the starkest example of Mr. Trump rejecting the advice of public health officials and the facts they provide.

     President Trump rebuked the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, saying that Dr. Robert R. Redfield offered “incorrect information” when he told a Senate panel earlier in the day that a coronavirus vaccine was unlikely to be widely available before the middle of next year.

     “I saw the statement — I called him,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a news briefing at the White House. “I said, ‘What did you mean by that?’ And I think he just made a mistake.”

     The president also said that Dr. Redfield was wrong to say that a mask is more effective than a vaccine.

     “The mask is not as important as the vaccine,” the president asserted, adding, “The mask, perhaps, helps.

     “When I called up Robert today, I said, ‘What’s with the mask?’” Mr. Trump said. “He said, ‘I think I answered that question incorrectly.’ I think maybe he had misunderstood it,” he added.

     Dr. Redfield had told senators that even if a vaccine were available now, vaccinating enough Americans for widespread immunity could take six to nine months. He estimated that one could be available for limited use by the end of the year, and for wider distribution by the middle of 2021, echoing a timeline that other top health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, had used in recent weeks.

. . .

     But Mr. Trump asserted several times that his C.D.C. chief was wrong. “I got the impression that he didn’t realize he said what he might have said,” the president said. Asked whether he still had “confidence” in Dr. Redfield, Mr. Trump said, “I do.”

     The president has repeatedly claimed that a vaccine could be available before Election Day, a timeline that most health experts say is unrealistic, prompting concerns that the Food and Drug Administration might give emergency authorization to a vaccine before it has been fully vetted for safety and effectiveness. Nine pharmaceutical companies have pledged to “stand with science” and to not push through any product that didn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny.

. . .

     Mr. Trump said at a town-hall-style event on Tuesday night that a vaccine could be ready within “three weeks, four weeks.”....

9-16: "People will die"

✅ Is Academe Awash in Liberal Bias?

Most people think so. They’re wrong.

—CHE

     Is academe dominated by liberals? Most people think so. And why wouldn’t they? It’s what we hear all the time on social media, in newspaper and magazine articles, and even in academe itself. Conservatives routinely call out higher education’s “liberal bias,” and sometimes insist that something should be done to ensure that conservative voices are heard within the ivory tower.

     Some 59 percent of Republicans now say that colleges have a negative effect on the country. Recently, this complaint went all the way to the White House, as President Trump announced his intention to re-examine universities’ nonprofit status, claiming that they are all about “Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education.” Back in the 1970s, the famous Powell memo called upon conservatives to develop think tanks to counter the liberal bias of American universities.

     But is the claim true? Are conservatives underrepresented in academic life? The answer depends in part on how one defines “liberal.”

     The most comprehensive study to date of American faculty politics found a much more centrist professoriate than is alleged in conservative discourse. In that 2006 study, the sociologists Neil Gross and Solon Simmons found that some 44 percent of professors described themselves as “extremely liberal” (9 percent) or “liberal” (35 percent); 46 percent described themselves in centrist terms (18 percent as “slightly liberal,” 17 percent as “middle of the road,” and 11 percent as “slightly conservative”); 8 percent described themselves as “conservative” and 1 percent as “extremely conservative.” In other words, liberals outnumber conservatives, but the largest cohort of faculty — 46 percent — are moderates, spanning the terrain between center-left and center-right.

     Political views vary by discipline. Gross and Simmons found the highest concentrations of conservative faculty in business and health sciences (25 percent and 21 percent respectively). Computer science and engineering have a high proportion of moderates (78 percent) with a symmetrical split of liberals and conservatives (11 percent each).

     These disciplinary differences matter, because students are not uniformly distributed across the disciplines. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the two most popular majors are business and health sciences — the same fields with the highest concentrations of conservative faculty members….

✅ Wanted: Black Studies Scholars (Only)

—Inside Higher Ed

     University of Chicago English says it's only admitting Black studies Ph.D. candidates for 2021 admissions cycle, citing Black Lives Matter and the field's complicated history with regard to race.

     Departments have been having quiet conversations since the start of the pandemic about how graduate admissions will be affected: Will there be money to support new graduate students in COVID-19-reduced budgets? Even if there is money, is it ethical to admit new Ph.D. students amid widespread faculty hiring freezes?

     With the arrival of the 2021 graduate admissions cycle, these conversations are now becoming public. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s history department, for example, recently said that it is accepting no new graduate students for fall 2021.

     The English department at the University of Chicago made a similar decision, with a twist: the program will admit only those graduate students who plan to work in Black studies….

✅ The Nuances of the Free College Debate

—Inside Higher Ed

Some Democrats and some Republicans don't fit neatly into their expected boxes on the issue.

     Campaigning at Florida Memorial University last week, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris emphasized the importance of going to college, including historically Black colleges and universities like the one where she was speaking.

     “It is the place where we nurture young people to see who they are and their role as part of leadership of our nation in whatever profession they choose,” she said.

     And she said that she and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would make going to college free for most students.

     That went over well, because what’s not to like about free, right?

     But less than two months before the election, one of the divisions between Biden and his Republican opponent, President Donald Trump, is over the Democratic plan to make attendance free at two-year colleges, as well as for those whose families make less than $125,000 at public four-year colleges, as well as public and private HBCUs....

From Rough& Tumble

✅ California’s Proposition 15 Would Raise Taxes On Businesses While Supporting Schools, Local Governments -- California voters will decide this fall whether to approve Proposition 15, a major change to the state’s historic property tax law that would raise taxes on large businesses, while providing up to $11.5 billion per year to fund public schools, community colleges and local governments. Chris Nichols Capital Public Radio -- 9/16/20

✅ COVID deaths among young people: Diverse communities hit hardest -- Although a small proportion of people under the age of 21 are dying from complications associated with COVID-19 in the U.S., a disproportionate number of these deaths are in communities of color, according to a new report issued by the CDC Tuesday. Al Saracevic in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/16/20

✅ Coronavirus: California jobless claims are “startlingly high,” researchers say -- California unemployment claims are at “startlingly high” levels and the brutal trends in jobless filings point to a “mixed” recovery for the state’s suddenly wobbly economy amid the coronavirus, a report Tuesday from University of California researchers has found. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/16/20

✅ LAPD Chief Moore points to pandemic as driving factor in increased gun violence, killings -- Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped drive gun violence and increase killings in the city this year, including by spurring economic despair and interpersonal dramas while undercutting efforts to interrupt cycles of retaliation. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/16/20

✅ San Diego legislators want Gov. Newsom to sign high school ethnic studies bill -- San Diego legislators and others are calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would require ethnic studies for high school students, a bill that has sat on his desk for two weeks.... Kristen Taketa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/16/20

✅ Biden campaign manager on Trump's return to rallies: 'People will die' -- Joe Biden’s campaign manager attacked President Donald Trump and his team for the packed rallies they've recently resumed, warning that "people will die" because of the acute risk of coronavirus transmission at the largely maskless events. Caitlin Oprysko Politico -- 9/16/20

✅ QAnon Followers Attack SF's Scott Wiener Over Sex Offender Law -- You might think the claim that California has legalized pedophilia wouldn’t pass the smell test with most people. Not in 2020, when certain Republican politicians have seized on the passage of a law regarding sex offenders as an opportunity to rally QAnon believers, a growing and active group of conspiracy theorists. Rachael Myrow KQED -- 9/15/20

✅ TODAY'S OC Covid numbers: 135 new cases; 6 new deaths.