UC's National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement $20K Non-Residential Fellowships (Applications Due March 21)

From the materials:

Applications for the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement's fellowship program are now open (due March 21). Each year, the Center selects fellows from a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds such as law, journalism, higher education, social science, technology and government. The Center welcomes candidates from all backgrounds to apply and invites a wide range of innovative projects.

This is a one-year, non-residential program that gives selected fellows $20,000 in addition to up to $5,000 in research funds. Find details here.…

This year we are particularly interested in the following issues:

• How best to safeguard academic freedom in response to the national and global climate including legislative assaults and other threats to the creation and transmission of knowledge;
• Exploring the interaction between anti-discrimination laws and expression on campus;
• Navigating values-based polarization and political partisanship in higher education;
• The role of AI and/or social media in the future of free speech and civic engagement in higher education;
• Higher education's role in supporting democracy and democratic learning;
• Strategies for engaging students, faculty, and staff in democratic governance and policy making at the institutional, local, and national level;
• The relationship between civic engagement and anti-authoritarianism;
• The intersection of climate and expression on campus, including the impact of national and international events;
• The role of civic engagement and service-learning work in restoring public trust in higher education.

Comments

[apedad]

"About the Fellowship

....

The Center welcomes candidates from all backgrounds to apply, and invites a wide range of innovative projects. As part of the University of California, the Center is committed to promoting diversity and equal opportunity in its education, services and administration, as well as research and creative activity."

Uh oh.....

[hobie]

At first I thought this was an advert for clerks in Judge Ho's court

[Frank Drackman]

$20,000??
I thought California had a $16/hour minimal wage?
Fully expecting the Deluge of posts about how I’m an Idiot because “Fellowships” aren’t Jobs or have some exception granted by Herr Gauleiter New-Scum

Frank

[Krayt]

What is that, a week's hourly for a mid level lawyer nowadays?

In any case, "I'd like to use my $20k to argue DEI is fine, but should not be construed to suggest Universities have a responsibility to censor certain viewpoints for fear of upsetting or 'harrassing' students."

"Well what about Nazis!"

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?"

"Shut up!" the University explained. "It's all about the vote and fear of angry reactions, which may impact our positions!"

"So it is the same as the Nazis!"

"Go away!"

[hobie]

Frankie 'Wounded Warrior" Drackman, America's Neediest Veteran, we identify you as an idiot for myriad reasons, but I see no reason to add your inability to understand fellowships as one

[Frank Drackman]

You got me, Medical Fellowships you have to actually show up, it’s really just a second Residency, and the pay is shit, 70-80k, guess some people think that’s good money

[Dr. Ed 2]

The median FAMILY income in the US is $80,610 -- which means that half of the families in the country earn less than that, often with two people working.

And as I understand it, a Medical Fellowship is an opportunity to become certified in a specialty, such as eye surgery. That means that you earn a lot more money afterwards -- it's primarily a learning opportunity.

The poverty rate for a family of four is 32,150.00.

See: https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/dd73d4f00d8a819d10b2fdb70d254f7b/detailed-guidelines-2025.pdf

[Frank Drackman]

Dr. Ed, like Del Griffith with conversation, you are with your "As I understand it" is there ANY concept you don't totally fuck up? I could say "Water is Wet" and you'll have 5 non sequiturs that just prove my point more. $80,000 is Shit after 4 yrs College, 4 yrs Med Screw-el, and 3-6 more years of Residency, and a "Fellowship" is what you do AFTER Residency, i.e. to become a Cardiologist, Dermatologist, Heart Surgeon, Pediatric Surgeon, Anesthesia only has a few, "Pain Management", "Cardiac", "Critical Care" "Pediatrics", Skipped on doing one as you make more in one busy year doing "Bread & Butter" Anesthesia than in 2 years doing a Fellowship,
You know what they call the Gas Passer who does 15 Cataracts a day?
Rich

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Frank, it's not $20,000 but $20,000 to live on and a chance to do a serious post-grad project. A chance to actually have things to put onto ones CV. And an extra $5,000 in research funds -- noticeable to those of us used to paying that out of our own pockets.

And there are the intangibles -- I presume faculty to review and advise, maybe some university resources (e.g. the database access I don't have since I graduated), a forum to present and a title.

I might apply for this...

[Frank Drackman]

So it’s not taxable? In California? I always keep a low profile when I’m out there (Groucho Glasses/Moustache, my Kissinger accent) everything’s done with cash, they go after out of state residents who work there.

[Dr. Ed 2]

That's a good question -- and the even bigger one is if you get hit with the 15% FICA self-employment tax as well. And is it considered income or a scholarship, the two are not the same.

[Frank Drackman]

You're paying both sides of the FICA even if you're an employee, you just never see it (and it's 15.3%, underpay by 0.3% and see what happens, unless you're a Black Politician) and I love being an Independent Contractor, do my own Performance Reviews, and if I have to chew myself out, at least I know who's doing it, Self Employed 401K is one of the best Tax Shelters, I mean, "Instruments" out there, amazed how many IC don't know about them, or even worse, know, but don't have one.

Frank "That's "Doctor" Scrooge, thank you"

[Please, Daivd, Seek Help]

This is a non-residential fellowship. In other words, it's a scholarship, not a full time appointment. It's not a job. You can hold multiple of these at the same time and it's normal for academics to do so to support individual research projects. The average person getting this fellowship is probably making 100k-200k a year and this is buying a month or two of their time.

The only obligation you take on as part of getting this fellowship is to attend two short conferences (which are paid for separate from the $20-25k) and to make a zoom call a few times.

[Frank Drackman]

Wow, Righteous bucks, $25,000 for going to a few conferences and a Zoom Zoom? Don't you have to actually produce something? I saw the work the previous "Fellows" did, and it does look like mostly Bullshit.

Frank

[Longtobefree]

I hope none of that money can be traced to a federal grant - - - - - - - -

[Dr. Ed 2]

I don't always believe this, but when I'm in a cynical mood, I argue that the *only* difference between Hitler and Franklin Roosevelt was that(a) Germany had only existed (as a united country for about 60 years (i.e. since 1871), (b) the US had been through two civil wars (the Revolution very much was a civil war) and thus had developed the (small "r") republican values of respecting minority rights, and (c) was strongly influenced by Locke's concept of an individual right to ones life, liberty, and property that the government could not arbitrarily deny (even though Franklin tried...).

Roosevelt and Hitler had the same problem (the Depression) and both men pretty much did the same things. People forget that the Holocaust started with euthanizing the retarded (and it could have been stopped then). But the eugenics movement started in the US and Buck v. Bell???

[Dr. Ed 2]

This was supposed to be a reply to Kraft -- and the scary thing is what would Huey Long have done had his own bodyguards not (accidentally) shot him.

There is a dark side to populism...