University of California President James Milliken reversed an earlier plan to end $85,000-per-fellow hiring incentives tied to the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, committing to continue the incentive while reviewing its long-term structure. Milliken said questions about fiscal sustainability had prompted a review but that the system will maintain the incentives barring extraordinary financial setbacks. The reversal follows pushback from campuses and advocates who argued the incentive is vital for diversifying the faculty and retaining early-career scholars. Milliken signaled possible future changes — such as caps or altered distribution — while acknowledging the program’s role in recruiting scholars into tenure-line positions across UC campuses. For higher-ed leaders managing faculty pipelines and diversity initiatives, the decision preserves a key recruitment tool amid broader budget uncertainty and federal funding volatility.