some mid-week updates

[Bill Maurer]

    Dear social sciences grad students, lecturers, staff, faculty and researchers,

    Senate faculty will have received two calls for applications
    yesterday--for research related to addressing anti-Black racism, and
    for faculty instructional coaches to assist with remote teaching. Please
    check your mail from yesterday!

    I will also be looking for volunteers to participate in what is shaping
    up to be a campuswide initiative, run by Humanities and with Social
    Sciences as a co-sponsor, to bring the 1619 Project to our classrooms
    during the month of October. More details to come early next week--but
    I'll be looking for volunteers to hold special seminars, discussions,
    and the like. The initiative will culminate in a virtual visit by Nikole
    Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who conceived of
    this project.

    Meanwhile, we are all facing the new uncertainty foisted upon us by the
    shift in policy for international student visas. Grad students will have
    received an invitation to the town hall meeting with Vice Provost Hayes
    this Friday. Please attend! Chairs and graduate program directors received
    an email from Associate Dean McBride on the latest campus actions, which
    have included recoding all unscheduled classes (299, 290, 199, 190,
    etc.) as "in person." Other activity is in the works. (And Prof. Sara
    Goodman went viral!) I know it is anxiety-provoking but please hang in
    there and await further updates. (Incidentally, Senator Feinstein sits on
    the Senate Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration. Representative
    Lou Correa, who represents CA 46th, adjacent to the Irvine campus,
    is on the House equivalent. Just sayin').

    Finally: Ugh. With the steep increase in Covid-19 cases in Orange County
    over the last couple of weeks, I want to emphasize that the campus is
    still requiring of all university community members to visit campus
    only if it is absolutely necessary and in support of an essential
    activity such as preparing courses for remote teaching or providing
    essential support activities (or approved Phase 2 research, for which,
    contact Associate Dean McBride). Every person coming to campus, even if
    only on an ad hoc and sporadic basis, must take the Returning to Campus
    training module through the UCLC (https://uc.sumtotal.host/Core/dash/home)
    and sign up for the daily health screening via smartphone app or email
    (https://uci.edu/coronavirus/app/index.php). Please also be in touch
    with your department manager, who will work with Natalie Cook to activate
    your participation in the daily health screening protocol and ensure that
    we are avoiding an excess of personnel in shared spaces. Assistant Dean
    Ávila will be working with department managers and supervisors over the
    coming months to prepare and submit the School of Social Sciences’ plan
    for returning to campus in stages. For the duration of the summer and
    fall quarter, the vast majority of staff will continue to work remotely.

    Please stay safe!

    Bill