Tuesday update

[Bill Maurer]

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

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I know people are in the process of adjusting 
to telecommuting and getting things done while in all kinds of 
suboptimal setups -- from sitting in a parked car to get away from the 
kids while on conference calls, to making do with an iPhone as one's 
(for now!) primary business and research workstation, to having to 
listen to the dulcet strains of Moana, yet again (and again... and 
again). But we'll get there and find our groove.

Some announcements:

1) The Academic Program Review--our decadal external review--has been 
postponed. Hooray. Thanks to our colleagues in the Academic Senate for 
helping make this possible.

2) We will be holding the first of two Remote Instruction Workshops 
tomorrow. Info below my signature line. OPEN TO ALL--grad students, 
staff, faculty, lecturers, your dog watching you telecommute, etc. (via 
Zoom).

3) Andy Hill and his terrific team have created a new email list for 
sharing information with those faculty and lecturers who are teaching in 
the Spring--so future teaching related information will be sent just to 
people actively teaching grad or undergrad classes in Spring.

4) Thanks to the efforts of many, many people pooling information, 
stepping up to help out, and creating and curating relevant material, 
our communications and computing services teams have created the 
following one-stop shop for resources related to remote teaching, 
learning, and working, for all instructors, students, and staff. It is a 
living site; things are going to get added and changed as we hammer 
various things out. Please visit https://www.remote.socsci.uci.edu/ and 
send any edits, additions, comments or thoughts to hashbach@uci.edu. 
Some items are behind a log-in wall (using your UCINet ID), and this 
will include an archive of all my emails, which hopefully can become 
less-than-daily in the near future.

5) For those of you who will be teaching or TAing, you will see on this 
website that we have established a team of remote instruction coaches 
and other assistants--people from the School and a special consultant 
from DTEI just for Soc Sci--who will help those who are teaching get 
their courses set up and running for the Spring. Janet DiVincenzo from 
DTEI will be working for the School of Social Sciences now 2 days per 
week for the next 3 weeks. We will send Spring quarter instructors 
additional info. There is also a host of other information, as well.**

6) Security, Mail, Deliveries and Checks: Note that all of this is 
subject to change, as the campus makes decisions about operations during 
what may be a more comprehensive lockdown*, *but:

Buildings are currently still open on their normal schedule.

Given the reduced foot traffic, campus police can provide a walking 
Community Service Officer (a student UCIPD employee) escort anytime 
between 6 PM and 1 AM. They are no longer providing rides due to social 
distancing.  After 1 AM, the escort for safety would be a police 
officer; but they can provide an escort 24/7. Information about CSO 
escort can be found on their website at the following link 
https://police.uci.edu/cso/index.php#escorts .  There is also a CSO 
specific FAQ at the following website 
https://police.uci.edu/cso/safety_escort_faq.php and anyone can call 
949.814.SAFE (7233) to schedule/request an escort 24/7.

USPS mail will be picked up from North Campus by Craig Stone every 
Thursday and distributed to faculty and department offices on a weekly 
basis.

Other Deliveries: Soc Sci Computing staff is accepting all other 
deliveries -- the majority of deliveries right now are equipment for 
faculty and staff.  If you are expecting an urgent delivery and need to 
get it, please notify sscs@uci.edu with a description and they'll make 
arrangements for you to come and pick it up.  Otherwise our Computing 
staff will work with Craig to include packages in the weekly mail 
delivery to offices.

Checks: Craig Stone and Allison Marks will be working together to mail 
paychecks and other one time checks to student workers and anyone else 
for whom electronic deposit was not an option.

7) Please review the message sent by Vice Chancellor for Research Pramod 
Khargonekar today regarding research curtailment 
https://news.research.uci.edu/vcr/research-ramp-down-and-curtailment. 
We will be discussing research continuity plans for Social Sciences in 
the coming days and will keep you posted.

Onward to Wednesday!

Bill

*WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18*

*Soc Sci Remote Instruction Workshop, with a panel of faculty from Soc 
Sci, Janet DiVincenzo (DTEI), and Dean Maurer*

Time:12:00 - 1:15pm; with Janet available for questions and 
consultations from 1:30 - 2:30pm

Join via Zoom:https://ucisocsci.zoom.us/j/229190506

Intended audience: faculty, staff and graduate students

**

*THURSDAY, MARCH 19*

*Soc Sci Remote Instruction Workshop - Same workshop, different day! 
Remote Instruction Workshop, with faculty from Soc Sci, Janet DiVincenzo 
(DTEI), and Dean Maurer*

Time:12:00 - 1:15pm; with Janet available for questions and 
consultations from 1:30-2:30

Join via Zoom:https://ucisocsci.zoom.us/j/229190506

Intended audience:faculty, staff and graduate students