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Hello Carolyn,

Welcome to the Academic Affairs newsletter. Browse updates and announcements, connect to tips and resources, and check out stories from around campus.

Message from EVC Simmons

Dear Colleagues,


As an innovative university community that has undergone exceptional growth, one of our biggest challenges has been finding ways to help our many unique programs collaborate, so that our great ideas can be scaled up to serve the entire campus. Over the past 18 months, Academic Affairs has been building the capacity to form and sustain collaborations using a structured approach called Collective Impact that leverages common tools, datasets, and assessments (and a backbone of dedicated support) to make progress in meeting our longstanding shared goals. The idea is to make everyone’s existing and valuable work on closing the opportunity gaps faced by students, staff, and faculty significantly easier and a lot more impactful. 


The first dozen projects on the staff, student, and faculty experience within the Erasing Opportunity Gaps via Collective Impact initiative were described in lightning talks at the Future of Academic Affairs Forum in January. Later this month, we’re holding a follow-on open meeting on applications of Collective Impact to invite even more of you to connect your work to the initiative and reap the benefits. Details are in the newsletter below – I look forward to seeing you at the meeting and hearing your ideas!


One of the best parts of being back on campus together again is the chance to learn more about the exciting things everyone is working on. While I’ve always offered “office hours” where faculty, staff, or students could come by to share their thoughts, I’m now also creating “reverse office hours” to encourage invitations to visit a lab, studio, project space, or interactive classroom, so I can see your work in action (details at https://evc.ucsd.edu/contact/reverse-office-hours.html).


Looking forward to seeing you around campus!



Elizabeth H. Simmons

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May is Mental Health Month



The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program, Student Health and Well-Being, the Tritons Flourish initiative, and other campus partners have organized a wide range of programs and events supporting mental health and well-being throughout the month of May! For a complete list of online events and workshops for faculty and staff, please see the May FSAP event listings. For student events, visit the Counseling and Psychological Services events webpage. Signups for the Out of Darkness Walk on Sunday, May 15, close today, May 13, at noon. 

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Celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage in May


This year's events honor generations of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIA) who have enriched our country’s history. The theme, “Sharing Comfort, Community, and Care," has been emphasized throughout events already held this month and will be featured in the remaining events. For information on all of the activities, visit the blink page.

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Admission Packet Showcase


Admission decisions for undergraduate applicants were released on Friday, March 18 for first-year applicants and Friday, April 29 for transfer applicants. Students received their initial offer of admission through their online Applicant Portal, a comprehensive website that includes information on financial aid, welcome messages from campus partners, virtual booths, Admissions events and more. In addition to the portal, students were mailed a beautiful admit packet, which came in a square envelope with the tagline “Discover What’s Possible.” Upon opening the envelope, a “You’re In!” folder was revealed. This compartment contained their admit letter, a double-sided Congratulations certificate featuring a shareable #FutureTriton social media poster on the back side, and a fold-out brochure highlighting six unique aspects of UC San Diego and our Triton Days events. Enrollment Management is excited to share a look at these admitted student materials. You’re invited to click here below to see a larger version of the pieces included in this year’s packet and online portal. These projects are the culmination of a true team effort across the Admissions, Financial Aid and Scholarships, and Creative Services teams in Enrollment Management.

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Webinar to Address Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring


Academic Personnel Services has invited faculty and staff to attend an upcoming webinar, Doing the Right Thing, on June 15, 2022, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The webinar is co-hosted by the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice at Rutgers University. The featured presenters at the webinar will be Marybeth Gasman, author of “Doing the Right Thing: How Colleges and Universities Can Undo Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring,” and Christopher Span, Educational Historian Chief of Staff and Associate Chancellor for Administration and Pre K-12 Initiatives at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Those interested can register online.

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Reminder for Classroom Health Emergencies


Reminder for Classroom Health Emergencies

As a reminder, if a medical emergency happens in a classroom and you are calling for assistance, please dial 911. Emergencies include any conditions that appear life threatening, or cases where moving the person experiencing the crisis could result in further injury. For non-emergency situations involving students, Student Health Services can be contacted or visited for primary care, urgent care, behavioral health, laboratory and other services.

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Sally WongAvery Library Exhibit Now on Display


A book lover, collector and educator, alumna and UC San Diego Foundation trustee, Sally T. WongAvery ’75 has a personal library of thousands of books and audio-visual materials. This exhibit showcases a small collection of her dictionaries, books about Chinese language and culture as well as a few favorite collectibles acquired during her many trips to East Asia. Digital objects from the Chinese News Collection are also on display, nearby, in the WongAvery Library through June 13, 2022.

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You're Invited!


Collective Impact: Coordinating for Greater Impact Webinar

May 26, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. 


As we move toward using a Collective Impact approach to close opportunity gaps at UC San Diego, the next phase of our work requires us to coordinate mutually-reinforcing activities for maximum impact. To do that, six different thematic areas for faculty, staff, and students have been identified as areas where these gaps are most prominent, or where closing gaps would make the biggest positive impact for our community. At our Collective Impact: Coordinating for Greater Impact webinar, we’ll explore those thematic areas, how they are defined and how we arrived at those themes, as well as hear from a panel discussing how work already being done on campus can be organized around these themes into working groups. You’ll also have a chance to hear more about how Collective Impact can work on university campuses and have an opportunity to ask questions about what comes next.


Register Today!

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Graduate Financial Support Unit Updates


With all of the tremendous changes in the Graduate Financial Support ecosystem, sharing the updates and the status of the numerous tasks is more important than ever. An update on items that have changed in status since March 2022 can be found online. Additionally, for those who could not attend, a summary and the slide deck from the "Graduate Financial Support News & Updates" presentation on May 11 can also be found at this same location. 

Next Privacy 101 Workshop Scheduled for May 17

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Privacy is for everyone! Learn about privacy laws and how to best protect yourself through our online Privacy 101 Workshop. As the university has transitioned to online learning, teaching, and working, understanding privacy has become increasingly important. This fun and informative session will discuss the fundamentals of privacy and how individuals can protect themselves with the personal data they handle. This training will also discuss how UC San Diego handles personal data, including data about applicants, faculty and staff, research participants, alumni, online learners, public databases, etc.  For additional information or registration details please visit our course page on the UCSD Learning Management System.

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Nominations Open for Staff Association Executive Board


The Staff Association’s Elections Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2022-24 Term Staff Association Executive Board (SAEB). The association is looking for nine motivated individuals to take on functional-based positions, and help continue the mission of the UC San Diego Staff Association. You can view the description of each functional-based position on the Staff Association website. To nominate yourself or someone you work with, you must fill out a nomination form by May 25. Elections will be held June 1-10.


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Creating a cultural hub: UC San Diego opens Park & Market downtown

The University of California San Diego's wish to extend its physical and social reach downtown is now a reality, with the official opening of UC San Diego Park & Market, a four-story building the university and its partners anticipate will become a cultural hub for the region.

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UC San Diego Biological Sciences Professors Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Two researchers from the University of California San Diego's School of Biological Sciences have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors bestowed upon U.S. scientists and engineers. Neurobiologist Yishi Jin and molecular biologist James T.

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