BUILDING COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNITY |
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- Chief Counsel Elisabeth Gunther Retires
- New Family-Friendly Leaves
- Cybersecurity Matters
- Back to the Future of Teaching
- Levitt Amp Concert Series
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Monday Memo will be delivered next week on Tuesday, July 6,
due to the observance of the Fourth of July holiday on Monday, July 5.
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STAFF AND FACULTY RECOGNITION |
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Congratulations to Chief Campus Counsel Elisabeth Gunther on her Retirement! |
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Today we bid farewell and bon voyage to Elisabeth Gunther, who is retiring after 15 years in University of California’s legal services, including the last six as UC Merced’s chief campus counsel. She provided strategic support to four of UC Merced’s five chancellors and played a pivotal role in completion of the Merced 2020 construction project. Elisabeth also played a critical role as cyber risk executive (CRE) for several years.
“Elisabeth has provided critical and proactive advice to the Merced leadership team and to me,” UC Chief Legal Officer Charles Robinson said. “Her candor, seasoned perspective and thoughtful wisdom will be greatly missed by all who have worked closely with her over the years.”
Thank you for your extraordinary service to UC Merced, Elisabeth. Enjoy your retirement!
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Working Forward: Conversations With Your Supervisor |
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For those of you who have been following along with our Working Forward series, we recently discussed providing support for and leading teams during the transition to our new working normal. This week we focus on three tips for employees on how to approach conversations with supervisors when their decisions impact our needs and the ability to fulfill our job responsibilities effectively.
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Resources to Help Stay Mentally Healthy as We Return to On-Site Work |
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As we begin returning to on-site work, remember that resources are available to help you navigate this change. |
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Employees can access resources through INSIGHT, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides:
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Work/Life Resource Library: A COVID-19 Resource Center, including helpful articles such as Maintaining Your Mental Equilibrium and more, is available here. Select the Employee Resources tab. Open the Visit Personal Advantage link and sign up with username UCMerced and password 10540 to access thousands of articles.
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Webinars: Live, monthly webinars on topics like finances and communication from industry leaders. Registration is required for live webinars via access described above. Archived webinars are available for playback. Upcoming webinars include:
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Raising Awareness: Mental Health and Minorities, 9 a.m. and noon July 14
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Emotional Wellbeing for Parents: 9 a.m. and noon Aug. 18
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Counseling Sessions: Employees can receive up to three free counseling sessions regardless of their enrollment in medical plans. Employees can contact INSIGHT EAP by phone at (800) 422-5322 or via email at insighteap@insighteap.com for more information or to set up an appointment.
We will continue to update the COVID-19 Related Resources page to provide information for future virtual and on-site sessions as we return to campus.
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UC Offers New Family-Friendly Options for Faculty, Staff |
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Starting July 1, university faculty and staff can take advantage of two new UC programs – Pay for Family Care and Bonding (PFCB), and an Adoption Assistance Plan.
PFCB gives employees the option to replace some of the income they would otherwise lose during an approved Family and Medical Leave. Employees who qualify can receive 70% of eligible earnings for up to eight workweeks per calendar year. The leave can be used for situations such as bonding with a new child or caring for a family member.
The Adoption Assistance Plan reimburses those eligible employees for up to $5,000 of expenses related to adoption.
Tap the buttons for more details about the new UC plans and for a list of resources about leaves of absence.
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CYBERSECURITY MATTERS
OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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You're invited to join us for a new segment called “Cybersecurity Matters.” Here, we will look at the rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape, how it is impacting our personal and professional lives, the challenges we face, and what we can do by following best practices, cyber hygiene and prevention strategies. Through these bi-weekly updates, we hope to raise awareness and manage the associated personal and business cybersecurity risks in our community.
Today, to set our context, we cover some of the challenges we all face in the current cybersecurity landscape. Please tap the link button below to find out more and read further.
I hope you’ll join us in future weeks to learn more about each of these topics.
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Helping Faculty Prepare for On-Site Research, Instruction |
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As we progress toward increased in-person operations, the Center for Business Services and Solutions (CBS2), which provides centralized administrative support, and Procurement Services share these tips and updates:
- Charging a purchase to a project? To ensure expedited processing, include the Project Number or Name when you enter the request in ServiceNow. Our team can generally derive other required information.
- Starting in August, CBS2 will provide in-person support for faculty and staff in SSHA, SOE and SNS. CBS2 staff will be available to assist with updates, purchasing requests, travel and expense entries, and general questions. Times and dates will be distributed in the coming weeks.
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In honor of Food Justice July, please join us:
Ask Me Anything with Deseret Weeks
2 p.m. | Tuesday, July 6
Free | Open to the public
Deseret Weeks is an environmental geographer, an environmental steward and a Ph.D. student in UC Merced's Management of Complex Systems. Her research interests encompass the political ecology and management of global change (climate change, biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, etc.). Adaptive cooperative management, complex socio-ecological-systems and the ecosystem services framework (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005) are important aspects of her research in her quest to find solutions to assure the sustainability of human society within Earth’s planetary system. Her recent research focus has been food sovereignty, food security and sense of place. Also at the core of her research interests is a deep concern for the increasingly broad-scale deterioration of the health of ecosystems due to industrial processes, exploitation and consumption.
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OFFICE OF EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION |
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LEVITT AMP CONCERT SERIES |
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Join us in kicking off a new anchor segment, Recipe of the Week. We look forward to sharing timeless greats, unique plates and family recipes. We encourage all readers to share their favorite recipes with pictures (and any background story if you have one to share)! Please email your submission to Internal Relations for future inclusion.
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{The BEST} Peach Cobbler
My family roots are in Georgia, home of the peaches. This tasty fruit is ripe and delicious this time of year, and this cobbler recipe is SO good.
It seems odd when you first make it – the batter for the crust goes on the bottom and peaches on top. As it bakes, though, the crust rises through the peaches and bakes into a perfect cobbler. Enjoy warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a delicious summer treat!
Submitted by:
Jenn Taylor
Internal Communications Coordinator
External Relations
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Let's paws for a moment to appreciate our at-home coworkers. Have fun with us and submit a picture and introduction from your favorite non-human co-worker. Please email your submission to Internal Relations for future inclusion.
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It’s been a while, but as you can see I am all dressed up today. It’s puppy obedience school graduation. I didn’t graduated cum laude, ‘cause apparently, you need to keep you tongue “IN” all of the time; but I can’t help if I like to taste people and give kisses.
Mom says it’s OK, I am still the goodest boy ever!
Submitted by mom:
Mireille Smith
Director of Financial & Administrative Operations
School of Natural Sciences
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Checking In - How are YOU doing? |
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Thank you to everyone who participated in the last poll. We had 127 responses. Here are the results: |
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It is HOT. How do you prefer to cool off? |
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Where do you prefer to cool off?
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What are you doing to thrive while safe at home?
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Monday Memo is a collaborative venture designed to help the campus community
stay informed, connect and crowd source to plan the week ahead.
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