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Dear Student Affairs Educators,
Welcome to the 2024-2025 academic year. While the new academic year is a time of new beginnings, excitement and anticipation, it is also a time to revisit the core of what it means to be a UCLA Student Affairs educator – to consider the essence of how we will show up for and shape experiences for Bruin students.
We know this year is not without significant challenge – we have an immense responsibility to uphold campus policies and champion freedom of expression while maintaining a respectful campus environment, we are on the brink of a hotly contested national election, and we continue to witness profound pain and turmoil abroad. Each of these circumstances is onerous. Considered together, the burden is great.
Please be sure you have thoroughly reviewed the recent messages and information shared by campus and University of California leadership:
Four-Point Plan for a Safer Stronger UCLA: This is our framework for the programs and operational changes we are putting into place following the events of Spring quarter. Over the summer UC President Michael Drake also issued a directive to all 10 UC campuses to prohibit camping or encampments, erecting unauthorized structures, restrictions on free movement, and refusal to reveal one’s identity when asked to do so by university staff and some masking.
New Freedom of Speech website: We created a new website to foster greater understanding of free expression on our campus and support this part of our four-point plan.
FAQs related to the preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit regarding the encampments that arose on UCLA’s campus last academic year.
The new academic year will also provide significant opportunities for us. With new campus leadership on the horizon and our collective ability to embrace a shared purpose, we can chart a new path forward. As you consider your role – for our students, for Student Affairs, for our community, for our campus in this new school year – I invite you to consider the following:
As Student Affairs Educators, we play many roles: Proactive community-builders; Authentic leadership cultivators; Complex problem-solvers; Compassionate well-being experts; Campus connectors. We are the glue that bridges classroom learning with the profound understanding of what it means to be a Bruin. We are UCLA Student Affairs.
Every one of you is a part of this work, and for that, I want to recognize and extend my deepest appreciation for your dedication, for your commitment to continuous improvement, for your thoughtful questions and for your deep belief in the importance of the work we do.
Sincerely,
Monroe
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