(COVID-19): Campus Health Updates
Section 1
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Registrar's Office FAQ Page | Official University FAQ Page
11/6/2020 - Daily COVID-19 Graduate Division Update
Good evening Graduate Students and Postdocs,
This week has been an absolute whirlwind of challenges. If you managed to get anything at all done this week, you are a champ! Between typhoons and earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and an election, we have all really been through it. As a reminder, please reach out to the UCI counseling center for any needs related to this or anything else weighing on you: https://counseling.uci.edu/ For COVID specific support, you may also want to check out: https://www.covidmentalhealthsupport.org/ And of course, check in with your support network, whether that’s friends in the program or from the outside, your advisor and committee members, family, or anyone else who can help you. As someone said to me earlier today, “this week has been a lot.” Get the support you need, and email me if I can help.
Dependent and Elder Care Resources
You should have gotten an email from central HR on Thursday about new resources for dependent and eldercare. Here is a quick summary of key points:
- UCI has launched families.uci.edu
- UCI partnered with Bright Horizons® to offer a new, high-quality, subsidized Back-Up Care™ Program and Additional Family Supports™ for all UCI faculty/academics, staff, resident physicians, and graduate students.
- Started Nov 1 2020, runs through next year
- You may access up to 10 days of subsidized back-up care.
All faculty/academics, staff, resident physicians, and graduate students also have access to the Bright Horizons Additional Family Supports™ program, which includes:
- Free access to Sittercity’s comprehensive database of self-pay services including nannies and sitters, pet care, housekeeping help, and virtual sitters
- Preferred enrollment for full-time child care at Bright Horizons centers
- Valuable elder care resources through Years Ahead
- Discounts on tutoring, test prep, and enrichment classes
- Tuition discounts at partner centers
- Discounts on a local, high-touch placement service of trained, screened nannies
Webinars:
Contact Employee Experience Center (EEC) for questions:
- 949.824.0500
- eec@uci.edu
Travel Webinars from UCOP
Managing Unused Credits (November 4 at 11AM) – UC has over $2.7M in unused credits (cancelled tickets that could not be refunded by airline, but funds have already been spent). What should travelers be aware of and what is the Central Travel Office doing to ensure these credits are not wasted when it’s time to rebook travel?
Registration: https://ucop.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VBI2ikz7RVubudHB5nCbTw
Personal Travel (December 9 at 11AM) – The Central Travel Office has negotiated discounts and benefits with major airlines, several hotels and car rental companies. Join our webinar to find out how to take advantage of them.
Registration: https://ucop.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_be_T0-3QQKeSqbs2YdyBHg
Managing Unused Credits - ENCORE (December 16 at 11AM) – UC has over $2.7M in unused credits (cancelled tickets that could not be refunded by airline, but funds have already been spent). What should travelers be aware of and what is the Central Travel Office doing to ensure these credits are not wasted when it’s time to rebook travel?
Registration: https://ucop.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2xKkMtrLTTq164Fm3H0H6A
International Students
Under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions regulations, online courses to an individual in a country subject to comprehensive sanctions, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea region of Ukraine, is an export of regulated services that may require a license.
Effective October 29, 2020 OFAC published a new authorization, General License M[2], for certain graduate students located in Iran participating in graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, law, or business or who are taking introductory science, technology, engineering, or mathematics courses ordinarily required for the completion of graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, law, or business.
- Does NOT apply to graduate students in STEM degree programs
- The exportation of software may be authorized
- Students must have been granted an F (students) or M (non-academic students), non-immigrant visa by the U.S. State Department
- Students must not be physically present in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- This authorization is valid through September 1, 2021.
License determinations are made by the location’s Export Control Officer, who will review the proposed activity and apply for a specific license when one is needed. Reach out to Amy Green <acgreen1@uci.edu>, Research Compliance & Policy Administrator for UCI if you have additional questions.
Social Sciences Hosting Numerous Election Based Webinars
The Deans of UCI have come together fo host different election based webinars extending through mid December. See below for the full schedule.
- Problems of Democracy
November 9 | Noon - 1:30 pm PT
Register: https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2020/2020-11-09-thomsen.php
- Reflecting on the 2020 Elections: The Humanities Respond
November 9 | 1 pm - 2 pm PT
Register: https://ucihumanities.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nt5mSzpNQpW13lYr1riwvg
- Integration or Decoupling: What Lies Ahead
November 12 | Noon - 2 pm PT
Register: https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2020/2020-11-12-long-institute.php
- Election 2020 in Review
November 17 | Noon - 1:30 pm PT
Register: https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2020/2020-11-17-election-in-review.php
- Health Care and the 2020 Presidential Election
December 2 | 9:30 - 10:45 am PT
Register: https://merage.uci.edu/events/2020/12/chcmp-fall-speaker-program.html
- Problems of Democracy
December 7 | Noon - 1:30 pm PT
Register: https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2020/2020-12-07-goggin.php
- Special Book Launch Event: Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now
December 10 | 11 am - Noon PT
Register: https://ucihumanities.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q-mWIGysTNW8P0Hkrc7Bbg
From the Office of the Campus Writing and Communication Coordinator
Effective Responses to Student Writing Workshop
Monday, November 16, 2020
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m
This workshop will offer
- tips and guidelines for maximizing the impact of your responses to written assignments
- different strategies for responding to student work that will
- get your students’ attention
- challenge them to take ownership of their learning and writing.
- The workshop will be hosted on Zoom.
While this workshop is focused on feedback from course assignments that would be most useful to those serving as instructors or ASEs, it will also be very useful to those of you who supervise students as researchers, either as a more senior PhD student or as a postdoc.
Please RSVP by November 11, 2020. Zoom link will be emailed to registered attendees. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jQHZMAM9aSYy_SwnFNlvE4lhSGcnGZenKDjtKa_y8Ng/viewform
Office Hours This Week
As always, we look forward to seeing you in office hours. No agenda needed, all questions welcome. In particular, our new Associate Deans are very much looking forward to talking with people about your needs. So, please pop in to those if you just want to share your experiences and what you need to thrive here at UCI.
All office hours are half an hour.
Monday 11/9: Noon - https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057, Dean Hayes
Tuesday 11/10: 6PM - https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057, Dean Hayes
Wednesday 11/11: 3PM - https://uci.zoom.us/j/4520706918 - AD Smith - Veteran’s Day!
Thursday 11/12: Noon - https://uci.zoom.us/j/4520706918 - AD Smith
Friday 11/13: 9AM - https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057, Sr. Staff from Grad Division
In closing
I think all of us can agree this year has been a rough one to say the least and this week has been just a microcosm of it. At the end of a week like this one, we can all use a bit of cheering up. So, enjoy this list of funny things people online have to say about waiting for Nevada:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tanyachen/nevada-ballots-time-memes-president
Apologies in advance to anyone in Nevada!
And my favorite meme of the week from a classic movie Groundhog Day:
[alt text: Phil from Goundhog Day holding a microphone saying Well it’s Election Day again.]
If you haven’t seen Groundhog Day, it's well worth a watch when you need some escapism.
Enjoy the weekend and try not to break your F5 key hitting refresh.
On behalf of all of Graduate Division,
Gillian Hayes
Kleist Professor of Informatics
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate Division