(COVID-19): Campus Health Updates
Section 1
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Registrar's Office FAQ Page | Official University FAQ Page
4/14/2020 - Daily COVID-19 Graduate Division Update
Hello Grad Students and Postdocs,
We know you live for inbox clutter, and we do like to provide you with what you need. However, we have realized something important that we take to be pretty darn good news actually… the amount of information we need to share with you everyday is dwindling. “What? How can that be?,” you may ask. Well, it turns out that you are really smart people who can figure things out pretty quickly, and that once we hit week three of the quarter and week five of isolation, things have kind of settled. We are all in a waiting game right now, waiting to see how long it will take to reopen things, waiting to see if the consulates will open and get our international students here, waiting to see how much money the state and federal government will send our way….waiting, waiting, waiting.
As always, we are here for you, and you should drop us an email or come to office hours anytime. Office hours will still be held every day. We are going to spare your inboxes though, and move these to a couple of times per week. When? It’s a MYSTERY! I’ll send you a message when it’s something urgent or when we have built up enough non-urgent stuff to warrant one of these. Think of it like a scavenger hunt (or something more fun?)
So for the news of the day… here we go:
International Center Information
OPT (Optional Practical Training) Information Sessions are now on Zoom every Wednesday @ 9:30 AM for spring. Advisors will review most frequently asked questions and students are encouraged to have your OPT application materials on hand. Students must register in advance to participate in the sessions.
Coffee & Cultural Connections Hour are continuing to take place this quarter on Zoom (Fridays, 11 AM - 12 PM during Week 1, 3, 5, 7, 9). This is a comfortable space to discuss stress, burnout and exhaustion, social distancing, news consumption, and more. This week’s discussion will be on consuming the avalanche of news coverage regarding COVID-19. Join us with your favorite cup of coffee.
NIH Resources
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have provided a plethora of webinars and online resources ranging from how to manage trainees all the way to keeping your own stress levels down during this time. Click here to check out all the resources NIH has available.
REMINDERS About Support Funding:
- For those of you who find yourself in financial distress, please fill out the Request for Hardship/Emergency Support Form for small grants to support emergency needs.
- Internet Access Assistance
- On-campus housing Please use the following request form to determine your needs and request an ethernet adapter and/or longer cable: Ethernet Adapter Request Form.
- UCI has a limited number of Internet Hotspots that will be loaned out to our graduate students free of charge for those living off-campus. To determine if you qualify for the hotspot, please complete the following form: Off-Campus Hotspot Request Form
- Travel Assistance: AGS has emergency travel funding available (GRAD STUDENTS ONLY): https://www.ags.uci.edu/services/travel/
Please note, while we will do our best to accomodate all of these requests, availability isn't necessarily guaranteed, and so as always please reserve support for those who need them.
REMINDER 2020-21 Applications for Continuing Student Fellowships:
More information about each fellowship is available at https://grad.uci.edu/funding/index.php
- Faculty Mentor Program (FMP), PhD only
- President's Dissertation Year Fellowship (PDY), PhD only
- Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship (GDDF), PhD and MFA
For more specific questions please contact:
FMP/PDY: Daniel Fabrega dfabrega@uci.edu
GDDF: Claudia Campos, cfcampos@uci.edu
REMINDER Upcoming Support Groups with Graduate Counselors:
- Thursday, April 16: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
- Thursday, May 7: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
- Thursday, May 28: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
https://uci.zoom.us/j/2530668585
REMINDER Come Visit GD:
Dean’s Virtual Office Hours: https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057.
- Wednesday, April 15: 11:30am – Noon
- Thursday, April 16: 9am – 9:30am
- Friday, April 17: 3:00pm – 3:30pm
UCI IN THE NEWS - COVID-19 Article List
- The New York Times, April 14, 2020 Stigma Hampers Iraqi Efforts to Fight the Coronavirus
- CNBC, April 14, 2020 As college classes move online, don’t expect a tuition discount due to coronavirus
- Honolulu Civil Beat, April 14, 2020 Hawaii Appears To Be Flattening The COVID-19 Curve – For Now
In Closing:
I’ve just asked 6,000 really smart, go-getters to “wait and see.” We will wait for news of this virus. We will wait to see what happens to the job market. We will wait to see what happens to our scholarships. We will wait to see how many students show up here in the fall. We will wait for a lot right now. I don’t know about you, but I HATE waiting. It is deeply dissatisfying, and so I understand how annoying I am to you right now. And so I offer you an alternative option, thanks to Anne Frank, wise beyond her years and gone too early:
“How wonderful it is that nobody needs wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Maybe you can’t make progress right now on your coursework, research, or career the way you would like. You must wait. You don’t have to wait for other things though. A few of the many things I have seen you all doing:
- Volunteering at food banks, blood banks, clinics, and shelters
- Helping your peers with their writing
- Doing your own reading and writing
- Learning a new language or teaching someone else a new language
- Caring for beautiful young children and wise older friends and relatives
- Caring for each other
- Being politically active
We will be putting out a video on social media tomorrow highlighting some of the wonderful things you are all doing to keep it together and make the world just a slightly better place in this dark time. Follow @UCIrvineGD on Twitter or Instagram to see it. If nothing else, at least it gives you something else to do while you wait.
Until next time… which I promise won’t be tomorrow!
On behalf of all of Graduate Division,
Gillian
Gillian Hayes
Kleist Professor of Informatics
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate Division