(COVID-19): Campus Health Updates
Section 1
***Please Click Here for Official Campuswide Updates***
Registrar's Office FAQ Page | Official University FAQ Page
4/17/2020 - Daily COVID-19 Graduate Division Update
Hello Graduate Students and Post-Docs,
I am sure some of you have already seen the tough news coming out of the UC around the major impacts to our operations and budgets from coronavirus as well as stories from neighboring states like Arizona of rescinded PhD offers. None of this is good news. However, we do want to remind you that despite these challenges the UC remains the biggest conferrer of doctoral degrees of any university in the US (and probably the world, but I don’t know for sure). We are deeply committed to protecting our students and our staff. Although we are now looking very closely and carefully at any new hires, we are committed to no layoffs this quarter and as few as possible beyond that. We are also deploying relief to students, staff, and faculty as quickly as possible.
To that end, I am glad to announce that many of you have already received confirmation of what we can offer you in emergency relief funding. For those approved as of today, we will work to get these funds out to you as quickly as possible, and in some cases, they have already been released. All requests we receive after today will be vetted together in a few weeks as part of a second round of funding. The response to this emergency aid has been enormous, and we were not able to meet all of the needs. For those of you needing support to pay tuition, we recommend you reach out to Financial Aid to have your need assessed or reassessed.
I am also happy to report that this giant box of networking equipment arrived today!
(Alt text: A picture of boxes of networking equipment inside a car, ready to distribute to students!)
Turner Dahl, who many of you know from our office, has been working like mad to get these all ordered and ready for distribution. If you requested an ethernet adapter, Cat5 cable, or wifi hotspot, please be on the lookout for an email from Turner with how to pick it up. Hopefully, even for those of you who did not ask for this equipment, you will get some help by some people not being on their routers. As a reminder, the more you can plug directly into the wall rather than use your own router, the better!
For those of you looking for summer funding, please know that schools, faculty, and our central resources are all being assessed right now to see what else we can do to help you with the summer. If you normally have funding or employment in the summer that has otherwise been disrupted by COVID-19 and you have not been able to find replacement funds, please let us know by completing this form.The more information we have about overall needs, the better planning we can do. Please note this is not a request for summer funding. This is just a request for information at this point.
Tax Information: UCI Employees Working Out of State and Non-Resident Employees
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some UCI employees who normally work in California may now be working outside of the state. Employees who fall into this category may qualify for state taxes in the state they reside while telecommuting. Please seek advice from your tax advisor if you have questions or concerns about changing your tax filing status.
If this work situation applies to you and you would like to change your state residency for tax purposes, please follow these steps:
- Log in to UCPath Online
- Click on Forms Library > Access Forms > Payroll > Out of State Income Tax Withholding
- Review the information, complete the form and submit
For Non-Resident Employees (residing outside the U.S.), please review the following:
- Log in to UCPath Online
- Complete the Foreign Source Income Statement (if applicable). Click on Forms Library > Access Forms > Payroll > Foreign Source Income Statement
- Submit an Out of State Income Tax Withholding Form (and attach the Foreign Source Income Statement if applicable). Click on Forms Library > Access Forms > Payroll > Out of State Income Tax Withholding
- Submit updates to your GLACIER account if temporarily working out of the country
Study Regarding COVID-19 and the Affect it on a Student’s Overall Well-Being
UCI Professor Mahtab Jaffari is conducting the following study on how COVID-19 is affecting students’ overall well-being. Please read below and take the following survey if interested. The results of this study will be published.
The COVID-19 pandemic could be an unprecedented cause of stress among college students. The main objectives for this survey are to learn about the status of your mental health and overall well-being, the tools that you use to cope with this pandemic, and the assistance that you have been receiving from your college/university.
Your participation is very important because the results may not only be used to inform the colleges and university administrators about how you are doing now but it may also assist them to approach and address similar situations more effectively and efficiently in the future. Your participation in this survey is voluntary. You must be at least 18 years old to participate. If you are younger than 18 years old, please stop now.
The possible risks or discomforts of this research study are minimal. You may have never reflected on some of the issues that you will be asked about, so this might be uncomfortable, or it might even be thought-provoking for you. The survey will be anonymous, and your identity will not be collected. You can also choose to stop taking the survey at any time.
If you have any questions about this research, please contact Professor Mahtab Jafari by emailing her at mjafari@uci.edu. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research subject, you may contact the UCI Institutional Review Board at irb@research.uci.edu.
The survey will take about 5-10 minutes to complete.
Please click or copy/paste the URL below to start the survey:
https://uci.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cYKxg6xQNzzFrzT
Dr. Jafari notes that you can forward this survey to other students at UCI and at other colleges and universities.
REMINDER 2020-21 Applications for Continuing Student Fellowships:
More information about each fellowship is available athttps://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 Fabregadfabrega@uci.edu
GDDF: Claudia Campos,cfcampos@uci.edu
REMINDER Upcoming Support Groups with Graduate Counselors:
- Thursday, May 7: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
- Thursday, May 28: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
REMINDER Come Visit GD:
I know you miss us so much now that you don’t get a message every single day. So, come see us “in person.” Remember, you don’t have to have a question. You can just come by to chat.
Dean’s Virtual Office Hours:https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057.
- Monday, April 20th 9:00am – 9:30am
- Tuesday, April 21st 10:00am – 10:30am
- Wednesday, April 22nd 9:00am – 9:30am
- Thursday, April 23rd 9:00am - 9:30am
- Friday, April 24th 3:00pm - 3:30pm
- Monday, April 27th 9:00am – 9:30am
- Tuesday, April 28th 1:00pm – 1:30pm
- Wednesday, April 29th 4:00pm – 4:30pm
- Thursday, April 30th 9:00am – 9:30am
- Friday, May 1st 10:00am – 10:30am
In Closing:
Are you super frustrated at this point? Are you so so so sick of being trapped inside? Are you tired of waiting to find out what will happen fall quarter? I know I am! Many of us seem to have moved into a stage of anger and frustration if we weren’t there already. Daily, we see protests calling for appropriate protective wear for the most vulnerable on the one end and the calling for the opening of the economy on the others. We rail against many of the organizations we expect to be able to call on in times of need. None of it has been able to make us feel any better. It is okay to be angry, but today, in the midst of all that anger, I want to close with a reminder about the work that so many are doing for us. It is not just the doctors, nurses, and hospital workers who are saving us. Every farm worker, truck driver, grocery store clerk, customer service agent, and more are doing work that allows the rest of us to isolate.
Henry James once said, “Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” No matter how frustrated we are, we must remain kind.
Each day I ask my staff to remember that any student or postdoc who reaches out to us and is rude or angry is in pain. And so I also ask you to remember that the people who work at Graduate Division, in your departments, and in your schools have also lost people they love, have also been out sick for weeks on end with COVID-19 and in some cases hospitalized, have also lost income, and are also teaching and caring for kids at home.
Let us all be kind to one another. We truly are all in this together.
This weekend I send you good wishes that our ethernet cables might work, that our emergency funds will reach you, and that one of these darn drug trials will work already.
On behalf of all of Graduate Division,
Gillian
Gillian Hayes
Kleist Professor of Informatics
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate Division