(COVID-19): Campus Health Updates
Section 1
***Please Click Here for Official Campuswide Updates***
Registrar's Office FAQ Page | Official University FAQ Page
6/15/2020 - Daily COVID-19 Graduate Division Update
Dear Graduate Students and Post-Docs,
I can hardly believe it is nearly the start to summer quarter, and for our Law Students, we are less than two months from the start of fall term. Time is going so quickly and so slowly at the same time lately. You are enduring nothing like we have ever seen before. Every day is an accomplishment. I have the privilege of seeing just how many advancements and defenses are still happening across the campus, just how many students are completing their degrees, just how many prestigious fellowships are being offered, the grants the post-docs are earning, and on it goes. Every day that you wake up, breathe in and out, and keep going right now is to be applauded. You are also doing so much more than that. You give me hope for the future. I can’t wait to see what an amazing, resilient group of students will do in the next decade and beyond.
Here is some information that may be helpful on that quest:
Response to Anticipated Presidential Proclamation
There have been reports that the Trump administration may announce a new Presidential Proclamation further restricting foreign national travel and employment. As of today, no official details, preliminary or otherwise, have been provided by the government.
Please know that the International Center is working closely with the UC Office of the President (UCOP), other UC campuses, as well as our professional organizations to monitor the issues impacting our international community. The International Center will provide additional information as it becomes available and we will relay that information in our daily messages as well.
We recognize that the anticipated Presidential Proclamation brings uncertainty, and we encourage international students, scholars and faculty to reach out to the International Center with questions or concerns. Questions can be directed to Anna Wimberly acwimber@uci.edu.
The Council of Graduate Schools has also compiled some resources, including a timeline of events.
Relaxed In-State Status Requirements Extended Through Fall Quarter
The UC Residency Policy and Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) currently provide that students must be physically present within California for a year prior to the Residency Determination Date (RDD) and that absences of six weeks or more in a one-year period disqualify a student from receiving in-state status. However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Guidelines are hereby further amended in three ways.
First, to provide that a student’s absence from the state for any length of time between March 9, 2020 and the Residency Determination Date for Fall 2020 at their campus shall not be counted toward the six week limit if the absence is caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that students who temporarily left California in response to the pandemic remain eligible for in-state residency for the 2020-21 academic year so long as they meet all other applicable eligibility requirements.
Second, the Guidelines are further amended to provide that a student, who has been or may be granted in-state status based on Financial Independence, may accept or use financial resources from another individual between March 9, 2020 and the end of the 2019-20 academic year without loss of eligibility for in-state status if the transfer of resources is made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Third, the enrollment in courses for the 2020 Fall term delivered via remote instruction will serve as a replacement for physical presence if the following conditions are met: (1) the UC campus has extended the opportunity for remote instruction, and (2) the student may qualify for residency on their own without regard to a parent per Regents Policy 3105 I.C.2, or temporarily through a noncustodial California parent per Regents Policy 3105 I.D.4. Students will still need to acquire applicable legal indicia to prove their intent to stay in California, as they do now, and will have until the end of the Spring 2021 term to do so.
DTEI and Contact Tracing Fellowships
Award letters went out last week for ~300 DTEI fellowships. If you received one, you were notified by email with a copy to your Associate Dean. The deadline to decline is TODAY or we assume you are accepting it.
If you applied but did not receive one [no email], you will be considered for a Contact Tracing Fellowship. You may also still receive a DTEI fellowship, as some students are unable to accept them.
As a reminder, for contact tracing fellows, if you are offered a fellowship, you will do around 70 hours of training over the course of the summer beginning July 13. The training will be both asynchronous (recordings) and synchronous (live webinars). You may then be “called up” to serve the campus and community over the next year for up to 130 hours of actually doing the contact tracing.
We anticipate completing the final DTEI Fellow and Contact Tracing Fellow awards this week.
Dean’s Office Hours
As always, come see us in Office Hours. I or someone from my Graduate Division staff will be here Monday through Friday to answer any specific questions you may have. See the upcoming schedule below.
Upcoming Dean’s Virtual Office Hours: https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057
- Tuesday, June 16 9:00am – 9:30am
- Wednesday, June 17 11:30am – 12:00pm
- Thursday, June 18 11:00am – 11:30am
- Friday, June 19 3:30pm – 4:00pm
- Monday, June 22 11:00am – 11:30am
- Tuesday, June 23 9:00am – 9:30am
- Wednesday, June 24 11:00am – 11:30am
- Thursday, June 25 9:00am – 9:30am
- Friday, June 26 8:30am – 9:00am
In Closing
There is at last some good news….June Goom is here! For those of you who, like me, have been roasting, it is supposed to be cloudy until Sunday. Phew. Enjoy the relatively cooler air, get out and get some exercise, and try to appreciate that you made it through the toughest and weirdest term of teaching, learning, and researching any of us have ever experienced. In the meantime, we are working towards determining some spaces that you all can use for on campus space when the weather turns warm again. Unfortunately, if you are watching the news at all, our COVID-19 numbers in California are not looking great. However, our public health experts have developed a body that is acting like a Data Safety Monitoring Board in clinical trials though and watching every bit of data closely. We rely on their guidance as we work to slowly provide access to on-campus physical resources--and may take that access away as public health guidance dictates.
I don’t know about all of you, but I have been finding it tough to wind down late at night thinking about all of the challenges we are up against. And so, I have gone back to simple, slightly trashy, old tv shows. Lately, that has been Community. I am reminded that as we go through all of these challenges, please take your time for self-care. Please laugh, even through all the pain and stress. Please talk to or hug your families and/or your friends. Take care of yourselves.
[Alt text, the Dean from Community saying “I’m going to be a lean, mean, deaning machine.]
In return, I promise to at least try to be a better dean than that guy.
What are you all watching and reading? I’d love some recommendations!
On behalf of all of Graduate Division,
Gillian
Gillian Hayes
Kleist Professor of Informatics
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate Division