(COVID-19): Campus Health Updates
Section 1
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6/2/2020 - Daily COVID-19 Graduate Division Update
Dear Graduate Students and Post-Docs,
It’s hard to feel celebratory about much of anything these days, but it is Pride month, and so I wanted to take a moment to celebrate. We still have so far to go, but the advances we have made all around the world to support and acknowledge the LGBTQIA is really to be commended. And from a personal standpoint, I am so grateful for the excellent research, scholarship, and activism from this campus that has furthered our progress. A few of my favorite examples:
The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia by Tom Boellstorff
Video Games Have Always Been Queer by Bo Ruberg
Techne: Queer Meditations on Writing the Self by Jacqueline Rhodes and Jonathan Alexander
Disclosure, Stress, and Support During Gender Transition on Facebook by Oliver Haimson et al.
While I am channeling my most professorial of professorial self, I have gotten a lot of questions from graduate students who are not Black but want to learn more and be supportive during this time. First, I really appreciate the desire to learn. I am no expert, and I have a lot of work to do myself. Second, I appreciate the respect to limit our requests for extra labor from our Black colleagues and community members in the guise of educating the rest of us. We should be responsible for education ourselves rather than asking for yet more work. I am sure there are other great books out there, but here are some that I found helpful in my own anti-racist education:
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
What are you all reading? Personally, I am struggling to read as much as normal. Homeschooling two little kids, working around the clock, and just emotional fatigue are getting in my way. I’d love to build up some recommendations from all of you though.
So, send them over!
And now some events and information for the week:
Webinar: Town Hall on Immigration Issues and White House Chinese Graduate Student Restrictions
Thursday, June 4th
Noon PT
The UCI Office of Global Engagement is offering a town hall from 12-1 p.m. on Thursday, June 4 as a follow up to address concerns about President Trump's recent proclamation that bars entry to the U.S. for some international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have links to certain entities in China and who are in specific fields of study.
Register today for an access code: https://forms.gle/soGpwkGrH87ZrQpHA
The event will feature industry and UCI leaders discussing the latest news about immigration issues affecting universities and answering your questions.
Speakers include:
- Tom Bogenschild, Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Advocacy Chair
- Alberto Sandoval, Senior Director of Community and Government Relations, UCI
- David Ware, Immigration attorney specializing in higher education
- Anna Wimberly, Director, UCI International Center
Additional Resources:
- UCI International Center
- Graduate Counselors in Graduate Division - Phong Luong at pbluong@uci.edu and Elizabeth Dunn at dunnes@uci.edu
- UCI Counseling Center
- UC Advocacy Network
Flexibility During Final Exams
The Academic Senate recently sent out a message to UCI faculty regarding the need for flexibility when issuing final exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past several days, there has been added stress and hardship due to the recent social injustices in our country. Faculty have been strongly urged to be as flexible and make as many accommodations as possible. Those of you who are TAs and Readers are encouraged to talk with the lead instructor of your course regarding accommodations and additional support you might offer to the students in your classes. As graduate students taking courses, you are also encouraged to talk with your instructors about flexibility during this very difficult time.
REMINDER - Webinar: Mourning and Anti-Blackness
Wednesday, June 3rd
Noon PT
Please join the UCI Humanities Center to reflect on the persistence of anti-Black violence and harm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to register.
Speakers:
Jessica Millward, Associate Professor of History
Sabrina Strings, Associate Professor of Sociology
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Associate Professor of African American Studies
Moderated by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Faculty Director of the Humanities Center
REMINDER - DECADE Forum in Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter
Thursday, June 4th
1:00 - 2:30 pm PT
DECADE welcomes all graduate students and post-docs for conversation and reflection regarding the racial events and violence that have impacted Black communities across the United States. Speakers from across campus will facilitate a conversation regarding anti-Blackness and supporting systemic change. Graduate Division and DECADE stand in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter. Click here to register.
The Department of Informatics, the Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), and the Department of Anthropology present:
2019-2020 NSF-REU on Community Organizations, Data Justice, and Law
Findings, Experiences, and, Reflections of Undergraduate Researchers
Friday, June 5th
11:30am-1:00pm
Contact: Jenny Fan atjcfan@uci.edufor Zoom info
Encouraging critical multidisciplinary collaboration, learning, and mentorship duly grounded in community engagement, this National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Experience (NSF-REU) brought together faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers in anthropology, computer science, and informatics to understand how organizations that serve minoritized communities conceptualize and utilize data in pursuing justice across various domains. The research aimed to uncover assumptions built into data infrastructures and how they shape the relationships between community organizations, the communities they serve, and the issues they engage with.
Five undergraduate students participated in this 25-week learning, mentorship, and research experience aimed to critically expose them to methods and issues surrounding data and computing practices. They read and discussed literature across disciplines, designed and populated a database of case studies, interviewed and engaged with community organizers, and wrote & presented scholarly output, all the while critically reflecting on their experiences as students, researchers, and future computing professionals.
This presentation shares the findings and deliverables of the undergraduates together with their experiences and reflections on their research, the program, and more broadly, the role of ethics in computing education and practice.
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Presented by: Undergraduate researchers: Sion Avakian, Stuti Rana, Manasi Shingane, Kevin Vasques; Graduate Student Researchers Benedict (Bono) Salazar Olgado and Lucy Pei.
Principal Investigators for the 2019-2020 NSF REU: Professor Roderic Crooks, Dean Bill Maurer.
Dean’s Office Hours
As always, come see us in Office Hours. Sometimes you just need to vent or celebrate or laugh or cry. If you want to do that with us, please do come. You can also come for specific questions of course. We are here for you no matter what you need.
Upcoming Dean’s Virtual Office Hours: https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477057
- Wednesday, June 3 8:30-9AM
- Thursday, June 4 11:30AM-Noon
- Friday, June 5 11-11:30AM
- Monday, June 8 11-11:30AM
- Tuesday June 9 9-9:30AM
- Wednesday June 10 11-11:30AM
- Thursday June 11 2-2:30PM
- Friday June 12 9-9:30AM
In Closing
I want to thank so many of you it’s hard to even count. Whether it’s the passionate discussion from this morning’s virtual office hours or the emails I get, I see the support you all have for one another. I see you advocating for yourselves and for each other. I see you in pain and in joy. Mostly, I just want to say that I see you. That would not be possible, especially given our distance, without you being bold, reaching out, and telling us what you are going through.
Lou Holtz, when he wasn’t yelling for touchdowns, occasionally said some powerful things, including “I follow three rules: do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.”
We have a lot of work to do as a country, as a university, as a community, and as individuals. Sometimes it’s hard to see beyond what is just in front of us, that next grant deadline, that next paper, that next course. Each day, we all have choices to do what we think is right as well as we can and show people we care.
On behalf of all of Graduate Division, we care so much about you. Let us all work together to do what is right as best we can.
Gillian
Gillian Hayes
Kleist Professor of Informatics
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate Division