For Your Information | July 22, 2021

 

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Aggie Orientation: Call for Faculty and Staff Volunteers

Fall quarter is right around the corner, and that means Aggie Orientation will be in full swing. Student Housing and Dining Services is looking for faculty and professional staff volunteers to help greet our students September 17 - 21. If you would like to volunteer for a shift on any day, please fill out our survey. Volunteering is completely optional outside of your events you may be facilitating, and of course, there is no pressure to volunteer. Student Housing and Dining Services will send out specific shift sign ups in another month and will have a short Zoom training before Orientation.

Rahim Reed Retires From the Community He Helped Build

You probably read Vice Chancellor Tull’s “teaser” article about the retirement of Rahim Reed and his mutli-decade contributions to UC Davis in our previous newsletter. Please enjoy this full tribute from the campus. You can also read about ways to honor Rahim by leaving a message on his Kudo board or a contribution to a scholarship that has been set up in his honor for students from Sacramento. The scholarship will assist students who graduate from a public high school in Sacramento County and have been accepted into UC Davis. 

A MESSAGE FROM VICE CHANCELLOR TULL

Dear Friends,  

Throughout the last several days, we have been celebrating our dear colleague, AEVC – OCCR Rahim Reed, who retired from UC Davis after 20 years. This past Monday, UC Davis Dateline posted a beautiful story about his work and his legacy, reminding us that AEVC Reed came to UC Davis a few days after 9/11, and that he has been dedicated to building campus community since his first day! Please see the new campus-wide article, Rahim Reed Retires From the Community He Helped Build. Rahim’s virtual and in-person celebrations have concluded, but you can still “participate” in honoring him posting a message to his “kudoboard,” and by donating any amount to the scholarship in his name that will assist students from high schools in Sacramento who will come to UC Davis. The new, direct link for the giving page for the “Rahim Reed Award” can be found here.

In this issue, I also salute UC Davis’ Strategic Communications unit (Strat Comm) for seeking ways to develop a stronger practice of DEI within their work. Their new website dedicated to DEI is here, and next week, they will launch their new blog, “Documenting the DEI Journey.” A screenshot from a segment of their Zoom conversation can be seen here (posted with permission). It is a testament to their commitment and willingness to continue to learn. The team members noted that they are willing to be vulnerable and “learn in public.”  The new blog will be edited by Tanya Perez and will include an introduction from Dana Topousis, UC Davis’ Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Perez notes that the blog will “discuss how the UC Davis Magazine factors DEI into their planning and how they work to keep learning, a team member's evolution to a better understanding of best inclusive practices, and DEI awareness in photography.” We will look forward to reading the blog, and thank you for sharing the journey! Strat Comm’s efforts connect to GOAL 4 of the D&I Strategic Vision: Promote diversity and inclusion in research, teaching, public service, and training across campus and in neighboring communities, which includes Objective 4A: Embed cultural competency in all academic and training programs, administrative units/programs, and workplaces to support diversity and inclusion goals.

This is our last issue for the summer, and we will take a break in August. Thank you to our Newsletter Editor Tom O’Donnell, and to all of the team members who have worked with us to make sure that you receive information about activities and initiatives related to DEI on campus and beyond. We hope that you will have an opportunity to enjoy a bit of the summer, and that there will be an opportunity to refresh and rejuvenate. Our next issue will post on Thursday, September 9, 2021. We’ll see you in the Fall!

Warmest Regards,
Renetta

Call for Nominations: Asia Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) Mentoring Program

In partnership with the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), UC Davis Global Affairs and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are now accepting nominations and self-nominations for faculty mentors and mentees for the APWiL Mentoring Program. The program focuses on empowerment, professional growth and development in order expand the pipeline of aspiring APRU women leaders. Mentors and mentees will identify goals and meet virtually, join a cohort of mentor/mentee pairs in the APRU network, and participate in workshops throughout the year. Faculty from all backgrounds are welcome to participate. Contact the APWiL Mentoring Program Coordinator, Chelsey Hawes chawes@ucdavis.edu, with nominations and/or questions. The deadline to submit nominations is August 4, 2021. Read the full announcement here.

Call for Expressions of Interest: 2021-22 International Virtual Course Collaboration

Global Affairs invites expressions of interest from UC Davis faculty interested in developing an international virtual course collaboration with partners at universities abroad to support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To participate in this initiative, faculty need not design new courses, nor is it necessary to co-teach an entire course with a faculty member from the partner institution. Instead, international virtual course collaboration focuses on developing joint modules, class sessions, or projects with a faculty member from a partner international institution that will benefit students and engage them in global learning. Learn more here.

UPDATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Office of Academic Diversity | AVC Lorena Oropeza

Marie Heffern Receives NSF CAREER Award

That name may sound familiar because it was just last month that we announced CAMPOS Faculty Scholar and Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Marie Heffern received the prestigious Paul Saltman Young Investigator Award. Now we are delighted to announce she has also been selected for a NSF CAREER award for her proposal titled “CAREER: Elucidating the Interaction Dynamics of Soil Metals with Flavonoids in the Plant Rhizosphere.” Click over to her Twitter feed to learn more about her lab’s work (and her forthcoming fourth anniversary at UC Davis). Congratulations Dr. Heffern!

“Why do my headphone cables keep getting tangled?”

CAMPOS Faculty Director and Professor of Mathematics and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Mariel Vazquez was featured on the BBC News podcast “CrowdScience” to explain the science behind tangles and knots. “While tangles might be annoying in hair or cables, they’re also a fundamental part of human life. Our DNA is constantly folding itself to fit inside tiny spaces – there are two metres of the stuff inside every cell, where it’s packed down tightly, before it must untangle and duplicate for those cells to divide. It does this with the help of specific enzymes, and when the process goes wrong it leads to cell death. But scientists [like Vazquez] are also studying molecular tangles that might benefit us humans.” Please give a listen here!

Office of Campus Community Relations | AEVC Rahim Reed

Call for Nominations: 2021-2022 Diversity Awareness Workshops

The Office of Campus Community Relations invites you to participate in or nominate a faculty or staff colleague for the 2021-2022 Diversity Awareness Workshops.

The Diversity Awareness Workshop was initiated in 1993. The goal of the workshop, which is a part of our Diversity Education Program, is to build awareness about the diversity of our campus community and engage in important conversations about ways of making our campus more inclusive and more welcoming. As our campus continues to grow, these types of important dialogues are more imperative to ensure that we continue to aspire towards an environment that is inclusive of our diversity. Since its inception in the early 1990s, more than a thousand campus community members have participated in the workshop. I hope that you will consider taking part in this great educational and community building opportunity.

The first of our two-day diversity workshops is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, August 26-27, 2021 from 8:30am - 5:00pm, with more sessions planned in fall, winter, and spring. We are planning for these sessions to be in-person, following University guidelines and protocols in response to COVID.  If selected, we ask participants to comply with the guidelines. 

If you are interested in participating in or would like to nominate a colleague for one of our sessions, please complete the online Participant Interest Form. 

Space is limited, so please respond by August 6, 2021 in order to be considered. If selected, participants will receive a confirmation letter with additional information; those not selected this year will be notified and their names will be placed on the waiting list, and they will receive priority for future sessions. At this time we are only able to consider participants who have not attended the workshop in previous years. If you have any questions, please contact Sunny Dosanjh at ssdosanjh@ucdavis.edu or at (530) 754‑0610.

Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion | AVC Hendry Ton

Recruitment Announcement: Prep Medico Program Coordinator

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for a Program Coordinator position as part of our Prep Medico Program. Interested applicants may find the job posting at https://hr.ucdavis.edu/careers, see Job ID 19394, the final application filing date is August 3, 2021. To directly link to the job posting please click here. Please feel free to share this information to your colleagues, networks and listservs.

Recruiting for a Director of Medical Center and Clinical Services Culture, Climate & Community Engagement

We are pleased to announce that the office of Health, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (HEDI) is recruiting to identify a new Director of Medical Center and Clinical Services Culture, Climate & Community Engagement. The incumbent reports directly to the Associate Vice Chancellor (AVC) for HEDI, with dotted line reporting to Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer, and is charged with leading our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in focused clinical service areas at UC Davis Health. The Director will partner in operationalizing the mission and vision of making University of California Davis Health a fully inclusive, anti-racist, and multicultural organization that integrates the Principles of Community across the organization. Please see the position information and qualifications summary, see Job ID: 19461. Applications will be accepted through August 7, 2021. Please feel free to distribute this announcement and/or share the post on LinkedIn.

EVENTS

July 8 - August 19

TANA & YoloArts Mural Exhibit Collaboration: “Larger than Life: Murals in the Making”
Please join us Thursday, July 8, 5:30-8pm for the opening of Larger Than Life: Murals in the Making, an exhibit of local and regional mural artists curated and presented in collaboration with YoloArts. The exhibition will feature the work of local and regional mural artists including Elyse Doyle-Martinez, Chris Herman, Jared Konopitski, Emma Montalbano, Gladys Padilla, Jenn Ponci, Melissa Uroff and artists affiliated with TANA. It will additionally feature artwork from students in the Art 171: Mexican and Chicanx Mural Workshop, an interactive social justice arts course taught in the Chicana/o Studies department at UC Davis, founded by Malaquias Montoya, Professor Emeritus and co-founder of Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA), and taught by Jose Arenas, Executive Director of TANA. 

Exhibition Dates: July 8 – August 19, 2021   
Opening Reception: July 8, 5:30 - 8pm  

• 5:30-8pm - Music and refreshments. Featuring live printmaking by TANA.  
• 6:00PM - Unveiling of the 3rd annual High School mural project created by students and staff at Cesar Chavez Community School. Facilitated by Tomas Montoya and Monica Aceves Robles.  
• Community Mural Project: Make your mark on a community mural which will be set up outside the barn Gallery during open hours. All ages encouraged! 
• Location: The Barn Gallery, 512 Gibson Road Woodland, California 95695. Additional Info Here.

July 26, 28, and August 2

Facilitating Spaces Centered on Dismantling White Supremacy: A 3-part training series with an emphasis on leading white accountability spaces | 2:00PM
Hosted by the UC Davis Critical Whiteness Collective, this training series intends to educate and mobilize participants with interest in leading anti-racist organizing groups at UC Davis, with an emphasis on facilitating peer-led white accountability groups. All UC Davis community members are invited to skill-build, strategize, and co-create ongoing racial justice groups that center accountability, transformation, and ending white supremacy. This training series is funded by the UC Davis Office of Diversity, Equity Inclusion and the Division of Student Affairs. Zoom registration.

July 29, Thursday

Staff/Faculty Womxn of Color Support Group | 12:00PM
This group was brought together in 2019 by Dr. Gill and Cecily to support womxn of color employed at UC Davis. The intention is to offer a safe and encouraging space to support healing, growth and development in the personal and professional lives of womxn of color. Hosts: Dr. Satinder Gill, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Academic and Staff Assistance Program Cecily Nelson-Alford, Director, Women’s Resources and Research Center. Consent for participation is necessary, please contact drgill@ucdavis.edu for more information. The groups meets bi-weekly year round on Thursday (next meeting 8/12).

RECOMMENDED READING

Kendall Powell, “The parenting penalities faced by scientist mothers,” Nature, July 20, 2021.
Starting a family at a key career stage comes at a cost to birthing parents — and many end up leaving the profession as a result. Read the article here.

Jennifer Chu, “Study highlights long road toward gender parity in the geosciences,” MIT News, July 16, 2021.
Researchers find improvement in relative retention of women but predict decades of sustained effort are required to achieve gender parity. Read the article here.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Reporting Concerns of Harassment and Discrimination
The Harassment & Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program (HDAPP) supports the University's commitment to a harassment and discrimination-free work and learning environment for all members of the UC Davis, UC Davis Health, and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR). 

If you are interested in reporting concerns of Harassment and Discrimination, please contact HDAPP to file a report and/or speak with a representative to better understand your options. Learn more about HDAPP here or go to HDAPP's website for more information.

Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center
The mission of Aggie Compass is to help mitigate the effects of food and housing insecurity on students, while working to change policy, systems and environment that will affect long term change. The Aggie Compass is a comfortable space for students to build community and learn about basic needs resources, pick up fresh fruits and vegetables, receive CalFresh enrollment assistance and help finding stable housing.

If you need help with food or housing insecurity concerns, financial or mental wellness, please visit their website for more information.

Counseling Services Mental Health Resources Webinar [requires Kerberos log-in] One of the things we hear frequently from instructors about teaching in Spring 2020 is the extent to which they encountered students in their courses experiencing significant stress or crisis, yet they felt unequipped to help or direct students to resources. To help, Student Health and Counseling Services provided a Mental Health Resources Webinar. If supporting students in crisis is a concern for you, please watch this previously-recorded webinar. Webinar topics include an overview of mental health services on campus, how to make referrals, signs of distress and how to respond, and how faculty can support students in the classroom (remote or on-campus). Student Affairs has also provided this folder of faculty resources.

Content Submission Form

Do you have a DEI-oriented event, announcement, or article that you would like us to help promote through our DEI communication channels? Did your unit/department or a member of your unit/department receive recognition that demonstrates your commitment to DEI? If so, please send us your information through this online form.

We invite you to share and submit your thoughts and items for our newsletter (either current or future news and events) at diversityinclusion@ucdavis.edu

Thank you for your dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion!

#ThinkBigDiversity
https://diversity.ucdavis.edu/