For Your Information | November 12, 2020

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November 12, 2020

Dear Friends,

Thank you for utilizing our resources and for letting us know that they are useful. You utilized our Elections 2020: Caring for Ourselves and Our Community website along with the other campus resources, and there was record voting this year. Congratulations to President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris. Focus on Vice President-Elect Harris’ background has also brought attention to Howard University, an HBCU. As a proud Howard grad myself, I am very pleased to know that a graduate from my Alma mater is breaking through glass ceilings! UC Davis has partnerships with HBCUs through the UC-HBCU initiative.  

This week, the California Aggie published a story on our Anti-Racism Syllabus, “Anti-Racism Syllabus developed at UC Davis following the death of George Floyd,” and on Monday, the Center for Educational Effectiveness leads, “Building an Anti-Racist Classroom Environment." UC Davis’ attention to providing faculty and staff with professional opportunities to build and participate in programming was mentioned in the American Physiological Society’s article, “An Eye on Diversity,” the featured article from the November 2020 issue of The Physiologist Magazine. 

Last week on social media, we also started to share more about our Principles of Community and “4 Words” that resonate for students. The first set of “4 Words” included: Equity, Justice, Respect, and Community. There will be more engagement in the “4 Words” initiative through the Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community, and leading up to our Principles of Community celebration coming in February 2021. Please continue to engage with us in digital spaces. As you do so, please follow the new Twitter account for the Status of Women at Davis Administrative Advisory Committee (@SWADAAC) which ran a short feature on Co-Chair Katrina Wong last month. We may not be able to see one another on campus, but technology still provides ways for us to remain connected.

As always, thank you for your support, and thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Kind Regards,

Renetta G. Tull
Vice Chancellor

“Picture a Scientist”

Coming soon to a web browser near you! PICTURE A SCIENTIST is a feature-length documentary film chronicling the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists. A biologist, a chemist and a geologist lead viewers on a journey deep into their own experiences in the sciences, overcoming brutal harassment, institutional discrimination, and years of subtle slights to revolutionize the culture of science. We will e-mail an invitation to view the film in the coming days and you will have 48 hours to watch it so stay tuned.

Anti-Racism Syllabus

We published a webpage of events that addresses racism and elevates awareness of racism and biasthat took place over the summer, along with numerous others planned for the fall, and invite you to use this resource to engage in activities and learning opportunities that are forthcoming. Some of the events that have passed include opportunities to continue to engage and learn, beyond the date that the event was offered, through summary posts, video recordings, or other asynchronous options. If you see something that is missing, please e-mail Tom O’Donnell.

Center for Educational Effectiveness, “Just-in-Time Teaching: Anti-Racism Series”

CEE’s Just-in-Time Teaching (JITT) resources address a range of strategies instructors can readily use in their classrooms. Each JITT provides a snapshot of the topic, data that inform it, teaching strategies, student comments, and reflection questions. Their newest edition is a three-part series on anti-racism. Part 1: Definitions, significance and preventative/responsive measures for the classroom. Part 2: Strategies to develop student-centered learning experiences. It highlights anti-racist strategies to implement both in what instructors want students to learn (the content) and how instructors want them to learn it (the process). Part 3: Seven Actionable Anti-Racist Steps in the Academy. Each step is supported by literature to inform action. Download the PDF here. Visit their JIIT website for additional topics including Implicit Bias, First-Generation Students, and more.

Call for submissions: Congratulating, graduating international students!

With the cancelation of in-person fall commencement, we are pursuing alternative ways to honor graduating international students. Although we can’t replace this experience for our international students, you can help us celebrate them in a unique way by recognizing their hard work and perseverance with a message of congratulations and support.  We are asking members of our UC Davis community to submit 10-second self-made videos (on your cellphone is perfect) for consideration. We will edit together these submissions to create a video message that celebrates graduating international students, and will publish the video at the end of finals week in December. Check out the video we put together in June for the spring 2020 graduates. You are welcome and encouraged to record your message in a language other than English, if you are multilingual

UPDATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Office of Campus Community Relations | AEVC Rahim Reed

Call for Nominations Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community

Nominations are being requested to help identify individuals deserving special recognition through a campus wide award program. The Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community were established to honor achievements that contribute in substantial ways to the development and well-being of our diverse and evolving community. UC Davis faculty, staff, and students, and local community members are eligible for an award in any of the following categories: 

• Exemplary service that embodies the Principles of Community through outstanding leadership in areas of social and/or cultural understanding, local or regional community involvement, and/or collaborations leading to increased knowledge or expertise in areas of special interest to the campus
• Outstanding efforts toward achieving and/or advancing a diverse and principled academic community, including exemplary service in the areas of student, staff, and faculty recruitment and development
• Exemplary scholarship having a major impact on community and diversity
• Exemplary contributions to the success of campus-based outreach efforts
• Exemplary service to the campus and/or community through active leadership, involvement in pre-college partnership initiatives

Seven awards are available, one to a member of each of the following constituencies: Academic Senate, Academic Federation, Staff, Graduate Students, Post-docs, Undergraduate Students, and members of the local community. The award recipients will receive a monetary prize and they will be honored at a special reception held in the Winter Quarter at the Chancellor’s Residence. Please click here to submit a nomination application.

Campus Community Book Project

In its nineteenth year, the Campus Community Book Project focuses on the theme of mental health and features graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney. In support of this year’s book, we will be hosting virtual lectures, seminars, forums, film screenings, performances, exhibits, workshops, and the author’s visit. You can find a poster of all the planned events here. Missed a book project event? We record many of our sessions! Event recordings can be found on the book project resources page.  Visit the CCBP Events page and subscribe to our online calendar for up-to-date event information and registration links. We also invite you to follow the book project on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

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

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola to serve on the California COVID-19 Vaccine Drafting Guidelines Workgroup

 

Dr. Erica Pan, the Acting State Health Officer of California, invited Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola, Founding Director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis Health to serve on the California COVID-19 Vaccine Drafting Guidelines Workgroup to which he agreed. This workgroup will advise the state on COVID-19 vaccine prioritization and allocation. Building on the state’s COVID-19 Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, the Drafting Guidelines Workgroup is comprised of immunization, geriatrics, ethics, epidemiology, health equity, and pharmacy practice experts. The group is tasked with developing California-specific guidance for prioritization and allocation of a COVID-19 vaccine which will be based on several national frameworks from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You can read the full press release here.

New Positions Announced

UC Davis has received funding from NIH for the ÓRALE project: “ÓRALE COVID-19!: Organizaciones para Reducir, Avanzar y Lograr Equidad contra el COVID-19” (Organizations to Reduce, and to Advance, and Lead for Equity against COVID-19). In collaboration with a broad group of central valley Community-Based Organizations, this project will develop and put into place strategies to overcome both motivational and logistic barriers to COVID-19 testing, with a focus on the Latinx and indigenous populations, and particularly farmworkers in several counties.  UC Davis seeks to hire for several positions that will be located in the Central Valley, for this study:

• Clinical Research Coordinators (to coordinate the recruitment and testing)
• Lab Assistant II’s (to run the tests)
• Research Data Analyst 3 (to analyze and maintain databases)
• Lab Research Supervisor 2 (to manage the entire project—despite the title, there is no laboratory component of this position)

Office of Academic Diversity | Interim AVC Lorena Oropeza

PLACE and FRIENDS Advancing Faculty Diversity Grants Proceed

Our UCOP Advancing Faculty Diversity (AFD) grants are underway. Faculty Retention and Inclusive Excellence Networks Designing Solutions or “FRIENDS” relaunched October 26 with an all-participants convening (via Zoom) to reconnect and share our plans for the academic year. We also introduced two new leaders to the grant. Lorena Oropeza(Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity and Professor of History) who will be taking over as a team lead replacing Cynthia Pickett and as co-Principal Investigator along with Raquel Aldana (Professor of Law). Additionally, Rachel Jean-Baptiste (Associate Professor, History) will be a team co-lead.

Our newest AFD grant, Professors Leveraging A Community of Engagement with CAMPSSAH or “PLACE,” led by Kimberly Nettles-Barcelón (CAMPSSAH Faculty Director; Associate Professor Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies) is preparing for a busy winter and spring quarters. The focus of PLACE are faculty retention efforts, most notably through creating a community of social science, arts, and humanities faculty among underrepresented and minoritized faculty. Primarily this will be achieved through the creation of writing communities that will meet during the academic year, a summer writing retreat, and a manuscript writing workshop. There will also be a “Scholar of the Quarter” award, a post-tenure “start-up” award for newly tenured faculty to get their next big project off the ground. And finally, an invitation for pre-tenure affiliates to join the CAMPSSAH Faculty Scholars and Faculty Affiliatescommunity. You can visit our webpage to learn more.

EVENTS

Ongoing Events for the Fall Quarter

UC Davis Cross Cultural Center has a robust and relevant series of discussions and workshops lined up for the fall quarter. Take a look at their calendar of events here.

School of Education Graduate Group in Education is offering a Brown Bag Speaker Series during the fall quarter. Please look at their flyer of upcoming speakers here.

Feminist Research Institute continues to offer their “Asking Different Questions” research training series to create and implement more equitable research agendas. Learn more on their website.

Campus Community Book Project, in its 19th year is focusing on the theme of mental health and is hosting numerous events throughout the academic year. If you missed a book project event, they record many of the sessions! Event recordings can be found on the book project resources page. We also recently added this year’s book project poster to the website

November is Native American Heritage Month featuring events throughout the month. Please visit the Native American Academic Student Success Center website for a complete schedule.

November 13, Friday

UC's First-Generation Virtual Symposium | 9:00am
Join your peers from UC and other higher education institutions across the nation for a virtual symposium on first-generation college students. This occasion celebrates the 55th anniversary of the Higher Education Opportunity Act and is inspired by this year's National First-Generation Celebration Day on November 8. We welcome participants from divisions with oversight of programs that address retention, graduation and time-to-degree of first-gen students. Register for sessions here. The symposium will explore four themes related to the first-gen experience, including:

• Asian American and Pacific Islander students
• The first-generation population in graduate schools
• Practices for supporting first-generation students' career readiness
• The evolution of higher education in times of unpredictable challenge and opportunity

November 16, Monday

CEE’s “Building an Anti-Racist Classroom Environment” | 12:10P
As racial inequities and disparities permeate society, these inequities also appear on campuses, in curricula, and in classrooms. By infusing our professional practice with actions in support of anti-racist ideals, we can, as educators, contribute to this race and equity work. In this workshop, participants will explore how we might take anti-racist actions -- preventatively and responsively -- in the context of our classrooms. We will also discuss actionable steps towards building an anti-racist teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence. Register here.

November 17, Tuesday

Global Conversations: Promoting Women’s Resilience in Africa’s Arid Regions in the Age of
COVID-19 | 9:00A
Join Global Affairs for the third installment in our UC Davis Global Conversations Series. Promoting Women’s Resilience in Africa’s Arid Regions in the Age of COVID-19, will be a one-hour online panel discussion that will focus on how empowering women can provide the greatest return on investment for helping families and communities achieve a future free from poverty and food insecurity. The panel will include experts from The BOMA Project Kenya and the International Livestock Research Institute. The event will be moderated by Michael Carter, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk & Resilience Innovation Lab director, and distinguished professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis.

Vice Chancellor Tull featured speaker at Staff Assembly General Meeting | 12:00P
Every UC Davis staff person is a member of Staff Assembly. To get more involved in Staff Assembly, please attend one of the monthly General Meetings. Typically, meetings are held on the second Tuesday of every month at 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Learn more and register here.

Book Project: Bipolar Disorder: A Medical, Cultural, and Historical Perspective | 5:30P
A talk by Amy Barnhorst, Vice Chair for Community and Hospital-Based Services, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Associate Clinical Professor, Emergency Medicine; & Director, BulletPoints Project, UC Firearm Violence Research Center. Register here.

November 17-20

Global Careers Panel Series
The Cal Aggie Alumni Association (CAAA) is committed to supporting the professional development of Aggies no matter where in the world they are. CAAA has partnered with International Development and Global Affairs to present our Global Careers Panel Series. Alumni, students, parents, and friends are invited to join us as we learn from leading professionals about what it takes to build a successful career in their region of the world. The panels will be recorded. If you are not able to join us during the panel, be sure to register so you can get a recording of the panel sent directly to your inbox. Zoom information will be provided to registrants. Please see details about each session including panelists and registration information on the Global Careers Panel website.

November 18, Wednesday

2020 Improving OUTcomes Conference: “Homelessness in the LGBTQ+ Community: Discussing Promising Practices and Programs” | 3:30PM
Improving LGBTQ+ Health Today for a Better Tomorrow: A Virtual Series, discussion with Koby Rodriguez Chief Program Officer Sacramento LGBT Center. Join us as we explore how health professionals and community partners can improve quality of and access to care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ+) patients and their families.

Join Us To: Learn about clinical best practices and new LGBTQ+ research; Meet with regional and national experts in LGBTQ+ related fields; Brainstorm new ways to improve care in your field and beyond; Strengthen the link between UC Davis Health and the LGTBQ+ Community. Register here.

UC Postbaccalaureate Consortium Meet the Advisors! | 12:00P
The UC Postbaccalaureate Consortium is a partnership of postbaccalaureate premedical programs at the Schools of Medicine at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, and UC San Francisco. The mission of the Consortium is to increase the number of physicians who practice in shortage areas of California by assisting capable and dedicated students from disadvantaged backgrounds in gaining admission to medical school. What you'll be learning: Meet our Program Advisors! Individualized presentations about our four postbaccalaureate premedical programs; Live Q&A with Program Advisors. Click here to see our other upcoming informational sessions!

November 18, Wednesday

Unpacking Oppression | 1:00P
Participants will explore the cultural barriers that perpetuate oppression at the institutional level. In addition to oppression theory, the course provides an opportunity to increase awareness regarding power and privilege with the goal of fostering a more inclusive and equitable campus environment. Register here.

Conflict Competence in Uncertain Times | 12:00P
Especially in this current health situation, good communication practices are essential to your professional success and well-being as you navigate new or existing conflicts in the workplace. Join this interactive webinar for practical tips and tools on topics including: Strategies for de-escalating conflict; Words to use and avoid when having difficult conversations; Maximizing your chances of being heard when sharing concerns or requests. Register here.

November 19, Thursday

Diversity and Inclusion Dialogue Series | “Lung Cancer Disparities: What are they and how to end them” | 12:00P
Dr. David Tom Cooke is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. He is the Section Head of General Thoracic Surgery, Associate Director of Cardiothoracic Robotic Surgery, and the Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Wellness for the Department of Surgery. Dr. Cooke specializes in the surgical treatment of malignant and benign lung and esophageal disease and is a national leader in robotic thoracic surgery. RSVP here.

Implementing the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision | 10:00A
Every organization is called upon to implement UC Davis' Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision. In support of our campus' "To Boldly Go" vision, this session provides an understanding of the goals in the diversity, equity and inclusion strategic vision and the opportunity to explore how organizations may integrate diversity and inclusion as informed by their work. Register here.

November 20, Friday

The Beautiful Ugly Struggle: How Black Lives Mattered to Angela Davis and Amiri Baraka | 9:00A
UCLA African American Studies and Cheryl L. Keyes, Chair, UCLA Department of African American Studies, invites you to attend "Black Lives Matter—Past, Present, and Beyond" lecture series featuring Christopher Lebron, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University. Register here.

RECOMMENDED READING

Erin R. Hamilton, Caitlin Patler, and Robin Savinar, “DACA Enables Mobility, but its Uncertain Future Undermines Benefits for Recipients,” Center for Poverty and Inequality Research.
In a new policy brief, Hamilton, Patler, and Savinar write that DACA recipients, without access to permanent legal status, experience ‘liminal legality’ characterized by chronic uncertainty and limited socioeconomic integration.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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, 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.

Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center We are a student community space where you can find fresh fruits and vegetables during Fruit & Veggie Up!, get CalFresh enrollment assistance and find resources to help you find stable housing and financial assistance. 

Food Resources for UC Davis Students and Community Members Food is one of the most basic and important human needs, yet an increasing number of college students are going hungry as food insecurity gets worse. Food insecurity can not only lead to poor health, but it can also have detrimental effects on a student's academic, professional, and social life. Food insecurity can be brought on by various factors, including limited food access and financial difficulties. Here in Davis, there is a variety of fresh and health foods in grocery stores, restaurants, and farmer’s markets.

Campus Ready With the anticipation that our on-campus community will increase gradually over the next several months, we are introducing a robust COVID-19 plan to ensure that UC Davis is “campus ready” for you. What does campus ready mean? It means phases of return to campus. New policies, guidelines and protocols to minimize exposure. And a campus wide approach that follows prevention best practices including wearing face coverings, physical distancing, frequent sanitization and symptom monitoring.

Keep Teaching Instructional Resilience at UC Davis. To support UC Davis faculty during a time of COVID-19-related illness, quarantine, or campus closure, this site provides concise, practical resources and strategies for moving part or all of a course online to help you keep teaching.  

UC Davis Office for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion COVID resources page In English and Spanish to reach our communities and we are actively updating with new 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/