Academic Senate

Announcements

• May 19, 2020 - Two Letters from President Napolitano

  Dear Senate Colleagues:

  Please excuse this email if you have already received and read the attached documents. I am forwarding a pair of important communications from UC President Janet Napolitano regarding the UC budget and the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UC system and individual campuses. I encourage you to take some time to read these letters carefully.

  • UC Salary Freeze
  • President's Letter to UC Community May 18
  • Mccarty and Arambula Budget Subcommittees

  Peace
  dylan

• April 2, 2020 - "Zoombombing" and revised Spring virtual office hours

  Dear Senate Colleagues:

  I write to announce a revision to my virtual office hours for Spring 2020. I will hold open Zoom sessions for anyone who wishes to drop in on Tuesdays from 9-10 am, through the Spring Quarter. Our conversations will be secure, one-on-one meetings. Just use this link

  • https://ucr.zoom.us/j/547109166

  I am also writing to bring our collective attention to the unwelcome surge in the "zoombombing" of virtual classrooms around the world. Zoombombing—the intrusion on videoconference classes by uninvited and unwanted users—takes the form of racist, anti-Black, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic abusiveness that creates significant distress for students and teachers.

  While there are some measures we can take as faculty to prevent or minimize the possibility of such disruptions (see this link), it may be helpful to address this matter in open conversation with our students and each other. I urge you to refuse to “privatize” any such incidents: report them to your department chairs and deans, talk to your colleagues to build awareness about what’s going on, and please feel free to reach out to me as well.

  I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

  Peace
  dylan

• March 17, 2020 - Senate Chair office hours (on Zoom), research curtailment, and more

  Dear Senate Colleagues:

  As the local, statewide, and federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changes, i urge you to remain attentive to information coming from your Chairs, Deans and the upper administration. Our access to campus, including our labs and offices, will be determined by the capacity and effectiveness of pandemic control measures for the near future, and our behaviors play a crucial role in those measures. We must exemplify vigilance, calm, and care in navigating this unprecedented crisis.

  In the meantime, i offer a few points of information and emphasis:

  • I am establishing regular "Senate Chair office hours" for anyone who wants to speak with me: 9-10 am every Tuesday and Thursday until the campus closure ends. The Zoom interface will be set up for one-on-one conversations, and anyone who logs in while someone else is online will be placed in a “waiting room.” If this time doesn’t work for you, please feel free to email me to set up an alternate time! (I may or may not be wearing my full HAZMAT suit on camera.) Here is the Zoom access information:
    
    • UCR Senate Chair Office Hours,
      Tuesdays/Thursdays 9-10 am:
      https://ucr.zoom.us/j/547109166
      Meeting ID: 547 109 166
      Phone access: +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
  • Senate Vice Chair Christiane Weirauch and i are part of a COVID-19 leadership group that includes the Chancellor, Provost/EVC, multiple Vice Chancellors, Campus Counsel, and the Dean of the School of Medicine, among others. This group meets (via Zoom) at least once a day, and has also been meeting on the weekends. Please continue to send Christiane and me any concerns or questions that should be urgently communicated to the upper administration.
  • There is understandable anxiety regarding the implications of VCRED Rodolfo Torres’ recent email on “curtailment of on-campus research activities.” I offer three points of emphasis:
    • If you have urgent questions or feedback on the terms of the curtailment, please immediately contact your Dean and/or Chair.
    • Under the current terms of the curtailment, the campus is prioritizing preservation of “unrecoverable biological materials, data, and artifacts.” If your work falls under this description, contact your Dean/Chair ASAP if you haven’t already done so
    • The terms of the "curtailment of on-campus research activities" are subject to revision based on factors external to the campus, including changes to County, State, and Federal health orders.
  • A number of you have suggested the creation of a faculty-led blog on remote teaching that shares experiences, advice, and skills that can help all of us with our Spring 2020 teaching challenges. The good folks at keepteaching.ucr.edu have enthusiastically agreed to feature such a blog on their site. Please consider proposing faculty blog posts, or referring colleagues who might be good candidates to do so: email Instructional Designer Lauren Griffin at lauren.griffin@ucr.edu.

  Take care everyone and i hope i’ll see some of you at my virtual office hours soon!

  Peace
  dylan

• March 14,2020 - Get your stuff this weekend: Campus ordered closed March 16-April 3

  Dear UCR Senate Colleagues (please spread the word to other faculty, students, and staff, including student staff):

  As of yesterday (March 13), Riverside County Public Health has ordered all school, college, and university campuses CLOSED from Monday the 16th through April 3. This means no one other than those designated “critical personnel” are allowed on campus under criminal penalty (!). (https://www.rivcoph.org/Portals/0/Documents/CoronaVirus/schoolorder.pdf

  So… if you have anything in your campus offices or labs that you need over the next three weeks (and possibly longer), i suggest you retrieve it this weekend.

  In the spirit of supporting all of you through this bizarre time, i will be on campus periodically this weekend to offer (socially distanced) assistance and (socially distanced) “office hours” for anyone who needs it. This includes physical help with retrieving things if you need help. I will generally be in UOB 225 (Senate Chair office), with the door closed. Just email if you need me, i'll be checking frequently: dylan.rodriguez@ucr.edu

  Also, calm down, i have plenty of toilet paper if you need any.

  Peace
  dylan