April 2022 News Archive

CruzFix is live

UCSC’s new integrated facilities management system, CruzFix is available.

Team of researchers win the public benchmark phase of new Alexa Prize competition

UC Santa Cruz’s team of computer science and engineering (CSE) Ph.D. students came out victorious by a generous margin during the public benchmark phase of the first-ever Amazon

Summer Session Invites Students to Stay for Summer

UC Santa Cruz Summer Session enrollment is underway and for the first time since 2019, students can choose to stay on campus for in-person classes, or the option remains to study online from anywhere.

New global and community health majors available this fall

UC Santa Cruz students who want to build a future with better, more equitable health outcomes will have the option to declare one of two new global and

Maysoon Zayid to bring incisive hilarity to UCSC for Asian American/Pacific Islander Comedy Night

The comedian Maysoon Zayid will perform on campus in the eighth annual Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) Comedy Night at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 30, helping to kick off

New Google-funded research project applies computer science to aid bird conservation

Two faculty members have begun a new collaboration to use machine learning models to create continent-wide maps of bird habitat connectivity for conservation purposes, and they have recently

Afrofuturism takes center stage in the Institute of the Arts and Sciences’ Surge series

UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences offers a month-long series of performances and discussions on Afrofuturism, a global artistic and social movement, utilizing the arts,

Unlocking a cure for carbon monoxide poisoning

UCSC researcher Tim Johnstone has designed small molecules that can bind CO, sequester CO that is already bonded to hemoglobin, and rescue red blood cells exposed to CO,

Linguist Sandra Chung elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Sandra Chung, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Linguistics, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious

Summer programs draw visitors to Lick Observatory for music and stargazing

Tickets are on sale now for the observatory's popular summer evening

Hybrid Alumni Week festivities highlight Slug ingenuity, camaraderie, and social consciousness

Drones soared in the sky, familiar places and faces were rediscovered, cocktail glasses clinked, and old friendships were renewed during the hybrid Alumni Week festivities, which blended analog

A new maintenance and service request app, CruzFix, goes live May 2

CruzFix will be available to the campus community on May 2, 2022, replacing two separate systems previously known as FAMIS Classic and FixIt.

21/22 Annual Performance Evaluations coming due

Managers/supervisors should complete the annual evaluations for their non-represented and represented staff to build on our culture of engagement, to provide ongoing support and encouragement and to document any performance concerns that may exist.

Deer fawning season alert

Please be aware that spring is the prime birthing season for a wide variety of campus wildlife, including

Chancellor Larive assumes position as new Board Chair for Monterey Bay Economic Partnership

University of California, Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia K. Larive will assume the role of incoming board chair for the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership.

Interior Artworks Installation policy comment period ends May 27

Call for Proposals — Summer 2023 Online Courses

CITRIS drone program lands $1 million grant from James Irvine Foundation

The UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) along with several partners has received a $1 million, 15-month planning grant to support regional drone

10 questions all funders should ask before supporting tree-planting campaigns

Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl is concerned that widespread enthusiasm for tree-planting may be leaving restoration best-practices by the wayside. But a new set of research-based questions can

Drive safely with increased pedestrian activity on campus Tuesday, April 26

UAW 2865, the labor union that represents UC academic student employees and graduate student researchers, has announced that it will hold a march at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 26.

10 preguntas que todos los donantes deben hacerse antes de apoyar campañas para plantar árboles

UC Santa Cruz Profesora de Estudios Ambientales Karen Holl y el profesor Pedro Brancalion de la Universidad de São Paulo en Brasil están preocupados de que el fervor

COVID-19: Community Update

As UC Santa Cruz continues to monitor COVID-19 transmission rates, the community is reminded of the importance of engaging in ongoing mitigation efforts.

Alumna’s foreign service success earns her a new post as U.S. Ambassador

Claire Pierangelo (Kresge College, History ’82) will be sworn in as Ambassador to the Republic of Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros on May

Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells awarded $1M training grant for postdoctoral researchers

The directors of the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells brought in a new $1M training grant for postdoctoral researchers, and have been awarded over $12M in

New global forecasts of marine heatwaves foretell ecological and economic impacts

The forecasts could help fishing fleets, ocean managers, and coastal communities anticipate the effects of marine

New study examines ethics of community-engaged research from the perspective of community partners

Even the most collaborative research models come with ethical challenges, a new study shows. This highlights the importance of equity-centered

Cruz Foam teams up with DiCaprio, Kutcher as advisors and adds a major industry partner

Cruz Foam, a company that started as a Ph.D. student’s project at the UC Santa Cruz Baskin School of Engineering and makes a compostable alternative to styrofoam packaging,

Take Back the Night: Chanel Miller to be keynote speaker

Bestselling author Chanel Miller will appear at UCSC in a virtual keynote event that is part of the Take Back the Night series and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Thought-provoking new works of media art in exhibition by Digital Arts and New Media MFAs

The UC Santa Cruz Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) MFA program presents unforgetting, the culminating exhibition of its 2022 MFA cohort, on view free to the public

Superheroes, spaceships, and social wearables: An immersive, social STEM camp for middle school girls sparks interest, builds confidence in STEM

The UCSC-developed STEM camp combines the crafting of wearable technology with social experience to pique interest in computation and technology for middle school

The UC in Washington program launches political career

The UCDC program launched alumnus Ricky Le’s (Rachel Carson, Politics ’99) career in national politics.

Coming together to heal

UCSC Arts dean and her family establish scholarship in son’s

Alumni Week focuses lens on news coverage of COVID

Three alumni of UCSC’s prestigious Science Communication Program will talk about what they learned—and how they have coped—with the pandemic at a virtual University Forum during Alumni

Honoring UC Santa Cruz’s 2022 Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni

Each year, UC Santa Cruz’s five academic divisions select one graduate student alumnus/a/i as their Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni honoree. The awards ceremony for the 2022 cohort will

Kelp restoration project is finalist in LaunchPad pitch competition

Andrea Paz-Lacavex, a graduate student in UCSC’s Coastal Science & Policy Program, leads SPORA, a kelp restoration project in Baja

Statistics professor wins Hellman fellowship to rethink verbal autopsy survey design

Assistant professor of statistics Richard Li will use his Hellman award to rethink survey design for verbal autopsy, the process of determining cause of death outside of the

Politics professor’s book challenging Western notions of Sharia wins global acclaim

In the past year, Politics and Legal Studies Professor Mark Fathi Massoud's latest book has earned him a series of award recognitions, speaking engagements around the globe, and

Rock on: summer concert series coming to Quarry Amphitheater

In partnership with Noise Pop Industries, UC Santa Cruz announces summer concert series to be hosted in the Quarry

Watsonville Filipino history digital archive now available for public viewing

The Watsonville is in the Heart Digital Archive is now viewable online and features oral history recordings, original documents, photos, and family artifacts highlighting Filipino history in the

Spring 2022 Campus Elections Announcement

The ballot initiative language for the Spring 2022 Campus Elections is now available for review.

Bay Tree Renovation

Caitlin Keliiaa and Philip Longo receive American Council of Learned Societies fellowship

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announced the recipients of their 2022 ACLS Fellowships. Philip Longo, Continuing Lecturer in the Humanities Division’s Writing Program, and Caitlin Keliiaa,

I Am Here: Home movies and everyday masterpieces

I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces, a major new AGO exhibition opening in April of 2022, is a revealing look at our universal need to capture,

Paid fellowship opens doors and opportunities for Humanities students

Unique partnership between The Humanities Institute, a leading national media outlet, and a generous UC Santa Cruz donor amplifies opportunities for UC Santa Cruz

Seeking assistance with Unlawful Entry of Occupied Dwelling

The UC Santa Cruz Police Department is seeking the community’s help in the investigation of a crime that occurred early Monday, April 11.

Risa Wechsler named 2022 Physical and Biological Sciences Distinguished Graduate Student Alumna

UC Santa Cruz alumna Risa Wechsler (Ph.D. Physics ’01) has played an instrumental role in groundbreaking research in the cosmology field, with pioneering galaxy structure and cosmic structure

UCSC and Amazon Web Services work to accelerate genomics research

The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to allow researchers to quickly and efficiently execute bioinformatics pipelines on AWS’s global cloud

Grazing goats to help reduce wildfire risk

Hundreds of hungry goats will arrive on campus later this week to graze on about 30 acres of vegetation that would otherwise dry into potential wildfire fuel as

2022 PIT-UN Network Challenge funding open for submissions

The Public Interest Technology - University Network (PIT-UN) has opened the call for proposals for the 2022 Network Challenge funding opportunity.

Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu to receive prestigious award

The Association for Asian American Studies has selected UC Santa Cruz Division of Arts Dean, Dr. Celine Parreñas Shimizu, for its 2022 Excellence in Mentorship

Alumni Week to highlight three decades of alumni-sponsored student support

The founders of the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund are using the occasion of its 30th anniversary to increase philanthropic support in the scholarship, setting a goal of raising

Cops and Coffee event on Friday

The event is an opportunity for members of the campus community to enjoy free coffee and cookies and talk with campus police officers.

Sarah Peelo named 2022 Social Sciences Division Distinguished Graduate Student Alumna

Sarah Peelo (Ph.D. Anthropology ’09) looked to UC Santa Cruz as an institution beaming with women in leadership. Now company president and co-owner of cultural resource management firm,

William Long named 2022 Arts Division Distinguished Graduate Student Alumnus

William Long’s (B.A. Music ’11, M.A. Music ’13) passion for music began when he was six years old. After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from UC Santa Cruz,

Harryette Mullen named 2022 Humanities Division Distinguished Graduate Student Alumna

The Humanities Division’s 2022 Distinguished Graduate Student Alumna, Harryette Mullen (M.A. Literature ’86, Ph.D. Literature ’90), published her first poetry book Tree Tall Women in 1981 and has

How mentorship and a transformative graduate experience inspired alumnus Brian Levine to build a legacy of socially responsible innovation

Baskin Engineering’s 2022 distinguished graduate student alumnus Brian Levine credits his time at UC Santa Cruz for giving him the tools to become a life-long educator and socially

Title IX graduate interns shine a light on sexual violence and sexual harassment research

Two UC Santa Cruz graduate students are working to showcase campus research focused on preventing, responding to, and addressing gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination with a new online spotlight series.

Works by some of the country’s most influential contemporary artists on view in Strange Weather

A new group exhibition presented by UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), features contemporary

UCSC selects Aisha Jackson as Vice Chancellor for Information Technology

Aisha Jackson comes to UC Santa Cruz from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she is that university’s first Assistant Vice Provost and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic

Announcing the appointment of Vice Chancellor for Information Technology

We are excited to announce that Aisha Jackson will serve as our next Vice Chancellor for Information Technology. Her first day will be Aug. 1.

Indoor mask guidance for staff

With the indoor mask mandate lifted, we are leaving it to each individual to decide what works best for them. We have included some suggested language below.

UC Santa Cruz hosts ‘Universe in Verse’ April 16 in the Quarry Amphitheater

The fifth annual Universe in Verse—a charitable celebration of science and nature through poetry and music, created and hosted by writer Maria Popova (Marginalian)—will be held in person

Registration open for Summer Edge

All incoming Slugs are invited to join Summer Edge where students take Session 2 courses before their first fall to fulfill prerequisites or major requirements and build connections with faculty and support resources.

Genomics Institute tool becomes primary method to identify lineages of COVID-19 worldwide

As COVID-19 continues to mutate, software developed and maintained at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Genomics Institute will now be at the core of the primary tool

Ricky Bluthenthal announced as 2022 social sciences distinguished alumni award recipient

The Social Sciences division is proud to announce trailblazing health equity researcher and advocate Ricky Bluthenthal (Merrill ’86, History and Sociology) as the recipient of the 2022 Social

Rosa Garcia to serve as associate director of Equity & Equal Protection, ADA Officer

The Equity & Equal Protection Office is happy to welcome back Rosa Garcia as Associate Director of Equity & Equal Protection, ADA Officer.

Physical and Biological Sciences Division honors three prominent alumni

The PBSci Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize contributions to society by graduate and undergraduate

Information about Ramadan at UCSC

This message is intended to provide our campus community with information about observing and celebrating Ramadan.

Biochemist Laura Sanchez wins ASP Matt Suffness Young Investigator Award

Laura Sanchez, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has been chosen by the American Society of Pharmacognosy as the 2022 winner of the ASP Matt Suffness Young Investigator

UCSC helps produce first truly complete sequence of a human genome

The first truly complete sequence of a human genome — covering each chromosome from end to end with no gaps and unprecedented accuracy — is now available for the whole world to access.