Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Update

To: UCSC Faculty, Staff and Students

From: Joy Lei, Diversity Programs and Education Specialist

Over the summer, the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) transitioned the look of its website to the campus template, so check us out at: http://diversity.ucsc.edu.

One of the initiatives you’ll learn about on our website is the UCSC Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program, which began last year. We are delighted to say 46 staff employees received their certificate of completion in spring 2011. For this year, the core courses and some of the elective courses have been enrolled to capacity since early August! We look forward to celebrating with the second class of graduates next spring.

Also in spring 2011, surveys for undergraduate and graduate students were conducted to assess UCSC’s climate around issues of diversity and inclusion (for more information, visit: http://diversitysurvey.ucsc.edu). An impressive 51% of graduate students and 31% of undergraduate students completed the surveys. Crown and Kresge had the highest response rate among the colleges and several students won various prizes for completing the survey. From this rich data, members of Chancellor Blumenthal’s Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion will make recommendations regarding programmatic and other campus efforts. We are planning for the faculty and staff surveys in winter quarter.

We are proud to say UC Santa Cruz was a sponsor of the 2011 National Conference for the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), October 27 through October 30, in San Jose. We hosted a reception and a field trip for prospective students to visit UCSC and learn about our science and engineering programs. Special appreciation goes to Tyrus Miller, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, and Malika Bell, Director of STEM Diversity Programs, for organizing a successful reception and campus visit!

Mark your calendar! On November 17, Frank Wu, Chancellor and Dean of UC Hastings College of Law will give a talk titled: "Yellow: Race in America beyond Black and White: A bold new paradigm for understanding race and civil rights in the 21st century." The talk will begin at 4:00 pm, with a reception following, in the Stevenson Event Center. This event is co-sponsored by ODEI and the Ethnic Resource Centers.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions at diversity@ucsc.edu.