SUBJECT:

UEH-UC Symposium - Collaboration with Colleagues in Haiti

Dear UC Faculty Member:

I have been asked to distribute the information below and encourage your participation in a multi-campus event intended to launch a collaboration between UC faculty and students and colleagues at the State University of Haiti (UEH). The attached Open Letter from its organizers is an invitation to the UEH-UC Symposium hosted by the UCLA International Institute, UCLA Chancellor's Office, UC Berkeley Chancellor's Office, and the UC Haiti Initiative. The symposium will take place on Tuesday, February 1 for Northern campuses and on Wednesday, February 2 for Southern campuses.

Detailed information and registration instructions are available online at http://uchaiti.org/index.php?/symposium. The organizers ask that you respond by Monday, January 17, 2011. Please direct questions to the planning committee's representatives: tutran@uchaiti.org (Northern campuses) or ucla.director@uchaiti.org (Southern campuses). With best wishes,

Sincerely,

Daniel L. Simmons, Chair
Academic Council

****************** The UEH-UC Symposium

January 31, 2011 - February 3, 2011

Hosted by UCHI, UCLA International Institute, UC Berkeley Chancellor's Office, UCLA Chancellor's Office

UC Faculty, please RSVP by Monday January 17, 2011

Open Letter to UC Community

As the twelfth of January 2011 approaches, the people of Haiti and their supporters around the world will commemorate the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in one of the worst natural disasters in human history. The commemoration of this anniversary will also celebrate the nation's recovery and hopes for the future.

We seek your leadership, contribution, and participation in an effort to establish a UC System-wide collaboration with the Universite d'Etat d'Haiti (UEH - State University of Haiti). The UEH is the oldest and largest institution of higher learning in the Republic, charged with a goal we in UC hold to the highest value: providing educational excellence and access to generations of leaders in society. With 90% of its infrastructure destroyed or heavily damaged by the earthquake, there is considerable work to be done by our UEH colleagues, and immense opportunity for the University of California to play a supportive role in improving Haiti's higher education system.

Goals

1. Identify needs of UEH and UC for long-term capacity building. UEH and UC faculty leadership will be identified for grant-funded projects to develop new academic programs or participate in UEH's efforts to revise existing programs.
2. Identify and plan for research and education collaborations and bilateral exchanges that will benefit both UEH and UC.

Overview of Agenda

- For Berkeley, Davis, Merced, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz campuses, the symposium will be held Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at the Berkeley, Davis, and San Francisco campuses.
- For Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Santa Barbara campuses, the symposium will be held Wednesday February 2, 2011 at the Los Angeles campus.

Detailed location and agenda information are all available in the "Schedule/Agenda", "Register", and "Travel & Logistics" links. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to email representatives of the Planning Committee:

Tu Tran (Northern California Day)
Anna Alexandroni (Southern California Day)

Sincerely,

Ami Ben-Artzi, MD
UCHI Acting Executive Director
Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine

Douglas S Gross, MD, PhD
UCHI Founding Director
Professor of Pediatrics and Cell Biology & Human Anatomy
UC Davis School of Medicine