SUBJECT:

UC San Diego's 50th Anniversary Celebration

UC San Diego is about to celebrate a milestone – its 50th Anniversary. Planning for the 10-month-long observance is well under way, and we want to encourage you to become involved in the commemoration.

The 50th Anniversary celebration will launch informally on August 20, 2010 at the All Staff Picnic, with the official public launch taking place at the Welcome Week Convocation on September 19, 2010. We’ll celebrate our milestone anniversary at Founders’ Day on November 18, 2010, and continue our celebration through the All Campus Graduation on June 9, 2011 and the Alumni Weekend celebration June 17 through 19, 2011.

During the celebration, we will honor UC San Diego founders, alumni, supporters, partners and campus community, who have shaped our history and continue to shape our future. We will showcase our impressive trajectory as a local, national and global leader in undergraduate and graduate education, academic research and innovation. The University also will look forward to the next 50 years and our future successes.

A comprehensive 50th Anniversary website is being created at http://50th.ucsd.edu/ and, as we approach the celebration launch, we will update the website regularly to include a calendar of events and tools to help you get involved in the celebration.

In addition to the all-campus celebrations, we encourage an abundance of unit- specific, autonomous “overlay” events that will be included as part of the year- long 50th Anniversary calendar. We invite all departments, programs, organized research units, colleges and other academic and administrative units, encompassing faculty, staff and students, to use their creativity to devise their own commemorations of 50 years of their founders, achievements, highlights, milestones and vision for the future. We welcome cross-departmental and cross- divisional events that will illustrate the ongoing collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit of UC San Diego. In the coming months, the 50th Anniversary website will offer myriad ideas to guide your area in celebrating this milestone event. All units planning their own projects, remembrances, meetings, seminars, fora, parties, and other celebrations should notify Judy Lane in Special Events & Protocol (via email at fifty@ucsd.edu) so that the events can be included in the overall 50th Anniversary website calendar.

This is a monumental time in our short history. UC San Diego has grown immensely since the University was founded in 1960, physically and through our innovative, intellectual and collaborative spirit. We hope you will join us in our commemoration to celebrate how far we have come in 50 years, and look forward to the University’s future contributions in the next 50. We are excited to share this anniversary with you and look forward to your involvement.

Marye Anne Fox Chancellor Paul W. Drake Senior Vice Chancellor – Academic Affairs