Message from the Academic Senate Chair: New Beginnings and Renewing with Purpose

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Buenos dias! I hope you are settling into our new academic year with joy, exciting research and beautiful teaching. In the San Diego Divisional Academic Senate, the work of the standing Senate committees and Senate Council has now begun in earnest, and we are establishing a lively rhythm of activities.

I sincerely and enthusiastically invite you to participate in defining an overarching goal that can bring us together and help us move forward this year. I humbly propose that this goal must be inextricably intertwined to the education and well-being of our students. Perhaps this is obvious and thus requires some amplification. I propose that as educators we have a responsibility to educate and model universal truths of freedom, justice, empathy, and compassion for our students. Our decisions as a Senate must be anchored on these beautiful ideals. We are, after all, educating the future of humanity. In this, we have an awesome and exquisite responsibility.

I am an alumna of UC San Diego (Structural Engineering '95). Here, in this beautiful institution, I made great friendships. This is powerful because the friendships one makes at a young age are the most honest friendships one will have in life, as they are based on the simple fact that you like each other. I hope we can work on this concept. I hope we can establish the constructs so that our students build honest friendships. I have this outlook, and I have this hope.

The University of California’s system of shared governance gives the Academic Senate a voice in the affairs of the University. The voice of the Senate faculty is not a singular voice. It is developed through deliberation, consensus, and respect for differing opinions. I am committed to building upon this framework as we engage with each other throughout the year and strive to honestly represent the diversity of faculty viewpoints and find consensus in hopes of advocating for solutions that are in the best interests of our faculty and our students.

In this regard, there are three specific goals I propose for this year:

Let us figure out a better way of connecting with our students. I have already begun conversations with both the Associated Students (AS) and the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA). The incoming Presidents, Leslie Vallejo-Avila and Jai'lyn Richardson, are both amazing student leaders who value a more structured and continuous connection to the Senate. The three of us have proceeded to schedule meetings every two weeks to maintain constant bridges of communication, and we are currently discussing the possibility of a seminar series (or similar endeavor) that will be organized as a collaboration between AS, GPSA, and the Academic Senate. This collaboration will grow! Send me ideas for enhancing this effort.
Let us determine how to better engage with the administration and develop processes to support our students, especially as they learn how to express their views on difficult world events. This is connected to two of the resolutions passed by the San Diego Senate last spring. We are currently working on establishing a new standing committee of the Senate to address this issue. More to come on this very soon.
Let us listen to each other with open minds and open hearts. For this purpose, I have begun to visit individual departments to listen and engage with all of you with honesty and respect. I would like to better understand your needs. Vice Chair Rebecca Plant and I are also hosting a series of lunches, coffee chats, and happy hours throughout the year to which all Senate faculty are invited, and we would enjoy your participation at these events.

We can do this. In the end, it is not about you. It is not about me. It is about us. It is about our UC San Diego community. I have great hope that we will see beyond the divisive rhetoric that is so pervasive in our current political climate. I have hope that we will educate our students so that they can pursue a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities, and I have hope that through them we will change the world. We are all aware that we have great challenges ahead of us, but we can work through them, together.

Please connect if you have ideas for moving forward and renewing ourselves with purpose, as well as if you have concerns. I am here to listen, and I am here to serve. You can email me at senatechair@ucsd.edu.

Sincerely

Olivia A. Graeve
Chair
Academic Senate, San Diego Division

University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093