I will be there to listen and to serve. I'll bring some chairs and an umbrella. Bring your laptop so we can write messages to our elected officials. Invite colleagues, bring lunch.
I'd like to tell you about my ENLACE summer research program. This program brings together high school and college students from the USA and México, placing them in research laboratories for seven weeks during the summer here at UC San Diego. Some of you have been mentors to these students, and for that I am infinitely grateful. I started this program in 2013 with five students. I started small and I started deliberately. This summer I will have close to 250 students. It is now the largest summer research program in the country.
My vision for ENLACE is that in the future there will be a President of the USA that is an alumna of ENLACE, let us call her María, and a future President of México that will also be an alumna of ENLACE, let us also call her María. María and María, friends since they were 17 years old. I believe strongly that these are the best friendships. They are the most honest friendships, because they are based on the fact that you like each other. This, my colleagues, eliminates borders and brings down walls. ENLACE started small building honest friendships, and now there are over 1000 alumni. We really can change the world one person at a time.
Struggle can test us in ways unexpected, pushing us to the edge, forcing us to confront our limits. At UC San Diego we can face this struggle together. Let us build a movement one small step at a time, one person at a time. Join me for our Silent Tree Dialogues. Si Se Puede!
Academic Senate Seminar
Our next Academic Senate Seminar is scheduled for this Friday, April 4, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Our speaker will be David Loy from the First Amendment Coalition. It will be an outstanding seminar on the topic of free speech at public universities. The Zoom link for this seminar is https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/99296238339. Join the discussion! Professor Akos Rona-Tas, who took the lead on finding a speaker this time, will guide the seminar. He would certainly welcome a dynamic question and answer session.
Triton Time
My sincere thanks to Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life Alysson Satterlund for keeping us informed on relevant Triton Time seminars. I looked through the information sent. I believe the April 10 seminar on Undocumented Student Services and the April 24 seminar on the International Students Engagement Office is of particular interest to us faculty. The Triton Time web site contains several other interesting seminars.
Graduate Student Contract Negotiations
The negotiations for the new graduate student contract will begin this summer. This time there will be two faculty in the negotiating team. Shared governance at work! I am glad to introduce you to Professors Donald F. Senear from UC Irvine and Joseph Watson from UCLA. Both are highly committed to this effort, with Joe mentioning that he is "glad to be outed to the faculty". Regrettably, they cannot respond to emails or requests for information due to confidentiality of the negotiations. If we would like to convey information to them, let us organize ourselves and send comments as a packet. We have time for this. I will provide further details in my May letter.
As always, I can be reached at senatechair@ucsd.edu if you need my support.
In Truth and Hope,
