Sept. 14 - Top ranking for sustainability; Work Reimagined program launched
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Flowers decorate a bed in front of the new Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences complex. Photo by Ian Parker
UCI ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS
Students take in the view of a green campus from the Ecological Preserve at UCI. Photo courtesy of UCI Sustainability
UCI ranked first for campus sustainability
UCI has been recognized as the No. 1 doctoral institution and No. 1 U.S. institution in the 2022 Sustainable Campus Index. Additionally, three new campus buildings received Leadership in Environmental Design Platinum certification in the 2020-2021 calendar year. The 2022 Sustainable Campus Index is a publication of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. It recognizes top-performing colleges and universities in 17 sustainability impact areas, as measured by the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System. The STARS program is the most widely recognized report card in the world for rating sustainability performance in higher education. UCI is a two-time recipient of the STARS Platinum rating and currently holds the highest score ever obtained by a participating institution. The university currently has 32 LEED new construction certified buildings, including The Susan & Henry Samueli Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building, which includes a pedestrian walkway, new bicycle path and plentiful bicycle racks.
UCI launches Work Reimagined with town hall
The Work Reimagined flexible work program officially launched today with a staff town hall featuring Chancellor Howard Gillman, Dean Ian Williamson from the Paul Merage School of Business, Chief Human Resources Officer Ramona Agrela, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Willie Banks and UCI Health CEO Chad T. Lefteris. After a welcome and introduction from Chancellor Gillman, the town hall covered workplace trends, details of the Work Reimagined program, a Student Affairs case study, and a summary of what the program means for UCI Health. A Q&A session wrapped up the event, with staff questions answered by all the speakers.
Work Reimagined envisions a thriving campus community, retaining a culture of belonging while we pursue our mission of academics, research, healthcare and public service. The operational needs of the university will be met while fairly and consistently optimizing staff work location and schedule flexibility to create an exceptional work experience. To learn more about Work Reimagined and access tools and resources for leaders and resources for staff, please visit https://www.hr.uci.edu/partnership/work-reimagined/. The town hall was recorded and will be posted to the Work Reimagined site as soon as it is available.
Dean Tiffany Ana López begins her journey at UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Photo by Steve Zylius/UCI
Claire Trevor School of the Arts welcomes new dean
Raised by a Mexican-American father who was the youngest of eight born to his migrant farmworker parents and a mother whose impoverished family roots span from Oklahoma to Lancaster, Tiffany Ana López credits the arts with enabling her to transform her life when she was just a teen. Through community arts programs in Santa Barbara in the 1970s, López wrote stories at the library, made ceramics in the park and gained the capacity to envision a better future. Serving as the Claire Trevor School of the Arts’ new dean represents a double homecoming for López : both a return to her native California and to the public higher-education system that shaped her.
UC NEWS AND GENERAL NEWS
First California healthcare worker infected with monkeypox
The first person in the U.S. to contract monkeypox from a workplace exposure is a healthcare worker in the L.A. area, the Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 13. County health officials have been in touch with the CDC about the case and said the overall risk of monkeypox infection for healthcare workers "remains very low." The news comes a day after Los Angeles health officials confirmed monkeypox as the cause of death in a resident who they said was "severely immunocompromised" – marking the nation's first confirmed fatality from the disease. As of Tuesday, there were 22,630 confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.S., including 4,453 in California and 191 in Orange County.
UCI IN THE NEWS
Note: Some news sites require subscriptions to read articles. The UCI Libraries offer free subscriptions to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Register and The Washington Post for students, faculty and staff.
As California sizzles, Amazon drivers feel the heat over metrics
Reuters, Sept. 13
Cited: Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental planning and policy
Sara Mednick, PhD: Sleep is the Best Way to Get Smart
HCPLive (video), Sept. 12
Cited: Sara Mednick, professor of cognitive science
Expert: It’s time to consider a new COVID-19 booster
Spectrum News 1, Sept. 13
Cited: Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention
#UCICONNECTED
Psychological science professor Thomas J. Crawford is remembered for his work in developing UCI’s social ecology program.
Remembering social ecology pioneer Thomas J. Crawford
Thomas J. Crawford, emeritus faculty member in psychological science, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sept. 9. He was 88. Formerly a firefighter and police officer who was born in Los Angeles, he earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Social Relations at Harvard and won an award for his pioneering dissertation study on the impact of religious leaders' sermons on reducing racist attitudes among congregants. Crawford held assistant professor appointments at the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley before joining the Program in Social Ecology at UCI in 1974. He made major contributions to the development of Social Ecology, serving for several years as the program’s associate director for graduate studies.
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