Nov. 21 - UCI’s elite spit camp; high grades for UCI Health
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A leaf floats atop the Maya Lin water table at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Photo by Ian Parker
UCI ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS
Thanksgiving health safety message & reminders
In a campus wide message today, David M. Souleles, director of UCI’s Public Health Response Team, recommended that all members of the UCI community take a COVID-19 test before and after the Thanksgiving holiday. While there are no longer any PCR testing sites on campus, antigen tests are available free of charge for students and employees at four on-campus locations:
Souleles also issued a reminder to get your COVID-19 bivalent booster dose as soon as you are eligible. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend everyone 5 years and older receive a bivalent booster if it has been at least two months since their last COVID-19 dose, whether that was their final primary series dose or an original monovalent booster. Watch for future communication with instructions on UC Vaccine Policy bivalent COVID-19 booster compliance requirements and deadlines.
Also, the flu season has begun and all students and employees are reminded that Thursday, Dec. 1 is the deadline for compliance with the flu vaccination program of the UC Vaccine Policy. The policy requires that all employees and students that have a presence at any UCI location receive the flu vaccination or submit a declination. Please visit the appropriate link below to submit your flu attestation or declination. You are not required to provide documentation to confirm you received the flu vaccine or to support your reason for declining the vaccination.
Submit your flu vaccine attestation or declination
Clinics on campus for students, faculty, and staff continue throughout fall quarter for both the flu and the COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccines. Dates and times are listed on the UCI Forward website, which will continue to house updates, including the latest guidance and relevant links.
A spit camp participant practices the craft of saliva science. Photo by Steve Zylius/UCI
UCI spit camp trains future saliva scientists
UCI’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research is one of the only labs in the world exclusively devoted to studying saliva biospecimens. Also known as “spit camp,” the IISBR lab is poised to play a critical role in studying what scientists view as the diagnostic fluid of the future. Each year, the average person produces enough saliva to fill two bathtubs, and human spit is packed with DNA, enzymes, hormones, immune system markers and other substances that can provide clues to what’s happening in the body. The IISBR lab includes 13 freezers that, combined, can hold nearly 420,000 samples of spit.
UCI Health handed 17th consecutive ‘A’ grade in hospital safety test
UCI Health received its 17th consecutive 'A' in the fall 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. This national distinction, which recognizes a health system’s commitment to patient safety and achievements in preventing harm, has been awarded to UCI Health each spring and fall since 2014. The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization with a 10-year history of assigning letter grades to general hospitals throughout the United States, based on a hospital’s ability to prevent medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. The biannual Hospital Safety Grade results are based on more than 30 national performance measures and are updated each fall and spring.
Claire Trevor’s new dean outlines her vision for UCI arts program
Tiffany Lopez joined UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts as dean on July 1, and she has spent the past four months learning about her school and developing a new vision for it. She recently spoke with the UCI Podcast team to discuss her unique background, her vision for the importance of the arts in higher education, the need for diversity, and why it’s necessary to invest into arts and music education for economically disadvantaged students in California’s public schools.
UAW strike update
The UAW strike on UC campuses, including UCI, is ongoing. Negotiations continue, as do instruction and research. The latest FAQs and information are available on the provost's continuity webpage.
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.
Have We Been Measuring Housing Inflation All Wrong?
The Washington Post, Nov. 21
Cited: N. Edward Coulson, professor of real estate
UC Berkeley, Stanford join top law schools’ boycott of U.S. News & World Report rankings
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17
Cited: Austen Parrish, dean of UCI Law School
Mentally ill prisoners in California are three times likelier to get shuffled around
CalMatters, Nov. 21
Cited: Keramet Reiter, professor of criminology
#UCICONNECTED
The 2022 Anteaters finished the year with a record of 11-6-7 (3-2-5 in the Big West). Photo by Derek Blalock
UCI women’s soccer ends NCAA championship run in 3rd round
UC Irvine women's soccer saw their postseason dream come to an end after an NCAA Third Round defeat yesterday against No. 3 Alabama in the Alabama Soccer Stadium. The season 3-1 game-ender marks the second time in program history that the squad has reached the NCAA Third Round. The 2022 Anteaters now join the 2010 squad as the only women’s soccer teams to reach this far in the national competition.
#UCIconnected spotlights student, alumni, faculty and staff photos, essays, shoutouts, hobbies, artwork, unusual office decorations, activities and more. Send submissions via email or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag.