Campus Updates

Black Thriving Initiative: Take the Pledge

Last week, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Douglas M. Haynes sent an email urging all UCI community members to Take the Pledge to help shape a university culture where Black people can thrive. The Take the Pledge campaign builds on the UCI Black Thriving Initiative, which aims to respond to and recognize anti-Blackness as an existential threat to our mission as a great public research university.

The purpose of the Take the Pledge campaign is to mobilize the campus community and Anteater nation to make UCI the leading university for talented Black people to thrive as undergraduate and graduate students, medical students and residents, faculty, staff and alumni. The pledge, of course, is voluntary. I strongly urge all faculty, staff and students of Biological Sciences to demonstrate our collective commitment by Taking the Pledge.

Find out more about the UCI Black Thriving Initiative. The Office of Inclusive Excellence also provides learning resources for confronting anti-Blackness, which can be found here.

Black in STEM: How to Mentor Black Students in Biomedical Sciences

It began with a presentation in June of 2020, where neurobiology graduate students Angeline Dukes and Elena Dominguez, together with Dr. Autumn Ivy shared insights and began a crucial dialogue about how to mentor Black students in biomedical sciences. The student duo went on to cofound an international grassroots movement that went viral. Black in Neuro held their first major virtual gathering #BlackinNeuroWeek at the end of July. The event attracted thousands of scholars from all around the world and was covered in USA Today, Forbes magazine, and Medium. Now, the organization is holding its second major series of events, a virtual mini conference (#BiNConference2020) on October 31st – Nov 4th. They have also elected their first executive board, with Ms. Dukes serving as their first president.

On October 15, 2020, Nature Medicine published a world view article by Ms. Dukes on how to better support and train Black students in biomedical sciences. The article. has already been tweeted about more than 800 times. I hope all of you will read it. Then read it again. Then forward it to your colleagues and friends so that they may also read it and benefit from it.

Becoming a ZotAbility Ally

The UCI Disability Services Center is offering a free, 90-minute virtual workshop to become a ZotAbility Ally. This interactive workshop is designed to challenge personal biases, provide awareness, promote diversity and includes a panel to hear first-hand experiences from UCI students. There are two separate workshops:

Amplify Womxn of UCI: Hearing Our Stories

Academic and Professional Women (A&PW) of UCI has launched a new storytelling video series focused on raising the voices of womxn across UCI. The Amplify Womxn of UCI: Hearing Our Stories initiative, envisioned by Bio Sci’s Erica Turley-De Villa and fellow A&PW boardmember Tanya Zabalegui, aims to aid in the eradication of anti-Black and anti-inclusive mindsets through 5-minute interviews  in which guests (UCI staff, faculty, and retirees) share their personal experiences with discrimination and/or profiling based on race, gender, disability, and/or other pieces of their identity.

Episode 1 interviewed Karen Andrews, director of the UCI Disabilities Center. Episode 2 interviewed Kimberly Jones, Senior Director, Enterprise Talent Strategy, UCI Human Resources. The next video launch is planned for October 30, 2020. Save the date.

Michael A. Yassa Will Serve as the First Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the School of Biological Sciences

Your Vote this Election

We are less than two weeks from arguably the most important election of our time.

Your voice this election will make a huge impact not only at the national level but at the state policy level. For example, Proposition 16, a California ballot proposition asking voters to amend the Constitution of California to repeal 1996’s Proposition 209, will allow diversity as a factor in public employment, education and contracting decisions. A Yes or No vote on this proposition will have consequences for diversifying our hiring and training efforts.

I strongly urge you to vote and to vote early. Early voting is well underway with more than 26 million Americans already casting their votes by mail. Please visit https://advocacy.uci.edu/election/ for voter resources, ballot drop box locations on and around campus, as well as on-campus in-person voting from Oct 30 to Nov 2.