Dear campus community,
On behalf of the MyVoice Working Group and its Action Planning team, I write to provide the latest updates on the MyVoice survey initiative and to invite your participation in the next stage of this important project.
Earlier this year, nearly 15,000 UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty took the MyVoice survey, sharing their experiences, beliefs, and knowledge regarding sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH).
I’m excited to write the second “On My Mind” column in the Berkeleyan, where senior campus leaders like me will share our experiences, thoughts and visions for the community. Today, in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, I want to talk about what UC Berkeley was like when I first came here as a graduate student in 1989, how that informs the work I do today as the vice chancellor of equity and inclusion, and how I see the campus moving forward in the coming years.
Campus leaders gathered this week to dedicate UC Berkeley’s newest residence hall to David Blackwell, the first black professor to receive tenure at Berkeley and a preeminent statistician who died in 2010. Blackwell Hall opened to more than 750 students in August and features study centers, a gym and plenty of ping-pong and pool tables.
Chancellor Carol Christ told the crowd that it was a fitting tribute to Blackwell to have an undergraduate residence hall named in his honor.
When a Starbucks employee recently called the police on two black men who asked for a bathroom key but hadn’t yet ordered anything, it seemed a clear-cut case of racism leading directly to unfair treatment. Many outraged white customers publicly contrasted it with their years of hassle-free Starbucks pit stops.
Monday, Sept. 10, will be Michelle Thomas’s first day as UC Berkeley’s basic needs manager, a new role in the Division of Equity and Inclusion. Thomas — a licensed clinical social worker proficient in helping children, adolescents and families in community-based and outpatient crisis settings — will oversee the campus’s basic needs programs and services and provide case management for students experiencing financial, food and housing insecurity.