Dear Members of the UCSF Community:
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a holiday concert at SF Jazz. The group sang powerfully of the need for peace on earth. For me their joyful, rocking performance was a stark counterpoint to the brutal inhumanity taking place throughout the year in wars that have resulted in mass migrations in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the continuing social injustice, violence, and growing bigotry and intolerance here at home.
Our students, joined by faculty and staff, remind us all that UCSF is not immune to social injustice and intolerance. Their voices for change have galvanized us to critically examine and address our individual biases and the barriers to unqualified inclusion still present in our own community. I am proud of the campus response in 2015 but know we have much more to do.
As 2015 draws to a close, I ask that as we reflect on the many achievements of the past year and think forward to 2016, we all commit ourselves anew to making UCSF a beacon of social justice, tolerance, and equity.
My best wishes to you for the New Year.
Sincerely,
Sam
Sam Hawgood, MBBS
Chancellor
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor
Dear UCSF Community:
Today we join our students in observing the first anniversary of White Coats for Black Lives, a demonstration to call attention to health inequities and increase awareness of racism and violence as public health problems. We are proud that UC San Francisco is one of the places where this movement started, inspiring similar actions around the country.
Developing and sustaining a culture of equity and inclusion is a high priority for UCSF. Chancellor Sam Hawgood is actively engaged with campus and faculty leadership to ensure that concrete steps are being taken to address the issues raised by our students. The Office of Diversity and Outreach is focused on increasing the recruitment and retention of diverse learners, faculty and staff, establishing a climate that is equitable and inclusive, and supporting education, research and patient care practices that facilitate health equity.
In January, the School of Medicine refocused its annual retreat on how race, whether as a social construct or a risk factor shaped by environmental forces, contributes to disease. Faculty and students also spoke of how discrimination has affected them personally. This fall, the School of Medicine devoted a significant part of the orientation for incoming medical students to communication about differences. Other projects, such as the Differences Matter initiative, are in progress.
All of our health professional schools and the Graduate Division continue to focus on these issues. The School of Pharmacy helps post baccalaureate students to improve their...
Dear Colleagues,
Making UCSF a great place to work is the purpose of UCSF’s Staff Engagement Survey. Conducted by Gallup in May of this year, the survey is a means to gather your feedback toward advancing this goal.
As I announced in July, UCSF’s overall engagement score increased .26 over the four surveys completed since 2011. All managers and staff are key to sustaining the strengths of their departments and addressing local challenges. To learn more, see Learning and Organization Development’s survey resources.
I have reviewed the results of the 2015 survey in detail with my Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet, including your responses to the question “What could UCSF do to make this an even better place to work?”
We identified several significant themes:
- Continuing to enhance leadership and peer engagement actions in areas such as communication, teamwork, recognition, and continuous learning.
- Challenges of living and commuting in the Bay Area, UCSF facilities, and work schedules.
- Work resources, such as processes, systems, and budgets.
Your feedback is important, and the following UCSF-wide activities support our engagement objectives in response to your comments:
- In my State of the University address, I announced plans for this coming year to focus on issues of...