Dear UCSF Colleagues,
We are asking all employees, including those at Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, to receive or decline the COVID-19 vaccination by June 30, 2021, in accordance with an interim policy issued by the University of California Office of the President.
The goal of the interim UC policy is to protect the health and safety of the entire University community. It requires all employees and certain trainees working on-site to be informed about the COVID-19 vaccines and then either be vaccinated or decline the vaccination. To learn more about the interim UC policy, visit this link.
All UCSF employees and trainees (but not students) working on-site are required to take one of the following two actions:
- Get the COVID-19 vaccination.
- If you received your vaccination at UCSF Parnassus Heights or UCSF Mission Bay, no further action is needed.
- If you received your vaccination outside of a UCSF campus location—including City College of San Francisco, UCSF Fresno partner locations, or Zuckerberg San Francisco General—you must submit proof of your vaccination on the new Occupational Health Services (OHS) portal, which can be accessed via the UCSF network or VPN at: https://ohsportal.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/
- Or you must complete a form declining the COVID-19 vaccination on the new OHS portal linked above.
BCH Oakland employees should submit proof of a vaccination...
Dear Members of the UCSF Community:
On April 27, you will receive an invitation to participate in the 2021 UCSF Staff Engagement Survey, which will once again be conducted by Gallup. The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the disruption to our lives caused by the onset of COVID-19. More than a year later, the need to hear from our staff community is imperative.
Completing the survey should take less than ten minutes, and your response will help us understand the progress we have made toward our shared goal of making UCSF an inclusive and supportive place to work.
Managers and their teams use their results each year to create action plans that build on strengths and address challenges. At the UCSF-wide level, we look for trends and patterns in engagement and satisfaction that help us understand how staff feel about their work so we can identify opportunities for improvement across our institution.
Based on the results from 2019, UCSF has continued its efforts to sustain and increase staff engagement. These include:
- Working on the organization-wide action plan to create paths toward addressing unconscious bias and to help managers advocate on behalf of their staff, including the introduction of manager and staff training on this topic.
- Measuring progress on confronting and resolving issues of belonging and inclusion.
- Participating in the 2020 Your Voice Counts survey, with a focus on the organizational priorities of addressing UCSF’s COVID-19 response, financial recovery, and racial injustice.
You can...
Dear UCSF Community,
Nearly a year ago, George Floyd was killed at the hands of police in Minnesota. Today, after a brief deliberation, a jury convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on all three charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Mr. Floyd’s death placed a glaring light, once again, on the use of excessive force by police on people of color. Our society must find the will to break the cycle of police violence and systemic racism that devalues the lives of Black Americans and other communities of color.
Today’s verdict will hopefully provide some comfort to Mr. Floyd’s loved ones that, at least in this case, justice may be served. But we must continue to push for meaningful reforms that strengthen policing overall. In so doing, we may yet build a lasting legacy from this tragedy that improves police accountability and ensures equity for all of the communities that police officers are meant to serve and protect.
The past year has proven to be challenging on many fronts. One of the things I am most grateful for is the humanity and compassion that our UCSF community brings to issues ranging from the pandemic to anti-racism.
We have learned so much from one another about what it means to build a truly inclusive, diverse, and equitable culture. Though we have more work to do, I hope you are taking the time to look after yourself and one another.
Sincerely,
Sam Hawgood, MBBS
Chancellor
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor
Dear UCSF Community,
Given the increased use of phishing emails to launch cyber-attacks, UCSF IT will launch on Friday, April 16, an automated system that will provide visual tags on emails when:
- you receive an email from a sender that is outside of the UCSF community;
- the sender cannot be verified; or
- in other risky scenarios.
The “External Sender” tag does not indicate the email is or is not malicious but is intended to help you be more aware and cautious. External emails will appear in your inbox with a message like this:
Warning tags are an indication that the email may in fact be dangerous. While most of these kinds of emails get blocked by our system, some number make it through the filters and this tag will help you identify them.
Email tags are intended to increase your awareness of the origin and context of the email that you receive, especially from senders outside of the UCSF community. Read more about email tagging at https://it.ucsf.edu/how-to/email-tagging.
As phishing attempts increase, please continue to exercise caution, and report any suspicious email using the Phish Alarm tool: https://it.ucsf.edu/service/phish-alarm. If you need assistance in reporting suspicious email, please...
Dear Members of the UCSF Community:
The fatal shooting of Daunte Wright this past Sunday compounds our grief and frustration over a series of tragedies involving Black people in situations that are difficult to understand, much less accept. While the circumstances are always different, we need to recognize that implicit bias is woven into the common thread that connects these senseless deaths.
We mourn Mr. Wright, a young man whose passing echoes the death of too many before him. And we recognize that many of you are exhausted by the anguish caused by these tragedies, especially as the trial of Derek Chauvin over the killing of George Floyd unfolds.
But we cannot let exhaustion lead to resignation. The underlying factors that lead to this needless loss of life will not be undone overnight. The society from which these heartbreaking situations emerge will change only through the repetition and amplification of actions by individuals and systems examining and dismantling bias, unconscious and otherwise.
We hope you take the time to check in with your family, friends, and colleagues who may be impacted by this latest tragedy. If you or anyone you know would benefit from support, please seek the counseling and assistance of our UCSF resource teams:
- Student Health & Counseling
(415) 476-1281 - Faculty and Staff Assistance Program
(415) 476-8279
Sincerely,
Sam Hawgood, MBBS
Chancellor
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock...
Dear UCSF Community,
I am writing to share a set of FAQs from the UC Office of the President regarding the system-wide data breach that the University of California reported last week.
I strongly encourage you to review the following resources to learn about the steps you should take to help protect yourself. This includes enrolling in the free credit monitoring and identity theft protection offered by UCOP in its April 2 update.
FAQs on the UC system-wide data breach
https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2021/04/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-accellion-data-breach.html
UC Office of the President: April 2 update, including free credit monitoring and identity theft protection
https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2021/04/update-on-accellion-breach-and-what-you-should-do.html
If you have questions about the data breach, the UC Office of the President asks that you send them to a special email address that has been created for this incident: [email protected].
I want to underscore the seriousness of this cybersecurity attack, which has affected many companies and universities across the country, and encourage you to stay...
To the entire UCSF Community:
I am writing to share an important update from the UC Office of the President regarding a cybersecurity breach. The UCOP IT security team informed the campuses that it had recently identified and contained a cybersecurity attack that resulted in stolen information. At this time, UCOP believes that the stolen information includes but is not limited to names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and bank account information belonging to members of the UC community.
Please read the message from the UC Office of the President below—and take the protective actions UCOP recommends, including signing up for free credit monitoring and identity theft protection: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2021/04/update-on-accellion-breach-and-what-you-should-do.html
In addition, we believe the person(s) behind this attack are sending threatening mass emails to members of the UC community in an attempt to extort money. Anyone receiving this kind of message should report the suspicious email using the “Phish Alarm” tool. For information on how to do this, visit https://it.ucsf.edu/service/phish-alarm. If you need assistance in reporting suspicious email, please contact the UCSF IT Service Desk at 415-514-4100.
UCOP is working to determine what UCSF information may have been compromised. The investigation is ongoing and UCOP is working to confirm more information in the coming weeks. When more details are available, we will share those with you...