[Sshagradstudents] Spring 2021 SSHA Newsletter

[SSHA Dean]

School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
SSHAwesome News
Spring 2021
Message from the Dean:

Greetings SSHA Faculty and Staff-

Spring is in the air! The bad piece of that for us climate watchers is that it has been in the air since winter!

As you may have heard, campus plans to increase activities over the summer, with a target of on-campus teaching in fall ’21. We will also be in the process of ‘relaunching’ on-campus research activities beyond what we have going on at this time.

The COVID and vaccine numbers suggest flexible schedule for teaching and research as active as possible on campus. Many people are working on this and as soon as I have specifics and guidelines, I will let you know. I would add that SSHA is developing a plan for the transition, and we are thinking about activities to help staff and faculty ‘reorient’ themselves.

This newsletter contains some updates as to staffing. To best serve our constituents, we continue to adapt and change our processes. In the background, we also continue to advocate strongly for SSHA support and the infrastructures we need to maintain our quality work and reduce the levels of stress.

As always, my ‘door’ is open, and I would love to hear from you at any time. I want to thank you again for all that you have done, and for your persistence under these difficult circumstances. Without you, our campus would not exist.

Jeff
New SSHA Senate Faculty (Start: 01/01/2021):
* Zenaida Aguirre-Munoz, Professor, Cognitive & Information Sciences
* Yiran Xu, Assistant Professor, GAMWS

Personnel Services:

Planning to Hire? Let us help you!

To initiate a hire or contract, please contact:
· Joe Swann (mailto:jswann at ucmerced.edu) – Undergraduate Students and Independent Contractors
· Vanessa Woodruff (mailto:vwoodruff at ucmerced.edu) – Academic Readers and Unit 18 Lecturers
· Jeff Fuller (mailto:jfuller7 at ucmerced.edu) – Senate Faculty
· Rebecca Smith (mailto:rsmith7 at ucmerced.edu) – Staff and all other academic appointments

Timecard Reminder: https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=ae89fafb2f&e=1ff9558755

Please ensure that timecards are submitted and approved by the required date.  Delays can impact employee’s pay.

Bi-weekly paid employees will submit their timesheets by the end of their scheduled workday, every other Friday (Saturday if scheduled to work).
Supervisors must approve by 10 a.m. the following Monday

Monthly paid employees will submit their timesheets by the 5th of the month.
Supervisors must approve by the 10th of the month

============================================================
Academic Advising:

Our Academic Advisor & Transfer Coordinator position is currently vacant. Transfer students have been assigned to, and notified of, a temporary academic advisor. SSHA academic advising assignments, as well as campus-wide academic advising assignments, may be found via the ** Who is My Advisor? (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=a6b4aca537&e=1ff9558755)
webpage.

We are continuing to work with and assist students via our virtual walk-in hours and appointments. We recently updated our ** walk-in hours process (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=173893a8d3&e=1ff9558755)
to provide our students improved accessibility to an academic advisor or peer mentor. Students may access their academic advisor’s and peer mentor’s walk-in and appointment availability via the
** Meet With Your Advisor (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=3afdf3bcc4&e=1ff9558755)
webpage.

Over the Spring semester, our team will be working on the following:

** Jump Start Your 3^rd Year Meetings (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=f26cdc4831&e=1ff9558755)
** Transfer Transition Meeting (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=b8f5f159cd&e=1ff9558755)
** Mid-Semester Grade Interventions (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=24114ace61&e=1ff9558755)
** Peer Mentor Workshops for student support (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=500fd9d7f3&e=1ff9558755)
Summer 2021 and Fall 2021 Registration
Spring 2021 Graduation Clearances
Center for the Humanities:

The Center for the Humanities continues to host the Medical Humanities Seminar with monthly talks, a monthly virtual concert series in collaboration with UptART, and several workshops on digital tools, publishing and community-engaged research (the latter in collaboration with the Luce Grant).

We’re excited to announce Dean Gilger was co-PI of a successful MRPI grant from UCOP in collaboration with humanities Deans at all other UCs. The MRPI grant benefits the UC Humanities Consortium (including our Center) and UCHRI. This provides funding for workshops, the Junior Faculty Exchange,
and for grants and fellowships to faculty and graduate students
(offered through both UCHRI and the Center).


Instructional Services:

Spring 2021 processes are well underway!

The Fall 2021 schedule will be going live soon, Summer 2021 Registration has begun, General Catalog Revisions have been submitted to UGC, and the largest wave of our course proposal cycle is over!

We have enjoyed our Mid-Year Course Scheduling and Articulation Check-Ins with Department Chairs – these connections have helped us to understand what parts of our processes are working well, and which ones we can continue to refine.

During the Spring semester, our team will be focusing in particular on:

Spring 2021 Course Evaluations
Course Articulation Requests
Fall 2021 Planning and Enrollment Tracking
Summer 2021 Enrollment Tracking
Spring 2022 Schedule Drafting and Submission

Lastly, we would like to express our excitement for Casey Delfino and her maternity leave! Our Instructional Services team appreciates your patience over the next few months, while we work to balance her roles and responsibilities among our team members!
Graduate Services:

SSHA Graduate Services is excited to announce the launch of our new ** website (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=ca88c0f490&e=1ff9558755)
! We want to extend a huge thank you to Arnold Khampaseut, our Student Success Intern, and Yash Sharma, the SSHA undergraduate student supporting our teams with website updates this year, for their many contributions to this project. Please explore our new website for faculty and student resources, information about the SSHA graduate programs and important information related to graduate studies.

Our team successfully conducted Spring Graduate Research Week (GROW) live via zoom in January for the admitted students who had to defer admission to Spring semester 2021. Additionally, to welcome prospective graduate students to UC Merced and the SSHA graduate programs, SSHA Graduate Services conducted the first Virtual Graduate Visitation Days (VGVD) live via zoom on February 19, 2021. Sixty-one of the sixty-four invitees registered for the VGVD events and the SSHA events were well attended! We look forward to continuing to provide updated through the SSHA Graduate Services Monthly Digest, conduct monthly Virtual Office Hours, and updating our website.

Department Support Services
After meeting with the SSHA department chairs and assessing their needs the department support team is adding two additional tasks to their list of activities, i.e., preparing and disseminating communications digest on behalf of the department chairs, and assisting with hiring student assistants & course readers. A full list of these services can be found in ** this link (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=cae41f2318&e=1ff9558755)
.

Expect Delays with Honorarium Processing
Due to system updates and procedures changes, we are experiencing delays in the processing of speaker payments. We are actively working to resolve this and hope to provide a simplified process with clear timeline for your guest speaker payments soon.

SSHA Virtual Events Support
SSHA Seminars is here to continue to support your virtual events with our relaxed semester timeline for submitting requests. We ask you to give us at least two weeks advance notice to assist you with your online event needs. We are here to help you plan engaging and successful events!

Our Virtual Event Services include: Event Design Consultation, Zoom Meeting Set Up, Zoom Webinar (by special request), Zoom Meeting Moderation (controlling microphones, break out rooms, chat/time monitor, etc), Zoom Event Registration, Live Broadcasting, Flyer Design, Online Advertisement, Record Meetings, and Guest Speaker Arrangements and Payments.

Requests can be submitted on our ** Virtual Event Request form (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=58b9f1c8d8&e=1ff9558755)
. For more resources, check out our ** Resources Webpage (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=b199a6b94d&e=1ff9558755)
.

We look forward to assisting you in your next event! Please feel free to contact us at ** ssha.seminars at ucmerced.edu (mailto:ssha.seminars at ucmerced.edu)
with any questions or to set up an individual consultation.

SSHA Spotlights
The UC Merced School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts is home to top notch scholars, research, and students at UC Merced. To help share the amazing work being done in our school, we are looking to gather stories from our experiences in SSHA and highlight them through short videos.

SSHA Spotlight stories aim to inspire and inform the campus community and focus on the richness of the experience that comes with pursuing education at UC Merced. These one-minute videos will raise the profile of SSHA by featuring student experiences, scholar experiences, and special research projects.

SSHA Spotlight videos will highlight stories in three categories:
1. Student Experience
2. Scholar Experience
3. Special Research Experience

Please submit your stories using the following link: ** https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=4110277c16&e=1ff9558755 (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=f919268b36&e=1ff9558755)
.
Financial & Administrative Operations Services:

The Administrative Coordination Team (ACT) has changed its name to the Center for Business Services and Solutions, or CBS2. Purchases, reimbursements, and travel requests can be submitted via the
** CBS2 website (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=e9addd1b6f&e=1ff9558755)
.

All purchases, reimbursements and travel reservations require a Chart String (COA) or Project Name, such as: Incidentals, Startup, Chair, COR, Endowment, Grant, etc. Faculty are highly encouraged to contact ** ssha.financial at ucmerced.edu (mailto:ssha.financial at ucmerced.edu)
if they have questions regarding their COA information.

Support offered by CBS2:

** Purchasing (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=248ba1c3ea&e=1ff9558755)
:
FedEx Shipping Labels
Purchase Order Requisitions (General Purchases)
Computers – All prices listed in Bobcat Buy include pre-negotiated discounts and warranty.  IT provides recommendations for computer hardware devices and peripherals/auxiliaries.

Invoice Processing/Payment
Mobile Device Purchases (Cellular Phone/MiFi)
UCM discount pricing on devices (iPhone 12 mini at $249.99 vs $972.09 retail)

Software Purchases
IT provides consultation, sourcing and strive to provide price quotes and purchasing at academic or volume discount whenever possible.  Software purchasing requires research, review of terms and conditions and other criteria that UCM must abide to.  This might take longer to purchase the software you need to order but ensures we meet all UCOP, campus and other requirements.
Vendor Setup
Procurement Card (P-Card) Receipt Process

** Reimbursements (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=f89926814a&e=1ff9558755)
:
General Reimbursements
Travel & Entertainment

** Travel and Entertainment (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=43151dd3dd&e=1ff9558755)
:
Travel Reservations

To track the status of a request, select ServiceNow in the ** CBS2 (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=55aa1753d0&e=1ff9558755)
website and select My CBS2 Requests.

SSHA CBS2 Liaison:
CBS2 has designated a team member as the primary point of contact for each school. If you have any questions, need assistance, or are having trouble with an order please contact SSHA’s liaison, Michelle Escalante, by email at ** cbs2 at ucmerced.edu (mailto:cbs2 at ucmerced.edu)
. Start the email subject with the school’s acronym, i.e., SSHA: Question about ordering materials. You also can use the Bobcat Buy help desk phone number – (209) 228-3600 for support on procurement and travel requests.

Reimbursement Reminders:
* Seek a quote, but do not purchase or commit to any goods or services.
* Reimbursements are not guaranteed until reviewed and deemed in line with University’s guidelines (even under $500).
* Reimbursement of services are not allowable.
* Reimbursed items belong to UCM.
* All general reimbursement expenses claimed must be accompanied by an itemized receipt detailing the item, quantity, unit price, and method of payment.
* Detailed justifications are required and should not be stated as simply research or teaching, think of answering the who/what/when/where/why.



Research:

** External Peer Review Program for SSHA Faculty (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=f7f20396a0&e=1ff9558755)
:
The External Peer Review Program for SSHA Faculty provides financial support as incentive for external reviewers to assist SSHA faculty in the development of their proposals. This program has been designed to assist SSHA faculty in the development of grant and foundation proposals that do not meet the monetary or other eligibility criteria of the ** Faculty Success Initiative Peer Review Pre-submission Review Program (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=8543495445&e=1ff9558755)
through the Office of Research and Economic Development.

** Highlight your research and scholarship activities (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=76f1f3a29b&e=1ff9558755)
to be presented in ** SSHA’s Monthly Research and Scholarship News (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=46c7d66ad0&e=1ff9558755)
.

The ** Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=c146c394a5&e=1ff9558755)
is providing overview sessions to each department this spring. Please check with your department chair for details.

Please feel free to reach out to discuss any and all things research: ** ssha.research at ucmerced.edu (mailto:ssha.research at ucmerced.edu)
Important Dates & Deadlines:
March 2021:
* March 16: Spring 2021 Mid-Semester Grades Deadline at noon
* March 16: SSHA Graduate Services Virtual Office Hours 1:00pm-2:00pm

April 2021:
* April 6: Last Day to Withdraw from Class with Instructor and Dean Permission
* April 26-May 7: Spring 2021 SSHA Course Evaluations

May 2021:
* May 7: Spring 2021 Graduate Students Graduates: Recommended last day to file dissertation with committee (Ph.D.) or thesis (M.A.)
* May 7: Spring Instruction Ends
* May 8, May10-14: Spring 2021 Final Exams
* May 14: Spring 2021 Graduate Students Graduates: Last day to file dissertation with committee (Ph.D.) or thesis (M.A.)
* May 18: Spring 2021 Final Grade Deadline at noon
* May 24-July 2: Summer Session A (First Six-Week)

June 2021:
* June 21-August 13: Summer Session B (Eight-Week)

July 2021:
* July 6-August 13: Summer Session C (Second Six-Week)

This email was sent to sshagradstudents at lists.ucmerced.edu (mailto:sshagradstudents at lists.ucmerced.edu)
why did I get this? (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/about?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=42d1349954&e=1ff9558755&c=3f24d04a55)     unsubscribe from this list (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=42d1349954&e=1ff9558755&c=3f24d04a55)     update subscription preferences (https://ucmerced.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&id=42d1349954&e=1ff9558755&c=3f24d04a55)
UC Merced . 5200 N Lake Rd . Merced, CA 95343-5001 . USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
http://www.mailchimp.com/email-referral/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=referral_marketing&aid=df1b3d84678244bec7b71868b&afl=1
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ucmerced.edu/pipermail/sshagradstudents/attachments/20210316/8322109f/attachment-0001.html>