Dean Anil Deolalikar
We are now nearly 15 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and I continue to be proud of the resilience of our students, faculty, and staff, who have been making the UCR School of Public Policy (SPP) a hub of activity despite having to adapt to virtual ways of connecting.
This past winter quarter saw the creation of two new student success programs housed in the SPP...
Undergraduate student Vivek Kakar helped the School establish the Roosevelt Network at UC Riverside, whose focus, in coordination with the Roosevelt Institute, is research, advocacy, and discussion of various policy issues that affect communities that have not always traditionally held power.
Another undergraduate student, Sana Jaffery, helped establish a student-run policy research journal, Consilium. Through this SPP student-based journal, which will also have some faculty oversight, SPP students will learn how to translate creative policy ideas into well-developed and well-articulated policy proposals and research papers. More information will be forthcoming in the months to come.
I would be remiss if I did not make mention of the soon-to-be graduates of the SPP who will be joining our growing alumni network. Though we are unable to hold in-person celebrations owing to public health guidelines and protocols, we look forward to conducting in-person commencement ceremonies in the new academic year at a time when it will be safe for us to organize large in-person events.
As the academic year draws to a close, SPP will be hosting its first-ever “State of the School” virtual event in June, where our faculty, staff, and students will reflect on their experiences and achievements during the past year. Please be on the lookout for an invitation to that event shortly.
And, finally, we are looking forward to holding our third Policy Innovator Award event (the first two being held in 2016 and 2018), which will be held virtually on Thursday, September 30th. The event will honor Randall Lewis (Executive Vice President of Marketing, Lewis Group of Companies) and Jesse Melgar (an alumnus of our MPP program and past Press Secretary to Governor Gavin Newsom). We hope you will join us at the event. You can learn more about the event by visiting policyinnovator.ucr.edu.
The past 15 months have been a period of tragedy, adaptation, learning, resilience and -- finally -- rebound, both nationally and for UCR. The light at the end of the tunnel continues to get brighter. After four quarters of fully-remote academic and business operations, UCR is planning to resume in-person teaching and administration starting in the fall. Campus-wide working groups of faculty and staff are busy developing guidelines and protocols for the UCR community’s return to campus (campusreturn.ucr.edu). Of course, the fall quarter, but probably all of next academic year, will be a time of adaptation to -- and experimentation with -- a “new normal.”
We wish you and yours all the best from the SPP Family, and hope to see some of you on Zoom or, even better, in person soon.