October 1, 2007

I’d like to officially welcome everyone to the new academic year at UC San Diego.  To our new students, faculty and staff, welcome to the UCSD campus and community.  To our returning university friends, I’m happy to see you back on campus.

Welcome and Welcome Back to Campus
We once again have a record enrollment this year.  We have 27,500 students, including more than 4,000 incoming freshmen.  I was so happy to see hundreds of our students turn out for the second annual Freshmen Convocation, Triton Power Hour, and the other many Welcome Week events.  What a great way to be a part of the university, learn all you can about UCSD, experience and share campus pride, and start the school year.

Due to the steady growth of our student body, we’ve expanded our student services and facilities.  It’s been an exciting time at UCSD over the last couple of years.  The growth is tremendous and I look forward to your seeing all that we’ve accomplished.  We’ve added more parking with the opening of the Hopkins parking structure near RIMAC.  We’re in the process of expanding our Price Center to add more restaurants and shops.  We’ve extended the hours at Geisel Library and added more late-night shuttles.  We’re also adding more on-campus housing, which is something our students asked for in the latest Undergraduate Student Experience Survey.

Campus Housing
We know how important on-campus housing is.  We realize it provides a sense of community and belonging.  It also enhances students’ educational and social experience at UC San Diego. Our goal is to be able to provide on-campus housing for 50 percent of our student body.  We’re one step closer to that goal with the opening of our single graduate housing, which added 800 beds last spring. 

Our next project is the North Campus Housing community which will add more than 1,800 beds, mainly for undergraduate transfer students, and some juniors and seniors will also live there.  In addition, we’re adding a new café and bookstore to make this new housing complex a complete community.  We just broke ground on the project and it is slated for completion in 2009.  We’re very excited about this project since it will allow us to offer transfer students housing on campus for the first time, which is a huge milestone since nearly 40 percent of newly enrolled undergraduates are transfer students. 

In addition to these housing projects, in the next four years, we’ll add more than 4,000 beds on our campus, which reflects one of the most aggressive housing efforts in the UC system.  That means we’ll soon be able to provide on-campus housing for roughly 48 percent of our student body, very close to our 50 percent goal.

New Student Services Center
We’re pleased our new Student Services Center is getting a lot of use these days.  The building officially opened last May, but many of the departments that inhabit the building moved in over the summer.  The Student Services Center provides a plethora of student-related services, all in one location.   For a list of the services and departments at the Student Services Center, click here.  The facility is conveniently located in the heart of campus, and it’s where students make the transition from prospective, to admitted, to current students.  It’s also the starting point for our campus tours.  It’s estimated more than 40,000 visitors will pass through the Student Services Center each year.

New Additions to the UCSD Administration
As I mentioned last month, we’ve hired a new Vice Chancellor – Student Affairs.  Dr. Penny Rue has been here a month and she’s met more people in that time than most administrators do in their entire career.  Penny attended many of our Welcome Week activities, where she introduced herself and interacted with students.  Penny is extremely student-focused, and has a strong desire to enhance and develop student services, and work with students to ensure their needs are met at UC San Diego.

We’ve also hired a new Senior Vice Chancellor – Academic Affairs.  Paul Drake has been on the UC San Diego faculty since 1984 and most recently served as the Dean of Social Sciences (the largest academic division) for the past 12 years.  He has played a leadership role in many of the campus’s key academic and diversity initiatives, and has helped recruit some of our top faculty members.  In his new position, he will continue to build on our academic strengths while identifying new innovative and interdisciplinary academic initiatives.

California Native American Day Celebration
Last year, our inaugural celebration of California Native American Day was a two-day affair.  This year, we’re extending the festivities.  We will host a series of events on campus through November to celebrate the rich culture and heritage of Native Americans.  The events include lectures, exhibitions, and film screenings.  To see the full calendar of events for our celebration, click here.  The official commemoration of California Native American Day was on Sept. 28. 

Over the years, university leaders have made an effort to strengthen ties with the local Native American community.  I’ve personally met with tribal leaders and visited the San Manuel Unity and Cultural Awareness Center.  UC San Diego has also helped provide local reservations with high-speed Internet connectivity.  We’ve set up distance tutoring, Internet classes and computer-based literacy activities on some reservations.  These activities have improved educational opportunities for Native American children, who we hope will grow up to be UC San Diego students.  In addition, we’ve established a new Native American Alumni Chapter at UC San Diego and the Native American Student Alliance has been re-established on campus.

Celebrating Diversity
It’s important that we celebrate our diversity.  Here at UC San Diego, we work diligently to increase campus diversity and we’re making progress.  Of the more than 4,000 freshmen who accepted our offer of admission, 46 percent are Asian, 24 percent are Caucasian, 10 percent are Mexican-American, 4 percent are Filipino, 3 percent are Latino and nearly 2 percent are African American.  Of our 71 new faculty members, 64 percent are Caucasian, 21 percent are Asian, 8 percent are Hispanic, 3 percent are Native American and 3 percent are African American.  As for our career staff, a 2006 report shows 52 percent are Caucasian, 20 percent are Asian, 17 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are African American and 1 percent are Native American.

Diversity is a positive and necessary element for growth and learning.  We are deeply committed to increasing our diversity, and have many university groups working to address and improve matters of diversity, including the Committee on the Status of Women, the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Diversity Council, and the UCSD staff associations.  The UCSD community and external community also benefit from the exemplary work and programs offered by the campus community centers – the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women’s Center.  In addition, Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer, Jorge Huerta, and the Director of Campus Diversity Initiatives, Glynda Davis, are involved in diversity initiatives throughout the year in collaboration with UCSD faculty, staff, students and members of the community.

In short, UC San Diego offers a diverse, distinct, collaborative and innovative environment.  It’s a great place to be!  I certainly believe this is the best public university in the nation and I am proud to lead this stellar institution.

                                                                        With warm regards,

                                                                        Marye Anne Fox
                                                                        Chancellor