TACKLING TOUGH TOPICS
Our series of “ Tritons Tackling ” webinars brought together UC San Diego leadership , faculty experts , and esteemed alumni to discuss today ’ s challenges :
↖ Triton Table Talks Throughout the summer , Tuesday evenings were reserved for Triton Table Talks . Alumni from all over joined these casual Zoom sessions to interact , build connections , and gain professional guidance from alumni experts in their field . Over 1,000 Tritons attended sessions on a variety of topics ranging from working remotely , online networking , building a personal brand , managing finances , job searching during COVID-19 and more . View the sessions coming this fall : tritonmag . com / TTT
Triton Table Talk Feedback :
“ I enjoyed the breadth of content , the wellstructured focus , and the expert guests .” — “ I liked connecting with fellow UCSD alumni and learning about resources the university offers to its alumni .” — “ It was a very inviting environment , with lots of people who want to help !”
Tritons Tackling COVID-19 featured leading epidemiologists and public health experts shortly after stay-at-home orders were issued . Professor and infectious disease expert Robert “ Chip ” Schooley , MD , encouraged Tritons : “ Alumni and friends of this university — a very sciencedriven institution — can help by pushing back when people are telling you things that are not based in science , and presenting to them material that we ’ ve spent a lot of time trying to generate . That ’ s how we should make decisions .”
Tritons Tackling Xenophobia discussed how the pandemic and economic crises have brought cultural animosity to the forefront and demonstrated how to be an advocate , ally and upstander . “ We ’ re at the beginning of systemic and structural historical change , and all of us have a role to play in it . We ’ re just getting started , and we want to get started together ,” said Edwina Welch , PhD ’ 09 , director of UC San Diego ' s Cross-Cultural Center .
Incoming alumni president Kimberly Phillips-Boehm ' 82 led Tritons Tackling Racism , in which campus leaders discussed how UC San Diego can proactively practice its commitment to equity , diversity , and inclusion to unite our society to find solutions to end systemic racism and anti-Blackness . “ When we talk about the antidote to anti-Blackness , it isn ’ t simply diversity . It is actually pro- Blackness at the individual , institutional and instructional levels ,” said Dr . K . Wayne Yang , provost of John Muir College .
Tritons Tackling the Presidential Election looked at the impact of COVID-19 on politics and the prospect of voting during a pandemic , the role of social media , and what could happen after the election . “ This is already the most litigated election that we ’ ve seen , and we will only see more and more cases ,” said political science professor , Thad Kousser . “ It is not going to be without controversy , but I have every hope that we still stay together as a nation .”
Tritons Tackling the Student Experience featured campus leaders working to ensure safety and educational continuity for UC San Diego students . “ In the first four weeks of remote instruction , we streamed almost 2 million minutes of lectures — that ’ s over 3.5 years of video lectures ,” said Carlos Jensen , associate vice chancellor for educational innovation . “ This will make us stronger . We will learn a lot ; we will adopt a lot of new ways of interacting with students , supporting students , and delivering on our educational mission .” View the recorded webinars : tritonmag . com / tackling
UC San Diego will continue virtual alumni programming through Fall 2020 — including an epic Homecoming @ Home , Oct . 19-25 ! See p . 64 for details .
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