The Year Ahead

Dear Slugs,

As you navigate the year ahead, we write to affirm our dedication to supporting you, especially as we all face unprecedented challenges and uncertainty. Our beautiful campus is more quiet than usual with only 900 students in residence and six, in-person classes taking place. The rest of the Slug community may be physically apart, but we are all in this together. All students still have many support and engagement services available to promote your success. We are here to support you. 

Stay Connected: The new Ask a Slug program will put you in touch with a peer so you can ask questions and seek advice about anything school-related.The Keep Learning website can help you navigate remote learning. As always, Student Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Slug Support, Basic Needs support, Academic Advising, Learning Support Services, CARE, and the Career Center are open and continue to provide services remotely.    

Stay Well: As many of you have returned to the greater Santa Cruz area, we encourage you to diligently engage in the practices that mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and commit to the Slug Strong Pledge. It is critical that we continuously educate one another about the importance of prevention practices and do the following: maintain physical distancing, wear a mask in public, and practice good hygiene and cleaning routines.  Check out this video for more details and Slug Strong best practices.

Testing: We urge all students to be tested for COVID-19. The testing is available to all students at the Student Health Center free of charge. UC SHIP insurance is not required to participate in free testing. Students who live on campus will be notified when it's time to schedule your first COVID-19 test. Please contact the Student Health Center or your healthcare provider about testing if you feel sick or are concerned about exposure. We highly encourage our off-campus students who are asymptomatic to also be tested at the Student Health Center or in the Santa Cruz County area. 

Stay Safe: UC Santa Cruz has implemented a new Public Health Policy which all members of the community are expected to follow. Students who are living on campus or in the Santa Cruz community will be expected to follow the health precautions ordered by the governor of California and supported by the Santa Cruz County Public Health Department. Any intentional spread of the virus may be dealt with as a student or student organization disciplinary issue.
Slug Strong Pledge: One of the UC Santa Cruz Principles of Community is Caring, which is promoting mutual respect, trust, and support to foster bonds that strengthen the community. As members of the UCSC Banana Slug community, in this time of a global pandemic, we must rise to the occasion to actively promote the principle of Caring by embracing our responsibility for the health and wellbeing of each other.   

As part of your commitment to the UCSC community, we invite you to make the Slug Strong Pledge. This pledge calls upon all Slugs to embrace the COVID-19 mitigations that will help to slow the spread of the coronavirus in our campus and local community. All COVID-19 mitigations were developed in consideration of guidelines outlined by federal, state, UC and local public health programs, and can be found in the University’s Interim Public Health Policy (BAS-0011). COVID-19 mitigations are incorporated into the residential housing agreements (for students living on-campus). Details on the campus COVID-19 response may be viewed at the UCSC Roadmap to Recovery.

In community, we know that we can make this another special year. 

Be safe and be well,

Interim Vice Chancellor Jennifer Baszile

Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Garrett Naiman

Medical Director Dr. Elizabeth Miller