Posts Tagged: flu vaccine FAQs

New flu vaccine FAQs; travel funds available for UCCE specialists; Zoom changes

New flu vaccination FAQs
To support the health and well-being of UC students, faculty and staff and our communities, the University of California, in consultation with UC Health leadership, issued a systemwide executive order requiring all members of the UC community to receive an influenza immunization before Nov. 1, 2020.

In addition to protecting ourselves, this requirement is designed to avoid a surge of flu cases at health care facilities across the state during the unprecedented public health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

UC ANR has published Answers to frequently asked questions with information about how UC ANR will implement the executive order for our employees and workplaces.

Please take time get the flu vaccination soon.

 

Travel funds available for UCCE specialists
UC ANR will be making additional travel support available for UC Cooperative Extension specialists to collaborate directly with UCCE advisors or REC directors in fiscal year 2020-21. 

With the level of funds available, each specialist may apply for up to $1,800 for FY 2020-21 (travel reports must be submitted within 45 days of travel, and funds must be expended by June 30, 2021). These travel funds must be utilized by the UCCE specialists only and cannot be used for out-of-state travel. Funding is not for the purpose of presenting at or attending meetings.

Completing a short online survey is the only step to apply for these funds. A brief survey form is accessible from your ANR Portal. The direct link is http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=32069.

The survey asks 

• Name and title of specialist requesting support
• Project/program name
• Brief project description (one paragraph)
• Collaborating advisors

While there is no deadline for applications for these travel funds, they are first come, first awarded. They also must be expended in fiscal year 2020-21. Any travel completed toward the end of the fiscal year must be submitted and approved within the fiscal year, as no award will be carried forward.

UCCE specialists may apply for funds directly at http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=32069.

 

Zoom changes
Starting Sept. 27, Zoom will require all sessions to have either a passcode or a waiting room where guests gather until admitted by the host (a waiting room is the default option). The change is part of Zoom's security improvements. Zoom has posted FAQs at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360045009111.

 

Celebration corner
Congratulations to our colleagues who were honored at the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) Virtual Annual Session!

• Deepa Srivastava and the UCCE Tulare-Kings Nutrition Education team are the second place Western Region winners of the SNAP-ED/EFNEP award
• Mary Blackburn received the NEAFCS Hall of Fame Award
• Mary and her role on the CalFresh Healthy Living, CNAP in Alameda County are the 3rd Place Regional winner of the Community Partnership award. She has served in this role since 2006.

 

While we all continue to shelter in place, it's a good time to learn more about food safety. Erin DiCaprio, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in Community Food Safety in the UC Davis Food Science and Technology Department, created an 11-module online series of her Food Safety Training for Master Food Preserver Trainees and partnered with colleagues at North Carolina State University to create nine peer-reviewed fact sheets answering COVID-19-related questions about takeout food, food safety, handling groceries and more.

 

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

New artificial intelligence institute, flu vaccine FAQs, unauthorized survey

New artificial intelligence institute 
I am very pleased to announce that with a $20 million award from the National Science Foundation and several federal agencies, UC ANR is collaborating with UC Davis and other institutions to create a new artificial intelligence institute for next-generation food systems.

The farming/food industry is experiencing a technology revolution. Digital, biological and mechanical innovations are being applied to solve long-standing challenges such as the impacts of climate change, ensuring food and nutrition security, and sustainable and profitable crop production. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied to most of these innovations, as they all have one common attribute: they produce and consume large amounts of data. AI is a way to put the large amount of data we have to work for us, making computers and machines smarter and more effective.

The USDA-NSF AI for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS) puts UC ANR in a leading role with UC Davis, UC Berkeley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Cornell in developing AI-based technology for the food system, but perhaps more importantly in applying them in real-world situations, training a next-generation workforce, and engaging the public in their value.

UC ANR staff and academics will have the opportunity to engage with AIFS through virtual and live events, research, extension and commercialization projects, workforce development activities and more. In many ways, AIFS will be a new support center for UC ANR staff and academics, helping to provide the latest training and tools for UC ANR's Cooperative Extension and outreach activities in California and beyond.

Gabe Youtsey, UC ANR chief innovation officer and Maggi Kelly, director of UC ANR's IGIS will be the primary UC ANR AIFS contacts. In the coming weeks, AIFS will provide further information about events and ways to engage. Please reach out to gdyoutsey@ucanr.edu to express your interest in getting more information as AIFS is launched.

Flu vaccine FAQs 
UCOP has published frequently asked questions concerning the 2020-21 UC influenza vaccination order requiring employees to be vaccinated by November 1, 2020. I encourage you to review them at 
https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/coronavirus/frequently-asked-questions-for-employees-about-the-2020-21-uc-influenza-vaccination-order.html.

Unauthorized survey 
UCOP Communications has learned that an outside market research firm, Consumer Evaluation & Insights, recently sent a survey about UC's flu vaccination policy to a number of UC faculty and staff with the subject line “Share your opinion on the UC Flu Vaccine requirement.” Please be aware this survey was not authorized or commissioned by UC, and you are under no obligation to complete it. 

Additionally, because data from this survey is being collected by an external organization, UC cannot make any assurances regarding the use, privacy or security of any information you provide.

Glenda Humiston 
Vice President

 

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