President's Message

It's been a little over three years since May 23, 2014 and almost two years since November 13, 2015. On both those dates I was working at universities that, without warning, lost students to hateful violence. On May 23, I was at University of California Santa Barbara when a deadly series of events unfolded in Isla Vista, a small, unincorporated town that houses many hundreds of UCSB and many Santa Barbara City College students. Elliot Rodger went on a stabbing and shooting spree through…

Dear Campus Community, Many of you know of the federal program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA). The policy has allowed eligible undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children to receive protection from deportation, an ability to travel internationally, and the potential to obtain a work permit that must be renewed every two years. Today, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced President Trump’s decision to rescind DACA, requesting the…

Dear Campus Community, Our campus is a leader in sustainability, and promoting pro-environmental actions is a top priority at The Beach. But reaching our ambitious goal of climate neutrality will require every one of us to take action. One of the best ways to do this is by using alternative transportation for your campus commute. This will be even more important in the coming semester, given the ongoing campus improvement project at West Campus Circle. As I’ve mentioned before,…

Dear Beach Community, The hate and violence on display over the past few days at the University of Virginia and in Charlottesville, Virginia remind us that racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, neo-Nazism, and intolerance for “differences” loom over our democracy. While every American has a constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully, even on the most odious of platforms, I write today to affirm our campus values. We have zero tolerance for violence. Threatening others with weapons or fists…