From the Desk of Willie Brown

Happy 2021!

I hope you had a relaxing, safe and healthy winter break. As we embark on a new year, I continue to feel cautiously optimistic. Although many challenges remain, more and more Santa Barbara County community members are being vaccinated which puts us on a promising path toward stopping the spread of COVID-19. UC Santa Barbara Student Health continues to make preparations to provide immunizations to the campus community to the extent they are authorized by the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. If you are able to get a vaccine through a personal healthcare provider, please do so for your safety and the safety of your family and community. Getting vaccinated is vital to ensuring we can defeat the pandemic and return to business as usual. Until we are all safely vaccinated, please continue to wear masks, physically distance from others and wash your hands.

Before I focus on the future, I’d like to congratulate everyone for creating a smooth move-in experience for our students and their families this past January. The flow of residents was seamless the entire weekend, an abundance of hidden smiles were sensed behind masks, and we received positive feedback from many families. Thank you to everyone who provided support during this complicated multi-day process. You continue to amaze me with the strength of your planning and teamwork! 

The HDAE leadership team and I continue to focus on the important work ahead of us. For this academic year, the situation is still fluid and we’re working quarter-to-quarter due to the uncertainties of the pandemic. On January 11, the University of California announced a plan for a return to primarily in-person instruction starting fall 2021. We are planning a full housing program to accommodate this aspirational goal. The details of what that means as far as building occupancy and re-opening are currently being worked out. Every decision we make to achieve this will keep our community’s health and safety in mind and will be made in consultation with campus leadership and public health experts. I will share information in the coming months as it becomes available.

Before I sign off I’d like to bring to your attention two exciting communication pieces that were recently completed: the 2019-2020 Annual Report, a historical record of what HDAE team members accomplished during the previous academic year, and the new HDAE website. The latter is the first of four websites being designed by our Marketing & Communications Team to be in alignment with the UCSB visual identity. Stay tuned for new websites for the following areas: Campus Housing, Campus Dining, and Conference & Hospitality Services. 

Thank you again for all that you’ve done — and continue to do — this past year. Please stay safe and well, and I look forward to seeing you soon.