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Current 2009-2010 Divisional Closures (Updated 2/8/10)

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Student Affairs Student Staff Divisional Meeting


Welcome to Student Affairs

 

I am Michael Young, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at UCSB. I am responsible for many of the non-academic departments on campus that exist to serve the student body, including everything from Admissions and Financial Aid to Student Health, Counseling, Career Services, the MultiCultural Center, and the Children’s Centers—more than 20 departments in all. Within these departments students can find academic and personal support; recreational, social, and cultural activities; leadership programs and internship opportunities. Whether you are a new or continuing student, I encourage you to take advantage of our many services and the countless opportunities available to you in the Division of Student Affairs.
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I also encourage you to become a part of campus efforts to maintain a safe, positive, respectful, and healthy community. As members of the UCSB community we have an obligation to uphold a high standard of behavior and to create a community that values diversity and remains free from bigotry and intolerance—a campus that, through its welcoming and open atmosphere, provides the perfect medium for the free exchange of ideas. Being a student at a world-class institution confers privilege, prestige, and unique opportunity, but it also obligates students to meet a set of standards and to fulfill certain expectations. I ask three things of all students in our academic community: scholarship, leadership, and citizenship. If you hold to these values, your time at UCSB will be more meaningful and what you take away at graduation will be infinitely more valuable. Student Affairs staff share these values and are here to help you achieve your academic and personal goals. I invite you to explore the many services and opportunities available to you and to drop by and meet our friendly and dedicated staff in the Student Resource Building and other locations on campus.


Sincerely,

Michael D. Young
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

 

STUDENT PROFILE

Jesse Bernal

Jesse M. Bernal
Student Regent
Years with UC: 4


Jesse M. Bernal is the student Regent for a one-year term that began on July 1, 2009. A first-generation college student, Jesse received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Westmont College in Santa Barbara. He is a graduate student at the Gevirtz School of Education at UCSB working on his Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Cultural Perspectives. Currently, Jesse is the special programs manager in the UCSB summer sessions office, where he coordinates academic arrangements for the Early Start Program, a high school outreach program, and the Freshman Summer Start Program, a bridge program for incoming UCSB first-year students. His most valuable piece of advice for these students is: "Get involved. Feel connected to campus, students, and faculty in some way. It's vitally important to both your academic and personal development throughout college. College will be trying, it will be stressful, it will be difficult but don't be afraid to seek out support and be confident that the support is available at UCSB."
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During his time as a graduate student at UCSB, Jesse has served as University Affairs Chair and Executive Board Member of the UC Students Association and External Vice President for Statewide Affairs for the UCSB Graduate Students Association. He also served as the student representative on the UCSB Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy and the UCSB Academic Senate committees on Planning and Budget and Diversity and Equity. Recently, he was selected to serve on the UC Commission on the Future (http://ucfuture.universityofcalifornia.edu) and act as the Co-Chair of the Work group on Access and Affordability. He was also appointed to Chair of the Regent's Special Committee on Student Life and Alumni Affairs, which is impressive as he is the first student regent to chair a Regent's committee.

Over his past four years at UCSB, Jesse has grown to love this campus and has a deep admiration and respect for its students, as well as the supportive administration, faculty, staff and community that nurture and foster student leadership and participation. Says Jesse, “I've had the great privilege to travel to all the UC campuses and many other campuses around the nation over the last couple of years. UCSB students demonstrate great care and passion for so much -- the underrepresented, the economically disadvantaged, the educationally disadvantaged, diversity, protection of student resources and the academic program, solidarity with employees, campus safety, and the list goes on.” Jesse Bernal truly encapsulates what it means to be a student leader, fighting for student rights at the highest level, as well as working closely with incoming and underrepresented students at his home campus.


SPOTLIGHT ON... STUDENT AFFAIRS SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS

Michael Young - SA Sustainability
Dr. Young turns on solar panels at Rec Cen
With the United States and the rest of the world, slowly wakening to the need for a more sustainable, efficient lifestyle, the Division of Student Affairs at UCSB has wasted no time in working towards a reduction in energy consumption. On campus, the heightened awareness for the need for sustainable efforts has been extremely student driven. For example, student groups have provided funding for energy efficient projects, lobbied for the creation of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability, as well as voted in a student election to start The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), and the list goes on. UCSB is at the forefront of the national green movement and the Division of Student Affairs has naturally taken the lead in this process. Due to the nature of our existing buildings, as well as our close ties to student groups, the overwhelming support for green efforts has given Student Affairs the ability to pave the way for sustainable efforts across campus. Many improvements and innovations have already been completed or are in progress with even more planned for the years to come.
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The long term goal for Student Affairs is to achieve what is known as “Net Zero Energy.” In essence, this means that in the Division’s nine buildings, solar panels and other means of energy production will generate enough on-site energy to offset consumption to the point that our utility bills will be zero. Project leaders Bill McTague, Gary Jurich, and Bill Shelor have incorporated the idea of Net Zero, as well as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) planning into the strategic framework, which is something no other campus entity has done. Recently, they have been working with Southern California Edison and consultants from Greenworks on reducing the Recreation Center’s energy consumption, which is not an easy feat.

Two of the most impressive sustainability efforts undergone in Student Affairs are the new Student Resource Building – winner of a LEED silver award for a new building, as well as the Recreation Center which is the first one of its kind in the country to become LEED certified as an existing building. Currently, the RecCen has the largest solar array on the south coast and this past summer, the pools were remodeled with variable speed pumping motors, which saves 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. Also, the new solar pool cover saves $40,000 on natural gas heating costs. Another recent accomplishment is that our Children’s Center is the first in the country with a Solar HVAC (air conditioning and heating unit), funded by a student group and TGIF. And while these individual milestones are impressive and overall help with lower energy consumption, they are not enough to reach Net Zero. According to Bill McTague, Executive Director of Resource Planning, “We must look at our facilities as a whole, not piece by piece. The goal is to move towards renewable energy and to not focus on efficiency alone.” This philosophy is what shapes the division’s plans for 2009 – 2010.

In the upcoming year, Student Affairs will work with a consultant to do a LEED platinum study for retrofitting buildings. This retrofitting will reduce the Division’s energy consumption by over fifty percent. The aforementioned study will also show how much more solar energy we need to generate in order to reach Net Zero. Student Affairs is also in the processes of funding a student intern to help connect the student body to these real and attainable sustainability goals. Bill and his team are constantly working with students to coordinate and communicate the need for green efforts on campus. It truly has been a student-motivated undertaking and it is important to make sure those passionate students stay involved. According to Clay Carlson, Associated Students External Vice-President for Local Affairs and student manager of UCSB's Green Campus Program, “Our school has numerous ways to get involved in sustainability efforts on campus, in our local community, and across the state and nation. You will find that everyone working in this field is extremely approachable and eager to help connect you with the people and projects that you are interested in.”

To survive on this planet, humans must live within Earth’s environmental constraints and currently we are exceeding these constraints. It is important that we all become more self-aware and think about the damage our actions can inflict on the environment. As stated by Clay, a true champion of the green movement, “Sustainability goes beyond mere environmentalism; it's looking at what a community needs to thrive at present while actively preparing for the future. It's using energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, while also altering one's lifestyle to help to create a social change to become more environmentally-aware.”

For more information on UCSB and the Division of Student Affairs’ sustainability efforts, visit: http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/.