Provost's Message - September 16, 2021

September 16, 2021

Message From Provost Scissum Gunn

Dear Beach community,

CSULB is at last vibrant with activity as students and faculty return to campus! Because of this, I am encouraged that, if not ‘normal’, we are hopefully experiencing at minimal a ‘next to normal’ feel and operation for us here at the Beach. I hope you join me in leaning into this ‘win’ as a matter of encouragement and hope toward a strong 2021-22 academic year.

Let us all take a moment to think about and thank our many campus heroes who have worked so selflessly and diligently to make the Beach as safe as possible. Our incredible medical, health care, student services, academic and administrative leaders and staff have pivoted, informed, gone above and beyond to help us repopulate our learning and working spaces.

We also want to thank you, our extraordinary faculty, and staff, for adapting continuously to changes and pivots to best ensure our students can safely come back to campus. What a remarkable demonstration of the Beach spirit! We have asked much of you, and continue to benefit from your grace, patience, and confidence that we are all striding together into this new academic year based on the most current and appropriate guidance to do so.

Along with our return, I am fully aware that many questions and concerns still surround the start of the academic year. Based on feedback, comments, and questions within Academic Affairs, we have created a series of academic FAQs to address many of the inquiries we have received. As information changes, these FAQs be continuously updated to reflect the most current guidance. We recently released guidance on the required Health Screening Questionnaire (HSQ) and in-person classroom compliance to support strategies for on-campus classroom management related to the HSQ process. If you have additional comments, please email aa-acaffairs@csulb.edu and we will best assure sending to the attention of the appropriate office. We will provide frequent updates in the Provost’s Message email and are also refreshing our Academic Continuity webpage as additional sources of information for you.

As a reminder, the CSU mandates that all of us who are accessing on-campus facilities must provide proof of vaccination certification or attest to vaccine status (with proof of vaccination) on Single Sign On (SSO). The deadline for this is September 30. If you have not done so, please do so as soon as possible. Please note that an option is available for faculty to mark if they won’t be on-campus as well as medical and religious exemptions. For anyone coming on campus who remains unvaccinated or exempt, they will be required to participate in a weekly COVID-19 testing program. All coming to campus are required to use a face-covering.

All of us have been impacted during this time, including personal hardships, perhaps health issues, and new stresses that may seem endless. As the semester continues, it is more important for us to look out for one another and to be good neighbors and colleagues in the inimitable Beach way. This is a measure of what makes this campus so special, and I could not be more proud of each of you for displaying this unique spirit we all share.

Go Beach! (safely),

Karyn Scissum Gunn, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
 

News and Updates:

Academic Affairs FAQ

Have a question about repopulation? Campus health and safety measures? Guidelines for faculty and staff? Look no further - Academic Affairs and campus leadership created an FAQ that answers most frequently asked questions. Use SSO to access the FAQ.


Inaugural 2021-22 President – Provost Initiative

The President – Provost Initiative Faculty Research Awards in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (FRA-EDI) initiative focuses on racial equity. It also offers thematic funding foci important to the campus’ EDI efforts. This grant is available for all CSULB tenured or tenure-track faculty members.

More details here


REMINDER:

Faculty and staff must complete the online form available through the “Vaccination Certification” menu option on the university’s single sign-on website even if they are teaching online only for the Fall 2021 semester. Students and campus managers are also required to complete the certification form.  

Details about the vaccination certification and related topics are available on the COVID-19 information website

Vaccinations are also available on campus. Student Health Services is open for walk-ins on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 am - 2 pm for the Pfizer vaccine. No appointment is needed. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services is offering all 3 vaccines from 12-4, no appointment is needed. To find a vaccination site near you, search here.

If faculty have an exemption, alternative safety measures, most likely weekly testing, will be expected. Testing will be available on campus

  • Tuesdays: The Chart Room, 9-3
  • Wednesdays: The Pointe, 9-2
  • Thursdays: The Chart Room, 9-3

Appointments are recommended but walk-ins are welcome. 

Learn more about the vaccination requirement.
 

Exposure Protocols

Per current recommendations, you do not need to quarantine if you are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and have no symptoms.

You need to monitor for symptoms. Testing should occur no sooner than 5 days after exposure. Should any symptoms develop, test immediately. Fully vaccinated individuals can still come to campus but must be diligent with mask use.

This infographic from the LA County Department of Health goes into further detail regarding the correct protocol for quarantining. You can also view this infographic from the city of Long Beach on home quarantine instructions.
 

Tested positive for COVID - 19?

If you have tested positive for COVID-19, if you believe you may be positive but have not yet been tested, or if you know of a student who you believe may have contracted COVID-19, please fill out this form to notify Student Health Services and prepare to self-quarantine if you are unvaccinated.

It is vital that confirmed or suspected positive cases of COVID-19 are reported as quickly as possible to support health officials in their response.

You can also participate in an online exposure-notification system established by the State of California.


ATS Resources


Beach Connect

Learn how Career Counseling appointments can now be scheduled through Beach Connect for students. 

The Grunion Gazette:

Announcements

Academic Affairs Accolades and In the News

Grants and Gifts

Loretta Enriquez. Educational Talent Search Programs. TRIO and Migrant Programs. SA. U.S. Department of Education. $3,234,195. September 2021 - August 2026.

Loretta Enriquez. Educational Talent Search - South Bay. TRIO and Migrant Programs. SA. U.S. Department of Education. $ 1,436,805. September 2021 - August 2026.

Selena Nguyen-Rodriguez. Multilevel Antecedents of Sleep in Latino Youth. Health.Sciences. CHHS.$172,542 August 2021 - December 2022.

Babette Benken. Expanding Students’ Affect, Understandings, and Perceptions of Relevance Through Realistic Tasks in Calculus. CNSM. Foundation for California Community Colleges via Ca Ed Learning Lab. Mathematics & Statistics.CNSM. $100,000. August 2021 - December 2022.

Shireen Pavri. HSI Caminos Project. CED Administration. CED. $549,941. October 2021 - September 2022.

Lora Stevens. The Utility of Stanols in Species Identification. Geological Sciences, CNSM. $244,349. September 2021 - August 2024.

Stephen Mezyk. ERASE-PFAS: Collaborative Research: Development of Quantitative Tools to Assess the Mechanisms and Full Potential of UV-ARPs for the Treatment of PFASs in Water. Chemistry & Biochemistry. CNSM. $150,000. August 2021 - July 2024.

Ju Cheol Moon. A security framework for information control system. Computer Engineering & Computer Science. COE. $13,000. July 2021 - June 2022. 

Ava Hedayatiour. CISE-MSI: RCBPP-RF: SHF: Towards Efficient, Reliable, and Secure Chaotic Communications in Wearable Devices. Electrical Engineering. COE. $297,448. October 2021 - September 2021.

Perla Ayala. Engineering Biomimetic Tissues for Muscle Repair. Biomedical Engineering. COE.$147,500. September 2021 - August 2022. 

Fangyuan Tian. Porous inorganic Framework Thin Film as Drug-Eluting Stent Coating. Chemistry & Biochemistry. CNSM. $110,625.September 2021 - August 2022. 

Yutian Chen. Collaborative Research: CISE-MSI: RCBP-RF: CNS: Truthful and Optimal Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks: An Integrated Game Theory and Network Flow Approach. Economics. CLA. $289,512. January 2022 - December 2023.

Leilani Madrigal. A six-session pilot intervention to address racism in sport and empower athlete activism. Kinesiology. CHHS. $2,600. June 2021 - June 2022.

Thomas O'Brien. IANA Scholarship Program. Center for International Trade & Transportation.CPIE. $75,000 Jne 2021 - July 2022.

Vas Narayanaswami. Transendothelial transport mediated modulations to the High Density Lipoprotein. Chemistry & Biochemistry. CNSM. $110,625 September 2021 - August 2022.

Michael Peterson. PREM: Cal. State Univ. Long Beach and Ohio State University Partnership for Education and Research in Hard and Soft Materials. Physics and Astronomy. CNSM. $800,000. September 2021 - August 2024. 

James Binnall. Project Rebound.Criminal Justice. CHHS. $135,000. July 2021 - June 2022.

Chris Lowe. Assessing the contribution of oil platforms and the impact of decommissioning scenarios to marine biodiversity, productivity and connectivity. Biological Sciences. CNSM. $42,394. June 2021 - June 2025

Thomas O'Brien. Waterborne Competitiveness: U.S. and Foreign Investments in Inland Waterways. Center for International Trade & Transportation. CPIE. $60,917. June 2021 - March 2022

Lisa Klig. CIRM: STEM Cell Research. Biological Sciences. CNSM. $3,276,500. August 2021 - July 2026 

Rafael Topete. TRIO Student Support Services Classic. Ed Equi Serv Stud Sup Admin. SA. $3,036,180 September 2021 - August 2026

Rafael Topete. TRIO Student Support Services - Disabilities 2020. Ed Equi Serv Stud Sup Admin. SA.$261,888. September 2021 - August 2022.

Rafael Topete. TRIO Student Support - STEM 2020. Ed Equi Serv Stud Sup Admin. SA.September. $261,888. 2021 - August 2022.

David Shafer. Strengthen Transatlantic University Collaboration with COIL. History. CLA. $15,000. August 2021 - October 2022. 

Michelle Scott. Educational Opportunity Center. Ed Equi Serv Stud Sup Admin. SA. $273,793. September 2021 - August 2022.

Andrea Balbas. Collaborative Research: Investigating Mantle Source Reservoirs and Cretaceous Plate Motions Recorded by Ancient Mid-Pacific Oceanic Rises and Seamount Tracks. Geological Sciences. CNSM. $67,796. January 2022 - December 2024. 

Christine Whitcraft. A Framework for Condition Assessment and Monitoring of Estuary MPAs in California. Biological Sciences. CNSM. $50,919. April 2021 - March 2022.

Cara Richards-Tutor. Measuring the Science Vocabulary of Latinx Students using Speech Recognition and automated scoring (MELVA-S). Advance Studies in Education and Counseling. CED. $32,372. October 2020 - July - 2022.

Tyler Reeb. CTTC Workshop Facilitation. Center for International Trade & Transportation. CPIE. $4,784,August 2021 - September 2021.
 

Other News and Announcements

In Memoriam

Dr. Robert J. Brophy, a former professor from the English Department, has passed away. He will be missed.

Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies and former department chair Dr. Tian Wei (Tim) Xie passed away on Sept. 12. He will be fondly remembered as a brilliant scholar and a kind and generous professor.

 

The next Provost’s Message will be Wednesday, October 20. Items for the upcoming message should be submitted by Friday, October 15 to aa-communication@csulb.edu. All submissions must include a hyperlink with a title.