UChicago Emeriti June Update

June 23, 2020

The following message was sent to emeriti faculty and friends on June 23, 2020:

 

Dear UChicago Emeriti and Friends,

We hope you are well and able to enjoy the warmer weather of June. The University recently celebrated Convocation with a virtual ceremony, capping off an unprecedented quarter, and planning is well underway for summer work and the next academic year. With the persistence of COVID-19 and the lack of a vaccine or effective treatment options, the University is considering a range of approaches to institutional activities in the coming year. Planning groups focused on research, education, housing and dinning, the national labs, and the workplace developed recommendations for resuming some in-person programs and operations on campus while continuing remote options. These efforts have been informed by physicians and leaders from UChicago Medicine and guided by the following priorities: protecting the health and safety of community members, maintaining academic quality, adhering to government guidelines, and mitigating financial risks. For more information about the campus planning process, members of the working groups, protocols, and next steps, please consult UChicago Forward. While planning continues for the Autumn Quarter, Summer Session will take place online, with many members of the University community continuing to teach, learn, and work remotely for the time being. For the most recent information on the campus response to COVID-19, please continue to refer to the Coronavirus Updates site the University maintains.

We have once again collected a variety of resources, updates, and information on upcoming and recent events here, and will continue to make more available on the Emeriti Faculty website throughout the summer. In keeping with the call from President Zimmer and Provost Lee to commemorate Juneteenth with reflection and “to examine history, to challenge assumptions, and to explore bold ideas to address racism and inequality” in their recent email, we wanted to draw special attention to two new items: Episode 49 of the Big Brains Podcast, “Black Lives Matter Protests: Hope for the Future?,” featuring a conversation on racial justice and police reform with Cathy Cohen, David and Mary Winton Green Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Political Science; Reuben Jonathan Miller, Assistant Professor at the School of Social Service Administration; and John Rappaport, Assistant Professor and Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar at the Law School; and “What Juneteenth tells us about the history of emancipation,” featuring Associate Professor Emerita Julie Saville.

Resource Updates

Staying Connected with Zoom Accounts

UChicago Zoom accounts are still available to emeriti who intend to continue their research, scholarship, and advising throughout the summer. Please refer to the emeriti faculty website for more information about how to obtain an account and a helpful FAQ that we have put together.

Benefits

The University responded to your concerns about the issues members of the emeriti community have been experiencing with our current COBRA and Direct Bill administrator HealthEquity (WageWorks). Per your feedback, there will be a change in July for emeriti who are enrolled in COBRA and Direct Bill. Effective July 1, 2020 the University will be transitioning Bill Pay and COBRA Administrative Services from HealthEquity (WageWorks) to Discovery Benefits, Inc. (DBI).

Human Resources has provided information and a summary on their site. Member information is expected to be updated with Discovery Benefits within the next two weeks. If you have questions in regards to the transition or other benefits related questions please contact Xaviera Espinoza (Senior Benefits Analyst) at xaviera@uchicago.edu and copy benefits@uchicago.edu. 

Sustaining Inquiry

Throughout the Spring Quarter, the schools, divisions, institutes, centers, and the Library have made efforts to sustain rigorous inquiry across the University community. One of the newest resources, Confronting COVID-19, details the many ways that UChicago faculty and researchers are responding to the pandemic and makes it easy to engage with all the work being produced around the entire university. Working paper series from university centers and institutes have also begun to tackle social, economic, and political questions arising from and responses to the pandemic

In addition to The Oriental Institute Online and The Smart Museum At Home, other galleries have developed online tours and exhibitions to allow exploration while working remotely.

Upcoming Events

The News Office continues to update UChicago Virtual Events, a central place to keep the community informed about all that is happening around campus virtually. Check the site regularly for more information and for upcoming events, to register for Zoom webinars, tune in to music performances, and attend live lectures. UChicago Arts has also developed a collection of information on events, classes, tours, performances, lectures, interviews with artists, faculty, and students, and much more of interest and related to the vibrant arts community on campus and beyond, explore Virtual Visits to the Arts at UChicago for more information.

Noteworthy Recent Events and Podcasts

Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures

Each year since 2014, The Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures bring to campus individuals who make fundamental contributions to the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences. This spring, Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, offered a virtual series of four lectures on “Democracy in the time of Coronavirus.” You can view the lecture recordings at the Berlin Family Lectures site.

Virtual Harper Lectures Spring 2020

The Alumni Association’s signature lecture series continued to focus on topics related to COVID-19 and its impact. The May 11 lecture offered by William Howell, Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics, Department of Political Science and Harris School of Public Policy, “The American Presidency in a Time of COVID,” is now available on the Harper Lectures YouTube channel, along with many others. The final Harper Lecture of the Spring, “Plagues and Faiths, Past and Present,” delivered on June 8 by David Nirenberg, Dean of the Divinity School and Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Distinguished Service Professor of Social Thought, Medieval History, Middle East Studies, Romance Languages and Literatures, and the College, will be available shortly.  

Podcasts of Note

Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Director of the UChicago Consortium, joined the Big Brains podcast to discuss what research can reveal about education during times of crisis. You can listen to episode 46, “How Students and Schools Can Recover from Coronavirus,” and read a transcript on the UChicago News site. 

For more updates and information on podcasts around the University, check out the UChicago Podcast Network, a gateway to exploring signature podcasts including Big Brains, Knowledge Applied, Capitalisn’t, Open Stacks from the Seminary Co-Op, and many more.

Warmly,

Melina Hale, Phil Venticinque, and Cassandra Martynow

 

Melina Hale

Vice Provost

mhale@uchicago.edu

 

Phil Venticinque

Assistant Provost

pventicinque@uchicago.edu

 

Cassandra Martynow

Associate Director

cdunn@uchicago.edu