President Robert C. Dynes
Excerpts from Summary Remarks
to UC Regents, Jan. 19, 2004

UC responses to South Asian Tsunami

In the days and weeks since the devastating tsunami hit South Asia at the end of December, the University of California has responded to this disaster in a multitude of ways. Among the responses –

• Campuses, first and foremost, confirmed the safety of their Education Abroad students in the affected regions, and also contacted their international students who are here in the U.S. but are from countries affected by the tsunami.

• Counseling services were expanded to meet the needs of those with loved ones in the affected regions or who have other connections to those regions.

• The chancellors issued communications to their campus communities, and web sites were posted providing additional, continually updated information to students, faculty, and staff.

• The campuses have provided links to fund-raising efforts, and many individual students, faculty, staff, programs, and departments throughout the University have undertaken their own fund-raising efforts to aid victims of the tsunami.

• Using the expertise of their faculty, various campuses have sponsored “brown-bag” or similar discussions on the scientific and human-impact issues associated with the tsunami.

• And, our campuses have used the opportunity to re-evaluate their own preparedness for natural disasters.

I don’t have time to catalog for you all of the things our campuses have been doing in response to the tsunami, but clearly we are very involved in the response to this global tragedy. We have a web page at the University of California systemwide web site [http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/tsunami/welcome.html] where more details are available.

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