Dear Incoming Bren Graduate Students,

Welcome to the Bren School! I have the great pleasure of being the dean of the Bren School, and I am excited that you are joining our vibrant community of creative environmental problem solvers! We tap the power of effective teams at the Bren School, and our administration, faculty, and staff are anxious to partner with you to provide high quality education and research, offer robust career development training and job placement, and support inclusive excellence. 

This fall, we welcome a diverse group of incoming MESM and PhD students from 14 states and 8 countries with a broad range of interests and professional experiences. At the Bren School, we know that environmental issues are intertwined with social justice issues and solving environmental problems requires diverse teams. Nineteen percent of incoming students in the MESM Class of 2022, including international students, are from underrepresented groups, bringing unique perspectives and experiences to enrich our understanding and effectiveness. We also know that the environmental field has often failed to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we acknowledge our role in perpetuating this legacy. We are committed to taking significant action to remove systemic barriers, develop strategies, and create opportunities to increase historically underrepresented voices in the environmental realm.

For all of us, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge. UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang sent a message last week informing us that we will need to conduct our teaching operations online in Fall Quarter to comply with Santa Barbara County, California Department of Public Health, and University of California guidelines to manage risks of transmission of COVID-19. Like you, I am eager to return to campus as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’m working with the Bren School staff and faculty to kick off our Fall Quarter virtually.

During these challenging times, we are committed to providing the community, training, and career support for which the Bren School is known. We will begin building that community when I welcome you at orientation on September 21. Over the summer, the Bren faculty have been working to transition Fall courses to the most effective formats for online delivery with the help of a team of faculty and staff (known as “Pinnacles”) who gathered resources on best practices for online instruction, an online teaching workshop from Spring Quarter instructors, and a month-long Instructional Development training, Reimagining Instruction for Student Experience (RISE) Institute. Our Career Development team prepared a comprehensive roster of workshops and individualized career planning for the coming year.

At the same time, we each need to do our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 so we can return to in-person activities as soon as possible. I urge you to wear a mask, follow social distancing guidelines, and take care of yourself by eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly. I also encourage you to take care of your mental health and well-being. Our Student Affairs staff and Counseling and Psychological Services are always ready to help students. We know that the uncertainty COVID-19 has produced is difficult for you as it is for us. The Bren School commits to offering the best instruction, the best career planning, and the best environmental problem-solving community, virtually and in-person. We are all looking forward to being back together in Bren Hall once the threat from COVID-19 has subsided. 

Details about orientation, team-building, residency, computing support, career development, tuition and financial aid, and planning for the future are below this message.

I invite you to join our whole community at the virtual All-School Reception on the first day of classes, Thurs, Oct 1 at 4:30 pm. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me, Bruce Kendall (Associate Dean), Sarah Anderson (Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Satie Airame (Assistant Dean for Academic Programs), your professors, or staff, including Kristine Duarte (Student Affairs Manager) and Rebecca Webb (Student Affairs Coordinator). Although we are working from home, we are always here to help and support you! You also may choose to submit feedback to our virtual Suggestion Box on the Bren School’s website at the bottom of the page under Resources/Current Students. I welcome you and look forward to getting to know you in the coming months. 

Cheers,
Steve Gaines
Dean & Distinguished Professor
Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
UCSB
Santa, Barbara, CA 93106
Orientation and Team-building

We warmly welcome all of you at our new-student orientation on September 21-30, which will focus on preparing students for the start of the program and cultivating relationships among our incoming students. Orientation includes overviews of the MESM program, Master’s Projects, Career Development, PhD program, and our incredible math bootcamp to help you prepare for graduate courses. You will also be able to participate in fun activities during orientation, including remote activities available to all students and some local, in-person, outdoor recreational activities for students living in Santa Barbara. Look for an upcoming message from the Student Affairs staff and be sure to sign up for some activities to get to know your classmates, staff, and faculty.

Residency

UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang confirmed in his message on Friday afternoon that, although undergraduate students will mostly not be able to return in person to campus, graduate students are encouraged to return to campus to live in graduate student housing. San Clemente Residence (graduate student housing) will be operating up to full capacity. We enthusiastically welcome students who would like to return or move to Santa Barbara. All ESM courses will be offered in remote format in Fall Quarter so Bren students living anywhere, in Santa Barbara and other locations in the US or other countries, will be able to fully participate.

We recognize that opportunities for international students to move to Santa Barbara may be constrained due to current visa limitations. If you have questions about your options, please contact the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS). We look forward to the time when international students can come in-person to Santa Barbara. 

Computing Support

The Bren School’s Compute Team has some computing hardware to loan to Bren graduate students who have need for the equipment to participate in online instruction. The equipment available to borrow includes keyboard, mouse, extra monitor, desktop computer, or Chromebook. If you have no other alternatives and you would like to request a loan of computing hardware, please complete the online application. For assistance with Computing, you may submit a help ticket to request@bren.ucsb.edu. The Compute Team is holding office hours on Zoom, Tuesdays and Fridays from 2:30 - 3:30 pm. Join the Zoom meeting at https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/99065191541 .

Career Development

The Career Development Team (Dave Parker, Kristi Birney, Monica Illes, and Becca Barnett) look forward to working with you during the coming school year. They will offer a full suite of career development resources and services, including workshops, informational emails and articles, resume appointments, and internship search strategies. The Career Development Team will send messages with more information about career development activities during orientation and Fall Quarter. The Career Development staff will provide you with the skills you need to succeed in any job market, and our team will be with you at each step along the way. Make sure you take advantage of all their services and resources throughout the year. 

Tuition, Fees, and Financial Aid

The Bren School administration recognizes the financial hardships faced by students and your families during the COVID-19 pandemic. The University of California also faces significant challenges due to reductions in state revenue and the necessary reduction of research and other typical campus activities, which generate revenue for campus operations. In spite of these challenges, the Bren School will continue to offer all courses that are part of our regular curriculum and all seminars, workshops, and other activities for regular academic advising and career development. The Bren School combines state and philanthropic funding with your tuition to provide financial aid to students and to hire faculty, lecturers, and staff to teach your classes, provide professional instruction in eco-entrepreneurship, strategic environmental communication, leadership, teamwork, and other professional skills, and offer career development and academic advising. Consistent with the UC system, the Bren School administration has determined that it is not possible to reduce tuition and fees without compromising these opportunities. 

Information about financial aid resources is available on the Funding and Employment page of the Bren School website. As you may be aware, the professional tuition for the MESM program was inadvertently left out of the Financial Aid Office’s consideration for financial aid. We apologize for this error. UCSB’s Financial Aid Office is updating financial aid packages for MESM students to reflect the professional tuition, and you can expect a correction by next week. Check the My Aid status website for your information.  

MESM and PhD students may apply for Teaching Assistant (TA) positions in other departments as one strategy to pay for your education. TA positions in the Bren School are open to PhD students only. Graduate students in good standing are permitted to work up to 50% time (20 hours per week). In addition to providing salary, TA positions at 25% or more will pay for resident tuition ($4,290/quarter) and health insurance ($1,431/quarter). Due to COVID-related budgetary issues and enrollment uncertainty, many departments have delayed announcements of TAships. We encourage any MESM students who want to be TAs to continue to reach out directly to Graduate Program Advisors (or Undergraduate Program Advisors) in relevant departments to inquire about opportunities to be TAs. Details on relevant departmental contacts are on the Funding and Employment page.

Planning for the future

We miss the joyful, exciting environment created when our students are together, in-person, in Bren Hall, and we hope to restore normal operations of our school as soon as possible. We are closely following the updates about COVID-19 and Dean Gaines participates in weekly meetings of senior campus administrators and senior managers in the Bren School to develop strategies for how to navigate the coming months. Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we anticipate that all large classes offered in Winter 2021 (such as ESM 201 Ecology of Managed Ecosystems, ESM 202 Environmental Biogeochemistry, and ESM 241 Policy and Politics of the Environment) will need to be online. We do not yet know the status of smaller classes and will need to evaluate the options as we get closer to the start of Winter Quarter to comply with public health orders. We will work closely with you to make sure that the classes you need are accessible to you. Let’s all do our part to facilitate a rapid resolution to the pandemic and our earliest possible return to Bren Hall and our vibrant community.