CSE Undergrad News

From: Alexander Lefort <aalefort@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 3:48 PM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] Ants in CSE003 Lab
To: cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu
Cc: Cse-Maintenance <cse-maintenance@cs.washington.edu>

CSE Advising

CSE students, faculty, and staff,

It was only nine days ago, that I wrote to you announcing CSE’s Inclusiveness Statement.

As you likely know, yesterday President Trump released an order suspending for 90 days issuance of new visas and re-entry privileges to nationals from 7 countries.  To the extent this is a ‘political’ matter, I need to refrain from commenting, but as this directly affects some of you, indirectly affects more of you who may fear being directly affected by changes in the future, and concerns all of us for making our commitment to inclusiveness more difficult, I do think it’s important to make some non-political comments.

This change in immigration policy frightens, disturbs, and threatens many of us, particularly those directly affected.  Speaking personally, it doesn’t directly affect me, but it absolutely does frighten and disturb me.

We all need to be supportive of our colleagues right now.  We need to reaffirm our commitment to a collaborative community where everyone is welcome, appreciated, and treated as a first-class member — nobody in CSE is less welcome due to their religion or nationality, period.  I would love to insist that “CSE hasn’t changed, and we’re the same strong community we were a week ago or a year ago,” but I also cannot pretend that changes coming from “the other Washington” can or should be ignored.

While unfortunately I don’t have much substantive information to share — I primarily read the same news articles many of you do and have not received any information from the UW administration today — I do want to encourage anyone who wants help navigating these disturbing changes logistically or emotionally to reach out to me, your undergraduate advisors, International Student Services, etc.  Even in times of uncertainty, do not suffer silently.

I also want to let you know that the computing research community is not remaining silent.  Yesterday, this statement was posted by the Computing Research Association, which encourages that it be shared widely.  I am proud that Ed Lazowska and I happen to sit on the CRA committee that approved/edited this statement with speed and resolve — the option not to say anything was quickly dismissed as the wrong approach. Similarly, the ACM’s statement on open conferences is relevant.

Please do let me know if you have additional suggestions on what CSE and I can do.

Best,

Dan (as Acting Chair, CSE)

Dear CSE majors,

Earlier today, you received an email from Dan Grossman, our Acting Chair, introducing our department’s new Inclusiveness Statement. Your advisors are proud to have helped write this and to support it.

Our Diversity Committee is particularly happy that the statement was finalized and announced this week — the week of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and a time when many of us are thinking about and concerned about societal and political changes that could affect members of our community. CSE does not promote any political position — our diverse department doesn’t universally agree on political issues, and it’s not allowed as a government organization. We can, however, state our values, and this feels like an important time to make those values clear.

We work hard to be a supportive community. Each of you was invited to join CSE based on your own individual ability to succeed and contribute here. You come from all kinds of backgrounds, but you were all carefully chosen through a very selective admissions process. It’s important to us that you are able to fulfill your potential here, without barriers of bias or exclusion. It’s also important that you each uphold CSE’s values of inclusiveness: supporting your peers, helping us make progress in our ongoing efforts to be diverse and inclusive, and representing CSE well by carrying these positive values into your future work.

As our president Ana Mari Cauce reminded us in August, “Our University’s motto is ‘lux sit’ — let there be light. Let us strive to create light.”

Best,

CSE Undergraduate Advisors
Crystal, Raven, Jenifer, Maggie, and Elise

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Dan Grossman <djg@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 1:10 PM
Subject: new CSE inclusiveness statement
To: cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu, vgrads@cs.washington.edu, cs-grads – Mailing List <cs-grads@cs.washington.edu>, postdocs@cs.washington.edu

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From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 1:03 PM
Subject: Re: [cs-ugrads] An inclusiveness discussion

This essay from the Southern Poverty Law Center – “Ten Ways to Fight
Hate” – was recommended the other day on a campus faculty email list:

https://www.splcenter.org/20100216/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide

Many members of the CSE community – particularly women, non-citizens,
and LGBQ individuals, but others as well – are unsettled as a
consequence of last week’s election.

On Monday at 5 p.m. we’ll have a discussion in the Gates Commons. This
will *not* be a political rant. Rather, it will be a conversation
regarding additional steps that we can take to ensure that CSE remains
an inclusive community, welcoming to all.

If you have ideas – or if you simply want to spend an hour with others
who share your concerns – please join us.

David Rispoli – Professional Masters Program Advisor, also provides some career coaching and resume advice for ugrads

Let us know how we can help you!

Dear CSE Ugrad Students,
The Computing Research Association (CRA) is interested in career development among
students in computing fields. They would like to hear about your experiences as a
student, as well as your plans for the future. To that end, I encourage you to complete
their brief survey, which will take no more than 25 minutes to complete.
Should you decide to complete the survey, you will be entered into a raffle for a $100
gift card to Amazon!
If you are interested in completing the survey, please click the link below, or copy and
paste the URL into your internet browser:
https://cerp.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3qOSfPHLfetdaqF
The survey is being conducted by the CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline
(CERP). For more information on CERP, please visit their website: http://cra.org/cerp/.

Thank you!

~CSE Advising

We’ve heard from students that they want more information on Graduate School so we’re here to deliver!

On this coming Tuesday, November 8th (Election Day!) at 330 we’ll host an information session for both our 5th year masters program here in CSE, and also the PhD program advisor and some students will talk about PhD programs in general.   Each session will run about 45 minutes. You are welcome to come to one or the other or both.

5th year masters Info Session: 330-415PM

PhD Information Session: 415-5PM

Location for both: Room 691, Gates Commons of the Paul G. Allen Center for CS&E

We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 7:13 PM
Subject: [cs-ugrads] THANKS!
To: Cs-Grads <cs-grads@cs.washington.edu>, “cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu” <cs-ugrads@cs.washington.edu>, Faculty <faculty@cs.washington.edu>, Staff <cs-staff@cs.washington.edu>

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