Dear UC Davis community,

As UC Davis continues to expand its global reach and we all increase our global connections, we want to ensure your work is plugged into campus initiatives and programs. We also want to ensure members of our university community are recognized for the global impact of their work. One campus initiative underway involves building partnerships around the world that advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To that end, we are pleased to share that UC Davis is pursuing a Voluntary University Review to assess how our university is contributing to the UN SDGs, bring together campus strengths, and inform strategies moving forward. We hope you will join us in this process.

The SDGs address major global challenges facing society, including poverty, inequalities, racism, climate change, environmental degradation, conflict, injustice and many more. The SDGs provide a global framework and common language across sectors, guiding many global initiatives and funding opportunities, including ones that advance our university teaching, research and engagement – both locally and globally. This framework also opens exciting opportunities as we work alongside communities, educate the future generation of leaders, and come together to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

The Voluntary University Review supports our university’s role as a public land-grant institution and will provide a picture of UC Davis contributions to global goals, which will then be shared with our campus community, alumni around the world, and partners near and far. This review will result in a final report and an online platform to connect members of the UC Davis community with similar interest areas and locations of work; match faculty, staff and students with funding and other opportunities; facilitate valuable research, teaching and learning collaborations; and inform future UC Davis initiatives, programs and projects.

UC Davis Global Affairs, Sustainability, and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are spearheading this process, reflecting UC Davis’ commitment to internationalization, sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

We hope you will join us!

We are looking forward to highlighting your incredible work happening across campus, locally and the world. We invite you to get involved by sharing information on your activities that support the SDGs, and/or encouraging colleagues and students in your unit, department, school or college to do the same.

Please visit our online portal and answer some brief questions (10-25 minutes depending on how much detail you provide) about research, teaching, service and operations that contribute to these global goals. The online portal will be open until June 14, 2021.

Please ensure that your contributions and those of your colleagues are included so we can best support and amplify individual and collective UC Davis efforts. Thank you for your consideration and support for this campus initiative.  

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tom Rosen-Molina in Global Affairs at jtrosenmolina@ucdavis.edu and Kelli O’Day in Sustainability at kaoday@ucdavis.edu.

Sincerely,

Joanna Regulska                            Renetta Garrison Tull                                  Camille Kirk
Vice Provost and                            Vice Chancellor of Diversity,                      Director of Sustainability and
Dean of Global Affairs                   Equity and Inclusion                                    Campus Sustainability Planner