... now in HD!

[Bill Maurer]

    Dear all,

    It's been over 5 weeks now since my first Zoom meeting in my capacity as
    dean. And, thanks to Luis Fonseca, I am finally in HD! I want to take this
    opportunity at the end of Week 3 of classes--and after a number of highly
    successful and well-attended events, colloquia and student activities--to
    offer a heartfelt thanks to the whole team in Social Sciences Computing
    Services, as well as Heather and Luis in communications, for keeping us
    all connected.
    
    Speaking of connections, and harking back to yesterday's message about
    harnessing our community's skills and talents for the work ahead, this
    morning the staff were treated to a demonstration of how to make Turkish
    coffee by Andrew Hallak (screenshot below)--and how to grow your own
    coffee tree, too! Andrew wove culinary technique and cultural history in
    a wonderful half-hour that many said was the best virtual meeting they'd
    attended since this all began. The only thing missing was the aroma.
    
    About connections, and community resources: while there is a lot going
    on right now to manage the shocks to the system the university is
    experiencing, more and more people will be turning to us, social and
    behavioral scientists of all stripes, to help them anticipate and think
    through the long process of reopening, rebuilding, and recovering. I was
    struck by this recent new call for research proposals from the Robert
    Wood Johnson Foundation, focused on health, but by way of the "Future
    of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of
    Work," all intertwined. In my little corner of the research world, I'll
    be reading this report over the weekend with my research partners as we
    map shifts in retail payment behavior related to fears about pathogen
    transmission (see earlier message referring to my dorkitude--but this
    is what I study!). So I invite you all to imagine how your own research
    endeavors, however specialized, will contribute to that great puzzle we
    will all be piecing together as we try to figure out What Comes Next, and
    when. (And hey--faculty, grad students: apply for a grant! ask me how!).
    
    But it's not all work and no play. I finally got my copy of NK Jemisin's
    new novel, The City We Became, and will start reading it with some of
    my friends--which is something, believe it or not, I've never actually
    done before. I've never been in a non-academic "book club," and I am
    not sure if we even are calling ourselves a book club yet. But that's
    OK. We're all finding and learning new ways. The challenge for us will
    be holding on to the expertise we came into this crisis with, marrying
    it with what we are all learning now--about ourselves, each other,
    our communities and world--and using all that to confront and build the
    future. Hopefully with a good cup of strong coffee to help get us through.
    
    Happy weekend, everyone! Please keep on doing what you're doing--in your
    personal, workaday, and epidemiological lives (and continue to flatten
    that curve).
    
    Bill
    now in HD