While preparing for a $500 million cut in state support and the looming possibility of even deeper cuts, UC has ramped up its advocacy efforts, including a Facebook page where dozens of supporters have posted videos and comments about UC’s importance to the state of California.

Faculty, staff, students, alumni and business leaders have joined the Stand Up for UC advocacy campaign to let legislators know why our university matters to California and deserves its financial support.

“I think everybody should stand up for . . . education in general,” says Mary Keipp, a staffer at UCLA, in one of the Facebook videos. “But particularly for the UC system, because it is really an economic engine for our state.” Go to the UC Newsroom to see a video compilation of the remarks of several UC advocates.

UC faces extraordinary challenges as the state prepares to cut $500 million from its 2011–12 budget. An all-cuts California budget could result in even deeper reductions to higher education funding and would have serious negative impacts on UC.

UC advocates are using social media to tell lawmakers what’s at stake and why UC is important to them, their families, their students, their communities and the state of California. If you’d like to join them, here are a few simple things you can do:

• Join the Stand up for UC campaign by “liking” the UC for California Facebook page. More than 1,400 supporters have done it. Watch their videos and see what they’re saying about why the university is important to California’s future.
• Add your voice to the conversation by posting a comment or uploading your own video on the UC for California Facebook page.
• Sign up to become a UC advocate (http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/mlm/signup), or connect to your campus advocacy network (http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/home/campuses).
• Send a letter to your legislators encouraging them to find a budget solution that doesn’t just cut but rather preserves California’s higher education investment. More information is available at http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/issues/alert/?alertid=40294501&type=ML.
• Follow UC for California on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ucforca) for advocacy and UC news updates.

Sign up now to attend Bagels with Mark, a program that gives UCOP employees a chance to get to know President Mark Yudof and candidly discuss issues and concerns with him in a small group setting.

To sign up for a Bagels with Mark session in the near future, please send an e-mail from your “ucop.edu” mailbox to bagels@ucop.edu. Your e-mail should include the following information:

• Your full name
• Your title
• Your department name
• Your work location
• Your work e-mail address

From the sign-up list, 10 to 15 people will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Those employees will receive an invitation from President Yudof specifying the date and time of the program.

For future sessions, we’ll continue down the list until all employees who signed up have had a chance to participate. Once we get through the list, we’ll initiate the sign-up process again.

The sign-up process fills about half the slots for each meeting, and the other half will be selected at random. If you have already attended a session, please do not sign up again. Please sign up only once; multiple requests will not increase your chance of being selected.

“It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.”

Longfellow’s famous words are a fitting motto for UCOP’s Office of Ethics, Compliance and Audit Services (ECAS), which helps ensure that UC earns the public trust by maintaining an ethical environment and complying with state and federal laws and regulations.

ECAS will be celebrating National Compliance and Ethics Week, May 2 through 6, with a weeklong fair that features tabling in the Franklin Building and a brown bag talk. The goal is to raise awareness throughout UCOP and the UC community about the importance of ethics and compliance.

“Education is a critical aspect of our program,” says Sheryl Vacca, senior vice president and chief compliance and audit officer. “All UC employees should know that we have a systemwide ethics and compliance program that allows everyone to raise potential issues or concerns related to non-compliance.”

Vacca is referring to the UC Whistleblower Hotline, one of many vehicles that UC employees can use to report improper activities without fear of retaliation. She is enthusiastic about using National Compliance and Ethics Week as an opportunity to promote this and other aspects of UC’s ethics and compliance program.

All 10 UC campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have campus ethics and compliance officers (CECOs) to implement the compliance program at each UC location. Lynda Hilliard was recently designated the CECO for UCOP, and EVP Nathan Brostrom serves as chair of the UCOP Ethics and Compliance Risk Committee.

To answer questions about their program, ECAS will staff an information table in the Franklin Building lobby, 12 to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday, May 2 through 5, and 8 to 9 a.m. on Friday, May 6 (during the First Friday Breakfast).

On Wednesday, May 4, 12:15 to 1 p.m. in 5320 Franklin, Director of Ethics and Compliance Mark Meaney (newbies might recognize him from new employee orientation) will speak about the origins of business ethics and corporate compliance in his talk, “Humble Beginnings in Community Values: A Brief History of the Ethics and Compliance Movement.”

Go online to take a quiz to test your knowledge of compliance at UC. Respondents who answer all questions correctly by the end of business on May 6 will be entered into a drawing for a special prize. (One entry per person only, please.) Access the quiz on the ECAS SharePoint site.

For more information about UC’s compliance program, go to http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/compaudit/.

In a special event, The Honorable Ronald Lehman and Mona Dreicer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will appear at UCOP to present a talk entitled “A New START: 40 Years of Strategic Nuclear Arms Control.”

The event will take place Thursday, April 28, 12 to 1 p.m. in Franklin Lobby 1 Conference Room.

Lehman and Dreicer will take a new look at the past, present and future of strategic arms control, which has evolved significantly in the past 66 years. Since its peak in 1967, the number of weapons in the U.S. nuclear stockpile has declined 84 percent to the lowest level since 1956. Many political leaders now ask, “Is even one too many?”

Lehman is director of LLNL’s Center for Global Security Research and, since 1996 has been chairman of the governing board of the International Science and Technology Center. Dreicer is LLNL’s Deputy Program Leader for Nonproliferation and Arms Control.

Please note: This special event will not be webcast.