August 19, 2020
Dear EVC Elizabeth Simmons,
CEO UCSD Health Patty Maysent,
VC and CFO Pierre Ouilette,
Dean Cheryl Anderson,
Dr. Chip Schooley,
Senate Chair Maripat Corr,
 
In keeping with our principles of community and the importance of informed consent, we, the undersigned Senate and non-Senate faculty and allies, request an extension of the August 20 deadline to register for the Work and Health Management registration process. We share in the purpose of educating students, creating knowledge, and serving the community as a public university. These requests are in the interest of undertaking this work in a way that generates institutional trust in shared governance.

The “Academic Senate and Return to Learn Town Hall” on August 18 clarified some issues and allowed leadership to learn about areas that could use further explanation. The San Diego Faculty Association hosted a town hall on August 19 to discuss the registration process and generate improvements that could address remaining areas of concern. A summary of those discussions is forthcoming. With the deadline to register on August 20, we issue the requests in this letter with urgency.

Until the remaining concerns described below have been addressed, we ask the university to extend the registration deadline so that UCSD employees can obtain the details and education necessary to understand the opaque issues related to the collection, protection, and use of their personal data. Furthermore, during the Question and Answer session of the August 18th town hall, Cheryl Wagonhurst indicated that the plan for privacy is still being put into place. She advised attendees to check the Return to Learn website in the future, presumably once the final decisions have been made and the program has been concretized. How can employees trust that the university can protect their personal data when the university is still sorting out how that will be done? Thus, UCSD employees should have the right to know what the privacy plan is, what the potential consequences are, and how it will be subject to shared governance oversight before they are required to fill out the Work and Health Management registration form.

We respectfully request the following actions to address faculty concerns:
 
1) Extend the deadline of the Work and Health Management process to allow time to address concerns.

2) Clarify how the employee component of the medical file would be kept separate in Epic from the remainder of the health file;



3) Explain how informed consent would be obtained for any research use of the data.

4) The disclosure of the SSN SHOULD NOT be the default on the registration form (e.g. should not be pre-checked).

5) Clarify to employees that the need and request for COVID-19 public health data as mandated by the county and the state is distinct from the request for data by R2L researchers.

6) Inform all employees of the option to have their employee medical data stored in an alternative database as described by the Campus Privacy Officer. Clarify that employees choosing this option will still provide COVID-19 testing information to state public health authorities.


7) Free testing should not be contingent on opt in, as this is a workplace safety issue and not an employee benefit. Denying free testing for employees will compound health inequities, harming most those least likely to have health insurance such as non-Senate faculty.

Signed,
The UC San Diego Faculty Association Board
Wendy Matsumura, Associate Professor, History
Saiba Varma, Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Sal Nicolazzo, Assistant Professor, Literature
Jessica Graham, Associate Professor, History
Simeon Man, Associate Professor, History
Matthew Vitz, Associate Professor, History

**Additional Faculty signatories**
Boatema Boateng, Associate Professor, Communication
Lilly Irani, Associate Professor, Communication
Brian Goldfarb, Associate Professor and Chair, Communication
Andrew Jolivette, Professor & Chair, Ethnic Studies
Anthony Burr, Professor, Music
Sharon Rose, Professor, Linguistics
Stephan Anagnostaras, Associate Professor, Psychology
Jordan Rose, Assistant Professor, Visual Arts
Lisa Cartwright, Professor, Visual Arts
Roshanak Kheshti, Ethnic Studies
Ivano Caponigro, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Martha Lampland, Professor, Sociology and Science Studies
R. Stuart Geiger, Assistant Professor, Dept of Communication & Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute
Andrew deWaard, Assistant Professor, Communication
David Pedersen, Assoc. Professor, Anthropology
Alexander Fattal, Assistant Professor, Communication
Claire Edington, Associate Professor, History Department
Elana Zilberg, Associate Professor, Communication
Jeff Haydu, Sociology
Paula Saravia, Lecturer, Global health program
Ross Frank, Ethnic Studies
Javier Duarte, Physics
Joseph Hankins, Associate Professor, Anthropology
Kelly Gates, Associate Professor, Communication
Adam Burgasser, Professor, Physics
Terry Gaasterland, Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Jody Blanco, AssociateProfessor, Literature
Eduardo Macagno, Professor, Biological Sciences
Ameeth Vijay, Assistant Professor, Literature
Stephanie Jed, Professor, Literature
Sara Kaplan, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies
Jade Power Sotomayor, Theatre and Dance
Megan Wesling, Associate Professor, Literature
Ricardo  Dominguez, Associate Professor, Visual Arts/CALIT2/QI
Harvey Goldman, Professor of Sociology
Paul Sepuya, Acting Associate Professor, Visual Arts
Julie Burelle, Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance
Lillian Walkover, Assistant Teaching Professor, Communication
Elham Izadi, Professor, Mathematics
Shelley Streeby, Literature and Ethnic Studies
Christopher  Kuhl, Assistant Professor, Theatre and Dance
Marco Barricelli, Professor, Theatre & Dance
Curtis  Marez, Professor, Ethnic Studies
Daniel Navon, Associate Professor, Sociology
Stephen Buescher, Teaching Professor, Theater and Dance
Deborah Stein, Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance
Pamela Radcliff, Professor, Department of History
Rebecca Chaleff, Assistant Professor, Theatre & Dance
Eva Barnes, Teaching Professor, Theatre and Dance
Petr Krysl, Professor, Structural engineering
Patrick Anderson, Professor, Communication & Ethnic Studies
Erin Hill, Assistant Professor, Communication
Vanessa Stalling, Assistant Professor, Theatre and Dance
Caroline Jack, Assistant Professor, Communication
Joel Watson, Professor, Economics
Fatima El-Tayeb, Professor, Literature
José Fusté, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies
Kirstie Dorr, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies
Suzanne Brenner, Associate Professor, Anthropology
David  Serlin, Associate Professor, Communication
Roy Perez, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies
Milton Saier, Professor, Molecular Biology
Shaista Patel, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies
Nancy Postero, Professor, Anthropology
Alison Black, Lecturer, Education Studies
Carolyn Kurle, Associate Professor, Division of Biological Sciences
Amanda Solomon Amorao, Director, Dimensions of Culture
Benjamin Cowan, Associate Professor, History
Christen Sasaki, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies
Camille  Forbes , Associate Professor, Literature  
Shawna Kidman, Assistant Professor, Communication
Angela Booker, Associate Professor, Communication
Luis  Martin-Cabrera, Associate Professor, Literature
Amy Cimini, Assistant Professor, Music
Joseph Hankins, Associate Professor, Anthropology
Deian Stefan, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Megan Strom, Lecturer, Dimensions of Culture
Jin-Kyung Lee, Associate Professor, Literature
Anya Gallaccio, Professor, Visual Arts
Katie Walkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Literature
Andrea Mendoza, Assistant Professor, Literature
Paul Sepuya, Acting Associate Professor, Visual Arts
Rachel Fox, Graduate Teaching Consultant, Engaged Teaching Hub
Sara  Kaplan, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies
Amy Alexander, Professor, Visual Arts