HR News Campus Updates & Events | December 2021

You can view an accessible copy of the following flyer here: 

Read more about Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and the Trauma Stewardship Institute here.

Alumni Relations is still accepting self-nominations to be a mentor as part of the Alumni Chapter Speed Newtorking Events throughout December:

Attorney Networking Group
December 1, 2021, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.

Join the Attorney Networking Group for an evening of camaraderie in the comfort of your own home and connect with fellow Matador attorneys. The goal of our monthly meetings is to build mutually beneficial social connections between fellow Matador attorneys to increase the potential for consultations and referrals. Our monthly meetings generally include free continuing education or other valuable presentations for attorneys by a guest speaker and thus are designed for practicing attorneys only.
Registration: https://engage.csun.edu/attorney-network-group-2021-december

Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) Alumni Chapter Speed Mentoring
December 2, 2021, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.

At the 2021 EOH Speed Mentoring Event, professionals in the environmental and health occupations field come to mentor CSUN students in a “speed dating” manner. Via zoom, participants will be virtually assigned into groups to rotate through mentors to learn about emerging environmental health and safety issues and to share what is happening in the profession. Register today to attend the 2021 EOH Alumni Chapter's Speed Mentoring Event!
Registration: https://engage.csun.edu/EOH_Mentor_Dec2021

Health Administration Alumni Chapter Speed Networking
December 3, 2021, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Students will be able to meet and network with professionals in the health administration field, developing relationships for future mentoring opportunities. In this fun speed networking format, participants will be moved through breakout rooms so that everyone has an opportunity to meet each other.
Registration: https://engage.csun.edu/health-admin-networking-december-2021

Join Kaiser Permanent's Center for Healthy Living Stress management series of 60 minute workshops to learn self-care tools from experienced facilitators to help manage stress.

Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Join 1 or all sessions.

Register via link in flier.

Available at no cost to Kaiser members and nonmembers for a limited time.

You can access a pdf version of the following flier here.

The USU has opened their events up for the entire CSUN campus community to keep everyone engaged and provide beneficial services during the pandemic. You can find additional information detailed on our calendar or webpage.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Mary Beth Walker, recently announced the appointment of Dr. Mechelle Best as CSUN’s Interim Dean, College of Health and Human Development, effective November 8, 2021. 

Dr. Best currently serves as Chair of CSUN’s Department of Recreation & Tourism Management in the College of Health and Human Development and has been a faculty member in the Department since 2008. She has served as Chair since 2016. Over the years, Dr. Best has served on several faculty governance and curriculum committees, including the Black Student Success Council and the University Corporation Board of Directors. 

Dr. Best earned her PhD in Tourism from the University of Florida and graduated from the University of the West Indies with a B.Sc. in Hotel Management and a M.Sc. in Natural Resource Management. She is the recipient of numerous grants and the author of several publications including the co-authored text Contemporary Caribbean Tourism: Concepts and Cases published by Ian Randle Publishers in 2015. 

In early 2021, EDUCAUSE reported on a survey related to students' experiences with connectivity and technology in the pandemic.

For that fall 2020 survey, 8,392 students from 54 US institutions provided information about internet connectivity, technical troubleshooting, and impacts to schoolwork. To explore students' challenges in these areas, EDUCAUSE partnered with the California State University (CSU) to conduct a series of focus groups with students from four CSU campuses: California State University, Fresno; Humboldt State University; San Diego State University; and California State University, Northridge (CSUN). A total of 28 undergraduate students participated in the focus groups over late spring and summer 2021.

Administrators, faculty, and IT units will find this report helpful as they draw parallels between CSU students' experiences and other local contexts.  You can access the full report, including focus group questions, here.

Key Findings

The CSUN Food Pantry exists to provide emergency nourishment and basic necessities at no cost to CSUN’s students. The CSUN Food Pantry supplies food and offers food program assistance to those who are without reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. Our goal is to minimize the academic impact on our students by providing the needed essentials. Through the pandemic the CSUN food pantry has remained operational and has expanded our days of operation from two days to four days a week to support our students' basic needs. Throughout the pandemic we have served an average of 70 students per week.

There are several ways you can support the CSUN Food Pantry!

• Monetary donations are welcomed and can be easily made electronically through our CSUN Food Pantry Foundation Account link.
• To donate physical items, you can access the Food Pantry Wish List here. 
• Items can be dropped off at the pantry, located in Laurel Hall (we ask that you contact us prior to drop off, to arrange and ensure we can follow safety protocols at that time); or, 
• A purchase can be made directly from our Amazon Wish List and items can be shipped directly to the pantry.

When CSUN faculty and staff are on the CSUN campus, you are working behind layers of preventive security controls. While not 100% foolproof, it is harder to make a security mistake while in the CSUN environment.

However, when CSUN issued devices leave the perimeter or faculty and staff work remotely, new risks arise and additional protections are essential.

For additional information and steps you should take to keep your data and devices safe, visit Information Technology's Information Security Guidelines for Working from Home site. A summary of some highlights follow: 

Threats to Working Remotely

• Unsecured Wi-Fi networks: Not everyone has a secure home network with strong firewalls. Public Wi-Fi networks, such as those in coffee shops, are also unsafe for conducting business. Unsecured public Wi-Fi networks are prime spots for malicious parties to spy on internet traffic and collect confidential information.
• Using personal devices and networks: Many faculty and staff will be forced to use personal devices and home networks for work tasks. These home devices lack safeguards built in to business networks such as antivirus, firewalls, and backup tools. This increases the risk of malware finding its way onto devices and both personal and work-related information being breached.
• Scams target remote workers: Hackers target remote workers, because of the lowered security measures.

Security Musts When Working Remotely

These are some additional precautions that must be taken by employees when working remotely:

• Never use public Wi-Fi
• Secure your home Wi-Fi
• Use a CSUN maintained device
• Use CSUN VPN with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) 
• Level 1 Users -  not access Level 1 systems from your personal devices. Use your CSUN maintained device (desktop or laptop) at home to access Level 1 data or systems.
• Keep work data on work computers or CSUN approved storage
• Do not share your device
• Patch all your software
• Set up the firewall on your computer 
• Use antivirus software
• Make sure you are using properly licensed software
• Never leave your devices in the car
• Taking home paper files?
• Look out for phishing emails and sites

For details, visit Information Technology's Information Security Guidelines for Working from Home site. If you have any questions or suspect you may have been breached, please contact Information Security at iso@csun.edu or x6100.

Access the November issue of CSU Leader here, or select the image below.