Community Leader’s View: A new era dawns at UCSD

By Marye Anne Fox

UCSD Chancellor

After a momentous 50th anniversary celebration last year, UC San Diego has entered a new era – Era 51. Some people might think that the campus had such an amazing 50th anniversary year that we couldn’t possibly top it this year.

Think again. Era 51 presents its own unique opportunities to build on traditions established last year and long ago, and also to start some new ones. Our newest traditions include our Founders’ Day Celebration, which we’re expanding this year into a three-day commemoration, from Nov. 17-19.

Campus and community members are invited to our free Founders’ Innovation Symposium at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, at our new Medical Education and Telemedicine Learning Building. Visionary academic leaders will talk about new transformative, interdisciplinary initiatives that are shaping the campus’ future in education and research, and contributing to our local, national and global economies.

Our special Founders’ Day program — which marks our official anniversary — will take place at noon on Friday, Nov. 18, in our Town Square. We will also host a Founders’ Dinner on Saturday, Nov. 19, to benefit UC San Diego’s “Invent the Future” student support campaign, which is raising much-needed funding for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships.

These new traditions unite our campus and community to celebrate UC San Diego’s role and contributions as a world-class research university right here in La Jolla. It’s also an opportunity for us to thank our community members who have embraced our students, faculty, staff and alumni over the last five decades. UC San Diego has grown immensely since our founding, but we still remain true to the tradition of excellence established by our founders.

Our mission carries on — to train the next generation of leaders, to advance human knowledge, to give back to our community, and to find new ways to improve and save lives. We’ve achieved so much in our first 50 years, and now we look forward to ushering in a new era, and all of the successes that will bring.

For more information on UC San Diego’s Founders’ Day Celebration, visit

learnlive.ucsd.edu

.