UCSB joined the Scholars at Risk Network on October 20, 2016 after a unanimous vote of the Senate. Claudio Fogu was the instigator of the initiative and vote. He was and remains the Scholars at Risk Representative for UCSB. He can be reached at claudiofogu@ucsb.edu.
At last, after the COVID interruption, in the Fall of 2021-22, the SAR/Scholar Rescue Fund Initiative was born under the College of Letters and Sciences umbrella. EVC Marshall and Chancellor Yang committed $25,000 yearly to host a scholar at risk. A committee of faculty from different Divisions was selected by the Deans and this committee began working to select the first full-year scholar at risk to be hosted. Simultaneously, the SBFA organized a fundraiser which resulted in a $36,000 fund to help future scholars at risk, settle in Santa Barbara.
Along with hosting scholars, UCSB's commitment to the plight of scholars at risk is also visible in the numerous undergraduate seminars on "Advocacy for Scholar at Risk" taught by Prof. Fogu and other members of our faculty. In these seminars, students are introduced to legislation, literature, and debates around issues of academic freedom, speech rights, and the right to have an education, which they apply to a specific case of a scholar at risk. They report that they produce, along with the activity they organized to make the case of this individual scholar known, end up in a report that is given to SAR, and which will be used to advocate on behalf of the scholar.