Today, April 17, opens Staff Celebration Week, and opportunities run from exercising muscles—free access is offered to the Recreation Center (6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday; closing at 10 p.m. on Friday)—to stretching the palate— lunch items are discounted 15 percent at the Faculty Club—to limbering up the mind (free department tours daily).

A few of the week’s highlights include today’s ice cream social at noon, and an “Eyes in the Sky” live bird show—courtesy of the Santa Barbara Audubon Society—from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Both will be in the Cheadle Hall courtyard.

On Tuesday, staff members will be offered 20 percent off selected UCSB Bookstore items, an 11 a.m. touch tank tour of the Marine Science Institute’s The Reef interactive aquarium, and at noon a Town Hall panel discussion on “Advancing Your Career at UCSB” in the MultiCultural Center (MCC) Theater. Panelists will include representatives of Housing and Residential Services, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Development Department, and Dean of Students Office.

Wednesday will see a glass-blowing demonstration at 11 a.m. in Physical Sciences Building North, room 2520E, and Staff Assembly’s Cookie Bake-Off at noon in the MCC.

Thursday’s staff barbecue sponsored by Chancellor Henry Yang runs for two hours, from 11:30 a.m., on the Faculty Club lawn, with the added attractions of Staff Assembly’s drawing and announcement of the Staff Citation of Excellence Awards. Note that the barbecue is not on Friday, as has been customary, but the food will again have the vegetarian option and be plentiful.

Friday boasts a noon tour of the campus greenhouse and the new Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration at Harder Stadium. For complete details on which events are available, go to <www.csac.ucsb.edu>.

Produced by the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Council and Staff Assembly, the celebration this year retains much of what has pleased participants in the past with enough new items and events to freshen the feel of it.