April 13, 2020 Update from the Vice President and Dean

[Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension Weekly Bulletin]

Dear colleagues,

On April 2, US COVID-19 deaths stopped increasing exponentially and instead increased "only" linearly. Yesterday the slope decreased for the first time (by 1.1%). The U.S. death toll appears to have peaked. Our collective actions are working.

In our fourth week of working from home, two things are front of my mind. Firstly, COVID-19 will not peak in Arizona for another two weeks so we have yet to see and feel the impact it will have in our own state.

Secondly, and more importantly, these data represent people. People who died without family at their side, some now buried in mass graves.

This afternoon, I'd like to ask you to join me in taking a moment to remember those we've lost and to honor those who are suffering now.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

--Maya Angelou ("When Great Trees Fall," I Shall Not Be Moved, 1990)





Make our long haul shorter: keep healthy and keep people working-- lead by example to suppress SARS-CoV-2 transmission.



To decrease cortisol’s insidious health affects and avoid burn out, I’m back to regular email practices. Please use URGENT in the subject line of emails to me only if they actually are; when sending URGENT emails outside of our “normal hours” please text me to look at my email. Individual personnel SARS-CoV-2 INFECTION or overt COVID-19 is an IMMEDIATE PERSONNEL WELLBEING issue and must be marked URGENT, just like any other individual personnel wellbeing issues should continue to be.

Please use “Time sensitive” in the subject line of emails when appropriate but DO NOT text me.



Shane C. Burgess
Vice President for Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension
Charles-Sander Dean of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Forbes Building, Room 306 | 1140 E. South Campus Drive
P.O. Box 210036 | Tucson, AZ 85721-0036
Office: 520-621-7621
sburgess at cals.arizona.edu<mailto:sburgess at cals.arizona.edu>
alvsce.arizona.edu<https://alvsce.arizona.edu/>
cals.arizona.edu<https://cals.arizona.edu/>
twitter<https://twitter.com/UAAgLifeVetExt>


The University of Arizona is located statewide on the ancestral homelands of indigenous peoples.
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