April 20, 2020 Update from the Vice President and Dean

Mon Apr 20 15:27:17 MST 2020

Good afternoon, everyone.

We all got some hard news on Friday. I have been thinking about it since then. You may have been also. The details of the May 11, 2020 through June 30, 2021 furlough and pay cut program are being finalized and will be with us soon. Please remember the point is to keep our jobs intact.

The table in President Robbins' letter was easy to be drawn to. But his letter also had other key messages.

  *   The UA finance team anticipates losing more than $66 million by the end of this fiscal year, and their most credible shortfall projections exceed $250 million. To put that in perspective, UA's budget reallocations plus RCM and administrative service charge tax increases totaled $30 million this year. This was not easy to deal with. We could only deal with it because of the millions of dollars of new incremental RCM teaching revenues we produced over the last seven years.
  *   The university will adapt through new business models, reorganize and restructure for the most sustainable use of resources, and apply long-term reductions.
  *   Strategic restructuring, competitive sourcing and traditional layoffs may be necessary.

There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of potential things we'd all rather avoid.

There are always things we can do to improve our situation, and after that, more things. If we do these things, we'll finish this marathon faster, in better shape and improve everyone's lot. We can influence what the UA's summer sessions and the next two semesters will look like. We’ve already introduced innovations that have positively impacted ourselves and so the university as a whole. If you have ideas, tell me now--if you don't, tell me when you have them.

University of Arizona administration was quoted last week as being "cautiously optimistic" that the fall semester will resume in-person. U.S. clinical case counts and death rates are falling and that is because of the extreme steps we have all been taking, which have been crushing our economy. Likewise, Arizona's daily deaths may have peaked three weeks earlier than previously predicted. UA is partnering with the State of Arizona to do statewide serology immunotesting<https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/uarizona-partners-state-provide-covid19-antibody-tests> and preliminary data suggests that many more of us than originally suspected have seroconverted. Serum antibody testing is a critical tool in last Thursday's White House/CDC phased Guidelines for Opening up America Again<https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/>.

I ask you to embrace the following guiding principles with me:

  1.  Mentally fight against the understandable vicious cycle of hope, panic, fear, anger and then avoidance. There is a potentially enormous problem and only we can shape our destiny.
  2.  Our purpose is not only still sound, but it is even more important today to our students and their families. We know what we should do. How we get there may need to change. This is hard.
  3.  We must be an asset that attracts university investment.
  4.  The direst financial predictions and ill-defined bad consequences are not predetermined. Everything we do, every day, can influence them toward the positive.
  5.  Treat every student as if our economic survival depends on them coming back this summer and for the Fall semester--because it really does.
  6.  Don't be objective-data-driven. Decrease ambiguity in our very consequential decision-making by being informed by subjective information as well as proven objective data.
  7.  Everything you do, every day, is for your immediate colleagues, your friends and your family.
  8.  What would have seemed "adequate" before March 11 may just have to be enough. On some days it will simply be impossible to manage even that. Just holding on is OK sometimes.
  9.  Care for yourself and reach out to those around you.

My bottom line is that to keep everyone here we must be a part of the financial solution. As usual, mission delivery first: we do this better than ever and revenue will follow. This means residential student retention and recruitment, and participating more in UA Online and UA Global. My specific priorities for 2020<https://arizona.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=90a8b4e1-09a8-4e11-8599-ab51018102d2>, remain fundamentally unchanged. My edits from the week before last are in red.

My priorities for 2020
1. YOU
2. Global Education
3. Student Retention and Recruiting
4. Expanding philanthropy
5. Intra UA-partnering
6. Creating more opportunities and greater probability for your success, especially by better budgeting and finance

Best wishes to you and your families,
Shane

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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