April 28, 2020 Update from the Vice President and Dean

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

Dear colleagues,

Many friends and family and students we know are facing tremendous financial hardships now. A few have experienced the loss of a loved one from COVID-19; some are now experiencing the loss of loved ones as normal medical care is not functioning as usual. Our staff and faculty are fearful for their future. People have told me they feel things are being done to them and they will not be able to contribute to making our immediate future better for themselves and their colleagues, the way they know how.

I have five important messages today:

1) If you are scared to speak out because you fear retaliation, please do not be. Speak directly to me, your unit heads, Jeannie McLain<mailto:mclainj at email.arizona.edu>, Jeffrey Ratje<mailto:jmratje at email.arizona.edu> or a Faculty Councilor<https://compass.arizona.edu/faculty-council> about your concerns. You will not be retaliated against.

2) You may speak out anonymously at the UA<https://businessaffairs.arizona.edu/financial-taskforce/get-involved> and you can use Grapevine<https://compass.arizona.edu/grapevine> in our enterprise.

3) I know you have good ideas to address your serious concerns. Please get these to me, your unit head, Jeannie McLain, Jeffrey Ratje, onto Grapevine or to a Faculty Council member.

  *   Just because you are a staff member, you are not automatically a soft target to layoff;
  *   Just because you are a career track faculty member, or any other kind of teacher, who is not on a tenure track you are not automatically a soft target to layoff;
  *   Just because you are a not-yet tenured or not-yet continuing status faculty member, you are not automatically a soft target to layoff.

In the past, I have seen people in administrative positions say, "look to your left, look to your right - this is so bad that two of you will not be here soon".

Instead, I ask you again today to look at your friends and close work colleagues, look at your families, and join me in working to ensure we are all here tomorrow. We have a revenue crisis and we need you here to contribute for each other as only you can. This will be hard. But know that no matter how bad it actually is, only you can make it better.

Best regards,
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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