May 4, 2020 Update from the Vice President and Dean

Mon May 4 13:45:10 MST 2020

Good afternoon, everyone -

Next Friday we all will graduate 686 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students in a way that won't look like any other UA graduation convocation or commencement, ever.

  *   600 students will be receiving their bachelor's degree.
  *   51 will be awarded master's degrees.
  *   35 will receive their Ph.D.

At the end of this semester, as we head into our most challenging summer period in living memory, I want to recognize and thank every staff and faculty member for transforming what you do overnight at the cost of increased stress and workload.

Within days instruction went online; you have juggled family commitments and been told of pay cuts to keep the university afloat. Faculty and advisors reached out to students by phone, email and zoom, again and again – trying to ensure our students can access resources they need, including emergency funds. As importantly, you reached out to each other. Your compassion and care are exemplary.

To aid students without internet connectivity at home, Matt Rahr, director of cyber and information technologies, spent numerous hours working with UITS to enable parking lot-based hotspots at our facilities across the state<https://it.arizona.edu/documentation/remote-uawifi-hotspots>.

Since March 11, we have not had business-as-usual. Our lives have been turned upside down. This is not a grand challenge; we are not involved in adventure. This is a very scary situation that is ruining lives.

We have more challenges ahead of us. For months we must grind our way out of it. We must do so for our own sakes; our families', friends' and colleagues' sakes; and all those relying on us for their futures, their jobs and their sanity.

We face ambiguity on how we will do what we need to do, though I know that you must, and will continue, transforming your instruction for students returning to a campus that will look and work very differently. Many of you have understandable concerns about your health in the Fall semester. Many of you are justifiably worried about your job security.

I want to assure you that I, and every single one of our appointed administrators, understand, is as stressed as you are and is working hard for you to make our situation the least bad as we can.

I know faculty will work a lot over the summer. I know professors of practice and tenure-track faculty will be putting classes online, opening iCourse sections, and pivoting to offer hybrid-online courses. I want you to know two things: In many cases, enrollment for Fall 2020 has increased! And your unit heads are working on ways to pay people for your additional critical work over the summer and beyond.

Please join me to celebrate all you have done by viewing next week's celebrations and honoring your Class of 2020.

CALS Virtual Graduation Convocation
Premieres on Friday, May 15 at 2:00 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/uarizonaCALS/

156th Annual University of Arizona Commencement
Premieres on Friday, May 15 at 6:00 p.m.
https://commencement.arizona.edu/

Best wishes,

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.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/alvsce_bulletin/attachments/20200504/ab93cfa0/attachment.htm>