Checking in with you--and Homecoming 2020

Tue Nov 10 15:21:31 MST 2020

Dear Colleagues,

This fall has been an incredibly busy time for everybody, with a lot of changes on every front. Our budget planning process for FY21 has involved many revisions (we're now working on our fifth), but the latest university budget model leaves CALS, specifically, in a better position than it was the last time we met on Dial-the-Dean to discuss the budget. I look forward to sharing this information in detail at the Fall 2020 Semiannual Update & Awards Celebration, which will now be held on December 8.

I am inspired by your creativity and grit. I have seen exemplary adaptation and fortitude under huge challenges. You have converted programs as diverse as developmental health screenings, laboratory teaching and multi-day national conferences to virtual formats. We have hired colleagues and recruited students over Zoom.

This weekend, the university kicks off #BearDownEverywhere Homecoming 2020. "A" Mountain will be virtually lit; Chef Omo will give cooking lessons; there will be webinars, virtual tours, and a Giving Day with a digital donor wall.

Our alumni team is hosting a CALS UA Trivia Showdown, and I am looking forward to welcoming CALS alumni and friends "back to campus" on Saturday morning. This will be a different Homecoming, but it will be historic, and it is going to make next fall's event all the more special.

I am grateful to each and every one of our faculty, advisors and staff who have taken the additional time to reach out to our students to acknowledge their stress and the challenges they are facing and to make sure they are doing okay. Flexibility with course policies and deadlines can be helpful, but I know it also adds more to your plates as their instructors. The additional student needs mean the online shift has increased your workloads substantially. I and your unit heads see it and will recognize it in annual and other personnel reviews.

I hope you can find a good balance between our students needs and your own. However, as I have said many times before, we are often forced to choose the least worst of our options. This marathon is not over; it won't be for a while yet, and I recommend you prepare yourself for some false dawns--and in the meantime proactively chose to laugh. Do so with your students, too. They need it as much as you do. Remember, for those living alone and especially those new to our enterprise, meeting people outside is low risk. We will all (faculty, staff and students) have tough times in the next 12 months. Be kind to each other.

Tomorrow, our nation pauses on the 102nd anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I to honor the veterans of our armed forces who sacrifice so much.

I am honored to serve Arizona with you.

Shane

My mask protects you; your mask protects me. We’ve controlled infectious diseases without vaccines for thousands of years. Wearing our masks means we can have a functioning economy and concurrently save thousands of lives.

All UA employees, students and visitors must wear a face covering inside all UA buildings, unless alone in a single occupancy office, and in UA outdoor spaces where continuous physical distancing of at least six feet is difficult or impossible to maintain.

Shane C. Burgess
Vice President for the Division of 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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