[Plantsci] FW: July 21 Dear Colleagues Letter

[Donna-Rae Marquez]

On Behalf of Dean Burgess

 

From: cals_bulletin-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu
[mailto:cals_bulletin-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu] On Behalf Of
cals_bulletin at CALS.arizona.edu
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 9:26 AM
To: cals_bulletin at cals.arizona.edu
Subject: July 21 Dear Colleagues Letter

 

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted and honored to begin my service to students, staff, faculty,
alumni and other Arizonans, as the new dean of the University of Arizona
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. My wife Jennifer and I, and son
Aidan and daughter Ailey, are thrilled to become part of the Wildcat family.
Aidan and Ailey have already started wearing their blue and red in
Mississippi.

As the search process progressed, I became increasingly aware of, and
impressed with, all of our college's outstanding people and programs. UA's
senior administrators, institute and center directors, as well as other
colleges' administrators and faculty, undoubtedly value their CALS
colleagues highly. CALS alumni have great passion and care deeply for their
college. We have great support from Arizona's diverse commodity groups and
stakeholders. You can and should be very proud of the direct positive
economic, environmental and social value CALS provides to our state and
nation. It is not surprising that ours is one of the premier colleges of its
type.

This is the first of monthly "Dear Colleagues" letters. In this first letter
I want to let you know my four goals, which are of equal priority, for these
transition months.

1.      Provide you with as smooth a transition as possible. I am working
with President Sander, Provost Hay, the CALS administrative leadership team
and the Dean's office staff to minimize problems and maintain continuity.

2.      Learn as much as I can about our college. To help me do so I will be
visiting with you on campus and across Arizona. This will take me some
weeks, but I plan to do so well before October 15. 

3.      Ensure that I meet with, and am available to, our alumni and other
stakeholders. 

4.      Initiate the search for our three associate dean positions. It is my
hope that we can have all three positions filled by the end of the semester.


I do want to spend some of this letter discussing our challenges. Like the
rest of the nation and world, we have to contend with financial uncertainty
and seemingly increasing limitations. Self-reliance, innovation, resilience
and our networks will be essential. We are also in a highly competitive
environment and I think that focusing on our unique strengths (of which we
have many) will help us to be successful. 

Along with ongoing financial challenges, our world is facing significant,
sometimes seemingly intractable, problems on multiple fronts. We have water,
food, energy, education, employment, family and community challenges (to
name a few). As staff and faculty of a preeminent college of agriculture and
life sciences, it is both our privilege and our responsibility to be leaders
in solving problems in all of these areas. There are no easy solutions, but
I believe we in CALS are among the most qualified and well-placed to find
solutions. As we take up these challenges, we will also have many
opportunities to listen and respond to diverse points of view. I believe in
being pragmatic, effective, realistic and value-oriented. We are delivering
solutions for the real world, for real people with real issues. 

It is already crystal clear to me that you are resourceful and hardworking.
A lot has been asked of you since Arizona's financial downturn began, and
more will be asked of us. However, it is equally clear to me that our
department heads and other unit leaders are focused on the best interests of
not only their own departments, but also on those of the college and UA as a
whole. From the few meetings I have had with these leaders so far, I also
know that they take their responsibilities and commitments to you seriously.
Let me assure you that I do too.

Finally, I appreciate and welcome your ideas, concerns, or any thoughts at
all about our future that you may want to share with me. Please contact me
by email at sburgess at cals.arizona.edu. I will answer all correspondence,
although it may take me a few days.

Go Cats!

Shane


Shane C. Burgess, Dean
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
The University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210036
Forbes Building, Room 306
Tucson, AZ 85721-0036
Phone: 520-621-7621

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