[Plsfaculty] SPLS leadership - update and poll

[Orbach, Marc Joel - (orbachmj)]

Dear colleagues,

Betsy and I would like to thank so many of you for joining us for our 'faculty conversations' regarding the state of our School and the future of our SPLS leadership.

Our conversations left us feeling grateful to have such great colleagues who are invested in helping our School move forward.

This note is intended as a short update, with an action item at the end. Briefly, our conversations centered around these topics:

• Concerns regarding our ability to recruit a permanent Director given the financial shortfalls of CALES and the University, and the full stop on the search process imposed earlier this fall.
• Uncertainty regarding short-term leadership options should our Interim Director choose to retire.
• Concerns with regard to the function and stability of our Business Office.
• General concerns regarding the budget climate in our College and at the University, and transparency in SPLS and other organizational levels.

As promised, we took these concerns in person to our Interim Director (Nov. 21), to Leslie (Nov. 28), and to the Executive Committee for SPLS and Interim Director (Nov. 28, Dec. 5). Key points also were raised during our faculty meeting with Janis Rutherford. These have prompted some positive motion and we ask everyone's patience as we hear these concerns and do our best to act on them.

At this time, we have an action item for faculty. We would like to know your opinion as to whether, when, and how we should contact Dean Burgess regarding our unit leadership. Can you please take a moment and respond to this poll? We know these mechanisms are limited in nuance but we will value your input as we move forward.

https://forms.gle/FKSEbfmqtywjLL6KA

Please direct questions to us (Marc and Betsy) -- be aware that replies to this listerv will be replies-to-all. We are: orbachmj at arizona.edu<mailto:orbachmj at arizona.edu>, fungi at arizona.edu<mailto:fungi at arizona.edu>

The poll will be open until Friday, Dec. 8 at 5pm.

Thank you,
Marc and Betsy

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