[Plsfaculty] SPLS: Faculty meeting and College updates

Tue Apr 22 08:00:00 MST 2025

Dear colleagues,

I hope everyone is doing well at this busy time of year. As we approach the end of this unusual  semester, I hope everyone can take a moment to reflect on your accomplishments, and those of your students, colleagues, staff, and friends: I am really proud of all we've accomplished in SPLS the first few months of 2025, and I thank everyone for your work and dedication.

As you know, we are experiencing some changes in our College at this time. Interim Dean Mike Staten is getting aligned with and acquainted with his new role, with support from across the College and Division. With his very full schedule in the early days of his leadership activity, we have not yet had a chance for Mike to meet with the unit heads. We anticipate this will happen in the next week or so.

At this time, we also are awaiting the University's decision regarding the budget for CALES. As a result, we do not yet have the graduate funding memo that we typically would receive from College leadership in February/early March. We have nearly finalized arrangements to cover gaps we have faced in Graduate Coordination and Room and Course Scheduling; these will be fully settled this week. Next week, we will have an update from Interim Associate Dean Jon Chorover regarding the federal funding landscape, as well as insights into Extension activities and related following the ANR Retreat. In the midst, we look forward to welcoming our new Administrative Assistant for the unit, shared with ENVS and to start soon in person. I will be excited to introduce this exceptional professional to our School.

For these reasons, I would like to postpone our faculty meeting from April 25 to a tentative date of May 16 (11am-12:30pm). I anticipate that we will be in a more informed position by that time, and we will be able to discuss ways forward more effectively with more knowledge in hand.

As always, our meeting will be held in-person with an online option, and materials from the meeting will be posted to our Box. We will use the moment to celebrate the end of term with some food to share - please stay tuned.

In the meantime, I will share news as I receive it. I encourage everyone to attend the next Plant Sciences Salon, advertised recently by Ravi. I'm beginning the APR process after some institutional delays, so I'll be in touch. And — as we look ahead -- please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns: arnold at ag.arizona.edu, and 520.396.0854.

Warm regards,
Betsy

[The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.]
A. Elizabeth Arnold, PhD

Interim Director and Professor, School of Plant Sciences

Curator, Gilbertson Mycological Herbarium

Chair and Director of Graduate Studies,

Ecosystem Genomics GIDP

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

fungi at arizona.edu

www.arnoldlab.net<http://www.arnoldlab.net> | www.gilbertsonherbarium.net<http://www.gilbertsonherbarium.net>

To schedule a meeting, please use https://calendly.com/fungi-arizona

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