[Plsfaculty] SPLS: From the Interim Director's desk

[Arnold, Betsy - (fungi)]

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to share my growing and considerable enthusiasm about our upcoming year together in the School of Plant Sciences.

As nine-month appointments are set to begin next week, we return from summer to our shared endeavors: supporting students in their educational journeys; advancing our research, innovation, and partnerships; serving our state and beyond through Extension; and engaging in important service at local to international scales. I am tremendously excited to begin welcoming students back to campus, and to welcome our faculty back to the academic year as well.

This note serves the role of rebooting regular communication now that our summer is drawing to a close. From the Interim Director's desk, the summer has been an exceptionally busy one in terms of management of administrative, financial, infrastructural, academic, and related matters for our unit. No major changes have been made; instead, the theme has been advancement, stability, and positioning ourselves and our unit for strategic steps forward in our teaching, research, and Extension missions. Of late, I have appreciated several opportunities to hear from our Provost in person, to hear of our impacts and leadership, and to celebrate success stories of our students, including the graduate students who concluded their doctoral and Masters work with defenses this summer. I have appreciated the increasing stability and clarity provided by our business team. I have been grateful to work with our terrific admin, Dave Romens. I've been thrilled to hear about grant submissions and great research ideas. Along the way, information is coming together about our spending authority for the new fiscal year, and I'm glad to say that we are starting the year stable and strong.

In beginning regular academic-year notes at this time, I can't help but reflect that we have been in a time of tremendous change. This is both recent, and since COVID; both local to our unit, and across the university; both in our personal lives and in our professional lives; and even at the national scale. These compounding stresses are real, and we all process them in different ways — but there is no doubt that they impact all of us. To this end, thank you all for your ongoing support of students, of colleagues, of staff, of members of our communities near and far. That investment is an important gift, and it is noted. Indeed, the positive aspects of our work together, despite the many crosswinds we have faced, make me proud to be a part of our School.

I look forward to catching up with everyone in person and online, and to kicking off a productive and forward-looking year together. Please stay tuned for communication over these coming days, especially upon the commencement of academic year appointments next week.

For now, please do find time to refresh and reflect as we look ahead to AY2025-2026. I look forward to what's next, and appreciate you all as colleagues in a unit of great accomplishment and tremendous potential.

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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