[Plsugs] A Note From Finn c:

Fri May 17 17:25:37 MST 2024

Hi All! c:

Happy Friday! This is a bit of a weird email for me to write to you all, as I'm not really sure how to approach this subject aside from being completely transparent with you. I had wanted to let you all know before the semester officially ended, but sometimes things don't work out as we want. As I'm sure you have seen by now, due to a combination of the budget issues at UA and the small size of the Plant Sciences major, my position as Plant Sciences Advisor is being made redundant, I am being laid off, and I will no longer be your advisor. My last day here at CALES will be June 28th, 2024.

I know that this is likely difficult for many of you to hear, and I know you likely have many questions about what will happen now that I am leaving CALES. I want to reassure you that despite my departure, you will be in good hands with the rest of the CALES CAS team, as well as with Daniel Jimenez Flores, who is the current advisor for Sustainable Plant Systems and Applied Biotechnology and will be taking over as the Plant Sciences advisor. I am working hard with everyone here to make sure that you will all have as smooth a transition as possible and will feel supported and heard. My goals currently are to make sure you all have a degree plan that you can follow through the remainder of your degree to graduation, to make sure that the curriculum is well known by multiple people, and to make sure that you have the necessary tools to advocate for yourselves and your education.

I know that many of you have had to go through your college experience with multiple advisors, and I cannot begin to express how sorry I am that there is another change in your support system. Similarly, I cannot begin to express how sad I am that I will not be able to work with you all, and if I had the chance to stay I would absolutely do so ( I'll admit that I'm a bit attached to you all, you're my students! c: ). My hope is that things will quickly stabilize with Daniel, who is a kind and very capable support system, and that you all feel just as supported and heard as you did with me. I hope that this will be one of the last changes for a long while in terms of advisors, and I hope that the current issues at UA will stabilize quickly.

Additionally, I want to say thank you all, so very, very much. You are all some of the most wonderful, talented, and determined people I have ever met, and I am so lucky to have been able to be your advisor. I started my undergraduate program in 2016 here at UA, and ever since that semester a long 8 years ago, I've known that I've wanted to be an Academic Advisor, and work with students to support them the way that someone else did for me. Despite what my sister tells me, I've always worried that I'm not a good advisor, but I hope that I've been able to have a positive impact on you all like you have had on me. I've learned so much from you all, been able to grow myself, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of students to start with. It's been an honor to work with you all; to get to know you personally, to watch you grow, learn, and become the wonderful people you are. Every single one of you is capable of great things, even if you don't believe it right now. Every single one of you is capable of getting what you want and what you need to do the best for yourself. And I am so incredibly proud of each of you, and I cannot wait to see what you'll do and where you will go. c:

A few last things that I want to impart upon you all, and hope that you remember:

1) Advocate for yourself and your needs. Advisors are here to help you and we all very much want to do everything we can to help support you - but you have to let us know when you're struggling. If you're struggling - tell us! We want to know so that we can help you.

2) Advocate for your education and your rights. I mean this with grades, teachers, and any accommodations you need. Push back, get what you need to be successful.

3) Give yourself a break! c: I know that it's hard when you get a score on an exam or a grade in a class that wasn't what you hoped for, and it's okay to be sad, disappointed, or upset. It's okay to be stressed about it. But don't beat yourself up about it. Take it as a learning opportunity, take a deep breath, and get back on the horse. Make the changes you need to be successful and give yourself the room to breathe.

4) Please, go to sleep. College has this weird culture where we all kind of tend to compete to see how much we can do while taking care of ourselves as little as possible. Take care of your body, you need your meat suit for a long time after now. Be safe and encourage those around you to take care of themselves too.

5) You are going to be okay. Even if you don't believe it right now, and even if it doesn't feel like it's true, it is.

That's pretty much all I have for you, at least for now. I'll be around until June 28th, so please feel free to reach out if you have any questions, worries, concerns, or if you just want to talk. I'm hoping to find another advising position here on campus, so hopefully I'll still be around too. I hope you all have a nice weekend, and an even better summer. c:

Best,
Finn

[The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.]
Finn Galpin, M.A.

They/Them/Theirs Pronouns
Academic Advisor I
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Forbes 319
(520) 626-3095
amgalpin at arizona.edu<mailto:amgalpin at arizona.edu>

Make an Appointment with me Here!<https://ua-trellis.my.site.com/uastudent/s/catcloud/services/calendar?NetId=amgalpin>

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