Dear College Faculty and Staff,

I write to you today in my first installment of Notes from the Dean - a tradition which my predecessor Debbie Tahmassebi started, and which I have decided to continue. In addition to this once per month note, you will also start seeing College Notes in your inbox every Friday.

Much has gone on this month, in the world and in the country, of course. On my end, I completed my first six months as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, went through my first round of writing letters for tenure and promotion cases and have been very involved in the interviews for new tenure-track faculty in the College. On that last point, it’s exciting to see who is in the candidate pools for new faculty positions. Many departments have taken the diversity mandate very seriously and have made successful efforts to attract very diverse candidate pools. I hope that means we will hire a number of great faculty of color this year.

Thinking about the moment we are in, I want to draw attention to how CAS faculty have been helping the campus cope with COVID-19. Three of our faculty, Professors Kat Saxton, David Hess, and Craig Stephens (Public Health and Biology), serve the campus with their expertise and dedication. Professor Saxton answers COVID-19 FAQs every Friday, as the COVID-19 Health Ambassador. Professors Hess and Stephens join Professor Saxton on our COVID testing, tracing and operations teams. I’m proud to see our faculty contributing their expertise to help the University through this difficult time.

Looking ahead, I am excited that REAL program applications are now open for summer 2021 placements. Despite the pandemic, students had some great experiences last summer, and we already have many promising applicants for this year. As experiential learning opportunities for our students is one of my priorities for the College, I am meeting with Development next month to ensure their fundraisers have all the information they need to get the REAL program in front of donors. My ultimate goal is to raise our current use gifts each year and eventually endow the program.

I know that it's been almost a year since lockdown and shelter-in-place, plus way too much screen time, but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Do look after yourselves; maybe I’ll see many of you on campus in spring and summer.

Sincerely,

Daniel

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