July 7, 2023

Summary

Let’s start with the obligatory comment about the weather. It’s hot. It’s humid. It’s summer. I hope you all are both enjoying it and getting lots done – in the lab, in the field, in your office, on your computer. And I hope there’s also time for relaxation. I leave this afternoon for Europe to visit family, so you won’t be tortured by a Friday message in two weeks. You’ll have to wait an extra week.

Full Description

Dear all,

I hope you all saw the statement put out by the President on the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action.

I also hope you all saw the message from the Provost regarding the report of the Steering Committee on the Computing, Data and Applied Sciences Initiative. You can find the report and a form to provide feedback by July 25th on the CDSAS website. Please share your thoughts. We are eager to gather responses. They will be shared with the Provost at the end of July, and she will visit the Faculty of Arts & Sciences meeting on September 5th to have a conversation about the different options. She will work on the initiative with Faculty Assembly throughout the fall semester.

Search authorizations will go out to Chairs and Directors in the next week or two. Please note the timeline. We want to get started on the searches in a timely fashion this year. I have just signed a LOI for a TTE hire – the latest ever. Thanks to you all so much for the excellent work to recruit such a wonderful group of new faculty.

There is an inexplicable delay on getting the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy for the new Music Building. We are looking into it, and hope to see movement on that very soon. I know everyone is eager to get into the new structure.

And that’s it for this week and for another three weeks.

Hope your summers are going well,

Suzanne

Suzanne Raitt

Dean of Faculty for Arts & Sciences

Chancellor Professor of English

Pronouns: she/her/hers