[Corebotanyfaculty] A few updates and one vote needed

[Bpschair]

Dear Colleagues,

Although there a few things have come up, I don’t think we need to have a faculty meeting on Monday.  I’m sure many of us are scrambling to get ready to return to in-person instruction.

I want to make you aware of a few things and have one action item for you.

1. Dean Uhrich will come to a faculty meeting on Monday Feb 14.  She is visiting all departments again this year.  If there are specific items you would like to discuss with her, or ask her to respond to, please let me know.

2.  I got notice earlier this week that the Plant Biology Graduate Program will  undergo an external review in the 22-23 Academic year. The review is planned to take place over zoom and is tentatively scheduled for Winter 23.
We need to begin to develop a list of potential external reviewers.  The excerpted the text below provides instructions that we submit at least 15 names, some from UC, covering 3 broad areas.  These should probably be Genetics/Breeding; Ecology/Evolution; Cell, Molecular, and Development.

Please start to think about possible names.  Note that we must assure no conflicts of interest with anyone in the department.  Names aren’t due until May, so this is just to put it on your radar.  I will send out a link to a Google Doc where you can input names sometime later.

An extramural team will be used to assist in the review. Please provide Sarah Miller (sarah.miller at ucr.edu<mailto:sarah.miller at ucr.edu>) with a list of at least 15 names of distinguished potential extramural reviewers, some from other campuses of the UC and the rest from other places throughout the U.S. Because we will use a three-member review panel, please divide your list of names into three topical areas corresponding to the organization of your program. It is important to have one UC reviewer who can advise the others of what is possible within the UC and of how the University works. However, no topical area grouping should include more than three names of UC faculty. The names of potential reviewers should be solicited from your entire faculty, and the list should be approved by the faculty, in part to assure that there are no conflicts of interest.

The Graduate Council would also like to ask that your program rank the list of reviewers based on the selection criteria of their academic, teaching, advising and administrative experience for graduate programs and any other additional information the program may have on the potential reviewers’ qualifications and the likelihood that they will be a productive member of the review team. Experience with running or advising similar graduate programs, the reviewer’s stature as a researcher in the field, and their ability to provide objective and critical reviews of programs should also be taken into consideration. Each of the three areas of your list should be ranked so that three highly ranked reviewers can be selected to review your program. Your rankings will assist the Graduate Council in selecting members for your review team.

The Graduate Council asks to be assured in writing that the proposed extramural reviewers can carry out a neutral review. The Council is specifically concerned with the following relationships with members of your faculty and potential reviewers: (1) personal friendships; (2) reviewer and UCR faculty member have been in the same graduate or postdoctoral program at the same time; (3) graduate research advisors or post-doctoral mentors; and (4) cooperative research efforts or joint textbook writing. If any of these relationships applies to a potential reviewer, the individual should be eliminated, or the Graduate Council should be informed of the facts of the relationship.

3.  At our faculty meeting on Jan 3, we discussed the CNAS faculty hiring plan for this year.  Recall that CNAS is planning to honor a commitment to Katie Dehesh/IIGB with one search in Metabolomics or Synthetic Biology, planning that it would reside in BPSC.  Although this position is not the highest priority in our academic plan, there was considerable sentiment that we should not turn down a position, if it was the only option for a search this year.  I now have confirmation that CNAS will honor the hiring promise to Katie/Metabolomics only if the position comes to BPSC. If we say no, we won’t get another position. I would like to get the ball rolling on this search, but first want to take a vote to proceed with the search.

Please vote here:  https://forms.gle/1jk5i7gpr2Ty6B5G9
This just asks you to vote to proceed with a Metabolomics search.  The next steps will be to establish a search committee and write a position description, which we will also need to vote on.
Please cast your vote by 5 pm on Monday, Jan 31.

Have a good weekend.  Patty

Patricia Springer
Professor and Chair, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
University of California
Riverside, CA  92521

pspringer at ucr.edu<mailto:pspringer at ucr.edu>
bpschair at ucr.edu
951-827-4413 (Chair's office)
951-827-5785 (Faculty office)
http://plantbiology.ucr.edu

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