[Corebotanyfaculty] Fwd: Fruits for thoughts response

[Bpschair]

Hi everyone,  I am forwarding this response from Sue.

Patty

From: Susan Wessler <susan.wessler at ucr.edu<mailto:susan.wessler at ucr.edu>>
Subject: Fruits for thoughts response
Date: March 11, 2023 at 8:52:42 AM PST
To: Katayoon Dehesh <katayoon.dehesh at ucr.edu<mailto:katayoon.dehesh at ucr.edu>>
Cc: "bpsfaculty at lists.ucr.edu<mailto:bpsfaculty at lists.ucr.edu>" <bpsfaculty at lists.ucr.edu<mailto:bpsfaculty at lists.ucr.edu>>

Dear Katie,

Your email seems to lay the blame for the loss of Xuemei on us, the faculty, for not innovating in the ways you describe. I could not disagree more. Perhaps you are unaware but many of us have written several joint, training, and visionary program proposals and have or are leading the successful ones.  A number are in the area you describe and led by younger faculty.

Most of us have found that what is required for initiatives to be truly successful is buy in from the leadership of UCR and CNAS.  This can take many forms including support for the PI organizing and writing the proposal (e.g. teaching relief, grant writers), matching funds, and eventually, institutionalization.  Because this has not been forthcoming in the past 6-7 years (even worse, several promises made were not kept) many of us have simply given up and focused on our own programs.

With regard to the loss of Xuemei (and Janet Franklin), and, to be honest my decision to retire earlier than I had hoped, and the potential loss of other distinguished faculty, that also is largely due to inaction on the part of campus leadership. In all cases we have been ignored - especially women and people of color. This is a classic example of why it takes decades to build strength at a university and only a few years to lose it. Your best faculty will always have lots of opportunities. It the job of leadership to prevent that from happening.

Sue

Sue Wessler
Neil and Rochelle Campbell Presidential Chair for Innovation in Science Education
Distinguished Professor of Genetics
UC Riverside
Home Secretary, US National Academy of Sciences


On Mar 10, 2023, at 8:57 AM, Katayoon Dehesh <katayoon.dehesh at ucr.edu<mailto:katayoon.dehesh at ucr.edu>> wrote:

Greetings all
Dear colleagues,

The recent departures of our colleagues from UCR, especially that of Xuemei’ s has caused me much anxiety and concerns about our plant biology program.  Thus, I am writing to ask you to explore options as how to reinforce our powerful platform better aligned with todays’ scientific and social needs. Patty has sent us emails in this regard and offered plans to discuss various options in the upcoming faculty meeting. However, I have taken the liberty of asking you to explore various options for discussion before the Monday meeting.

My personal thoughts are as follows:

1: It is perhaps prudent the change the name of the department from the current Botany Plant Sciences to just Plant Science department.
In addition, one could consider substituting CEPCEB with something like Plant Center as we no longer focus on cell biology nor do we house critical mass of cell biologists to justify the label.

2: Given the application of Crispr speeding up GMO acceptance, we could investigate rebuilding the transformation capabilities and follow up with a grant application to NSF to propose development of transformation technologies for a wide range of crops currently not amenable to transformation.

3- Brainstorming for development of collaborative projects deemed for DOE, NSF, ARPA …etc., focused on plants for sustainability, carbon capture, biofilters etc.  Given the much expertise and interested parties in translational science preparation of a successful grant is feasible.
I truly believe that the UCR houses the best plant scientists well positioned to address exciting science and solve some aspects of the global concerns.
Let us pool together and engage in a constructive discussion.

Be powerful.

Katie


Katayoon (Katie) Dehesh
Director, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, Distinguished Professor
Ernst and Helen Leibacher Endowed Chair in Botany and Plant Sciences
University of California, Riverside, CA 92521
Phone: (951) 827-6370;  Fax: (951) 827-5155


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