April 25, 2022

As we enter the last couple weeks of the semester, there remains a lot left for us to accomplish.  Of greatest significance are the series of campus visits by four candidates we will be hosting for interviews for the SENR Director role.  Please be attentive to the opportunities that exist for faculty, staff and students to meet with the candidates, including the vision seminars that each will be offering.  There will be opportunities for everyone to provide input and I am confident that through a triangulation of all our interactions and impressions, the search committee and ultimately the Dean will be able to make the best decision on behalf of the School.  Despite the busyness of the next couple weeks, please make time to participate as you can.  Information about the opportunities will be regularly circulated.

We also will have the return of an exciting tradition on May 6, as we host a graduation celebration on the west Kottman patio between 4 and 6 p.m.  We will have over 170 undergraduate and graduate students receive diplomas on May 8, and it will be wonderful to engage with many of these students on the 6th face to face.  Please stop by on the 6th to see our students off.

Finally, I want to share with the community that I am placing on the agenda for the School’s end of year faculty retreat on May 11 the topic of the Marathon Petroleum funding that was received by several SENR investigators as well as funding for diversity and inclusion scholarships.  There are a lot of different views regarding this funding, and I have appreciated the thoughtful conversations and communications I have received on this matter, and I am aware that this topic has spawned interesting classroom and hallway conversations.  As an administrator, the “right” answer to reconciling all the many different points of view on this matter eludes me.  I’ve already signaled my more pragmatic and collaborative rationale for working with Marathon Petroleum as a School stakeholder, but I respect that there are others who don’t feel the same for good reason.  A petition circulated by some graduate students lays out some arguments in opposition to working with a company such as Marathon.  At this faculty meeting, I would like to solicit further thoughts from the faculty community, particularly thoughts about a process we might engage in to further dialogue and arrive at a broader consensus or enhanced understanding within our community regarding how to manage these sorts of relationships in the future.