I think short weeks just means the same cumulative effort put into full weeks gets crammed into fewer days. I know many are putting the finishing touches on their merit and promotion packages or their annual reviews. I suspect this took a chunk out of the weekend for some. I used a portion of the weekend to visit Big Tree State Park in Calaveras County. The visitor center ran a video about different activities and attributes at the park including some that resembled Cal Naturalist activities. Sure enough, Sabrina confirmed earlier today that the program works with this particular state park. What a coincidence! And I'm pleased I could recognize the program in action.
Today was the first of 4 interviews of candidates for the Vice Provost – Research and Extension position. Attendance was a bit light this first day back after a long weekend but, hopefully, when the seminar links are released, many will have time to review.
Later this week the group that developed the plan plus those that started the implementation of the plan will be meeting for our annual check in. A primary goal of this meeting is to develop plans to better engage all of UC ANR in the plan, as it is a collective effort for success, and to review and improve metrics used to measure success of the plan as we progress through the plan timeline.
In between I need to finish reading a dissertation in preparation for a defense exam next week. This is my last graduate student from MSU. A bit sad to be thinking about wrapping up my academic career but at least it's ending on a high note. The dissertation is in good shape with 1 manuscript in press, 1 submitted and a third ready to submit. The fourth and final paper is not included in the dissertation but will likely be ready to submit by March.
No time to dwell on that as there are many other things to pursue like working through agreements for new partnerships, moving forward to secure fiscal sustainability for important resources at UC ANR, preparing to identify priority positions, and working to position new academics for success. The Vice Provost positions are only a small fraction of those under current recruitment. It appears that several of those open have strong applicant pools. This certainly makes the change from being an academic to overseeing an academic unit both exciting and rewarding.