With commencement still over a week away I am surprised to see students already moving out of their dorms and apartments. Perhaps they have only projects to turn in and those can be delivered to an electronic file folder. Fortunately, Canvas is operational again. I am a bit surprised as well to see that trash bags are a popular way of transporting goods. It happened to be my choice for ‘luggage’ too when I carpooled or bussed from Ithaca back to Troy or even to Florida for one summer.
The Deans spent a fair bit of time together last week. I am not the only one thinking that if I can get to May 22, there’s a reprieve in the pace of activities. The next two weeks are busy to say the least but also a good time to connect with people across the college and to celebrate our students and our successes. I spend Tuesday with Extension for their ‘all hands’ meeting. They don’t all get together in person very often, so it is a treat to have everyone in College Park. Wednesday is my first State of the College and Awards Ceremony. While we have challenges, they are outweighed by things to celebrate. On Friday, Xiaoping Zhu and I will head to Blacksburg, VA for the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine commencement that evening. It will be my first commencement while in this role and serve as a good opportunity to connect with a few of our AGNR alumni and members of the Maryland Veterinary Medical Association before returning on Saturday.
In between events there are plenty of planning meetings around budgets and priorities including student success and facilities. I have a chance to meet with the Department of Nutrition and Food Science team to debrief following the department chair interviews. I am still learning the processes for hiring as this is my first chair hire at UMD. On Thursday, a group of us will visit the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD. We have several collaborations with the Center and want to explore how we might partner more.
I have plenty of things on my to-do list that require attention. I remain optimistic about checking them off over the summer. Items include developing a strategy to advance our vision around an Institute by following up with groups of partners for conversations, implementing periodic check-ins with a team of leaders across our ag organizations and state agency partners, planning delegation tours and visits in partnership with our CARETs, and the start of building a board of visitors for AGNR. These things can happen while also attending a few field days and county fairs across the state. I am fortunate that the summer slowdown won’t be too slow for my liking.