Colleagues

As you know, we have the rare opportunity to hire four new junior faculty members into tenure track positions in our College. These bridge positions were granted by the Provost with the understanding that the faculty lines associated with the next four CFR faculty retirements will be returned to the Provost.

The attached document provides a brief description of the four bridge faculty positions we intend to fill. These brief descriptions need to be expanded for purposes of advertisement. In doing so, the faculty search committees need to adhere to the committments described in my letter to the Provost's Office as regards to Urban Ecology's grant proposal. Please note that committees may suggest editorial changes so long as the general intent of the positions as defined is preserved.

You will note that the introductory paragraph describes the environment within which the four positions are to be viewed. To help ensure that all positions make significant contributions towards the achievement of the College's vision, the Chairs of the four faculty search committees will form an informal advisory group which will coordinate the entire hiring process. The primary functions of the advisory group are: 1) to ensure that the issues identified in the preamble to the ad, which precedes the definition of each faculty position, are adequately addressed, and 2) to coordinate the administrative tasks for the committees with Ms Janet Wilt and Ms Sally Morgan who will provide administrative support for the searches.

I fully understand that this is a new faculty hiring process for us and will require additional work on the part of the committee chairs. To help reduce their work load and to broaden the disciplinary expertise of the group, I wish to appoint three additional faculty to the advisory group: Professors Marzluff, Ryan and Agee. These additional faculty will help ensure that the primary functions of the advisory group are achieved.

The four faculty search committees that I wish to appoint are:

1) Environmental/Natural Resource Economics: Eastin (Chair), Paun, Perez-Garcia, Lippke, Ryan, Bradley, Student (TBD)

2) Natural Resource Restoration and Management: Hinckley (Chair), Turnblom, Ewing, Agee, Brown, Student (TBD)

3) Quantitative Landscape Analysis: Ford (Chair), Marzluff, Fridley, K. Vogt, Student (TBD)

4) Bio-Resource Science: Brubaker (Chair), Strand, Hodgson, J. Johnson, Student (TBD)

A student member for each committee is highly advised. I ask that each search committee identify this person and let me know who it is. It is also desireable to locate an additional faculty member from outside the College. I also wish to know who this faculty member is. It is expected that the search committees will meet individually to make these decisions.

The first task of each committee is to draft a detailed position description that can placed in appropriate journal sources. I think it is appropriate that an ad similar to that shown in the attached Faculty Position Descriptions document be placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education with 'links' to the more detailed position descriptions. If committees wish to advertise a given position in a speciality journal, they are requested to provide a reference to the full suite of faculty positions we seek. Each advertisement should include the description shown in the opening paragraph of the attached document.

I am willing to meet with each respective search committee to respond to any issues and or concerns they may have. Additionally, I wish to meet with the informal advisory group periodically in order to keep current with the search process.

A listing of the four search committee members and the formal charge to the four search committees are available for review.

B. Bruce Bare, Dean