[PCA] Changes at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden - action needed

[Andrea Kramer]

Recent layoffs at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden have led to a significant loss in botanical capacity - see forwarded message below for more information about what these layoffs mean and to learn how you can help.  You can also visit http://www.bgci.org/usa/PCA/ to see the information packet and template letter referenced in the original message below.



Andrea



Andrea T. Kramer, Ph.D.
Executive Director, U.S. Office
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
at Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022     USA

Tel: 1-847-835-6971
Fax: 1-847-835-5484
E-mail: andrea.kramer at bgci.org
Internet: www.bgci.org/usa<http://www.bgci.org/usa>


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From: Daisie Huang [mailto:daisieh at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 4:43 PM
Subject: Changes at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

I'm a current doctoral student at RSA, working with Dr. Elizabeth Friar. I don't know if you've heard about the recent budget-related layoffs at Rancho, but recently, with little to no warning, the administration laid off seven people and are eliminating an additional two positions that are currently vacant. Those people included Dr. Friar (since there is no tenure here, her immediate termination also ends her CGU faculty position), our librarian, all but one of the skilled propagators in the horticulture department, and the head of the Education department. Since the position of curator and managing curator of the herbarium are both being vacated or have been vacated, those positions (referenced in the press release as "nonessential staff positions") are not being restaffed. Dr. Friar's position was terminated without consultation of any of the faculty. Since she taught half of the core curriculum, the remaining faculty will have to scramble to make sure that the educations of the current students won't be compromised. Dr. Lucinda McDade, our Director of Research, is obviously outraged about these changes and is going to work hard to make sure that there are written stipulations that this won't happen to any other faculty, either now or in the future, but it will be an uphill battle.

Clearly, these changes will have huge ramifications for the graduate program at RSA, as well as the ability of RSA to continue its core research mission. I'm trying to start a letter-writing campaign to tell the Director and Board of Trustees that we're horrified by the situation, that we feel changes need to be made to prevent this from happening again, and that we're in full support of Dr. McDade's efforts to institute these changes.

If you're interested in sending letters to the Board of Trustees and the Executive Director, I've created a packet that contains a template letter and a list of addresses (see http://www.bgci.org/usa/PCA/). Please feel free to use the template or to write your own letters, but please also forward this information to anyone else you know who might be interested in helping us. There's a cover letter explaining the situation in the packet as well.

If you're in a leadership position at an organization that might be interested in taking a public stand on these issues, please contact me personally as well.

Thanks for your time,

Daisie Huang

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