Dean's Letter

This letter purporting to be from the deans was found taped to railing on the FAC/FAB bridge; The letter lacks date and signatures.  See below for a scan and transcript.

According to this letter:

• The College of Fine Arts, Design Construction and Planning and University Libraries have "received an invitation to consider a new opportunity for space planning", which we may assume means the proposal to close the Music and AFA libraries.
• CFA, DCP, and Library faculty "will receive more information... from their directors and deans when school begins", but there is no exact date given.
• Neither the Provost, nor the Colleges, nor the Libraries have made a decision to move the AFA or Music libraries as of the date of the writing of this letter.
• An unspecified number of unnamed faculty from the Colleges and Libraries as well as "selected students" will review this "opportunity" and "develop ideas", but there is no indication about how and when this group of reviewers will be formed.
• The directors and deans will review the ideas generated by the faculty, and then forward them to the Provost for approval. The letter does not indicate the extent to which directors and deans may censor the faculty-generated ideas; final approval apparently rests with the Provost rather than faculty.

Here is a transcript of the letter:

Dear Faculty and Staff,

The College of Fine Arts and the College of Design, Construction, and Planning and the Universities [sic] Libraries received an invitation to consider a new opportunity for space planning this week. Faculty in both colleges and libraries will receive more information about this opportunity from their directors and deans when school begins. At this point in time, no decision has been made by the Provost or the Colleges or Libraries to move the CFA/DCP or Music Libraries. Faculty under the direction of their directors will be asked to analyze ideas and form recommendations during this year.

Discussion and planning are hallmarks of our CFA and DCP and the Provost has provided those colleges an opportunity to be considered for the scant UF resource of space among all the competing UF needs. This opportunity will be reviewed by faculty members in the colleges and libraries and selected students with the goal of developing ideas that will afford students a superior learning environment. These faculty generated ideas will be reviewed by the directors and deans to forward to the Provost for approval. We all appreciate the value expressed for the libraries and the ideas that have already been generated. An additional benefit of this opportunity to discuss space utilization will be the dialogue from working together that will strengthen relationships and communication within the schools and across the colleges and library.

Best regards,

Lucinda Lavelli
Dean, CFA
llavelli@arts.ufl.edu

Chris Silver
Dean, DCP
silver2@ufl.edu

Judy Russell
Dean, University Libraries
jcrussell@ufl.edu

Richard Heipp
Acting Director, SAAH
heipp@ufl.edu

John Duff
Director, SOM
jduff@arts.ufl.edu