Dear Editor:

UC Davis has had a tradition of leadership in both the environmental sciences broadly viewed and in interdisciplinary research. We view the recent initiative process, which included the Global Change Initiative, among others, as a dramatic step forward for the campus. This initiative, and others supported in the same manner, has great potential to help us maintain and enhance the leadership position of UC Davis in interdisciplinary research.

The Environmental Science departments in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are particularly excited to see the Global Change Initiative supported because it allows us to develop interdisciplinary research, teaching and engagement in ways that bridge departments.

The initiative emerged from discussion and consultation involving faculty from multiple departments, and its implementation (the search plans, position descriptions and search committees for this year's positions) has also involved multidepartment participation.

Unfortunately, we hear that implementation of the Global Change Initiative is being slowed by a few who are apparently unhappy with the process. As a result, the hiring plan that will bring in high quality, new faculty, and campus and world leaders is not moving forward smoothly.

Our departments are very much in favor of the initiative process in general as a way to allocate faculty positions, and in particular strongly support the Global Change Initiative. We strongly urge you to move the campus forward with the actual faculty hiring in this area with all due speed. Thank you for your attention.

Andrew Sih,

professor of environmental science and policy

Jan Hopmans

professor in land, air and water resources

Louise Jackson

professor in soils and biogeochem- istry

Terry Nathan

professor in land, air and water resources

Jim Richards

professor in soils and biogeochem- istry

and six other professors

Dear Editor:

Please accept the enclosed letter as a measure of support for interdisciplinary, non-department-based hiring as specified under the Global Environmental Change Initiative. I have been disturbed by what appears to be a hold up of the process by a few unhappy faculty. I put out a call for support of this letter on March 6, stating that I would be sending this letter to Provost Hinshaw on Wednesday. I had 27 supportive responses by that evening.

This letter now represents over 40 voices in support of moving forward with the Global Environmental Change Initiative process as described by the dean's office of CA&ES. This process is what the committee that wrote this initiative requested. We remain committed to this process as the right way to achieve these goals.

Among the 40 signatures you will find representatives of nine departments in three colleges and the law school; you will find three department chairs (Stanton, Sih, Van Kessel), and two members of the CA&ES executive committee (Conklin, Schwartz). You will find the chair of the Center for Population Biology (Shaffer), and the chair of the Graduate Group in Ecology (Schwartz). I believe that this truly represents the will of the community.

Mark Schwartz

associate professor of environmental science and policy

Dear Editor:

The recent initiative process started by Provost Hinshaw included several initiatives that should be viewed as a dramatic step forward for the campus. UC Davis has had a tradition of leadership in interdisciplinary research. The chance to hire new faculty not tied to specific disciplinary departments has the potential for great support for graduate education.

The former chairs of Graduate Council listed below were excited to see these initiatives spanning disciplines supported because they allow the campus to support areas of research and education in a way that we simply can't within departments.

We are saddened to hear that implementation of this process is being slowed by a few who appear unhappy with the process. Unfortunately, it appears that this innovative process is not moving forward smoothly and leading to the hiring of high quality new faculty and campus and world leaders that should be the result.

We are all former chairs of the Graduate Council who are very much in favor of the initiative process in general as a way to allocate some faculty positions, and in particular strongly support a variety of ways to hire faculty, including both assignment to departments and also under the direction of faculty committees that span departments and disciplines. We strongly urge you to have the campus move forward with the actual faculty hiring in these areas with all due speed.

Chris Calvert

professor of animal science

David Gilchrist

professor of plant pathology

Alan Hastings

professor of environmental science

Jerry Hedrick

research professor of biochemistry

John Labavitch

professor of plant sciences

Dear Editor:

Chancellor Vanderhoef calls himself a CEO who manages a $2.5 billion operation, the largest in the region, after government. This is one of the main problems with our "executives" who have lost touch with the true mission of a university and with the faculty.

References to "UC senior executives" and "CEOs" are of recent vintage and betray the mentality of our leaders who use corporate language to puff up their role as "executives" in order to justify compensation levels that are scandalous in a public institution.

Vanderhoef is the longest tenured chancellor in the UC system and belongs to the Council of Chancellors, the closest circle around the UC president. In 1997 he was the chair of the Management Compensation Advisory Group (the Vanderhoef Committee), which reported to the Senior Management Advisory Committee.

Hence, when it comes to senior management compensation for UC executives, Chancellor Vanderhoef has had substantial input during the past decade and should not be excused by making President Dynes the only person responsible for the squandering of public money.

If we combine the Celeste Rose fiasco with the viral mismanagement of the University of California and UC Davis, there are plenty of reasons why this CEO ought to step down. A real CEO would not have survived with his track record longer than a week. We need educators, not CEOs.

Quirino Paris

professor of agricultural and resource economics