Organizational Review: Update

August 17, 2023

Dear Sea Aggie Family,

Thank you for the tremendous efforts you have been making in so many different areas to support the students arriving on our campus in just a few short weeks at the same time we have all been impacted by administrative changes and issues over the summer which have rocked our institution. We all have many questions and not enough answers. I hope you could watch Interim President Welsh’s forum on Tuesday which addressed several concerns we have all expressed. If not, the recording is available here. Since being appointed as interim president, he has continuously expressed support for the Galveston Campus in making decisions that best position the University to continue meeting our primary mission of education and discovery.

I greatly appreciate the hard work accomplished so far by Dr. Debbie Thomas and Rebecca Watts in leading the two task forces established last spring. Their efforts were only possible because of your support, and I specifically want to thank those who served on the Academic Programs Task Force and the Marketing & Communications Task Force, and those who took the time to provide them with valuable feedback.

In light of feedback from these teams that more time is needed to develop comprehensive recommendations and a timely evaluation of initiatives within the Path Forward announced Tuesday by President Welsh, I am pausing all efforts related to our organizational review, except one, while we await an analysis of the Path Forward and Galveston Organizational Review. At this time, I do not have information on when that analysis is expected to be completed and will share information as it becomes available.

However, the diversity of feedback during our organizational review clearly exposed the need to develop a team to address our campus culture. Grace Townsend with the Faculty Senate and Amanda Conley, incoming Staff Council President, have graciously agreed to co-chair the Campus Culture Task Force. They will be reaching out to establish membership and will be providing their recommendations to me by Nov. 1, 2023.

Thank you, in advance, for your willingness to work together to make our campus an excellent place to work, learn and prosper.

Thanks & Gig ‘em!
- Mike Fossum