Dear Faculty, Staff, and Friends of COAS,

This is the April 2020 COAS Dean’s Monthly Update.

March was a month like no other and April will be a month like no other. This is a time of great stress. Our work lives, our social lives, and our family lives were suddenly and profoundly changed. Uncertainty compounds this stress. No one can predict the course the coronavirus will take or its impact on us. We can say that we are fortunate to have our jobs, to be able to do our important work from a distance. I would like to send thoughts to those of you who have family members who have contracted the coronavirus, have their jobs, or whose jobs put them at risk. These are scary times for those who have the coronavirus, difficult times for those no longer able to work, and unnerving times for those, from doctors and nurses to grocery clerks and electricians, who expose themselves to the virus to help us all.

I am proud to be part of COAS and UNF. We are doing amazing things in trying times. Since we have converted to remote instruction, the COAS Dean’s Office has received one student complaint. Only one. That is an astounding testament to the great work that all of you, faculty and staff, have done in such a short time.

Next Wednesday, I will send another update. It will contain the usual incomplete list of the great things that are happening in COAS. For great things are happening in COAS. Today, however, I want to tell you something that happened to me last Sunday.

Last Sunday, I was feeling down. My younger son was having trouble doing his high school homework on our home computer. My older son, who is away at college, was texting me about troubles doing his senior thesis remotely. I felt like I was drowning in a sea of work. The whole family was squabbling with a bad case of cabin fever. Then Mark Ari, the Creative Writing Coordinator in the Department of English, sent me this:

The transition to all-distance learning may not be terribly easy, but it’s not awful. We’re saving lives. Who wouldn’t put up with this and a lot more to do that? While the first week felt petty clumsy, the students were terrific. We came through all right.

I stared at the phrase “We’re saving lives.” We are doing that. We are providing an education to our students and we are saving lives. The students are terrific. You are as well. I would like to thank Ari for wisdom that lifted me up. I would like to thank all of you for the incredible work that you are doing.

I am holding you and your families in the light.

Yours in peace, George Rainbolt

George W. Rainbolt, Dean College of Arts and Sciences University of North Florida Social Sciences Bldg, Room 3301 1 UNF Drive Jacksonville, FL 32224 (904) 620-2560 [email protected]