Dear Members of the Asian and Asian American Faculty and Staff Council:

Welcome back to the start of a new term! I am writing with important news about board leadership. As you all know, our chair, Theo Gonzalves left for a job at the Smithsonian about a year ago and our secretary, Susan Han has also left UMBC. We wish them the very best in their new endeavors and look forward to establishing new leadership for the council.

And so, I am writing with two very urgent requests:

First, please consider running for a board position. Are you interested in becoming the next chair or vice-chair for the board? Could you see yourself serving as secretary? I am happy to run as chair—but in that case we would need a vice-chair and secretary. The members at large for our group (Fan Yang, Amy Bhatt, and Shuyan Sun) are going to remain in their positions, so we will have their support through this transition. If you are interested but have any questions, please feel free to reach out!  We would LOVE to see the involvement on the board spread out through our colleges. It’s a great opportunity to think about how to recruit, retain, and promote Asian and Asian American faculty and staff on our campus as well as to think about programming for faculty, staff, and students.

Second, many departments are in the midst of hiring. We really need support from our members to meet with potential candidates. If you can help the board serve in this capacity please let me know (tbhalla@umbc.edu).  We already have requests that we can’t handle alone. It’s another great way to be involved and support AAAFSC even if you can’t serve on the board.

Many thanks for your attention to this email! Please feel free to nominate folks you think might be good for these positions as well!

Again, please feel free to reach out with any questions at tbhalla@umbc.edu.

My best wishes, for a great spring semester!

Tamara