From Aron’s Desk

Friends, 

This week a pair of historians of science published a remarkable article about Dr. Rosalind Franklin and her work on DNA. Most of us have focused on the x-ray image she and her student Raymond Gosling took of the B form of DNA, the famous Photo 51, which is the basis of our university seal. 

It had been a persistent mystery as to why Dr. Franklin had not written more about the Photo 51 image in her laboratory notebook - there is practically no analysis of the image in her notes. This was particularly an issue because of James Watson’s false narrative that Dr. Franklin did not understand the importance of the image or what the photo demonstrated about the structure of DNA. 

Well, fellow students of history, thanks to the work of Alistair Sponsel and Brian Sutton, now we know what happened. Sponsel and Sutton looked back at more of Dr. Franklin’s notebooks and found that she had done all of the analysis on a previous image of the sample, Photo 49. The film slipped in its holder during the creation of Photo 49, so it was not as tidy and ready for publication as Franklin wanted it to be, but she was able to sort out key information about the helical structure of DNA from the image. Then, she and Gosling took another picture of the same sample, and that image is the much more photogenic Photo 51.

Crick and Watson did solve important issues of DNA’s structure beyond what Photo 51 could demonstrate, so this work does not take away that accomplishment, but Watson did not understand Photo 51 better or sooner than Franklin, because she had worked out the science in Photo 49. Photo 51 was a do-over for publication. 

Alistair Sponsel is a curator at the Science History Institute, which is home to Photo 51 and a large collection of molecular biology images and artifacts, including key images made by Rosalind Franklin. The institute has a fascinating magazine, museum, and online set of collections that are hard to escape once your curiosity is set free.

Back here at RFU, we have been ramping up the search for the vice president of institutional advancement. You all probably know that raising money in support of our people is a large part of my work, and I will continue to increase my energy in this part of my job. We have an endowment that is well managed and doing well in the market, but it is about half the size it should be. 

Our people in Institutional Advancement are dedicated and working hard. They are a small but mighty team at a university that has not focused much on fundraising. Other institutions our size yield about 12% of their operational revenue from their endowment, and we bring in about 5% of our operational revenue from our endowment. We should have more scholarships for students, some endowed faculty positions, and more funds for the programs we do. You can help us with this search by completing this survey to tell us what you think is important in our next vice president for institutional advancement.

As part of the search for and hiring of our vice president, I will organize institutional advancement and the vice president of institutional advancement to report directly to me. It is common at universities for this vice president to report to the president and reflects the amount of time and effort presidents put into fundraising. Frankly, the applicants will expect this organizational structure. I want to thank Lee Concha, MA, our executive vice president for university strategies and George Rattin, our current committed and hard-working interim vice president, for doing a great job helping our team grow and develop. I have a deep appreciation for Lee’s work and partnership as she manages the search process for me. I also want to thank Deans Chatterjee and Wiisanen for co-chairing the search committee, and I appreciate everyone’s hard work and dedication to RFUMS as we move into the search. 

The world of universities has been a pretty complex place in the last couple of years. See also: changes in nomenclature and structure across the land. We all know these changes impact most of our roles but more generally relate to student life, community engagement, faculty life, and to compliance and legal issues. We continue to adjust. With that in mind, I want to mention some changes in the Division of Community and Campus Outreach (DCCO). Over the last year the Division has worked extensively with academic, research, and administrative leaders to identify the best ways to advance RFU’s community-facing work. Through that process, Vice President Community and Campus Outreach Dr. Eric Williams, has worked with the DCCO team and others to improve coordination of our many initiatives and create a stronger connection between our institutional priorities and our community-facing work. The DCCO will be focused on community outreach, community relations, and pathway/pipeline programs. 

A number of the services and programming in the DCCO focus on student life and are moving to be with similar programming in Student Success and Wellness including student organization support, international student support, and related activities, which all remain essential to fostering a welcoming, supportive, and engaging student experience. 

Title IX compliance and programming will continue to be managed through the university’s existing Title IX process and team, with oversight now provided in the president’s office through the Office of University Strategies. In my previous life, I managed a lot of Title IX work, and I am convinced that Title IX should be in the president’s office without overlapping other student, faculty, or legal programs and services. DCCO remains an important part of RFU’s work and will focus on strengthening community relationships, supporting academic enrichment opportunities and pathways into the health professions for area high school students, and helping connect our mission to the communities we serve.  

Earlier in the week, I had the great pleasure to appoint James Carlson, PhD ‘12, PA-C ‘01, CHSE-A, as our new provost. The provost is in charge of the academic life, the lifeblood, of the university - the most important decision I make is who will be our provost. In the short time since we announced Dr. Carlson’s appointment, the feedback has been excited and happy. Certainly, I am delighted to have Jim in this role. Presidents do good work, but I think the provost has the most important role at a university like ours. Thank you, Jim, for continuing to do this work with us. It is nice to close an update with news this good.

Improving the wellness of all people with you, 

Aron