Richard Ferguson's declaration of intent

I have been a member of the Faculty Board since 2019, and have found the task to be engaging. I feel that I have made and can continue to make a contribution to the Board with my perspective as a social scientist and my knowledge of business administration – in particular organization theory, management and accounting, and entrepreneurship.

I value collaboration across groups, multiple perspectives, and quality in work; and will continue to pursue these if again selected to serve on the Board. I also have a strong interest in other people and like to discuss different views and needs with an open mind, which I believe contribute to a well-functioning organization.

The board for Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences has the important task of leading a broad range of academics so that individual faculty members, groups, departments and centers can make the best possible contribution to society. I perceive this leadership task to include linking our faculty with the collective goals set by SLU’s general board, formulating and communicating a shared strategy for the development of our faculty, seeing that the faculty’s resources are allocated equitably and productively, and providing a stable and transparent context for the development efforts of groups within the faculty.

There are three areas in particular within this faculty leadership task that I would like to contribute to:

• Supporting efforts for multidisciplinary collaboration, and in particular those associated with the two SLU multidisciplinary subject areas, sustainable development and agricultural science.
• Strategic planning and allocation of the Faculty’s resources to support the development of strong research groups that have capacity to carry out SLU’s teaching obligations with high quality, while at the same time building their research excellence. This will include the need to develop our resources to meet an increasing number of students with continued teaching quality without sacrificing our ability to fulfill our research and assessment duties.
• Working with our Faculty’s need for continued development in adapting to changing demands from our stakeholders, while at the same time providing our members and students with the stability and continuity they need to be able to perform and thrive. This is a well-recognized organizational paradox – the dual need for change and stability – but I believe it can be managed with awareness, planning and communication to the benefit of both the organization and individuals.