Date: September 1, 2023
As a general rule, I resist using the Dean’s Commentary to focus too much on my work or my department. But today, I am allowing myself an exception to that general rule.
Back in 2018, the Board had passed a budget with three positions in the Dean’s Office – the Executive Assistant, the Administrative Coordinator, an Associate for Scheduling and Hospitality Operations, and in 2022 the the Board added a fourth position – the Associate Dean for Strategic Implementation and Priorities.
For a whole host of complicated reasons, this team of four is now just Ms. Taryn Habberley and part of Mr. Reginald Gravina. We are in a season when the budget is tight; and we cannot staff up like we use to. And as with any healthy system, the Dean’s Office needs to model living with less.
Taryn and I will aspire to provide a good service. But do please be gentle with us when our service is less than we would like. It is a small team. And I am deeply grateful to Taryn for everything that she is doing in the Dean’s Office.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary.