UCI Leadership: Bring back John Salinas
Dear Lisa Florentes-Mullens,
After 16 years of loyal service to Social Ecology’s staff, faculty, and students, John Salinas was unceremoniously laid off on Wednesday, June 16th, for no other reason than a “reorganization” that has welded together the IT support for the School of Social Ecology and the School of Social Sciences.
John was not only a beloved member of the UCI academic community, he was the face of Social Ecology’s IT support for more than a decade, and he did easily over 50% of the tickets submitted. Every single member of the Social Ecology community was more than satisfied with his work; moreover, John became a critical piece of research and teaching duties.
We understand that Social Ecology has a structural deficit and is under pressure from campus to do its part to correct a longstanding campuswide shortfall. However, cutting vital support staff—the school’s only helpdesk analyst and one of the most reliable client-facing IT support members we have across the entire campus—is the last way that deficit should be addressed.
We call on leadership to reverse John’s layoff, bring him back into our UCI community, and return sanity to the operation so that Social Ecology is not left wondering who, if anyone, will be there to support the school with its technical needs as they arise.