Letter of ?support?

[orange turtle]

I have been working for a few years with a faculty member who is retiring from his position as administrator and returning to his regular research position and I wanted to convey my gratitude to him for his mentorship, leadership, and the change I felt he put in place during his tenure as administrator. I was a university worker when I met him and am now a graduate student in the department he administrates. (the university rotates administrators by cycles--the guy wasn't "let go" or anything)

I wondered if it would be appropriate, after he steps down, to send an unsolicited letter of support to his boss saying exactly that? Don't faculty get reviewed for pay raises and stuff?

Once he is no longer administrator, we will not be in the same department, he has zero power over me, and we will essentially never meet except for random coincidences because our university is huge.

So my writing the letter won't get me any favours or unfair advantage. My writing the letter will also not get me any LOR from him because he has never overseen my research and we are in very different fields.

I just wanted to express my gratitude that would let someone else know what a good job he had done that was more than just my writing a card that is only read by him, and I didn't think buying a huge gift was appropriate. Also, I'm now a grad student and quite broke.

 

 

[fuzzylogician]

That sounds like a lovely gesture. 

[TakeruK]

I think writing a letter to someone's boss to commend them for their work/service is generally a good idea. 

[orange turtle]

Sounds good, @fuzzylogician and @TakeruK. I wanted to check it sounded to others the way I intended it to (respect for the administrator) and not as bad judgment from a student unsure of the "correct" way to do things in academia.

Edited May 10, 2017 by orange turtle

[hyperjulie]

That does sound like a really nice gesture. It might also be worthwhile to check if your university has any excellence awards for which this person could plausibly be nominated with respect to your interactions. The university I am currently at has awards for excellence in service, for example, and they solicit nominations each year.