- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Dear Colleagues,
It is the end of another great year and I want to thank all of you for your hard work, inspiration, and commitment to the Division where we work, to the University of California to which we belong, and to the people of California whom we serve. It is because of your dedication and passion that ANR has tackled some tough issues this year.
Among these were issues like looking for solutions to nitrate pollution of groundwater through research, education and partnerships and utilizing 10-plus years of research and education on the ecology of the Asian citrus psyllid to respond to the huanglongbing bacteria when it finally invaded backyard citrus in Southern California. There are many, many more examples as our website highlights every day. Ninety million page views per year attests to the quality and reputation of the research and education materials provided by you, and maintained by some of the most skilled, innovative IT folks you'll find anywhere.
We started a new statewide program called IGIS (Informatics and Geographic Information Systems) to enable academics and the public greater access to long-term data collected on ANR’s research and extension centers. We also continued our focused competitive grants program providing nearly $5 million dollars to 16 targeted projects.
Researchers and program reps increased our reach in the Master Gardener program by training hundreds of volunteers to deliver science-based information to minimize pesticide and fertilizer use, use water more efficiently, and identify invasive and endemic pests. Youth participation increased in our 4-H program, and adult volunteers continued to provide incredible service. I’d like to thank all our volunteers who gave tens of thousands of hours to our programs and extended the science developed by the University of California to our neighbors and communities.
It was an unsettled year budget-wise, and this no doubt caused a lot of anxiety for many of us. With passage of Prop. 30, our budget is stable for now. Although base funding is stable, we still must seek new sources of revenue and new ways to continue to reduce costs as unfunded, mandated costs continue to rise. With leadership from Tu Tran, our new assistant vice president for Business Operations, I’m confident that we will be able to ensure the long-term financial viability of ANR.
I thank all the advisors, specialists, faculty, academic coordinators and leaders who retired this year. Your sustained commitment to Cooperative Extension and the Ag Experiment Station is the heart of our mission to serve the people of California through research and education programs. Your collective 400-plus years of experience is greatly missed, and hopefully some of you will continue to be available to mentor the 13 new academics who we hired in 2012.
Recognizing that world-class extension, research and education programs can't happen without exceptional staff, I would like to thank all of you for your continued, passionate support of the division's programs. Everyone is stretched very thin, often too thin, and yet somehow you ensure that salaries and bills get paid, supplies and travel claims are processed, state-of-our-knowledge websites, newsletters, research and education materials are produced and continually updated, and phones are picked up and questions answered in the most professional manner.
We are a strong and important arm of the University of California, entrusted with the mission and obligations of the land grant university as delegated 150 years ago by the Morrill Act. We include the Agricultural Experiment Station at Davis, Berkeley and Riverside as created by the Hatch Act of 1887 and further expanded by the McIntire-Stennis Act of 1962. And we have been entrusted with Cooperative Extension, the core of UC's community-based research and education programs, as created nearly a hundred years ago by the Smith-Lever Act. As a Division, we have enormous responsibilities and obligations given to us and I am very proud to be part of this great division and university.
I hope you all take some time to relax and enjoy the holidays with family and friends before returning refreshed and ready to take on new challenges. I look forward to seeing all of you at the ANR Statewide Conference in Ontario April 8-11, 2013. At the conference, we will be joined by internationally renowned speakers where we will discuss feeding the world’s population with a healthy and ecologically sustainable food supply, and the University of California and ANR’s roles and contributions to make this a reality.
Sincerely,
Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President
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