ANR Update

Employee comment sought on academic freedom, responsibilities of non-faculty academics

The University invites comments on a proposed new Academic Personnel Manual Section 011 (APM - 011), Academic Freedom, Protection of Professional Standards, and Responsibilities of Non-faculty Academic Appointees.

Currently, APM - 010 (Academic Freedom) defines academic freedom as it pertains to faculty and defines the freedom of scholarly inquiry for students, as it derives from the faculty's academic freedom. APM - 015 (The Faculty Code of Conduct) defines the corresponding responsibilities as it pertains to faculty only. Although APM - 010 states that it is not intended to “diminish the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by other academic appointees,” APM - 010 and APM - 015 do not address how these concepts apply or do not apply to non-faculty academic appointees. The proposed new policy is intended to address the academic privileges, rights, obligations and responsibilities of non-faculty academic appointees.

The proposed new APM - 011, Academic Freedom, Protection of Professional Standards, and Responsibilities of Non-Faculty Academic Appointees, is posted at https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/academic-personnel-policy/policies-under-review/apm-011.html.

If you have any questions or if you wish to comment, please contact Robin Sanchez at rgsanchez@ucanr.edu, no later than July 1, 2019.

 

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Livestock’s role in climate-smart agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Protecting California's natural resources and building climate-resilient communities and ecosystems are two of UC ANR's core public values so naturally we are proud to join our colleagues throughout the UC system to promote climate-smart strategies and engage in the UC's Cool Campus Challenge!

Many of the Challenge's actions such as turning off lights or taking public transit are proven through research to reduce carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. However, as scientists within the University of California, we are deeply concerned with the use of inaccurate data in a recent headline from the Challenge: “Globally, meat is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.” I have requested that the UC Cool Campus Challenge officially retract that headline and use the research-based information we provided below.

As reported by the US EPA and verified by many UC scientists, production of livestock in the U.S. contributes less than 4 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whereas both the energy sector and transportation EACH contribute 28 percent.  

In California, all agricultural activities produce just 8 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions; transportation, electricity and industry (e.g. cement) are the largest producers of greenhouse gas, accounting for 80 percent of all emissions. While meat production, even from efficient livestock production systems, does contribute to greenhouse gas production, cows and other ruminants digest many plants inedible to humans and graze lands that otherwise would not produce food – about 26 percent of the planet's landscapes.

Furthermore, in California, a sustainable food system could not exist without livestock. Livestock up-cycle agricultural byproducts from many of California's leading crops and food products, such as almond hulls, tomato pumice, rice bran, cottonseed and distiller's grain (Grasser et al. 1995, Oltjen and Beckett 1996, Sulc et al. 2014). In addition, cattle grazing—the number one land use in California—reduces fire fuel loads by consuming grass and can minimize greenhouse gas emissions from catastrophic wildfires, and also supports habitat for many of California's threatened and endangered species (Bartolome et al. 2014, Germano et al. 2012, Marty 2005, Weiss 1999).

While individuals may choose to eat less meat, research clearly shows that it is too simplistic to suggest that reducing meat consumption is a climate-smart strategy. Even if everyone living in the U.S. became vegan (consuming no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no fish), we would reduce our total GHG emissions by only 2.6 percent (White and Hall 2017). Livestock production systems in our state and throughout the United States are extremely efficient. It takes less energy and other inputs to produce meat and other livestock products in the U.S. than any other place in the world. Much less. For example, the U.S. is the top beef producer in the world, but direct GHG emissions from U.S. cattle are less than half that of the next highest producer, Brazil, which has twice as many cattle (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service).

UC's own researchers have conducted and continue to conduct peer-reviewed projects that lead to more efficient livestock-production systems—where GHG emissions can be minimized and livestock can better contribute to sequestering carbon on grazed lands (DeLonge et al. 2014, Byrnes et al. 2018) and using leftovers from production of a plant-based diet (Mottet et al. 2017). In fact, UC ANR is proud to work with California Department of Food and Agriculture on projects that support climate-smart agriculture, including livestock grazing, in California.

We should all strive to reduce our environmental impact on the planet by making climate-friendly choices, by applying research-based knowledge to understand where our choices make a real difference. UC ANR looks forward to working with UCOP, and the entire UC system, to improve understanding of the role of agriculture as both a contributor and part of the solution to GHG emissions. Along with this effort, we will constantly remind our stakeholders and partners to base their decisions and communications on the best available science. 

If you'd like further information on UC ANR research related to climate change, check out the article in Western Farm Press: University of California leads climate change awareness. More details can be found in Climate Change Trends and Impacts on California Agriculture: A Detailed Review led by Tapan Pathak, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in climate adaptation in agriculture, with contributions from several other UC ANR academics.

As always, many thanks for all that you do!

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Join the Cool Campus Challenge April 1-26, 2019

Dear Colleagues,

The University of California is on its way to becoming the first university system to wipe out its carbon footprint by 2025, as part of President Napolitano's Carbon Neutrality Initiative. We can do it, but only if we do it together.

Participating in UC's collective effort will demonstrate UC ANR's commitment to protecting California's natural resources and building climate-resilient communities and ecosystems.

That's why I'm asking you to join in the Cool Campus Challenge and move us closer to becoming carbon-free. ANR is teaming up with UCOP for the challenge, and we'll compete on the side against the other UCOP units.

If you sign up, you'll get weekly emails with actions you can take to lower your carbon emissions in classrooms, labs, offices, homes and when traveling. As you take action, you will score points for ANR in the competition. Trophies will be awarded for locations with the most points and most points per participant.

Please take a minute to learn more and become part of the Cool Campus Challenge by registering at CoolCampusChallenge.org. Let's show the UC community that UC ANR is Cool!

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

 

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

UC ANR website gets a new look

Colleagues,

Last month, Strategic Communications and IT “soft-launched” the website redesign project to test the site in the live environment and complete bug fixes before an official launch was announced. Bug fixes are complete, so we are now happy to share broadly that the site is live.

Why the new design?

Goals of the web design project include:

• Improve the content structure and new top down navigation for the ucanr.edu home page and high level pages beneath ucanr.edu
• Increase utility and discoverability of news and event information on ucanr.edu
• Resolve major brand inconsistencies across the Division's web presence
• Better showcase the impacts of UCANR's work
• Implement a workflow structure; update content workflows and curation strategy
• Implement new design elements that will update the appearance of all 600 Site Builder sites

What is the scope of the redesign project?

The website redesign project has two areas of scope. The first was to refresh the design of the main ucanr.edu website, comprised of the top few pages of news, events and educational content for the Division. This content is now broken out into six focus areas (aka brand strengths) and managed through editorial workflows in Strategic Communications. The second area of scope is making the designs compatible with all Division websites without a significant impact to website owners. This second area of work is happening now, and IT has begun rolling out websites using the new design. You can learn more about the second phase here.

How can you share your feedback on the first phase?

There is a feedback link on the lower right side of the home page footer. We welcome your input.

What's next for ucanr.edu?

CSIT is meeting with leadership next month to establish the long-term strategy for evolving the website to (1) better address the core goal of making educational content easily discoverable by our target audiences and (2) effectively showcase the impact and value of ANR as a whole to increase awareness and support of our programs.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or comments about editorial workflows or feature ideas for the home page. 

Linda Forbes
Director of Strategic Communications

 

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Staff-performance appraisal webinars offered March 20, for supervisors March 26

ANR Human Resources will host two more Zoom webinars for staff and supervisors in March:

• Employee Role: March 20, Wed., 10 a.m.–11 a.m.              
• Supervisor Role: March 26, Tuesday, 3 p.m.–4:30 p.m.

• Zoom: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/8151602829
• Telephone   US: +1 408 638 0968  or +1 646 558 8656
• Meeting ID: 815-160-2829

This year ANR Human Resources has modified the Employee Performance Appraisal Form to align with the UC system-wide core competencies and to prepare supervisors and employees for the future online appraisal process. They will discuss what's new during the webinars.

Supervisors need only to participate in a supervisor session.

For those unable to participate during the scheduled times, recorded versions of both webinars – Employee Role and Supervisor Role – have been uploaded to the ANR HR website and are available for viewing: https://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRSPU/Supervisor_Resources/Performance_Management.

The staff performance review period runs from April 1, 2018, through March 31, 2019. An annual appraisal should be completed for all ANR staff employees, including represented and non-represented, career and contract employees with at least six months of service as of March 31, 2019.

More information about the annual process, including timelines, guidelines and Performance Appraisal Tools are available on the ANR Human Resources website: http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRSPU/Supervisor_Resources/Performance_Management.

If you have questions regarding the appraisal process, please contact Mary Vlandis at maryvlandis@ucanr.edu.

John Fox
Executive Director, Human Resources

 

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

 

 

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