On Friday, Oct. 22, President Yudof and VP Dooley visited UC Cooperative Extension in Monterey County. County director Sonya Varea Hammond introduced Yudof to local agricultural clientele and the Cooperative Extension advisors who serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.

A brief video of his visit to a romaine lettuce harvest is posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/news/President_Yudof_in_Salinas/.

A program that allowed faculty, academics, and staff to voluntarily reduce work hours in exchange for a corresponding pay reduction is scheduled to end. The Staff and Academic Reduction in Time program, or START, was enacted as a temporary measure to help the University of California cope with budget shortfalls will end on Dec. 31, 2010.

John Fox, UCOP director of Human Resource Policies, stated, "Although many employees have appreciated the program and it has helped UC save on salaries, this is the right time for it to end."

In 2009 alone, UC achieved salary savings of roughly $16 million through employee participation in START.

Although many employees have appreciated the program and it has helped UC save on salaries, UC administration will not recommend an extension to the START program.

For more information, contact Robert Martinez at (530) 725-3467, ramartinez@ucdavis.edu, or Karen Ellsworth at (530) 752- 7917, kaellsworth@ucdavis.edu, in the ANR Staff Personnel Unit.

UC's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) has announced its 2010 Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Competitive Grants Program.

The $200,000 grant program is designed to encourage collaboration among individuals and groups working in agriculture. These can include farmers, ranchers, community groups and nonprofit organizations, public agencies, UC Cooperative Extension specialists and advisors, and students and researchers affiliated with California State University, University of California, and community colleges or other institutions of higher education. Each project must include at least one partner from county-based UC Cooperative Extension or a community-based stakeholder group.

Grant recipients are eligible for up to $35,000 in funding, depending on the type of project. Funding is available for four types of projects: planning grants, education and outreach grants, research grants and graduate student research grants.

Proposals are due by noon on Dec. 13. For more information, visit http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/2010RFP.htm.

Prospective applicants for the Pacific Rim Research Program are invited to an information session Wednesday, Oct. 13, from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. in the UC Davis Shields Library IGA room. Ted Grosholz, an expert on invasive species management and habitat restoration in coastal and inland water resources, will be there along with past award recipients Josh Viers and Andrew Hall. ANR advisors are welcome to attend. Lynn Deetz will be there to answer ANR-related questions.

The Pacific Rim Research Program limits the number of proposals that may be submitted by any one campus. ANR may submit up to three proposals while each campus may submit up to eight. Deetz is the ANR campus liaison and proposals must be submitted to her by Dec. 10, 2010. ANR faculty with joint appointments with a campus must submit proposals through the campus.

Please see the Program’s 2011-2012 Call for Proposals (pdf) for further details. More information is also available on the Pacific Rim Research Program website. ANR contact Lynn Deetz may be reached at (530) 752-7875, ledeetz@ucdavis.edu