Since I joined UC ANR last summer, I have come to recognize the valuable role played by the Division's staff employees. We rely on academics to lead our research and extension programs and administrators to set the course and manage our efforts, but accomplishing our goals would be impossible without the many capacities offered by a dedicated staff.
Our Academic Assembly goes back years, and all UC campuses plus the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Office of the President have staff assemblies. However, ANR lacked an organization dedicated to promoting the welfare of staff.
Last spring, the division's Work Environment Assessment workshop participants discussed the staff assembly concept and sought volunteers to help design a process and structure for establishing the UC ANR Staff Assembly. As the impressive number of volunteers illustrated, there was a palpable enthusiasm and clear willingness to engage. There were actually many more volunteers than we could accommodate on the committee, a nice “problem” to have.
In February, representatives of the new staff assembly committee presented the mission statement and bylaws they drafted for the new organization to me and other members of the UC ANR leadership team. The committee envisioned a UC ANR Staff Assembly that cultivates satisfied, dedicated and professional staff to work with the Division's leadership, academics and other members of the ANR community.
All ANR staff employees will be members of the ANR Staff Assembly, including county-paid, part-time and limited-appointment staff. The elected leaders of the group will seek input from ANR staff on policies, processes and programs and serve in an advisory capacity to ANR leadership, giving staff a collective voice on issues of concern. The assembly also will provide support for career training and professional development to staff to aid career advancement.
The ANR Staff Assembly will become a member of the Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) and send representatives to CUCSA's quarterly meetings. CUCSA presents staff perspectives and recommendations on management initiatives to the University of California's decision makers and has weighed in on important Regents' decisions, such as budget issues and domestic partner benefits.
I would like to thank the Work Environment Assessment workshop participants and the committee of ANR volunteers who met over the last six months to develop the structure of our new UC ANR Staff Assembly. I encourage supervisors, managers, directors and administrators in ANR to provide support for ANR staff who are interested in being involved in the UC ANR Staff Assembly. You'll hear more about our Staff Assembly in the coming weeks and months, as I know the team hopes to establish a website, town hall meetings, and other venues for engagement.
Please be open, on a case-by-case basis, to allow release time for staff to participate in UC ANR Staff Assembly activities and to run for elected positions on the assembly's executive committee or as CUCSA representatives. And I would especially encourage our staff to become engaged with the UC ANR Staff Assembly as we work together to support healthy food systems, environments, people and communities in California.
Sincerely,
Glenda
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Read story at http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/hub-food-and-agriculture-talk
Dear Colleagues,
As most of you know, Bill Frost, our associate vice president (AVP), intends to retire in June. In light of his impending departure from ANR, we are looking at augmenting the leadership structure to provide better support for ANR's extensive programs and initiatives. Currently we have challenges in balancing program delivery and administration with the need to expand our efforts in strategic initiatives, partnerships, funds development and raising the profile of ANR. To better provide for those needs, we're moving forward with a few modest but important modifications. The changes are in no way set in stone — we're going to evaluate things over the next several months and will make adjustments as needed. Those changes will be:
- The new AVP, which is under recruitment, will have several current responsibilities removed and be based at UC Office of the President in Oakland (UCOP). This will allow the new AVP and the AVP for Business Operation to work closely as a team on day-to-day operations, and to coordinate regularly with counterparts at UCOP. The new AVP will be more focused on ANR's engagement with the entire UC system, policy issues and partnerships that will benefit ANR. One aim of this change is to augment the Vice President's ability to engage more on funds development, strategic opportunities, policy development, expanding collaborations and raising ANR's profile.
- We will create a new position, Vice Provost Strategic Initiatives & Statewide Programs. The leaders of the strategic initiatives, Nutrition Policy Institute, California Institute for Water Resources and statewide programs will all report to the Vice Provost Strategic Initiatives & Statewide Programs. The position, which will be based in Davis, will coordinate ANR's engagement in the UC President's initiatives, provide leadership for ANR's Strategic Initiatives and enhance synergies between initiatives and our various programs. Like the Vice Provost for Cooperative Extension, this new position will report to the AVP.
- Management of the REC System will be removed from the AVP and the current associate director position will be elevated to director. Lisa Fischer will be appointed interim REC System director for two years, followed by an open recruitment for the director position.
Going forward, the Senior Leadership Team, along with 21 program and unit directors, will serve as my VP Council. We will meet quarterly to strategize on how best to engage with initiatives, new partners and opportunities as they arise. The VP Council will also serve as a sounding board on policy and program issues as well as help design action plans to best serve ANR goals. Shortly after these changes are implemented, we will also seek to empower both the Academic Assembly and the new Staff Assembly to serve as strong voices in the shared governance of ANR.
It is my hope that these changes will enhance our efforts to rebuild the ANR and Cooperative Extension footprint around the state. These modifications should allow me to do what I see as the core part of my job: finding new sources of funding, building new partnerships, enhancing key collaborations, and positioning ANR as the premiere source of science and solutions for the challenges facing agriculture, natural resources and the health of our communities. I also believe that improving the ability of all the voices in the ANR system to be heard will greatly improve how we advance that science and develop those solutions. We will all be able to achieve far more as a well-functioning team with access to the knowledge, information and skills of every member.
Thank you for being part of the ANR team. I look forward to working with you as we implement these changes!
Glenda
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
Continuing our commitment to deploying Cooperative Extension (CE) specialists and advisors to address critical issues, ANR is soliciting proposals for these CE positions. The new 2016 call aims to identify positions for strengthening and rebuilding the ANR network to address programmatic gaps and emerging needs. The call, including the updated position proposal template as well as the process flowchart timeline and criteria documents, is posted at http://ucanr.edu/2016callforpositions.
The online position-proposal submittal process will be open from Jan. 12 to May 5 at 5 p.m. to allow as much time as possible for internal consultation and discussions with ANR stakeholders in all program areas. We expect and strongly encourage engaging external stakeholders – including commodity groups, cooperating programs, agency partners, community groups, and others – to explicitly discuss priority needs for positions.
Filling critical academic positions is a top priority for ANR. Since the beginning of 2012, ANR has hired 86 advisors and specialists, and has 45 approved positions under recruitment or to be recruited in 2016. This list is posted on the 2016 call website. New 2016 position proposals should identify additional crucial positions.
The resources released through retirements and separations continue to enable us to hire new advisors and specialists. As with the current recruitments, we will remain nimble with future hiring in phases over time to enable us to accomplish the search and hiring process in an orderly fashion, evaluate resources on a real-time basis, deal with unexpected changes in staffing, and address unforeseen critical gaps as they emerge.
Sincerely,
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to share important changes to UC policy regarding sexual violence and sexual harassment and to offer a reminder about the resources available to the ANR community. All UC locations have been working together to update policies and procedures, and a few recent changes deserve special notice.
The UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy now requires every ANR employee to notify the Title IX office when they receive information from a UC student about an alleged violation. Although most ANR academics and staff do not have regular contact with UC students, it's important to be aware of this new policy requirement.
Moreover, all ANR academics and managers/supervisors must notify the Title IX office when they receive information of alleged sexual misconduct from any member of the ANR community, including reports from program participants, volunteers, as well as reports from ANR employees.
John I. Sims recently was named the new Title IX Officer for ANR, replacing Linda Marie Manton, who retired in December. In this role, John is the contact point to respond to alleged violations and can be reached at (530) 750-1397 and jsims@ucanr.edu.
Confidential counseling and referral services for ANR academics and staff employees are available through the UC Davis Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP) at (916) 734-2727 and www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/hr/hrdepts/asap.
Finally, the updated policy also includes a new training requirement for all employees. This training program will better prepare all of us to fulfill our obligations and learn about our roles and responsibilities. Academics and supervisors — who have been required to take such training for several years — will see new, updated content in their training and will maintain their current training schedule. Non-supervisory staff will be required to complete a 50-minute, web-based sexual harassment prevention training by May 1, 2016. Ongoing training for all employees will be required annually.
You can expect to receive more details about the new training requirement in the coming weeks.
For more information on how to prevent and respond to sexual violence, visit the ANR website http://ucanr.edu/sites/DiscriminationSexual_Violence.
Preventing and responding to sexual violence is a duty we all share. Thank you for being a part of the solution.
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
