- Author: Deanne Meyer
What a whirlwind of a week. Over two weekends while people were trying to get into the portal to get documents for search committees, prepare for the Peer Review Committee meeting this week or otherwise access information on the ANR website our IT team was burning the midnight oil. They spent much of the weekend and early part of the week switching out some of our antiquated servers and then trouble shooting since the old and new pieces weren't talking with one another. THANK YOU Sree Mada, Jaki Hsieh Wojan and their teams who figured it all out so we could access all we need! Rest assured when we're having a challenge getting to web pages this group is trying to make things better.
Last Tuesday was Ag Day at the Capitol. UC ANR was there with 4-H, Master Gardeners, the VINE and a great citrus/avocado setup. The rain was minimal during setup and then the heaven opened. It rained and it poured. Our assembly and senate members walked through the crowd and popped under the tent to get out of the elements. Anne Megaro did a great job greeting our elected officials. Strategic Communications were out in full force with Miguel Sanchez, Ethan Ireland and Ricardo Vela with cameras and Pam Kan-Rice doing interviews. Dora Garay was on social media with the quickest thumbs around. Mike Hse, Linda Forbes, Evette Kilmartin and Lara Schroder greeted visitors in the booth and shared oranges or mandarins (thank you Ashraf El Kereamy and Lindcove REC) or talked about avocados (thank you Darren Haver and South Coast REC). The 4-Hers were wonderful! They had goats and rabbits which were crowd pleasers and did many interviews and discussions with elected officials. The VINE robot drew crowds. Numerous others helped make the day fabulous. Thank you all for your incredible energy, excitement and commitment on a very rainy day!
Speaking of rain, the number of people and animals in CA displaced by our winter weather continues to climb. ANR Advisors and CES will be helping people as they work through options. Emergency preparedness for livestock and humans is a must this winter. The amount of standing water on fields is bound to impair crop harvests. Not to mention some late season cold temperatures this week. That old saying "when it rains it pours" is definitely true this year.
Last Wednesday we held Administrative Orientation in the Valley Rooms. What excitement to see so many new members of the ANR family. A big shout out to Human Resources and Program Support Unit for all their efforts to make the day enjoyable and memorable. Many tables were set up for people to meet and greet members working in different units. It was fun and informative! Speaking of new people, eight new Community Education Specialists started in February: Roxana Price, Riverside; Alfonso Mota, Central Sierra Nevada; Hannah Meyer, Nevada Placer; Kenia Estrada and Jo Reynolds, Sutter/Yuba; Elizabeth Reikowski, Statewide program operations; Mavrick Farnam, Modoc; and Reyna Yagi, Alameda County.
Here's hoping your week has sunshine!
- Author: Wendy Powers
Can you believe that the pool season is half over? The daily strawberry harvest is all but done in my yard, and even zucchini season seems to be winding down. The only thing not slowing down is COVID cases. I'm sure I am not alone when I say that I miss visiting our county and REC locations, field days, and events though it wasn't often that I could make such trips.
Work has not slowed at all. By not leaving town for vacation, I am optimistic I can avoid the accumulation of emails, messages, and meetings that would typically pile up while on vacation. This week I was supposed to be in Kansas City for meetings. The sessions will occur by Zoom, and the schedule condensed. Like many of you have experienced, the rest of the day has filled with other Zoom conversations. I turned in one of my homework tasks – an update on my slides for the Administrative Orientation in August. I started with an easy task rather than the most time-sensitive assignments. I am awaiting more motivation to tackle those. The opportunities keep flowing, and so, too, does the work that goes into exploring them! That's a good thing. We may have more success connecting with new partners now than we've had before, out of need, or for some other reason. I had an email from someone today about finalizing an agreement to fund a couple of Academic Coordinator positions. Honestly, I had feared the agreement would be put on hold, but it will move forward regardless of the COVID economy!
I was encouraged to see a call to action regarding our budget by our stakeholders and partners. Repeatedly over the last several months, I have thought about the challenges brought on as a result of not having the ANR budget treated as a campus budget. It had brought back memories of the same struggle in Michigan when the trustees handled Extension and the Agriculture Experiment Station (AES) budgets, each a line item in the state budget, different from the rest of the higher education budget. Given that faculty would have split appointments that crossed budgets, there was always a disconnect if the higher ed budget (both UM and MSU) received increases when Extension and AES did not. Eventually, there was an agreement to treat AES and Extension the same as the remainder of higher education. Hopefully, that same arrangement can be reached for UC ANR, again. I say 'again' because applying the 'UCSF Corridor Model' to ANR was intended to rectify the disconnect. We shall continue to push for the use of that model in FY20/21 and beyond.
Last week the Peer Review Committee met for a long day of conversations by Zoom. Despite the length, I found the meeting very useful. I did end up with homework, the likes of which I hope will make future advancement decisions more straightforward. I learned that there are 95 merit and promotion cases scheduled for 2021. Of course, some individuals may defer or depart. Acceleration cases will offset, or perhaps exceed, the number of deferrals or departures. Regardless, many academics will prepare portfolios this fall and into early winter, and many will review cases next spring. I might need to check the prescription on my glasses sometime after January.
