I know we are all grateful that the Woolsey Fire is nearly contained and are anxious to hear that the Camp Fire has been fully contained as well. Campus and building closings haven't slowed things down much, though the fires have certainly been the focus for many in UC ANR, including those keeping us informed about who has been directly impacted, those who are responding with answers and programming, and others who are compiling lists of UC ANR responses to fire activity throughout the state to be shared with the President's office. Yana took some time to think about forest raking and was recognized for her expertise by national reports.

Glenn McGourty and colleagues held a successful UCCE Lake Mendo IPM Seminar on Friday with 90+ attendees.  Glenn attributes the success to a wide range of topics including weeds, insect biocontrol, pheromone confusion, viruses, plant bacteria, and nematodes with much of the information shared representing research conducted by the speakers. It sounds like the highlight for Glenn was a chance to get to better know some of his new colleagues: Gabriel, Kari and Houston. It sounds like it was a worthwhile trip up north!

Even UC Merced was closed due to the Camp Fire smoke. What really surprises me is that Lake Almanor was as clear as it was over the weekend. I was looking forward to a visit to UC Merced today. The trip represented an opportunity to meet with some of the leaders at UC Merced and better understand their goals/plans and how we might partner to achieve common goals. Rescheduling is never fun but hopefully we will find a new date soon. I think that one was a month or so in the making.

Mark B. still had a great view in Almanor this past weekend

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day, irrespective of what's open or closed. Fortunately we can remain productive thanks to Zoom! I had hoped to attend a webinar entitled “Evaluation Strategies for Documenting the Dollar Value of Extension Programs” however I have another commitment during that time (11 am). If anyone happens to have a chance to listen, please let me know your key takeaways from the discussion. Next week, also, looks busy. In preparation for a 2-day workshop on Ideation, I had to think through a Zen statement over the weekend. Definitely a bit out of my comfort zone so we'll see where that ends up.

The upside of a change in plans is that I think I am close to being caught up on things – at least those items that had a looming deadline. Granted I may feel differently tomorrow but I'll take what I can get today. Perhaps I will have more time than anticipated over the upcoming long weekend to be creative and carry that mindset into next week!

Yesterday I took a flight south and sat next to a young man who grew up in Butte County. In total, 5 dwellings have been lost in his family. His sister, two aunts, 1 cousin, and his grandmother each lost a house in the Camp Fire. His parents' house still stands and now shelters his sister and grandmother. He commented that his extended family has never really had much more than each other. He went on to tell me that because everyone escaped safely “they really haven't lost much”. I can't imagine it's that simple or that his family members don't feel a tremendous sense of loss but I was humbled by this young man's perspective and resilience towards the situation.

The meeting I attended today was a bit of a surprise. I arrived assuming there would be a more significant presence of UC ANR but only 1 panelist and no attendees, other than myself, were from UC ANR. One other panelist was from UC Davis, but that's it for UC presence. I need to investigate this a bit more given that I think we have much to offer this group of partners. Perhaps we aren't viewed that way.

When I was in New Orleans I attended a session that started with the moderator warning that ‘complacency and nostalgia are colleges' greatest enemies'. The session was offered by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). It was a fascinating session. The group surveyed the Presidents of public universities/colleges across the country. Presidents were asked if they felt that the public university/college would be financially sustainable in 10 years. The results: 67% of the Presidents felt that 4-year flagship institutions would be sustainable compared to only 25% of non-flagship universities/colleges and 93% of elite private colleges (endowments of over $1B). However, only 53% of the Presidents felt that their own institution would be sustainable in 10 years. For me, that statistic was a bit of an eye-opener. According to NACUBO the public university/college system, as a whole, needs to rethink how it conducts business. NACUBO started a project to assist campus business teams focus on ‘value centered management'. Not all units are expected to contribute the same; some units are generators while some are net consumers. Subvention, in the form of a 8.5% gross tax, ‘just is' as a recognized commitment to system financial health. Periodically a review and revision of the tax and subvention decisions occurs. The presenters shared that acceptance of this approach takes a bit of adjustment. I'm interested in learning more about the ‘success' observed by those institutions that hare part of the project. There may be something in this of use to UC ANR.

Last week I mentioned that I am spending my long weekend attending a conference in New Orleans. The theme of the meeting is Resilience: Turning Challenges into Opportunities. Rebecca Blank, Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, gave the keynote address. She talked about the importance of the public university in today's world, citing the data about the increase in the difference in lifetime income based on the level of education and how that difference has drastically increased since the 1970's and continues to do so. Despite the data, the public university is under heavy scrutiny and the relevance is questioned. Chancellor Blank stressed the importance in perseverance and the need to meet students where they are, making it easy to attend such that the composition of, particularly the land-grant institution, reflects the demographics of the population. She talked about UW-M's new commitment to make it easy for those less fortunate to attend UW-M: if a student's family annual income is less than $56,000 and the student meets the criteria for enrollment, the campus guarantees that student sufficient scholarships, loans, and grants to attend. No complex formula, no strings.

A panel discussion followed Chancellor Blank's address. On the topic of the public research university, the President of the University of Houston stated that research is what defines us but we need to remain true to our core mission (training students). If we focus on the core we will quickly determine that there are many ways to achieve the mission; we don't have to stick to what we have always done and how we have always done it. She gave as an example of an innovative solution, that when hurricane Harvey hit at the start of the semester, the leadership team quickly realized that the university was vulnerable to losing many of its students so they made a decision that they would accommodate students however necessary to avoid dropouts. This included personal phone calls to work with the students to address the student's needs. The result was that the University of Houston did not see a single student drop out, despite the destruction caused in the region. Quite an impressive statistic!

One of the comments made was that “Excellence and diversity are not mutually exclusive”. I don't recall who made that statement but I believe it was the President of Montana State University. I agree completely and I think our Extension programs demonstrate so.

In general, while the conversations on Sunday seemed very focused on students, the essence of the conversations were very much applicable to Extension – the whole idea that the system is underfunded and perhaps even threatened, the idea that Extension needs to change how it achieves its core mission in order to remain relevant to the clientele who change each generation, and the sense that Extension is needed more than ever before.

None of this is new to anyone reading this. When I went back to my room this evening I started to listen to a TED talk and the add that ran before the talk included a statement that may be a new concept to many, and one that we really need to think about: “Be willing to disrupt your traditional model because if you don't, someone else will”.

Program Council had further discussion about the proposed positions. We discussed what worked well with this year's process and what didn't. We plan to solicit feedback across the division in order to improve the process the next time. During this week's Program Council meeting we said farewell to 3 members. Nick Mills will be replacing Steve Lindow as the UCB representative. Professor Nick Mills of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management has agreed to serve as the Executive Associate Dean of the College of Natural Resources (CNR) beginning January 1st, 2019. Doug Parker and Keith Nathaniel anticipate their departure from Program Council when they step down as Strategic Initiative Leaders, also on January 1. Interviews for their replacements as Strategic Initiative Leaders occur in December.

I spent today in Berkeley, visiting with the Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI), the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI), and CE Specialists. The group at NPI are doing great things; no surprise there! If you haven't had a chance to familiarize yourself with their work (mission, vision, goals) I encourage you to take a look at their website and see all of the things they are up to. Following a quick meeting with NPI, we were off to meet with the UCB CE Specialists and hear what is on their mind. It was a small group this time but we had no trouble filling an hour. And we left with some great ideas. Those in attendance this time were all reasonably new to UC and their positions. It's great to see how each is settling in but we really need to spend more time to hear all about how they are shaping their roles. Today was my first opportunity to meet with the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI) and learn more about their goals and their work. The BFI is clearly a small, but mighty, team that has done outstanding things to connect across the campus, partnering with 7 colleges at UCB. They clearly have strong connections with NPI, the CE Specialists, SAREP, and CE Advisors throughout the state.

Now it is time for me to focus on tomorrow's agenda. I have phone calls and Zoom meetings most of the day. Then I am off to New Orleans for the weekend and into early next week to attend the Association of Public Land Grant Universities (APLU) for the annual meeting. This meeting isn't exactly my first choice how I'd like to spend the weekend and the Monday holiday but I'm certain I will pick up some useful bits of information and ideas.