UC ANR celebrates budget increase, releases 10 UCCE positions for recruitment

After three years of limited hiring due to budget constraints, Vice President Glenda Humiston announced the release of 10 UC Cooperative Extension positions for recruitment.

The new UC Cooperative Extension positions include:

• #11 Plant Pathology Area Advisor, Santa Cruz County
• #13 Soils and Irrigation Advisor, Kern County
• #15 Urban Agriculture/Small Farms Area Advisor, San Bernardino County
• #27 Community Nutrition & Innovative Technologies Specialist, UC Davis
• #31 Forest and Fuels Management Specialist, UC Berkeley
• #37 Subtropical Crops Pathology Specialist, UC Riverside
• #45 Diversified Agricultural Systems Area Advisor, Lake County
• #55 Forestry and Natural Resources Area Advisor, Sutter-Yuba counties
• #59 4-H Youth Development Advisor, San Mateo-San Francisco counties
• #63 Integrated Vineyard Systems Area Advisor, at Hopland Research and Extension Center

The county listed beside the advisor title is where the office for the employee will be located. All of the UC Cooperative Extension Advisor positions will serve multiple counties.

A full description of each position is available at the corresponding position number at the bottom of https://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/Divisionwide_Planning/2018_Call_for_Positions, with some modifications.

On July 12, the state restored UC ANR's budget to pre-COVID levels of FY 2019-20 and provided a 5% increase plus an additional $32 million in ongoing funding, bringing total state support to $107.9 million for the division.

“This budget increase is transformational,” Humiston said, “It will allow us to rebuild UC Cooperative Extension's boots-on-the-ground to help Californians cope with wildfire, drought, climate adaptation and economic development among other issues.”

Over the past 20 years, UC ANR had seen its budget decrease by almost 50% when adjusted for inflation. As a result, UC ANR was forced to reduce Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists – from 427 positions in 2001 down to only 269 in 2021 – creating vacancies in many critical positions.

Twenty UC Cooperative Extension positions have been designated as critically urgent to fill. To avoid overwhelming UC ANR's Human Resources staff, the other 10 positions of the 20 will be released in late September as they ramp up hiring for future recruitment. Seven to 10 positions will be released each of the next four months, with more positions to be released in 2022.

“We look forward to releasing additional positions for recruitment – both academic and program support members – throughout the next several months,” said Humiston. 

“We are extremely grateful to Governor Newsom, the Legislature and especially Senator John Laird, who championed the budget increase, and look forward to working with our community partners to leverage these resources.”

Visit UC ANR Jobs to see the current positions open for recruitment.

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