Posts Tagged: Tu Tran

‘Open Conversation’ on Sept. 9 offers chance to chat with leadership

Many of your UC Agriculture and Natural Resources colleagues have already had the opportunity to chat – in an informal, online setting – with UC ANR leadership about a wide range of topics.

Friday, Sept. 9 (1 to 2 p.m.) is your next chance to take part in the series, “Open Conversations with UC ANR Senior Leadership” (submit interest form to participate).

Within this small group format, you can voice your questions, comments, suggestions – or whatever is on your mind – with Vice President Glenda Humiston, Associate Vice President-Business Operations Tu Tran and interim Associate Vice President-Programs Deanne Meyer.

Past participants, such as Ricardo Vela, manager of News & Information Outreach in Spanish, recommend these sessions as a forum for candid, meaningful engagement with leadership.

“I encourage every UC ANR staff member to participate,” Vela said. “Open Conversations with UC ANR Leadership were precisely that – a very casual, open conversation about topics I was interested in. The meeting was not one-sided, and senior leadership showed genuine interest in what I had to say; in the end, participating made me feel that I mattered at UC ANR.”

Organizers seek to limit enrollment to 20 participants to allow for more in-depth dialogue, so submit your interest form early. Attendees are expected to have microphone and camera on for the duration of the online session.

Contact the Program Support Unit at anrprogramsupport@ucanr.edu with any questions.

Open Conversations with UC ANR leadership begin March 31

UC ANR Senior Leadership will begin hosting conversations with small groups of ANR employees on a quarterly basis. The first will be Wednesday, March 31, at 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. with VP Glenda Humiston and Tu Tran, associate vice president for business operations. 

Enrollment will be limited to 20 participants per session to allow for open dialogue, so please register at https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=32978.

The dates below are being held for future sessions. Dates and times may be adjusted as needed. 

June 23, 1 – 2 p.m., with Wendy Powers, associate vice president, and Tran

Sept. 21, 1 – 2 p.m., with Humiston and Powers

Dec. 15, 1 – 2 p.m., Humiston and Tran 

Open Conversation sessions will be announced about one month prior to each session.

UCPath cutover postponed for UC ANR and UC Davis

In a Feb. 28 meeting, President Napolitano, UC Davis Chancellor May, UC Berkeley Chancellor Christ and Vice President Humiston agreed to postpone UCPath implementation at UC Davis and UC ANR as recommended by the UCPath program leadership and its executive sponsors. This postponement is necessary to allow time to properly analyze and resolve critical issues related to the readiness level at UC Davis and the UC Davis Health System due to data accuracy and compounding complexities of the downstream system interfaces.

UC ANR's readiness to go live in UCPath meets required specifications thanks in part to our smaller population and a centralized administrative structure. However, it is not feasible for UC ANR to cut over to UCPath independent of UC Davis in the short time necessary to meet the April cutover because we use many UC Davis systems. Therefore, Vice President Humiston voted to postpone UC ANR's cutover as well.  

Cutover activities for UC Berkeley will proceed as planned for the March and April dates.

We are working now with our partners at UC Davis and the UCPath central project team to analyze deployment options and to identify a new target go-live date. It is my sincere hope that we will be able to go live this summer in concert with our campus partners at UC Davis. 

Although we are disappointed about the delay, I am proud of the outstanding work our teams have done to meet project milestones and demonstrate our readiness to go live on schedule.  Our project team has been recognized for taking the lead role among UC locations in testing and readiness activities. I'd like to share VP Humiston's thanks to all involved for a remarkable job and ask that we stay engaged in this very strategic and important project.

We will use the next few months to continue our training and preparation activities so that UC ANR maintains its readiness level to achieve a smooth transition. We will keep you apprised of any updates.

Tu M. Tran
Associate Vice President, Business Operations

 

 

Duo adds layer of security to online accounts

As many of you are aware, preparations are underway for UC ANR to implement UCPath in the spring of 2019. UCPath is a systemwide initiative launched by the University of California to modernize its current payroll system. Using new technology, UCPath will standardize the Division's workforce management effort, and payroll, benefits and human resources systems for all UC employees, and will enable the formation of UC ANR as a distinct financial structure within UC, which is a critical step for our organization.

The formation of UC ANR as a stand-alone financial structure provides us a remarkable opportunity to improve efficiency, and strengthen compliance, accountability and security. Additionally, UC ANR is responsible for protecting a vast amount of electronic information ranging from personal data to highly valuable original research.

In order to protect personnel payroll records that will enable UCPath, as well as critical research data, we have collaborated with UC Davis to implement a multi-factor authentication (MFA) service called Duo. Duo adds a new layer of security to your online accounts. A more comprehensive description of Duo is available at http://ucanr.edu/mfa.

To support ANR-wide adoption of Duo MFA, I want to encourage all managers, supervisors and directors to make staff aware of the Duo initiative and actively encourage them to enroll. Your participation in this initiative will help protect UC ANR information assets and help us comply with laws and regulations pertaining to the protection of personal and confidential information. Thank you for your support as UC ANR implements this critical cybersecurity initiative.                                

Sincerely,

Tu M. Tran
Associate Vice President, Business Operations

 

The Citrus Research Board and UC create a $1 million endowment for citrus research

The Citrus Research Board and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources have established a $1 million endowment to fund the Presidential Researcher for Sustainable Citrus Clonal Protection at the UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center. The endowed researcher will provide a UC Cooperative Extension scientist a dedicated source of funds to support scholarly activities focused on the long-term sustainability of the citrus industry.

“I wish to thank the Citrus Research Board for establishing the Presidential Researcher for Sustainable Citrus Clonal Protection at LREC endowment,” said UC ANR vice president Glenda Humiston. “This gift, coupled with the $500,000 match from the UC Office of the President, will help to ensure the long-term success of exemplary research focused on the California citrus industry.”

UC President Janet Napolitano provided half the funds for the endowed researcher; the CRB donated the other half.

“We are gratified that President Napolitano has selected the CRB for this prestigious match program,” said CRB Chairman Dan Dreyer. “It will be invaluable in helping us to pursue critical research that will yield beneficial findings to support the sustainability of the California citrus industry.”

The new endowment supports the UC Citrus Clonal Protection Program, which distributes pathogen-tested, true-to-type citrus budwood to nurseries, farmers and the public to propagate citrus trees for commercial and personal use. The CCPP maintains blocks of trees that serve as the primary source of budwood for all important fruit and rootstock varieties for California's citrus industry and researchers.

The CCPP is a cooperative program between UC ANR, CRB, the California Citrus Nursery Board and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. CCPP director Georgios Vidalakis, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in plant pathology at UC Riverside, shared his appreciation for the efforts that led to the creation of the new endowed researcher position.

“My thanks to the citrus growers for their decades-long support, especially the members of the CCPP committee of the CRB for their vision, and UC's Greg Gibbs for coordinating all of the efforts,” he said. Vidalakis also praised Lindcove director Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell “for making the case to our growers about the importance of this endowment and for making plans to house the UC ANR endowment at the LREC.”

A selection committee will award the endowment to a distinguished UC ANR academic. An annual payout will be used to provide salary, graduate student and/or program support. The researcher will be named for a five-year term. At the end of that period, the appointment will be reviewed and either renewed or taken back to a selection committee to choose another UC ANR academic.

“I would like to thank the CRB for this generous gift and their continued support of our research for CCPP at the LREC,” said Greg Gibbs,UC ANR director of major gifts.

The CRB administers the California Citrus Research Program, the grower-funded and grower-directed program established in 1968 under the California Marketing Act, as the mechanism enabling the state's citrus producers to sponsor and support needed research. More information about the Citrus Research Board may be found at www.citrusresearch.org.

The Presidential Researcher for Sustainable Citrus Clonal Protection is the fifth $1 million UC ANR endowment to support California agriculture. The other endowments are:

• UC Cooperative Extension Presidential Chair for Tree Nut Genetics, formed with the California Pistachio Research Board in October 2015
• UC Cooperative Extension Presidential Chair for Tree Nut Soil Science and Plant Water Relations, formed with the California Pistachio Research Board in October 2015
• UC Cooperative Extension Presidential Chair for California Grown Rice, formed with the California Rice Research Board in September 2016
• UC Cooperative Extension Presidential Chair for Agricultural Education in Orange County, formed with the Orange County Farm Bureau in October 2017

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