Posts Tagged: budget
Jones appointed interim director of UCOP budget
UC Executive Vice President Nathan Brostrom has appointed Donna Jones interim director of UCOP budget, providing overall leadership for the Office of the President budget, effective Jan. 1, 2011.
Jones, who is currently ANR budget director, is taking on the responsibilities of Michael Rancer, who is retiring from the UCOP director position. She will continue to perform budget-related duties for ANR during her one-year appointment and will remain ANR budget director. Jennifer Bunge, ANR associate budget director, will assume many of Jones’ day-to-day duties in ANR during the year.
“Donna’s joint appointment presents a wonderful opportunity for ANR to work more closely with the UCOP and systemwide budget offices,” says Kay Harrison Taber, AVP-Business Operations.
Jones brings to the job 30 years of UC budget and financial experience from her start at UC Santa Barbara in 1981 and past 15 years with ANR.
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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Farm Bureau paper outlines ANR's future
The main focus for the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the coming year is beginning to rebuild, according to an article published today in AgAlert, the California Farm Bureau Federation's weekly newspaper.The article, written by assistant editor Ching Lee, was based on information gathered directly from ANR vice president Dan Dooley.
The story says Dooley expects to be able to hire 20 to 30 new Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists in the coming year. The good news comes in the wake of major restructuring last year due to a 20 percent budget cut.
The 2010-11 budget, he said, is a very positive budget for the University of California.
"I think one of the things we were able to do was change the relative priority of higher education," Dooley was quoted. "We put a lot of energy into the advocacy effort and engaged a lot of people, and I think it bore some fruit."
Dooley said he doesn't foresee any specific, major restructuring for ANR in the coming year, Lee wrote, but there could still be more changes.
"Regardless of funding, if it's appropriate for us to look at more efficient mechanisms to administer our programs, we're going to continue to do that," Dooley was quoted. "I just think that's good business. Any successful private business is always looking at its organization and asking the question, 'Are we properly managing our efforts?' And we'll continue to do that here as well."
Recording of ANR Town Hall October 28, 2010
The link to an Adobe Connect recording of the October 28, 2010, town hall meeting can be found in your ANR Portal http://ucanr.org/portal. The link is in the Adobe Connect section in the right column. Recording length: 45 minutes. First topic: the state budget on UC and ANR.
If you have trouble accessing the recording, please contact Bryon Noel (530) 754-3937 or bjnoel@ucdavis.edu
Flash is required to view the recording. Flash can be downloaded at http://Adobe.com.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Santa Barbara funds CE; Faulkner Farm supporters write letters to editors
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to save the local UC Cooperative Extension programs by approving additional funding, according to the Aug. 11 Lompoc Record.
“State cuts to the UC system, combined with local funding reductions, would have reduced the Extension program’s presence in Santa Barbara County to practically nothing without the infusion of cash from the Board of Supervisors,” writes reporter Sam Womack.
In other South Coast news, Ventura County residents have been writing letters to the editors of the Ventura County Star and the Santa Paula Times voicing opposition to the Hansen Trust Advisory Board’s recommendation to sell Faulkner Farm.
In the Aug. 9 Ventura County Star, Douglas Nelson and Nicholas Deitch of Mainstreet Architects + Planners write that they were hired by UC to provide a Master Plan for the Hansen Agricultural Center at Faulkner Farm.
“We worked for over a year with the first Hansen Trust Advisory Board, UC staff, UC Cooperative Extension and design focus groups from the local community,” they wrote. “Through a collaborative process, we developed a long-range plan for the Hansen Trust - a plan that was based on principles and goals reflecting the vision of benefactor Thelma Hansen.” They call the recommendation to sell Faulkner Farm “a very short-sighted decision.”
In the Aug. 6 Santa Paula Times (available only in print form currently), Mike Mobley and Ginger Gherardi of Santa Paula urge readers to “help in preventing this travesty by writing a letter” to President Yudof and VP Dooley.
Santa Barbara County mulls over UCCE budget
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is tentatively scheduled to review a UC Cooperative Extension funding request at its July 27 meeting, according to an article published yesterday in the Lompoc Record.
The county had approved $111,700 for the programs and staff expertise provided by UCCE, but at its budget hearings in June, $68,000 in additional funding was requested. On June 22, the Board of Supervisors couldn’t get the four votes needed for approval.
For the article, reporter Sam Womack spoke to Don Kingborg of UC ANR Advocacy and County Partnerships.
“The $68,000 is to get us to the minimum level necessary to continue this program," Klingborg was quoted in the article. "Over the past years, the Santa Barbara County program has been funded in the range of $200,000 to $225,000. With this move and other adjustments, we recognized the terrible fiscal shape our counties are in and were able to decrease the cost to $180,000."
With the additional funding, the Santa Barbara County offices would close, but the advisors, services, programs and research would continue out of San Luis Obispo and Ventura county offices, the story said.
Interim director of Santa Barbara County UCCE Mark Gaskell told the reporter he already spends about half his time outside of county boundaries. For example, he conducts agricultural research at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.“I don’t think its necessarily a critical issue where you sit and type at your computer,” he was quoted.