UC Blog
Deadline extended: Nominate UCCE academics for service awards by April 19
Nominations for the 2024 ANR Distinguished Service Awards will be accepted until April 19. The awards for academics are sponsored by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Academic Assembly Council.
Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to recognize outstanding achievement by yourself or your colleagues. The biennial ANR Distinguished Service Awards recognize service and academic excellence in UC Cooperative Extension over a significant period of time. Awards highlight the use of innovative methods and the integration of research, extension and leadership.
The purpose of these awards is to recognize and reward outstanding accomplishments in six areas:
- Outstanding Research
- Outstanding Extension
- Outstanding New Academic
- Outstanding Team
- Outstanding Leader
- Outstanding Contribution to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Winners of individual awards will receive a certificate and $2,000. Winners of the team award will share $5,000. Complete award criteria and instructions for submitting nominations are at http://ucanr.edu/sites/UCAAC.
To nominate someone, fill out the online survey at 2024 ANR Distinguished Service Awards and submit all materials in the nomination packet through the survey or alternately, as a PDF, care of Kathryn Stein (kathryn.stein@ucop.edu) by the extended deadline - April 19, 2024, at 5pm.
For more information, feel free to contact the Academic Assembly Council Program Committee:
- Daniela Bruno, dfbruno@ucanr.edu
- Safeeq Khan, msafeeq@ucmerced.edu
- Keith Nathaniel, kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu
- Susie Kocher, sdkocher@ucanr.edu
- Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, nmarshall@ucanr.edu
- Giuliano Carneiro Galdi, gcgaldi@ucanr.edu
For more information about Academic Assembly Council, visit its website at http://ucanr.edu/sites/UCAAC.
University-sponsored identity theft protection for faculty and staff
As part of the university's ongoing commitment to the well-being and security of its valued faculty and staff, UC will provide fully paid comprehensive identity theft protection for employees and their dependent children under age 18 through Experian.
Enrollment is automatic, but you must set up your account to take advantage of the program. On April 1, 2024, you will receive a welcome email from Experian with a personalized link to access the Experian portal and complete your account set-up. A Social Security number and date of birth will be required for account activation.
Key features of the identity theft protection program, effective April 1, 2024, include:
- Credit monitoring, reports and scores: Receive credit reports, scores and real-time alerts for any changes to your credit report, helping you detect potential identity theft
- Identity theft insurance and restoration services: Up to $1 million of identity theft insurance and 24/7 restoration services in the unfortunate event of an identity theft
- Dark web and proactive monitoring: Active scans of the dark web and many other databases for any compromised personal information
- Device protection and online privacy: A suite of privacy tools to help defend your digital data across all your devices
- Digital financial management – Financial tools and personalized insights to help you achieve your credit and financial goals
Visit the Identity Theft Protection Plan page on UCnet for more information.
UC is dedicated to helping you safeguard your personal/financial information and encourages you to take full advantage of this new benefit.
Webinars March 19-22
You are invited to attend an information session webinar the week of March 18. Please sign up for one of the sessions with the links below:
Experian Identity Theft Protection Overview for UC Faculty and Staff
- Tuesday, March 19, at 9 a.m. (PT) attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9068859204436596824
- Tuesday, March 19, at 12 p.m. (PT) attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4916036771675503196
- Wednesday, March 20, at 3 p.m. (PT) attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4493690166190945626
- Friday, March 22, at 10 a.m. (PT) attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1708672293011095644
Attendance is limited to the first 3,000 attendees; the sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend. Experian will provide an overview of the program features, a platform demo and helpful reminders.
Your campus benefit team can assist you with additional questions or concerns. Thank you for your dedication to the University of California.
Resources
Ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/other-benefits/identity-protection.html
Thank you,
UCPath
(855) 982-7284
Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
ucpath.universityofcalifornia.edu
Duo login screen change coming April 7
Dear ANR Community,
Duo, UC ANR's multi-factor authentication app, is updating its login screen on April 7, 2024. UC Davis made this same Duo prompt change late last year.
What is changing?
• The new Duo login prompt starting Sunday, April 7, 2024.
• There is no action required on your part as this change will happen automatically. The Duo app does not require an update.
As a security protection, IT is reminding you to approve only login attempts that you have initiated and reject authentication requests that you are not expecting.
The Duo login prompt will change from this:
To this:
If needed, the "Other options" link allows you to choose other options as needed (e.g., using a texted code or a bypass code).
Depending on which option you chose, Duo may ask if the device you just used to authenticate is yours. Only click "Yes, this is my device" if the device is not shared with others. Clicking yes will prevent Duo from asking again on your device for 14 days.
Jaki Hsieh Wojan
Chief Information Security Officer
Text scam impersonates ANR colleague
A text phishing (smishing) scam has been hitting ANR employees' phones. This scammer attempts to impersonate Greg Gibbs, ANR's Executive Director of Development Services. The texts originate from a 530 number and at first appear legitimate.
I am sharing Ethan Ireland's experience and thought process. Thank you, Ethan.
Ethan received this text:
From (530) 646-XXXX
Hello Ethan, Let me know if you get
my text and if you are in office.
Greg Gibbs
Executive Director, Development Services
UCANR
Ethan told me, “I was initially taken off-guard and revealed some information I regret having revealed: I confirmed *who* I am, what my schedule is. However, I have gotten cold calls and texts from my colleagues who often have a (530) area code.
The first clue that made me suspicious is the syntax and grammar of the 'Ok sounds great' text, particularly the line '…you are to keep this confidential till the surprise will be done.' This put my back up, because I've gotten a lot of scam SMSes over the years, and they typically have mangled grammar and syntax. However, since there are some folks in the ANR team for whom English is a second language, I simply regarded this as a 'red flag' that would make me want to proceed with caution & get extra verification.
I thought I would keep them talking, and sure enough, their next message was asking me to get Apple gift cards, which I know is a common scammer tactic to get someone to get money to them in a way that is unrecoverable for the sender. I stated my concerns and brought up Greg Gibbs' page on the ANR directory. They responded with outrage — but I know emotional manipulation is a key part of social engineering, especially when impersonating someone higher up in hierarchy. By this point, I was about 95% sure it was a scam.
Ethan then tried to call Greg directly on his ANR phone and left a voicemail. Once he started pushing on verification, the scammer went silent.
This just one of manysmishing messages that went out recently. Great job to Ethan and many others who spotted this as a scam!
If you receive an unexpected text, verify its authenticity before providing information or taking action. If you receive a smishing messages purportedly from an ANR employee, report the message to ANR IT at help@ucanr.edu.
For more information on smishing and other social engineering methods, visit https://it.ucanr.edu/Security/Social_Engineering.
Jaki Hsieh Wojan
Chief Information Security Officer
Update on Aggie Enterprise Oracle Financial System rollout
Dear Colleagues,
Within our new financial system, the new Chart of Accounts accounting structure and Oracle software are vastly different from our old structure and systems. During the transition and adjustment period, the Aggie Enterprise team is actively managing resolutions to issues. I have heard from many business users and ANR staff members that these issues can be stressful and frustrating, and I am grateful for everyone's patience and the collaborative efforts of our teams as they continue working through the transition. I'd like to thank each of you for your efforts to learn the new accounting structure and adapt to business processes within the new financial system, on top of your regular duties. There are considerable changes to our business processes to comply with UCOP requirements, and we will overcome these challenges with time.
Ongoing support
The UC ANR Aggie Enterprise support team members have been working diligently with business managers and fiscal officers to support, train and resolve issues for all our units during the transition. The team hosts office hours 1 to 3p.m. Monday through Thursday (through March 28), and holds weekly team meetings to discuss challenges, share knowledge and collaborate on solutions.
Immediate next steps
The UC ANR Aggie Enterprise team is providing ongoing support via tailored training sessions to target audiences to support them through this adjustment phase. UC ANR Aggie Enterprise team leads are working together with business partners and managers to address and resolve these transitional issues. If you encounter challenges with transaction processes, reports or any other aspect of the new system, please work with your business manager and/or fiscal officer as they partner with UC ANR Aggie Enterprise leads and co-leads to build innovative solutions to address concerns. If you need to escalate an urgent matter, please contact our UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Project Manager Raghuvir Goradia at rjgoradia@ucanr.edu.
Expectations over the next few months
Since this is a significant project with extensive impact, working through issues and reengineering business processes will take several months. The functional team will work throughout the coming months to identify and correct issues as they arise, and to ensure that all issues are addressed and processes set by the end of this fiscal year, June 30, 2024.
Thank you again for your perseverance, patience and hard work. We are committed to providing you with assistance as we work to optimize our financial structure and systems.
Sincerely,
Tu Tran
Associate Vice President, Business Operations