Posts Tagged: dooley

VP Allen-Diaz promises to wear bees, eat insects for scholarship donations

Celebrities, UC employees, students and people from all across California are tapping into their social media networks and making promises to raise money for UC student scholarships.

VP Barbara Allen-Diaz has made her own daring promise. If she can raise $2,500 by Halloween, Allen-Diaz promises to wear a colony of bees, highlighting the importance of pollinators to the health of agriculture and the planet. If she raises $5,000, she promises to eat protein-rich insects, a plentiful and low-cost source of protein critical to meeting the world’s growing food demand.

Assistant VP Tu Tran is making a promise on the VP’s promise. “If Barbara does the bee thing, I will donate $500,” Tu said. “If she eats the scrumptious larvae meal, I will donate another $500, for a total of $1,000.”

To see VP Allen-Diaz’s promise and to donate, visit http://promises.promiseforeducation.org/vpanr. Feel free to share this link on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to raise money for UC students.

Norm Gary, professor emeritus in the Department of Entomology at UC Davis, has graciously agreed to wrangle the bees. Mark Hoddle, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, has enthusiastically volunteered to help round up some larvae and maybe crickets for her to eat.

Currently, some regents and all 10 campus chancellors have made promises. Governor Jerry Brown promises to host a "Brown Bag" lunch at his office in Sacramento with a student from each UC campus if people donate $10,000 on his promise page.

To see promises made by Jamie Foxx, Dan Dooley, Bob Sams and others, visit http://www.promiseforeducation.org.  The campaign ends Oct. 31.

Promise for Education is a UC systemwide fundraising effort for undergraduate scholarships. All funds raised will provide direct scholarships and grants to undergraduate students from California with a demonstrated financial need. For more information about the Promise for Education campaign, see http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/30065.

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Pursuing our Strategic Vision

Dear Colleagues,

I am honored to be asked by Dan Dooley and Mark Yudof to lead ANR, which has been my academic home for the past 25 years.

Over the last three years, the Division has endured dramatic changes:

• $5.2 million permanent budget cut
• $4 million in unfunded mandates
• $4 million cut in temporary funds
• Another $3.2 million cut FY 2011-12 to our permanent budget, plus unfunded liabilities including funding for merits, our portion of the retirement system re-start, and funding represented staff agreements.

We have survived by using our Strategic Vision as a guide for making budget cuts, largely protecting academics and programs; consolidating administrative units across regions, statewide programs, and competitive grants programs; and finding new homes for units that had been part of our Division for years.

But more importantly, we are using the Strategic Vision as our blueprint to rebuild for the future.

We are moving forward based on the strength and long-term vision of our academics and staff, and our collective belief that what we do in the research, education and public service continuum is imperative to the future success of the people of California.

ANR is composed of people who have extraordinary and diverse expertise and we are dispersed all over the state. But we share a passion in our belief that we can improve the quality of life for Californians.

I feel privileged to work with incredibly dedicated, hard-working, mission-oriented people who have borne the brunt of these cuts and still come to work motivated every day because they believe in ANR, the University of California, and the programs that they support and deliver.

In the next few years, together we will find ways to make our ANR continuum stronger, bridging the differences and distances between us. We will continue to build multi-county partnerships, focusing on those county relationships that make the most sense to combine. We will continue to re-invest in our academics, protecting funds saved from retirements, and hiring new advisors and specialists. We will continue to support our programs through our consolidated business services offices and program support unit, and we will make sure that the support is relevant, timely and sufficient to ensure that our programs thrive.

I look forward to working with all of you, as we work collectively to ensure UC’s Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension system accomplishments continue to make California the envy of the world.

Sincerely,

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Associate Vice President - Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Dooley announces changes in ANR leadership

Today (Sept. 15) UC Regents approved Barbara Allen-Diaz as Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources, effective Oct. 1. In a video message posted today, ANR VP Dan Dooley announces changes in his role in the UC Office of the President.

Appointed to lead the Division in January 2008, Dooley accepted the additional responsibilities of the Senior Vice President for External Affairs in November 2008, and has served since then in both roles.

After consultation with President Yudof and others at UCOP, the decision was made to restructure the Division's senior management to enhance ANR's representation within the University. Dooley will retain the title of Senior Vice President and continue to be involved in the strategic direction of ANR as a "Senior Advisor to the President for Agriculture and Natural Resources."

Dooley explains his new roles within UCOP and ANR and the future for the Division in this 3:22-minute video.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

LA Times reports on state ag schools' budget woes

College agriculture programs will likely rely increasingly on public and private partnerships, UC ANR vice president Dan Dooley told the Los Angeles Times for an article on funding cuts to the state's preeminent agricultural education programs.

The article, which appears on the front page of the Times' website today, focused on Cal Poly Pomona, Fresno State and UC ag programs. State support for agricultural and natural resources at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Riverside has dropped 15 to 20 percent in the last three years. At UC ANR, Dooley said, dozens of administrative and support positions have been eliminated, research has been cut, and some departments within colleges have been eliminated or consolidated.

Dooley expressed concern about the repercussions of reduced public investment in agricultural research and education.

"There's an enormous relationship between public investment in agricultural research and farm productivity," Dooley was quoted. "If we're going to play a significant role in meeting worldwide demand, including adjusting to climate change, we're going to have to enhance productivity.... California has always been the leader."

Times reporter Carla Rivera wrote that some of the state's ag schools are looking for creative ways to boost their budgets. At Fresno State and Cal Poly, ag departments are expanding beef, pork and wine sales to the public.

Fresno State is looking into growing its own animal feed to cut costs. The Pomona campus hosts a pumpkin festival, sells produce at local farmers markets and in the school's farm store, and is investing in higher quality horses, which are auctioned online for as much as $25,000. Cal Poly is also considering opening a petting zoo.

State funding cuts are striking deep at college agriculture programs in California.

Leadership notes about collaboration, budget and communication posted

An ANR leadership meeting was held June 28 at the UC Davis Activities & Recreation Center. In addition to the Executive Working Group, Strategic Initiative leaders, executive associate deans, county directors, statewide program directors, REC directors, and unit directors attended.

Dan Dooley, Barbara Allen-Diaz, Kay Harrison Taber, Bill Frost, Bob Sams and Don Klingborg gave updates on ANR’s budget and restructuring efforts that have been completed or are under way.

For the majority of the meeting, the participants formed break out groups to discuss four questions and brainstorm answers.

The four questions were:

1. How do we as ANR’s leadership catalyze the development of internal partnerships across the continuum and prevent silos from forming?
2. What changes not mentioned this morning do we need to consider to help preserve more of our budget for hiring positions?
3. Beyond the ANR Report and our weekly email updates, what can we do to more effectively communicate with you, ANR’s leadership team, and with the whole of ANR?
4. How do we better support you in your role of communicating with others in and outside of ANR?  What roles does each of us play in telling our story to achieve awareness, understanding and support?

Group responses from the brainstorm session were recorded by facilitators and are now posted at http://ucanr.org/files/117046.pdf. These brainstorming comments will be used to further develop and refine the Division's structure, procedures and communication practices.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

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