COUNTY DIRECTOR MEETING REPORT:
County Extension Directors met in Santa Cruz County about 10 days ago. Dean Fish was an excellent host. Jim Sprinkle was elected new chair of CEDs with Darcy Dixon elected as secretary/chair-elect. Human Resources talked about best management practices, Barron Orr discussed "best practices" for agents and specialists working together, Sharon Megdal provided an overview of WRRC, and Gene Sander discussed the budget and hiring situation. The following is a short summary of action items. 1) a document on CED expectations/position description was reviewed and approved and is being put on line; 2) the Extension context statement was reviewed, adopted and will be put on line (this document describes what Extension is and does to educate people on University peer review committee and for other situations where helpful); 3) CEDs indicated that staff in-service was a top priority and they would help cover the costs (staff in-service will be held this Fall); 4) Human Resources reviewed the market situation of county staff in relation to state and county government and recommended that we hire more near the midpoint of the range; 5) based on the specialist group recommendations and CED support, meetings will be held this Fall to increase awareness and knowledge between agents and specialists; 6) discussed the new policy on volunteer background checks (presented March 6 in a Breeze statewide conference); 7) discussed each county handling credit cards because of volunteer background check and other business (we are trying to stay away from handling cash in the counties); 8) discussed and approved, effective July 1 and in accordance with University policy, faculty may charge Professional Association and Journal fees and dues to their appropriate account (we are still working with UA on appropriate language for this policy charge and an official policy statement will come later this Spring); 9) discussed the new budget allocation to the counties (formula) and the 3% budget cuts; and 10) outlined the new hiring plan with the new state funding (see below). Good meeting, good discussions, good food.
FOCUS ON FACULTY:
Congratulations to Kristine Uhlman and her team who won the Award of Distinction for the Communicator Awards group (an international competition that recognizes communication in video, web sites, etc.) for their
NEMO video, "Stormwater Management from a Watershed Perspective: Extreme Western Climates." The video production team included the University of Washington (Pullman) Murrow School of Broadcasting; Jan Seago, executive producer from the University of Idaho (Moscow) and Land Grant Liaison for USEPA Region 10; and included segments from both the state of Alaska and Arizona.
Correction: Last week we welcomed Stephanie Shank to our ranks but mistakenly reported her as an Associate Agent -- she is actually an Assistant Agent.
UPDATE ON DECISION PACKAGE NEW HIRES:
We have had some questions on hiring county level and ag center positions as a result of the new, permanent funding from the legislature. Following is an update:
Agent Positions:
- Stephanie Shank - hired as new 4-H youth development assistant agent in Yavapai County and began work on February 22.
- Cynthia Warzecha - hired as new Natural Resources assistant agent, Yavapai and Coconino counties begins on April 19.
- 2 ANR area assistant/associate agent positions, serving Pinal, Pima and Maricopa Counties are moving forward. Rick Gibson heads a single committee. One position is targeted for an agronomist, the other for IPM. Positions were re-advertised recently and are available online here: Maricopa and Pinal. Interview dates have been scheduled for March 19 and 30.
- ANR area assistant/associate agent, serving Graham, Greenlee and Cochise Counties will be focused on water and natural resources. There is an active search and they have 5 or 6 candidates. Randy Norton chairs the search committee. Interview dates are currently being scheduled.
- ANR/Horticulture assistant/associate agent, Yuma County. Job posted online. Currently have 5 applicants. Kurt Nolte is chair of search committee. Interviews have been scheduled for April 19.
- 2 area assistant/associate agent positions (Community Resource Development), serving southern and northern Arizona, based in Sierra Vista and Yavapai County. Primary purposes of these agents are to: 1) understand and ultimately model the regional environmental, economic and social changes that will accompany rural transformation in Arizona; 2) design programs that explain the outcomes of alternative models of transformation so that stakeholders can understand the likely outcome of policy alternatives; and 3) work with stakeholders and UA faculty to develop research programs that address unresolved high-priority issues. A search committee has just been formed and the position is in the process of being posted. Positions were freed up because of faculty transfers. Darcy Dixon is moving to Santa Cruz County where she will become the CED as of July 1; Dean Fish has become an area agent. Juanita Waits is moving into the Navajo County CED position as of July 1; Steve Campbell has become an area agent. Melvina Adolf has become acting CED in Greenlee County with her primary responsibility to Greenlee.
Specialist Positions:
- Cropping Systems Agronomist (75% Extension, 25% Research), Plant Sciences position based at MAC. Bill McCloskey is search committee chair.
- Water Quality Specialist, focused on urban interface, based at MAC. This position has been up since first of the year. Kevin Fitzsimmons is search committee chair. This position is partially funded initially from TRIF funds.
- Specialist - Precision Agriculture, based at MAC. Committee consists of Randy Norton, Tom Clark (ARS), Pete Waller (ARS), Barron Orr, Ed Martin, Bob Roth.
- Mechanized Ag Specialist, based in Yuma, targeting vegetables/engineering. Committee headed by Kitt Farrell-Poe.
Additional Positions:
We also have active searches on the CED position in Maricopa (vice-Farlin) and the 4-H youth and family position in Graham County (vice-Willis). The Assistant Director for 4-H Youth Development and the Urban Horticulture positions for Maricopa, which were scheduled to be filled this year, are on hold until we know more about next years budget. Other vacant positions will be considered in next years hiring plan.
CALS & UA PROGRAMS RANK IN TOP 5 OF NEW FACULTY SCHOLARLY INDEX:
New rankings based on faculty scholarly activity place several University of Arizona programs - including those in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) - among the best in the country. The recently released Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, a new means of assessing doctoral programs at research universities, ranks 354 institutions and more than 7,300 doctoral programs. The rankings measure the productivity of individual faculty members, based on publications completed, including books and journal articles published and cited, federal grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards received. "In my view, faculty productivity is an excellent objective measure of the value of a department, program, etc. to the university," said Eugene Sander, CALS dean and vice president for university outreach. "Since the ranking depends upon the papers published and grants received, I would also argue concerning the quality of those programs as you do not get grants in this competitive environment or publish papers in the best journals if you aren't a quality program." The index ranked the scholarly productivity of faculty in the areas of agronomy and crop sciences as number one among large research universities. "We are proud that the CALS was very prominent in the national rankings," said Colin Kaltenbach, CALS vice dean and director of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. "Productivity in our doctoral programs emphasizing agronomy and crop sciences ranked first, entomology ranked second, and our nutrition doctoral program placed tenth." In the broader category of agricultural sciences, the UA was rated the top program (#1) in the country based on faculty productivity. "It is my goal that we will be one of America's 10 best public research universities," said UA President Robert Shelton. "These measurements of scholarly productivity tell us that we are well on our way." The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index is created by Academic Analytics, a company partially owned by the State University of New York at Stony Brook.