CALS Governance—An Overview


Special Nature of Colleges of Agriculture


Colleges of agriculture (like CALS) in each land-grant university operate differently than other colleges on campus. While each university is different, the basic process is the same. These processes are characterized by the following:

A three-part programmatic focus: an Academic Programs unit (for on-campus teaching), an Agricultural Experiment Station (focusing on research on- and off-campus - through agricultural centers and cooperative ventures with other organizations), and a Cooperative Extension unit (focusing on off-campus education that is based on research done here and elsewhere).

College units located throughout the state: The "cooperative" in Cooperative Extension means a three-way partnership - the University of Arizona (through CALS), the county, and the US Department of Agriculture. Each county has at least one Cooperative Extension office and some have several. There are six Indian reservations with Cooperative Extension offices. There are nine agricultural centers in the state. See locations of county offices and Indian Reservation offices or agricultural centers. Each county extension office completes an annual report for its county board of supervisors, and each department and each agricultural center prepares an annual report for the university.

Cooperation with US Department of Agriculture: A portion of the budget for the college and county Cooperative Extension offices comes from the US Department of Agriculture via the Arizona Legislature (it passes through the legislature as part of the college appropriated budget). Other USDA state and national partners are described at the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) website. This partnership requires the CALS research and cooperative extension efforts to operate through a Plan of Work, annual reporting of activities (through the Annual Report of Accomplishments and Results, as well as individual reports of each cooperating faculty member's research effort), filing of Impact Statements on our program results, and working with other colleges of agriculture in a cooperative and sharing of information process. Essentially all this information for each state is available through the USDA NIFA website.

Cooperation with other colleges of agriculture: CALS cooperates particularly with other colleges of agriculture in the western region, but also nationally. These efforts include sharing of printed information, joint research projects, and cooperative research projects (where information is shared through meetings and publications).

Governance in CALS


The college's primary governance method is through a five-member Executive Council formed from the major administrative areas of the college (Dean, Vice Dean and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Associate Dean for Cooperative Extension, and Associate Dean for Administrative Services).


The CALS Strategic Plan includes six areas: Environment, Water, Land, Energy, and Natural Resources; Plant, Insect, and Microbe Systems; Human Nutrition, Health and Food Safety; Animal Systems; Children, Youth, Families, and Community; Consumers, Marketplace, Trade, and Economics. The college revises its Strategic Plan periodically with participation from the Dean's Advisory Committee and the various advisory councils.

In addition, the college has advisory councils for the major employee groups in the college (faculty, staff, appointed professionals, students), administrative groups (county extension directors and campus unit administrators), and an overall Dean's Advisory Committee. While the specific purposes of these groups vary, they all have the responsibility for reviewing appropriate information and providing feedback on a timely basis. They also all have the responsibility for raising issues where the Executive Council should be notified or the topics discussed. These councils are defined in more detail elsewhere. Key best practices in governance for the university with annotations on CALS efforts are listed here.

Communication in CALS


The Weekly Bulletin is an electronic publication issued to all college employees with content submitted by anyone. This is the method by which all employees are informed of important changes or timely information of interest related to the college. Anyone can submit an entry and previous issues are archived. College news and announcements and a calendar of events are featured by the CALS website. Administrative deadlines and other events can also be found on the administrative calendar. Two college-wide faculty/staff meetings are held each year. Individual departments often share minutes of their faculty or staff meetings with members of the department. Cooperative Extension publishes Tuesday Morning Notes - a publication that keeps all those with extension appointments informed about happenings of special interest to them. Opportunities periodically are given for feedback on specific issues (via an anonymous web form posted in the CALS Weekly Bulletin). The college has a Communications Team to improve communications.

University of Arizona Shared Governance and Best Practices as Practiced in CALS


The University of Arizona developed its shared governance process for faculty in 1997 with an extension to other employee groups in 1998 (see the shared governance website for more information). The best practices for shared governance developed by university are listed with annotations they are implemented by CALS.