What can we do for UC today?

Abstract

limit impacts of runoff (page 26), steps to reduce disease in pine trees (page 31), breeding Verticillium resistance in strawberries (page 37) and wine-grape trends (page 42). At the same time, UC ANR research and extension do not stand alone. They are inseparable from and dependent on higher education and the state funding that supports it. UC President Mark Yudof and UC ANR Vice President Dan Dooley are asking advocates to contact decision-makers and to support funding for higher education and ANR research and extension. We have all benefited from previous investments in research and education. Those of us working at UC have the privilege of contributing to and earning a living from the returns on that investment. A few weeks ago, a very upset UC student confronted a senior UC administrator with the words, “What have you, personally, done today to support state funding for UC?” We are unable to get that student’s question, and the financial challenges he faces, out of our minds. We can not help but ask, “What have we done today?” If you value the research published in California Agriculture journal and the difference that UC ANR makes, we hope you will become part of this effort, called “UC for California” (http://www.ucforcalifornia.org). For those of us who work at UC, we face a difficult transition — from a time when the state’s citizens and our political representatives valued higher education as an investment in the future, and provided access by augmenting the budget with state dollars — to a new political reality where higher education is expected to be much more self-supporting. No longer can we assume that the voters or politicians recognize the value to the state, and to them as individuals, from investing in higher education. Today, and into the foreseeable future, an essential component of each of our tasks is to make visible the bounty of benefits that accrue from UC ANR activities. Those of us who work at UC must count on each other to remove any mystery about what we do, and demonstrate the value provided through ANR and UC in every conversation, presentation and activity. If we do not tell the story it will not be heard. Strategic advocacy as an organized component of our jobs will play a larger role in our future and we must all become involved. Editorial