MEETING SUMMARY, JOINT POLICY COUNCIL MEETING, MARCH 25, 1998

MEETING SUMMARY, JOINT POLICY COUNCIL MEETING, MARCH 25, 1998

This business meeting of the Joint Policy Council on Agriculture and Higher Education (JPC) was held in the Conference Room at the UC Sacramento Office, 1130 K Street, Suite 340, on March 25, 1998 from 12:15 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Attending: Warren Baker, Cal Poly SLO; W. R. "Reg" Gomes, UC; Steve Olson for Robert Agrella, Santa Rosa JC; Gordon Rausser for Robert Berdahl, UC Berkeley; Mark Burrell, JPC Advisory Board Chair; Manuel Esteban, CSU Chico; Tom Nussbaum, CCC; Ray Orbach, UC Riverside; Wayne Bidlack for Robert Suzuki, Cal Poly Pomona; Larry Vanderhoef, UC Davis; John Welty, CSU Fresno

Staff/others present: Steve Nation, UC; Claudia Reid, UC; John Gutierrez, JPC Coordinator.

Agenda: A copy of the final agenda is attached. A detailed meeting packet sent a few days before the meeting provided background on each item.

Meeting Summary

I. JPC Reorganization: As a matter of consensus, the JPC members agreed with the comments and accepted the recommendations made by the JPC Advisory Board at their October 2, 1997 meeting. Thus the JPC made the following decisions, in accord the Advisory Board recommendations:

A) To refocus efforts--and the committee system--around issues that are cross-cutting and critical to the future competitiveness of the agriculture industry in California. In the future, the JPC intends to create and fund task forces--which are temporary by nature--composed of experts on the specific issue they are to address. The task force’s charge may lie in research, proposing a research program, forwarding recommendations on policy or for initiatives they believe will help resolve the matter at hand; the charge will be determined by the nature of the issue they are to address.

1) Thus the previous JPC committees on Instruction, Research, Outreach, and the ad-hoc committee on Natural Resources are dissolved.

a. In order to preserve and build on the work of the former JPC Instruction Committee, the JPC created the new Committee on Cooperation in Education, to be composed of all the agriculture deans of the JPC member institutions. They were given the following charge: Among those issues that are primarily matters of cooperation among the educational institutions themselves, to recommend to the JPC the creation of task forces for those issues which promise to yield real, measurable progress from the JPC’s support and funding. And, if the JPC elects to create the task forces, to committee shall identify for them who should serve on those task forces. Obvious issues for the committee’s consideration are the related issues of articulation and transfer among institutions, systems and ag programs.

b. To ensure that the JPC’s efforts do not duplicate but complement the work of the Agricultural Issues Center (AIC) and the California Food and Fiber Future Project (CF3), the JPC will monitor their progres and maintain lines of communication with those projects, through contacts among themselves, the advisory board, and through the JPC Coordinator.

c. To capture a broader base of input from the agricultural community on the priority issues around which the JPC shall form task forces, and to increase awareness of and communication with the agriculture industry, the JPC will solicit the input of agriculture industry leaders throughout the state, working through the JPC Advisory Board, and starting with the leading ag industry associations. The JPC plans to do this in part by hosting a conference to bring together industry leaders with agricultural deans, department chairs and professors from all three systems in the fall of 1998. The meeting’s purpose will be to provide a forum around issues of concern to the agriculture industry, and for exchange of information on current and future efforts to address those issues with the JPC’s support. The meeting will be patterned after the successful annual "Deans and Department Chairs Meeting" hosted annually by the Friends of Agricultural Extension in the Fresno area.

B) The JPC members made financial commitments to back up their plans to reorganize, solicit broad input from the ag industry, and address important issues for California agriculture. Those commitments are as follows.

1) The JPC reiterated their commitment to share equitably the cost of funding the JPC coordinator position and other expenses of the JPC for the current fiscal year. They directed that a letter of billing be sent to each of them to collect their share of the $67,000 budgeted.

2) The JPC agreed to provide a budget of $200,000 for the 1998-99 fiscal year, and to divide the amount equally between each higher education system, $66,667 each system. As part of the agreement, the JPC agreed to accept two more community college presidents among its membership, as appointed by Chancellor Nussbaum, to bring the community colleges into equal representation on the JPC. The $200,000 includes the coordinator position and expenses for all its activities including, specifically, the work of JPC task forces to be created.

3) The JPC agreed to take the steps necessary to seek foundation grants to augment their budget. Mark Burrell accepted leadership for this initiative.

C) JPC Mission Statement: The JPC to date had never formally adopted a mission statement. In hopes of providing clarity as to the JPC’s purpose and a consistent message for external audiences, the JPC agreed to adopt a mission statement, along with an accompanying vision statement and brief description of the JPC. At this meeting, the JPC considered a set of eight alternative mission statements prepared by the Coordinator in consultation with the JPC Co-Chairs and others. Instead of choosing one outright, the JPC c hose to combine a few elements and directed the coordinator to re-write the mission statement accordingly. He was then to fax it to the JPC members for final approval.

D)Advisory Board replacements: In January, the Coordinator sent a letter to all Advisory Board members at the direction of A.B. Chair Mark Burrell. Through the letter, the A.B. members were given the opportunity to discontinue their service to the board if they felt that other commitments precluded their participation. Eight of 25 members chose to discontinue their service. To replace them, the Coordinator requested nominations from the JPC members prior to the meeting, and from their responses assembled a slate of nominees for their consideration. At the meeting, further nominations were made, and the JPC chose to delegate responsibility for selecting and contacting the eight replacements from among the list compiled to the JPC Co-Chairs Baker and Gomes and A.B. Chair Burrell.

II. Collaborations with related organizations: This was an information item, bringing the JPC members up to date on activities of and interactions with two related projects, the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), and the California Food and Fiber Future (CF3) Project.

A) CCST: As part of its Keck Science and Technology Infrastructure Initiative, the CCST hosted a workshop November 18-19, 1997 in Riverside to assess the state of technology in agriculture. The JPC was a partner with the CCST in preparing this workshop, and it was attended by JPC Co-Chair Reg Gomes and JPC Coordinator Gutierrez. The January 1998 issue of the CCST Report newsletter summarized the workshop. Copies were distributed at the meeting.

B) CF3: An update on the CF3 project was provided. Many of the JPC member institutions are taking part in the CF3 project, including Cal Poly SLO, CSU Fresno, CSU Chico, Santa Rosa JC, UC Berkeley and UC Davis. Participating institutions have been conducting visioning activities since October 1997, which will culminate in a statewide Capstone Conference in June 1998. The visioning activities and Capstone Conference lay the groundwork for a second, implementation phase of the project. It also provides background for the new Kellogg Leadership for Institutional Change (LINC) Initiative, in which some JPC members will participate, notably Chancellor Vanderhoef of UC Davis, who has a leadership role in California for this new initiative.

Briefly discussed was the suggestion of Dean Barbara Schneeman of UC Davis to have Steve Bosserman of Workspan, Inc., provide a presentation on the Kellogg initiatives (CF3 and LINC). Bosserman, a consultant who helps organizations manage change, works closely with the Kellogg Foundation in the implementation of these two initiatives. The level of contact between the Kellogg projects and JPC was deemed adequate, and therefore using Mr. Bosserman’s time and JPC resources to bring him to a meeting was deemed unnecessary.

III. Business Items

• The JPC set the date of May 7, 1998 for the next meeting of the JPC Advisory Board. This near date was selected in light of the necessity of speeding plans for the fall conference the JPC wishes to host. The meeting will be held on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus.

•The JPC set a June target for the first meeting of the new Committee on Cooperation in Education. They directed that the Coordinator send a letter to the committee members (ag deans) informing them of the relevant JPC actions taken, the new committee, etc.