Integrated Management of the Arizona Experiment Station and the Arizona Cooperative Extension System

CALS Executive Council's Integrated Management of the Arizona Experiment Station and the Arizona Cooperative Extension System

We recognize the following:

  • That the Arizona Experiment Station and especially the Arizona Cooperative Extension System have always been tools for the state’s social and economic development.
  • In the 21st century the Cooperative Extension System will evolve to become an even more important model then it was when it was invented in and for the 20th century.
  • The classical Cooperative Extension System model is being copied into areas that have no historical link with agriculture (e.g. health care delivery).
  • That the Cooperative Extension System is embracing economic development, engineering and biomedical/life sciences areas in addition to agronomic ones.
  • That not only is there increasing integration between what in the 20th century became known to be separate academic disciplines; but also that these artificial discipline constructs are now outliving their usefulness and so we are entering a new era when new technologies allow, and social and economic needs require, that the boundaries between basic, applied and translational science must disappear—and 21st century Cooperative Extension System scientists must be leaders in multi- and trans-disciplinarity and can be central to this change.
  • That the Cooperative Extension System represents the archetype for applied STEM education.
  • That the Cooperative Extension System faculty is extremely important and significant in future CALS research growth.
  • Just as the world has become a single global marketplace we must take advantage of technologies to remove the challenges raised by distance from the way we view Cooperative Extension System state-wide delivery.
  • The Cooperative Extension System must maintain its responsiveness to rural Arizona and must build its relevance to urban Arizona.

Guided by the above, as well as by the legislative intents of the Hatch and Smith-Lever acts, CALS has the following administrative leadership and management paradigms:

  • Authority, responsibility and accountability for leading and managing all AZ Experiment Station resources, which includes all AZ agricultural centers, resides with the Experiment Station director and parts of this authority, responsibility and accountability may be delegated directly from the Experiment Station director to Experiment Station resident directors. Final authority for the Experiment Station budget is delegated to the AZ Experiment Station director.
  • Authority, responsibility and accountability for Cooperative Extension System program leadership and management, which includes all delivery and research as well as related personnel, resides with the Cooperative Extension System director. Parts of this authority, responsibility and accountability may be delegated directly from the Cooperative Extension System Director to county extension directors. Final authority for the Cooperative Extension System budget is delegated to the Cooperative Extension System director. The AZ Experiment Station director shall consult with the Cooperative Extension System director when making budget or other management decisions that affect faculty and staff with Cooperative Extension System appointments. Final authority for the Experiment Station budget rests with the AZ Experiment Station director.
  • The AZ Experiment Station director shall consult with the Cooperative Extension System director when making budget or other management decisions that affect faculty and staff with Cooperative Extension System appointments. Final authority for the Experiment Station budget rests with the AZ Experiment Station director. Cooperative Extension System specialists are all to have academic appointments in academic departments and so will be line-managed and reviewed by main-campus department heads: this requires that all main-campus department heads be extremely proactive about their departments’ Cooperative Extension missions and that all Cooperative Extension System faculty be extremely proactive about working with their departments. Cooperative Extension System faculty’s programs will also be reviewed by the Cooperative Extension System director, who, in addition, will also review departmental Cooperative Extension System programs as a whole by way of review of departmental programs as a whole. The Cooperative Extension System director has the ability to move resources within the Cooperative Extension System to best serve the college and our stakeholders.