CTAHR College-Wide Conference 2002 - Communication Cards

Category: Dr. Dobelle

Question:
What is Dr. Dobelle’s vision of CTAHR? Tell us about President Dobelle—CTAHR’s relationship with the President; personal relationships; seamless programs among campuses; and more.

Response:
President Dobelle understands the importance of agriculture in Hawaii and the role the college plays in supporting agriculture. He is also aware of the Human Resource side of the college and role it plays in supporting families, youth and the apparel and merchandising segments of the economy. He does not have a specific vision of CTAHR but he expects colleges to have visions consistent with UH’s vision and strategic plans. Key elements of his vision are colleges’ involvement as economic drivers and engagement with communities. I believe CTAHR’s vision and strategic plan are very consistent with the UH’s.

Category: College Centennial in 2007

Question:
What/Who is planning great things for our college centennial in 2007?

Response:
A committee to plan the college’s centennial events has not been formed yet, but will be. We should develop plans to build up to our centennial celebration. One preliminary effort is to develop a calendar of college events to involve more alumni, emeritus faculty and friends with college events. The university will be planning activities for the centennial and the college should try to piggy back on the university plans to maximize our impact. I believe that the UH Foundation is planning on a campaign to coincide with the centennial celebrations.

Category: Resources

Question:
If tuition dollars are a major source of funding for the college, shouldn’t the need for sufficient numbers of high quality instructional faculty be a critical need?

Response:
Absolutely. The priority staffing plans developed by the departments and counties try to address the needs for instructional faculty as well as meeting the research and Extension needs of our stakeholders.

Question:
How do we mobilize constituencies, DOA and other State agencies to agri funding? E.g., GACC.

Response:
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture has about $500,000/year of the remaining GACC funds, and CTAHR receives the bulk of these funds. The only way that the level of funding will increase is if the Governor and legislature appropriates more funds for this purpose. From my dealings with the legislature these past two sessions, I don’t believe there are the funds or the willingness to appropriate the $6 million per year that was appropriated for agriculture during the peak of GACC funding. It would take significant work and time to convince the governor and legislature that increased funding for agriculture is necessary. A strong, unified voice must articulate the need for supporting agriculture. Much of my time this past year has been to develop a strong network to organize the necessary constituencies to articulate Hawaii’s need for a strong agriculture. This next election will be crucial in determining whether agriculture will be supported or not.

Question[s]:
(a) “Can do” attitude is important, but when no funding available, “No can do.” Many of us already give so much time and no $ compensation. We are committed! How to raise money? UH lottery? Can we charge for Extension Agent services? I.e., $________
for homeowner calls. At what rate?
We use lots of volunteers that help us save $.
(b) What’s up with “Gung Ho”? Shouldn’t it be mandatory for all to attend no matter “tenured” or not. If some learn change and applies it, those who are not aware can’t respond properly.

Response:
(a) Obtaining sufficient resources for the college to do its job is one of the most critical issues currently facing the college. Since 1995, we had our General Fund budget reduced by 25% ($5 million), we lost about 40 faculty positions and 100 total employees. After extensive discussions with the college leadership (associate deans, chairs, county administrators, directors), we decided that the college should hire as many faculty members as we can, since it is the faculty who teach students (which generates tuition revenue), and obtain grants and contributions from stakeholders. The result of this decision is that initially there are fewer resources for operating expenses like travel, supplies, equipment, etc. As the new and existing faculty generate revenue, resources will become available to fund operating expenses.

For Extension, charging for materials and workshops (e.g. Donna Ching’s leadership workshops) is allowed. Charging for an Extension Agent’s services like a consultant would be problematic and needs to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. We anticipate receiving a Department of Commerce grant to house the Hawaii Manufacturing Extension Program, which will be fee based, so we will have to develop guidelines to differentiate fee-based and non-fee-based services.

(b) “Gung Ho” was funded by Gaspro, whose intent was to fund the project on the revenue generated by sale of Gaspro products to the University of Hawaii. Sales did not materialize as expected and they decided to suspend the program. There were positive outcomes from the “Gung Ho” sessions, but the time commitment (one-half day per month for three years) and cost (at least $110,000 per year if we had to pay for the services) would be too much.

In general, I am reluctant to require people to attend professional development training, since most of these concepts must be internalized and if people are forced to attend there is little likelihood that there would be positive outcomes.

Question[s]:
(a) How do you prioritize faculty positions to be filled based on your analysis of critical needs?
(b) How do you prioritize faculty positions to be filled given your emphasis on need to compete successfully for extramural grants and need to attract more students to CTAHR?
(c) How do Extension Agents fit into CTAHR’s needs, because they don’t teach (usually) and they don’t compete successfully for large, extramural grants (usually)?

Response:
We have developed a Priority Staffing Process in which departments and counties prioritize their teaching, research and Extension staffing needs. The associate deans and I then decide on which positions to fill based on what we perceive to be the overall needs of the college. Of the 31 faculty positions filled or being filled, eight are extension agents and seven are extension specialists.

Question:
Faculty and staff in CTAHR work extremely hard to serve and improve the college, university, and state. Salaries are not high, and facilities and infrastructure support are not always the best. So, do you really feel that it is fair to criticize employees for not giving enough of their salary back to their employer?
Corporations offer employees stock options, but they do not ask employees to tithe part of their salary back to the employer as gifts.

Response:
My intent was not to be critical of the low level of faculty, staff, and alumni giving to the college, and I apologize to those who felt I was critical of them. I intended to convey to the college the opportunity for private giving as a source of revenue to the college. The college has done very little in this area and the low participation rate is indicative of this. People do not give if the opportunities are not clearly articulated and are asked to give. People also do not give if the people asking for a gift do not also feel committed to the program to also give. If we believe that the college is making a positive impact on the citizens of Hawaii and the students we serve are benefiting from our programs and that our stakeholders would be better served with additional resources, then we should also give to the college. I don’t believe that everyone in the college should or will give financially to the college, but I believe those who can give should seriously consider giving to the college if they feel this is a worthy cause.

Question[s]:
(a) Is there assurance from UH admin that if S-Funds increase, G-funds will not be reduced?
(b) Shouldn’t major effort be made to tap retirees—if they are most able/willing(?) to share/give?
(c) If faculty donate $ to the college, can funds be targeted?
(d) The Dean is to serve as an advisor to the state; how much has the Governor and the legislature taken advantage of this resource?
(e) In terms of responsiveness of Administrative Units, biggest criticism and opportunity for improvement would be a willingness to take risks.

Response:
(a) We have no indication that the UH administration will play a “shell game” with the S and G funds. However, desperate times may call for desperate measures and the only certainties in life appear to be death and taxes.
(b) Yes, we see retired faculty and staff as potential donors to the college.
(c) Yes, funds can be designated to departments and specific purposes within certain constraints by the UH Foundation to maintain its tax exempt status.
(d) I have had extensive consultations with key legislators and with members of the executive branch. I believe we have developed good, strong relationships with these groups.
(e) I agree that all units in the college should have a “can do” attitude as opposed to a “can’t do” attitude, and we need to take some risks to achieve this.

Question[s]:
(a) In the area of giving low end in faculty and staff, how can we expect to give when payroll is low, cost of living rises, and hands are out for donations? Catch 22! Many are not or barely making every day needs met.
(b) Business Partnerships—Why not develop more work-study programs for students in areas of study? E.g., Community clinics and Dietetic majors or FSHN majors, Vet medicine with pre-vet or ANSC majors.

Response:
(a) See response to similar question above.
(b) This is a good suggestion and I believe it is being implemented in several of the internships that are required for graduation.

Question:
If we, CTAHR, is a business, then how will you reward workers for meeting and exceeding established goals?

Response:
I am predisposed to a system that rewards people who consistently exceed mutually understood performance expectations. We need to be creative in finding ways to recognize meritorious accomplishment. The1% “merit” program is an attempt to recognize meritorious faculty members, but it has been somewhat problematic. Hopefully the process will be better defined with time and practice.

Question:
Faculty often contributes significant amounts to support travel, supplies, education materials, etc. A limitation has been a system that allows this without losing this money to someone else. Can we develop such a system?

Response:
The intent of this question is unclear to me. If it can be clarified, I would be glad to try to address it.

Question:
If we are to ask alumni to support us, what do we provide in return? All successful alumni organizations provide a reason to give funding to CTAHR—“a sense of belonging”

Response:
I agree. We plan to work closely with our Alumni Association to develop programs to increase interactions with our alumni. Opportunities at UH athletic events, open houses, field days, etc. are being considered.

Question:
How could CTAHR encourage students to come to CTAHR when the academic resource is depleted with faculty moves and not being replaced? This is fundamental to all the vision/strategy CTAHR wants.

Response:
We are filling critical teaching positions through the Priority Staffing process. I believe we have capacity to educate more students in the college’s programs with the exception of the FCS programs. Most of the ag programs are under enrolled and need to attract more students.

Question:
How do we balance increased needs for our service with declining resources?

Response:
Our resources are not declining. Since FY2000, our G funds have increased by $1 million, our S funds by $600,000, our grants and contracts by $ 4 million. The 2% reduction will take away $315,000 from our G funds, but that is still a net increase from FY2000. The major point of my talk was to increase the revenues to the college.

However, even if our revenues increase, there will never be enough resources to meet all our perceived needs. Thus, we need to continuously prioritize our services. That is why it is important to know our stakeholders’ needs through interactions with our Board of Advisors, legislators, governmental agencies, cooperators like UH Hilo, HARC and ARS, and organizations like the Farm Bureau and the Commodity Advisory Group.

Question:
In lieu of using college funds for merit awards, can other incentives like time off with pay be used?

Response:
We are not allowed to offer time off with pay as an incentive reward. However, we have offered travel, equipment and other assistance to deserving faculty.

Category: FCS

Question:
(Very Agriculture-oriented)
What about FCS Department and Youth Development? These are our future students.

Response:
FCS is an important department in the college and can play a major role in the college’s initiative to strengthen communities. However, the department is in transition. We are in the process of hiring a chair and filling critical positions in the department. Next spring, the department will undergo a CSREES review to assess the opportunities and directions for the department. The review consists of an extensive self-study to assess the department’s current situation and aspirations for the future. Then an external review team will be invited to visit the department to report their findings and suggestions. The college and department will collectively decide which suggestions to implement.

Question:
How will the college begin to address the needs of families, youth, children and community issues if you don’t have community development programs addressed as a critical need? Child developmental needs, family strengthening are critical to Hawai‘i’s future. So is an educated work force.

Response:
My intent in listing the college’s critical needs was to identify areas that the college is not sufficiently organized to address issues facing the state, not to list all the critical programs in the college. As I indicated in the previous question, the FCS self-study is envisioned to determine how to best serve the state’s community development needs i.e. we have an organizational structure to address this need. In contrast, I don’t feel we are sufficiently organized (we have the expertise, but not an structure/mechanism) to address the urgent needs of the livestock and landscape industries. If the Hawaii livestock industry collapses there will be serious economic and aesthetic consequences to the state. The potential benefits of forestry on our economy and environment have not been adequately addressed by the state and this is an opportunity area for the college. We are working with various segments of the landscape industry, but our visibility is not very high. The industry needs some help organizing itself into a cohesive industry voice and we need to also be organized to help them. If the college is seen as being critical to the success of the forestry and landscape industries, they will be very strategically important allies with agriculture to be strong supporters of the college. The need for a private giving campaign (college development) has been discussed.

Question:
In the areas of critical concern—landscape, forestry, etc.—no mention was made of families or the human resource issues. Are they not important to CTAHR?

Response:
See responses to previous questions.

Category: CES

Question:
How does CES fit with CTAHR? I feel swallowed up in my department. Their interests and goals are different from CES. CES doesn’t seem to have an identity.

Response:
Extension/outreach is a function or responsibility of the college just like teaching and research. The objective is to help clients learn new skills/information/concepts/etc. to help them be more successful/content/fulfilled/etc. The paradigm of the Cooperative Extension Service as a discrete organization with its own personnel and policies is no longer something supported in the college. The restructuring proposed in the Strategic Plan clearly supports this paradigm shift. With any philosophical change of this magnitude, the transition can be difficult. We need to continue to work toward assuring that all functions of the college (extension, research, teaching) are valued and supported by all units in the college.

Question:
We belong to Units now and have a County Administrator but who will push for our needs for infrastructure? (Especially for outer islands)

Response:
The County Administrators are responsible for advocating infrastructure needs of the counties. During the last request for addressing infrastructure needs, the counties, departments and administration received 25, 53 and 22% of the funds, respectively.

Category: Agri Business

Question:
Ag Business Partnerships: Will we recognize that MIFFs--multiple income farm families—are an existing ag business model? Everyone cannot be solely dependent on farm income.

Response:
MIFFs are a reality and the college should address their needs. However, the state also needs more agricultural enterprises that are economically viable entities to use the 100,000 or so acres of good agricultural land currently available.

Question:
Are there support/advisory services for graduating students for starting new agricultural businesses? Grants? Business planning? Land acquisition?

Response:
Some of these services are available but one needs to know where to look for these services. The Agribusiness Incubators concept that was considered by the legislature was intended to stimulate more agribusinesses by providing or referring people to the services mentioned in the question and others.

Question:
Isn’t advocating import substitution for basic commodities where we have little comparative advantage going to result in misallocating CTAHR’s resources away from areas where we can be competitive? Why would we ever want to take that path when we are part of the common U.S. market?

Response:
I don’t believe anyone, including the State Constitution is advocating total food self-sufficiency for the state. We need to find more items where we can have competitive advantages and try to produce these items. Our competitive advantage will be determined by a combination of price, quality and service. We already have examples where Hawaii grown products do support higher prices if the quality and/or service justify the price.

Category: Management

Question:
CTAHR has spent a lot of time and human capital to restructure the Academic Departments. What can be done to make the support functions of the college more facilitative? E.g., Business Office, (slow turn-around, nit picking, obstinate relationships with Department Secretaries)
PIO: Seems to serve Admin more than the faculty.
AAO: Provide better information to departments relative to assessment program.
Assist in instructional support, e.g., preparation of AV.

Response:
Burning issue groups were formed at the College Conference to begin addressing these issues. The ASAO has already begun to work with departments to develop assessment programs.

Question:
What stance should the college be taking in educating the community about biotechnology?

Response:
Dr. Ania Wieczorek has been hired as a Molecular Ecology and Biotechnology specialist to do this. She sent out an e-mail message on June 3 to announce workshop opportunities for CTAHR faculty and staff.

Question:
One way of measuring people values is to look and review their documents of governance. In our State Constitution, the value of “self-sufficiency” is expressed. What role do we play? Can it be achieved?

Response:
We need to do what we can to help the state be as self-sufficient as it can be within the current and future market and economic realities. I don’t think we can be totally self sufficient under current economic conditions. As the world’s population increases (50% increase in the next 30 to 50 years) and food and transportation cost increase, items currently not competitive may become competitive for us to produce. That is why it is critical that the state maintain its capacity (land, water, workforce, financing, etc.) to produce food into the future.

Question:
Businesses must make choices to remain competitive. They perpetually manage change. What is your strategy to manage change and make the strategic decisions for CTAHR so that we attain our goals?

Response:
Change happens, and it seems to happen at a increasing rate. Before one tries to manage change, the need for specific changes must be evaluated. Thus, having a strategic vision is important before attempting to manage change.

Question:
What are the 3 priority roles and responsibilities of top administration:

Dean
Associate Dean for Extension
Associate Dean for Research
Associate Dean for Instruction
Director of Administrative Services

These topic areas were “addressed.” Logical and nice words … action agenda?

Response:
The roles, responsibilities, accomplishments and plans for each of the administrators were presented during the recently completed assessments of the administrators. I hope you had a chance to view the material.

As I indicated at the conference, my focus will primarily be on issues external to the college. Strategically it is important that I be very visible with our external stakeholders, so their views are heard and the college’s issues are conveyed and understood by our stakeholders. It is also important that we begin to forge alliances with stakeholders that we have not historically had strong relationships (e.g. landscape and forestry industries, retail merchants, etc.). The recent history of the college is something we do not want to repeat i.e. the central administration was not supportive of the college and our external stakeholders were not prepared to dissuade the administration from decimating the college.

I would like to refer you to the college organization chart (CTAHR Organizational Chart), which depicts how I envision the dean’s office should function. The associate deans and I serve as the final decision makers of the college. I see the associate deans serving as my alter egos to make decisions that I would make if I were available. We obviously are not there yet, but the tenure of the group ranges from two years to six months, so some time and patience is necessary to make this work. I would also like to see more decision-making and empowerment vested in chairs, faculty and staff. This will require eliminating cumbersome approval processes and paperwork that does not add value to the decision-making process. I ask for your help in identifying these “bottle necks” and suggestions to eliminating them.

Question:
The purpose of the recently unveiled UH System Strategic Plan is “to create a framework that will clearly articulate our commitments and direction over the next 3/5/8 years” that will “serve as a guide for the development of unit plans that will proceed on a parallel course to the system plan.” A tentative timetable has been stated at the end of this year.
How does this relate/apply to CTAHR’s Strategic Plan and what is the future for our CTAHR Strategic Plan?

Response:
We have made significant progress in our strategic plan that was prepared for 1999 to 2004 (see Progress Report on our Strategic Plan on our CTAHR website http://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/ctahr2001/Admin/Dean/ProgressReport02.html). However, I think it would be in the college’s best interest to prepare a strategic plan that is consistent with the UH system and Manoa plans. I believe that vision and initiatives articulated in our current strategic plan is very consistent with the new UH plan, but some reorganizing and updating of specific goals are needed. I don’t expect the process to be as arduous as the development of the current Strategic Plan.

Question[s]:
We discuss “a shared vision” … Do we, will we have an action agenda—an implementation plan? To enable translating our vision and goals into action? To link actions to resource acquisition strategies? What are our priorities? How are we measuring/assessing the movement of our activities in the direction of our vision? STRATEGY?

Response:
The college’s strategic plan articulates our vision and initiatives. As indicated above, we will likely begin a process to update our goals to align with the university’s recently developed strategic plan.

Question:
There was talk and much excitement at the dawn of this new CTAHR administration regarding “open communications/transparency” and “entrepreneurship.” Are these “core values” and how are we doing?

Response:
Although the concepts of “open communications/transparency” and “entrepreneurship” are not part of CTAHR’s Core Values (CTAHR's Vision, Mission and Core Values), these are clearly areas we all have recognized needs improvement. Improving communications is an important need recognized by the UH (it is articulated as part of a Strategic Initiative for the UH system) and something many within CTAHR have also articulated as a need. I am committed to finding ways to improve communications within the college and an important goal of the college conference was to do just that. If you review the evaluation of the conference posted on the conference website, you will see that we had a high level of agreement to Question 3 “The conference provided networking opportunities to enhance my personal and professional communication” and Question 4 “I had an opportunity to voice my opinion and be heard on CTAHR issues that concern me.” Likewise, we need to be more entrepreneurial in seeking resources to support our programs and assist our students and clientele be more entrepreneurial.

Question[s]:
Please clarify the relationship of administrative roles and responsibilities for Department Chairs and County Administrators?
Topic area addressed. “We need to address” has been a 3-year journey—action? resolution? input? strategy?

Response:
This was one of the burning issues and Extension breakout issues that was discussed at the conference. There will be follow up and a policy to clarify the relationship will be developed for review and comment before being implemented.

Category: Other

Question:
When will the Waialee Farm be closed?

Response:
There are no plans at this point to close the Waialee Farm. If we develop alternate livestock facilities, we will consider alternatives for Waialee.

Question[s]:
(a) Can there be enough benefit to large landowners or the state to consider using some of their land for traditional Hawaiian agriculture and hunting?
(b) Is there enough value in keeping the land green, protecting the watershed, and offering educational experiences to visitors and residents to compensate the landowners?
(c) Can those working the land grow enough for their own survival even if they don’t sell enough marketable goods?
(d) Can a whole ahupua’a from mountain to sea be returned to vegetation similar to 200 years ago?
(e) Can charging for hiking, hunting, produce picking, mountain biking, horseback riding and forestry pay enough to keep the land green without adversely affecting the land?
(f) Can CTAHR play a role in calculating the economic concerns, improving traditional plant and pest management techniques, helping families live on the land or help obtain federal park, forestry, ag or collateral [?] funding for such a project?
(g) Is it practical to start to return abandoned sugar land to native forests for watershed, cultural, recreational or tourism benefit until profitable modern agricultural crops can be identified?
(h) Most landowners will naturally be inclined to look for the best return on their land in the short term and prefer that others find a way to protect the watershed and green space. (i) Perhaps the state and Kamehameha Schools can more easily look at the big picture, but what can be done to encourage other landowners to keep the land green?

Response:
All of these questions relate to land use issues in one form or another.

Question[s]:
(a) Can the college or university move toward being ‘open’ to some degree in the evenings or Saturdays for clientele, alumni, home gardeners, cooks, or others to visit with faculty, or experts, pick up publications or seeds, or bring in soil for analysis, or take workshop classes?
(b) Can discounted parking be made available to alumni or other friends of CTAHR during weekends or evenings?
(c) Can existing personnel work Tuesday through Saturday or 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. to cover those hours?

Response:
I believe that items (a) and (c) mentioned above can be done. For example, the College of Business offers their Executive MBA program at night and weekends. They even provide parking passes, which are paid by their tuition. I am not aware of a parking discount program for alumni or friends, except to pay the parking fee for those we invite to campus.

Category: Comments/Suggestions

--Never saw a list of stakeholders’ needs that were not being met by CTHAR.
E.g., resources may emerge from CTAHR that were never imagined by Admin.

I am just a pair of ears. One faculty said in a private conversation, that it is the same old thing we have heard in the past. The vision, goals, etc. The presentations didn’t excite this person. This College lacks the warmth (people relationship?). Just thought I 'd mention this observation.

It really matters what we do after the conference that is important. So the faculty/staff need to be reminded (nagged) about their commitments or encouraged. Don’t let the momentum generated by today return to the inertia of old days.

I like the idea as CTAHR/UH being looked at as a business. Dennis Holton’s “Gung Ho” sessions are terrific and very useful. He says change starts from the bottom on up. As an Ag. Res. Tech, HGEA Unit 3, I feel we’re underpaid along with secretaries who are in the same unit and underpaid also. Using UH’s autonomy theme and CTAHR’s building a shared vision, reclassifying and hopefully upgrading our pay scales will instill a better work attitude and through communication a better shared view of our direction with UH’s/CTAHR’s goals. I understand it’s a difficult subject, but I think and feel that we’re on the right track towards a better future, and just being here at this conference gives me hope and incentive and motivation to “get on the bus” of “Building a Shared Vision.” It’s the bottom line of my income, as well as others in similar classes, that matters most.

Les Kodani
Ag. Res. Tech. ikodani@hawaii.edu
Waiakea Sta.

P.S. Thank you for allowing us to participate in this conference.

Separate the UH employees into our own unit. Right now, I’m an Ag Tech in Unit 3, HGEA, which is 90% state clerical workers. Our own unit would let us be more flexible and not restricted by unnecessary rules
Researchers should sit down with technicians for ideas and suggestions before starting experiments. Will save a lot of time and money.
In early 90’s, UH employees were allowed to take 1 class a semester in their field of work during work time. This was discontinued. Needs to be reinstated to improve the quality of our workforce.
Need for these conferences; once/yr. island-wide, statewide, every 3 years.

Rick Cupples
Volcano Exp. Sta.

Andy – be more proactive. How? In papaya, convert industry to seed production for the world. Critical – Agribusiness, Livestock, if industry dies, pasture land not taxable at ag. rate. Forestry, Landscape, charitable gifts (?) fiscal, purchasing, personnel, team coordinators, institutional research goals, role of admin. in defining research goals, missing function of extension bringing problems for CTAHR to focus on.

Role of faculty and staff
There is a need for staff to support faculty’s needs.
Gifts
We might consider counting gifts given to CTAHR faculty and staff as gifts, but earmarked to specific faculty and staff.

(a) Student and semester hours—Quantity (larger classes) vs. quality (more value at higher price) e.g., labs are costly.
(b) Faculty gifts—Many not counted, e.g., self-funded travel to national conferences.
(c) Critical need—immigrant families.

CTAHR College-Wide Conference: Building A Shared Vision

Communication Cards – Dean Andy Hashimoto