Help across the Finish Line
July 6, 2023
Before the start of each academic year at the Land Grant University of Arizona College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences (CALES), I’m honored to welcome our incoming first year and transfer students.
This is the start of the next stage of their lives; it comes with excitement, anticipation, fears and worries.
Regardless, my message is always the same: “We promise that everyone here—our faculty, advisors, and staff—will help you on your journey to commencement and the rest of your life. We all know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you belong here; that you can do everything that you will ask of yourselves academically. We know that because you got accepted into this university. Now you have to truly believe what we believe.”
However, too many of our students, with graduation literally as close as one class away, face daunting financial roadblocks. A recent The Chronicle of Higher Education article described these students as “often overlooked. Students who are one blown tire, one sick child, one lost job away from a crisis. Students clinging to the narrow ledge of college.”
They don’t even have a choice when they gut-wrenchingly can’t find as “little” as the few hundred dollars to pay for that last class; they must drop out.
A 2021 survey of nearly 500 emergency fund recipients at a two-year college in Wisconsin found that 93% were still enrolled, had graduated, or had transferred to another institution. A recent analysis found that students at another two-year school in California who had received small amounts of emergency aid were twice as likely to graduate as comparable students who didn’t receive such aid.
In CALES, we prioritize supporting our students in their last hours of dire need.
Although 98% of our college scholarship dollars were accessed by our students in the past academic year, we were missing our students “clinging to the narrow edge”. In 2022, together with our Alumni Council, we launched our Finish Line Fund. This philanthropy initiative ensures students in dire need and with high academic probability of graduating, actually can and do.
During our last batch of Finish Line Funds awarded in May 2023, two students were able to enroll for fall classes because their past-due balance was cleared by Finish Line funding. This is exactly what we want the Finish Line Funds to do—clear that path for students who are so close to being done.
During this program’s life we have awarded $63,062 to 21 students, an average of $3,000 per student. Within six months of receiving Finish Line funds to help clear their balances, 38% of those 21 students re-enrolled, and 19% were able to graduate. Within one year of the award, 58% of our awardees graduated.
This is a major win for our students and fulfills our promise to support them from first-year orientation through graduation.
I’m incredibly grateful to our donors, Alumni Council, and our Development and Career and Academic Services teams for this life-changing initiative.
Celebrating Women's History
March 12, 2021
Margaret Cammack (Ph.D. Chemistry, Columbia University) arrived in Tucson in 1925 to be associate professor of home economics. In 1927, she left the Department of Home Economics to take a primary appointment with the Arizona Experiment Station and by 1935 she was back in a UA department as head of the Department of Human Nutrition.
Margaret published widely in several disciplines, including plant sciences, agronomy, agriculture production, food science, home economics, public health, pathology, environmental toxicology, epidemiology, chemistry and nutrition. She was a national figure in nutrition research. Contemporary documents cited her as “Arizona’s leading nutrition chemist”.
1918 Influenza Pandemic
May 13, 2020
During disruptive and stressful experiences, I find it heartening – you may, too – to remember our history and heritage. Those before us started higher education in Arizona. Since 1885, we have changed the economic trajectory for thousands of families, helped hundreds of thousands of Arizonans improve their health, and controlled human and animal disease epidemics. Those before us built a foundation of resilience, innovation, entrepreneurship, egalitarianism, and compassion.
Rankings and Achievements
Feb. 20, 2020
Let’s recognize and celebrate what you’ve done! President Robbins featured these prominently at an ABOR meeting last fall.
#1 global ranking in Water Resources
#2 national ranking (normalized) in Family Studies and Human Development
Development
Dec. 3, 2019
Philanthropy has been more important to us every year. All of our transformational initiatives have happened because of it. Although I officially spend 25% of my work time doing development, I’m always thinking about how it could be affected by, or fit in with, the work I’m doing all of the time.
Generation Z
Aug. 26, 2019
Today’s middle and high school students - and most of our undergraduates - are in Generation Z. Gen Z (called Centennials by some in marketing) shows trends critical to our marketing and technology infrastructure investment:
Belonging
May 6, 2019
In early April, I attended our incredibly successful 2019 Global Retailing Conference, Customer Centricity: The Retail Moonshot. All the presentations were thought-provoking about our future in our always-changing global marketplace. But what may surprise you (until you see who the speakers were) is that the talks were like a leadership-in-action masterclass. Be sure to take a look once the Lundgren Center has posted them to the web.
I want to share one concept with you. Jill Standish, Accenture’s senior managing director for its Global Retail Consulting Practice, used a simile during her presentation. When she started speaking, I thought I’d heard it many times before…
Mental Health and Our Students
Feb. 20, 2019
Every now and then, I see a cluster of statistics that make me stop and remember why it’s critical that all of us be aware of campus and CALES resources that can be of help to students facing health or academic challenges. I want to share with you some sobering data from a survey of U.S. undergraduates.
- 63% of students sought treatment for overwhelming anxiety during the past year.
- 42% of students were so depressed that their GPA dropped (an increase from 27% in 2010).
- 12% of students thought of suicide; 9% intentionally cut, burned, bruised or injured themselves; 2% attempted suicide.
Cyberinfrastructure
Nov. 19, 2018
Even if you’re new to CALES, you’ve probably heard Bart Cardon’s name. He was CALES’ dean (1980-1987), is an alumnus and his name is attached to donor endowments for a chair, two teaching awards and the Cardon Academy of Teaching Excellence. He also served in WWII and was stationed in post-war Germany where he helped rebuild the University of Munich's Agricultural School, today the Technical University of Munich.
The day before Homecoming, I read his prescient October 1986 remarks: “Our students will need a broad education. They'll need training in economics and business. Computers. They will really need to know about computers so they can handle and manage the tremendous amount of information that will come their way.” I didn’t know about Bart’s statement when I arrived in 2011, but I hope you remember when I interviewed that I said we should aspire be the most cyber-savvy college of our ilk.
KAMP student radio guest appearance
Nov. 7, 2018
The last time I visited a college radio station, there were stacks of vinyl records and all the phones had cords attached to the receivers. I won’t date myself any further than that.
I was delighted when I had the opportunity to stop by KAMP student radio recently for a guest appearance on Alli Gilbreath’s show. Today, digital has replaced vinyl and everyone has a smartphone, but as Alli and I talked about, change is something to be embraced.
Cooperative Extension Road Trip: Apache, Navajo, Hopi
Oct. 12, 2018
The mission for UA Cooperative Extension is “to bring the university to the people of the state and bring science to bear on practical problems.” Fulfilling that complex mission takes incredible dedication. I saw that dedication demonstrated time and again when Associate Director of Tribal Extension Trent Teegerstrom and I recently toured extension offices on the Apache, Navajo, and Hopi nations.
We covered 1,100 miles in three days through the vast, beautiful scenery of northeastern Arizona and even a bit of New Mexico. I gained a new and much better appreciation for the extension work being done in that region. I will never forget that trip.
Cooperative Extension Road Trip: Phoenix
Aug. 31, 2018
I have to prepare for serious traffic congestion when visiting the University of Arizona’s Maricopa County Cooperative Extension office at 4341 E. Broadway Rd. in Phoenix. From 1955-1982 this site was part of our 257-acre Cotton Research Center, but today it is an island surrounded by urban development with the sound of commercial jets from nearby Sky Harbor Airport roaring overhead. The downtown skyline looms just six miles away.
The office has grown and adapted, and still remains true to its mission of bringing science to bear on practical problems.
Visit to Normandy
Aug. 20, 2018
The new semester is upon us. I hope the summer worked out well for you professionally, but even more so, personally. I hope you were able to recharge and catch up with those close to you. Perhaps do something you needed to get done, but just couldn’t get to, or you got to do something you’d always wanted to do. This was the case for me. Jenny and I visited Normandy, France, where, amongst other things, we saw the enormity of the WWII invasion of D-Day and the lasting impact of the Battle for Normandy.
Update on New UA Strategic Plan
May 3, 2018
As we approach Spring Commencement, I am confident we have fully prepared our 2018 graduates for the next chapter in their lives. But what about the classes of 2022, 2026 and beyond? And how will the University of Arizona and our entire enterprise – Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension – continue to serve our students, state and the world in a decade or two?
On April 24, faculty, staff and appointed professionals engaged in a wide-ranging discussion of the new UA Strategic Plan, which proposes ideas that would touch every corner of this statewide campus. Thank you to all of those who have participated in this dialogue to date. We are some of the most diverse constituents of the university, and your thoughtful contributions can help shape a Strategic Plan which will serve our stakeholders well.
Walkabouts
Feb. 21, 2018
My response to Great Recessionary budget cuts was to protect as much as possible the resources we need to deliver on our teaching, research and Extension missions. But this meant I didn’t have the capacity to engage with you as I’d prefer—in-person. My five-year review told me that you’d appreciate this, too. So, I’ve prioritized visiting the schools and departments as a whole and, less formally, meeting with you in your own spaces.
My Inspiration
Dec. 10, 2017
I gain inspiration daily from all of our employees who come together to aid colleagues who are in a pinch and who lead through contributing innovative projects in their units. I’m lucky because where I sit centrally allows me to see and hear these stories. As the semester draws to a close, I want to share some examples of my luck with you.
- Midway through the semester when a resignation left three courses without an instructor, three faculty members in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences stepped up with no thought of recompense to teach the remaining lectures for each of the courses. Thank you, Margarethe Cooper, Ben Renquist and V.K. Viswanathan. You made a tremendous difference to our students.
Teams and Creativity
Aug. 28, 2017
Finding employees who can lead teams and work well as part of a team is a top priority for companies today. In higher education as well, teams outperform individuals in the creative pursuits of scientific knowledge generation1, education2 and extending knowledge to our communities.
Like the best companies, we must value creativity to be successful, and thought-diverse teams are especially creative. But thought diversity is also challenging. With thought diversity comes personality diversity, and thought-diverse teams have longer start-up times and require greater leadership.