The hiring committee seeking the next director of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Agricultural Extension Division has set a planned timeline for conducting a national search to replace outgoing director Bob Scott.
The Extension Service announced last week that a hiring committee will be tasked with finding candidates for the position of senior associate vice president for extension.
Scott’s departure was first announced in May; he said he will remain as director until the position is filled and will later seek a faculty position.
The search will be conducted by the committee and the department, Jeff Edwards, chairman of the search committee and head of crop, soil and environmental sciences for the department and the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences, said Wednesday.
The job is based in Little Rock and the Director supervises approximately 600 full-time employees and 200 part-time employees. The director also oversees the management of federal, state and county funds, grants and cash gifts, as well as a $61 million annual budget, according to the extension office.
A salary estimate for the position was not provided, though Edwards said in his experience, the salary range for similar positions is usually commensurate with the applicant’s experience.
The application period will remain open until the position is filled. The committee will begin reviewing applicants on August 1 if there is a large pool of applicants or a standout candidate. Interviews will be remote via video.
The committee could begin in-person interviews as early as October, Edwards said.
Scott was appointed to the directorship in July 2020 after his predecessor Rick Cartwright announced his retirement in 2019.
Cartwright retired after four years and his predecessor, Tony Wyndham, worked for six years before joining the private sector.
Scott has worked for the Department of Agriculture for the past 21 years, starting as a weed scientist and serving as director of the Newport and Lonoke Extension Centers from 2013 to 2018; he was later appointed director of the 1000-acre Rice Research and Extension Center in Stuttgart in 2018.
One of the highlights of Scott’s career was helping the department get off the ground when he took over as director during the pandemic.
“We had to do a lot of transitioning to online, as everyone else did, and finding ways to distribute our programs and educational materials, so the first probably year and a half of my time as director was spent doing that,” Scott said.
Scott also had several priorities when he took the director position: balancing staff duties, bringing in more county extension agents and finding money to raise some staff salaries.
One person oversaw both family consumer science and 4-H and youth development programming for the Extension Service, but oversight of the two project areas was split into two related vice presidential positions during Scott’s tenure, and one person has since been hired to oversees 4-H and youth development programming, he said.
With employee retention also a major concern for the department during the pandemic, Scott found money for a new Extension internship program aimed at junior college students.
“Frankly, we have a shortage of people who want to be county agents, especially in Delta counties,” Scott said.
“In these counties, we’re seeing the population move to the cities in some of these counties, especially in our rural counties, we’re struggling to fill our positions, I don’t think we’re any different than any other employer in that aspect, and we’re looking for individuals with a degree in agriculture or family consumer science or youth development for these county agent positions.”
Several salary increases were also introduced during his tenure.
There have recently been wage increases for some lower-wage employees; Scott said the extension office now has a $30,000 annual minimum starting salary.
Scott said there is also an increase in starting salaries for new county agents to make those positions more competitive.
Scott said he didn’t originally plan to leave his post after just a few years.
“My reasons for leaving are personal,” Scott said.
“I actually had no intention of stepping down and I have some opportunities coming up in the future to get back into agriculture. I really want to get back there and get my boots muddy again.”