College of Agriculture

 Academic Plan 2004-2009


Executive Summary

The mission of the College of Agriculture is to be a proactive leader in education and scholarship in support of healthy, sustainable systems for Wyoming’s agriculture, environment and natural resources, rural communities, and related life sciences. Our vision is to serve people by applying the land-grant principles of teaching, research, and extension/outreach service.

The College of Agriculture’s mission and vision will result in relevant academic programs and will provide research and outreach that are responsive to public needs. Strategies will be developed for the engagement of Wyoming’s people to improve and develop relevant applied research and outreach programming. Areas of distinction developed by the college will be consistent with Wyoming’s needs and its mission, capabilities, and expertise. The college will enhance its marketing by emphasizing programs over artificial departmental or college units. Graduate and undergraduate curricula will be strengthened. This plan will pursue additional support for research and outreach programs. The college’s administrative structure and resource allocation will be assessed and revised as needed to improve efficiency.

            Key goals and actions include:

1.         Develop areas of distinction.

  • Faculty hiring and resource allocations will favor alignment with four general areas of distinction:
    • Natural Resource Management
    • Sustainable Agricultural Systems
    • Rural Economics and Communities
    • Basic and Applied Life Sciences
  • The application of GIS, molecular biology, and stable isotopes will be encouraged in the areas of distinction.

2.         Market the College of Agriculture and the academic programs.

  • Focus student recruiting more on programs rather than academic departments.
  • Expand student recruiting in neighboring states.
  • Form task forces to improve the image and WWW presence of college programs.
  • Develop comprehensive assessment strategies for all undergraduate and graduate majors. Enrollments will be evaluated in each of the undergraduate degree program option areas.

3.         Strengthen graduate education and research.

  • Form a team to review graduate programs, paying attention to enrollments, degree quality, and assessment outcomes.
  • Consider inclusive mergers within areas of distinction to strengthen small graduate programs.
  • Form workgroups to recommend programs and facilities for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center and the establishment of a Laramie Research and Extension Center.
  • Develop and support the expectation of research, education, and outreach grant activities throughout the college.

4.         Provide relevant extension and applied research programming.

  • Implement the CES Strategic Plan as modified by the blue-ribbon panel.
  • Seek more public and private investment in its service and outreach missions.
  • Enhance the UW CES and Outreach School partnership.
  • Allocate extension salary funds and specify job descriptions to provide more focused outreach programs.

5.         Improve the college’s administrative management.

  • Develop inclusive processes to evaluate administrative structures in the college in order to align with areas of distinction, state needs, and fiscal reality.
  • Form teams to review resource allocations (e.g. GA’s, space, staff, support funds) and recommend improvements.
  • Identify and implement key measures to assess progress.

Resources will be sought from a variety of sources, including development, in order to help the college achieve its goals. The detailed academic plan for 2004-2009 for the College of Agriculture can be found on the web at: http://www.uwyo.edu/AgCollege/Strategic_Issues_files/Strategic_Issues_Main.htm

 

Introduction

The mission of the College of Agriculture is to be a proactive leader in education and scholarship in support of healthy, sustainable systems for Wyoming’s agriculture, environment and natural resources, rural communities, and related life sciences. Our vision is to serve people by applying the land-grant principles of teaching, research, and extension/outreach service.

The college must continue to redefine itself for continued success in meeting our mission. The process of adapting to these realities was initiated in the last five-year planning cycle with a reduction in core undergraduate degree programs from 15 to 8. The eight programs that are currently supported include:

·         Agroecology

·         Microbiology

·         Molecular Biology

·         Animal and Veterinary Sciences

·         Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management

·         Family and Consumer Sciences

·         Agricultural Business

·         Agricultural Communications

Reorganization of the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) into area education regions and five initiative teams statewide was also accomplished. Further, modernization of the research and extension centers is underway. Most recently, the university has begun to consolidate centers in Torrington and Archer into a modern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center (SAREC) located in Goshen County. Funds from the sale of the existing centers, including the Afton facility, will be used to establish the new center. Difficult choices must still be made, however, regarding programs and options offered to students, and services offered to the state. Faculty positions in the college have declined by three positions in the past three years. This trend is worrisome given the persistent conflict between the needs of students on one hand, and the public’s demand for more applied research and outreach/extension on the other. The need for operational and local problem-oriented research funds and physical infrastructure are also of concern. In addition, demographic information suggests that numbers of qualified applicants from this region who might be interested in this college’s undergraduate and graduate programs are declining, creating marketing and additional resource challenges.

The College of Agriculture Academic Plan for 2004-2009 seeks to address these concerns in a variety of ways. The College of Agriculture’s mission and vision will result in relevant academic programs and provide research and outreach that are responsive to public needs. Strategies will be developed for the engagement of Wyoming’s people to improve and develop relevant applied research and extension programming. Areas of distinction developed by the college will be consistent with Wyoming’s needs and the college’s mission, capabilities, and expertise. The college will enhance its marketing by emphasizing programs over artificial departmental or college units. Graduate and undergraduate curricula will be strengthened. This plan will pursue additional support for research and outreach programs. The college’s administrative structure and resource allocation will be assessed and revised as needed to improve efficiency.

Even with these general areas identified, it will challenge college resources to sustain and build excellence in the three mission areas of teaching, research, and service. The state is demanding from this college more applied research, clinical service, and extension to answer thorny questions related to water resources, disturbed lands, endangered species, land use, and animal diseases of public health and bio-security concern. The college hopes to catalyze more engagement/outreach efforts on behalf of the state from other sources on campus. In addition, the college will seek more public and private investment in the university’s service and outreach missions.

Issues and areas of distinction outlined in the plan are linked to issues of importance to the public and to fundamental needs identified through public visioning sessions, internal faculty focus group sessions, and input from the College of Agriculture advisory board. These issues are outlined in Strategic Issues III.2  The issues and areas of distinction are designed to align with university-wide issues identified in Moving Forward III1 and college issues identified in Strategic Issues III2. Each department has developed an academic plan for its programs.3   The issues are addressed with the three-part concept of the land-grant mission in mind.

Focus on issues that matter in the state, good communication with stakeholders, and reinvestment in outreach and clinical service will serve to reinvigorate the college to allow it to help lead the university in accomplishing our land-grant mission.

 

II.         Progress on Action Items, 1999 Academic Plan

 

            A.         UW Academic Plan (1999):  The College of Agriculture completed all action items that were directly related to the college from the UW Academic Plan (1999). Action Items 65 through 68 were achieved. Underused undergraduate degrees were merged or eliminated (65), family and consumer sciences merged into one degree program, and collaboration between child and family studies and human nutrition and foods was strengthened (66, 67). Several departments have contributed to the SENR degree including agricultural and applied economics, renewable resources, and plant sciences (68). A Reclamation Ecology Center was approved in 2003 (69).

            This college also addressed other university-wide action Items (enrollment, scholarships, diversity, etc). All college baccalaureate programs were modified to require 128 credits or fewer for completion (33, 35). The College of Agriculture was involved in the further development of the SENR and ENR degree options (55-57).

The college participated in the life sciences evaluation (58). Interdisciplinary graduate programs (59) in reproductive biology and molecular-cellular life sciences are developed or being developed. The undergraduate life sciences programs (60) were examined (by a committee appointed by the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Agriculture) to improve content and participation. A second committee, reporting to the same colleges, revised the plan to include three semester blocks of basic biology, plant biology, and animal biology. Action Item 63, an interdisciplinary graduate program in business, was studied and found not to be desirable. Collaboration between economics and agricultural economics has been improved in the areas of teaching basic economics and forming research collaborations (64).

Action Item 125 broadening the scope of and modernizing the Cooperative Extension Service was completed. A strategic plan for CES specifies development of broader community links and business development. CES is part of the economic development roundtable (129). The CES strategic plan, after modification by Dr. Dubois’s “Blue-Ribbon Panel,” has moved into implementation. An implementation plan has been finalized, and the hard work of implementation is the basis of that unit’s next academic plan.3 All five initiatives and area and state advisory groups are in place, and the program is operating under the new model.

B.                                                                                                                            B.      1999 College of Agriculture Academic Plan:  Most action items in the 1999 College of Agriculture Academic Plan were achieved. Items related to elimination or merger of degree programs (e.g. insect biology, general agriculture, farm and ranch management, those related to family and consumer sciences, etc.) were achieved. Examination and improvement of graduate programs was partially achieved and is underway. The interdisciplinary agroecology program still needs improvement (Action VI-B-2a). An interdisciplinary food and nutrition graduate program was not formed and is again proposed (Action VI-B-1). Action items related to life sciences, ENR, community and economic development, and agriculture and applied economics were addressed in both the college and university Plans. The reduction of programmatic offerings from 17 to 8 was completed. The decision was made to forego pursuing a degree in the area of hospitality and food service management. Teaching in the WWAMI medical program was promoted and expanded. The Wyoming Wildlife-Livestock Disease Research Partnership was formed, was legislatively approved, and has received federal and state funding. An animal nutrition laboratory was remodeled in AS/MB for the animal science nutrition faculty.

Improvement of the research and extension centers is ongoing with the closure of the Afton center and the planned consolidation of the centers in Archer and Torrington into a single center called the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center (SAREC). The competitive grants program has been expanded to encourage multidisciplinary research campus-wide. All departments and the college are working to improve stakeholder communications through newsletters and magazines (e.g. Ag News, Reflections, Agademics, Extension Connection). In addition, the college communications office strives to put items on the news wire on a regular basis. Departmental and college Web pages have been improved but need further attention. The college was the first to hire faculty members into the old SDVC, now WyGIS. GIS-related activities have formed one the methodological underpinnings of this college’s efforts, and the College of Agriculture recently hired a second faculty member with GIS expertise. Many other college faculty members are developing GIS-related solutions to research and service questions. 

Exploration of interdisciplinary research and extension between UW and other universities was completed and resulted in a successful, multimillion-dollar grant from USDA (with UW as the lead PI) for “WIN the Rockies,” a program that studies food and lifestyle issues regionally. The interdepartmental microbiology program did not complete an academic plan for 1999. However, an interim plan was drawn up in 2002 through a letter of instruction to the program chair, and implementation is underway.

 

III.        Curriculum

 

The number of credits required for graduation in the College of Agriculture for all four-year degree programs is between120-128 total credit hours.

The number of undergraduate degree programs was reduced from 15 to 8 following the 1999-2004 Academic Plan. The eight programs include Agroecology, Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management, Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Family and Consumer Sciences, Agricultural Business, and Agricultural Communications. The same attention and analysis is now needed for the formal options within those degree programs and for graduate degree programs. The number of options offered within the eight core degree programs currently stands at 25. Options are obviously helpful to allow students to self-select within their majors. However, options will be scrutinized in terms of cost benefits and justified by specific learning objectives. Options that lack depth, are not justified by student learning objectives, or are too expensive will be discontinued. Some programs may also adjust their overall focus in order to be more relevant to students and to attract new students.

 

1.         Action Item: Evaluate the eight undergraduate degree programs, formal options, and minors that form the basis for this college’s undergraduate experience. Determine participation by both students and faculty members. Adjust each as needed to allow for depth, flexibility, and student demand.

 

Continuous course and curriculum planning have been judiciously implemented, preserving the college’s commitment to the USP without overprescribing major degree requirements. The college stands to contribute more to the new USP (e.g. intellectual community courses, general science courses, and diversity courses).

 

2.         Action Item: As part of regular curricular review, the College Course and Curriculum Committee will review USP commitments on a regular basis and identify opportunities for enhancing the college’s contributions.

 

IV.        Assessment

 

The College of Agriculture has responded to the institutional efforts to improve the assessment of academic programs and student learning; however, departments are for the most part in the early stages of assessment planning. Draft departmental assessment plans have identified several useful components for assessment such as curriculum mapping, student course/instructor evaluations, graduate exit and alumni surveys, capstone courses, employer satisfaction surveys, etc. This collection of assessment tools needs to be formulated into a strategic and comprehensive action plan. Needed now are clearly defined assessment plans for each academic undergraduate and graduate major/option and minor with special attention given to clear articulation of learning goals, measures for assessing student learning, and a plan/timeline for implementing teaching improvements based on the analysis of these measurements. As stated in Moving Forward III,1 “a comprehensive assessment program has three components: 1) assessment at the level of the program, 2) individual student assessment, and 3) a faculty culture committed to student learning…” The faculty culture for teaching is a strength in the college. Now a culture for assessment needs to be developed. Program assessment is better understood than student assessment in our college, and while both require continued attention, the greatest challenge and concentrated effort needs to be directed at the assessment of student learning. The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences is a campus leader in developing comprehensive assessment strategies and will be looked to for leadership as the rest of the college begins to develop its assessment plans. Each department will have assessment plans in place for this Academic Plan, and each will conform to the criteria and guidelines currently set forth by the University Assessment Committee.

 

3.         Action Item: The associate dean for Academic and Student Programs will review and ensure that all programs, graduate and undergraduate, have appropriate assessment plans in place.

4.         Action Item:  Alumni will be tracked to assess their educational and career outcomes and to stay in contact for development activities.     

5.         Action Item:  The associate deans and department heads will develop measurable assessment strategies for Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station effectiveness.

 

V.         Areas of Distinction

 

The College will focus on sustainable agricultural systems, natural resource management, rural economics and communities, and basic and applied life sciences pertinent to the state of Wyoming. Niches that are developed within those areas will exploit the comparative strengths we have such as our location in Wyoming as a laboratory, our faculty expertise, statewide needs, and identified opportunities. A focus on niches will facilitate recruitment at all levels and assure research excellence. Areas of distinction are designed with flexibility in order to allow these niches to evolve on an ongoing basis.

 

6.         Action Item:  The dean and directors in the college will communicate and work with the citizens of Wyoming through multiple avenues including town meetings, regular advisory board meetings, newsletter and magazine communications, news releases, and more effective and relevant extension publications.

 

Areas of distinction that develop must align with ENR, Life Sciences, Critical Areas of Science and Technology, Bringing Science and Society together, and/or Professions and Issues Crucial to the Region in education, health care, and community and economic development initiatives. Efforts in these areas will leverage resources available through programs such as the Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources, the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, the Wyoming Wildlife-Livestock Disease Research Partnership, and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The tools and principles of basic and applied molecular sciences, stable isotopes, and geographic information will be emphasized across all disciplines. Researchers in several fields are engaged in the development of test kits and techniques in the biomedical field. Depth will be developed in all three parts of our research, teaching, and service mission with the goal of maintaining or achieving national prominence in the following fields:

·         Natural Resource Management:  Land management, range management, weed management on wild lands, wildlife, water, reclamation of disturbed lands and watersheds, economic-based decision making for natural resource management. (Achieving distinction in the Environment and Natural Resources (MFIII1)).

·         Sustainable Agricultural Systems:  Integrated crop and livestock systems.   (Achieving distinction in the Environment and Natural Resources and in the Life Sciences (MFIII1)).

·         Rural Economics and Communities. Healthy rural communities, economic based decision making for small and agri-businesses, rural development, and natural resource issues including open spaces. (Achieving distinction in professions and issues critical to the region (MFIII1)).

·         Basic and Applied Life Sciences. Reproductive biology, diseases common to wildlife and livestock, nutrition and related issues, biomaterials, agroecology. (Achieving distinction in the Life Sciences and Critical Areas of Science and Technology (MFIII1)).

In addition, excellence in teaching and extension, including clinical services where appropriate, will be developed or maintained in the following fields:

·         Native plant horticultural systems.

·         Veterinary, weed, and plant and insect pest diagnostics.

·         Rural community leadership, youth development, and economic diversification.

·         Economic-based decision making and profitability for agricultural and other small businesses.

·         Land stewardship including education for small rural landowners.

·         Promotion of health through food safety, general microbiology, and rural family issues.

·         Communication of research-based information about agriculture and the land.

 

7.         Action Item:  Faculty hiring and resource allocations will favor alignment with niches within the four general areas of distinction outlined above as well as encouraging the applications of GIS, molecular biology, or stable isotopes within the areas of distinction.

8.         Action Item:  The dean will develop inclusive processes to assess the college’s administrative structures in order to align them with the areas of distinction, the needs of the state, and fiscal realities. These processes will include rules by which the discussions might be initiated.

9.         Action Item:  Collaborate with zoology, botany, and other interested departments to further develop interdisciplinary programs in the ENR and life sciences. Such programs may include undergraduate biology, ecology, and microbiology and graduate life science and ecology-related programs.

10.       Action Item:  The college will work with the Research Products Office in developing biomedical tests and other inventions to facilitate technology transfer and explore commercialization where appropriate.

 

VI.        Issues in MFIII that are Germane to the College

 

            A.         The Learning Environment:  The college has supported its own Office for Academic Success for several years, benefiting student retention and academic performance. The College of Agriculture has an excellent record in student retention and graduation rates. A comparison of fall to fall retention rates among all UW colleges over the last six years shows the College of Agriculture as the leader in four of the six years. The most recent data, for fall 2000, shows the College of Agriculture retention rate at 71.3 percent, significantly greater than the other colleges.

Graduation rates are also quite good. The College of Agriculture leads all colleges in three out of four periods for freshmen graduating in four years or less. Agriculture also leads all colleges in graduating students in five years or less. These retention and graduation rates help validate the quality advising long attributed to the College of Agriculture and the importance of special services such as the Office for Academic Success, overseen by the College of Agriculture's Office of Academic and Student Programs. This office will continue to function but could be enhanced through linkages with the proposed Learning Resource Network (LEARN). The college’s Academic Success Center is consistent with the “distributed expertise model” proposed in LEARN.

Teaching, or perhaps more importantly the learning process, represents a partnership between student and teacher. In addition to gaining an education in the academic discipline, each student needs to develop skills for lifelong learning, effective communication, accessing information, and individual learning opportunities (e.g. undergraduate research) and an appreciation for the multidisciplinary aspects of their field. The college will continue to explore creative solutions for providing access and affordability for our students. Several actions may be taken across the programmatic spectrum to help promote avenues for incorporating lifelong learning and leadership/communication skills for all students.

 

11.       Action Item:  Department heads, the curriculum committee, program leaders, and faculty course leaders will emphasize learning opportunities on and off campus including undergraduate research programs, professional service experiences, and inquiry-based learning opportunities throughout the college.

12.       Action Item:  The CES administration and faculty specialists will coordinate and develop programming to support education for rural community economic development in the Cooperative Extension Service.

13.       Action Item:  Department heads and the curriculum committee will encourage the development of courses related to leadership and lifelong learning that fulfill or embed USP requirements.

14.       Action Item:  The dean’s office will recognize and reward multiple forms of teaching in addition to classroom teaching and including extension teaching and other community education, graduate student mentoring, and other learning experiences by incorporating the items in evaluations and promotion and tenure processes.

 

            B.         Scholarship and Graduate Education:  The College of Agriculture currently offers or is involved in 22 graduate degree programs. The large number of programs is not sustainable given resource constraints nor is it consistent with modern graduate education that emphasizes interdisciplinary training. The ability to recruit and keep productive faculty members and quality students requires access to graduate programs. Thus, programs may benefit from some mergers to involve more faculty members and students from more diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The movement of programs must be thoughtful and must consider the areas of distinction as well as the availability of institutional grant funds for enhancing research infrastructure.

            Leadership enhancements and/or participation in interdisciplinary graduate programs are proposed that reflect strengths and areas of distinction and/or relative interdisciplinary activity in the college. Inclusive, larger interdisciplinary graduate programs are in various stages of proposal. Some graduate programs also may be linked to research centers of excellence, i.e., the Centers for Fetal Programming and Reclamation/ Restoration Ecology.

            The need to recruit quality graduate students is critical to the success of the programs. The College of Agriculture is prepared to collaborate with the Graduate School in implementing new and innovative recruitment strategies. Efforts will be made to increase funding for graduate assistantships through grants. Actions related to recruitment are summarized in Section VI-H, Enrollment Management.

 

15.       Action Item:  The college management team, in concert with the Graduate School where appropriate, will develop a process and institute regular reviews of PhD and MS programs offered by the college or by interdisciplinary groups led in the college and make recommendations regarding faculty expertise, enrollments, degree quality, degree production, opportunities for extramural funds, and other assessment outcomes.

16.       Action Item: Programs will be considered for sunset or merger within areas of distinction to promote interdisciplinarity, competitiveness, and graduate degree production.

17.       Action Item:  Members of merged or interdisciplinary graduate programs will be encouraged to develop criteria for program management.  Conceptually these graduate programs will be governed by participating faculty members, and participating faculty members and their home departmental and college units will provide resources. A new set of administrators is not expected to be part of this structure.

18.       Action Item:  The College of Agriculture will work with the Graduate School in evaluating interdisciplinary graduate education programs in the selected areas of distinction as discussed for individual program review above but will also include a review of integrated research efforts in identified areas of distinction and in the needs of stakeholders.

19.       Action Item:  The Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics will work with other interested departments to explore whether a quality interdisciplinary PhD program in environment and natural resources management with sufficient GA and faculty resources could be designed and offered.

20.       Action Item:  The Departments of Family and Consumer Sciences and Animal Science will work with other departments and universities to explore the development of an interdisciplinary graduate program in nutrition under the ife sciences area of distinction.

21.       Action Item:  The college, led by the Departments of Plant Sciences and Renewable Resources, will continue to support and participate in the creation of interdisciplinary PhD programs in ecology and sustainable agriculture.

 

The College of Agriculture will build on its reputation as the source of reliable, discovery-based and scientifically unbiased information. The college’s research and extension assets will be modernized and used by faculty members to conduct applied research and by stakeholders to view cutting-edge research and obtain research-based information. Academic faculty members, academic professionals, and professional staff members will be involved in research activities and will take advantage of opportunities to obtain extramural support for their efforts.

 

22.       Action Item:  Enhance and support the culture of attracting extramural grants throughout the college, including CES and other applied functions, by reconfiguring the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) to take a more active role in fostering grant activities, emphasizing grant writing to support team-oriented and interdisciplinary research in the key areas of distinction and increasing extramural support for graduate assistants.

23.       Action Item:  Increase support for the research and extension centers through grants written by college and collaborating faculty members.

24.       Action Item:  Evaluate the establishment of a Laramie Research and Extension Center. The Agricultural Experiment Station will work with the Departments of Animal, Plant, and Veterinary Sciences to evaluate the development of the center through the merger of existing resources in an inclusive process. Consideration of increased use of the facilities both within the college and by other units on campus will be given. The potential of the center to enhance interdisciplinary research and outreach in areas of distinction, the ability to attract extramural funds, and the potential to improve graduate student recruitment will also be considered.

25.       Action Item:  Form a workgroup to develop the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center into a nationally unique program that explores integrated grazing, crop, and animal systems. The group will be asked to identify resources to develop the program and facilities. Evaluation of the proposals will follow similar criteria to that outlined for the Laramie Research and Extension Center proposal.

26.       Action Item:  Develop academic opportunities related to renewable resources, invasive weed management, and animal diseases in the greater Yellowstone area. Investigate participation of the AES in collaboration with other university facilities such as the “AMK Ranch” in the region.

27.       Action Item:  The college administration will continue to foster and promote appropriate research centers currently proposed or in place when headquartered in the college. Centers currently being fostered include the Center for Fetal Programming and the new Reclamation/Restoration Ecology Center.

28.       Action Item:  The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will explore university-wide interest in an Institute for Children, Youths, and Families.

 

C.        Diversity, Internationalization, and Access:  Continued attention is being given to strengthening diversity in the college. The college has unique opportunities through the Cooperative Extension Service for connecting with diverse communities in the state. Diversity is valued in filling faculty vacancies. The college’s growing scholarship program affords increasing opportunities to target diverse audiences. Several external grants obtained by the Office of Academic and Student Programs are helping fund a new project called “Agriculture: Rooted in Diversity,” which will lead to a new course and campus and public exhibitions of student work highlighting the experiences of women and minorities in agriculture. The college will continue to develop and fund the travel of students through its “Global Perspectives” program (for faculty members) and “Beyond the Classroom” (for students) in order to improve the regional and global perspective of our faculty members and students. Collaboration and articulation with community colleges are strong, also affording opportunities for diversity education. The college is currently developing stronger relationships with the northern Arapaho and eastern Shoshone tribes. Hopefully, these efforts and others will help increase the number of minority students in the college. The college has been successful in overcoming one agricultural stereotype by having a student population of more females than males, but much work remains to be done in order to attract minority students.

            The college is expanding its efforts to identify partnerships overseas. New partnerships are being developed in Kenya and Australia. Efforts are underway to explore renewing contacts with Afghanistan almost 25 years after a decades-old relationship wound down. The college supplies adjunct faculty members for the International Studies Program and will continue to do so.

 

29.       Action Item:  Develop and expand the “Rooted in Diversity” interdisciplinary project dedicated to making visible the experiences of minorities and women in agriculture.

30.       Action Item:  Continue to develop and sponsor the globalization efforts of students and faculty members. One goal will be to attempt to double the number of students who participate in an international experience. Use development efforts to secure funding to offer at least travel support for all students wishing to travel for approved, off-campus regional and international experiences.

31.       Action Item:  Foster relationships with the northern Arapaho and eastern Shoshone Tribes through regular, systematic contacts by the college’s Academic and Student Programs Office and the in-residence CES office in Ft. Washakie.

 

D.        Structure of the Curriculum:  Changes to the curriculum will continue to be driven by standard procedures and faculty governance, but improvements to the curriculum are envisioned as a result of lessons learned through the departmental assessment plans. We anticipate the continued streamlining of academic degree programs, especially at the graduate level, having already accomplished much with undergraduate degree programs in the first Academic Plan. Streamlining is likely to be accomplished by eliminating and/or combining existing graduate degree programs with greater emphasis on broader interdisciplinary approaches to learning. This is expected to lead toward cross-department and college programs with lesser emphasis on specific disciplines. The college is committed to exploring new linkages among broad disciplinary fields to contribute to instruction in the agricultural and life science areas, the environment and natural resource fields, and in designated aspects of human ecology. Some existing cross-department programs like microbiology and agroecology need to be reevaluated or supported in new ways for continued success and growth.

 

32.       Action Item:  Form a group to systematically review and make recommendations to the dean to improve the performance and relevance of the agroecology program. Solicit interest and input in the agroecology program from other units on campus including SENR, botany, and zoology-physiology.

33.       Action Item:  The Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture, and Health Sciences will collaborate in developing the new core life sciences undergraduate biology program. The Ad Hoc Biology Committee has already begun work on this issue.

34.       Action Item:  Propose that assignment of advisers in general biology majors be distributed among participating faculty members from the three involved colleges.

35.       Action Item:  Develop the microbiology program. Concentrate efforts on general and medical microbiology options in this college. Invite other programs to expand contributions and improve enrollments or drop other options for the degree. The dean, in consultation with the deans of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Health Sciences, will regularly review the progress of the microbiology administration and programs.

36.       Action Item:  Support the revitalization of the agricultural education program with the College of Education.

37.       Action Item:  Support collaboration between College of Agriculture faculty members and the College of Engineering in ensuring that the university supports its expertise in water-related research and teaching.

 

E.         Faculty Positions and new programs:  The College of Agriculture has reached a critical junction in its ability to meet both constituent demands for service and education in the state as well as the internal demands of students and research priorities. Requests for positions will need to align with the Areas of Distinction and needs identified by state constituents and student demand (also Action Items 6, 7).

 

38.       Action Item:  Continue development efforts to attract financial support for proposed endowed positions in wildlife and livestock health, horticulture, and water resources.

39.       Action Item:  Develop a proposal for an endowed position in applied decision making for rural community interests. Determine IENR interest in collaborating on this project.

 

An interdisciplinary graduate and research program in reproductive biology is in place. Interdisciplinary programs in nutrition and ecology are in various stages of proposal development. It is likely that the college will help or be involved in catalyzing graduate programs in sustainable agricultural systems, applied business and economics, nutrition, and some aspect of family sciences (with education). An undergraduate biology program proposal is nearing completion related to the 1999-2004 Academic Plan and will be acted upon by appropriate departments in this college (Action Item 33).

 

F.         Technological Infrastructure:  Communication and educational technology are critical to the effectiveness of the campus-based and outreach programs of the College of Agriculture. The college will collaborate with appropriate partners on campus to evaluate and plan for technological support and will attempt to identify funding for promising new educational technologies. New and advanced communication technologies are particularly critical for the effectiveness of extension programs, but progress and connectivity are lacking in most Cooperative Extension offices across the state. As a result, the college will work to enhance the connectivity and communication and educational capabilities of all the university’s Cooperative Extension Service offices and research and extension centers.

 

40.       Action Item:  The directors of the AES and CES, in communication with the Information Technology offices, will form a team to assess the technological infrastructure of the centers and offices and develop recommendations for improving their connectivity.

 

G.        Outreach, Extension, and Community Service:  Outreach and engagement in the college are broadly defined and include clinical and other services and distance education as well as the community-based learning that is provided in extension. The College of Agriculture has a century-long tradition of directly engaging and serving the citizens of the state through the applied research, outreach education, and structured service programs of its Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service. Its focus on the extension-engagement part of the mission sets the College of Agriculture apart from the other colleges of the university and creates a great opportunity for the College of Agriculture to work with other colleges to enhance the university’s impact across the state. Moving Forward III3 challenges the College of Agriculture to increase its outreach impact with specific suggestions.

            The college proposes to challenge the campus entities involved in economic development (UW CES, the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, and the College of Business) to collaborate and work together more effectively to increase impact. Extension salary funds will be allocated and job descriptions specified to provide more focused and accountable specialist positions. Rigor, effectiveness, and relevance of program assessment in UW CES will be increased. Actions propose that outreach and county offices will work to serve as frontline offices of UW, ensuring that residents of the state have reliable access to university information. Enhanced coordination with the Outreach School will be explored for more efficient and effective educational services.

 

41.       Action Item:  Implement the CES Strategic Plan, as modified by the President’s “Blue-Ribbon Panel,” which reorganizes the program into area and theme-focused initiative teams and emphasizes close communications with area stakeholders.

42.       Action Item: Enhance the responsiveness and efficacy of specialists and educators by exploring the possibility of hiring contract specialists to meet critical, short-term (three to five-year) needs.

43.       Action Item:  Propose the development of a university-wide Outreach Coordination Council with the associate vice-president for Outreach.

44.       Action Item:  Improve coordination between the Outreach School and UW CES and UW AES. Communication and instructional technology areas may be fruitful areas for discussion and exploration.

45.       Action Item:  Work with the other colleges to designate contacts and develop agreements with the Cooperative Extension Service programs to assist with education and answering public questions in their fields.

46.       Action Item:  Explore the development of community learning centers in various communities of the state created through a partnership of UW CES, the Outreach School, county and local governments, and local community leaders.

47.       Action Item:  Build UW CES programming capability through competitive and other soft funding. Actions include the contract hiring of a grants and funding coordinator to help state initiative teams develop fundable project proposals and to increase UW CES development efforts to enhance programming.

48.       Action Item:  Investigate ways to develop better connections between the UW CES Enhancing Wyoming Communities and Households initiative team to the UW Economic Development Roundtable with the vice president for research.

49.       Action Item:  Work with the leadership of ARS and ABADRL to improve and enhance the relationship between USDA scientists and biomedical researchers on campus. The most pressing need is a functional BL-3 animal research facility to replace an existing, ailing facility that is only one of four BL-3 animal facilities in the U.S. For its part, the college desires to have a relationship with ABADRL where the focus is on diseases that have a major impact in western states (e.g. West Nile virus), on developing major external funding, and on collaborative graduate education at the doctoral level.

 

The College of Agriculture operates the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory. The laboratory provides diagnostic veterinary services for animal disease surveillance and animal and public health for the state. Due to heightened biosecurity issues and global trade, the laboratory must be modernized and appropriately staffed to retain national accreditation in order to meet its mission.

 

50.       Action Item:  Develop a proposal for consideration by the president of UW that will ask the state to invest in its Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory. Specifically propose new funds to move five diagnostic service staff positions into Section I state funds.

51.       Action Item:  Develop a business plan for the service portion of the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory mission in order to help fund laboratory operations.

 

            The College of Agriculture will operate the Wyoming Seed Certification Service. The Wyoming State Seed Laboratory will be operated in partnership and with the funding provided through the Wyoming Board of Agriculture.

 

H.         Enrollment Management:  Our college has reallocated resources to fund a three-quarter-time college recruitment and retention coordinator and to continue to fund its own Academic Success Center directed by a professionally certified counselor. Student recruitment and retention activities are priority functions of the Office of Student and Academic Programs as demonstrated by the proportion of college funding and personnel time devoted to various recruitment, retention, and student affairs. In spite of record levels of commitment to recruitment, enrollments have been gradually declining over the last three years, largely a reflection of state demographics and in part a reflection of national agriculture enrollment trends. Current enrollments have increased by 2 percent, however. Therefore, the college recruitment goal is to maintain a 2 percent increase in total enrollment over the next five years based on demand for some of the college’s programs in small business, rural community ecology, life sciences, and natural resources. Student recruitment will remain a top priority in this college’s marketing plan along with listening and communication about the applied research and services needed and/or provided by the college. The college works closely with the university enrollment management council and contributes toward institutional goals.

 

52.       Action Item:  Form a task force to recommend a comprehensive “Business Plan” that addresses a marketing and recruitment program. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity of programs, content, and outcomes for students in college recruiting and advertisements rather than highlighting the college as a whole. Recruitment activities will be expanded in neighboring states as well as Wyoming. Focus nationally and world-wide for graduate students. A process will be developed to determine if the college’s name and image are consistent with reality and recommend changes if they are not.

53.       Action Item: Form a task force to improve the WEB presence of all college programs.

54.       Action Item:  Strengthen student recruitment in Agricultural and Applied Economics to a larger set of students interested in applied economics and small business as opposed to the smaller set interested only in agribusiness.

 

VII.       Other Issues

 

A.         Resources:  The College of Agriculture will strengthen existing relationships and seek new partnerships in order to help meet state needs and build on our strengths. These partnerships will be enhanced to provide sufficient critical mass to be competitive on this campus and throughout the state. The college will facilitate the acquisition of resources from external sources. Faculty hiring and research and extension funding to departments will be assigned to assure that resources are aligned with the college’s areas of distinction. Base funds will be leveraged by identifying and seeking additional resources needed to help accomplish our vision and area of distinction goals through major emphasis on development, extramural research funding, the engagement of external human resources, university support, and statewide and federal initiatives.

 

55.       Action Item:  Focus on developmental objectives for funding positions, facilities, research, and globalization initiatives.

56.       Action Item:  Review and reallocate where appropriate the base allocation of resources including departmental support, instructional support, staff support, space allocations, and GA assignments (to account for interdisciplinary efforts) for all programs. Units affected include academic programs, departments, research, and service/outreach activities. Alignment with key areas of distinction and performance will be assessed. Make use of regular USDA-CSREES reviews of departments as part of the process of continuous improvement.

57.       Action Item:  Seek the agility to effectively respond to emerging issues in Wyoming through research and extension programs by increasing the dollars available to the college to fund those operations through development and/or state initiative.

58.       Action Item:  Identify new state funding or private investment for extension and applied research expertise in livestock systems, horticulture, water management, weed and pest science, and extension veterinary medicine.

 

            B.         Improve the college’s administrative management in order to facilitate faculty and student success, focus on areas of distinction, and efficiently meet stakeholder needs in the state (also see Action Item 8).

 

59.       Action Item:  Work with the administration of the college, including department heads, to identify and implement key measures to assess the college’s progress on action and business items.

60.       Action Item:  Review faculty and staff efforts annually, including a regular review of job descriptions. Reward performances appropriately according to university and college guidelines, nominate outstanding achievers for awards, and support faculty growth where possible

 

C.        The greenhouse facilities on the Laramie campus and SAREC in Goshen County are critical to researchers, addressing at least three areas of distinction related to ENR and sustainable agriculture. The greenhouse facilities are obsolete and in very poor mechanical shape. Expanded research activities in areas of distinction and instruction have resulted in greenhouse space constraints. The inclusion of greenhouse facilities for teaching in the proposed Science Teaching Laboratory Facility would allow for expanded hands-on teaching. SAREC needs to be developed. The life sciences teaching initiatives will demand modern laboratory teaching facilities. Full realization of our life sciences initiatives requires support for the building of the Science Teaching Laboratory Facility. Many classrooms in the college are in need of modernization. These are infrastructure issues that will need to be addressed to achieve excellence in areas of distinction in ENR, sustainable agriculture, and life sciences.

 

61.       Action Item:  Work to design, identify funding for Phase II, and build a student-oriented childcare center (partially funded,