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Columns::April 28, 2003
National search yields five finalists for diversity position
A matter of degrees: More than 5,000 complete requirements for graduation
Enjoying the last days of the semester
New awards program honors excellence in public management
Children’s weight results to be released at BHSI symposium
All in agreement
Promotions
Tenure
Members of promotion and tenure review and appeals committees announced
Forum essay: Faculty-administration relations
Readers Write: UGA tops in international education
Earth Day 2003
Campus News
Ag college will consolidate some research and extension facilities
By Faith Peppers
pepper@uga.edu
As part of the ongoing strategic planning process which is focusing programs and resources on the needs of the state’s a
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Gale Buchanan
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griculture industry in the 21st century, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences will reorganize and consolidate operations at some of its research and extension facilities. The changes allow an immediate shift of resources to high-priority programs within the college.
The strategic plan developed by the agriculture college in 1999 included a number of programmatic and facility proposals which have already been accomplished, including a new agriscience and environmental systems major at the Tifton campus, approximately $1.5 million in new funding for crop and poultry research, and approval of $50 million in agricultural facilities around the state over the past five years. The college is home to three of UGA’s nine Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars, top researchers who are recruited to the state with a combination of state and university funds. Several researchers in the college are now working in the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies, which opened in 2002.
“Over the past year, we initiated a program-planning process to assess and review all programs in the college,” says Gale Buchanan, dean of the college. “This was an inclusive process designed to best serve the needs of the ever-changing field of agriculture. The special assistant for minority affairs to the dean of graduate studies. He has also been assistant and associate dean of graduate studies. His duties now include coordinating a program with three other universities to encourage underrepresented students to pursue careers in science and engineering. The assessment was completed in conjunction with college faculty and staff, the college advisory council and key industry representatives. All research and extension programs were examined in the context of available resources.”
The changes that have been adopted as a result of this process are designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of college programs. Changes will be implemented beginning July 1, 2003, with some programs operating through December 31, 2003.
The research dairy on the Athens campus will be transformed into a teaching facility. Rapidly changing technology in the animal sciences has rendered the Athens dairy facility obsolete.
The college’s dairy research capacity will be enhanced by consolidating all research activities in the modern dairy facility located on the Tifton campus. To accommodate instructional needs, a model facility will be built on the Athens campus when resources are available.
The college will refocus and consolidate its efforts in swine research by closing the Tifton research facility and moving swine operations to Athens, where facilities will be developed to meet teaching and basic research needs.
Although farm-based aquaculture has potential importance in Georgia, the college has been unable to develop a critical mass of scientists and facilities to conduct a satisfactory research program. As a result, aquacultural research, concentrated on the Tifton campus, will be discontinued. The program will be refocused to increase extension and outreach support for the industry. The college is working to create a collaborative effort with Fort Valley State University’s aquaculture research unit and Auburn University.
Faculty and staff retirements and resignations make it no longer feasible to operate the blueberry and vegetable-processing facility located in Alma.
The facility is on property owned by Bacon County, although the building and equipment are owned by the University of Georgia. All activity will be terminated, and negotiations with local officials will begin to transfer facility operations to local control.
Research and extension programs at the Bamboo Farm and Coastal Garden in Savannah include ornamentals, turf, fruit and vegetables. Research at this facility is severely limited by lack of suitable land, but the facility has extensive extension and outreach programming that is heavily supported by the community. The college will refocus programs, eliminating research activities and concentrating on extension and outreach.
The Southeast Research and Education Center at Midville provides land for plot research and field demonstrations for soybeans, peanuts, cotton and pecans. The demand for the land for research needs has decreased significantly, providing an opportunity for the college to suspend research and extension programs while maintaining facilities.
The facility will be renamed the Southeast Education Center; research on these crops will continue at other locations.
Effective July 1, the user fee for services provided to homeowners by the Agricultural Services Laboratory in Athens will be extended to all users.
“We are deeply concerned that these changes will impact employees involved in these programs,” says Buchanan. “Every effort will be made to secure alternative employment through reassignment to other units within the college or university. The strategic planning process, however, requires that we make some difficult choices, within state budget realities, about the most effective direction this college should take in education, research and public service.” |
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