Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

January-February 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 1

Address to the Faculty Council by Dean Greg Weidemann, Dec. 8, 2004

Once again, college enrollment increased significantly over the previous fall semester. Total undergraduate enrollment increased to 1,150 students, a 5.2% increase. Three of the five programs in HES, environmental science, turf, food science and animal science experienced double digit growth in their undergraduate programs. Overall, the university grew 5% this fall. Graduate enrollment was stable although the official numbers show a decline due to counting multi-disciplinary degrees through the graduate school. We will need to continue to focus on steady, balanced growth to meet our 2010 goals of 2000 undergraduates and 500 graduate students.

During our fall retreat with the chancellor he reported that we are making significant gains towards all of our 2010 goals except diversity. It is clear that diversity will become a much higher priority for attention at all levels. Like the rest of campus, we in the college are not making significant gains towards reaching our diversity goals and must place a higher priority on this effort.

Campaign Exceeds Goal

I am very pleased to report that we have exceeded our campaign goal of nearly $70 million for the college and Division. Our current campaign total is $70.6 million. During the course of the campaign we have added several new chairs and professorships and have nearly doubled our scholarship endowment to$9 million.

Perhaps the most visible change is the noticeable improvement in our classrooms due to the Classrooms for Tomorrow Initiative. To date, we have renovated eight classrooms and added the latest in teaching technology and have pledges for two more due to the generosity of our friends and supporters.

I am pleased to announce that we have received a pledge from theJ. W. Nutt Co. to renovate HES 206 as the J. W. Nutt Honors Classroom. This $40,000 gift will be matched with $40,000 from the Honors College for technology for a total gift of $80,000. Also, we have received a wonderful gift of $125,000 from Buddy and Linda Wray for HES 112 to renovate the foods laboratory for the hospitality program.

We have received two recent pledges that will allow us to construct a new headquarters building for the Cotton Branch Station in Marianna. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements as we conclude the final year of the campaign. We all owe our thanks to Mark Power and Chuck Culver and to our campaign committee for their hard work and dedication that have helped us reach our goal.

Strategic Planning

Our current five year management plan expired this past June, and we have been actively engaged in the development of a new management plan for the College and Experiment Station in concert with our colleagues in the Cooperative Extension Service. This process began with a statewide stakeholder listening session last December followed by a series of regional meetings. In addition, we asked all of you to give us your thoughts in an on-line survey as well as our staff and students. We also asked a representative group of our faculty to review the compiled information you submitted to ensure that the issues you raised were addressed.

Last month the entire College and Division management team met along with representative faculty to build the draft management plan. Over a two day period these individuals worked hard on your behalf to take all this information and build specific management goals and objectives to be addressed over the next five years. Currently, the drafts are being circulated among the participants for additional revision and input. Once complete, the drafts will go to a writing team who will work with us to craft the final plan and share the end product with everyone. Although time onsuming, I believe it is imperative for us to craft ambitious goals for ourselves for the next five years.

As a prelude to the planning event, I shared with the participants my observations on how well we did on the previous plan, some of my thoughts on issues we need to address over the next five years, and some of the challenges we face. While we have accomplished much, we still have challenges in front of us that must be addressed in our new plan. I also shared with the group, some themes that I thought emerged from you the faculty from the surveys. I thought it might be useful to you to share some of those themes and desires that I thought emerged from your responses.

*         Need to become more interdisciplinary

*         Need for increased collaboration

*         Better integration of functions

*         Need for enhanced communication

*         Need to consolidate or realign programs

*         Stronger sense of community

*         Need for a stronger vision

*         Concern about entrenched programs and status quo

*         Need for a more holistic approach to education

*         Need for cross-discipline majors

*         Commitment to a serious evaluation of teaching

*         Need for mentoring and training at all levels

*         Need for change

Of course the challenge is to take individual desires such as these and translate them into actions that result in positive change in the context of our management plan.

State Funding

This is a critical year for higher education as we approach a new biennial session in the state legislature. This session is more optimistic than the last session but significant challenges are ahead to address school facility improvements and social services as well as other needs such as higher education. Fortunately, current economic projections are ahead of forecast. While these additional funds paint a more optimistic picture, needs greatly outstrip available funds.

For the first time, higher education has agreed on a funding formula that takes into consideration the different missions of the four year institutions. Under this formula, our campus stands to gain substantially due to its research and graduate education mission. While no one expects us to receive the level of funds suggested by the formula, the acknowledgment by the legislature that new funds would be distributed on the basis of the formula would be of great benefit over time. Although the Division is a non-formula entity it also would benefit greatly from this approach.

Before closing, I would like to thank my associates, Rick, Donna and Patty, and all of our unit heads for their hard work and dedication. They work for all of you each and every day and I very much appreciate their leadership. I would also like to thank you, the faculty, for your dedication to the college and Division. We very much appreciate what you do for our students and stakeholders every day.