Section 1 - Changes in Service Environment

The college was busy again this year with Bond funded facilities projects.  Design work for Riddick Laboratory is nearly complete.  A section of this renovated and modernized building will house teaching programs of the Department of Animal Science and the Agriculture Institute.  Design work is in progress for the Schaub Hall (Department of Food Science) renovation project.  The Department of Zoology vacated David Clark Laboratory in June marking the beginning of the construction phase of the renovation of this 1939 building which will include an addition (the USTL II project).

Building Committees were appointed for South Gardner and Williams Hall renovation and modernization projects.  These committees will begin work soon on the design phase of these facilities.  Early in the coming year the Building Committee for Polk Hall will be appointed.  Work to prepare research space in Partners II has been completed and work on Partners III on Centennial Campus continues. 

The completion of these projects will indeed bring the facilities improvements essential for the college to remain competitive.  However, the disruption and inconvenience to faculty, staff and students will be a significant aspect of working and going to school on this campus for the next five to seven years.  A significant challenge for the college will be to find classroom and class laboratory space during the time these existing facilities are under construction.

The Ruby C. McSwain Education Center at the JC Raulston Arboretum, located at the Horticulture Field Laboratory of the college, was dedicated on September 21, 2002.  This unique building holds the distinction of being the first project completed with bond funds, however, this facility was built primarily from private donations.  This year we also dedicated the new Beef Education Unit located at the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory and christened our first research vessel, the M/Y Ocean Voyageur.

Section 2 -  Compact Plan: Major Initiatives from the Compact

      A.  Academic Programs

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences continued to make progress toward meeting the goals and objectives of the major initiatives for academic programs established in the 2000-2003 Compact Plan during the 2002-03 academic year.  Undergraduate enrollments grew in the life sciences area, most notably in Biological Sciences, Microbiology, and Structural and Molecular Biochemistry.  Enrollment in the Agricultural Institute also increased; whereas, there was a slight decrease in the number of graduate students enrolled in the College.  One of the major initiatives in the Compact Plan was to hire faculty to meet the high demand and potential of programs within the College.  This initiative was accomplished by placing new faculty members in the Departments of Microbiology, Structural and Molecular Biochemistry, Genetics, Botany and Biological and Agricultural Engineering.  The second initiative was to add teaching assistants in growing programs, and this accomplished by placing additional teaching assistants in Biological Sciences and several other life science departments.  Another initiative that was continued during the 2002-03 academic year was the Teaching Postdoctoral Fellows Program.  This program continued the support of a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Microbiology resulting in the instruction of an honors section of an undergraduate course in microbiology.

New partnerships were formed and building relationships with traditional and new clientele and constituents was emphasized again during the 2002-03 academic year in fulfillment of the initiative on developing partnerships.  Administrators, faculty and staff proactively interacted with primary, secondary, and post-secondary educators and students to provide support to the educational endeavors.  Specialized programs and workshops were conducted for high school science and vocational agriculture teachers.

Another area of emphasis of the 2000-2003 Compact Plan was improving access to technology for students and faculty.  In a recent survey of graduating seniors, the college’s students consistently ranked parameters associated with technology higher than students from the other colleges at NC State.  Ninety-five percent of our college seniors rated the overall technology services provided by the college as either Good or Excellent.  Twenty-two multimedia classrooms were maintained and technology was introduced into more of the laboratory sections of courses.  Training, software and web development, desktop support, and maintenance of computing and networking infrastructure were maintained and strengthened.   The college undertook a new initiative during the 2002-03 academic year called m-Learning (mobile-learning) in collaboration with Palm, Inc. and the Distance Education Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) group at NC State.  A cohort of 32 students piloted a program where they were given a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) containing customized software with applications in areas of time management, organization, productivity, data collection, and active learning.  The students found that the PDA helped them manage time and information and collect field information and project data.  Eighty-four percent of the students used the technology on a regular basis and wanted to keep the PDA for a second year.  The college will continue to enrich the technology availability to students so that graduates will be prepared to meet the technology expectations of the future.

      B. Agricultural Programs

Progress made during 2002-2003 toward meeting the goals and objectives of the major initiatives for agricultural programs in the 2000-2003 Compact Plan include the following accomplishments. Members of the college’s leadership team have assumed liaison roles with over 80 commodity groups that interact with college programs. In addition, three organizations established endowments in 2002 with the Agricultural Foundation. The Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy, established in late 2001, was awarded RTI/EPA grants totaling $700,000. The Ruby C. McSwain Education Center at the J.C. Raulston Arboretum was dedicated, as was a new Beef Education Unit at the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory. The first two courses of a new Master of Science in Family Life and Parenting program, jointly administered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will be taught in fall 2003. Laboratory construction for the Center for the Biology of Nematode Parasitism was completed and the new lab space located in Partners II, Centennial Campus, was occupied in November 2002. In addition, laboratory expansion for the Center for Integrated Fungal Research was completed during the year. Eleven Cooperative Extension county centers were selected as university gateways, with a ribbon cutting held at the gateway center in Gaston County. The Industrial Extension Service and Cooperative Extension opened a joint office (the first in the state) in Haywood County. Grants awarded through county Cooperative Extension centers totaled $8.4 million. In addition, Cooperative Extension agents who met certain qualifications were awarded Field Faculty status, while Extension reported 10,395 nondegree credit activities for 2002, up from 7,936 in 2001.

Section 3 - Diversity

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is committed to building a diverse and inclusive community extending to all groups served by the college.  This diverse community includes elements of gender, race, and accessibility for individuals with disabilities, national origin, geographical location and social-economic status.  Successful programs and activities designed to enhance and embrace diversity were continued during the 2002-03 academic year.  For example, the College continued to participate in the African-American Visitation Day, Honors Visitation Day, and Women in Science and Engineering Visitation Day.  The College continued the practice of sending individual letters to all accepted minority students within two weeks of acceptance and calling them within a month of acceptance to encourage their enrollment.

A college task force was formed in the fall of 2002 with the charge “to identify issues, collect information, set priorities and make recommendations regarding diversity within departments, as well as at the College and University levels.  The Diversity Management Team will acquire and review profile data for students, faculty and staff, develop formalized assessment and evaluation processes, and seek to nurture a climate that recognizes commonalties while celebrating differences.  Primary consideration will be given to issues relative to race, gender, and ethnicity, as well as other issues/situations that may result in biases.  It is anticipated that the work and recommendations of the College’s Diversity Management Team will improve the success rate of all our students, promote a more positive work environment, promote critical thinking and enhance the understanding of humankind.”  It will be the ongoing responsibility of the team to evaluate the plans and reports from departments within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences relative to their implementation of plans to increase diversity within their units.

Section 4 - Instructional Program Advances, including curriculum development and program review

As a result of planning conducted by the college’s Departments as part of the compact planning process, curriculum reform has begun.  New academic programs (BS) have been developed, one in Environmental Technology in conjunction with the College of Natural Resources and the other in Biomedical Engineering in conjunction with the College of Engineering.  In addition, graduate education programs (MS and PhD degrees) were approved in Biomedical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Microbial Biotechnology was approved by the Administrative Board of the Graduate School and awaits final approval by the University.  The graduate degree program in Biomedical Engineering is a joint degree program with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  In addition, the name of the Ph.D. degree program in Animal Science was changed to a Ph.D. degree in Animal Science and Poultry Science.

Planning is underway to streamline the offerings in the Agricultural Institute.  A faculty committee has worked with the Director of the Agricultural Institute in proposing changes that would increase the flexibility of students studying in the Agricultural Institute and modernize the curriculum in the program.  Discussions are also underway to develop a new Concentration of Ornamentals and Landscape within the Ag Business degree within the Agricultural Institute.

A minor in Environmental Toxicology was approved and introduced to the students.  There were minor revisions to the minors in the programs of Entomology, Food Science and Nutrition.  In addition, other majors and minors in the college were revised and curricula were changed to reflect changes in the offering of Biology courses and the University English requirement.  Also during the 2002-03 academic year, 26 new courses were approved at the undergraduate level and 18 courses were revised.

Expanding the number of distance education courses and programs is an important initiative of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  On the average, 35 courses are delivered via the Internet, video, cable, and intrastate networks each semester.  Currently, we offer 12% of the distance education courses taught from the NC State campus.  As the number of course offerings increases, there will be an emphasis on the establishment of certificate and degree programs.  A certificate in Food Safety was initially offered via distance education during the 2002-03 academic years.  There are plans to develop graduate level certificates in a number of program areas, including Family Life and Parenting Education, Horticultural Science and Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

Programs participated in the comprehensive Undergraduate Academic Program Review (UAPR) process by writing program objectives and outcomes and developing assessment methods.  Most programs are currently collecting data as part of the assessment phase.  The academic programs in the Departments of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry and Agricultural and Resource Economics underwent comprehensive review with external peers participating in the process.

Students are pleased with the education they receive in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  When asked to rate the quality of instruction in their major, 59 percent of the students rated it as “Excellent” and another 34 percent rated it as “Good”.

Section 5 - Research

      A. Volume of Activity

The North Carolina Agricultural Research Service personnel include 265 tenured and tenure-track research faculty accounting for approximately 185 full-time scientist equivalents. These faculty members and support personnel conducted basic and applied research on 609 projects to support more than 70 commodities. Total research expenditures exceeded $100 million.  Approximately 47 percent comes from state funding and 35 percent from grants and contracts.

      B. Achievements of Significance

College scientists continued to address University priorities in genomics and environmental issues and college priorities related to the needs of North Carolina agriculture. College scientists developed transgenic chickens that express a reporter gene that can be easily tracked. This work will provide a powerful tool to aid in understanding how chicken embryos develop. The college also entered an agreement with Philip Morris USA under which the company will provide $17.6 million to map the tobacco genome. College faculty continued to play an instrumental role in development of a Phosphorus Loss Assessment Tool (PLAT) that allows assessment of potential phosphorus loss pathways, which helps identify specific Best Management Practices designed to reduce phosphorus loss. Scientists also investigated new products and processes that provide additional or value-added products. The Specialty Crops Program, designed to develop and market new crops, exemplifies this effort. Gross sales of the Sprite melon, which was developed through this program, were nearly $1 million in 2001. A seed-production failure limited acreage in 2002, but sales are expected to top $2 million in 2003.

Section 6 - Extension: Initiatives and public service activities

      A. Volume of activity

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service provides the state’s people with direct access to NC State University’s educational resources. Extension is the university’s largest outreach effort, with nearly 2.3 million face-to-face teaching contacts and over 12 million other known contacts in 2002. A citizen advisory system and 82,000 volunteers enhanced these efforts by contributing nearly 809,000 hours valued at nearly $8.1 million.  Our grant activity for the 2001-2002 fiscal year totaled $22,059,194, with $13,512,394 generated on campus and $8,546,800 generated in our counties.

      B. Specific achievements of significance

In partnership with county, state and federal governments and NC A&T State University’s Extension program, Cooperative Extension educators provided research-based programs that helped meet local needs in five focus areas:

• Enhancing agriculture, forest and food systems Over 39 million pounds of organic nutrients (animal waste and by-products) valued at  $13.6 million applied to agricultural lands as crop fertilizers.
• 1.21 million acres of biotechnological controls were used: IPM (575,876 acres), scouting (477,601 acres), and biological control (156,372 acres).
• Mycotoxins reduce animal health, production, reproduction and profits on more than a fourth of all dairy operations. Extension education programs have led to improved prevention and treatment measures, resulting in profits of $4 million annually for North Carolina dairy producers.
• Extension has educated beef, sheep, goat and dairy producers to use byproduct feeds, saving $2 million annually.

Strengthening and sustaining families

• 1,372 limited-resource program participants saved $93,517 or reallocated $56,613 to meet their families' needs.
• 769 limited-resources program participants reduced their debt by $118,660.
• Of 15,561 parents attending Extension training programs, 9,421 reported Adopting effective parenting practices, 5,491 reported spending increased time with their children and 5,497 reported increased involvement in educational and community functions.
• 269 food handlers completed safe food handling sanitation workshops, with 43 completing ServSafe training and passing the national certification exam.

Conserving and improving the environment and natural resources

• New riparian buffers were established along 739 stream miles of intermittent and perennial streams.
• 189,000 pesticide containers were recycled saving $480,365 in disposal costs.
• Because of Extension natural resources conservation and management efforts, North Carolina now has 101,723 more acres of forestry protecting water quality and providing habitat through best management practices and improved wildlife management. 58,463 new acres are now managed specifically for wildlife and fisheries.
• New conservation practices implemented on animal production lands reduced soil erosion by 247,014 tons.

Building quality communities

• 28,172 citizens adopted waste reduction strategies, diverting 5.8 million pounds of waste from landfills and saved local governments $117,180.
• By implementing sound construction and maintenance practices, homeowners saved $272,000 in water system replacement costs and $433,000 in septic system replacement costs.
• 1,228 new childcare slots were created and 39 new centers or homes were brought on-line as a result of Extension efforts.
• 23 counties reported success in tourism development by working with local citizens to develop festivals, expos, roadside markets, mazes, craft markets, trails, camps, museums and fee-based hunting enterprises. Seven reported successful efforts to develop crop mazes.

Developing responsible youth

• Agents in 86 counties reported that youth in 4-H clubs and other long-term experiences strengthened targeted life skills: 37,033 increased communication skills, 35,002 increased decision making, 36,712 increased awareness of community service, 71,974 increased knowledge and 20,118 increased leadership.
• As a result of after-school programs, 5,223 youths improved their academic performance.
• 1,044 youths reduced contact with juvenile courts while involved in Extension-sponsored activities.
• Supporters contributed $100,000 for youth scholarships and $677,000 for youth agriculture programs that provide avenues for communication between rural and urban citizens.  4-H'ers received $349,679 in scholarships and made $377,157 through project work.

Section 7 -  Faculty:  Honors, awards and recognition

College campus and field faculty received 151 individual significant honors and awards for their accomplishments and contributions to teaching, research and extension programs.  Our faculty were appointed to numerous prestigious editorial positions as well as national and regional committee and task force assignments.  A few were asked to serve on departmental review committees at other institutions, a significant form of peer recognition.  Faculty were also selected as Fellows and chosen for leadership positions in their respective professional societies.

For further information about our award winning faculty please visit our Faculty Honors website located under the “For Faculty and Staff” button on our college homepage at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu.

Section 8 - Students:  Honors, measures of quality, and student activities

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences had 311 students enrolled in the Agricultural Institute, 3,439 students enrolled in the undergraduate program and 726 students in the graduate program in the fall 2002 semester.  The students were from 100 North Carolina Counties, 46 states and 52 countries.

Approximately 600 beginning freshmen and 230 transfer students enroll each year in the college, along with 140 beginning and transfer students in the Agricultural Institute.  The average SAT total for beginning freshmen continues to increase each year, approaching 1170 for the cohort beginning in the fall 2002 semester.  Other measures of quality for incoming freshmen include HS GPA and HS rank.  For the students beginning in the fall 2002 semester, their weighted GPA averaged 4.03 and 47 percent of the students were in the top ten percent of their high school graduating class.  Measures of quality for incoming freshmen in the college are similar to those of the University.

The college awarded $778,000 in scholarships to more than 560 students during the 2002-03 academic year.  Thirty students were selected as CALS Ambassadors, serving in various capacities such as hosts for visitation days, public appearance and peer counseling.  The CALS Ambassadors hosted student leaders from other colleges of agriculture from Southeastern United States for a conference on leadership.

During the 2002-03 academic year, 124 associate degrees were awarded to 78 students who graduated from the Agricultural Institute.  In addition, 793 baccalaureate degrees were awarded to 760 students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  Of these students, eleven percent graduated cum laude, ten percent graduated magna cum laude, and fourteen percent graduated summa cum laude.

The college’s Career Services office provided many services to assist students and alumni with career choices and employment counseling.  Thirty-three on-campus recruiting visits took place, 189 on-campus interviews were conducted, 1,191 resumes were referred to job vacancies, and 99 companies attended the annual Career Expo.  A recent survey of BS degree graduates indicated that within six months after graduation: 59 percent were working in their chosen field; 32 percent were attending graduate or professional school; and 3 percent were seeking employment.

Student success, as measured by retention and graduation rates, show that students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are similar to their peers in other colleges at NC State.  Data taken from freshmen cohorts that began at NC State from 1994 through 2001 reveal that, on the average of CALS students, 87 percent continued to their second year, 79 percent continued to their third year, 36 percent graduated in four years, and 63 percent graduated in six years.  The data also showed that many students who did not continue or graduate from NC State attended another post-secondary educational institution.

Section  9. Fund-Raising: Private fund-raising successes:

Total private support for the College is anticipated to reach $45 million in 2002-2003, well above the record raised last year of $41.5 million.  Through March 31, 2003, or three quarters of the year, we were already at $41.2 million committed in private support.  The College has over $92.2 million in commitments toward our working goal of $180 million for the seven-year NC State “Breakthrough” Campaign.  The largest campaign gift to date was received from Philip Morris, USA through their $17.6 million donation to map the tobacco genome at NC State University.

In addition, the College Advancement Office has announced the creation of the “Windows of Opportunity” compact disc, web site and printed materials effort to market the College’s campaign opportunities.  The College’s Campaign Leadership Team includes Ruby McSwain, Larry Sykes, and Joe and Ginger Taylor.

Over 600 people attended the JC Raulston Arboretum Gala in the Garden this May, raising $62,500 for the Arboretum.  The very successful 4-H Gala was held on March 18, 2003 in Charlotte and raised over $250,000 for the 4-H program in North Carolina.

Other successes by the College Advancement Office include the very successful “Food for Thought” effort and “Jim Graham’s Farm Family Cookbook for City Folks” being named one of the Best Sellers of 2002 in the Southeast after being on the shelves for only two months of the year.  Also, over 1,500 alumni and friends attended our 12^th Annual TAILGATE event at the Dorton Arena this past September. 

Section 10 - Administration: Achievements & Staff Changes

New Appointments in Administration/Staff

5/19/03          Dr. Johnny Wynne, appointed Interim Dean and Executive Director for Agricultural Programs as Dr. James Oblinger steps into the Provost position

6/1/03            Dr. Steven Leath, Interim Associate Dean and Director, North Carolina Agricultural Research Service

6/1/03            Dr. Roger McCraw, Department Head of Animal Science

5/1/03            Dr. Sylvia Blankenship, Interim Department Head of Horticultural Science, upon the retirement of Dr. Tom Monaco

5/12/03           Dr. Keith Cassel, Interim Department Head of Soil Science as Dr. John Havlin steps into a faculty role

8/19/02           Ms. Sheri Plenert, Assistant Director of Personnel for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Leaves of Absences by Administration/Staff:

7/1/02            Dr. Ken Swartzel, partial leave of absence to work with the Office of the President on Intellectual property issues

Retirements from Administrative /Staff

None

Section 11 -  Recommendations and Concerns for the Future

The college of Agriculture and Life Sciences continued its recent trend in significantly  increasing grants and contracts activity.  The dual mission of meeting the state’s expectations of its Land Grant University will remain an equally high priority for the college.  This will certainly be evident as the college’s Cooperative Extension Service is a primary participant in NC State’s broadening of its engagement with the state as its community. 

The bond funds are enabling the college to renovate, upgrade and even add to our facilities.  This will have an impact almost every program in our college.  It is going to take awhile, and the disruption on campus will certainly be bothersome; but we’re focusing on the results.  It is bringing a whole new atmosphere to the campus.  It is going to be hard for our public to hear about cutbacks and possibly layoffs of employees and at the same time to see all the construction going on.  However, in the next ten years, the challenge will be to keep the University community informed and to minimize the impact of the construction on the day to day business of the college’s teaching, research and extension activities.  It will also be a challenge to convince the public and legislators that this is just the first step in a three phase plan.  Much more will need to be done, even after all the projects of this first phase are complete. 

For the 2002-03 fiscal year, our academic programs experienced one-time reversions and permanent cuts totaling 3.9%; our research service, 7%; and Cooperative Extension, 9.1%. And although we can't predict what the legislature will do, it appears that we may face a similarly challenging situation in the 2003-04 fiscal year.

The state's precarious budget situation springs, at least in part, from a larger economic downturn straining North Carolina's rural and urban communities. And this strain creates an even greater need for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' academic, research and extension programs. Life science industries turn to us for help in preparing students to join the work force and in pushing the frontiers of science in ways that open new economic opportunities.  Meanwhile, rapid changes in the global marketplace, in federal farm programs and in state and national environmental regulations have created economic hardship for North Carolina's food, fiber and forestry industries. 

In response to these challenges, we must continue to build on our emerging strengths in environmental sciences, genomics and proteomics while working in partnership with commodity groups and government agencies to develop value-added agricultural enterprises that are economically and environmentally sustainable. Simultaneously we will continue our long record of support for our traditional agricultural programs. 

The complex and rapidly changing nature of the challenges facing North Carolina's industries and communities demands stronger and more inclusive partnerships. To fulfill our teaching, research and extension mission in ways that are relevant and responsive, we must continue efforts to develop a diverse faculty and staff willing to work across traditional boundaries separating disciplines, departments and functions. At the same time, we must encourage equitable partnerships with other institutions and ensure that we are inclusive in terms of the people and groups that we reach.