By Chuck Gill, Penn State
UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State’s Board of Trustees Nov. 11 approved a plan submitted by the College of Agricultural Sciences to restructure the college’s academic departments, reducing their number from 12 to nine. The new structure formally will take effect July 1, 2012.
The reorganization was the outcome of a two-year strategic planning process, known as the Ag Futures initiative, aimed at changing the college’s business model to adjust to economic and social realities and needs. As part of the initiative, the college partnered with Penn State Executive Programs in the Smeal College of Business in an intensive, professionally facilitated program to identify areas of strategic innovation and growth.
“The intent was to challenge assumptions about what we do and how we do it and to determine the best application of resources to achieve the college’s vision,” said Bruce McPheron, dean of the college. “Our focus was to strengthen our academic programs while becoming a more agile organization that can respond quickly to emerging issues, trends and changing dynamics in the global food and fiber system.”
The Ag Futures initiative was influenced by recommendations delivered in early 2011 from the University’s Academic Programs and Administrative Services Core Council, a group charged with analyzing programs, examining available resources, finding efficiencies and determining how to maintain the University’s excellence in an era of declining state revenue and mounting fiscal challenges. The Core Council was chaired by Rodney Erickson.
To arrive at the final plan, six teams of college faculty and administrators developed independent proposals for how the college’s academic departments might be consolidated. Those six proposals were combined to form a draft plan, which was revised with input from faculty, staff, stakeholders and the University’s faculty senate before coming to the trustees for approval.
The reorganization combines and refocuses some departments that share similar missions, capitalizing on disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary synergies. The new departments follow:
— Agricultural and Biological Engineering will include faculty largely from the current department of the same name.
— Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education will draw faculty from the current department of the same name and the current Agricultural and Extension Education Department.
— Animal Science will draw faculty from the current Poultry Science and Dairy and Animal Science departments.
— Ecosystem Science and Management will draw faculty from the current Crop and Soil Sciences Department and School of Forest Resources.
— Entomology will include faculty largely from the current department of the same name.
— Food Science will include faculty largely from the current department of the same name.
— Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology will include faculty largely from the current Plant Pathology Department.
— Plant Science will draw faculty from the current Horticulture and Crop and Soil Sciences departments.
— Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences will include faculty largely from the current department of the same name.
The reorganization will ensure that current and prospective students continue to find high-quality, in-demand programs and outstanding educational opportunities both in and out of the classroom, according to McPheron. He said the college continually looks at its majors, minors and options to make certain they provide the kind of education that will prepare students to enter today’s careers, to address current and future issues, and to make contributions as global citizens.
“A new academic structure over time almost certainly will result in new undergraduate and graduate degree programs,” he said. “Some low-enrollment programs may be phased out, and others may be merged to strengthen them and provide wider opportunities and more options within those majors.”
McPheron emphasized that even as academic programs evolve, students currently enrolled in the college’s 19 majors will be able to complete their programs without interruption. Any proposed new programs must be endorsed by the faculty senate and approved by the trustees.