Dean's update

December 5 , 2008

This past week, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting of all the New England dean of agriculture. While we did not dwell on our respective budget situations, everyone is facing challenging budget times. If there is a bright spot, budget challenges have caused the deans to engage in very direct discussions about how we can better collaborate and share intellectual capacity across the region. As an outcome from the meeting, several research areas were proposed as high priorities for development for the new USDA grant programs in Specialty Crops, Organic Agriculture, Bioenergy, and Young Farmers and Ranchers. Several potential projects were selected for a facilitated grant development process during the month of January. Some of you may be contacted by our office or some of your colleagues to participate in a proposal development process and I would urge you to make every effort to participate.

Discussion also revolved around course-sharing among institutions.  Other regions of the country are well ahead of New England in sharing web-based courses among institutions. Models are now in place that  we can take advantage of. Associate Dean Faustman will be very engaged in these discussions as they progress. I believe it will be very important for UConn to take a leadership role as these collaborations move forward.

Gregory J. Weidemann

Dean and Director