In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Land Grant Act providing grants of federal land to each state to establish a college teaching agriculture, mechanical arts, and related subjects. Subsequent federal acts enlarged the responsibilities of these colleges. The University of Connecticut is the land-grant university in Connecticut. The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources serves Connecticut through a wide variety of research, outreach education, and undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Research is administered through the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. Cooperative Extension faculty and staff, working with a network of over 40,000 trained volunteers and eight extension councils, conduct outreach education and service programs throughout the state. A key component of extension programs is training volunteers who become trainers themselves, leveraging the financial investment in the Connecticut Cooperative Extension System.

The College maintains livestock, greenhouses, forested lands, gardens, and other operations for teaching, research, outreach education, and service programs.

The College is supported by federal and state appropriations, extramural and intramural grants and contracts, and contributions from the private sector.

As the original component of Connecticut’s land-grant university, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has as its primary mission education based on research, conducted in laboratories and in the field, that focuses on agriculture, the environment, food, families, and quality of life. The College provides high-quality, broad-based, relevant educational opportunities that prepare graduates to address the challenges of life today; it expands the frontiers of knowledge through research; and it enhances economic opportunities and quality of life for people of Connecticut and beyond.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• The College must engage the world as its partner.
• The College must honor traditions while building on strengths and developing areas of emphasis for future excellence.
• Growth in human, financial, and capital resources must be acquired
  for the College to advance.
• The College must enhance existing and develop new sources of funding to ensure excellence for the future.

VALUES

• Efficient, effective communications.
• Diversity through individuals, cultures, ideas, and programs.
  Cooperation through multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, cross-functional teams.
• Economic viability for agricultural, natural resource, and environmental enterprises.
• Excellence through creativity, originality, and innovation in the
  development and dissemination of knowledge.
• Scholarship in teaching, scholarship in research, and scholarship in Extension based on peer review.
• Integrity and accountability through credibility, objectivity, honesty, and trust.
• Quality education through the land grant mission of access to education for youth, adults, and families in the classroom and communities.

INITIATIVES

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has established initiatives for research, extension, and teaching that build on traditions, strengths, and excellence for the future.

• Economic viability of agriculture, natural resources, and environmental enterprises.
• Sustainability of agriculture and the environment.
• Food and health
• Agricultural biotechnology
• Aquaculture
• Workforce development – formal and informal
• Agricultural and food bio-security
• Stem cell and regenerative biology
• Access to veterinary medical education for Connecticut residents.