Dean's update

March 19, 2012

This has once again been a busy spring and we are fully engaged in planning for our various awards and honors events leading up to graduation. At the same time we are dealing with all the necessary details required to move everyone out of the Young Building for our scheduled year long renovation. I would like to commend the planning group for their hard work addressing everyone’s needs as they move to temporary quarters. The renovation of the Floriculture Building is progressing with an expected completion date of early summer. Planning is underway for a dedication event to celebrate its completion.

I recently submitted our four year hiring plan to Provost Nicholls. President Herbst has made the commitment to hire as many as 275 new faculty members over the next four years with funds generated from tuition increases over the four year period. Working closely with the department heads and College administrative team, we submitted a plan to add forty new faculty members over the four year period.  I believe the plan is focused and strategic and will help fulfill our vision as a college. We will post our plan on the intranet and it is my understanding that all college and school plans will be posted at some point.

In our initial search, we were unable to identify an acceptable candidate to serve as the new Associate Dean for Extension and have re-advertised the position.  Bonnie Burr has agreed to serve as the interim head of the Department of Extension in addition to her duties as the Assistant Director.  Given the delay in bringing this search to a conclusion, we need to begin implementing necessary changes in Cooperative Extension to enhance program planning and better connect our county-based programs to our academic departments.  Roger Adams will fully retire at the end of March and I want to personally thank him for his dedicated service to the College and Cooperative Extension over these many years.

Gregory J. Weidemann

Dean and Director