ATHENS, Ga — As part of an ongoing strategic planning
process which is focusing programs and resources on the needs of
the state’s agriculture industry in the 21st century, the
University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences will reorganize and consolidate operations at some of
its research and extension facilities throughout the state. The
changes allow an immediate shift of resources to high-priority
programs within the college.

UGA began the strategic planning process in 1999, and the plan
developed by CAES included a number of programmatic and facility
proposals which have already been accomplished. Some of those
include a new agriscience and environmental systems major
offered at the Tifton campus, about $1.5 million in new funding
for crop and poultry research and approval of $50 million in
agricultural facilities around the state over the past five
years.

The college is also home to three of UGA’s nine Georgia Research
Alliance eminent scholars, top researchers who are recruited to
the state through a combination of state and university funds.
Several CAES researchers are now working in the Center for
Applied Genetic Technologies, which opened in 2002.

“Over the past year, we initiated a program planning process to
assess and review all programs in the college,” said Gale
Buchanan, dean of the CAES. “This was an inclusive process
designed to best serve the needs of the ever-changing field of
agriculture. The assessment was completed in conjunction with
college faculty and staff, the college advisory council and key
industry representatives. All research and extension programs
were examined in the context of available resources.”

Implementation of the changes will begin July 1, 2003, with some
programs operating through Dec. 31, 2003.

To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of college
programs, the following changes were enacted:

• Transform the Athens research dairy into a teaching
  facility. Rapidly changing technology in the animal sciences
  has rendered the Athens dairy facility obsolete. CAES dairy
  research capacity can be enhanced by consolidating all research
  activities within the modern dairy facility on the Tifton, Ga.,
  campus. To accommodate instructional needs, a model facility will
  be built on the Athens campus when resources are available.




• Consolidate the swine research program. The college
  will refocus and consolidate its efforts in swine research by
  closing the Tifton research facility and moving swine operations
  to Athens, where facilities will be developed to meet teaching and
  basic research needs.




• Redirect the aquaculture research program to outreach.
  Although farm-based aquaculture has potential importance in
  Georgia, the college has been unable to develop a critical mass
  of scientists and facilities to conduct a satisfactory research
  program. As a result, aquacultural research, concentrated on the
  Tifton campus, will be discontinued. The program will be
  refocused to increase extension and outreach support for the
  industry. The college is working to create a collaborative
  effort with Fort Valley State University’s Aquaculture Research
  Unit and Auburn University.




• Cease operation of the Blueberry and Vegetable Processing
  Facility. Faculty and staff retirements and resignations
  make it no longer feasible to operate the facility in Alma, Ga.
  The facility is on property owned by Bacon County. The building
  and equipment are owned by the University of Georgia. All
  activity will be terminated, and negotiations with local
  officials will begin to transfer facility operations to local
  control.




• Refocus activities at the Bamboo Farm and Coastal
  Garden. Research and extension programs at the Bamboo Farm
  and Coastal Garden in Savannah, Ga., include ornamentals, turf,
  fruit and vegetables. Research conducted at this facility is
  severely
  limited by the lack of suitable land. Yet the facility has
  extensive extension and outreach programming that is heavily
  supported by the community. The college will refocus programs,
  eliminating research activities and concentrating on extension
  and outreach programming.




• Cease research and most extension programs at the Southeast
  Research and Education Center. The facility at Midville, Ga.,
  provides land for plot research and field demonstrations for
  soybeans, peanuts, cotton and pecans. The demand for the land
  for research needs has decreased significantly, providing an
  opportunity for the college to suspend research and extension
  programs while maintaining facilities. The facility will be
  renamed the Southeast Education Center, and research into these
  crop areas will continue at other locations.




• Establish a soil test user fee. Effective July 1, the
  user fee for services provided to homeowners by the Agricultural
  Services Laboratory in Athens will be extended to all users.

“We are deeply concerned that these changes will impact
employees involved in these programs. Every effort will be made
to secure alternative employment through reassignment to other
units within the college or university,” Buchanan said. “The
strategic planning process, however, requires that we make some
difficult choices, within state budget realities, about the most
effective direction this college should take in education,
research and public service.”

(Chuck Toney, UGA University Relations, contributed to this
article.)