Last week was a flurry of meetings. There was considerable conversation at the APLU meeting in Portland, OR about 90-credit degrees with some institutions moving forward in that direction. I am uncertain if and how employers have been consulted about their views on this. While we aren’t discussing reduced degrees in AGNR, some departments are discussing 3-year options to earn the 120-credit degree in some majors. This requires summer and January term enrollments for students and a robust set of offerings in the majors but can help avoid students paying rent and then leaving their apartments vacant for much of January and the summer months. This approach may also allow programs to deepen experiential learning opportunities and partner with our research centers around the state. A group of students are spending their summer as Extension interns around the state. You can follow this impressive group and learn more about their work. I hope to meet some of these interns at field days over the next month.
Last week was our annual planning meeting with the provost and her team. I left with good feedback and feeling that AGNR has strong support. Of course we have work to do; we always will when operating under a continuous improvement mindset, but we are aligned well with the campus vision and have much to offer in terms of the campus achieving its goals. If I haven’t said it before, I am extremely fortunate to have a great team of leaders across the college and their accomplishments and that of our faculty and staff made the meeting an easy conversation.
I’ve been meeting with our department chairs and directors, individually, to review this past academic year and talk about plans for the upcoming year. As I shared in a recent post, faculty have been very active over the past year submitting proposals to fund impactful work. My conversations with the department chairs often include discussion about how to support our faculty through the uncertainty of when Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) are released and when funding decisions are made. Programs like Preserve, Pivot, Grow through the Office of Research and the Provost help ensure that our research activity does not slow down. With the Round 2 deadline this week (July 22, 2026) many of our faculty are busy preparing submissions for the program which is designed to help bridge funding gaps.
The heat subsided a bit at the end of the last week but with air quality worsening there have been impacts on events. We recognize the inconvenience a change in event plans cause but may need to consider additional changes to field days and other activities if the conditions persist. Work on the Purple Line seems to have slowed outside my office window and the Governor’s Cookout was postponed. Unfortunately, farming doesn’t get a pause when conditions are poor, and I sympathize with all who are outside. If you are spending any amount of time outside, please stay safe!