University of Kentucky College of Agriculture

Goal 3

Develop the Human and Physical Resources of the College to Achieve Top 20 Stature

As a land-grant institution, the College of Agriculture offers access to knowledge and learning for citizens and students throughout the Commonwealth. Agriculture, food, and environmental systems are key components of Kentucky’s economic future, and the UK College of Agriculture is playing a prominent role in those areas with its research, teaching, and outreach programs. The UK College of Agriculture seeks to be recognized as one of the top colleges of its kind in the nation.

Most Significant Challenges

  • Infrastructure and capacity appears likely to constrain further growth and advancement in all mission areas, and across most units in the College.    Limits have been reached in:
    • quantity and quality of lab space
    • ability to sustain Top 20 caliber farm and forest research capacity
    • office, meeting, and teaching space
    • IT and communications support and hardware
    • business management for rapidly growing operations.
  • Many national metrics are size-dependent.    We are a mid-size institution.
  • National rankings in most agricultural disciplines are of limited validity.
  • Budget circumstances portend limited growth in faculty numbers.    Further expansion of enrollment or grant funding is difficult without addition of faculty.
  • Retention and compensation of highly skilled staff remains a challenge.
  • Recruitment or development of faculty at the most distinguished level (e.g., academy-level) remains severely limited by budget cuts.

Strategies

  • The College will strive to recruit, develop and retain nationally distinguished faculty.
    • We will opportunistically reallocate resources to recruit exceptional mid-career faculty who bring elevated recognition and leadership to targeted programs.
    • We will improve strategies for enhanced development of new faculty.
  • The College will further develop plans for expanding and enhancing the physical infrastructure needed to sustain the growth and advancement of the last decade.
  • We must seek increased funding for high-quality lab, teaching, and field facilities.
  • We will seek to improve recruitment, retention, and remuneration of staff.
  • The College will continue to improve access to resources and infrastructure through enhanced business management, information technology, and support systems.

Key Indicators, by 2014 the College will have: 

  1. Sustained at least two listings in the top 10 or top quartile according to Academic Analytic’s Faculty Productivity Index.
  2. Increased the contributed value of the college endowment by $500,000 per year.
  3. Sustained a Top 20 national ranking as indicated by NSF-reported research funding from USDA.
  4. Renovated, modernized, or added 50,000 gross sq. ft. of educational, general, research, and student support space available for use by College of Agriculture faculty, staff, and students.