Dean's Letter
Thinking about a New Name
Our new strategic plan, which is unveiled in this issue of the Ag Magazine, is an important document that charts the future course of the College, but it is not the last of our essential planning steps. Those who carry out the work of our departments and programs also are developing their plans for the next several years.
In our planning, we also considered a new name for the College, a discussion that began during the reorganization of Human Environmental Sciences as part of the College of Agriculture. At that time, many leaders on and off campus, and most notably several members of UK’s Board of Trustees, recommended that we modify the name to better reflect our current nature and composition.
 I asked the faculty, staff, and students who wrote the strategic plan to make a preliminary recommendation on this important decision. A large majority of this group favored further analysis of a modified name. The group suggested three possibilities:
- Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences.
- Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
- Agriculture and Human Environmental Sciences.
We are continuing to study these options and others, and we are consulting representatives of all the College’s sectors and our stakeholders as part of the process.
The College is such a diverse institution, serving Kentucky in such a wide array of endeavors, that it is unlikely that any single name (at least one of reasonable length) could perfectly express all that we have become. Still, over the next several months we will continue to seek a new name that, like the new strategic plan, reaffirms our commitment to our land-grant heritage while expressing a progressive vision for the 21st century. I invite all readers to send me their thoughts on this important choice.
—M. Scott Smith
Dean, College of Agriculture
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