A New Day, A New Way, A New College

By Randy Weckman

On July 1, 2003, the College of Agriculture changed dramatically—for the better.
Its faculty joined with the faculty of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. The College of Human Environmental Sciences is now the School of Human Environmental Sciences within the College of Agriculture.

The merger of the two colleges was driven by the University’s quest for a strong, unified, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary focus on all areas of research, instruction, and extension. The merger makes for an amalgam as strong as steel.

“The College of Agriculture historically has worked on the production end of food and fiber production; the College of Human Environmental Sciences worked on consumer and family concerns,” said Scott Smith, dean of the College.

“By bringing together the talents of faculty who work on production concerns with faculty whose work is on consumer and family issues, we have a very strong, new entity that will assuredly improve education, research, and outreach programs,” he said. For now, Smith serves as director of the School of Human Environmental Sciences as well as dean of this expanded college.

The College now has 15 academic departments, three of which form the School of Human Environmental Sciences.

These departments include Family Studies; Nutrition and Food Sciences; and Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles. A fourth department in the former College of Human Environmental Sciences, Interior Design, was moved to the University's newly formed College of Design as a School of Interior Design.

For many years, consumer and family science programs in Cooperative Extension have been jointly administered by the College of Agriculture and the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

In addition, the career and technical education programs in both Agriculture and Human Environmental Sciences have shared common course work.

The teaching program of the expanded College increases the number of students by 600. With the merger, just over 1,700 students are now enrolled in the College.

Currently, the new college is still in transition. While from the outside the obstacles may seem pretty substantial—after all, each College had a set of procedures, separate buildings, and separate cultures to blend—the problems haven’t been too difficult so far.

“Each College had its own traditions—most of which are remarkably similar—and our goal for this year is to unify these traditions,” Smith said.

Take the annual Roundup, the event each fall for which all alumni are invited back to campus. This year, Roundup also included alumni, faculty, and students from the School of Human Environmental Sciences. And while the scholarship recognition programs allied with each unit will continue this year as separate events, they likely will be joined next year in a mammoth celebration.

Joint research investigations between departments comprising the newly expanded College are now just beginning.

“While there have been some mutual collaborations in the past, we are encouraging several departments to work together on research proposals by providing some seed money for initial investigations, especially in the areas of nutrition and food science, agricultural economics, hospitality management, community and leadership development, and merchandising and apparel. Such collaborations have great potential,” said Nancy Cox, associate dean for research.

“I believe that this new college will serve the commonwealth well in teaching, research, and extension programs,” Smith said. “A new theme developed for this fall’s Roundup says a great deal about this new college: Uniting Excellence.”

What Is Old Is New Again
The amalgam of agriculture and human environmental sciences is not altogether new. For a short time after 1905, what was originally called domestic science and taught in the basement of the women's dormitory apparently was a stand-alone unit. In 1908, the School of Domestic Science became a department of the College of Arts and Sciences, where it remained for a couple of years. Then, in 1910, just five years after its establishment—by this time it was called the Department of Home Economics—the unit became a department in the College of Agriculture. In 1941, the College of Agriculture’s name changed to reflect the importance of Home Economics to its mission: The College of Agriculture and Home Economics. In 1953, the Department of Home Economics became the School of Home Economics, still in the College of Agriculture. In 1969, the School of Home Economics became the College of Home Economics, and by the following year, five departments comprised the College: Nutrition and Food Science; Textiles, Clothing, and Merchandising; Human Development and Family Relations; Management and Family Economics; and Housing and Interior Design. In 1993 the College of Home Economics became the College of Human Environmental Sciences to reflect the expanding vision of the disciplines comprising the College. Cooperative Extension programs were jointly administered by the Colleges of Human Environmental Sciences and Agriculture. And finally, in July 2003, the College of Human Environmental Sciences became a school with the College of Agriculture once again.

- top