Southern Mini Land-grant
TAMU, College Station, TX
May 16 – 19, 2022
Minutes
View overall Mini Land-grant schedule
Monday, May 16
- Optional tour, PVAMU and TAMU Campuses (tour schedule)
Tuesday, May 17
S-AHS Separate Session – Keith Belli, Chair, Southern AHS
Participants –
Alan Grant
Ashley Stokes
Bruce McGowan
Deacue Fields
J. Scott Angle
Robert W. Taylor
Gerard E. D’Souza
Keith Belli
Keith Coble
Eric Young
Michelle M. Corley
Thomas Coon
Luke Laborde
Majed El-Dweik
Mark Hussey
Nick Place
Ralph Noble
Usman Adamu
- Report from March AHS Meeting – Scott Angle, Chair, Administrative Heads Section
- Meeting was only ½ hour, need input on how long this meeting should be
- Putting together a small committee to review AHS By-laws for updates, corrections, and changes
- BAA vote to make Communications and Marketing Committee a standing committee of the Policy Board passed by a good majority
- CMC will be reconstituted to include more communicators and marketers
- Cost of the CMC will be rolled into the general BAA assessment
- How should BAA Sections communicate with Lewis-Burke Associates?
- Doug Steele is first and primary contact for LBA and for CGA
- Regional Data Sharing Initiative, proposed metrics definitions – Keith Belli (handout)
- Salary survey has been done since 2002
- S-NAUFRP has done data sharing for a long time and only distributed results to participants
- Data already collected should be inserted in this survey
- Data will help with benchmarking and marketing
- Should include an org chart with the results to put data in context of college structure
- Include youth data in Extension contacts
- Include grants & contracts for Extension
- Total county support for Extension as % of budget
- Value of survey will be in seeing who is successful in certain areas so you can ask why
- Data will help defend the match for capacity funds
- Should split out allocations from state, county, federal, and private sources
- Hopefully the 1890’s will participate also, might help them get state match
- FTE’s for academics
- Total research expenditures under the AES and from college in general
- May want to include some metrics related to facilities; repair, renovation, and new expenditures
- Volunteer hours for Extension
- Royalties, licenses, sales of goods, etc should be included
- Goals of data sharing are primarily benchmarking and marketing
- Need to start simple, only most useful metrics
- Focus on budgets and expenditures
- Cost management of input supplies (fuel, seed, feed, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, etc) in a time of inflation and supply chain disruptions, for our Agricultural Experiment Station operations and assisting our producers to do the same – Majed El-Dweik and Luke Laborde
- Fuel is big problem, can afford to buy it in bulk but can’t store it
- Big backlog on materials, parts, and IT equipment
- Another problem is increasing cost of construction during building
- Helps to build in phases so it’s easier to cut out later phases if needed
- VA Tech has a large poultry projects underway that is being done in 6 phases, 1-4 are funded and will go to state for 4 & 5
- Labor costs are also a problem and raising lowest wages causes salary compression
- Causes more turnover
- Helps to give preemptive raises and improve benefits
- Private industry is hiring our people
- Using contracts with promotion opportunities can help
- Starting to look at using flex and remote work time
- Have to start letting staff work remotely in certain positions
- Nomination for Southern AHS Secretary – Keith Belli
- After winter meeting at SAAS, Nick Place will become Chair and Keith Coble Chair-elect
- Need to nominate a Secretary, who will be voted on at the winter meeting
- Majed El-Dweik, Lincoln University, agreed to be nominated for Secretary
S-AHS and S-CARET Joint Session – Keith Belli and Jim Handley, Chair, S-CARET
Participants –
Alan Grant
Ashley Stokes
Bruce McGowan
Deacue Fields
J. Scott Angle
Robert W. Taylor
Bonnie McGee
Claud Evans
Eric Hinson
Jennifer B. Houston
Madaline Mellinger
Steve Zeng
Bridget Krieger
Gerard E. D’Souza
Keith Belli
Keith Coble
Eric Young
Michelle M. Corley
Thomas Coon
Caron Gala
Debbie Moreland
Flannery Bethel
Jim Handley
Larry S. Holmes
Kevin Keppart
Carolyn Williams
Luke Laborde
Majed El-Dweik
Mark Hussey
Nick Place
Ralph Noble
Usman Adamu
Oscar Taylor
Elvis Graves
James G. Brown, Jr.
Juan Garcia
Jennifer Yezak
Doug Steele
- NIFA Update – Kevin Kephart, USDA-NIFA (PowerPoint)
- Budget and Advocacy Update – Bridget Krieger, Lewis-Burke Associates (Handout and PowerPoint)
- Part of budget request will be $365M for infrastructure
- Probably won’t get this funding, but have to start asking somewhere
- Staff do not want to add any new funding to the Farm Bill
- APLU Update – Doug Steele, APLU-AFNR
- New APLU President is Mark Becker from GA State, a non-Land-grant
- ANRS staff have returned to office 3 days/week
- If visiting APLU, please give at least a one day notice
- Annual meeting will be in Denver in November
- BAA By-laws change to make CMC a standing committee passed
- Joint COPs sill be in person in DC July 19-21
S-AHS Separate Session – Keith Belli
Participants –
Alan Grant
Ashley Stokes
Bruce McGowan
Deacue Fields
J. Scott Angle
Robert W. Taylor
Nancy Cox
Gerard E. D’Souza
Keith Belli
Keith Coble
Eric Young
Michelle M. Corley
Thomas Coon
Binayak P. Mohanty
Luke Laborde
Majed El-Dweik
Mark Hussey
Nick Place
Ralph Noble
Usman Adamu
Shoushan Zeng
- Follow up from CARET/AHS joint session – Keith Belli
- To what extent are we using our commodity and other stakeholder groups for advocacy
- We’ve done a support letter that had almost 400 signatures, so it’s possible to do this for the right issue or budget request
- Artificial Intelligence; ex. machine Learning, robotics, unmanned systems, impacts on academia & industry, etc. – Binayak Mohanty, Biological & Agricultural Engineering, TAMU, and Scott Angle (PowerPoint)
- Need to educate students across disciplines so they understand interactions
- How can we ensure that the wealthy industry sectors aren’t the only ones with access to AI products?
- One problem is that the data is scattered in many different databases, many in the private sector that are not accessible
- How far are we from being able to generate a management plan with AI?
- Have to be able to translate output into language producers understand
- Ownership of data can be a problem but not if you use compiled data as the product
- UFL will require all students to take one AI course for graduation
- Achieving an effective unified ask through Sections’ collaboration and coordination – Tom Coon
- BAA has 115 institutions that are very diverse
- Hard to pull everyone together
- This year BAC asked all interest groups for their top priority and used that to put together the budget request, but one was not happy with the outcome
- It doesn’t seem like anything we do has an impact on NIFA’s budget, except AFRI
- Maybe we should ask for an increase for a specific issue or problem, let NIFA decide which lines it should go to , and then report to Congress what we did with the funds
- Multi institution partnerships that involve shared faculty, facilities, and/or programs – Nancy Cox (handout)
- UKY has a lot of collaborations with KY State through Extension, but not much in research
- AR has a poultry science academic program that’s a 3+1 with Pine Bluff
- MS and GA have a program similar to AR
- OK is looking at having more 5 year programs that end in Master’s, 3 + 2 or 4+ 1, at Langston then Oklahoma Sate
- TX has an Extension collaboration that evolved into Extension and Research
- Joint distance education collaborations should be easier to set up now
- Need a more directed effort to involve 1890 faculty in more multistate projects
- UAR and Pine Bluff are involved in “clean sweet potato” network with 1862 institutions
- Need more collaborations in academic area, but tuition is a barrier
- May be easier to share online courses
- Challenges and successes of private fundraising; particularly for funding facilities – Nick Place
- Deferred maintenance inventory at University of Georgia lead to efforts to increase private funds
- Big Poultry industries are not giving
- Many ag industries are not used to doing philanthropy
- A lot of clienteles do not have very deep pockets
- Trying to create a culture of philanthropy by talking about it and encouraging giving
- Instituted a non-endowed scholarship program where contributors can give $1000, $4000, or $10,000 for 4 years
- One key is to find out what a potential donor is interested in supporting
- An extreme solution would be to sell all IP for 10 years from a program to a company.
- Future Meetings
- 2023 Winter S-AHS meeting – during SAAS in Oklahoma City, Monday, Feb 6, 11:00 – 3:00
- 2023 Summer S-AHS/CARET meeting – UTK and TN State host, late July or early August
- 2024 Summer S-AHS/CARET meeting – UKY and KY State host, late July or early August
- 2025 Southern Mini Land-grant – UAK and Pine Bluff host, late spring or early summer
Wednesday, May 18
All Groups Joint Sessions (Agenda and PowerPoints)
Welcome to Texas – TAMU and PVAMU Video
Wednesday, 8:00 AM – Colleges of Agriculture Roles in Promoting Human Health
The human health and nutrition sector significantly impacts both the social and economic condition of individuals, families, communitites and states. This is borne out to even the casual observer when considering factors such as vaccine/no vaccine issues and costs to individuals, the health care system and to state budgets due to poor nutrition and chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as costs to personal quality of life.
This session includes a broad overview of the status and impacts of human health and nutrition and how Land-Grant university (LGU) food and agriculture programs in research, teaching and Extension can contribute more effectively to potential solutions.
8:00 AM – 8:10 AM
Welcome and Speaker Introductions – TAMU and PVSU
- Session Moderator, Dr. Carolyn Williams, Executive Associate Director for Extension, Prarie View A&M University
- Dr. Fatemeh Malekian, Project Director, Center of Excellence, Southern University
- Dr. Leslie Hossfield, Dean, College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, Clemson University
- Dr. David Buys, State Health Specialist and Associate Professor, Mississippi State University
- Dr. Patrick J. Stover, Director, Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture, Texan A&M AgriLife
8:15 AM – 8:35 AM
Topic 1: The Condition and Costs of Health in the South – This topic will overview the prevalent health issues in the South as related to their impacts on economic and social well-being to individuals, families, communities and states (region).
- Dr. Fatemeh Malekian, Project Director for the NIFA-funded Center of Excellence for Nutrition, Health, Wellness, and Quality of Life, located at Southern University and also involving Tuskegee and NC A&T universities.
8:35 AM – 8:55 AM
Topic 2: An Educational Response to Health Issues in the South – This topic will describe examples of education programs in the South that address current health issues.
- Dr. Leslie Hossfield, Dean, College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, Clemson University
8:55 AM – 9:15 AM
Topic 3: An Extension Response to Health Issues in the South – This is a summary of current-day exxamples of how Extension is addressing health issues, including work with the CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- Dr. David Buys, Associate Professor, Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, and Extension State Health Specialist, Mississippi State University
9:15 AM – 9:35 AM
Topic 4: A LGU Institute Approach to Addressing Health Issues in the South – This is an overview of an institute approach to health improvement via agriculture.
- Dr. Patrick J. Stover, Director, Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture, Texas A&M AgriLife
9:35 AM – 10:00 AM
Panel Discussion/Q&A
Wednesday, 10:30 AM – Who is our Audience? How is it Changing? How Do we Adapt?
Agriculture faces the challenge and opportunity of adapting to population redistribution, shifts in the general population and population subgroups, including the changing demographics of farm operators in regard to women, race/ethnicity (Hispanic, Black, Asian, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander) and non-Hispanic White men. The food and agriculture system is viewed as a major contributor to community prosperity (economic, social and environmental). This dynamic is being influenced by population redistribution and changes in composition, including cultural diversity. However, this dynamic can be addressed by developing innovative, science-based and data-driven, innovative Extension and outreach programs. Emphasis will be placed on how these dynamics might influence how the Land-grant system addresses agrifood syste development needs across the rural-urban continuum.
To focus the efforts of the Southern region, this session will engage a panel of experts addressing a broad range of perspectives and implications related to population change. Further, this session will be just as focused on how we do business (best practices for providing the content) as it is on what we do (program content).
For example, some questions that will be addressed include, but are not limited to:
- How does population change, including shifts in population subgroups, affect the food and agriculture system?
- How do people consume information/education of the type that we put out from Land-grant universities?
- What changes are needed given the population changes, and the tools/techniques/technologies needed?
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Introductions/Presentations
The panel of experts will be allowed 15 minutes to present their information and data pertaining to population change, geographic redistribution, effects of population dynamics on the agricultural sector and the implications for programs offered by Land grant universities. As the panelists conclude their presentations, they will be asked to give their thoughts on the above three questions.
Moderator:
- Alton Thompson – Executive Director, Association of 1890 Research Directors
Panelists:
- John J. Green, Director, Southern Rural Development Center (PowerPoint)
- Dudley L. Poston, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Texas A&M University
- Bruce L. Ahrendsen, Professor of Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness, University of Arkansas (PowerPoint)
- Carolyn Williams, Extension Administrator, Prairie View A&M University (PowerPoint)
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Panel Discussion/Q&A
For the last 30 minutes, the moderator and panelists will engage the audience in a Q&A that will focus on gathering responses to these questions. This information will be used to develop a unified, robust and engaged response to addressing population redistribution issues in food and agriculture in the Southern region. Based on the expertise of directors and administrators at our institutions in the Southern regions, what are three strategies, approaches, or programs that leaders can implement in the next 3 – 5 years that have regional or national impact to population shifts?
Wednesday, 1:00 PM – Recruitment & Retention of Diverse Faculty & Staff
This session will provide participants with demographic trends of student enrollment and degree completion in agriculture, human science, and natural resources disciplines in the Southern region; along with an overview of current faculty demographics in Southern college of agriculture. It will allow participants time to discuss how demographic changes may affect the future of each mission area and what collaborate actions might diversify disciplines or faculty/staff that are not currently racially, ethnically, or gender diverse.
1:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Introduction and Presentation
To set up table discussions regarding recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, this session will examine faculty data from USDA’s Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS), degrees completed data from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS), student enrollment data from FAEIS and general population data from the U.S. Census. This data will paint a picture of the diversity of current faculty profile, as well as that of recent graduates and current students in the fields of agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences. Comparing those profiles to the general Southern population profile will reveal areas where Southern institutions may want to focus when looking at faculty diversity as well as areas increased attention may be needed regarding inclusion and building a sense of belonging.
1:30 PM – 2:15 PM
Table Discussions
Participants will be asked to discuss the following at their tables:
- What more should the Southern LGU system be doing to attract and retain diverse faculty so that it better reflects the breadth of diversity found in the larger Southern population?
- How do you create a culture of inclusion so that faculty of all backgrounds feel welcome?
- If your faculty profile varies a good deal from your enrolling student profile, how do you ensure your students feel they belong and can see themselves succeeding in their chosen field?
- As the region’s population demographics change, how has your LGU recalibrated its teaching, engagement, and research offerings to reach everyone? Are there populations whose needs are not being met?
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM
Table Discussion Reporting
Participants will report the top takeaways from their table for each question.
Wednesday, 3:00 PM – Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture & Forestry in the Southern Region
As we respond to the effects of climate change, the agricultural and forestry sectors in the South will face some of the biggest challenges, and these challenges will also affect rural and urban communities throughout the region. The diverse geographic and climatic characteristics of the southern region, coupled with its varied animal and crop production systems, vast coastal areas, and working forests, require innovatibe strategies to discover, adopt, and communicate solutions to the changing climate.
This session invites a panel of expert to dicuss some key issues in order to better understand the challenges we face as a region and how regional priorities affect the national agenda.
Challenge statements:
- How is climate change affecting agriculture and forestry in the Southern Region?
- What are effective strategies to successfully address climate change issues in the South?
- Can regional priorities influence the national agenda?
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Introductions/Presentations
- Moderator: Ali Fares – Endowed Professor of Water Security and Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Prairie View A&M University (PowerPoint)
- Pam Knox – Senior Public Service Associate – Director, UGA Weather Network and Agricultural Climatologist
Climate variability and change: outlook, issues, and challenges to the Southern region
The linkages between climate and agriculture in a world that is warming provide opportunities for innovation as well as challenges to existing production for farmers and ranchers in the southern United States. - Clarence Bunch – AgNR Program Leader, Prairie View A&M University
Environmental equity and the impact of climate change on black-owned farms
Effective solutions will be presented addressing how climate change disproportionately affects the technological and economic advancement of minority communities. - Rebecca McCulley – Chair, Plant and Soil Sciences Department, University of Kentucky
Strategies for crop adaptation to climate change in the Southern region
Common strategies for climate change adaptation across commodity groups and opportunities therein will be highlighted, using an example of temperate zone pasture responses to warming and altered rainfall. - Kevin Kephart – Deputy Director, Institute of Bioenergy, Climate, and Environment at USDA NIFA
Regional opportunities for addressing climate change through NIFA programs
The administration’s priorities for climate have regional and national impacts that can be addressed by Southern Land-grant universities through climate-related opportunities in AFRI and other programs.
4:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Panel Discussion/Q&A
This session will facilitate a discussion addressing effective adaptation options combined with supportive public policies to enhance food availability and stability while reducing climate risk for food system and increasing their sustainability in the Southern Region.
Questions for Panelists and Audience:
- What are some of the important areas (opportunities) that we should consider as we develop a regional climate change strategy?
- What resources are needed to take advantage of the opportunities that climate change will present in the future?
- As we develop technologies, tools, and approaches to address climate change in the Southern region, how do we ensure that agriculture at all scales will have access to the tools and approaches?
- All parts of the land-grant university system are necessary to fully address the challenges and opportunities that climate change will bring to the Southern region. How do we integrate our mission areas for maximum impact?
Thursday, May 19
S-AHS and S-CARET Joint Session – Jim Handley and Keith Belli
Participants –
Alan Grant
Ashley Stokes
Bruce McGowan
Deacue Fields
Michelle M. Corley
Robert W. Taylor
Bonnie McGhee
Claud Evans
Eric Hinson
Jennifer B. Houston
Madeline Mellinger
Steve Zeng
Gerard E. D’Souza
Keith Belli
Keith Coble
Eric Young
Ralph Noble
Thomas Coon
Caron Gala
Debbie Moreland
Flannery Bethel
Jim Handley
Larry S. Holmes
Luke Laborde
Majed El-Dweik
Carolyn Williams
Nick Place
Doug Steele
Usman Adamu
Oscar Taylor
Elvis Graves
James G. Brown, Jr.
Juan Garcia
Jennifer Yezak
- Open discussion on S-AHS/S-CARET interactions and advocacy strategy – All
- A Briefing booklet from the AHS would be helpful to CARET to reference with some key
- Statistics & info about the institution
- But what’s most important is to understand what is needed and why
- Talk about problems not programs
- Politicians have only reelection in mind, so need to talk about their voters needs
- Staffers need a list of experts in key programmatic areas
- Every institution that has a government affairs person and CARET delegates should interact with them as much as possible
- CARET can help connect with other key stakeholders
- Need to interact with urban stakeholders who still don’t know us
- When CARET is together, it would be helpful to have Lewis-Burke go through House and Senate and talk about most important people and what they are interested in
- Caron could also do this for CARET
- Still need to tell our story better to key audiences, but need help development common message and communicate it
- So far we haven’t been able to agree on one message
- With a new advocacy group, how do we insure each institution is heard
- If we can agree on one message, CARET will need to make it personal for their state or institution
- Now there are a lot of people who don’t believe in science, we need to work on changing that, particularly with Congress
- How do we keep everyone on board but still have different interest groups advocate for their funds
- It would be valuable to have this conversation at the Joint Cops Meeting
- Action Items
- CARET & LBA together
- Common Message conversation nationally
- CARET with CMC on strategic communication
- PVAMU has a legislative toolkit for agents when they interest with legislators, primarily targeted at communicating impacts
- Marketing is not just putting out stories about accomplishments, need to have a targeted purpose, know the audience and have a consistent message
- Number one website visited at Clemson is the home and garden site
- Need to include youth audience in marketing since they are future decision makers
- Need a variety of marketing channels
- CMC and APLU marketing specialist are starting to work on an action plan for marketing system
- Need to use message that we are the “people’s” university system
Adjourned at 10:00 am