North Carolina State University. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Advisory Council "advises the university administration on how best to meet the needs of the state's people through its programs and activities, especially in the area of extension and research." The Advisory Council was created in the 1950s and met twice a year to "analyze and critique school programs and to suggest new activity." The Council is currently inactive.

The Associate Dean and Director of Academic Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences oversees the operation of the academic departments within the college, including the undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, the office administers the honors programs, student advising, student organizations, and the Agricultural Institute.

In 1905, the Board of Trustees first took up the suggestion of creating a dean for agriculture, but only under President Wallace Riddick (in 1917) was the position of dean created. In 1923, following the reorganization of North Carolina State College (later, University), the School (later, College) of Agriculture was created. In 1964, the School of Agriculture became the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In 1996, the School became the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, reflecting campus-wide changes in designation from School to College.

As a land-grant institution, agricultural study has always been an integral part of instruction at North Carolina State University since its beginning in 1887. It wasn't until 1917 that there was a dean of agriculture, and the School of Agriculture wasn't established untisl 1923. The name was changed to School of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1964, and finally to College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1987.

The committees of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences reflect the academic, research, extension, and administrative activities of the College. Currently there are 24 active committees within the College.

The Peru Project was a foreign assistance program in the South American country of Peru. It was North Carolina State College's first major international activity. In 1953, the U.S. State Department invited the college's School of Agriculture to explore the development of a program to provide technical assistance to the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture and one of the Peruvian colleges. The program officially began in January 1955, when R. W. Cummings headed a six-member team to the country. Cummings was succeeded by Jack Rigney. The project was renewed after the initial three-year period, and it was greatly expanded during the 1960s. By the time the project's mission ended in 1973, 81 faculty members had worked in the country and 200 Peruvians had been trained in the United States. In 1982, the School (College) of Agriculture and Life Sciences was invited back to Peru to assist with agricultural research and extension.

The Peru Project was a foreign assistance program in the South American country of Peru. It was North Carolina State College’s first major international activity. In 1953, the U.S. State Department invited the college’s School of Agriculture to explore the development of a program to provide technical assistance to the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture and Universidad Agraria. The program officially began in January 1955, when R. W. Cummings headed a six-member team to the country. Cummings was succeeded by Jack Rigney. The project was renewed after the initial three-year period, and it was greatly expanded during the 1960s. It was partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation. By the time the project’s mission ended in 1973, 81 faculty members had worked in the country and 200 Peruvians had been trained in the United States. In 1982, the School (College) of Agriculture and Life Sciences was invited back to Peru to assist with agricultural research and extension.

The Agricultural Chemicals School began in 1949 as the Insecticide and Fungicide Short Course, a three-day seminar led by the North Carolina State College Departments of Plant Pathology and Entomology. The name was changed to the Pesticide School the following year, and the course was shortened to two days. The 1950 program billed the School as "planned to bring to the Dealers of [pesticides] the latest information on new materials on the market....This School will furnish many of the ANSWERS which your CUSTOMERS are expecting of YOU." By the late 1950s the School expanded its focus to include material of interest to "county extension agents, vocational instructors, [and] farm supervisors." From 1954 the School was held in the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union on the campus of North Carolina State University.

In 1969 the program became the Pesticide-Fertilizer School, and the meeting was held in the Sir Walter Hotel in downtown Raleigh. The name changed again in 1971, this time to the Agricultural Chemicals School. Starting in 1977, the meeting moved to the then-new McKimmon Center on the campus of North Carolina State University, where it has been held ever since. The School is currently called the Crop Protection School and is run jointly by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Office of Professional Development, a unit of Continuing & Professional Education. These records do not denote when the current designation took hold. The focus of the School today remains much the same as when it started, to "present information on the effectiveness, safe application, and proper use of agricultural chemicals for the benefit of dealers, applicators, formulators, manufacturers, county Extension agents, farm superintendents, vocational agriculture teachers, and other agricultural leaders."

In 1905 the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later North Carolina State University) first took up the suggestion of creating a dean for agriculture, in order to relieve President George T. Winston of some of the burdens of his office. Charles W. Burkett, a professor of agriculture, was put forward as the candidate for this position, but was voted down by a vote of the entire faculty. Partially in light of this result, the decision to create the office was put off for over a decade.

Only under President Wallace Riddick in 1917 was the position of dean created. In his discussions with the Trustees, Riddick stated that the various college departments performing agricultural work could only be properly administered via a single office. The Board agreed, and Charles B. Williams, vice director of the experiment station and chief of the agronomy division, was elected to the new post of Dean of Agriculture. According to President Riddick, the new Dean would "have general supervision of all the departments of the College devoted to agricultural instruction" but would also "do extension and experiment station work, devoting one-third of his time to educational work with the College, and the remainder to the Experiment Station and Extension work." Williams served as Dean until the College's general reorganization in 1923--which created the new School of Agriculture--when he stepped down to resume his previous duties in agronomy and at the experiment station. On July 1, 1923, Benjamin W. Kilgore was named as North Carolina State's second Dean of Agriculture.

Kilgore's term as Dean was brief and tumultuous. The Dean and President Eugene C. Brooks disagreed on many subjects relating to administering the School, and Kilgore also complained that the director of instruction in the School often bypassed him to deal directly with the President. After just two years as Dean, Kilgore resigned and ended a four decade association with State College. In April, 1926, Ira O. Schaub was named acting dean of the School, and made official dean a few months later.

Schaub oversaw not only an expansion in programs and size within the School, but also helped guide North Carolina agriculture through the Depression and the years of World War II, as both dean of the School of Agriculture and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Schaub also led during the UNC system consolidation and a shake-up in graduate education administration. By 1945, Schaub decided to relinquish one of his long-held positions, and resigned the post of Dean of Agriculture, continuing as director of the Experiment Station.

Schaub's replacement was Leonard D. Baver, previously the School of Agriculture's associate dean and director of undergraduate instruction. Baver's term began on March 25, 1945, but lasted only a few years, ending with his resignation on January 1, 1948. During his brief tenure as dean, Baver was quite active, changing and shifting numerous department heads, revamping the research program, and hiring many new staff who would serve the School well in the coming decades. His dynamic leadership did not endear him to everyone, however, and his sudden departure in 1948 was not a shock to many in North Carolina agriculture. His replacement, James H. Hilton, brought a different--but no less effective--style of leadership to the position.

During Hilton's tenure the School administration was revised further. The 1923 Zook Report had recommended that work of the Experiment Station and the Extension Service "be administered through the college in complete cooperation with the work of resident teaching," the main focus of the Dean's work. This type of administrative set-up was only sporadically adhered to in the ensuing years. In 1950, however, an administrative reorganization consolidated the dean's authority: no longer would the dean serve in dual capacity as director of either the Station or Extension. Instead, a director would be in charge of both services, and another person would be named director of instruction. This change allowed the dean more freedom to act as a true head of the entire school, and not to focus too much energy on one arm or another. In addition, the 1950-51 school year saw the first annual report published by the School of Agriculture, and in 1951 the funding project "Nickels for Know-How" was instituted.

Hilton served as dean until 1953, when he resigned to accept a position at Iowa State University. His place was taken by Dean W. Colvard, former head of the Animal Industry Department. Colvard oversaw large increases in the research activities of the School, and during his tenure came the development of the Peru Project and the creation of the Agricultural Policy Institute. In 1960 Colvard resigned and was replaced by the director of instruction, H. Brooks James. Under James, enrollment and research increased significantly, the Peru Project reached the height of its activities, and extension work was further integrated into departmental programs, with many specialists given faculty rank. Most noticeable, however, was a name change, when in 1964 the School of Agriculture became the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

James served until his resignation in 1970. Edward W. Glazener was named acting dean until 1971, when James E. Legates took over as the new dean. Legates oversaw continued growth in research and academic activity, and an increased involvement in international programs worldwide. He retired as dean in 1986, and was succeeded by Durward F. Bateman. During Bateman's tenure the School continued its pattern of growth across a number of areas, in student enrollment, in research facilities and funding, through extension services, and with the creation of two new departments. In addition, Bateman worked to further integrate departmental faculty and extension work throughout the state. Bateman retired in 1997, but not after the School went through another name change: in 1996 the School became the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, reflecting campus-wide changes in designation from School to College. He was succeeded by James L. Oblinger, who served as Dean until becoming the University's Provost in 2003.

Beginning with research and programs in animal husbandry during the early years of the university, the Department of Animal Industry was established during the 1920s. In 1962 it became the Department of Animal Science. Throughout its history, the department has overseen work done through the research stations, the experiment stations, and 4-H.

As of 2006, the Department of Animal Science offered programs of graduate study leading to the Master of Science, Master of Animal Science (non-thesis) and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Animal Science offered training in a diversity of basic sciences and the integration of such knowledge into the framework of a living system. Students could major not only in Animal Science, but also in any one of the following disciplines: biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, nutrition, and physiology. Animal Science majors could specialize in one or more of these basic disciplines or in the more applied areas of management and production. The primary research emphasis in Animal Science was to develop projects that would result in development of new technology in the disciplines of physiology, nutrition, genetics, biotechnology, production, and management.

Also as of 2006, there were four sections within Animal Science that were part of the Cooperative Extension Service: Animal Husbandry, Dairy Extension, Swine Husbandry and Horse Husbandry.

Additional information and resources on the history of the Department of Animal Science can be found through the NCSU Historical State website .

The Institute of Biological Sciences was created in 1962 in order to "encourage and promote research and teaching in basic biology and to coordinate inter-departmental activities." The Institute contained the Departments of Botany, Entomology, Genetics, Plant Pathology, and Zoology. In addition to fostering research within these departments, the Institute also administered a number of Summer Institutes in various applied sciences, mostly for college and high school teachers. During the time it operated, faculties in Microbiology and Biochemistry were also added.

Administratively, the Institute took the place of the Division of Biological Sciences, which was created in 1950 and united the faculties in botany, entomology, plant pathology, and zoology. This division had been disbanded in 1958, and individual departments were created in the above disciplines, plus genetics. In 1971 the Institute became the Biological Sciences Program, where scholarship continues today combining coursework in the Departments of Botany (Plant Biology after 2006), Crop Science, Genetics, Plant Pathology, and Zoology.

As a land-grant institution, agricultural study at North Carolina State University has always been an integral part of instruction. The earliest courses of study were only in agriculture and mechanics, with classes in the former category consisting of "general agriculture, horticulture, arboriculture, and botany." Gradually, as the curriculum expanded, sets of classes were organized into "faculties" and then departments. Professors named to head these faculties or departments were usually given titles according to their speciality, such as Arborist or Agronomist. Additionally, experimental and practical work at the North Carolina Experiment Station and the Extension Service was increasingly undertaken by State College personnel. As agricultural instruction (and research and extension activities) grew in size and specialization in the first decades of the twentieth century, administering these disparate activities grew more demanding and unwieldy. In addition, a poor administrative set-up made it difficult for the different arms to work together to coordinate research or teaching activities. By the spring of 1923, State College President Wallace Riddick wanted something done about the current state of affairs, not just for agricultural study, but college-wide. In March, Riddick called in George F. Zook, an education specialist at the United States Department of Education, to review the situation and make recommendations for improvements to the Board of Trustees. Zook completed his report by mid-April.

Among Zook's numerous recommendations were two that have had lasting impact. First, the Trustees acted on the recommendation to divide college instruction into four schools, creating schools of Agriculture, Engineering, General Science, and a Graduate School. Second, within the new School of Agriculture, directors were named to head the three distinct divisions within it: Resident Instruction, the Agricultural Extension Service, and the Agricultural Experiment Station. Not until 1925, however, were the four top positions in the Ag School (the above three plus Dean), staffed by four different individuals.

With the reorganization of campus and academic administration came a shuffling of the curriculum within the new Agricultural School. Programs, or "instructional areas" were reduced to six: Agronomy, Animal Industry, Botany, Horticulture, Poultry Science, and Zoology. At the same time, work at the Experiment Station and in the Extension Service was more fully integrated into these programs, and cooperation among the three branches of the School took off. This situation remained largely unchanged until the creation of a Forestry program in 1929, which eventually became the Division of Forestry in 1931. In 1932 the School of Agriculture became the School of Agriculture and Forestry.

New programs were added through the 1930s and 1940s, but the organization of the School remained largely unchanged. Several changes occurred in 1950, however. The Division of Forestry was split from Agriculture to become the new School of Forestry, and Agriculture reverted to the "School of Agriculture." The other change was the creation that same year of the Division of Biological Sciences, combining the Faculties of Botany, Entomology, Plant Pathology, and Zoology, adding Genetics in 1951. This set-up continued until 1958, when the Division was disbanded and its constituent parts granted department status as individual units within the School of Agriculture. The 1950s also saw dramatic increases in budgets for research and teaching and the first international effort for the School, the Peru Project, started in 1955.

The 1960s brought another decade of change to the School, not least of which was another name change in 1964, becoming the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences. One reason for the new name was an increase in the importance and development of the biological sciences, prompting the creation of the Institute of Biological Sciences in 1962, which in large part succeeded the disbanded Division of Biological Sciences. The Agricultural Policy Institute was created in 1960 in conjunction with the Kellogg Foundation, and worked with agricultural institutions across the south to address and mold public policy issues regarding southern agriculture.

The recent decades have seen steady growth in physical space, students, research, and funding. In 1987, a final name change occurred, and the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences became the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In 2006 the Department of Botany became the Department of Plant Biology. Currently, the College consists of 22 academic and extension departments and administers the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. College faculty work closely with academic departments across NCSU, as well as with extension and agricultural workers from around the state. The College continues to strive to meet its three primary functions--teaching, research, and extension--as first laid out over a century ago.