Colleagues,
As you may remember, several academic initiatives were identified and advanced through nine faculty task forces during the previous Texas A&M AgriLife administration. These nine initiatives were created to advance our shared mission and facilitate more transparent policies and procedures in Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The last of those reports, from the College Policies for Graduate Education task force, is now ready for review and posted online. I invite you to review and offer feedback. As with the previous reports, we’ll keep the commenting period open for 30 days.
Each of the task force reports is now posted online. These faculty-led task forces have addressed key topics, created strategic approaches and recommended solutions and paths forward. Each task force brought together input from a wide range of audiences, and each made recommendations of action for the Texas A&M AgriLife administration.
I realize hundreds of people were involved in creating these reports, spending many hours of thoughtful research and contemplation. Because it has been quite a while since many of you were engaged in the task force groups, please see the complete listing of task force teams:
- AgriLife Research Strategic Plan
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Strategic Plan
- College Policies for Graduate Education
- Individualized Major in the College
- International Research and Development in AgriLife
- Promotion Guidance for AgriLife Research Faculty
- Promotion Guidance for College Academic Professional Track
- The Thomas Ranch
- Youth Development in AgriLife
Please take time to review the College Policies for Graduate Education report. I encourage faculty to provide feedback on this final report so we can fully evaluate what has emerged from these recommendations and what can move forward.
Once we have collected feedback, we will announce next steps on comprehensive evaluations of the recommendations that emerge from these reports, as well as procedural updates for this holistic endeavor.
Again, I greatly appreciate everyone’s help on all the reports, and thank you for engaging in this review to help us reach new heights of excellence.
We look forward to your input!
Jeffrey W. Savell
Vice Chancellor and Dean, Agriculture and Life Sciences
