The increases in papers and citations from the early 1990s is a considerable achievement for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), since it was during this time that the College was dealing with a substantial structural budget deficit and filled very few open faculty positions. Faculty numbers actually decreased by about 30 to a total of about 270. In recent years, the budget deficits have been corrected, and the state is providing new dollars to the University. Faculty hiring is up substantially. With a new crop of young, highly talented, and creative faculty members coming aboard in the last three years, we should have stronger showings in future citation analyses.

Does this reflect a deliberate plan to enhance the institution’s research effort in this field, or was this an unexpected or serendipitous development?

First, CALS emphasizes the interconnectedness of basic and applied research, and the importance of problem solving by applying new research knowledge through extension/outreach efforts. Second, interdisciplinary, inter-departmental, and inter-institutional research projects and programs are a hallmark of this University. The institution has always encouraged interdisciplinary efforts and helped facilitate them, but left their formation and funding largely to the faculty members themselves. In other words, collaborative research efforts were initiated and funded through efforts of faculty members who saw value in cooperating with others to solve problems. In recent years, the campus has initiated a new faculty hiring program that stresses cluster hiring. This effort requires groups of individual departments and centers from across campus to propose faculty hiring initiatives that cut across institutional boundaries and disciplinary areas. These hiring clusters compete for funding provided by a unique state and private partnership. An estimated 100-150 faculty hires will be made through the cluster initiative. UW-Madison and the College no longer are just encouraging interdisciplinary research and teaching, they are putting substantial resources behind an effort to ensure that it happens.

UW-Madison is Wisconsin’s land-grant University. CALS, as part of this land-grant University, has a long history of working with food producers and processors, natural resource managers, businesses and industries of all types, and with community leaders. The College receives special federal and state funding to conduct research and outreach/extension programs that help people solve problems in their personal lives, businesses, and communities. Those outreach responsibilities can be carried out only if there is meaningful and intense interaction between the University and the people of the state. The College has numerous advisory groups and boards that operate at program, department and College levels. They provide input on program direction and advocate for programs important to them. In addition to these types of interactions, College faculty cooperate closely with state and federal agency personal to develop and implement public policies and programs. The demand for University involvement in all manner of outreach programming far exceeds its resources to respond.

The people of Wisconsin have been remarkably generous in supporting a research university of the caliber of UW-Madison. Despite strong state support, the University’s physical plant needs large infusions of state and federal dollars. At the federal level, there is very little support for building improvement. The State of Wisconsin in its current biennial budget bill is expected to approve a $317 million building program for the biological sciences that will greatly improve instructional, research, and outreach capabilities. The initiative, called "Biostar," includes four major biological sciences buildings that will be funded half with public funds and half with private funding. It is a 10-year building program that will dramatically improve the physical environment for the biological sciences faculty. In addition, the state has committed funding to construction of Integrated Dairy Research Facilities, and a Meat and Muscle Biology Laboratory that will further strengthen the physical plant in the agricultural sciences area.

The mission of the College is to improve the quality of life by discovering, critically analyzing, and sharing knowledge in food and agriculture, the life sciences, natural resources and environmental stewardship, and rural community development.

We are extremely optimistic about the future. After several years of a near hiring freeze to correct a structural budget deficit, the College is again filling most positions that come open, and has added new faculty through the cluster hiring initiative. From 1998 to 2002, the College will replace about 30% of its current faculty positions. We are hiring well-trained, extremely talented young people who will be our research stars of the future. We are enrolling highly qualified, bright and creative young people in both our undergraduate and graduate programs. We are embarking on a building program that is unprecedented in College history. Those new, state-of-art facilities will make us even more attractive to future faculty hires and to student recruits. We are expanding our faculty in ways that encourage formation of creative new problem-solving teams. The College is well positioned to carry out its mission of discovering, analyzing, and sharing knowledge in its disciplinary areas.

We are a small and caring College within a comprehensive, widely respected research University. We value and reward research excellence, but also take seriously our responsibilities to our students. We train our undergraduates to be technically prepared in their chosen fields, but we also expect them to be broadly educated to be involved citizens of our state and nation. We value diversity in our student body and in our faculty. We take pride in the new knowledge that comes out of our research programs, but we are even more proud of the graduate students educated through them. Future scientists and research leaders are the most important products of our research programs. As a land-grant institution, we have strong obligations to assist individuals, businesses, and communities of our state and nation. We’ve long said that the "boundaries of our state are the boundaries of the University." Increasingly, the boundaries of the world are the boundaries of the University.