With President Huntsman's approval of our transformed undergraduate and graduate programs and the faculty's decision to update our organizational structure to foster closer connections among faculty, staff and students, we have achieved several important milestones. These achievements are worthy of celebration. But, there is more work ahead and it will require continual effort to ensure that our teaching and research programs are high quality, high impact and preeminent contributions to the disciplines and professions we serve.
Recognition that a focus on sustainability requires better integration of the ecological, economic, and social sciences as well as closer connections among all members of the College community was an important impetus for these changes. The changes we have made are a response both to society's need for citizens and professionals broadly educated in natural resource management and environmental science and to UW expectations for increased educational efficiency, effectiveness and contribution. These changes will ensure our continued significant contributions to science-based knowledge for the stewardship of natural and managed environments throughout the region. They will help us achieve our vision of providing world-class, internationally recognized knowledge and leadership for environmental and natural resource issues. We will achieve this vision through programs focusing on the sustainability and functionality of complex natural resource and environmental systems using an interdisciplinary approach across our urban, suburban, production forestry and wild land landscapes.
The College's transformed undergraduate and graduate programs help meet today's educational challenge in natural resource management and environmental stewardship by providing the integration, breadth and rigor needed for interdisciplinary analysis and problem solving. They will produce broadly educated students, offer multiple options for in-depth disciplinary learning, provide a flexible framework for transfer students and contribute survey courses and enhanced linkages across the UW campuses.
The College's new organizational structure, a single faculty headed by a faculty chair and vice-chair with increased budgetary responsibilities, will help ensure the necessary integration and efficiency of our programs.
Since 1974, the UW has led the nation's public universities in competing for federal research and training grants. In FY 03, $933 million in outside research grants and contacts were awarded to the UW. As an important part of this great research enterprise, our College has historic recognition as a leader in graduate education and scientific forestry research. This is our competitive strength, and future faculty hires must support this expectation. Our challenge is to develop new ways to enhance this historic strength.
How faculty are inspired and inspire others to do innovative research keeps an institution on the cutting edge - poised to contribute to tomorrow's solutions. We must change how we recruit future faculty and how we prioritize faculty responsibilities We must seek faculty who can create new knowledge through collaborative and innovative research while also contributing to our professional responsibilities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. To a large extent, this is a reversal of our historic hiring strategy - hiring faculty to support undergraduate teaching programs.
Our newly structured academic programs are the first step in this new direction. Once we clearly identify the high impact areas of research we wish to pursue to sustain our preeminent position, future faculty needs will be much clearer. Finding research and teaching faculty to support our vision of sustainability and functionality in complex natural resource and environmental systems must be a constant effort.
The goal of our new Environmental Science and Resource Management curriculum is to present fundamental knowledge and problem-solving experiences that enable students to understand the interdisciplinary dimensions of environmental science and natural resource management. Students will learn to integrate the social, ecological and economic sciences. The curriculum structure promotes efficiency and provides flexibility for students to pursue specialized fields while pursuing broader educational goals. The curriculum is transfer-friendly to students from community colleges and allows creative linkages to other UW programs in public policy, urban planning, environmental education, engineering and the natural sciences.
The goal of the revised Paper Science and Engineering curriculum is to provide students with the training, tools and experiences needed to be successful professionals in the pulp, paper and allied industries. At the same time, it provides a comprehensive education so that graduates can effectively work and live in our complex society. Curriculum revision has reduced the number of required credits, eliminated redundancy, incorporated a capstone design course and changed the emphasis from a chemical-processing perspective to a products orientation.
Both undergraduate majors are offered under the existing Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources degree.
Two new fifth-year professional non-thesis master's degree programs, a Master of Forestry and Master of Environmental Horticulture, will help educate the next generation of highly trained resource professionals. The consolidation and restructuring of our existing Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs requires a common coursework structure to ensure that all students share knowledge from core subject areas while also recognizing the need for specialized disciplinary knowledge. These changes will promote increased efficiency by reducing the number of formally recognized disciplinary tracks. At the same time, our students and faculty may pursue scholarly activities and research investigations into new scientific fields as opportunities arise.
All of our students will benefit from a reenergized research enterprise. Providing opportunities for UW undergraduates to share in our cutting-edge scientific research will be of lasting value. Our graduates will have a solid, broad-based education in natural resource science and management -and the competitive advantage that comes from study at a major research university. They will bring the strengths of teamwork, problem-solving, hands-on learning, and cutting-edge scientific knowledge and skills to their employers and to their communities across the state, the region, and the country.
B. Bruce Bare, Dean