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It is quiet on campus now, but what a great academic year! The excitement at Commencement this year was contagious. I was pleased to attend not only CAFNR’s graduation, but also the ceremony for the College of Veterinary Medicine as a member of the platform party. I hope you were able to join us May 4 for our last spring Faculty/Staff Meeting. We heard from Senior Associate Dean Bryan Garton, and CFO Kathy Haynes and I shared a budget update. If you weren’t able attend, I share some details here for FY23: Following years of budget reductions and withholdings, the CAFNR GRA received an increase to $40.8M for FY23. Though the GRA does not include support from MU Extension, the allocation includes funding from NIFA ($7.24M), state match for federal funding ($7.26M), state and tuition ($25.1M), and graduate tuition ($1.25M). Operational funding to the divisions, aka ‘block budgets,’ will experience a 16.9% increase overall to $8.72M. Research and academic program activities were equally weighted in determining the CAFNR block budget model. Research outputs weighted for funding included expenditures from AAU-recognized and other funding sources (90%), as well as PhD students graduated (10%). The academic programs data included BS degrees awarded (15%) and student credit hour generation (85%). Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have additional questions. This month I travelled with Vice Chancellor Marshall Stewart to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to learn more about partnership opportunities in the food and agriculture space. I met with the Division of Animal Sciences for open office hours and with the CAFNR Policy Committee. I participated in a mentoring session for Division Directors with Vice Chancellor Tom Spencer, and attended the President and Provost’s reception for new faculty and the MO-FEN (Food Entrepreneurs Network) meeting at the University of Central Missouri. I was proud on May 18 to introduce Abner Womack, professor emeritus of agricultural economics and co-founder of FAPRI, as he received the highest honor from the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City, the Jay B. Dillingham Award for Agricultural Leadership and Excellence. Tomorrow I will meet with the full leadership of our Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station – our four Research, Extension and Education Center directors – for the first time, and I will attend a virtual Institute of Food Technologists Board of Directors meeting. Later this week I will participate in the CAFNR Foundation Executive Committee Meeting. I hope you will make plans to join us for the CAFNR Staff Advisory Council Faculty and Staff Spring Picnic on Wednesday! It will be held at 135 Ag Engineering from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The last CAFNR IDE Journal Club meeting for this academic year will follow in ABNR 210. Thanks for all you contributed to help our students succeed this year! CAFNR Proud, Christopher R. Daubert, Ph.D.
CAFNR Vice Chancellor & Dean |
