CNR Heads Up • A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources • Virginia Tech • October 2009 • Page �

Virginia Tech | October 2009

C | N | R: College of Natural ResourcesHeads Up

A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources

Welcome to CNR Heads Up

Thanks for tuning in to our new monthly electronic newsletter CNR Heads Up. My principal goal of developing this internal newsletter is to increase our community and communication in the college. CNR Heads Up will be distributed to faculty, staff and graduate students in the college, and key external colleagues and constituents. Content will vary monthly—but my intent is to keep you abreast of the most important news and events in the college. I do welcome your submissions for consideration. Please direct all materials to Arlice Banks in our office. We will publish the first week of each month. We have much to report in this first issue.

I thank you for what you do to make our college and programs the very best. Because of you, we are the very best at what we do. The community and culture of our college is very special and appreciated by all. Thank you for your devotion to our mission, students, and to each other, and for your collegial interaction in the college.

Paul M. WinistorferDean, College of Natural Resources

News from Paul Winistorfer

Retirement Reception. The college will host a reception for retiring Dean Dr. Mike Kelly and his wife Candi to recognize and thank them for their leadership and service to the college these past five years. Please mark your calendar for November 18, 2009 from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the German Club. More information will follow soon. Mark your calendar today and plan to join in expressing our thanks to Mike.

Budget Reductions. We are preparing for an estimated budget reduction planning number for the college as instructed by the state and VT central administration. Our estimated reduction planning number is near $500,000 from our total base budget. Our college fiscal situation is exacerbated by the fact that we enter the fiscal year overspent in several college units, and this removes our flexibility to make reductions. We are studying the budget carefully. I ask for your patience and understanding as we navigate these fluid and dynamic fiscal times. Per President Steger’s memo yesterday, the colleges are working on business plans for the alternative severance option (ASO) as a vehicle to address our business plan objectives. More information will be known soon.

Consideration of College Name Change. I have completed background information on the suggestion of a college name change. I ask that you read the open letter to faculty, staff and students. You can read it here.

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CNR Heads Up • A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources • Virginia Tech • October 2009 • Page 2

Sustainable Natural Resources and Environment Major Initiative Continues. We are moving forward with our college-wide effort to create a new CNR major—Sustainable Natural Resources and Environment. This effort began in August 2008, and culminated in an open information meeting in April 2009. Since that time a ‘steering committee’ composed of campus colleagues has been providing input to our college committee working on this effort. We reenergized our effort in August and have been navigating the campus landscape with our draft and proposed major over the past six weeks. I am including the draft document here for your further consideration. We want to bring this before the CNR Student Policy and Affairs Committee as soon as possible for review and ultimate approval. Download it here.

Executive Masters of Natural Resources Program. Michael Mortimer, David Robertson, and a diverse team of core faculty have created a new and unique program to add to our suite of graduate offerings in Northern Virginia. The Executive Masters of Natural Resources (XMNR) Program is currently recruiting students and partners located in the Washington, DC, Metro area interested in the program’s dual themes of leadership and sustainability. See the press release on the new XMNR program.

College Funding. For your general information, I have included a chart of our college funding for the 2009-2010 fiscal year (referred to as the ‘010 fiscal). Our funding is a mix of state and federal monies. This is our base funding and does not include surplus, IDDL recovery, indirect recovery, or foundation resources. Note the following general explanations of the base budget:

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Fifty percent of our college base budget is from Virginia Cooperative Extension and Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station—these two organizations come under the heading of the 229 Agency. Vet Med, CALS, and CNR are the only colleges that receive funding from the 229 Agency. The total 229 Agency funding received by Virginia Tech is broken down within the three colleges as CALS 89%, CNR 9%, and Vet Med 2%.

Fifty percent of our college base budget is from the State Agency 208—the general university account. All colleges with the exception of Vet Med, CALS, and CNR are funded 100% from the Agency 208 resource stream. Tuition and fees, the state mandated indirect recoveries (30% account), and sales and services, are credited to the Agency 208 account, in addition to the legislated state funding (VT receives about 27% of our total university support from the state in the Agency 208 account).

4,636,839

2,627,984

952,905

110,000

100,000 669,000 73,000

State Funding 208

State Funding AES

State Funding VCE

Hatch Funds (1)

Hatch Regional Research(2)

McIntire Stennis Funds (3)

Smith-Lever Funds (4)4,636,839

2,627,984

952,905

110,000

100,000 669,000 73,000

State Funding 208

State Funding AES

State Funding VCE

Hatch Funds (1)

Hatch Regional Research(2)

McIntire Stennis Funds (3)

Smith-Lever Funds (4)

(4) The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 establishes the Cooperative Extension Service and provides federal funds for cooperative extension activities.

(1) Hatch Act funds are provided for agricultural research on an annual basis to the State Agriculture Experiment Stations (SAES’s) in accordance with the act approved July 2, 1862. These funds are distributed according to a statutory formula. (2) Hatch Regional Research funding is authorized specifically for research in which two or more State Agriculture Experiment Stations are cooperating to solve problems that concern the agriculture of more than one state.

(3) McIntire-Stennis formula funds support state designated institutions’ cooperative forestry research programs.

CNR Heads Up • A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources • Virginia Tech • October 2009 • Page �

New College Organization Chart Available. We have composed a new college organization chart (see a screen shot on page 4) for distribution on campus to all administrative units, and for use in required reporting. Download the hyperlinked organizational chart here for easy connection to individuals and areas of responsibility in the college.

Director of Information Technology. I have asked Lon Weber to assume the role of Director of Information Technology for the college. This is a new position, with new duties, to better organize, synergize and elevate our information technology capabilities and service in the college. Lon currently serves as computer systems engineer for the college. Lon has been with the college for 21 years and brings a collegial, customer-service oriented mind-set to his work. In his current role he oversees the undergraduate computer lab, the Brooks computer lab, the Major Williams computer lab, manages the CNR Help Desk, and is the first line of defense on all hardware/software issues for the college. His appointment will take place immediately. Lon will work with the college leadership to develop a modern information technology organization that best represents the college and provides the most current approach to IT issues in support of the college faculty.

State of the College Address Power Point Available. The State of the College address, presented August 17, 2009, is available as a pdf file for your review and use. You can download it here.

Fall 2009 Graduate Enrollment Data Available. We have completed the fall 2009 graduate enrollment census for the college. We will update this information each semester and make it available readily via creation in the coming month of a new college intraweb site as a repository for important college information. Arlice Banks has worked hard to “correct” our college data to present a comprehensive profile of our graduate student demographic. All data prior to fall 2009 was provided by Institutional Research; the fall 2009 data has been “corrected” to account for students in interdisciplinary doctoral programs and a more accurate account of MNR students in Northern Virginia. Our fall 2009 data is shown page 5.

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CNR Heads Up • A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources • Virginia Tech • October 2009 • Page �

CNR Heads Up • A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources • Virginia Tech • October 2009 • Page �

CNR Graduate Student Enrollment: On-Campus and Off-Campus Major Degree Gender Fall 2004 Fall 2005 Fall 2006 Fall 2007 Fall 2008 Fall 2009

Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences

Masters Female 13 14 16 16 13 12 Male 11 9 6 5 11 14

Doctoral Female 2 7 10 13 15 11 Male 11 10 14 13 15 12

Total: Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences 37 40 46 47 54 49

Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

Masters Female 13 10 12 9 9 6 Male 23 17 17 16 20 21

Doctoral Female 7 4 11 13 12 16 Male 11 17 20 20 18 18

Total: Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

54 48 60 58 59 61

Wood Science and Forest Products

Masters Female 0 2 2 2 4 2 Male 12 10 11 10 11 13

Doctoral Female 0 0 0 1 0 6 Male 3 5 8 12 13 19

Total: Wood Science and Forest Products 15 17 21 25 28 40

Geography Masters Female 6 5 8 10 13 10

Male 14 17 17 8 8 5

Doctoral Female 0 0 0 3 6 5 Male 0 0 2 5 6 4

Total: Geography 20 22 27 26 33 24

Master of Natural Resources Masters

Female 26 28 30 28 33 59 Male 13 19 20 11 17 44 Not Known 2 1 1

Total: Master of Natural Resources 39 47 52 40 51 103 GRAND TOTAL 165 174 206 196 225 277

Fall 2009 Summary: Female: 46% Male: 54% Masters: 67% Doctoral: 33%

Number of international students: 50–representing 22 countries: Boliva, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Hounduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Republic of South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Uganda

Note: Figures for fall 2004 through fall 2008 were provided by Institutional Research and don’t reflect students that we “count” from other departments, such as Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Chemistry. Additionally, students enrolled in the Geospatial and Environmental Analysis program are now “counted” by their home department. All of these charges are reflected in the corrected fall 2009 data above. From fall 2009 forward the College will provide this correction to our graduate student enrollment to more accurately reflect our work with these students. Institutional Research data is always available for current and historical years.

CNR Heads Up • A Monthly Newsletter from the College of Natural Resources • Virginia Tech • October 2009 • Page �

Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign

CNR Colleagues,

The annual Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign (CVC) has begun. I hope you will be able to support the campaign at some level to help provided services to those in need throughout the New River Valley and beyond. You can read more about the campaign and make your contribution online at www.cvc.hr.vt.edu/

Paul WinistorferDean

The CVC is the annual workplace giving campaign for employees of the Commonwealth of Virginia, including those at Virginia Tech. Nearly 1,300 charities participate in the CVC annually. These charities range from health and human services, to research and disaster relief. CVC is the only statewide charitable-giving drive for which payroll deduction is authorized.

In 2008, more than 24,000 state employees joined together to raise over 4.4 million for those in need throughout our communities both locally and around the world. Virginia Tech employees raised over $250,000—our very best year ever!!

No matter the size of your donation, you can be certain that it will contribute to those in need. Please click on the link above to see what just $2 can do for others.

“I am very pleased to serve as Honorary Chair of this year’s campaign. Now more than ever the services and programs we support are being called upon to help others. I know that the people of Virginia Tech will continue to do as much as they can to contribute.” - Dr. Mark McNamee

H1N1 Flu Information

There is more information coming from health care professionals regarding the H1N1 flu virus. The virus and your susceptibility to contact with infected persons should not be taken lightly. Elderly and young children are particularly vulnerable.

There is health information and flu information links from the VT homepage. Please have the latest flu information at your disposal.