The College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2020
Vision
We will educate the leaders of the professions and industries
of the built environment in Texas, the nation, and the world.
We will have a direct, significant influence on the “state of
the art” of all aspects of the design and construction of the
built environment. We will be recognized as the most important
College of its kind in the nation.
Mission
Teaching Mission: To develop and implement the best means of
translating the knowledge and abilities of the disciplines that
plan, design and construct the built environment to the best
qualified undergraduate and graduate students with the best
qualified faculty members.
Research Mission: To develop critical new and applied knowledge
and processes for those who plan, design, construct, evaluate,
finance and use the built environment in order to maximize the
influence of our students, faculty, staff, and former students.
Outreach Mission: To develop “knowledge partnerships” with
government agencies and private industries which make our research
and teaching available to the state of Texas and the world.
Our outreach mission will attain the stature and critical mass
to merit recognition as the most important College of its kind
in the nation.
Context
Many challenges and opportunities anticipated by the College
will be brought by changes in the built-environment professions
and industries - architecture, landscape architecture, planning,
land development, visual design, and building construction.
Practitioners of these professions will operate in a truly global
economy. Location of projects will no longer influence selection
of the project planning or design-build firms; successful practitioners
will be effective in the global range of physical environments,
customs, and cultures. Practitioners will completely renew their
knowledge base regularly.
Resources to support continued population growth will begin
to become scarce, and energy shortages will dictate strict measures
to promote sustainability in all aspects of the built environment.
The need for transdisciplinary solutions to complex problems
will require professionals to be competent in many fields. Pervasive,
ever more capable, information technology will be the medium
of all projects, with a strong emphasis on the efficiency of
visual languages. Project programs will respond to critical
societal needs, ranging from sophisticated health requirements
to basic infrastructures necessary for survival. Built environment
projects will be of immense size and complexity.
University challenges include student enrollments which reflect
the diversity of society and required partnerships with governments
and industry for both teaching and research. Pervasive information
technology will yield new methods of delivery of education.
Students will demand multiple options to prepare for uncertain
futures. The corporate emphasis on productivity and cost effectiveness
will continue to affect academia. . Quality differences between
universities will become great.
Priorities, Goals and Directions
Capitalize on Existing Attributes of the College
Size: we are currently the largest college of its kind
in the US, and because of our size, we have the critical mass
of faculty, students, alumni, and resources necessary to excel
in the next century. Structure: we currently contain
all the significant disciplines critical to the professions
and industries of the built environment. We have established
research centers that inter-relate with all degree programs
in the College, with other disciplines in the University, and
with government, business, and industry; our range and size
of our research structure is unique in the nation.
Quality: we have an accomplished faculty, qualified
students, and successful alumni who form the base of a tradition
of excellence and a commitment to quality upon which to build.
Emphasize Opportunities for Students
• We will emphasize opportunities for students through large
enrollments, multiple degree offerings, and alternative learning
environments. We will have the critical mass of serious students
and qualified faculty that will give students the best opportunity
for success. Multiple degree offerings, coupled with certificate
programs and areas of specialized study, will allow students
the option of selecting the discipline or disciplines which
best suit their abilities and aspirations to plan, design,
and construct the built environment. Our present degree offerings
in architecture, landscape architecture, building construction,
land development and planning will remain the core degrees
of the College.
• Have a new emphasis on art and visual design that will influence
our undergraduate and graduate degree designations and program
offerings.
• Expand graduate enrollments to maintain our present national
ranking as the largest Ph.D. granting institution in our fields
while stabilizing or reducing undergraduate enrollments.
Expand Our Research Agenda
• The expansion of the research agenda will be based on public-private
partnerships and integrated with teaching. These new “knowledge
partnerships” will extend our influence and resource base.
• We will capitalize on our College’s unique national position
in established research centers by making them stronger, increasing
their integration with our teaching programs, and forging
new public-private partnerships. The seven research units
presently existing in the College comprise our current research
agenda. These are Centers / Laboratories for Visualization;
Health Systems & Design; Housing and Urban Development; Hazard
Reduction & Recovery; Historic Resources Imaging; Environmental
Psychophysiology; and Leadership & Management in the Design
& Construction Industry.
• We will increase integration of research and teaching to
inform future architects, landscape architects, land developers,
planners, and constructors of the research services our College
offers. + We will form new research partnerships to provide
business and industry with applied research assistance in
an increasingly competitive and complex global environment
for planning, design, and construction. These partnerships
will respond to emerging demands of business, such as sustainability.
• We will explore new roles for “land grant universities of
the future” in research collaboration that will respond specifically
to shifts in the socioeconomic needs of Texas. Strengthen
Our Emphasis on Information Technology
• Information technology will enhance teaching/learning and
serve as a digital / virtual modeling tool for design and
research. Information technology, particularly as applied
to visual languages, will become pervasive in the College.
• We will capitalize on our College’s lead in teaching and
research in visualization by providing the expertise and resources
to advance the state of the art in media applications to issues
of the built environment. Leading edge expertise gained by
our students will allow them to assume leadership positions
in the global marketplace. Leading edge expertise developed
by our faculty will allow them to play influential roles in
the advancement of knowledge in our disciplines.
Recommit to Quality in All Our Endeavors
• The College currently enjoys an accomplished faculty, qualified
students, and successful alumni who form the base of a tradition
of excellence and a commitment to quality upon which to build.
Our new commitment must be relentless.
• We will establish indicators of quality, such as faculty
/ student ratios, national recognition for accomplishments,
and outcomes assessment procedures, to continually evaluate
our status.
Expand Global and Professional / Industry Connections
• This expansion will blur the boundaries of the College
so that we are critical partners within and outside the University.
• We will establish “field schools,” off-campus locations
with strong environmental influences. These schools will be
embedded in on-going entities ranging from communities to
professional offices to industrial sites. The field school
concept will support both teaching and research abroad as
well as in urban and rural locations in Texas; therefore,
these schools will assist in TAMU’s integration with metropolitan
areas. This new mode of learning and research will be critical
to our efforts to empower our students and faculty to become
participants in the global marketplace. Distance learning
strategies will also be an integral component to the field
schools.
• We will expand our connections with the professions and
industries of the built environment through expanded public-private
partnerships for both research and teaching. All of our programs
will develop partnerships with private sector and governmental
units as we decrease our dependence on public support.
• We will develop entrepreneurial / risk taking strategies
in our teaching, research, and outreach operations. All units
of the College will adopt these strategies to respond quickly
as new requirements and opportunities unfold in an increasingly
uncertain future. Accommodation of the experimental programs
and procedures will be considered routine.
Recommit to Diversity
• Diversity of the faculty, staff, and student body will
provide intellectual vitality and ensure our viability in
the global market economy.
• We will reduce the national shortage of qualified minority
faculty in the built environment disciplines by increasing
our minority graduate enrollments. Be Recognized as the National
Leader Among Colleges of Architecture
• The College of Architecture at Texas A&M can be recognized
as the most important college of its kind in the nation by
2020. Dominant colleges in the future must be large, and we
should maintain our position as the nation’s largest.
• We must foster our reputation for recruiting the most qualified
students and the most outstanding faculty, known both for
their excellence in teaching and contributions in research
and scholarship.
• We must foster our reputation for placing graduates in the
best firms, and for the leadership roles our former students
play in the professions and industries of the built environment.
• We must foster our reputation by establishing and maintaining
a thorough public relations/public information process that
makes our accomplishments known to all our publics.
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