Pond's Ponder
A break from routine is often refreshing, invigorating, and an opportunity to reflect on the previous year, while planning for the upcoming year.
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Dear Readers of the Buff Brief,
I hope this letter finds you well and on the heels of a holiday season spent with family, friends and loved ones. A break from routine is often refreshing, invigorating, and an opportunity to reflect on the previous year, while planning for the upcoming year.
Buff Brief readership includes faculty, staff, students, alumni, supporters and friends, each with unique interests in the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences. For this reason, I have grouped items with headings so you may skim through the following content and read areas of interest.
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Personnel Changes
2024 was a year of great transition, with several key personnel retiring or otherwise leaving the University. The impact of those leaving has been felt, as many were simply irreplaceable. However, their leaving gave us the opportunity to hire new and dynamic individuals to take on these roles with a fresh set of eyes, experiences, ideas and energy to continue our pursuit of excellence. Additionally, funding from the legislature for Advancing Food Animal Production in the Texas Panhandle has allowed for faculty and staff to be hired in new positions! In 2024, the College added twelve new people to our team, and have several additional positions yet to be filled.
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Loss of Two Great Individuals, Supporters and Icons of WTAMU
Last year we celebrated the lives of Helen Piehl and Paul Engler. Both had tremendous influence in shaping the trajectory of WTAMU, and particularly of our College. The Piehl-Schaeffer Pavilion, named scholarships and a professorship will be permanent reminders of the significant impact Helen, Bill and the Piehl family continue to make in the lives of our students. Our College bears the name of Paul Engler, and his guidance was key in the development of the Agricultural Sciences complex and a new state-of-the-art beef cattle feedlot, and to establishing annual gifts to WTAMU from the Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation. A highlight of the fall was honoring Paul with the unveiling of a statue of him, placed to greet all who visit the Agricultural Sciences complex. Paul was actively involved with sculptor David Anderson in the creation process. He approved the sculpture and was able to see the maquette prior to the bronzing process.
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Honorary Doctorate for Terry Caviness
In the history of West Texas A&M University, sixteen Honorary Doctor of Philosophy Degrees, the most prestigious honor an individual can receive from the University, have been awarded. As of this year, three of these have been bestowed by our College; Dr. Johnny Trotter (2015), Dr. Paul Engler (together with the College of Business, 2022) and now Dr. Terry Caviness (2024). Terry Caviness generously gives his time, talent and treasures to the agriculture and food industries, to WTAMU and to the community, and he is most deserving of this honor.
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Growth of the College
There are many ways to measure growth of a College. These include enrollment and graduation numbers, semester credit hour generation, research grant submissions and awards, and College Endowment balance. In Fall 2018, the Department of Agricultural Sciences (AGS) moved into the Agricultural Sciences Complex, and the Department of Chemistry and Physics (CP) and the Department of Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences (LEES) became unified in the Natural Sciences Building. Fall 2018 was also when the College began receiving the $500,000 annual gift from the Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation. For this reason, I have chosen Fall 2018 and FY2019 as our base for comparison.
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Enrollment
The number of full-time students enrolled in majors within the College is an excellent measure of growth. In Fall 2024, this enrollment consisted of 1,581 students, a decrease of 47 students from the record high enrollment of Fall 2023. Of these 1,581 students, 1,136 were enrolled within AGS, a new record for the department. Since Fall 2018, AGS has increased enrollment by 35% (297 student increase); LEES declined by 61 students, compared to 2023, and by 28% (149 student decline) from 2018; CP increased by 9 students, compared to 2023, and has declined by 35 students since 2018. Recruitment of Natural Sciences students will be a priority in 2025.
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Number of Students Graduating
The final outcome of a college education is degree completion and ultimately, graduation. In 2024, the College conferred a total of 366 degrees. Of these, 210 undergraduate and 34 graduate degrees were awarded to AGS students, an increase of 43% and 48%, respectively, compared to 2018. A combined 113 undergraduate and 9 graduate degrees were awarded to students from CP and LEES, representing an increase of 12% in undergraduate degrees and an equal number of graduate degrees conferred, compared to 2018. In total, the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences has experienced a 30% increase in the number of undergraduate degrees and a 34% increase in graduate degrees conferred since 2018. This number continues to increase and the trajectory remains excellent.
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Semester Credit Hour (SCH) Generation
This is the total number of credit hours for all courses offered in the College. In 2024, the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences led all colleges in the University, with 39,988 SCH generated. For the College, this is an 8% increase overall from 2018, with AGS increasing SCH by 44% (5,731 SCH increase), while LEES and CP had a combined loss of 12% (2,801 SCH decrease). The loss of SCH in LEES and CP was anticipated due to a reduction of the credit hours assigned to required core science courses for non-majors. Specifically, these courses were reduced from four credit hours to three credit hours, thereby reducing credit hour generation. Regardless, as a College, this is the highest SCH generation to date, and continued growth in SCH generation is anticipated.
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Research Grant Submissions and Awards
In FY2024, 11 proposals totaling $12,877,412 were submitted: $9,259,880 from AGS, $2,372,590 from CP, and $1,244,952 from LEES. A total of $1,220,237 was received: $797,432 for AGS, $319,560 for CP, and $103,245 for LEES. These numbers do not include joint proposals and awards with other colleges or programs outside of WTAMU. They also do not include grants and contracts received after September 1, 2024. Thanks to the new faculty hired by the College in the last two years, these numbers are expected to increase significantly.
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Endowment Balance in the College
In 2018, the College Endowment balance of the corpus totaled $5,769,699. Today’s balance exceeds $20M, nearly a fourfold increase. What does that mean? The College has two new chairs, 12 new professorships, and 72 new endowments (bringing the total number of endowments to 180). College scholarship offerings have grown from $350k in 2018 to over $800k in 2024. We are incredibly grateful for the support that has gone into growing these funds for the greater benefit the College.
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Student Successes
There are many measures of student success. For those of you who read the weekly Buff Brief, much of this will be a review.
The WTAMU Student Senate leadership consists almost entirely of students from our College. The 2024 Homecoming King and Queen are both pursing undergraduate degrees in the Department of Life, Earth and Environment Sciences. One of our student’s was selected as WTAMU’s Intern of the Year, and many of our students were among the finalists. Competitive teams from the College have experienced great success, earning numerous National Championships and Reserve National Championships, both as teams and individuals.
Students organized the second annual Fall Gather, where they served meals to over 500 tailgaters and educated attendees on the significant contribution to food production made in the Texas Panhandle.
Our science and pre-professional students continued to have outstanding admission rates to professional and graduate schools. Over 25 students entered vet schools and six students entered medical and dental schools!
Students from our College traveled hundreds of miles for hands-on academic and real-world experiences outside of the classroom. Some students and faculty even traveled internationally, including a study abroad to New Zealand.
The University Career Fair hosted industry employers seeking out our students for internships and full-time positions. Several companies set up recruitment tables in our buildings and gave presentations to our classes. Students from our College are highly sought after, due to their rigorous academic training and broad industry experience, their attitude and their work ethic. Job placement is not an issue for graduates from the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences.
A wide variety of student organizations and clubs prepare students for leadership and involvement. Agriculture Ambassadors and Science Representatives continue to help with recruiting efforts and student engagement. 2024 was another banner year for student successes!
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Challenges We Face in 2025 and Action Plan to Address Enrollment
As a whole, WTAMU had a Fall 2018 enrollment of 10,029 students. In Fall 2024, this number declined to 9,039. This 10% drop in enrollment, coupled with higher inflation and lack of increase in tuition and fees, will result in painful institution-wide budget adjustments.
Even though our College’s enrollment increased by 8% during this time, it will be imperative to maximize our efforts for increasing program enrollment during this new year.
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Off-campus Recruitment. The College will continue and expand recruiting endeavors in several areas. In 2024, College representatives participated in over 100 recruiting trips, both in- and out-of-state, including FFA and 4-H State conventions, high school out-and-backs, science fair competitions, competitive judging contests, livestock shows and fairs.
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Engagement with a Third-Party Digital Platform. In partnership with the WTAMU Graduate School, we were able to promote the online Master of Agriculture program, Companion Animal Studies program and the Bachelor of Science in Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences degree using a national/international digital and social media-based platform that attempts to connect targeted future students with education providers. The second half of this campaign will launch in February of 2025, and will include Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico. At its conclusion, we will evaluate this approach and corresponding enrollment changes for Fall 2025.
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Hosting On-Campus Events and Activities. Current summer camps will continue, and a Science Camp will be initiated in June of 2025. FFA CDE events, Green Hand camps and 4-H District activities will also continue to be hosted by the College. In 2024, over 450 events, attended by over 4,000 K-12 students, were hosted by the College. These events provide an opportunity for more coordinated recruitment efforts with entities across campus.
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Individualized Tours and Faculty Meetings. Hosting students and their families on campus is critical to successful recruitment. Intentionally ensuring prospective student interaction with current students and faculty is what sets our recruitment efforts apart from competing institutions. In 2024, AGS led over 300 prospective students and their families on individual tours that included one-on-one meetings with one or more faculty members. This concept is being expanded to both CP and LEES with the creation of a centralized recruiting area and increased engagement from the Science Representatives and faculty members. Creating a personalized experience for prospective students should increase recruitment in all departments in 2025.
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2025-2026 Pre-University Program (PUP) Offerings. In cooperation with Canyon ISD, a Principles of Plant Science course and a Principles of Horticulture course will be offered to PUP students in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, respectively. WT’s on-campus lecture times will coincide with CISD student schedules, and a new laboratory section will be offered for students on Fridays.
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An Advisory Board to the Dean has been active for several years and has greatly aided in raising funds for the Agricultural Sciences Complex and scholarship endowments. Traditionally, this board has been heavily influenced by Agricultural Sciences membership. In 2024, a new Advisory Board was established for the Natural Sciences. In addition to raising funds, both Boards will expand to help with the recruitment and retention of students to WTAMU and the College. We are poised for expansion of the outcome from our two Advisory Boards.
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From Badger to Buff. Amarillo College (AC) provides the largest number of students transferring to our science programs. Together we are working to develop formalized pathways for AC students to transfer seamlessly to specific programs at WTAMU, with minimal loss of credit-hours. The aim of this partnership is to significantly increase the number of new students at both schools and to establish a mechanism for identifying WTAMU prospective students within the first-year class at AC.
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Community and Junior College Recruitment. Recruiting visits will continue to fourteen pre-selected junior colleges located throughout Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois.
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Graduate Student Recruitment. The online Master of Agriculture program was extensively advertised to county agents through extension services and to and vocational agriculture teachers. To further increase awareness of this opportunity, the College hosted a booth at a national conference. To aid in accessibility, scholarships were made available to offset tuition charges. The program continues to experience healthy growth, but ultimately, a larger class is possible and desired.
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Masters and doctoral student recruitment is dependent on available funding for assistantships and research projects. Our faculty continue to be successful in obtaining these funds, and funding opportunities created by the Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) Advancing Food Animal Production in the Texas Panhandle also exist. The College’s recent faculty hires are rapidly becoming involved with graduate education, and filling currently vacant faculty positions will foster this continued growth.
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Improving Facilities. The College is blessed with good facilities and we continue to expand our physical resources to meet the needs of students, research and service.
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Land Legacy. West Texas A&M University and the Paul Engler College of Agriculture were honored to receive the gift of land from several generous donors in the last three years. Land gifted by the Gruner family will be used for water research and teaching purposes. The Kuhlman family’s gift of land proved an essential first step in establishing a new Beef Cattle Feedlot. The Gerdsen Family’s planned gift of their Centennial Ranch is and will continue to aid in research and teaching across College disciplines. Finally, a planned gift from Rosemary Gerdsen Prichard and her late husband, Stanley Ray Prichard, will add to the available acreage for teaching, research and service, and will provide water for the new feedlot. Our continuing challenge will be to obtain funds for improving and maintaining these valuable assets.
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Research Feedlot and Education Center. Last year, with the help of Congressman Dr. Ronny Jackson, we were fortunate to receive funding from USDA Rural Development for an Education Center, to be associated with the new research feedlot. An architect and contractor have been hired, and we will break ground in 2025. For this project, our challenge is to raise the necessary additional funding before construction can begin. The engineering firm designing the feedlot held industry listening sessions, in conjunction with Texas Cattle Feeders Association membership. The design documents are approaching the 30% completion phase.
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Texas Legislative Request for Research Building. When the Texas Legislature meets this spring, WTAMU’s primary building request will be for a Research Building. This will be a University facility to help serve the research needs of our College, the College of Engineering, and the campus as a whole.
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Legislative Appropriation Request
The request for expanding research in the critical area of water, in partnership with Texas Tech University, is fully supported by WTAMU Leadership, the industry and commodity interests in the Panhandle and beyond, and by our local legislative delegation, including Senator Kevin Sparks and Senator Charles Perry.
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Goals for 2025-26
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College Enrollment: over 1,650, Fall 2025 (Largest Enrollment Ever)
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Increase Scholarship value Given to Students by College: Exceed $1M by Fall 2026
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Number of Graduates: 375 for 2025 (Largest ever)
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Number of Students Accepted into Professional School: 35
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Endowment: Total value exceeding $25M by December 31, 2025
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Research: Grants received exceed $2.5M
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New LAR in Water: Approved by legislature at $2M-$4M for WTAMU
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Expand named areas in Natural Sciences Building: Add five named areas
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On Tuesday, January 21, 2025 the Spring 2025 semester will begin. As a College, we look forward to a great 2025 and hope you will continue to support the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences and follow all happenings through the Buff Brief.
We have great faculty, staff and students. It is a pleasure and honor to serve as Dean of the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, and I am certain 2025 will be a year of great success.
Let’s have a great year!
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Kevin R. Pond
Professor and Dean
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The Texas A&M University NSF Summer Undergraduate Research in Genetics and Genomics (SURGe) Program is a 10-week intensive research experience under the mentorship of one of A&M's Faculty of Genetics members that includes a 3-credit hour Bioinformatics class. The free online application will be open from December 17th, 2024, until February 1st, 2025.
** Tentative program dates: starts on Tuesday, May 27th and ends on Friday, August 1st, 2025 **
The introductory Bioinformatics class provides training in modern bioinformatics tools via command-line used in genetics and genomics. The credits are transferable to their home institution. Additionally, students will have weekly meetings to explore research and career opportunities in genetics and genomics, discuss research ethics, how to apply to graduate school, and learn practical oral and written presentation skills.
Financial support:
· $7,000 stipend
· Living expenses (room and board) on campus
· Travel expenses
· Tuition/fees for 3-credit hours
Eligibility: The program is open to undergraduate students majoring in genetics, genomics, biology, or any life science. Preference will be given to candidates who have finished their third year and have already taken a genetics course. However, outstanding students who have completed their second year of college work will also be considered. This program is committed to providing research opportunities for students from underserved groups in the sciences. Preference is given to US citizens and permanent residents. Students whose expected graduation date is before Fall 2025 will not be eligible.
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Applications are now open for a summer research experience through the University of Illinois Urbana-Campain's Center for Digital Agriculture.
WTAMU Buffs enrolled in one of the following degree programs, either part-time or full-time, are specially invited to apply: Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, Animal Science, Agricultural Economics and Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Biology, and other related majors.
This is a 10-week paid opportunity ($7,000 stipend, ~ $700/week). Housing arrangements and travel expenses will be covered. The program extends from May 27 to Aug. 1, 2025.
The application deadline is Feb. 1, 2025. For more information, please contact Dr. Guillermo Marcillo.
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