Message from the Dean

Dear Alumni and Friends, After 18 months of working from home, teaching, and learning remotely, everyone at Tennessee State University is ready to return thanks to miracle vaccines, connect with their colleagues, and do business in the still COVID-19-dominated world.

The biggest surprises we are all enjoying on TSU campus are overflowing residence halls and classrooms with students from across the country and world. We are experiencing the highest enrollment in five years. Agriculture classes are brimming with students and some classes have been split into two sections at the last minute. Students and professors in the College are excited and began the new academic year in earnest although with masks and social distancing practices in place.

Dr. Chandra Reddy, Dean College of Agriculture

Despite the pandemic, this past year has been one for the record books for college’s grant funding and the number of agricultural graduates from our joint Ph.D program with Biological Sciences. We graduated 10 Ph.D. students majoring in agricultural sciences and our faculty secured more than $22 million in grant funds. In relative terms, these are tenfold increases in the last decade and demonstrate significantly improved agricultural research capabilities of Tennessee State University. We have featured some of our outstanding research faculty in this issue on pages 24-25 and 34-35.

The rebuilding effort of the 2020 deadly tornado damaged research infrastructure of the Agricultural Research and Education Center at the Main Campus is progressing in earnest. A series of transitory hoop houses are being built (cover photo) to facilitate the transition of experimental materials from the damaged greenhouses so that they can be remodeled and rebuilt. We have also completed the architectural designs for the Agricultural Education Building and the pavilion. We are now developing construction maps and plans for the Poultry Research Facility, Farm Operations shed, Hoop Houses, and Goat Research Facility. We will replace the damaged horse barn with a previously designed Organic Research Facility.

We are continuing our county operations in all the 50 counties both in-person and online and following CDC safety protocols. I am also pleased to share, as part of our periodic Agent Compensation Review process, we brought county agents’ salaries to the market rates in Tennessee and the region. This is our second big agent compensation adjustment in the last decade. We thank TSU President Glenda Glover and Interim Provost Michael Harris for supporting this much needed periodic adjustment so that we can stay competitive in attracting the best candidates for the county agent positions.

Several news outlets and some of you have inquired about the status and outcomes of the Joint Land-Grant Funding Study Committee appointed by the state legislature. I have briefly written about this in the last issue. At this point, the Committee has completed its work and identified that the state might have underfunded TSU land-grant programs by millions of dollars. We are very confident that Governor and the State Legislature will review these findings and increase TSU’s funding significantly!

Thanks for your continued support of Tennessee State University and its land-grant programs!

Chandra Reddy Dean and Director of Research Administrator of Extension