College of Agriculture and Natural Resources                     Attachment #1

Ballot on the Future of the Department of Bioresources Engineering (BREG)[1]

For the past several months, the Department of Bioresources Engineering (BREG) and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) Dean’s office have discussed the disbanding of BREG as an academic department in CANR.  Included in this action would be the phasing out of the undergraduate academic program and M.S. graduate degree program over a period of 4-5 years.  The guiding principles for these discussions were as follows:

1.       All BREG faculty members will have the option of joining another department or reporting directly to the college if they do not know what department would be the most appropriate to join.   As part of this process, BREG members were encouraged to explore where they would be best positioned and most productive in the future. In either case, their workload assignment will likely change somewhat to meet the needs of their new area of responsibility.

2.       Students in the undergraduate program will have the option of transferring to another program or finishing their degree in BREG.  Thus, the BREG undergraduate academic program would end in approximately 4-5 years and no later than September 1, 2016. 

3.       Students in the BREG graduate program (MS) will have the option of transferring to the department where their major professor elects to move or completing the MS degree requirements of BREG.

4.       Faculty who intend to seek promotion in the near future could be evaluated based on the criteria of BREG or they could elect to use the criteria of any department that they join.  If they use the BREG P&T criteria and are seeking promotion to full professor, the department evaluation committee would need to be largely comprised of individuals from outside the department in accordance with the department’s policy since there are no full professors in the department now except for the department chair.  The option to use the BREG P&T policy would remain available until the academic program ends.  Thus, it is expected that this option would be available for about 4-5 years.

5.       BREG faculty and the Dean’s office will work together to address any unforeseen complications that arise from disbanding BREG.  CANR and BREG faculty goals are to strengthen the University’s ability to provide research and outreach relevant to the agricultural and natural resource engineering needs of the University’s constituents; to integrate the engineering expertise of BREG faculty into other academic programs, scientific disciplines and departments; and to place individuals in environments where they are well positioned to be successful and productive in the future. 

On March 18th, 2011, the faculty of the BREG Department met and voted 7-1, with one abstention, in favor of disbanding the department.  At this time, a vote on this matter is requested of the Voting Membership of CANR.  Please mark your confidential ballot below and either (1) return to Cathy Kinney, Room 113 Townsend Hall or (2) place in the ballot box that will be provided at the CANR 2011 Spring Faculty meeting on May 17, 2011 in a sealed campus envelope with your signature across the seal.  Votes received by May 17, 2011 will be counted by representatives from the CANR Courses and Curriculum committee and the outcome reported to CANR faculty within one week of the vote.                                                         

 

________   Disband BREG in accordance with the principles listed above

 

 

________   Do not disband BREG

 

________   Abstain from voting


[1] Ballot prepared for the voting membership of the University of Delaware College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; distributed to voting membership on April 18, 2011.