Today's Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences
In 1993, the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics was created out of a merger of the Faculty of Home Economics with the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry. Fourteen years later, in November 2007, in a decision of the University's General Faculties Council, a name change was approved, and today, the Faculty is known as the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences. The new name reflects the teaching and research that goes on in the faculty.
Dean John Kenelly explains:
'Agriculture' is there because of its history and importance to this province. 'Environmental,' because dating back to [1971], our forestry program was very much environmentally based, and because of the conservation sciences program, the environmental research we do. 'Life' encompasses what we do in the nutrition area and what we do in human ecology, proteomic, genomics and aging.
Why 'science?' It's what we do. We've offered science degrees since 1919.
Today, the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences offers 10 distinct Bachelor of Science degrees, including two jointly with the School of Business, one with Campus Saint-Jean, one with the Faculty of Native Studies, and one with the Faculty of Education. The Faculty's strength comes from its diversity and depth in both the natural and social sciences.
Programs within the Faculty focus on three major resources: the natural resource including soil and water; the biological resource, including animals, crops and forests; and the human resource, including individuals and communities. The faculty's strength comes from its diversity and depth in both the natural and social sciences.
The Faculty is dedicated to the discovery, dissemination, and application of knowledge about humans, bioresources, environments, and their interactions.
The Faculty spans both the natural and social sciences, and consists of four departments: Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Science; Human Ecology, Rural Economy, and Renewable Resources. In addition, administrative responsibility for the Devonian Botanic Gardens was transferred to the faculty in 1997.
The first university department of its kind in North America, Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Science offers programs that integrate teaching and research in plant science, animal science, bioresource engineering, food science, and nutrition. No other department in the world offers such a broad range of interdisciplinary interests and skills.
Imagine designing clothing on the computer for protection from flash fires, studying what was worn by people in Peru in the 1800s, designing a program on consumer fraud protection for seniors, or studying the sexuality myths of the Ancient Greeks. This and much more is possible in Human Ecology.
The University of Alberta's Department of Renewable Resources, which was born in 1994 of a merger of the Department of Forest Science and the Department of Soil Science, is focused on understanding and managing landscapes and the associated resources. It is unique in the range and depth of its interdisciplinary interests and skills. It has strong connections with land and natural resource managers and is an active partner in numerous research networks and organizations. Field work is essential to the department's teaching, research, and community service activities, and it regularly works at established off-campus university and department research facilities, industrial locations, and remote field sites.
Education in the Department of Rural Economy provides an excellent background for careers in private business, government service, or academic institutions. Undergraduate and graduate programs are offered in the sub-disciplines of agricultural economics, forest economics, and rural sociology. Well-developed field subjects include production economics, farm and agribusiness management, trade and trade policy for agricultural and forest products, economic impacts of agricultural and forest policy, natural resource economics, valuation of non-marketed attributes (such as wildlife or recreation), analysis of agricultural and forest product markets and prices, rural and community development issues, agricultural extension, women in development, and international agricultural development.
The Faculty will, under the new name, create a School of Ecology and a School of Forestry.