Recipient Organization
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
3500 JOHN A. MERRITT BLVD
NASHVILLE,TN 37209
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
In the pursuit for competitive and adequate academic/research/Extension programs which enhance student learning, research and outreach activities, the College of Agriculture at Tennessee State University (TSU) is committed to increase its teaching/research/Extension capacity through the remodeling of existing and addition of new facilities. In this application, the College of Agriculture is proposing to renovate and add new teaching/research/outreach facilities. The main objectives of this project include: 1) Construction of an animal handling facility; 2) Supplement construction of a broiler house and renovation of other existing poultry facilities; 3) Construction of greenhouse to support research and teaching of the plant sciences; 4)Renovation of the Early Learning Center laboratory.The proposed facilities will be situated at the TSU's main campus - Agricultural Research and Education Center and Early Learning Center, and they will provide cutting-edge educational capability to enhance student learning especially in classes, research and outreach activities in the agricultural and human sciences. These facilities will: 1) expand current teaching efforts to incorporate practical and hands-on experiential learning, 2) engage students beyond the classroom in cutting-edge technologies, 3) provide research training to students (undergraduate and/or graduate) enrolled in the agricultural and human sciences, and 4) enhance outreach programs aimed at educating the stakeholders and the consumer.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The College of Agriculture at Tennessee State University (TSU) currently undertakes its teaching, researchandextensionfunctionsthroughtwoacademicdepartments (the DepartmentofAgriculturaland Environmental Sciences,andtheDepartmentof HumanSciences),the Institute of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Research, and the Cooperative Extension Program. To achieve our mission and vision, the existing academic programs in the College have been reorganized to meet the demands of employers of the 21st century in a bio-economy and address the needs of humankind, focusing on finding solutions to challenges faced by socially and economically disadvantaged groups, and contributing to the prosperity of the citizens of Tennessee, the nation, and the world. Our reorganization was uniquely accomplished using faculty-led focus groups to determine the best, most relevant curriculum for our students. These focus groups provide continual improvement and adjustment to keep our curriculum innovative and applicable to the needs of the workplace. The research unit in the College is the Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, through which relevant, cutting-edge research that addresses priority areas identified by stakeholders and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The Cooperative Extension Program conveys research findings in our priority areas to limited-resource families, small-scale farmers, individuals, and other groups and organizations within the rural and urban communities. Research, outreach and student experiential learning are performed in on-campus facilities and at our two off-site Agricultural Research and Education Centers in Cheatham and Warren Counties. The overarching goals of our research and extension are to feed the world's population in a safe and secure manner, while protecting the environment and promoting health, family well-being, and child/youth development and goal of our academic programs is to satisfy the educational needs and aspirations of both traditional and non-traditional students.In the pursuit for competitive and adequate academic/research/Extension programs which enhance student learning, research and outreach activities, the College of Agriculture at TSU is committed to increase its teaching/research/Extension capacity through the remodeling of existing and addition of new facilities. In this application, the College of Agriculture is proposing to renovate and add new teaching/research/outreach facilities. The main objectives of this project include:1.Construction of an animal handling facility2.Supplement construction of a broiler house and renovation of other existing poultry facilities3.Construction of greenhouse to support research and teaching of the plant sciences4.Renovation of the Early Learning Center laboratoryThe proposed facilities will be situated at the TSU's main campus - Agricultural Research and Education Center and Early Learning Center, and they will provide cutting-edge educational capability to enhance student learning especially in classes, research and outreach activities in the agricultural and human sciences. These facilities will support the instructional activities of the BS, MS and Ph.D. degree programs as well as research/Extension efforts of faculties and staff.These facilities will: (1) expand current teaching efforts to incorporate practical and hands-on experiential learning, (2) engage students beyond the classroom in cutting-edge technologies, (3) provide research training to students (undergraduate and/or graduate) enrolled in the agricultural and human sciences, and (4) enhance outreach programs aimed at educating the stakeholders and the consumer.Although with limited laboratory space capacity, faculty in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental sciences and also Department of Human Sciences have continued to teach and train students in their respective areas of research.Early Learning Center laboratory will serve the most precious of commodities, children ages 3- to 5-years old and renovation of the Early Learning Center will enable the center to serve more children, apply for accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and provide research/educational platform for the faculty and undergraduate students of Department of Human Sciences.The need for the animal holding and poultry teaching facilities is based on need for the same mission. A survey was conducted in fall 2022 with Animal Science students to understand their objective of being in the Animal Science program at TSU. About 70% (N=36) of the students were interested in attending veterinary school. This clearly articulates the need of infrastructures of adequate lab and farm facilities to support the animal science teaching curriculum that will reinforce student's primary interest of being in the animal science program. On March 3, 2020, a tornado touched down in North Nashville and the poultry facility at TSU College of Agriculture on-site Agricultural Research and Education Center was in the direct path, leaving damage to all 3 buildings that make up the poultry facility since 1982. The loss of building caused a tremendous setback and rearrangement of how teaching, research and Extension activities are performed at TSU College of Agriculture. With many upgrades that were needed prior to the storm, these are essential to teach our students and conduct research on how the poultry industry truly operates in the year 2023. Assessment of the current status of existing facilities and the need for additional new facilities was also conducted by the college to support these renovation requests.
Project Methods
Identification and acquisition of land for the animal handling, poultry, greenhouse and early learning center facilities.The renovations of existing facilities will not require identification and acquisition of land. Land surveyors, contractors and engineers will be sought to assist in identifying a suitable location for the animal handling and greenhouse facilities. Several potential locations within the TSU's main campus Agricultural Research and Education Center will be identified and surveyed for possible consideration as potential sites. A most suitable location will be identified and recommended based on its accessibility and proximity to other supporting facilities and security. Each item will be assigned a score of one to ten, ten being the highest. Scores will be tallied for each candidate site and the site with the highest score will be considered for the construction of the physical facilities.Conduct an environmental impact assessment.The impact of the proposed facility to the surrounding environment (water, air etc.) and the community at large will be evaluated by water quality and environmental experts/engineers. Candidate location will be evaluated and assigned respective scores which shall be added to those for final selection of a suitable site. TSU College of Agriculture will be submitting an Environmental Assessment to NIFA for review and approval at least 30 days prior to the start of any construction or major renovation related with the project.Develop architectural planning and design of physical facilities.TSU College of Agriculture under the leadership of Dr. Reddy, the Dean and the Director of Research and Administrator of Extension has successfully developed and built multiple capital projects in the last decade.TSU's Facilities Development projects are managed by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) in consultation with University's Facilities Division.TBR manages capital projects for multiple state institutions and has decades of experience in designing and constructing projects according to the federal and state bidding and selection guidelines.Each project requirements and specifications will be defined in consultation with faculty specialists as part of the bidding documents.Through the bidding process, several candidate architects will be identified and the most qualified will be selected. The project design is a joint effort between the faculty specialists, TSU's Facilities Division, the selected architect(s), and the TBR Engineering Division and is a very comprehensive process.The State Building Commission and their architects also review and approve each of these project designs and plans.Risk assessment of any limitations to project completion.Previous renovation and construction experiences and efforts will help the TSU college of agriculture administrators to address any possible limitations during the both the short and long-term facility development activities. The nature of the project, being mostly renovation of existing facilities, and the fact that renovation will occur in multiple buildings/locations, will allow for expansion of research/teaching/extension activities prior to the project's total completion. Renovation may be completed in one area and newly possible projects can begin while renovation continues in other locations.