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Mountain Grove Campus Task Force

Final Report

December 15, 2005

The Mountain Grove Campus Task Force was charged with determining the role the campus will play in support of the Missouri State University System. Specifically, to assess what is the best focus or direction for research and scholarship at the campus that will foster prominent, influential and significant programs.

Missouri State University’s presence at Mountain Grove includes the Department of Fruit Science, the Fruit Experiment Station, and the Mid-America Viticulture and Enology Center (MVEC) as well as the Shannon Hall facility which is associated with, and operated by, West Plains Campus of Missouri State University. The Department of Fruit Science and MVEC are components of the School of Agriculture Sciences an operational unit within the College of Natural and Applied Sciences of the University's Springfield campus. The Fruit Experiment Station is a part of the Fruit Science Department and was established by an act of the Missouri legislature in 1899 to serve the fruit production and processing industries of Missouri. The Station became part of Missouri State University in 1974. The mission statement of the Fruit Science Department is presented at: http://mtngrv.missouristate.edu/mission.htm

The Mid-America Viticulture and Enology Center was approved by the University’s Board of Governor’s in 1999. MVEC has responsibility for research, advisement and training for the grape and wine industry in Missouri with the primary financial support provided from the Missouri Department of Agriculture. The University also invests funds and resources in this program. Two other units are managed within MVEC - the Viticulture and Enology Science and Technology Alliance (VESTA) and the Mountain Grove Cellars. The former is funded primarily by a National Science Foundation grant that supports certificate and associate degree programs in Applied Viticulture and Enology through the West Plains campus, as well as community colleges in Iowa and Illinois. Mountain Grove Cellars is a federally and state licensed winery and distillery that is being developed to provide training for winery operators, as well as to produce wine, distilled spirits, and sparkling beverages. Revenue from the sales of these products is to be directed to support the grape and wine programs in the University. Information about MVEC progams can be found at two sites: www.mvec-usa.org and www.vesta-usa.org

Over the past several years many undergraduate courses have been offered at the facilities operated by the Fruit Science Department. These courses have been offered and taught by Missouri State University-West Plains faculty. This program outgrew these facilities and donors were secured to build Shannon Hall across the highway from the Fruit Science Department. The Shannon Hall facility is operated entirely through the West Plains campus.

Although sometimes called the Research Campus at Mountain Grove or Missouri State University – Mountain Grove. The campus as defined on the website http://mtngrv.missouristate.edu/MSUMG.htm includes the Department of Fruit Science and its 180 acres of research/demonstration fields, and MVEC. As a University System we may want to consider all units in Mountain Grove which would include Shannon Hall to the list noted previously. The Mountain Grove community is proud of the Missouri State University facilities in their community. They would like to continue to play a role in the success of research, education, and service activities – both north and south of Highway 60.

There was discussion at the November 16 meeting regarding the mission and vision of Mountain Grove Campus. Since the campus is made up of three separate units it is recommended that each unit clearly define their mission statements. MVEC has recently done so and PowerPoint in the appendix clearly articulates the mission, vision and goals. The task force recommends that if the mission/vision statement needs to be changed by other units then the faculty, staff, and leadership at the Fruit Science Department in collaboration with the Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences should develop this statement and should address any other changes that may come as a result. Certainly external advisory boards and constituencies should be invited to provide input into this process.

This report covers two main aspects of the Mountain Grove campus: (1) the place it holds in the Missouri State University System, and (2) campus infrastructure. System issues include campus representation, budget and system reporting, local coordination, employee residences, partnership with the Mountain Grove community and MVEC partnerships and are in Section I. Infrastructure issues include research, education, service, physical plant, transportation, and information technology and are in Section II. Physical plant concerns and recommendations are listed in section III. All recommendations in Section II and III should be prioritized by the Head of the Fruit Science Department and the Director of MVEC immediately and an implementation plan should begin in early 2006.

As this Task Force comes to a close, it should be noted that each member has learned a great deal about campus operations and the dedicated people involved. These members provide an excellent pool from which to choose additional members of the Mountain Grove Advisory Council.

Several appendices are attached to this final report. The list includes:

* Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
** Requires Microsoft PowerPoint

I. System

A. Campus Representation

Strengths:
  1. Outreach activities to fruit growers are many and are valued.
  2. Outreach activities to the Mountain Grove School system are many and valued.
  3. Research activities have been externally funded but there is potential for much more external funding.

The current chancellor has assumed an important role in community relations and previously provided an infusion of funds from the former President’s budget. This link to the Chancellor has been an important one because he has been able to infuse funds into campus programs that might not have otherwise been available. Most notable were (1) seed funding of the grape genomics program which was able to garner major federal support for the current program and (2) funding to purchase equipment to establish the winery/distillery operation for MVEC.

Concern: The Mountain Grove campus will not flourish unless it is represented at the Administrative Council. Most task force members believe that a chancellor would be the most appropriate representation to the Administrative Council.

Recommendation: Continue to call this the Mountain Grove Campus but include in that definition both the components of West Plains and of Springfield. The Mountain Grove Campus should have a voice at Administrative Council. The majority of the task force believes that this should be in the form of a chancellor, however, the task force did not feel qualified to recommend whether the chancellor should be the Provost or the Vice-President of Research and Economic Development - or a new position. The University Administrative Council should clearly define the responsibilities of the Chancellor but these responsibilities might include:

  1. Be an advocate for Mountain Grove to the administrative council
  2. Visit the Mountain Grove campus regularly
  3. Meet with the campus leadership including the head of the Fruit Science Department and the director of MVEC (including the CNAS Dean) regularly
  4. Review the long-range plan for the Mountain Grove campus and coordinate it with the university long-range plan
  5. Be an active member of the Mountain Grove Campus Advisory Council
  6. Be an advocate for the Mountain Grove campus to community partners (as invited) with the campus leaders and dean.

B. Budget and System Reporting

Currently, the Fruit Science Department Head (Inno Onwueme) reports to the Associate Dean of Agricultural Sciences (Inno Onwueme) and then to Director of the School of Agriculture and Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS) (Larry Banks). The Director of MVEC (Bill Alter – acting) reports to the Associate Dean for Agricultural Sciences (Inno Onwueme) and the Dean of CNAS and Director of the School of Agriculture (Larry Banks). Other units within the School of Agriculture – Departments of Agriculture (Anson Elliott) and Applied Consumer Sciences (Michelle Granger) – also report to the Associate Dean of Agricultural Sciences (Inno Onwueme) and then to Director of the School of Agriculture and Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (Larry Banks).

The responsibility for the Fruit Science Department budget is in the hands of the department head. The Director of MVEC has responsibility for the budgets of the state funded grape and wine program, as well as those of the VESTA program, and the Mountain Grove Cellars. The cost center for the budgets, however, is the college so all budget requests (as with other departments) are made through the Dean. In addition, the Fruit Science Department Head and the CNAS dean also maintain communication and a close liaison with the Chancellor of the Mountain Grove Campus (although this only includes the facilities north of Highway 60). The 2005-2006 budget for the Department of Fruit Science is $998,690.81 ($915,620.81 is salaries and benefits). The university’s contribution to the 2005-2006 budget for MVEC is $67,342.81 ($61,754.81 is salaries and benefits).

Concern: As noted in Sections II and III below there are a number of needs for the Mountain Grove Campus that cannot be met within the current budgets. The Mountain Grove Campus (north of Highway 60) has a confusing reporting mechanism because it has both a dean (and, subsequently, the provost) and a chancellor. (The provost does not report to the chancellor but would sit on administrative council as the budget authority for the cost center. At this point the chancellor does not have any budget authority over the campus.) Individual job responsibilities are confusing and lines of authority are blurred.

Recommendations: Roles and responsibilities for all leadership positions within the School of Agriculture and particularly as related to the Mountain Grove campus (north of Highway 60) must be clearly articulated. Reporting lines should also be clearly articulated.

The faculty and staff of the Mountain Grove campus should be aggressively seeking external funding for all projects increase overall budgets. In addition there are several projects (tasks) that are done for external constituents and a plan should be developed to recover the costs of these projects (tasks).

C. Local Coordination

The Mountain Grove community is proud of the Missouri State University facilities in their community. They would like to continue to play a role in the success of research, education, and service activities – both north and south of Highway 60. The current advisory council is a valuable resource for the campus.

Concern: The Mountain Grove campus (north of Highway 60) lacks an operational coordinator/director and community members have commented that there is no general point of contact for scheduling activities. The Mountain Grove campus system (defined as those units north and south of Highway 60) lacks true system coordination within Mountain Grove. Although each unit has a reporting mechanism to either the Springfield or West Plains campus there is little to no communication of the two units within Mountain Grove.

Recommendations: The Mountain Grove campus should have one person designated as coordinator of campus operations, and as an initial point of contact for general inquiries. This full-time faculty or staff member will coordinate the use of operational resources, and be an easily accessible liaison with the community. Preferably, this person should be a resident of the Mountain Grove area.

Lines of communication between community members and all other external constituencies and Mountain Grove campus personnel should remain open. The mission, vision and goals of the units should be articulated to all constituencies on a regular basis. There is a valuable resource available within the Mountain Grove community and within the Missouri fruit growing community.

Expand the present Campus Advisory Committee for program development to include more members from the University System. This would allow for better integration of the Mountain Grove Campus into the university system. It would also increase communication between the campus and all constituents. Campus Advisory Committee Meeting minutes should be available to the campus, community, and other external constituents via the campus website.

D. Employee Residences and Housing for Visiting Scientists and Students

Strengths: Community support exists in the city of Mountain Grove for Missouri State University and the campus in Mountain Grove.

Concern: Some of the faculty, staff, and students who work at the Mountain Grove campus choose to live outside the Mountain Grove area. Some faculty have recently moved to Springfield. Graduate students must take courses in Springfield although their research labs are in Mountain Grove. This remains an issue and will require constant discussions with newly hired faculty and staff and newly admitted students.

Recommendation: Missouri State University cannot dictate where faculty and staff live. It is however crucial that leadership, faculty and staff at the Mountain Grove campus continue to work with the community in educational outreach activities. Campus leadership should also be communicating to the community on a regular basis about current programming, research, mission, and goals.

Missouri State University should seek external funding for adequate/affordable housing for graduate students and visiting scientists so that they can live in the community.

Dialog between Missouri State University and key citizens in the City of Mountain Grove should be started to determine ways to provide activities that would be of interest to scholars living in the community as well as local residents. These activities could include visiting performances by the Springfield campus Theatre and Dance department or organized transportation to Springfield for cultural events. It might also include residential hosting of scholars to help alleviate the feeling of isolation of living on campus. The Mountain Grove community has indicated an interest to help in this way. See also transportation recommendations.

E. MVEC Partnerships

Strengths: MVEC has the potential to become the focal point for applied research, advisement and training for the grape and wine industry throughout the Mid-America region. The VESTA program already has a multi-state focus with students enrolled from over 20 states.

Concern: The relationship between the University and the Missouri Wine and Grape Board is under review by both parties. Problems associated with personnel and program focus have existed over the past decade causing concern as by the Board as to whether the Mountain Grove Campus should continue to be the site for the state funded contract.

Recommendation: Clarification of the relationship between the two entities is under review and will likely be resolved one way or the other within the next month. Should the decision be made to move the state funded contract to another institution, the organizational alignment of the VESTA and Mountain Grove Cellars operation will need to be reviewed.

II. Education/Outreach/Research/Service

As stated previously the items noted below should be prioritized by the leadership of the Mountain Grove campus immediately and an implementation plan should begin in early 2006.

Overall goals of the campus as stated on the websites include:

As a part of the School of Agriculture research and outreach projects on sustainable agriculture may also become the emphasis of the Mountain Grove campus. Collaborative projects with the departments within the School of Agriculture are in the planning stages and include applied research projects and education programs in agriculture, horticulture, soil science, and consumer sciences.

  • Long-Range Objectives. These objectives need to be prioritized by the Mountain Grove Campus and the units represented on the campus. External funding will be requested for each project and results will be disseminated at professional meetings and in peer-reviewed journals.
  • GENERATE NEW KNOWLEDGE by conducting basic and applied research---new knowledge can only be accumulated by conducting hypothesis-based research and by discovering secrets of nature. The Mountain Grove campus will be the source of new discoveries and innovative technologies for fruit industries.
  • DEVELOP NEW FRUIT VARIETIES that benefit consumers---the Mountain Grove campus will create and provide new fruit cultivars through traditional breeding programs and novel biotechnological approaches, and through introduction and exploration of new fruit cultivars.
  • DEVELOP NEW CULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL PRACTICES for enhancing fruit quality and production---the Mountain Grove campus will conduct applied research projects to solve current problems and to improve cultural practices in the fruit industries.
  • DISSEMINATE NEW PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY to the growers---the Mountain Grove campus will be the center of transferring practical knowledge and technology directly to farmers, growers, and consumers through innovative outreach programs.
  • SERVE THE COMMUNITIES at local, state, national, and international levels---the Mountain Grove campus will serve the local, state, regional, national, and international communities through research, outreach, education and service.

A. Education/Outreach

Strengths: The Department of Fruit Science is an active partner in the Plant Science MS degree program, probably the most active partner. Much of the research done as part of this program is done at the Mountain Grove Campus. Faculty in the Fruit Science Department teach courses for this program. The VESTA program, NSF funded, through MVEC is an educational program.

Fruit industry outreach (presently the Fruit Grower Advisory Program established in 1979 and the Mid-America Viticulture and Enology Center Advisory Program established in 2000) has been an integral part of the statewide mission of the State Fruit Experiment Station since 1899 where research findings were disseminated to the fruit growing and processing industries. A Public Education Advisory Program was established in 1998 for outreach beyond the fruit industry.

The outreach programs that will disseminate knowledge to industry and the community include the Annual Midwest Grape and Wine Conference, on-site training workshops, Small Fruit and Vegetable Conference, Spring and Fall Horticulture Seminars, hosting of national and international conferences, field day and tours, attendance of regional, national and international conferences

All Fruit Science publications are available online and one Fruit Science professional staff member is responsible for both departmental and campus web development. Web based room scheduling for the campus has been developed to coordinate Springfield Outreach, Fruit Science, MVEC and community use of the campus facilities. The Greed Database, developed by the Vitis Gene Discovery Program and University web services, for grapevine genes is a new tool for the international grape genomics research community.

Many partnerships between Mountain Grove Campus Outreach Programs and other local, state and regional programs including University of Missouri Extension which offer industry support to a larger region with less cost and duplication of efforts.

Concern (value of outreach): Outreach activities do not seem to be well understood or appreciated by traditional departments/colleges/units on in the Missouri State University System where undergraduate student teaching is a major activity.

Recommendation (value of outreach): Industry and public outreach must be valued by the university administration and these activities must be included in annual plans and evaluations of staff. This is well understood in land grant institutions where the "Extension Service" is the common institutional term for outreach activities. This may be accomplished through an expanded Campus Advisory Committee which includes at least one member of Fruit Science outreach staff and one of MVEC outreach staff.

Concern (funding outreach to fruit growers): Although the State Fruit Experiment Station has a state mandate to provide outreach programs for the fruit industries in Missouri, it is not affiliated with a land grant institution and does not have access to federal funds mandated in the Morrill Act of 1862. Funding has not been available from industry in general. Grape and wine program funds are based on a consumer wine tax rather than on direct support from the industry.

Recommendation (funding outreach to fruit growers): A common vision concerning our fruit grower advisory and public outreach programs needs to be formed and then supported. Outreach information dissemination must be made via multiple, effective delivery systems in order to save cost and reach a larger audience. Information technology needs for outreach advisors must be considered. Funding needs to be addressed. If funding is not available, then these programs must be reevaluated to be as effective as possible with less input. Travel funds for outreach efforts need to be increased in response to increasing fuel costs. An expanded Campus Advisory Council will help guide this vision.

Concern (funding outreach to public) : Public outreach has primarily been supported by the Fruit Science Department. In recent years the Chancellor has funded the development of the campus web. Funding for these programs needs to be made permanent or the public outreach will diminish.

Recommendation (funding outreach to public): Continue present level of outreach activities with permanent reallocation or decrease public outreach based on evaluation and recommendation by Advisory Council, the Chancellor and Major Administrators of the campus units. Increase grant writing for outreach projects. Create permanent campus funding for web development and development and maintenance of educational plantings.

B. Research

Strengths (staffing): Vitis Gene Discovery Program and the Alternative Fruit Crops Research Program have secured initial financial support from the State and Federal funding agencies. These programs support the mission of the campus by supporting the fruit industry of Missouri. These two programs need to continue to seek regional, national and international exposure through presentations at professional meetings and publications in peer-reviewed journals. The faculty are exploring the feasibility of establishing a center for grapevine biotechnology to focus on grape/wine research at Mountain Grove.

Concern (staffing): Currently distance poses a problem in semesters during which graduate students take classes on the main campus. Students in life sciences are expected to work on their research programs while taking classes. This is not possible for Plant Science graduate students who are separated from their advisors and laboratories stationed at the Mountain Grove. Distance learning/ITV capabilities have been used to teach graduate courses from faculty at Mountain Grove to students in Springfield, however, the reverse is not true. Required courses taught from Springfield have not been sent to Mountain Grove. Students at the Mountain Grove campus do not have the same diverse academic atmosphere or the same interactions with peers from other life science disciplines as those at the Springfield campus. These circumstances make Mountain Grove programs less attractive to prospective students. In reality, students are generally more attracted to urban communities rather than rural communities.

It is also difficult to recruit and retain quality post-doctoral research associates in the life sciences in a rural area. Most of these individuals come with their families and children, and many wish to have the cultural life and school systems of an urban area. The absence of these urban attributes can negatively affect their performance, and lead them to look elsewhere for research possibilities. The people often desire the atmosphere of a larger university campus.

Recommendation (staffing): The research faculty and staff must seek external funding to enhance the research program. This will aid with the recruitment of graduate students and professional staff. It is important to use technology when appropriate so that graduate students, professional staff, and faculty can make the best use of their time. It may be necessary to provide temporary research work space for graduate students on the Springfield campus if courses are not available via interactive television or other ways.

It is recommended that Fruit Science faculty, visiting scientists, and graduate students develop a program that increases communication between the Mountain Grove Campus and the Springfield campus to foster better collaboration between researchers on the Springfield campus. By enhancing communication researchers working on molecular biology and other basic research and their laboratories on the Springfield campus could talk about collaborations that might include increased field activities, the greenhouse, and the research winery. The Mountain Grove campus would no longer be (and should never feel like) a stand-alone unit and resource-sharing between the Springfield campus and the Mountain Grove campus would be enhanced, limiting redundancy and waste. Information technology makes this horizontal program architecture possible offering new freedom and possibilities in the academic world.

Additional staff would enhance the research program and several positions have been identified. These include four new faculty positions 1) Breeder with modern genetics background, 2) Fruit chemist with a focus on metabolite profiling, 3) Endowed enologist, 4) Endowed viticulturist, and an additional support staff include breeding assistant, biotechnology research technician, small fruit transformation specialist. External funding or collaboration with faculty and staff on the Springfield campus should be sought to fill these positions. External funding should also be sought to fund additional graduate students that may be needed.

Concern (public perception of research): There are public misperception about the research programs and impatience about the outcomes and benefits of the basic research.

Recommendation (public perception of research): Communication with the advisory council, the Mountain Grove Community and the University system is essential to avoid misperceptions.

Concern (applied research): There is a lack of industry funding for traditional applied research for fruit crops other than grapes in Missouri. We do not have the resources presently to address all areas of fruit production, most notably, the economics of fruit production.

Recommendation (applied research): Applied research projects will be strengthened with external funds. Partnerships and collaborations will enhance the possibility of external funding so that a variety of applied projects can be conducted.

Concern (applied research project): Clear descriptions of the traditional fruit crops with attendant degree day mapping data do not exist for many of the crops grown in Missouri. Fruit statistics, including types of cultivars, acreage, growing conditions, weather, diseases, pests, and other basic information, are not readily available to fruit researchers and growers in an integrated format (traditional map or GIS database). This information is necessary for researchers to support their proposals as well as for growers making decisions.

Recommendation (applied research project): Fruit Science outreach advisors and MVEC advisors need to work with other agencies, particularly the State Climatologist at UMC and state soil scientists, to assemble basic information concerning fruit growing areas in Missouri with the help of other members of the faculty and staff. This basic information will be invaluable to make the case for research proposal funding and advise to fruit growers as well as to help determine the potential for new and alternative fruit crops. Illinois has assembled such information and may serve as a template for this project. It is recommended that external funding should be pursued to fund this project.

Concern (applied research): The Fruit Diagnostic Lab is not adequately staffed.

Recommendation (applied research): Reinvestigate funding for this lab. If it is to continue then a funding plan must be prepared to cover all costs. Charges on a per sample basis should be passed on to the consumer as it is at the University of Missouri Diagnostic Lab.

C. Service

Strengths: The faculty and staff of the Fruit Science Department are involved with the Master Gardener Program, provide tours and events for public school children, participate in local science fairs and a variety of other community service projects. They also serve their specific disciplines and professional societies. The campus fruit sales operation provides fruit to area food pantries, disaster relief organizations, and for local school functions.

III. Physical Plant

A. Property and Facilities

Concern: Campus planning and funding needs to be revisited on an annual basis in order to determine and prioritize needs and make recommendation.

Recommendation: A new campus committee for planning, instructional technology, operations and maintenance needs to be formed in order to make the best and most equitable use of our resources. The results need to be reflected in a campus visioning guide. This committee would be required to make recommendation to the director, head, dean, provost, and chancellor. The current open budget process will allow for transparency related to budget.

Concern: Mountain Grove Campus consists of 190 acres of land that must be developed and maintained. Many campus administrative duties are assumed by departmental personnel rather than staff separate from the unit like on the Springfield campus.

Recommendation: A part of the planning process must include maintenance of the 190 acres.

Concern: New hires and hourly employees are not offered an adequate orientation program and therefore are often unaware of campus procedures and programs. It is important that those that work on campus, even on a temporary basis, have an understanding of our mission as well as proper procedures. They are an important link to the community.

Recommendation: There needs to be a general staff orientation for new temporary employees, new graduate students, and new post docs that introduce campus faculty and staff, facilities, and procedures for vehicles, time card submission, and so on. This could be set in a standard format that is readily and easily accessible as people come in and move out.

Concern: Presently there is one maintenance foreman, one custodian responsible for both the Mountain Grove Campus and Shannon Center (Mountain Grove location for Missouri State West Plains program), and one temporary worker for grounds for both Mountain Grove and Shannon Center. A maintenance budget is associated with the Mountain Grove Physical Plant through the Missouri State physical plant and is administered by the maintenance foreman. There is presently no regular system to track maintenance requests and completions. This is important in order to document campus needs, and possibly make the case for additional support.

Recommendation: A regular and documented process to handle work requests from all campus units and users needs to be implemented. The Missouri State University Physical Plant maintains a Maintenance Request Site with electronic work order forms. The Mountain Grove Campus grounds and buildings are listed in this system. We recommend promoting and using the online maintenance request system at http://physicalplant.missouristate.edu/home1.html for the Mountain Grove Campus. An alternative plan is a regularly scheduled maintenance needs assessment (walk through) and tracking by the newly appointed coordinator.

Concern: It is very important that the Mountain Grove campus reflect best practices in horticulture because the heart of the research and outreach mission of the campus is plant science. Funds and trained personnel for public education planting development and maintenance as well as general grounds maintenance are needed. The research greenhouses are managed by temporary employees as directed by the field and maintenance supervisor/research associate.

Recommendation: Reallocation of current funds or external funding should be investigated for additional staff to help with field maintenance. A high school/associate degree level landscape horticulturist/greenhouse manager with the option for further training is desperately needed to remove some of the burden from the field and maintenance supervisor as well as provide an individual trained and interested in horticulture to manage the greenhouse, the grounds and the educational plantings. Proper greenhouse management is key to the success of the Grape Importation and Virus-free Certification Program and the possible expansion of this program to include other crops. This person will need some direct grounds maintenance funds. At least one horticultural professional needs to serve on the search committee for this individual.

Concern: The campus green space would be made accessible and useable for both educational programs and general campus use if a walking trail were installed and maintained on the 12-acre campus area east of highway 95 campus.

Recommendation: Construct and maintain the walking trail that has already been incorporated in the 2005 Campus Visioning Guide.

Concern: The Central gravel parking lot is dangerous and poses a risk to workers.

Recommendation: Construct a parking lot as incorporated in the 2005 Campus Visioning Guide.

Concern: There are several field plantings that receive poor maintenance and therefore are not available for research. Field plantings should be prioritized and the low value plantings should be removed to make better and more efficient use of our resources.

Recommendation: A campus committee for planning, instructional technology, operations and maintenance needs to be formed in order to make the best and most equitable use of our resources.

Concern: Irrigation is available for plantings but it is not reliable (line leaks, lack of automatic fill to the supply tower).

Recommendation: A regular and documented process to handle work requests from all campus units and users needs to be implemented.

Concern: MVEC has separated financially from the State Fruit Experiment Station and Department of Fruit Science in 2004. It does not have adequate space and laboratories to conduct applied research for the grape and wine program.

Recommendation: Renovations of the experimental winery and fruit processing education building to accommodate Mountain Grove Cellars for the short-term. It may be possible to dedicate space in the Classroom Building solely for MVEC personnel in the short term and construct new buildings to house MVEC staff and laboratories in the long term.

Concern: More greenhouse space is needed for the Grape Importation and Indexing Program and support of the greenhouse facilities.

Recommendation: Seek USDA funding for the construction of an additional greenhouse. This has been incorporated into the 2005 Campus Visioning Guide. Greenhouse management would be overseen by the proposed position of landscape horticulturist/greenhouse manager position.

Concern: Shepard Hall lab space needs to be updated and/or expanded to accommodate the Grape Importation and Indexing Program. A tissue culture/ lab/growth room is needed for this program.

Recommendation: Seek external funding for the renovation of Shepard hall as indicated in the 2005 Visioning Guide.

Concern: No public lavatory facilities in field and research area.

Recommendation: Bathroom facilities (regularly maintained portable or other seasonal facility) need to be available in proximity of the pavilion during the growing season for public use at school tours, workshops, and other functions.

B. Equipment

Concern: One person on the Mountain Grove Field Service Center Staff is responsible to track vehicle use, maintenance and repair. Field vehicles, tractors and equipment are over twenty years old in some cases. Often pickups are not needed but are the only available method of transportation - therefore they are worn out before they would need to be if utility vehicles were available. These vehicles are used year-round to not only handle campus unit research needs, but also maintenance for the 190 acre campus.

Recommendation: Three utility vehicles (EZ-go, Gator, Mule) should be purchased. Older pickups could then be phased out - going from 3 pickups to one 3/4 ton 4WD pickup with trailer. A budget and rotation system is needed to replace all tractors on a 10 year cycle. A bobcat with forks would be useful in loading and unloading fruit in the processing facilities and a post auger and backhoe attachments for the bobcat would be useful in the field for construction of trellises and irrigation systems.

Concern: Farm vehicles should have thorough and regular inspections to maintain safe operation by out staff and field crew. Since the vehicles are used constantly during the growing season and there is no place to work on them in the dormant season or in inclement weather, we are not able to maintain them as they should be maintained.

Recommendation: New Maintenance and Repair Shop building is needed where vehicles, tractors and equipment can be inspected, maintained, repaired, and cleaned particularly during inclement weather to better utilize the workforce. This has been incorporated into the 2005 Campus Visioning Guide.

C. Technology

Strengths: The new MEN (Metropolitan Ethernet Network) has provided the Mountain Grove campus with excellent connectivity with the Springfield and West Plains campuses (10 Mb) and increased capacity to the Internet (the three campuses share a 55 Mb connection). While separate Internet2 connectivity is not financially feasible, access to Internet2 resources is available through the commodity Internet by MOREnet without a separate high-speed connection. To assure that the campus can gain focus as a research facility of international significance, the computing infrastructure must be reliable and adequate. This infrastructure is comprised of three main parts: (1) administrative computing, (2) specialized research computing, and (3) collaboration. All parts have an overwhelming need for support. Information Technology is a support service. It is used to support the mission of the organization using it. However, it is an essential service that, if implemented efficiently, will make the realization of that mission possible.

Concern: Campus web development is primarily done by one person with the support of the University Web Coordinator.

Recommendation: The campus needs to continue web development and adopt the Web Content Management System (Web Press) when it is made available. This will allow campus personnel to easily manage their own pages.

Strengths: The Mountain Grove campus has a staff that is creative and efficient in dealing with very limited computing resources.

Concern: The campus will benefit from an organized approach to the selection, and replacement, of computers for administrative needs.

Recommendation: The campus should re-evaluate the computer replacement schedule and consider replacing more computers each year to maintain an environment where the computing equipment will consistently handle the tasks at hand. A written waterfall plan, identifying where computers will be redistributed, should be developed to show the yearly redistribution of computers to a secondary use. The use of a "thin client" architecture should also be considered to provide an easier way to support the administrative computing infrastructure. It should be noted that a formal study of the campus computing needs should be conducted before detailed recommendation on the type of equipment to be purchased should be made. Finally, training on the use of Windows Remote Desktop and the use of Missouri State’s virtual private network should be provided to employees who need to access campus computing resources from off-campus.

Concern: Academic personnel must be assured that the computing resources provided are appropriate, and adequate, for the tasks at hand.

Recommendation: The Mountain Grove Campus personnel should assess and report the computing needs for faculty and staff. These needs should be prioritized. This might include special administrative needs, special needs for research projects or special needs for external collaborations.

Concern: Electronic methods of collaboration are currently available to the Mountain Grove campus but these have not been identified to the employees.

Recommendation: Those who need collaboration services should be identified and matched to the service that most closely meets their needs. Other methods of collaboration should be investigated and implemented if they prove useful. Above all, training in the availability, and use, of these resources should be provided. The video-conferencing equipment on campus should be upgraded (including the associated computers) to the Tandberg brand of equipment that is being installed on the Springfield campus. This particular brand of equipment has proved to be highly compatible with systems in use at other locations.

The University should also consider the installation of a Shibboleth authentication system which will provide secure access to shared resources of other institutions as well as provide a secure way to share Mountain Grove resources with others. This will enhance collaboration with others and make the statement that we are ready to be part of collaborative efforts, nationally and internationally.

Concern: Often the most overlooked aspect of a computing infrastructure, support is absolutely critical to the success of information technology. The current support structure at Mountain Grove is not adequate because the West Plains campus has very limited resources to deal with problems quickly and the Springfield campus provides only hardware repair (it should be noted that the service provided by Electronic Support is very good, but the logistics of transporting equipment between campuses is problematic). Complicating matters further is the need to use alternate operating systems in research with no support expertise available from either the Springfield or West Plains campuses. Employees do not have training that keeps them informed of the capabilities available to them.

Recommendation: A well-defined support plan should be developed that provides the campus with quick and complete handling of all computing issues. Three support options seem to be possibilities: (1) on-site support staff, either full-time or part-time, (2) paid vendor support, or (3) paid, private support from a local company. This will be a difficult choice because on-site support is expensive, and because of the need for a person with a broad range of expertise, including multiple operating systems, paid vendor support is expensive, and paid support from a local company may not be available.

D. Other

Concern: Labor shortage during peak harvest season.

Recommendation: Increase in the funds available for temporary labor is needed during peak seasons. Possibly require more specifications for temporary labor in research grants. Faculty and staff should be required to write and submit grants and be given the support to do so.

Concern: The Mountain Grove campus is approximately sixty miles from Springfield. Many of the faculty, post-doctoral, and other employees have moved to Springfield or communities close to Springfield. This involves a long driving distance each day and excessive use of gasoline.

Recommendation: This trend may not change in the near future. Even though employees have made their own choice to live in other communities, this subcommittee recognizes the desire for a more cosmopolitan living environment. We recommend that Missouri State University consider the implementation of a shuttle system to transport employees and students to, and from, the Mountain Grove campus on a daily basis. Part of the shuttle operating expenses could be recovered by offering the shuttle service for a fee.

Task Force Membership

  • Tamera S. Jahnke (Chair)
  • Mary Sheid
  • David Gourley
  • Patsy Worrel
  • Jan Wooten
  • Cory Bomgaars
  • Carol Silvey
  • Kent Thomas
  • Inno Onwueme
  • Michelle Granger
  • Anson Elliott
  • Marilyn Odneal
  • Wenping Qiu
  • Pam Trewatha
  • Bill Alter
  • Jim Taylor

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