Davis College
News/Events

Writing for The Daily Athenaeum, Lydia Nuzum offers a progress report on the construction of the Davis College’s new greenhouse:

John Sommers, construction manager for Facilities Management, said the project has begun the intensive construction phase, and the greenhouse structure is on schedule to be completed before the fall semester.

“The structure you can see now is called the head house. We have the brick facade in place, the windows will be going up in the next week or so, and they’re building the interior walls,” Sommers said. “Most of the mechanical and electrical infrastructure has been run, and it’s moving along really well.”

Sommers said construction on the project will continue during the spring semester, and construction on the actual greenhouse structure will begin in the coming weeks.

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The WVU Davis College is currently accepting applications for college-wide, division and program scholarships for the 2012-13 academic year.

With a variety of scholarships available, current and transfer students as well as incoming freshmen are invited to apply. Not sure what’s right for you? Click here to download a PDF of all available Davis College scholarships.

If you’d prefer to search for scholarships by divisions, use the links below:

• Animal & Nutritional Sciences
• Design & Merchandising
• Forestry & Natural Resources
• Plant & Soil Sciences [Snippet Error: This file has been deleted.]
• Resource Management

If you are a current Davis College student who has received a scholarship in the past, please remember they are not automatically renewed. You must apply for scholarship awards every year.

Applications are reviewed by program and division committees and the college-wide Student Aid and Grants faculty committee. These committees make recommendations for awards.

To apply, please fill out the appropriate online application:

• Current or Transfer Students
• Incoming Freshmen

The deadline to apply is February 15, 2012.

Bryan Bumgardner interviews Daniel Robison, the next dean of the WVU Davis College, for The Daily Athenaeum:

Robison said WVU’s focus on sustainability gives students unique opportunities to research and improve environmental innovation.

“This world of ours has tremendous advantages and challenges, and students at the Davis College are perfectly aligned to solve the great challenges of our time with innovation, discovery and the energy of ideas,” he said.

“I think that’s the ultimate measure of a university’s success – does its students, as graduates, feel enabled and inspired to do good things?” he said.

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Writing for The Daily Athenaeum, Lacey Palmer offers an update on The House that WVU Built, a collaboration between Habitat for Humanity of Monongalia County and the Davis College’s Division of Design & Merchandising and interviews Barbara Lingle, visiting assistant professor of interior design:

Lingle said the project will provide students with the opportunity to work together to give back to the community on a more personal level.

“I feel that it’s important that the WVU community and the Morgantown community work together,” Lingle said. “This service project is a wonderful opportunity for the community to get to know the students and for the students to give back to the community in which they live, work and play. It’s a very worthwhile project for the university and the town.”

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Holly Corey sat down with a sewing machine for the first time when she was 10 years old.

Her hobby soon turned into a lifelong passion for fashion.

“Fashion has always inspired me as an artist. The impact the fashion world has allows there to be a balance between the arts and business, which makes this an interesting career,” she said.

Corey, a senior fashion design and merchandising student at West Virginia University, recently took one more step toward her dream.

One of Corey’s designs was selected for the 2011 International Textile and Apparel Association Design Exhibition.

ITAA is a worldwide organization of scholars and educators in the textile, apparel and merchandising fields that seeks to advance excellence in education, scholarship and innovation.

Corey’s outfit was one of 66 designs accepted for the live gallery exhibit in Philadelphia.

Professionals, graduate and undergraduate students submitted 251 designs for consideration – making for a 39 percent acceptance rate, according to Nora MacDonald, a fashion design and merchandising professor of Corey’s.

For the full story, visit The Daily Athenaeum.

The cost of heating poultry facilities isn’t chicken feed and a team of West Virginia University researchers has figured out a way to cut those costs while also reducing potentially harmful – and smelly – emissions.

The team designed, built and evaluated a unit that incorporates a biofilter and a heat exchanger to reduce ammonia emissions from livestock barns, while also heating up the fresh air that is pumped into the barns.

The prototype removed up to 79 percent of ammonia from the poultry house’s emissions and cut the energy needed to heat the facility, recovering as much as 8.3 kilowatts.

Tom Basden, nutrient management specialist with WVU Extension, was principal investigator on the project. He collaborated with David Workman, Hardy County Extension agent, and two employees of the Reymann Memorial Farm, a research and outreach unit of WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design in Wardensville: Jerry Yates, farm manager, and Chestina Merriner, a research assistant at the farm.

Two former Extension experts also participated in the project. Sanjay Shah, now with North Carolina State University, and June DeGraft-Hanson of the University of Maryland carried their participation in the project from WVU to their new academic homes.

For the full story, please visit WVU Today.

Holly Corey has a passion for fashion.

In fact, she believes designing clothes is what she was born to do.

Corey, a senior fashion design and merchandising student in the West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, recently took a step toward realizing her dream when one of her dress designs was selected for the 2011 International Textile and Apparel Association Design Exhibition in Philadelphia.

ITAA is a worldwide organization of scholars and educators in the textile, apparel and merchandising fields that seeks to advance excellence in education, scholarship and innovation, and their global applications.

“I made the dress for a flat pattern class taught by Professor Nora MacDonald and she suggested I submit it,” Corey said. “I didn’t expect to be accepted, but it was certainly an honor.”

MacDonald, professor of fashion design and merchandising, said she encouraged Corey to submit her design because it was very unusual.

“It is very prestigious to have a design selected into the ITAA Design Exhibition as it is very competitive,” MacDonald said. “This year there were 251 valid design submissions including professionals, graduate and undergraduate students. The acceptance rate was 39 percent with 32 designs accepted for the mounted exhibit and 66 designs accepted for the live gallery exhibit.”

For the full story, visit WVU Today.

The Environmental Research Center in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design will host a seminar by Eric Toman of The Ohio State University, “Complexity and Wickedness: The Role of Humans in (Addressing) Climate Change.” The seminar will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, in room 308 Percival Hall. Light refreshments will be served. The seminar is free and open to the public.

Toman has an interdisciplinary background that includes training and experience in the social and natural sciences. His research and courses are focused on developing a better understanding of the social dimensions of coupled human and natural systems. Using theory and methods from sociology and social-psychology, he examines the factors that influence the adoption of behaviors that enable adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

Daniel J. Robison, associate dean for research and professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University, has been named dean of the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design at West Virginia University.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Robison as our newest Mountaineer,” said Provost Michele Wheatly, WVU provost and vice president for academic affairs. “He has a tremendously exciting vision for furthering the academic profile and success of Davis College students, faculty and staff. I know that under his leadership, the College will build a number of new undergraduate and graduate programs.

“Moreover, Dr. Robison will be a guiding force as Davis College builds its beautiful new greenhouse and designs and builds a new Agricultural Sciences building.”

Robison said, “I am truly honored to be named dean and I look forward to joining the outstanding people in, and stakeholders of, the Davis College as we forge into what is sure to be a dynamic period in the history of the College.

“The people and the mission of the Davis College are perfectly aligned to address the great challenges of our time, and to push into the future with our work and through our students. My wife Julie and I, and our daughters Sophia and Hannah, are excited to become part of the WVU and Morgantown communities,” said Robison, who will begin his new assignment May 31, 2012.

Robison currently leads the research enterprise of the North Carolina State University College of Natural Resources, where he has held leadership roles since 2004. In his work as an administrator and professor there, since 1997, he won recognition for teaching, directed several large-integrated research programs and international initiatives, was engaged with Extension and outreach activities, and during 2007-2008 he was a Leadership Fellow with the American Council on Education, serving with the chancellors of University of Alaska-Fairbanks and East Carolina University.

He has published extensively in the forest science literature, secured millions-of-dollars of research funding, mentored graduate students and worked overseas in a number of locations, from South Africa to Israel to Myanmar.

Robison’s own disciplinary expertise is in the areas of natural resource management and sustainable development, silviculture and forest pest management, and clonal forestry and biomass-energy. Prior to his work at N.C. State University he worked at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry-Syracuse (SUNY ESF), and lived for two years in West Africa working for a variety of organizations, including with the West African Rice Development Association.

Robison earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in forestry from SUNY ESF, and a Ph.D. in entomology from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Davis College, one of 13 colleges within WVU, is the University’s oldest academic unit. It has 108 faculty and 150 full-time staff and an enrollment of 1,700 undergraduate and 280 graduate students. It has a full spectrum of degree programs housed in five academic divisions. The Davis dean also serves as director of the West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, managing the research facilities of the college, including farms and forests. The College, from design to animal and plant sciences, from forest science to landscape management, is central to WVU’s mission to advance the people and places of West Virginia, and beyond.

The Davis College was renamed in 2001 for two Morgantown sisters, Gladys Gwendolyn Davis and Vivian Davis-Michael, in recognition of their $18.4 million gift. The College offers 22 undergraduate majors, as well as 17 masters programs and seven doctoral degree programs. Today’s Davis College students have access to 3,425 acres of farmland and 8,134 acres of forest, as well as a new greenhouse, dairy and the Rumen Fermentation Laboratory. All of these resources provide opportunities for learning and study beyond the classroom, and facilitate valuable community service.

Robert Jones, dean of WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, led the search committee that chose four candidates from a pool of applicants to visit campus in November and December of 2011.

Dr. Rudy Almasy, a long-time WVU administrator and English professor, has been serving as interim dean in Davis College since July of 2011.

“He has capably guided the College through the ground-breaking of the new greenhouse, the opening of the first exhibits of the WVU Natural History Museum, and the celebration of WVU’s land-grant sesquicentennial, in which the Davis College has had a significant role,” Wheatly said. “We are so grateful to Dr. Almasy for his commitment to the University.”

Writing for The Daily Athenaeum, Bryan Bumgardner reports on research being conducted by Davis College forest hydrologist Nicolas Zegre on methane levels in wells close to natural gas drilling activity:

“I think our study has the opportunity to fill lots of knowledge gaps related to the shale,” Zegre said, adding that scientific evidence is needed before decisions concerning policies can be made.

“It’s important to first understand what’s going on. Our study is going to offer information on how drilling affects these wells,” he said.

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