The Forum, sponsored by the ABAC Ag Alumni Council, is held annually as a part of Homecoming festivities to spotlight an issue in agriculture of interest to alumni.
"We felt the thing most ag alumni want to know is what the new president sees as the future of agriculture at ABAC," Council Chair Gary Farmer said. "I think alumni will be very impressed with some initiatives the president is pursuing--and what better way to demonstrate the college's commitment to agriculture than by breaking ground for an impressive new ag building."
The $7.1 million building, one of the largest items funded through the 2001 Budget of the Georgia General Assembly, will serve 706 students. It will include seven classrooms, a distance learning classroom, five general labs, and two computer labs. One of the labs will be an outdoor animal science lab where students will study live animals. The building will also include a multi-purpose classroom, which will be used for conferences, the ABAC evening program, and the Public Service and Business Outreach Center. There will also be a student study area that opens to the outdoors.
Groups to be housed in the building include Animal Science, Plant Science, Ag Economics, and Family and Consumer Sciences. Although it will primarily be a building for the Division of Agriculture and Forest Resources, the classrooms will be designed for multidisciplinary usage and will be used for classes such as history and English.
Dr. Larry Allen, Chair of the Division of Agriculture and Forest Resources, said the new Agricultural Sciences Building will be a state-of-the-art, comprehensive building.
"This building will combine multi-disciplinary facilities and will be a showplace for the Ag Division and the entire ABAC community," Allen said. "It will be a focus facility whose magnitude and presence will be a great recruiting tool for ABAC in general. This building will give the ABAC community a great sense of pride. It's not just an Ag building; it's an ABAC building."
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