ARE History
C.E. Bishop and D.M. Hoover

Even before today's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics was formally established, economics courses were taught at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of North Carolina at Raleigh, which would eventually become North Carolina State University. During the 1897-98 school year, just 10 years after the opening of the college, a course in Agricultural Economics was required of all seniors in the College of Agriculture. This initial offering was followed in subsequent years by such courses as History of Agricultural and Rural Economics, Farm Economics, and Farm Management. From 1908 until 1920 new courses added included Banking and Farm Credit, Organization for Farm Marketing and Credit, and Marketing Distribution. Until 1919, all these courses were taught by a single faculty member.

The 1920s, 1930s

ARE had its beginnings in the 1923-24 school year when the College of Agriculture was divided into four schools -- Agriculture, Business and Science, Engineering and Graduate. At that time, the Department of Agricultural Administration was created and placed in the School of Business and Science. G.W. Forster was named to head the new department, a position he held until 1950, when he decided to devote full time to research and teaching activities.

The decade of the 1920s was one of growth for the department as new faculty were added and more courses were offered. Ongoing research was documented in publications, most of which from 1922 to 1930 were released in a bulletin series from the Agricultural Experiment Station -- the department after established its own research series. In 1927 the Department of Agricultural Administration was transferred to the School of Agriculture, and shortly thereafter the department's name was changed to Agricultural Economics. The first Master of Science in Agricultural Economics degree also was awarded in 1927.

The 1930s saw several changes in the department. In 1931 the Department of Rural Sociology was transferred from the School of Business and Science to the School of Agriculture and placed in the Department of Agricultural Economics. Also at this time, work in the department was expanded to include extension work in farm management and farm organization and credit, and still more faculty were added. In 1933, when the Greater University of North Carolina was established, North Carolina State College's School of Business Administration was transferred to Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill's Engineering School was transferred to State. At this time, State College was charged with conducting all graduate work and research in agricultural economics and rural sociology.

The 1940s

Rural Sociology became a separate department in 1940. Students in Agricultural Economics now had two options -- Farm Business Administration and Farm Marketing and Farm Finance.

The two departments continued to work closely, however. Agricultural Economics,as it had from its inception, coordinated its activities with other departments on campus as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other agencies. During this time several regional conferences were held at State College and were attended by participants from 13 states and USDA. The first Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics was awarded in 1949.

The 1950s

As the 1950s began, H. Brook James, who joined the department in 1944, was selected department head. Real growth came to the department in this decade in terms of increased numbers of both students and faculty and changes in curriculum. The new curriculum that had been developed earlier in the 1950s placed greater emphasis upon economics and strengthening the linkages between economists and agricultural economics. This proved attractive to students, and enrollment increased both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Enrollment growth was particularly strong at the doctoral level. As the department's academic standing increased, funding became available from government, foundations, and private sources to support graduate fellowships. This made it possible for the department to compete with the best departments in the United States for graduate students.

Growth at the doctoral level was accompanied by a stronger faculty commitment to research. As research produced by the faculty began to receive national recognition, support for sponsored research was generated over a broad spectrum of topics. These included economic aspects of the production and marketing of various agricultural products, labor productivity and migration, income distribution, economic development, rural development, international trade, and econometric topics.

The expanded research interests also included increased interdepartmental research. This was particularly true of cooperative research between the faculties of the Department of Agricultural Economics and other departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

In the area of extension, emphasis continued on the production and marketing of agricultural commodities, but new or expanded programs were developed in consumer economics, rural development, and public policy. Much of this work was done in cooperation with faculties from land-grant universities in other states and with foundations and agencies of the federal government. Faculty with major appointments in extension were full members of the department, collaborated extensively with research and with teaching faculty, and were housed alongside other faculty.

The Tarheel Farm Economist (now the NC State Economist or NCSE) began monthly publication in 1952 with the stated purpose of providing "basic economic information to leaders in he fields of agriculture, business, and government." A departmental library was begun in 1953 with a collection of books, journals, and publications from G.W. Forster. It was named the G.W. Forster Library in his honor.

C.E. Bishop was named department head in 1957 when Brooks James became director of resident instruction of the School of Agriculture. Bishop remained as head until 1966 when he was appointed Vice President of the Consolidated University of North Carolina.

The 1960s

With creation of the Agricultural Policy Institute (funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation) in 1960, the department became involved in a project that was to span ten years and to bring regional and national recognition of the public policy problems of the South. The major activities of the Institute were (1) sponsoring conferences, workshops and seminars: (2) granting fellowships to selected students for periods of on-campus study; and (3) preparing and disseminating educational materials.

Continued growth in the Department of Agricultural Economics created a demand for more graduate courses in Economics, culminating in the merger of the Department of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts and the Department of Agricultural Economics in the School of Agriculture into a single department in 1965. CE Bishop continued as head of the newly combined departments. Following the merger, the Department of Economics was authorized to increase course offerings and to grant a Doctor of Philosophy Degree (Ph.D). in Economics. At that time the Master of Arts and the Master of Economics degrees were also established. The first Master of Arts and Master of Economics degrees were awarded in 1967. These actions were a major change in the role of North Carolina State University and increased the attractiveness of the Department of Economics to both outstanding faculty and students. Consequently, enrollment in Economics increased sharply in subsequent years.

W. D. Toussaint, a faulty member since 1954, was appointed department head in 1967 upon the departure of C.E. Bishop.

The 1970s

Those involved in the early development of the two departments that merged in 1965 would scarcely recognize the department of the later 1970s. The Department of Economics and Business in 1978 encompassed the activities of those Departments of Economics and Agricultural Economics and also included teaching and research activities in accounting and business.

Departmental graduate programs continued to flourish during the late 1970s. About 40 masters and 15 Ph.D. degrees were awarded each year. As evidence of the quality of the program, one graduate's dissertation won one of the American Agricultural Economics Associations awards for outstanding theses for three consecutive years.

The department has a long and distinguished history of extension education designed to improve the business and decisionmaking skills of farmers, agribusiness firms, agricultural policymakers and consumers. An aggressive educational program is conducted in the areas of farm management, agricultural policy, agribusiness and cooperative management, community and resource development, marine economics, consumer economics and youth economics.

Extension economists also were actively involved in conducting extension and research activities jointly with other departments. Applied research was encouraged, and many studies contributed to a timely solution of current problems. The staff published actively, as evidenced by several hundred extension circulars, processional journal articles, department publications and popular articles.

During the mid-1970s, staff members received an American Agricultural Economics Association extension publication award, three N.C. State University Outstanding Extension Teaching awards, a North Carolina Extension Service Superior Leadership award and several recognitions and citations from state government and commodity groups.

The 1980s

By 1980, the Department of Economics and Business was the largest department on campus in terms of number of faculty positions -- almost 100 tenure-track faculty members and 130 faculty lines. Included in its activities were nationally recognized research, extension and graduate programs. And its undergraduate programs involved large numbers of students in quality curricula. Dale M. Hoover became head in 1981 when W.D. Toussaint returned to teaching and research.

Primary growth in student enrollment was largely completed by the early 1980s, but growth in the accounting and business management faculties continued as the university slowly accommodated student interest in business management. During the 1980s, the undergraduate program in agricultural business continued near its historical level of just under 100 majors. The Ph.D. program also experienced growth during this time. The program included joint appointments with the Department of Statistics beginning the the 1950s, and it continued to receive international recognition.

The extension program, one of the largest in the nation, partially because of North Carolina's high farm count in the federal funding formula, reached its largest size in the early 1980s. Near the end of the decade, it was proposed to organize the department by function (teaching, research, extension) and a gradual movement began toward four departments to provide program leadership and focus in each area of work and funding.

The 1990s
Permission was obtained in 1990 to establish the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and as part of the Division of Economics and Business (that had been established the previous year). Business Management and Economics became new departments in 1991. The College of Management (accounting, business, management, and economics) was formed in 1992. The economics graduate program remained jointly sponsored between the Departments of Economics and Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Dr. Ronald Schrimper served as interim head of ARE beginning in 1990 when Dale Hoover returned to teaching and research. Dr. Jon Brandt, formerly Professor, Graduate Administrator and Co-director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri was named head of ARE in 1991. During the first half of the 1990s, state and federal budget cuts resulted in a decrease in the number of faculty and staff persons. Today the department has 40 faculty supported by 20 staff members.