Farm Economics Facts and Opinions, 1951-1986

The Department of Farm Organization and Management was created June 9, 1914, on the recommendation of Dean Eugene Davenport,¹ and its first advisory committee was authorized on September 18, 1929.² The Trustees created the Department of Agricultural Economics on October 30, 1931 by combining the Department of Farm Organization and Management with relevant work in the Department of Economics and Business Organization and Operation.³ By May 22, 1934, the department was operational with twelve faculty members, including H.C.M. Case, its first Department Head.⁴

On May 11, 1995, the Board of Trustees approved the renaming and reorganization of the College. It was renamed the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and several changes were made in the organization of departments and divisions.⁵ The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics was created by combining the Department of Agricultural Economics (except for the faculty in Rural Sociology studies) with the Division of Consumer Science, which was previously part of the School of Human Resources and Family Studies, which was dissolved in the reorganization.⁶

The stated mission of the department "is to improve the economic and environmental well-being of producers, consumers, and families."⁷ The department offers graduate work leading to Master of Science degrees in Agricultural and Consumer Economics or Consumer and Textile Marketing and Doctor of Philosophy degrees with specialization in the following areas: agricultural finance; consumer and textile marketing; family and consumer economics; price analysis and agricultural marketing; farm and agribusiness management; international and policy economics; and natural resource, production, and environmental economics.⁸

1. Transactions of the Board of Trustees, 27th Report, June 9, 1914, p. 766.

2. Transactions of the Board of Trustees, 35th Report, September 18, 1929, p. 356.

3. Transactions of the Board of Trustees, 36th Report, October 30, 1931, p. 461.

4. Transactions of the Board of Trustees, 37th Report, May 22, 1934, p. 526.

5. Board of Trustees Transactions, 68th Report, May 11, 1995, p. 277-8.

6. Board of Trustees Transactions, 68th Report, May 11, 1995, p. 277-8.; University of Illinois, Faculty and Student Senate, Urbana-Champaign Senate, meeting minutes, March 27, 1995, EP 94.33, p. 35; SEE Human and Community Development Department, University of Illinois Archives RG 8/11.

7. Programs of Study 2001-2003, p. 204.

8. Ibid., p. 204.