Here are several resources related to the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences (CALS), its schools, its programs, and its departments. There are also resources related to the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, which reports partially to CALS, and related units. See also the page on this guide for the College of Natural Resources & Environment, which developed out of CALS.
General Resources
Record groups may include posters, flyers, photos, organizational records, and more. Materials are divided into assigned Record Groups based on the office, division, or unit and designated by the prefix, RG. For example, materials relating to CALS are designated RG 13/x.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) has roots going back to the beginning of Virginia Tech's history. When the university began as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1872, it offered agriculture as one of its 13 "courses of study," what would today be considered "departments." The Department of Agriculture was one of the first four major administrative divisions created when Deans were appointed to the academic departments. In 1907, a School of Scientific Agriculture and a School of Agricultural Apprentices were established within the Department of Agriculture. In 1920, the title was changed to School of Agriculture, becoming the College of Agriculture in 1964. The name was changed to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1971.
Online Histories and Exhibits
CALS Collections
Here are several SCUA collections related to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. This is not a comprehensive list of all our related collections. To find more, please search within our collections on Virginia Heritage.
Hours
Monday-Friday
8am-5pm
Contact
Email: specref@vt.edu
Telephone: 540-231-6308
Twitter: @VT_SCUA
Staff Directory
SCUA Online
Website
Digital Collections
Blog | Culinary Blog
SCUA Research Guides
We thank the American Indian & Indigenous Community Center for providing this statement:
Virginia Tech acknowledges that we live and work on the Tutelo / Monacan People’s homeland and we recognize their continued relationships with their lands and waterways. We further acknowledge that legislation and practices like the Morrill Act (1862) enabled the commonwealth of Virginia to finance and found Virginia Tech through the forced removal of Native Nations from their lands, both locally and in western territories.
We understand that honoring Native Peoples without explicit material commitments falls short of our institutional responsibilities. Through sustained, transparent, and meaningful engagement with the Tutelo / Monacan Peoples, and other Native Nations, we commit to changing the trajectory of Virginia Tech's history by increasing Indigenous student, staff, and faculty recruitment and retention, diversifying course offerings, and meeting the growing needs of all Virginia tribes and supporting their sovereignty.
We must also recognize that enslaved Black people generated revenue and resources used to establish Virginia Tech and were prohibited from attending until 1953. Through InclusiveVT, the institutional and individual commitment to Ut Prosim (that I may serve) in the spirit of community, diversity, and excellence, we commit to advancing a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.