Dear CFAES Alumni,

We are on the brink of modernizing our animal facilities on our Columbus Campus at the Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory with a new state-of-the-art 110,000-square-foot facility that will be the home for swine, ruminant, equine, and poultry teaching, research, and extension in central Ohio. 

We need your help to help make this facility a reality. The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) has received commitments for $14 million of the $52 million project, and your assistance is needed to ensure a modern learning environment for the future of Ohio agriculture. The House of Representatives included $10 million in state funding to make the construction of this project a reality. The Ohio Senate excluded the funding from HB 33, but your voice can make a difference.

Our ask is for you to reach out to your Ohio state senator and voice your support of Ohio agriculture, asking them to include the $10 million in the final budget bill to be presented to the governor. You can find your state senator through this link:

Find your Ohio State Senator

Please use the below guidance as reasons this project is so important to our state, our students, and the future of animal agriculture in the state of Ohio.

Thank you and go Bucks!

Cathann A. Kress

Vice President for Agricultural Administration, and Dean

The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

Adam Ward

Director of Government Affairs

The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

Multispecies Animal Learning Center (MALC) ​

• The MALC will be CFAES’s modern learning center for animal sciences education at Ohio State. We hope that with this infrastructure in place, we will be able to attract and keep animal science students in Ohio.
• The MALC will bring people and animals together, creating educational opportunities around human-animal interactions and supporting education for CFAES Students and Ohioans across their lifespans.
• The MALC’s total cost is expected to be $52 million. CFAES has already secured $14 million through private fundraising.
• The MALC will reside on the Columbus Campus, a campus for which CFAES has never received state capital funds to support its infrastructure.
• The MALC has already received funding from Nationwide and support from Ohio Farm Bureau and the commodity groups, but to obtain the Board of Trustees’ approval, we need the one-time, strategic capital investment of $10 million the Ohio House included in its version of the operating budget.