From the Dean

This autumn has been busier than many in recent memory

This autumn has been busier than many in recent memory – it seems that the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) is attracting attention – and students.

If you haven’t heard, we are at a 40-year enrollment high in the CANR. We think it’s because more students understand the need our world has for professionals who will provide safe food and clean energy, while preserving our environment. Students and their parents are also seeing the CANR as a college to flex their STEM muscles – to put into practice their talents at science, technology, engineering and math.

At the same time, our graduate students are making headlines too. Many of the university’s graduate students are being featured in a new project called the Grad Factor. You can learn more about our own Kelvin Kamfwa to see exactly how persistent and persevering our graduate students are. And speaking of graduate students, one of our best and brightest, Gerardine  Mukeshemana, Minister of Agriculture in Rwanda, gave a Borlaug Dialog speech at the 2014 World Food Prize. Dr. Mukeshemana studied under Jim Kelly, professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. He was recently featured in a Big 10 commercial for his work on bean breeding in that country.

Closer to home, we celebrated AutumnFest with about 800 fellow alumni, and one of the most successful auctions in recent history, this event raises funds for scholarships, student activities and alumni programming. Our Department of Forestry played host to the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, which stopped for the day in front of the MSU Auditorium. We had about 450 visitors – including Sen. Debbie Stabenow and state Rep. Tom Cochran – who learned about the importance of forests from our student Forestry Club and graduate students, several state associations, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service. Smokey Bear and Sparty met up for the first time ever – neither had too much to say, but they seemed to enjoy the day.

 

You’ll see, in this issue of our newsletter, MSU also kicked off a major capital campaign. Dubbed Empower Extraordinary, the Campaign for Michigan State University, this effort will raise $1.5 billion for the MSU. Our college goal is $225 million, which is second only to athletics in the amount to be raised on campus. That’s a pretty big chore, but it’s one that we can accomplish. In fact, our CANR development team – with a new leader – has already raised $108 million.

 

Our rich past is critically important. The time has come, however, to ensure that we invest in the future. I hope that you will join me in making a generous gift to the Empower Extraordinary Campaign for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Fred L. Poston

Dean

 

P.S. If you don’t already ‘like’ our Facebook page, please do so! It’s a great way to keep up to date on what’s going on in the college. If you’re on LinkedIn, join our group there.

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