It is hard to believe we have only two weeks of October remaining. I am hoping this fall weather hangs around for a couple of months. I had plans to be on the lower eastern shore this past weekend, but things didn’t work out that way. Regardless, it was a great weekend to be near water. Dolphins were active in the Bay, eager for a menhaden breakfast. If you missed the sunrise, I hope you still got outside for part of the weekend.
AGNR’s Cornerstone event is the highlight of the week. I look forward to learning more about programs across the college through the afternoon poster session. Between now and Thursday there are several meetings including a few introductory meetings as part of my onboarding. The Director of International Relations at Centrale Lille Institute of Technology in France will visit to explore collaboration opportunities as well. Last week key members from the ministry of agriculture in Senegal fit us in amongst their busy schedule in DC. I believe there are a number of areas where AGNR could partner with Senegal for mutual benefit to production agriculture and natural resources management in both countries. It is rare that we work with other countries and don’t get more from the exchange than we invest.
The AGNR leadership team meets on Wednesday of this week to share some of the facility and programming ideas that units have developed. I look forward to the lightning presentations and discovering where there are synergies across units. At the same time, I continue to work on homework that came out of the President’s retreat with Vice Presidents and Deans. The homework is centered on advancing college priorities.
A long-time priority is the Campus Farm that is both a jewel for UMD and in need of modernization for both infrastructure and vision. A small group has formed to develop a compelling narrative for the farm location with a goal of launching renovations over the next year. While several campuses have livestock facilities on the edge of the campus (UF, Michigan State, Cornell, Washington State, Penn State, etc) and many more have plant facilities on the edge of or within the campus footprint, I can’t think of any campus with livestock so close to much of the campus traffic. We have an opportunity to make facility improvements that not only maintain our existing programmatic needs, but likely expand programming while simultaneously engaging students and the community who aren’t active with AGNR. Imagine if the campus farm were a place designed to engage the campus and surrounding community and teach about modern agriculture and natural resources management, including all of the technology deployed in producing food and protecting the environment! I will share updates as they form and talk more about the other priorities in upcoming posts.
In the meantime, I hope to see many of you at the Cornerstone event on Thursday!