MSU Today with Russ White

Michigan State University's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) was recently named, yet again, as one of the top 10 colleges of agriculture and forestry in the world. Outgoing Dean Ron Hendrick joins Kirk Heinze on this edition of MSU Today to reflect on his CANR tenure as he passes the deanship baton to incoming Interim Dean Kelly Millenbah, who also joins Kirk.

Show Notes

Regarding CANR’s rankings in the 2021 Quacquarelli Symonds World Research Rankings, Hendrick is justifiably proud.  “It’s an honor for us to be in the top 10,” says Hendrick. “If you look at where we sit within the U.S., we're still in the top handful of programs and always have been. Really, what this measures is our scientific impact, the quality of the work we do, the amount of scholarship we do, and the impact that has globally in terms of both generating basic knowledge and then also applying that to solve problems related to food and the environment. It speaks well to the long history of what we've done here and to the innovation that our faculty continue to do with the support of our staff in partnership with our graduate students, and in many cases, with additional help from undergraduate students as well.”

Hendrick details the scope, scale, and impact of CANR’s academic programs, which range from the traditional disciplines in agriculture and natural resources to the home for the School of Packaging, the country's first packaging program, and the only one that awards PhDs, to programs like interior design and dietetics.

“We're a broad, diverse, and well-rounded college. And then of course we have AgBioResearch and MSU Extension that really help amplify the work that we do in terms of the breadth of our research scholarship and our creative endeavors. And then we get the information that we produce out to the communities, farms, families and big and small cities and rural areas around the state.”

Millenbah, who previously served as CANR senior associate dean, underscores the importance of the ‘all hands on deck’ culture in the college, especially over the past 12-14 months.  “It's been absolutely quite a year we have had to navigate as a result of the pandemic,” Millenbah says. “And I cannot extend my thanks enough to our faculty, staff and students for their ability to adjust. For example, we had to pivot essentially in three days to an online environment, which meant that a lot of our faculty had to get trained up on how to deliver in an online space. I can’t tell you more how proud I am of everyone who stepped forward and been able to deliver our curriculum to ensure that our students are still having really strong learning environments.”

Hendrick describes some of the challenges he and his team faced during his tenure.

“Yes, we have had our share of challenges here,” Hendrick tells Heinze. “Some were imposed upon us, and, unfortunately, in some cases, there are things we've imposed upon ourselves or have made worse. The Nassar challenge certainly, I think, fits the latter category. My approach since I got here really has been to focus on making this a place where people would feel welcome and could come and be their best. It's the reason we have focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The work that we got started in 2016 and into 2017 served us well in the college. We were able to have open conversations about things that were happening on campus. We were able to address issues and circumstances when people didn't feel that they were welcome or included. But similarly, people who are affected directly, and we had a number in this college, or indirectly by the crisis, it felt like they had a place where they could feel welcome, where they had support from their colleagues, and from administrators, and from their professors or advisors.”

“The efforts that have been ongoing in the college, in particular, over the last couple of years have been the absolute best work that the college has done in DEI,” Millenbah adds. “We always will have more work to do. That is something I think is starting to become more of the fabric of our culture, the recognition that this is not work that is one person's job, and this is not work that ever is done. I truly believe more and more people are recognizing it's on all of us to be able to make the necessary changes that all of us are looking for and desiring.”

“I feel good about a lot of our other successes,” says Hendrick. “We have many very distinguished mid-career and late-career faculty in this college, and we've hired some really outstanding early-career faculty as well. I arrived here at the same time as many of them. To be able to watch them progress, to go through reappointment, or go forward for promotion and tenure, that's been very rewarding to watch and to be able to support and be a part of.

“We've had very strong support from our stakeholders and the legislature. I’m proud of the funding we've been able to get, with help of advocacy of our stakeholders, for the Michigan Alliance for Animal Agriculture, for example.  We have also made major renovations to our fruit and vegetable lab.  And we have purchased and outfitted a mobile lab for a food processing program that will allow us to not only deliver the program on campus, but also to our 12 community college partners around the state.

“As a land grant university, providing access is still an important part of what we do. And those things we do both on campus and off campus, in partnership with others, has helped to foster and grow that access. We continue to advance our research and our outreach missions. It’s heartening to see the support we have in the counties, thanks to the great work done by our Extension team, both in terms of programming, but also their advocacy. I think we've had 11 or 12 successful millages passsed around the state in the last few years to support the work that we do in MSU Extension.”

As Millenbah takes the helm of the college on July 1, she looks ahead to some of the opportunities and challenges CANR will face. She hopes to see much of the college’s infrastructure upgraded and modernized “to really enhance the work that we're doing and expand the high quality work around research and teaching that's already happening in those spaces. That mission definitely sits front and center for me.

“There are other things that we'll continue to work on, which include our greenhouses. That's been something that we need to see some improvement in. And we've got a lot of people who have been advocating and pushing for that, not only here at MSU, but with our stakeholders, who've been just phenomenal partners in helping with regards to some of our infrastructure needs. And not unlike other institutions, our infrastructure is probably one of our greatest challenges. And there will likely be other things that we will need to start focusing in on to ensure that we do have some of those state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and research.”

Hendrick, who becomes Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Texas Tech University, July 1, will apply his experiences at MSU in his new role.  “I wasn’t looking to leave, but opportunities, as they tend to do, came along,” says Hendrick in closing. “The more I explored, the more it looked like a good fit for me, and I think, for Texas Tech. I'm hoping to take things all that I've learned here and other places and work with the colleagues and the faculty and staff at Texas Tech to put that to greater benefit for them as well, just as we've done those things here.”

MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on 105.1 FM and AM 870 and streams at WKAR.org. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Creators & Guests

Host
Russ White
I host and produce MSU Today for News/Talk 760 @wjrradio and @MichiganStateU's @NPR affiliate @WKAR News/Talk 102.3 FM and AM 870.

What is MSU Today with Russ White?

MSU Today is a lively look at Michigan State University-related people, places, events and attitudes put into focus by Russ White. The show airs Saturdays at 5 P.M. and Sundays at 5 A.M. on 102.3 FM and AM 870 WKAR, and 8 P.M. on AM 760 WJR.

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Well on the most notable occasion of Michigan State University's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, being recently named, once again, as one of the top 10 colleges of agriculture and forestry in the world. Yep, in the world. It is my pleasure to welcome to MSU. Today, two very special guests. Dr. Ron Hedrick, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and soon to be Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Texas Tech University. And Dr. Kelly Mellon, ba, Senior Associate Dean for the College of Ag and natural resources. And on July one to take the helm of CNR as the Interim Dean, Ryan and Kelly, congratulations to you both. And welcome to MSU. Today, thanks, Kirk. It's nice to be here. Rod, what an honor for CNR to be among the top 10 agriculture and forestry colleges for 2021. And I'm going to try this just once quacquarelli assignments or q s World University Rankings, not for the first time either. Tell us a little bit more about the QoS survey and the criteria used?

Unknown Speaker 1:16
Thanks, Kirk. Yeah, it's an honor for us to be in the top 10 we had had been 11, I think last year, but I have occupied the top 10 for a while I think if you look at where we are, where we sit, within the US, we're still in the top handful of programs always have been. I think part of what this speaks to is, you know, the rest of the world catching up somewhat as we see higher educational systems, and particularly in Asia, and you know, but also some of the European universities continuing to advance really what this measures is our scientific impact, the quality of the work that we do, the amount of scholarship that we do, and the impact that that has, globally in terms of both generating basic knowledge in and then also, you know, applying that to solve problems related to food in the environment. And so it's a real honor for us. I think it speaks well to the long history of what we've done here. But also the innovation that our faculty continue to do with the support of our staff, in partnership with our graduate students, and in many cases, the the additional help from undergraduate students as well.

Unknown Speaker 2:30
Rob will stick with you for a minute and then move into Kelly, maybe on academic programs. But for listeners who may not be particularly familiar with the college bag and natural resources, can you provide a bit of an overview of the scale and scope of not only the programs, but the impact?

Unknown Speaker 2:46
Yeah, well, we're a pretty diverse college, you know, we have two schools 10 Department and the Institute of agricultural technology. within the college, we're also the administrative home for ag by research, which is the the state's Agricultural Experiment Station and the home for MSU Extension, which of course, has a statewide reach and a presence in in every county. So we're fairly large, you know, we have a lot of employees. We have around 310 year stream faculty and an additional couple 100 faculty, who are called fixed term, but in many cases have been with us for 20, you know, or even in some cases, over 30 years. A little less than 5000 students all together. And that's a mix of undergraduate students, graduate students, and then our, our certificate students in the Institute of agricultural technology. You know, we're diverse in terms of, you know, we have all the traditional disciplines in agriculture, natural resources you would think of, but we're also home for the school of packaging, the country's first packaging program, the only one that awards PhDs, we have programs like interior design, and others, you know, dietetics. So we're broad, and I think, very diverse and well rounded college. And then of course, the presence of Ag bio research and MSU Extension really help amplify the work that we do in terms of the the breadth of our research, scholarship and our creative endeavors. And then our ability to get the information that we produce out to the communities out to farms, to families, to individuals, and communities, you know, cities, both big and small, rural areas around the state,

Unknown Speaker 4:31
Kelly Mellon boy among your many responsibilities, so you've been a long time overseeing the undergraduate and graduate programs, a little bit more detail on some of those programs, and especially how they're doing given all the the COVID related circumstances that we've had to deal with.

Unknown Speaker 4:49
Yeah, it's been absolutely quite a year that we have had to navigate as a result of the pandemic and I cannot extend my thanks enough to our faculty and To our students for their ability to really adjust. And what was a very challenging year, we had to pivot, essentially in three days to an online environment, which meant that a lot of our faculty actually had to get trained up on how do you deliver in an online space. And we had a large number of our faculty doing that. It has been challenging for everybody. But I could not tell you more how proud I am of everyone who stepped forward and actually been able to deliver our curriculum to ensure that our students are still having really strong learning environments. within the college, we've got 20 undergraduate majors, I think, as Ron had indicated, and one of the things that's very exciting for us this year, in particular, we weren't really sure what we would see in terms of incoming student numbers to the college for Fall of 2021. I gotta get my years all straight on this. And our admission, we look at two numbers, we look at admit rates, and then we look at paid deposits. And if you take a look at where we are at compared to 2019, for admit rate, we are almost at 50%, higher than 2019. And about 30%, higher than 2020. With regard to pay deposits, we are up 15%, almost 16% from 2019, and up about three and a half percent from 2020. So we're very excited about the number of students that we're going to be bringing into the college in particular at the undergrad level, that the pandemic hasn't slowed, essentially, our numbers increasing graduate student numbers, they always kind of fluctuate, and a lot of that is very much tied to we support the majority of our graduate students on grants. And those students are still coming into our college in pretty good numbers. And again, I think that's a strong testament to our faculty have been very successful at getting grants, even during the pandemic. Kelly,

Unknown Speaker 6:58
one thing that listeners may be wondering the college back in natural resources has a wonderful reputation for study abroad programs overseas. I imagined COVID had a major impact there as well. What's the status of some of the International Programs in terms of study abroad, etc.

Unknown Speaker 7:14
Absolutely, our education abroad programs definitely were put on pause. In particular last summer and most of this summer, one of the things that we've done is we've been able to in a variety of different locations pivot to still delivering some of our programming in an online environment. So during this summer, we will have very few programs that will again, travel internationally. However, we are starting to open that door up for students to start in exchanges starting in this fall. And we're expecting all things considered that next summer should look pretty typical for us. What we have seen though, is that we also do a lot of programming for individuals internationally that are not tied to our education abroad programs. And we have had just some incredible success on delivering online courses, online training sessions to people all over the world. In some of the short courses. Most recently we have a faculty member in PSM who is delivering a program there and has over 20 countries represented as a part of that one course. So we have probably reached even more people as a result of the pandemic and some of the shifts to the online space for those those courses into our

Unknown Speaker 8:31
programs. Ron Hedrick, when one becomes a dean, one expects certain challenges, but certainly not unprecedented challenges, like COVID, like the aftermath of the Nasser thing and all of that. You've confronted those challenges you and Kelly have provided leadership across campus in many important areas. Talk a little bit about the challenges that you've faced and the ways that you have or strategies you've used overcome the

Unknown Speaker 9:03
Yeah, Kirk, we have had our share of challenges here, you know, some imposed upon us and unfortunately, you know, in some cases, things we've imposed upon ourselves or have made worse. You know, the NASA challenge, certainly, I think was, you know, fit the ladder. My approach since I got here really was to focus on making this a place where people would feel welcome, and could come and be their best. You know, it's the reason we've focused on diversity, but also equity and inclusion. The work that we got started in 2016 and into 2017, I think served us well. In this college, we were able to have open conversations about things that were happening on campus. We were able to address issues and circumstances when people didn't feel that they were welcome. were included, but But similarly, you know, people who are affected directly, and we had a number in this college or indirectly, you know, by the crisis felt like they had a place where they could feel welcome where they had support from, from their colleagues and from administrators and from their professors or, you know, advisors. And so I think the work that we began and continue to that stood us in in good stead, and were able to have impact not just in the college, but as you said, on other parts of campus as well. You know, I think with the, the virus here and dealing with that, you know, an important thing has been, it's your this crisis, it feels like we've all from the beginning been rowing in the same direction, you know, and heading towards the same goals. Now, it's not to say that we've done everything perfectly in terms of keeping people engaged, you know, it's been very hard to to help people feel empowered at times during this crisis. You know, there's a lot of things we do well online, but you know, we're a community, you know, a community of teachers and, and co workers and learners and scholars, and it's hard to keep that sense of community, it's hard, sometimes to feel included and make things feel equitable. But I think because we've all had the same general end goals in mind, this has been a little easier, in some respects for us to lead through because of the kind of work that we do in this college and, you know, exemptions we had from executive and health orders around doing research, for example, to support food and fiber production, it was essential for us to, to remain as minimally disrupted as we could, and much of the work that we we do, and when the crisis hidden, and the university went largely remote and much to the state shutdown, you know, that was right near the beginning of the growing season for us. And so really, you know, proud of this college administrators, Kelly and, and others, as well as the faculty and the staff and our students who, you know, created protocols, you know, that were adopted, modified by the university so that we could do this work, who worked closely with our stakeholders to ensure that critical things got done, you know, we've not been able to do 100%. But some doors have been open for us, Kelly has mentioned some of those. And, for the most part, we've been able to keep things going. You know, I am concerned because students have had programs delayed faculty have had some of, you know, parts of important parts of their academic careers, delayed, you know, or sort of, you know, directed off to the side a little bit. So we've worked hard to try and minimize that. But again, it just feels this time to that we're kind of all working toward the same end goals. And even though it's been, I think, more broadly traumatic to people, we at least have, I think, felt to the extent we can, that we're still a community, you know, that not just works together, but cares about each other, committed to each other success, certainly in terms of the work that we do, but you know, even more so now in people's personal lives, as you know, through zoom and other sorts of platforms. We've been brought in some ways more intimately into the personal part of our, the the lives of our colleagues and our students and others.

Unknown Speaker 13:27
I've dined with Dr. Ron Hedrick, who is going to be the Dean of the College of Ag and Natural Resources until July one, and then he becomes the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Texas Tech. And Dr. Kelly melon Bock, Senior Associate Dean for the College of Ag natural resources. And on July one will take the helm of CNR. as interim dean, Kelly Ryan introduced the initiatives in diversity and equity and inclusion. You are the first woman who will in the history of the college vaga natural resources to serve in the Dean's role. From your perspective, that the dei initiatives at the college and at the university level, how successful have they been? Is there a lot of work to be done?

Unknown Speaker 14:18
the efforts that have been ongoing in the college in particular over the last couple of years, I think have been the absolute best work that the college has done in di we have had others who have done very, very good work in Dei, but I feel as the college has really taken some very significant steps forward, or the last couple of years with even more people pulling together and working together around diversity, equity and inclusion. So I feel very confident in the work that's happening. We always, always will have more work to be done. That is something that I think is starting to become more of the fabric of our culture of the world. recognition that this is not work that is one person's job. And this is not work that ever is done. This is work of all of us to take on and to continue to engage in hard and difficult conversations. And I truly believe more and more people are recognizing it's on all of us to be able to make the necessary changes, I think that all of us are looking for, and desiring so I'm looking forward to working with the leadership, the faculty, staff, and students to continue the strong work that's been done. And to really continue to move it forward,

Unknown Speaker 15:35
Kelly to you, and then back to Iran on this, in addition to the dei initiatives, and some of the other things you mentioned, what are some other things in the last four or five years that the leadership team is particularly proud of.

Unknown Speaker 15:47
So there are a lot of things that I'm particularly proud of, I think I will go back first to this last year, and particularly proud of the college as a whole in how we responded to the pandemic, we literally were changing and moving on the flight. At times, it felt like it was every single minute. And it truly did feel like the community as a whole was really pulling together and trying to ensure we were delivering things as quickly as possible and as responsive as possible. I think the other thing that I am deeply privileged to have watched with the college over the last year or two is the deep concern that everyone has for each other and our mental health, because I believe mental health has taken a significant hit for everyone. And how do we continue to move forward into what will become a very new normal for us, as we start to return to campus that looks at the whole person? And how do we allow whole whole people to be successful in all aspects of their career, whether it's a student, whether it's a staff member, or whether it's a faculty member?

Unknown Speaker 16:57
around your thoughts on the same? And then maybe a few comments about the leadership team that I just mentioned that Kelly will inherit here?

Unknown Speaker 17:04
Yeah, well, I would echo Kelly's comments. You know, and, and I feel good about a lot of other successes, you know, we we have a lot of very distinguished mid career and late career faculty in this college, but we've hired some really outstanding early career faculty as well. And for me, you know, I arrived here at the same time, as many of them so you know, to be able to kind of watch them progress to go through reappointment or, or go forward for promotion and tenure. That's been very rewarding to watch. And be able to support and be a part of, you know, we've had very strong support from our stakeholders and from the legislature. So, you know, the funding we've been able to get with avid help of advocacy of our stakeholders for the Michigan Alliance for animal agriculture, for example, for renovations to our fruit and vegetable lab, to purchase and outfit a mobile lab for a food processing program that will allow us not just to deliver the program here, but to our 12 Community College partners around the state, I think watching the growth and helping to foster the growth in those partnerships has also been very rewarding, you know, I feel as a land grant that providing access, you know, is still an important part of what we do and those things that we do on campus, and that we do off off campus in partnership with others, I think, helped to foster that as well as, you know, affordability and make a higher education, accessible and affordable for all. So I think there are a lot of, you know, those things, to feel pride and, you know, continuing to advance our research and our outreach missions, as well as the teaching, you know, through the various crises to see the support we have in the counties. You know, thanks for the great work done by our extension team, both in terms of programming, but also their advocacy. You know, I think we've had 11 or 12 successful millages passed around the state in the last few years to support the work that we do and MSU Extension. So, you know, feeling that that support we have on campus and off and being able to leverage that to advanced, you know, Michigan's $104 billion, you know, agriculture, natural resources, economy, all the people that that employs the people that keeps fed, you know, directly and through providing jobs and others helping businesses and communities grow so much, I think, for us to feel good about, you know, despite the difficulties we faced, at times over these last four or five

Unknown Speaker 19:45
years, you know, right. You mentioned a couple of things that I'll get the most listeners might not be familiar with. I mean, I come out of an Arts and Letters background when I started working in the College of Ag and natural resources. I think there were over 300 stakeholder groups and then I over the years Learn the approach to appreciate the need to have good relationships with the legislature. Those are not typical things among University colleges.

Unknown Speaker 20:09
No, they're a little different that makes, you know, part of my job and the rest of the administrative teams different. But you know, as you said, very important for us. So, it's a team effort, you know, not just me, but you know, Kelly plays an important role there. Doug Bueller director of ad buyer research and, and our assistant VP for for research and innovation here. George Smith, Associate Dean for Research and the College of Associate Director for for ag bio research, Dr. Quentin Tyler, who joined us as our Associate Dean and director for diversity, equity inclusion, and has had a couple other hats and now including, you know, an appointment as an MSU, extension director, which is where Clinton got his started in one of his real passion. So all these folks work together, Dr. Drew Monterey, our government stakeholder relations person I could go on and on our communications team, our development team, you know, they all do a great job in helping us stay connected with each other. And with those stakeholders, we certainly benefit from state support for higher education to the general fund, with the special allocations that we get to support the work of MSU Extension and, and MSU ag by research allow us to do important work in this state, but also allow us to leverage those dollars, you know, for an additional three or $4, to help support programming to up support scholarship, you know, in the work that we do here, and it's a very complicated college, a complicated environment, and I'm grateful to have a leadership team where everybody pulls together for the common good, recognizing that we can't afford, you know, till that one of our three mission areas, the outreach and engagement, the teaching, and the research, you know, to fall behind any of the others. There's also interdependence.

Unknown Speaker 21:58
Kelly is, as you take the helm On July, the first, looking ahead, what do you see as some of the major opportunities and challenges that that you'll face and deal with, and perhaps take advantage of.

Unknown Speaker 22:12
So I think a lot of the listeners probably are aware that we experienced a couple of weeks ago, a fire at our dairy farm. And while that was traumatic and dramatic, we actually had a group of faculty who've actually been looking at what would it take for us to re envision a new dairy. And I think there's an opportunity here under the leadership of George Smith, and Barry Bradford, and then that O'Connor out of the College of vet med, to really start to move that forward, we've had some really good discussions with the provost and members of the board of trustees who have also had the opportunity to come out and visit to see that it's time for us to really be focusing on that new dairy not only for research, but also for teaching and to enhance our outreach and extension. So I am hopeful that we will continue to be able to move that forward potentially at a bit more expedited rate. So that we can move into a state of the art dairy facility to really enhance the work that we're doing and expand that the high quality work around research and teaching that's already happening in those spaces. That one definitely sits front and center for me, there are other things that we'll continue to work on, which includes our greenhouses. Um, that's been something that we also have needed to see some improvement in. And we've got a lot of people have been advocating and pushing for that job, not only here at MSU, but with our stakeholders who have been just phenomenal partners in helping us with regard to some of our infrastructure needs. And I'm not unlike other institutions, you know, our infrastructure is probably one of our greatest challenges, just like any other university, and there will likely be other things that we will need to start focusing in on to ensure that we do have some of those state of the art spaces for teaching and research.

Unknown Speaker 24:07
You know, Kelly, I'm just going to toss and stuff because it's much in the news. And there's a lot of buzz around regenerative agriculture, particularly as it relates to water, and biodiversity and all the things that you're aware of. You have people like Jason Roundtree and others on board there, but any initiatives in the works with respect to regenerative,

Unknown Speaker 24:29
you know, so one of the things I think about with regard to I'll take the dairy facility as an example, when you think about that, that for us to think about that simply as a dairy complex would be very limited in our scope. It is really about, yes, the dairy complex but it is tied to water, it is tied to manure management, nutrient management, it's tied to climate change. There are so many other things that are really reflected and represented in in those types of activities that we are Trying to move forward. So same thing as we think about some of these other initiatives, it's, it's much more than a one off, it is multiple prongs that are tied in to try to benefit different areas that we really have an interest in protecting and caring for. Ron, please jump in. If there's anything else that I'm missing on that.

Unknown Speaker 25:21
No, I think you've covered that pretty well, Kelly, it's, it's encouraging, you know, I think Kirk is we always have this college is at the forefront. You know, I've tried to address many of the challenges we have in producing food and fibers supportive, you know, a growing country and in a growing world, as well as looking for opportunities within that space as well.

Unknown Speaker 25:45
All right, as we wrap this up, and again, I really appreciate Russ and I very much appreciate your time today. But some parting thoughts for our listeners out there, as you prepare to move to the southwest.

Unknown Speaker 25:59
Well, you know, what, offer, I guess, you know, an ask, they continue to support, not just what we do, here at Michigan State and in this college, but higher ed generally. And in this state. You know, this is a state with a lot of opportunity and a lot of need as well. And and I think higher ed has a very important role to play there, you know, would ask for continued support from our stakeholders, you know, Kelly and the rest of leadership team are well known to them. So I don't expect any disruption in any of the kinds of work that we do. But you know, support to keep kind of pushing the frontiers here. You know, Kirk is, you know, I'm a two time graduate of this college and this university. So you know, I have a vested interest in, and it's access while I'm here, and I will certainly be invested as well as watching from afar, you know, from Lubbock, Texas. You know, it's, it's been a very rewarding experience for me here. I wasn't looking to leave, but opportunities as they tend to do came along. The more I explored, the more it looked like a good fit for me, and I think for the university. So I'm hoping to take things that I've learned and experienced here and other places and, and work with colleagues and the faculty and staff at Texas Tech to put that to greater benefit for them as well, just as we've done those things here. All right, we

Unknown Speaker 27:24
all wish you well, we're going to miss you. But I can say unequivocally that you're leaving the college in very, very good hands as you depart for Lubbock, Texas. Thanks, Kirk. I feel the same way. I've been talking with Dr. Ron Hendrik, Dean of the College of Ag and natural resources and soon to be Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Texas Tech. And Dr. Kelly melon boss, Senior Associate Dean of the College of Ag and natural resources, and on July one, she will take the helm of CA nr as the Interim Dean. Thanks so much to both of you for your time and the very best wishes. From all of us at MSU today

Transcribed by https://otter.ai