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MSU begins pruning College of Ag
Like ivy vines that require pruning to shape them and keep them healthy, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at MSU is being pruned to guide the college, the Experiment Station and Extension into a future that needs them to be healthy and well-shaped.
As he chains his bike, a Michigan State University freshman becomes conscious of ivy creeping up his dorm's outer walls as it has for generations.
It might be years before this student learns to appreciate the timelessness of that ivy. For now, it's enough that it's green and growing. It's proof that life transcends his four or five years here, and is immensely bigger than himself.
The student notices parts of the vine are brown and withering, while other parts are vibrant, budding and sending forth new life to anchor into the slightest niche in brick and mortar.
For this curious student, it seems the economy has threatened the college of Agriculture and Natural Resources' (CANR) future, but it's a tough vine that needs purpose-driven pruning now and then.
Up with a sharp pair of long-handled loppers steps Jeff Armstrong, dean of the CANR, joined by a cadre of folks with hand shears and pole pruners. They know, after more than a year of study, what they want the vine to look like years from now. The challenge is pruning strategically to keep the vine growing appropriately. If left to its own, it will become unruly and invasive, or even worse, a weak, brittle little plant.
That's not an option for the folks at MSU, and so they begin.
"We knew in 2008 that we have a structural deficit in Michigan, and we also are in a political climate in which Extension (MSUE) and the Ag Experiment Station (MAES) have become a political football," Armstrong said. "That's been going on since I got here in 2001. But by 2008 it became clear that the structural deficit and the recession had spread from Michigan to the world, and it was taking its toll. So we said in a planning retreat that we have to be willing to do business differently if we want to survive and thrive and continue to be the best in the country and the world."
As the pruning began, long-term impacts became apparent.
"We decided that we couldn't just wait and listen and react every year," Armstrong said. "We needed a multi-year approach. Then it was easy to make the decision that we needed to continue to serve commercial agriculture because we want to be part of growing the ag industry from a $70 billion industry to a $90 billion or $100 billion part of the economy. We soon found out that shaping the future is messy."
By now, as the CANR begins to show the public its vision of the ivy, it's clear this is no cosmetic pruning.
Department consolidation
The vine has been pruned from 14 to eight departments and the Kellogg Biological Station. Weaving in and out of those departments are Extension and the Experiment Station, and we'll get to their restructuring soon.
Most of the eight new departments integrated other departments and programs, but a few remain relatively simple. The School of Packaging, for example, remains on its own with an added Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability, established just last year with a major grant from Coca Cola. It remains autonomous, Armstrong said, because the department "offers the only Ph.D. in the world in packaging." The center will create new partnerships with the MSU business college, he said, by necessity.
"If we don't double or triple the grant activity in packaging, it won't continue to exist," he said.
Entomology also remains a stand-alone department simply because it's so diverse, Armstrong said.
"If entomology were not so productive and connected across all the other departments, it would have moved," he said. "It's more than just the plant side. It reaches across disciplines such as molecular biology, human disease and plant protection."
Research and information
While the college's structure changes, what affects farmers most are changes in Extension and MAES.
For the experiment station, which is actually a system of 14 research stations and more than 300 scientists, it means continuation of the distasteful practice of finding grant money somewhere, perhaps anywhere.
"It would be nice if we could decide what our priorities are and be paid from the university, but that's not the way it's going to be," said Doug Buhler, associate director of MAES. "Part of the argument for this is that a well-written grant is scholarship and part of the university's mission. But I understand that there are only so many hours in the day, and researchers would rather go to the lab or write up their previous results than write grants. But the reality is that if we're going to be successful, we're going to have to write more grants."
In the past, Armstrong said, researchers had the luxury of relying on internal money. But as state and federal funds have fallen like pruned branches, competition for private and governmental grants has sharpened.
"If we are to continue to serve Michigan and grow the economy, the faculty has to continue to be cutting edge," he said. "We have to be more entrepreneurial and go after grants."
While many people view corporate grants as tainted, Armstrong said the university doesn't take grants that ask researchers to lean toward certain outcomes.
"We have a mature set of policies to work with, and we guard the academic freedom of our faculty because our credibility is so valuable," he said. "That being a constant, we are in the planning stages now with several companies, including McDonalds and Cargill, American Humane and the Environmental Defense Fund, and we have a consortium working on a sustainable egg project led by USDA and the University of California - Davis."
Buhler said smaller corporate grants can be used to leverage larger grants.
"Times are changing and money is tighter, but if, for example, we put emphasis on grants through Project GREEEN, we can create information and opportunities that lead to larger federal grants. If we do that efficiently, the money stays in Michigan and brings additional money and research opportunities to the university."
The bottom line for the researchers, then, is that no positions will be cut under the plan, no facilities will be abandoned, and researchers will have to write more grant proposals.
Extension's new growth
Now that we're stepping back to inspect the pruning, there's one more branch hanging out there. MSU Extension's job is to take all the university's research and education and present it to the public. But after considerable pruning, information on the vine will take a new direction.
Presently, the system is geographically based, meaning there is an Extension presence in 82 Michigan counties, and each office has its own director. But after July 1, Armstrong said, there will no longer be 82 directors, or five regional directors or one state program leader. County offices will remain, but they will be structured in four institutes.
The first institute - and these names are subject to change - is agriculture and agribusiness. "That means commercial agriculture," Armstrong said.
The second institute is greening Michigan. That, said Tom Coon, MSU Extension director, entails natural resource-based industries, renewable energy, biomaterials, and energy efficiency. Such an institute, Armstrong said, will integrate the bioeconomy's role throughout agriculture and the other systems.
The third institute is health and nutrition. That also requires integration between all institutes, as well as veterinary medicine and commercial agriculture, which will continue to grow healthy, nutritious food.
Fourth is children and youth, where 4-H programs will be developed and distributed.
Why such fundamental pruning? Simply to put the experts where they're needed most, and to make Extension more efficient.
"Extension is not just an educator and a faculty member with an appointment," Armstrong said. "It's part of a team, and if we don't have an outstanding team working together, we're not doing our job. So we involved the various industries to get input on what the teams should look like. And just because a director will not be there in the counties anymore, that doesn't mean we won't have a presence in each county. What it means is that, for example, if a county director had dairy expertise, he had to give up 40 percent of his time in dairy and give it to being a director. Now he can go back to dairy."
With directors of the four Extension institutes yet to be named, there will be renewed emphasis on new ways of communicating CANR's research and education and getting it faster to farmers and others who need it.
"We think it's more important than ever to use technology," Armstrong said. "We have the Web, smart phones and social networking. We want to develop a kind of Facebook on steroids."
Like the ivy, new information technologies, Coon said, haven't waited for MSU's approval, so now there's some catching up to do.
"I hope we can explore some new technologies our constituents might not use yet, and I'd like to say we lead the way," he said. "But the truth is that farmers are going there already and we're following in many ways."
Playing catch-up has already begun, well ahead of the July 1 implementation date for all the changes in store. Coon said a weekly newsletter he sends out will now be a blog, and he'll hold periodic system-wide Web conferences. He's excited about those possibilities.
"It's really cool to have people sharing their expertise on line," he said. "Producers are very smart and very tech-savvy today, and if they can explore things, share their experiences on-line, we can have some pretty remarkable outcomes."
What the vine will become may be different from today's vision, just as it was different when that first freshman checked it out so many years ago. But if this pruning reinvigorates the vine, it will still be there for the next freshman class, and the next, and the next. That's really what this vine is meant to do. It endures and it grows. If it's properly pruned.
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