We’re proud of our campus Reserve Officer Training Corps programs, and those currently serving that walk among us in the near-certain knowledge that soon they will walk on far less welcoming soil. As we dedicate our Spartan community to engagement with the people and problems of today, we salute those whose engagement is already sealed with their oaths.

War has had great impact on Michigan State through the years. Some of us recall the days of the Quonset hut village on the west side of campus that was erected to accommodate legions of GI Bill veterans attending college after World War II. And we too were afflicted when the Vietnam conflict divided generations in sometimes violent domestic strife.

It is to this nation’s most bloody conflict, however, that we trace a share of our own heritage. A stalled drive to establish agricultural colleges throughout the country was bolstered in 1861 when a clause was inserted calling for teaching of military tactics –– and by the secession of some states that had earlier not supported it.

Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act into law July 2, 1862, granting federal land to states to establish colleges to teach agriculture and engineering. Fledgling Michigan State was first in the ranks.

Today we carry no small amount of the dedication of the veteran in our own Spartan spirit. We, too, are about engagement and service over self, and as I’ve written in this space before, we too are called to carry our shields to the front line.

On Veterans Day, and every day, we honor those who served and those who are still in uniform –– be they on duty along the banks of the Euphrates or preparing for their future along the banks of the Red Cedar.

No effective organization can long function without periodically taking stock, and so we at Michigan State do this regularly. We assess changes in demand for programs, and we challenge ourselves to critically examine our particular role in addressing societal needs through the programs we offer. We cannot be all things to all people and be world-class.

Last year, MSU placed enrollment moratoria on four programs due to low enrollment and review of priorities, and over the past 10 years, the university has closed 69 programs. But during that time it also placed enrollment moratoria that were later lifted on nine programs. Why?

While there can be a variety of reasons, the fundamental answer is the same one that will be given when the final list of program closures resulting from MSU’s current deliberations emerges in a few months time: this is a process.

It begins with a request to place a moratorium on enrollment whenever there is serious consideration given to closing a program. This is done to protect students. But it doesn’t end there. There is consultation within the college that administers the program, consultation with other colleges affected by changes to that program, review through academic governance, and, very often, consultation with alumni of the program and other external stakeholders.

What’s different about what is happening now at MSU is not process but scale. The initial work done by deans in their colleges to develop and deliver restructuring recommendations to Provost Kim Wilcox could affect as many as 30 academic majors, specializations, and other programs, and two departments—the Department of Geological Sciences and the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders—could be closed.

But these possibilities, outlined at Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting, are a starting point for a broader conversation, not the end of it. As I’ve said many times, this process of focusing priorities and aligning resources to address our fiscal realities will be as transparent as possible and, therefore, inherently messy.

When you think about Michigan State University and the quality of our academic programs, there is no easy programmatic decision. We work diligently to attract excellent faculty and staff, to prepare the best and brightest students, and to graduate proud and successful alumni.

We understand that all of the programs we offer are important—and needed. We also understand that they are of much higher quality than many that are offered around the state, the country, and the world. All this makes the task even more difficult. But not making the hard calls puts the excellence of the entire institution at risk.

As we each champion our particular point of view in the dialog over the coming weeks, we must not lose sight of the fact that the scale is driven by ever-steeper declines in state financial support and the challenges of keeping up with rising costs.

We’ve worked diligently to present the fiscal reality we face to internal and external stakeholders and to communicate our determination to respond in a way that enhances—not diminishes—this institution’s ability to pursue its mission in the 21st century. We are keeping the special Web site created to document this work and to facilitate conversation—shapingthefuture.msu.edu—up to date. A new video, “Understanding the Budget,” created by Director of Planning and Budgets Dave Byelich, has been posted to the site to help make understanding the budget situation more accessible.

As Spartans, we cherish our heritage. But we also have the will to move this university forward even as we deal with difficult times. I have tremendous confidence in our ability as a community to engage the here and now and to shoulder the responsibility to stride purposely toward a future of which we will be the chief architects.

Along those lines, we have been engaged in the reshaping of MSU Extension to best meet the prosperity needs of Michigan in the 21st century. Extension has conducted a vigorous internal discussion focused on resculpting itself into a 21st-century organization, and the program now will carry that conversation to its external stakeholders, starting with partners in state government.

We have been grateful for the broad coalition of statewide support in explaining and advocating for that vision. As we work with our stakeholders and the executive and legislative branches to optimize alignment of MSU Extension and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station system to promote Michigan’s green economy, we are grateful for our partners’ support.

I am especially grateful for the mutual commitments, understandings, and collaborations that can serve as the bases for further support that have come out of our meetings and conversations with the executive branch.

For more information please visit: http://news.msu.edu/story/7031/

While there’s been a resurgence of “being green” in recent years, MSU researchers have been exploring issues of the environment and sustainability for decades. More recently, we have made a serious push to raise awareness of our own footprint—and how we can diminish it—through the Be Spartan Green campaign.

For Homecoming 2009, parade floats are to be made of recyclable materials and promote sustainability themes, and the list of activities goes on.

Two of our distinguished alumni with green credentials of their own will be parade grand marshals this year. One is former faculty member, university president, and state government official Gordon Guyer. Jo-Ellen Darcy, who has spent many years in government overseeing land and water projects, is the other. Darcy was recently confirmed as assistant secretary of the Army for public works—the new Army Corps of Engineers chief.

This year’s Homecoming is a perfect lead-in for Campus Sustainability Week October 19–23. It’s a week dedicated to exploring the possibilities of social, economic, and environmental sustainability in higher education. Read more about it at sustainability.msu.edu.

Yet another event this week speaks to who we are. We’re celebrating the 15th anniversary of MSU Safe Place and honoring some of the people who have given of themselves to make it possible.

MSU Safe Place is for students, faculty, staff, and retirees or their partners and children who are experiencing an emotionally, physically, or sexually abusive relationship. All services are free and confidential. It’s a shelter and a place to find support, referrals, and counseling. It’s a way to increase community awareness of domestic violence and a learning environment for community members through its volunteer and internship opportunities.

It also aims to raise funds to provide educational scholarships for those who have had to interrupt their college education because of domestic violence. Every day, MSU Safe Place staff counsel and advocate for students who are not only dealing with homework assignments, tests, and papers but also with physical, emotional, and financial abuse that interferes with their academic success.

This week we’re honoring former faculty member and administrator Milton Muelder who, with his wife Kathleen, established an endowment fund for scholarships for such students. The endowment they created was a dream of Joanne McPherson, wife of former MSU president Peter McPherson, and she will be on hand to present Dr. Muelder with the first Joanne McPherson award, which recognizes those who have made substanial contributions to MSU Safe Place and whose efforts have made a difference in the lives of survivors of domestic violence.

Also being honored this week is the MSU Federal Credit Union, which has been an outstanding supporter of MSU Safe Place through its contributions to the Race for the Place annual fundraiser and through the volunteerism of its employees.

Our orientation toward environmental sustainability and our support for this worthy program are alike in that they align with our core values of inclusion and connectedness. We are in and of the community and the world. We are caring friends of and advocates for our neighbors and careful stewards of our natural resources.

The 22,000-square-foot leased building at 3408 Woodward Avenue in the heart of downtown Detroit houses the new Community Music School (CMS) Detroit; College of Education headquarters for teaching interns and classrooms and meeting space for graduate education; and offices for admissions, advancement, and governmental affairs staff.

Southeast Michigan’s importance to MSU begins with our connections to its population. More than 21 percent of MSU’s 420,000-plus alumni live in the three-county Metro Detroit area. Nearly half of MSU’s incoming freshman students are from Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties.

With this new facility, MSU will not only increase its investment in the region but, more important, will expand its commitment to Detroit-area residents. 

We are particularly excited that this facility is home to the new Community Music School Detroit, operated by MSU’s College of Music that will provide Detroit-area children and youth with an in-depth, sequential music experience while also building vital life skills.

CMS Detroit will offer MSU the opportunity to create new partnerships with area businesses and arts organizations that will afford CMS students opportunities to learn about the music industry, form relationships with community cultural organizations, and connect with potential employers.

CMS Detroit, which opened its doors in August, will feature a jazz ensemble in partnership with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; early childhood music sessions; multimedia arts and digital media classes in partnership with YouthVille Detroit; music therapy; and the New Horizons Band for adults of all skill levels.

The College of Education will use space on the second floor to hold classes and meetings for about 160 teaching interns placed in Detroit-area schools each year, as well as their mentor-teachers. In addition, the building also will become a hub for graduate-level College of Education courses held in Southeast Michigan and various programs that operate in partnership with Detroit schools.

This includes the annual Summer Urban Immersion Fellowship for MSU teacher candidates and monthly meetings to remain connected with Detroit high school students who participate in a college readiness program on campus each summer. Like Detroit and our partners in the region, MSU values resilience, hard work, and a commitment to solving problems and empowering prosperity. Our collaborative work there is built on a foundation of successful partnerships that have been nurtured through the years.

I invite you to visit semich.msu.edu to explore our history of engagement and to browse stories about many of the partnerships making a difference today.

Those are all icons, after all, and it’s easy to regard such symbols with affection—especially if they signify a day off work!

Yet most Americans would be hard pressed indeed to identify the date we celebrate the U.S. Constitution, the very basis of the freedoms we exercise throughout the year. Constitution Day is September 17, falling this year on a Thursday. We have marked this date on campuses across America—by law—since 2005. All federally funded schools and colleges are required to commemorate the day in 1787 when 55 delegates formally sanctioned the four-page document that codifies our fundamental freedoms as American citizens.

Again this year at Michigan State, we’ll participate with many others around the country in observing Constitution Day—sometimes known as Citizenship Day. One popular way in which we celebrate the day is with participation in the Bells Across America program. At 4 p.m. the bells of the Beaumont Tower carillon will peal for 15 minutes with a special musical program.

Such beauty and harmony, unfortunately, haven’t always been the sound of our nation’s civic and political discourse, and that’s still true today. Harsh rhetoric, often cloaked in anonymity, now routinely flows across multiple media channels and into the public forum.

So it’s particularly appropriate that our College of Law is partnering with James Madison College (JMC) to offer three afternoon programs on Constitution Day focused on the state of constitutional discourse in America. All will be held in the Castle Boardroom (room 343) in the College of Law Building on campus, and I encourage you to take the opportunity to register online to attend one or more of them.

Law professor Frank Ravitch will conduct a question-and-answer session at noon on law, religion, and the Constitution. At 1 p.m. two of our law faculty will present some other current and novel constitutional topics, and at 5 p.m. a law/JMC faculty panel will mull the day’s theme in “The Degradation of Constitutional Discourse in America.”

Free speech in its many forms has traditionally been honored, practiced, and challenged nowhere more than on America’s college campuses. Exploring this topic on a practical level, Michigan State’s three residential colleges—JMC, Lyman Briggs College, and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities—organize topical dialogues on an off campus centered on both freedom of expression and respectful engagement. It’s called the 21st-century Chautauqua, and this year’s program focuses on the very timely topic of creating a more just economy, including finding creative ways to spur ethical economic development. Coincidentally, it meets for the first time this week on Wednesday, September 16.

Our dynamic society and ingenious political system guarantee that the U.S. Constitution will remain a living document to guide our society. The constitutional scholarship practiced by our political science, journalism, law, and other faculty, moreover, will continue to supply critical nourishment to an informed and engaged citizenry. We salute them, too, on Constitution Day.

We at Michigan State are, in a very real sense, a world community, hosting as we do hundreds of students and faculty from many countries and reaching out to partners around the globe. But we remain mindful of our duties as citizens of the United States and of this institution’s position as a cradle of future leaders. It’s a good time for the campus community to reflect upon, discuss, and debate those constitutional freedoms that we believe make us unique.

Related links

• Michigan State University President’s Statement on Free Speech Rights and Responsibilities
• The National Archives U.S. Constitution page
• National Constitution Center/Constitution Day

It means more than developing the discipline to study well, growing the courage to become independent in habits and thought, and cultivating the wisdom to recognize mistakes and setbacks as important lessons honestly earned. It also means bringing your shield to the front line.

I say welcome, Spartans. Prepare to engage.

We’re a values-oriented institution that takes seriously its obligations as the pioneer land-grant university. For faculty, such engagement often takes the form of solving pressing societal problems using evidence-based knowledge, developed and applied in cooperation with local partners—whether in Michigan or halfway around the world.

For our students, engagement often takes the form of participating in service-learning projects or taking part in leading-edge research. When you’re at Michigan State, you have myriad opportunities to engage with and make a difference in the lives of people in the community and beyond.

We are making it easy for our first-year students to start down this road during Fall Welcome with a Fill the Bus campaign August 31 and September 1. We’re asking all of our students, returning or new, to remember others as they purchase items for the school year by buying extras and putting them on buses positioned for collections around the campus. Each college has been asked to focus on a particular group of items—food, school supplies, personal care items, for example—all of which will go to organizations that help local residents in need.

Many campus organizations routinely spur their members to give of themselves, and they do us great credit. Fill the Bus is our first campuswide effort and a fitting way to bring our newest Spartans into our ranks. It is coordinated by our Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, itself a bright point of Michigan State pride.

Started here in 1968, the center is the oldest continuously operating student volunteer program in the nation. Participation has doubled in the past five years—we counted 15,221 students in 2008–09—and the center is a big reason MSU earned a 2008 Presidential Award for Community Service.

Through the center, MSU students work with more than 370 nonprofits, including public schools, youth-serving agencies, hospitals, senior citizen facilities, and neighborhood organizations. In some cases, the community work is part of a course, such as a freshman writing class that created free promotional materials for a voter registration drive and a refugee center. Other projects are student-driven. Alternative Spring Break, for example, is a registered student organization that has helped with hurricane cleanup in Louisiana and rain forest restoration in Puerto Rico.

As we encourage community engagement, we promote deeper local connections. The One Book, One Community program, which starts this month, is another example. It encourages members of the university and East Lansing communities to read the same book and come together to discuss it in different settings. This year’s book selection—The Soloist by Steve Lopez— inspired a drive for musical instrument donations to MSU’s new Community Music School Detroit.

Foster Care Alumni Services (FCAS) is another notable channel for engagement. It’s a multidepartmental program that provides much-needed support to students and, increasingly, to prospective students who come from foster homes. Nationally, just 13 percent of foster children enroll in college and only 4 percent graduate.

We’re the first university in Michigan to offer foster care alumni scholarships, and through the work of FCAS leaders—themselves foster care alumni—MSU has inspired others to follow suit. We’ve reached down into the high school ages, too, with a foster camp held just last month to encourage and prepare foster youth for college after they leave the foster system.
MSU is part of a global society and reflects it. This fall we’re enrolling 7,250 freshmen, including 700 from 47 states other than Michigan and 700 from 46 countries other than the United States. The incoming freshman class represents one of the most ethnically diverse classes in recent history. But wherever they’re from and wherever they go, the members of our community call themselves Spartans, and they represent our values and our mission through their interactions and deeds. With more than 11,000 faculty and staff members and more than 420,000 living alumni, our collective impact is epic.

We’re not the kind of institution that waits for commencement to exhort our students to make a difference. Nor are we the kind of institution that hangs back in a time of challenge. As we, like other universities, face sharply changing fiscal realities, we are dedicated to doing what it takes to continue providing opportunities to future Spartans and the lives they touch.
Engage with us as we move forward. Make a change. Make a difference. And know that you are part of a vibrant, caring community that welcomes you warmly and will welcome you always.

The economic challenges we face both here in Michigan and in Dubai are significant and should not be underestimated, but they should not be allowed to overshadow our long-term goals in either location. Indeed, adherence to our fundamental values and goals is, perhaps, more important in this economic environment than in other, more resource-rich times. It is good to reflect upon how MSU Dubai fits into those values and goals.

At MSU, we embrace our land-grant traditions and values by accepting the challenge of keeping those values relevant to society’s changing needs. The original concept of the land-grant university truly was tied to the land, with communities largely defined by the geographic space they occupied. But definitions of community have changed dramatically, and the 21st century has brought with it a new degree of global connectivity. We can understand modern society’s most critical challenges only by adopting a perspective that includes local, national, and international voices and communities.

Our institutional purpose has not changed. We still seek to create opportunities for development and prosperity—broadly defined—for our community. It is the scope of our community that has changed. Now we must bring the best of Michigan to the world, and we must also bring the best of the world to Michigan.

Consistent with that evolution, MSU Dubai provides an opportunity for us to expand our community of knowledge and discovery in a meaningful way into a region of undeniable economic, social, and political importance. Our efforts in Dubai mesh well with the goals espoused in the strategic plans of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, which emphasize economic, community, and social development to enhance productivity and innovation. These plans also place a high priority on educational achievement and cultural enrichment, and they address environmental sustainability and the appropriate use of natural resources.

It is clear that we can bring to the region a great deal of expertise on strategically important issues. It also is clear that in the process of exploring those issues in a new context, we have a great opportunity to learn in and from the region.

The regional partnerships created by our presence in Dubai will be extensive and productive, but our impact need not be confined to the region. We have an opportunity at MSU Dubai to create a cosmopolitan environment for learning and discovery—one characterized by our traditional academic values and enriched by a diverse set of cultural values as represented by a truly international group of students. We share with our Emirati partners a vision of MSU Dubai as an educational destination of choice—not solely for the region but for scholars from all parts of the globe.

Visions are never realized without a great deal of energy, focus, and determination. Concrete action must be taken and tangible movement toward objectives must be made. The hard work of many, both in Dubai and in East Lansing, culminated in the successful launch of MSU Dubai last year. Now we must continue the transition from start-up project to fully operational organization—one that both achieves its own worldwide recognition and also is recognized as a fully integrated major academic unit of MSU. 

Toward that end, we have identified specific steps that can be taken to increase operational efficiency and ensure that we are moving toward our goals. Some of these steps already are being implemented. For example, the administrative staff in Dubai has been reorganized for efficiency and effectiveness; the recruitment and student services functions have been strengthened; and the library space is being reconfigured to create a more suitable scholarly environment. Various work teams are or will be reviewing and addressing the remainder of the action items.

We are making great strides—in admissions, in student and faculty support, in facilities and logistics, and in creating seamless communications between East Lansing and Dubai—and I believe we have a workable plan for continued progress.

Provost Wilcox and I appreciate the efforts of the many individuals whose work made this opportunity a reality. Students, faculty, and staff in Dubai; faculty and staff in East Lansing; our business and governmental partners in Dubai; and our own Board of Trustees all have demonstrated commitment to the vision of what MSU Dubai can and will become.

I encourage all faculty, staff, and students to think about what MSU Dubai can mean to their efforts to bring their knowledge, passion, and talents to the world. Opportunities for teaching, research, and outreach abound and will lead to the discoveries that continue to transform lives around the world.

This desire to put knowledge to work derives from our 19th-century land-grant roots, and our drive to do so extends far beyond the campus. In the 21st century, our work advances sustainable practices as well as economic development around the globe.

With more than 158 partnerships worldwide and some 1,500 faculty members involved in international research, teaching, and service, MSU is known as a leader in building creative partnership structures. Our goals are to build on our in-country resources to serve a broad base of academic departments, colleges, and research interests while we work side by side with communities.

High-quality research that makes a positive difference, both locally and globally, is a critical component of our mission. Another is to advance outreach and economic development activities that lead to a better quality of life for people and communities at home and around the world.

Let me describe a notable recent example — the Carbon2Markets program, led by forestry professor David Skole, which elegantly achieves these goals. The program uses basic and applied research to simultaneously fight global warming and poverty, bettering lives and positively affecting the planet.

By combining sustainable forest management and remote-sensing technology with emerging carbon markets, Dr. Skole and the rest of the Carbon2Markets team are helping small farmers in developing countries grow crops that slow climate change as well as improve the farmers’ standard of living. The MSU team is working with farmers, researchers, and government agencies in 10 African and Asian countries, including Thailand and Laos.

The farmer groups are integrating high-value forest crops such as jatropha, teak, or shea into the crops they’re currently growing through methods that are smart and sustainable. Then the farmers use techniques and standards created by MSU remote-sensing experts to accurately measure and record the carbon stored by the trees and soil. Storing carbon in the soil and plants keeps it out of the atmosphere, which helps slow global warming. This also is one of the first efforts to help small landowners gain access to the carbon-offset market.

MSU was founded on the idea that practical knowledge could be combined with traditional scientific and classical studies. Dr. Skole says that the Carbon2Markets program is the application of more than 20 years of basic research on climate change and tropical forest conversion. In other words, the MSU scientists are applying remote-sensing technology to develop creative solutions to climate change. These solutions involve, educate, and improve the quality of life of people who are counted among some of the world’s poorest—the average annual income in the area of Thailand involved in Carbon2Markets is about $1,200.

Based on a recent reporting trip, we’ve prepared a special report on the initiative where you can delve into text, video, photos, and background material. You can also read about the cap-and-trade approach in a column in the Capitol Hill journal Roll Call by Chicago Climate Exchange Chairman Richard L. Sandor, who mentions MSU among other forward-looking organizations working in local and world carbon markets.

At MSU, I’m proud to say that our efforts to promote environmental and economic sustainability happen right on campus and also extend outward around the world.

Office of Biobased Technologies

Today, what the moon’s Sea of Tranquility has in common with the crop fields of the Great Lakes is technology. A personal highlight for me last week was to operate a new generation of farm tractor that likely has more navigational and computational power than our lunar explorers enjoyed. View video (WMV, 21 MB - Transcript.)

Agriculture is an increasingly high-technology business. Tractors like the one I operated now use global positioning satellite and geographic/topographic information system technology to determine exactly where they are, what to do, and how best to go about it.

At our dairy operation at the W. K. Kellogg Biological Station in Kalamazoo County we’re opening a pasture-based demonstration project in August that utilizes a fully automated robotic milking system, allowing the cows to milk themselves. Such technology not only saves labor, but it also can contribute to the sustainability of family farms by freeing owners from rigid schedules to enjoy family and community activities the rest of us take for granted—making agriculture a more attractive career option for them and their children.

I mentioned at the opening of Ag Expo that you could take any point in time and accurately apply the statement that agriculture holds the promise and potential to change local and global communities. Who could have imagined 40 years ago or 30 years ago—or even 10 years ago—that agriculture in its various forms—agrifood, agrifuel, and agriproducts—might one day eclipse manufacturing as Michigan’s top industry?

It’s not so far-fetched. We all feel the agonizing pullback in Michigan’s manufacturing sector. But agriculture today has a $71.3 billion positive impact on the state’s economy and grew 12 percent in 2007, according to a study released in February by the MSU Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. Agriculture is the second-largest industry in Michigan and now accounts for 20 percent of the state’s economy. Our agrifood system grew five times faster than the general state economy between 2006 and 2007.

Another recently published report based on International Monetary Fund statistics tells us that exports of Michigan’s manufactured goods to other countries fell 12.5 percent between April and May. Foreign sales of nonmanufactured, mining, and reexported goods—including agricultural products—on the other hand rose 9.7 percent. Both, unfortunately, have tumbled precipitously from the previous year’s numbers due to the worldwide economic contraction. Witness the plight today of America’s dairy farmers, beset by rising costs and falling prices.

Despite its challenges, agriculture has proved that it holds real promise for the future—promise nurtured by MSU through our Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) and MSU Extension (MSUE) systems and by our researchers who continue making breakthroughs to commercialize food and biofuel technology. But continued threats of cuts in state support to MAES and MSUE in particular raise real concerns about our ability to continue to support this high-potential industry in the future as we have in the past. These critical organizations should be treated no differently than the rest of Michigan’s higher education funding.

Given the proper resources, we’re optimistic that a thriving agricultural sector will help power a resurgent Michigan economy. At Ag Expo this year, agricultural economist Steve Harsh talked about farm- and community-based wind energy projects. We offered a youth entrepreneurship panel and a discussion on so-called kitchen incubators that help agrifood entrepreneurs launch their businesses. These were among the many sessions and demonstrations speaking to agriculture today.

The opportunity to test-drive the latest in heavy equipment offered by manufacturers is always a popular attraction at Ag Expo, and one of the advantages to being president is that I get to call first dibs. I consider myself a pretty fair equipment operator from my rural youth, but the big, new vehicles—literally—can drive themselves.

I was especially looking forward to getting in the driver’s seat after chatting recently with Klaus Hoehn, the technology and engineering vice president for John Deere & Co. He and I sat together on a panel discussion at the Council on Competitiveness State of Innovation Summit June 23 in Washington, D.C., and he described to me the advanced capabilities of the latest farm equipment.

Now I’ve experienced that first-hand—along with hundreds of others who attended Ag Expo. They will be among those with whom we’ll continue to cocreate solutions to humanity’s still-daunting food and environmental problems and to nourish Michigan’s economy. This and so much more is the work of a land-grant university in the 21st century.