Dean Smith
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Continuing Our
Land-Grant Tradition

By Randy Weckman

M. Scott Smith became the eighth Dean and Director of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture in January 2001. As Dean, Smith is responsible for all facets of the College, including teaching, Extension, and research programs. Shortly after assuming the duties of Dean, we asked him about his vision for the College. Following are the questions and his responses.

As the new dean of the College of Agriculture, what do you see as the most important issues facing Kentuckians in terms of agriculture, families, youth, and communities?

The current transitions in Kentucky agriculture are well publicized and widely discussed. Dramatic changes in tobacco production and marketing have combined with the broader forces on agriculture worldwide to create substantial challenges for our family farms and our communities dependent on a strong agricultural economy.

I believe that despite these challenges, Kentucky agriculture can have a great, prosperous future. Achieving the future we want, however, will require strong leadership from the agricultural sector, wise public policies that nurture agriculture, investments in the infrastructure of agriculture, and a continuing stream of research, Extension and educational programs from the College of Agriculture that focuses on the needs of Kentucky.

Now, more than ever, those of us in the College of Agriculture must address a broad range of issues which are an important part of the food, agriculture, and natural resource system. Many of these issues are wider in scope than our more traditional contributions in crop and animal production. We will need to develop the expertise to address these issues by both refocusing our efforts and hiring faculty members with the appropriate expertise.

Given these issues, how do you see the College of Agriculture helping Kentuckians address them?

Higher education in Kentucky and around the nation is being asked to play a substantially increasing role in economic and community development. I believe Kentucky’s land-grant system of integrated research, teaching and Extension provides the best model for addressing these expectations. Specifically, I see five areas in which the College of Agriculture can help address Kentucky’s needs:

Teaching. We must continue our commitment to the success and personal and professional development of our students, for they are our future leaders. The greatest contribution we can make to Kentucky is to do an outstanding job of educating our students. Our College embarked a few years ago on initiatives to educate our students in not just skills they need to enter the job market, but also in the skills they can use to become life-long learners — and leaders. This philosophy is already benefiting Kentucky, as many of our recent graduates have already assumed leadership positions and are applying their expertise to the challenges of agriculture and strengthening Kentucky in the process.

Extension. The county Extension office and its staff continue to be the key to the success of local communities around Kentucky. But agents are being asked to assume ever greater and more complex responsibilities. It is imperative that we provide our county agents the tools they need to help lead their communities. Those tools include appropriate compensation for their efforts, as well as training opportunities for them to acquire expertise they need for application to local problems as they arise. We also must continue to build the communications infrastructure from Lexington to county offices so that the University of Kentucky can become the window to the world for rural areas.

Research. We can simultaneously meet the expectations of becoming a “top 20" research institution, contributing to the new economy, and sustaining our land-grant mission, but only if we set research priorities appropriate to the needs and opportunities of Kentucky. Our research efforts must continually assess the needs for research and constantly refocus our efforts to meet those needs.

Build New Partnerships. To meet the constantly changing challenges in the wide range of subjects the College must address, we will need to form partnerships and alliances with other institutions, agencies, and leadership organizations so that we can tap into their expertise and they into ours. By doing so, our College will be stronger, our partners will be strengthened, so that together we can address the important challenges ahead.

Adapt and Change. As the pace of economic and agricultural transition accelerates, we need to become more adaptable, more flexible and more responsive as an organization. We must be constantly aware of the needs of our stakeholders, and better support innovative people and programs that respond to those needs.