October 31, 2023
Building the Land-Grant University of the Future
It was nice seeing everyone at the 2023 K-State Research and Extension annual conference. I hope you all experienced the Big 3 for having a great conference: make three new friends, learn three new things and find three potential collaborations.
Last week we proclaimed that it was “game on” and that we were poised to build the land-grant university of the future. Now is the time to start building.
Transforming K-State into the new land-grant university of the future is about availing all of the expertise and resources of K-State to the people of Kansas so that they may build better lives, livelihoods and communities.
Sound familiar? It should. We have been doing it for years in our four program areas of family and consumer sciences, agriculture and natural resources, 4-H youth development and community vitality.
What’s the difference now?
We do not have to limit our assistance to Kansans to just those four program areas. Using our partners from the Office of Engagement (Tim Steffensmeier at steffy@ksu.edu and Mirna Bonilla at mbonilla@ksu.edu), we can avail Kansans to whatever K-State expertise resources they need.
If the Kansans you serve want to address a community vitality or economic/business development issue, why limit our expertise resources to K-State? K-State 105 provides us with a wonderful opportunity to connect Kansas community groups and entrepreneurs with community vitality, entrepreneurial, and business development expertise from K-State, the other regent universities, community and technical colleges, and not-for-profit organizations.
All this takes is to reach out to Jessica Gnad (jgnad@ksu.edu), Deborah Kohl (dkohl@ksu.edu) or me (ghadley@ksu.edu) to determine how K-State 105 can help.
It is game on. It is time to make K-State THE Next-Gen Land-Grant University, but it only works if you step up and start the ball rolling.
Let’s do this.