New School of Applied Agriculture launched
Despite being in the heartland of agriculture, Minnesota State has never had an official school within the university dedicated to agriculture.
Launching Monday, MSU announced the new school of Applied Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. The school plans on not only launching an agronomy degree but also to partnering with South Central College’s Associate of Applied Science degree.
“Students from our campus will be taking classes at South Central which is almost unheard of. We’ll have students at South Central that come to us later, but now we’ve got students going both directions,” said Aaron Budge, the Interim Executive Director for the School of Applied Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.
While Budge may be the new director, he isn’t a new face on campus. For nearly 20 years, Budge has been a faculty member in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology with four of those years as the dean. However, Budge’s background has several agricultural ties.
“I grew up on an Angus beef farm and my background is in geotechnical engineering, which is soils-related. There’s a lot of overlap in some engineering work with infrastructure like designing hog barns and water treatment opportunities for landowners, so when the ag world came up, it became a conversation point,” Budge said.
A unique aspect of the school is it will not be assigned to a specific college at MSU. Budge said it will “be a bigger umbrella” to the College of Science, Engineering and Technology and the College of Business with associations to the colleges of Allied Health and Nursing, Education and Humanities and Social Sciences. Students will work with their college’s respective dean and other faculty members if they choose to become a part of the school.
Budge said the reasoning for not assigning the school to one college was to break down the silos of what the school could offer to students.
“One of the considerations was if the school was in a college, it could limit it and it would be the focal point,” Budge said. “The hope of having it set up the way it is will include the leadership structure that will include folks from across campus in hopes of having a more collaborative experience.”
While the school itself is new, some of the programs offered within the school have been around MSU for a few years.
“There’s a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness and Food Innovation that’s been around for five or six years and a program in Agricultural Sciences that’s been around for about the same time, but they haven’t been very visible,” Budge said.
A new agronomy program launched and while it isn’t a bachelor’s level program, Budge said there are micro-credentials and certificate programs students can obtain such as certification for flying drones for agricultural use.
One of Budge’s goals is to have the school partner with other two-year programs that tend to send students out of state for college once their degrees are completed.
“We want to keep students within the system, within the state. As soon as they leave to go to school out of state, often they don’t come back to Minnesota,” Budge said. “We’re hoping to grow that pipeline and to grow some relationships with local and regional partners to have additional support for students to get through the program and make some doors open for students to stay regional as they go on their career paths.”
Other goals Budge has are to have a full cohort of agribusiness students by next fall and to provide students with external industry opportunities such as internships with CHS, General Mills and the Henze Ag Innovators program.
When people think of agriculture, they see a farmer maneuvering a tractor through a field. Budge said while that while that may be one component of the agriculture industry, it’s only a small fraction of it.
“There are different disciplines you wouldn’t think of like manufacturing engineering, automation opportunities, the supply chain and safety of those products. Whether or not it’s direct or indirect, they’re all associated with the agricultural sector,” Budge said. “A lot of those jobs you don’t necessarily think about being part of that industry, but it is a critical part.”
Budge said he’s excited to see where the school will go by growing the agricultural sector.
“It’s a new school with a new format,” Budge said. “We can really do what we think is best and have an opportunity to really push the envelope as far as doing things better differently.”
Caption: Provost David Hood gives the speech at the event for the launch of New School of Applied Agriculture (TROY YANG/The Reporter).
Write to Emma.johnson.5@mnsu.edu