From the Dean 

Excitement. That is how I would describe the feeling on campus. I always look forward to the students’ return to campus in the Fall but this year was extra special. With record numbers of students at the University coming on the heels of the COVID year, the campus is electric. 

Students are everywhere and it just feels right. We started with a college carnival during Boiler Gold Rush for first year students and our Ag Council hosted its annual ice cream social designed to introduce students to various clubs in the College of Agriculture. Both of these outdoor events had students everywhere clearly enjoying themselves and meeting one another. 

While classrooms, labs and indoor public spaces require masks, we know this just one of the small inconveniences to protect all Boilermakers. The campus is now at 85 percent confirmed vaccinations and the data dashboard shows very few COVID-19 cases, so there is good reason to feel optimistic about the semester. 

In addition to student activities, other events are also taking place on campus. While we postponed the dedication of the new agricultural and biological engineering (ABE) building due to COVID-19, we were able to celebrate this past weekend with approximately 400 guests and donors. Without the support of our donors, from the state legislature and the university, we would not have been able to renovate the existing ABE facilities and build a five-story, state-of-the-art addition. The space is just fantastic for student engagement and for research in areas such as digital agriculture, water sustainability, renewable resource engineering, biological engineering and much more.

Check out this photo gallery from the building dedication!

As many of you know, ABE is the #1 undergraduate program, according to US News and World Report, for the 11th year in a row and its graduate program has been #1 for 10 out of the last 11 years. The other exciting news for ABE is that they are celebrating their 100th anniversary as a department here at Purdue.

Mechanization, automation, process engineering and more changed the shape of agriculture, and we are undergoing a similar evolution now with digital agriculture and data science. Unmanned aerial vehicles, robots and sensors continue to evolve and in 100 years, I imagine ABE will be working to solve the next set of challenges to help us to feed and power the world. 

Last weekend, we also had Ag Day at the Purdue football game. The concept behind Ag Day is to shine the light on the importance and reach of agriculture both within the stadium and through the radio broadcast of the game. We are fortunate to have sponsors from the many different aspects of agriculture, including financial institutions, breeding and genetics companies, meatpacking and food companies and more. This allows people to see the depth and breadth of our partnerships and shows how food and agriculture impacts everything we do. These partnerships are far and wide – well beyond a football game – and help us support and improve our research, teaching and Extension programs within the college. 

The fun keeps going as we have additional events coming up where we will continue to celebrate the success of the college, including Homecoming, our Scholarship Dinner, Research and Team Awards presentations, Dean’s Club dinner and much more. So, I end this with the word I started with… Excitement. 

Excitement for all the things we have done and for the future of our students and of our research, teaching and Extension programs. I hope to see you in person at an event in the coming year!