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Welcome back to a new semester! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and winter break. Campus may have been quiet but our constituents have been quite active. I had the opportunity to connect with our friends in Jefferson City surrounding exciting new initiatives, celebrate the success of the Missouri Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program at the Missouri Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show, and see what’s ahead for the dairy industry in Missouri at the Heart of America Dairy Expo. I look forward to addressing the Missouri Corn Annual Meeting and the Agroforestry Symposium later this week. As I have mentioned before, our Academic Programs team has been hard at work reaching out to students and families across Missouri. We are seeing signs that these efforts may be paying dividends. Bryan Garton reports we have a 30 percent increase in the number of admitted first-time college students over this time last year, so we are cautiously optimistic about CAFNR’s fall 2018 enrollment. Our strategic planning process is in full force. The consultants will be on campus the week of January 29 conducting interviews and focus groups. Some of you have been asked to participate. If so, I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity. If you are not involved in this phase, rest assured there will be additional opportunities in the coming weeks and months. I am truly excited to see what this semester has in store. |
