|
Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday for the BBQ&A event! We had a great turnout, and I enjoyed sharing an update on the tremendous progress we’ve made in our Strategic Plan since we started on the process nearly one year ago. If you weren’t able to join us, you can follow the process on our Strategic Plan webpage. I hope our mission and vision statements resonated with all of you. I know how energized I am about our future path here in CAFNR! And we can’t do it without all of you. I enjoyed visiting with our faculty, staff and students — along with local landowners and high school students — at all of our recent field days. Congratulations to all of the Research Centers that have already put on their successful annual events — and I look forward to the couple of events still to come! These events are vital to fulfilling our land-grant mission of teaching, research, and Extension and outreach to the public. I was proud to visit with alumni and friends of the college at recent events. CAFNR Tiger Classic is such a fun event to raise money for student scholarships! Our alumni enjoy getting together each fall on the golf course. Our Scholarship Dinner brought together donors and student scholarship recipients and was a wonderful evening. Our college is all about educating students and growing them into alumni who believe in what we do and give back to the next generation of students. On Saturday, our CAFNR Column Awards event recognized six distinguished alumni from our college — one from each division. This was the inaugural year for these awards, and I was blown away by the recipients and their many accomplishments. We hope they continue to be well connected to their alma mater. The Column Award is the highest alumni honor given by our college. How fun to see our students at the U.S. Farm Report taping last Friday on the quad with our alumna and host, Tyne Morgan! As our most recent Executive-in-Residence, I appreciate Tyne taking time out of her schedule to visit with our students. I am looking forward to the Topping Off Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 29, for the Plant Growth Research Facility on the east side of campus. Plant biology is a major research strength here, and we will finally have facilities to better serve the stellar faculty members we have — and will recruit! If you’d like to join us for this event, please let us know by RSVPing at cafnralumni.com/pgftoppingoff2018. I hope you will also make plans to join us for the South Farm Showcase, on Sept. 29 at South Farm Research Center, and the Missouri Chestnut Roast, on Oct. 6 at HARC — both are great family-friendly CAFNR events, and are fun and educational. What an exciting time for our college. I love the energy and excitement of fall on the Mizzou campus! CAFNR Proud! Christopher R. Daubert
CAFNR Vice Chancellor & Dean |
