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OCR for page 121
CHAPTER
15
A Challenge, a Charge,
anti a Commitment
Karl G. Brandi
I would like to return to the metaphor of the blank canvas that I
used earlier in this volume (see Chapter l ). Is your image for a new
curriculum beginning to emerged 1 admit that mine still has a few
problems. It is still an unfinished piece, but it does have new
shapes and colors. Although it is not ready to be hung in a gallery,
it is different from what 1 brought with me. I hope that the confer-
ence participants and the readers of this volcano have something
exciting on their canvases.
In a more serious vein, I would like to point out a parallel. Dur-
ing the conference, a selection of books was on display. One of
them was a tan paperback volume published by the Board on Agri-
culture of the National Research Council, Investing in Research (Na-
tional Research Council, 1989~. The idea behind that publication
was the generation of substantial new support for the research and
development activities that are major efforts on all of our cam-
puses.
The parallel is another document, one that was found in the
folders of the conference participants, a thin, rose-brown confer-
ence program brochure entitled Ulnvesting in the Future: Profes-
sional Education for the Undergraduate." By cutting and splicing,
that title can be changed to read simply Ulnvesting in Education for
the Undergraduate."
The colors of these two documents are, by and large, the same.
Both publications carry the imprimatur of the Board on Agriculture
of the National Research Council. Both have something important
to say about what goes on in colleges of agriculture. There is a
problem, however. Investing in Research is much thicker than Uln-
vesting in Education for the Undergraduate."
121
OCR for page 122
AGRICULTURE AND TftE UNDERGRADUATE
I hope the papers in this volume have generated many good
ideas that, when they are implemented back on our nation's cam-
puses and moved toward fruition, will serve as subjects for propos-
als to the Higher Education Challenge Grants program of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Good ideas that are well expressed,
whether they be ideas for research or ideas for better educating the
young people of our country, do get funded. I hope that your ideas
will attract funding to strengthen and support the education of stu-
dents in our colleges and universities. In so doing, your creative
energies will provide the wherewithal for expanding the size of
"investing in Education for the Undergraduate," so that, in weight
and accomplishment, it grows to match Investing in Research.
Education and research are vital they are parallel tracks on which
ride the processes of human capital development and scientific
discovery that fuel the engine of our industry, but they must be
tracks of more nearly equal load-bearing capacity if we are to move
forward with confidence. If one is weaker than the other, derail-
ments are inevitable. We have a way to go, but the conference and
this volume point us in the right direction.
In closing, I leave you with this. Conference participants and
readers of this volume have been encouraged to start with a blank
canvas and create a new vision a picture of a new curriculum for
educating the students in their colleges of agriculture. Pictures are
nice, and they can inspire. But if they only hang in the gallery on
your campus and are never made real, they will only be reminders
of what might have been.
The challenge to each participant and reader is to turn art into
life. Accomplishing such change is a very human activity and a
very political activity, but it is essential. Will it happen on your
campus? It is up to you.
Reference
National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to
Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washing-
ton, D.C.: National Academy Press.
122
Representative terms from entire chapter:
education challenge
