Youth News
OSU Day at OYE Highlights Lots College has to Offer FFA, 4H Students - Dean Tom Coon Elaborates
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:06:02 CDT
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays sat down to visit with Tom Coon, vice president of the Division of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University, during OSU Day at the Oklahoma Youth Expo this week to talk about the event and how the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources is getting along so far, this year. You can listen to their complete conversation by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of the page.
"We so appreciate all the work that goes into making this event happen, because it really does give these youth some tremendous opportunities and what I especially like about it is that we're here for the whole 13 or so days it is," Coon said. We've got a lot of faculty, students and others involved here so everyday these young people are encountering someone wearing orange. But it's really nice to get today to say, okay now let's think about college as well."
According to Coon, CASNR's enrollment seems to be continuing an upward path yet again this year, contrary to many neighboring institutions.
"Our admissions process this year - everything indicates we're going to have another really good freshman class come in, in terms of quality but also the number of students coming in," he said. "We're kind of running against the norm. If you look around at some of our neighboring states - they're seeing declines in enrollment. OSU is not seeing that decline and CASNR is certainly seeing an increase in enrollment year-over-year; five to seven percent per year. So, we're doing something right here."
Budget constraints remain a limiting factor for the University, but Coon refuses to let the situation define the success of the essential work he and his faculty conduct.
"Money can make work a lot easier, but who has an easy job in agriculture," Coon asked. "My perspective is, there are things we need to do and that we can do to make us even better. We need to get all about that. Whether we have as much money as we had last year - or not - we have pretty creative minds. So, let's figure this out."
Coon says his team is exploring how the use of more available technologies can strengthen and expand the reach of the Cooperative Extension Service and how the Division's research initiatives can be advanced with the resources readily available until a time when more state and federal funding can be appropriated. He credits OSU's faculty as being up for the task and being the kind of people excited for the challenge.
Our Coverage of the 2018 Oklahoma Youth Expo is once again a service of ITC Great Plains, Your Energy Superhighway- learn more about this high voltage, transmission only utility and their commitment to the communities they serve which is the cornerstone of their business-click here for their website.
Reports will be heard daily on great radio stations that cover Oklahoma and that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network- on the internet- our reports of the 2018 OYE can be found on the Blue Green Gazette page- available here. We will be adding pictures daily to our official 2018 OYE Album of Photos on FLICKR, found here.
For more information about the Oklahoma Youth Expo, click here for the home page of the OYE website.
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