Interview with the Dean

An interview with the Dean of the College of Biology and Agriculture.

The Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. R. Kent Crookston, who replaced Clayton S. Huber as dean of BYU's College of Biology and Agriculture. Dean Crookston comes from the University of Minnesota, where he was a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics and head of that department from 1990 to 1998. During his tenure at the University of Minnesota, Dean Crookston also served as the director of Sustainable Agriculture from 1988 to 1992.

1. Crookston's research has emphasized laboratory-based physiology and field-based crop management, primarily of corn and soybeans. His teaching has focused on crop physiology and the use of decision cases in agriculture.

2. Crookston's vast international experience is a valuable asset to the College of Biology and Agriculture and to the Benson Institute specifically. From 1984 to 1986 he was resident coordinator for a USAID-sponsored project which oversaw the establishment of an agricultural university in Rabat, Morocco. He has also worked or consulted in France, Italy, Ghana, the Philippines, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Senegal, Rwanda, and Mexico.

In a recent interview, Dean Crookston answered questions about the Benson Institute and its role in the college and in the university. Excerpts from that interview follow.

1. What is the role of the Benson Institute as part of the College of Biology and Agriculture?

1. It's a key part of our mission. When I came, President Bateman helped me by affirming what I hoped; that is, BYU is not a Utah school - BYU is a world university. I mean, the world is our campus. The Benson Institute is the office by which we will be - global to the college, and being global is central to our mission. As a university, we can reach places in this world through our university connections.

   1. The stated mission of the Benson Institute is to improve the quality of life for people around the world. How can the different members of the college, the students, the faculty, and the staff contribute to that mission?

   2. I think it's going to take a kind of a revisit of why we're here. I'm not being critical at all, but it's so easy for me, as well as anybody else, to get caught up in being good academically and being among the best universities of the world, which is a little bit self-centered. So it will take some pro-activity on our part to step back and say "given our language expertise and our presence in so many countries of the world, it's an obligation on BYU's part to branch out around the planet." I understand that some universities are looking for other universities that they can form partnerships with, to add an international dimension, without diminishing their image. We're taking almost the opposite approach. We would go into São Paulo, or Manila, or some foreign place and make a branch of BYU there. And we're not worried about whether it diminishes our image. We're trying to help the poor people.

   3. Recently there have been some changes in how the Benson Institute has worked in Latin America. Currently, the emphasis is working with local students. Do you see this as a key to spreading the benefits of a BYU education?

   4. I like the model - to find an institution that's already in place, that has the buildings, the faculty, all of that taken care of, and then to sponsor some of their students in a good cause; it's so efficient in terms of using BYU's money. And also focusing on improving the quality of work that a student does will affect them for their life, not only in terms of how they will see the world and the good they can do, but in their feelings towards BYU. So for not much money, I think it really looks like a good way to go.

   5. What do you see as the goals of the Benson Institute in the next five to ten years, both as part of the college here and their work abroad?

   6. Two things. First, for all of the departments of the college to sign up, if you will, to become part of what Benson does is one of the things we need to do. And then, almost in reverse direction, for Benson to become connected with other countries, to truly be global. I don't mean to be critical of the work in Latin America, but we need to be involved in places other than just Latin America.

• Interview by Susan Eldredge

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