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MSU going in-person with increased interest in food and ag

The Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University tells Brownfield plans are in the works to bring students back to campus in the fall.

“The goal is to roughly have about three-quarters of our classes in-person or at least some component of them.”

Ron Hendrick says while they’ve managed through instruction over the past year, some components of agriculture and natural resources need a hands-on environment.  For the fall, enrollment applications are up 40 percent.

“We did not see a drop off in students or credit hours and courses taken this fall and we didn’t see the drop off this spring,” he says.  “I think that speaks to what came into such clearer focus this year about the need to have a robust and resilient system to keep the state, to keep the country and to keep the world fed.”

He says virtual teaching has also opened the door for more flexible education and hopefully will draw in more nontraditional students to fulfill workforce needs.