On July 1, Robert D. Steele became dean of our College. In his previous position as associate dean for research in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and executive director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Steele administered about $70 million of research activity encompassing nearly 600 projects by 300 research faculty in 22 departments. He had overall responsibility for 13 research stations throughout Wisconsin and administered a $4 million internal competitive grants program. He also taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in nutritional sciences and helped develop the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences.

Before joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982, Steele was an assistant professor of nutrition at Rutgers University from 1978 to 1982. He received his bachelor's degree in nutritional sciences and his master's degree in biochemistry and nutrition from the University of Arizona in 1970 and 1973, respectively. He received his doctorate in nutritional sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978.

Penn State Agriculture recently spoke with Dean Steele about his new position shortly before he arrived at Penn State.

Q. What attracted you to Penn State?

A. I felt that our states were very similar, and that I had been immersed in many of the same issues in Wisconsin that Pennsylvania is facing. Agriculture is the number one segment of both Wisconsin's and Pennsylvania's economies, and we're both largely dairy states. On the plant sciences side, we're both supported by what we call minor crops–in other words, we're not just corn and soybeans. Natural resources also are a huge component of our states' economies, in terms of forestry, natural resources, and recreation. The deeper I dug and the more layers I peeled away, the greater the similarity became, which made the position more and more attractive. I'm also looking forward to being involved in all phases of the College's activities, including research, instruction, and extension and outreach. At Wisconsin, I worked primarily with the research community, but working with the College as a whole has always been near and dear to me. I'm a product of the land-grant system, and I feel that training and educating students is the most important thing we do. Finally, there was a personal attraction of coming home. Even though it's been more than 30 years since I've had a Pennsylvania driver's license, I still call myself a Pennsylvanian.

Q. Where are you from?

A. I was born in New Eagle, Pennsylvania, and grew up in rural Allegheny County. My parents weren't farmers, but I more or less grew up on adjacent farms. I owned horses as a kid and I helped care for and show purebred Angus while working on a farm. I graduated from Elizabeth Forward High School in Elizabeth in 1964. I have very fond memories of benefiting from growing up in a rural environment, but also being on an urban fringe. We could go see the Pittsburgh Pirates or visit the museums, but be right back in the country in a couple of hours. Today, interestingly enough, that rural-urban interface and how it affects agriculture is one of our major areas of focus.

Q. How did you become interested in science as a career?

A. When you really probe most scientists, it turns out they were pretty clever and creative kids, trying to figure out how the world works. That was me, I guess. I started out in biochemistry, to get a basic science underpinning, and then as I matured through college, I started trying to find a place to apply it. I've figured out a little more about how things work in the last 25 years, but what really brought me into the university community was interacting with clever and creative young kids, seeing where they would go, and helping them get there. My greatest thrill is to see former students who are doing very wonderful things.

Q. How does being an associate dean compare to being a professor?

A. The big difference is that you get your enjoyment out of facilitating the research process. That may mean getting junior faculty members adequately situated so everything is in place for them to launch their careers. For mid-level faculty members, it involves trying to facilitate their activities so they can sustain their research career. For older faculty, it means working with them in winding it down and passing it on. I get enjoyment from helping other people to succeed.

Q. What's your management philosophy?

A. Many people would characterize me as a "walk-around" manager. I work very hard to make sure people on my staff are independent and have clearly defined duties and goals, and then stay out of their way. When you have a community of very clever people, why not use them to everyone's best advantage in terms of seeking their input and their advice? That's the Wisconsin model of shared governance. We seek the advice and counsel of different groups where they're best suited to give it. Faculty participate in matters of curriculum and in personnel, like in the tenure process. Students are part of the shared governance process as well, in student-related matters. I don't think we're all that different institutionally–I see shared governance as being very compatible with the way things run at Penn State.

Q. How do you feel about the Internet and other distance education technologies?

A. I'm excited about it. I recently spent three weeks in Asia. After flying nearly a day to get there, I realized that electrons can get there in the blink of an eye. When we talk about distance education and delivering information throughout the state, the country, and the world, the new technology presents an incredible opportunity. A few years ago, we were the only College on our campus that didn't have a home page on the Internet. I decided to take the responsibility to get it up there. My motivation was to have this be a true resource for the faculty, to make them aware of research opportunities, and to facilitate the research process. I saw it as an internal mechanism to improve communication in the College, but it's an external vehicle as well, because more and more prospective students and their parents surf the Web to choose possible colleges and universities. It's important to define who our customers are and what we expect to accomplish by using this technology. We need to keep our priorities straight, decide what the issues are, and then ask whether there's a role for this technology in addressing these issues.

Q. What do you think about efforts to broaden Penn State Cooperative Extension?

A. In many ways, what Penn State is doing with extension is what Wisconsin has done for years. They have a phrase, "The Wisconsin Idea," which means that the boundaries of the state are the boundaries of the university. For about 25 years, cooperative extension has been part of what is called "University-wide Extension." The typical citizen of Pennsylvania or Wisconsin doesn't really differentiate or distinguish whether it's this college or that college, or cooperative extension–they just look at it as Penn State extension, or Wisconsin extension.

Q. How do you feel about the land-grant mission expanding over the years?

A. Some would call that evolution. We talk about ourselves as land-grant colleges of agriculture, but really, legislatively and historically, we are land-grant universities. In most states, the College of Agriculture is where federal dollars move that land-grant mission ahead, but the land-grant mission is university-wide. Sometimes I think we lose sight of that. The land-grant mission is an acknowledgment that the people of Pennsylvania know better what their problems and issues are than the bureaucrats in Washington. We should be calling upon the expertise across our universities, or anywhere we can find it, to serve the needs of the citizens of our state. The term "mission creep" too often gets used in the negative sense, but in the positive sense, I think it's an acknowledgment that we've come a long way since 1862.

Q. Where do you want the College to be in five years?

A. We came into this century with the land-grant and the Hatch and Smith-Lever laws just getting under way. As we leave this century, I would hope that we can say we're every bit as relevant today as we were in the early part of this century, that we are addressing peoples' needs, and that we are educating students to go out and be society-ready graduates.

Q. What does your wife do?

A. Jill, who has a Ph.D. in nutrition and biochemistry, was a lecturer in nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a staff person in the Center for Biology Education. She has accepted a position in the Department of Nutrition at Penn State, where she'll teach in the nutritional sciences and work in program development.

Q. Do you have any children?

A. My daughter, Molly, is nearly 12. My son, Adam, just turned 14. He will be going into his freshman year in high school, and Molly will be in the middle of middle school. They're quite excited about moving to Pennsylvania.

Q. What do you do for recreation?

A. Our off-time centers around family outdoor activities. For the past few years, we've taken a couple of weeks vacation and gone out west in the mountains for hiking, horseback riding, and other activities. My son and I like to fish and hunt. We're also centered around our kids' athletic activities. Both kids play soccer, and Adam is a basketball player. Our family also is active in recreational reading. I typically tend to read historical novels and mystery fiction. Music also is very near and dear to my heart, because in many ways it helped get me to where I am today. I went to Arizona because I had a music scholarship, so university bands and orchestras provided my tuition payments. I'm a percussionist. Well, I guess I should say I was a percussionist–I still beat around on the drums a little bit, but not like I used to. My real love is in jazz, but rock and roll also helped pay the bills.

Q. Where will your athletic loyalties lie?

A. I've been telling people that Wisconsin is red and white, and Penn State is blue and white, so we're going to wear white for a while and keep everybody guessing. Actually, we've been closet Penn State fans for many years.

–Eston Martz