NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — New Kansas State University President Dr. Richard H. Linton was in Hutchinson at the Encampment Building on the Kansas State Fairgrounds Thursday for a listening and learning town hall with the K-State Alumni Association.
"I think we have a great relationship with the community and also a great relationship with the community college," Linton said Thursday. "It's all about finding a way to help in higher education, to be able to help provide an opportunity for youth to be able to get a college degree. A big part of my visit here in Hutchinson is to be able to talk with the community college and understand how we can help them grow, how they can help us grow and how we can collaboratively work together."
Linton has spent his entire career in land grant institutions, and that is by design.
"Thirty eight years in the land grant system," Linton said. "Nine as a student at Virginia Tech getting all three degrees and then 29 years at Purdue University, The Ohio State University and N.C. State University. When I was looking and considering a President's position, it had to be a foundational land grant. There's not many foundational land grants that still believe in research, teaching, extension and outreach for the benefits of the citizens of the state. K-State's one of the few. I had worked on a number of projects 15 years ago and always valued the family feel, the authenticity, the genuine nature of the people. People in this state are so passionate about the land grant. It's a great place to be President and I'm looking at trying to do everything I can to move this university forward."
Linton knows that one area where K-State is going to be able to provide unparallelled opportunity to its students and faculty is in animal science, once the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility is fully commissioned.
"It puts us best in the world," Linton said. "It's the only facility in the United States, only one of five in the world that's BSL Level 4 for food animals. I think, when you have something that puts you best in the world in a partnership with USDA ARS, we need to be thinking about everything that we can do to be able to build upon it, to be able to make it greater. Already, we're seeing some of the benefits. Just recently, over the last couple of months, we had the biggest economic development announcement in the history of Manhattan, with Scorpion Biologics coming and providing a $650 million investment in human vaccines. We're hoping to be able to build that private-public partnership and to be able to grow what we do for the food animal industry here in Kansas, with national and global impacts."
Linton is the 15th president of Kansas State University.