Vic Lechtenberg insists he isn’t going anywhere

When Purdue University’s ninth dean of agriculture became the second vice provost of engagement on July 1, there were enough fond farewells from his friends and colleagues to make it seem like a summer of long good byes to Purdue Agriculture.

“I’m not going away,” insists Vic Lechtenberg, who had served as dean of agriculture since replacing Robert Thompson in 1994.

“As vice provost, I’ll be trying to better leverage the university to help solve the problems across the state of Indiana,” Lechtenberg explains.

That’s pretty much what he did as dean of agriculture, only now the playing field is much larger, involving all of Indiana’s citizens.

“It’s everything we’ve been doing in the College of Agriculture,” Lechtenberg says, “only on a grander scale. We’re still on the same mission: helping Indiana grow the economy and solve problems, and connecting the people to Purdue University.”

In January, Purdue Provost Sally Mason approached Lechtenberg with the idea of filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Don Gentry.

If it took a little while for Lechtenberg to realize it was an offer he could not refuse, it was only because he had been an integral part of Purdue Agriculture since 1968 when he joined the agronomy department as an instructor.

But it was that 37 years of experience that made Lechtenberg such an attractive candidate for the vice provost position.

“Those of us in Purdue Agriculture have had some amount of experience and success in doing what the provost wants to accomplish in Indiana,” says Lechtenberg. “When you think about where we have the capabilities to do these kinds of things in the state, a lot of it has been done through the county Extension programs. If we can engage people in partnerships with others at the university, then we have an entrée into local communities that is pretty powerful.

“I expect that is why the provost asked if I would be interested in doing this, because I

could bring connections to all of those offices and lots of the other entities across the state through my experience of 30-plus years in Purdue Agriculture.”

The success of Extension programs across the state, at least in part, will serve as a blueprint for attempts by the provost’s office to engage the people of Indiana.

“I think our challenge is to build a system that is not a clone of Extension but a partnership that will help the entire university, not just Purdue Agriculture and consumer and family sciences areas,” says Lechtenberg.

“We want people to know that Purdue is there, available and willing to help, and that there are a couple of different ways to access that help.”

And Lechtenberg says he will be using some of the same people–including many throughout the Extension system–who have helped make Purdue Agriculture a success to help him succeed in his new job.

“Customers and clients at the county level have a very high regard for what Purdue Extension has been able to do,” Lechtenberg says. “We don’t want to compromise that.

“To accomplish what we want to do across the university, I’ll be relying a great deal on the vast expertise within Purdue Agriculture. And those people who have experience working with people across the state of Indiana are in my database. I’ll be in touch with a lot of them to help us do some of the things we want to do.”

Contact Lechtenberg at vll@purdue.edu