New horizons

Dr. Tom Yates (PhD) likes, quite literally, getting his hands and feet dirty. The new associate dean academic for the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) is a soil scientist by education, which necessitates handling soil and tromping in all kinds of terrain.

But even before earning his PhD in the college, he had training in physical anthropology and archaeology, and was an exploration geologist in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories. On top of that, he was a geological technician in the oilfields of Alberta.

What he has learned over time is that being out standing (and digging) in the field is, in fact . . . outstanding.

“I had a fair amount of experience looking after field crews and doing field work,” he said of his geology years. “One of the reasons why the college hired me was the soil background, but also that I was quite used to looking after people He joined the college in 2008 and quickly became engaged with the renewable resource management program. Its field course was considered the flagship.

“They needed someone who could handle students in the field for many days at a time.”

His passion for soil and an understanding of the importance of connections drive his goals for his term as academic dean.

Overarching vision

“There are really two main things I’m interested in doing,” said Yates. “They’re related to or part of something the college already has strength in.

“One of them has do to with connections between First Nations and the college. We have several ways we’re doing that. There’s the KA (Kanawayihetaytan Askiy) program and there’s the kihci-okâwîmâwaskiy Knowledge Centre.”

He has long been collaborating with First Nations, in his role as professor, through a field course and a group project course that often involved being in the field. In one case, he had permission from One Arrow First Nation to access its land north of Duck Lake, part of the Nisbet Forest, where he taught students about soils and mapping.

“The land managers would come out from One Arrow and meet with the students,” he said. “If we could, we’d have students come from the school at One Arrow, which is Almighty Voice, and they would interact with my students.

“In my fourth-year course, the last several years I’ve been doing projects in collaboration with a First Nation, just recently with Little Pine and also Mistawasis and Ile a la Crosse.”

They’re very rewarding experiences for the students, he finds. They get to interact with people and communities they had likely never met before.

“It serves as an example of the things you can do, and the university programs you can take, that still allow you to do things of importance to the community,” he said.

“I’d like to find ways of extending those experiences to other courses in the college. It’s a much better experience for everybody and more appreciated if we’re going out and being present in their communities.”

His second goal is centred around professionalism.

“I’m a practicing agrologist and a member of the Saskatchewan Institute of Professional Agrologists,” explained Yates. “The college is a professional college, but the public doesn’t always think of us that way. I’d like to promote us more as a professional college. A lot of that has to do with the undergrad students’ understanding of what it means to be a professional.”

Among his plans to achieve this is potentially using the undergraduate clubs as a vehicle to improve this understanding.

A third related piece that fits in with the agrology theme is looking for more opportunities to collaborate with industry.

“I’ve always had positive experiences collaborating with industry,” said Yates. “We always do a certain amount of that, but it would be interesting to collaborate further, whether through student internship programs, bringing in guest speakers or lecturers, field courses, and getting more industry professionals involved in that.

“There’s a lot of willingness to collaborate or provide mentorship and authentic learning experiences. Industry is looking to make contact with students because students are potential employees. It also improves the soft skills of the students themselves.

“It’s not so much about addressing a problem as enriching the students’ experiences.”

These experiences also help build connections, which is foundational to career success.

New in educational opportunities

Yates is also coming in at a time when three programs at the college are either being changed or launched.

New this year is the Certificate in Precision Agriculture, and that’s a “really nice addition to the college,” he said.

“It advances us in terms of teaching in the area of digital agriculture. This is collecting massive amount of data in the field captured by drones and sensors and learning how to process it. It’s probably one of the key ones right now.

“It’s long overdue, and really modernizes a lot of our teaching in our agronomy programs. I suspect there will be other ways to extend that into some of our other current programs as well.”

The second addition is a new degree program out of the Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences: Bachelor of Science in Food Industry Management.

The degree was created to meet industry demand for graduates with interdisciplinary training in food science, agribusiness and marketing, preparing them for jobs in the booming agri-food sector.

There are also changes coming to the undergraduate Kanawayihetaytan Askiy (KA) program.

“This program is not new, but what is new is that the college is making it possible for high school students to enrol directly into the two KA diplomas without having to complete the KA certificate first,” said Yates.

“We’re expecting that to be more accessible,” he said, adding that application dates will be changed.

“Its purpose is to provide an area of study and a credentialed certificate for Indigenous land managers. It’s really the sole purpose, to train them in various aspects of land management both on the legal side and environmental side.”

Whatever courses of study students choose, Yates hopes they never feelboxed in. There are many options and huge opportunities.

“I say to my students, ‘don’t be afraid of what you’re doing or trying,’” said Yates.

“I had four or five careers before this one. When it wasn’t working out, I made a change. Sometimes it was scary because when you have a family and kids, it can be pretty scary. But if you’re making changes that will be potentially better for everyone in the end, it’s worth a try.”

Agknowledge, Fall 2023