College Of University Studies
Statement of Goals

Gary J. Lange, NDSU Degree Proposal 1976

        It is my goal to be able to fuse the disciplines of the humanities
and agriculture. I am specifically interested in experimental agriculture
and in helping to pioneer alternate patterns for how an individual, or a
group of people, can work with land: people who share the commitment
that agriculture is an aesthetic and practical art, who see it as a base
and springboard for an understanding in, and a growth of the humanities.
I have in the past, and continue to plan to work with my uncle, Dr.
Jerry Lange, on the development of an organic farm outside of Madison,
South Dakota. Mr. Lange is a professor of history at Dakota State
College. His special interest is agricultural history and the viability
of the family farm as an economic and ecological alternative to giant
agribusiness and urban sprawl. My commitments of labor, money,
and unity with his family over the past three years, has helped me both
to learn, and to become aware of what I need to learn.

        I want to continue to work with land and people, regardless of
what life style or what specific place to live I choose. I have tried to
formulate a discipline of study and of life that embraces both the humanities
and agriculture. In searching for a broad understanding of man and
science in my life, I have chosen some key areas to work with. I am
intensely interested in poetry, both as a form of self expression and in
its special approach to the humanities. As a composite of man's experience with
the rhythms of life, use of language, and expression of what it is to be a man,
it will help direct my own attitude and respectfor life. It will also help focus my understanding of what my own, or a community's responsibility is to potential land development. Along with my work in agronomy, poetry helps me understand the local agricultural community I live in, both in broad spectrum of the northwest, and a specific township or farm. I want where I live to be a humanistic gymnasium for myself and others to work and grow In. Work must have a direction other than just momentum of economic proficiency, or I am not satisfied.

          One dream I have Is to be connected with various groups of
people in the Northwest, part of my family, and a few of my friends,
are considering locating in western Montana and working together -
in an yet unspecified type of community. I must have some skills
and individual understanding to bring to any community like this. With
this in mind, I also try to accumulate a perspective on the American
Indians' experience with both this land and the white man. While
recognizing the negative aspects, I am particularly intrigued in how
the positive aspects of this interrelationship can be brought out and
utilized in any future I will be a part of. Any development I am in-
volved in must choose the technology it uses and develops and must
understand the consequences that will result; therefore, I want to
have an understanding of the resources of the environment, to know
how to utilize local resources, and to make intellectual decisions
regarding them. It is in the appreciation and partnership with a total,
regional, and specific environment that the fusion of agriculture and
humanities becomes an integral part of me and what I plan to do.

         Although this degree proposal is not designed to lead into any
program for a master's degree, it is designed to lead into the flexibility
f continuous education - both in and out of institutions. It is a
unit of study that can later be augmented as I see fit. The concepts
of flexibility and continuous education are dear to me, and therefore,
so is creative leisure, work, study, and writing. As I study the practice
of life I want to be able to incorporate into my world the four common
sense laws that Barry Commoner stresses: that everything is connected
to everything else, that everything must-go somewhere, that nature knows
best, and that there is no such thing as a free lunch (everything has acost).

         When I state that poetry and agronomy (both crops and soils) are
important to my future, it is because I carry a personal commitment that
agriculture must not lose its cultural significance for any community of man,
and that man, as a biologic community, should be involved in theart of
agriculture because he is dependent upon it. In the future I may be working with my uncle's farm, or I may be living on and developing my own piece of land. It is also possible I could be or working with a company that specializes in the marketing of resources necessary for organic farming while it helps the individual farmer develop a complimentary land management program. Regardless of my exact circumstances, I want to ensure that there is something more to my labor than the accumulation of money and leisure spent on entertainment. This is based on my recurrent hope of a renais-sance of culture. I want to be a renaissance man, not a mercenary of" the system".

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