COLLEGE NEWS
- Experiment Station, Ag Development offices move
- Utah ecology center director is Errington speaker
- 4-H breakfast Oct. 9 in Curtiss Hall
- Attend the World Food Prize ceremony on Oct. 15
- Collegiate Farm Bureau to host ag candidate forum
- Freezer low on pork? Ag 450 Farm has hogs for sale
- Fridge low on fruit? Hort Club selling apples
- Plant Transformation Facility to add greenhouse
- MIAC offers semester-break program in Mexico
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- One way to counter the World Wide Wait
INFOGRAZING
- Conferees agree on research, extension funds
EXTERNAL VOICES
- Number of young life scientists outstrips jobs
MARGINALIA
- Baseball and aquaculture: Start of a beautiful friendship?
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C O L L E G E N E W S
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EXPERIMENT STATION, AG DEVELOPMENT OFFICES MOVE
The Experiment Station office (Shirley Riney and Carla Persaud) has moved to 131 Curtiss, and Experiment Station assistant director Ramesh Kanwar will have an office in 20 Curtiss. The development office (William Messina, Michael Telford and Sandi Kellen) has moved to 20 Curtiss.
UTAH ECOLOGY CENTER DIRECTOR IS ERRINGTON SPEAKER
Fred Wagner, director of Utah State University's Ecology Center, will be the animal ecology department's 35th annual Errington Memorial Lecturer. Wagner will discuss the effects of elk on the Yellowstone ecosystem at 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5, 1414 Molecular Biology. On Tuesday, Oct. 6, he will give a seminar on science and policy-setting in the Yellowstone area at 2:10 p.m., 1010 LeBaron.
4-H BREAKFAST OCT. 9 IN CURTISS HALL
Agriculture faculty and staff are invited to attend the annual 4-H breakfast on Friday, Oct. 9, to recognize ISU students who are or have been 4-H members. It will be held 7 - 8 a.m. on the second floor of Curtiss Hall.
ATTEND THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE CEREMONY ON OCT. 15
Transportation is available to the 1998 World Food Prize award ceremony in Des Moines on Oct. 15. ISU faculty, staff and students are invited to attend. A bus will leave at 3 p.m. from parking lot 50B for the 4 p.m. ceremony at the Civic Center. The bus will leave the Civic Center for Ames at about 5:15 p.m. To reserve a seat on the bus, contact Judith Pim, 4-6257 or jpim@card.iastate.edu. The ceremony will feature an acceptance speech by this year's winner, who will be named Oct. 13; remarks by Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug; and a performance by Vani Jairam, a popular Indian singer who has performed throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. The College of Agriculture is secretariat for the prize.
COLLEGIATE FARM BUREAU TO HOST AG CANDIDATE FORUM
Candidates for Iowa’s secretary of agriculture will participate in a forum sponsored by the Collegiate Farm Bureau Club on Oct. 20. The candidates are Dan Brown of Iowa Falls and Patty Judge of Albia. They will share their plans for the office and answer questions about the future of Iowa agriculture. The meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Room 175, Scheman Building.
FREEZER LOW ON PORK? AG 450 FARM HAS HOGS FOR SALE
The student-run Ag 450 Farm is taking orders from persons who’d like to buy hogs to process so they can stock their freezers while pork prices are low. The farm has hogs for purchase that are slightly below traditional market weights, as well as cull sows suitable for ground pork or sausage. Current live weight prices for market hogs are about 35 cents per pound; prices for cull sows are around 20 cents per pound. When enough hogs have been ordered, they will be delivered to an area processor at no extra charge. For more details: Dan Nelson, ag education and studies, 4-4059.
FRIDGE LOW ON FRUIT? HORT CLUB SELLING APPLES
The Horticulture Club is selling apples and apple cider through Oct. 25 at Reiman Gardens. Many varieties are available. Sale dates are Fridays, 2 - 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; and Sundays, 11 a.m. — 3 p.m.
PLANT TRANSFORMATION FACILITY TO ADD GREENHOUSE
Work began recently on a new greenhouse for the Plant Transformation Facility. The 3,000-square-foot structure will adjoin the existing agronomy greenhouse, and will house transgenic corn and soybeans produced by the facility for ISU and other researchers. Nearly $400,000 from Iowa’s soybean and corn promotion boards and the Experiment Station has been raised for the project. The greenhouse is expected to be completed early in 1999.
MIAC OFFERS SEMESTER-BREAK PROGRAM IN MEXICO
The MidAmerica International Agriculture Consortium (MIAC) will host a study-abroad program to Mexico over semester break. Students will learn about the culture, history, agriculture and higher education of Central Mexico. MIAC’s executive office is located at ISU. For more information: Eduarda Becerra, 4-3972 or ebecerra@iastate.edu. Or check the web site: http://www.miac.org
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Oct. 4-10: National 4-H Week.
Oct. 7: Deadline, grant proposals for Leopold Center conference and workshop support, 4-3711.
Oct. 8: Deadline, department nominations for North Central Regional workshop on USDA NRI program on Nov. 4, 4-4544.
Oct. 9: 4-H breakfast, 2nd floor, Curtiss Hall, 7 a.m.
Oct. 15: World Food Prize award ceremony, Civic Center, Des Moines, 4 p.m.
Oct. 16: Proposal deadline, Dean of Agriculture’s International Research Grants Program, 4-8493.
Oct. 16: Food for All: Right or Goal, World Food Day satellite teleconference, Administrative Services Building, 11 a.m., 4-5906.
Oct. 20: Implementing peer appraisals that work with communication assignments/activities, Ag Comm workshop, noon, 8 Curtiss (RSVP, 4-6614).
Oct. 21: Teaching at a distance, Brenton Center workshop, 4:10 p.m., 8 Curtiss.
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C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
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ONE WAY TO COUNTER THE WORLD WIDE WAIT
Boost your web-surfing efficiency with a simple change in using your browser. Instead of using one window to do all your browsing, open more than one window. So instead of waiting for the previous page to load when you press the "Back" button, either close the top window or click your mouse on it to view it. On Windows machines, use the right mouse button when you click on a link and that page will open in a new window. On Macs, press the control key when you click on a link or hold down the mouse button on a link; then select the "New Window with this Link" command on the pop-up menu that appears.
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I N F O G R A Z I N G
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CONFEREES AGREE ON AG RESEARCH, EXTENSION FUNDS
This week on Capitol Hill, conferees on the agricultural appropriations bill reached agreement on the bill’s research and extension components. The conference agreement still needs to go to the House/Senate floors, so the following figures may be modified. There was a $22 million increase for the USDA National Research Initiative, bringing it to $119 million. Funds for food safety and water quality research and extension programs also saw gains. Formula funds are up markedly. But the agreement provided no funding for FY99 for the Fund for Rural America and the new $120-million Initiative for Future Ag & Food Systems. As it stands now, total funding for research for FY99 is $481.2 million, and for extension, $434.1 million. In tallying the bottom lines, CSREES should receive about $60 million more than it received in FY98.
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E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
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NUMBER OF YOUNG LIFE SCIENTISTS OUTSTRIPS JOBS
"I wish I had a dollar from every graduate student who said they wanted to be a science writer," says one scientist who worked on a National Research Council report that takes a dim view of alternative careers as a means to ease the job plight of young life scientists. Competition for science-related jobs in law, journalism, business or pre-college teaching is stiff and the pay is often low. The report’s main argument is that the supply of newly minted Ph.D.s in the life sciences vastly outstrips the availability of jobs. The report calls on universities to freeze the size of their Ph.D. programs and to develop no new ones "except under rare and special circumstances such as a program to serve an emerging field or to encourage the education of members of underrepresented minority groups." (Science, Sept. 11)
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M A R G I N A L I A
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BASEBALL AND AQUACULTURE: START OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP?
This past baseball season, the Pacific Suns of Oxnard, Calif., in the independent Western Baseball League, traded pitcher Ken Krahenbuhl to the Greenville (Miss.) Bluesmen for cash, a player to be named and 10 pounds of catfish. Krahenbuhl threw a perfect game in his first outing as a Bluesman. The Sun had a fish fry with the catfish. (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2)