COLLEGE NEWS
- Agronomy Day crowds
- Yunus on TV tonight
- Fall enrollment
- Student exchange programs
- Ag Alumni Forum
- Reiman Gardens dedication
- Ag Council steak fry
- Tent-A-Gate
- Ag Online, Year One
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- The media: A business relationship
INFOGRAZING
- Plows and PCs
EXTERNAL VOICES
- State fair review
MARGINALIA
- An answer to odor?
C O L L E G E N E W S
AGRONOMY DAY CROWDS
More than 1,500 people attended Agronomy Day '95 on Thursday at
the Agronomy and Agricultural Engineering Research Center. More
than 400 were students, including 13 busloads from high schools.
The Agronomy Club served more than 800 people for lunch. Plans
are underway to make Agronomy Day an annual event.
YUNUS ON TV TONIGHT
1994 World Food Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus will be featured
as the "Person of the Week" on today's (Friday) ABC
World News Tonight, which airs at 5:30 p.m. Yunus has been hailed
as one of the "stars" of the U.N. women's conference
in Beijing for his innovative loan programs that have helped poor
people, especially women, go into business for themselves. (The
College of Agriculture is the secretariat of the World Food Prize.
This year's World Food Prize recipient will be announced on Oct.
16.)
FALL ENROLLMENT
University fall enrollment reports put the number of undergraduates
in the College of Agriculture at 2,654 -- an increase of 60 from
last fall. The number of graduate students dropped 36 from last
fall to 591.
STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
International Agriculture Programs has opportunities for five
students to study at the University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia,
and five undergrads and two grad students to travel to Uzbekistan.
Deadline to apply is Oct. 2. For more information: Joe Dale, 294-5509
or 294-3972.
AG ALUMNI FORUM
A limited number of copies of the just-published Ag Alumni Forum,
the college's annual alumni publication, are available from Ag
Information. Contact Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu or 294-2314.
The issue includes an essay by retired farm broadcaster Lee Kline
and articles highlighting faculty, students and alumni accomplishments.
REIMAN GARDENS DEDICATION
The Reiman Gardens dedication program -- 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept.
16 -- will include donors Roy and Bobbi Reiman, horticulture department
head Mike Chaplin, Dean Topel, President Jischke, Patty Jischke
and a performance on the gardens' carillon by ISU carillonneur
Tin-Shi Tam.
AG COUNCIL STEAK FRY
The Agriculture Student Council's annual steak fry will be 5:30
p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the Reiman Gardens. The event is
for invited college and department administrators, club advisers
and officials, and other selected faculty and staff, in appreciation
of contributions to Ag Council activities over the past year.
TENT-A-GATE
The annual Tent-A-Gate for College of Agriculture alumni is Oct.
7 before the ISU-Oklahoma game. The event, located in tents east
of the Olsen Building, begins at 10:30 a.m. with coffee and doughnuts
and continues until game time at 1 p.m. A short program will feature
awards to outstanding alumni. Advance reservations for a meal
served by the Iowa Pork Producers are available for $5 by calling
294-4725.
AG ONLINE, YEAR TWO
This issue of Ag Online marks the start of the newsletter's second
year. Thanks to those who've sent comments and suggestions over
the past year. We welcome your thoughts. Ag Online now has almost
400 subscribers. Most are college faculty and staff, plus subscribers
in other ISU offices. Two other places to catch Ag Online: hard-copy
is posted in each department and other college offices, and current
and past issues can be found online.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Sept. 16 -- Reiman Gardens dedication
Sept. 27 -- Ag Council Steak Fry
Sept. 28 -- Research Exchange Visits grant applications due, 126
Curtiss
Oct. 7 -- College of Agriculture reception, Parent and Family
Weekend
Oct. 7 -- Ag Alumni Tent-A-Gate
Oct. 12 -- Promotion & tenure committee nominations due, 479
Heady
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
THE MEDIA: A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP
When you work with news reporters, consider it a business relationship,
according to Ian Pearson, who facilitated last month's college
retreat on communications. We are the providers of information;
reporters are the consumers. Like any business relationship, the
provider should pay attention to the customer's needs. And remember
that reporters wear two hats: they are consumers of our information
and providers of information to the public. Using the press as
a bridge to a public that is wary of institutions adds credibility
to our information.
I N F O G R A Z I N G
PLOWS AND PCs
Within five years, it's anticipated that about 50 percent of the
150,000 major grain farmers in the Midwest will use precision
farming techniques. "The one thing that makes site-specific
farming work is the computer processing power that is available
today," says a marketing manager at a firm that makes precision
fertilizer applicators. The farmer uses information gleaned through
a combination of high-tech yield monitors, crop moisture sensors
and a satellite receiver, which is then filtered through special
software, to apply just the right amount of costly fertilizer
to each part of a field to maximize production. (Investor's Business
Daily, Aug. 31)
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
STATE FAIR CRITIQUE
Richard Christiansen, the Chicago Tribune's chief critic and self-described
"city boy to the marrow," visited the Iowa State Fair
for the first time and on Aug. 27 wrote: ". . . A few days
after I had left the fair and returned home to Chicago, when I
was absorbing the absurd convolutions of the O.J. Simpson trial,
the disgraceful sham of the Mike Tyson non-event and the weird
creepiness of the Calvin Klein ads, I was ready to chuck all the
urban niceties for a return to the values of sincere craft and
careful workmanship that were still being hailed, with conviction,
at the state fair."
M A R G I N A L I A
AN ANSWER TO ODOR?
From a letter to the editor by Wayne Frauenholtz of West Branch
that appeared in Iowa Farmer Today, Sept. 2: "I believe I
have a slurry or solution that may help to clear the air [of swine
odor problems]. They could begin at the root cause of all this
by banning beans in the diet of all the stock . . . ! Beans in
any diet can lead to explosive circumstances. Frankly I'm amazed
some land-grant grad hasn't arrived at this odor answer."