COLLEGE NEWS
- Corn board sets research funding meeting
- Institute for sustainable ag education established
- 115 graduating students to attend reception
- Net gain of students coming from other colleges
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Consensus-making: What's the rush?
INFOGRAZING
- Institutional trust the key in times of crisis
EXTERNAL VOICES
- Managing a wealth of information
MARGINALIA
- A holiday story
C O L L E G E N E W S
CORN BOARD SETS RESEARCH FUNDING MEETING
The Iowa Corn Promotion Board invites College of Agriculture researchers
to a meeting on research funding. It will be held Friday, Jan.
5, 9-11:00 am in the Technology Transfer Theatre, Food Sciences
Building. ICPB representatives will discuss the priorities, process,
selection criteria and budgets for funding research projects.
Representatives from the National Corn Growers Association also
will be available to discuss national research priorities. If
you plan to attend, or want more information, call the ICPB at
86345 or 59242.
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE AG EDUCATION ESTABLISHED
A $128,000 USDA Challenge Grant to ISU has established a regional
institute for undergraduate education in sustainable agriculture.
The institute is a partnership of ISU, the lead institution, and
universities in Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Michigan.
The three-year pilot project will draw upon the resources of universities,
farmers, agribusiness representatives, agricultural lenders and
others. Students will supplement courses at their own institutions
with the institute courses. For more information: Ricardo Salvador,
294-9595 (rjsalvad@iastate.edu); Gina McAndrews, 294-1360 (gina@iastate.edu);
or check out the World Wide Web home page.
115 GRADUATING STUDENTS TO ATTEND RECEPTION
About 115 graduating students will participate in the College
of Agriculture convocation and reception Saturday in C.Y. Stephens
Auditorium. More than 700 students, friends and family members
are expected to attend. Charles Staudt, ag studies, will be the
student speaker. Approximately 190 agriculture students will graduate
this semester.
NET GAIN OF STUDENTS COMING FROM OTHER COLLEGES
As ISU students make decisions about majors and careers, they
sometimes change colleges. Last year, students transferring to
the College of Agriculture from other ISU colleges exceeded those
leaving. For the year that ended Sept. 30, the college had a net
gain of 80 students -- 249 transferred to agriculture from other
colleges while 169 left the college. The college has registered
a net gain in these student transfers within the university for
every year except one during the past 30 years.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Dec. 15: Nominations due for Louis Thompson Award for Outstanding
Teaching and College of Agriculture P&S and Merit awards,
121 Curtiss
Dec. 16: College convocation and ceremony for graduating students,
C.Y. Stephens Auditorium
Dec. 18: Promotion and tenure materials due, 122 Curtiss
Jan. 3: Foreign travel grant applications due, 122 Curtiss
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
CONSENSUS-MAKING: WHAT'S THE RUSH?
The faster a group moves toward consensus the less satisfied it'll
be with the result. Researchers at the University of Texas and
the University of Houston found that group consensus on a decision,
individual acceptance of the decision and member satisfaction
with the group were all higher when the decision was reached by
a "structured, conflict-enhancing dialectic approach"
that forced participants to hammer out differences, than when
it was reached by an approach meant to facilitate and speed the
consensus process. (R.L. Priem, D.A. Harrison, N.K. Muir, "Structured
Conflict and Consensus Outcomes in Group Decision Making,"
Journal of Management, 21:4, 1995)
I N F O G R A Z I N G
INSTITUTIONAL TRUST THE KEY IN TIMES OF CRISIS
"If you run a public company you cannot ignore the public.
Institutional trust is a lot more important than most people realize.
The operative word is trust . . . and whether people will take
one's words when one badly needs them to do so will depend on
how much confidence has been built in the organization over the
years before the crisis occurs." Jim Burke, CEO of Johnson
& Johnson during one of the great examples of crisis management
-- Johnson & Johnson's response to the series of deaths from
cyanide adulteration of Tylenol capsules. (Harvard Business Review,
November/December)
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
MANAGING A WEALTH OF INFORMATION
"What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes
the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information
creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention
efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that
might consume it," says Nobel laureate economist Herbert
Simon. University of California-Berkeley Dean Hal Varian predicts
the emergence of "information managers" who provide
a value-added filtering process in sifting and managing the cornucopia
of information at our digital fingertips, to make it meaningful
to the rest of society. (Scientific American, September)
M A R G I N A L I A
A HOLIDAY STORY
The world's best chess players recently gathered in New York for
the finals of the International Chess Championship. The match
was held in the central hall of the convention center. As all
the contestants began to play, the hall was silent except for
the sounds of moving pieces and stopped timer clocks. Suddenly,
one contestant jumped to his feet and declared, "I AM THE
GREATEST CHESS PLAYER IN THE WORLD!" For a moment there was
stunned silence. Then the hall erupted in pandemonium as all the
other players began bragging. It must be Christmas -- when else
would you find chess nuts boasting in an open foyer? Happy holidays.