- More than 150 attend college retreat on scholarship
- New faculty to be introduced at convocation
- Destination Ukraine and Siberia for some in college
- Thanks to all State Fair volunteers
- Questions of all sorts heard at State Fair
- AgComm makes plans for fifth year in college
- CARD Fall Ag Policy Conference at two sites
- Fall field day at Southeast Farm
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- E-mail virus scares often overblown
INFOGRAZING
- ISU ag alum maintains national farm safety Web site
- Another alum to study prayer power in farm safety
EXTERNAL VOICES
- University's values reflected in faculty evaluation
MARGINALIA
- We dairy you to come up with a butter title
C O L L E G E N E W S
MORE THAN 150 ATTEND COLLEGE RETREAT ON SCHOLARSHIP
More than 150 faculty and staff attended Thursday's College of
Agriculture's retreat on "Rethinking Scholarship." A
videotape of keynote speaker Conrad Weiser, dean emeritus at Oregon
State University, is available now, and a summary report of the
day's discussions on scholarship, tenure and promotion, characteristics
of the ideal reward system and barriers to innovation will soon
be available. For more information, contact Robert Martin, 4-0896
NEW FACULTY TO BE INTRODUCED AT CONVOCATION
The College of Agriculture's fall convocation will be held in
the Curtiss Auditorium, 127 Curtiss Hall, at 4 p.m., Monday, Aug.
26. New faculty members will be introduced. Refreshments will
be served.
DESTINATION UKRAINE AND SIBERIA FOR SOME IN COLLEGE
Several projects are taking college administrators and faculty
to Ukraine and beyond. An International Conference on Agriculture
on Sept. 2 at the National Agricultural University of Ukraine
will include several presenters from ISU. A three-day Ensminger-Iowa
State University Ag-Tech School follows, with college faculty
and administrators among the group of international presenters.
(Animal scientist and author M.E. Ensminger, who received an honorary
degree from ISU this year, is known for his work in international
agriculture.) Dean Topel also will visit Kharkov State University
in Ukraine. He and officials from ISU's International Institute
of Theoretical and Applied Physics will travel to the Siberian
Aerospace Academy to investigate potential exchanges.
THANKS TO ALL STATE FAIR VOLUNTEERS
Thanks to the 64 volunteers who helped staff "A Rumen With
a View," the dairy-themed College of Agriculture exhibit
at the Iowa State Fair (see "Marginalia.") Thousands
stopped to learn more about ISU dairy history, current ISU dairy
activities, how a rumen works and how milk is made. About 12,000
kids took home farm-scene sheets on which they'd placed rubber-stamp
images of cows. About 2,800 activity sheets for kids and 2,000
cards with recipes and phone numbers of ISU contacts were distributed.
Many visitors picked up brochures on college majors and off-campus
program offerings.
QUESTIONS OF ALL SORTS HEARD AT STATE FAIR
Besides the most common question ("Is that a REAL rumen?"),
visitors to the college's State Fair display always ask a lot
of questions. This year about 30 people wanted to know more about
attending Iowa State. Several teachers asked for more information
on materials used in the exhibit. Some wondered if the photo of
a milk-mustached Fred Hoiberg was available as a poster. Other
questions included how to design and build hog facilities and
what will kill plaintain without killing alfalfa. All requests
for information have been filled or forwarded to appropriate ISU
experts.
AGCOMM MAKES PLANS FOR FIFTH YEAR IN COLLEGE
1996-97 is the fifth year for AgComm, the College of Agriculture's
communication-across-the-curriculum program. This year AgComm
plans to offer faculty development workshops on teaching communication
in technical courses; consult with those who want to develop the
communication-intensive aspect of their courses; offer support
for developing and presenting class materials; and review, upon
request, an individual's or department's communication-intensive
courses. A Web page of communication-intensive assignments also
will be developed, with support from a two-year USDA Challenge
Grant. For more information or to schedule workshops or consultations:
Robert Martin, 4-0896, drmartin@iastat.edu.
CARD FALL AG POLICY CONFERENCE AT TWO SITES
"Market-Based Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges"
is the theme of CARD's 1996 Fall Agricultural Policy Conference,
offered on two dates at two locations: Sept. 12, Iowa Lakes Community
College, Emmetsburg, and Sept. 13, Indian Hills Community College,
Ottumwa. For more information: 4-6257.
FALL FIELD DAY AT SOUTHEAST FARM
A fall field day will be held Sept. 11 at the ISU Southeast Research
and Demonstration Farm near Crawfordsville. For more information:
4-4620.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Aug. 26: College of Agriculture convocation, Curtiss Auditorium,
Curtiss Hall
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
E-MAIL VIRUS SCARES OFTEN OVERBLOWN
Experts say that fears of e-mail-borne viruses appear to be overblown,
and are urging network users to stop their misguided efforts to
warn others of the "non-existent" threat. Panic over
unfounded rumors causes another very real problem -- floods of
e-mail warnings that can slow Internet traffic to a crawl. Security
specialists say that plain electronic mail cannot carry a virus,
and that users can best protect themselves by not opening attachments
unless they have a good idea of what's inside. (Chronicle of
Higher Education, July 12)
I N F O G R A Z I N G
ISU AG ALUM MAINTAINS NATIONAL FARM SAFETY WEB SITE
Farm safety information from many different states, agencies and
organizations -- including ISU -- is available on the National
Ag Safety Database, a Web site at the University of Florida. Carol
Lehtola, an ISU ag and biosystems engineering alum and Florida's
Extension Safety Specialist, maintains the site. The Web site
is: http://www.agen.ufl.edu/~nasd/nasdhome.html
For more information: clehtola@agen.ufl.edu.
ANOTHER ALUM TO STUDY PRAYER POWER IN FARM SAFETY
LaMar Grafft, rural health and safety specialist at the University
of Iowa's Center for Ag Safety and Health, will study a northeast
Iowa pastor's efforts to organize mass prayer for the safety and
health of Iowa's farmers during the fall harvest. "We're
not trying to test God," said Grafft, who has bachelor's
and master's degrees in animal science from ISU. "What we're
trying to do is create a method for measuring the benefits of
social awareness." Researchers will monitor the prayer efforts,
compare data from year-to-year farm safety records and interview
farmers who feel they were affected by the prayer. (Des Moines
Register, Aug. 22)
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
UNIVERSITY'S VALUES REFLECTED IN FACULTY EVALUATION
"A university's values are most clearly described by its
promotion and tenure policies, and by the criteria used to evaluate
faculty performance." Conrad Weiser, dean emeritus of the
College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University, at
Thursday's College of Agriculture Faculty-Staff Retreat.
M A R G I N A L I A
WE DAIRY YOU TO COME UP WITH A BUTTER TITLE
In her Aug. 17 column in the Quad City Times, Kathie Obradovich
wrote: "In the over-the-top spirit of the (Iowa State Fair),
we offer this list of the most excessive offerings we could find
. . . Worst pun -- Leave it to those ag-heads at Iowa State University.
Their exhibit is a tribute to a cow's stomach, titled A Rumen
With A View. In case you didn't know, a rumen is the first of
the four stomach chambers in our bovine friends. The exhibit comes
complete with a shellacked-and-dried cow organ about the size
of the engine in the my '88 Mustang."