- Iowa legislators filled in on ISU ag activities
- Kanwar named Experiment Station assistant director
- Graduate assistantships for minority students available
- Spring enrollment up for college
- Vision 2020 bus heads for community colleges Feb.
25
- Distance education series continues through March
- Learner-centered education theme of March workshop
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Doris and Bertie would understand
INFOGRAZING
- Increase in USDA funds proposed in federal budget
EXTERNAL VOICES
- A reason to teach about other cultures
- There is no respect without knowledge
- Dealing with civility issues at universities
MARGINALIA
- There's nothing like that sweet sound on Valentine's
Day
C O L L E G E N E W S
IOWA LEGISLATORS FILLED IN ON ISU AG ACTIVITIES
Administrators and faculty have been making presentations on ISU
agricultural activities at the Iowa Statehouse. On Jan. 21, Dean
David Topel and Gerald Klonglan, associate dean, spoke on research
accomplishments for the House Agriculture Committee. Livestock
odor research was the topic Jan. 22 in the House Ag Committee,
with information presented by Colin Scanes, executive associate
dean, and Stewart Melvin, head of ag & biosystems engineering.
On Feb. 5, the Senate Ag Committee heard from Scanes, Melvin and
Dwaine Bundy, ag & biosystems engineering, on odor research
and from Abe Epstein, plant pathology, on his multiflora rose
work.
KANWAR NAMED EXPERIMENT STATION ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Ramesh Kanwar has begun a three-year appointment as the Experiment
Station assistant director for biological sciences. The appointment
is a half-time administrative position. Kanwar will continue as
a faculty member in ag & biosystems engineering. He joins
assistant directors Dianne Draper, for home economics/social sciences;
Prem Paul, for veterinary medicine/biological sciences; and Susan
Lamont, for biological sciences. Lamont's appointment continues
through June 30.
GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS FOR MINORITY STUDENTS AVAILABLE
The Experiment Station provides graduate research assistantships
to newly recruited minority students. The quarter-time support
is matched by departmental or investigator funds, and is provided
for two years for a master's and three years for a Ph.D. program.
For more information: Ramesh Kanwar, 4-4913 or Carla Persaud,
4-9376.
SPRING ENROLLMENT UP FOR COLLEGE
Spring-semester enrollment in the College of Agriculture is 2,511
undergraduate students, up from 2,480 a year ago. Graduate student
enrollment increased to 646, from 604. This semester there are
946 female (38 percent) and 1,565 male (62 percent) undergraduates
in the college; and 231 female (36 percent) and 415 male (64 percent)
graduate students. For the university, spring enrollment is 18,864
undergraduates, up from 18,680 last spring. Graduate enrollment
is 4,241, up from 4,073 a year ago.
VISION 2020 BUS HEADS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES FEB. 25
There's still room on the bus for the Feb. 25 trip to Iowa Valley
Community College in Marshalltown and Hawkeye Community College
in Waterloo. The Vision 2020 program introduces ISU faculty to
their counterparts at community colleges. For more information:
Ann Schultz, 4-2496 or amps@iastate.edu.
DISTANCE EDUCATION SERIES CONTINUES THROUGH MARCH
Four satellite-downlinked programs on distance teaching and learning
remain in a series hosted by the Brenton Center. They are held
on Tuesdays, 1-3 p.m. in Pearson Hall. The four are: Planning
Instruction (2/18); Presenting Instruction (2/25); Developing
Innovative Multimedia Presentations (3/4); and Models of Effective
Distance Teaching (3/11). Space is limited. For more information,
check out the Web site:
http://www.ag.iastate.edu/departments/aged/connection/
LEARNER-CENTERED EDUCATION THEME OF MARCH WORKSHOP
"Learner-centered Education" is the theme of a Vision
2020 workshop on March 20-21. The workshop, open to all ISU faculty
and staff, will cover new techniques to improve learning in the
classroom; ways to integrate teaching goals and student learning
outcomes; and how to write mission statements to guide personal
and professional development. For more information: Ann Schultz,
4-2496 or amps@iastate.edu.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Feb. 18: Enhancing Communication in Large Classes workshop, 229
Curtiss, noon (4-6614)
Feb. 19: FFA Breakfast, 2nd floor, Curtiss Hall, 7:30 a.m.
Feb. 20: Concerns and Support of the Public Regarding Surface
and Groundwater Quality in Iowa, Linda Appelgate, Iowa Environmental
Council, 7:30 p.m., Brenton Center (sustainable ag seminar)
Feb. 27: ISU Protecting Surface Water Quality through Management
of Agricultural Practices, Jim Baker, ag & biosystems engineering,
7:30 p.m., Brenton Center (sustainable ag seminar)
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
DORIS AND BERTIE WOULD UNDERSTAND
The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed requiring
companies to use plain English in their prospectuses. The SEC
is concerned that technical and dense legalese hides information
investors need to make informed decisions. The SEC has put together
a draft of "A Plain English Handbook." In the preface,
Omaha tycoon Warren Buffet states: "Write with a specific
person in mind. When writing (my) annual report, I pretend that
I'm talking to my sisters . . . They will understand plain English
but jargon may puzzle them. My goal is simply to give them the
information I would wish them to supply me if our positions were
reversed. No sisters to write to? Borrow mine: Just begin with
'Dear Doris and Bertie.'" The handbook draft can be found
at:
http://www.sec.gov/news/plaineng.htm
I N F O G R A Z I N G
INCREASE IN USDA FUNDS PROPOSED IN FEDERAL BUDGET
A few highlights of the Clinton Administration's proposed USDA
budget for fiscal year 1998: The budget is a 3.2 percent increase
over the '97 budget. Funds have been requested for several initiatives,
including: more than $9 million for food safety initiatives related
to the HACCP inspection system; an increase of $12 million in
human nutrition research; $164 million to set aside more acres
in the Wetlands Reserve Program; $900,000 for agricultural weather
activities; and $1.1 million to assess the 1996 Farm Bill and
the future of production agriculture. The budget request for the
Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service is
8 percent below last year's appropriation, but proposes level
funding for base programs. The Administration meets soon with
Congressional leaders to begin budget negotiations.
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
A REASON TO TEACH ABOUT OTHER CULTURES
Lawrence Levine, professor of cultural history at the University
of California at Berkeley, said he wrote the book "The Opening
of the American Mind" because "I became increasingly
upset at myself and my colleagues for not explaining to students
and their parents why we are teaching multiculturalism . . ."
Levine said he graduated from college in the '50s "knowing
very little about the vast majority of the people in the world.
We studied Northern and Western Europe. Nothing on Africa, Asia
and Latin America. Even Canada was a great blank. My own father
was an immigrant from Lithuania and my grandparents were from
Odessa, but we talked only about Northern and Western Europe.
There's something wrong with that." (New York Times, Aug.
21, 1996)
THERE IS NO RESPECT WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE
"Ours is a late-twentieth-century world profoundly fissured
by nationality, ethnicity, race, class and gender. And the only
way to transcend those divisions -- to forge, for once, a civic
culture that respects both differences and commonalities -- is
through education that seeks to comprehend the diversity of human
culture. Beyond the hype and the high-flown rhetoric is a pretty
homely truth: There is no tolerance without respect -- and no
respect without knowledge." Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1990.
DEALING WITH CIVILITY AT UNIVERSITIES
"Universities are places where these (civility) issues are
also being played out. We're just a microcosm of the broader society
and we have a lot of work to do even on ourselves. Universities,
with expertise in facilitating reasoned discourse, should exercise
a leadership role in dealing with these tough issues. They also
have an important role in building community, both within their
discipline inside the university, and also in the communities
at large." Judith Rodin, president of the University of Pennsylvania
and chair of the recently created Penn National Commission on
Society, Culture and Community, which will "explore the explosion
of incivility in America and around the world, and find ways to
think differently and more creatively about social and political
questions." From Salon, an on-line magazine:
http://www.salon1999.com/news/news970108.html
M A R G I N A L I A
THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THAT SWEET SOUND ON VALENTINE'S DAY
A kiss sounds the same as when a cow drags her hind hoof out of
a swamp. (An old German saying from "The Kissing Book: Everything
You Need to Know," by Tomama Edmark.)