AG ONLINE.10

The College of Agriculture Newsletter
Iowa State University
January 20, 1995 No. 10

C O N T E N T S

- Spring convocation; - New hours for CommLab; - Experiment Station funding '94; - FFA Breakfast Feb. 22; - Creative environments: Upcoming program
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK: - Talking to the media
INFOGRAZING: - Ag, environment, food safety survey; - The International Community College
EXTERNAL VOICES: - Hunkering down
MARGINALIA: - Power e-mail
C O L L E G E N E W S SPRING CONVOCATION The College of Agriculture Spring Convocation will be held at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 1, Lush Auditorium in Kildee Hall. Faculty and staff awards will be presented and others recognized for awards they received during the past year. NEW HOURS FOR COMMLAB The Communications Laboratory, 213A Curtiss, has new office hours: 8 a.m.-noon, Monday through Friday, or by appointment. CommLab helps agriculture undergrads with oral, written and visual communication skills. It offers individual tutoring, short lessons for undergrad classes on communication topics and TA training sessions for graduate students. CommLab director Lee-Ann Kastman (294-7550 or lkastman@iastate.edu) is available to present brief explanations of the lab's services to undergrad classes. EXPERIMENT STATION FUNDING '94 Experiment Station funding reached $69.3 million in fiscal year (federal) 1994, up 12.5 percent from FY 93. The total reflects increases in state appropriations, non-USDA federal grants, industry grants and product sales. State appropriations rose 17 percent to $29.3 million, mainly due to the college's "3 X 5" program and salary increases. Grants from industry, USDA and other federal agencies totaled $28.5 million. USDA appropriations -- formula funds and grants -- were $14.3 million. Formula funds (funds allocated to land-grant institutions based on numbers of farmers and rural people in each state) were up slightly, but grants were down 15 percent, primarily because facility projects funded by grants are now complete. FFA BREAKFAST FEB. 22 College faculty and staff are invited to the FFA Breakfast, 7:30 a.m.-8 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 22, second floor of Curtiss Hall. The continental breakfast recognizes FFA students. CREATIVE ENVIRONMENTS: UPCOMING PROGRAM Human relations skills to support creative learning and working environments is the focus of an upcoming professional development program for agriculture faculty and staff. The program will be held 4-8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 28. More details in the next Ag Online. .................... C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K .................... TALKING TO THE MEDIA People are usually passive or angered by what they read, hear or see in the media. Communicating with the media is often overlooked. A couple tips: Offer specific suggestions for how news coverage and opinion forums could improve. Provide names, numbers and backgrounds of sources or commentators who deserve a hearing. Remember: your goal is not to persuade a media professional that your views are the correct ones. Emphasize that a broad spectrum of views is essential to healthy media discourse. (From "How to Talk Back to Mass Media," Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon, River City Reader, December). Also, the College of Agriculture Information Services can help you work with reporters and editors. I N F O G R A Z I N G AG, ENVIRONMENT, FOOD SAFETY SURVEY Agriculture and the environment and food safety were topics of a December 1993 nationwide survey conducted by Gallup, Inc., and sponsored by the Experiment Station Committee on Policy-Cooperative State Research Service and Extension Service-USDA. Some results: 46 percent agreed the ag industry is causing irreversible damage to the environment; 76 percent agreed pesticide residues on food are a substantial health danger; 75 percent agreed government policies should specify a reduction in farm pesticides, even if it means higher food costs; 51 percent agreed protecting the environment was more important than protecting jobs dependent on agriculture and forestry. For full survey results: Dave King, Purdue University, 317-494-8396 or kingd@ecn.purdue.edu. THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE The League for Innovation in the Community College and Jones Education Networks have formed the International Community College, offering baccalaureate degrees via cable TV and satellite broadcasts. The ICC also plans to provide corporate training programs to clients. (Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 20) E X T E R N A L V O I C E S HUNKERING DOWN The inability of many young people today to get permanent jobs seems to have made them cautious rather than revolutionary. The common response is "to hunker down and wait it out, watching for yourself and no one else. Irony and detachment become the prevailing poses," says Jon Meacham, an editor of The Washington Monthly in its Jan./Feb. issue. "It's not nihilism, but there is a certain coolness in elite circles, and currency is placed on not getting caught believing too much in any one thing." M A R G I N A L I A POWER E-MAIL Several Internet-related articles in December's Esquire included a sidebar entitled "E-mail Power Addresses." It lists addresses for The Dalai Lama, Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, Al Gore, Rush Limbaugh, Ross Perot, Noam Chomsky, Barry Diller, Michael Spindler, George Soros, Keith Richards, Billy Idol, Butthead (of MTV's "Beavis and Butthead") and Robert Stack. AG ONLINE Ag Online is a bimonthly electronic newsletter for ISU College of Agriculture faculty and staff. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag Online subscribe" to bmeyer@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe: Same thing, but with "Ag Online unsubscribe." Comments? Call, write, e-mail or fax editors Brian Meyer (bmeyer@iastate.edu) and Ed Adcock (edadcock@iastate.edu), Agriculture Information Services, 304 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011. Phone: 515-294-5616. Fax: 515-294-8662. Back to the menu.