The College of Agriculture Newsletter
Iowa State University
June 23, 1995 No. 21

C O N T E N T S

COLLEGE NEWS
- The Curtiss Hall shuffle
- Finding the college fiscal office
- Two administrators begin
- Two administrators end
- Sign up for State Fair
- Forestry DEO
- Information avalanche

COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK

- Watch that 'reply' button

INFOGRAZING

- Environmental caretakers
- Syllabus: Free to educators

EXTERNAL VOICES

- A little knowledge
- A little common sense

MARGINALIA

- Do as I say . . .


C O L L E G E N E W S

THE CURTISS HALL SHUFFLE
The moving of college administrative offices in Curtiss Hall continues, and should be finished by July 7. Office signs in the hallways are being switched as moves are made. Phone numbers remain the same. The next Ag Online will include a directory of new offices. For now, here's a current list of people who have moved:
- Cathy Good, Office of Executive Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Experiment Station, Room 123N
- Norma Hensley, Student Services Office, Room 23
- Mickie Bergeson, Student Services Office, Room 23
- Susan Lamont, Experiment Station, Room 124
- Shirley Riney, Experiment Station, Room 124
- Carla Persaud, Experiment Station, Room 124
- Charanne Parks, Minority Programs, Room 23
- David Hansen, International Programs, Room 223
- Charles Ertzinger, ASSIST Program, 3397 Food Sciences Building

FINDING THE COLLEGE FISCAL OFFICE
As part of the Curtiss Hall office shuffle, the fiscal office of the college and Experiment Station will move from Room 104 to Room 117 on Wednesday, June 28, and Thursday, June 29. If you have forms needing immediate attention during these days, please take them to Cathy Good in Room 123N. Del Koch will check in periodically to sign the forms. Thanks for your patience and cooperation.

TWO ADMINISTRATORS BEGIN
David Acker, the new director of Agricultural International Programs, will be on the job July 5. Colin Scanes, the new executive associate dean, begins on July 17. Their phone numbers: Acker, 294-8454; Scanes, 294-1823.

TWO ADMINISTRATORS END
The week of June 26 is Associate Dean for Academic Programs Detroy Green's last on the job. He is retiring after 31 years as a faculty member and administrator, but plans to help the agronomy department develop new teaching materials. On July 1, Associate Dean for International Programs Harold Crawford will join the agricultural education and studies faculty, where he will teach and continue international interests within the department.

SIGN UP FOR STATE FAIR
The Iowa State Fair, Aug. 10-20, is fast approaching. That means it's time for volunteers to sign up to staff the college's exhibit in the Agriculture Building. The theme of this year's display is "Gardens Excite the Senses," about gardening's appeal to the five senses and a preview of the new Reiman Gardens. No special knowledge of horticulture is needed to be a volunteer. Volunteers work a four-hour shift, starting at 9 a.m. There are three shifts each day. Volunteers get a FREE admission ticket and parking pass. Interested? Contact Ed Adcock, 294-2314, or edadcock@iastate.edu, or look for sign-up sheets to be posted or circulated soon in departmental or center offices.

FORESTRY DEO
In the last Ag Online, we said James M. Kelly was the new chair of the Department of Forestry. Make that Mike Kelly. The forestry department tells us that Dr. Kelly is generally known by his middle name. Mike Kelly, currently with the Tennessee Valley Authority, will begin his duties in October.

INFORMATION AVALANCHE
At a Visioning the Future forum, where faculty, staff and students from universities and representatives from agribusinesses identified trends, implications and strategies for graduate studies in agricultural education, one topic was the "information avalanche." Implications: Data/information management is becoming an essential skill, and students and faculty will need to identify relevant from non-relevant information. Suggested strategies: Classes on how to search the Internet, and sharing information-management skills between faculty and students. The March forum was sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies.

C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K

WATCH THAT 'REPLY' BUTTON
Managers of e-mail list services, or listservs, are aware that many subscribers don't fully understand, or practice, proper list service procedures. Here's a user tip from David Riggins of the Gopher Jewels Project: Remember that everything you post to the list goes to every subscriber on the list, and the list may have thousands of members. There are times when you probably want to reply only to the individual who posted a particular message. Make sure you address your message to that individual's e-mail address -- not to the whole group (which is what happens if you use the "reply"function of most e-mail packages). Remember that the reply option will send your message back to all members of the list.

I N F O G R A Z I N G

ENVIRONMENTAL CARETAKERS
Farmers and agriculture fared well in the National Survey of Attitudes Towards Natural Resource Conservation. As a category, individual farmers had the highest rating as environmental caretakers, followed closely by "agriculture." More than 90 percent of the 1,250 respondents were neither farmers nor ranchers. The survey was completed in January by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Copies are available for $10 from the Conservation Technology Information Center, 1220 Potter Drive, Room 170,West Lafayette, IN 46906-1383.

SYLLABUS: FREE TO EDUCATORS
Syllabus, billed as "the definitive technology magazine for colleges, universities and high schools," is available free to educators. The California-based publication covers technology in education, reporting on what different educators, researchers and institutions are doing with computers, video, telecommunications and multimedia. For 1995-96 there will be special issues on software products for the curriculum; multimedia; the Internet, telecommunications and education; and video and presentation technologies. For more information, contact Brian Meyer, Ag Information, bmeyer@iastate.edu.

E X T E R N A L V O I C E S

A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
"If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?" Thomas Henry Huxley, On Elemental Instruction in Physiology, 1877.

A LITTLE COMMON SENSE
"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their
common sense." Gertrude Stein, 1946.

M A R G I N A L I A

DO AS I SAY . . .
An item in Campus Connections, a paper at the University of Nevada at Reno: "Richard Law, director of general education at Washington State University, will discuss the challenges of teaching the large lecture class at a Faculty Senate Brown Bag Forum . . . The forums are limited to 15 people." (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 19)

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: Send "Ag Online unsubscribe" to same address. 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.

Next issue: July 7. Deadline: July 3.
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