The College of Agriculture Newsletter
Iowa State University
August 4, 1995 No. 24

C O N T E N T S

COLLEGE NEWS
- College convocation
- Excite your senses
- Theme of college retreat
- Ag alumni news
- Hartwig named interim vice provost
- Deadlines & Reminders

COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK

- Readers as investors

INFOGRAZING

- How do our Gardens grow?
- Evening degrees at UNI

EXTERNAL VOICES

- Future tuition increases small . . .
- . . . but keep saving for retirement, parents

MARGINALIA

- I heard it on the gripevine


C O L L E G E N E W S

COLLEGE CONVOCATION
The College of Agriculture convocation will be held 4 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, Lush Auditorium, Kildee Hall, and will include introduction of new faculty members.

EXCITE YOUR SENSES
(To the 65 people who volunteered to help out at the state fair exhibit: Thanks, and watch for your fair packet in the mail.) If you're at the fair Aug. 10-20, visit the college's "Gardens Excite the Senses" exhibit in the Agriculture Building. A wooden arbor with plants and photos will provide information on the Reiman Gardens. You can try to guess the names of flowers and plants by their fragrances. You can hear garden sounds by touching a computer screen. You can feel a variety of plant textures. There will be examples of plants that lend tastes to foods.

THEME OF COLLEGE RETREAT
"Breaking Communication Barriers" is the theme of the college's 1995 faculty/staff retreat, 8:30-4:30, Thursday, Aug. 17, Holiday Inn-Gateway Center. Learn how to work with the media and develop linkages with ISU stakeholders, clients and collaborators. Communications consultant Ian Pearson will lead a panel discussion with five Iowa journalists. Another panel of representatives from selected interest groups will discuss what the college can do to build stronger ties with Iowans to better serve their needs. Registration is extended to Aug. 11. Return form (be sure to include your name) to Norma Hensley, 23 Curtiss. For more details: Robert Martin, 294-0896.

AG ALUMNI NEWS
The Ag Alumni Forum, the College of Agriculture Alumni Society newsletter, is seeking alumni news for its next issue. If you or someone you know is a graduate of the college and has had a recent recognition or accomplishment, contact Ed Adcock, 294-2314, edadcock@iastate.edu; or Tom Jirik, 294-0705, tcjirik@iastate.edu. Include the alum's major and graduation date.

HARTWIG NAMED INTERIM VICE PROVOST
Nolan Hartwig, interim director of ISU Extension to Agriculture for the past year, has been named interim vice provost for extension. He will assume the position held by Robert Anderson, who is returning to teaching as a professor in the electrical engineering and computer engineering department. A new interim director of ISU Extension to Agriculture will be chosen soon. A national search for vice provost for extension should begin in September.

DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Aug. 11 -- RSVPs for college faculty/staff retreat due, 23 Curtiss
Aug. 17 -- College faculty/staff retreat, Holiday Inn-Gateway Center
Aug. 21 -- Classes begin
Aug. 24 -- College convocation, Lush Auditorium

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

READERS AS INVESTORS
Many of us contribute writing to documents or publications of all sorts. Here's some good advice for the editor in all of us, from a presentation by Alex White, University of Hartford graphic design professor, at the Agricultural Communicators in Education/National Extension Technology Conference, July 16-19: Think of your readers as investors. They will invest their time if they get a return -- useful information with a minimum of their effort. The greater sense of return, the more time they will invest in your product. Editorial quality does the real work of holding an audience. The information itself is what brings readers back for more. (For other advice or help on writing and publications: Ag Information, 294-5616.)

I N F O G R A Z I N G

HOW DO OUR GARDENS GROW?
"Gardens Excite the Senses," the college's state fair exhibit, will help introduce the Reiman Gardens to the public. A few stats on the Gardens:
Plants, trees and shrubs to be planted: 45,000
Square feet of sod laid: 30,000
Square feet of grass to be seeded: 174,000
Wedding ceremonies scheduled, from now until October 1997: 10
Calls last year to the Hortline, now ringing in the Mahlstede Building at the Gardens: 14,700

EVENING DEGREES AT UNI
University of Northern Iowa students now can earn a degree without setting foot on campus during the day. UNI's new evening degree program offers 20 undergraduate majors, 10 undergraduate minors, 16 graduate majors and one certificate program. UNI will offer nearly 300 different evening classes this fall. (Des Moines Register, June 24)

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

FUTURE TUITION INCREASES SMALL . . .
Wall Street economist and demographer Richard Hokensen thinks future tuition bills will be far below most current projections. "I see a 33 percent increase in the number of children who will enter college by the year 2010. That should push down the average annual tuition increases to the range of 2 to 2.5 percent -- at most. One percent after adjusting for inflation." Hokensen said this will apply to both public and private institutions, but especially to public ones. "That's where the most students are -- and the most empty seats." (U.S. News & World Report, July 3)

. . . BUT KEEP SAVING FOR RETIREMENT, PARENTS
While Richard Hokensen (see above) believes parents may not need to save as much as they'd thought for their children's college education, he still says it's a good idea to keep saving. "Social Security . . . in its current form cannot survive the fact that the baby boom generation is the first to have more brothers and sisters than children. So while college costs will turn out to be considerably less onerous, people should redouble their efforts to save for retirement." (U.S. News & World Report, July 3)

M A R G I N A L I A

I HEARD IT ON THE GRIPEVINE
"There's a guy on the Internet trying to incite a letter-writing campaign to a well-known discount retain chain demanding they stock the large clothing sizes on the top shelves and the small sizes on the bottom (so that) big people won't have to squat and little people won't have to stretch . . . In less than a minute you can register your complaint of the hour and send it off into the Web for the wide world's reaction. At no other point in human history have so few had the opportunity to complain so much in front of so many. It's hyper-gripe in cyber-space." Writer Tom Bodett, in a June 7 column on the "Mr. Showbiz" World Wide Web home page.

AG ONLINE

Ag Online is a bimonthly 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: Aug. 18. Deadline: August 14.
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