Ag and Life Sciences ONLINE

COLLEGE NEWS



- Convocation for graduating students Dec. 16



- Nominations sought for Ag Student of the Year



- Workshop on successful USDA/NRI grants



- Fellowships for plant physiology training



- Deadlines & Reminders



COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK



- Communication style important to understand



INFOGRAZING



- Hiring trends on campus



EXTERNAL VOICES



-Raise tuition at public colleges



MARGINALIA



- Former presidents on politics and agriculture #1



- Former presidents on politics and agriculture #2







C O L L E G E N E W S







CONVOCATION FOR GRADUATING STUDENTS DEC. 16



The College of Agriculture convocation and reception for graduating

students and their friends and families will be held 10 a.m.,

Dec. 16, in C.Y. Stephens Auditorium. Charles Staudt, ag studies,

will be the student speaker. Approximately 190 agriculture students

will graduate this semester.



NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR AG STUDENT OF THE YEAR



ISU's Iowa Agriculturist magazine is sponsoring an Ag Student

of the Year contest. Candidates should be students currently enrolled

in the College of Agriculture. The winner will be selected based

on his or her participation in the college and by significant

contributions made to ISU or the ag industry. The winner and runners-up

will be featured in the spring 1996 issue of the magazine. Send

the nominee's name, address, phone number, year in school, major

and activities, honors and awards to: Iowa Agriculturist, Ag Student

of the Year Contest, 16H Hamilton Hall. Deadline is Jan. 31, 1996.

For more information: Darcy Dougherty, 294-9381 or 294-2929.



CHANGES IN STATION PROJECT POLICIES ANNOUNCED



Changes in policies for Experiment Station projects were outlined

in a Nov. 29 e-mail message to agriculture faculty. The information

also is available in departmental offices and from the Experiment

Station (contact Carla Persaud, 294-9376). Questions or comments

may be directed to Colin Scanes, 294-1823; Dianne Draper, 294-5982;

Gerald Klonglan, 294-4763; or Susan Lamont, 294-3629.



WORKSHOP ON SUCCESSFUL USDA/NRI GRANTS



Clark Burbee, former NRI grants manager, will present a workshop

on "Writing a Successful Grant for USDA/National Research

Initiative Program" on Monday, Dec. 11 in the Sun Room, Memorial

Union. A 6:30 p.m. dessert buffett and coffee will precede the

7 p.m. program. Please RSVP by Dec. 6 to Carla Persaud, cpersaud@iastate.edu

or 294-9376. This is the second workshop in the Successful Grantsmanship

Series sponsored by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment

Station and the College of Veterinary Medicine.



FELLOWSHIPS FOR PLANT PHYSIOLOGY TRAINING



The Interdepartmental Plant Physiology Major has been awarded

two USDA National Needs Fellowships for graduate students who

will begin Ph.D. study in plant molecular biology next fall. Each

fellowship is $17,000 per year for three years. The IPPM group

comprises 26 faculty in agronomy, biochemistry and biophysics,

botany, horticulture, forestry, genetics/zoology and plant pathology.

Last year three IPPM students received fellowships.



DEADLINES & REMINDERS



Dec. 11 -- Writing a Successful Grant for USDA/NRI Program, Sun

Room, Memorial Union



Dec. 15: Nominations due for Louis Thompson Award for Outstanding

Teaching and College of Agriculture P&S and Merit awards,

121 Curtiss



Dec. 16: College convocation and ceremony for graduating students,

C.Y. Stephens Auditorium







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









COMMUNICATION STYLE IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND



Georgetown University linguist Deborah Tannen says there's no

"one best way" to communicate and that "the critical

skill for managers is to become aware of the workings and power

of linguistic style, to make sure that people with something valuable

to contribute get heard." For example, men and women tend

to have different linguistic styles. As children, most girls learned

that sounding too sure of themselves led to unpopularity, whereas

most boys learned to emphasize rather than downplay their status.

The result: Men tend to speak in ways that position themselves

as "one up" whereas women are more likely to save face

for others rather than flaunt their own superior position. A manager

who is not sensitive to differences in linguistic style will misinterpret

a woman's tactfulness as "lack of confidence," but a

more sophisticated manager will understand it to be simply a different

way of exercising leadership. (Harvard Business Review, September/October)









I N F O G R A Z I N G







HIRING TRENDS ON CAMPUS



A collection of items on a "robust" campus hiring season,

from the Nov. 21 Wall Street Journal:



- Companies are spending more time with fewer, select schools.



- Nearly 60 campuses have installed a system that allows students

to interview via desktop video. At least 10 major recruiters have

hooked up such systems with universities. About 400 companies

are expected to use the system by 1997.



- How many references does a job applicant need? A Tennessee chemical

company requires 20. It takes six to be an FBI special agent.









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







RAISE TUITION AT PUBLIC COLLEGES



"Today, scholarship money is readily available at the private

universities . . . The smart kids are pushing out the wealthy-but-not-so-smart

at expensive colleges, and many of those richer youngsters are

ending up at state schools. Though their families could well afford

to pay the average $12,432 in tuition and fees charged by private

schools, they're in fact paying only the $2,860 average for public

schools . . . Most poorer youths can still win a college education,

but often it's at a private college now. And most rich kids can

still buy a college education, but sometimes it's at a state college

now. These middle-class and upper-class youths could afford to

pay more, and they should pay more." Michael Gartner, in

an editorial in the Oct. 10 USA Today.







M A R G I N A L I A







FORMER PRESIDENTS ON POLITICS AND AGRICULTURE #1



"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and

you're a thousand miles from the corn field." -- Dwight D.

Eisenhower.



FORMER PRESIDENTS ON POLITICS AND AGRICULTURE #2



"See those hogs? No man should be allowed to be President

who does not understand hogs, or hasn't been around a manure pile."

-- Harry S. Truman.