Ag and Life Sciences ONLINE

COLLEGE NEWS



- 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.)