Hello, CALS colleagues,
This is CALS Convocation and university-wide commencement week. Please join us at these events Dec. 16 and Dec. 17 to support our students and celebrate the completion of their degrees. I hope you’ll reach out and congratulate your (and others’) students and recognize their great work to achieve their goals!
The turn of each semester is the special part of the academic calendar that gives us cause to pause and think about our work and our responsibilities to promote and enable the development of the next great generations of thinkers and doers. It’s a sacred trust of sorts – to provide information and opportunity for others to learn, to learn well, to become lifelong learners, and to engage effectively in the pursuit and use of knowledge.
While each student learns on their own in very many ways, they have come here for us to guide them in that effort. I know you do this so very well. Each of us ought to from time-to-time (at the end of a semester, or beginning of a new one) consider how to always do that even better the next time. This is true for those of us that teach and for all of us that make up the fabric of our institution. Each of us has a real impact on our students, whether we stand in front of them in a classroom or not. It's in the context of being a university for students that we pursue all of our other missions, as well.
In the new ISU Strategic Plan, we are dedicated To be “the most student-centric leading research university.” Students being not only those in our classrooms and labs, but also all those Iowans and people beyond who gain from our Extension and outreach missions, and so much more. Check out our own emerging CALS Strategic Plan, too.
There is so much to celebrate this time of year, from the upcoming holidays to our plans to celebrate the first annual State of Iowa George Washington Carver Day on Feb. 1, 2023. Active planning for this first-ever event is underway with a committee from President Wintersteen’s office. This is a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate one of our finest, and a person who’s learning and legacy continue as strongly as ever. Keeping that learning and legacy alive and well is surely part of our responsibility. Please mark your calendars for the evening of Feb. 1, 2023, for what will be a terrific event to celebrate this “day” here at Iowa State. More details coming!
Best for a great week - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Iowa State University celebrated the release of the second postage stamp honoring George Washington Carver. This stamp was issued Feb. 3, 1998. The first stamp, a 3-cent one, was issued Jan. 5, 1948.
A couple weeks ago, I was in Washington, D.C. for a number of things, including to talk to our Iowa delegation and some agencies about the upcoming Farm Bill. While waiting for a meeting in the main lobby of the USDA building in D.C. with Sophia Magill, Carolyn Lawrence-Dill and Lisa Schulte Moore, we saw this plaque honoring a Tom Harkin, an Iowan who has done so much to benefit agriculture, including on previous Farm Bills!
