Hello CALS colleagues, and welcome back from the holidays!
I hope each of you had wonderful, happy holidays, and feel renewed energy for a great New Year. Direct from Iowa State University's Commencement on Dec. 20, I enjoyed the holidays and vacation with family, as you’ll see in the two photos below.
No doubt this’ll be a busy spring semester with the Iowa State presidential transition underway, watching the Iowa Legislative session, working on topics from AI (all of us) to zoonoses (those that study disease), and more. I have met recently with both Interim President David Spalding and President Designate David Cook, and the university is in steady, solid hands. We also said farewell and see you later to former President Wendy Wintersteen, who served this college and the university so tremendously well. At the Dec. 20 Commencement, there was a special video tribute to President Wintersteen (start at the 58:56 mark) - that she did not see coming - that was truly a wonderful celebration of her time here. We are poised for more great things as we pursue with relevance, excellence and impact the Land Grant missions of the college and the university. Let’s keep after it.
Over the break, many of you were still putting in time – and special thanks to those of you who do so routinely (farms, greenhouses, etc), and those called in to address some building troubles in Agronomy and ATRB. Thanks to all!
Last week on Friday, the broad leadership team of the college, including department chairs, associate deans and college-level admin directors, had a half-day retreat to get our heads together on the coming semester. It was a great set of discussions about enrollment, budget, facilities, work-life and more. This week, more prep work, and next week, classes begin!
My very best, Happy New Year, and please let me know what you’re thinking! - Dan
Scenes from CALS
