Hello, CALS,
Is it spring yet or still winter? Hard to tell!
I was in Washington, D.C., last week with others from the college and ISU Extension and Outreach to attend the CARET meetings and visit Capitol Hill. It was a good visit there to make the case for federal support for the work we do, and especially support for the NIFA programs at USDA that are so key to our work - Smith-Lever, Hatch, Hatch Multistate, McIntire-Stennis, AFRI and others.
We also hosted a Monday evening reception for CALS and Extension and had a great turnout of alums, partners, donors and friends. We were so pleased to have special guests USDA Undersecretary Alexis Taylor, an ISU alumna, and USDA NIFA Director Manjit Misra, as so many of you know as professor here for more than 40 years and long serving director of the Seed Science Center. Lots of terrific Cyclone spirit in the room! Great special thanks to Angie Weeks for setting it up for us!
There are lots of events coming up - please fill your calendar with some of them as the spring progresses and enjoy those happy events for the college, and especially our students.
My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
The Iowa State team in Washington, D.C. gathered for a photo last week amid the APLU CARET meetings and Capitol Hill visits. The group met with the Iowa Congressional delegation offices (including Senator Chuck Grassley, as pictured) to encourage their support for USDA and other federal funding for agriculture and life sciences, research, teaching and extension, and especially the federal support for NIFA and the research title in the Farm Bill. Lots of politics tied up in all that, but it's important to make our voices heard, including on behalf of the entire Land Grant University system and its 111 members! Pictured from left to right are myself, Associate Dean Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, Vice President for Extension and Outreach Jason Henderson, ISU Senior Advisor to the President Sophia Magill, and our private citizen CARET representatives Don Latham, Bob Petrzelka, Katie Stutsman and Kevin Ross.
