Hello, CALS colleagues,
Given the Labor Day holiday last Monday, it’s been two weeks since I last wrote. Fall is definitely in the air, and a great football season is underway for the Cyclones! There has been a lot going on all across campus, and I am sure in your specific labs and offices, too. For me, it’s been a series of great meetings and discussions, and of celebrations with partners internal and external, and far and wide. Here’s a list of some of those meetings and discussions from the past two weeks:
- A delegation of representatives from the U.S. Congress, led by Representative Randy Feenstra of Iowa, who covers Ames in his district, visited to discuss agriculture policy and funding. They spent time on campus, at USDA labs and at the Farm Progress Show.
- The Farm Progress Show took place Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, with the terrific CALS and ISU Extension show tent, as well as the ISU Creamery ice cream booth! Special thanks to Kendall Lamkey, Erin Hodgson and many others who coordinated this effort.
- Visits from John Deere (thanks, Matt Darr), Bayer (thanks, Bobbi Smith), and the Farm Foundation (thanks, Alejandro Plastina).
- Campus visit and CALS roundtable with Senator Joni Ernst, Arti Singh, Lisa Schulte-Moore, Tom Brumm and Dorothy Masinde.
- Discussions with Student Innovation Center director Jim Oliver and College of Design representatives about featuring our remote campuses (Uganda, island of St. John and others) as a unique form of Iowa State innovation at a Student Innovation Center event this coming spring – watch for that!
- Hosting an Iowa agriculture commodity group and related leadership at the first Cyclone football game Sept. 3.
- The totally great CALS BBQ – with special thanks to everyone who made that possible, especially Angie Weeks! At this event, we featured the new CALS Innovation and Leadership Academy that will roll out under Carmen Bain’s leadership this academic year, and gave the Emerging Iowa Leader award to alumna Katie Stutsman (one of our great CARET representatives). See images below.
- The Tour-de-Trees bicycle group came through Ames (with Jeff Iles) and stopped at Rieman Gardens for dinner (sorry to have missed this).
- With the official merger of our departments of Entomology, and Plant Pathology and Microbiology complete – into the new Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology (PPEM) – there was a grand celebration last Friday evening with several speakers, including alumni Scott Hutchins, Ron Wolcott, C. S. Liew, Keri Carstens and Wendy Wintersteen. Special recognition to Steve Harris and all PPEM faculty and staff for a great event and the forward-looking outlook of the new department.
- I visited at the faculty meetings of the departments of agronomy, statistics, and genetics, development and cell biology.
- There was a new faculty reception in Sukup Atrium, but I missed the Welcome Back Picnic that the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management held.
- A fantastic Student Innovation Center open house that attracted thousands of students, especially to the hottest displays and topics in the whole building - in the two CALS-owned Collaborative Learning Labs on the fourth floor. There, attendees learned about and enjoyed ice cream and honey sticks. See images below.
- The first meeting of the semester with my Dean’s Student Advisory Committee, along with Carmen Bain, Howard Tyler and Andy Zehr.
- A fantastic visit to the Southeast Iowa Research and Demonstration Farm in Crawfordsville to celebrate its 35th anniversary and do the ribbon cutting on a new large shop and multi-purpose building. Also present were President Wintersteen, John Lawrence, Jay Harmon, Steve Harris, Kendall Lamkey, Tim Goode, Erin Hodgson and so many more from the ISU Extension and research farm ranks. We also did a drive-by at the Muscatine Research Farm, and while in that region visited with alumni Bob Petrzelka (one of our CARET representatives) and Brian Hora (advisor at Continuum Ag, owned by his son, Mitchell Hora).
- Dinner event with the Iowa Soybean Association at Rieman Gardens during their two-day board meeting on campus.
And this week coming up, still more!
My key message to all, at nearly every meeting and discussion I have been in lately, has been to go out on main campus during class change and see and enjoy the parade of students that come here, trust us and will be our shared future. They give us all optimism and energy!
My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Students got to check out the two CALS-owned Collaborative Learning Labs on the fourth floor of the Student Innovation Center during an open house event Sept. 1. Rooms 4227 and 4229 can be used for project-based learning, meeting as teams, recruiting future students, or anything that involves student innovation and collaboration. Room 4227 has two TV monitors and seats up to 26 people, while room 4229 has a real-time stock ticker with agricultural commodities important in Iowa. To reserve a room, contact Marcy Cheville at marcyc@iastate.edu or 515-294-2555.
We had a great turnout at the CALS BBQ Sept. 3, at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center. See more photos on the CALS Facebook page.
