Thanks for a productive fall semester, and Vision 2025

First and foremost – thank you to all of you involved in the teaching and advising of our undergraduate and graduate students this fall. Student undergraduate numbers continue strong and our graduate students receive excellent theoretical and applied training in our classes and in their work with their committees. Thanks to all who contribute to our teaching programs, and enjoy this well-earned holiday break.

Now, on to V25…

A general framework for attaining a Top 50 ranking among public research universities is posted on the K-State homepage. Current directives are for college plans to be developed by next spring and departmental plans, consistent with both university and college plans, to be developed during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Conversely, the Interim Dean and those present at last week’s unit leaders’ meeting agreed that college and departmental plans should be developed concurrently. Therefore, we should consider the department’s role in helping the university attain its stated goal by 2025.

It is easy to be complacent, as we are currently among the top 50 Agricultural Economics Departments at American public research universities. Growing undergraduate numbers, research success and publication records of our graduate students, increasing international recognition of faculty for research and teaching prowess, effective outreach to stakeholders in Kansas and around the world, growing success in attaining extramural research and educational programming support, addition of a group of new faculty and field economists providing fresh energy to all of our programs, a supportive group of very generous donors to departmental scholarship, facility, and operational funds, and recognition in program rankings such as the recently published NRC comparison of graduate programs, Crespi and Boland’s national analysis of graduate student publication success, and Greg Perry’s occasional comparisons of Ph.D. and M.S. programs, all indicate the excellent contributions all provide in meeting the mission of a Land Grant University.

But, complacency is not an option. We need to document how good the department is, and determine what is necessary to ensure our continuing success. Critical issues include sufficient resources, addition, deletion, and modification of programs meeting future societal needs, identification of effective delivery methods in the classroom, in the academic literature, and in delivering research-based educational programing to our stakeholders. Equally vital is continuing the department’s major contributions while maintaining and enhancing a working environment that welcomes diversity, change, and is a pleasant place to work.

The good news is that none of the other department heads weighing in suggested multiple Saturday retreats or “strategic planning” sessions. Ken Odde suggested a departmental plan might be four pages long. I agree that that is a worthy target, though the content of those four pages will have to be very good.

We are already good. We need to continue being good. The President has suggested seven general themes to focus our efforts, as well as suggested metrics to measure current and future efforts to reach the V25 goals. I am calling a meeting of the coordinators of our departmental programming committees (the undergraduate program committee, the graduate program committee (including MAB), and Extension) in January to discuss plans on how to proceed. This is a start, but will eventually incorporate input from students, from alumni, from other external stakeholders, and from faculty and staff within the department, including leaders of programs such as KFMA, OLG, and the ACCC.

As a final note, I am also very much opposed to the concept of Saturday retreats…

Fall 2011 Exit Interviews

I met with 23 of our graduating seniors in seven exit interviews before Thanksgiving. Most of our instructors have enjoyed these students in class over the last few years, so are aware of the hard work and dedication these young men and women have displayed in their times at K-State. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to meet and get a little better acquainted with our soon-to-be graduates during these short meetings.

Our graduating seniors for the most part are off to jobs, primarily in agribusiness or production agriculture. Perhaps partially due to the healthy farm economy and/or to demographics, five of the graduating students will be returning to either their own or their family’s farming operations. An unusual number (9 of the 23) had no definite jobs lined up after graduation, though I suspect this is a temporary statistical blip.

Feedback on the agricultural economics and agribusiness program was similar to past exit interviews. Students greatly appreciate the time and care they receive from our faculty. Although a few counter examples in other departments were mentioned, our faculty earn praise for being more open to meeting with students outside of class and regular office hours and spending whatever time necessary to work with the students. Feedback was also consistent in response to a question about which courses are perceived as being most valuable to them as they embark on their careers. Generally, those classes and instructors that stress interaction, challenge the students, and provide hands-on analysis are mentioned more often as valuable courses.

Given the media attention to burdensome student loan loads students around the country are facing as they graduate, I asked students this fall to assess their own burdens in paying off their college educations. In no case did a student report that they felt overwhelmed by outstanding debt. As good economists, the students relied upon a mix of resources to keep their college expenses for the most part current during their years at K-State. The students mentioned financial support from parents, from their own jobs, and from the occasional small loan. Several students expressed thanks for the help they received from scholarships funded from the department’s many donors. We hear this appreciation each year at the department’s Scholarship Banquet, but it is wonderful to hear how important these scholarships are to helping our students through their years at Kansas State University.

Hikaru Peterson, our new Undergraduate Program Coordinator, is launching a reception this year from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 9th, in the Waters Hall conference room (room 342) to allow graduates, both undergraduate and graduate students, and their parents to come by the department and meet with our instructors in an informal setting. We look forward to this chance to meet all of our students and their families.

Capitalizing on two new (proposed) courses

I met today with the Undergraduate Program Committee to discuss next year’s scheduling of the new courses, AGEC 115 and AGEC 501. All that follows is of course conditional upon the course and program changes being approved as the requests move through K-State channels.

Since incoming freshmen will follow the programs of study that include 115 as a requirement, we will probably teach two sections of this course in the fall 2012 semester. Eventually we will want to add a spring section as well for transfer students or others who for whatever reason cannot take 115 in the fall. For next year, AGEC 490 will be taught both semesters so transfer students and students other than incoming freshmen can satisfy their requirements by taking 490.

One section of AGEC 501 will be taught next year, probably in the spring 2013 semester. Although required for next year’s entering freshmen, few students will be taking the class next year. Next year’s freshmen will not be taking the required AGEC 501 class until the 2013-4 or 2014-5 academic years. By offering 501 one time in spring of 2013 as a free AGEC elective, the instructor will get a chance to experiment with methods and content with a much smaller number of students.

Arlo has agreed to take the major responsibility for AGEC 115 in 2012-3. Orlen has agreed to help next year, working with Arlo and teaching the second section of the course in the fall. In the future, we are open to any faculty who might want to contribute to the AGEC 115 or AGEC 501 courses. Of pressing need is finding an instructor for 501 for the spring 2013 semester.

Come see me if you would be interested in teaching one of these new classes and we’ll change teaching loads or assigned courses to make it happen.

Recall the course descriptions for the two courses:

AGEC 115:
Development of foundational computer-based empirical skills that address economic and business issues in food and agriculture. Students will learn how to model information on an issue or problem using mathematical spreadsheets to find relevant answers for decision makers and stakeholders. Two hours recitation per week.

AGEC 501:
Analysis of agricultural business and economic data and optimization for decision making. Study applications of regression, time series analysis and forecasting to agricultural and economic data. Introduction to mathematical programming to model optimization of problems commonly encountered in agricultural economics. Three hours recitation per week.

It was again emphasized at today’s meeting that offering these two courses will lift the average computational skills and familiarity of our students with regression and optimization techniques. This provides an opportunity for everyone teaching subsequent courses to increase their expectation of the quantitative abilities of their students and, consequently, ramp up the rigor of course materials. More information on the skills your students should have mastered will be distributed as instructors are identified and content is finalized.

Updates

Sorry for any duplication – I thought this was posted last Friday but apparently it sat in my drafts box over the weekend.  The only change relates to the last item.. I can now extend an ex poste thank you to John Crespi, Tracy Turner, and the grad students for a wonderful get-together last Friday evening.

Thanks again to the undergraduate curriculum review committee for their work. Their recommendations over the past two years (primarily adding AGEC 315, AGEC 115 (an introductory computer applications class), and AGEC 501 (an upper division quantitative methods and decision analysis class)), along with various minor and not so minor tweaks to our programs of study, will better prepare our students for whatever they choose to pursue following graduation.

The changing workplace appears to be rewarding graduates with decision making abilities and mastery of computer-assisted quantitative analysis skills.  Last week’s Economist survey on labor identified many possible trends of future labor markets.  However, the article emphasized that one’s ability to master information technology, be it social media or computational decision making and data analysis, will increasingly be in demand.  Adding the introductory course and an upper division course relying on computational analysis, as well as continuing to stress computer applications throughout our curriculum, familiarizes our students with these skills.  In the rapidly evolving world of information technology, of course, premiums to current knowledge and skills may be short-lived.  It is thus important for all of us to keep current or even ahead of the curve in understanding what is available today and what will be possible tomorrow.

In light of the rapid changes in IT, I encourage you to drop in for some of the sessions, the keynote address, or to visit with the vendors at the upcoming K-State conference on “Innovations in Education and Technology” to be held September 28-29 in the Alumni Center.

Here are a few relevant items from this morning’s unit leaders’ meeting:

1.  On October 30 at the IGP facility on Kimball, K-State and Numana will collaborate on preparing food packages for food assistance for the Horn of Africa.  If you are willing to help by preparing the food packages, please sign up at kstateswipe.eventbrite.com.  If you would also (or instead) like to donate financial support, please go to the website swipeouthunger.com/k-state and click on the “Donate” icon.

2.  The deadline for submitting the undergraduate assessment report has changed this year to November 1st.  Please help Arlo and Hikaru in whatever way they ask as they prepare this annual report to meet the new deadline.

3.  Nina gave a report on the many new opportunities for collaborative work with faculty, students, and researchers in India.  If interested, she has more information and can help put you in touch with the right people for doing joint work.  Of special interest is the Indian government’s financial pledge to support 15 Ph.D. students to attend US universities.  The host university must only contribute the (in-state) tuition for the students.  Nina will forward information on the procedure for bringing one or two of these students to the program as it becomes available.

4.  Finally, Brian Niehoff gave an overview of the Higher Learning Council accreditation study of K-State.  Brian and others have done a tremendous amount of work in preparing for this once every 10 year process.  The HLC study group will be on campus April 9-11, 2012, and may want to visit with faculty and students.  As the visitation date approaches, Brian and crew will distribute more background information about the items to be assessed in case a stranger gets on the elevator with you and starts asking questions about our programs.

5.  Gary Pierzynski has approved funding for a trip to Zamorano next spring to recruit students and discuss possible research and teaching collaborations.  Right now, we are receiving applications from students who wish to come to K-State for their three month internship starting in mid-January.  If you would be willing to provide an undergraduate research experience AND have grant or other funds to provide the necessary $1200/month stipend, please let me know and I’ll send you the student information I have received.

Finally, an ex ante thank you goes to John Crespi and Tracy Turner for offering their house and to the grad students for hosting this evening’s fall bash.

Excellent set of proposed changes in the undergraduate programs

Thank you to Hikaru Peterson, the new Undergraduate Program Coordinator, the current members of the undergraduate committee (Andy Barkley, Arlo Biere, Orlen Grunewald, and Cherie Hodgson), and to all of you have served directly on or provided input to the undergraduate program review process over the last two years.

Although the process should be continuous, the committee is seeking approval next Tuesday, September 6th, of the proposals resulting from the many, many hours devoted to the program review. Hikaru distributed a very complete and comprehensive set of documents early this morning that are ready for faculty vote. The committee provides an excellent set of recommendations to enhance the quantitative abilities of our incoming students, combined with a longer range goal of adding a more advanced class focusing on quantitative analysis and decision making in agricultural and applied economics. It is anticipated that the reformulation of our introductory quantitative courses will strengthen the continuing process of integrating quantitative, and especially computer-aided, analysis throughout our undergraduate program.

Please plan on attending the meeting next Tuesday. If you cannot be there, the committee still wants to hear from you with suggestions and hopefully a vote of approval for the proposed changes in the undergraduate curriculum.

Thank you.

Departmental Growth

I am sorry for being remiss in bringing everyone up to date on the changing face of the Department. All four of our tenure-track faculty searches this year have been successfully completed.

Many of you have seen Brian Briggeman walking around Waters Hall. He works here now. Brian is the new Director of the Arthur Capper Cooperative Center. He is assessing the activities of the Center and will be bringing his own perspective to future teaching, research, and outreach programing. He is also working closely with David Barton, Seleise Barrett, and Chuck Mickelsen in continuing many of the fine programs initiated under David’s tutelage as Director of the Center since its 1984 inception.

Two new faculty will be joining the Department next week. Both Nathan Hendricks and Mykel Tayor will be enjoying the pleasures of driving across the Great Basin, the Rockies, and the Great Plains in August as they roll into Manhattan from Davis and from Pullman, respectively. Nathan will focus on the interface of natural resource use, agricultural development, and production agriculture in his research/teaching appointment. He will be teaching AGEC 315 in the fall.  Mykel will continue some of her marketing and production work from Washington State, but will focus on commercial agriculture, primarily crop production, in her Extension/research appointment here at Kansas State.

Finally, Alex Shanoyan has accepted the offered position in agribusiness. He plans to complete his dissertation at Michigan State University in December and join the Department in early January of 2012. Although final class assignments will await an evaluation by the agribusiness faculty of our undergraduate and graduate programs in agribusiness, preliminary plans are for Alex to hit the ground running by teaching AGEC 599 and AGEC 890 in the spring semester. Given the success of our students in recent agribusiness Case Study competitions and our growing reputation for preparing future and current (through the MAB program) professionals for careers in agribusiness, there is a perceived demand for again offering AGEC 890, a course that has not been taught for several years.

This will be an exciting year for the Department with this influx of new faculty bringing proven teaching, research, and extension expertise to our programs.

I would especially like to thank all of you who served on the search committees for these four positions.  We had a number of excellent candidates for all four.  The committees identified the best candidates and suggested invitations for campus interviews be extended to provide a great pool from which Brian, Nathan, Mykel, and Alex were finally selected.  Special thanks also go to Judy Maberry for her extraordinary efforts in managing the information flows from the start to the conclusion of each search.  Although search procedures at Kansas State have changed substantially this year, she adapted quickly to the changes and made sure that all of us followed the procedures more or less correctly.

2011 AAEA Successes (Preliminary)

Our graduate students did it again!

The Graduate Student Case Study team of Brian Lauer, Cooper Morris, and Brady Brewer presented a very professional review of this year’s AAEA case study of Excel Cooperative. The case was historical, requiring the nine competing teams to develop a forward thinking strategy for the four divisions (energy, feed and livestock, agronomy, and grain marketing) of an Indiana Cooperative in light of the impending growth in ethanol production. The analysis was to be based on information available in 2007, and thus could not benefit from knowledge of subsequent twists and turns in the ethanol, corn, and related markets.

The K-State team did a superb job. The team placed second, coming in behind the equally well-prepared team from Oklahoma State.  It is a pleasure to see all of these graduate students from programs around the country call upon their economic training to thoroughly dissect a problem or opportunity faced by an agribusiness firm.   Our future is in good hands.

Elizabeth Canales of K-State was on a team with two other students from the University of Minnesota that also competed in the finals. Mike Boland brought this team together. Elizabeth’s team placed fourth overall in the competition, another outstanding performance by one of our graduate students.

Vincent Amanor-Boadu was the advisor for the K-State team. The team also benefited from comments from Brian Briggeman, David Barton, and Arlo Biere during their practice runs before leaving for Pittsburgh and the annual AAEA meetings.

Congratulations also to another Department award winner. Marc Allison, a KFMA economists in the south central region, earned an honorable mention for his M.S. thesis completed at Texas A&M just before he assumed his K-State/KFMA job in Hutchinson earlier this year. Marc’s research focused on the future of algal biofuel production as an alternative energy source, and was completed under the guidance of James Richardson at A&M.

Congratulations to Marc and to the outstanding performance of Brian, Cooper, Brady, and Elizabeth in the Case Study finals!

Fantastic Job by our IFAMA Case Study Team!

Our K-State graduate students have again gone head to head with the best, and come out on top! Congratulations to the Department of Agricultural Economics Case Study Team of Jaeljattin Jaen, Cooper Morris, Jessica Jo Johnson, David Boussios, and Brady Brewer for their first place finish at the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association’s annual meeting this week in Frankfurt, Germany. Three of the 12 competing teams made it to Tuesday’s final round. The winners were: #1. Kansas State University (Ag Econ); #2. Santa Clara University; #3. A Dutch University Team. The final round judges were leading agribusiness leaders, including the President of Novus, the Vice-President of Cargill-Europe, and a professor from the ESSEC Business School in Paris.

This first place finish, combined with last summer’s 1-2 finish at the annual meetings of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association in Denver, clearly mark our students and our faculty as leaders in graduate agribusiness education. The addition this summer and fall of new faulty bringing additional strengths to the undergraduate and graduate programs in agricultural economics and agribusiness, not to mention the ongoing success of the Department’s Master of Agribusiness program, position us extremely well for growing our global recognition for the quality of the Department and of Kansas State University.

We are extremely grateful to the financial help of CHS, Koch Industries, and Cargill and for the many donors to the K-State Ag Econ Foundation accounts for enabling our students to participate in (AND DOMINATE – sorry for the enthusiasm…) these international applied economics and agribusiness meetings. The value of attending these meetings shines in the email I received this morning from Jael. She was ecstatic about the many opportunities she and the other team members have had in meeting and talking with folks such as the CEO of Syngenta, OECD economics division chiefs, several people from the FAO, representatives of the Brazilian government, and the Cargill executive team. Apparently most members of the Case Study Team had the opportunity to interview leaders in the public and private sectors about future international career opportunities.

Stay tuned – Our graduate students have also entered a three-person team to compete at the July Case Study Competition at the AAEA meetings in Pittsburgh, PA.

Salary benefits of an agricultural economics (and agribusiness) degree

New data available from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey permits comparisons of earnings by college graduates based on major. Researchers at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce have collected and analyzed earnings data from the ACS. The full report can be downloaded at the Georgetown site: http://cew.georgetown.edu/whatsitworth/.

The sample contains information on 171 college majors in 15 major categories. The total sample has earnings data for nearly 34 million Americans. Students receiving undergraduate degrees in business compose the largest group (25.0%). Students majoring in agriculture and natural resources comprise 1.6% of the sample. Agricultural economics majors comprise 6% (32,427 graduates) of the students graduating within the agriculture and natural resource category.

The unique feature of the report is the characterization of earnings’ distributions by major. Instead of such frequently reported figures as average earnings of a college graduate are 84% higher than individuals with just a high school diploma, lifetime earnings from individual majors are reported. For example, lifetime earnings for students majoring in engineering are $1,090,000. Education majors earn on average $241,000 over their working lifetimes. Correlated with these lifetime earnings estimates are median incomes by major. Median income for individuals with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering is $120,000/year. Median income for individuals with a bachelor’s degree in counseling/psychology, the lowest reported median income, is $29,000/year. The income figures are for all full-time workers regardless of graduation date, and thus do not represent starting salaries.

Within the agriculture and natural resource category, the highest median income is earned by people with degrees in Food Science ($65,000). Agricultural economics graduates are tied in second place (with Forestry), with a median income of $60,000/year. Earnings at the 25% (75%) percentile for agricultural economics graduates are $39,000 ($92,000).

This initial report suffers from many of the problems of preliminary analyses, such as failing to account for time in the workplace, current occupations, and other conditioning factors. However, these failings aside, the report provides preliminary estimates of the value of a graduate (i.e., post-B.S.) degree (40% salary boost), and gender and racial characteristics of agricultural economics graduates. Unfortunately, sample sizes were too small to determine income gaps due to gender and race. On a positive note, 98% of the respondents with undergraduate degrees in agricultural economics are employed, tied for first among the agriculture and natural resource majors.

Although these results might persuade a high school student to focus on university studies in petroleum engineering, the report strengthens the argument for studying agricultural economics (and, by extension, agribusiness). The earnings distribution is high relative to all agriculture and natural resource fields. Median incomes also compare favorably with those reported for business majors. Employment prospects are good.

These findings just support the conclusion that 350 K-State students choosing to major in agricultural economics (and agribusiness) have already exhibited fantastic critical thinking and decision making skills!

FY2012 Budgets

Karen Wilson and I have been going over the Fiscal Year 2012 budgets for teaching, research, and extension.  This year our budgets reflect the impacts of state budget reductions and internal decisions.  Due to departmental decisions, such as shifting what had been extension operating funds back into a faculty position and no reductions in graduate student support levels, and continued reductions in real income from state appropriations, expenditures exceed costs for all three budget categories this coming year.

In order to balance the budgets as much as possible, several small-scale expenditure categories, such as postage and printing, are being reduced.  Other savings will come from ending state funding for items such as newspaper subscriptions, professional dues or journal subscriptions.  Some of these expenditures are absolutely essential to remain current in the field, but expenditures this year will need to come from grant-based funds, including SROs, be your own responsibilities, or dropped.  Professional development is important, so all requests submitted for attendance at professional meetings up to a cap of $1500 will be reimbursed from departmental funds.  Equally important to meeting our mission is in-state travel required for workshops, program development, or working with clientele.  However, in some cases requests have been reduced and will serve as upper limits on departmental reimbursement.  In most cases, in-state travel cost requests submitted have been approved, cognizant of differences in program  needs.  However, some reductions were made necessitating reduction in trips, use of lower cost transportation (e.g., use of state fleet cars), or reliance on grants to cover travel expenses.

Support from state allocations for student activities such as NAMA will also need to be greatly reduced from the past.  However, we are extremely fortunate in having a group of people who continue to support the department through contributions to the Ag Econ accounts at the KSU Foundation.  I hope to continue providing financial encouragement to student activities by using these Foundation accounts to support student activities.  I will also need to increase my activities in fund raising in order to sustain and grow support for education-related student pursuits such as NAMA and the graduate student Case Study Teams.

There will also have to be reductions in the reliance on state funds to teach our undergraduate courses.  We have been able to offer courses relying on instructors the past several years.  This arrangement has been win-win for the department by allowing us to maintain a relatively full slate of course offerings plus providing teaching opportunities for our research and extension scientists.  Unfortunately, we will not be able to continue offering all of these classes this coming year, requiring either faculty to teach these courses, reducing the number of times that specific courses are taught, or dropping classes altogether, hopefully temporarily.  With the addition of three new faculty this summer with teaching responsibilities, some of the impacts of reduced state appropriations on our teaching programs will be reduced.

In short, we are fortunate this year in being able to hire four new faculty.  On the other hand, both current faculty and our new additions will need to continue finding alternative funding sources to maintain and grow teaching, research, and extension programs.  For this coming year, I will need to rely on the department share of SROs to make the budgets balance.