In lieu of a faculty meeting today, here are the topics that would have been presented. Note that one item (a vote on a curriculum change for AGEC 460) does require action.
Dean/Director Search
- Don Boggs, Associate Dean of the College (teaching) will serve as Acting Dean and Director until an interim has been selected
- A search committee for the Interim Dean/Director has met. Applications for the Interim position are due February 10th
- The search committee for the Dean/Director position is being formed and will be announced soon. The intention is to have a new Dean/Director in place within 6-9 months.
Undergraduate Program Review Task Force
- From Mike Boland’s report:
“The committee has met twice to discuss the process for the Undergraduate Curriculum Review and will be meeting every Tuesday for 90 minutes all spring. We are still in the early stages of listening to other departments that have done a similar process and anticipate that there will be opportunities for faculty to engage the committee later this spring. This process is going to take some time to understand better how to best design assessment tools for our major and degree programs and align those with our student learning outcomes. The committee believes that a commitment to continuous improvement will help us to a better understanding of how well our students are thinking and understanding how to use economics to make decisions. We will provide updates at faculty meetings and if you have any questions, feel free to visit with the other committee members.”
Spring Seminars
The following seminars have been confirmed for the spring (from Jeff Williams):
“Jeff LaFrance, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics in the School of Economic Sciences, at Washington State University will be giving a Department Seminar on Thursday March 25 at 1:00 to 2:30 PM in Waters 342. The title of his seminar is ‘Making Sense of Agricultural Production, Risk Management, and Arbitrage Decisions.’
“Nick Brozovic, Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois will be giving a Department Seminar on Friday April 16 at 3:00 PM in Waters 342. His seminar title is ‘Spatial Targeting of Water Management Policies for the Protection of Instream Flows.’
“Dr. Brian Briggeman, Economist, Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City will present ‘Agricultural Commodity Prices and Monetary Policy: The Case of the Zero Bound,’ on Thursday, April 22, 2010 in Room 342, Waters Hall from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.”
Extension Program
- The Risk and Profit Conference will be in August. Allen Featherstone has again agreed to serve as organizer of the conference.
- Future directions for MAST will be assessed following the final on-campus session for the 2010 course. Options to be considered include revising the mix of on-campus and online presentations and partnering with other states to expand the reach of the educational program.
- Although resources for maintenance are limited, plans are to revise AgManager content to remove outdated materials and to update selected documents and decision tools.
- Related to updating AgManager is a new effort to only retain current documents for release through the Extension Publications office. Notices were sent in December to many of you requiring either updating or suggesting deletion of your past publications. If no updates are made within the next 12 months, the documents will be removed from the active Extension Publications list. Thereafter, annual updates will be required to keep your publications available for release.
Undergraduate Program
- Arlo is overseeing the completion of the 2009 departmental assessment of teaching. Once complete, he will schedule a faculty brown-bag session to present the report and have a discussion on the results and procedures.
- The department is scheduled for a campus review of assessment procedures in 2011.
- One curricular change was to be presented for a vote at the meeting:
The proposal to include AGEC 460 (International Study) as a restricted elective (versus a free elective) for all options under the Agricultural Economics and the Agribusiness programs of study was apparently approved several years ago, yet no record in the department meeting minutes verify this outcome. Therefore, another vote must be taken. A “yes” vote indicates approval of listing AGEC 460 as a restricted elective. A “no” vote continues listing AGEC 460 as a free elective.
Please email Deana Foster with your vote. Polling ends Wednesday, 5:00 p.m. cst.
Graduate Program
- No updates.
MAB Program
- The 2010 incoming cohort totaled 25 new students, about the same as last year.
- Allen has requested external funds to expand the program to an African cohort beginning in the summer of 2012. The funding decision is still under consideration.