Professor Bruce Babcock, director of CARD, was featured in a recent article in the Iowa Independent by Beth Dalby entitled "Branstad administration's trade deals in Asia won't help Iowa farmers, critics say."

The Economics Graduate Student Association (EGSA) recently elected new officers for the 2011-2012 academic year. Jesse Strzok (top right) will serve as president, Mark Senia (top left) as vice president, and Adriana Valcu (front) as treasurer.

The officers will focus their term on building and enhancing social connections within the department. They plan to host a spring and fall picnic, periodic Friday evening department social gatherings for students, faculty, and staff, and a mentoring program to help new graduate students better acclimate.

"We want to host activities that we think will help break the ice between people - especially for incoming graduate students," said Strzok.

Officers agree that finding ways to balance their studies with relaxation is important. "It's sometimes hard to break away from our work, but it's good to take some time to get your mind on something else," said Senia.  

EGSA will soon be announcing a department fundraiser to support upcoming social activities. Contact Jesse Strzok (jstrzok@iastate.edu) for more information.

The Ag Business Club held their annual banquet Saturday, March 6^th. Professor Ron Deiter, club co-sponsor, said that the event is designed to "acknowledge achievements" of ag business majors and to "share those successes with parents and faculty."

Students were awarded scholarships and honors as outstanding members (list below). Special guest Scott Mortimer, publisher ofSuccessful Farming, was given the "Outstanding Alumni Award." Mortimer graduated from ISU's ag business program in 1987. He spoke to the group about his career, and encouraged students to take advantage of the many opportunities present at ISU.

Mike Gaul, director of career placement with Agricultural Career Services, presented employment statistics for recent college graduates. He said that 85% returned to live with their parents - in contrast, ag business majors had a 100% job placement rate and average salary in the $40,000 range.

"Right now we have a very positive story to tell in our department," said Deiter.

Read more about the entry-level employment success of ag business graduates, featured in a 2008 ISU News Service article.

Outstanding member award: Tory Mogler, freshman; Andy Chamra, sophomore; Kaci Demott, Junior; Lisa Tronchetti, senior

Key Contributor award: Darrin Rahn

William G. Murray, overall outstanding Senior award: Whitney White

Class Scholarship winners: Alicia Humphrey, freshman; Nathan Johnston, sophomore; Kurtis Dop, Junior; Ross Payne, senior

Past Committee Chair Scholarship winners: Bethany Olson, Ben Zelle, Jacob Aizikovitz, Chelsey Sonnichsen

Past Officer Scholarship winners: Amber Broulik, Carly Cummings

http://www.icesforum.org/

The 2011 BIGMAP Symposium conducted in conjunction with the Food and Fuel Initiative: Iowa will address the theme of“Co-existence, Choice, and Sustainability for Crop Production.” The symposium will be held at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center from the afternoon of April 19 through April 20.

An online poster submission form, poster dimensions, and other details can be found at:
http://www.bigmap.iastate.edu/pages/posters.html

 

Request for Proposals
Deadline: April 8, 2011

Background and Purpose of Program

An endowment has been formed from the proceeds of the sale of the ISU Press to support publication efforts on the ISU campus. Specifically, the endowment is to be used to help assure publication, in the appropriate medium, of meritorious scholarly writings and other worthy original works of the Iowa State University faculty and staff and selected others.

The grants shall be available to support the publication of the scholarly writings and other worthy productions of the faculty and staff of Iowa State University, as well as selected manuscripts by others with the additional restriction that those manuscripts deal with topics related to the State of Iowa and the surrounding region. Publications can use any appropriate medium, such as books, CDs, DVDs, or the internet. The grants are not intended for commercial projects, such as high volume text books, or rewriting of existing projects for a new medium, such as posting class notes on the internet.

Applications are also accepted for series of publications edited by ISU faculty, staff or ISU centers/institutes. In this case, the authors of individual publications in the series have to be ISU faculty or staff, or the series has to cover topics of interest to Iowa or the region. Applications for subvention support of a series of publications need to outline the scope and purpose of the series and the frequency of publication. If a series is approved for a subvention grant by the Publication Endowment Committee, support for each individual publication needs to be recommended by the editor(s) to the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. Rules regarding repayment are in effect for each individual publication in a series, and the application guidelines listed below apply to the proposal for the series. This type of grant would cover up to five successive publications with a possibility of renewal.

The Provost has delegated to the Vice President for Research and Economic Development the responsibility of distributing funds for meritorious works based upon the recommendations of a Publication Endowment Committee. This committee is comprised of five faculty members selected from a list of faculty members recommended by the Faculty Senate.

Approximately $100,000 per year will be available in this program. Individual grants cannot exceed $20,000.

In cases where there is a net return on subsidized publications, 50% of the subvention shall be repaid to the Office of the Provost at ISU in the following way: As royalties become due, 50% will be repaid to ISU and 50% remain with the author(s), until a total of 50% of the subvention has been repaid. All subsequent royalty payments remain with the author(s).

Eligibility

Any full-time faculty member or any P&S staff member at the rank of P37 or above may apply for this award through his/her academic unit. Anyone outside of the university may apply to this program by working directly with the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.

Applications

Grant applications should include the following information:

1.     Cover pagewith title of project, names/departments of authors/co-authors and amount requested.

2.     Summary(not to exceed two pages) that includes a description of the need and of the scholarly work. Please include a copy of the table of contents or outline of the publication and a copy of the letter of request/intent from the prospective publishing company, including an itemization of the respective costs. Evidence of contractual acceptance with the publisher will be required prior to the release of ISU Subvention funds. Funding through Subvention Grants must be focused on publication-related costs; the Program will not cover expenses related to project development or manuscript writing.

3.     Itemized budgetincluding expenditures related to photocopying, illustrations, maps for books, graduate student/hourly support, etc. It should be clearly stated who will do the work. Travel costs are allowable if necessary for collaborative publication purposes, either with the Publisher or other co-authors. Release time and page charges for scientific articles are not allowable.

4.     Payback mechanism(should the publication result in a net return), as described above, must be clearly stated.

5.     Biographical information: A curriculum vitae (not exceeding five pages) must be provided.

6.     Deadline and submission instructions: Please submit applications electronically (in PDF format) to Gaye Simonson (gmsimon@iastate.edu) by April 8, 2011.

more information available