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Inside this Issue Upcoming Events Volume 51, Number 32 Department of Agricultural Economics Texas A&M University September 30, 2016 Rosson’s Roundup Rosson’s Roundup Seminar Active Shooter Presentation Keynote Address NAEP Expo Upcoming Birthdays Thank You Position Announcements October 1st-Aggies @ South Carolina 4th-Retiree Coffee 7th-209E-Lab Dedication 8th-Aggies vs Tennessee 11th-Active Shooter Presentation Financial Planning Quiz Bowl Team This week has flown by. It started Monday with a breakfast meeting of the AgriLife Department Heads to have a discussion with Ron Lacewell and Rick Mertens (AgriLife Federal Relations in Washington, DC). The key points of the meeting focused on how to get more of our faculty in front of elected representatives and staff to showcase the great work you are doing and to look for opportunities to establish relationships with government agencies to enhance funding. A final discussion point noted that there may be opportuni- ties for faculty to participate in temporary assignments with agencies to learn more about what they do and to build or solidify relationships within government. I’m going to be following up with Rick on all of these, so if you have ideas, please let me know. Monday afternoon we hosted Dr. Blanca Lupiani for Search Committee training. There were eight of us from Agricultural Economics who attended and another 25 from across AgriLife, so well worth the effort- and we’re all good for two years! Thanks for your support. Dr. Lupiani stressed the need to conduct active, welcoming searches-reaching out via personal means, such a telephonic communications, rather than simply waiting on people to apply. The other main message was to be active in searching for diversity-not only in terms of gender, race and ethnicity, but institutional diversity to include non-traditional universities in our search. We have been doing this for several years, and it’s time consuming, but productive. In fact, we’ve just begun a search for the Energy Market Analysis and Decision Making position, so your input on good candidates and places to contact is encouraged and welcomed. Ron Lacewell is chair of the committee, while other members include Yvette Zhang, Reid Stevens, Rich Woodward, Luis Ribera and David Bessler. Thanks to all of you for serving. Mark Waller and I attended the program review in ESSM Wednesday morning, along with Michael Masser from Wildlife and Fisheries and David Baltensperger from Soil and Crop Sciences. While the focus was primarily on how the three department’s undergraduate programs interfaced with ESSM, we also spent some time discussing graduate programs and extension. The four person team is here to re-accredit the undergrad- uate teaching curriculum in ESSM and will provide a report to the Dean and their association. Thursday afternoon was the Agriculture and Life Sciences 2016 Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to Vicky Salin for receiving the Association of Former Students Teaching Award, Rebekka Dudensing for promotion to Associate Professor and Ariun Ishdorj for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. Friday afternoon I’m hosting the first meeting of our Departmental Climate Council composed of faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students. I look forward to a productive session and some key input on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to our unit. Have a great weekend and BTHO South Carolina!!
