I’m spending some time this week reviewing faculty promotion materials. The week started with a kickoff meeting of the college Promotion and Tenure Advisory Committee. We are all excited to read about the accomplishments of the CAHNRS faculty. The few packages I have already skimmed are impressive, to say the least. It is no wonder the students and faculty who attended last week’s Fall Festival showed great enthusiasm for their programs and clubs! I learned about fungi from the plant pathology group, took a quiz assembled by biosystems engineering students, and heard about the activities of numerous other clubs, including some that are relatively new. Thanks to all who made the event a success. Thanks especially to Tadd Wheeler and the AgTM students who braved the ambient heat and the grill!
I met with Mark Lange last week to see how the Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC) is developing its impact story. While the time from idea to application may be longer than some efforts, the impact of IBC’s work is evident, and the range of applications is beyond what I had imagined, spanning cancer treatments to crop protectants. I can’t wait to see how the team’s efforts to collate their impacts show up in the CAHNRS Tour of Impacts that Brandon Schrand and team have been hard at work pulling together. In a few short weeks the tour should be launched on the CAHNRS website, so stay tuned.
On Monday I participated in a discussion about enhancing transdisciplinary work in higher education. It was an interesting conversation that approached “transdisciplinary” from the lens of mission areas (research, teaching, and Extension) rather than fields of expertise, though the dialogue went down both paths. I left with many things to think about, particularly how we can bring continuity to engagement with community partners when faculty often live in a world of five-year project cycles. Community-based Extension personnel are key to that sustained engagement but already have more responsibilities than they have bandwidth to execute.
It is nice to be heading into Apple Cup with a 2-0 record. Good luck to the team and safe travels to the fans! I’m glad my trip to the west side was mid-week.