Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Approval of Minutes:

The 2014 meeting minutes were posted to the NIMSS website.  Chair Wayne Greene called for a motion to approve the 2014 minutes.  Beck asked for clarification of the SAAS issue raised last year (Section B of Minutes). Greene wrote the SAAS Directors after the 2014 meeting to clarify intentions with regard to overlap of the SAAS meeting with the NCBA and IPPE.  Some discussion ensued regarding this overlap and an attempt to separate the two meetings.  Currently the upcoming department heads meeting  is scheduled for Western region in 2016, NE in 2017, and S in 2018.  Harmon had asked about the rotation with IPPE, which had been agreed on as an every 3-year location.  Conner moved approval of the minute; it was seconded; motion passed.

Discussion – Topics Important to Southern Region:
Engaging Freshman/Transfer Students:
Greene opened the discussion with observations from his freshman learning community course that students today, in his opinion, are very naïve with regard to the real world.  Non-science information becomes factual to them because they don’t have a good grasp on manipulating and understanding numbers and data.  They don’t have much experience with animals and are mostly city kids and pre-vet.

Strickland discussed Clemson’s introductory AS course with intro to every species (physiology, feeding practices, etc).  It has a weekly hands-on lab rotating through all the farms, learning about biosecurity, general handling.  It is followed by species-specific techniques courses where students actually work at the farms.  There is also a 1000 level seminar with guest speakers from industry.

Greene indicated study skills are important but also managing the diversity of vegetarianism or anti-animal ag perspectives.  Schrick teaches a general course on etiquette, ethics.  Recently TN held a teaching summit and threw out their entire curriculum and started over.
Rusk indicated OK has a student success coordinator to deal with 900 students seeking internships, tours, meeting with parents, coordinating with alumni.
Strickland indicated Clemson has a student manager for freshmen and professional development course at the Junior level for developing personal profiles, communication skills, internships, study abroad process.
Conner suggested this goes beyond the familiarity with animal ag and has to do with any hand on.  A food science course is required in PS at Auburn to educate PS students about the end product.  They can calculate but have no concept of the actual units of measure (g, kg, ton, pound).  This is anecdotal but persistent.  Food Science students are very strong academically perhaps because of K-12 teaching to standardized tests, but hug gap with regard to hands-on.
Strickland reported on Clemson’s freshman women living/learning community managed by 3 women in the department.  The students live together in one dorm and have study sessions.

Noble indicated that his 70% female students have a hands-on lab learning to identify all 7 species and that internships are encouraged. Alumni come back and talk about their experiences.

See has faculty member who runs a veterinary advising center for all pre-vet students on campus; there is a pre-professional course but alternate career tracks has helped admissions.  Also has a “vet pack” of interns who come in to help.  It is a guided process to opportunities.  She pushes students out to faculty in areas the students are interested in – e.g., dairy – so students are matched to interest areas but also areas that are realistic..  Several mentioned not talking about “plan B” but rather options to avoid discouraging those who don’t get into vet school or choose other pathways.

Brown asked about staffing and funding for these various positions: faculty? Staff? Teaching? Academic appointments?  Strickland’s position is a former research tech position converted to academic advising.  Rusk blocked salary dollars and moved a clerical position to advising.  See uses faculty.

Jointly administered Teaching Programs across Institution:

Brown reported that the Academic Program Leaders and Experiment Station Directors meet regularly in Atlanta to discuss issues of mutual interest/concern.  With shrinking teaching budgets, increasing numbers of students, and various levels of subsidy from Extension and Research Divisions, a recent topic has been the feasibility of offering jointly taught undergrad and graduate programs across states and institutions. Two programs already in use are Ag*Idea (GA, Auburn) and ACCEPS (LA, AR, MS, OK).  Both programs share tuition; ACCEPS was developed by primarily horticultural faculty whose individual classes were not making because of low enrollment.  Gerrard, Dahl and Schrick all indicated their institutions have said no to Ag*Idea; MS is on the fence.  Most present indicated they can all handle the core discipline courses, but its the “lighter” courses (swine, goats, sheep, dairy) that are problematic.  The Poultry Consortium in the upper MW was cited as a viable program, as was the swine production program developed by the US Pork Center.

A considerable discussion ensued about achieving joint programs at the faculty level but that upper administration is where these collaborations typically fail. The issues are where tuition is paid vs. where courses are taken/taught and who gets credit.  It’s all about credit and money and until that’s solved, joint teaching programs are unlikely to succeed formally; at the graduate level it’s even more complicated because grad students don’t actually pay tuition.

The Directors are meeting next in 2016.