A strong start

August 27

Junior Ben Kemp (left) of Des Moines accepts a banana from Rob Schweers, communications director for the office of the senior vice president and provost, Monday morning south of Lagomarcino Hall. About 160 faculty and staff volunteers answered students' questions and handed out maps, ice water and fresh fruit at five campus locations the first two days of the semester. How many students chose Iowa State this fall? We'll find out after the official count is taken on the 10th day of class. Photo by Christopher Gannon.

New faculty this fall surpass 120

By Anne Krapfl
August 27

The new faces on campus this fall don't belong just to students. Iowa State has hired 123 tenured or tenure-track faculty since last fall, all but about 20 arriving on campus in the last month.

The new faculty group features 97 assistant professors (79 percent), 11 associate professors (9 percent) and 15 full professors (12 percent), eight of whom were hired in an administrative role (chair, director or dean). The group includes both new positions and replacements for faculty who retired or resigned from the university in the past year.

About one-third (43) of the new faculty are in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but all six other colleges hired between 10 and 20 faculty members. The School of Education had seven faculty hires, including director Marlene Strathe. Numerous departments across campus hired four or five tenured or tenure-track faculty since last fall.

"I'm very pleased with the hires we have made over the past year. Our outstanding faculty are among the key reasons why student demand for an Iowa State degree has reached unprecedented levels," said President Steven Leath. "Our faculty work extremely hard to fulfill our land-grant mission; and given our rapid growth, it's more important than ever that we continue our robust hiring initiative to lower our student-to-faculty ratio, increase diversity and ensure the faculty workload is reasonable and manageable.

"I look forward to the contributions from these new faculty members that will enhance our university," Leath added.

Senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert expressed his gratitude to department leaders for a second year of faculty hires totaling 100 or more.

"It's a lot of work to recruit, hire and successfully bring on board new faculty members, and some of our departments have had this assignment for several years," Wickert said. "The end result is a better university faculty, but the thanks really belongs at the departmental level where the hard work and diligence happen."

A clear picture of non-tenure track faculty numbers generally isn't available until October. Many of these faculty are on annual contracts and departments closely monitor enrollment projections during the spring and summer to hire the appropriate number of faculty.

By college: Tenured and tenure-eligible faculty hired since Jan. 1

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (13)

Faculty member	Rank	Department
James Adelman	Ast	Natural resource ecology and management
Donald Beermann	P, Chair	Animal science
Steven Bradbury	P	Natural resource ecology and management
John Crespi	P	Economics
Kathleen Hunt	Ast	Agricultural education and studies
Gabriel Lade	Ast	Economics
Dirk Maier	P	Agricultural and biosystems engineering
Melha Mellata	Ast	Food science and human nutrition
Bradley Miller	Ast	Agronomy
Ryan Smith	Ast	Entomology
Rodrigo Tarte	Ast	Animal science
Justin Walley	Ast	Plant pathology and microbiology
Wendong Zhang	Ast	Economics

 

College of Business (10)

Haozhe Chen	Asc	Supply chain and information systems
Aditya Gupta	Ast	Marketing
Florence Honore	Ast	Management
Michael Howe	Ast	Management
Sachin Modi	Asc	Supply chain and information systems
Tyler Morgan	Ast	Supply chain and information systems
Jose Antonio Rosa	P	Marketing
Tracy Turner	Asc	Finance
Jacquelyn Rees Ulmer	P, Chair	Supply chain and information systems
Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan	Ast	Supply chain and information systems

 

College of Design (12)

Betsy Barnhart	Ast	Industrial design
Ryan Clifford	Ast	Graphic design
Shelby Doyle	Ast	Architecture
Jennifer Drinkwater	Ast	Art and visual culture
Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock	Ast	Community and regional planning
Sara Hamideh	Ast	Community and regional planning
Kenneth McCown	P, Chair	Landscape architecture
Emily Morgan	Ast	Art and visual culture
Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness	Ast	Industrial design
Alenka Poplin	Ast	Community and regional planning
Nick Senske	Ast	Architecture
Youngme Seo	Ast	Community and regional planning

 

College of Engineering (20)

Benjamin Ahn	Ast	Aerospace engineering
Azadeh (Alice) Alipour	Ast	Civil, construction and environmental engineering
Ashley Buss	Ast	Civil, construction and environmental engineering
Peter Collins	Asc	Materials science and engineering
Jun Cui	Asc	Materials science and engineering
Neil Zhenqiang Gong	Ast	Electrical and computer engineering
Chinmay Hegde	Ast	Electrical and computer engineering
Adina Howe	Ast	Agricultural and biosystems engineering
Chao Hu	Ast	Mechanical engineering
Kaoru Ikuma	Ast	Civil, construction and environmental engineering
Jaime Juarez	Ast	Mechanical engineering
Ronald Leonard	Asc	Agricultural and biosystems engineering
Cameron MacKenzie	Ast	Industrial and manufacturing systems engineering
Thomas Mansell	Ast	Chemical and biological engineering
James Michael	Ast	Mechanical engineering
Juan Ren	Ast	Mechanical engineering
Behrouz Shafei-Pamsari	Ast	Civil, construction and environmental engineering
Mehari Tekeste	Ast	Agricultural and biosystems engineering
Peng Wei	Ast	Aerospace engineering
Wang Zhaoyu	Ast	Electrical and computer engineering

 

College of Human Sciences (13)

Lorenzo Baber	Asc	School of Education
Michael Bowman	Ast	School of Education
Julio Cammarota	Asc	School of Education
Ji Young Choi	Ast	Human development and family studies
Shannon Coleman	Ast	Food science and human nutrition
Ji-Yeong (Joann) I	Ast	School of Education
EunHa (Lena) Jeong	Ast	Apparel, events and hospitality management
Sarah Rodriguez	Ast	School of Education
Heather Rouse	Ast	Human development and family studies
Manali Sheth	Ast	School of Education
Marlene Strathe	P, Director	School of Education
Ching-Hui (Joan) Su	Ast	Apparel, events and hospitality management
Carl Weems	P, Chair	Human development and family studies

 

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (41)

Robbyn Anand	Ast	Chemistry
Jared Anderson	P	Chemistry
Emily Berg	Ast	Statistics
Jeremy Best	Ast	History
Sebastian Braun	Asc	Anthropology
Kyle Burgason	Ast	Sociology
Olga Chyzh	Ast	Political science/Statistics
Elena Cotos	Ast	English
Ranpal Dosanjh	Ast	Philosophy and religious studies
Somak Dutta	Ast	Statistics
Mohan Gupta	Ast	Genetics, development and cell biology
Steven Hall	Ast	Ecology, evolution and organismal biology
Jonas Hartwig	Ast	Mathematics
Jonathan Hassid	Ast	Political science
Tracy Heath	Ast	Ecology, evolution and organismal biology
David Herzog	Ast	Mathematics
Michael Christopher Low	Ast	History
Chaoqun Lu	Ast	Ecology, evolution and organismal biology
Monica Marsee	Asc	Psychology
Charles Nagle	Ast	World languages and cultures
Mark Nieman	Ast	Political science
Ann Oberhauser	P	Sociology
Jacqueline Reber	Ast	Geological and atmospheric sciences
Justin Remeselnik	Ast	English
Haldre Rogers	Ast	Ecology, evolution and organismal biology
Craig Rood	Ast	English
Aaron Rossini	Ast	Chemistry
Ivan Rudik	Ast	Economics
Amy Rutenberg	Ast	History
Farzad Sabzikar	Ast	Statistics
Jonathan Sharp	Ast	Music and theatre
Elizabeth Swanner Smith	Ast	Geological and atmospheric sciences
Christina Svec	Ast	Music and theatre
Geetu Tuteja	Ast	Genetics, development and cell biology
Vincenzo Venditti	Ast	Chemistry
Dara Wald	Ast	Greenlee School of Journalism and Communications
Xuefeng Wang	Ast	Physics and astronomy
Matthew Wetstein	Ast	Physics and astronomy
Kelly Winfrey	Ast	Greenlee School of Journalism and Communications
Jeremy Withers	Ast	English
YuYu Zhou	Ast	Geological and atmospheric sciences

 

University Library

Beth McNeil

P, Dean

Library services

 

College of Veterinary Medicine (10)

Daniel Correia-Lima-Linhares	Ast	Veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine
Stefano Di Concetto	Ast	Veterinary clinical sciences
Tyler Dohlman	Ast	Veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine
Iddo Friedberg	Asc	Veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine
Chad Johannes	Ast	Veterinary clinical sciences
Mark Lyte	P	Veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine
Shannon McLeland	Ast	Veterinary pathology
Yuko Sato	Ast	Veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine
Laura Tonkin	Ast	Veterinary clinical sciences
Bailey Wilberts	Ast	Veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine

 

Intra-collegiate (3)

Colleges of Veterinary Medicine/Agriculture and Life Sciences

Troy Brick

Ast

Veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine/Animal science

Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences/Liberal Arts and Sciences

Chester Britt	P, Chair	Sociology/Anthropology
Joshua Rosenbloom	P, Chair	Economics

Ast   Assistant professor
Asc   Associate professor
P     Professor

Meet Tera Lawson, Professional and Scientific Council president

August 27

Describe your work

The Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching (CTLT) is a research, outreach and support center located within the School of Education in the College of Human Sciences. My work encompasses each of these components and varies greatly depending on the projects we are engaged in, the individuals that we are working with, and what we discover as we go through the day. I support the development of grant proposals or contracts through submission, manage accounts and monitor budgets, support graduate students, meet with and respond to prospective students who are interested in the curriculum and instructional technology program, manage funded awards and advise CTLT faculty, staff and students on the implementation of university policies and procedures. I also help visitors learn something new by experimenting with or exploring a technology that they haven’t used before.

What one word would you use to describe yourself?

Dedicated. I am dedicated to improving myself and others as well as the projects, organizations and groups that I've chosen to be involved in and with. I am willing to take the time to find the solution.   

What interests do you have outside of work?

I enjoy photography and pretty much all crafty and artistic things. I like to create something I've seen elsewhere that I thought I could improve upon or adapt. Having just completed my master's degree this summer, I also look forward to reading leisurely, without a deadline.

What strengths do you bring to the council presidency?

I am a continuous learner and I believe that to move forward you have to research, ask questions, find new ways to look at existing problems, recognize and support others' contributions and build win-win relationships and projects. I've been an Iowa State undergraduate student, part-time graduate student, alumna and full-time staff member. I've worked in admissions, new student programs, residence life, Ames Laboratory and an academic department. I have served on committees, P&S Council and as a member, chair and past-chair of the College of Human Sciences P&S Council. 

What is your top priority?

To increase communication -- between P&S Council and P&S employees, between the P&S Council executive committee and council, between P&S Council and Faculty Senate, and between P&S Council and university administration.

What challenges face the council?

We need to continue to build a greater awareness of the contributions of P&S employees and help the university community better understand P&S Council -- what it is, what it does and how it's working to help improve the lives of ISU employees. 

What would you like to tell the staff you represent?

I would like to encourage P&S employees, as members of the largest employee group on campus, to stay informed, seek out additional information and communicate with one another and their elected council representatives. The P&S Council will continue its work to build greater awareness of the roles P&S employees play in making Iowa State a great institution. P&S employees work in a vast array of positions, both on and off campus, and we need everyone's help to support one another and highlight the contributions of P&S employees at our university.

Meet Rob Wallace, Faculty Senate president

August 27

Describe your work

I am a botanist and study the evolution, classification and phylogeny of plants -- particularly desert plants, like cacti. I am committed to teaching courses in evolutionary biology and different aspects of plant biology, plant evolution and economic uses of plants by humans.

What one word would you use to describe yourself?

Multitasker. What I do from day to day is highly varied, and often there are multiple jobs and projects happening simultaneously.    

What interests do you have outside of work?

I am an avid woodworker, specifically woodturning -- I use a wood lathe to produce artistic bowls, vessels and other forms. I sell artwork at galleries and art museums in Iowa and participate in juried art exhibitions around the state. I am president of the board of trustees of the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, and serve on the board of directors for the American Association of Woodturners. Other hobbies include amateur [ham] radio and homebrewing beer.

What strengths do you bring to the senate presidency?

I have served on and chaired a number of committees, councils and other faculty groups -- LAS curriculum committee, LAS representative assembly, LAS senate caucus and academic affairs council -- and the Faculty Senate executive board. This allows me to bring quite a bit of leadership experience to bear on coordinating senate activities and working with faculty colleagues on a wide range of issues.

What is your top priority?

My top priority is to make sure the Faculty Senate and its constituent councils and committees run smoothly and efficiently this year.

What challenges face the senate?

In addition to our normal activities of maintaining an effective and current Faculty Handbook, we have a number of other issues to deal with this year. The senate needs to complete its review and adoption of personal responsibility statement (PRS) guidelines, a project that began over a year ago. It is likely the senate will need to examine current definitions of non-tenure eligible faculty positions and possibly create definitions of new positions to accommodate the evolving role of NTE faculty in different parts of the university.

It also would be good to continue to work on getting the message out to regents, legislators and the general public about what we do as faculty -- explain our multiple roles at the university and the time and effort required to do our jobs, and that Iowa State University is worthy and deserving of continued and expanded funding to better enable us to meet the increasing demands of teaching, research and extension.

What would you like to tell the faculty you represent?

I would like to remind all faculty that the Faculty Senate is their official collective 'voice' within the university and its administration -- many talented colleagues serve on senate councils and committees, working behind the scenes on behalf of the faculty throughout the year. Thank your senators for the time and effort they spend maintaining and improving our governance, curricula and quality of academic life at Iowa State. 

Search is on for web accessibility coordinator

By Diana Pounds
August 27

The search is underway for Iowa State's first-ever web accessibility coordinator.

The coordinator, who may be on the job as early as November, will lead university efforts to build and maintain accessible websites, classroom technologies and other online resources.

"The new position advances our goal to ensure success for everyone who connects with Iowa State University," said Jim Kurtenbach, chief information officer. "People increasingly connect to the university through technology. That technology should serve all people -- students, faculty, staff and many others beyond our borders who wish to access our information and resources."

The web accessibility coordinator, part of the information technology department, will partner with faculty and staff across campus to make certain that Iowa State websites, online and classroom technologies and software applications work well for everyone, including those with disabilities.  The coordinator's task, according to the vacancy description, will be "to provide exemplary barrier-free computing and information technology systems and resources."

The coordinator also will help ensure that online resources and technologies comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act and other federal and state laws governing access.

Applications for the new position should be submitted by Sept. 13.

Learn to be a champion of change

By Paula Van Brocklin
August 27

Last spring, university human resources (UHR) identified managing change as one of the top five issues facing Iowa State supervisors. Since then, the UHR staff has developed a new training series to help all ISU employees -- supervisor or not -- better deal with workplace changes.

"Championing Change at ISU" is a series of six, two-hour workshops open to all Iowa State employees who wish to explore, understand and better manage workplace changes. Participants will:

• Explore the process of change
• Examine how change impacts individuals
• Identify how to build a climate for change
• Learn how to use changes in technology to prepare for the future
• Understand the importance of having the energy needed for change
• Learn how to thrive in times of change
• Explore how to influence others for change

"We want people to not think of change as something to be feared," said Don Broshar, human resources specialist. "Change is a natural, normal process of living. This series provides strategies to cope with changes, especially those that you don't choose."

The first class is Oct. 7 (9-11 a.m., Memorial Union Gallery) with monthly sessions through March at the same time and location. Registration is open through the end of September via AccessPlus (Employee > UHR Training > Courses). Cost is $150 for the series. 

Related articles:

• Survey identifies professional development needs, April 23, 2015

All aboard!

By Paula Van Brocklin
August 27

If you're a train enthusiast and an Iowa State fan, the latest exhibit at Reiman Gardens is a must-see.

Reiman Gardens hired Applied Imagination, a Kentucky company that combines train displays with botanical design and architecture, to create an indoor Iowa State-themed train display in the Hughes Conservatory. The autumn-inspired exhibition, "Harvest Festival," opened Aug. 22 and runs through mid-November. Then the company will transform the display into a holiday show, "Treasures in the Attic," which will run through Jan. 10, 2016.

The exhibit features two trains of G-scale cars (about 16.5 inches long, 4.5 inches wide and 6 inches tall) traveling on separate tracks through replicas of several campus buildings, including the Hub, Beardshear and Morrill halls, and the campanile (with recorded carillon music from ISU). Each building is intricately crafted with dozens of plants and botanicals, from roofs of magnolia leaves and shag bark hickory, to cork and elm foundations.

A replica of the historic Dinkey train, which carried passengers between the university and Ames from 1891 to 1907, chugs back and forth along a third track. Also featured in the display are several bridges, two of which are historically significant to the area -- the former Dinkey bridge over Squaw Creek in Ames and the High Bridge over Bass Point Creek near Boone.

Another train is around the bend

If you miss this year's exhibit, never fear. Applied Imagination will create a new holiday train exhibit for Reiman Gardens annually, beginning each November.

Reiman Gardens is open daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Labor Day (open until 4:30 p.m. after Labor Day). Admission is $8 ($4 for youth 4 to 17; free for members, ISU students and kids 3 and younger).

Cyclone Cinema opens tonight

By Anne Krapfl
August 27

Fourteen feature films released between May 1 and Aug. 7 – but not yet available on DVD -- will come to campus in Cyclone Cinema's fall lineup.

Sponsored by the Student Union Board, the film series is at home in the Carver Hall auditorium (room 101). With the exception of the opening fall break weekend, each movie has eight showings: 7 and 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday evenings. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

For the second year, both Sunday screenings will include open captions to assist patrons with hearing loss or for whom English isn't their first language.

Yes, there's popcorn

The Cyclone Cinema concession stand this fall will offer butter and kettle popcorn ($2), bottled Coke products and water ($1) and boxed candy ($2).

The Cyclone Cinema fall films are:

• Aug. 27-30, Avengers: Age of Ultron (rated PG-13), starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans
• Sept. 3-6, Pitch Perfect 2 (PG-13), Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson
• Sept. 10-13, Spy (R), Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne
• Sept. 17-20, Jurassic World (PG-13), Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard
• Sept. 24-27, Inside Out (PG), animated, voices of Amy Poehler, Bill Hader
• Oct. 1-4, Ted 2 (R), Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried
• Oct. 8-11, Magic Mike XXL (R), Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello
• Oct. 15-18, Mad Max: Fury Road (R), Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron
• Oct. 22-25, Trainwreck (R), Amy Schumer, Bill Hader
• Oct. 29-Nov. 1, Minions (PG), animated, voices of Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm
• Nov. 5-8, Ant-Man (PG-13), Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas
• Nov. 12-15, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (PG-13), Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson
• * Nov. 19-20, Southpaw (R), Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams
• Nov. 26-29, No film, Fall break
• Dec. 3-6, Fantastic Four (PG-13), Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan

*Thursday-Friday only due to fall break