NSAC E-Bulletin

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November 4 2002 - Week 108

Principal's Jottings #63

INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY CONFERENCE
Congratulations to the folks at NSAC International for their successful organization of the Canada-European Community-United States Conference on Cooperation in Higher Education and Training held this week in Halifax. I had the pleasure of participating in the opening of this Conference on Sunday evening in company with the Hon. Jane Purves, Minister of Education, Dr. Tom Traves, President of Dalhousie and Steve Dempsey, President and CEO of the Greater Halifax Partnership.

This is an important event which puts an international spotlight on NSAC for the 450 delegates attending. I want to acknowledge especially, the leadership of Professor Mike Whalen for taking on this project as well as Conference Coordinator Dawn Heintz for her execution of the innumerable details and tasks associated with this kind of event. Bravo!

I lso want to salute the initiative of Professor Carol Goodwin and her colleagues for taking the lead on our own project under the Canada-EC program with McGill, UBC, Writtle College (UK), KVL (Denmark) and Hamé (Finland) as partners. This is one of only 3 projects focusing on agriculture out of a total of 45 thus far under this program.

FACULTY AWARDS
On the theme of international mobility, congratulations to Prof. Dian Patterson for being awarded a grant of $48 thousand from HRDC to develop an international mobility project in the form of a web-based modular course on animal bio-diversity in partnership with colleagues in Slovakia and Hungary.

Congratulations also go out to Professor Steve Russell for successful completion of his doctoral studies through the University of Bradford in England. This is a significant achievement requiring a great deal of hard work and determination as well as ingenuity. Bravo Dr. Russell!

AUTUMN ASSEMBLY
Before closing the book on Autumn Assembly, I want to thank both the Scholarship Committee, Chaired by Professor Firth, for their tremendous investment of time and energy in selecting scholarship winners and the Special Academic Events Committee, led by Brian Crouse, for their usual high standard of attention to detail in organizing the event. Bravo to the many people involved in the process!

As an institution, we can take pride in the growth of the total scholarship awards which have nearly tripled during my term in office from $250 thousand in 1997 to $724 thousand this year. Credit goes to the generosity of our donors, the work of our fund raisers and, of course, the success of our students in earning external awards. As a matter of comparison, the Faculty of Agriculture and Food at Laval University, despite it's much larger size, awarded just $200 thousand to its students last week.

One of the highlights of the evening was the address by Louis Deveau, recipient of the Honourary Doctorate, who credited much of the success of Acadian Seaplants Ltd. to the NSAC graduates he has hired over the years. I would have wished for a larger participation of faculty than the seven stalwarts who were there but, for those who did not hear the kind words from Mr. Deveau, or even for those who did, a copy of his remarks have been sent to the Principal's Reserve in the Library.

NEW CEO OF CO-OP ATLANTIC
Congratulations to NSAC Alumnus John Harvie who has just been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Co-op Atlantic. We look forward to working with Mr. Harvie in the fulfillment of our MOU on co-operation with Co-op Atlantic.

MEETING WITH DEANS OF AGRICULTURE
The annual meeting of the Canadian Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (CFAVM) was held last week at Laval University. We are working collaboratively to raise the profile of education and research in agriculture and veterinary medicine with the decision makers in government and industry. Included in this venture will be the production of a new brochure as well as an update of the "Corporate" website of CCFAVM, henceforth to be known as CFAVM.

Another part of the exercise is informing government departments of our capacity outside of mainstream agriculture. In that context, I am inviting all Faculty interested in being listed with Environment Canada to let me know if you would like to be on the list.

We are also looking at the concept of a common program in some field to which all or several of us might contribute, thereby facilitating student mobility. Taking that concept a step further, we are looking at joint promotion of unique and complementary courses that each of us are doing that would make for attractive "minor" semesters for exchange. This might involve the offering of a least two courses of 3rd year level in a given field in one semester or another. Two of our own truly unique fields of endeavour among this group of faculties are aquaculture and organic agriculture. If you wish to make the case for others, please advise.

H.G.C.

Seminar Notice
Thursday, Nov 7th at 12:00 Cox 209
Regionalization of large-scale climate variability and its effects on horticulture in Denmark.
Peter Braun from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark will discuss the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) which has a profound effect on Denmark (and should also have a very profound one on Nova Scotia, just the other way round). He will present their approach to quantify its effects on winter and spring climate. He will use a range of horticultural crops and demonstrate the effect of the NAO on winter survival and spring development on a more regional and local level. Please come out, learn something and welcome Peter to the NSAC campus!

A New Course in Winter 2003
EB221 (Topics in Economics and Business Management) (A): Agriculture in Global Economic Development

Objectives: deals with the economic aspects of international development, with emphasis on the role of food, agriculture and the natural resource sector in the economy of developing countries. The course will help students understand the problems and theories of agricultural development, and analyse economic policies and programs in developing countries and their effect on economic development.

Prerequisites: 10 course credits including EB110 (or equivalent)

Are you interested in global questions such as:
1. What would it take to sustain a global food system?
2. How does agricultural development aid really affect recipient economies?
3. How does agriculture contribute to development of other sectors of the economy?
4. How does farmers' choice between cash crops and basic food crops affect food security and economic development?
5. Can the environment survive the global economy?
6. What are the political/economic issues linked to genetically modified foods (GMOs)?

If the answers to these questions are of interest to you, then this course is for you.

For more information, contact the course instructor:
Dr. Emmanuel K. Yiridoe Business and Social Sciences
Email: eyiridoe@nsac.ns.ca Phone: 893-6699

Student Recruitment Update

Here is the latest from the highways of the beautiful Atlantic Provinces. Dara and Brian split a three week trip to Newfoundland and Labrador and had a great experience in both places. Although most of the schools that Dara visited were urban where there was little interest in agriculture, there was a good response from students looking at the Pre-Vet and Animal Science programs. We have yet to hear from Brian about his experiences, he was traveling the central and western parts of the province this past week.

This week, Dara will be in Saint John and Sussex, New Brunswick. In the office, Dara and Jenna have been very busy giving tours and sending off information to inquiring parties. They have also been involved with the fall High School Introductory Program which has been running on Wednesdays throughout October and November. These programs, designed to give prospective students a closer look at life here at NSAC, have been quite successful thus far. We had 11 students participate this past week, coming from various high schools, including Parkview, Hants West, Colchester North and South Colchester, North East Kings, as well as a student from Colonel Grey Senior High School in PEI. We would like to extend a special thanks to the faculty and staff who have gone out of their way to speak with and give demonstrations to these students while they were on their tour.

This week, we in recruitment would like to give a "Tip of the Hat" to the Engineering Department for their extraordinary recruitment initiative in holding the Engineering Department Open House. We had many prospective Engineering students as well as students who were interested in other disciplines attend from as far as New Glasgow and the Valley. Thanks again to Fred Hampton and all of the Engineering staff for hosting such a worth while event!

NSAC United Way Campaign

The NSAC United Way Campaign has wrapped up and the final tally is $3934.85. Thanks to all who participated. The winners of our two NSAC sweatshirts were Sandra Fisk, Department of Environmental Sciences and Kirsti Rouvinen-Watt from the Department of Plant & Animal Sciences. Congratulations!