NSAC E-Bulletin

Please forward your submissions to the NSAC E-Bulletin to Stephanie Rogers (news@nsac.ca) by Friday at 3:00 p.m. for inclusion in the next week's edition.

MOU Signed with Korean College
The NSAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cheonan Yonam College, on Monday, September 20th, at Cumming Hall

Cheonan Yonan College, Cheonan City, Korea, is an agriculturally focused institution with which NSAC will pursue general academic exchange and student recruitment. There is a great deal of interest among Korean students to come to Canada to study and many of our Canadian graduates go to Korea to teach English.

Dr. Kyoung-Deok Seo, President and Dr. Hicks officially signed the document. Dr. Keum-Sub Shim, Associate Professor and Mr. Seong-Oh Won, Past President of the Alumni Association of Cheonan Yonam, were also in attendance. Many thanks to Dr. Hal Ju of the Plant and Animal Science Department for making the initial contact and for facilitating the visit and hosting the Cheonan Yonam visitors.

Still listening to our Students - the Enrollment Management Council
A Student Satisfaction Survey was conducted this past winter semester, providing a list of the things that our students consider top priority (stay tuned to a future e-Bulletin). Students also indicated a level of dissatisfaction with specific aspects of our campus. In several cases the wording on the survey questions did not allow us to understand the nature of the students’ concerns. The EMC has decided that rather than wait for the return of our students in the fall we would get a ‘jump start’ on understanding (and planning a response to) their concerns. In the next weeks those students who are in the area for the summer will be invited to participate in several focus groups. These focus groups have been designed with the help and expertise of Lauranne Sanderson.

Congratulations Extended
Congratulations are extended to Sandra Cantle, lab manager/research assistant in the Potato Molecular Biology and Genomics Laboratory at NSAC, who has recently accepted a position with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Biotechnology Division in Ottawa. She began her new duties September 27th. Sandra obtained her B. Sc. in Agricultural Chemistry at NSAC in 2001. She recently defended her M. Sc. degree in Plant Molecular Biology under the supervision of Dr. Gefu Wang-Pruski

Sandra has presented her research findings at several national and international conferences and at the 87th Annual Meeting of the Potato Association of America in Spokane, Washington, her presentation won a Graduate Student Presentation Award.

Faculty, Staff and Off-Campus Students
Fall clean-up time is here! Don’t throw. Donate! When you clean up your garage, basements, closets and cupboards, we will take what you don’t want to keep.

NSAC’s WUSC committee is holding its 2nd annual Yard Sale and is looking for your donations. The proceeds stay in our campus community,. Funds are used to support the Student Refugee Sponsorship Program. Our newly arrived sponsored student has first choice of the items donated and the revenues cover sponsorship expenses.

Suggested Items:
Winter Clothing
Dishes, cooking utensils, small appliances( kettle, teapot, toaster)
School supplies

Date: Thursday, September 30 and Friday October 1
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Langille Atheltic Centre

Please contact any of the following WUSC Committee members to arrange to have items picked up at your office.

Pamela Craig pmcraig@nsac.ns.ca
James Wani jfwani@nsac.ns.ca
Kathy Pickle krpickel@nsac.ns.cs
Nelsa English nfenglish@nsac.ns.ca

Information Commons to Open at MacRae Library
-Dr. Philip Hicks and Mr. Vernon Murray (Class of '54) will join the MacRae Library in officially opening its Information Commons, Friday, October 1, 2004 at 3:30 p.m.with the addition of 32 personal computers. The Information Commons marks the completion of the first phase of a much larger renovation that will see the 21-year-old facility evolve into a full-service Learning Commons.

The renovation of the Library for an Information Commons was a collaborative effort between Alumni, IT services, Library services and the NSAC Foundation. The Class of '54 generously chose the Commons as their centennial project with the goal of funding the chairs. IT Services closed one computer lab in Cox Institute and moved the computers to the Library and the NSAC Foundation contributed from the Library Development Fund.

"The purpose of the commons," explained Chief Librarian, Bonnie Waddell, "and what makes it different from a regular computer lab is the custom-designed collaborative work tables. Each collaborative workspace is a 'free-form' table with room for eight PCs and plenty of room for several students to work together, with laptops as well as printed library materials."

Although starting with a basic configuration of software, the intent is to develop the Commons, over time, with additional production capabilities for students (scanners, media production etc.).

The lounge area of the library also has been renovated for a REFERENCE/ TECH DESK. A reference librarian will be on duty during the afternoons 2:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. and an ACS staff person during the evenings 5:00 p.m.- 10:30 p.m. weekdays. Weekend hours have not yet been finalized.

Dr. Philip Hicks and Mr. Vernon Murray (Class of '54) will host the ribbon cutting ceremony. Light refreshments will be served.

Festival of Trees - December 11, 2004
Dear Students, Staff and Faculty,

I recently received an invitation from the Village of Bible Hill for us to participate in the second annual Festival of Trees, to be held on Saturday, December 11th.

This is a charity event, where up to ten groups decorate Christmas trees. The public makes a donation to view the trees and the group representing the best decorated tree donates the proceeds of the event to a charity of their choice. During the public viewing, there is also the oportunity for groups to sell crafts and baked goods.

I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate our Aggie spirit to the community—let's get a team together and participate!

If you are interested in building a team for this event, please contact Theresa Blois at 893-6720 or
tblois@nsac.ns.ca

Thank you for your consideration of this worthwhile cause,

Philip Hicks

Varsity Results

Mark Robinson winding up to score the tying goal in the 73rd minute in Sunday's game against STU.

NSAC Truro Aids Walk
The 6th annual Truro Aids Walk was held Sunday, September 26th at Victoria Square with 250 participants raising more than $10,000 in support of local Aids programs. The NSAC contingent was the #1 fundraiser with a total of $1613.00. Congratulations!

Chapman House Council reps (L toR) Dave Jordan, Colin Brown and Philip Keddy, receive their prize for the "most money raised for the Aids Walk" during Residence House Challenge activities.

News from the Road
The Student Recruitment Team has been off in all directions recently promoting programs of study at NSAC to prospective students. Jenna has been travelling with representatives from the other Maritime universities through a two-week trip through Ontario, last week and this week. She has been visiting schools in Kingston, Belleville, Brockville, Kemptville, Ottawa, Perth, Kanata, Renfrew, Nepean, Cornwall and Gloucester this week. Craig visited schools last week in Maine and Vermont and is in the Annapolis Valley this week. Monica spent last week in the Sydney area and has been busy catching up and responding to email inquiries this week in the office.

This weekend we will have a display at the Provincial 4H Show being held at the Exhibition Grounds in Truro. We were pleased to have a visit last week by John Rogers, an Alumnus of the NSAC Class of '73 who was touring NSAC with his son Tristan who is checking us out for next year. John is an Engineer living in Spencerport, NY, USA. He has offered to host some NSAC information sessions in upstate New York this fall.