NSAC E-Bulletin

Please forward your submissions to the NSAC E-Bulletin to Stephanie Rogers (news@nsac.ca) by Friday at 2:00 p.m. for inclusion in the next week's edition.

NSAC names Robert Zed as Chair of Regional Advisory Board

Robert G. Zed, Chairman of the Zed Group has been appointed by the Honourable Chris d’Entremont, Nova Scotia Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, as Chair of the NSAC Regional Advisory Board for a three-year term effective December 1, 2005. This position was previously held by Mr. John Bragg.

“NSAC is very fortunate to have the advice and guidance of such a prominent and successful businessman at the helm of our Advisory Board,” said NSAC President Dr. Philip Hicks. “I look forward to working with him on our continued growth and evolution towards being the best in applied-science education

The NSAC, in cooperation with provincial governments in the Atlantic region, formed this independent Advisory Board in 2002 to provide guidance and future direction to the institution.

Zed is honoured to serve in this role and welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the NSAC community to bring this College to new heights of leadership, innovation and excellence. “We want to celebrate the great accomplishments of the students, faculty and staff and I am delighted to be part of this winning team” says Zed. “The importance of agriculture and education to our province, country and beyond is both an economic driver and highlights positive environmental awareness."

Robert’s past achievement’s highlight a successful career spanning the service, healthcare and hospitality industries. He served in various senior healthcare leadership positions at many Maritime hospitals before establishing his company, Crothall Services Canada.

His keen focus and business acumen have resulted in many awards and recognition. He an alumnus of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award; a winner of the Award for Excellence and Innovation by the Canadian College of Health Service Executives and has been named to the Top 50 CEOs in Atlantic Canada List by Atlantic Business 1999-2005. His company CONSiDER iT DONE, is a finalist for best new business of the year by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. In 2005 he was inducted into the Atlantic Business Magazine Top 50 CEO’s Hall of Fame.

Robert has long been an active leader in the community, particularly in fundraising, strategic consulting and event coordination in the health care and education sector. Robert firmly believes it is his responsibility to give back to his community as has been evidenced by the multiple projects to which he has devoted his time. Robert has been involved with such groups as Pier 21, Neptune Theatre, The Arthritis Society, IWK Health Centre, Business Hall of Fame, United Way and was a member of the Metropolitan Chamber Task Force on Health Care to name a few groups that have benefited from his involvement.

His volunteer commitment has earned him respect and recognition from many. In 2002 he was presented with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for outstanding and exemplary achievement in community service and in 2003 he received the Atlantic Society of Fundraising Executives Volunteer of the Year Award.

NSAC Ranked #1 in Research Intensity in Atlantic Canada

The Nova Scotia Agricultural College currently ranks #1 in research intensity among all of the other 16 Atlantic Canadian universities according to results recently released by Research Infosource Inc. in its Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities List.

“For a university the size of NSAC, this is an extremely impressive statistic,” said NSAC President Dr. Philip Hicks. “ NSAC strives to conduct research that impacts the lives of everyday Canadians and our small size means NSAC students gain by being taught in the classrooms by those who are actually creating the knowledge.”

The result for NSAC represents a 45 per cent increase in research intensity over the previous year which translates into $103,700 per faculty member in research funding.

Overall, NSAC lands in 21st spot when comparing research intensity among all 90 universities in Canada, including those with medical schools. Universities that have medical school consistently win research awards and grants that measure in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, making this achievement all the more compelling.

Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities List is released each fall. Using Statistics Canada data and the Canadian University R&D Database, the list ranks universities by their research income and research intensity. The preliminary results of this study are available by accessing the Research Infosource website at researchinfosource.com. The full study is expected to be released in early February.

Accountability Report now Available Online

The 2004-2005 Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Accountability
Report is now available online at

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsaf/department/business_plans/accrpt2004_05.pdf.

This report is important for providing an overview of ongoing work and
achievements made toward core business priorities and performance
measures for the department. They reflect the department's efforts to
achieve the priorities outlined in both the department's 2004-05
business plan and the Government's business plan, as well as initiatives
undertaken to address issues and opportunities that have arose during
the year. We encourage you to review the report. Department managers
will receive bound hard copies of the report in the next couple of
weeks.

The Government of Nova Scotia 2004-05 Annual Accountability Report can
also be found online at

http://www.gov.ns.ca/govt/accountability/accountability2004-05.pdf

Thank you,

Karl Hanson, Policy Analyst
Tel: (902) 424-4865
Fax: (902) 424-3948
Cell: (902) 456-7936

Written Work Practices and Procedures

As you are aware, during the past few years, the university has been working extremely hard to complete the Written Work Practice and Procedures Program.

To date 430 practices and procedures for the university have been added to the OH& S website at www.gov.ns.ca/nsaf/ohs/wwp

As the next step in this process, please designate an individual in your work area to take a glance at the website and pick out the practices and procedures that are pertinent to your work environment and prepare a Written Work Practices and Procedures binder for your area.

The site can be accessed at www.gov.ns.ca/nsaf/ohs/wwp

This program is coming together just in time for the upcoming OH&S Audit. It is extremely important that this binder be on site at all times so it can be referenced by all employees.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people that assisted with this program. A special thanks is extended to Cheryl Kienzle for having the patience to input the practices and procedures to the website.

Please keep in mind that there are still approx. 150 more practices and procedures to be entered and as soon as they are submitted, with the assistance of the webmaster, they will be added.

Elaine Rector
Safety & Security
Tel: 902-893-4190
Email: erector@nsac.ca

Welcome back from Canada Corps Internship in Ghana!

NSAC International would like to welcome back plant science students Jody Nelson and Allan Fraser from a three month internship in Tamale, Ghana. The two were working at OIC Tamale, an NGO (non governmental organization) focusing on technical skills training for rural people in northern Ghana. Jody developed a training seminar and materials for the beekeeping project at OIC and Allan surveyed local NGOs on entrepreneurship training activities and needs to assist NSAC’s Developing Rural Entrepreneurs Project.

Jody and Allan will present a seminar on their experience on January 31 at 12:30. Watch for forthcoming details on final topics and locations for the seminar.

Check the NSAC International website to read more from Jody about her experience in Ghana, www.nsac.ca/international.

Allan showing boys the brood comb from a demonstration bee hive.

Photo by Jody Nelson

You can find more information about other international activities and opportunities for NSAC students at this site. The website is updated with new information regularly.

This internship is part of the Canada Corps University Partnership Program. This program focuses on good governance and institution-building in developing countries and is funded by the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency. We anticipate that NSAC will offer similar internship opportunities through this program in 2006 and in the future. Watch the website for more information!

SPEC4013 Directed Studies in International Development

Global Seminar: Rural Sustainability

What is the Global Seminar? Broadly it is a learning community comprised of students and faculty from around the world who study key global issues of Sustainability pertaining to the environment and food systems. The goal of the Global Seminar is to prepare future leaders and citizens of the global community to articulate policy agendas that will lead to a sustainable environment and a stable food supply. It is believed that the shared understandings that transcend national boundaries, cultures, and backgrounds offer the best hope for our future safety and security. (Stuphin, 2003)

The NSAC is currently participating in a North America Mobility project Rural Sustainability in Agriculture and Aquaculture. This initiative links two universities in each of Mexico, the United States and Canada. The primary aim is student mobility, both NSAC students going to either the United States or Mexico and equally students from those countries coming to NSAC. It is also an objective of the project to engage non-mobile students to the greatest degree possible. Through our US partner at Virginia Tech we have formed a node on the Global Seminar and will be offering a credit course that will see the participation of students, faculty and staff from the three counties. Three case studies will be presented, and first there will be discussion by the local group (i.e. NSAC), then the consortia (on Blackboard), and finally a Video conference in which all members of the consortia will participate. The host institution will lead the video seminar.

For the winter semester there will be three case studies: Memorial University - "Sustainable Aquaculture", Iowa State - "Human Health and Biology" and Virginia Tech "Sustainable Crop Production". The case studies for these topics will be posted on the NAMP web site in Blackboard at least three weeks before the actual live video seminar. For each case study, the first week will be devoted to local study and discussion of the case study. During the second week there will be an online discussion with all partners though Blackboard. In the third week each local group will prepare for the seminar. The video seminar component of the course will be designed as a role play exercise where each university will have a specific role to play. The roles and discussions will be rehearsed before the seminar. At the end of the three seminars each participant will complete a reflective writing summarizing the learning and experience of all three Case Studies. The Video Conference Dates are: February 22, March 3 and April 4

This Special Topics Global Seminar will be supervised by Dr. Norman Goodyear, PAS. Please contact him for additional information.

Varsity Results

Student Recruitment Update

Welcome to Monica Sani who returns to the NSAC staff this week as our Student Recruitment Coordinator. The work of the student recruitment team picks up now after a break over the holidays. Last week Craig and Nick did some planning for upcoming school visits. Craig visited Dr. John Hugh Gillis High School in Antigonish to make presentations to their Agriculture 11 and Oceans 11 classes and met with prospectives students. Nick conducted one campus tour for a prospective student. Brian met with Hal Ju to discuss follow up to the recruiting trip he made to Korea in December.

This week the recruitment team will be meeting to plan the winter program and visiting local high schools. The team is arranging with a number of staff and faculty to host school and 4H groups on campus over the next couple weeks. Next week Craig will be accompanying recruiting staff from five other NS universities to Bermuda. Staff are encouraged to begin planning for their participation in University Day coming up on March 3.