2004–2005

 

The Agribusiness Department’s College Based Fee Committee has established some important priorities for the Agribusiness Department to follow in their allocation of these CBF funds, and we’d like your input on future decisions. Please feel free to contact us, as we’ll be meeting throughout the year to review and reallocate funds each year. If you are interested in serving on the College Based Fee Committee, please contact the CBF Committee Advisor, Dr. Sean Hurley at  shurley@calpoly.edu. We will post updates on the Agribusiness home page (http://www.calpoly.edu/~agb).

 

The College of Agriculture College Based Fee Committee allocates 95% of the funds to the major departments, and the Agribusiness Department has reviewed and committed funds to several projects. A committee of nine Agribusiness majors (Edward Drehsen, Todd Lohman [co-chair], Patty Maldonado, Nisha Noroian, Andrew Pulford, Amanda Rankin, Matt Sabatasso [co-chair], Andy Tack, and Katy Wilson) and Agribusiness faculty member/committee advisor Sean Hurley identified priorities and then established the amounts that would be allocated to each priority. Originally, the students were selected randomly from the database of all Agricultural Business majors attending school in Fall Quarter 2004. We recruited Winter Quarter, accepted applications, and chose new student members to bring us up to our desired membership of nine students. The faculty advisor was invited by the student committee to assist them in making their informed decisions. The students researched costs of specific allocations and used this information to determine their realistic priorities.

 

 

Where we spent:

  • Three Tenure Track professors continue to be funded by College Based Fees.
  • We hired one full-time lecturer.
  • We funded three part-time lecturers, who taught Fall 2004 and Spring 2005.
  • We funded one Teaching Associate who taught Computers Applications in Agriculture Summer 2005
  • We offered summer school 2004 (15 classes).
  • Facility renovation continued

Ø      We hope to complete this project this summer, with a multimedia projection system making each classroom (10-203, 204, and 206) a “smart room.”

  • We purchased new chairs for the College of Agriculture computer lab in 10-214. Although this is a CAGR lab, it is heavily used by Agribusiness students.
  • We purchased printers for the Agribusiness labs in 10-203 and 204.
  • We purchased a new printer for the CAGR lab in 10-215 in a cost-sharing effort with the Dean’s Office (50% AGB CBF funds, 50% CAGR Lottery Funds).
  • AGB 301 students participated in a market simulation program published by the University of Illinois, Trade Sim. Each enrolled student each quarter had a subscription to this program.
  • Twenty Wall Street Journal subscriptions were funded for placement in 10-202 (The Market Information Room), to be used by all AGB students for the entire year.
  • Field Trips were increased in the department, especially the “individualized field trips.”

Ø      Several classes enjoyed field trips in the guise of Ropes Courses, which are communication skills experiences leading to team building and help develop leadership skills.

Ø      The individualized field trips were quite popular this year. Students identify the organization and make a budget proposal which is denied or accepted by the Department Chair. This year, we sent AGB students to the Alpha Zeta honorary society Annual Conclave and the Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Society annual meeting

  • Reserve Textbooks were purchased; our intent is to supply at least two for each class in the core curriculum. We have established a list of all required textbooks, the faculty will peruse, and rank their choices in order of priority of purchase. (We don’t know how many we can purchase for the $5,000 allotted, so we need priorities.)  These books will be purchased, a label inserted that states “This Agribusiness textbook is placed on Reserve through Agribusiness Department College Based Fees,” and we will work down the priority list as we have sufficient funds. We have begun this process. The stamp will be ordered. Several instructors have put books on reserve courtesy of this funding. We will continue this effort.
  • We again gave $35,000 to the library to provide improved multimedia research vehicles for our students. We are very proud of what we have been able to offer for student research.
  • Executive Lecturers were hosted in several classes this year. The students enjoyed having agribusiness professionals give current, real examples of the theories they’ve been learning in class.
  • Student Team Support was primarily Quiz Bowl Team supplementation, although the NAMA and FDRS teams were well-funded.
  • Speakers’ Forum continues to be underutilized. Many AGB students enjoyed scholarships to the Food Distribution and Research Society Meeting in Morro Bay. This idea of funding registrations was well received.

 

Where are we going:

  • Three Tenure Track professors will continue to be funded.
  • The Committee is still very interested in helping provide enough faculty to teach the classes necessary to achieve efficient throughput. They have committed funds to provide for more lecturers. We are investigating the wisdom of using College Based Fees to hire all part-time lecturers.
  • We will fund Summer School again this year.
  • Renovating/updating rooms 10-202, 203, 204, and 206

Ø      The Committee committed $50,000 to renovate the Market Information Room (10-202). A sub-committee of faculty members (Hurley, MacDougall, and Rickard) was appointed to research and develop plans for the renovation of 202. Of particular interest was removing the DTN that is currently used and obtaining some type of computer-generated, real time prices for all commodities, not just the limited range which we currently get from DTN. This would include the live feed video display and a dedicated terminal. This project has bogged down due to the difficulty in reaching consensus on what we want in this room.

Ø       We hope to have rooms 10-203 and 10-204 finished as “smart rooms’ by the end of Summer 2005.

Ø      We hope to 10-206 fully functional as a “smart room” by Fall Quarter 2005.

  • AGB 301 Market Simulation—We are now using University of Illinois’ TradeSim. This is a $10/student subscription and the expenditures will fluctuate according to the enrollment in AGB 301. We will continue to fund this, although we continue to pursue other similar programs.
  • We will continue funding the Wall Street Journal issues to be placed in 10-202 and used by all AGB students.
  • Field Trips

Ø      Individualized Student Field Trips will require cost sharing. The prospective students would need to identify the organization and make a budget proposal which would be accepted or denied by the Department Chair. The committee established limitations and criteria for this idea. Submit a proposal, mention the conference title, location, dates, and times; how many will be attending. Include budget for trip. CBF will pay up to $300 transportation and half of the lodging expenses. We will not pay for meals. The students and/or advisor of club will be responsible for completing and submitting the proper forms for Risk Management. They will also be responsible for completing and submitting the proper travel forms.

Ø      If the individualized student field trip comes to fruition, the Committee recognizes a need for a Webmaster to develop a webpage listing criteria,  a template to use for proposals, a list of conventions and tradeshows, travel forms, explanation of travel advances and travel form procedures, and other pertinent information. The webmaster’s salary would be included in the $4,000 allocated for the field trips. If this does become a reality, we will entertain ideas of separately funding the webmaster and he/she would also be responsible for mounting club updates on the AGB webpage. In progress.

  • Reserve Textbooks will continue to be purchased, at least two for each class in the core curriculum. We have established a list of all required textbooks, the faculty will peruse, and rank their choices in order of priority of purchase. (We don’t know how many we can purchase for the $5,000 allotted, so we need priorities.)  These books will be purchased, a label inserted that states “This Agribusiness textbook is placed on Reserve through Agribusiness Department College Based Fees,” and we will work down the priority list as we have sufficient funds. We have begun this process. The label will be developed and ordered. Several instructors have put books on reserve courtesy of this funding; we will continue this effort.
  • CAGR Matching Funds will be used for projects in other departments that would upgrade courses with significant Agribusiness enrollment. Acceptable proposals would be decided when the other department submits a proposal to Dr. Scott and he takes it to the CBF committee. It would have to enhance instruction for Agribusiness students, e.g., new gas spectrometer for SS 221. We have received a couple of requests, but we did not feel that these purchases would benefit enough AGB students to warrant the expenditures. We hope to get viable requests in the future.
  • We will again give the library another $35,000 to continue their research acquisitions.
  • Executive Lecturers will be utilized more next year. It’s difficult to use these funds the way we envisioned, as we are not able to charge any hosting fees, e.g., taking the instructor to dinner, etc. We use this fund for paying for their sponsored guest parking and travel (transportation, lodging, and honoraria).
  • Speakers’ Forum

Ø      Dr. Scott pointed out that it is very time-consuming to coordinate a Speakers’ Forum and we should probably identify a student subcommittee in charge of developing and coordinating these forums. The subcommittee has not identified any as yet.

 

 

We hope to generate more awareness of the College Based Fees by having instructors announce in class that books on reserve, field trips, etc., are being provided by College Based Fees.

 

Click this link to view a summary version of the expenditures.