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Dr. Ivory W. Lyles |
Dr. Tony E. Windham has been appointed assistant director for agriculture and natural resources. His position is one of four assistant directorships I created with an eye to increasing budgetary efficiency and strengthening the agency’s education program offerings. In addition, he also serves as assistant director of Extension’s community and economic development program.
Dr. Windham began his career with the University’s Division of Agriculture in 1988 as an Extension economist. He brings more than 18 years of Extension experience and 11 years of administrative experience to the job. His resumé includes experience as a farm management specialist/economist in most of Arkansas’ agricultural commodities. He also has a strong knowledge of the state’s agricultural organizations, lending institutions and promotion boards.
He earned his doctorate in agricultural economics from Mississippi State. In 1995, he was named section leader for the agricultural economics section. In 2002, he became section leader for agricultural economics and community development. Three years later, he was named assistant director for community and economic development.
There is an old philosophy that "between what is and what should be lies the need." Our job is to be at the "what should be" end of the equation - out in front of the need. Dr. Windham and the rest of the assistant directors will ensure that we will be better positioned to be ahead of the need. I want to see Extension become more futuristic.
Dr. Windham is well respected by the agricultural faculty and has done a fantastic job in how he’s pulled together the economic development program section. He has the people skills and a way of working with people to get the best effort from them.
In his new role, Dr. Windham will work to ensure that Extension programs are meeting the needs of our agriculture/natural resources clients. This means that not only farmers and agricultural organizations but also our county agents are receiving the training and information they need.
- Ivory W. Lyles
Dr. Mark J. Cochran Named Associate Vice President for Agriculture-Research
Dr. Mark J. Cochran, department head and professor - agricultural economics and agribusiness, has been named associate vice president for agriculture-research and director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. His appointment is effective November 1, 2006.
"There is an ever-increasing number of issues that require direct administrative attention," said Vice President for Agriculture Milo J. Shult.
"The creation of this post and Dr. Cochran’s appointment will put us in an even better position to create innovative answers and efficiencies for the agriculture industry that depends on us.
"Dr. Cochran has provided outstanding leadership for our department of agricultural economics and agribusiness over the past 10 years," Shult said. "He is well-prepared to take this next step within the Division."
Cochran has also excelled as co-chair of the Environmental Task Force, which includes both research and extension faculty and staff, said Shult, adding "he has very successfully provided guidance and advice to our scientists as we have worked through difficult water quality issues affecting Arkansas and surrounding states."
As an associate vice president for agriculture-research, Cochran will become a member of the office of the vice president for agriculture, which includes similar positions in extension and academic programs. He will work alongside Drs. Ivory W. Lyles and Gregory J. Weidemann to provide seamless leadership across the land grant mission areas to ensure equal representation and accountability.
Cochran first came to Arkansas in 1982 after receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He received his bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State University. He has won numerous awards and honors for his work on the U of A’s COTMAN Team including the Arkansas Cotton Achievement Award - Arkansas Cotton Group, as well as the John W. White Outstanding Team Award.
- Jennifer Vickery
UA-Monticello Student Society of American Foresters Wins National Student Quiz Bowl
Congratulations to the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) Student Society of American Foresters on winning the National Student Quiz Bowl on October 25 in five rounds of competition. Thirty-two schools from around the U.S. participated. Three of the final four teams were from the South, including Kentucky, Auburn and UAM. UAM went on to beat the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the final round.
Team members are Kimber Pettigo, Lance Vickers, Seth Glaze and Jonathan Hartley.
- Dick Kluender
Newton County 4-H’ers Seek Solutions to ATV Injuries
Newton County leads Arkansas in youth injuries/trauma/emergency room visits due to ATVs. State and national decision makers dealing with these safety issues constantly strive to come up with new and innovative ways to reach young people with a safety message and reduce the number of ATV-related injuries. After contemplating this issue, the staff of the Newton County Cooperative Extension Service asked an important question: Has anyone asked the young people what they think would work?
Jack Boles, county Extension agent - staff chair, and Susan Holman, county Extension agent - family and consumer science, brought together partners such as Arkansas 4-H and Arkansas Children’s Hospital to conduct a training program teaching various aspects of meeting facilitation and management using the Engaging Youth, Serving Community Year 4 Resource Guide as the curriculum.
Three of the four county schools in Newton County brought eight to nine sophomore students each to the Newton County Cooperative Extension Service office in Jasper for training on Monday, September 11. Upon completion of this training, these 25 young people were directed to return to their campuses and organize a community forum using ATV Safety as the issue.
The Deer 4-H Leadership Team conducted its ATV Community Forum on Thursday, September 28. After establishing role responsibilities among the group, the Team had originally planned to involve two high school history classes (approximately 20 youth) as forum participants, but the afternoon prior to their forum, school administration encouraged the team to involve the entire high school student body (116 youth).
The morning of the forum, the leadership team separated the student body into separate groups upon entering the gymnasium. All the youth were together in a general session as the issue was presented to the young people. Then, the group separated into individual groups for discussion of the issue and brainstorming of potential solutions. Each group reported on their best solution for reducing ATV injuries among young people in Newton County. After all groups reported, the entire high school student body voted on the best solution.
The Jasper 4-H Leadership Team conducted its ATV Community Forum on Friday, September 29. The Jasper Leadership Team members selected roles for themselves and organized the forum to include two morning classes of 8th participating (23 youth). After the issue was presented to the group, the two moderators led a general discussion of ATV use among young people. Recorders highlighted the discussion on flip charts.
After time was called, the moderators shifted the discussion to potential solutions, with the recorders listing potential solutions on flip charts. After time was called, each participant voted for the best solution.
The Western Grove 4-H Leadership Team conducted its ATV Community Forum on Thursday, October 5, and followed the same pattern as the Jasper Team.
The next step is for the 4-H leadership teams to come together to decide what suggestion to implement, utilizing $2,100 made available by the Engaging Youth/Serving Communities 4-H grant.
The youth who participated in the community forums left with a feeling of empowerment. Several stated that they appreciated being asked for their opinion. The youth who were members of the leadership teams reported a sense of accomplishment. By using this program to train young people to work with their communities, decision makers can now be presented with information that has been unavailable to them in the past: "What do the young people think?"
- Jack C. Boles, Jr.
Over 4,600 Learners Take Online Courses in Educator
Since the UACES implementation of the Educator elearning platform in 2004, over 4,600 learners have taken online courses. The Educator system currently holds 61 open and closed CES courses developed by 17 faculty using Educator. By providing online courses to our clientele, we enable them to learn and review content when they need it, with reduced time and training costs.
To help design and build courses, Lisa Ferris, instructional design specialist, Organizational, Staff and Leadership Development, has joined our faculty. Please contact her at lferris@uaex.edu or 501-671-2340 for all Educator support needs, including training, design consultation, course set up, course IDs and course names per new naming conventions.
A reminder: Faculty and staff are encouraged to identify online courses they are developing in 2007 by entering these, with approved course IDs and course names, into the In-Service Training database by November 15, 2006.
- Lisa Ferris
Processing Change for Recipients of Paper Paychecks
Effective December 16, 2006, paper payroll checks will be mailed from the Little Rock State Office on the actual payroll date. The conversion to a semi-monthly payroll was a huge success, and all Cooperative Extension Service employees now enjoy the benefits of being paid twice a month. However, because Financial Services is processing four payrolls a month (two for hourly employees and two for salaried employees) and because checks are currently mailed before the actual payroll date, there has been an increase in the number of paper checks that are cashed before the payroll date. This creates accounting problems for Financial Services and can cause tax problems for employees at the end of the calendar year. The increase in the number of paychecks issued has also resulted in an increase in the number of checks that are being delayed or lost in the mail. Similarly, the turnaround time and work involved in reissuing lost checks has increased.
Because checks will no longer be mailed early, and because of the risk of loss or theft of checks in the mail, Financial Services and CES Administration strongly encourage all employees to have their paychecks and personal reimbursements direct deposited into their bank accounts. Direct deposit is safe, convenient and avoids the potential for theft or loss of checks in the mail. In addition, many financial institutions offer free checking accounts if direct deposit is used for the account holder’s paychecks.
For questions or more information concerning how to enroll in Direct Deposit and/or how to qualify for free checking/savings accounts, contact Linda Meeks in Financial Services at 501-671-2031 or lmeeks@uaex.edu. Also contact Linda if you are currently receiving paper checks and you do not feel that direct deposit is right for you. Linda will be happy to discuss other options with you.
- Bernadette Hinkle
Why Is GWAVA Sending Me E-mails?
You may have received e-mail notices that messages you sent were blocked for security reasons. Those e-mails were from GWAVA, the #1 Novell GroupWise Anti-Spam/Anti-Virus solution. GWAVA monitors and protects our GroupWise system from external threats.
As with other security practices, the rules that affect all were created to protect us from the few who would do damage. Over the years, as hackers have found new, inventive ways to invade our working world, Mark Barnhard has updated our protection to block attachments known to be safe harbors for malicious code. GWAVA uses the experience base Mark built, blocking the risky attachments and notifying the sender.
What types of attachments have been documented as vehicles for hackers? Files ending with the following extensions are all known risks:
| 386 ADE ADP BAS BAT BIN BMP CHM CMD COM CPL CRT CSH DLL EML EXE HLP |
HTA HTT INF INS ISP JS JSE LNK MSC MSI MSP MST OCX PCD PIF PPA RAR |
REG SCR SCT SH SHB SHS SYS VBE VBS VXD WMF WSC WSF WSH ZIP |
These are blocked at our firewall to keep you safe. If you need to send a file with one of these extensions, you have a couple of options. Both methods ensure that the recipient knows the file is directly from you and does not harbor malicious code.
1. You can rename the file, changing the extension and then instruct the recipient to rename it with the proper extension.
2. You can upload the file to our ftp site and send a link to the individual.
- Nina Boston
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