January
27, 2006
Topics in today's issue of Extension Update:
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AWARENESS AND
PREVENTION TRAINING
Beginning last fall, Washington State University has received
its share of attention in the media around incidents of sexual harassment.
It is critical to reinforce to all faculty, staff and students/learners
the importance of a climate of trust and respect, education and
awareness regarding sexual harassment. The Provost’s Open
Letter to the University Community (November 15) can be found on
his web site http://provost.wsu.edu/communications/index.html.
Comprehensive sexual harassment prevention training is now available
online to WSU Faculty, staff, students, and an array of our partners.
The program is a product of New Media Learning and is tailored to
WSU. To access the training, go to the web site for the Center for
Human Rights http://www.chr.wsu.edu/
and click on Preventing Sexual Harassment Training in the upper
right corner. You may also access the online training from the WSU
Extension Faculty and Staff web site under Policies and Procedures
http://ext.wsu.edu/admin/.
The primary goal of this online course is to enable you to identify
sexual harassment behaviors. With this knowledge, you can help keep
WSU free of sexual harassment. The training is suggested to take
one hour. If you need to leave the program before you finish, you
can either bookmark your location or return to where you were through
the Drop-Down Menu at the top of the screen. At the end of the Preventing
Sexual Harassment training program, there is a 15-question mastery
test. Upon successfully completing this test, you will be advised
how to print a Certificate of Completion (if 80% or higher accuracy
in the test). The test may be repeated to achieve mastery.
In addition to WSU employees and students, an extra benefit is
that we can offer the training at no cost to companies in the state
of Washington with fewer than fifty (50) employees.
Please forward this information to other faculty, staff, employees
and volunteers in WSU and WSU Extension programs.
The Center for Human Rights and the Office of Equity and Diversity
continue to offer educational training. If follow up training is
of interest to you, contact Felicia Gaskins, 509-335-8888.
DIVERSITY PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT
This month's diversity success story comes from Chelan/Douglas
County, where the 4-H program is reaching out to community members
with disabilities. The Spurs and Spokes Therapeutic Horseback Riding
program provides therapeutic horseback riding lessons to children
and adults with disabilities. Both physical and emotional therapy
are emphasized. Riders who are no longer physically able to be mounted
on horseback participate in a horse driving program which uses a
cart especially built to load and secure a wheel chair. Thirty-six
individuals with disabilities are reached each year. Because 140
able-bodied youth and adult volunteers assist the riders, the program
also provides diversity education to the larger 4-H community. The
program has been successful in engaging culturally diverse participants
as well. Four riders and eight volunteers are Hispanic; one rider
and one volunteer are African-American. The program has its own
advisory board, of which one member is American Indian.
Source: Louise Parker
PACIFIC NORTHWEST ENERGY EXTENSION
INITIATIVE PILOT PROJECT
County Extension staff members are strongly encouraged
to participate in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Energy Extension Initiative
Pilot Project by taking advantage of the services that the Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Information Center provides.
The EERE Information Center is managed and operated by the WSU Extension
Energy Program, and marketing material is now available at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/projects/assistance/PacificNorthwestInitiative.cfm
for county Extension staff to market this service to local government
leaders.
This pilot project focuses on the growing need for credible, unbiased
energy information to help local government officials make sound
energy decisions, and it taps into the strong working relationships
that county Extension staff already have with local government leaders.
In addition, the December 16, 2005 Extension Engaged program is
about energy, and available as a resource. For more information
and to access marketing material on the PNW Energy Extension Initiative,
visit http://www.energy.wsu.edu/projects/assistance/
To view the Extension Engaged program on energy, visit http://caheinfo.wsu.edu/video/stream.html
eXtension COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
The next eXtension Call for Engagement for what is referred
to as “Communities of Practice” will be formally released
to the System on February 1, 2006. It is now posted on the Communities
of Practice wiki site ( http://cop.extension.org/wiki/Main_Page
).
WSU TODAY AND EXTENSION TODAY
The January 13 issue of WSU Today contained the special
insert Extension Today. It is available online http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pdfs.asp
Calendar of WSU President's, Provost's
Dialogues Available
Faculty, staff and students have opportunities to hear
from and interact with President V. Lane Rawlins and with Provost
Robert C. Bates in upcoming months. An updated calendar of their
Dialogues is now online here for easy reference: http://www.wsu.edu/dialogues-forums/
For spring semester 2006, the Provost's Dialogue is Tuesday, February
14, in the CUB Cascade Rooms on the first floor. The President's
Dialogue is Tuesday, March 7, in the CUB Regency Room on the second
floor. The dialogues are also available via videostreaming on the
Web.
NW REGIONAL RURAL HEALTH CONFERENCE:
“DARE TO PREPARE”
The Northwest Regional Rural Health Conference - incorporating
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana & Alaska - celebrates its
19th year in 2006. This year’s conference, March 23-24, 2006,
at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Spokane, WA is designed to focus
on opportunities, to highlight new programs and new ways of doing
business, to discuss collaborative relationships in rural communities,
and to reflect how the rural healthcare system fits into the processes
of creating change in communities. The conference always strives
to stay abreast of the current policy and regulatory developments
at the federal, regional, state and local levels which impact healthcare
delivery. This conference is the largest rural health conference
in the region and draws more than 250 attendees plus exhibitors.
The conference is designed to be of interest to a wide range of
rural health advocates including providers, community leaders, administrators,
board members, commissioners, policy makers, public health professionals,
and others.
Conference objectives include:
- Provide information on the effects of various system changes
from state, regional and national perspectives.
- Equip workshop participants with the tools to decide on the
best course of action for their situation.
- Disseminate information and strategies on rural health policy,
research, management and practice issues.
- Provide a forum for discussion and idea exchange on rural health
issues.
Detailed conference information is available http://www.ahec.spokane.wsu.edu/content/docs/CAH_RHC%20Broch%20FINAL.pdf.
For more information or to exhibit for either conference, please
contact the conference office at
ahec@wsu.edu
or (509) 358-7640.
Source: Kaarin Appel, Conference Manager
NATIONAL PUBLIC POLICY EDUCATION
CONFERENCE
Public policy issues related to the 21st Century food system
will be the focus of Farm Foundation’s National Public Policy
Education Conference, Sept. 17-19, 2006, in Fayetteville, Ark. Northwest
Arkansas is home to the corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart and Tyson
Foods, two major food system players whose actions and leadership
are influencing the future of the food system.
To learn more about the conference program or registration, the
history of the National Public Policy Education Conference and Farm
Foundation, go to www.farmfoundation.org.
This year’s conference, Consequences of the 21st Century
Food System, will include sessions on ethics, economic development,
community impacts, immigration and labor, food safety, nutrition
issues and federal agricultural policies. Conference participants
will have the opportunity to tour Tyson and Wal-Mart operations
and research facilities, meeting with company officials to discuss
food safety, labor/grower issues, customer issues, community impacts
and radio frequency identification systems (RFID). A poster session
is also planned, for which participants are eligible to submit proposals.
The sessions at this conference will have special appeal to Extension
educators working in community and economic development, food safety
and health/obesity issues, agricultural policy and ethics, and local
controversial issues with national implications. Preceding the conference
will be one-day workshop designed for Extension professionals with
limited experience in public policy and public issues education.
National Public Policy Education Conference, organized by Farm Foundation
for more than 50 years, provides Extension professionals with information
on diverse public policy issues related to agriculture and the food
system.
CHOICES MAGAZINE
A new issue of Choices has been released by the American
Agricultural Economics Association,www.choicesmagazine.org. Featured
in this issue (Volume 20, No. 4, 2005) are articles addressing:
- Consumer acceptance, perceptions and reaction to genetically
modified (GM) agricultural commodities
- Economic factors of supply chains--why supply chains are becoming
more prevalent, food safety implications and management issues.
The Washington DC Scene--trade, farm bill, energy and budget reconciliation
This issue of Choices also offers two single papers--"Perspectives
on Traceability and BSE Testing in the U.S. Beef Industry",
and "Made in China: Is it Over for the U.S. Textile Industry?"
If you find aspects of these topics of interest, the entire set
of papers is available at www.choicesmagazine.org.
National 4-H Council Names Senior
VP of Resource Development
The National 4-H Council, announces the appointment of
Jennifer Sirangelo to the position of Senior Vice President of Resource
Development. Sirangelo, currently Vice President of Resource Development,
Boys & Girls Clubs of America, will lead National 4-H Council
in its pursuit to raise $25 million per year for the 4-H youth development
movement by 2010. She joins National 4-H Council in mid-February.
With nearly 15 years of experience as a front-line fundraiser in
both higher education and non-profit organizations, Sirangelo has
a proven track record of success in private sector fundraising.
She has provided strategic leadership for significant comprehensive
fundraising campaigns including a $200 million campaign currently
underway at Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Sirangelo, who is
responsible for Boys & Girls Clubs’ northeast region,
has already gained commitments for $41 million of her team’s
$65 million goal. Her personal fundraising portfolio of $13 million
includes significant national multi-year, multi-million dollar corporate,
and foundation relationships that engage local affiliates. Prior
to joining Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Sirangelo helped lead
a $65 million campaign at William Jewel College in Missouri, where
she partnered with faculty, financial aid, and college alumni to
build the endowment and elevate individual giving levels. In addition
to youth development and higher education fundraising, Sirangelo
is experienced with community-based programming. She served as executive
director for Hillcrest Ministries, Inc., a transitional homeless
shelter in Liberty, Missouri, where she partnered with local Cooperative
Extension programs.
4-H is a community of more than seven million young people across
America learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills. National
4-H Council is the national, private sector, non-profit partner
of the 4-H Youth Development Program and its parent, the Cooperative
Extension System of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Source: Pat BoyEs
STATE LIAISON PROGRAM BEING ESTABLISHED
BY CSREES
At its July meeting, the Land-Grant Partnership Working
Group recommended that Cooperative State Research, Education and
Extension Service (CSREES) assign one or more national program leaders
(NPLs) to each state to act as liaisons between the state’s
land-grant institutions and CSREES in order to improve communication,
enhance collaboration and strengthen the Land-Grant Partnership.
CSREES administrators are developing a plan to implement the program
in 2006.
For WSU Extension, our NPL liaisons are:
- Dr. Tom Bewick (NPL, Plant and Animal Systems)
- Maurice Dorsey (NPL, Economic and Community Systems).
Liaisons will review state plans-of-work and annual reports and
will serve as a point of contact for the institution with CSREES,
USDA and, where appropriate, other federal agencies. Their goal
will be to make it easier to do business with CSREES and to take
a better advantage of the unique CSREES/Land-Grant University Partnership.
NPL liaisons in each region will meet regularly with a CSREES liaison
to the regional associations to discuss regional issues and facilitate
multi-state activities and coordination. As an important element
to make this program successful, these liaisons are not intended
to lobby or advocate on behalf of the state. Their purpose is to
facilitate intercommunication and to enhance mutual understanding
between the state and federal partner.
We will ask liaisons to visit campus(s) at least once every 2 years.
In some states with multiple land-grant institutions, this may not
be possible, but we will try. During campus visits, we are suggesting
that liaisons give a seminar on CSREES describing who we are and
what we do; meet with extension faculty, research faculty, academic
faculty (separately or together), administrators, and students;
and, in particular, ask every group, “How are we doing? What
can CSREES do to serve you better? How can we improve?” We
expect our liaisons to make every effort to become familiar with
the programs, goals, and capabilities of the institutions.
I will be grateful for your assistance in making this a successful
effort. Please let us know if there are specific topics that you
would like liaisons to be able to address or if you have suggestions
on strengthening this program.
PERSONNEL
New Hire:
R. Troy Peters, Ph.D. Extension Irrigation Specialist E-2, and Assistant
Scientist
Location: Biological Systems Engineering at Prosser IAR&EC
Funding: 80% Extension, 20% Research
Effective: March 1, 2006
Separation:
Thomas Lumpkin, Professor, Crop and Soil Sciences
Retired Effective: March 1, 2006
SCHEDULE
Next week Linda will be in Pullman Monday, Tuesday, and
Friday. On Tuesday and Wednesday she will be in Seattle and Puyallup.
Next week Ed will be in Puyallup on Wednesday and in Spokane the
other days of the week.
******************************
Linda Kirk Fox, PhD
Dean and Director
Washington State University Extension
PO Box 646230, 411 Hulbert Hall
Pullman WA 99164-6230
(509) 335-2933 Office
(509) 335-9223 Desk/Voicemail
FAX (509) 335-2926
lkfox@wsu.edu
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