Mollie A. Pulver '80 is New 2003-04 Alumni Association President
Mollie Pulver '80 of Little Falls, N.Y. was elected president of the ALS Alumni Association at its annual board of directors meeting on June 7, 2003. She replaces Ed Staehr '88 of Cayuga, N.Y. Pulver has served as a district director for the association, representing the Mohawk Valley area, since 1997. She has chaired several committees while on the board and most recently served as vice president for planning, co-chairing the association's Planning Committee. This past year, the Planning Committee was instrumental in revising the association's constitution and by-laws and led efforts to reconfigure the board to better represent the full diversity of the college's alumni.
Pulver is the assistant vice president, Managed Assets Department of Central National Bank, a division of NBT Bank, N.A., working with troubled businesses in eastern and central New York. Within her community, she has been a member of the Herkimer County Cooperative Extension board of directors since 1999. She is serving her second year as secretary to the board, previously having served as chair of the Ag Program Committee and on the Executive Director Search Committee. Pulver has also been active with the local Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program, which assists abused and neglected children. In 2000, she received the Utica Junior League Volunteer of the Year Award for her efforts with this organization.
Pulver remains involved with her family farm, Pleasant View Farm, in Millerton, N.Y. She also volunteers for the Dutchess County 4-H dairy show as announcer and organizes and runs the dairy youth shows at the Dutchess County fair. Additionally, Pulver serves as secretary-treasurer of the Futurity Committee for the Eastern New York Holstein Club and has been a longstanding member of both the New York State and National Holstein Associations.
Pulver's goals as president of the ALS Alumni Association are to develop leadership in the areas of Boston, Chicago, and Northern New Jersey, with the aim of providing programming and connections for alumni, as well as forging relationships with other alumni organizations. Earlier this year, the association took the Leadership Conference off campus for the first time. The event was a great success, and plans are to sponsor seminars in other areas in the coming years. Off-campus programs include dean/alumni get-togethers, faculty speakers, dinners, picnics, and gatherings at Cornell sporting events.
Why should you become a member of the ALS Alumni Association? Connections with other alumni and fellowship are only a small part of the benefits. In addition to sponsoring events both on and off campus, the association supports the Alumni Career Link program, provides scholarships to freshmen and transfer students, pre-sents the Richard Church Senior Service Award, and recognizes retiring faculty and alumni award winners. The association is also proud to assist in funding the award-winning ALS News, with a circulation now nearing 50,000 worldwide.
To find out what's happening in your area or to join the ALS Alumni Association, contact your area director or write to Mollie Pulver at map76@cornell.edu.
New members are always welcome, and new volunteers are always appreciated.
Connemans Presented 2003 Distinguished Service Citation by NYS Agricultural Society
The New York State Agricultural Society presented its 2003 Distinguished Service Citation to George and Diane Conneman. The Connemans have a long and distinguished history of service to the agricultural community of New York State.
George J. Conneman is a professor emeritus in the CALS Department of Applied Economics and Management. He has devoted most of his life to helping young minds fulfill their potential, and he has won many prestigious teaching awards. He continues to advise a handful of students. Conneman is also involved with programs on the future of dairying in New York State and provides information for agribusiness professionals and farmers. He has worked closely with families on management problems and intergenerational transfers, and served as faculty director for NY FarmNet from 1997 through 2001. He continues to support NY FarmNet as a consultant to farmers and as a mentor to other consultants.
Diane Knack Conneman was director of LEAD New York, a two-year leadership program for individuals in agriculture and related food industries, from 1992 through 2001. As director, she designed and implemented the leadership development program, recruited and screened program participants, conducted annual and endowment fundraising, and marketed the program. Previously, she was association director for Cornell Cooperative Extension in Broome County, and also worked in Orleans and Niagara counties. Conneman now consults for programs such as LEAD New York and NY FarmNet.
Latoya Schultz '05 Is New Student Director
The ALS Alumni Association is pleased to welcome Latoya Schultz as the new junior student director on the ALSAA board of directors. Schultz is from Brooklyn, N.Y., and she is majoring in animal science. As a Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, she spent the summer doing undergraduate research in wildlife medicine at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine and volunteering at its Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Her other activities include serving on the steering committee for the CALS Ambassadors as well as volunteering with the Cornell Raptor Rehabilitation Program. She has already taken an active role within the alumni association by serving on the CALS Alumni Association Diversity Committee.
- Michelle Upton '04
CALS Was Full of Surprises for This Student
As a native Northern Californian, I grew up amid farmland and always knew that I wanted to attend an agriculture-based university. It wasn't until the summer before my senior year of high school when I lived in Washington, D.C., that I heard of Cornell. An alumnus of the College of Human Ecology asked if I would be applying to Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and I replied, "I didn't even know agriculture was a major industry in New York." I quickly discovered how uninformed I was about both New York agriculture and Cornell.
When a CALS viewbook arrived at my home later that summer, I realized that CALS was the place for me. The college has the excellent reputation as a leader in agriculture and science and is part of a land-grant university.
During my visit to campus in September 1999, CALS students were very friendly and eager to tell me about the wonderful opportunities the college had to offer. I visited some classes as well as the famous Cornell Dairy Bar. I'm not sure if it was the students' enthusiasm about CALS or the delicious clock-tower pumpkin ice cream that finally sealed my decision to apply to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
As I begin my senior year here in CALS, I realize how much I have enjoyed my years at Cornell-from the challenging academic environment to the numerous extracurricular activities. I have had the opportunity to become a student director on the CALS Alumni Association board of directors, serve as chair of the Dean's Student Advisory Committee, and represent CALS as an Ag Ambassador.
There is a place for every student at Cornell. Opportunities are endless on campus, everything from participating in undergraduate research at the Cornell-owned biodiversity facility in the Dominican Republic to serving as an officer in one of the many student organizations. My one piece of advice to incoming students is to get involved in student activities, because often your fondest memories will be from outside of the lecture hall.
- Michelle Upton '04
Cornell Releases Agricultural Biotechnology Booklet
Agricultural Biotechnology: Informing the Dialogue answers fundamental questions about why genetically engineered food crops are developed, whether they are safe for humans and the environment, and how they affect the global food system. It is the newest publication from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).
"The purpose of the publication is to help the public become more knowledgeable about the issues surrounding biotechnology and develop a common understanding of its benefits and risks," said Anthony Shelton, CALS professor of entomology and chief architect of the publication.
The 28-page color brochure is being widely distributed to high school science teachers in New York State, state and federal legislators, Cornell Cooperative Extension educators in New York, and grower, food, industry, and consumer groups across the country.
The publication covers 14 broad subject areas with text, photos, and illustrations. It provides background information on biotechnology and reviews some basic concepts in biology and agriculture, including what a gene is, how life forms share genes, how agriculture developed over the past 10,000 years, and what traditional plant breeding is.
One section discusses ethical and religious values, agricultural sustainability, and the labeling of transgenic foods. A two-page glossary of terms and a list of references are included.
The publication is part of CALS' ongoing effort to inform the public about controversial issues. The publication was written by Shelton, with assistance from Cornell professors with particular expertise: rural sociologist Tom Lyson, science communication specialist Bruce Lewenstein, educator Janet Hawkes, animal scientist Dale Bauman, and plant pathologist Herb Aldwinckle.
These efforts and other information about agricultural biotechnology can be viewed at www.nysaes.cornell.edu/agbiotech. Information from Cornell is also available at www.geo-pie.cornell.edu.
- Linda McCandless, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva
Research Collaborations Begin between CALS and SUNY Ag and Tech Faculty
The Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (CUAES) has announced that two federally funded research projects will feature collaborations between CALS investigators and faculty at the SUNY Colleges of Technology at Cobleskill and Morrisville.
In a project titled "Forage Crop Genetics and Breeding to Improve Yield and Quality," Donald Viands, professor, and Julie Hansen, research associate, both in the CALS Department of Plant Breeding, will be leading a group of investigators that includes Gary Butler and Douglas Goodale at Cobleskill and Mark Smith and Adam Khan at Morrisville. Yield trials on feeds important in dairying operations-alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil, and possibly red clover and grasses-will be conducted on SUNY farms. The SUNY collaborators will prepare the fields and track the need for insecticidal treatments. The plots will also be used to educate students there on field trial methods.
Frank Rossi, CALS assistant professor of horticulture, will lead a project titled "Turfgrass Nutrient Management to Reduce Pesticide Use." The project will include other Cornell faculty and Bob Emmons, a faculty member in turf management at Cobleskill. Emmons will coordinate soil testing of athletic fields by Cobleskill students in the Cobleskill and Albany areas. The students will learn sampling, testing, and laboratory skills, while seeing firsthand how field managers might better use fertilizers and pesticides.
According to Daniel Decker, CUAES director, the collaborations are the direct result of giving priority to such Cornell-SUNY collaborations in last year's CUAES call for Hatch (federal formula fund) preproposals. "We urged prospective investigators here at Cornell to explore opportunities to collaborate with these ag-oriented colleges of technology," Decker said. "It made perfect sense to us to encourage connections with these campuses, as we presumed they could enhance research efforts and outcomes. And the leadership at both Cobleskill and Morrisville welcomed and supported such an initiative in many important ways."
- Michael P. Voiland
Faculty Obituaries
- David J. Allee '53, MS '54, PhD '60, professor of resource economics, died April 17, 2003. He was 71. Allee's research interests ranged from natural resource and watershed management protection, to economic and community development, to telecommunications infrastructure and e-government development. Until his death, he served as president of the Adirondack Research Consortium, a group focused on environmental and water-quality issues within the Adirondack Park. Allee served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 to 1956. He was a Fulbright fellow at Oxford University in 1957-1958. He was an assistant professor of agricultural economics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1960 to 1963 and served as an economist at the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics during the same period. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1963. Allee authored or co-authored more than 300 journal articles and reports, and was an adviser to about 185 graduate students in resource economics, public policy, and water-quality issues.
- Edgar M. Raffensperger, professor emeritus of entomology, died May 2, 2003. He was 76. Raffensperger, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1961, was well known for his teaching. He won the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1989 and the Louis and Edith Edgerton Career Teaching Award in 1991 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He also was known for developing a cluster-fly management program using an insecticide called permethrin, a chemical derived from tropical flowers and related to pyrethrum. Raffensperger helped many hospitals, institutions, and restaurants with his expertise in resolving tough infestations of insect pests. He worked through Cornell Cooperative Extension to publish informational guides on controlling household and other urban pests. In 1971 he was a founder of Cornell's Insect and Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. Raffensperger was a member of the Entomological Society of America. The Cornell chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, the agricultural honor society, awarded him for outstanding professional and academic achievements in 1988.