Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

Meggan Franks, assistant director of student leadership and community engagement, speaks to a group of 15 MSU faculty members participating in a new Community-Engaged Learning Fellows program. The three-week faculty development program aims to further integrate community-engaged learning into university teaching, research and public service work, while helping faculty become recognized campus leaders in community-engaged learning pedagogy and community engagement. For more, visit MSU's Center for Community-Engaged Learning at www.servicelearning.msstate.edu. PHOTO: Megan Bean | Public Affairs

MSU Extension experts contribute to new book
Two Mississippi State University Extension Service experts have contributed to a new book updating The Extension Worker’s Code. Eric Stafne, Extension fruit crops specialist, and Elizabeth Gregory North, head of the Office of Agricultural Communications, both authored sections of “We’ve Tried That Before: 500 Years of Extension Wisdom.” The book is the combined effort of more than 30 Extension professionals spanning 15 land-grant universities and representing 512 years of collective experience.

Association of Retired Faculty meeting Wednesday
Mississippi State President Mark E. Keenum will be the featured speaker at the summer luncheon meeting of the university's Association of Retired Faculty at noon on Wednesday in the atrium of Bryan Athletic Administration Building on campus. Membership in ARF is open to retired faculty and professional staff of Mississippi State. For more information about the organization and its programs and services, please visit the newly updated website at http://lib.msstate.edu/arf.

DAFVM Spotlight Employee: Shani Hay
When she was a child, Emily Shani Hay is no stranger to agriculture. A self-proclaimed “farmer’s kid that got swapped at the hospital,” she now works as a 4-H coordinator in Lauderdale County. Hay said her deep appreciation for agriculture began at an early age. Though her family did not share her passion for wildlife, she continued to find beauty in horses, cattle and orchard farming. This inspired her to major in agriculture science at California Polytechnic State University. “After graduating, I didn’t really want to go to vet school, so my interest in youth development led me to be an agriculture science teacher,” she said.

DAFVM Spotlight Employee: Jeremiah Elliott
Jeremiah Elliott always knew he wanted to stay close to home. What he did not know was that he would find a home at Mississippi State University. A West Point native and Mississippi University for Women graduate, Elliott has always loved the Golden Triangle area. He majored in accounting and worked in a private accounting firm close by, yet he hoped for something different. He began searching for a university position and discovered an opening in his current department. Elliott applied, got the position, and has served MSU for four years by working with grants and managing funds in the School of Human Sciences.

Upcoming Jackson art fellowship exhibition features Bostic, Lippillo
Two faculty members in Mississippi State University’s Department of Art will be featured in an upcoming exhibition organized by the Mississippi Library Commission and Mississippi Arts Commission. On display June 5-28 at the Mississippi Library Commission’s 3881 Eastwood Drive location in Jackson, “A Perspective of People” showcases work by artists who have been honored through MAC’s highly competitive Visual Artist Fellowship Grant program. Featured artists include MSU associate professors Alexander Bostic and Dominic Lippillo.

Faculty, staff volunteers needed for Heifer Ranch trip
Mississippi State faculty and staff volunteers/chaperones are needed for the annual trip to Heifer Ranch, Arkansas, for the Global Village educational experience Oct. 12-14, 2018. Heifer International is an Arkansas-based non-profit organization focused on community development to resolve poverty and hunger around the world. The Global Village is a hands-on educational experience where students are challenged to live in modeled developing world conditions.

Applications sought for SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program
The Southeastern Conference Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program is intended to enhance faculty collaboration that stimulates scholarly initiatives between SEC universities. Mississippi State University can select a maximum of eight faculty members to receive 2018-2019 travel grants of $1,250 each. Completed applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. on June 29.

Reminder: University policy addresses employee political activity
With political campaigning for Congress and other races currently underway, Mississippi State's Office of General Counsel offers the following reminder of the university’s policy on political activities. There are several guidelines that employees of the university should keep in mind when engaging in any form of political activity. The Office of General Counsel encourages each employee to review this policy in its entirety to make certain you are fully aware of your rights and responsibilities.

The Office of Public Affairs provides Maroon MEMO as a general information
resource for Mississippi State University employees.

Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.

Faculty, researchers invited to join 'The Conversation' Monday
Mississippi State faculty members, as well as research and graduate assistants and postdoctoral associates, are invited to learn about a new university partnership Monday at 3 p.m. in Mitchell Memorial Library’s first-floor auditorium. The university is joining a leading national commentary and analysis initiative, www.theconversation.com. The session will include representatives from The Conversation, as well as university leaders. Topics will include the writing process and benefits of writing for The Conversation. Additional meetings throughout the day are set for college deans, university communication stakeholders and interested faculty.

Maroon Institute for Writing Excellence faculty encourage the value of writing
Fourteen Mississippi State faculty members from nearly a dozen university departments are leaving a three-week intensive summer program with inspiration and insight to improve undergraduate writing skills. As part of the recent sixth annual Maroon Institute for Writing Excellence workshop, educators from a variety of academic disciplines received training on ways to incorporate written communication into their class assignments for improved student engagement, learning and assessment.

Dunne, Dutta net high impact experimental result on the weak force
Two Mississippi State physicists are seeing more than a decade of research yield a new high-precision result that will expand scientists’ knowledge of the weak force in protons. Published last month in the international journal of science, Nature, the Q-weak project conducted by the Jefferson Lab Q-weak Collaboration sought to precisely measure the proton’s weak charge, a quantity that signifies the influence the weak force exerts on protons. MSU Professors James Dunne and Dipangkar Dutta have worked with the consortia since 2004 and 2006, respectively.

Ryan to serve as Graduate School interim dean
Mississippi State’s associate provost for academic affairs is taking on an additional role as interim dean of the university’s Graduate School. Peter Ryan will work closely with the associate deans of the university’s various colleges, as well as with departmental graduate program directors and the Graduate Council “to foster an environment where graduate education will not only thrive but will be recognized nationally for academic excellence,” said Judy Bonner, MSU provost and executive vice president, in making the recent announcement.