Colege Hosts Tour for Federal Legislative Aides

The college is hosting a two-day tour (August 18-19) for agricultural aides of federal legislators to update them on teaching, research, and extension work throughout the state. This year's tour highlights research at the Landisville research station, innovative on-farm practices, research on animal/human health focused on the H1N1 virus, and Farm Bill implications for Pennsylvania.

On August 19, the APD Government and Industry Day luncheon will once again include many state and federal legislators among the approximately 700 people attending. There will also be a joint House/Senate Ag and Rural Affairs Committee hearing on implementation of the Farm Bill held prior to the luncheon . Dean Bruce McPheron will provide testimony on research and extension implications of the Farm Bill.

Ag Comm Partners with Penn State Live

Ag Comm's news and information team recently joined forces with University Relations with the creation of a College of Agricultural Sciences page on Penn State Live. The college is a major supplier of content for Penn State Live, which reaches approximately 80,000 subscribers. The college also hosts an Ag Sciences listserve and electronically delivers all college press releases via email and/or Twitter.

Content Wanted

College Relations and Communications is seeking partnerships with faculty and staff to develop key college talking points, messages, and impacts for college promotional pieces, press releases, magazine articles, budget impact pieces, legislative tour topics, etc. If you are working on a teaching, research, or extension project that you believe is of great interest to the public or has beneifcial impact to the state, please let us know! You can send us your suggestions at

College Bus Ads Draw Attention to Ag Career Options

The Ag Comm team has joined forces with Undergraduate Education to run college advertisements in CATA buses in the area, targeting DUS students. The creative ad campaign is designed to catch riders attention and demonstrate the active, environmental nature of many Ag degrees. It seeks to present a viable career option for today's environmentally-minded students.

The foundation of this campaign was recently reinforced by a USA Today article titled "College Studens are Flocking to Sustainability Degrees, Careers."

To view the ads click here.

College Moves to Plone CMS - Joins WebLion Team

Connect, Collaborate, Communicate - College Relations and Communications Strategic Plan

The College Relations and Communications Office is a component of the dean’s office that manages the college’s relationships and communications with external clientele groups. The office also provides administrative support for college and departmental outreach initiatives and develops mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders that lead to support for the college.

The College Relations and Communications Office Strategic Plan documents the office's role in helping the college meet its strategic goals and details the Ag Comm Unit's strategy to meet the college's communication and marketing needs. Please take time to review our plan and learn how you can assist in communicating the college's message.

College PowerPoint Available

Need to give a background presentation about our college? The Ag Comm Team has created a College Overview PowerPoint for use by faculty and staff, which provides a professional format to highlight key facts about our college. There are also standard college background slides for use in your own PowerPoint presentations.

Visit the Dean's Desk

The Ag Comm team has been working with Dean McPheron to provide more timely methods to communicate about issues within the college. Together, we have develop the Dean's Desk, where you can read frequent updates from the Dean on his Blog, sign up to follow the college on Twitter, let the Dean know what's on your mind, and find other valuable info about the college. We are also working with the Dean to provide Webinar updates on a periodic basis to faculty and staff. We will be adding new features to the Dean's Desk in the near future, so stay tuned!