Aggies prep for summer session

NCTA Dean’s Message by Larry Gossen, Ph.D.

Campus is rather quiet this week.

Graduation is completed. Faculty have submitted their end-of-year reports. Students are moved out of the residence halls.

Food Service staff and others pitched in immediately after graduation to clean and organize Chandie’s Castle deli for the summer. I appreciate the team effort in this project.

The deli in the Student Union known as The Barn, is open again for the campus and public.  Beginning May 23, the service hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday.

Aggie Dining cafeteria is closed temporarily for annual cleaning and updates. It will re-open on an as-needed basis for events which begin later this month. We are fortunate to be able to serve meals in The Barn when the cafeteria is closed.

Cindy Fritsche, who had managed Aggie Food Service, has stepped into a new role with the facilities staff. She has been a dedicated and vital part of keeping our Aggie students and public served delicious and nutritious meals since she joined NCTA employment in September 2009.  Thank you, Cindy!

In the interim this summer, Associate Dean Jennifer McConville is managing our Food Service program.

Summer is the best time for food service and some other staff to schedule vacations (in a staggered timeline, if possible).

We may not have students to feed, but our Aggie campus certainly has animal and livestock chores. The summer “farm crew” is headed by Alan Taylor and Roy Cole.

They have reliable and experienced summer employees who are NCTA students. Their projects include summer maintenance, fencing, machinery maintenance, weed control, cattle herds at the Leu Ranch in Hayes County, and the crops work at the NCTA farm.

We’ll review some of their work progress through the next three months.

Summer session

Classes for the upcoming 8-week session, from June 13 to August 5, are primarily those offered in the Veterinary Technology division.  Some of the students reside at campus, and others may be living in the community or a close commute.

Our Vet Tech faculty will be Noel Ochoa and Leighlynn Obermiller. Additionally, both are NCTA alumni from the veterinary technology division and know our summer system quite well. This will be their second summer as campus faculty.

After the session, then we have a break to prepare for Fall Semester which begins on August 29.

Ahead for alumni

The alumni association board of directors is planning a gathering for all UNSTA-NCTA alumni for November.  The Aggies will have a football “tailgate” at the East Campus Union in Lincoln on Saturday, November 19.  We will join with friends from the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources as Nebraska takes on Wisconsin.

Per its charter and by-laws, the Aggie Alumni Association must meet annually for a business meeting. For 2022, the meeting will be conducted virtually in June. The date and time is pending so please watch for announcements from Aggie Alumni President David Fulton.

Calling all basketball athletes! UNSTA-NCTA basketball teams from 1976 to 2006 are invited to return to campus this summer. Coach Del Vanderwerff invites Aggie athletes for a basketball practice and reunion on Saturday, July 30. Help him spread the word for the afternoon gathering from 1 to 5 p.m. For details, or to RSVP, email Coach Del at delvanderwerff@yahoo.com

I hope to meet many of our alumni and friends this summer or in November. Go Aggies!

NCTA Events:

May 24:  Frontier County 4-H Speech & Presentations, 6:30 p.m., Ed Center 

May 25:  NCTA Livestock Judging Camp, NCTA Campus

May 26: Animal Science Discovery Day, NCTA campus

June 6-9:  Youth Range Camp at NCTA

June 8:  New Student Enrollment, NCTA Ed Center

July 6:  Agronomy Youth Field Day, NCTA Ed Center

July 30:  NCTA Basketball Reunion, NCTA campus

Part of the University of Nebraska system, the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture is a two-year institution with a statewide mission of preparing students for successful careers in agriculture, veterinary technology and related industries. NCTA is known for its affordable tuition, high job-placement rate for its graduates, and for the success of student teams in competitive activities including crops judging, ranch horse events, livestock judging, shotgun sports, stock dog trials, and intercollegiate rodeo. The college is consistently ranked as one of the best two-year schools in the nation.