Education Center to bring Howling Cow production full circle

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TECHNICIAN

PAGE 3 • THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018

Education Center to bring Howling Cow production full circle

Mary Dare Martin

News Editor

NC State’s dairy industry plans to break ground on the Dairy and Food Education Center this spring, which aims to educate visitors on Howling Cow production from farm to table.

NC State’s Feldmeier Dairy Processing lab is housed in Schaub Hall, where all production for Howling Cow milk and ice cream is done. But the Dairy and Food Education Center aims to look inside the entire Howling Cow manufacturing process from beginning to end, starting on NC State’s own dairy farms.

Gary Cartwright, the director of the Dairy Enterprise System at NC State, said the education center will be a place for visitors to not only learn about how Howling Cow milk and ice cream is processed, but also how the cows on NC State dairy farms are taken care of and raised.

“The culminating component of this is to create a venue for the public to see full circle,” Cartwright said. “How does Howling Cow and milk and ice cream … get processed? What does it take to take care of your animals?”

Officially branded in 2007, Howling Cow production has benefited from the growing milk production on the farm. With nearly 300 Holstein and Jersey cows on the farm, Cartwright said NC State’s herds are consistently in the top five for milk production in the state.

“I have an incredible respect for dairy farmers the more I learn about them,” Cartwright said. “Incredibly hardworking. Total dedication to what they do. They love their animals and take care of them. It’s a story that isn’t fully understood by the public so if we can tell the public what every dairy farmer that I’ve ever met seems to do with their cows and how well they take care of them, it’s a good story for us to be telling.”

According to Cartwright, the center will contain educational videos, hands-on activities, a cafe and virtual reality experiences.

“Envision TV screens that you can walk in,” Cartwright said. “And suddenly you hit a button and you’re amongst the cows or you’re milking animals or you’re watching a calf being born. And it’s around you. We hope to not only put this experiential component in there but be very creative in how we do that.”

Along with visits from NC State students, Wake County school groups and the general public, Cartwright said they hope to receive visitors who pass the building while driving on Lake Wheeler Road, where the center will be located.

The cafe will feature Howling Cow milk, ice cream and other dairy products, but Cartwright said they’re hoping to have more.

“University Dining produces their Yates Mill line of bakery goods that you can buy,” Cartwright said. “We’re hoping that University Dining will supply croissants and muffins and things like that. In that aspect, again, as people come in there, they’re going to learn about NC State.”

Another goal of the Dairy and Food Education Center is to educate the public about where the food is coming from. James Edwards, a fourth-year studying biological engineering and international studies and a former student worker on the dairy farm, said that people need to be more knowledgeable about where their food is coming from.

“I consider it to be important for people to know a little bit about where there food comes from or how it’s produced,” Edwards said. “I don’t think the average American really knows anything about that. You have a lot of big corporations producing and manufacturing food and for the majority, that’s it.”

Cartwright said that the public not only needs but also wants a place to be properly educated about food production and that a university-based center is an ideal place to learn.

“They really want to know what’s the truth about the food and where it comes from,” Cartwright said. “Today you are bombarded by information — some of it true, some of it false. People want to know what’s real and what’s fake. It’s time for something like this. The university is like neutral ground. They feel like they can come here and get real answers to their questions instead of questioning whether someone is spinning it one way or another.”

According to Edwards, NC State students and the public can benefit from learning about the connection between NC State’s farm and food production.

“For Howling Cow specifically, it’s part of NC State’s heritage,” Edwards said. “The dairy farm actually has a pretty rich history with its cows and how the farm started and where the cows came from. For people to be able to see how this university started as a land-grant university for agriculture, is still actually something that’s still relevant in the university today.”

Cartwright said that the center is planned to break ground in mid-April and that it should be complete within two years.

“The support on campus has been incredible,” Cartwright said. “It takes a lot to get these things through and we’ve aggressively pushed our concept. The good thing is, there’s something about ice cream. Butter fat provides the grease to the gears of progress.”

GLENN WAGSTAFF/TECHNICIAN Cows graze in a pasture at the NC State dairy farms on Wednesday. The dairy farm is opening the Dairy and Food Education Center to educate both students and the public about the processes of making and distributing Howling Cow products.

Senate welcomes new director of Student Involvement, prepares for spring elections

Timothy Willard

Staff Writer

Student Government met for the first time since November on Wednesday evening to welcome the new Director of Student Involvement and pass legislation to prepare for the upcoming spring elections.

The meeting began with Justine Hollingshead, the former interim Director of Student Involvement and current Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA) chief of staff, introducing Jessica Murphy, the new Director of Student Involvement, to the Student Senate. Murphy said that she was excited to begin working with Student Government this semester.

“I’ve worked with [Student Governments] in the past,” Murphy said. “But as some of you are well aware [Student Government] is different at every institution.”

Lauren Siegel, a fourth-year studying economics and computer science and the new Appropriations Committee chairperson, announced that the appropriations process for spring break 2018 to fall break 2018 period will be beginning soon. The application for student organizations opens on Jan. 22 and closes on Feb. 4.

Sen. Ryan Dunn, a second-year studying political science and chairperson of the Government Relations and Oversight Committee, introduced and made a motion to fast track a bill, GB66 Spring Elections Timeline Clarification Act. The bill’s purpose is to clarify the spring election rules to allow for elections to occur before spring break, according to Dunn.

“This [new] statute really just clears up [Student Government election rules] so that there will be an election before spring break, which is when they always occur,” Dunn said.

Dunn also introduced and made a motion to fast track another bill, GB67 Senior

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PAGE 4 • THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018

Campus efforts mark Stalking Awareness Month

Sebastian Riley

Staff Writer

January marks National Stalking Awareness Month and across NC State’s campus efforts are underway to commemorate the month and reduce interpersonal violence.

“Stalking is any kind of repeated unwanted contact,” said Sara Forcella, rape prevention education coordinator at the NC State University Women’s Center. “It would have to be unwanted, if this person is totally fine that their former partner is waiting for them every day after class then that’s not stalking because that person is fine with it. If it’s causing that person some undue level of stress or fear then that’s the point where those behaviors become problematic.”

The Women’s Center will host events throughout the month designed to educate students on healthy relationships and reduce interpersonal violence including Stalking 101, Healthy Relationships 101 and Bystander Behavior 101. The dates and times of the events can be found on the Women’s Center website.

“It’s a month to raise awareness and for folks to get connected to the Women’s Center and to get connected to some of the interpersonal violence work that we do,” Forcella said. “We will definitely continue to do work that focuses on culture change on campus, getting folks connected with resources [after January].”

Students affiliated with The Movement Peer Educators, a student organization created within the Women’s Center, took the lead in organizing many of the activities around Stalking Awareness Month. “We meet around two times a month, sometimes three, in an awareness month to discuss what’s going on in our organization, we have around thirty peer mentors,” said Maggie Schroder, a fourth-year studying social work and foreign languages and literature and president of The Movement Peer Educators.

The Movement Peer Educators plan to host workshops throughout the month within the Women’s Center on healthy relationship behavior and active bystander participation.

“Stalking Awareness month is a high priority for us and so is Sexual Assault Awareness Month which is in April,” Schroder said. “It’s very normalized in the culture, not just on TV but in music and in the language people use. People will say things like ‘oh I’m going to Facebook stalk them’ when stalking is a serious crime and it’s not funny to survivors of stalking.”

The Women’s Center provides on-campus resources to students dealing with stalking or other interpersonal violence.

“Some things that a student that is dealing with stalking may find beneficial are getting things like class accommodations, connecting them to their professors, changes in housing if they live in this one place on campus and they’re feeling unsafe because of stalking is something we can do,” Forcella said. “Connecting them with other offices if they want to make a Title IX Report are the main ways we can help someone that is dealing with stalking.”

Additional resources to go to off campus are also available to students encountering interpersonal violence.

“If this person ended up filing a protective order and needed to go to court or needed to go to the police station to do any kind of legal action we could physically accompany that person to be there for them to be their support person,” Forcella said.

The first event that the Women’s Center is hosting for the month is Stalking 101 on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Class President Election Removal Act. The bill removed a position titled “Senior Class President” from Student Government election rules entirely. The position has not existed for the past few sessions and has no relation to Student Government anymore, according to Dunn.

Student Senate President Mitchell Moravec, a fifth-year studying materials science and engineering and psychology, commented that the Student Senate has nine seats currently open. These vacancies include three open seats in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and two open seats in College of Design delegations, as well as four other seats. Moravec is currently reviewing applications for those positions through the Student Government website.

“I have received lots of applications for the CHASS and PCOM seats … and I would really like to see more applications,” Moravec said.

Zac Lentz, a graduate student studying biological and agricultural engineering and the Student Senate legislative secretary, made a final comment to remind senators to be mindful of their current duties as elected representatives as the spring elections begin to come underway.

“Elections are upcoming, it’s very exciting,” Lentz said. “And if you’re running, I’m excited for you. That being said, don’t forget you have a job right now.”

ELIJAH MORACCO-SCHELP/TECHNICIAN NC State’s Women’s Center is on the fifth floor of Talley, and is one of the four Campus Community Centers. The Office of Institutional Equity Diversity (OIED) created the space in order to house a community of allies for social justice and gender equality. The Center has events such as: Book Club, Winter Fellowship and time for Counseling.

HANADI IBRAHIM / ARCHIVE The new first-year undergraduate Senate members sit front row during the Student Senate meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017 in the Senate Chambers in Talley Student Union.