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Dean's Message — A Favorite Day

Graduation has long been my favorite day on our academic calendar, full of excitement, promise and feelings of accomplishment. It’s a time when we recognize that for all our successes regarding outreach and engagement with stakeholders, our fundamental mission is training students. Every commencement celebration brings new memories and fresh stories about the achievements of motivated graduates. A personal commencement day highlight came in the spring of 2018 when my daughter, Jean, graduated from U of I’s College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS). Since I was on the stage to congratulate CALS students, I joined Sean Quinlan (dean of CLASS) on stage to co-present her degree. Jean went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees at Texas A&M University and is now an assistant professor with Virginia Tech University’s Department of Agricultural, Leadership and Community Education.

During our 2020 commencement, we celebrated our resolve in the face of a global pandemic, introducing optional face masks, spray sanitizer and fist bumps to the ceremony. And I’ll never forget the electric 2021 Winter Commencement delivered by Torrey Lawrence, our provost and executive vice president and a past director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music. His motivational speech detailed the history and significance of our fight song, when the Vandal Marching Band made a surprise performance of “Go Vandals, Go.”

The Spring 2025 Commencement Ceremony on the morning of May 10 will be especially emotion-filled and meaningful for me, as I’ll be retiring in the summer after nine years as CALS dean. As I prepare to confer degrees and interact with proud parents for the final time, I’m proud of the remarkable leaders we’ve trained under my watch, and I’m confident we’re succeeding as never before in our core mission of educating students and bolstering the state’s workforce.

Degrees from U of I and CALS are becoming more prestigious and impressive. This will be the first class to graduate from U of I as an R1 research institution according to the 2025 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The classification is the gold standard for research excellence, given to fewer than 4% of all U.S. higher education institutions. Furthermore, CALS is listed as the 13th best school of agricultural sciences in the 2025 national rankings. CALS offers 26 unique majors, including different emphases. The past four years have been the best ever for CALS undergraduate enrollment. During commencement, our college will be conferring 131 undergraduate degrees and certificates and 29 graduate degrees. Also notably, our Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences will be awarding the first two doctorate degrees in its long history to Alexandra Gogel, of Gig Harbor, Washington, and Cassandra Partridge, of Spokane, Washington, who partook in a new nutritional sciences doctorate program. So many of our students have accomplished remarkable fetes. Here are a few of our top graduates, chosen as the Outstanding Senior nominees from each CALS department: Ava Eckles, family and consumer sciences; Katie Hebdon, animal, veterinary and food sciences; Tobee Holman, soil and water systems; Cassie Moody, agricultural education, leadership and communication; Macy Smith, agricultural economics and rural sociology; and Mia Wanstrom, plant sciences. Graduation is also an opportunity to recognize key university supporters and alumni. Nick Purdy, ’62, agricultural engineering, whose family has operated the Picabo Livestock Company in Picabo for more than 135 years, will be recognized for his history of contributions to CALS and U of I with an honorary doctorate in soil and land resources. Due to a scheduling conflict, Purdy will receive the honorary degree during Winter 2025 Commencement. Another friend of U of I and CALS, Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulakaya, will deliver the keynote address during the upcoming spring ceremony. Ulakaya has offered financial support toward construction of the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Idaho CAFE), which will include the largest research dairy in the U.S., located in Rupert. Ulakaya also offers the Chobani Scholars program, benefiting CALS and the College of Engineering.

The emphasis CALS places on student recruitment, retention, advising and experiences has been crucial to our successes. The professionals who lead our Academic Programs department — Matt Doumit, Kacie Hoffman, Trevor White and Sharon Murdock — have raised the bar in these areas through their creative programs and offerings. The CALS Ambassador program they oversee consists of current CALS students who represent the college and its programs at events on and off campus. The program is so popular, we most recently had 30 student applicants vie for just 10 open CALS Ambassador positions. The Academic Programs staff also book expert speakers and hosts workshops on topics such as resume building at the CALS dormitory floors. They contact students at risk of earning Ds or Fs in classes and seek to get them back on track, and they offer a willing ear for students facing stressful situations, such as conflict with roommates.

CALS offers 35 clubs to engage students in campus life. Our Dean’s Excellence Fund allocates dollars to address strategic goals such as recruitment and enhancing student experiences. We’re offering to students May 9-13 during finals week. We commonly refer to this as “Food for Finals” with the intent of making sure students get appropriate meals during a very stressful time. Furthermore, CALS is one of the few colleges that uses and depends on faculty advisors. Most of our departments pair students with a faculty advisor for all four years of college, and all of our departments use faculty advisors for at least students’ junior and senior years. Faculty advisors guide students with a keen understanding of the realities that industries face, knowledge of what students must do to prepare for the workforce and connections with top employers. Our advising structure demands great commitment from our faculty. For example, Stacey Doumit, with AVFS, advises 117 students on top of a heavy teaching load and duties as advisor to both the student Horse Polo Club and Rodeo Club.

Following the graduation ceremony, CALS will host a commencement reception from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Seed Potato Germplasm Laboratory. These festivities represent the culmination of years of hard work and preparation by students, faculty and parents. Congratulations to the Class of 2025!

Michael P. Parrella

Dean
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Our Stories

Beetle Discovery

A 国产91av entomologist confirmed an exotic beetle native to the Mediterranean basin has arrived in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, where it’s infested homes with oodles of tough-to-control larvae.

The insect, Opatroides punctulatus Brullé, is part of the family Tenebrionidae, commonly known as darkling beetles — encompassing about 20,000 ground-dwelling beetle species that feed on organic matter and debris in soil.

Armando Falcon-Brindis, an Extension specialist of entomology based at U of I’s Parma Research and Extension Center, believes the species is already well established in the region and has been commonly mistaken for wireworms in recent years.

The beetle is bound to remain a nauseating pest for certain Treasure Valley homeowners, but Falcon-Brindis is optimistic that it should have only a minimal impact on Idaho agriculture. Falcon-Brindis, his master’s student Henry Trujillo and Jason Thomas, UI Extension educator, Minidoka County, published a paper about the beetle discovery, “,” in the January 2025 issue of the journal Check List.

Falcon-Brindis first encountered the beetle in July 2024, after receiving a plea for help from an Eagle woman, who sent photographs of larvae covering her back porch. He thought better of dismissing the report as a routine case of wireworms.

“I’d rather go to the property and do the sampling myself. What if this was something different?” Falcon-Brindis recalled.

The infestation was already on the decline when Falcon-Brindis and Trujillo arrived and found both larvae and adult beetles. At the peak of the infestation, wormlike larvae filled every dark crevice of the home, including under the stove, beneath mats and behind curtains. Despite repeated treatments by a pest-control service, the larvae remained as abundant as ever. The property owner would sweep for larvae four or more times per day, yet they’d return as fast as she could clean.

“What they were doing there was very simple. They were looking for a place to pupate and overwinter,” Falcon-Brindis said.

Falcon-Brindis and Trujillo took soil samples from the turf surrounding the Eagle home, as well as from an adjacent hay field. Where the soil was extremely dry, testing confirmed upwards of 30 larvae per square foot. Larvae densities were much lower in moister soil in the yard, and there were no larvae found in samples from the adjacent irrigated farm field. Based on testing and his research about the species, Falcon-Brindis has concluded the beetle prefers dry soils with lots of organic matter.

“That makes a lot of sense because if you think about their native distribution in the Mediterranean area, they’ve got hot, dry summer and wet winter, very similar to what we have in the Treasure Valley,” Falcon-Brindis said.

He advised the homeowner to water a buffer of grass surrounding the home this summer to keep the beetles at bay.

After visiting the home in Eagle, Falcon-Brindis concluded a pest report from a Starr homeowner previously attributed to wireworms was actually darkling beetles that were bought in on hay bales, and he confirmed a stronghold of beetles at a third home in Emmett during August. In hindsight, ISDA now recognizes that several pest reports attributed to wireworms in recent years were actually caused by darkling beetles.

The beetle was first confirmed in the U.S. in a 2009 publication documenting its presence in California. It’s since been confirmed in several areas of central California. A 2015 publication confirmed the discovery of the species in western Nevada, where it was described as a nuisance for homeowners but not a significant agricultural pest. Falcon-Brindis suspects it hitchhiked to southwest Idaho on agricultural shipments — possibly hay.

Falcon-Brindis would like to research the beetle’s distribution in Idaho, its biology and how soil moisture levels affect beetle population thresholds. It’s unlikely the beetle will be a high priority for research, however, as it doesn’t appear to cause significant damage to agricultural crops.

“We should keep an eye on this. Even if farm fields in the Treasure Valley are not necessarily infested with these beetles, dry lands and non-irrigated crops could be ideal for these beetles to thrive,” Falcon-Brindis said.

Road to Success

Mack Hagenbaugh’s experiences at the 国产91av have prepared him to start work as a forester with PotlatchDeltic Corporation’s Palouse District, overseeing road reconstruction and forest management operations across a 220,000-acre tree farm.

The company’s tree farm includes thousands of miles of logging roads, some of which were built more than a century ago and have become overgrown. Building standards and buffer zones have changed a lot over the decades. Modern logging roads, for example, mustn’t be built within 75 feet of a fish-bearing stream, and stricter standards have been adopted pertaining to grade and road width.

Hagenbaugh, of Troy, will receive a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics: applied economics emphasis from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and an associate’s degree in forest operations and technology from the College of Natural Resources when he marches in U of I’s Spring 2025 commencement ceremony. He chose the combination of programs strategically to boost his odds of landing a career in agriculture without having to leave his home in northern Idaho.

Having worked as a farmhand for a neighbor throughout high school, he came to love agriculture and chose to pursue a career in the field when he first enrolled at U of I. Logging is big business in the state’s northern panhandle and afforded Hagenbaugh the best opportunity to find a rewarding job in agriculture.

“Logging is something that’s super important in the history of our state and this area,” Hagenbaugh said. “They’re land managers in the same way that a farmer would be. It’s just a 60-year growth cycle instead of a one-year growth cycle.”

Seeking a versatile degree, Hagenbaugh opted to study agricultural economics at the suggestion of a family friend, Matt Doumit, senior associate dean and director of academic programs with CALS. Hagenbaugh’s father, who made his career in the logging industry, encouraged him to sign on to the two-year forest management and technology degree as it would pair well with his economics background, positioning him for coveted jobs. An executive with PotlatchDeltic assured Hagenbaugh’s father the company is seeking workers with a background in business to aid in contract negotiations, assessing markets and other practical aspects of running a profitable company.

“I think the agricultural economics really set me apart from most people they were seeing in the company,” Hagenbaugh said.

U of I’s Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences provided Hagenbaugh with some unique hands-on learning opportunities, including the chance to serve on the logging crew that tends the 8,300-acre 国产91av Experimental Forest.

“I got to experience things a lot of people who get a general forestry degree never do. U of I offers the only four-year forestry degree in the U.S. with a fully mechanized logging operation run by the students,” Hagenbaugh said. “I got to operate a brand-new feller buncher, a log processor, a log skidder and a bulldozer as a student. It really shows you how things work in that industry.”

His experience helped him land an internship with PotlatchDeltic in Orofino last summer. Much of his internship entailed using maps to paint and flag boundaries to contain logging operations within designated units. In his full-time job, Hagenbaugh will be working from the company’s office in Deary, located about 10 miles from where he grew up in Troy.

Hagenbaugh has been active in extracurricular activities during his time as a Vandal. He played for the U of I club hockey team for four seasons. Initially, the team competed in the city of Moscow’s undersized ice rink. The club hockey team grew exponentially after the city built a regulation-sized rink during Hagenbaugh’s sophomore year. Hagenbaugh was named team captain and is the sole player this season who has been on the team all four years.

“I’ve seen the team at its worst and seeing how much we’ve grown has been really neat,” Hagenbaugh said.

Hagenbaugh is also a past president of the Alpha Gamma Rho agricultural fraternity and played an instrumental role in the fraternity’s fall philanthropic fundraiser, called Logathon, which entails cutting and selling firewood for charities. Logathon concludes with a loggers’ sports show, during which campus sorority members compete at axe throwing, a relay race, cross-cut sawing and other logging-themed events.

“U of I was my plan from the very beginning,” Hagenbaugh said. “It was local, it was what I could afford, and it’s known as a great agriculture school.”

Time Management Marvel

As an FFA state officer attending 国产91av, Katie Hebdon spent about half of her freshman year off campus advocating for Idaho agriculture, traveling more than 20,000 miles during her first semester alone.

Still, Hebdon, of Nampa, graduates from U of I in May 2025 after four years in school — and with a perfect 4.0 grade point average, bachelor’s degrees in agricultural economics: agribusiness emphasis and animal and veterinary science: dairy option and a certificate in agricultural commodity risk management.

“My academic advisors were absolutely amazing helping me work with my class-load and schedule since I was gone traveling so much,” Hebdon said.

Thanks to the many college scholarships she earned, she’ll also be leaving U of I with no student debt.

Next August, Hebdon will start a graduate program in animal science and ruminant nutrition at Michigan State University, with plans to return to Idaho and offer ruminant nutritional consulting to the state’s large dairies and beef operations.

Hebdon believes the broad education she received through U of I’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), including in business and commodity risk management, will help her better serve future clients.

“Not only are you working with producers to formulate rations and do work on the animal husbandry and animal health side, but you also have to do it in a cost-effective way because at the end of the day, people have to make money,” Hebdon said. “The commodities and risk management side tied into that really nicely because I understand the markets, I understand hedging and futures, what’s going to happen with the corn markets and how that’s going to impact feeder cattle prices and fat cattle prices and class three milk.”

Hebdon solidified her interest in an agricultural career after working throughout high school as a ranch hand at a family friend’s small cow-calf operation in Marsing.

“I’ve always loved cattle,” Hebdon said. “Working at the ranch was a good opportunity to learn the ins and outs of what it’s like to be actively involved in the cow-calf sector.”

Also fostering her love of agriculture, she was active in UI Extension 4-H Youth Development and FFA, which is a national, agricultural-based youth leadership organization with more than 6,500 statewide members.

In April 2021, during her senior year in high school, she was elected to a one-year term as an FFA state officer. The position kept her constantly on the road, teaching leadership curriculum at middle schools and high schools and raising awareness to school superintendents, lobbyists and lawmakers about the importance of agricultural and career and technical education.

“We were traveling nationally to represent Idaho’s needs,” she said. “We were the face of young agriculturalists in the state of Idaho.”

CALS awarded Hebdon both college credits and scholarship money for her participation as an FFA state officer.

Hebdon initially considered pursuing a career as a large animal veterinarian. She chose ruminant nutrition instead, recognizing the opportunity to preventatively benefit animal health by designing balanced rations for them.

She shadowed industry feed representatives during her senior year of high school. During her sophomore year in college, she worked closely with a livestock nutritionist as an intern with a large dairy in Boardman, Oregon.

While at U of I, Hebdon has been active in campus activities and promoting her college. She participated in CALS ambassadors — a team comprising current CALS students who represent the college and its programs on and off campus.

Hebdon also served as the student representative on the search committee that selected Leslie Edgar as the next J.R. Simplot Endowed Dean of CALS.

“I care really deeply about CALS and I want to see it continue to be in good hands once I leave,” Hebdon said.

During her final semester, she served on U of I’s team at the National Dairy Challenge in Gainesville, Florida. Competitors were challenged to be consultants, identifying problems at a host dairy farm and presenting data in support of solutions they identified. U of I finished third in its bracket.

“I love animal science,” Hebdon said. “Animal science is my passion, but understanding economics and running a business is also something you need to know.”

FCS First Graduates

Alexandra Gogel and Cassandra Partridge took a leap of faith to position themselves to earn the first doctorates in the history of 国产91av鈥檚 Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS).

When Gogel, of Gig Harbor, Washington, and Partridge, of Spokane, Washington, committed to pursue a doctorate in nutritional sciences at U of I, the program didn鈥檛 exist.

鈥淭here was communication about the hope that this would exist in the future,鈥� Partridge recalled.

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Faces and Places

国产91av Department of Student Involvement’s Student Achievement Awards recognized six CALS students at their awards ceremony this month. The Student Achievement Awards is an annual event that recognizes students, staff, faculty and groups of the U of I for their contributions and impact on our campus and in our community. More than 50 undergraduate students were recognized and more than $10,000 was awarded at the ceremony.鈥�鈥�Kenzie Eppey, a junior studying apparel, textiles and design from Hayden, was awarded the Outstanding Junior Award. Della Wheatcroft, a junior studying apparel, textiles and design from Sandpoint, was awarded the Betsy Thomas Gender Equity Award. Anthony Gonzalez, a senior studying apparel, textiles and design from Roberts, was awarded the Outstanding Senior Award, the Jennie Eva Hughes Memorial Scholarship and the Theophilus Award. Isabelle Higgins, a junior studying family and consumer sciences from Clarkston, Washington, was awarded the Outstanding Junior Award. Claire Shelton, a senior studying animal and veterinary science: pre-vet option and medical sciences from Moscow, was awarded the Student Employee of the Year Award, the George E. Dafoe Memorial Award and the ASUI President’s Scholarship. Ethan Mcintosh, a senior studying apparel, textiles and design from Moscow, was awarded the Student Employee of the Year Award (not pictured).

Brianna Leon, a senior from Rupert studying animal and veterinary science: pre-vet option with a minor in environmental sciences, was elected the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) Region VI undergraduate vice president. Leon, along with other CALS students and staff, traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, and attended the 39th Annual MANRRS National Convention, where students were able to network with other MANRRS chapters and learn from their leadership examples.

Katie Hebdon, a senior from Nampa studying animal and veterinary science: dairy option and agricultural economics: agribusiness emphasis, and Anna Wandell, a sophomore from Meridian studying animal and veterinary science: pre-vet option, recently attended the Animal Science Leaders Institute hosted by Agriculture Future of America (AFA). The two traveled to Kansas City and were able to network and immerse themselves in many areas within the animal agriculture industry. 鈦燭he two also attended workshops, executive panel discussions, industry site tours and more.

Four CALS students in AVS 475 (Advanced Dairy Management) attended the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge in Gainesville, Florida, an annual event that brings thousands of students together to better prepare them for careers in the dairy industry. This challenge allows undergraduate students to network with industry professionals, learn more about the dairy industry and compete in the challenge. Students in attendance included Karen Lund, Logan Pomi, Katie Hebdon and Saleen McEntire. Amin Ahmadzadeh, professor in the Department of Animal, Veterinary and Food Sciences and instructor of AVS 475, also attended the challenge.

The Western Society of Weed Science presented Lisa Jones, a research associate with the Department of Plant Sciences (PS), with the award for Outstanding Professional Staff during the organization’s March 12 annual meeting in Seattle. Timothy Prather, a PS professor, is the organization’s president.