James Spain: from aggie to administration
Published Aug. 31, 2007
"The Dairy Guy" is moving into Jesse Hall.
James Spain, also known as "the Dairy Guy" — an associate professor of dairy nutrition in the animal sciences department of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and also CAFNR's assistant dean of academic programs — was tapped by Provost Brian Foster to become the new vice provost for undergraduate studies.
Spain joined MU in 1990 and has distinguished himself by sitting on committees, publishing papers, amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money, winning teaching awards and advising students and clubs.
Now he will receive a new title and an office in Jesse Hall. The room will become his home base starting Monday, after he finishes teaching a freshman animal science lab.
One last trip to the dairy
On Wednesday, Spain led his latest batch of 25 students through their last tour of Foremost Dairy Center, MU's dairy farm.
The tour was part of a two-week lab he teaches each semester, one of seven sections in a course called Animal Science Laboratory Practicum.
It was hot at the dairy — the high was 93 degrees — but Spain did not, for the most part, seem to mind. And when he did mind, he found shade for himself and his students.
The students followed him into the milking parlor, a foul-smelling room filled with vertical metal pipes connected to milking claws, which are short metal tubes that alternatively massage a cow's udders and vacuum its milk. After discussing the bulk tank, a refrigerator near the parlor that holds the milk, Spain quizzed his students. In his trademark plain language, he spoke fill-in-the-blank sentences.
"Mastitis is..." he said.
"An infection of the mammary gland," replied freshman animal science major Emily Rodamaker.
A few minutes later, Spain bent down to milk a cow's udder. Then, facing his students, he stood in front of hills of hay, corn, soybean hulls and whole fuzzy cottonseed, each stored in its own enormous cubby. At each hill, he scooped up a heap of the stuff around him, smelled it and then talked about its characteristics.
Branching out
Such scenes will be atypical for the next three years when Spain will instead serve as an "advocate" for undergraduates university-wide, he said.
If a student visits Spain's office and asks for guidance on some aspect of undergraduate activity, such as conducting research or obtaining a tutor, Spain said he would try to speak with the student and then contact the people around the university who could help.
But not every student will come directly to Spain. If a student consults his or her adviser and the adviser cannot answer the student's question, the adviser could contact Spain, who would act as a bridge to people better equipped to help.
Just how Spain came to be so well connected can be attributed to one particular part of his extensive service to the university:
advising. Whenever a student wished to explore other departments, Spain would contact people around the university who could guide the exploration. As his Rolodex grew, his understanding of MU branched out far beyond CAFNR. And that's what will allow him to work with students both inside and outside that college, he said.
To further prepare himself for the new role, Spain has been extending his web of connections by meeting even more people around the university, he said.
His students love him. Take Rodamaker, the student in Spain's lab. She said although she is a freshman, she already knows she'll miss him when she gets a new teacher.
"I feel like I should give him a present," she said. "Maybe a stuffed cow."
Her freshman classmate Rachel Wester agreed.
"It seems like we've known him forever," she said.
Freshman Spencer Thompson also has a positive impression after two weeks with Spain.
"He makes it a fun atmosphere," Thompson said. "He makes the transition to college less intimidating."
Spain's colleagues also praise his work.
"He's great to work with," said Bill Allen, an assistant professor and the coordinator of the agricultural journalism program. "His enthusiasm is infectious."
But Spain's scared of the impact he might make.
"Will I make a difference?" he said. "I hate to think I invested three years of life and energy and passion and was not really able to make a difference."