Topics range from "Web Page Politics and Jesse Ventura" and "Using Celebrities in Advertising" to "Teaching Evolution in the Classroom" and "Bison Habitat in Theodore Roosevelt National Park."

A noon luncheon preceding  the presentations will feature keynote speaker Shawn Dunkirk, an MSU chemistry professor, talking on "Creative and Research Activities: The Undergraduate Education You’ll Remember." She’ll be followed by a panel of student respondents representing MSU’s four academic divisions: Kelly Rusk from the College of Business & Industry; Michelle Redepenning from the College of  Arts & Humanities; Jen Brokke from the College of Education & Human Services; and Jan Boe from the College of Social & Natural Sciences.

For tickets to the conference luncheon, call Ryan Sylvester at 236-2826.  Visit the conference web site for session schedules, presentation titles, abstracts, and other information at:  http://www.moorhead.msus.edu/acadconf/announcement.html

The conference is designed to highlight how significant research is to students pursuing undergraduate degrees.
 

He’ll also discuss the war taking place in his native Yugoslavia at 4 p.m. that same day, also in the Library Porch.

"Salvation and Other Disasters," the latest of his five published books, won a 1999 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

Novakovich, a visiting professor at MSU in the early 1990s, now teaches English at the University of Cincinnati. He’s a winner of the Whiting Award, three Pushcart prizes, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Cohen/Ploughshares award. His prose have also been published in The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine and New Directions.

Novakovich’s books include "Apricots from Chernobyl" (a narrative essay collection) and "Yolk" (a story collection), both published by Graywolf Press. He immigrated from Croatia at the age of 20 to complete graduate degrees at the University of Texas and the Yale Divinity School.

Topics range from using PowerPoint and graphing calculators to paperless classrooms and creating a textbook from the Web.

The event is aimed at showing the community how technology is creating dramatic changes in classroom teaching.

 Not as notorious as Dachau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald or Treblinka.

"That’s because these were institutions for Germany’s physically and mentally disabled," said Mark Mostert, a Moorhead State University special education professor. "But they may as well have been concentration camps, because in the basement of these buildings the Nazis killed more than 400,000 children and adults."

The disabled were, as Hitler called them, ‘life unworthy of life,’  Mostert said, economic burdens wasting national resources and interfering with Germany’s quest for genetic perfection. But how did he convince the German population to accept his perverse intentions?

Last summer, Mostert spent three months at the University of Cologne where he lectured on special education topics and launched a research project to document what happened to disabled children under the Nazi regime.

Mostert will discuss some of his research at several area high schools in April  as part of an MSU Theatre outreach effort surrounding its  production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "The Diary of Anne Frank."

"When Hitler came to power in 1933, his idea of creating a genetically pure race was clear in his mind," Mostert said. "But he worried about what the public reaction would be to his final solution."

Slowly, insidiously and methodically, he began a propaganda campaign emphasizing racial purity and how the impure—Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, anyone different—threatened Germany’s future.

"By the mid-1930s," Mostert said, "Hitler signed an Institutional Sterilization Law, which allowed the government to sterilize women, and some men, with mental and physical defects. The goal: to protect the integrity of the gene pool."

But in 1938, he said,  Hitler found an opportunity that would eventually lead to the Holocaust, his first pretext for state sanctioned killing. It came at the request of a German family who begged Hitler to put to death their severely disabled daughter.

"They were called the Knauer family," Mostert said. "We don’t know their first names. But in 1938 they made a personal plea to Hitler, which, I believe, opened the floodgates for genocide."

As Hitler’s attending physician, Karl Brandt testified at the Nuremberg trails that he examined the Knauer child in a Leipzig hospital, describing the child as a "creature…born blind, an idiot—at least it seemed to be an idiot—as it lacked one leg and part of an arm."

After the inspection, Hitler and Brandt decided to sanction the killing of the child.

In his trial testimony, Brandt emphasized that part of the rationale in this approach was to absolve the parents of any guilt or incrimination that they were responsible for the death of their child. Instead, the state would officially accept responsibility.

Said Mostert: "Death sanctioned, in other words, by the government."

The machinery was already in place. "Before the death of the Knauer child," Mostert said, "Hitler authorized Brandt to formally establish a state-sanctioned program to kill children suffering from physical and intellectual disabilities. He was just waiting for a loophole."

That, according to Mostert, was the line Hitler had to cross before he could embark on his ultimate goal. The dam had burst. The Knauer child became the catalyst for the Holocaust.

By 1938, in the midst of building a war machine, Hitler authorized the wholesale slaughter of the disabled. But he didn’t make it public. "The institutions were perfect testing grounds, " Mostert said, "because the inmates were captives and they were isolated."

This is how it worked: Nazi busses with spray-painted windows pulled up to the these hospitals, loaded the patients, and then took them to centralized mental institutions such as Hadamar and Grafeneck. They were starved, they were shot, they were given lethal injections, Mostert said. "Then Nazi scientists began to experiment with lethal gases. That’s when  they came up with their favorite, the odorless gas carbon dioxide. It would become the gas of choice when the Holocaust arrived."

To cover up this mass slaughter, Mostert said, the victim’s relatives would receive a note in the mail stating, in effect: During a transfer to another institution, your loved one died of pneumonia. If you wish to receive their ashes, we’ll ship them to you COD.

"It got a little dicey for Hitler when five or six families in a single town got the same letter," Mostert said.

The mass butchering of the disabled ended in 1941 when the Catholic Archbishop of Munster Clemens Graf Von Galen denounced Hitler from the pulpit for "killing our children."

Hitler and his cronies considered assassinating Von Galen, but instead pulled the plug on the program. The soldiers and scientists who ran the death chambers at the mental institutions were immediately transferred to concentration camps in Poland and Russia where their services were soon to be in demand.

"It makes you wonder," Mostert said, "what would have happened if more people publicly denounced Hitler."

During his visit to Germany last summer, Mostert discovered a special education system about a decade or two behind America’s. "Disabled children are still separated, not mainstreamed. But the universities look to the United States as the leader in special education research."

In fact, the 3,000 special education students at the University of Cologne all read the leading United States text on the subject, "Exceptional Children" by Hallahan and Kauffman. "What’s interesting is, they have to read it in English," Mostert said.

Mostert began his research after a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. A disillusionment with the current trends in special education spurred him on.

"There’s a propensity now in special education to champion new, untested approaches without the benefit of research," he said. "So I’ve decided to take a real look at what happened to German society that so radically changed its attitude toward the disabled. I’m especially interested in the Knauer family. The goal is simple. We don’t want to repeat those mistakes."

In the Cass-Clay area, Latinos are already the largest minority, having grown at the rate of 68% in Cass County and 49% in Clay County  between 1990 and 1997.

The conference, following the theme "Nuestra Historia: Life and Times of Latinos in the United States," begins at noon Thursday..  To register or for more information call Abner Arauza at (218) 236-2721. Registrations will also be accepted the day of the conference. Cost is $20 for students, $40 for non-students.

Dr. Juan Garcia--a noted researcher, author, and historian-- will deliver the keynote address as well as present in two workshops: "Immigrants in the United States" and a historical overview of Latinos in the Midwest. Garcia is one of the leading authorities on Hispanic immigrants in the Midwest. He’s vice president for academic affairs at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha.

Other speakers include:
* Dr. Francisco Villarruel, who’ll present two workshops: "Creating a Respectful Learning Environment for Latino Youth at Home and in School" and "The Evolving Latino Family."  Villarruel is a recognized authority on youth and family ecology associated with the Midwest Consortium for Latino Research. He’s an assistant professor of family and child ecology at Michigan State University.
* *Dr. Juan Andrade will lead a workshop on "Empowering the Latino Community."  He’s president of the Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago. In 1998,  Andrade was the recipient of  the Lifetime Achievement Award from "Hispanic" magazine and the Distinguished Service Award from the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. He was a member of the U.S. Presidential delegation to the inauguration of the President of El Salvador.
*  Dr. Raul Tovares will moderate a panel comprising students from area colleges and universities. He teaches psychology at the University of North Dakota.
* Tomas Gonzales will address gang issues as they affect Latino youth and their families.  His personal experience includes gang activity, living in halfway houses, the Marines, and as the Gang Specialist at Evans Juvenile Detention Center in Edinburg, Texas, working with gang members.

The program includes a video, "500 Years of Chicano History," with follow-up discussion, a literary reading with local writers, a play, "Rosita's Jalapeno Kitchen", and the keynote dinner, which includes the Outstanding Latino Student Awards and performances by the traditional Latino band Kico Rangel Trio and the MSU Heritage Dancers.

MSU LECTURE EXPLORES
PROSPECT OF ELECTING
WOMAN PRESIDENT MARCH 30
Moorhead, MN…Should a woman become president of the United States?

Laura Liswood, co-founder of the Council of Women World Leaders, will discuss that issue at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 30 in Moorhead State University’s Comstock Memorial Union ballroom.

Her talk, free and open to the public, is a feature of MSU’s annual convocations lecturer program.

An author, speaker and advisor, Liswood has contributed to   leadership in the women’s community for more than 20 years as a member of the International Women’s Forum, as a board member of First Women’s Bank of California and as a member of the Washington Women’s Political Caucus.

In 1997, she co-founded The White House Project, dedicated to electing a woman president of the United States. Liswood, who holds a Harvard MBA and a law degree from the University of California, Davis, is vice chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, which is composed of women presidents, prime ministers and heads of state.

Liswood’s most recent book and video documentary, "Women World Leaders," chronicles the contributions of current and former women heads of state.

CHILEAN ART WORK DETAILING
PINOCHET’S ATROCITIES
FOCUS  OF MARCH 15 TALK AT MSU
Moorhead, MN….Sharon Taylor, a professor of communications and special assistant to the president of Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Calif.,  will talk about the art work of Chilean women that was smuggled out of that country to provide evidence to the United Nations of the atrocities committed by former dictator Augusto Pinochet at 3 p.m. Monday,  March 15 in the Comstock Room of Moorhead State University’s student union.

The art work--colorful, stitched pieces of burlap measuring about 20 x 14 inches--provided some of the documentation of Pinochet’s human rights violations in Chile. Taylor will bring along 26 of these art pieces, called arpilleras.

Pinochet was part of a military junta that overthrew Chili’s Marxist government in 1973. He ruled with a dictator’s hand until he stepped down as president in 1990. However, he remained commander in chief of the armed forces until March of 1998.

Last October he was arrested in London while recovering from back surgery. Two Spanish judges investigating human rights abuses committed in Chile against Spanish nationals during Pinochet’s regime issued a warrant for the general’s arrest. The case was appealed to the House of Lords, Britain’s upper house of Parliament and highest court. Now the 83-year-old Pinochet waits while a panel of seven Law Lords decides whether he is immune from prosecution for human rights violations.

The talk is free and sponsored by MSU’s Theme Year program.

Shoptaugh, archivist for the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center at MSU, won last year’s State Historical Society of North Dakota’s Editor’s Award for an article he wrote for North Dakota History magazine called "You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist Me: Herman Stern’s Personal Crusade to Help German Jews, 1932-41."

His St. Patrick’s Day Deans’ Lecture will expand on that topic by following the lives of  15 people from three German families that Stern tried to help. Shoptaugh collected the information from correspondence, official documents and personal interviews.

When Stern died in 1980 at the age of 92, he was remembered for his successful line of Straus Clothing Stores, as the former president of the Greater North Dakota Association and as a longtime patron of the Boy Scouts of America.

"Few knew about his role in rescuing more than 125 Jews from Hitler’s Holocaust," Shoptaugh said. "Another 40 he tried to sponsor never made it, including two of Stern’s brothers who died in concentration camps."

Shoptaugh stumbled on a collection of Stern’s papers at the University of North Dakota library in Grand Forks while working on another project about Fargo-Moorhead businesses during WWII.

"That’s when I found Stern’s papers, more than 55 file folders on his efforts to bring German Jews to America," he said. "What surprised me was that there had been virtually no publicity about his efforts. He kept it in the family."

M.G. Straus immigrated to North Dakota in 1877, opening his first Strauss Clothing Store in Valley City. In 1902, he returned to Germany in search of a family member who would manage a new Straus store he planned to open in Casselton. He picked 14-year-old Herman Stern, his cousin, who came to Valley City the next year to apprentice before managing the Casselton expansion.

After Straus died, Shoptaugh said, the business was split between his widow , who moved to California, and Stern, who managed the stores until his death. Other Straus Clothing stores  also opened in LaMoure, Carrington, Fargo and Grand Forks.

"You’d expect to find these kind of heroic efforts in Chicago and New York where large Jewish populations gathered, not in rural North Dakota," Shoptaugh said. "But the more I looked into it, the more of these kinds of noble actions I discovered in rural communities."

Mills began writing for professional theatre at the age of 17 when his play "Ascending a Staircase to Nowhere" was produced at the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. Since then his work has been produced by professional, college and high school theatres across the country.

In 1998, "Sawdust and Spangles" received the Joseph Jefferson Citation (Chicago’s Tony Award) for best new play. His latest script, "Streeterville," was commissioned by Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company and was recently selected as one of 10 scripts to be presented as part of the 1999 Eugene O’Neill Midwest Plays Conference.

As an actor, Mills has appeared on a variety of television programs including "ER," "Early Editions" and "Missing Persons." Film credits include starring roles in "The Home Coming" for World Wide Pictures, "35 Miles from Normal," which premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and the soon-to-be released indie "MUGz."

During his visit to MSU, sponsored by the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series and Visiting Scholars Committee, Mills will also lecture on the process of developing a play for production  at 2 p.m. that same Thursday, also in the MSU Library Porch.

The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object visible to the unaided eye and appears as a fuzzy  spot. It’s 2 million light years away and includes more than 100 billion stars. Michael Dorn, Worf of Star Trek fame, narrates this story  about a galaxy that’s about the same size as our own, the Milky Way. The program also looks at the constellations of the night sky.

Admission is $3 for adults and $1.50 for children 12 and under, senior citizens and Tri-College Students. The Planetarium is located in Bridges Hall 167, near the intersection of 8th Avenue and 11th Street in Moorhead. Call 236-3982 for details.

Schellhase is completing a four-year fixed-term appointment as coach. He is also an assistant professor in MSU’s athletics department with teaching assignments in physical education.

Athletic director Katy Wilson says a new coach will set a new direction for men’s basketball. She will supervise the search.

Schellhase just completed his 19th season as the Dragon’s head coach, compiling a record of 298-240. Twice a consensus All-American and Academic All-American at Purdue University where he led the nation in scoring as a senior, he was a first round draft choice of the Chicago Bulls, where he played two seasons before earning his teaching degree. He spent two years as an assistant coach at NDSU before being hired by the Dragons.