News releases....

ALUM DAVID STRAUSS, GORE’S
FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF,
SPEAKS AT MSUM GRADUATION
David Strauss, a1973 Minnesota State University Moorhead alum who served four years as deputy chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, will deliver the commencement address at the university’s spring graduation ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday, May 14 in Nemzek Fieldhouse.

More than 820 students have been invited to receive their degrees that day. About 650 are expected to attend the ceremony.

Strauss is currently a visiting lecturer at the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and a lecturer at the Center for the Study of the Congress and the Presidency at American University in Washington, D.C.

After graduating from MSUM magna cum laude with degrees in political science and secondary education, he began his public service career in North Dakota administering federal farm programs as state executive director for the USDA’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service.
Prior to his appointment with the vice president’s staff, he served 13 years in senior management positions in the U.S. Senate.

A reception for parents, family and friends of graduates is scheduled after the ceremony.

Speaks to FM Ad club, and to the public….
MINNESOTA PUBLISHING GIANT
TO RECEIVE MSUM’S INNOVATIVE
COMMUNICATOR AWARD APRIL 30
Harry Lerner, CEO and founder of Lerner Publishing Group of Minneapolis, one of the largest independent children’s book publishers in the United States, will receive Minnesota State University Moorhead’ Minnesota Innovative Communicator Award on Friday, April 30 when he’ll also speak on “Marketing U.S. Books in China” at a luncheon meeting of the FM Ad Club and present a public talk that afternoon on “Making a Life in Publishing.”

Past recipients of the award include Stanley Hubbard, founder of Direct Satellite TV and CEO of KSTP television; Lee Lynch, founder of Carmichael Lynch Advertising; and Reid Johnson, founder of the Internet Broadcasting Network, the first multimedia internet network in the country.

Lerner is being recognized for founding one of the foremost children’s book publishers in the world, with more than 3,000 titles in print and adding as many as 200 new titles a year. Harnessing Midwestern talent and resources, he started a small industry in Minneapolis 42 years ago that now spans the world, including a growing relationship with the Orient.
Lerner is also one of the founding members of the Minnesota Book Publishers Roundtable, created as an opportunity for publishers to share ideas and promote the highest standards.

Lerner’s address to the FM Ad Club starts at 11:30 a.m. in MSUM’s Comstock Memorial Union ballroom. Cost is $15. Free perimeter seating will be available for students, faculty and members of the community who want to hear the presentation.

His free public talk on “Making a Life in Publishing” is at 2 p.m. in King Biology Hall Auditorium.
Lerner will receive MSUM’s Minnesota Innovative Communicator Award, sponsored by the university’s Mass Communications department, at a private dinner on campus.

For details about his campus visit, contact Mark Strand at 477-2855.

12 FACULTY, ADMINISTRATORS RETIRING
Twelve long-time members of the MSUM faculty and administration will retire this spring and summer: Dick Bynum, Carol Dobitz, David Ferreira, Dale Gronhovd, Benjamin Lin, Alan MacDonald, David Myers, David Nelson, Roberta Shreve, Sarah Smedman, John Tandberg and Robert Weibust.Dick Bynum began his 25-year teaching career at MSUM after teaching eight years at the University of Tennessee, where he developed a master’s degree program in Disability Adjudication. During this time he also worked as a vocational rehabilitation consultant

Raised in New Mexico, Bynum earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida State University and a doctorate in health education from the University of Tennessee. A specialist in health education and curriculum development, Bynum developed two degree programs while at MSUM—one in community health education and the other in health services administration. He’s been the Health and Physical Education department chairperson since 1999.

An advocate of cooperative learning strategies and academic service learning, Bynum has served as MSUM’s Director of Faculty Development and a campus representative for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Center for Teaching and Learning. He’s received awards for teaching from MSUM and MnSCU, including Outstanding Faculty Award for Academic Service Learning, Star Campus Leader Award, and Excellence Award for Teaching, among others.

Bynum and his wife Virginia will retire in SaddleBrooke, Ariz., 15 miles north of Tucson. He’ll pursue his interests in biking, hiking and riding his Harley.
Carol Dobitz retires after a 26-year career at MSUM. She joined the accounting faculty in 1978 and was department chair for five years before being named interim dean of the College of Business and Industry in 1994. She assumed the permanent post in 1997 after a national search.

Dobitz, a native of Dickinson, N.D., also taught accounting at North Dakota State University and was a tax accountant for a local CPA firm before joining the MSUM faculty. She earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from MSUM, and a master’s degree in accounting and a doctorate in business education, both from the University of North Dakota.
Former N.D. Governor Ed Schaffer named Dobitz the second woman CPA on the North Dakota Board of Accountancy. She was active with the F-M Society of CPAs and the North Dakota Society of CPAs, American Accounting Association, and the Minnesota Council of Accounting Educators. Dobitz was named Outstanding Accounting Educator of North Dakota in 1997, and received the North Dakota Society of CPA’s Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dobitz is active with her church and the F-M Area Foundation Committee for the Women’s Fund, which builds endowments for programs that support women.
Dobitz will retire in Fargo with her husband Cliff, where she’ll continue her community involvement and spend more time with her family. She enjoys traveling, gardening, quilting and reading.

David Ferreira came to MSUM 30 years ago as director of choral music after earning his undergraduate degree in piano at Illinois Wesleyan and his master’s degree in voice and doctorate in conducting at the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music. Originally from Rockford, Ill., he taught three years at the University of Minnesota Duluth and one year at Illinois Wesleyan before joining the MSUM faculty.

For the first 20 years of his career here, he focused his teaching on choral music, directing the university’s Festival and Concert Choirs and Chamber singers. In the early 1980s he took over Snowfire, changing it from a pop to a jazz vocal ensemble.

As the MSUM jazz program progressed, his interest followed the transition, focusing his teaching on the history of jazz along with keyboards and voice.

A member of the F-M Jazz Arts Group since its inception more than a decade ago, he’s also served as senior choir director at First Lutheran Church in Fargo for 26 years. He’s one of the area’s best-known jazz pianists, having performed as a vocal soloist and pianist in several community productions.
Also a prolific composer, Ferreira and his wife Kathy, an elementary music teacher with Moorhead Public Schools, intends to continue writing, practicing and performing as much as possible in retirement.

Dale Gronhovd retires from MSUM’s speech language hearing sciences department after a 30-year teaching career. Prior to joining the university, he held teaching posts at the University of South Florida and North Dakota State University. He also was chair and director of speech hearing services at the rehabilitation center at the University of North Dakota and was a speech pathologist in Milwaukee Public Schools.

Originally from Hatton, N.D., Gronhovd earned his doctorate at the University of Oregon and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees at the University of North Dakota, all in speech-language pathology. He served as department chairperson from 1997-2001 and was the graduate coordinator for speech-language pathology during the late 1970s through the 1980s.

Gronhovd is a specialist in stuttering and fluency disorders, voice science, voice disorders and voice instrumentation. He played a key role in forming and establishing the International Fluency Association, which is dedicated to the study and management of stuttering and fluency disorders. He also helped establish that association’s professional journal, the Journal of Fluency Disorders.
Gronvhovd and his wife Sandra will retire in Moorhead, where he hopes to learn the guitar and spend time traveling and biking.

Benjamin Lin retires after a 31-year teaching career at MSUM. Prior to joining the university, he worked as an electronic engineer developing avionic products for Rockwell International, and at a radio wave research laboratory.

A native of Taiwan, Lin received his doctorate in computer engineering from the University of Iowa, and his master of science degree and an undergraduate diploma in electrical engineering, from the University of Wyoming and National Taipei University of Science Technology, respectively.

Lin was recruited to MSUM in 1973 to help develop the university’s new computer science major. He received a National Science Foundation Equipment Grant to set up the school’s first computer software and hardware lab. He also served as graduate coordinator for the master of science program in computer science.

A specialist in computer hardware systems, Lin taught courses in computer software and hardware systems, computer architecture, computer network, and assembly programming language. He and his wife, Jenny Lin, an associate professor of languages here, have led two study tours to China. They’ll lead their third tour in May.
Lin and his wife will retire in Moorhead and pursue their interests in traveling and exploring U.S. regional culture.

Alan MacDonald, a native of suburban Boston, spent 24 of his 40 years of teaching experience at MSUM.

MacDonald started his career as an assistant professor of marketing at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. Three years later he moved to the University of North Dakota before joining the faculty here in 1969.

He left MSUM in 1972 to teach at Park College in Kansas City, where for most of his seven years there he served as department chair. He returned to MSUM in 1983, where he’s been ever since.
A specialist in marketing and management, MacDonald chaired the university’s Business Administration department in the early 1970s and has spent much of his career involved in international business education. Besides earning a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in Liberia, he’s taught in a variety of foreign countries ranging from China and Japan to the Virgin Islands, South Korea, Ecuador, Papua New Guinea and Kazakhstan.

MacDonald earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, his MBA from the University of South Carolina and his doctorate from the University of Oregon.
He will retire in Washington, D.C., where his wife Xia Ouyang, who earned an MBA here, works for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He intends to continue teaching and consulting in the fields of marketing, management and education.

David Myers, a native of Houston, joined the MSUM Philosophy faculty in 1972 after earning his doctorate at the University of Texas-Austin and his undergraduate degree at the University of Houston.

Originally a specialist in ethics and nuclear strategy, he switched his classroom and research focus to world religions and philosophy of religion four years ago. He is the author of two published books, “Between Marx and Nietzsche,” a fictional dialogue between the two philosophers; and “Soviet Nuclear Policy,” an analysis of the Soviet nuclear threat and the options to deal with it.

Myers was also part of a committee that helped create the university’s Master of Liberal Arts Program and in 2002 received the Academic Affairs Excellence Award for Effective Teaching.

He and his wife Betty, who served as principal at Robert Asp Middle School and Riverside Elementary School in Moorhead, intend to retire in Austin. Myers will continue pursing his interest in world religions, this summer attending the Hartford Seminary “Building Abrahamic Partnership” seminar promoting a dialogue among Jews, Christians and Muslims, and a Buddhist seminar on meditation at the Upaya Zen Center. He also intends to study the Hebrew language and Jewish rituals, and continue his research and writing on world religions and interfaith dialogue.

Associate registrar David Nelson came to MSUM in 1988 from St. Luke’s Hospitals, where he worked as a coordinator of student services and human resources assistant.

A Fargo native, Nelson earned his undergraduate degree in music and master’s degree in counseling from NDSU. He began his career as a football coach and teacher at Central Cass High School in Casselton, where he also started and coached the wrestling program. He then became director of high school relations at NDSU and later a counselor at Osseo High School.

After earning his doctorate in college student personnel administration from the University of Northern Colorado, Nelson became director of counseling for three years at the University of Alaska and then served 10 years at Valley City State, first as director of admissions and registrar, then as vice president for student services.

At MSUM, he was elected to three terms as president of the campus Minnesota State University Association of Administrative and Service Faculty and served two years as the union’s chief state negotiator. He’ll retire in Fargo with his wife Marcia, a math teacher at Ben Franklin Junior High School.

Roberta (Bobbe) Shreve retires after a 25-year career at MSUM. She directed the university’s Children’s House Childcare Center from 1975-1982, then joined the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department faculty in 1986. She has served as department chair, Board of Teaching coordinator, co-chair of the NCATE/BOT review, and is currently director of Teacher Education. She also previously taught in the child development and family science department at North Dakota State University.

A native of Iowa, she holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s degree in child development, and a doctorate in teacher education from the University of North Dakota.

A specialist in early childhood education, she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in education theory and issues, literacy, child development and pre-K curriculum. A successful grant writer, Shreve has secured more than $1.6 million in funding for early education-related projects.

During her retirement, Shreve will remain active in the early education field, including consulting on early learning standards for pre-K programs, and developing a professional development plan to be used by in-service early childhood teachers.

She and her husband Warren will continue living in Fargo. She enjoys gardening, reading and traveling.

Sarah Smedman has more than 40 years experience teaching literature and writing to elementary, high school and college students. A Benedictine sister from St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, she earned her doctorate in English from Indiana University.

Prior to joining MSUM in 1990, she taught at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where she also directed the master’s in English program. At MSUM, she is coordinator of the master of reading program and served as interim department chair for one quarter.

Her areas of expertise are in 18th-century British literature, the novel, children’s and young adult literature and literature of the prairie. She also co-edited a book published last year titled, “Bridges for the Young: The fiction of Katherine Paterson.”

Smedman remains active in and is past president of the Children’s Literature Association, an international organization that promotes serious scholarship, critical discussion, and innovative teaching in the field of children’s literature. Active in several professional organizations, Smedman received MSUM’s Academic Excellence Award for Research and/or Creative Activity in 1999, and in 2000 was MSUM’s nominee for Professor of the Year for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. She has served on the planning committee of the F-M Communiversity Programs since 2000.

Smedman plans to take a year off to study feminist theology, and then eventually move to Duluth, where she’ll assume the post of archivist for the Monastery at St. Scholastica.

John Tandberg served as MSUM’s registrar for 18 years, second longest in the university’s history behind Jennie Owens, who held the position for 28 years.

Originally from Newfolden, Tandberg is a 1968 theatre graduate of the university. He started his career teaching speech and theatre at MSUM’s Campus School, in 1970 then taught sixth grade for a year in the Canary Islands. Before joining the admissions office here in 1975, he was on the faculty at Wheaton High School for three years, teaching English, speech and theatre.

Tandberg became associate director of admissions before replacing previous registrar Don Engberg in 1986.

During his tenure as registrar, he oversaw the records office conversion to a new data management system and its transition from the quarter calendar system to semesters. He also served one year as president of the Upper Midwest Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Tandberg will retire in Moorhead with his wife Jane, a nurse at Dakota Day Surgery. He’ll wrap up a 30-year career at MSUM on June 30.

Robert Weibust began teaching at MSUM 34 years ago after earning his master’s and doctoral degrees in zoology at the University of Maine. A native of Newport, R.I., he earned his undergraduate degree in biology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He also conducted research and pursued post-doctoral studies at The Jackson Laboratory, a genetics research center in Bar Harbor.

A specialist in physiological and mammalian genetics, he taught courses in zoology, endocrinology and genetics and coordinated the senior biology seminar. Twice he was president of the campus chapter of the honor society Phi Kappa Phi.

Weibust intends to retire in Moorhead, where he’ll pursue his interests in photography and reading.

ANHEUSER-BUSCH DONATES $30,000 FOR MSUM SCIENCE BUILDING
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. has awarded $30,000 to Minnesota State University Moorhead to equip a cell culture and microscopy room in the university’s new science building.

The gift will augment the new fluorescence microscope and cell injector recently awarded from the National Science Foundation. This equipment allows scientists to grow and culture several important cell lines, including lung, breast and ovary cancer cells, used for teaching and research.

Students and student researchers in biochemistry, biotechnology, health and medical sciences courses will use the state-of-the-art microscopic equipment. It also will be used for outreach activities, including teacher workshops, student campus visits, and high school student research projects.

The new 81,000-square-foot science laboratory facility, scheduled to open this summer, will house the biology and chemistry departments. It will feature state-of-the-art teaching laboratories, dedicated student/faculty research space, and specific laboratory space for training teachers and conducting outreach activities.

Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. is a St. Louis-based corporation with subsidiaries that include the leading U.S. brewer, one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of aluminum beverage containers and one of the largest theme-park operators in the United States. Anheuser-Busch also operates an agricultural subsidiary, Busch Agricultural Resources Inc. (BARI), which develops and tests thousands of varieties of barley and rice each year, striving to develop perfect ingredients for the company’s beers. BARI has a malt plant in Moorhead, Minn. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com, www.budweiser.com, www.budweisertours.com and www.budlight.com.

FATHER/DAUGHTER POETS AND TRANSLATORS READ HERE AS MCGRATH SERIES GUESTS
Authors Willis and Aliki Barnstone (father and daughter) will read from their work at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 22 in King Hall Auditorium as a feature of the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series.

They’ll also give a talk on the writer’s craft at 4 p.m. that day in the Library Porch.

Willis is the former O’Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University and a widely known poet and translator. Among his nearly 50 published books is one of the newest literary translations of the New Testament, “The New Covenant, Commonly Called the New Testament: the Four Gospels and Apocalypse,” published by Riverhead Books/Penguin Putnam and a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. It was translated from Greek.

“The New Testament,” he said, “should not be read as a Greek book in English, but as a Semitic book about Semites, which has passed through Greek in reaching us.”
Willis is also translator of “The Gnostic Gospels,” another Book-of-the Month Club and Quality Paperback Book Club selection.

Aliki, who teaches in the International MFA program at the University of Nevada, is also a poet, translator and literary critic. Her first book of poems was published by the Macmillan Company when she was 12 years old (most of the poems in the collection were written when she was nine years old).

She and her father collaborated on “A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now.”

THEATRE STAGES ARTHUR MILLER’S DRAMA ‘ALL MY SONS’ APRIL 21-24
MSUM Theatre presents Arthur Miller’s drama “All My Sons” at 7:30 p.m. April 21-24 in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gaede Stage.

One of Miller’s greatest works, “All My Sons” is about Joe Keller, who spent his life building a company so that his two sons wouldn’t have to start at the bottom. But during World War II, he and his business partner produced parts that cost many pilots their lives.

The play illustrates the dangers of unprincipled greed and the limits of family loyalty. Directed by Jim Bartruff, the performance is recommended for mature audiences only.

For tickets, contact the MSUM Theatre Box Office at 477-2271.

STUDENT ARTS FESTIVAL APRIL 23
An MSUM Student Arts Festival showcasing the fine and performing arts talent of students will be held outdoors on the mall from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, April 23.

Included will be a variety of musical acts, the MSUM Heritage Dancers, improvisational theatre, pottery making, poetry, free popcorn and more.

At the same time, inside the Center for the Arts, the annual Senior Graduating Exhibit will be on display in the Art Gallery.

For more information, contact artsfair@mnstate.edu

MSUM LIBRARIANS GATHER FAVORITE BOOKS FROM NATIONAL, LOCAL FOLK FOR LIBRARY WEEK EVENT APRIL 21
To celebrate National Library Week, April 18-24, MSUM librarians asked local and national personalities what books mattered to them and the reasons why.

The survey results will be announced at an informal gathering at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 21 in the MSUM Library Porch. Responses came from mayors, doctors, judges, school principals and MSUM faculty.

Among the respondents, NBC-TV anchor Tom Brokaw suggested “The Journals of Lewis and Clark”; North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”; MSUM senior Dragon women’s basketball player Lindsay Hartmann, “Matilda” by Roald Dahl; Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland, “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett; Anne Phibian, Froggy Gang morning show host on Froggy radio 99.9, “A Year in the Maine Woods” by Berndt Heinrich; Forum columnist Terry DeVine, “The Killer Angels” by Michael Schaara; MSUM Pres. Roland Barden, “The Creators” by Daniel Boorstin”; and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell.

Special guests who responded to the survey will introduce you to their favorite books and help you fill your summer reading list. Refreshments will be served.

DEANS’ LECTURE APRIL 22: CREATING LANGUAGE RICH PRESCHOOL ENVIRONS
Reading specialist and recent MSUM graduate John Helland will talk on “Creating Language-rich Preschool Environments: A Model for School/Community Caregiver Education” at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 22 in the Center for Business 109 as a feature of the university’s Deans’ Lecture Series.

MSUM staffers local organizers…
MEETING SET APRIL 28 TO ESTABLISH MOORHEAD VIETNAM VETS CHAPTER
Local Vietnam era veterans are invited to a 7 p.m. meeting Wednesday, April 28 at the Moorhead American Legion building in an effort to establish a Moorhead chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA).

The mission of the VVA is to aggressively advocate issues important to veterans; provide programs and services that improve the well being of all veterans and their families; and serve our communities.

Membership is open to all who served in the military during the Vietnam era (both in-country and at duty stations overseas, stateside, and at sea). VVA is the nation’s largest and most successful Vietnam veterans organization.

The VVA also supports an Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America (AVVA) for spouses, families and friends of a Vietnam veteran.
Several special guests are expected at the initial meeting that Wednesday, including Jerry Kyser, president of the Minnesota State Council of VVA, and Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland.

Additional information can be found at our web site www.mhdvietnamvets.org or sending an e-mail message to vva@mnstate.edu. Local organizers are Larry Nicholson and Les Bakke.

$500,000 EPA APPROPRIATION TO IMPROVE CAMPUS WATER SYSTEM
MSUM has received a $500,000 Environmental Protection Agency water infrastructure improvement grant to update the water supply system serving buildings on the north side of the campus.

Vice President David Crocket last year met with Rep. Collin Peterson and Senators Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton about the campus requirements and, as a result, Coleman included it in the appropriation bill for fiscal year 2004. Construction should begin this summer.

The current water supply line running from 20th Street on the west side of campus along 6th Avenue is an antiquated 6” line, not large enough to support modern sprinkler systems, for example, in the newly remodeled Hagen Hall.

The new line will hook into a 20” concrete water supply line on 20th Street, running along 6th Avenue to 11th St. and loop around the corner to the intersection of 9th Ave. and 11th Street where it will hook into one of the city’s 12’ water lines.

MSUM STUDENTS TO SHARE $330,000 IN REBATES FROM BOOKSTORE PROFITS
The Minnesota State University Moorhead Bookstore will distribute more than $330,000 in rebate checks to an eligible 7,700 students beginning Thursday, April 15 based on their purchases of textbooks and other required course materials during fall and spring semesters.

The rebates amount to 10 percent of the Bookstore’s $3.3 million in sales of textbooks and required course materials. Previously, these Bookstore profits were redistributed to student scholarship programs.

At the start of the year, the Bookstore requested Student IDs at the cash register so their purchases could be recorded for the new program.
For students with an outstanding balance on their university account, the rebate will be applied against the balance.

This rebate is in addition to the book buyback program, which allows students to sell their used books back to the Bookstore during finals week.
Students can pick up their rebate checks April 15 (Thursday) thru April 28 (Wednesday) on the main floor of the Bookstore. Checks that are not picked up will be mailed to students’ local addresses on the morning of April 29.

The rebate program was developed by the university in an attempt to lower costs for students.

Fifth in four years…
MSUM BIOLOGY MAJOR AWARDED $7,500 GOLDWATER EXCELLENCE SCHOLARSHIP
An MSUM junior is among 310 students from across the nation selected to receive a $7,500 award from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

Rachel Sang, a bioology major from Stephen, Minn., this week was notified she will receive the scholarship, which cover tuition, fees, books, room and board up to $7,500 for each of the next two years.

She was selected from a field of 1,113 scholars who were nominated by faculty members from colleges and universities throughout the country.

Sang is the fifth MSUM biology major in the past four years to receive a Goldwater Scholarship.

The scholarship program honoring Sen. Barry M. Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. It is the premier undergraduate scholarship in these fields.

The daughter of Peter and Anna Sang, she’s a 2002 graduate of Stephen-Argyle Central High School. This summer she’ll be involved in a cell signaling research project through the MSUM biochemistry/biotechnology program.

Sang intends to pursue a doctorate and/or medical degree after graduating and then begin a career in medical research.
The Goldwater Foundation, in its 16-year history, has awarded 4,272scholarships worth $42 million.

SMALL BUSINESS CENTER OFFERS FREE LOCAL CLASSES ON USING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
A free introductory financial management course on reading and using the financial statements of your business will be offered in Morris, Alexandria, Detroit Lakes and Moorhead by the Minnesota State University Moorhead Small Business Development Center.

Presented by Small Business Center consultant Jim Soncrant, the course will include discussions of information found on income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements It will explore where the information originates, how the information is gathered, calculations that can be performed with the information and using the calculations to improve management of the business.

This course is suitable for those who want to know more about managing the financial aspects of a business but have little or no formal financial or accounting training.

The workshop will be presented at each of these locations:
April 21 – Morris Public Library, 102 E. 6th Street, Morris, MN; 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
April 27 – Alexandria Technical College, 1601 Jefferson Street, Alexandria, MN (Rm 211);
6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
April 29 – Minnesota State Community and Technical College - Detroit Lakes
900 Hwy 34 E., Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 (Rm C103); 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
May 4 – Minnesota State University Moorhead, Center for Business (Room 103),
1104 7th Avenue S., Moorhead, MN; 6:30-9:30 p.m.

The workshop is free of charge but pre-registration is requested. Register by calling Jackie at 218-477-2289 or e-mailing seifertj@mnstate.edu. Please include your name, phone number, and e-mail address.

Harley-Davidson saves him from asylum…
SPEAKERS OFFER HOPE DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH APRIL 5
Pete Feigal was diagnosed with major depression at 13, hospitalized at15 and then spent nearly a quarter of his life in Minnesota's mental healthcare system. Adding insult to injury, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 26.

Feigal will deliver a talk on “How My Harley-Davidson Saved Me From the Asylum” at 3 p.m. and then again at 7 p.m. Monday, April 5 in Comstock Memorial Union 101.

Jill Naylor, education coordinator for the Mental Health Association of Minnesota who has worked in the mental health field for the past 10 years, will will join Feigal on stage with a presentation on “Mental Health 101: Information to Help Those You Care About.”

Feigal, from St. Paul, has worked as a professional Shakespearian actor, a graphic artist creating art for Harley-Davidson, and as a motorcycle drag racer. He has spoken nationally over 1,200 times in the last six years and is the co-founder of Tilting At Windmills, a totally consumer organized and run theater and arts program. Providing hope and motivation in his talks, he advises is audiences to “be not afraid”.

The presentations, sponsored by MSUM Student Disability Organization and the Human Resources office, are free and open to the public.
For disability-related accommodations to this event, contact Greg Toutges at 477-5859.

MSUM HOSTS 25th ANNUAL HEALTH FAIR APRIL 7
MSUM will host its 25th annual spring health fair from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 7 in Comstock Memorial Student Union ballroom.

Besides a variety of over 60 health booths, the fair will also offer free blood pressure and cholesterol testing.

Entertainment includes entertainment by American Gold Gymnastics and the MSUM Heritage Dancers and demonstrations on belly dancing and t'ai chi chih. It's free and open to the public.

MSUM’S 9th ANNUAL UNITY CONFERENCE ON HISPANIC CULTURE SET APRIL 15-16
Minnesota State University Moorhead’s ninth annual Unity Conference focusing on Latino culture, history, education and legislation will be held Thursday and Friday, April 15 and 16, in the Comstock Memorial Union.

The conference, following the theme "A World Without Borders," begins at noon Thursday. To register or for more information, call Abner Arauza at 477-2721,or e-mail arauza@mnstate.edu. Registrations will also be accepted the day of the conference. Cost is $25 for students (free to MSUM faculty and students), $45 for non-students.

The conference will include workshops, panels, presentation papers, a talent showcase, a keynote dinner and presentation of this year’s Outstanding Latino Students Awards.

The keynote address will be given by former Texas Secretary of State and state legislator Henry Cuellar at 5:30 p.m. Thursday following an authentic Mexican dinner in the student union ballroom.

Other speakers include: Val Vargas from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota; Claudia Fuentes from the Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment Through Research project; columnists and researchers Robert Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzalez; Francisca Peterson, immigrant education specialist; and Eva Dominguez, who’s been teaching and counseling Hispanic students for 25 years. .

MSUM Chicano Studies instructor Yolanda Arauza will also present a photo exhibit on “A World of Immigrants,” on display both days in the student union. A panel of high school students will offer insights into experiences of New Americans in our area from 11 a.m. to noon on Friday in CUM 200A.

For more details, visit the conference web site at: web.mnstate.edu/notas.

CRIMINOLOGIST, PHOTOGRAPHER READS APRIL 5 FOR MCGRATH SERIES
Author and photographer Richard Quinney will read from his work at 8 p.m. Monday, April 5 in King Hall Auditorium as a feature of the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series and will also talk on the writer’s craft at 4 p.m. that day in the library porch.

The author of several books in criminology and social theory along with creative nonfiction and photography, he lives in Madison, Wis. His books include “For the Time Being: Ethnography of Everyday Life” and “Borderline: A Midwestern Journal.”

Quinney––whose academic career included teaching at New York University, Northern Illinois University and the University of Kentucky––uses photography to explore a theory of social life based more on peace than crime and punishment.

MINNESOTA DANCE HERE APRIL 8
The Minnesota Dance Theatre, integrating ballet with modern dance under producer/choreographer Loyce Houlton, is on stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 8 in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Hansen Theatre as a feature of MSUM’s Performing Arts Series. For tickets, ranging from $12 to $22, call the MSUM theatre box office, 477-2271.

DIGITAL ANIMATIONS FEATURE “WHATOCCURSINTHESQUARE”
Music professor Henry Gwiazda presents “Music on the Walls: whatoccursinthesquare” Wednesday, April 7 at 7 p.m. in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts gallery foyer.

The digital animations consist of four movies, all of which contain material from one movie,
whatoccursinthesquare.

Gwiazda writes: “There is no story or narrative in these movies. Nor am I interested in trying to demonstrate how lifelike digital characters can be. I suspect the result of such an approach would be similar to the impression created by most photorealism…I am only interested in suggesting a recognizable or plausible scene.”

ANNUAL GIVING PROGRAM ADDS NEW ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Tara Wilkens, former communications coordinator for Altru Health Foundation in Grand Forks, has been named administrative assistant for the university’s annual giving programs.

A 2000 communications graduate of the University of North Dakota originally from Langdon, N.D., she’d been working six years for Altru Health Foundation, the fund-raising entity for the health system.

At MSUM, Wilkens will work under Judy Peterson, director of annual giving at the university, helping with the campus, corporate, phonathon and MSUM partner’s campaigns.

Wilkens will work out of the MSUM Alumni Foundations office in Owens Hall.

FORMER ADVOCATE EDITOR PUBLISHES BOOK ON ‘CITIZENS OF THE EMPIRE’
MSUM alum Robert Jensen (’81, History) and former Advocate editor has a new book out from City Lights Publishers titled “Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity.”

A professor of media law, ethics and politics at the University of Texas, Austin, Jensen is an occasional guest on the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor” and his opinions and analytical pieces have appeared in publications ranging from USA Today and the LA Times to The Progressive and Newsday.

“Citizens of the Empire” explores what it means to be a citizen of the world’s most powerful, affluent and militarized nation in the post-9/11 era. In it he proposes an alternative politics for modern America, offering both hope and constructive suggestions to a sector of the nation that feels despair, cynical and hopeless about the political climate.

The book ($11.95, 144 pages) is available at bookstores, or by e-mailing www.citylights.com.

GUTHRIE DIRECTOR, ALUM KEYNOTES
STUDENT ACADEMIC CONFERENCE APRIL 14
Tom Proehl, managing director of The Guthrie Theatre and a 1988 MSUM graduate originally from Fargo, will deliver the keynote address at the university’s annual Student Academic Conference at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday, April 14 in the student union ballroom.

The purpose of the all-day event is to showcase the work and talent of MSUM students through presentations, posters, and creative works.

More than 250 students will present research on 140 topics from 1 to 2:20 p.m. and 2:30
3:50 p.m. in the university's student union.

Proehl, originally from Fargo, served as general manager of the Guthrie Theatre for the past four years and last spring was promoted to managing director.

For close to a decade before joining the Guthrie, Proehl managed The Dramatist Guild, a professional association of more than 8,000 playwrights, composers and lyricists headquartered in New York City. Also, he and a friend co-founded the Signature Theatre Company, an off-Broadway venture dedicated to the exploration of a single living playwright’s body of work. After six seasons as a transient company, they built a new theatre on West 42nd Street in the midst of the Broadway depression.
Details can be found at the conference web site, web.mnstate.edu/acadconf/2001/visitors.html