Minnesota State University Moorhead News Releases April 2007

Index:
Bioscience prof's $205,000 NSF grant
State honors MSUM for assistive technology
School of Business awards $28,300 in scholarships
New Red Weather released
New research blog helps women vent
Vinz gives farewell reading after 40-year career
Dalan to deliver Dille Distinguished lecture
Tastefully Simple Founder receives MSUM's Hartz Award
MSUM scores its 7th Goldwater Scholarship winner in 6 years
Baby Dragons: The Story of Moorhead’s Campus School
Student Academic Conference April 11
28th annual Health Fair April 4
Glasrud Lecture April 12
Hagen Hall rededication April 13

NSF AWARDS $205,000 GRANT TO MSUM
PROF TO STUDY THE ROLE A GENE HE
DISCOVERED PLAYS IN PHOTOSYNTHESIS
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $205,000 grant to MSU Moorhead biosciences professor Chris Chastain to study a new gene he discovered last summer that may play a significant role in the biological process that controls photosynthesis.

The three-year grant, awarded under NSF’s Research at Undergraduate Institutions program, will involve more than 24 students who will assist Chastain in the study.

Chastain is a specialist in a photosynthetic process called C4, a more recently evolved and superior form of photosynthesis that allows plants to produce twice as much biomass as other plants that use the more common form of photosynthesis called C3.

The new gene he discovered last summer during a sabbatical leave at the University of Nebraska appears to play an important role in regulating photosynthesis in C4 plants.

“I say it’s like finding a unicorn,” Chastain said. “It doesn’t look like any other gene. But it seems to have unprecedented catalytic properties.”

That may be important in the future of agriculture and the development of biofuels, he said. “Corn, sorghum and sugar cane are only commercial crops that use the more advanced C4 form of photosynthesis. But so do most weeds, like crabgrass. That’s why they easily outgrow C3 plants such as bluegrass in residential lawns.”

But another C4 plant being closely looked at as a source of biofuels is switchgrass, a natural prairie grass that grows wild and thrives on marginal land.
It doesn’t need fertilizer and grows chest-high.

“We’re just doing the basic research here at MSUM,” Chastain said. “But if we do establish that this gene can be used to boost the production in C4 plants, then we’ve made some progress that will help other scientists apply it to the marketplace.”

Chastain and his students will focus their research on cloning this gene and isolating its unique catalytic properties. They’ll collaborate with Cambridge University in England, where scientists there will provide the MSUM researchers with a three-dimensional view of enzyme encoded by the gene’s molecular structure using X-ray crystallography.

The grant will also provide full-time summer jobs for two MSUM biosciences majors during each of the next three years.

Chastain received a $124,000 NSF grant three years ago, a $75,000 NSF grant six years ago and a $42,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1997, all aimed a supporting his research on the C4 plant photosynthesis process.

MSUM PROF HONORED BY
STATE FOR EXCELLENCE
IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Marie Swanson, a professor of Speech Language Hearing Sciences at MSU Moorhead, was among 12 recipients of the Excellence in Assistive Technology Awards honored at the Minnesota State Capitol earlier this month.

Swanson oversees MSUM’s Regional Assistive Technology Center (RATC), which provides technical help and consulting services to people who are severely speech or writing impaired.

Assistive technology is any device that maintains, improves or increases function of an individual with a disability. It can be as inexpensive as a pencil grip or a homemade riser for accommodating a wheelchair or an expensive technology that generates speech or performs computer tasks.

In presenting the awards, Chuck Rassbach, executive director of the Minnesota STAR Program, told the recipients: “Your dedication in promoting, teaching and using assistive technology has made a difference in the lives of many Minnesotans with disabilities.”
STAR is Minnesota’s Assistive Technology Act Program, administered through the Minnesota Department of Administration. Recipients of the award included students, educators, service providers, volunteers and advocates.

MSUM HONORS 34 BUSINESS
STUDENTS WITH $28,300
IN SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Thirty-four MSU Moorhead students will be awarded $28,300 in scholarships at the annual School of Business Banquet on Thursday, April 26.

The School of Business includes programs in Accounting, Business Administration, Finance, Marketing, Management & International Business.

Students receiving scholarships are: Lindsey Goetsch, Justine Kupfer, Tawnya Follingstad, Amy McVay, Lindsey Swenson, Travis Hughes, Jennie Mendro, Cory Reames, Daniel Reed, Allison Swenson, Naomi Takami, Amy Meindl, Linsey Meidinger, Heidi Aaberg, Yuriko Mogi, Craig Koep, Jonathan Miller, Brittany Spitzer, Shawn Stumphf, Stacy Frie, Angela Stevens, Megan Johnson, Jennifer Maas, Eric Titze, Elizabeth Barchenger, Kazuhiko Uematsu, Jason Hendrickson, Daniel LeClair, Craig Powers, Julie Jacobson, Vicki Larson, Nicholas Peterson, Kadie Engquist, and Gail Korth.

To be eligible for School of Business scholarships, students must be enrolled in a School of Business major and must meet specific grade point average and completed credits criteria. MSUM’s School of Business is able to award these scholarships annually because of the generosity of alumni, professional organizations and private individuals.

The Accounting faculty each year nominates an outstanding accounting graduate. Liping Adams will be the recipient of the 2006-07 outstanding accounting graduate award.

MSUM’S LITERARY MAGAZINE
RED WEATHER RELEASED
DURING MAY 2 READING
A reading featuring the work published in this year’s 26th anniversary issue of Red Weather, MSUM’s campus literary magazine, starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 2 in room 101 of the student union.

The new edition includes poetry, fiction, photography and creative non-fiction by MSUM students, faculty and alumni.

Copies of Red Weather will be available that evening. It’s also available at the MSUM Bookstore and other local bookstores.

This edition is the final one for Mark Vinz, who’s been the faculty advisor of Red Weather for three decades. He is retiring this year.

The Remade Man….
NEW MSUM RESEARCH BLOG HELPS WOMEN VENT ABOUT THEIR BAD RELATIONSHIPS
What do women want?

If you’re making a list, this should be near the top: To vent about bad relationships.

Well, it’s never been easier. A new website and blog that’s part of a research project developed by MSUM psychology professor Richard Kolotkin and a team of students called “The Remade Man” just opened on the internet last week. And it’s already getting hits.

“One of our goals, of course, is to give women a place to unload, to talk about the bad men and relationships they’ve experienced,” Kolotkin said. “But ultimately we want to put together a profile of what women can do to remake their man.”

No names, telephone numbers or addresses, please. Kolotkin and his team of students will edit all the blogs to maintain privacy, and not all entries will be posted.

“We want to get a variety stories, so we’re not going to keep repeating the same refrains,” he said.

This is how it works: Go to www.remademan.com , then read the consent to participate paragraph, click agree and complete the demographic survey. Click “submit,” and you’ll go to a page that says: “Welcome and let the games begin.”

Once you’re done venting, you can sign up to join other women on the blog and respond to their posts. Just submit your e-mail address and select a password. You’re done.

Every time a new rant is posted, you’ll receive an e-mail notice. You can just read the post, or respond by offering your own advice or comments. As the website says:… “you can tell us and others how you would set the guy straight and make him more human.”

The site also has resource page with links to other sites that offer relationship advice.

Next up: The Remade Woman, a site specifically aimed at men to vent about their relationships with women.

“Once we’re done, we hope to put together a book designed to help men and women improve their relationships,” Kolotkin said.

The student research team has begun to put up posters around the F-M area to promote the site. And they’ve received a small grant to publicize The Remade Man across the country and beyond.

“The idea is to get as many responses as possible,” Kolotkin said. “And maybe if we get widely distributed, we’ll find some geographic influences.”

The project is a spin-off of Kolotkin’s upcoming book, “The Insightful Marriage,” a self-help manual based on solid psychological principles and his 30 years of experience as a professor and psychologist in private practice.

VINZ TO GIVE HIS FAREWELL
READING APRIL 26 FROM NEW
‘NORTH OF NORTH’ CHAPBOOK
MSUM English professor Mark Vinz will end his 40-year career here this spring.

In honor of his lifework as a poet, editor, teacher and mentor, the university is publishing a special limited edition chapbook of his poetry entitled “North of North. ” All proceeds go to the MSUM Foundation to establish a scholarship fund in his name for student writers.

Copies of the book will be available during Vinz’ farewell reading, scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26 in King Hall Auditorium. It will also be available through the university’s Alumni Foundation (http://alumni.mnstate.edu)

A public reception will follow the reading in Owens Hall Atrium.

Named Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota in 2005, Vinz is the author or editor of more than 15 collections of poetry and prose and has won three Minnesota Book Awards. His poems, short stories, essays and reviews have appeared in over 200 magazines and anthologies.

Growing up in both Minneapolis and Kansas City, Vinz started out as a chemistry major at the University of Kansas, but was seduced to poetry by beat bards Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. “They were outrageous, timely and risky—just like rock music is today.”

But Vinz himself didn’t start writing seriously until he came to MSUM in 1968, influenced by another radical poet, the late Tom McGrath, a friend and faculty colleague.

For 30 years, Vinz has been faculty advisor to the campus literary magazine, now called “Red Weather”; for 10 years he edited the poetry journal Dacotah Territory, a pioneering move that gave voice to hundreds of regional writers, including Louise Erdrich and Carolyn Forche (he still publishes a chapbook series of new poetry under The Dacotah Territory Press imprint); and for two decades, he’s co-directed MSUM’s Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series, exposing students to authors ranging from Carol Bly and Jon Hassler to Tim O’Brien. He also helped develop and was the first director of the university’s MFA program in Creative Writing.

Poetry, he suggests, should be central to our lives. “By reading and writing poetry, you’re pursuing something in yourself that’s not a part of the daily routine. Poetry fosters a wholeness, a completeness that reminds us of another side of ourselves—a playful side, a spiritual side, or even a dark side. It can stir something very deep in you, as a reader or a writer. That’s not ephemeral, not sissy, not irrelevant.”

Lecture Monday, April 16…
DALAN HONORED WITH DILLE
DISTINGUISHED LECTURER AWARD
Rinita Dalan, Anthropology/Earth Science, will deliver this year’s annual Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecture on “Native American Landscapes: An Interdisciplinary Perspective” at 7 p.m. Monday, April 16 in the Science Lab 104. A reception follows in the Science Lab atrium.

Dalan earned a doctorate in ancient studies at the University of Minnesota and joined the Anthropology/Earth Science department here in 1999. She received the University’s Academic Excellence Award for Research Activity in 2003.

Her research interests focus on the application of geophysical methods to archaeological problems, soil magnetism, development of geophysical equipment and software, Native American landscapes, and human-environment interactions. She has worked on sites located across the United States and in Belize.

Since coming to MSUM, Dalan has generated over $500,000 in grant funding, with sources including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Park Service, among others.

She collaborated with Bartington Instruments (United Kingdom) to develop a downhole magnetic susceptibility sensor for archaeological application that is now commercially available. The device measures variations in magnetic properties of subsurface soils. Instead of digging or excavating, a hole is cored in the soil and then the sensor is lowered down the hole to test for magnetic susceptibility.

Dalan created the Environmental Magnetism and Geophysics Laboratory at MSUM, a state-of-the-art soil magnetic laboratory dedicated to archaeological applications. Undergraduate students as well as professionals in the public and private sector use the lab.

The Dille Fund for Excellence is a permanent endowment established in 1994 by the MSUM Alumni Foundation, through the generosity of MSUM alumni and friends, to honor the University’s former president, Roland Dille and his wife, Beth Dille. The endowment raised nearly $3.2 million in gifts and pledges in 1994 and supports annual grants and the Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award.

Each year, the Dille Fund for Excellence Committee and the President select one MSUM faculty member to receive the Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, which is one of the highest honors MSUM bestows to its faculty. Honorees receive a $1,200 honorarium and commemorative desk clock in a brief ceremony before they present the annual Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecture.

Kristine E. Knoll, a biology major from Fergus Falls, last week was notified she will receive the scholarship, which covers tuition, fees, books, room and board up to $7,500 for each of the next two years.

She was selected from a field of 1,110 scholars who were nominated by faculty members from colleges and universities throughout the country. She’s one of nine Minnesota college students who received a Goldwater award this year.

Knoll is the seventh MSUM biology major in the past six 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.

Knoll intends to pursue a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology and then pursue a career in teaching and research.

The Goldwater Foundation, in its 19-year history, has awarded 5,202 scholarships worth $51 million.

A 2004 graduate of Fergus Falls High School, she is the daughter of Michael Knoll and granddaughter of Elsie Knoll, both of Fergus Falls.

For professional achievement….
TASTEFULLY SIMPLE FOUNDER, CEO TO RECEIVE MSUM’S HARTZ AWARD                                               
Jill Blashack Strahan, founder and CEO of Tastefully Simple, Inc., a national direct sales company based in Alexandria, Minn.,has been selected to receive Minnesota State University Moorhead’s 26th annual L.B. Hartz Professional Achievement Award.

An awards dinner for the Alexandria Technical College sales and marketing graduate will be held Wednesday, April 18 in the campus student union.

The award is named in honor of the late L.B. Hartz, the founder of Hartz Wholesale Company headquartered in Thief River Falls. It’s presented annually by MSUM’s College of Business and Industry to an individual who has created economic opportunities for others through innovation, entrepreneurship and community service.

Blashack Strahan (pronounced “bly-zek stray-han”), who established the original national home taste-testing company in 1995, last year was inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame as an inspiration and empowering mentor to thousands of women across the nation.

Today the company has more than 21,000 independent consultants nationwide and more than 300 employees at its Alexandria headquarters. Last year it earned $120 million in sales.

Tastefully Simple products are sold only through consultants, who are independent business owners. They offer a product line of more than 50 easy-to-prepare gourmet foods through their taste-testing parties, including seasonings, soups, breads, sauces, snacks, dressings, desserts and beverages. All the products are either open-and-enjoy or made with one or two additional ingredients. Prices range from $3.99 to $12.99.

Blashack Strahan grew up on her family farm in rural Villard, Minn., and started Tastefully Simple in a small shed after a successful experience selling food samples at a crafters’ home tour. At the time, she owned a gift-basket business. Using a pool table as a packing station, she bootstrapped the business with her own savings, a silent partner investment and a $20,000 small business loan.

Today Tastefully Simple ranks near the top of the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing private companies.

Part of that success, she said, is a company culture that's focused on teamwork, passion and helping people reach their full potential.

MOORHEAD CAMPUS SCHOOL HISTORY
FOCUS OF NEW BOOK, UPCOMING TALKS
Thousands of children passed through the doors of the Moorhead Campus School, eager students who reveled in the innovative and progressive teaching that occurred as part of the school’s mission as well as MSUM ’s teacher education program.  
 
But the Moorhead Campus School was much more than a training ground for future teachers. It shaped the lives of young people, future educators, the campus community, and educational researchers. Steve Grineski, MSUM professor of Education, is the author of a new book on the history of the Moorhead Campus School, “Baby Dragons: The Story of Moorhead’s Campus School, 1888-1972.”
 
Grineski attended Bemidji State University, where he spent as much time with his college-age peers as he did with elementary-age children in BSU’s campus school. As an education student he witnessed and participated daily in the application of theories into practice at one of the country’s many campus schools.
 
Campus schools, also known as training, laboratory or model schools, were designed to promote innovation, experimentation and research—all leading to better preparation of teachers and better education of students. Campus school students were afforded expansive academic opportunities not available at that time in public schools; the smaller enrollment allowed students to get involved in many activities; and students could take college-level courses while they were in high school.
 
The demise of campus schools occurred during the 1960s and 1970s because of several factors: greater breadth and depth of the public school curriculum; increased competition for educational funding; and conflicting goals of the campus schools.  
 
By the mid 1950s, Moorhead Campus School enrollment peaked at 450 students in the K-12 program. The Moorhead Campus high school closed in 1971, followed by the elementary school closure in 1972. Today, about 200 campus schools exist worldwide.
 
The Book: “Baby Dragons: The Story of Moorhead’s Campus School, 1888-1972,” 200 pages, features more than 250 photographs and original documents and interviews with former students and teachers. It’s $15 and can be purchased at Zandbroz Variety and through the Web site web.mnstate.edu/babydragons. The book is supported through a grant from the National Association of Laboratory Schools with assistance from MSUM.
 
The Talks: “Looking Back & Looking Forward: The Story of Moorhead’s Campus School
* Thursday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Zandbroz Variety
* Friday, April 13 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Barnes & Noble, part of a Roundtable Buffet of Regional Authors.
* Tuesday, April 24 at 7 p.m., MSUM’s Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium. This talk includes a slide presentation showing photographs and original documents from the Moorhead Campus School.
Books will be available for purchase at these talks.
 
The Scholarship: For the past six years, Grineski has worked with students and teachers at the Red River Area Learning Center (RRALC), Moorhead School District’s alternative high school. All proceeds from book sales will fund a scholarship for RRALC students to attend MSUM.
 
For more information, contact Steve Grineski, 477.2017 or visit web.mnstate.edu/babydragons
 
ALUM SUE BEMENT TO KEYNOTE STUDENT ACADEMIC CONFERENCE
More than 300 students will present research projects at MSUM’s ninth annual Student Academic ConferenceWednesday, April 11 in the student union ballroom.

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

Keynote speaker this year is MSUM alum Sue Bement, director of the White Earth Early Intervention Program. Her address starts at 11:50 a.m. in the student union ballroom, followed by a student panel at 12:20 p.m. on the importance of student research.

Bement, who holds both master’s and undergraduate degrees from MSUM in Special Education, will talk on “Keeping a Positive Attitude,” focusing on how to keep perspective and a sense of humor in a job that’s often depressing. The former public school teacher is also a member of the Bureau of Indian Education Advisory Board for Exceptional Education and the Council for Exceptional Children.

 Research presentations will run from 1 to 3:50 p.m. throughout the student union. All presentations are free and open to the public.

Details can be found at the conference Web site, web.mnstate.edu/acadconf

MSUM HOSTS 28th ANNUAL HEALTH FAIR APRIL 4
MSUM  will host its 28th annual spring health fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 4 in Comstock Memorial Student Union ballroom.

Besides a variety of over 54 health booths, the fair will also offer music, messages and entertainment  along with free health screenings..

A free complete cholesterol testing (HDL, LDL and triglycerides) begins at 8 a.m. in the ballroom, but requires a 12-hour fast previous to the test.

United Blood Services will also be conducting a blood drive during the event, sponsored by Hendrix Health Center and MSUM’s Peer Health Promotion Educators. To make an appointment go to www.bloodhero.com and enter the sponsor code: msumhealth to sign up and donate and register to win a fishing trip.

It’s free and open to the public.

4 p.m. and 8 p.m. April 12…
MSUM’S ANNUAL GLASRUD LECTURE FEATURES RICHARD HOFFMAN, AUTHOR OF MEMOIR “HALF A HOUSE’
Author Richard Hoffman, who teaches at Emerson College and the University of Southern Maine and wrote the award-winning memoir, “Half the House,” will present MSUM’s annual Glasrud Lecture at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 12 in the university’s Center for Business 109 followed at 8 p.m. reading of his work in Comstock Memorial Union 101.

Hoffman’s memoir depicts his family's struggles to care for two of his brothers who are terminally ill and recounts Hoffman’s the horrific abuse he suffered in secret at the age of 10 by his baseball coach. Time magazine called the book "spare and poignant."

His 4 p.m. lecture will, titled “The Ninth Letter of the Alphabet,” will explore the many possibilities of first-person narration, and various strategies for creating a well-rounded character whose name is “I.”

The lecture series honors Clarence “Soc” Glasrud, a Detroit Lakes native who taught in a country school before enrolling at MSU in 1930 and graduating in 1934. Following a stint in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Glasrud earned both a master’s degree and doctorate at Harvard University. He returned to his alma mater in 1947 to teach, eventually serving 23 years as chair of MSU’s English department. He retired in 1977.

Glasrud has since written two comprehensive histories of the university: “The Moorhead Normal School” and “Moorhead State Teachers College.”

Hoffman is also the author of the poetry collection “Without Paradise” and the forthcoming “Gold Star Road.”  He recently received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in fiction.

HAGEN HALL REDEDICATIN APRIL 13
Hagen Hall will be rededicated in a series of events on Friday, April 13. The campus community is invited to attend. Tour the remodeled laboratories, offices, and classrooms of the building from 1-3 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. in the SLB Atrium entrance to Hagen Hall, followed by a reception in Hagen 104 at 3:45 p.m.

The recent renovation of Hagen Hall is the culmination of an eight-year project to renovate the building and construct an adjoining science laboratory building. The first floor of Hagen Hall is home to the College of Social and Natural Sciences Dean’s Office and the Biosciences Department. It also features classrooms, a chemistry lab, and several technology labs. The second floor houses the Technology Department and several computer labs and classrooms. The third floor is home to the Physics and Astronomy Department and contains their labs and teaching spaces. On the fourth floor, faculty from the Biosciences and Chemistry Departments have their offices. The fourth floor also has several labs for Biosciences faculty.

The building is named for Dr. Olaf J. Hagen, a former resident director of Moorhead State College. Dr. Hagen practiced medicine and surgery in Moorhead, was a co-founder of the Fargo Clinic, was active in community affairs, and was for many years a member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents and a resident director for Moorhead State College.