News releases/October 2005

Index
Residence halls, commuinity host Halloween kiddie bash
$171,000 NSF grant boosts bioscience research
Novelist, poet reads for McGrath Series
U.N. legal officer talks on organization's 60th anniversary
New Rivers Press releases four new books during literary festival
MSUM's annual faculty art exhibition
Symposium series looks at evolution
Symphony performs Henry V Oct. 21
Fall enrollment: 7,648
Classic English ghost stories still haunting
Homecoming Oct. 3-8
New Science Lab building dedicated
Five Distinguished Alums honored
Two business alums honored
Internet gives Spanish cartoonist first U.S. exhibit
MSUM hosts invitational orchestra festival Oct. 13-14

MSUM RESIDENCE HALLS & COMMUNITY HOST HALLOWEEN BASH OCT. 31
Keep your little ghosts and goblins safe and warm at the annual Minnesota State University Moorhead Residence Hall Community Halloween Bash, a combined effort with the Moorhead community.

It runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31 in the MSUM residence halls.

Featured events include a Haunted House in Ballard Hall, Box Maze in Dahl Hall, refreshments (hot dogs and sloppy joes) in Dahl Hall, where the Moorhead Police Department Dare car will appear; Nelson Hall Tower of Treats; Kiddie Karnival in Snarr Hall; plus outside kiddie barrel rides. Plenty of signs will be posted to direct trick-or-treaters.

Free parking is available in lot A on 9th Avenue and 14th Street South.

This event is sponsored by MSUM’s Residence Hall Councils and Residence Hall Association, along with the Greenwood/Morningside Neighborhood Association, Taystee Freeze, Hornbacher’s, and Target.

MSUM GETS $171,000 NSF GRANT TO EXPAND STUDENT RESEARCH IN BIOCHEMISTRY LAB COURSES
Joe Provost, an MSUM biosciences professor, has received a $171,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to improve student learning experiences by integrating more research activities into two biochemistry laboratory classes.

Students in these upper division classes will start the first
semester with specific experiments, learning experimental design and data analysis. The next semester, the students will design, execute and analyze their own individual experiments focusing on mutated enzymes.

Both semesters, students will be exposed to sophisticated instruments and advanced web-based technologies.

“Besides improving critical thinking skills,” Provost said, “students will have a better opportunity to grasp the bigger picture of the science they’re dealing with.”

Already, Provost said, scientists at the University of Richmond in Virginia have expressed an interest in acquiring some of the mutated enzymes developed by students in these MSUM biochemistry courses.

NOVELIST, POET JACK DRISCOLL READS FORMSUM’S MCGRATH SERIES
Novelist and poet Jack Driscoll, now a writer-in-residence at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in northern Michigan, will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27 in MSUM’s Library Porch as a feature of the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series.

He’ll also talk about the writer’s craft at 4 p.m. that day, also in the library porch.

“How Like an Angel,” his latest of three novels, won the Sweetwater Prize for fiction from the University of Michigan Press. He’s also the author of four books of poetry and a collection of short stories, “Waiting Only to be Heard,” which won the Associated Writing Programs Award for short fiction. His poetry and fiction has also been published in over 100 journals, magazines and anthologies

Monday, Oct. 24 at MSUM
UN LEGAL OFFICER TALKS ABOUT ORGANIZATION’S 60TH ANNIVERSARY
Stadler Trangove, a legal officer at the United Nations, will deliver a talk on "The 60th Anniversary of the United Nations" at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24 in Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Center for Business 111.

Trangove joined the United Nations in 1998 as a legal officer, working mainly in the area of international peace and security. He’s currently providing legal advice to peacekeeping operations throughout the world.

He negotiated the agreements that set up operations in Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Ethiopia as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and continues to advise on the legal aspects of the United Nations involvement in Kosovo and East Timor. He was also one of the legal officers who negotiated East Timor's transitions to independence.

A South African and a graduate of Stellenbosch University.Trangove was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he earned his Bachelor of Civil Law Degree .

Trangove has taught international law and international relations in the United Kingdom and South Africa, and spent a brief period working in a law firm in Cape Town, before joining the United Nations.

Releasing four new books Oct. 20-22…
NEW RIVERS PRESS OFFERS AUTHOR READINGS, CONCERT AT 4TH ANNUAL LITERARY FESTIVAL
The three-day New Rivers Press Literary Festival next week will promote the release of four new books by the publishing house: Real Karaoke People, by Ed-Bok Lee of Minneapolis; Love in an Expanding Universe, by Ron Rindo of Oshkosh, Wis.; Flock and Shadow, by Michael Hettich of Miami Shores, Fla.: and Second Language, by Ronna Wineberg of New York City.

The winners were chosen from among 450 submissions to New Rivers Press, headquartered at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Festival events run from Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 20-22.

Authors Rindo and Wineberg open the festival Thursday, reading selections from their new works at 8 p.m. in the MSUM Library Porch.

Friday’s events start at 3 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Fargo with a panel on performing words featuring all four authors. At 7 p.m. at the Hjemkomst Heritage Center in Moorhead, authors Lee and Hettich will read poetry selections from their books.

The festival continues Saturday with a reading by Lee, Hettich, Rindo and singer/songwriter Diane Jarvi at 4 p.m. at Zandbroz in downtown Fargo. A concert by Jarvi at 7 p.m. at the Hjemkomst Center will end the three-day event. (An award-winning poet under the name Diane Jarvenpa, her book of poetry Divining The Landscape was previously published by New Rivers Press.)

One of the oldest continuously publishing literary presses in the country with more than 300 titles to its credit, New Rivers Press moved from Minneapolis to MSU Moorhead after the death of its founder, C.W. (Bill) Truesdale, in 2001. He started the publishing house in 1968.

Today New Rivers Press has a dual mission: to continue publishing enduring contemporary literature, and to provide academic learning opportunities for MSUM students.

Real Karaoke People is Lee’s first book. The collection of prose and poems explores the immigrant experience in America’s urban centers. He attended kindergarten in Seoul, grew up in North Dakota and Minnesota, and has lived in a half-dozen cities around the world.

Love in the Expanding Universe is Rindo's third collection of short stories. He currently teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Flock and Shadow: New and Selected Poems is Hettich’s third collection of poems. He’s is a professor of English and creative writing at Miami Dade College.

Second Language, a collection of short stories, is Wineberg’s first book. She’s been awarded residencies to The Ragdale Foundation and The Virginia Center for Create Arts, and has taught writing at New York University.

MSUM FACULTY EXHIBIT OPENS OCT. 31
The annual MSUM Faculty Exhibition will run Oct. 31-Nov. 16 in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts gallery. This mixed media exhibit includes graphic design, photography, sculpture, drawing, painting, ceramics, printmaking and woodworking by 17 faculty members.

A public reception to honor the faculty artists will be held Thursday, Nov. 3 from 4 to 6 p.m. It’s free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; and 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Six lectures in two weeks….
MSUM SYMPOSIUM SERIES TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT EVOLUTION
A two-week symposium on the topic “Evolution is Not a Controversy: The Nature of Science and Evolution” begins at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24 with a philosophic discussion on the nature of scientific research in Minnesota State University Moorhead’s new Science Lab building auditorium, room 118.

It’s the first of six talks about some of the basics and newest evidence surrounding evolution and the nature of science.

Evolution is in the news again, primarily because of the rising interest in the intelligent design theory, which suggests that the universe and living things are so complex and ordered that they must have been created by an intelligent agent.

Many scientists, however, see intelligent design as another form of creationism, which the U.S. Supreme Court has banned from public schools.

The series is sponsored by MSUM’s biosciences department and funded by the Comstock Memorial Fund. All are free and open to the public.

The first session Monday on the nature of science and evolution will be addressed by philosophy professors Sun Yu of Duke University and Chang-Seong Hong from MSUM.

Other scheduled talks in the series:

* “The Ancient Universe: How Old Is It And How Do We Know?” by MSUM astronomy professor Matt Craig at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25 in the Science Lab Building 118.
 * “Evolution and the Fossil Record: Examples from Agnatha and the Invertebrates” by MSUM geology professor Karl Leonard at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, also in the Science Lab Building 118.
*  “Famous Skulls and their Stories: Learn to Identify Your Ancestors” by MSUM anthropology professors Rinita Dalan and George Holley at noon Monday, Oct. 31 in Lommen Hall 98.
* “Why Do Butterflies Have Wings? Lessons from Evo-Devo” by MSUM biosciences professors Ellen Brisch and Michelle Malott at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31 in Science Lab Building 118.
* “Organs of Extreme Perfection: The Design Argument meets Evolution, Then and Now” by Robert T. Pennock, professor at the Lyman Briggs School of Science and Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3 in the Science Lab Building 104. He’s the author of “Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism” and “Intelligent Design: Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological and Scientific Perspectives.

Pennock will also talk on “Teaching Evolution” at a brown bag luncheon at noon that Thursday in MSUM’s student union, room 203. It’s open to area high school teachers.

MSUM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
PERFORMS SHAKESPEARE’S HENRY V
MSUM's Symphony Orchestra will present “A muse of fire…” featuring Sir William Walton’s film music from Shakespeare’s Henry V on Friday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. in Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium. The concert includes narrator Doug Hamilton as King Henry V, and the choral students join the Orchestra for the final selection. Paul Nesheim directs MSUM’s choral activities.
 
Hamilton is executive director of university advancement for MSUM. He has more than 20 years experience in television and radio and has emceed and hosted events throughout Fargo-Moorhead. He also has performed with MSUM’s Straw Hat Players.
 
Kirk Moss is music director and conductor for the Symphony Orchestra.
 
The performance is free and open to the public.

MSUM ENROLLMENT REMAINS STABLE, BASED ON MnSCU’S NEW ACCOUNTING METHODS
Fall semester enrollment at Minnesota State University Moorhead sits at 7,648 students, up just a fraction of a percent from last fall’s total of 7,642, according to preliminary figures based on the 30th day of classes.

But this fall’s headcount can’t directly be compared to last year’s, according to Iris Gill, MSUM’s director of institutional research.

“This year,” she said, ”we’ve begun figuring our enrollment on a new accounting method dictated by the Minnesota State College and University system, which requires the university to include in its total students who are taking classes at MSUM from NDSU and Concordia College through the Tri-College University System.”

MSUM is one of the 32 state universities and community and technical colleges in MnSCU system, serving the higher education needs of Minnesota.

Under the older accounting method, Gill said, MSUM’s enrollment would be 205 students down from last fall, a drop of nearly 3 percent.

Overall, new entering freshmen total 1,130 this fall, down 9 percent from last fall’s total of 1,242 students.

New transfer students number 714, up slightly from last fall’s total of 711.

The 30th day count is the most significant snapshot of enrollment the university tallies before releasing final semester numbers.

1 in 3 Americans still believe in ghosts...
THOSE CLASSIC ENGLISH GHOST STORIES STILL HAUNTING TODAY
Keziah Keller reads the assignments for her MSUM literature class at night by candlelight.

”The unknown creates fear, and darkness breeds uncertainty,” she says. “It makes it more fun.”

She’ll probably ace the class, because fear and fun are the basic themes in most of the literature required for her MSUM fall semester course “Ghost Stories,” a literary analysis of the classic English Gothic and ghost tales of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

“Some students are disappointed when they discover ghost stories aren’t as graphic or gory as modern horror movies,” says Dr. Katherine Meiners, an MSUM English professor who teaches the class. “It takes awhile to get used to their atmosphere and characters, as well as the experiences that inspired fear in earlier times.”

But Keller, a senior English major, doesn’t mind. She says the images the stories create in her own mind are far more frightening than anything Hollywood can produce.

Ghost stories, wildly popular in Great Britain at the peak of its empirical power, gave birth to some spooky tales that still resonate in the 21st century, Meiners says, including Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” and Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

It was a time when science and spirituality were clashing, and the stolid Age of Reason was being questioned by an emerging new movement called Romanticism. It was, in part, a reaction against the ideals of order, decorum, and rational control that dominated that era’s literature, architecture, music and art.

“Ghost stories became a viable way of expressing fears about death in a world where spirituality was often challenged by scientific discoveries,” Meiners says. “Some people feared that science would take the mystery out of the natural world. Far from being silly, the stories stretched the imaginative powers of the human mind. They encouraged readers to explore the unknown and the mysterious in life.”

Sound familiar?

Ghosts still haunt the mass media today, in movies (from “Ghostbusters” to “The Sixth Sense”) and books (from the Harry Potter series to the novels of Stephen King, Clive Barker and Dean Koontz) to television (including the cable reality series “Ghost Hunters” and reruns of “The X-Files” to this fall’s new primetime lineup packed with supernatural programs, including one called “Ghost Whisperer”).

It’s no wonder that a Gallup Poll conducted this summer found that one in three Americans still believes in ghosts.

While ghosts have been part of folklore since the invention of the camp fire, and part of literature from Homer and The Bible to Shakespeare, Meiners says the supernatural didn’t become a central aesthetic focus of fiction until the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and specifically in England.

It all began with a book by Horace Walpole, “The Castle of Otranto,” a short novel published in 1764, Meiners says. “It included a tyrannical prince, a haunted castle, and a dark brooding atmosphere. Walpole’s fascination with all things medieval set the stage for the Gothic novel, and his influence is still felt today.”

The word Gothic refers to the Visigoths, or barbarians, who invaded the Roman Empire and threw Europe into the Dark Ages, a time noted for feudal tyranny, violence, the Spanish Inquisition and creepy castles. In the 19th century, Gothic fiction became synonymous with medieval and darkness.

But Walpole and his followers—including some literary heavyweights like Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton and Emily Brontë––found something exciting in the gloomy dungeons, misty moors, torture chambers, and supernatural spirits that flourished under the superstitious shroud of medieval Europe.

Fear, they discovered, was among the most powerful emotions of all, one that led to the ultimate experience of being alive.

“The more wild, fanciful, and extraordinary the horror scenes were, the more pleasure readers found in them,” Meiners says. ”Gothic writers channeled fear into an imaginative, aesthetic experience.”

And readers responded, making Gothic novels, short stories, and magazine articles the most common fiction in England for the next half century. The ghost story, an outcropping of Gothic fiction, has remained popular to this day.

English author Virginia Woolf later explained it as “the strange human craving for the pleasure of feeling afraid.”

And what better element to explore the limits of life, death and terror than ghosts, these ethereal souls of dead people who appear to the living? (“I see dead people,” the oft quoted line in the movie “The Sixth Sense,” expresses in modern terms the eerie potential ghost stories wield.)

Put in historical context, Meiners says, Gothic stories were also political allegories. “England was engaged in the French Revolution at the time, and many people feared the return of earlier political and religious tyrannies. The Middle Ages became a convenient target for Gothic fiction.”

Some of those medieval influences linger today, the most obvious being youthful Goth subculture, a post-punk offshoot noted for its preference for black clothes, pierced body parts and expressions of gloom. It’s not surprising than many of these modern Goths are also fans of the best-selling vampire romancer Anne Rice.

“As long as life is limited by death,” says Meiners, “ghost stories will always haunt us.”

Does she believe in ghosts?

“I want to,” she said. “But you don’t have to believe to enjoy these stories. You do, however, have to be willing to understand people who are haunted.”

Asked to name her top five classic English ghost stories, Meiners offered this list:

1. "The Old Nurse's Story" (1852) by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. "The Tapestried Chamber" (1829) by Sir Walter Scott
3. "No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-Man" (1866) by Charles Dickens
4. "The Shadow in the Corner" (1879) and "The Cold Embrace" (1860) by Mary
Elizabeth Braddon (a tie)
5. "The Phantom Coach" (1864) by Amelia Edwards

MSUM CELEBRATES HOMECOMING OCT. 3-8
A bonfire, a Doo Dah parade, an alumni party and a campus talent show will be featured in Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Homecoming Week celebration Oct. 3-8.

Events get underway Monday with a bonfire and cheer competition at 9 p.m. adjacent to Nemzek Hall field, featuring the traditional burning of the “M,” music and a chance to meet Homecoming royalty.

DragonFest 2005, celebrating student involvement opportunities on campus and the community, runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday on the mall featuring a variety of games, vendors and booths. A sidewalk art competition starts at 2 p.m.

Also on Tuesday, hypnotist Frederick Winters is on stage at 7 p.m. in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Hansen Auditorium, a traditional Homecoming event.

Wednesday at 7 p.m., the annual student talent/variety show will be held in Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium, when MSUM Homecoming Royalty will also be crowned.

Thursday at 5 p.m. in front of Holmquist Hall, the band “Gooding” will play, and at 8 p.m. an outdoor movie will be projected onto the side of Holmquist Hall.

Friday at 11 a.m. on the library porch, free chili will be served to students, staff and faculty in an event called the Dragon Bash, which also features a karaoke competition.

The annual Alumni Awards banquet starts at 6 p.m. Friday at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead, honoring five MSUM alums. Also that night, starting at 8 p.m. at Chumley’s in Moorhead, a party for alumni features the sounds of Billy D and the Crystals.

Saturday, a welcome tent will be set up on the campus mall between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., offering refreshments to visiting alumni and friends.

Saturday events start with MSUM’s College of Business and Industry honoring two of its alumni at a 10 a.m. brunch in the Center for Business Atrium.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, MSUM students will present their traditional Doo Dah Parade—with floats and marching bands, plus gimmicks and craziness—marching a circle around the streets bordering the campus.

At 1 p.m., the Dragons face Southwest Minnesota State in the annual Homecoming football game on Nemzek Field, preceded by a women’s soccer game at 11 a.m. and followed by an alumni swim meet at 3 p.m.

Six athletes will be inducted into the Dragon Hall of Fame at a 6 p.m. banquet Saturday in the Courtyard by Marriott.

Also Saturday, an alumni social starts at 9 p.m. at the Moorhead Knights of Columbus, featuring MSUM’s own Wayne Luchau and Dick Dunkirk & The Shadows playing the oldies.

And at Playmakers Pavilion, students and alumni are invited to a dance featuring Trippin Billies, a cover/tribute band to Dave Mathews.

To make banquet reservations or for information on any Homecoming events, call 477-2143.

MSUM DEDICATES NEW SCIENCE LAB BUILDING DURING OCT. 5-8 CELEBRATION
MSUM dedicates its new Science Lab building during a series of campus events Oct. 5-8.

Kicking off the celebration will be a talk by Winona State University President Dr. Judith Ramaley titled, “The Integral Role of Undergraduate Research,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5 in the Science Lab room 104. A reception follows at 8:30 p.m. The talk and reception are free and open to the public.

The ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony begins at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 6 at the Science Lab’s campus mall entrance. From 10:30-11:30 a.m., there will be an open house with building tours and student research posters that will be on display throughout the building. Laboratory demonstrations will be held in the afternoon featuring biology from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in Science Lab 103; chemistry from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Science Lab 118; and physics from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Science Lab 103. All are free and open to the public.

A science alumni and faculty reunion social will be held from 7 to 11 p.m. that evening at the Courtyard by Marriott.

Friday, Oct. 7, alumni and the public are invited to attend a favorite class in astronomy, biology, chemistry or physics from 8:30-11:50 a.m. Call 218-477-2423 for classroom details.

A science alumni awards luncheon and discussion will be held Friday, Oct. 7 at noon with the recognition of MSUM’s Outstanding Young Alumni in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, as well as the College of Natural and Social Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award. A panel discussion follows the awards luncheon.

MSUM HONORS FIVE ALUMNI AT HOMECOMING AWARDS BANQUET
MSUM will honor five of its graduates during a Homecoming Week Alumni Awards banquet at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7 at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead.

Tom Clark and George Soule will be honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards; Don Meidinger and Mark Vanyo with the Dragon Volunteer Awards; and Kathy Burlingame with the Eva Vraspir Excellence in Nursing Alumni Award.

For reservations, call the MSUM Alumni office at 477-2143. The public is invited, but reservations are required.

Tom Clark, a 1972 MSUM graduate from Canby, Minn., is the executive vice president of Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. He earned degrees in psychology and speech pathology and audiology at MSUM and later a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Illinois-Springfield.

During the past 20 years  in Denver, he served in leadership roles that resulted in the construction of Denver International Airport, the creation of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, the construction of Coors Field, the construction of the Denver Broncos new stadium—Invesco Field at Mile High––and the successful passage of FasTracks, a mass transit initiative that will result in the largest build-out of a light rail system in the history of the nation.

He began his career as a speech therapist in Minnesota, then switched to a career in Illinois state government, culminating with a gubernatorial appointment to head the State of Illinois economic development effort. He then moved to Denver as vice president of the city’s Metro Chamber of Commerce, moving up the ladder in the state government to his current position.

Named one of the nation’s Top Ten Economic Development Professionals by the Council on Urban Economic Development, he and his wife Donna Alengi have five children.

George Soule, last year named president of the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association, is a founding partner and civil trial lawyer for Bowman and Brooke LLP in Minneapolis, a position he’s held for the past 20 years. He earned degrees in political science and economics at MSUM in 1976 and went on to graduate magna cum laude at Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review. His review colleague was John Gl Roberts, Jrr., likely to be confirmed as the next Chief Justice of the United States.

Soule, a Big Cormorant Lake native, began his career during college as a legal assistant and investigator for the Garrity, Cahill, Gunhus, Streed, Grinnel, Jeffries & Klinger law firm in Moorhead, then moved to Minneapolis where he worked as an associate in the litigation department of another law firm before founding Bowman and Brooke.

Selected as a “Super Lawyer”––one of the top 100 lawyers in the state–– by Minnesota Law & Politics magazine the past several years, he’s a widely published writer and frequent seminar speaker on legal topics.

He’s tried cases in 17 states, ranging from rural courthouses and Tribal Courts to big city Federal Courts. For 11 years, he was chair and vice-chair of the Minnesota Commission on Judicial Selection. He and his wife Lisa McDonald live in Minneapolis.

Don Meidinger, a certified public accountant and partner with Eide Bailly LLP and its predecessor Eide Helmeke for the past 30 years, earned an accounting degree at MSUM in 1972. He grew up in south central North Dakota, graduating from Zeeland High School.

A member and past president of Moorhead Rotary, and a member and past president of Red River Valley Estate Planning Council, he also served as a director and past president of the MSUM Alumni Foundation. The Small Business Administration named him Accountant Advocate of the Year in 1999. He and his wife Sally have two grown children.

Mark Vanyo, president of Coldwell Banker/1st Realty Encore, graduated from MSUM in 1976 with a health and physical education degree.

Originally from Alvarado, Minn., he began his career as a middle school teacher in West Fargo, then joined Park company in real estate sales before starting Encore Investments, Inc. Twelve years later, in 1993, he became president and CEO of Coldwell Banker.

That same year he was named Realtor of the Year in Minnesota, and was elected president of the Minnesota State Association of Realtors.

Vanyo received a Distinguished Service Award for Dragon Hall of Fame in 1998.  He’s been a member of Dragon Fire, MSUM’s athletic booster club, for more than 20 years and served nine years on the MSUM Alumni Foundation Board amd was elected its president in 2003. He and his wife Kathy, who met at MSUM, have three grown children.

Kathy Burlingame, the interim associate dean of nursing for the Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Detroit Lakes, earned her undergraduate degree in nursing from MSUM in 1991. She later earned her master’s degree in nursing from the University and is currently a doctoral student in educational leadership at Oral Roberts University.

Originally from Frazee, Burlingame started her career as a staff nurse at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Detroit Lakes, a position she held for 11 years after earning her practical nursing diploma at Detroit Lakes Area Vocation Institute and later her registered nursing degree from Northland Community College.

She then joined the nursing faculty at Northland Community and Technical College in 1991, teaching there for the next 14 years. Last year she joined MSCTC’s nursing faculty as a program site coordinator, a position she still holds while serving as interim dean. She and her husband Charles have four grown children.

The Eva Vraspir Excellence in Nursing Award. honors the first director of MSUM’s nursing department, who led the program from its inception in 1976 until her retirement in 1989.

MSUM HONORS TWO BUSINESS ALUMS DURING HOMECOMING
The College of Business and Industry at Minnesota State University Moorhead has selected Mike Stevens  as its Business Administration Alumnus of the Year and Rod Paseka as its Accounting Alumnus of the Year.

Their awards will be presented at a 10 a.m. Saturday breakfast Oct. 8 in the Center for Business on campus as part of Homecoming Week.

To make reservations for the breakfast, call 477-2143.

Stevens, owner of Express Press in Fargo and an advertising agency for printers called Ink, Inc., earned his degree in business administration from MSUM in 1974. Raised in Grand Blanc, Mich., he started his career in commission sales, selling used cars at Francis Peterson’s in Moorhead for 11 years.

He then purchased Express Press, a full service printing company, which has since won the top three management awards from America’s three printing associations. It’s been called the “Triple Crown” of printing, and no other printer has won any two of the awards.

A few years ago he started Ink, Inc.. Today, more than 700 printers across the nation use monthly direct mail advertising designed and created by his firm. Also, more than 230 printers use Web sites designed by Stevens’ company.

A popular speaker at printing industry events, Stevens also created The Fargo Walk of Fame on the sidewalk outside of Express Press’s former downtown location. It’s since been moved to the F-M Convention and Visitors Bureau and features the hand and footprints of more than 100 musicians, athletes, movie stars and dignitaries. Stevens and his wife Jenny have two children.

Paseka, owner and CEO of Hebron Brick Company in Fargo, earned a degree in accounting and business administration at MSUM in 1971. The Moorhead native stared his career as a salesman with Can-Tex Industries before joining Hebron Brick as sales manager in 1978, purchasing the company in 1986.

Hebron Brick is the oldest manufacturing company in North Dakota, and the fourth oldest business in the state, celebrating its 100-year history last year. It employs more than 100 workers at three locations—the mining plant in Hebron, N.D., and two retail centers in Fargo and Sioux Falls, S.D.  Manufacturing more than 50 million bricks a year, the company has 125 dealers in about 25 states who represent Hebron Brick from Seattle to New York City.

An independent manufacturer that has created a niche for itself by making an ultra high quality product as opposed to large commodity products, this year the company completed a $5 million expansion for the brick making plant in Hebron. Paseka estimates the company has manufactured one billion bricks over its 100-year history.

He and his wife Carolyn have four grown children.

Floreano: Would you like to dance Miss?
The woman: Yessssss!
Floreano: Well, then, may I have your chair?
––From a cartoon by José Ángel Rodríguez López (better known as Gogue) published regularly in the Spanish daily newspaper, Faro de Vigo.

Student’s paper turns into international friendship….
INTERNET LEADS TO FIRST U.S EXHIBIT FOR SPANISH CARTOONIST: AT MSUM
Because Brian Iverson didn’t want to write an ordinary term paper for his Spanish class at Minnesota State University Moorhead last year, an artist from a small fishing village in northwestern Spain will have a chance to exhibit his work in the United States.

José Ángel Rodríguez López, better known as “Gogue” to readers of his comic strip “Floreano” in the daily newspaper, Faro de Vigo, will exhibit his cartoons, caricatures, portraits and clay sculptures Oct. 3-26 in MSUM’s Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gallery.

“We had a list of topics to choose for our term paper,” said Iverson, who graduated last spring with a mass communications degree and a minor in Spanish. “But I wanted to do something unique, so I searched the Internet for artists, cartoonists and animators from Spain. I just stumbled onto Gogue’s work, which I thought was extraordinary.”

Iverson e-mailed the artist, who responded immediately, and the two have been corresponding ever since.

Not only did Gogue’s artistic career become the subject of Iverson’s term paper, but his Spanish Professor, Benji Smith, got involved, eventually acquiring a university grant to bring both the exhibit and Gogue to campus.

“He’s an amazing artist from an interesting part of Spain called Galicia, where the people have a Celtic heritage and speak a dialect called Gallego,” Smith said. “What intrigued me was how open this relatively famous Spanish artist was to one of our students. And to be honest, the relationship really turned Brian (Iverson) around and got him interested in Spanish culture. Maybe it will do the same to some of the people who see his exhibit.”

Gogue’s “Floreano” is similar to a Spanish version of the popular “Andy Capp” comic strip created by the late British cartoonist Reg Smyth.

The comic strip is set in Gogue’s hometown of O Grove (pop. 12,000), a little village on the Atlantic coast that thrives on commercial fishing and tourism. A national tourist destination, more than 130,000 people jam into the village each fall for its annual Festival del Marisco (Seafood Festival).

“Floreano is a typical character from O Grove who represents all people of good will,” says Gogue, a 52-year-old self taught artist. “He likes to go down to the pub with his friends and fix day-to-day problems, although he almost always ends up making a bigger mess. An adventurer, everyone seems to listen to Floreano, except his wife Mochiña, who wears the pants in the family.”

Gogue said he was amazed that a student from halfway around the world would find an interest in his work, especially his comic strip. “In fact, everyone here in my hometown, even at the newspaper where I work, continues asking me why Brian would become interested in me, and not an artist closer to home.”

The local newspaper featured a story about the MSUM student/Spanish artist relationship last January.

Gogue created more than a dozen pieces specifically for his MSUM exhibition, including cartoons, portraits, caricatures and clay sculptures. He’ll donate them all to the university before he leaves.

“The Internet has expanded my audience considerably,” said Gogue, whose work also appears in a wide range of publications, from The Greenwich Village Gazette in New York to Alaska’s  Bush Blade, along with a variety of online magazines.

“Gogue sent a caricature of me with Floreano along with another of Professor Smith,” Iverson said. “The class got a real kick out of that.

“But what really impressed me was the caricature he did of me and my brother in cap and gown, which we used for our graduation invitations last spring.”

Gogue was born and raised in O Grove, where he still lives with his wife and two children. This will be his first visit to the United States.

Gallery hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 3 p.m.

MSUM HOSTS INVITATIONAL ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL OCT. 13-14
MSUM will host the first Invitational Orchestra Festival on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 13-14.

Nine school orchestras are participating in the festival, including more than 500 string students representing three middle and three high schools—one each from Minneapolis, Marshall and Grand Forks, N.D., and three local schools.

The goal of the festival is to encourage musical growth of area orchestra programs by providing teachers and students with a unique opportunity for performance and feedback early in the school year. Each orchestra will receive written and recorded comments from two adjudicator/clinicians, who will also present an in-depth clinic with each group.

Each orchestra will do a performance/clinic followed by an on-stage clinic with MSUM faculty member Kirk Moss, and Robert Culver from the University of Michigan. Culver is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the development of school orchestra programs.

Following the group’s time on stage, MSUM faculty member and bassist Toby Curtright will hold an improvisation workshop. One of the national standards in music relates to “improving melodies, variations, and accompaniments.” This hands-on experience will help school orchestras meet this standard.

And for area string teachers
Area string teachers are invited to a free string workshop on “The Master Teacher and How to Become One” Saturday, Oct. 15 from 9 a.m. to noon in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts room 148.

The clinic will explore elements of teacher delivery, strategies used, ratio of verbiage to activity, and energy profile.

Guest clinician Robert Culver is a strings specialist who has been a key figure in the development of school orchestra programs. He is a highly regarded consultant, clinician and conductor who has been invited to 47 states and nine countries. As a conductor he has been active in 36 all-state orchestra festivals and in many more regional activities. He’s the past president of the American String Teachers Association and is founder/director of the American String Workshops.

For more information on the festival or clinic, contact Kirk Moss, 477-4099 or mosskirk@mnstate.edu