News releases/September 2005

Index
University to dedicate its new science building
Science Center hosts voluneer open house
University celebrates Homecoming Oct. 3-8
Terrazzo floor installed in Science Building with public art...
Oxford prof talks about the real Charles Darwin Sept. 21
Zepper gets Corrick Spirit Award
Fall fantasy at Science Center
Chinese mid-Autumn Festival Sept. 19
MSUM hosts 9/11 event on mall Sept. 9
Poet opens McGrath Writers Series Sept. 14
MSUM prof publishes "Dao of the Press"
Alum presents clarinet/sax recital Sept. 15
Dragon's Breath Chili feed Saturday before Power Bowl
Printmaker featured in art exhibition
Corning donates valuable electronic microprobe to the university
Simmons named to Alumni Foundation staff
"Galaxies" showing at Planetarium
New nursing program accepts 38 of 120 applicants for inaugural class
Walseth named associate dean, Education & Human Services
Prof named to Minnesota Board of Aging
$240,000 NSF grant for non-destrictive archeology
Students win national journalism awards
Profs publish Robert Frost anthology
High school teachers display art at gallery

MSUM DEDICATES NEW SCIENCE LAB BUILDING DURING OCT. 5-8 CELEBRATION
MSUM will dedicate 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 SCIENCE CENTER HOLDS VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT OPEN HOUSE 
MSUM's Regional Science Center will hold its annual Volunteer Recruitment Open House Wednesday, Sept. 28 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Center for Business building, located off of 10th Street South on the MSUM Campus.
 
The open house will feature displays and information about volunteer opportunities for the 2005-06 school year. Volunteers are needed to work with bird banding, bird feeder census, observational astronomy, natural history interpretation, and nature photography. Refreshments will be served. Free parking is available in the lots next to the Center for Business.
 
For more information, call the Regional Science Center at 218-477-2904.

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 477-2146.

SCIENCE BUILDING GETS ITS EPOXY TERRAZZO FLOOR WITH PUBLIC ART
“This floor will last longer than the building,” says Eric Krob, owner of Hawkeye Flooring of Lisbon, Iowa, while working on the new epoxy terrazzo floor being installed in MSUM's new Science Building this week.

It took 1,000 gallons of the epoxy (trucked in from Cincinnati) to cover the 8,000 square feet of flooring on the entrance and hallways of the building's main floor.

Before being applied by trowel, the epoxy was mixed with aggregates of marble, glass, mother of pearl (sea shells) and plastic which, when ground and polished over the next two weeks, will give the floor that distinctively lustrous, speckled terrazzo look . Cost: about $230,000.

The eight pigments in the design-from green and blue to white and orange--will not wear or fade with time, Krob said.

Inlaid within that floor are bronze and aluminum frames outlining a series of designs created by Denver public artist Carolyn Braaksma. A former iron welder, she began her career as a public artist 12 years ago designing the floor for the Denver airport.

Her artistic narration begins in the building's atrium with a depiction of the night sky based on mythology. At the heart of it is Draco the Dragon, along with Cygnus the Swan and Pisces the fish, all constellations.

The design continues down the hallways, with depictions of migrating birds passing along the Red River and areas farmlands and prairies. In front of one doorway, she inlaid the molecular structure of water, in another the molecular structure of ice.

The project should be done within a couple weeks, just in time for the dedication of the building during homecoming week:

Wednesday, Oct. 5 : A lecture featuring Dr. Judith Ramaley, formerly with the National Science Foundation and now the president of Winona State University, who will speak on undergraduate research at 7 p.m. in the Science Lab Building Atrium.

Thursday, Oct. 6: A 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting celebration will be held at the Science Lab Building. The day's events will include tours of the building, poster displays by students, high school students shadowing MSUM students, and laboratory demonstrations. A College of Social and Natural Sciences Alumni and Faculty event will be held at 6 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott. All CSNS alumni are invited.

MSUM HONORS ALUM/PROF WITH CORRICK SPIRIT AWARD
Kevin Zepper, a former student and now a professor at MSUM’s newly named Corrick Center for General Education, is the recipient of the 9th annual Delmar G. Corrick Spirit and Vision Award

It’s presented by the faculty of MSUM’s Corrick Center for General Education (formerly The New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies) to a graduate who exemplifies the spirit of Corrick, who retired in 1997 after 21 years at the university, 16 of them as director of the New Center.

Corrick’s egalitarian vision of higher education and his belief in the potential of the human spirit prompted the New Center to create an award in his honor.

The New Center is an alternative entry program at MSUM, established for students who don’t meet the university’s requirements for admission, but show promise to succeed in college.

Zepper, a Moorhead native, said his grades were bad in high school, the only way he could enroll in a college was through MSUM’s Corrick Center. “I took advantage of the opportunity and it paid off,” he said.

Zepper went on to earn his undergraduate degree in English and his MFA in Creative Writing, both at MSUM. He taught English part time at Concordia College, MSUM and MSCT before joining the Corrick Center faculty three years ago.

He’s the author of poetry chapbook “The Fifth Ramone” (Dacotah Territories Press) His poetry and fiction have also been published in a variety of venues, including Black Bear Review, Dream International and Poetry Harbor.

His next chapbook, “(Suffering from) An Apartment Complex,” will be released in February by Plan B Press.

Storytelling, trail walks and telescope viewing…
MSUM SCIENCE CENTER HOSTS ‘FALL FANTASY’
MSUM’s Regional Science Center will host its annual “Fall Fantasy” from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Buffalo River Site.

Guests will walk through the woods stopping to enjoy interpretive dramatizations about local animals. If the skies are clear, telescopes will also be set out for observing the fall sky.

This program is free and open to the public. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The Buffalo River Site is located 15 miles east of Moorhead on Highway 10, adjacent to the Buffalo River State Park. For more information, call 218-477-2904.

CHINESE CLUB HOSTS MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL AND OPEN HOUSE SEPT. 19
The MSUM Chinese Club will sponsor a celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival and an open house at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept/ 19, in the Dragon Den (Frick Hall #152).

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the "Moon Festival," is an annual celebration of the harvest season and is an occasion for family getting together to enjoy the bright full moon.

The entertainment program includes a Chinese costume show, Chinese music played on various instruments, a folk dance, a Taichi Sword demonstration and other martial Arts demonstrations.

In addition to getting information about the MSUM East Asian Studies major & minor programs, study abroad in China, scholarships, and China Tour, participants will also learn the traditional Chinese folk art--paper cutting and paper folding.

Chinese food and refreshments will be served. There will be door prizes too. This event is free.

For information, please contact Dan Grabill (arukardo@gmail.com) or Jenny Lin, Languages & Cultures, 477-2913 (linjj@mnstate.edu).

OXFORD PROF TALKS ON THE REAL CHARLES DARWIN WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21
Allan Chapman, a professor at Oxford University in England, presents a lecture on “The Real Charles Darwin: Explorer, Naturalist and Country Gentleman” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 in MSUM’s King Hall Auditorium with tea and biscuits following in the Dragon Den.

Chapman, a social historian and member of the Royal Astronomical Society Club, is a faculty member at Oxford’s Wadham College and frequently appears on British television specials about the history of astronomy and science.

His latest book, “England’s Leonardo: Robert Hooke & the 17th Century Scientific Revolution,” was published earlier this year by the Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol & Philadelphia.

A specialist in the history of early medicine, he’s been a Hastings Memorial Lecturer at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

During his visit to campus, Chapman will also talk to students interested in studying in Oxford next year under MSUM’s Eurospring program, now in its 25th year. For details, contact the campus International Programs office at 477-2956. He’ll also lecture at noon Thursday to doctors at MeritCare.

MSUM HOSTS 9/11 PRESENTATION ON MALL
MSUM will host the presentation “9/11 After Effects: Our Neighbor’s Perspective” at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 9 featuring a presentation by George MacLean, associate director of the Center for Defense and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

The title of his talk: “Assessing Canada-United States Relations: Rhetoric and Reality.” The presentation will be held outside of the Livingston Lord Library on the campus mall..\ In case of rain, the event will be moved into the library porch.

In conjunction with this presentation, representatives from area educational, religious and governmental organizations are being asked to submit their thoughts and comments on the following question:

“How can we (individuals, organizations and/or government) use the tragic experience of 9/11 to make our world a better place for everyone?”

The collected reflections are expected to be published on campus. Send your reflections to: Andrew Conteh, MSUM, MacLean Hall 371, 1104 7th Ave S. Moorhead MN 56563 or e-mailed to seimma@mnstate.edu.

POET LEE ANN RORIPAUGH OPENS MSUM MCGRATH WRITERS SERIES SEPT. 14
Poet Lee Ann Roripaugh, winner of the 1998 National Poetry Series and a finalist for the 2000 Asian American Literary Awards, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14 in MSUM’s Library Porch as a feature of the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series.

She’ll also talk about the writer’s craft at 4 p.m. that day, also on the Library Porch.

The author of of two poetry collections, “Year of the Snake” and “Beyond Heart Mountain,” she’s a native of Laramie, Wyo., and is currently a professor of English at the University of South Dakota. Her poetry is anthologized in “Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation,” “Poets of the New Century,” “American Poetry: The Next Generation” and “American Identities: Contemporary Multicultural Voices.”

The series is named in honor of the late Tom McGrath, a prize-winning poet who taught writing at MSUM from 1969 until his retirement in 1983.

MASS COM PROF RELEASES NEW BOOK, ‘THE DAO OF THE PRESS’
“The Dao of the Press: A Humanocentric Theory” by MSUM mass communications Professor Shelton Gunaratne, has been published by Hampton Press Inc.

The 208-page book ($23.95) attempts to de-Westernize communication theory, demonstrating that the classic Four Theories of the Press and its offshoots are based on Eurocentric history, theory and practice.

The book’s eight chapters focus on: the nature of democracy, the parallels between Eastern philosophy and quantum physics, systems thinking and the theory of living systems, West-centrism of the classical “press” theories, the potential of linking Eastern ontology and Western epistemology, the new theory of communication-outlets and free expression, the connection between democracy and journalism, and the future directions that communication inquiry ought to explore.

Gunaratne, who teaches print journalism, started his career in journalism in 1962 as a reporter for two morning dailies in his country of birth, Sri Lanka. He came to the United States in 1966 as a fellow of the World Press Institute at Macalester College, St. Paul. Later he earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Oregon and his doctorate in mass communication at the University of Minnesota. He began teaching at MSUM in 1985 and is a specialist in international communication. He was a pioneer teacher of journalism at the tertiary level in Malaysia (2.5 years) and Australia (10 years).

Gunaratne is also the editor of “Handbook of the Media in Asia,” a 734-page profile on the state of the mass media in all 25 countries and economies of Asia, published by Sage Publications in 2000. . The comprehensive handbook was written by Gunaratne along with 36 contributors who analyzed the media in Asia, home to 3.3 million people or 55 percent of the world’s six billion population.

MSUM ALUM TO PLAY IN CLARINET/SAXOPHONE RECITAL
Lori Neprud-Ardovino, a professor of music and director of Music Graduate Studies at the University of Montevallo (Ala.), will perform in a clarinet/saxophone recital Thursday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. in Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium.

It’s free and open to the public.

Neprud-Ardovino will play works by Claude Debussy, Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Wever, among others.

Originally from Halstad, Neprud-Ardovino is a 1984 graduate of MSUM with degrees in music education and clarinet performance. She coaches chamber music and teaches at the University of Montevallo, where she is also a member of the Faculty Woodwind Quintet, the Magnolia Trio, and alto saxophonist with the Cahaba Saxophone Quartet.

Neprud-Ardovino has been a guest recitalist at a number of colleges and universities and is an active composer who has had her works performed across the United States and Canada.

She holds a doctorate of musical arts in clarinet performance from the Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.

ART EXHIBIT FEATURES PRINTMAKER ROBERT SCHWIEGER
An MSUM art exhibit featuring the work of printmaker Robert Schwieger will be on display Sept. 12-28 in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts gallery. An artist’s reception will be held 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27 in the gallery. Both are free and open to the public.
 
Schwieger received his BFA from Chadron State College in Nebraska and his MFA from the University of Denver. He has worked as an art educator for nearly 40 years, including a professor of art at Minot (N.D.) State University from 1967-1990. He is currently an adjunct professor of art at Nebraska Wesleyan University.  
 
His work has been shown extensively in many group and solo exhibitions in 45 states, Canada and Holland, and is included in numerous private and 31 public collections. He also received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
 
His work is a blend of the real and the abstract, depicting delicate, cloudlike forms, flat color, and images of land and people. Schwieger tries to incorporate personal history with symbolism and decorative patterns. His work focuses also on living organisms and their precarious life on the edge and under the assault of pollution, experimentation and other forces of humankind and technology. 
 
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.            

DRAGON’S BREATH CHILI FEED, POWER BOWL SATURDAY, SEPT. 3
All alumni, faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to celebrate a new era in MSUM football at a Dragon’s Breath Chili Feed and the annual Power Bowl Football Game. The Chili Feed will run from 11a.m. to 12:45.p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3 on the north end of Alex Nemzek field (in case of bad weather the party will move into Nemzek field house).

Chili, hot dogs and chips are on the menu and there will be free rides on the Dragon kiddie train.

Please make reservation before Friday noon (so they’ll know how much food to order) by calling the MSUM Alumni Foundation office at 477-2143

Game ticket AND chili feed combination tickets: $15 for adults, $11 for students and $9 for children under age 12.

Cost for just the chili feed: $8 for adults, $6 for students and $4 for children under age 12.

The Power Bowl kicks-off at 1:35 p.m. at Concordia.

Worth $1 million new…
CORNING INC. DONATES VALUABLE ELECTRONIC MICROPROBE TO MSUM
An electronic microprobe used to analyze chemical properties of microscopic areas of solid materials ranging from rocks and fossil bones to human hairs and pottery chards has been donated to Minnesota State University Moorhead by Corning Incorporated of New York.

The one-ton piece of laboratory equipment is worth about $1 million new, says Russ Colson, an MSUM Anthropology and Earth Sciences professor who arranged the transaction. “The instrument we acquired is 20 years old, but comes with modern software. It’s worth about a quarter million dollars.”

The only one in the region, Colson said, the instrument is a high-powered microscope that uses electrons rather than light to analyze materials.

In the process, the microprobe accelerates electrons with 15,000 volts of electricity, emitting a narrow beam that knocks electrons off the atoms of the material being analyzed.

When the electrons fall back into the atoms, they give off an x-ray. The wavelength of that x-ray, and the energy released, can be matched with every element on the periodic table, from boron to uranium.

Similar to a scanning electronic microscope, he said, the microprobe also scans and has the unique ability to focus down to a billionth of a meter, but it’s capable of detecting and analyzing elements in concentrations as small as 10 parts per million.

The software that comes with the microprobe then produces a chemical map of the analyzed materials.

“With the microprobe, an archeologist, for example, could examine the chemical composition of an arrowhead to determine if the material it’s made from was imported or came from a specific region, indication some sort of commerce or trade,” Colson said. “A biologist forensic anthropologist could look for small concentrations of lead in a human hair, checking for lead poisoning.”

Equally important, he said, the entire process is non-destructive to the material being examined.”

Colson said the electronic microprobe will be used for undergraduate and faculty research at the university and will be made available to other scientists in fields ranging from archeology and geology to microbiology, fiber optics, nanotechnology, forensic sciences and metallurgy.

Colson will use it as a major research tool in experiments simulating environments on other planets.

Electronic microprobes have been workhorses in scientific laboratories for a couple decades, he said. But he said it’s rare to find one at an undergraduate institition such as MSUM.

Colson heard about Corning’s willingness to donate the instrument from a friend he met while he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johnson Space Center. He arranged to have it trucked to MSUM and fork lifted into a King Hall geology lab, where he assembled and prepared it for use this fall.

ALI SIMMONS NAMED TO MSUM ALUMNI FOUNDATION STAFF

Ali Simmons has joined the MSUM Alumni Foundation office as director of the alumni phonathon and the alumni activities assistant.

A Moorhead High School graduate who earned a degree in speech/communications from MSUM in 2001, she worked as a young adult director for Trinity Lutheran Church and as a research assistant for PRACS Institute before joining the staff here.

Her primary responsibilities in the Alumni Foundation office will be to conduct the annual alumni phonathon, a key position because it typically raises more than $250,000 in annual gifts. She’ll also work with other office staffers in planning and conducting alumni reunions, gatherings and activities.

She is the daughter of Dr. Lee and Peggy Simmons of Moorhead.

‘GALAXIES’ SHOWING AT MSUM PLANETARIUM
“Galaxies” will show at the MSUM Planetarium Sundays at 2 p.m. and Mondays at 7 p.m. Sept. 11 through Nov.14.

“Galaxies” takes viewers on a cosmic journey through the stars of the Milky Way and the myriad galaxies beyond. Conveying science within the framework of nature, “Galaxies” is presented as a nature walk on the grand galactic scale, from the Earth out to the boundaries of the universe.

General admission is $3; children 12 and under, senior citizens and Tri-College students are $1.50.

The Planetarium is located on the MSUM campus in Bridges Hall, room 167 at 11th St. and 8th Ave. S. in Moorhead. Please use the south entrance to Bridges Hall.

38 accepted for inaugural class….
MSUM’S LAUNCHES NEW EIGHT-SEMESTER
NURSING PROGRAM WITH 120 APPLICANTS
With room for only 38 in the inaugural class, more than 120 students applied for admission to Minnesota State University Moorhead’s new eight-semester baccalaureate degree in nursing program this summer.

No advertising. No marketing. Just word-of-mouth exposure.

“I wasn’t surprised by the response,” says Barbara Vellenga, project manager for the program, designed to prepare students to become registered nurses and earn a bachelor’s degree at the same time. “The demand for nurses is incredible, and it’s going to continue to increase way beyond the next decade.”

What’s attractive about the MSUM program, she said, is that students complete the degree in three years (two summer semesters are required).

And instead of waiting through two years of liberal arts requirements, they start hands-on labs and clinical experiences the first semester, giving students an immediate feel for the career.

“Nursing isn’t for everyone,” Vellenga said. “It’s best to find that out at the beginning.”

More than half the 120 credits in the degree program are in clinical experiences that focus on emergency room, surgical, pediatric, public health, psychiatric, critical care, geriatric and other nursing specialties. An increased emphasis will be put on caring for people in rural and community settings.

At the end of the three years, graduates will be prepared to take the national examination to become licensed registered nurses.

“It’s no secret that nursing is the fastest growing career in the United States,” Vellenga said. “The reasons range from the aging of our population and advances in medical technology to more interest in preventive care.”

But looming on the horizon is a huge exodus from the profession driven by an aging RN workforce, now averaging 45 years old.

Meanwhile, the average median salary for RNs, responding to market pressures, has more than doubled in the past decade, now approaching $45,000 a year in this region.

The demographics of MSUM’s first class in the new nursing program reflects a diversity of interests: a mixture of recent high school graduates, transfer students from two-year programs, college graduates returning for a degree promising better employment, and workers switching to careers that offer more opportunities.

“Our youngest students are just out of high school and our oldest is about 40,” Vellenga said. “We have eight males, above the national average for a class this size, and three international students.”

MSUM won’t be accepting applications for next fall’s class until January 2006. Admission requirements include a minimum 3.0 high school and/or college grade point average, two letters of reference, completion of high school or college-level chemistry and biology classes, and writing a required essay. (The application form will be on-line at web.mnstate.edu/nursing on Jan. 1, 2006. The deadline for submitting applications is April 1, 2006.)

Every course in the new program will have an on-line component, Vellenga said, and every student is required to have a laptop computer.

Each student will also receive a PDA/palmpilot to store details from their clinical experiences and follow through on assignments.

The eight-semester program was approved by the Minnesota State University System and the Minnesota Board of Nursing last year and received a $130,000 start-up grant from the Dakota Medical Foundation.

MSUM already has a nursing program for licensed RNs who want to earn a four-year bachelor’s degree, which will continue in its current format. It’s designed for working nurses and most of the courses are on-line. MSUM also offers a graduate nursing degree through the Tri-College University Nursing Consoritium.

TERI WALSETH NAMED MSUM’S ASSSOCIATE
DEAN OF EDUCATION, HUMAN SERVICES

Teri Walseth has been named associate dean of MSUM’s College of Education and Human Services while retaining part of her previous position as director of teacher education.

Walseth, who earned her undergraduate and master’s degree from MSUM in elementary and special education respectively, joined the university faculty in 1996 after four years as a special education teacher for Moorhead Public Schools. She completed her doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A native of Thief River Falls, she began her career at MSUM as a supervisor for field experiences and for the past two years has served as director of both field experiences and teacher education.

The College of Education and Human Services encompasses the university’s departments of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Health and Physical Education, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education along with the New Center for Multicultural Studies, the Center for Early Childhood Education the department of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Foundations and Field Experiences and.

She reports to the new dean of the College of Education and Human Services, Michael D. Parsons

MSUM PROF NAMED TO MINNESOTA BOARD OF AGING
Sue Humphers-Ginther, an MSUM Sociology professor and coordinator of the university’s Gerontology major, was named by Gov. Tim Pawlety to the Minnesota Board of Aging.

The MBA is the gateway to services for seniors and their families. It listens to senior concerns, researches solutions and proposes policy to address senior needs.

The 25-member board administers funds from the Older Americans Act that provides a spectrum of services to senior, including more than $20 million in federal funds and an additional $6 million in state funds annually. It also designates a state-wide network of multi-county Area Agencies on Aging, which leverages an additional $17 million in local dollars and resources, ensuring local input and accountability.

A faculty member with MSUM’s Sociology and Criminal Justice department for seven years, Humphers-Ginther is a specialist in the sociology of aging. She’s a member of several committees and boards focusing on aging, including the Advisory Council for the Retired Senior and Volunteer Program, the Advisory Council for the Senior Companion Program, the Leadership Council for the Alzheimer’s Association of Minnesota-North Dakota and the Advisory Board for the North Star Regional Geriatrics in Education Center.

She’s also a member of the planning committee for the Northern Plains Conference on Aging that takes place each Fargo each fall (scheduled Sept. 14-16 at the Holiday Inn this year) and a member of the Coalition of Service Providers to the Elderly.

Humphers-Ginther will serve a four-year term on the MBA, which was established in 1956 as the Governor’s Council on Aging. It is the third oldest state agency on aging in the United States.

MSUM PROF GETS $240,000 NSF GRANT FOR NEW
NON-DESTRUCTIVE APPROACH TO ARCHEOLOGY
Rinita Dalan, an Anthropology and Earth Sciences professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead, has received a $240,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an innovative and non-destructive approach to study the nation’s cultural resources.

The intent is to wed two scientific methods of peering underground while doing as little damage to the surface as possible, a technique that will help archeologists discover and map the buried past without destroying it.

The grant stems from an instrument Dalan developed in concert with Bartington Instruments in London called a down-hole magnetic susceptibility probe.

The device measures variations in magnetic properties of subsurface soils to a depth of nine to ten feet. Increased magnetism in the soil, Dalan said, may indicate a former site of human activity or an old land surface.

The magnetic properties, she said, tend to increase with age and human activity because of resulting chemical and biological changes.

The down-hole probe is portable and lightweight, allowing archaeologists to quickly survey potential sites cheaply and without disturbing the environment.

“Instead of digging or excavating,” Dalan said, “you just use a hand-held corer to make a hole in the soil and insert an instrument down the cavity to test for magnetic susceptibility.”

What’s new about this NSF grant, however, is that it will allow Dalan to link the newly expanding field of environmental magnetism with traditional field and laboratory archeological techniques that are increasingly becoming computerized.

The result: a comprehensive soil magnetic laboratory, the first in the country, she said dedicated to archeological applications.

Much of the grant will be used to purchase equipment for the new laboratory, including software to map and produce visual models of the subterranean landscape.

One promising use for this approach is identifying cemeteries and unmarked graves, especially for Native American groups concerned about disturbing these sites. MSUM has already received another $30,000 grant from the National Park Service to find unmarked graves in several Midwestern states.

Other applications include studying ancient settlements and land surfaces buried under soil, and using the data to map other similar sites.

This new combined geophysical approach will be incorporated into the National Park Service’s annual training for a variety of professionals ranging from university archeologists and federal and stage agencies to Native American environmentalists and cultural resource management firms.

Also, this new soil magnetic laboratory will be used by hundreds of MSUM and Tri-College Univeristy students for undergraduate research.

Meanwhile, Bartington Instruments, who worked with Dalan in engineering and manufacturing the down-hole probe, has just released for sale its first commercial version of the probe on its Web site: www.bartington.com. It includes free software developed by Kim Humble, a recent MSUM graduate.

MSUM STUDENTS WIN THREE NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARDS
MSUM had three national winners in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards program announced this summer

Lee Rieber, an MSUM senior, won the top national award in the Television News Photography category for a feature story he did for WDAY-TV called “Snowmobile Patrol.” He’s originally from Perham, Minn., where he graduated from high school in 2001.

Ashley Thornberg, who also graduated from MSUM this spring, was a national finalist in the Online Features Reporting category. She’s originally from Walhalla, N.D., where she graduated from high school in 2001.

And MSUM’s Horizonlines was a national finalist in the Best All-Around Independent Online Student Publication category. Horizonlines is an on-line magazine focusing on the F-M community produced by MSUM students. It can be seen at www.horizonlines.org.

College journalists submitted more than 3,000 entries in 45 categories for the national competition.

The Society of Professional Journalists is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism, inspiring and educating the next generation of journalists and stimulating high ethical standards in the profession.

The winners of the SPJ Mark of Excellence awards represent the best in college journalism.

The national winners were previously recognized by receiving first place in one of the 12 of the Society’s regional competitions. They’ll be recognized during an awards luncheon in Las Vegas this fall.

The third in their ‘Visiting’ series…
COGHILL, TAMMARO RELEASE ANOTHER
POETRY ANTHOLOGY: ‘VISITING FROST’
“Visiting Frost: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Robert Frost,” edited by MSUM’s Sheila Coghill and Thom Tammaro, will be released by the University of Iowa Press at the beginning of September.

The anthology includes more than 100 poems by some of America’s most distinguished poets paying homage to Frost (1874-1963), a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner who more than 40 years after his death remains among the most popular and revered literary figures of the 20th century.

Coghill is an English professor and chair of the university’s English department, and Tammaro a Multicultural Studies professor who teaches in

the English department and MFA in creative writing program.

They previously collaborated as editors of two other poetry anthologies: “Visiting Emily” (Iowa Press 2000), which received a Minnesota Book Award, and “Visiting Walt” (Iowa Press 2003), a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award.

In the forward to their latest anthology, Frost biographer Jay Parini compares the poet to a “great power station, one who stands off by himself in the big woods, continuously generating electricity that future poets can tap into for the price of a volume of his poems.”

Coghill and Tammaro compare the poems in “Visiting Frost” to a “conversation” between contemporary poets and one of the masters who cast a long shadow over American and English literature.

Contributors range from poets Wendell Berry and Robert Bly to Robert Lowell, William Stafford, Gwendolyn Brooks and Annie Finch.

In the anthology’s introduction, Coghil and Tammaro write: “Frost wove his American stories and talk into blank verse melodies as fine as any ever written in the history of American verse.”

At the time of his death on January 29, 1963, Frost was regarded as a kind of unofficial poet laureate of the United States. He recited his work, "The Gift Outright," at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and represented the United States on several official missions.

Today, Frost’s poems are still among the most frequently memorized by American schoolchildren, including "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” "Mending Wall," "Birches," "After Apple Picking," "The Pasture," "Fire and Ice," “The Road Not Taken” and "Directive".

“Visiting Frost” (208 pages, $34.95 cloth, $17.95 paper) will be available at bookstores Sept. 1.

ART EXHIBIT FEATURES AREA HIGH SCHOOL ART EDUCATORS

More than 40 area high school art teachers will be featured in an art exhibit that runs Aug. 22-Sept. 7 in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gallery. A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, Aug. 27 from 2-4 p.m. in the gallery. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. 

 More than 1,000 art educators from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota were invited to the first ever tri-state exhibition. Titled “Six by Six,” the show will include 2D pieces that are no larger than 6 inches by 6 inches and 3D pieces that are no larger than 6 inches by 6 inches by 6 inches. Art processes may include painting, printmaking, photography, drawing, graphic design, ceramics, sculpture, mixed media, fiber arts and jewelry.