The grant includes funding to redesign, to primarily an on-line format, the university’s baccalaureate degree in nursing program.

“I just enrolled two students into our program from Missouri,” said Barbara Vellenga, a university nursing professor who wrote and will implement the grant. “They hope by the time they’re ready to graduate, they’ll be able to access all their coursework either on-line or through other distance educational delivery method.”

The goal of the grant project is to develop a smoother and more flexible structure within the MnSCU system that will allow students to advance from LPN to RN and then BSN nursing degrees during a time of severe nursing shortages.

Currently, Vellenga said, there are three levels of nursing education in northwestern Minnesota.

“Northwest Technical College has both a one-and two-year nursing program on each of its five campuses along with an on-line program for two-year LPN degrees. More than 1,000 prospective students have expressed interest in enrolling in those programs.”

Also, she said, both Fergus Falls and Northland Community College offer a one-year LPN and a one-year associate RN associate degree program.

MSUM and Bemidji State, meanwhile, each offer a program for RNs to complete a four-year nursing degree.

“With the nursing shortage expected to become even more critical in the next decade,” she said, “and the increasing complexity of health care needs, it makes sense to have an educational delivery system that would be more available to nursing students, especially if they live in rural areas or they’re so busy they can’t afford the travel time to some of the campuses.”

At MSUM, for example, 90 percent of the 140 nursing students are employed, and most of those work more than 32 hours a week. Also, she said, half of these students live more than 50 miles from campus.

Currently, 96 of our 140 students are now taking on-line classes,” Vellenga said.

Within the next few years, she said, she hopes all nursing students in northwestern Minnesota will have access to the education they need.

The concern over decreased interaction between faculty and students will be bridged in part by using more video conferencing, discussion boards and chat rooms. Clinical experiences will also be more focused on the student’s geographic location.

Before making the program available to other schools, she said, a pilot program will first be developed between MSUM and Fergus Falls Community College.

For details about the program, contact Vellenga at the MSUM Nursing department, 218-236-4696, or e-mail her at: vellenga@mnstate.edu.

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

Tea and cookies will be served following his talk.

Chapman’s latest book, “Gods in the Sky,” was recently released by Channel 4 Books of London. Also made into a three-part British television series, it traces the history of astronomy from the ancients to the Renaissance.

They are:
* Emmanuel W. Situma, a finance major from Nairobi, Kenya. He’s the son of Bonventure and Grace Situma of Nairobi and a 1994 graduate of Park Lands High School. He’s been a student at MSUM for 21/2 years.
* Kimberly Bair, a mass communications major from Fargo. Of Cuban heritage, she’s the daughter of John and Sharon Hancock and a 1997 graduate of Gateway Technical College in Racine, Wis.
*  Dustin Fabre, an industrial technology major from Glyndon, Minn. Part Native American, he’s a 1999 graduate of Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton High School and the son of Betty and Mark Fabre of Glyndon.

The MECA Program, begun in 1989, is a joint venture undertaken by 3M and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Each year, up to 13 MECA students are selected from MnSCU institutions.

Besides receiving $1,000 scholarships in both their junior and senior years, the students will participate in a 13-week paid internship next summer arranged by the 3M Corporation. They will also meet quarterly for leadership and skill training activities led by minority role models from the business community.

The judges are part of a high-level rule of law exchange sponsored by the Open World Program, the only exchange program housed in the U.S. legislative branch. This is the first Open World delegation to visit North Dakota.

Managed by the Center for Russian Leadership Development, an independent agency based at the Library of Congress, Open World brings emerging Russian leaders to the United States for an in-depth, on-site introduction to American democratic institutions.

Magistrate Judge Karen Klein of the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota is the judicial host for the Russian judges visiting Fargo.

Russia recently adopted major judicial reforms proposed by President Vladimir Putin

While in Fargo, the Russian judges will meet with Gov. John Hoeven, observe proceedings at the federal courthouse; meet with federal district court judges and the clerk of court; visit the Cass County District Court to observe and discuss proceedings with state judges; participate in a roundtable at the Fargo Theatre on comparative judicial systems; tour the Cass County Jail, meet with local prosecutors and law enforcement officials; and visit Bonanzaville Pioneer Village and the Plains Art Museum.

The Academy for Educational Development is administering the exchange while the MSUM Political Science department is helping arrange and conduct the judges’ activities.

The university contact for the Russian delegation’s Fargo-area schedule is Prof. Andrew Conteh, 236-2942, E-mail: conteh@mnstate.edu.

Before traveling to North Dakota, the Russian judges are spending three days studying courts in St. Louis, Mo., after an intensive two-day orientation in Washington, D.C.

Putin’s extensive reforms in the legal system include provisions intended to enhance the status, accountability and independence of the Russian judiciary by improving judges’ pay, ending their lifetime tenure and immunity from prosecution and overhauling the judicial appointment and promotion process.

More than 200 Russian judges will participate in the exchange this year.

After the Fargo visit, all 50 states will have hosted Open World delegations.

It’s an opportunity for the literary community to be together on the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, says MSUM English professor Alan Davis, who’s hosting the event.

He will also be available to answer questions about The Georgia Review and literary magazines in general, about how poems and stories are selected for such magazines, about the craft of writing and about poetry as literature.

Corey is the co-editor of Spreading The Word: Editors on Poetry and the author of several volumes of poetry, including “Greatest Hits 1980-2000,” “Mortal Fathers and Daughters,” “All These Lands You Call One Country,”  “Attacking the Pieta” and “Synchronized Swimming.” Books will be available after the reading for purchase and autographs.

This event is supported in part by the Visiting Scholars/Theme Year Committee, the MSUM  Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program, and the MSUM Bookstore.

It will be engineered and manufactured by Bartington Instruments in London.

Called a down-hole susceptibility logger, the device measures variations in the magnetic properties of subsurface soils to a depth of seven to eight feet.

“It’s pretty simple,” she said. “I’ve attached a sensor at the end of a pvc pipe, which I then put down bore holes to measure magnetic properties in the soil. If the soil exhibits increased magnetic susceptibility, it may indicate a former site of human activity or an old land surface.”

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

“It’s not a new idea,” Dalan said. “I first made one four years ago using a sensor manufactured by Bartington Instruments and housing it within some plastic pipe. I needed it at the time, and it seemed practical. I’ve been trying to improve it ever since.”

She’s been using her prototype version at archaeological sites, in classes and at National Park Service training sessions.

“It got to the point that quite a few people and organizations were interested in using this instrument, but I just didn’t have the time or capability to make them in any kind of mass scale.”

So she partnered with Bartington Instruments, the company that will engineer and manufacture the logger. The NSF grant will support Dalan in local development efforts involving field and laboratory testing of the product.

Not only is the device portable and lightweight, it allows archaeologists, geologists and soil scientist to quickly survey potential sites without disturbing the environment. “Instead of digging or excavating,” she said, “you just punch a bore hole in the soil and insert the logger to test for magnetic susceptibility in the soil.”

Bartington Instruments may have a working model ready for the commercial market within a year.

Dalan said the NSF grant will also help establish a soil magnetic laboratory at MSUM, which will be used in conjunction with the down-hole logger in research and training on campus, at the North Dakota State University department of soil sciences and at annual National Park Service workshops.

The concert will feature live music from local performers such as Nita Velo, Hartford Street Brass, Glenn and Lisa Ginn, Connie Hill, Sarah Morrau, Hat Creek Fiddle Company, Susie Nickell, and Sotto Voce.  Bring your lawn chairs or blankets and sit among the prairie grass to enjoy the natural beauty of the Buffalo River and to listen to Fargo-Moorhead area musicians.

Guests are also invited to tour the Science Center interpretive center, walk on the trails, and discover what the Regional Science Center has to offer the surrounding community through informative, humorous skits.

Hot dogs, barbecues, other food items and beverages will be available.

Admission is $2 for students, children and senior citizens; $3 for adults; children under 10 are free; and $8 for a family pass. Door prizes will be given away all day long.

For advance tickets, call the MSUM Box Office at 218-236-2271. You can also get tickets that afternoon at the Buffalo River Site.

The MSUM Regional Science Center Buffalo River Site is located 15 miles east of Moorhead on Hwy 10, next to Buffalo River State Park.
 

For more information:
Susie Nickell
(218) 233-6469
susienickell@cableone.net

Tuesday, September 10
Minnesota State University Moorhead Center for Business ? Room 108

Thursday, September 12
Perham Technology Center Conference Room
801 Jenny Avenue, Perham

Tuesday, September 17
Fergus Falls Community College ? Room L103
1414 College Way, Fergus Falls

Thursday, September 19
Alexandria Technical College ? Room 208
1601 Jefferson Street, Alexandria

To register, call or e-mail Jackie at 218-236-2289 or seifertj@mnstate.edu

Solveig Bartz, an MSUM elementary education professor, is directing the research project that began last fall at a regional school district. The Bremer Foundation funded the initial research last year with a $23,200 grant. The new grant will fund continuation of the research for the next two years.

An additional goal of the study is to create a manual for publication to help teach the targeted students, who, for a variety of reasons, are functioning below their grade level.

“Traditional methods simply don’t work on these students, who are at a critical stage in their educational development,” Bartz said. “If we don’t do something to help them, they’re likely to fall between the cracks. We want to get them to the point where they can be successful and complete their high school education.

One aim of the study is to determine whether an intervention program is effective with students at this stage in their education.

“I’m convinced it is,” Bartz said. “What we’re trying now is teaching to each student’s demonstrated need through tutoring in reading and writing activities. Hopefully this will work to continue building academic skills and improve their attitude about learning.”

Tutoring will be voluntary. It will be carried out during hours of the day when the student has free time and will not interrupt regular class attendance.

Bartz said she’ll continue to meet weekly with the teacher-tutors and will measure student progress and achievement through documentation and interview. “We want to find out what we did in the classroom that works,” she said, “and then develop a curriculum around our successes."

An exhibit of photographs and copy from the book will be showing at the NDSU Memorial Union Gallery Sept. 16-Oct. 11, with a book release and signing reception there from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27th

The exhibit will then travel to Minot, Jamestown, Bismarck, Williston and Devils Lake.

Photographer Wayne Gudmundson and art historian Robert Silberman, collaborated in putting together the incredible history of The Garrison Diversion Project. “The Promise of Water” is now available in local bookstores, selling for  $19.95 hardback or $12.95 soft cover.

Gudmundson, a North Dakota native whose photographs are included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, teaches mass communications at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Silberman, senior advisor for the PBS series “American Photography: A Century of Images,” is an art historian at the University of Minnesota.

Their simple, straight-forward documentary about a complicated, convoluted and controversial government juggernaut, cuts through perceptions, propaganda and public relations. Pealing away the obfuscations and exaggerations of proponents and opponents alike, this book demonstrates once again that a camel is just a horse designed by committee.

“The Promise of Water” is a classic fable about self-interest vs. the common good and the abiding dissonance between utopian visions and reality

Once such an innocent and promising concept—destined to save North Dakota family farms by diverting Missouri River water to irrigate croplands in the dry western and central parts of the state??it collapsed under the weight of special interests, greed, hyperbole, wishful thinking and common sense.

Currently in remission, this titanic government project has created so many negative vibes that government Dilberts have opted to change its name to The Water Resources Act.

Project cheerleaders—discovering that perception has the ability to alter reality??have even changed its intent, from irrigating small family farms to a new mission: providing municipal water and recreation for the bigger cities in eastern North Dakota.

A noble and well-meaning concept when it first surface around the time North Dakota became a state, the Garrison Diversion Project has since been called “the dog of all water projects” by a Secretary of the Interior and “lunatic” by Reader’s Digest in an article titled ”Half a Billion Dollars Down the Drain.” The Audubon Society had a more clever heading for its critique of the project: “Dr. Strangelove Builds a Canal.”

At one time it offered something for everyone, a utopian solution to North Dakota’s declining population and waning economy. Today, while still offering something for everyone, it seems detached from 21st century priorities.

Farmers, more worried about prices and overproduction, don’t want it; Canada, afraid that Missouri River biota might pollute its water system through the Red River, is dead-set against it; environmentalists are skeptical, at best; and North Dakotans in general appear disinterested.

Once supported by most of the state, it seems now that only bureaucrats, politicians and desiccated rural communities still cling to this Kafkaesque water project that’s already cost U.S. taxpayers a half billion dollars.

For what? A quarter century of hypertensive rhetoric and 120 miles of canals, all of it leading nowhere and meaning little. Not one drop of Missouri River water has trickled into any of North Dakota’s main waterways.

What’s so compelling about “The Promise of Water” is the contrast of power, politics and promise surrounding the project, detailed in Siberman’s essay, set against the stark black and white realities of Gudmundson’s photographs, which capture dead-end canals, unfinished business, and a scared, isolated landscape that mirrors the muddle that surrounds the Garrison Diversion Project.