Bartruff, a 49-year-old speech and theatre professor, is one of 46 winners selected from 384 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities across the country.

The announcement of winners is being made today (Tuesday, Nov. 13) in Washington, D.C.

Bartruff  is the fourth MSUM professor to win the Carnegie Foundation teaching award. Evelyn Lynch, an MSUM elementary and early childhood education professor now associate vice president for academic affairs at Arkansas State, won in 1992; David Mason, an MSUM English professor now teaching at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, won in 1994; and Andrew Conteh, an MSUM political science professor, won in 1999.

The Carnegie awards, established in 1981 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, are recognized as among the most prestigious distinctions honoring professors.

Awarded $2.48 million grant from terrorism prevention institute….
MSUM ALUM ON THE CUTTING EDGE
OF RESEARCH TO DETOXIFY ANTHRAX
Moorhead, MN…Disabling the lethal toxins in anthrax and other bio-weapons would go a long way in protecting America from terrorism.

That’s why Moorhead native and Minnesota State University Moorhead distinguished alumnus Rodney Tweten, now a professor of microbiology at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center, received a three-year, $2.48 million grant to fund research for a new drug that has the potential to do just that.

He and his colleagues have developed a method to rapidly generate and screen mutants of anthrax toxin that could neutralize the deadly effects of the bacteria. These agents could potentially be used to reduce or eliminate deaths among late stage inhalation anthrax disease victims.

“Yes, we’ve gotten some attention recently,” said Tweten, who was interviewed by CBS-TV Nightly News this week and featured in the Boston Globe.

Tweten, who earned a biology degree at MSU Moorhead in 1976 and then a master’s degree in bacteriology at North Dakota State University, received the anthrax research grant from the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and the National Institute of Justice.

The Oklahoma City institute grew out of the desire of the survivors and families of the Murrah Federal Building bombing of April 19, 1995 to have a living memorial and help other cities avoid similar tragedies. Tweten’s office is located about a mile from the Murrah Building.

“Unfortunately, today’s anthrax vaccine is not appropriate for protecting the general public,” said Tweten, who’s heading the research team. “There is a critical need to develop new therapies that could be quickly administered following a bio-terrorist attack. The drug we’re working on could be much more effective, since it would target toxin activity after the initial anthrax infections.”

And this kind of therapy, he said, may also be useful against other types of biological weapons.

“Anthrax toxin is comprised of three proteins, and these proteins have to work together to create the actual toxin,” he said. “One of my former students who did his post-doctoral studies at Harvard University discovered that if you mutated one of these proteins in the right place, when it combines with the other anthrax proteins, it inactivates the toxins. We’re simply replacing a functional sub-unit with a dysfunctional one.”

With the grant, Tweten and his team will try to discover additional mutants that can be used as a therapeutic to block the action of the toxin. In the late stages of anthrax, he said, it is the toxin, not the growth of bacteria, which kills people

“What we’re doing now is mutating each of the three different anthrax proteins that comprise the toxins—making about 1,500 of them very rapidly—then screening them for their ability to inhibit toxin production. What these mutants do is compete with the active toxin. If we can slip one of them into the complex, it shuts it down. In other words, if one part doesn’t work, it all doesn’t work.”

Tweten, who’s been working with bacterial toxins for about 20 years, said he’s really interested in the application of this technology in a broader sense. “We just had the opportunity to apply this technology to see if it would work on anthrax,” he said. “We wrote the grant a year and a half ago, and received it six months ago, before any of the recent terrorist attacks on the United States.”

Their research focuses on anthrax, he said, because its structure is well known and it makes a good research model. In addition to the anthrax research grant, Tweten also has two grants from the National Institutes of Health to study the structural biology of other toxins.

“Most of us in the field of bacterial toxin biology realized long ago that anthrax is a potential bio-weapon,” he said. “We knew it could happen, but we didn’t expect it.”

If Tweten’s project proves workable, it should be effective on all strains of anthrax that produce the toxin. “And all strains produce the toxin,” he said.

While the project could be several years away from human use, the grant, he said, should speed up the process.

Tweten earned a doctorate in microbiology at Kansas State University. Following a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of California and a  year as a research scientist with Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, he joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 1985.

The son of Omer and Mary Tweten of Moorhead, he was named an MSU Moorhead Distinguished Alumni in 1997.

Tweten’s research is one of 10 counter-terrorism projects currently being pursued by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The institute’s research is funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Justice, which is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Minnesota State University Moorhead’s special education department, which helped prepare the grant proposal, will a serve as a partner and liaison on the project with WETCC.

The grant will help WETCC students who are interested in the paraeducator training program, paving the way for further education and ultimately a university degree at MSUM.

Paraeducation is a degree aimed at college students who want to work as a teacher’s aide in the classroom. The goal is to recruit more Native American paraeducators in the region who can also act as role models for Native American special education students.

The project will include an exchange faculty and students between WETCC and the MSUM special education department. It will also provide culturally diverse observation and field experience opportunities for students on both campuses.

The MSUM chapter of the Student Council for Exceptional Children (SCEC) has planned several trips to the White Earth Tribal and Community College meet and interact with students in WETCC’s paraeducator training program.

The grant includes funding that will create a unique collaboration involving students and faculty at MSUM and White Earth Tribal and Community College along with regional high school teachers and the staff at the MSUM Regional Science Center.

Part of the grant also involves developing classroom curriculum materials that will accompany the traveling exhibit to local schools, museums and public venues.

The theme of the project, “Seeing is Believing,” is aimed at giving students and the public a visual and practical look at four specific areas of modern science: Dark Matter in Spiral Galaxies, Probability in Games of Chance and Beyond, X-ray Microtomography, and Green (environmental) Chemistry.

MSUM physics professor Matthew Craig and science center director George Davis, co-directors of the project, along with WETCC President Dr. Helen Klassen, said students and teachers will be selected this spring to begin working on the first set of exhibitions this summer.

A team of seven undergraduate students and six  regional high school and middle school teachers will develop materials for two exhibitions each summer, which will then be sent to the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul to be constructed.

The initial public display of the first exhibit will be at  WETCC during the White Earth Reservation’s annual pow-wow in the summer of 2003.

After that, the exhibits will be displayed at the MSUM Regional Science Center during the summers and circulate through regional schools during the academic years.

The curriculum accompanying the exhibit is extensive enough to fill three to five classroom sessions and will be available through the Internet.

Students and teachers interested in summer internships or in-service training through the project—in areas ranging from mathematics and science to graphic design and computer sciences??should contact Craig at the MSUM physics department, 236-2439 (mcraig@mnstate.edu).
 

Events get underway at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, with a bonfire and pep rally from 9 to 11 p.m. on Murray Beach, featuring the traditional burning of the “M,” food, music and a chance to meet Homecoming royalty.

Wednesday, hypnotist Fredrick Winters is on stage at 8 p.m. in the student union ballroom. ($3 college I.D., $5 general admission).

Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m., MSUM hosts its annual campus talent show and Homecoming coronation in the student union ballroom. That will be followed by a dance at the Doubleood Inn in Fargo with MSUM alum Johnny Holm and his band from 9:30 to 12:30 a.m.

The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards banquet starts at 6 p.m. Friday at the Ramada Plaza Suites Fargo, honoring MSUM alums Judy Anderson, Mark Anderson, James Benedict and Larry Shellito. Also, former MSUM professor T.E. Smith and his wife Ruth will receive Distinguished Dragon awards, and former MSUM vice president Gerry Haukebo and State Senator Keith Langseth will receive Distinguished Service Awards.

Also Friday, MSUM alum Wayne Luchau and his band will perform from 9 to 1 a.m. Friday at the Moorhead Knights of Columbus for a Homecoming social and dance. Cost is $5 at the door.

Saturday events start with MSUM’s College of Business and Industry honoring Gary Ness as Accounting Alumnus of the Year and Ben Anvary as Business Administration Alumnus of the Year at a 10 a.m. brunch in the Center for Business.

At noon Saturday, MSUM students will present their annual Doo Dah Parade—no floats or marching bands, just gimmicks and craziness—marching down 11th Street from the university gates  to 9th Avenue to 17th Street.

At 1:30 p.m., the Dragons face the Wayne State College Wildcats in the annual Homecoming football game on Nemzek Field.

Saturday evening, MSUM inducts five alums into the Dragon Hall of Fame during a 6 p.m. banquet at the Heritage Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead: Gary Gilbertson, Raph Gonshorowski, Susan Lasch, Dick Sagehorn, Dave Sederquist and Carol Howe-Veenstra.

To make banquet reservations or for information on any Homecoming events, call 236-3265.

For tickets to the program, contact the MSUM Alumni Foundation office at 236-3265.

Receiving Distinguished Alumni Awards:

Judy Anderson, a 1969 MSUM art major, is a former professor and chair of the division of design at the School of Art, University of Washington in Seattle. She recently resigned and moved to Denver to open a private studio. A prolific artist, nationally acclaimed graphic designer and an art educator, she earned a master’s degree in design from the University of California at Berkeley.

She creates experimental small edition and one-of-a-kind artist books, which have exhibited in galleries and museums in Japan, England, Europe and the Soviet Union and are in the permanent collections at the Walker Art Center, Getty Museum, and New York Public Library.

Anderson is a design consultant, primarily for museums and public institutions throughout the country, creating comprehensive identity programs, publications and information/exhibition design systems.

Her print and book designs have been published in a variety of magazines, ranging from Print to the Graphic Design Annual. She is past president of the national University of College Designers Association.

Mark A. Anderson, a 1978 MSUM mathematics and finance major, is president, chief executive officer and member of the board of directors of Community First Bankshares, Inc. Community First is a $6 billion financial services company with corporate headquarters in Fargo. The company offers a diverse array of financial services in 157 offices spanning 12 states.

A co-founder of Community First Bankshares, with more than 20 years of banking experience, he began his career in 1979 with First Bank Brainerd, and was a commercial loan officer at First Bank in Austin, Minn., from 1980-82. That year he joined First Bank of North Dakota as vice president for finance and credit review. Two years later, he was promoted to First Bank System as vice president and regional controller. In 1987 he left to co-found Community First.

He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, Certified Management Accountant and is Certified in Financial Management. He earned an MBA in finance from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Jim Benedict, a 1966 MSUM chemistry major, is vice president for research and development for Sulzer Biologics in Wheat Ridge, Colo., a company researching and developing a protein that generates new bone growth in humans.

A starting center for the Dragon football team all four years here, he earned his doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also played semi-pro football for the Madison Mustangs.

As a scientist at Procter and Gamble from 1971-85, he worked on chemical formulations for Crest’s anti-calcification toothpaste and he was the senior scientist who invented the Procter and Gamble drug Actonel, one of the world’s leading pharmaceuticals to fight the debilitating effects of osteoporosis.

Benedict left P&G in 1985 to join a small medical start-up company in Wheat Ridge. It’s since been acquired by the Swiss-based corporation, Sulzer Medical. As vice president with the Sulzer Biologics division, Benedict manages its bone growth product research and its hurdles through FDA requirements.

Larry Shellito, who earned degrees in accounting, business administration, and distributive education from MSUM along with a master’s degree in business education, is president of Alexandria Technical College.

Shellito began his career in education at  Alexandria Tech in 1972 as a student teacher and after graduating was hired by the college as an instructor. He subsequently became a department coordinator, institutional marketing coordinator and vice president of academic affairs before being appointed president in 1995.

A Vietnam veteran with more than 30 years of military service, he’s a major general in the Minnesota Army National Guard assigned as the division commander of the 34th Infantry (Red Bull) Division. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.

Also receiving special alumni awards:
* T. Edison Smith, a 1940 physical education and studies graduate, and his wife Ruth Smith, a 1942 social studies and physical education graduate, will receive Distinguished Dragon awards for their support of MSUM alumni programs.

T. Edison is a former coach, athletic director, department chair and professor here who was inducted into the Dragon Hall of Fame in 1979. He piloted the Dragons to three consecutive NIC men’s golf championships (1970-72) and an appearance at the NAIA National Championships.

Ruth’s teaching career began at Parkers Prairie and ended at Northwest Technical College, where she taught physical education, biology and reading. At Northwest Tech, Ruth helped establish a learning center to help students improve their math, writing and reading skills.

Gerhard (Gerry) Haukebo, former executive director of the MSUM Alumni Foundation, will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Haukebo joined MSUM’s faculty as director of student teaching and later chaired the education department for seven years. He served as vice president of public affairs and director of international programs before retiring in 1989 after 22 years with the university.

Haukebo was one of the people who developed MSUM’s Professional Fourth Year program for elementary education majors and initiated the student teaching abroad program. He also started the annual Family History Workshops at MSUM.  While executive director of the Alumni Foundation, Haukebo played a key role in establishing the Regional Science Center.

Before coming to MSUM Haukebo was a key founder of Concordia College’s Summer Language Camps. He independently started English language villages in China, which was later taken over by Concordia.

* Keith Langseth (DFL), Minnesota District 9 senator and a Glyndon dairy farmer first elected to the Minnesota House in 1974, will also receive a Distinguished Service Award.

He’s currently in his seventh term in the Minnesota Senate, where he chairs the Capital Investment committee and sits on the Education, K-12 Education Budget Division, Finance, Rules and Administration, Transportation and the Transportation and Public Safety Budget Division committees.

A staunch supporter of MSUM, Langseth is responsible for the “Border City” legislation, which gave property tax breaks to local businesses and apartment owners who have to compete with the lower rates in North Dakota. He’s championed the effort to help farmers with property tax relief and is regarded as one of the opinion leaders among rural DFLers in the Senate.

Gary Gilbertson, Raph Gonshorowski, Susan Lasch, Dick Sagehorn, Dave Sederquist and Carol Howe-Veenstra will be honored by the MSUM Alumni Foundation and the Dragon Athletic Department at the annual Homecoming Awards Dinner at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 13, at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead.

The selection increases to 93 the number of inductees in the Dragon Hall of Fame. The legendary Alex “Sliv” Nemzek was the charter member in 1961.

A closer look at the induction class of 2001:

A product of Bloomington, Gilbertson was a three-year fixture on the Dragon offensive lines of the 1970s. An honorable mention NAIA All-American and an NAIA Academic All-American in 1977, Gilbertson was elected co-captain of the ’77 Dragons and a first team All-NIC and All-NAIA District 13 pick. He was also presented the Steve Vaneps Award as a senior as Dragons’ top offensive lineman, and later served as defensive coordinator at Central Missouri State and coached the defensive line at the University of North Dakota.

A product of Greenbush, Gonshorowski played a prominent role on the Dragons’ rise to national wrestling prominence in the 1960s and was a fixture on the 1964 NAIA National Championship team.  A four-time placewinner at the NAIA Nationals, Gonshorowski finished second at 145 pounds at the 1965 NAIA Championships. He won a pair of individual NIC titles, and never missed a match or tournament during his collegiate career.  Gonshorowski was named the Outstanding Senior Athlete at MSC in 1966, and later launched a successful teaching and coaching career in Iowa.

A graduate of Centennial High School and a native of Circle Pines, Lasch was a four-year softball letterwinner at MSU Moorhead. A two-time captain and the heart of the Dragons, she led MSUM to a pair of appearances at the NAIA National Championships. Lasch also set single season pitching records for games (28), innings pitched (204.6), games won (18), strikeouts (147) and shutouts (10), and career marks for games  (108), innings pitched (701.2), games won (63), strikeouts (500), shutouts (22) and earned run average (1.22), and was also named NAIA National Pitcher of the Week. She earned all-conference and all-district cross-country honors as well, and competed at the NAIA National Championships.

A native of Bertha and a graduate of Bertha-Hewitt High School, Sagehorn was a three-year starter at middle linebacker for the Dragons and an All-NIC selection as a junior and senior. Despite a rare losing season in 1975, he was voted the Most Valuable Player in the NIC by league coaches. He was also saluted as the Dragon MVP and a NAIA honorable mention All-American in 1975. Sagehorn shared co-captaincy honors as a senior with Stan Eggen.

A graduate of Bagley High School, Sederquist logged a remarkable career in cross-country and track at Minnesota State Moorhead. A four-time NAIA All-American in cross-country and track, Sederquist was a two-time NAIA Academic All-American as well. He captured six NIC distance titles in track, NIC and NAIA District 13 cross-country championships, and placed seven at the 1981 NAIA National Championships. Sederquist set five indoor and outdoor track records, and was elected track and cross-country captain of the Dragons. He was also voted the Dragons’ Outstanding Trackman in 1982.

One of the early athletic pioneers at MSU Moorhead, Howe-Veenstra graduated with a Physical Education degree in 1975 and presently serves as Athletic Director at College of Saint Benedict. Howe-Veenstra spent 15 years as head volleyball coach at CSB and was named MIAC Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1989. She also led the Blazers into NCAA III post-season play 10 times, and produced seven conference titles. A charter member of Minnesota High School Volleyball Coaches’ Hall of Fame, Howe-Veenstra guided St. Cloud Tech to four state high school tournament appearances during a 10-year stay at Tech from 1975-84. She was also inducted into the Tech Hall of Fame.

Their awards will be presented at a 10 a.m. Saturday brunch October 13 in the Center for Business on campus as part of Homecoming Week.

To make reservations for the brunch, please call 236-3265 by October 8.

Gary Ness, a 1973 MSUM accounting major, is partner-in-charge of the Fargo office for Eide Bailly. Ness, a Certified Public Accountant in North Dakota and Minnesota, has 28 years experience in public accounting, specializing in the areas of corporate, limited liability company, partnership and individual income tax planning, reorganizations, buy-sell agreements, entity structures, employee benefits, and IRS presentation and ruling requests.

Before joining Eide Bailly, he was employed in the tax department of an international public accounting firm and a Fortune 500 corporation.

He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the North Dakota Society of CPA’s, the Minnesota Society of CPA’s, the Red River Valley Estate Planning Council and Gateway Lions. Ness has served on the MSUM Alumni Foundation Board of Directors and was board president in 1999-2000.

Ben Anvary is a 1973 MSUM accounting and business administration graduate. An active member of the Fargo-Moorhead business community, he serves on the MSUM advisory board, the board of directors at Community First Bank, the board of trustees for MeritCare and the MeritCare Foundation board of trustees.