This week’s Hotline! includes the following articles:

• President’s Column
• Bass named NSAA faculty rep of year
• Listopad to receive scholastic journalism award
• Storbeck named Staff Member of Quarter
• Campus landscape benefits from Power House efforts
• Volunteers needed for campus picnic
• Tyre attends teaching conference
• Hill teaches programming to kids in Cleveland
• Ong participates in music teacher conferences
• Russi performs in Fargo
• Viking sports update
• What’s happening at VCSU and around Valley City…

President’s Column

by Tisa Mason, Ed.D., CAE
Valley City State University President

A Busy June at VCSU

It may seem like graduation signals a time to sit back, reflect, and prepare for the upcoming fall semester. That may be the reality for some campuses, but at VCSU we are actively engaged in a full summer schedule in addition to preparing for the fall. In the month of June alone, we have been focused on providing the high-quality experiences detailed below.

Summer classes. This summer we are offering 91 undergraduate and 26 graduate classes, educating nearly 600 students.

New Student Orientation. To date we have worked with 165 students to get them registered for fall classes and shared information to shape their success. Additional orientation sessions will occur later this summer.

Summer Camps. VCSU’s Prairie Waters Education and Research Center in Kathryn hosted its annual educational water-related camps, attracting 19 fifth- and sixth-graders for the Splashin’ Around camp and 8 seventh- and eighth-graders for the Fishin’ Around camp. Viking athletics hosted 7 camps (football, women’s basketball, and men’s basketball), helping over 1,400 campers hone their skills and form new friendships this summer. More camps are planned for July.

Legislative Meeting. In early June we were honored to host the North Dakota Legislature’s Interim Higher Education Committee at VCSU. This gave us a great opportunity to share our Viking pride and hospitality with the legislators—and to show them firsthand just how close the flood wall is to Foss Hall. We also announced our new three-year programs that will begin this fall and provided tours of the Gaukler Family Wellness, Health and Physical Education Center.

Recognition Celebration. We had the great privilege of thanking and honoring donors at our annual Foundation Recognition Luncheon. This year we recognized 24 donors with collective lifetime gifts in excess of $3.1 million.

Partnerships. We hosted a luncheon with 8 area high school principals and superintendents to discuss ways we can work together to improve the transition process from high school to college to help ensure the success of our students. This was our first gathering; we hope to grow this into an annual event.

Institutes. June featured both our Great Plains STEM Education Center’s professional development program for K-12 teachers as well as our Library and Information Technology Summer Institute.

The Great Plains STEM Education Center (GPSEC) brought 36 teachers to campus to participate in a wide variety of STEM activities, including a trip to the Prairie Waters Center. During the week, GPSEC also co-hosted a social for the Interim Higher Education Committee with several K-12 teachers displaying examples of recent classroom STEM lessons.

The Library and Information Technologies Summer Institute included 13 students, along with 3 graduates who served as mentors and instructors. The focus of this year’s institute was “Guided Inquiry and Makerspaces” in libraries. The institute, co-sponsored for 8 years through the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) Nexus Echo grant written by Donna James and awarded to VCSU in 2012, drew students and instructors from North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming and Oklahoma. Since 2007, Nexus and Nexus Echo grants have provided more than $850,000 for student support, including tuition awards and summer institute learning opportunities.

Strengthening Support. VCSU recently hosted a professional development conference for executive assistants of presidents and vice presidents of academic affairs from throughout the North Dakota University System. This meeting brought together 19 administrative professionals from 10 campuses and the system office to share best practices and develop new ways to work effectively both collectively and individually.

Outreach. Not only did we host people on campus, we also traveled to other parts of the region to promote learning. For example, the GPSEC staff traveled to Belle Fourche, S.D., to conduct 3 days of integrative STEM lessons and activities for 60 middle school students and their summer school teachers. Activities included tower construction for earthquake stability, parachute design, a paper airplane contest, and multiple engineering design challenges, including a Rube Goldberg Machine challenge during Family Night.

These are just a few of the activities we accomplished in June in the midst of our daily work. Additional important and exciting activities are scheduled for July, followed by the return of our students and faculty in August for the start of a promising fall semester.

Wow! I’m proud of the impact that our team has made in June—another reason why it is a great day to be a Viking!

Bass named NSAA faculty rep of year

Dave Bass, assistant professor in the School of Education and Graduate Studies, was named the North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) 2016 Faculty Athletic Representative of the Year during the NSAA Summit meetings May 24 in Brookings, S.D. The award was voted on by all Faculty Athletic Representatives (FAR) in the conference.

This is the second consecutive year Bass has received the award.

Bass is VCSU’s FAR, serving as a liaison between the athletic department and the institution, as well as handling any eligibility questions. He also serves as the NSAA eligibility chair and the FAR liaison to the NSAA Board of Directors.

Bass has served nine years as the eligibility chair for three difference conferences. At the national level, he has served three years on the NAIA Council of FARs and four years on the Learning Disability Advisory Committee.

Bass will now be nominated for the Wally Schwartz Award, which recognizes the NAIA’s national Faculty Athletic Representative of the Year.

Listopad to receive scholastic journalism award

Steven Listopad, associate professor of communication and director of student media, will receive the 2016 Innovative Outreach to Scholastic Journalism Award from the Scholastic Journalism Division (SJD) of the Association for Educators of Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

The award will be presented at the SJD member meeting on Aug. 5 at the AEJMC annual conference in Minneapolis.

Listopad was chosen for his “work with New Voices USA and helping usher in a new era of scholastic journalistic freedom in North Dakota,” noting that his “work in the past few years has been a major contribution to reopening legislative action in statehouses across the country.”

Listopad began a national initiative that has restarted the anti-Hazelwood student-free-speech movement in North Dakota and across the United States. “New Voices USA” was begun four years ago as “New Voices North Dakota” and resulted in the country’s first anti-Hazelwood law passed in 10 years.

The AEJMC is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The association’s mission is to advance education, foster scholarly research, cultivate better professional practice and promote the free flow of communication.

Storbeck named Staff Member of Quarter

Drew Storbeck, a member of the Facilities Services maintenance team, has been named “Staff Member of the Quarter.”

Drew’s nomination read, in part: “Drew is a very hard worker and doesn’t always have the most ‘fun’ job. As the plumber on campus, he deals with quite a lot! He is always willing to help and is quick to jump in to help solve problems and get things done. …He’s worked here for many years (15 at least) and has provided numerous improvements that students, faculty and staff use and see on a daily basis without even knowing it was done by him! He has personally installed all the new water fountain/fill stations around campus, for one specific example.”

Please join in congratulating Drew on this well-deserved award.

Campus landscape benefits from Power House efforts

Members of the Power House staff from Facilities Services took initiative to clean up the area around the McFarland Hall front steps on Wednesday, June 27.

“This effort is a great example of seeing something and fixing it,” said President Tisa Mason. “It’s how we all row.”

President Mason also expressed gratitude for the work of others who maintain the campus flowers and landscape in addition to their “regular” duties; that’s Viking Pride at work!

Volunteers needed for campus picnic

Volunteers are needed to fill a variety of roles for the Campus Picnic to be held Monday evening, Aug. 15, as part of Welcome Week. If interested, please contact Rhonda Fairfield in the President’s Office.

Tyre attends teaching conference

Brenda Tyre, assistant professor of business, attended the Teaching Professor Conference in Washington, D.C., June 3–5.

She participated in sessions on critical thinking, universal access, OER and “The Lecture Vs. Active Learning,” among others.

Hill teaches programming to kids in Cleveland

In June, Curt Hill, professor in the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department, spent two weeks at The Meeting Place Learning Center in Cleveland, Ohio, teaching inner-city, grade-school-age children to use the programming language Scratch.

These children were involved in a free summer reading program. They come from a neighborhood with a median household income of $14,000 so have little exposure to computers, even in school, and no knowledge of programming.

Each child worked on a station equipped with a Raspberry Pi single board computer. Although they worked through several simple projects, the highlight was the completion of a variant of the Whack-A-Mole game that kept score and announced a win upon clicking the moving and hiding icon sufficient times.

“Alas, this did not produce enough competent programmers to fulfill society’s needs, but more seriously, it did enlarge their horizons to believe that they could enter the field in the future,” said Hill. “As a fringe benefit, they mostly declared it to be a fun experience.”

Ong participates in music teacher conferences

Geraldine Ong, assistant professor of music, attended the North Dakota Music Teachers annual conference, held at the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., from June 15–17. She served on an Independent Music Teachers Forum panel discussing the topic of music competitions.

Ong also served as a judge at the Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA) Competitions, held in conjunction with the TMTA annual conference in Dallas, Texas, June 16–19. She judged more than 40 pianists in 7th, 8th and 12th grade.

Russi performs in Fargo

Jenni Lou Russi, associate professor of communication and director of theatre, performed as an actress and mezzo soprano soloist in shows at the Spirit Room in downtown Fargo June 24–26.

In Silhouette Productions’ “On a High Note: A Musical Revue,” she performed songs from “Rent,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Evita” and “Hamilton.” She also appeared on a KVRR TV news segment about the production.

Viking sports update

Valley City State University had 55 student-athletes earn the North Star Athletic Association Spring Academic Scholar-Athlete honor, the conference office has announced.

To be eligible for the NSAA Academic Scholar-Athlete honor, a student-athlete must achieve a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale.

The spring honors are given to athletes competing in men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s track and field, softball and baseball.

A complete listing of VCSU’s spring academic scholar-athletes can be found at www.vcsuvikings.com/article/2315.php.

What’s happening at VCSU and around Valley City…

Tuesday, July 5

2 p.m. Tuesday Movie at the Public Library, “Pan,” rated PG
5:30 p.m. Cupcake Wars, Public Library

Wednesday, July 6

10 a.m. Circle Time, Public Library
10:30 a.m. Story Hour: Reada Reddy, Public Library
7:15 p.m. Music at the Courthouse Lawn featuring Tucker’d Out

Thursday, July 7

Horse Show/Clinic, North Dakota Winter Show building
10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Make N Take: Mini Canvas Art, Public Library

Friday, July 8

Saturday, July 9

Fort Ransom Sodbuster Days (July 9–10)
7th Annual Sweet N’ Stickey Rib Cook Off, Dickey, N.D.

Sunday, July 10

Monday, July 11

Tuesday, July 12

Wednesday, July 13

7:15 p.m. Music at the Courthouse Lawn featuring Meester & Johnson

Thursday, July 14

Barnes County 4-H Achievement Days (July 14–16)
5:30–8 p.m. Bridge City Cruisers cruise night
5:30 p.m. Berry Picking Hike, meet at Rosebud Visitor Center

Friday, July 15

Payday

Saturday, July 16

Sunday, July 17

Monday, July 18

Tuesday, July 19

Wednesday, July 20

Thursday, July 21

Friday, July 22

8th Annual Debbie Gabel Cancer Fundraiser

Saturday, July 23

Sunday, July 24