This week’s Hotline! includes the following articles:

This week’s Hotline! includes the following articles:

• Schwalbe to present on radioactive waste on Tuesday
• Toastmasters host meet-and-greet Tuesday
• Join in VCSU Game Night: Scholarship auction tickets available
• James named to Depository Library Council
• Dixon, Langdeaux named outstanding students in teacher education
• Munowenyu, Woehl recieve Difference Maker awards
• Woehl, Ziniel attend N.D. gen ed summit
• Hill presents at computing symposium
• Chao presents on politeness in communication
• Counselors volunteer for Carrington smoke alarm effort
• Viking sports update
• What’s going on at VCSU and around Valley City…

The VCSU Hotline! online newsletter is published every Monday during the academic year. Deadline to submit articles (photos encouraged) is 4 p.m. the Friday before publication.

Schwalbe to present on radioactive waste on Tuesday

David Schwalbe will speak on “Hotsocks & Other Dangers: A Concerned Citizen’s View” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18, in Room 102 of Rhoades Science Center. Sponsored by “What in the World Is Going On?,” the presentation on radioactive waste is open to the public free of charge.

Radioactive waste is one of the hazards the state may or may not be addressing well enough. How does the public know? What can be done? Schwalbe will share his perspective based on spending the last eight years learning about oil development and state regulation.

Toastmasters host meet-and-greet Tuesday

The Second Crossing Toastmasters will hold a meet-and-greet session on Tuesday, April 18, from 6:30–7:30 p.m. at The Vault in Valley City. Come learn more about Toastmasters at this event.

Join in VCSU Game Night: Scholarship auction tickets available

The 23rd annual Valley City State University Scholarship Auction—with the theme “VCSU Game Night”—will be held Friday, April 28, at the Valley City Eagles Club.

Tickets to the auction are $40 each, which includes admission, two beverage tickets, a full buffet dinner and five chances to win $100 (need not be present to win).

A social hour and silent auction will begin at 5 p.m. During this time participants are encouraged to check out the large variety of gift baskets and other items available and place silent bids. A buffet dinner will be served from 6–7:30 p.m.

The live auction will kick off at 7 p.m. This is your chance to bid on some great deals while contributing to an outstanding cause. All proceeds from the auction go directly to scholarships. Items up for bid include a 60” Sharp Smart TV, a stand-up paddle board, Aqua Lily Pad, Amazon Echo, restaurant certificates, hotel stays, golf and much more.

Check our website at alumni.vcsu.edu (click on the “Auction” button) on April 19 for a list of auction items.

To purchase tickets or to donate an item, stop by or call the VCSU Foundation Office at 701-845-7203.

James named to Depository Library Council

Donna James, director of Allen Memorial Library, was appointed to a three-year term on the Depository Library Council (DLC) by Davita Vance-Cooks, director of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). The DLC, composed of 15 members, advise the GPO director on policy matters relating to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). In addition to experience working in various types of libraries, the new DLC members have experience with and knowledge of current developments in the fields of library science and U.S. government information.

VCSU’s Allen Memorial Library has been a Federal Depository Library since 1913, offering free, public access to its federal government documents along with providing information specialist assistance in helping the public locate federal information.

James was instrumental in moving the VCSU federal collection to a mostly digital selective depository. She advocates for and regularly teaches workshops for school librarians encouraging the use of free government resources in schools. James is a member and past president of the North Dakota Library Association and a member of the North Dakota-Manitoba Chapter of Association of College & Research Libraries.

Dixon, Langdeaux named outstanding students in teacher education

Courtney Dixon and Richard Langdeaux were recognized as Valley City State University’s outstanding students in elementary and secondary teacher education at the spring conference of the North Dakota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NDACTE) held April 7 at Minot State University. Each NDACTE member institution recognizes one elementary and one secondary teacher education student at the annual conference.

Dixon graduated summa cum laude in December 2016 with an elementary education degree and kindergarten endorsement, along with a Title One reading and math credential. A key contributor on the women’s basketball team, Dixon served on the NAIA Association of Student Athletes and was a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, Kappa Delta Pi and Viking Ambassadors. She also served as vice president of Student Senate.

A biology education major, Langdeaux gave the student reflection at the 2016 winter commencement. He participated in cross country and track and field, and served as a student assistant coach, resident assistant, and a Viking ambassador. He was also crowned VCSU’s Homecoming king in 2015.

Langdeaux attended the NDACTE conference along with Gary Thompson, Ed.D., dean of the School of Education and Graduate Studies, and Alan Olson, Ph.D., associate professor of education.

Minot State President Steve Shirley provided the opening remarks for the NDCATE conference, and the keynote speaker was VCSU alumna Amy (Ashley) Neal ’96, 2016 North Dakota Teacher of the Year.

Neal addressed the crowd of teacher education faculty members and teacher candidates from across the state about the impact teachers can make on the lives of young people. She highlighted the need for talented teachers who are empathetic and able to build relationships and help young people build their self-concept by learning to make good choices.

Munowenyu, Woehl recieve Difference Maker awards

Staff Senate representatives Kelli Heath, Becky Sundstrom and Brooke Yanish recently joined in presenting Difference Maker awards to Joseph Munowenyu, computer programmer, and Katie Woehl, associate professor of social science.

Munowenyu was nominated for the award by the Enrollment Services Office. His nomination read, in part, “We so appreciate the attentiveness Joseph provides us whenever we have questions for him. With our new Perceptive Content, he’s been great in helping us get comfortable with the system.”

Woehl was nominated by the staff in Allen Memorial Library. Her nomination included the following: “[We] would like to nominate Dr. Katie Woehl for her demonstrated and continued commitment to student information literacy. In an age of disintermediated information that can often be overwhelming and confusing, she has worked to prepare her students to critically navigate the information environment as both citizens and scholars. As the promotion and development of information literacy skills is central to the library’s educational mission, we value Dr. Woehl’s partnership in this area.”

Congratulations, Joseph and Katie!

Woehl, Ziniel attend N.D. gen ed summit

Katie Woehl, Ph.D., and Jonna Ziniel, Ph.D., attended the Spring 2017 Summit of the North Dakota General Education Council (NDGEC) in Williston, N.D., on Friday, April 7.

A highlight of the event was a presentation by emeriti professors Tom Steen (UND) and Larry Peterson (NDSU) titled “Things We Wish We Had Known When We Started: Tips on Working with Your General Education Program,” and attendees discussed case studies focused on multiple key issues in general education. Representatives from North Dakota institutions of higher education shared strengths, weaknesses and challenges from their own programs and learned from the experiences of others.


Following the summit, Woehl led her last business meeting as president of the NDGEC. Sam Keasler, Ph.D., VCSU assistant professor of chemistry, was elected secretary of the organization for the 2017–18 academic year.

Hill presents at computing symposium

Curt Hill, Ph.D., professor in the Computer Systems and Software Engineering Department, presented a paper titled “Serving the Underserviced” at the 50th annual Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium (faculty.cs.uwlax.edu/~mics2017/) held in La Crosse, Wis., April 7–8.

Most topics at this conference were research projects from faculty or students, and several were on faculty instructional research or experiences, but Hill’s was the only one on community service: teaching inner city kids the programming language Scratch on a just-assembled laboratory of Raspberry Pi computers. The presentation was well received.

The paper and presentation are on available online at euler.vcsu.edu/curt.hill/curt_research.htm.

Chao presents on politeness in communication

Shou-ching Chao, Ph.D., associate professor of English in the Department of Language and Literature, participated in the 2017 Foreign Languages Association of the Red River Conference, held at North Dakota State University in Fargo on April 8.

Chao presented a paper titled: “Politeness as a Measure of Communicative Competence,” which examined examples from real communication situations in teaching, discussed the relationship between grammatical competence and communicative competence, and emphasized the importance of using politeness as one measure of a speaker’s communicative competence. The paper also shared strategies and exercises used in teaching to raise students’ politeness awareness by demonstrating how to encode utterances to reflect the most appropriate speaker-addressee relationship in power and social distance and how to protect the addressee’s positive and negative face from threat or damage in daily communication.

Counselors volunteer for Carrington smoke alarm effort

On Saturday, April 8, Erin Klingenberg, director of VCSU Counseling Services, and Kelsie Carter, counseling intern, volunteered with the American Red Cross for a Carrington Smoke Alarm Canvassing event.

American Red Cross volunteers from Jamestown, Valley City, Fargo and Grand Forks—and the UND Red Cross Club—teamed up with the Carrington Fire Vounteer Fire and Rescue Department to deliver and install free lithium battery smoke alarms to the Carrington residents. The volunteers covered 55 houses and installed more than 160 smoke alarms in only a couple of hours that day.

Viking sports update

Baseball
Tuesday: Concordia–Moorhead 5, VCSU 2
Friday: VCSU 3, Presentation College 2 (12 innings); VCSU 7, Presentation 6
Saturday: VCSU 5, Presentation 0; VCSU 7, Presentation 0
The Viking baseball team went 4-1 this past week, including a 4-0 record in conference play. The Vikings are now 19-20 overall and 13-3 in the North Star Athletic Association. VCSU is third in the NSAA standings.

Softball
Friday: University of Regina 2, VCSU 1; Regina 5, VCSU 3
Valley City State’s softball team dropped a pair of nonconference games this weekend. The Vikings resume conference play with a four-game series this weekend at Dakota State University.

Golf
Jared Lentz won the individual title at the DSU Invite, which wrapped up last Monday. His 3-over score of 145 was four shots better than second place. Read more at www.vcsuvikings.com/article/2626.php. This past weekend, Nicole Heinitz had the top individual finish by placing seventh at the Concordia Spring Invite. View complete results at www.vcsuvikings.com/article/2638.php.

Track & Field
The Viking track & field teams competed at a pair of meets last week. On Thursday, Seri Geisler took first place in the javelin and set new meet and facility records at the Northern State University twilight meet. View results at www.vcsuvikings.com/article/2633.php. On Friday, Megan Johnson set a new school record in the long jump and qualified for nationals at the Blue Hawk Games. Mackenzie Huber won a meet title in women’s shot put. View results at http://www.vcsuvikings.com/article/2637.php.

Lentz, Geisler named NSAA Players of the Week
Valley City State sophomores Jared Lentz (men’s golf) and Seri Geisler (track & field) were both named NSAA Players of the Week on April 11 after strong performances in their sports.

Upcoming Events
April 17: Baseball @ Presentation College, 2 p.m. (Aberdeen, S.D.)
April 20: Baseball @ Minnesota–Morris, 2 p.m. (Morris, Minn.)
April 22: Track & Field @ Lyle Hokanson Classic (Fargo, N.D.
April 22: Softball @ Dakota State University, 1 p.m. (Madison, S.D.)
April 22: Baseball @ Dakota State University, 1 p.m. (Madison, S.D.)
April 23: Baseball @ Dakota State University, noon (Madison, S.D.)
April 23: Softball @ Dakota State University, 1 p.m. (Madison, S.D.)
April 24–25: Golf @ NSAA Tournament (Onalaska, Wis.)

What’s going on at VCSU and around Valley City…

Monday, April 17
No VCSU classes
2 p.m. Viking baseball @ Presentation College, Aberdeen, S.D.

Tuesday, April 18
noon Rotary Club meeting, VFW

Wednesday, April 19
noon Kiwanis meeting, VCSU Student Center Skoal Room

Thursday, April 20
7 a.m. Optimists Club meeting, Vicky’s Viking Room
noon Toastmasters, VCSU Student Center Norway Room
2 p.m. Viking baseball @ University of Minnesota–Morris, Morris, Minn. (doubleheader)
4 p.m. VCSU Junior Naturalists fishing, Sundstrom’s Landing, Lake Ashtabula

Friday, April 21

Saturday, April 22
Earth Day
Wrangler Team Roping, North Dakota Winter Show Event Center (April 22–23)
Viking Track & Field @ Lyle Hokanson Classic, Fargo, N.D.
1 p.m. Viking softball @ Dakota State University, Madison, S.D. (doubleheader)
1 p.m. Viking baseball @ Dakota State University, Madison, S.D. (doubleheader)

Sunday, April 23
noon Viking baseball @ Dakota State University, Madison, S.D. (doubleheader)
1 p.m. Viking softball @ Dakota State University, Madison, S.D. (doubleheader)

Monday, April 24
Viking golf @ NSAA Tournament, Onalaska, Wis. (April 24–25)
5–7 p.m. Aleisha Kiser Benefit (spaghetti dinner and silent auction), Valley City Eagles Club

Tuesday, April 25
noon Rotary Club meeting, VFW
2 p.m. Viking baseball @ University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Wednesday, April 26
noon Kiwanis meeting, VCSU Student Center Skoal Room

Thursday, April 27
7 a.m. Optimists Club meeting, Vicky’s Viking Room
noon Toastmasters meeting, VCSU Student Center Norway Room

Friday, April 28
5 p.m. VCSU Scholarship Auction, Eagles Club
7:30 p.m. Ashely Boe senior recital, Froemke Auditorium, Foss Hall
2 p.m. Viking baseball @ University of Jamestown, Jamestown, N.D. (doubleheader)

Saturday, April 29
Viking Track & Field @ Al Cassell Relays & NSAA Multi-Event Championships, Jamestown, N.D. (April 29–30)
1 p.m. Viking softball @ University of Jamestown, Jamestown, N.D. (doubleheader)
1 p.m. Viking baseball @ University of Jamestown, Jamestown, N.D. (doubleheader)
7:30 p.m. Instrumental concert, Vangstad Auditorium

Sunday, April 30
1 p.m. Viking softball @ University of Jamestown, Jamestown, N.D. (doubleheader)