Minot State music education major Emily Bailey helped lobby to United States Congress members $16.8 billion worth of funding for a well-rounded education nationwide.

This summer, Bailey attended the 2019 Hill Day Summit, an annual National Association for Music Education (NAfME) convention in which collegiate members go to Capitol Hill and advocate for national music education.

The bills discussed this year included several topics, the first being the Guarantee Access to Arts and Music Education Act. This act changed the widely adopted educational acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to STEAM to include the arts as part of the language in the U.S. education budget.

“Really what these bills were about were making a well-rounded education which actually included music and the fine arts. Even though we were fighting for music, we were actually fighting for all general education, so math, science, technology, the whole nine yards,” said Bailey.

Some appropriations of the budget were also reviewed to ensure equal opportunity between disciplines to receive funding and support. Funding for educators’ supplemental materials, like professional development and financial support post-graduation, also were prominent focuses of the convention.

Minot State University hosted a reception at the Northwest Arts Center to honor Walter Piehl for his generous donation to the University’s Permanent Art Collection.

Piehl, a long-time professor of art at Minot State and pioneer of the contemporary cowboy art movement, donated 45 original paintings, prints, and drawings to the Minot State Permanent Art Collection, many which have been on display at the gallery bearing his name in the Northwest Arts Center.

“As a faculty member for 47 years, Walter had a huge impact on our campus, shaping the lives of hundreds of students during his time at Minot State,” said MSU Vice President for Advancement Rick Hedberg. “With the donation of his collection to Minot State and the Northwest Arts Center, he will continue to impact art on our campus and the region.  Walter is a wonderful ambassador for our campus and we are grateful for all he’s done for Minot State and our students.  I’m happy that we will have this opportunity to thank him for his gift.”

Piehl’s works, spanning 56 years of creative energy and illustrating his long artistic journey, form his Retrospective exhibition that was on display at the Northwest Arts Center’s grand opening.

Minot State University senior Dominica Granada finished in the top 1% nationally in the national criminal justice area concentration achievement test, or ACAT.

“Dominica scored in the 99th percentile, which means she scores in the top 1% nationally,” Gary Rabe, chair of the criminal justice department at Minot State, said. “She was compared to 1,196 students who were administered the same test from across the U.S.”

The ACAT is a national exam that assesses student learning in six categories: correction processes, criminal justice systems, criminal law, criminology, juvenile justice, and law enforcement.

This isn’t the first time the department has ranked high on the test. In 2018, criminal justice majors scored in the top 8% nationally.

“On average, our students score consistently in the top 10 to 15% nationally,” Rabe said. “As freshmen our students score in the lower third compared to their peers across the country. We are most proud of the growth our students achieve as part of our program. This demonstrates that we have a strong curriculum taught by a highly trained and dedicated faculty.”

Minot State University senior Kevin Duong was one of just 10 students from a North Dakota university who earned a spot in the quarterfinals of the Cyber FastTrack, a national cyber aptitude test.

Duong was one of 69 students in the North Dakota University System (NDUS) who started the event and moved past the “puzzle fun” portion to solve challenges that required the application of cybersecurity specific techniques and concepts.

“I like puzzles and cybersecurity is really a big puzzle,” Duong, who is studying management information systems at Minot State, said. “But each of the labs, the first part, there were 12 labs, that took about five to 10 minutes each, got harder and harder as you went further in. The second stage, I think there were six chapters, and the first four had at least 20 parts. The last few you had to download extra programs to help you de-code.”

Cyber FastTrack is a free online program designed by world-leaders in cybersecurity and backed by governors across the country including North Dakota’s Gov. Doug Burgum, who encouraged individuals to take the test, especially girls in K-12 and women at the collegiate level.

Christina Paxman, Minot State University broadcasting and professional communication assistant professor, won the 2019 Outstanding Journal Award from The Central States Communication Association, the fourth-largest academic communication association in the world.

The articles in the award-winning volume discuss digital civility, analyze the 2016 Iowa Caucus presidential candidates’ tweets, and use a Saturday Night Live sketch to observe a speech’s audience adaptation.

“We published a really fun exercise that was about the Saturday Night Live parody of Sean Spicer who was White House Press Secretary who by most people's accounts didn’t do that well as a speaker. Speaking is central to the field of communication, so I might talk about that in COMM 110, public speaking,” she said. “It’s just a light-hearted, funny way of still being able to teach. Here’s how we do it, working backwards from a poor example of audience adaptation on through how do we successfully do this.”

On top of teaching at Minot State, Paxman is serving her second year as the editor of the Journal of the Communication, Speech & Theatre Association of North Dakota.

The Minot State University Alumni Association is proud to present Michael Saba and John Schwan as upcoming Alumni Speaker Series guests Thursday, Oct. 3. Saba and Schwan are the first two Alumni Speaker Series guests in 2019. In 2018, the MSU Alumni Association established the series to bring prominent alumni from across the world back to campus to share their expertise.

Saba will speak at Aleshire Theater at Harnett Hall at 11 a.m. on Oct. 3, while Schwan will address the Minot State Entrepreneurship and Finance Clubs at 1 p.m. in Old Main.

For more information on the two upcoming Alumni Speaker Series events or to nominate an individual for future events, contact Janna McKechnie, director of alumni and annual giving, via EMAIL.

The Minot State University Title IX Office, Student Social Work Organization, and the Domestic Violence Crisis Center have collaborated to sponsor the University’s third annual Take Back the Night event Wednesday, Oct. 9 at the Beaver Dam in the Student Center. This year’s Take Back the Night event begins at 7 p.m. and is open to all students, faculty, staff, and Minot community members.

Edna Sailor, Minot State alumna and author of “Alfalfa Girl: The Path from Childhood Molestation to Soul,” will be the guest speaker. In conjunction with the event, the MSU Title IX office is collecting needed items for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center. These items can be dropped off at the Title IX office or brought to the event. The list of items needed includes but is not limited to: cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, light bulbs, Kleenex, trash bags, food items, deodorant, tampons, baby lotion and shampoo, phone cards, diapers, new bed pillows, and new undergarments for both women and children.

Northwest Arts Center
The gallery is located on the lower level of the Gordon B. Olson Library, with its own entrance on the south side of the library. It is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday 1-5 p.m., and by special arrangement. It is closed holidays.

• Americas 2019: All Media: From its first call for entries in 1995, each year the All Media competition has brought diverse artwork in all mediums, traditional and experimental, to the Minot State campus. This year's exhibition features 61 artworks from artists across the United States, Canada, and Italy. Sally Jeppson is the juror and has worked in the arts for over 30 years. She is the gallery manager for The Arts Center in Jamestown and was former curator at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo.

Flat Tail Press
The gallery is located in the landing space on second and third floor of the Minot State Student Center, west entrance. It is open while the Student Center is open, Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.

• Subfusc: The Flat Tail Press Gallery presents Subfusc, an exhibition from artist Patti Jordan. The exhibition runs from Sept. 20 to Nov. 20. For more information, see attached FLIER.

Christina Paxman, assistant professor of broadcasting and professional communication, received the 2019 Outstanding Journal Award from the Central States Communication Association for her work as editor of the Journal of the Communication, Speech, and Theatre Association of North Dakota.

Lori Braasch, administrative assistant in residence life, was named Minot State University Staff Senate's August High Five Award winner.

Sidni Kast, Minot State student, was named Miss Norsk Hostfest.