Minot State University continues to monitor all aspects of COVID-19 and how the pandemic has altered MSU, North Dakota, the country, and the world. The University has dedicated a site for information including remote instruction, travel guidance, cancellations, frequently asked questions, and general state, local, and national COVID-19 updates. Access to the site can be found at: MinotStateU.edu/health/covid-19/

Due to challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Minot State University has restructured its Giving Day 2020 to focus on immediate student needs through the Student Emergency Fund.

Starting Thursday, March 26 and ongoing throughout the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester, the Minot State Development Foundation is channeling fundraising efforts online at Give.MinotStateU.edu.

“Many of our students are struggling to make ends meet during this unprecedented time,” said Rick Hedberg, vice president for advancement and MSU Foundation executive director. “This student emergency fund is available for students needing immediate financial help.  We encourage folks to support our students in this time of need.  This may be the most important fund we have at Minot State.”

Thanks to a pool of matching funds from some of our most generous donors — Mary Quandt ’76, Robert ’60 and Jo Ann Skabo, the Minot State Staff Senate, and the MSU Development Foundation — gifts to the Student Emergency Fund will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling the impact on students. The Student Emergency Fund can change the lives of those affected by the unexpected financial crisis of COVID-19.

Minot State has moved to remote learning, which has presented challenges for some students who have limited resources and for others who have lost income due to stores and restaurants limiting hours or closing entirely. Students are struggling with unexpected personal expenses including travel costs to return home, technology needs to participate in online courses, and other essential items.

The Minot State Student Emergency Fund was created in partnership with Quandt in 2017. These funds are intended to help students with unforeseen financial emergencies that might otherwise prevent them from continuing their education.

Although the campus is quiet and buildings are shuttered, Minot State University students have resumed classes.

As students and faculty begin remote instruction, the Minot State Department of Nursing is adapting to these changes by using virtual simulation in place of clinical experiences.

“There are some really great products that many companies are allowing nursing schools to use due to the current circumstances with COVID-19,” Kim Tiedman, nursing instructor, said. “The virtual simulation allows the student to prioritize which patients are more critical and should be seen first. They also use the six rights of medication administration, delegation, and clinical reasoning. That is what we do in the clinicals, so it reinforces what we do and what we expect the nurses of the future to be able to do.”

Hands-on experiences are an important element to Minot State’s learning philosophy and future nurses have been accumulating clinical hours throughout their whole program. While the learning format has changed for the remainder of the semester, students will continue to make quick decisions in a realistic setting.

“One product has a variety of experiences such as medical/surgical, mental health, ER, pediatrics, and obstetrics/nursery,” Tiedman said. “There are also medication simulations where students must ‘pass’ the medications to the patients, but they need to select the correct time, correct drug, correct dose, and review patient allergies. While the student is doing this, there are frequent interruptions so it simulates real life and how one’s concentration can be interrupted.”

As a child, Linda Olson learned about rock art and caves in France while pouring over National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines.

“I had no idea my own backyard was full of the same kind of wonderful things,” she said.

In 1987, she took a graduate course in rock art and joined a field study in Colorado, beginning a decades-long career in documenting Native American rock art drawings.

“There are different kinds of rock art and some of it is biographic, where you have war deeds that they would draw on the rocks, or sometimes it is ceremonial. Sometimes it has to do with stories, sometimes migrations. History is important, and this is part of history,” Olson said. “For many years, the Native American rock art was not studied by archeologists. They studied remains that they could verify the age of but because rock art was on the walls, the technology didn’t allow them, at the time, to associate it with any of the cultural materials that they were finding in their digs so it got ignored for many years.”

As techniques were developed to date pictographs and petroglyphs in the 1990s and 2000s, archeologists began to realize their importance, and large pools of people came forward to take photographs and documentations of the works.

Minot State University Enrollment Services hosted a Virtual Preview Day on April 4 to help students discover what Minot State has to offer individuals interested in attending Minot State. It was open for all prospective students and their families.

The Virtual Preview Day had items to help everyone get to know Minot State including a student panel, a resource fair, information about academic opportunities, and campus life experiences.

“There is no need to come to campus because Minot State will bring the campus to you,” said Mayci Herbert, Minot State admissions counselor. “All prospective students need is their computer or smart device and they can attend virtual events from where you are in the world. There was even a live chat with admissions counselor.”

Students who registered and attended the Virtual Preview Day were entered into a drawing for a $500 tuition waiver to MSU.

Minot State University has canceled large-scale on-campus events effective immediately through the end of the semester. A complete list of closures, cancelations, and postponements are listed below with postponed dates in parentheses:

• March 16: Science Olympiad
• March 17: Spring Potluck
• March 19-20: HOSA 2020 Spring Leadership Conference
• March 20: Kids Day at the Wellness Center
• March 23: SGA Meeting
• March 24: MSU Life Meeting
• March 24 & 26: Conversations with Colleagues
• March 25-26: Student Government Association elections (postponed, date TBA)
• March 27: NSSHLA Conference (postponed until Oct. 2)
• March 30: Health Career Fair (possible postponed date TBA)
• March 30: Occupational Wellbeing: Financial Wellness (postponed until April, date TBA)
• March 30: Faculty Concert
• March 31: Erik Samuel Timm
• March 31-April 1: MSU Career Fairs
• April 1: Beaver Boosters Bert Leidholt Night / Spring Party (postponed to June 17)
• April 1: Baseball vs. Concordia St. Paul
• April 3: 18th Annual Northwest Region North Dakota Collaborative Educational Nursing Conference
• April 4-5: Baseball vs. Minnesota State Mankato; Softball vs. Minnesota Duluth/St. Cloud State
• April 4-5: Beaver Booster Girls Basketball Tournament
• April 6-7: Tenure Committee Information Sessions
• April 7: No Excuse for Abuse Red Run
• April 9: Beavers, Brew and Burritos (postponed, date TBA)
• April 10-11: Softball vs. Augustana/Wayne State
• April 13: Alumni Speaker Series: Pat Finken (postponed, date TBA)
• April 15: Softball vs. Northern State/Baseball vs. Mary
• April 17: Student Social Work Organization Symposium
• April 18: New Student Orientation (postponed to June 25)
• April 18-19: Beaver Booster Boys Basketball Tournament
• April 18-19: Baseball vs. Southwest Minnesota State
• April 22: Baseball vs. St. Cloud State
• April 23: Sigma Pinning Ceremony (postponed, date TBA)
• April 23: Take Back the Night
• April 23: Baseball vs. Dakota College at Bottineau
• April 23-26: BOEING BOEING theatrical production
• April 24-25: 31st annual Spring Honor Dance & Powwow Celebration
• April 25: Minot Symphony Orchestra Concert
• April 25-26: Softball vs. Winona State/Upper Iowa
• April 27: Spring Fashion Show (postponed, date TBA)
• April 21-May 3: Spain and Morocco study tour
• May 1-2: Baseball vs. Minnesota Crookston
• May 8: Nursing Department Scholarship Day
• May 13: Employee Recognition (postponed to fall, date TBA)
• May 16-23: Costa Rica Trip (postponed to May 2021)

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.

• The Altered Landscape in Blue: Experience "The Altered Landscape in Blue" through May 15.

Northwest Arts Center, Hartnett Hall Gallery closed
The Northwest Arts Center and the Hartnett Hall Gallery will be closed as part of the overall Minot State campus closures due to the coronavirus. Both galleries will continue to monitor the University's updates and will reopen as per the rest of campus.

Samuel Stinson, assistant professor of English, has had his book chapter accepted for publication: "A Body Hast Thou Prepared Me: Algorithmic Suture and Gamic Memory: (Co-)Creating a Rhetorical Network of Identity-trauma in Final Fantasy VII" for the edited collection, Final Fantasy VII at 25: Critical Essays. Samuelson analyzes the role of player choice in Final Fantasy VII using the concept of algorithmic suture, working upon a theoretical foundation from film theory.

Cathryn Halverson, associate professor of English, has been awarded a $3,500 research fellowship from The Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The fellowship supports one month of research in 2020-2021 at the Huntington’s renowned archival collections for her current book project, a biography of the African American world traveler and best-selling author Juanita Harrison.

Leon Perzinksi, Minot State Student Center director, was named Minot State University Staff Senate's February High Five Award winner.

Nick Snodgrass for been selected as the ASC Student of the Month for February.

Congratulations to the following MSU faculty for the following successful grant awards received over the past quarter:

• Andrew Carter (Athletics) 2019-2020 NCAA Division II Conference Grant Program - funded by NCAA Division II
• Brent Askvig (NDCPD) North Dakota Dual Sensory Project, Continuation – funded by North Dakota Dept. of Public Instruction
• Cheryl Merck (NDCPD) Money Follows the Person Housing, Continuation - funded by North Dakota Dept. of Human Services
• Evelyn Klimpel (ACCESS Services) Jane Jarrow Campus Training – funding support from North Dakota Dept. of Public Instruction
• Holly Pedersen and JoLynn Webster (Special Education) Addressing Faith in Person Centered Planning – funded by North Dakota State Council on Developmental Disabilities
• Jerusha Olthoff (NDCPD) North Dakota Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Program - funded by US Dept. of Health & Human Services - HRSA – CDC
• Jordan Laducer (NDCPD) Closing the Gap: Empowering Student Transition - funded by North Dakota State Council on Developmental Disabilities
• Joseph Jastrzembski (History) 2020 National Meeting & Regional Summit Participation - funded by Global Ties U.S.
• Kari Schmidt (NDCPD) Supplemental Training Materials for Community Staff Training Program – funded by North Dakota Association of Community Providers and Therapeutic Response Training Video Edits - funded by North Dakota State Council on Developmental Disabilities
• Lori Garnes (NDCPD) Find SAFE – funded by the US Dept. of Justice and Supporting Children of Opioid Epidemic (Project SCOPE) - funded by Administration for Community Living through the Wyoming Institute for Disability
• Melissa Fettig (Health Services) HIV, HCV Counseling, Testing and Referral – funded by North Dakota Dept. of Health
• Michele Burney (NDCPD) Assist with Individual Placement and Supports – funded by North Dakota Community Options
• Mikail Boblev (Chemistry) Present and attend “Posters on the Hill” in Washington D.C. – funded by North Dakota State University