This month, the Minot State Diversity Council, together with Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, has brought to campus three online trainings hosted by Hollaback!, an anti-bias and harassment nonprofit organization. These trainings, in conjunction with other diversity and inclusion events on campus, are part of the Council’s 2021-22 “Stand Up 101: From Allyship to Action” initiative. 

The Council’s predominant function on campus is to allocate funding from student fees to support the diversity, equity, and inclusion events on campus. After all, the University has been promoting such events for years, like the two-day Spring Honor Dance and Powwow since 1992, the International Cultural Celebration since 2013, and the annual pride flag raising since 2020. However, at the start of the 2021-22 session this past July, the Council wanted to take the events a step further by encouraging action. 

“We were trying to figure out if we could revive the safe zones project,” said Vice Chair Libby Claerbout, Director of International Programs and decade-long Council member. “It was an initiative on campus to get people trained to be allies on campus for anybody who might need to talk about anything diversity related. If they were feeling harassed or unsafe, if they saw this safe zone sticker, then they could know that, ‘Oh, I can go talk to this person. They're going to be supportive of me.’”

Minot State University Department of Special Education is one of 72 programs nationwide to receive a 2022 Sertoma Club Grant. The grant will be used by the department to support its Deaf Mentor Program.

“MSU’s Deaf Mentor Program pairs trained Deaf mentors who are native American Sign Language users with students to enhance their language skills and cultural awareness. We are grateful for Sertoma’s support,” said Holly Pedersen, special education department chair.

The grant will help defray costs of the program and continue to provide Minot State students with an excellent educational experience. It marks the second straight year the program has received a Sertoma Club Grant.

Sertoma Club of Minot is part of the International Sertoma, Inc. family of local civic service clubs. A thriving nonprofit service organization that has been in existence for over a century, Sertoma is dedicated to improving the quality of life for those at risk or impacted by hearing loss through education and support. The Minot Sertoma Club has emphasized the sponsorships highlighted by the international organization including speech and hearing disorders, youth related activities, and heritage. Since 1959, the Minot Sertoma Club has donated more than $1 million to the Minot community and area.

The broadcasting and professional communication department revealed its new Communication Matters lab located on the west first floor of Hartnett Hall during the Fall 2021 semester. The lab can be used by not only communication majors but anyone on campus that has communication research or work they need to conduct.

“It started with buy-in from all of our faculty who conduct research and do various teaching exercises on a daily basis,” said Christina Paxman, associate professor and program coordinator for the professional communication department. “A lot of what we do is already done in our offices or classrooms, but we really need a space dedicated to all of those things that would have additional tools that we don’t have. It’s a teaching and research resource for students and faculty. The space can be used by members of other departments whose work resembles some aspect of communication.”

The lab is mainly set up for research purposes or two-way communication, but has the ability to serve many other purposes for both students and faculty on campus.

“One of the great things about the lab is that we have three cameras that can allow us to videotape and analyze the communication from multiple perspectives.  It also has a ceiling mounted microphone, a TV screen, and rolling stackable chairs,” Paxman said.

Join this campus-wide read! Copies of "Rising Out of Hatred" are now available to borrow from the Diversity Council, Staff Senate, and the Gordon B. Olson Library. The Barnes and Nobel campus bookstore will also have copies to purchase starting next week.

The book presents Eli Saslow's, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, experience interviewing Derek Black. Black is the godson of the former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke. As a teenager, Black was a prominent leader of the youth White Nationalist movement. However, after his formative college experience, Black renounced white supremacy. This event will explore the rise of white nationalism and political polarization in contemporary America and point toward overcoming divisions and hatred.

Saslow will be conducting an exclusive one-hour virtual discussion with Minot State on Tuesday, April 12 from 3-4 p.m. in Aleshire Theater. The event will include five-minute opening remarks by Saslow followed by a moderated question and answer session. Participants at Minot State should read "Rising Out of Hatred" and come prepared with questions. The event is free and open to all campus — students, faculty, staff, and administrators. The livestream event is funded in part by Humanities North Dakota, a nonprofit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

To request a copy of the book, MSU staff should contact Michael Linnell, while students and faculty members should contact Libby Claerbout. Please note that quantities are limited and there may be a wait time. For more information, see the MSU Diversity Council’s WEBSITE.

Tune in to Minot State's "The Lookout." Each week we have interviews with students, faculty, and others who are in some way part of our community and doing something of interest. Samuel Stinson from the English department is host. In this episode, Dungeons and Dragons author, editor, and game designer James Ward and former editor at TSR joins me to talk about his storied history, writing, and current projects. The episode can be found HERE.

The 2022-2023 Small Grants for Faculty Research - Request for Proposals (RFP) is now open to all current MSU faculty. The deadline for proposals is Friday. April 8. Please see the MSU Small Grants for Faculty Research webpage for updated RFP guidelines and submission details.

MSU’s Annual Research Poster Session event will be held on Thursday, April 21, 2022 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the MSU Student Center Atrium. Since the previous two poster session events were cancelled due to COVID-19, the 2022 event will include a combination of 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 Small Grants for Faculty Research awardees. Faculty who received a recent (2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022) small grant award are required/strongly encouraged to participate. In addition, abstract submissions are open to all current faculty and students. Please note there is a limit to one poster/abstract per student or faculty member. The deadline to submit your abstract is Friday, March 25. Please see the MSU Small Grants for Faculty Research webpage for complete details.

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. The arts center is open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 1-5 p.m., and by special arrangement. It is closed holidays.

• FACULTY X: On view March 3 to 31 in the Walter Piehl Gallery. The exhibition features new work by Minot State University Art Department faculty Micah Bloom, Andrea Donovan, Bill Harbort, Linda Olson, Ryan Stander, Greg Vettel, and Artist-in-Residence Cera Pignet.
• Reception, FACULTY X: An opening reception with the artists is scheduled Thursday, March 3 from 6:30-8 p.m. Both exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
• Serendipity: An exhibition by North Dakota artist and printmaker Sharon Linnehan, on view in the Northwest Arts Center’s Walter Piehl Gallery from March 3 to April 15. Linnehan grew up in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin and moved to rural northeast North Dakota in 1971. She received her BFA from St. Mary’s College of Notre Dame, then her MA in Art Education from Michigan State University. Linnehan then went on to earn her MFA in Printmaking from the University of North Dakota. She has spent her career teaching a large number of different art courses and has worked as the Chair of the Art Department at Erskine College in Due West, SC where she had taught since 2002. Linnehan has also taught art full time at Dickinson State University, the University of North Dakota, Bemidji State University and Valley City State University. ‘Serendipity’ is a series of monotype prints, a technique Linnehan has been working with since the late 90s. She prints on 100% cotton paper by first painting on a smooth, beveled plexiglass plate with colored French etching ink. The inked plate is placed on dampened paper and run through an etching press in order to transfer the ink to the paper and reverse the image. Since the press can exert 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch on the print, pushing the ink into the softened paper, the effect of the color is totally different than that of painting directly on the paper. Colors appear to recede in space, creating a sense of atmosphere and layering within the image. The end result is combination of painting and printmaking elements.
• Reception, Serendipity: A reception with the artist, Sharon Linnehan is scheduled for Thursday, March 24 from 6:30-8 p.m. Artist talk to begin at 7.

Flat Tail Press
Flat Tail Press is an educational printmaking studio at Minot State University. The gallery is located in the landing space on second and third floor of the Minot State Student Center, west entrance. It is open Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-12 a.m.

• Living the Dream: Lithographs by Michael Barnes: Specializing in stone lithography, Michael Barnes is internationally recognized as a skilled and prolific printmaker. "My work addresses, in part, mortality, philosophical questions of existence, and the destructive nature and absurdities that so readily prevail for humankind," he said. "The images are concerned with the environment, social decay, and cynicism about the historical evolution of so-called 'civilization' and its effects upon our world." His works will be available to view through Feb. 28. 

Hartnett Hall Gallery
The gallery provides exhibition space for students, faculty, and community artists, and is located on the second floor on the west side of Hartnett Hall in Room 233. The Hartnett Hall Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

The world premiere of Emerson Eads’ Passion, "Black Wolf," for narrator, chamber choir, and chamber orchestra will be on Feb. 18-20 in Juneau, Alaska. It is a 35-minute cantata on the death of a wolf called Romeo, who graced the shores of Juneau for years, befriending local dogs in the area until he was shot by hunters.

Samuel Stinson, assistant professor of English, has his first book published. It is entitled ‘Environmental Risk in Technical Communication— Problems and Solutions,” by Routledge. The book is available for order now. Stinson also sits on national boards related to research and writing, and is the MSU Director of the National Writing Project, one of 200 sites located at universities nationwide dedicated to strengthening K-16 teachers in the writerly classroom. Orders for his book can be made from Routledge's WEBSITE.

Heather Martin has been hired as the director of the Academic Support Center. She has over 19 years of experience in higher education, with over 12 of those years at Minot State as its advising coordinator. Services provided in the Academic Support Center include peer tutoring, access services, career services, Starfish, academic advising, engagement honor roll, supplemental instruction, the Writing Center, the POWER Center (which also has a number of new faces in the past few months), and more. Please welcome Martin to her new role at Minot State.

Leandra Schmidt was selected as the ASC Student of the Month for January. She has contributed to the Academic Support Center’s programs as a Student Office Assistant.