Minot State University is pleased to announce its Spring 2025 enrollment grew 2.6% for a total of 2,633 students.

It is the second straight spring semester increase and the third consecutive semester in which the University saw growth in its overall headcount.

The University saw its biggest growth area in new transfer students with 112 incoming transfers, its biggest spring transfer class in seven years. Minot State also reported nice increases in dual credit students and Canadian students.

Minot State’s Hometown Pride Scholarship, now in its third year, continues to attract local students as MSU’s Ward County enrollment increased to the highest total in three years. The spring enrollment also included the largest number of full-time graduate students at MSU since 2015.

Minot State University’s Lifelong Learning Institute has finalized multiple classes to complement its ceramics offerings for the Spring 2025 semester.

The Lifelong Learning Institute announced five classes for ceramics in January and is offering seven new classes from a range of disciplines including: Bead Bracelet Bonanza, Building Resilience — One Thought at a Time, DIY T-Shirt Night, Pickleball 101, Intermediate Pickleball, Race to the Top (Rockwall climbing), and Swing Dancing.

Minot State University is pleased to announce Shaun Tyrance, team clinician and vice president of player services and assessment for the Kansas City Chiefs, will speak at two events at MSU on Monday, March 24.

Tyrance will address MSU Athletics and the Minot State staff about professional takeaways from working with top-performing teams, coaches, and athletes in the NFL at the Student Center Conference Center at 10:30 a.m. His address, “Wellness and Keys to High Performance,” set for 7 p.m. at Ann Nicole Nelson Hall, is for students and the public for a conversation on maximizing personal, academic, and athletic performance.

Tyrance just concluded his sixth season with the Kansas City Chiefs following Super Bowl LIX. He was promoted to vice president of player services and assessment in May 2022. In this role, he focuses on all aspects of behavioral health, wellness, and performance psychology for all club employees, including players, coaches, and staff.

Prior to joining the Chiefs, Tyrance had opened a successful private practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2010, where he provided mental health counseling, leadership development, and mental skills training to college and professional athletes. In addition to working with athletes and coaches, Tyrance has consulted with Fortune 500 companies to help them hire and develop top talent within their organizations.

He holds multiple certifications as a mental performance consultant, has been published in periodicals, and is the co-author of two books. He was a four-year letter-winner and co-captain for the Davidson College football program, graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

Both speaking events at Minot State are free due to sponsorship from MSU Athletics, the MSU POWER Center, and Minot State Student Affairs.

Minot State University Department of Behavioral Sciences and Criminal Justice is sponsoring a Community Symposium: Fostering Resilience on March 21 at the Minot State Student Center Conference Center.

Fostering Resilience: Trauma-Informed Care, Ethics, and the Power of Community begins at 9 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m. with a two-part morning session, a lunch and research poster session, two afternoon sessions, and a panel discussion. All sessions are open to the public with a $60 registration fee (optional lunch for an additional $15). Minot State faculty, staff, and students are free with valid MSU ID. To register for the event or for more information and speaker bios, see the MSU Marketplace Fostering Resilience WEBSITE.

The event is a collaboration between the various disciplines within the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Criminal Justice, including addiction studies, criminal justice, psychology, school psychology, and social work, and will focus on understanding trauma-informed care, ethics, and preventing burnout — topics that are essential to changing how we approach mental health and supporting professionals in high-stress fields in our community.

The morning session will begin with registration and a networking hour from 8-9 a.m. Tamara Waters-Wheeler, MSU professor in school psychology, will deliver part one of the first keynote, Trauma 101 Based on the Neurosequential Model, at 9 a.m. Following a coffee break at 10:15 a.m., Waters-Wheeler will deliver part two. MSU’s Kelly Hendershot, assistant professor in business, will begin the afternoon session with a keynote address, Ethics, at 1:15 p.m. Michael Nason, MSU professor of criminal justice, is the final keynote address, Being There for Each Other After Critical Incidents: A Holistic Approach to Checking Your Six, at 2:30 p.m.

At 3:30 p.m., a panel discussion, Beyond Burnout: Protecting Your Well-Being in High-Stress Professions, will feature Alannah Valenta, school psychology; Vicki Michels, MSU professor of psychology and addiction studies and chair of the Department of Behavioral Science and Criminal Justice; Aaron Moss, law enforcement and veteran outreach; and Dale Plessas from the Minot Police Department.

Along with event committee members Nason, St. Peter, MSU professors Dylan Horner, assistant professor of psychology, Penny Craven, assistant professor and program director of school psychology, and Lacey Corneliusen, assistant professor of psychology; Minot State student groups, Psychology Club and Social Work Club, are playing an active role by assisting with event setup, running the check-in tables, and helping host the event.

The event programming is also offered as continuing education, including continuing education units (CEU) approved for anyone seeking ND POST hours. Nason worked to add CEU to the event as a service to law enforcement throughout the state of North Dakota with the event’s virtual option.

More information on CEUs and the rates for these credits can be found at the Fostering Resilience Symposium’s MSU Marketplace WEBSITE.

Minot State University and the Minot State Looyenga Leadership Center are pleased to announce Lauren Beane as the keynote speaker at the 2025 Women’s Leadership Conference on Saturday, March 22.

The conference is set for the MSU Student Center Conference Center from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and is free and open to all. Breakfast and lunch are provided, with registration required to ensure an appropriate amount of food and seating is available. Information and registration are available HERE. The Looyenga Leadership Center sponsors the event and is in its second year.

Beane, CEO of Ready Enough, Co., will be joined by featured speakers Megan Langley, founder and executive director of Strengthen ND; Kristi Berg ’95/’00, Minot State professor of business information technology; and Madison Hanson ’24, MSU social work graduate, and current master's degree-seeking student specializing in social change and leadership.

Beane is a highly acclaimed TEDx and Top 50 Female Speaker who helps audiences take the leap and believe they are ready enough by offering tools and her personal stories to embrace and own their unique talents.

The Looyenga Leadership Center was made possible by the generosity of Roger ’68 and Ann Looyenga. In 2019, the Looyengas gifted MSU with $1 million to broaden the University’s academic offerings in the area of leadership. They are passionate about the area of leadership and are committed to ensuring current and future Minot State students have educational opportunities in this important area.

For more information on leadership programming at Minot State, see the Looyenga Leadership Center WEBSITE.

The U.S. Air Force Academy Band’s Stellar Brass will present a free concert held at Minot State University’s Ann Nicole Nelson Hall on Wednesday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m.

The concert will feature patriotic favorites and highlight the contributions of Service Members, both past and present, as well as favorites in the genres of classical, jazz, and much more. The event is honored to be joined by senior leadership who will be speaking on behalf of the 5th Bomb Wing, as well as the 91st Missile Wing from Minot AFB. This concert is free and open to the public. 

As one of only two Air Force premier bands and the only Department of Defense premier band located west of the Appalachian Mountains, the USAF Academy Band provides year-round support to the United States Air Force Academy and the more than 4,000 cadets in the cadet wing, helping develop outstanding leaders of character who will serve our country as officers in the United States Air Force and United States Space Force.

The Academy Band maintains a rigorous performance schedule in support of Cadet and Air Force troop morale, recruiting, and community outreach. For over 60 years, the Academy Band has used the power of music to inspire Air Force personnel and the nation they serve, produce innovative musical programs and products, and communicate Air Force excellence to millions around the globe.

Stellar Brass
Described by the International Trumpet Guild as "an ensemble full of variety, panache, and virtuosity," Stellar Brass is an original and innovative brass quintet performing a broad range of eclectic musical styles. They are dedicated to providing unwavering support for the training of the Air Force Academy Cadets, and to the unique telling of the Air Force story nationwide. Stellar Brass has represented the United States Air Force as musical ambassadors through internationally distributed audio and video recordings and broadcasts, and are nationally recognized and respected as clinicians, presenting university, college, and high school master classes. They have provided musical support at numerous civic and military ceremonies and have spotlighted the Air Force at prestigious symposia such as the International Trumpet Guild Convention, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Colorado Music Educators Association Clinic and Conference, and at highly-coveted public performances at major concert halls throughout America.

The United States Air Force Academy Band appears on behalf of Lieutenant General Tony Bauernfeind, superintendent, the United States Air Force Academy. They are proud to support the U.S. Air Force Academy mission to forge leaders of character, motivated to a lifetime of service, and developed to lead our Air Force and Space Force as we fight and win our Nation’s wars.

All performances are free and open to the public. For press inquiries, please contact MSgt Gerald Welker with the contact information found below:

• Contact: MSgt Gerald Welker
• USAF Academy Band
• Office: 719-556-9916
• Cell: (719) 355-0154
• welker.1@us.af.mil

Join the Academic Support Center (lower level of the library) for a 30-minute workshop on March 19 from 2-2:30 p.m. Learn how to use communication, emotional regulation, and boundaries to positively affect the outcome of disagreements with friends, roommates, significant others, etc. For more information,  see the attached FLYER or contact Hannah Peterson by EMAIL.

The MSU Tenure Committee will share information on the tenure process with any and all faculty, starting at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 14, in 316A Old Main--the Slaaten Center. Bring all of your questions! For more information, contact Robert Kibler, chair of tenure, at 701-720-2716 or by EMAIL.

If you missed the Dakota Digital Academy’s first of the three-part series on Teaching and Thinking with AI with Jose Antonio Bowen, you can watch the video HERE. He covers a lot of ground – from writing effective prompts, to discussing various AI tools, and a lot in between. Bowen will be back on Wednesday, March 12, from 2-3:30 p.m. CT for the second of the three-part series. The topic for the second webinar is AI Cheating, Detection, Policies, and Writing. The link to that webinar is HERE. For more information, view the DDA WEBPAGE. 

The Minot State University Wellness Center is offering the Heartsaver CPR/AED course and Basic Life Support in March. The Heartsaver CPR/AED course trains participants to give CPR and use an automated external defibrillator (AED) in a safe, timely, and effective manner. Session on March 21 at 2 p.m. in the Wellness Center's Group Exercise Room. There is a $30 per person fee for this certification. Use the below links to sign up for the class. Basic Life Support (BLS) for healthcare professionals trains participants to promptly recognize several life-threatening emergencies, give high-quality CPR, deliver appropriate ventilations, and provide early use of an AED. The course will be held on March 24 at 9 a.m. in the Group Exercise Room. There is a $50 per person fee for this certification. Sign up for this class with the below link.

• Friday, March 21: Heartsaver CPR/AED,  Wellness Center, 2 p.m. LINK
• Monday, March 24: Basic Life Support class, Wellness Center, 9 a.m. LINK

Thinking about retirement and finances in general can be extremely stressful, especially when you are trying to do it on your own. MSU Professor Jerry Stai has agreed to help shed some light on these topics on March 25, 1–2 p.m., in Cyril Moore 16. Join us to explore the critical, yet often confusing world of financial planning and retirement, and learn strategies to unstick your financial future! For more information, see the attached POSTER.

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 on holidays.

• Fairweather: Floyd Fairweather was a North Dakota artist with a proclivity for the arts, theater, literature, and the humanities. He taught at Minot State for 29 years, from 1961 until he retired in 1996. This exhibition contains a sampling of his paintings and works over his lifetime. This project is supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition will be on display from March 11 through April 19. 
• Juried Student Art Show 2025: The Northwest Arts Center presents the annual Minot State Juried Student Art Show. Open to all Minot State University students, the Juried Student Show has been a campus tradition since the early 1980s. The competition invites area and regional artists, educators, and other art professionals to serve as jurors each year. Visiting Minot State as a juror for 2025 is artist and art professional Rachel Alfaro, executive director of the Taube Museum, Minot, ND.
• An opening reception and online viewing with the juror is scheduled for March 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The event will include juror’s remarks and an awards presentation at 7 p.m. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. This program is funded in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is on display from March 27 through April 24. 

Flat Tail Press
Flat Tail Press is an educational printmaking studio at Minot State University. The gallery is located in the landing space on the second and third floor of the Minot State Student Center, west entrance. It is open during normal Student Center hours.

• Badlands: Ephemeral Horizons by Michael Baum: Screen prints of the Sage Creek Wilderness by South Dakota Artist, Michael Baum. The exhibition will be on display from Jan. 23 through May 29.

Emerson Eads’ song cycle "Everywhere is Archipelago," published by North Star Music (WEBSITE), was given its world premiere here on the campus of Minot State University in Ann Nicole Nelson Hall on March 2024 and gave its East Coast premiere on Friday, Feb. 21, at the Yale Graduate Conference on Religion and Ecology (GCRE) by soprano Teresa Eickel (WEBSITE) and pianist Stephen Scarlato (WEBSITE). The song cycle, consists of four poems by five-time Pulitzer-nominated poet and former Connecticut State Poet Laureate Margaret Gibson, set by composer Eads. "Everywhere is Archipelago" takes the listener on a journey of connection to the planet and wildlife through the first three poems, from the "Very First Not A Thing Is, Dirt, and Coyote." The final poem, "Global Warming" is a grief-stricken call to action to address climate change before it is too late. To learn more about the song cycle, visit Eads' WEBSITE, and to view more about the recital, visit the GCRE WEBSITE. Eads’ arrangement of the great African American Spiritual "Give Me Jesus" has been published by North Star Music for both low and high voice. The arrangement was originally written for Seattle soprano Tess Altiveros and then rearranged for a recent concert featuring Portland-based mezzo-soprano Hannah Penn with the Minot Chamber Chorale. For more information, visit the North Star Music WEBSITE. View the arrangements on YouTube, low voice version HERE and the high voice version HERE.

David Frantsvog, Minot State College of Business assistant professor, was a part of Wallethub.com's Expert Opinions section of their website. Frantsvog advised on How Much Does Insurance Go Up After an Accident. Read Frantsvog's advice HERE.

Minot State University's professor Holly Pedersen and graduate students Chandra Verble and Marden Klepka presented at the 51st annual conference of the American College Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, D.C. Their presentations stemmed from original research conducted at Minot State University. Pedersen and Klepka presented “Promoting Positive Self-Identity in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Through Media Representations,” while Pedersen and Verble presented “Job Satisfaction of Itinerant Teachers of Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.”

Chris Logan, former University of North Dakota head coach, has been named the fourth head coach of the Minot State women’s soccer program.

Darren Olson is the January winner of the Staff Senate High Five Award. He is pictured HERE with Minot State President Steven Shirley and Staff Senate President Karla Bredahl. Olson, Information Technology Central director, network services / IT security officer started with Minot State in IT in Fall 1999 in his first week as a student at MSU. He worked as an intern/work study until 2003 and then came back to MSU as a systems administrator in 2006. In 2014, he became director of network services, overseeing servers, backend software, network, internet services, and special projects. He and his wife, Megan, have been married for 23 years and have two children, Devon and Breanna, both current MSU students majoring in computers science. They also have an energetic border collie, Lucy, and two spoiled cats, Evie and Lola. Olson is a huge Disney World fan and enjoys traveling, going on cruise ships, carpentry, and home DIY.

David Soares has joined Minot State University as the new director of facilities.

Crystal Witham has joined the TRIO Student Support Services team as the new administrative coordinator. Witham brings a wealth of experience to the program and is looking forward to supporting students in their academic journeys. Please join the TRIO Student Support Services in welcoming Witham to the TRIO family and Minot State University.  

Jillian Ackerman, freshman goalie, came as no surprise to the Beaver women’s hockey team this season. The rest of the ACHA quickly found out how good the Minot native was, as well, and today the league honored Ackerman’s play in net for Minot State as Ackerman was named to the ACHA Division I All-Athletic women’s hockey 1st Team at goalie. The honor is the first for the Minot State freshman and Minot High School product who last week was named to the All-WMCH 1st Team at goalie, to the WMCH All-Rookie 1st Team at goalie, and the WMCH All-Tournament 1st Team at goalie.

Megan Kramer has been awarded the 2025 Minot State University and Oslo Chamber Choir Apprenticeship. The Max native is the second Minot State University & Oslo Chamber Choir Apprenticeship recipient. Thanks to the generosity of donors, Kramer will join the Minot State University Choir on its Norway tour, where she will have the unique opportunity to extend her stay for an additional week in Oslo. During this time, she will work closely with the Oslo Chamber Choir as they collaborate with the renowned St. Olaf Choir for a joint concert.

Kari Rutherford has been selected as the ASC Student of the Month for January. She has contributed to the Academic Support Center’s programs as an access services graduate assistant. The ASC Student of the Month recognizes the outstanding contributions of the many student leaders working with ASC's programs. Each month, one ASC student leader is selected as the ASC Student of the Month and featured on the ASC website. Anyone may nominate a student; however, a student may only be recognized once during the academic year. Nominations are due by the 1st of each month.

Jake Swirple is heading back to the NCAA National Tournament, this time as a Super Region champion. The senior, who advanced to the 2022-23 national tournament and earned All-American honors, is making a return trip after beating Luke Tweeton of the University of Mary by a 9-3 decision in the 285-pound championship match Saturday at the NCAA Super Region V Tournament hosted by Augustana University. Swirple becomes the Beavers second Super Region champion, joining Mitchell Eull who also won the heavyweight title at the Super Region 3 Tournament in February 2018. Swirple advances to the NCAA National Tournament, March 13-14 in Indianapolis.

Caleb Van De Griend, Minot State junior forward, was named NSIC Player of the Week. This is the fourth time this season Van De Griend has earned the honor. Caleb also was named NSIC Player of the Week on Dec. 2, 23, and Jan. 27 and is the league’s only 4-time honoree this season. Van De Griend has also been named an All-NSIC performer. Van De Griend, a 6-foot-8 junior from Bridgetown, Australia, was voted to the All-NSIC 1st Team by the league’s coaches. The honor is the first for Van De Griend

Joey Moffatt, junior forward, had an explosive month on the ice for the top-ranked Minot State men’s hockey team in January while freshman wrestler Madilyn Schuck proved to be a dominating force on the mats for the Minot State women’s wrestling team. Both turned in outstanding efforts throughout the first month of the new year as Moffatt was named the Pinnacle Employee Benefits Male Athlete of the Month for January while Schuck was named Pinnacle Employee Benefits Female Athlete of the Month for January. Pinnacle Employee Benefits became the title sponsor for Minot State’s Athlete of the Month award during the 2021-22 academic year. The award recognizes the outstanding athletic achievements each month of one male and one female Beaver student-athlete. Moffatt had a month to remember on the ice for the Beavers, recording his first collegiate hat trick in Minot State’s 6-2 home win over Mary on January 26, part of an explosive offensive month that vaulted him into the team lead in goals and points this season. Moffatt has 22 goals and 16 assists this season for 38 points in 34 games. Schuck, a freshman from Herriman, Utah, has enjoyed a stellar debut collegiate season as she currently boasts a 16-7 record which was helped by a 5-2 performance in January.