LAUREL HOUSE UNVEILED AS NEW HOME AND GATHERING PLACE FOR HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS

Bemidji State officially unveiled a reconstructed Laurel House for Honors Program students with a ribbon-cutting ceremony during Homecoming Week on Oct. 2.

Laurel House, on Birchmont Drive north of the Alumni House, was completed this summer after the former house was demolished. Designed in the Craftsman style, the four-bedroom house was the result of an extensive collaboration between the university, Northwest Technical College and professional construction contractors and consultants in the region.

The house will not only serve as a residence for four honors students each year, but also as a new gathering and learning space for all students in the Honors Program.

Hagg-Sauer replacement project hinges on bonding

Planning is underway for the demolition and replacement of Hagg-Sauer Hall and the redistribution of faculty offices across the Bemidji State University campus, an $18.1 million combined project that depends on legislative approval of bond funding this spring.

Hagg-Sauer, located just south of Chet Anderson Stadium, is sixth on the Minnesota System of Colleges and Universities’ priority list for its 2016 capital request. On Oct. 1, BSU hosted the Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee for a tour and briefing from Karen Snorek, vice president for administration and finance. The House Capital Investment Committee made a similar visit on Aug. 12.

Plans call for the 82,000-square-foot, 35-year-old Hagg-Sauer Hall to be torn down in summer 2017 and replaced over the following year by a new 25,000-square-foot academic learning center, with updated technology and a variety of classroom types and sizes. The old building has poor wheelchair access and significant deferred maintenance costs from groundwater intrusion. The new building is slated to meet  the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standards for energy efficiency and sustainable design.

Renovation of the A.C. Clark Library, Bangsberg Performing Arts Complex, Bensen Hall, Deputy Hall and Sattgast Hall is scheduled to begin next summer to relocate faculty now in Hagg-Sauer and establish learning communities that will promote collaboration among faculty and interaction with students.

Student safety in forefront following 2014 tragedy

BSU’s 2015 orientation for new students in August included “Life on Campus and What You Need to Know,” a mandatory presentation and panel discussion for all incoming freshmen specifically focused on student safety, responsible behavior and caring for fellow students. These topics gained greater urgency than ever following the hypothermia death of a student in December 2014.

The presentation included a new video titled “Who’s Got Your Back?: No Buddy Left Behind.” It was a student project coordinated by Jay Passa of BSU’s Student Center for Health and Counseling produced in partnership with Lakeland Television. The video, just over two minutes long, encourages students to take care of themselves and to watch out for their friends.

Also, green rubber bracelets with the words “S.O.S. SAVE OUR STUDENTS” have been distributed by Student Senate for students, faculty and staff to wear in support of this initiative. Students, faculty, staff and area law enforcement will meet in the coming year to continue implementing recommendations from a task force President Richard Hanson formed after last year’s tragedy.

Rankings continue to put BSU in top tier of peer institutions

Bemidji State was again named one of the 100 best colleges and universities in the Midwest region in rankings released Sept. 9 by U.S. News and World Report. BSU tied for 34th among public institutions in the Midwest and tied with four other institutions for 99th among all colleges and universities in the region. It is the eighth consecutive year that BSU has made the U.S. News list of top 100 colleges in the region.

Winds of Change magazine also again named Bemidji State one of the top 200 colleges in the nation for American Indian students. The list focuses on a college’s native community and support system and also includes data measuring undergraduate degrees in science, engineering, technology and mathematics-related disciplines and six-year graduation rates. BSU has made the Winds of Change Top 200 each year since 2008.

Chinese delegation is vanguard for possible nursing partnership

Nursing students and faculty from Jinhua University in Jinhua, China, visited BSU and Bemidji for a week in September. The group toured the nursing programs at both the university and Northwest Technical College and visited health care facilities throughout the Bemidji community.

The ambassadors were visiting Bemidji to explore a potential degree-completion agreement between Jinhua and BSU, which would allow Jinhua students to spend two years in Bemidji completing bachelor’s degrees in nursing after finishing their three-year program in Jinhua.

“They were very impressed by the quality of what they saw in our classrooms and labs,” said Dr. Martin Tadlock, BSU/NTC provost and vice president for academic and student affairs. “They loved meeting American students and felt like they had made quick friends.”

Tadlock says the next step will be to determine BSU courses and workshops the Bemidji School of Nursing could deliver on campus in Jinhua beginning as soon as the summer of 2016.

Ojibwe cultural-immersion camp receives national recognition

BSU’s Ojibwe Language Summer Camp, which offers a unique opportunity for students to become immersed in Ojibwe culture, has won the Innovative Award for Non-Credit Programs from the North American Association of Summer Sessions.

Jan Yopp, the association’s committee chair for creative and innovative awards, said the camp, whose Ojibwe name is Ojibwemowin Niibinishi Gabeshi, was recognized for “its impact on students and adaptability for other campuses.”

The association recognizes member schools that offer creative and innovative programs each year at is annual conference. The awards are meant to highlight the importance of curriculum development, acknowledge programs that make outstanding contributions to the management, operation or marketing of summer sessions, and to give its members an opportunity to learn from one another.

During the two-week camp at BSU, faculty and staff teach campers about the Ojibwe language, history, cultural traditions and native arts. Current Bemidji State students serve as camp counselors, chaperoning students to daily activities and facilitating evening programs. Ojibwe language proficiency isn’t required to participate in the camp.

The two-week camp will be held next summer on July 11-15 and July 18-22. Registration materials are now available at http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/summer/summer-academies-and-camps/

Grad student gains help push BSU enrollment up 2 percent

More than 5,000 students are pursuing their higher education goals at Bemidji State this year. Fall enrollment on the 30th day of classes shows 5,013 students attending Bemidji State, the school’s highest enrollment since 2012.

BSU’s head count enrollment is up 107 students from its Fall 2014 30th-day enrollment of 4,906, a 2.2 percent increase. Enrollment for both undergraduate and graduate students has increased from last year. BSU has 4,739 undergraduate students this fall, an increase of just under 1 percent from last year, while graduate enrollment has jumped more than 31 percent to 274 students — BSU’s highest number of graduate students since 2011.

Chelsea Clinton book includes girls from Girls Who Code chapter at BSU

A pair of American Indian high school students from Red Lake who have begun learning computer coding in a BSU-based Girls Who Code chapter are named in a new book by Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.

Clinton greeted students Alise May and Diamond Cloud-Sayers and gave them each a signed copy of her new book, “It’s Your World”, at a Nov. 20 event in a St. Paul bookstore. BSU computer programmer Jennifer Theisen, who organized the chapter last year, joined the girls.

Girls Who Code is a non-profit program meant to inspire high-school aged girls to learn computing and coding skills and, ultimately, increase the number of women working in high-tech professions.

Clinton highlighted the fact that the girls have used what they learned in the club to create a smartphone app called Ojibwe Helper, which helps teach the Ojibwe language. BSU’s Girls Who Code club is funded in part by a girlsBEST grant from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.

BSU showcases sustainability as host of UMACS conference

Around 200 college and university faculty and staff who are involved with sustainability and green activities on their home campuses visited Bemidji State University June 17-19 for the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability conference.

The association’s sixth conference was called “Healthy Planet = Healthy People, Campuses and Communities.” Programming focused on the integration of wellness and healthy lifestyles into sustainability programs to ensure that campuses and communities are not only sustainable, but also that the people within those institutions are developing healthy lifestyles.

Presentations covered such topics as student-grown produce in campus greenhouses, sustainability leadership and how to teach it, and how campuses can partner with surrounding communities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It was exciting to see all of the good work that is going on and to get ideas for projects that can be done in our own communities,” said Erika Bailey-Johnson, director of BSU’s Sustainability Office, which hosted the conference.

The conference also featured a panel led by Anthony Desnick, director of greater Minnesota strategies for the state’s Nice Ride bike rental and sharing program, on efforts to reduce automobile usage. BSU is one of several Nice Ride sites in the city of Bemidji.

New wildlife biology major opens broad career path

Starting this fall, BSU students seeking careers in natural resources agencies or who are interested in graduate study in wildlife biology have enrolled in a new bachelor of science program in wildlife biology.

As part of the 72-credit program, students are taking courses in wildlife management, geographic information systems, policy and legal administration, and ethics and human dimensions in management in addition to traditional biology courses. Previously, BSU biology students could pursue a wildlife biology management emphasis by taking around a half-dozen classes related to the subject.

Students who graduate with the new degree also will receive certification from The Wildlife Society as an associate wildlife biologist.