Peffer, of Castleton University, named new VP and provost
Dr. George Anthony “Tony” Peffer has been named provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Bemidji State University and will begin in July.
Peffer joins BSU from Castleton University, where he has served in a variety of progressively responsible roles since 2007, starting as associate academic dean. He later was dean of undergraduate studies and chief academic officer before assuming his current role in 2016. Previous to his work at Castleton, Peffer held a variety of teaching and administrative positions at Ohio University Eastern, Lakeland College, Prestonburg (Ky.) Community College and Cleveland State University.
“Dr. Peffer is an experienced leader who values relationships,” President Faith Hensrud said. “He has extensive program planning and accreditation experience, he values collaboration and has experience recruiting international students and faculty.”
Peffer has a bachelor of arts in history from Morehead (Ky.) State University; a master of divinity from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif.; a master of arts in history from San Francisco State University and a doctor of arts in history from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa.
He succeeds Dr. Michael Anderson, who has served as interim provost and vice president for academic and student affairs since July 2016.
Years of sustainability efforts win Green Ribbon award from U.S.
Bemidji State in May became one of nine colleges and universities in the nation honored with a 2017 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Postsecondary Sustainability award.
BSU was among 63 total honorees recognized for innovative efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness and ensure effective sustainability education.
With its unique lakeside location in Minnesota’s north woods, Bemidji State University has long been a champion of environmental stewardship, which is enshrined as one of its fundamental values.
“To be able to say we are one of top three campuses in Minnesota when it comes to sustainability is exciting,” said Erika Bailey-Johnson, BSU sustainability coordinator. “It speaks loudly to our history and to the decades of work we have done in this area. And it also speaks loudly to our future and who we are as an institution.”
Keillor makes BSU appearance on his “Gratitude Tour” of Minnesota
Former “Prairie Home Companion” host Garrison Keillor brought his unique brand of humor to Bemidji State on April 24, one of five stops on “The Gratitude Tour” of Minnesota.
Keillor performed solo for 2 1/2 hours before a crowd of 500 in the Beaux Arts Ballroom, telling stories, reciting poetry and including his audience in a standing sing-along of spirituals, hymns, carols and folk songs.
The award-winning host worked at Minnesota Public Radio from 1969 until he retired in 2016, just days shy of his 42nd anniversary with “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Supreme Court Justice Anne McKeig honored as Distinguished Minnesotan
Justice Anne K. McKeig, the first American Indian to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court, spoke to graduates at Bemidji State’s 98th Commencement ceremony on May 5 in the Sanford Center.
McKeig, a member of the White Earth nation, was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Gov. Mark Dayton on Sept. 1, 2016. Dayton called her up from Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial Branch, where she was appointed to serve by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in March 2008.
First presented by BSU in 1981, the Distinguished Minnesotan award acknowledges the contributions of current or former residents of the state who have performed exemplary service to the people of Minnesota or the United States.
In her address to graduates, McKeig told graduates she understood that they may be nervous about their futures and challenged them to set big goals.
“Dream big and do set goals for yourselves,” she said. “Remember that ‘no’ means ‘not yet’ — it doesn’t mean ‘never.’ If you want your life to be a magnificent story, realize that you are the author — and every day, you have an opportunity to write a new page.”
Strategic planning effort aims for launch of new plan for January 2018
With leadership from President Faith Henrsud, Bemidji State’s Strategic Planning Committee has identified five major goal areas for a campus-wide, multi-year strategic plan to be implemented beginning in January.
The goal areas are: environment and sustainability, American Indian initiatives, a student- and service-centered culture, identity and academic character, and diversity and campus climate. The committee assumes that the plan also will address enrollment and academic program development.
The goal areas emerged from seven listening sessions with regional stakeholders in February and March. Those sessions covered specific topics including education, trades and workforce development, natural resources, art and humanities, economic development and health care and social services. In addition, about 140 faculty, staff and students participated in two brainstorming sessions on April 6.
Strategic planning subcommittees will meet twice this summer to identify specific action steps and rough timelines to achieve the goals. Highlights of their will work will be shared with the entire campus in August before the plan is completed in December.
Students form mental health board after seeing need for more services
The need for increased access to mental health peer support and awareness on campus has brought a group of 11 Bemidji State students together to form a new Student Mental Health Advisory Board.
The group came together following the university’s annual panel discussion on mental health awareness, which has served an important role in helping to reduce the social stigma surrounding mental health.
The advisory board meets biweekly to organize services and events to promote mental health awareness and will plan and produce the 2017 Mental Health Panel this fall.
24/7 computer lab and lounge opens on lower level of Decker
Information Technology Services on Feb. 16 celebrated the grand opening of “Beaver Lounge,” a new 24-hour, seven-day student computer lab on the lower level of Decker Hall.
The lab, conveniently located near residence halls and student support services, features 23 fully equipped computer workstations, color printers and charging stations for mobile devices. It also includes glassed-in rooms that students can use for small-group meetings or study sessions, as well as lounge chairs for socializing. Food and beverages are allowed.
Renovation of the space, furniture and computer equipment was financed through the BSU Student Technology Fee.
BSU will co-host national collegiate bass fishing tournament Aug. 10-12
Bemidji State and Visit Bemidji, the region’s destination marketing organization, will cohost the national championship tournament for the 2017 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series on Aug. 10-12.
Top collegiate fishing teams, including a pair of BSU students, will compete for the national title on Lake Bemidji, the Mississippi River and connected lakes.
“Bemidji State University is proud to join with regional and industry partners as host of this high-caliber competition,” said Mike Mulry, director of engagement marketing for the BSU Alumni & Foundation. “We will seize the opportunity to showcase our lakeside campus as an ideal destination for competitive fishermen and all students who love the outdoors.”
To qualify for the national championship, college anglers compete in one of five regionals, and in a Wild Card qualifier for a second chance to reach the championship.
Competing for BSU will be Wadena natives Thor Swanson, a senior business major, and his brother, Mitch Swanson, a senior in criminal justice.
Junior wins coveted internship in neuroscience lab at Mayo Clinic
Bemidji State junior Daniela Maltais is among just 120 U.S. undergraduates accepted this summer into a biomedical research program at the Mayo Clinic from among more than 1,400 applicants.
Maltais, a psychology major, is one of two students working under the direction of Dr. Susannah J. Tye, director of the translational neuroscience laboratory at Mayo’s Depression Center in Rochester. Tye specializes in depression and bipolar disorder, and Maltais is assisting with her research into triggers for depression and resistance to commonly prescribed antidepressants.
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at Mayo is the next step on a career path that Maltais started as a child in Bemidji. She lived with her Spanish-speaking great grandfather, a World War II veteran who has post-traumatic stress syndrome and experienced schizophrenic episodes late in life. At age 7, she began interpreting meetings between English-speaking psychiatrists and therapists and her mother and great grandfather. Maltais was born in Colombia and moved to Bemidji as an infant.
BSU recreation director recognized by Minnesota State system trustees
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees on April 19 presented Kierstin Hoven, director of campus recreation at Bemidji State, with its 2017 Professional Excellence in Service Award at a luncheon in St. Paul.
The board noted Hoven’s exceptional record of accomplishment over more than 20 years at BSU, where she completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees and began her career as a student worker in the office she now directs.
In addition to her work managing the Gillett Wellness Center and all recreation programs, she serves as a Beaver Success Coach, is a First-Year Experience instructor and led development of BSU’s “Best You @ BSU” wellness initiative.
In nominating Hoven for the statewide award, President Faith Hensrud called her A “true standout whose professional excellence is an inspiring example to all.”
Solar-powered fish house and ice lab fuel student learning
Students and employees dedicated Bemidji State’s Fossil Fuel-Free Fish House during a Jan. 28 ceremony on a frozen Lake Bemidji. Again this coming winter, the house will be available for rent for $15 a day through the BSU Outdoor Program Center.
The concept of a fish house powered entirely by renewable energy emerged in 2014 and grew into a partnership between BSU, Northwest Technical College and several community partners including the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) and Northland Tackle.
The house is based on a 6.5-foot-by-12-foot shell acquired from Parkers Prairie, Minn.-based Firebrand Fish Houses. RREAL installed a solar-powered furnace in the shell, which was then taken to Northwest Technical College, where students installed a 255-watt solar voltaic panel. Leech Lake Tribal College students repurposed pine boards from the OPC’s former office into tongue-and-groove interior paneling.
Also this past winter, students from the Department of Biology used an ice-borne classroom and lab thanks to a partnership with BSU Athletics and the BSU Alumni & Foundation. A fish house that typically serves as the ticket booth during Beaver Football home games was adapted into a Hardwater Ice Lab, where biology students could conduct experiments through the ice.
Frenzel to lead enrollment management
Michelle Frenzel in May was named executive director of enrollment management for Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College.
Frenzel, a 1998 BSU graduate, has been with Bemidji State and NTC in a variety of roles since 1999, most recently as interim dean of student support services and interim executive director of enrollment management.
In her new role, she leads the offices of admissions, records & registration, financial aid, the Advising Success Center, TRiO Student Support Services and Upward Bound, disability services and career services. She also oversees the campus scholarship program in conjunction with the offices of admissions and financial aid.
A member of the president’s cabinet and Executive Leadership Team, Frenzel chairs Enrollment Management Teams for both BSU and NTC and manages a Division of Enrollment Management budget of approximately $4 million.
Senior wins chance to design exhibit for German trade show
Hannah Sernett of Bemidji State won a competition to design a booth used by the Exhibit Designers and Producers Association at EuroShop 2017, held March 5–9 in Dusseldorf, Germany. The Shakopee native graduated in 2017 with a degree in art and design.
The contest included exhibit design students from both Bemidji State and its rival, the Fashion Institute of Technology, a graduate-level design program in New York City. The association provided a creative brief outlining expectations and specifications for the booth space and required pre- and post-show marketing materials.
This is the second time EDPA has sponsored a competition to design its booth for the triennial EuroShop exhibit, and BSU students have won both times. Danika Stelton, a 2014 graduate who works at MG Design in Chicago, won the first competition in 2013.
President Hensrud backs campaign to advance women in higher ed
President Faith Hensrud has signed onto the American Council on Education’s “Moving the Needle: Advancing Women in Higher Education Leadership” campaign, which will pursue a goal of seeing women hold 50 percent of chief executive positions at institutions of higher education by 2030.
Hensrud joins more than 100 leaders who recognize a generational turnover in higher education leadership as a pivotal opportunity to advance women into chief executive positions at America’s colleges and universities.
By signing the commitment, she has pledged that BSU and Northwest Technical College will nominate qualified women to fill senior leadership positions whenever possible, create an environment of opportunity and support for emerging women leaders to gain skills they need to advance their careers, and educate others on the benefits of gender-diversified leadership.
Business and accountancy gain reaccreditation for high quality
Faculty and staff from Bemidji State’s business administration, accountancy and computer information systems programs celebrated successful reaccreditation by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) at a Feb. 13 reception in Memorial Hall.
The College of Business programs completed a rigorous self-evaluation; underwent a comprehensive, independent peer review; and demonstrated compliance with the IACBE’s nine accreditation principles: outcomes assessment, strategic planning, curriculum, faculty, scholarly and professional activities, resources, internal and external relationships, international business education and educational innovation.
IACBE accreditation is valid for seven years but contingent upon the programs remaining in compliance with the assembly’s principles and policies.
Headwaters Film Festival marks fifth year showcasing student work
Wizardry and witchcraft filled the Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex for Bemidji State’s “Harry Potter”-themed fifth annual Headwaters Film Festival on March 30-31.
The two-day festival featured work from the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, a Skype conversation with “The Walking Dead” star Keith Harris, and 15 films by student filmmakers from Minnesota. An international film competition included student submissions from Germany, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Senegal, Jordan, Singapore and Australia. A feature film from the Harry Potter series capped both days of the festival.
The Headwaters Film Festival is a completely student-run initiative that is planned, produced and operated by students in BSU’s Department of Integrated Media. This year, more than 30 students took the course and produced the festival.
BSU joins nationwide, student-led network to divert food to needy
Students in the BSU Sustainability Office are now part of the Food Recovery Network, the country’s largest student-directed movement against hunger that aims to “change the norm from food waste to food recovery.”
The Food Recovery Network fights food waste and hunger by recovering unused and perishable food from participating campuses and communities and donating it to people in need.
In BSU’s first recovery effort in early March, students saved 95 pounds of food that would have gone to waste but instead was given to Community Table, a volunteer-operated soup kitchen that is open four days a week in Bemidji’s Mt. Zion and United Methodist churches.
Students build modular city for use in criminal justice training
A customizable model city, built by students in the School of Technology, Art & Design, will help Bemidji State criminal justice students assess how first responders might manage emergency situations.
The city features color-coded shapes representing private residences, schools, office complexes and other types of buildings to help students visualize a neighborhood. Buildings magnetically attach to a metal base, allowing criminal justice faculty to reconfigure neighborhoods for different scenarios.
The model city, unveiled Dec. 15, was designed and built by Reid Mordhorst, a senior in engineering technology from Maple Grove, and Kyle Lempia, a senior in engineering technology and applied engineering from Bemidji.