MSUM’S ATHLETIC TRAINING MAJOR RECEIVES FIVE-YEAR NATIONAL ACCREDITATION
MSUM's new major in Athletic Training was nationally accredited last week by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP).

The major, initiated at MSUM in 1999, currently has 24 majors and has already graduated 11 students. The accreditation is for the maximum five years.

“Only four other schools in Minnesota that offer this degree have received accreditition,” says Dawn Hammerschmidt, program director for the university’s Athletic Training program.

Jobs for Athletic Training majors are available at sports medicine clinics, hospitals, colleges and universities, junior and senior high schools, professional sports teams and in industrial and corporate programs.

As an Allied Health profession, and through the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, trained graduates are focused on improving the quality of health care for athletes, including prevention, evaluation, management and rehabilitation of injuries.

To receive professional certification, athletic trainers must pass a national examination, taken either in their last semester of school or after graduation.
Accreditation is an effort to assess the quality of institutions, programs and services, measuring them against agreed-upon standards and thereby assuring that they meet those standards.

MSUM CROWNS HOMECOMING ROYALTY
.Jason Wacek and Erica Wicker were crowned Minnesota State University Moorhead’s homecoming royalty during a coronation program Thursday evening.

Wacek, an elementary education major with a pre-primary emphasis, is the son of Pat and Bev Wacek of Olivia, Minn. He was sponsored by the campus Student Orientation Counselors.

Wicker, an elementary education major with a specialty in mathematics, is the daughter of Eric and Cheryl Wicker of Hawley, Minn. She was sponsored by the Student Senate.

Other members of the royalty court: Amy Rosengren from Belgrade, Minn.; Travis Maier of Mobridge, S.D.; Cody Simula of Carlton, Minn.; Troy Schmidt of Paynesville, Minn.; Brian Curr of Huron, S.D.; Ava-Gaye Y. Simms of Manchester, Jamaica; Hans Anderson of Minneapolis; Becki Withee of Rapid City, S.D.; Rebecca Bachmeier of West Fargo, N.D.; and Peter Hartje of Fargo.

NEW RIVERS PRESS CELEBRATES LAUNCHING TWO NEW BOOKS OCT. 22-23
New Rivers Press, newly headquartered at MSUM, re-entered the publishing world with the release of three new books last spring.
To celebrate the publication of two additional new books this fall, the press is hosting a literary festival Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 22-23.

One of the oldest continuously publishing literary presses in the country with more than 300 titles to its credit, New Rivers moved from Minneapolis to MSU Moorhead last summer after the death of its founder, C.W. (Bill) Truesdale. Since the relocation, its dual mission is to continue to publish enduring contemporary literature and to serve as a teaching press for MSUM students.

The two new books being released:
* Candace Black’s “The Volunteer,” a collection of poems from the Mankato, Minn. poet. She spent most of her youth on U.S. Marine Corps bases in California, received an MFA from the University of Montana and has received a 1988 Loft Award and a 1998 SASE/Jerome Foundation Fellowship.
* Edward Micus’s collection of stories, “Landing Zones.” A Vietnam vet, he’s an Iowa native who earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University Mankato, where he teaches.

The two authors will read from their books at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct 23, at King Hall Auditorium on the MSUM campus, followed by a reception at the Red Bear Tavern in Moorhead.

Other events scheduled as part of the book launching:
Oct. 22
7:30 pm: Deb Marquart will read, Diane Jarvi will perform, and Josh Harty will provide musical interludes at the Avalon Events Center at 613 1st. Ave. N. in Fargo. It includes a reception with appetizers and cash bar sponsored by the MSUM Alumni Foundation. Marquart is the author of two New Rivers Press books: “Everything’s a Verb” and “The Hunger Bone.” The MSUM alum currently performs with The Bone People and teaches creative writing at Iowa State University. Jarvi is the author of “Divining the Landscape." She’s also a songwriter and musician with several CDs to her credit. She lives in Minneapolis.
Oct. 23
* Noon (MSUM Library Porch): “How to Get Published,” a literary editing panel. Authors and editors will talk about getting published and careers in publishing. Information will be available about MSUM’s forthcoming “Certificate in Publishing.”
* 4 p.m. (MSUM Library Porch): Cullen Bailey Burns, author of “Paper Boat,” published by New Rivers Press in Spring 2003, will read from her book and talk about the craft of writing. A Michigan native, she received her MFA from Western Michigan University and teaches at Century College in Minneapolis.

Truesdale launched New Rivers Press in New York City in 1968 to publish works by new and emerging poets. He later added fiction and non-fiction to his agenda, then moved the operation to Minneapolis in 1978.

When the press went into suspension following his death, MSUM professors Al Davis, Lin Enger, and Wayne Gudmundson proposed a partnership between the press and university. The McKnight Foundation awarded a $40,000 grant to New Rivers to help pay its debts and make the relocation to MSUM possible.

Davis now serves as senior editor, Gudmundson as director.

The literary festival is made possible with support from the MSUM Alumni Foundation and from the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series, and with the help of MSUM faculty, staff and students. For more information, contact New Rivers Press at 477.5870 or at nrp@mnstate.edu. Its web site is http://www.newriverspress.com

RED RIVER WOMEN’S STUDIES CONFERENCE AT MSUM OCT. 31
The third annual Red River Women's Studies Conference takes place Friday, Oct. 31 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Comstock Memorial Union. The conference brings together scholars and students from college campuses throughout the Red River Valley to present their work on women and women's issues.

Scholars from MSU Moorhead, NDSU, UND and MSU Mankato will present papers on topics such as international feminism, education, social construction of identity and meaning, professional advocacy, violence against women, memoir and the American family, literature and the creative arts, sociology of gender, and local histories.

Keynote speakers are Claire Strom and Suzzanne Kelley from the history department at NDSU. Strom is an agricultural and southern historian. Her first academic book, "Profiting from the Plains: the Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West", was recently released from University of Washington Press. She has co-authored a picture book on the history of Fargo with David Danbom. In July, Strom was named editor of Agricultural History, which is only the second international journal edited in North Dakota and is the journal of record for the field.

Kelley is a doctoral candidate in history at NDSU and the managing editor of Agricultural History. Strom and Kelley will talk about "Coming of Age in North Dakota: Gender and the Editing of Memory” at the conference luncheon from noon to 1:30 pm.
Registration is free for all undergraduate students and includes lunch. Students may register by e-mail at womenstu@mnstate.edu by providing name, e-mail address and college affiliation.

Registration for faculty and staff is $15 and $10 for graduate students, independent scholars and community members. Fees include lunch and are used to subsidize student participation. Please use the registration form available at the web site, www.mnstate.edu/women or e-mail womenstu@mnstate.edu

Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. with sessions starting at 10 a.m. Registration deadline is Oct. 27. For more information, contact Prof. Laurie Blunsom, Chair RRWSC, at blunsom@mnstate.edu or 218.477.4606.

MSUM HOSTS INFO MEETING ABOUT SPRING BRAZILIAN TOUR
An information meeting about a 14-day educational tour of Brazil next spring will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 Tuesday, Oct. 28 in room 216 of MSUM’s Comstock Memorial Union.

The tour will include stops in Rio De Janeiro, Salvador and two colonial mining cities in the interior. Sites will range from Copacabana and Ipanema to markets, health clinics, Baroque churches, botanical gardens, local neighborhoods and dances.

Approximate cost is $3,000, which includes air fares, lodging, all accommodations and most meals. For details, contact Jan Fiola in the MSUM sociology and criminal justice department, 477-2584, or fiola@mnstate.edu.

Students may register for two sociology credits as part of the tour.

EXHIBIT ILLUSTRATES PERSECUTION OF FORMER
MSUM PRESIDENT’S FAMILY IN NAZI GERMANY
“A Voice Silenced,” an exhibit that tells the personal story of former MSU Moorhead Pres. John Neumaier’s family during the Nazi persecution of Jews before and during World War II, will be on display Oct. 6-20 at the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gallery.

Neumaier’s mother, Leonora, a well-known opera singer in Frankfurt, was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Maidanek death camp in Poland, where she was murdered in 1942.

Returning to the campus where he was president from 1958-68, Neumaier will present a lecture on the exhibit at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9 in the gallery.

Neumaier was a teenager when the Nazi Party began its domination of German politics and culture. Jews were threatened by party thugs and harassed by government bureaucrats and discriminatory laws. As war loomed, he and his father Otto managed to leave Germany and travel to the U.S., but complications with immigration rules and officials kept his mother from joining them.

Leonara left a legacy for her children and grandchildren. In 1946 a Swiss warehouse sent a notice to Otto Neumaier about several trunks left in storage. The trunks had been packed by Leonora and contained family heirlooms, opera programs, posters, and reviews of her performances, as well as recordings of her singing voice.

Neumaier and his daughter, Diane, used materials from the trunks to create “A Voice Silenced” as a tribute to the memory of Leonore Schwarz Neumaier and to the millions of innocent victims of the Nazis.

After leaving MSUM in1968, Neumaier became the president of the State University of New York at New Paltz. MSU Moorhead’s newest residence hall is named in his honor.

Diane Leonore Neumaier is an internationally exhibited photographer and Professor of Art at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

A scholarship endowment in honor of Leonore Schwarz Neumaier has been established to assist voice music students. People interested in donating to the endowment fund should contact Dennis Aune at the MSUM Alumni Foundation.

The exhibition was underwritten by a donation from Ruth G. Landfield of Fargo.

MSUM CELEBRATES HOMECOMING
A bonfire, a Doo Dah parade, an alumni party and a campus talent show will surround Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Homecoming Week celebration Oct. 13-19.

Events get underway Monday with a bonfire and pep rally at 9 p.m. on Nemzek’s south practice field, featuring the traditional burning of the “M,” food, music and a chance to meet Homecoming royalty.

DragonFest ’03 features potato sack races, parachutes, bocce ball and more from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the mall Tuesday, Oct. 14. The event will also feature music by several local bands.

Wednesday, hypnotist Fredrick Winters is on stage at 8 p.m. in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts Hansen Theatre ($3 college I.D., $5 general admission).

Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m., MSUM hosts its annual campus variety show and Homecoming coronation in Weld Hall’s Glasrud Auditorium followed by a dance in the student union’s Underground from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards banquet starts at 6 p.m. Friday at the Ramada Plaza Suites Fargo, honoring five MSUM alums. Kristen Harris, Janelle Schumacher, Jon Hovde, Corey Elmer and Sharon Dardis.
Saturday events start with MSUM’s College of Business and Industry honoring two of its alumni, Kevin Charles Carlson and Tammy Miller, at a 10 a.m. brunch in the Center for Business.

At noon Saturday, MSUM students will present their annual Doo Dah Parade—no floats or marching bands, just gimmicks and craziness—marching down 11th Street from the university gates to 9th Avenue to 17th Street.

At 1 p.m., the Dragons face the Winona State Warriors in the annual Homecoming football game on Nemzek Field, followed by a 4 p.m. volleyball match between the Dragons and the Duluth Bulldogs.

Lutheran House celebrates its 50th anniversary with an open house all afternoon.

Also Saturday, an alumni party starts at 5 p.m. in Coaches Sports Pub with free music, appetizers, music and karaoke.

A golden reunion banquet for the classes of 1952, 53 and 54 will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday the Ramada Plaza Suites

To make banquet reservations or for information on any Homecoming events, call 477-2143.

PHOTO DOCUMENTARY CHRONICLES
WEST FARGO’S RAPID DEVELOPMENT
“West Fargo: A Work in Progress” is the latest title from The Prairie Documents Photographic Book Series.

The 12th book in the series, it takes a photographic look at a city that’s evolved from a company town to one of the fastest growing communities in North Dakota.

The 159-page documentary includes 137 back and white photographs and a short essay by Sarah Henning, a former reporter for The Forum and a 2000 graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Published by MSUM’s mass communications department, “West Fargo” is the most recent release in the series, started 14 years ago to record the culture and history of the Red River Valley region. Each of the books in the series is a product of MSUM advanced photography students, who participate in all aspects of the publishing process under editor Wayne Gudmundson.

West Fargo, founded in 1871, was essentially a meat packing town until the last of a series of slaughterhouses, Federal Beef, closed in 1999 over a controversy surrounding waste disposal and the city sewer system.

Despite the loss, West Fargo prevailed. No longer Fargo’s little sister, it’s a community in transition, with a population that’s tripled to 15,000 in a few decades.

Home to Bonanzaville USA along with Red River Valley Fair and Speedway and a growing retail district, West Fargo includes West Acres Shopping Center as part of its school district’s tax base. Recent studies suggested that the city’s population may reach 40,000 once its development south of I 94 is finished.

Former West Fargo city auditor Mike McLeod, who died of cancer during production of the book, was fond of saying, “West Fargo needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up.”

That, says editor Gudmundson, is what the photographic documentary chronicles.

Copies of “West Fargo” are available at the MSUM Bookstore for $12 each (telephone 477-2111, or http://bookstore.mnstate.edu).

28TH ANNUAL FAMILY HISTORY
WORKSHOP AT MSUM OCT. 11
“Look in Your Own Backyard: A Spotlight on Local Genealogy Experts” is the theme for Family History Workshop XXVIII to be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11in MSUM’s student union. The workshop features a variety of classes for beginning and experienced genealogists.

Workshop session topics include: Minnesota and North Dakota resources; using computers and the Internet in genealogy research; beginning and advanced genealogy methods; interviewing and oral history techniques; document and photo preservation techniques; writing, citation and copyright issues; using LDS Family History Center resources; Swedish, Scots-Irish, German, German-Russian, and Scandinavian research.

Featured speakers are four local stars in the field of Research and Genealogy: John Bye, Rick Crume, Mark Piehl, and Chuck Walen. Each star presenter will offer the same presentation twice to ensure that everyone attending the workshop has an opportunity to attend the sessions.

Vicki Marthaler, a motivational speaker from the lakes region, is the luncheon speaker. Her presentation is about mining a valuable but often overlooked genealogy resource, senior citizens.

The workshop runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The noon luncheon program features Marthaler's address, presentation of family history photo contest awards, and presentation of family history research awards. Research Award submissions and Photo Contest. An exhibit hall with booths for more that 20 organizations and vendors is open throughout most of the day.

Workshop cost is $27. Cost includes the noon luncheon for those whose pre-registration and payment is received by October 1. Walk-in registrations are allowed, but the luncheon is not guaranteed with registration fees paid on the day of the workshop.

The Family History Workshop is sponsored by the Heritage Education Commission of Minnesota State University Moorhead. For more information about the workshop, the presenters, the family history research and photography contests and pre-registration materials, visit the Look In Your Own Backyard: A Spotlight on Local Genealogy Experts web site at www.mnstate.edu/heritage/xxviii.htm or contact Continuing Studies, Box 82, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN 56563, or 477-2183.

Thursday, Oct. 16 at MSUM…
EDUCATOR, AUTHOR TALKS ON DEADLY EFFECTS OFTOUGHER STANDARDS
Alfie Kohn, author of “ The Schools our Children Deserve” and who Time magazine described as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades and test scores,” will speak on “The Deadly Effects of Tougher Standards” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 in MSUM’s Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gaede Thrust Stage Theatre.

A former teacher, Kohn is the author of eight books on education and human behavior and now works with educators across the country and speaks regularly at national conferences.

Kohn and his many allies cite research showing that children who learn because teachers stimulate their natural curiosity tend to retain and understand more than those who learn to get good grades or high test scores. Adding on more tests, they say, will only encourage more bad teaching.

Yet this version of school reform has been embraced by politicians, corporate executives, and journalists, all demanding "accountability," which turns out to be what Kohn calls a euphemism for more control over what happens in classrooms by people who are not in classrooms.

"A plague has been sweeping through American schools, wiping out the most innovative instruction and beating down some of the best teachers and administrators," he says. “The intellectual life is squeezed out of schools as they are turned into giant test-prep centers.”

Nonetheless, President Bush and such leading Democrats as Kohn's home-state senator John F. Kerry are forging an alliance to increase the amount of standardized testing across the country and reorganize schools that don't improve.

Even some educators attracted to Kohn's vision wonder whether the rewards-conscious, test-ridden American culture can really change, and whether there will ever be enough teachers with the talent to direct self-motivated learners rather than just give lectures and tests.

His talk is free and open to the public.

MSUM ALUM EATS LIVE SPIDERS AS FINALIST ON NBC'S ‘FEAR FACTOR’
Krisandra Johnson, a 2000 MSUM health education graduate from Hillsboro, N.D., ate three live African cave-dwelling spiders on NBC TV’s top rated reality series “Fear Factor” Monday evening and is a finalist for the show’s $50,000 top prize. The competition continues next Monday.

Johnson, who worked as a professional dancer for Princess Cruise Lines after graduating, is now a cheerleader with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Extreme Team, The 5’2”, 117-pound dancer works days as a merchandise coordinator for Marshall Fields in Minneapolis.

“…..it tasted like dirt and tree bark. It was so gross,” she’s quoted on the show’s web site about eating the spiders. “I didn't gag on the first one. The second one I gagged and I thought I was gonna lose my cookies everywhere, in front of everything. Not only did I embarrass myself with tears coming down my eyes, but I was gonna lose my cookies in front of everybody.”

That’s not good news for the Timberwolves’ mascot, whose name happens to be Crunch.

In the reality series, now in its third season, six contestants try to outbrave one another in a series of three outrageous stunts ranging from sitting in a pit with 3,000 scorpions to milking a goat by mouth. The show is watched by an estimated 18million Americans.

To become one of the three finalists, Johnson competed in two events: one requiring her to crawl on a pole suspended 400 feet in the air from the roof of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, the other testing her speed in extracting seven pig knuckles, using her teeth, from the bottom of a pool filled with piranhas.

Eating African cave-dwelling spiders was part of contest among the three finalists—Johnson and two guys–– to win a new 2004 Mazda RX-8 sports car.

The competition with Johnson will conclude on next Monday’s (Oct. 6) show, airing at 7 p.m. on NBC (channel 11). Previews indicate that one of the stunts will include a cockroach-filled coffin.