Report to State Board of Higher Education July 2015
President’s Column
teachers and hands-on, inquiry-based learning
opportunities for students.
Tisa Mason, Ed.D.
Prairie Waters prime example
of VCSU as ‘Steward of Place’
As a state comprehensive
university, VCSU has a
responsibility to be a steward
of place. The term “stewards
of place” was coined by the
American Association of State
Colleges and Universities (AASCU) in 2002 to describe
the role of our public comprehensive colleges and
universities. AASCU describes this role as follows:
•The Prairie Waters Education and Research
Center provides environmental learning
opportunities focused on North Dakota waters
for students, teachers, and professionals, and
research on aquatic biological resources.
I recently had the pleasure of learning more about the
Prairie Waters Education and Research Center and
was truly impressed with its impact, especially since
it has only been in existence for five years! Here are a
just a few of the highlights:
•This past year the center hosted 104 classes
and more than 2,200 students.
•The staff of Prairie Waters worked with eight
high schools across the state on the River Watch
program, in which students are trained to use
our equipment to measure and report local
water quality.
Although there are numerous ways in which Valley City
State University effectively serves as a steward of place,
one of the ways in which we accomplish this important
aspect of our mission is to host three Academic
Centers—all focusing on our passion for teacher
education:
•Several of our students partnered with the
center for their undergraduate research. For
instance, one student, Josue Hernandez, took
part in a two-year survey of mussels found in the
Sheyenne River in a project funded by the North
Dakota Game and Fish Department.
•The Don Mugan Career and Technical Education
Center supports career and technical education
to meet North Dakota workforce needs.
•The Great Plains STEM Education Center provides
professional development opportunities for K-12
He was an integral part of the sampling team
and was in charge of a section of the project
which marked a subset of several hundred
mussels and tracked their changes in weight
and size over several months.
“We are ‘stewards of place.’ We engage faculty, staff
and students with the communities and regions we
serve—helping to advance public education, economic
development and the quality of life for all with whom we
live and who support our work. We affirm that America’s
promise extends not only to those who come to the
campus but to all our neighbors.”
Staff Senate report
Kaleen Peterson
Prairie Waters personnel do fish sampling.
He presented his work by giving talks at the 2014
Dakota Chapter of the American Fisheries Society
annual meeting and the 2014 North Dakota
Academy of Science annual meeting.
Josue is currently working for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service at the Valley City Fish Hatchery
and is looking into going to graduate school for a
master’s degree.
•Part of the Macroinvertebrate Lab is dedicated to
providing VCSU students with the opportunity to
help with the water-quality measurements in Lake
Ashtabula for the Army Corps of Engineers.
•This spring the center partnered with the North
Dakota Department of Health to offer a waterquality certification program. The Department
of Health would like to be assured that the folks
sending them water-quality reports have both
consistent training and meet some minimum
standards.
This is just a small sampling of the impact the work of
the VCSU Prairie Waters Education and Research Center
has had on our students, community, and state. It is
also just one of a multitude of ways in which we focus
our energies to “advance public education, economic
development, and the quality of life” for our neighbors—
and it is yet another reason why it is a great day to be a
Viking!
Faculty Senate and Student Senate REPORTs
Reports from Faculty Senate and Student Senate will
return in the fall when the respective groups begin
meeting regularly.
VCSU’s Staff Senate welcomed
a new group of senators at
the June transition meeting.
All broadband groups will be
represented, and three coaches
took seats as part of the
professional broadband. Staff
Senate is excited that coaches
will be more involved than in
the past and be able to contribute different ideas than
staff who mainly work in offices. All the new senators are
looking forward to getting started officially in July.
Staff Senate organized the VCSU parade float for the
Rally in the Valley celebration over Father’s Day weekend.
There was a great turnout of faculty and staff, and it was
Tisa and Bill Mason’s first Valley City parade riding in the
Viking ship.
Based on the Employee Satisfaction Survey and
subsequent meeting with Cabinet, increasing a sense of
“Viking Pride” on campus will be the 2015–16 priority of
VCSU’s Staff Senate. To aid this effort and after reviewing
the latest survey of VCSU staff members, Staff Senate
will be looking at how to change the Difference is Me
award and the administration of the Employee of the
Quarter award.
Staff Senate will also be evaluating what standing
calendar items can be taken off the docket in favor of
new initiatives. Input requested by administration in the
spirit of shared governance has increased in the past
year. Wanting to do whatever we do well, Staff Senate
does not want to be stretched too thin, so a vote on
which calendar items to discontinue will take place in
July. Also assigning projects to individuals to spearhead
with Senate support is a topic of the July agenda.
A relatively quiet campus in the summer offers time to
reflect on where Staff Senate is going and where our
priorities should lie. It is exciting to have new faces at
the table, and VCSU’s Staff Senate looks forward to the
successes and challenges of a new year.