Report to State Board of Higher Education November 2015
President’s Column
Tisa Mason, Ed.D., CAE
NDUS: A SYMPHONY
October 30, 2014, will always
be an important milestone in
my life—the day the State Board
of Higher Education hired me
to be the 13th president of
Valley City State University!
As I think back about the final
interview, I remember being asked about my thoughts
regarding both Valley City State University and the North
Dakota University System. I recall using the metaphor
of a symphony. To me, each university represents an
instrument. Have you ever marveled at the pure joy of
listening to a talented soloist? The system, of course,
represents the magic and power of a full orchestra.
As a university president, I have been hired to serve
both Valley City State University and the North Dakota
University System. Or, to borrow from my metaphor, to
be both a proficient soloist and skillful member of the
orchestra. Generally speaking, these roles are very
complementary. For example, VCSU’s mission, strategic
plan, and presidential annual goals are all approved by,
and complementary to, the mission, strategic plan, and
goals of the State Board of Higher Education.
This metaphor got me thinking about the fact that
as I have been busy “mastering my instrument of
choice,” I have also been learning more about our new
“conductor”—Chancellor Mark Hagerott. Although he is
probably more apt to use a Navy metaphor, I suspect he
would appreciate the metaphor of a symphony.
One of Chancellor Hagerott’s first initiatives has been
to pull together the collective talents of the system’s
presidents to work on several studies important to the
state:
• Governance: a study of the North Dakota University
System (NDUS) to ensure that the State Board of Higher
Education has the most current information concerning
effective governance and best practices at its disposal
as it shapes the system to provide the best possible
education for its students now and in the future.
• Mission: a study of how the current missions of each
system university aligns with the economic, education,
and workforce needs of the state and each region in the
state.
• Retention/Completion: a strategic, data-driven focus
on the successful implementation of a legislatively
funded program to enhance students’ successful
progression through a university—from admission to
completion.
• Administrative Costs: an analysis and comparison
of North Dakota higher education administrative costs
over time to address questions such as what variables
impact North Dakota’s public higher education
administrative costs, and if and how those costs have
changed over time.
• Shared Services: an exploration of where universities
could come together to reduce costs and enhance
efficiencies while improving the student experience and
enhancing satisfaction of employees and a myriad of
stakeholders.
• Tuition and Fees: a study of the current NDUS
tuition model in comparison to market trends, best
practices, and opportunities to ensure the system is
best positioned to meet workforce demands while
enabling affordable access to higher education for
North Dakotans.
I am excited to join my colleagues in exploring these
important topics. I think working together on these
teams—or “arrangements” as they might call it in the
music business—is indeed worth the investment of time.
In fact, one could say Chancellor Hagerott has called us
together to orchestrate an enhanced future for North
Dakotans. One might even employ a more seaworthy
aphorism: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” And that rising
tide indeed makes it another great day to be a Viking!
Building Leaders Who
Make A Better World
This article is dedicated to
six VCSU student leaders:
Mychael Bruce, JoLynn
Gregoryk, Malik Jackson,
Alyssa Jacobsen, Megan
Trautman, and Tonya Van
Dyke. An entire article
could easily be written on
each of these students for
a variety of reasons—some
are outstanding athletes;
all are engaged students;
others are stellar academic
Student Tarah Cleveland
performers. They are all
models an “Own the Bucket”
student leaders and role
T-shirt.
models. So why them; why
now? Because they had the courage to “know the way,
go the way, and show the way,” paraphrasing their use
of a John Maxwell quote.
October 24th—the Big Game—Vikings vs. the Jamestown
Jimmies in football at home at Lokken Stadium. As
game day approached, Mychael, JoLynn, Malik, Alyssa,
Megan, and Tonya decided to build Viking Pride while
honoring our recent NAIA Five Star Champions of
Character Award. They created an “Own the Bucket”
T-shirt as a game-day alternative to an unofficial, meanspirited and ultimately unacceptable shirt that had
portrayed our rival Jimmies in an unflattering manner.
Their promotional flyer urged our community to “uphold
our status as having character.” They provided our
community with an another way to demonstrate gameday spirit—one that in my opinion is reflective of the
NAIA Champions of Character principles of “integrity,
respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant
leadership.”
By the way, these six students are the officers of the
VCSU chapter of the National Society of Leadership
and Success, an organization dedicated to “Building
Leaders Who Make a Better World.” A big thank-you to
Mychael, JoLynn, Malik, Alyssa, Megan, and Tonya for
having the courage to challenge an untenable tradition
with class. Indeed, you’re making a better world, and
today you’re making it a great day to be a Viking!
Staff Senate report
Kaleen Peterson
VCSU Staff Senate will soon
be planning the second
administration of the Employee
Satisfaction Survey, with a goal
of gauging the campus climate
regarding workplace happiness
and loyalty among other things.
This survey may be rewritten
in the future, but we want at
least two sets of data using the exact same questions in
order to draw direct comparisons. Faculty and staff will
all be surveyed, as they were before, with VCSU Faculty
Senate support and assistance.
Viking Pride is still at the forefront of Staff Senate’s
mission this academic year. A few faculty members
have expressed interest in joining the Viking Pride
subcommittee led by Staff Senate. So with Cabinet’s
support, this will transition to an ad hoc campus
committee rather than being overseen by Staff Senate.
We believe this will encourage buy-in across campus
and lead to a more connected environment where
everyone feels they are a part of the Viking Family.
It’s clear that staff and faculty are buying into this,
and our efforts are working. There were 128 items of
“We All Row” and “Viking Pride” clothing sold to staff,
faculty, and a few students last month. The Professional
Dress Clothing Sale saw more than 80 items sold to
staff and faculty in the past few weeks. By comparison,
a similar event two years ago barely sold 20 items. We
are thrilled with the turnout of VCSU employees jumping
on board, and we can’t wait for all of this cardinal red
clothing to flood our hallways and offices. It will truly put
our Viking Pride on display for one another and visitors
alike.
Staff Senate just awarded the final two Difference is
Me awards and rolled out a replacement program this
past week—the Difference Maker Award. Instead of
individuals across campus nominating a staff member
for extra recognition when they have gone above and
beyond, different offices will be asked each month to
collectively nominate a staff member who has made
a difference for them as a department. A Staff Senate
subcommittee will oversee the logistics. Enrollment
Services was asked to be the first office to submit
a selection. Tara Praska, VCSU’s graphic designer,
was honored by the admissions office for all of the
marketing pieces she creates and how easy she is
to work with. Staff Senate is excited to start this new
chapter in recognizing the fantastic people who work at
VCSU.
As the fall semester winds down, Staff Senate is still
rowing—and increasingly we are seeing more people
rowing in the same direction. It is inspiring. We want
staff at VCSU to want to be here every day, and we feel
honored to be a part of encouraging that.
Faculty Senate REPORT
Anthony Dutton
In distance-running terms, I suppose that is what is
meant by hitting the wall and then pushing through it.
If they include a photo of me with this column, you will
see that I am not a runner of any kind. I did, however,
complete a dissertation in history so I know a thing or
two about endurance, fear of futility and finding a pace to
carry me the distance.
At any rate, we are breaking through that wall in the
semester now. Student advising is wrapping up and
registration for the spring has started. Yearly faculty
evaluation processes are nearing conclusion, and with
luck, in another week our calendars will start to open up
again. Courses are still in full swing, but that is the fun
stuff that keeps bringing us back to teaching and makes
the marathon so rewarding.
The news reports about
investigations into doping in
track and field set me to musing
about how academics and
athletics intersect—not in the
apparent ways of sports on
campus, but the less concrete
and more fanciful forms that
seem to make most sense right
before one falls asleep or while waiting for a meeting to
start (or end).
Student Senate report
All faculty and administrators in academic or student
affairs are familiar with the forms that academic doping
can take: students seeking shortcuts or advantage
from plagiarizing, dry-labbing or falsifying work. It is
exhausting, disheartening, but absolutely necessary
work to deal with those transgressions and try to use the
results to get students on a bad path to turn around.
VCSU has been the best thing in my life. With one simple
decision of where I wanted to go to college, my life
changed.
How much more frequently do we deal with the less
blatant but also insidious shortcuts of colleagues and
students intentionally doing sub-par work, fudging
deadlines and trusting that someone else will pick up the
slack? How often do those options occur to us?
One of the characteristics of our jobs in higher education
is that we hold others to high standards and must always
strive to meet those standards ourselves. I write that
after briefly considering ignoring the calendar reminder
to write my monthly report for this newsletter—those
shortcuts are dangerously tempting.
Academic terms are long races, with vigorous starts and
frantic finishes. We are at the point right now where the
momentum we have built is propelling us forward, and
although the end is not yet in sight, there is too much
behind us to quit. The source of our motivation changes.
Madelyn Zane
Being a Viking means more to
me than I ever thought it would.
I became an official Viking in
August 2013, but I really claim
being one for longer. I knew
I wanted to attend VCSU the
moment I visited.
Being a part of VCSU is incredible in many different ways.
I am able to be heavily involved in many organizations
and finish my degree in three years. During my first two
years of school I was the DECA president; during my
second year I was vice president of Collegiate DECA; and
during my last year—this year—I’m both Student Body
president and vice president of communication and
outreach for the North Dakota Student Association.
Throughout my time here, I’ve also been involved in
Viking Ambassadors, orientation, Learning to Live (as a
mentor), search committees, and much more.
I love being involved and staying busy. Being a three-year
student involves a lot of classes and homework, but even
with that, I still spend a lot of my time working on and
with organizations.
I love being involved; I want other students to know what
it’s like to be a Viking. If I can show them that, then I’ll
know that I’ve done something right when I graduate in
May.
VCSU’s STEM Education
Center receives nearly
$300,000 from DPI
Smithhisler joins
VCSU as interim VP for
student affairs
The Great Plains STEM
Education Center (GPSEC) at
Valley City State University has
received a competitive grant
award of $298,288 from the
North Dakota Department of
Public Instruction (DPI) through
the U.S. Department of Education’s Mathematics and
Science Partnership (MSP) program.
Peter Smithhisler has joined
the administrative staff of
Valley City State University
as interim vice president for
student affairs (VPSA).
The MSP program aims to improve K–12 classroom
instruction and student achievement in math
and science by providing intensive, content-rich
professional development to teachers.
VCSU’s Jamie Wirth, GPSEC director, and Gary
Ketterling, GPSEC education coordinator, will lead
professional development sessions for about 40 K–12
teachers in 8 North Dakota school districts: Edgeley,
Ellendale, Enderlin, LaMoure, Lidgerwood, LitchvilleMarion, Kensal and McClusky.
“We’re excited to be able to bring these area teachers
to VCSU and work with them on putting integrative
STEM methods and curriculum into their schools,”
said Wirth. “Our experience has been that teachers
appreciate what we’re able to share, and when they
bring these inquiry- and project-based lessons into
their classrooms, students are much more engaged
and energized about learning.”
The project, which runs through September 2016,
will include monthly 1-day professional development
sessions from November to March, followed by a
5-day summer camp in June, all on the VCSU campus.
The sessions will feature integrative STEM (science,
technology, engineering and mathematics) pedagogy
training, along with a wide variety of curriculum
training for teachers.
GPSEC will also conduct community STEM events at
each of the participating schools, including Family
Engineering Night and STEM Design Challenge Night.
As interim VPSA, Smithhisler
will direct the Student Affairs
division, leading VCSU’s efforts in enrollment,
retention, and financial aid; residence life and dining;
cocurricular activities; counseling, career and diversity
services; parent relations; student safety, government
and judicial process; and new student orientation.
Smithhisler previously served the North American
Interfraternity Conference (NIC) in Indianapolis,
Ind., most recently as president and CEO. (NIC, a
75-member trade association, serves 400,000
student members and 5 million alumni on 800
campuses throughout the United States and Canada.)
Smithhisler began his NIC career in 1998 as director
of leadership education; in 2001, he became vice
president for media and community relations, and
in 2007 he became president and CEO, as well as
executive vice president of the NIC Foundation.
His other higher education experience includes work
at Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colo.)
as interim director of campus activities, associate
director of campus activities and director of Greek life;
at the University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D.)
as coordinator of Greek life; and at Western Illinois
University (Macomb, Ill.) as interfraternity council
advisor.
He holds a master’s degree in college student
personnel and a bachelor’s degree in public
communication and human relations, both from
Western Illinois University.
Smithhisler and his wife, Christina, are the parents
of twin daughters, Olivia and Hadley. His family will
remain at their home in the Indianapolis area while
his daughters complete their senior year in high
school.