Dimensions UND's Quarterly Newspaper
May 2005
UND Home | UND Dimensions Home | Contact UND | Back to May 2005 Issue
New UND Admissions standards this
fall will result in UND's best-prepared freshman class ever
Leadership skills are becoming an essential part of a complete
education
Opportunities to "make a difference" motivate student
leaders
Leadership programs round out regular courses
Housing Systems, certificate program foster leadership
The next challenge: the ballot box
Making Headlines
Special Collections houses the treasures of the University
It's a great time and a great place for innovation
UND's entrepreneurship education programs are among nation's
best
Sales figures are the real final exam for fledgling student
entrepreneurs
Presidential Scholars will number nearly 700
The School of Medicine & Health Sciences marks a century
of excellence
New UND Admissions standards this fall will result in UND's best-prepared freshman class ever
The University of North Dakota will greet the best-prepared freshman class
in its history this fall as measured by high school grade point averages and
by performance on the ACT exam.
After a three-year study, the University has raised its admission standards
to ensure that all students in all classes are equally ready for a UND learning
experience, said President Charles E. Kupchella. “The implications of
this are enormously positive,” he said, “not only for individual
students but also for their families, the University, and the state of North
Dakota.”
UND previously required a composite ACT score of 17 and a high school grade
point average of 2.25 for automatic
admission. The new standards — over and beyond the core requirements
of the North Dakota University System — are set at an ACT score
of 21 and a GPA of 2.5 for automatic admission, although the Admissions
Committee uses a sliding scale. Thus, an ACT of 22 and a GPA as low
as 2.25 will get you in, as will a GPA of 3.5 and an ACT as
low as 18.
For applicants who are not admitted outright, there is also a provisional admission
category. Such enrollees are limited to no more than 15 credits for the first
semester. They must also enroll in an “Introduction to University Life”
course or a study skills course, and meet twice during the first semester with
a professional staff person in the University Learning Center.
Beyond the distinctive academic “sizzle” brought to a campus by
a highly qualified student body, the new standards will result in higher retention
and graduation rates. Up to now, UND typically lost about 25 percent of its
freshman class between the first and second years, and had a six-year graduation
rate of about 54 percent. These figures are better than the national average,
Kupchella said, but still not good enough.
Why not?
Research by the Pell Institute and others has found that leaving college before
graduating can sometimes incur greater liability than never having attended,
Kupchella said. The result can be a delay of the increased earning power that
a degree typically provides, compounded by the likely burden of loan payments
that will reduce income even further.
When it announced its new standards, the University said its freshman class
would be smaller than those that have set records in recent years. That will
likely be the case compared to last year’s incoming class of 2,169 first-year
students, said Robert Boyd, vice president for student and outreach services.
But, he predicted, the group is still likely to reach the University’s
Strategic Plan target of 1,850 new freshmen.
Already there is evidence of self-selection, Boyd said. The number of applications
— although still numbering in the thousands — was down about 10
percent in early May. However, the average ACT score of the applicants
is up nearly a point, to 23.9.
“UND respects this great state’s long tradition of open access to
its higher education system,” Boyd said. “And all of us know of
individuals who were ‘late bloomers’ and did much better in college
than anyone would have guessed. I believe we have enough flexibility in our
approach to take this factor into consideration.”
He noted that the University offers no remedial courses. Students needing these
are encouraged to spend a year at a community college or another institution
with programs designed to correct weaknesses in a student’s academic background.
In fact, a growing number of institutions — 64 at last
count — have negotiated formal agreements with UND to ease the
transfer process.
And to those who worry that the higher standards may end the pattern of record
overall enrollments at UND each fall, Kupchella points out a paradox.
After an initial decline, most universities that raised academic standards have
seen demand increase for admission, particularly from out-of-state students
who are shopping for a good school. A study conducted by Cullen Goenner and
Sean Snaith of the UND Department of Economics suggests that this phenomenon
is likely to occur here. They also point out that higher retention rates will
have the effect over time of increasing overall enrollment.
The optimum size of the University — including its mix of undergraduate
and graduate students and on-campus and distance students — must be driven
by a strategic plan, not by something as simplistic as a “bigger is better”
mentality, Kupchella said.
This is especially true, he adds, in an environment in which both state and
federal governments are signaling that tax revenues should no longer be relied
upon to fund expansion. Thus, UND is taking enrollment management to a new level,
he said, including a program-by-program analysis of enrollment capacity.
In the meantime, he intends to celebrate the imminent arrival of UND’s
best freshman class ever.
Teaching and providing opportunities for student leadership have become more
prominent goals for universities, going well beyond the traditional obligation
to prepare their graduates for citizenship.
For one thing, in the flatter, more decentralized organizations that now typify
the private and nonprofit sectors, even new employees soon find themselves leading
groups and facilitating the work of constantly shifting teams.
So, how is UND doing in preparing its graduates for this world?
Very well, according to surveys of both current seniors and alumni who have
been in the workforce for three years. Both groups gave UND higher marks for
preparing them for leadership than did respondents at peer universities nationwide.
For example:
- Seventy-six percent of seniors were very satisfied or satisfied with their leadership opportunities, compared to 68 percent elsewhere.
- Alumni ranked UND higher than its national peers in 10 of 13 aspects of college life, including opportunities to learn “to work in groups” and as “a team member.”
The new focus on leadership ties in nicely with a decades-old tradition of
partnering with students, says Dean of Students Lillian Elsinga. In the early
1970s, the federal courts ruled that 18-year-olds enjoyed all the rights of
adulthood except those specifically excluded by law (such as limitations on
the consumption of alcohol). This brought an end to the policy then known as
in loco parentis, which had permitted colleges to act as substitute mothers
and fathers.
UND was among the first to involve students as full participants in the direction
of the educational enterprise. Overnight, students became voting members of
the University Senate and all of its standing committees, from admissions to
parking; were given oversight of the Dakota Student and other publications;
and began to decide how to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees paid
by students over and beyond tuition.
That last action, giving students actual control over a significant budget,
still hasn’t happened on a lot of campuses, Elsinga observed.
But UND students turned out to be good stewards, she said, plowing student fees
into the educational enterprise that rightfully could have been spent totally
on extracurricular activities. Moreover, students often taxed themselves to
pay additional fees to, for example, improve student health services, expand
the Memorial Union, and, most recently, finance a $20 million wellness center.
The result, Elsinga said, has been that many of the brightest and most energetic
students have been motivated to become involved not only in student government
but also in a multitude of other opportunities.
The University recognizes more than 250 student organizations ranging from the
Chess Club to groups such as the Student Ambassadors and the Alumni Association’s
Telesis organization, both designed to involve students in official UND activities.
Likewise, fraternities, sororities, and the residence hall system extensively
involve students in planning and decision-making.
Effective skills can be built through lessons as well as experience. The University
has expanded its educational opportunities for students who wish to explore
more deeply the theory and practice of leadership.
For example, a Memorial Union project, open to all, is the Leadership Workshop
Series, a semester-long sequence of seminars on such topics as “Leading
With Soul: The Power of Ethical Leadership” and “Making It Happen:
Turning Ideas Into Action.” As an option, students can participate in
the series for credit by registering for an Introduction to Leadership Development
course in the College of Education and Human Development.
Student Government offers the Emerging Leaders Program. It invites 25 promising
new freshmen to participate in a year-long period of study, mentoring, networking,
and gaining practical experience by working on campus and community projects.
More leadership initiatives are on the drawing board in various parts of the
University. It’s the right thing to do, Elsinga said, and added that this
emphasis is giving UND another advantage in recruiting top-notch students.
Student leaders at UND literally number in the hundreds. Dimensions talked to three of them who had especially high profiles in the school year just ended.
Kayla Effertz
State Board of Higher Education student representative and UND senior Kayla
Effertz sees the forest — and the trees — as she experiences higher
education from both the administrative and student sides.
“Being a student board member is an amazing experience,” said Effertz,
a Velva native who is double-majoring in marketing and communication. “I
was fortunate to be there during the legislative session and see the entire
process come to life.”
Effertz said it is a challenge to represent students in all 11 institutions
of higher education in the state. “The colleges and universities have
different missions, cultures, and programs,” she said, “and I need
to look at what’s best for the entire North Dakota University System.”
She said she quickly became a fan of North Dakota’s new approach to coordinating
higher education, known as the Roundtable, which allows institutions flexibility
with accountability. “Campuses can do what’s best for them,”
she said.
One of the opportunities she had as a board member was to travel to New Orleans
for a community college conference. “It helped me understand the community
college culture and the differences between the missions of a community college
and a research institution,” she said. She also appreciates the orientation
she received from board members. “They’ve taken me under their wing,
and they treat me like an equal.”
Effertz said that preparing for the monthly board meetings takes a lot of time.
She spends three to four days before each meeting poring over proposals, background
information, reports and agendas.
“You have to know what’s going on because it moves fast,”
she said. And, she added, preparation time can cut into her class time. So far,
she’s managed to balance the two, along with her job as marketing
manager of the Memorial Union.
Effertz hopes to remain in North Dakota or the Midwest, and work in economic
development, public relations, or marketing. She grew up on a ranch, and enjoys
going home to help her family work with and show cattle.
Jordan Schuetzle
Outgoing Student Body President Jordan Schuetzle of Bismarck
figures it might be a couple of decades before he again has a leadership position
with this much responsibility. “Being student body president really is
the equivalent of a high-end CEO position,” he said. The 60-hour weeks,
innumerable meetings, and personal sacrifice paid off, though, with incredible
rewards. “I got so much out of it,” he said. “Administrative
leadership experience, knowledge of state politics, workplace politics —
it’s a real job.”
Schuetzle believes his term as president has made a difference for students,
especially in parking (a common student complaint) and communication.
“We’ve implemented parking reforms, tickets are down, there are
fewer infractions, lower fines, the time has been extended to pay for parking
permits, and we’ve revamped the appeal system,” he said, adding
there’s still more to do. In the communication area, his administration
developed UNDerground, a free online
bulletin board similar to eBay. Students can use it to exchange rides, find
roommates, and buy and sell items. Administered by Student Government and written
by student programmers, the Web site, www.underground.und.edu,
has quickly become popular.
Schuetzle describes the job of student body president as one that influences
University policy and programs. “I like to sit down and talk to students
about their problems and see if I can make a difference,” he said.
One of the biggest responsibilities, he said, is facilitating communication
between the admininistration and students. The administration’s job, he
said, is to take a long-term view of issues, while students necessarily have
a shorter time frame. As student body president, he’s found that it takes
a lot of time to fully understand how policies and administrative decisions
affect students.
A political science major, Schuetzle will be attending the UND School of Law
this fall. His future may involve working in business or real estate development,
and eventually re-entering the public sector.
Over the short term, he is most looking forward to just one thing: not wearing
a suit to class.
Kendra Wobbema
Can you earn a university degree in only three years and be active on campus?
Kendra Wobbema is proving it. The UND junior says it just requires one big sacrifice:
sleep.
Wobbema, who has Harwood and Fargo roots but attended high school in Maryland
and Virginia, is majoring in international studies with a minor in political
science and a concentration in education and literacy in Africa.
“I thrive on being busy,” she said. A 2003 charter member
of UND’s Emerging Leaders program, which uses mentors to encourage
leadership development in freshmen, Wobbema is active in Kappa Alpha Theta sorority,
Panhellenic Council, and Campus Crusade for Christ. She also works at UND’s
Energy and Environmental Research Center as a research assistant
in the coal ash group.
Wobbema highly recommends sorority life. “It made UND seem smaller to
me,” she said. “I was able to get to know 70 women instead of 13,000
students.”
Sorority life, she said, emphasizes scholarship, involvement, and networking.
Within her sorority, she’s served as chair of its music and awards committees.
Last year, she was named to represent Kappa Alpha Theta on Panhellenic Council,
the governing organization for UND sororities. There she has been involved in
projects related to new member education, event programming, and risk management.
Just recently Wobbema was named co-chair of a University
task force on excellence in Greek life. It will take a closer look
at the challenges facing fraternities and sororities, ensuring that the Greek
system remains the vital force at UND that it has been for more than a century.
Wobbema will graduate next year, and plans to work overseas doing international
relief work. She’s already spent time in Guatemala, Russia, and Chad.
This summer, she will have a second internship experience in Los Angeles, working
in church leadership and service. She enjoys music, especially singing and playing
piano.
UND students are finding new opportunities these days to supplement their regular
studies with course work specifically related to the topic of leadership.
One example is the new Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program in the College
of Arts and Sciences, which last spring graduated its first student, Shelle
Michaels, who grew up in Adams.
Another six students received the certificate this spring, and a growing number
are “in the pipeline,” says program coordinator Heather Helgeson.
The nationally recognized certificate enhances these students’ regular
majors in the same way that others broaden their education with a “minor”
concentration in another field.
The certificate program is approved by American Humanics, a national alliance
of universities working in the nonprofit leadership area. Students complete
a core sequence of three courses taught within the College of Arts and Sciences.
These include “Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector,” “Capstone
Experience and Development,” and, most importantly, the internship, an
intensive, six-credit, semester-long supervised experience working for a nonprofit
organization.
Certificate students also choose three “regular” UND courses from
a list offered by various departments on topics related to organizational theory,
service and community, and diversity.
These days, Michaels is beginning a new job as special events coordinator for
the UND Alumni Association. But she hasn’t been idle since graduation:
She’s a graduate student and teaching assistant; operates her own business,
Midnight Sun Public Relations; and this year coordinated, for the second time,
a local production of The Vagina Monologues to benefit the Grand Forks Community
Violence Intervention Center.
Housing Systems, certificate program foster leadership
The University’s 13 fraternities and seven sororities have long been
a training ground for future leaders. The same is true of UND’s network
of 14 residence halls. In fact, UND’s six most recent student body presidents
— Berly Nelson, Matt Brown, Jonathan Lovseth, Adam Baker, Jordon
Schuetzle, and Bobby Haskins — have all lived
in West Hall. Overall, more than 200 students
annually hold leadership positions in the halls, serving some 3,000
residents.
“Whether they are working on policy development or programming events,
student leaders build valuable skills while helping create strong communities,”
says Judy Sargent, director of residence services.
The Association of Residence Halls is the overall governing body that ties together
the hall community. ARH consists of five boards for the areas of policy, budget,
programming, food/facilities, and conduct. A representative is chosen at the
beginning of each year to represent the students in each wing on the hall council.
Every hall has a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, programmer,
and representative to each of the ARH committees. Meetings are held weekly.
Sargent said ARH also involves UND students at the regional and national levels
through the National Association of College and University Residence Halls,
the largest student-run, nonprofit organization in the United States.
Then, too, 90 students serve as paid residence assistants and
14 as hall directors, gaining valuable leadership experience
in the process, she said.
The next challenge: the ballot box
In what has become a tradition at the University of North Dakota — students
serving in the Legislature — Stacey Horter and Nick
Hacker have completed their first terms as North Dakota lawmakers.
Horter, a native of Bismarck, received her degree last spring
while campaigning for the House. Hacker, originally from Alexandria,
Minn., and still a student, is at age 22 the youngest person ever elected
to the Senate. They represented District 42, which
includes the UND campus, in the legislative session just ended.
In Bismarck, the two often crossed paths with a pair of elected state executive
branch officials who also were UND students when they were first elected to
the Legislature, remaining there until winning statewide office. Jim
Poolman, class of 1992, is the state insurance commissioner, while
Wayne Stenehjem, classes of 1974 and 1977 (law), serves as
the attorney general. Rick Clayburgh, classes of 1990 (M.B.A.)
and 1994 (law), recently stepped down as tax commissioner; he served in the
House from 1988 to 1996.
Poolman says politics gave him an avenue to use the leadership skills he learned
at UND in the early 1990s. “As student body president, I worked at building
coalitions on campus,” he recently told the UND Alumni Association’s
magazine, the Alumni Review. “The Legislature has a similar responsibility
to work together to help move the state forward in general. I like the motto,
‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’”
At the federal level, two-thirds of North Dakota’s delegation earned their
degrees at the University of North Dakota. Both Sen. Byron Dorgan,
class of 1964 (he also holds an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from UND),
and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, classes of 1974 and 1979 (law), were
high-visibility students on campus. Now when they visit their alma mater, they
often schedule in guest lectures and other appearances before today’s
generation of students.
Elected officials in Bismarck and Washington who are UND alumni are perceived
by today’s students as great role models regardless of political party,
says Tim O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the Alumni Association.
But, he adds, running for political office is not the goal of most of the students
he meets daily. Rather, future alumni want most to excel in their professional
lives. In that realm, success will be based not only on what they know but also
on what they can do, especially as a member of a team. So, he says, any experience
they can get in “making things happen,” and any extra leadership
training they can pick up along the way, pays off big time.
Special Collections houses the treasures of the University
The Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections in the Chester Fritz Library serves as the “jewel box” of the University, housing remarkable historical treasures from our region and around the world. On these pages are just a few of those treasures. The Department also provides a great range of resources and services to assist all who seek to enhance their understanding of the events and circumstances that have shaped this land and their lives.
The George S. Patton Papers were assembled by Sereno Elmer Brett, Patton’s
second in command during World War I. Spanning the years 1918 to 1944, the
papers primarily document the activities of Patton and the 304th (1st) Tank
Brigade and the early development of tanks and tactics during World War
I. Brett organized and took command of the 345th (327th) Battalion, Tank
Corps in June 1918. In the St. Mihiel Offensive of September 1918, he led
the first American tank attack in World War I, along with the 344th (326th)
Battalion. Brett assumed command of the 304th (1st) Tank Brigade after Patton
was wounded in late September 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. At
right is a “Barrage Map for St. Mihiel Offensive-Area, 1st Division,”
one of 36 battle maps in the collection.
It's
a great time and a great place for innovation
by: Bruce Gjovig
Gjovig is director and entrepreneur coach of the UND Center for Innovation and a nationally known expert in the encouragement of entrepreneurship incubators and private investment. Dimensions asked him to reflect about the University’s growing involvement in this area.
Now is a great time for entrepreneurship and innovation at UND, in North Dakota, and across the United States. Never have there been greater opportunities for those with creative ideas or a stronger need for them in the economy. And we are pleased to say the best place to embrace entrepreneurship and innovation is UND.
Opportunities are immense. Leaders in the private sector, government, and academia recognize the need for innovation in all sectors of the economy — our future depends on it. The opportunities are not only to develop new technologies, processes and products to solve problems and meet emerging needs, but also to capitalize on research to create new industries that will build a dynamic global economy. Future leaders in most economic sectors will likely have strong backgrounds in innovation and entrepreneurship. These are exciting times.
Need- and opportunity-based entrepreneurship did well in both the “up”
economy of the 1990s and the “down” economy that followed. For two
decades now our economy has embraced change. The agents for change are innovators
and entrepreneurial ventures. The pace of change continues to accelerate, creating
more opportunity for the creative people among us in business, engineering,
medicine, art, social sciences, and many other fields. The ability of our nation
and state to remain productive, competitive, and a technological leader depends
on our ability to foster and support innovation and entrepreneurship. This is
where the UND Center for Innovation comes in.
Enter the Center for Innovation
In 1984, the Center was formed to developaprivate/public partnership to foster
innovation and entrepreneurship across the state. It was one of the first entrepreneur
outreach programs in the nation, and it has remained a leader in the field to
this day, winning five national awards for excellence. More than 400
products and ventures have been launched with the Center’s assistance,
creating thousands of jobs and attracting tens of millions of dollars of investment.
Ventures have grown out of the creativity and leadership of students, researchers,
and innovators from across the state. The success rate has been over 90 percent
as creative potential was encouraged and supported.
Last October, UND was ranked 14th on a list of “America’s
Most Entrepreneurial Colleges.” The announcement on the Web by
www.forbes.com/entrepreneur
read: “Only a few of the nation’s more than 2,000 colleges are concentrating
on producing tomorrow’s great entrepreneurs. For the first time, the Princeton
Review and Forbes have identified those forward-thinking institutions. Our list
of the 25 Most Entrepreneurial Campuses highlights the cream of the crop: schools
that are teaching their undergraduates how to start their own businesses, and
are supporting them with everything from mentoring to venture funds.”
UND is delighted to be ranked in the top 4 percent in entrepreneurship.
The University has developed a remarkable infrastructure over the past
20 years to support innovation and entrepreneurship, including:
The Center for Innovation draws from this rich, innovative culture and infrastructure that has been developed over the last two decades. The focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment, along with exceptional student involvement and the reputation for producing tomorrow’s entrepreneur leaders, are powerful magnets that will attract more talented, ambitious people.
UND's entrepreneurship education programs are among nation's best
Can the ability to take an idea and grow it into a new business — often
referred to these days as “entrepreneurship” — be learned
at a university?
Yes, says Dean Dennis Elbert of the College of Business and Public Administration,
if the student has the requisite energy and creativity, and if the teaching
goes beyond traditional classroom methods.
Entrepreneurship programs are popping up across the country, he notes, but UND’s
was one of the first. That experience pays. The Princeton Review and Forbes.com
this year ranked UND as 14th on a list of the best 25 in the country, ahead
of such schools as Stanford and Boston University. The reason? UND’s emphasis
on experiential learning, internships, mentoring, and other approaches connecting
academic content to the real world.
Having UND’s nationally known Center for Innovation — and its two
businessincubators — under the umbrella of the College also helps (see
the article at left).
UND’s program is led by Endowed Chair Jeffrey Stamp, Ph.D., one of the
nation’s pioneers and gurus in entrepreneurship education, and Craig Silvernagel,
entrepreneurship director. Within the College, about 30 students are majoring
in the discipline. Another 40 students are pursuing less extensive “tracks”
in entrepreneurship studies leading to the equivalent of a minor for business
students and the awarding of a certificate for students from other colleges.
An increasing number of students in fields ranging from engineering to philosophy
also are taking entrepreneurship courses as electives, Elbert noted.
The entrepreneurship major, like all of UND’s AACSB (Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business) accredited business programs, is rigorous, Elbert
said. It requires completion of a 34-credit pre-business core in accounting,
economics, information systems, math, political science, and communication;
and then, upon admission to major status, another 21-credit selection of required
courses in marketing, management, finance, economics, and accounting.
The entrepreneurship major itself includes nine required courses: Venture Initiation,
Venture Growth, New Product Development, Entrepreneurial Finance, Personal Selling,
Marketing Research I, Marketing Research II, Human Resource Management, and,
perhaps most important, the Entrepreneurship Internship.
The whole process is tied together as each student develops a business plan,
which gains definition as the student moves through the course work. In the
end, the plan should have sufficient sophistication and substance to be financed
and implemented.
The business plans are not far-fetched dreams, either. For example, three
UND students — Dustin
Steckler of Washburn, Justin
Shaffer of Larimore, and Michael
Shope of Seattle, Wash. — recently won the top prizes in
a business plan competition sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad and North Dakota
Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. Shope, in fact, took his ideas to the
next stage: He operates his own new business in UND’s Ina
Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center.
For more information about studying entrepreneurship at UND, go to http://business.und.edu/entr/.
Sales figures are the real final exam for fledgling student entrepreneurs
Michael Shope manufactures and markets specialized lightweight flashlights for pilots to use in the cockpit at night. These flashlights can be attached to a headset; thus, moving the head directs the light to maps, checklists, books, or other items in the cockpit. His products are placed in campus bookstores, catalogs such as Kings, Wings Aloft, and Aviator’s Store; and FBOs (fixed base operations). Since launching Pilot Friendly Products 10 months ago, he has sold 450 flashlights and has started making a profit. His newest product is a flashlight with three bulb colors (full version of Dimensions). Shope is a junior from Seattle, Wash., studying both entrepreneurship and commercial aviation. His ultimate goal is to own a venture in the renewable energy industry.
Thirteen student ventures are among the 23 new businesses now operating in UND’s Skalicky Tech Incubator and the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center. They range from a company producing clip-on flashlights for aircraft pilots to a public relations firm and a business selling art over the Internet.
Some of the companies resulted from business plans developed in UND classes,
and most of the budding entrepreneurs got started through internships that combined
real-world experience with their studies, says Bruce Gjovig, director of the
Center for Innovation.
“We are fortunate to have friends like UND alumnus Kurt Mueller, who provides
funding for entrepreneur internships, and Bart Holaday of the Dakota Foundation,
which provides incentives through its Dakota Student Seed Fund,” Gjovig
said. “Supporters like these make it possible for students to realize
their dreams.”
The student companies, their owners, and hometowns include:
- Pilot Friendly Products, Mike Shope of Seattle, Wash.
- Vitamation, Chris Moen and Marilee Schott, both of Grand Forks.
- Guava Paste, Rodrigo Cintra, an international student from Brazil.
- Midnight Sun PR, Shelle Michaels of Adams.
- Savant Art, Matt Van der Molen of Richland Center, Wis.
- SNIRT, Mitch Hagerty of Pembina.
- Lil Whipper Snippers, Drew Parsley of Warroad, Minn.
- Sports Training Enhancement/Under Armour, Justin Hecht of East Grand Forks, Minn.
- Iron Roses, Dustin Stewart of Warroad, Minn.
- Tech Clothing, Vinh Nguyen of Sacramento, Calif.
- Heli-Adventures, Jeremy Prinkki of Roberts, Mont.
- Vinograd Winery, Cyril Wrabec of Sugar Creek, Mo.
- Euphoria Nightclub, Devon Allen of Seattle, Wash.
Presidential Scholars will number nearly 700
UND expects to exceed the record 171 first-year students enrolled last year in its elite Presidential Scholarship Program, bringing the on-campus total this fall to nearly 700 at various stages of their academic programs.
The new Presidential Scholars will include:
- National Merit Scholarship Finalists, $5,000 a year plus an annual $1,000 stipend provided by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
- Students with high school grade point averages of 3.65 and above and 32-to-36 composite ACT scores, $3,000 a year for four years.
- Those with grade points of 3.65 and above and 29-to-31 ACT scores, $2,500 a year for four years.
The School of Medicine & Health Sciences marks a century of excellence
On September 26, 1905, the North Dakota State Legislature established a medical
school at the University of North Dakota. With that action, the legislature
set in motion an entity that would become one of the more crucial elements in
supporting and enhancing the quality of life for people of this state and region.
This year, the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences is celebrating its
centennial with events throughout the state that will commemorate the anniversary
and highlight the School’s impact through education, research, and service.
The celebration will culminate with an alumni reunion during Homecoming this
fall in Grand Forks.
The School has an illustrious history. Over the past 100 years, the School
has prospered and its leaders and faculty have created a vibrant institution
praised nationally as a leader in medical education and rural health.
It is credited statewide as a tremendous resource for the citizens and a dynamic
and vital force for North Dakota’s advancement.
At the dawn of the 20th century, legislators recognized the need for the state
to offer medical education. Most of them were farmers living in rural settings
with little or no medical care. These legislators founded a medical school to
provide North Dakotans with the opportunity to become physicians and stay in
state to establish practices.
Until the mid-1970s, North Dakota’s Medical School offered only a basic
science curriculum, leading to the Bachelor of Science in Medicine degree. Students
were able to pursue medical education at a very reasonable cost. Many alumni
readily affirm that they could not have pursued a career in medicine had it
not been for the existence of the Medical School.
After two years of medical education at UND, students then transferred to other
medical schools, such as Harvard, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa,
Minnesota, and many others across America, to complete the Doctor of Medicine
(M.D.) degree. They were consistently surprised and pleased to discover they
had been educated as well or better than their classmates at these highly respected
schools.
In 1971 the Carnegie Report recommended that two-year medical schools should
close or convert to four-year, M.D.-granting institutions, since there had been
a sharp reduction in the number of seats into which two-year medical students
could transfer. With this national impetus, North Dakota faced a crossroads.
The choice was between ending its medical education program or expanding it
to enable students to complete the M.D. degree in the state.
Aware of these trends and concerned about a shortage of physicians, the State
Legislature made the commitment to expand the program to offer the full medical
degree at UND and to provide residency training in primary care fields such
as family medicine, internal medicine, and others.
In that pivotal year, 1973, UND Medical School administrators began the process
of transition; in the spring of 1976, graduates of the first class, 40 of them,
walked across the stage to receive North Dakota’s first M.D. degrees.
Over the past 30 years, the impact of the School on the availability of health
care services in the state, especially in terms of physicians, has been nothing
short of phenomenal.
Three years before the State Legislature approved the four-year medical education
program, less than 20 percent of physicians practicing in the state were alumni
of the Medical School. Today, the percentage of practicing physicians who are
UND alumni has risen to about 47 percent while the number of physicians has
grown nearly threefold over the past three decades.
The School of Medicine and Health Sciences offers programs in medicine, physician
assistant studies, physical and occupational therapy, clinical laboratory science,
cytotechnology, and athletic training, in addition to anatomy and cell biology,
biochemistry and molecular biology, microbiology and immunology, and pharmacology,
physiology and therapeutics.
Postgraduate residency training is offered in family medicine, internal medicine,
psychiatry, and general surgery, as well as a one-year transitional program
for physicians who plan to pursue training in such areas as anesthesiology,
radiology, dermatology, and other specialties.
The Class of 2008
The entering Class of 2008 began its studies on August 2. That group of 62 included
32 men and 30 women, and ranged in age from 21 to 35, with a mean average of
24. Forty-six are North Dakota residents; the others are participants in the
federally funded Indians Into Medicine program or exchange programs negotiated
with the Western Interstate Compact for Higher Education (WICHE) and the State
of Minnesota.
Although most are North Dakotans, not all attended college within the state.
These prospective M.D. recipients earned their undergraduate degrees at 31 institutions:
School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota
These accomplishments and national recognition are evidence of the excellence
and the high standards to which the School’s faculty aspire every day.
The UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences is one of this country’s
outstanding smaller, community-based medical schools.
There is much to celebrate in this, the 100th anniversary of its founding.
