|
President's Message
 This October edition of the BSU Insider is reaching you just in time for a reminder to attend tomorrow's Campus Open Forum on the university’s draft strategic plan for 2018-2023. Much preparation, thought and discussion have gone into the plan thus far, and now we need your perspective on the five priority areas and accompanying goals. We expect to begin implementing it in January.
The plan’s title, “Inspired by Place, Focused on Diversity,” captures both BSU’s powerful “sense of place” – not just where we are, but who we are – and our commitment to becoming an even more welcoming campus that better reflects the larger world. Please join us from 2-3:30 in the Crying Wolf Room, where we will review the plan and invite your feedback. Watch for information soon about how to comment online, as well.
Before the busy fall semester turns toward the holidays, I want to thank all who have contributed to a couple of major annual events, Homecoming and the Scholarship Appreciation Breakfast. I am especially pleased with the continued development of the Alumni Leaders in the Classroom program, which this year featured several of our 2017 Distinguished Alumni and drew audiences of interested students. Thanks also to the many faculty and staff who attended the Homecoming Honors Gala on Sept. 22. Every single alumni honoree credited BSU professors with helping them find their way to career success. I am also grateful to the BSU Alumni & Foundation staff for presenting last Saturday’s outstanding scholarship breakfast, which recognized about 650 student recipients and their families.
Be sure to get out and support our student-athletes this weekend and in coming weeks. BSU’s unbeaten soccer team will take on Wayne State at 1 p.m. Saturday, and the men’s and women’s hockey teams are on home ice both Friday and Saturday.
Go Beavers!
Sincerely,
Faith Hensrud, Ed.D.
President
|
|
President Hensrud: Looking Into the Future
President Hensrud spoke to the Bemidji Pioneer for a story published Oct. 7 to reflect on her first 16 months on the job and to look toward a bright future for both Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College.
|
|
|
October Faculty and Staff Achievements
Highlighting this issue's roundup of faculty and staff achievements is Sustainability Director Erika Bailey-Johnson (pictured, left), who presented BSU alumna Alex Miller with an Emerging Leader award at the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability conference, Sept 29–30.
|
|
|
Mack Wins Outstanding Service Award For
Work Providing Mental Health Services to Children
Brenda Mack, an assistant professor of social work, is one of three recipients of the 2017 Outstanding Service Award from the Minnesota Association for Children's Mental Health. In Crookston, Mack led an effort to create a school-based mental health program that provides therapy, assessment and skills development activities for uninsured or underinsured families with limited access to transportation.
|
|
BSU Strategic Plan Awaits Input
and Input From Campus Audience
Development of a new five-year strategic plan for Bemidji State will take a critical step forward Thursday, Oct. 12, when members of the Strategic Plan Committee present five proposed priority areas for 2018-2023 and their related goals, as well as key activities to achieve those goals.
Students, staff and faculty are invited to attend the presentation and discussion from 2-3:30 p.m. in the Crying Wolf Room. Members of the campus community will also have a chance to respond to the proposed plan via an online feedback form. The draft plan earlier also was shared with BSU bargaining units last month. A PowerPoint version can be downloaded from the university website.
Following final revisions in coming months, the plan is scheduled for implementation in January.
|
|
|
|
Bemidji State Again Among Region's Best in
Annual U.S. News & World Report Rankings
For the 10th consecutive year, U.S. News and World Report has named Bemidji State one of the best colleges and universities in the Midwest region. In its annual review of America’s Best Colleges, the publication placed Bemidji State in a tie for 32nd among public institutions in the Midwest region — its highest ranking since 2014.
|
|
|
BSU Named One of Nation’s
Most Environmentally Responsible Colleges
Bemidji State has been listed amongst the top 375 most environmentally responsible colleges in the country by The Princeton Review.
The Princeton Review’s eighth annual Guide to 375 Green Colleges profiles institutions with exceptional commitments to sustainability based on their academic offerings and career preparation for students, campus policies, initiatives and activities.
|
|
|
|
Annual Breakfast Celebrates Students, Recognizes Donors
About 650 students, parents and donors attended Bemidji State's 2017 Scholarship Appreciation Breakfast Oct. 7 in the Sanford Center arena. The event recognizes scholarship recipients for their achievement and those who donate to the BSU Alumni & Foundation in support of scholarships.
|
|
|
Nation’s No. 1 School For Fishing Successfully
Hosted Nation’s Best College Anglers
Bemidji State and the City of Bemidji partnered to host 90 college fishing teams from across the nation for the Bassmaster College Series National Championship, Aug. 10-12 on Lake Bemidji. VisitBemidji estimates that the tournament created $759,000 of economic activity in the city, and Bassmaster said Bemidji was perhaps the best host in the tournament’s 13-year history.
|
|
BSU Enjoys Third Consecutive Year
of Enrollment Gains
Enrollment has increased at Bemidji State for the third consecutive year, with the university reaching its highest number of enrolled students since 2011.
|
|
|
|
Homecoming Royalty Crowned
Homecoming Week kicked off Sept. 18 with coronation and the Mr. Beaver pageant. Senior Kaitlynn Arbogast was crowned Homecoming Queen as a representative of the Student Nurses Association, and sophomore Adam Roehl was crowned Homecoming King as a representative of the Relay for Life club.
|
|
- Past EuroSpring students gathered for photos with EuroSpring lead lecturer Allan Chapman following his Sept. 25 lecture on the history of humanity's fascination with the concept of aliens.
- The AIRC hosted a full day of activities on Oct. 9 to recognize Indigenous Peoples and Treaty Day, which included presentations featuring BSU students and faculty.
- Bemidji State's choral music program celebrated its 80th anniversary with a Sept. 23 reunion concert. More than 75 alumni returned to perform, and Dr. Paul Brandvik, BSU choral music director from 1967-1998, attended and conducted the concert finale.
- BSU Alumni & Foundation recognized 2017’s newest Distinguished Alumni honorees, this year’s Young Alumni Award winner and its friends and donors at the traditional Honors Gala, Sept. 23 at Bemidji’s Sanford Center.
- Hundreds of students explored campus engagement and involvement opportunities at the Hobson Memorial Union’s fall Beaver Organization Bash, Sept. 13 on the HMU Lakeside Lawn.
|
|
|
|
