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Presidential inauguration set for Oct. 14
Dr. Faith Hensrud will be inaugurated into office as the 11th president of Bemidji State University and as president of Northwest Technical College during an on-campus investiture ceremony on Oct. 14. The ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. in the BSU Gymnasium, followed by a reception in the Gillett Wellness Center. An all-campus picnic is being planned for Oct. 13. More information about both events will be forthcoming as details are finalized.
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BSU welcomes nearly 40 new faculty and staff
Miriam Webber (pictured) is joining the Department of Music as an assistant professor of music this fall from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she had been an adjunct instructor of music. She is one of nearly two dozen new faculty members on campus this fall and one of nearly 40 newcomers to the BSU campus community.
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Fall startup activities kick off Aug. 16
Startup activities for the 2016-17 academic year officially get underway Aug. 16 with the traditional president's welcome breakfast – the first for Dr. Faith Hensrud, who started her role as the university's 11th president on July 1. The breakfast begins at 8 a.m. in the upper Hobson Memorial Union's Beaux Arts Ballroom.
Led by Dr. Michael Anderson, interim provost, Academic and Student Affairs will update the campus on its activities in Hagg-Sauer 100, 15 minutes after the welcome breakfast concludes. College meetings will take place after lunch, and all new members of the campus community – including faculty, administrators, staff and graduate assistants – are invited to a welcome reception at the David Park House beginning at 3 p.m.
A complete schedule of Fall Startup activities is available on the Academic Affairs website.
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Residence halls open for new students on Aug. 19
Bemidji State's residence halls open for First-Year Residential Experience (FYRE) students at 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 19, to begin a full slate of activities related to Orientation and Welcome Week.
Orientation and Welcome Week has opportunities for volunteers to help on move-in day by answering questions for students and their families, staffing water or coffee stations, or other tasks to keep traffic moving smoothly at the residence halls.
Bucky's Guide Service tents will be open to help students navigate around campus on the first two days of classes. The tents will be in front of Bensen Hall and the American Indian Resource Center.
Volunteers interested in working on Move-In Day or at a Bucky's Guide Service tent can sign up on Google Docs.
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 Submit your Startup Week events to Corq
If your office or organization is hosting an event for Welcome Week, the Hobson Memorial Union encourages you to submit it to Corq, a calendar app that helps students stay up to date with campus events. To submit an event, log in to myBSU and select "BeaverLink" from the drop down menu. In BeaverLink, select "Organizations" from the menu at the top of the page. From your organization page, select "events" and complete the form.
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Tag move-in day social media posts with #BeaverMoveIn
 The Office of Communications and Marketing is using the #BeaverMoveIn hashtag for its coverage of move-in day activities on Aug. 19. Please consider using the hashtag in your own photos or posts on move in day and help us share your experiences with our friends on social media.
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BSU will welcome incoming freshmen at Aug. 19 Convocation
The capstone of Bemidji State’s Orientation weekend is the candle-lit academic Convocation ceremony. Convocation officially marks the beginning of a student’s academic journey as a member of the BSU student community and includes an induction ceremony and a gift. Convocation begins at 5 p.m. in the BSU Gymnasium at the Gillett Wellness Center.
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University Heights helps propel increase in on-campus occupancy rate
As of Aug. 11, Bemidji State’s residence halls and apartments had an overall occupancy rate of 98.1 percent, up 8.8 percent over fall 2015, when the rate was 89.4 percent. A total of 1,420 students applied to live in campus housing, when there were only 1,310. Those numbers include the new University Heights apartments on Bemidji Drive, which have 55 upperclass residents in 16 three- and four-bedroom apartments. The Department of Housing and Residence Life has worked hard to educate students on the academic, social and financial benefits of on-campus living, for returning students as well as freshmen.
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New signage will create the "BSU Beaver Trail" in tunnels
New wayfinding signs will be installed in Bemidji State’s tunnel and walkway system this month, replacing outdated and incomplete signage. A cross-campus task force on wayfinding and campus branding identified the tunnel project as an urgent priority because both students and visitors rely on the underground network in inclement weather. The green directional signs, which will be complemented by “you are here†maps, are all branded as “BSU Beaver Trail,†giving the system a more distinct name than “the tunnels.â€
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BSU employees give more than $800,000 to Imagine Tomorrow
Employee gifts and pledges in excess of $800,000 helped put Bemidji State’s first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign over its $35 million, five-year goal. A final total for the campaign will be revealed at the Homecoming Honors Gala and campaign celebration on Oct. 14 at the Sanford Center. Of funds tallied by June 30, $17.9 million was designated for scholarships, $4.7 million for academic support and $10.4 million for the Lakeside Fund, which goes to priority needs identified by the BSU Foundation. Another $3.8 million were gifts awaiting donors’ designation.
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Fall 20160 enrollment trending upward
 Early reports from the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness show solid enrollment numbers for the fall semester. Point-in-time total student headcount is up nearly 1.5 percent over fall 2015, while total credit generation is fractionally down and total FTE enrollment is essentially flat.
Official fall enrollment numbers will be available on the 30th day of classes, which this year falls on Oct. 4.
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MnSCU no more: state system now known as "Minnesota State"
In June, the Board of Trustees of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities endorsed an initiative that changes how the system refers to itself from “MnSCU†to “Minnesota State.†The move does not change the nation’s fifth-largest higher education system’s legal name, which is written in state statute. The rebranding is meant to help create a platform for future communication and promotional materials that will raise awareness of how the colleges and universities of Minnesota State differ from the state's other higher education institutions.
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Minnesota State to launch scholarship campaign at Twins game
 Minnesota State will officially launch its $50 million Access to Excellence scholarship campaign during a special Sept. 4 event at Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins will play the Chicago White Sox. Special ticket prices are available for the game. The Access to Excellence campaign looks to build on the system office's successful two-year campaign, which ended in June 2015 and raised $39 million to fund more than 28,000 scholarships. In that campaign, every college and university foundation in the system exceeded its individual goal.
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Hagg-Sauer reconstruction on hold
Bemidji State's planned project to demolish Hagg-Sauer Hall and replace it with a smaller, classroom-only building, pictured above, while renovating space in most other academic buildings on campus, is on hold after the Minnesota legislature concluded its 2016 session without passing a bonding bill that would have provided necessary funding for the project. Gov. Dayton and state officials have discussed a special session later this month to reconsider a bonding bill and other projects left unfinished when the legislative session ended, although none has been scheduled. Barring a special session, the project is on hold until at least the 2017 legislative session, when the Minnesota State system could again request funding as part of an overall state bonding bill.
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New home for mass communications nearly complete
An unrestricted $250,000 gift from the Imagine Tomorrow campaign has helped Bemidji State create a new home for the Department of Mass Communications in Deputy Hall. As part of a $1 million project, two sections of the building's second floor are being re-imagined. One area will house faculty offices and meeting space, and a second combines the former student production space with the studio formerly occupied by Lakeland Public Television into a multimedia learning environment.
“It’s an integrated multimedia space for students in radio, print and TV all in the same area, sharing electronic resources and working together,†said Dr. Virgil Bakken, mass communications department chair. “It’s a big deal.â€
Two new interactive classrooms will greatly expand multimedia learning, and new technology will facilitate broadcast of BSU events from the Sanford Center and campus locations, he said.
Guidance on the project and curriculum came from Dr. Michael Bugeja of Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
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Red Lake artist paints mural in AIRC student lounge
Red Lake, Minn., artist Wesley May has painted a mural in the student lounge of Bemidji State University's American Indian Resource Center.
• Photos from the installation
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VP Griggs accepts presidency at Southeast Technical Institute
 Bob Griggs, BSU's vice president for innovation and extended learning and interim dean at Northwest Technical College, will be the next president at Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls, S.D. His new role there begins Sept. 1. A farewell reception for Griggs will be held at Northwest Technical College at 2:30 p.m. today, Aug. 12.
Griggs has been at Bemidji State since 2000, when he became dean of distance learning and summer session. Over the next 11 years he led a variety of initiatives, including online and on-campus degree-completion programs. He was appointed interim vice president for academic affairs in 2011, and in 2012 was named vice president for innovation and extended learning. He has also been interim dean of NTC since 2014.
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BSU unveils "Best You @ BSU" student wellness initiative
Bemidji State has begun a broad-reaching student wellness initiative, The Best You @ BSU, which aims to align a student’s college experience with six dimensions of personal wellness. As part of the initiative, BSU’s Gillett Recreation-Fitness Center has been renamed the Gillett Wellness Center as the northern end of campus transforms into a hub for student services and wellness-related activities.
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Music major wins NAfME collegiate professional achievement award
Lynnea Iverson, a senior music education major from Staples, Minn., is one of two students nationwide who were honored with a 2016 Collegiate Professional Achievement Award from the National Association for Music Education.
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Click photos for complete galleries from each event (top, then L to R):
- Bemidji State's Beaver Fever team successfully defended its Education Cup crown at the 2016 Lake Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival.
- President Hensrud helped cut the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the University Heights student apartments at a July 14 ceremony.
- President Hensrud met with community and business leaders when BSU hosted the Bemidji Chamber's monthly After Hours reception on July 12.
- Poet Jericho Brown delivered a craft talk at the annual Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference on June 23 in the AIRC Gathering Room.
- Jennifer Theisen, a programmer with Information Technology Services, mentored girls from around the region with an interest in computer programming at the Girls Who Code summer camp in June. The free two-week camp was held at both BSU and NTC for girls entering grades 6-12 this fall.
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Beaver Football picked fifth in NSIC preseason poll
The Bemidji State football team has been selected to finish second in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference's North Division and fifth overall in the 16-team conference in a pre-season vote of the league's coaches. Junior quarterback Jordan Hein took the division’s top offensive preseason honor while being voted the NSIC North Division Pre-Season Offensive Player of the Year.
The Beavers open their 2016 season at home against Upper Iowa on Sept. 1, immediately following Community Appreciation Day.
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