Cremean elected vice
president of national Western Literature Association -
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| Cremean |
Dr. David Cremean, assistant professor of humanities and English at
Black Hills State University, was recently elected vice president of the
Western Literature Association (WLA) and has scheduled the 2009
conference to be held in the Spearfish area.
BHSU will host the 2009 conference according to Cremean who was
elected vice president of the group during the 40th annual WLA
conference in Boise, Idaho, last month.
As current vice president, Cremean will become president and
conference host for the organization in 2009 after continuing on the
group’s executive council as vice president then president-elect for the
next two years.
The WLA consists of approximately 400 members internationally and is
the foremost organization in the world centered on the literature of the
Western Americas, particularly the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The annual
four-day conference features a wide array of sessions, activities,
speakers, and writers. Conference attendance generally runs between
300-350 people.
At the Boise conference, Cremean chaired a panel, reading a hybrid
scholarly/mock-scholarly/creative nonfiction essay entitled "Mind-ing
Waste as We W(a/o)nder, or, Excreta in the West(ern)." The essay
combines interesting Western facts, personal experiences in the West,
and literary and film Westerns involving waste of various types, making
both humorous and serious points along the way. In addition, Cremean
gave a multimedia presentation, "Mary Hallock Foote, Pioneer
Illustrator, Writer, and . . . Snob!" for conference attendee Christie
Hill Smith of Longmont, Colo., who had to leave early.
Cremean earned his Ph.D. in English at Bowling Green State University
and has been a tenure-track faculty member at BHSU since 2002. He has
taught at BHSU since 2000.
Colmenero-Chilberg chosen to
serve as state director of sociology society -
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| Colmenero-Chilberg |
Dr. Laura Colmenero-Chilberg was recently elected the
South Dakota director for the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS).
Colmenero-Chilberg will take office at the national
conference in Chicago this April.
“Being elected director for South Dakota is an honor
since the MSS is probably the largest and most prestigious of the
regional organizations,” Colmenero-Chilberg says.
She ran for the office with the intent "to seek to
increase total participation by sociologists (both formal and informal)
and students of sociology in South Dakota, including to the furthest
edges of our state by creating a more visible presence for the
organization in all parts of the state."
MSS, founded in 1936, is a professional organization
of academic and applied sociologists as well as students of the
discipline. Nearly 1,200 scholars, students and practicing sociologists
in universities, government and business belong to the organization.
Known for its accessible but rigorous meetings, the MSS encompasses nine
states - Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota,
Kansas, South Dakota and North Dakota; however, nearly one-third of its
members are from other parts of the nation and the world.
Colmenero-Chilberg joined the BHSU faculty in 2005.
She has over 20 years experience as an educator in public schools and as
a corporate trainer and was formerly department chair and assistant
professor of sociology at Marygrove College in Detroit. Her research
activities are varied finding her investigating gender role imagery in
popular fiction, the work/home imbalance found in American families, and
the changing images of American teens in the cinema. She teaches courses
on the family, collective behavior, gender roles, and urban sociology.
Colmenero-Chilberg has a Ph.D. in sociology from South
Dakota State University (SDSU), and a master’s degree in English from
Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kan. She earned her undergraduate
degrees in English and history from SDSU.
Klarenbeek receives Lynn
Smith Award - top
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| Klarenbeek |
Black Hills State University professor Sandy
Klarenbeek was recently awarded the American Cancer Society Great
American Smokeout Lynn Smith Award for Excellence in Tobacco Control for
her efforts to reduce tobacco use in South Dakota.
The Lynn Smith Award recognizes individuals,
organizations and businesses that have been influential in the effort to
denormalize tobacco use in the state. This year’s honorees for the award
bring the total number of recipients to 30, one for each year the event
has been celebrated.
From 1989-2000 Klarenbeek was the Safe and Drug-Free
Prevention coordinator for the Spearfish School System during which time
she synchronized awareness curriculum and worked with the community and
school to promote tobacco prevention. Since 2000, Klarenbeek has
included tobacco prevention, effects of use, and cessation as key
components in her health education courses in the College of Education
at BHSU. She was co-chair of the Northern Black Hills campaign for the
recent tobacco tax increase initiative and currently serves on the state
Tobacco Control Advisory Board.
Through her leadership and support of community events
to educate and inform the public about tobacco use, Klarenbeek strives
to instill in her students that the impact of their own behavior and
their positive role modeling is key in being successful teachers.
Klarenbeek is now serving as project director on a tobacco grant
initiative on campus, working through individual students, student
groups, and the student senate, to progress towards a healthier campus
and tobacco cessation.
For more information on the American Cancer Society,
the Great American Smokeout, or the Lynn Smith Award, visit
www.cancer.org.
BHSU professors rely on
Olympic experiences to enhance classroom teaching
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BHSU faculty members
Christian Nsiah (left) and Dan Durben are both former Olympians. Nsiah
competed in Olympic relays and dashes. He now helps coach the sprinters
on the track team and contributes his experiences to his economics
students. Durben is currently the Paralympic rifle shooting head coach.
He has competed in Olympic rifle shooting events and now concentrates on
teaching physics to BHSU students.
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Black Hills State University boasts two Olympic athletes among its
faculty ranks. Dr. Christian Nsiah, an economics professor, has competed
in Olympic relays and dashes, and Dr. Daniel Durben, a physics
professor, has competed in Olympic rifle shooting and is now the head
coach for the Paralympics rifle shooting team.
In addition to these two faculty Olympians, Dr. James Hesson,
exercise science professor, spent nearly a decade teaching and coaching
during his summer break at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado
Springs, Colo. Hesson worked with leaders in the in sport physiology and
sport biomechanics during his time at the Olympic Training Center.
Nsiah who was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on the west coast of Africa on
Christmas Day in 1975 says becoming an Olympian was a life-long dream.
He began training when he was 16 years old to become qualified for the
1992 Olympic games.
“It was always my dream to compete in the Olympics since I was a
child,” says Nsiah. “It’s just the emotions that you see and the pride.
You can see people tear a muscle and they’ll still walk to the finish
line.”
Although he didn’t compete in the 1992 games, he did compete in the
next three consecutive Olympic games. In the 1996 games in Atlanta,
Nsiah was a finalist in the 4x100-meter relay. In 2000 he competed in
the 100-meter dash and 4x100-meter relay, and in 2004 he ran in the
4x100-meter relay. He has extended his Olympic expertise to BHSU as a
volunteer track coach to the sprinters.
The experience has certainly shaped how he teaches in the classroom
as well. “You go to the [Olympic] Games and you see all the people in
the stands and media watching you and it instantly builds your self
esteem. It made it easier to be in front of large groups of people, and
I’m much more accepting of people with different backgrounds because
that’s who’s at the Olympics,” Nsiah says with a smile.
His favorite Olympic memory reflects his outlook on diversity among
people. Nsiah beams as he reminisces, “The best memory I have is going
back to the Olympic Village every night after the games and seeing
everyone get together. Everyone is there to compete and win, but after
it all, we’re having a good time together. Everyone is there from
different parts of the world and we all coexist.”
BHSU’s other Olympic athlete and coach, Dan Durben, has a different
story about his path to the Olympics. He didn’t think too much about the
Olympics when he went shooting with the clubs he was in during high
school in Minnesota. In fact, he didn’t realize shooting was an NCAA
sport until his first semester at the University of Minnesota.
“I realized that college was expensive!” says Durben with a chuckle.
“I discovered that I could get scholarships at other colleges out of
necessity because I didn’t have a thick enough wallet.”
He accepted a three-and-a-half-year full ride scholarship at Eastern
Kentucky University. As a junior in college, he made the U.S. National
Team and went to Rio de Janeiro to compete in shooting, something Durben
says was “kind of a surprise.”
“After all that, I wanted to see how good I could really get,” says
Durben.
After graduating, he moved to West Virginia to coach the West
Virginia University’s shooting team and then moved to Colorado Springs,
Colo., to attend the Olympic Training Center and was able to compete in
the 1988 Olympics.
He stopped competing when he entered graduate school because of
conflicting priorities but still found the time to coach the team and
remain assistant coach for the Olympic team.
Durben was drawn to the BHSU campus by the students and its strong
science department. Soon after his arrival, the head coach of the
Olympic shooting team was promoted, which left a vacant position.
“They were actually calling me asking me if I wanted to take it, and
I couldn’t give them an answer until I talked to the people here,”
Durben states. “So I called BHSU and they gave me a leave of absence to
go coach.”
Durben coached through the 2000 Sydney Olympics and returned to BHSU
the moment it was finished.
“In fact, I flew in right from Sydney and taught the next day.
Actually I had to leave early and miss the closing ceremony,” Durben
says.
After a change in the Paralympic Game standards by the United States
Olympic Committee, a need was created for experienced coaches like
Durben. The Paralympics is an international competition for disabled
athletes. Durben became the Paralympic head coach for the top disabled
athletes in rifle shooting after coming back to BHSU and stepping down
from his Olympic head coaching position. This was an ideal arrangement
for Durben because he could coach the top athletes in the U.S. on
weekends and summers and still devote the remainder of his time to the
science program at BHSU.
When it comes to teaching physics and coaching athletes, Durben finds
little difference. “In both cases, you’re dealing with people who are
learning, trying to excel and going through successes and failures.
Being a coach showed me how to guide people effectively and not tell
people how to do it but how to coax them into a better technique,” says
Durben.
Guthmiller presents
research about the BHSU living-learning community at a national
conference - top
At a recent national conference, Kanda Guthmiller,
scholarship coordinator at Black Hills State University, presented
research that was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a BHSU
living-learning community.
The poster presentation was shown at the 13th National
Conference on Students in Transition, that is sponsored by the National
Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition
through the University of South Carolina. The study examined whether
involvement in the living-learning community improves both the social
interactions and study habits of its participants.
Guthmiller’s research, conducted with BHSU students
Kasie Hartl and Trent Mack, found that the living-learning community at
BHSU was extremely successful and concluded that participation in the
community had a positive impact on students’ success.
In the fall of 2005, BHSU established a
living-learning community in Heidipriem Hall. Incoming freshman students
who had received the South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship or the
Academic Achievement Scholarship were invited to participate in the
community.
As part of the requirements for a graduate course
taught by Patty Bellamy, assistant professor of marketing at BHSU,
Guthmiller researched living-learning communities, retention issues and
first-year experience programs. Guthmiller teamed up with two other
graduate students, evaluated the BHSU living-learning community and
submitted a research paper on the findings.
Scholarship students who participated in the
living-learning community were compared to students who had received the
same scholarship but did not live in the community. Descriptive research
was conducted through the use of surveys distributed to scholarship
students.
“The environment created was academically and socially
stimulating for the students, and the retention rate of the participants
from fall 2005 to fall 2006 was increased to 83 percent,” Bellamy said.
Research also showed that 100 percent of the students
involved in the living-learning community were involved in school
sanctioned activities, compared to only 64 percent of those not in the
living-learning community. The living-learning community students missed
fewer class periods and also reported a much higher amount of time spent
studying daily.
Guthmiller joined the staff of BHSU in 1992. She has a
bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in business
services management from BHSU.
Reward offered for return of
stolen banners - top
 Officials
at Black Hills State University are offering a monetary award for
information leading to the return of three banners which were stolen on
campus recently.
The banners, which were purchased by the university to
display during special events, were displayed recently in conjunction
with the inauguration ceremony of President Kay Schallenkamp.
According to Myron Sullivan, director of safety and
security at BHSU, the BHSU Foundation is offering a monetary award for
information that leads to the return of any of the three stolen banners.
Anyone with information about the missing banners should contact
Sullivan at 642-6297 or 641-6988, or stop by his office in facilities
services, room 204. Sullivan noted that the banners have been listed as
stolen BHSU property with the Spearfish police department.
BHSU hosts Christmas toy
drive - top
Black Hills State University is
accepting toys, first aid kits, school supplies, and monetary donations
to be delivered to kindergarten through eighth grade students at the Red
Shirt Table Elementary School.
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Black Hills State University is once again hosting a holiday toy
drive for the Red Shirt Table Elementary School. Toys, first aid kits,
school supplies and monetary donations will be accepted for children in
kindergarten through eighth grades.
Red Shirt Table, a small village about 20 miles east of Hermosa, is
located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Shannon County, the
second poorest county economically in the United States.
New toys, school supplies and first aid kits can be dropped off in
the Clare and Josef Meier Hall lobby, the David B. Miller Yellow Jacket
Student Union lobby, the Donald E. Young Sports and Fitness Center
information desk, the E.Y. Berry Library-Learning Center information
desk, or the Center for American Indian Studies in Jonas Hall room 103.
The BHSU Bookstore will also have pencil boxes available for individuals
to fill with school supplies and items for Red Shirt Table students.
Monetary donations will be accepted at the AmeriCorps*VISTA office in
Student Union room 223 or Jace DeCory’s office in Jonas Hall room 126.
Donations will be accepted through Friday, Dec. 1. After the
donations have been collected, members of the Canyon Hills Center will
wrap the collected items and volunteers will deliver the packages to
approximately 50 children in the Red Shirt Table area.
The Red Shirt Table Toy Drive was initiated in 2000 by two BHSU
alumni. This year, the event is sponsored by the BHSU Bookstore, the
Center for Indian Studies, AmeriCorps*VISTA
Community-University-Resource-Exchange (C-U-R-E), Lakota Omniciye,
Tiospaye, Inc., and concerned individuals.
For more information, contact Donna Trainum, AmeriCorps*VISTA member,
at DonnaTrainum@bhsu.edu or 642-6471.
Students to perform "A Piece
of My Heart" - top
Black Hills State University students will be
performing the drama “A Piece of My Heart,” a play written by Shirley
Lauro and directed at BHSU by speech and theatre professor Pamela
Wegner. The play will be held in the Woodburn Hall Auditorium Dec.
6-8 at 7:30 p.m.
This is a performance about six women, five nurses and
a country-western singer booked by a dishonest agent to entertain the
troops in Viet Nam. The play shows each young woman before, during, and
after her tour in the war-torn jungle and ends as each leaves a personal
token at The Wall in Washington. The Louisville Courier Journal
called the play “a riveting, rending dramatic experience.”
The cast members are: Mariah Je’Ron Bartlett, playing
Mary Jo; Jessica Juhrend, playing Martha; Debra Iverson, playing Leeann;
Tara Chaney, playing Whitney; Tamara Johnson, playing Steele; Sammie
Kephart, playing Sissy; and Darin Pederson, playing the American men.
Bartlett is a junior threatre major from Fruitdale.
Juhrend is an AP high school-part time student from Spearfish. Iverson,
from Bowman, N. D., is a sophomore theatre major. Chaney is a sophomore
from Lemore, and Johnson is a senior psychology major from Spearfish.
Kephart is a junior psychology major from Mitchell, N.D. Pederson is a
senior biology and theatre major from Spearfish.
Admission is free to all BHSU students, $5.00 for
general admission, and $2.50 for elementary and high school students and
seniors. For more information contact Wegner at
PamelaWegner@bhsu.edu or
642-6696.
Record number of teams
participate in the South Dakota Stock Market Game
- top
Black Hills State
University students are leading the standings of the statewide Stock
Market Game. There are a record number of teams, 228 with a total of 616
students, participating in the Stock Market Game throughout the state.
At the midway point of the 10-week trading session, Kelly Nelson, right,
a sophomore from Spearfish, is in first place. Lacey Johnson, center, a
senior technology major from Wessington, is in fourth place, while Andy
Altmyer, Spearfish High School student who is taking a BHSU business
course through dual enrollment, is in third place. Carrie Hlavka, (not
pictured) a BHSU junior pre-physical therapy major from Rapid City, is
in second place.
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A record number, 228 teams made up of 616 students, are participating
in the fall 2006 session of the South Dakota Stock Market Game (SDSMG),
sponsored in part by Black Hills State University. Since fall 2005, the
SDSMG has grown 196 percent, from 77 teams in fall 2005 to 228 teams in
fall 2006, placing South Dakota third in the nation for growth of the
Stock Market Game program.
The SDSMG is a real-life simulation of the stock market in which each
team begins with $100,000 in hypothetical “cyber dollars” and performs
on-line research and stock trading. The teams with the highest valued
portfolios at the end of the trading period receive prizes.
At the midway point of the 10-week trading period, the teams, from 25
area middle schools, high schools, and colleges, are showing impressive
returns on investment according to Don Altmyer, BHSU associate
professor, director of the Center for Economic Education, and
coordinator of the SDSMG.
“After five weeks of trading, the major stock market indices are up
about three percent due to a drop in oil prices, good third quarter
earnings reports and positive economic reports,” Altmyer said. “South
Dakota students have proven to be excellent stock pickers in producing
returns that beat the stock market indices. This is even more impressive
when you take into consideration that the teams must pay a two percent
commission when buying or selling stocks.”
Leading the state is BHSU junior Kelly Nelson, Spearfish, whose
return on investment (ROI) was 11.16 percent after five weeks. Carrie
Hlavka, a BHSU junior pre-physical therapy major from Rapid City, is a
close second with an 11.13 percent ROI. Nelson and Hlavka also lead the
23 students in the college division. They are followed by Spearfish High
School students Kyle Moe and Andy Altmyer, third and fourth place
respectively, who are taking the Survey of Business course as a part of
the dual enrollment program offered by BHSU. According to the students,
participating in the Stock Market Game has been an incredible learning
opportunity that has greatly enhanced their interest in finance and
trading.
Leading the 196 teams in the high school division is a team from
Upton led by BHSU alumnus Karla Ludemann. Other division leaders are:
Sioux Falls Lincoln, led by Joseph Johnson; Upton, led by Ludemann;
Lead-Deadwood, led by Patrick Moriarty; and Britton-Hecla, led by
Jeanette Remily. Moriarty is also a former BHSU student.
The top three teams in the middle school division are: Beresford, led
by Jonda Jensen; Patrick Henry, led by Shirley Mauss; and King
Elementary, led by Carmen One Skunk. A total of 15 teams are competing
in the middle school division.
The SDSMG conveys basic concepts in mathematics, business,
accounting, economics, computers, language arts and the social sciences
to a variety of grade levels. Teachers receive classroom materials and
lesson plans that conform to national content standards in economics,
personal finance, math and business.
The spring 2007 session of the SDSMG will begin Monday, Feb. 12.
Statewide workshops are planned for mid-January. For more information,
visit www.smgww.org or
www.bhsu.edu/businesstechnology/cee or contact Altmyer at
DonAltmyer@bhsu.edu or
642-6266.
Sponsors for the SDSMG are the Center for Economic Education at Black
Hills State University, the Central States Securities Industry
Association, the South Dakota Council on Economic Education and the
Foundation for Investor Education.
University Assessment Committee
minutes - top
The University Assessment Committee met Wednesday, Nov. 15 from 12
noon to 1 p.m. in the Meier Hall Conference Room.
Present were: Liukart, Earley, P. Carriveau, Hagerty, Chandler,
Calhoon, Simpson, Alsup, Haislett, and Colmenero-Chilberg. Sarkar and
Romkema were absent.
Item One: Nov. 16 is the deadline for submission of proposals
on how the majors would assess undergraduate research and writing if
those reports were not already approved. Chair said he sent a list of
the reports that needed revision to the parties involved.
Item Two: A list of the reports that were submitted to Simpson
and Alsup for teaching content areas was distributed. The reports were
noted as acceptable with some being asked to incorporate specific
comments and clarifications. Those reports will become part of the NCATE
review. Criteria for evaluation was user-friendliness and whether all
information noted in the sample outline was addressed in the report.
Item Three: Carriveau shared some helpful PRAXIS summary
information that allowed comparison of BHSU performance to national norm
groups.
Item Four: Chair asked if the low number of completers per
content area was indicative of lack of need for the programs in middle
school. Calhoon assured the committee of the need for middle school
teachers, especially in math and the sciences, and that all open
positions could immediately be filled. The program is meeting needs and
the low completion numbers are not an indication of lack of need.
Item Five: Next steps for the reports were considered on Nov.
15 were to revise them, filling in areas that need to be explained. The
rewrites will go through the deans to the president, not to the
University Assessment Committee.
Item Six: The work of the Strategic Planning Committee
continues. Monthly extended meetings are being used to complete the
work. Right now, the Strategic Planning Committee is writing core values
and basic goals. Their goal is to tie strategic planning to budget
priorities. The report will be made public in March in draft form. Input
will be invited and final revisions made after that process is complete.
Item Seven: The next meeting will be either Wednesday, Nov. 22
or Wednesday, Nov. 29. Chair will let committee members know by email.
Minutes submitted by Judith Haislett, secretary, and Earley, chair.
Faculty Senate minutes -
top
The BHSU Faculty Senate met Wednesday, Nov. 1.
Members present were: Jim Hesson, Dan Bergey, Laura
Colmenero-Chilberg, Daluss Siewert, Bobbi Sago, Verona Beguin, Annette
Ryerson, Micheline Hickenbotham, Cindi Chandler, Tim Martinez, and Jill
Kary.
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. in the Meier Hall
Conference Room.
Corinne Hansen presented information on the strategies being used to
address some of the challenges with the new website. As our face to the
world, faculty senators expressed support for the idea that the website
is of critical importance and should be championed as an integral
component in BHSU’s ongoing strategic plan. Bergey will work on a letter
voicing the Faculty Senate’s encouragement for hiring a webmaster to be
in charge of this vital tool.
Curriculum change proposals for political science, English and
education were reviewed and acted upon. Senators emphasized the need for
every curriculum change proposal to first be presented to the
appropriate department where it should receive an official vote of
approval before moving onto the next step.
Clarifications on the BHSU sabbatical policy after input from faculty
and Dr. Myers were discussed. The revised policy will be effective Fall
2007.
Sago discussed the pro-life and pro-choice demonstrators on campus
sponsored by student organizations commenting on how their interchange
represented a positive example of free speech and debate. She also
shared how successful on-campus voting had been with 302 voters
participating. After the meeting she did have one complaint from a
couple who were unable to participate because of the long lines with the
high turnout.
Hesson will take part in the inauguration ceremony for Dr.
Schallenkamp on behalf of the faculty.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Colmenero-Chilberg, Faculty Senate
secretary.
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