The Blog of The Graduate School at the University of North Dakota

A small traveling party from The Graduate School at the University of North Dakota is New York-bound this week for the 2009 NAGAP Conference (National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals). This conference brings together all issues related to enrollment management with a graduate admissions perspective from marketing to a adult audience, social media, recruitment, admissions policies and procedures and more. It is an intensive conversation - as most conferences tend to be and is attended by hundreds of graduate school professionals from every kind of institution- large, small, public, private, online, ivy league etc.

In addition to meeting and networking with colleagues from across the country, there is an opportunity to meet with vendors with who often provide unique product solutions. We attended the meeting last year and came back with a revived energy and enthusiasm, lots of new ideas and knowledge for graduate education, best practices, recruitment and enrollment management.

Inspired by that exchange, The Graduate School will be presenting  for the first time at this year’s conference. Our presentation is, “Collecting, analyzing and using historical data in recruitment strategies”. We will be looking at web site metrics as well as institutional enrollment and prospective data, and how we have brought these together in data-driven recruitment strategies and predictive modeling. The wonderful side-effect of putting together such a presentation is the opportunity to critically assess our activities over the past couple of years. With the introduction this month of My GradSpace, our new prospective student management system, we will continue to focus on this even more closely. Watch this space for a report from NAGAP!

Our students of Space Studies have a new training simulator - a replica of SpaceShip One, officially “launched” this week on the University of North Dakota campus.   It is the second fully operation space flight simulators available to our students which further marks our Masters of Science in Space Studies as a unique program in the United States. The SpaceShip One simulator, based upon the first private manned spacecraft of the same name, is designed to train future private spaceflight crews. The project is a collaboration of the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, Cirrus Design Corporation and the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences with students from both the Department of Space Studies and the School of Engineering & Mines. You can read more about it here.

This is the latest high profile development in UND’s relationship with the final frontier. Recently Vishnu Reddy, a graduate student in the Department of Earth Systems Science & Policy,  received confirmation from the International Astronomical Union to name an asteroid he discovered “North Dakota”. UND Mechanical Engineering alumna, Karen Nyberg acheived her long time goal of space travel becoming the 50th woman to go into space. And earlier this week, the collaborative AgCam project, was officially launched at the International Space Station.

Over the past several months our Graduate School office has been working as the pilot graduate school on the implementation of a state-purchased CRM (customer relations management) system. Each of the higher education institutions in the state of North Dakota will eventually have this same system. At The Graduate School at UND, we have developed this product and called it My GradSpace. It will be a personalized web page for prospective students who are seeking information on a whole range of topics from programs to financial aid to arts and culture, and more.

It has been a huge project for us.  Of course, new tools spark new ideas on how to use that tool and build upon it. In this competitive world of higher education marketing, any tool we can use to set ourselves apart should be explored and maximised. We can see the potential for future growth and the ability to target populations with appropriate messages.

So why is a customer relations management system so important? The potential for gathering data about student interests and then having the ability to provide them information on those interests in a time efficient way is is incredibly valuable.  Internet users have come to expect immediacy of information. What if we take a step further and personalize it? A dynamic exchange that will enable us to make data-driven decisions for a range of prospective student activities will not only help us provide good information but will ultimately improve our recruitment ROIs.

We are excited that My GradSpace is now up and running. It is possible to begin gleaning data of prospective student interests in a way that we can further manage, and begin building the picture of our future student body.

The Graduate School at the University of North Dakota is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 Distinguished Dissertation and Thesis Awards for students from Chemistry, History and Visual Art. The awards recognize excellence in creative scholarship and research from our graduate student body, as well as the role that their advisory committees play in the success of these students.

Graduate faculty from each department are invited to nominate the best student work of the previous academic year. A committee, headed by the dean of The Graduate School, assesses the submissions and presents awards for the best Doctoral Dissertation and Master’s Thesis and to the home departments of these students.

Dr. Alexander Azenkeng, whose dissertation research in the Department of Chemistry, “Theoretical Studies of Low-Lying Electronic States of Lithium Titanium and Mercury compounds, has now graduated from the university and taken a position at the EERC. Chair of his advisory committee, Dr. Mark Hoffman said, “Dr. Azenkeng has demonstrated the ability to develop new methodology in molecular quantum mechanics and to use this methodology, as well as older techniques, to address some very difficult problems. The problems that he has addressed in his dissertation are important not only from purely a scientific perspective, as challenging problems, but whose elucidation will benefit the larger society.”

Ms. Elisabeth Saunders was nominated by the Department of History for her Master’s thesis, “Pine Ridge Reservation’s Early Economic Initiatives and Intercultural Relations”. Professor Jim Mochoruk said, “In this thesis, Ms. Saunders has provided …a depiction which illustrates how a complex and dynamic native society both adapted to new economic conditions and altered some new economic pastimes to fit into well-established cultural practices. In the process of doing this Ms. Saunders has united at least three major strands in the historiographical debates which have dominated the field of Native American history for the past thirty-five years. As a result, it is no exaggeration to say that her thesis is an intellectual tour-de-force for a scholar at this stage of her career.  Indeed, this is one of the finest I have ever read, let alone supervised.”

The breadth and depth of academic work was even more apparent this year, and resulted in a new category for annual recognition. The Distinguished Creative Exhibition was created to highlight the outstanding work of Master of Fine Art student, Brad Bachmeier for his final exhibit, “A Ceramic Humanity”.

The recipients will be recognized at an awards event during the Scholarly Forum on Thursday 12 March at 12 noon in the Lecture Bowl. All are welcome to attend.

The 2009 Graduate School Dean’s Lectures will be held on March 11 and March 26, 2009. The Dean’s Lectures are invited lectures given by pre-tenured members of the Graduate Faculty. The first of the two lectures features the research of Dr. William Caraher from the Department of History at the University of North Dakota. It will be one of the highlights of The Graduate School’s 2009 Scholarly Forum in the Lecture Bowl at noon next Wednesday.

Dr Caraher’s presentation, “Five Years at an Ancient Harbor in Cyprus”, will discuss his ongoing fieldwork at the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. Read the abstract for a preview of the lecture:

The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP) began work in the coastal zone of Pyla in Cyprus in 2003. Our initial exploration of the area revealed a massive coastal site extending for over 1 km along the coastal plain. We quickly recognized that this site was remarkable both on account of its coastal position and its size and complexity. Moreover, we became aware that the previous archaeological work in the area had only reveal small and isolated sections of the diverse array of archaeological remains present. Consequently, beginning in 2004, the PKAP initiated a systematic, multi-tiered investigation of the microregion designed to understand the historical development of the in its political, economic, and cultural context. Using the tools of intensive pedestrian survey, remote sensing of various kinds, and targeted excavation, we produced a robust assemblage of material capable of answering numerous questions about the history, function, and chronology of the site.

This fieldwork confirmed that people occupied our corner of Cyprus from at least as early as the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BC) and fortified parts of the site during the Archaic to Hellenistic period (700 BC-BC 300). The site, however, flourished during Late Antiquity (AD400-600) when it reached its greatest extent and included monumental religious architecture, fine imported ceramics, and a significant functional diversity across. At this time, sprawled for over a kilometer along the Cypriot coast producing a scatter of material considerably larger than a villa, hamlet or rural village yet smaller than a urbanized polis or city center. Scholars have generally overlooked such “mid-sized” sites in the Eastern Mediterranean and, consequently, must of our research has focused on the key role that such sites played in both the regional and local economy and within the local settlement structure.

Alongside these traditional components of archaeological research, PKAP has sought to document the performative, narrative, and reflexive components of the archaeological experience. By drawing extensively on new media technologies and applications we have worked to record the experience of archaeology and project it beyond the limits of the field. Such programs are more than simply ancillary components to the overall aims of the project, but complement the main lines of research by emphasizing the multiple narratives present within the same body of research. This practice not only remind project members of the dense web of assumptions, methods, and procedures required to produce archaeological knowledge, but also reinforces the ambivalence and ambiguity central to all humanistic inquiry.

Lectures Are Free And Open To The Public

The University of North Dakota continues to form critical partnerships with other schools, both near and far. The dean of The Graduate School, Dr. Joseph Benoit and professor in the department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Wayne Seames are in California today to sign a new bridge program agreement with Califoria State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP). The program is similar to that recently developed with Dickinson State University in North Dakota, but is designed for Chemical Engineering undergraduate students in California.

Dr. Benoit said, “We’re excited to be partnering with Cal Poly Pomona on this innovative program. This new agreement will provide opportunities for Cal Poly students to get an early start on their Master’s degree. Many California students don’t think of North Dakota, when they consider graduate school. Yet our strengths in areas of sustainable energy make UND a top choice for students who are looking to be on the cutting edge of research that will address one of our country’s most pressing issues. We look forward to the possibility of other partnerships that address areas of national importance.”

This Chemical Engineering agreement is part of the UND-California nondoctoral student program, an outreach program conceived by Dr. Wayne Seames, who is also the Director of the North Dakota Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education group (SUNRISE) and Dr. Winny Dong, Chair of CPP;s Chemical and Materials Engineering program. In addition to the Bridge program, this collaboration includes joint research projects and participation of CPP undergraduates in UND summer research experiences.

“What struck me on my first visit to CPP was the similarity in educational cultures and priorities between our two departments”, said Seames. “We both have very collaborative, flexible faculty who are passionate about teaching, both in formal setting and through experiential learning settings like research.”

“CPP students are very concerned about our ability to provide for future energy needs without adverse impacts on the environment”, said Dong. “The SUNRISE research in renewable fuels and the sustainable use of coal is very exciting and attractive to our students. Many of them had not considered the possibility of graduate school until we established this program. We have had a strong interest from our students here at CPP.”

Our graduate students from the History Department at the University of North Dakota have been busy organizing a regional conference that will take place this coming Friday. The Beta Upsilon Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta is pleased to announce the Fourth Annual Red River Valley History Conference to be held February 27, 2009 at the Memorial Union on the University of North Dakota’s campus.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Images of the Past” and feature panels of topics ranging from North Dakota History to International Diplomacy. In addition to paper presentations, the conference will include a keynote address at 4 p.m. by Dr. James Brewer Stewart, James Wallace Professor of History at Macalester College. His address “The Old Slavery and the New: History, Memory and the Challenges of Human Trafficking” will link the contemporary problem of human trafficking to the historical legacies of slavery.

Visit: www.und.edu/org/rrvhc for a conference schedule and more information.

Over the past several weeks, we have been soliciting abstracts for the upcoming Graduate School Scholarly Forum - a two day showcase of graduate student and faculty research and scholarship from across the University of North Dakota campus. Each year, we call for papers, panels and poster submissions and are once again thrilled with the response. As I schedule the sessions I am reminded of the breadth and depth of graduate study and am excited to see the work being produced. I will use this space over the next couple of weeks to highlight a few of these sessions.

The first of these is the poster session. We have approximately 70 posters that will be on display in the Memorial Union Ballroom on March 11 and 12.  Many of these represent group collaboration while others are the work of single individuals from the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Aerospace, the School of Engineering and Mines, College of Nursing, College of Education and the School of Medicine. We are also delighted to showcase another group of posters from scholars of the McNair program. The authors of the posters will be on hand to answer questions and represent their work on March 12 from 2pm-4pm.

If you are around the UND campus, we would encourage you to come and learn what our best and brightest minds are producing. The events are free and open to the public. A full schedule will be posted on our Web site later this week. Stay tuned for information about the Dean’s Lecture Series, the Distinguished Disseration and Thesis Awards, panels and oral presentations.

In the Fall of 2008, The Graduate School at the University of North Dakota recorded it’s highest ever enrollment with 2135 students enrolled in graduate coursework across all disciplines of the University. Typically the Fall numbers are the highest of the three semester intakes. So it came as a delightful surprise and proud moment to see that we not only exceeded that record enrollment this week, but we surpassed 2,200.

Staff in our office were excitedly awaiting number 2,200 who arrived in Twamley 414 in the early afternoon last Thursday. Unbeknown to him, Joshua Goldade, a new UND graduate student undertaking a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering was greeted with fanfare, a small but suitably academic gift of a Flash drive, and Graduate School t-shirt as well as a handshake from Dean Joseph Benoit. Mr Goldade was understandably taken aback, since he had simply come to the office to complete his registration paperwork!

Good luck with your studies, Joshua.

A new doctoral program in Scientific Computing adds to the graduate offerings at the University of North Dakota. The Graduate School has been a part of the conversation to realize this new program for the past several years, and is excited to announce that the program has come to fruition. The cross-disciplinary program will be housed within the Computer Science department which currently offers a Masters of Science degree, but will operate quite extensively with other departments on campus.

The Scientific Computing Ph. D. offers various tracks or “clusters” that build on the research strengths of the Department such as software engineering, data management, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and more. To read more about the program explore the Fact Sheet or visit the department Web site.