Service flag scheduled to be moved for better protection

As a token to honor SDSU students, faculty and staff members serving in the armed forces in Iraq, a banner has been displayed on the front of the Administration Building since Spring 2003 with stars signifying each SDSU person serving.

The banner, though strong, is showing wear from the elements. To ensure that the banner remains intact, illustrating support for our men and women serving their country, the banner is being moved to the Union where it will be placed in a prominent location for all to see while being protected from our harsh weather elements.

Measuring four feet high by 12 feet long, the service flag was made by Kathy Larsen of Brookings.

Holiday Open House at presidentÕs home

SDSU President David L. Chicoine and his wife, Marcia, invite all faculty and staff to a Holiday Open House at their home, Woodbine Cottage. The open house is set for Tuesday, Dec. 18 from 2 to 5:30 p.m. People can drop by at their convenience during that time.

Woodbine Cottage will have its halls decked with yuletide spirit to create a festive, holiday air for faculty and friends.

Forum to be held on academic integrity issues

The Academic Senate in collaboration with the StudentsÕ Association is sponsoring an open forum with Jim Shekleton, the general counsel for the Board of Regents, on academic integrity issues.

Faculty members and students are invited to come and visit with Shekleton about these issues. The forum will be Dec. 11 in room 169 A and B in The Union from 3:30 to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Ann Marie Bahr, 688-4935.

Presentation examines how small things can be produced

Science Visions and the Brookings Public Library have been collaborating to host Science CafŽ events. This monthÕs presentation begins Dec. 13 at 6 p.m. in Cooper Room B at the library, located at 515 Third Street.

David Galipeau, SDSU electrical engineering professor, will deliver a presentation called, ÒNanotechnology: How Small Can We Go?Ó

His lecture will describe nanotechnology in general and discuss different micro and nanoelectronic devices. SDSUÕs nano research involves sensors and devices that convert solar energy directly into electricity.

Galipeau serves as the College of Engineering graduate coordinator and micro-nanoelectronics lab coordinator.

The Science CafŽ is a forum for discussion of important and current scientific issues. Meetings are informal and attendees are encouraged to discuss topics among themselves as well as to ask questions of speakers who generally consist of scientists or writers on scientific topics.

Science Visions, Brookings, is a non-profit organization that supports the importance of curiosity, and strengthening and understanding the progression of science in todayÕs society.

For further information about Science CafŽ contact Fedora Sutton, associate professor in the Departments of Plant Science and Biology/Microbiology at SDSU, 688-4076 or Fedora_Sutton@sdstate.edu.

Graduation set for December 15 in Frost Arena

A total of 449 students will receive diplomas from South Dakota State University during its fall commencement Dec. 15 in Frost Arena. The ceremony and festivities will be broadcast on Cable channel 2.

Ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. with faculty members and graduating students led by honorary marshals Al Branum, director of the Office of Diversity, and Virginia Norris, head of the psychology department.

Degrees will actually be conferred on 671 students, not all of whom will go through SaturdayÕs exercises.

The SDSU Concert Band under the direction of Jim Coull and the WomenÕs Choir under the direction of Laura Diddle-Hildebrant will provide music.

SDSU President David L. Chicoine, assisted by college deans, will confer the degrees and present diplomas to the graduates.

Others participating in the ceremony will include Carol J. Peterson, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs; LTC Mike Herman with Army ROTC and Lt. Col. Dana Nielsen with Air Force ROTC; Peggy Bechtold, president of the Alumni Association; Dean Krogman, of the South Dakota Board of Regents; Madeleine Andrawis, chair of the Academic Senate; and Kevin Kephart, Graduate School dean and vice president for research.

Collegiate choral groups capture Yuletide spirit in sound

Traditions give meaning to the celebration of the Christmas season and the Christmas concert lodges itself squarely in the heart of Americana.

In that spirit, the SDSU Music Department presents its annual vocal Yuletide Choral Concert Dec. 16 at 4 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center.

All three of the university's choral ensembles will perform: the Women's Chorus, directed by Laura Diddle-Hildebrant, and the Statesmen and Concert Choir, directed by Steven Grives.

Among favorites from the 120-voice WomenÕs Chorus is ÒThe Twelve Days of Christmas.Ó The StatesmenÕs selections will include the spiritual ÒRise Up Shepherd and Follow.Ó

The 56-voice Concert Choir, which wrapped up five performances of its biennial Christmasse Madrigal Feaste earlier this month, will present selections from those sold-out shows.

Proceeds from the concert will be used to send the WomenÕs Choir and Concert Choir to the North Central American Choral Directors Conference in Fargo, N.D., in March. The spring appearance marks the first time SDSU has been chosen to perform at the conference since the Concert Choir sang in 2000.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Senior citizens and SDSU students are admitted free with their ID. Patrons who purchased Madrigal dinner tickets can receive discounted tickets ($5/adults, $3 student/seniors).

For more information, contact the Department of Music, 688-5187.

Many of the SDSU choir members who performed in Washington, DC last May will be part of the SDSU Christmas choral concert Dec. 16.

Sun Grant Center to hold open house

The North Central Sun Grant Center will hold an open house Dec. 20 in its new offices of the Enterprise Center located at 815 Medary Ave.

The open house will be held in the third floor conference room in Suite 201 from 2 to 4 p.m. A brief program starts at 2:30 p.m. Coffee and cake will be served.

The Sun Grant Initiative is a nationwide effort that began at SDSU. It seeks to broaden the role of the land-grant university system to focus research, teaching and Extension work on biofuels, and other new products from agriculture in addition to traditional food and fiber.

The North Central Sun Grant Center is one of five regional Sun Grant centers around the country. Land-grant university teachers, researchers, and Extension professionals are dealing increasingly with bioenergy and other new agricultural products through projects coordinated by the Sun Grant centers.

For more information, contact Jim Doolittle, 688-4181.

The HERI Faculty Survey has arrived on campus

The HERI Faculty Survey will run thru March 2008. The survey is designed to provide colleges and universities with timely information about the attitudes, experiences, concerns, job satisfaction, workload, teaching practices, and professional activities of collegiate faculty and administrators.

Information resulting from the survey can be used to facilitate self-study and accreditation activities; inform campus planning and policy analysis; enhance faculty development programs; and improve studentsÕ educational experiences.

The 2004-2005 faculty survey was the ninth national survey of faculty conducted by HERI, the sixth in a triennial series initiated in 1989. Since 1989, more than 300,000 faculty at more than 1,100 two-year and four-year colleges nationwide have participated in the research.

The initial survey invitation e-mail was sent Dec. 4. Reminders will be sent in January, February, and March. For more information, contact Pam Rieger, 688-6740.

Air Force graduate school has summer internships

The Air Force Institute of Technology, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, is the Air Force's premiere graduate school.

The schoolÕs summer internship program offers undergraduate science and engineering students the opportunity to gain valuable research experience working alongside its experienced faculty members.

A student must be a U.S. citizen who is currently earning an undergraduate degree. Applications must be received by Feb. 28. Applications can be obtained at https://www.afit.edu/en/Interns/.

For more information contact: Kenneth Hopkinson, 937-255-3636 ext. 4579 or Kenneth.hopkinson@afit.edu.

First industry rep to receive honorary doctorate from Regents

Daktronics co-founder Al Kurtenbach, a groundbreaker in industry, will join a club of one when he receives an honorary doctor of public service degree from the South Dakota Board of Regents at winter commencement Dec. 15.

The regents have only awarded five other honorary doctorates of public service, and they all went to retiring university presidents, including Peggy Gordon Miller, who stepped down as SDSU president Dec. 31, 2006.

Kurtenbach is being honored for his work in advancing scientific research on South Dakota campuses. The one-time SDSU electrical engineering faculty member also will give the graduation address Ñ ÒKnowledge, Workers and TomorrowÕs Economy.Ó

The regents selected Kurtenbach for his dedication to bringing federally-funded research to South Dakota. From its formation in 1986 until 2006, Kurtenbach chaired Research Excellence: A Critical Hallmark (REACH).

REACH is a statewide steering committee for the National Science FoundationÕs Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). EPSCoR was created by the National Science Foundation to more broadly distribute the wealth of federal dollars going to research.

South DakotaÕs first NSF EPSCoR project in 1987 had a total budget of $1.8 million. By 2007, that amount reached $10.4 million.

Kurtenbach was an associate professor in the SDSU Electrical Engineering Department in 1968, when he used his free time to work with fellow faculty member Duane Sander to develop biomedical instruments and electronic voting systems for state legislatures.

The success they found while working in a garage was enough for them to incorporate Daktronics on Dec. 9, 1968.

In 1969, their first year of production, six employees produced $2,352 in sales. In 1970, the first electronic voting system was installed in the Utah Legislature. The introduction of the Matside¨ wrestling scoreboard in 1971 started DaktronicsÕ move toward becoming a world leader in the scoreboard industry. Today, Daktronics employees 3,200 people with sales of $433 million in fiscal year 2007 ending in April.

Kurtenbach served as co-dean for the College of Engineering from January 2000 to July 2001.

Al Kurtenbach

South Dakota State University's Calendar of Events

This calendar is prepared by the Office of University Relations. For more information, to have campus events included in the next calendar, or to make address corrections, please contact April Clarin at University Relations, SCM 105, Box 2230, (605) 688-6161, or by email at april.clarin@sdstate.edu. Thank you.

Campus Kudos

Three outstanding faculty members and a non-faculty exempt employee have been named 2007 F.O. Butler Foundation award winners. The awards, which will be presented during SDSU commencement Dec. 15, recognize exceptional performance in the life of the University.

Recipients include Alvaro Garcia, for excellence in service by a faculty member; Barbara Koenders, for excellence in service by a non-faculty employee; Bonny Specker, for excellence in research; and Lan Xi, for excellence in teaching.

Alvaro Garcia, Extension dairy specialist and associate professor of dairy science, established himself as a respected dairy Extension specialist for small and large dairy producers in South Dakota. His diversified experience in dairying, which includes work in South America, Europe, and North America, has added a unique dimension to his activities while enhancing his Extension functions.

GarciaÕs Extension programs empower producers. Because many dairies in South Dakota and beyond now employ Spanish-speaking employees, GarciaÕs dairy expertise, coupled with his fluency in Spanish, have played important roles in helping increase the profitability of local producers.

His workshops in Spanish have taken the SDSU Dairy Extension program and the SDSU University Extension program to new levels of outreach recognized in other states.

Garcia has been active in four volunteer assignments in Honduras and El Salvador sponsored by Winrock International, the University of Florida, and the United States Agency for International Development. The assignments came to improve hygienic milk production in Central American countries.

Alvaro Garcia

Barbara Koenders, assistant executive director of the Alumni Association, steadily moved up the ranks from secretary, senior secretary, administrative assistant II to her currently held position as assistant executive director.

Koenders has filled the role of acting executive director during her tenure. During the recent transition, she covered the introduction of SDSU President David L. Chicoine to community and alumni throughout the state and region.

Those introductions came while completing tasks as assistant executive director. Supporters of KoendersÕ nomination cite her as an avid enthusiast for SDSU, not only through her position at the Alumni Association, but also through her community activities.

She currently volunteers as a member of the Brookings Area United Way Board of Directors, Brookings American Legion Auxiliary and is a Special Olympics volunteer.

Barbara Koenders

Bonny Specker, director and chair of the Ethel Austin Martin Endowed Program in Human Nutrition, is a professor in the departments of Nutrition, Food Science and Hospitality; Biological Sciences; and Animal and Range Sciences. She also serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of South Dakota.

During her 25-year scientific career, Specker has written many articles and book chapters for publication, delivered national and international lectures and generated over $115 million in competitive grant funding.

She was principal investigator in the contract awarded to SDSU in 2005 from the National Institutes of Health to serve as a Vanguard Center for the National ChildrenÕs Study, a move that created numerous interdisciplinary research opportunities that will continue to grow over the next two decades.

Specker advises graduate students and works with undergraduate students through the Martin Program, many of whom have gone on to graduate school or medical school. Her nominators said she is an exceptional person dedicated to the SDSU tripartite mission of teaching, service and research.

Bonny Specker

Lan Xu, assistant professor of biology and microbiology, says her primary role as a teacher is to ignite the learning engine of each student. She provides clear learning objectives for topics, makes her classroom interactive and provides valuable feedback to her students.

Xu readily accepts the challenge of any self-improvement opportunity to perfect her teaching skills and learns technology that can enhance her studentsÕ education.

Xu maintains an active research program, collaborating with other faculty members in various grassland ecology research projects. Colleagues said her solid statistical background and expertise in modern methods of plant ecological data analysis make her an excellent resource person.

Xu has incorporated vegetation sampling and data analysis in her courses to assure that students have valuable and practical experience with state-of-the-art methodology in vegetation ecology.

Lan Xu

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Arden Bement has appointed SDSU professor James A. Rice to serve on the foundation-wide NSF Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI).

The committee provides perspective and advice to NSF on the development of the agencyÕs plans and strategies to develop and support a nationwide cyberinfrastructure.

Rice serves as head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and is director of South Dakota EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) Program.

RiceÕs appointment to the ACCI will give South Dakota a voice in national cyberinfrastructure development initiatives.

ÒCyberinfrastructure is particularly important for South Dakota,Ó said Rice. ÒWe may be remote as a consequence of our geography, but with well developed state cyberinfrastructure, we will not be isolated.

ÒWe have to be engaged in the development and applications of the nationÕs next generation broadband Internet to fully take advantage of the DUSEL project, and to provide the infrastructure for our universities to generate the knowledge that is driving 21st century economic development.Ó

Gary Lemme, dean of the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, was one of 20 Fellows of the Food Systems Leadership Institute to be honored during a ceremony at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges in New York City.

The Fellows were recognized for their accomplishments in completing the instituteÕs leadership development program, for contributions they have made to their individual organizations and the broader higher education and food systems.

The institute is a two-year program designed for experienced leaders in academia, government, and industry. Through a demanding curriculum that includes in-person learning, executive coaching, mentoring and personal and group projects, the institute seeks to enhance personal leadership ability, develop skills, knowledge for organizational change, and broaden perspectives on integrated food systems.

A retirement reception for Carolyn Clague, associate professor of family youth development, is Dec. 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Tompkins Alumni Center. She will be honored for her 30 years of service.

To publicize an event or congratulations in "Newsline," please submit information by the preceding Thursday at 2 p.m. to kyle.johnson@sdstate.edu or to jeanne.jonesmanzer@sdstate.edu.

Position Announcements