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| Mark Your Calendar |
Blood Drive 11:30 am - 3pm Heritage Hall
CPBAC Meeting
Dental Programs Ice Cream Social
Legislative Forum Noon-12:45
B133
February 22
College Goal Sunday
February 23
An Evening With Greg Mortenson 7 pm Great Falls High Auditorium
February 24
Skilled Trades Fair 10 am - 4 pm Heritage Hall
February 26
Bringing the U to You
7 pm Heritage Hall
Dr. Greg Durham 'Behavioral Biases, Sports Wagering markets, and Financial-Market implications'
February 27
MSU - Great Falls Scholarship Applications Due
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| News from MSU - Great Falls
Your Community College!
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009 |
Greetings!
Get out your hard hat and your Carhartts, it's time for the 3rd Annual Skilled Trades Career Fair on February 24 in Heritage Hall. MSU - Great Falls will be hosting all the local high schools and general public to help them see the many career opportunities available in the skilled trades. Currently, we have around 300 committed students planning to attend and about 30 vendors for them to meet and gain insight into potential careers. If you'd like to stop by that day between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm, please do. You can say hi to folks form Sletten Construction or pick up a free pen from Liberty Electric. Best of all, you can help inspire a young student to think beyond high school and consider a skilled trade. It promises to be a great day!
Natalie Nefzger, Recruiter
College Relations and Advancement |
College Goal Sunday
Submitted by Kelli Engelhardt On February 22, 2009, we will be hosting the 4th annual College Goal Sunday. College Goal Sunday is a state-wide volunteer program that provides free information and assistance to students and families who are applying for financial aid. The event will be held at 18 locations in Montana. We will have times at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00 available for students and parents to come file the FAFSA application. Our campus will have three rooms available this year for filers, with one dedicated to return filers.
Last year at the Great Falls site volunteers helped 168 community members wade through the financial aid application process. This year we have recruited 15 volunteers to help with this endeavor. We are hoping to have a successful Sunday! | |
Tour Guide Volunteers Needed
Seventh Graders will tour both MSU - Great Falls and the University of Great Falls on April 21 and April 23. Natalie Nefzger, Recruiter, reports that East and North Junior High School students will tour in two shifts on each day. The tours will be set up with 'Hot Spots' where students will hear about specific programs. Are you interested in volunteering as a tour guide? Each group will be well-chaperoned by GFPS personnel and will be limited to 15 students. "I promise that it will be a lot of fun!" says Natalie. If you are interested in being a tour guide contact Natalie at natalie.nefzger@msugf.edu or 771-5132. |
| Legislative Forum Rescheduled to Noon
To better fit with the schedules of all involved, it has been decided to move the Community Legislative Forum to a noontime schedule, rather than the 7 AM of the previous meetings. This is a great opportunity to visit 'face to face' with the area Great Falls legislators and learn about controversial legislation directly from them. Also, for the convenience of the legislative delegation, the Helena location has been moved to the Capitol, Room 472. The Great Falls location will still be B133 on the campus of MSU - Great Falls. Please call Tom Figarelle for any question or additional information. The following are the remaining forums dates. Each will run from 12 pm to approximately to 12:45 PM: February 19, March 2, March 16, and March 30. |
| Investment Seminar to Benefit MSUGF Scholarship Fund
There is still time to enroll in the Investment Seminar Series presented by Bryan Brashear, Financial Consultant with D.A. Davidson & Companies. If you want to learn the fundamentals of investing, sign up for these investment seminars. They are strictly educational and designed to help you understand the world of investing. There will be 5 sessions from 7-9:30 pm on Tuesday evenings, February 17, 24, March 3, 10 and 17 in Room G45. The const is $20 per person or $35 per couple - all proceeds go to the MSU - Great Falls COT Scholarship Fund. To sign up, call the D.A. Davidson receptionist at 727-4200. |
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Magazines Needed for Graphic Design Classes
Do you have some magazines lying around that need a good purpose? Donate them to the Graphic Design program for use by students to complete assignments in Typography, Desktop Publishing, and Design. Drop them off in Room B134 or the College Relations Department. |
| Got Blood?
On February 17 from 11:30 am - 3 pm there will be a Blood Drive in Heritage Hall. |
D2L Professional Development Sessions
Submitted by Ryan Schrenk
If you are interested in getting up to speed on D2L, then check out http://distance.msugf.edu/Instructor_Resources/SpringandSummer2009_D2LPDSchedule_Jan6.pdf for dates, times and locations. You can work on this slowly over the semester or do a cram session in May. The first training, Moving from WebCt to D2l - Kicking it up a Notch, is on February 26 from 6-8 pm in B138. The session is repeated on Friday, February 27 from 3-5 pm in B134.
If you would like to attend any of the sessions, please RSVP to Karen Vosen at 771-4440 or kvosen@msugf.edu. You can also stop by the Distance Learning office to sign up.
A couple of special notes on the sessions:
1. Online live and archived Adobe Connect sessions will be held for each one.
2. There is limited seating in the computer labs, so please RSVP.
3. Certificates of completion for all six sessions will be printed for any participant who takes part in the complete series. |
CPBAC Meeting
The next CPBAC meeting is on Wednesday, February 18 from 1-3 pm in G122. It is time to start working on the FY10 budget. The new Mission, Vision, and Value statements will be discused. |
Online Courses for Credit Recovery
MSU - Great Falls is partnering for the second year with Great Falls Public Schools to offer online courses as an option for high school students who need credit recovery to graduate. There will be nine courses offered including math, psych, health/PE, history and English for students to meet their graduation requirements. GFPS instructors will teach the courses. Ryan Schrenk, Director of the Distance Learning Department will provide training to the teachers and the students in D2L, our new online course delivery system. Students wishing to take the courses will register with their school counselors, then Outreach will receive the completed registration forms to be entered into Banner no later than June 8. Classes begin on June 15 and finish on September 1. Katie Kotynski and Tom Moore of Great Falls Public Schools have been instrumental in implementing this cooperative service to students. Questions? Contact Deb Richerson at 771-4303. |
| Welding Certification
The Outreach Department is working with Dave Warner of the Carpenter's Union to provide an eighty-hour class for carpenters who currently weld but need their ˝" plate 3g welding qualification which is required for many building projects, as well as a shorter class for metal stud plate welding qualification. The coursework will most likely be offered during the summer, during breaks, or on a weekend schedule to accommodate carpenters from across the state. There are no testing professionals in Great Falls, however the planning group (Kyle Gillespie, Linda McNeill, Deb Richerson, Dave Warner, and Mike Woodhead) is hoping to contract with Mattingly, a testing company in Billings, to bring the test to Great Falls specifically for these courses. Dave Warner is also looking for funding to help defray the costs for travel and lodging for the carpenters who come from outside the Great Falls area and would be very interested in help with finding available grants and writing the grant proposals in exchange for a percentage of the awarded amount. |
Missouri River Breaks
The 9th Annual Missouri River Breaks is coming up on March 13-15. This event brings over 500 people to campus. Check out the classses at http://outreach.msugf.edu. Classes fill up fast - register TODAY! |
Highest Pass Rate for MSU-Northern's Associate RN Students
MSU-Northern received a letter from the Montana Board of Nursing, stating that Northern's Registered Nursing students NCLEX-RN pass rate for 2008 was 94.74%. This was the highest pass rate in the state! The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEXRN ®) and the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN®), are the two examinations used by the Board of Nursing to test entry-level nursing competence of candidates for licensure as Registered Nurses and as Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses. Congratulations to our Nursing instructors! |
Changes in Bulk Mail
Several departments at the College use the USPS for bulk mailings. On May 1st, a number of different regulations will go into effect. You MUST do one of the following to avoid penalties:
1) Send the mailing to 'Occupant' or 'Current Resident' rather than to a specific person, or
2) Keep the individual's name on the mailing label, but include 'Return Service Requested' under the return address, or
3) Send your mailing list electronically to the USPS for updating prior to printing the labels. There is a fee for this service. You will receive a 90 day certificate to use that specific mailing list. |
E-file Your Montana Income Tax Return for Free!
Montana University System students and employees can use electronic filing for their Montana tax return with no fee. This year, you have more options for electronically filing your Montana income tax form. You can find free (yes, free!) electronic filing options for these popular forms at mt.gov/revenue: 2EZ - short form; 2M - intermediate form; 2 - long form. Combining electronic filing with direct deposit will provide the quickest possible refund. The typical wait time for a refund is 5-10 days for an e-filed return or 6-10 weeks for a paper return. You can even make an electronic payment if you have a tax obligation. Questions? Visit website mt.gov/revenue or call toll-free at 866-859-2254. |
Dr. James Loewen Presentation
For a different perspective on American history, do not miss the upcoming program from award winning author, Dr. James Loewen, at 7:00 p.m. on February 21 at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Dr. Loewen will speak on "sundown towns" - communities that acted to exclude minority residents - and their effect on American society.
James Loewen is an educator who attended Carleton College. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University, and taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont. Prior to that, he taught at Mississippi's Tougaloo College, a historically black College. Noting that his students were uniformly uninformed or badly misinformed about history, he made a critical study of high school history textbooks under a grant from the Smithsonian Institution. That research culminated in his best-known book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School Textbook Got Wrong. Later, Loewen published Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong. In his books, Loewen notes that Americans often receive a distorted, poorly organized form of history, and he has worked to correct the problem through seminars and public presentations. In the field of race relations, he found more problems than in other areas. In particular, his research on sundown towns showed that the practice of excluding minority residents was widespread and recent. He now lives in Washington, D.C., continuing his research on how Americans remember their past.
Dr. Loewen will present a six-hour teacher training workshop on the issues raised in Lies My Teacher Told Me during the day on February 21 from 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. This workshop qualifies for PIR credit and Renewal Credit for educators. Pre-registration is through the Great Falls Public School offices at 268-6006. At 7:00 p.m. Dr. Loewen will present his program on Sundown Towns in the Interpretive Center theater. Light refreshments will be served and a book signing will follow his presentation. Both the workshop and the evening presentation are free. Those attending the evening presentation are asked to bring a canned good for the Great Falls Food Bank. These programs are sponsored by the Portage Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Association.
Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism has already garnered critical acclaim, and will be on sale at the Interpretive Center bookstore for the event on February 21, along with copies of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America. Come and see a fascinating new take on American history with one of its most distinguished scholars and educators. | |
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