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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
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CONGRATULATIONS MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE
PROUD TO BE A PART OF YOUR TEAM!
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New and remodeled Morningside College facilities enhance student educational experiences
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hen spring semester classes started in January at Morningside College, students and faculty members started taking full advantage of the college’s new $13 million “academic village.” The group of new and remodeled buildings at the south edge of Morningside’s campus is having a major impact on the educational experiences of students. In May 2013, Morningside broke ground for the “academic village” and completed construction late in the fall of 2014. It includes a new classroom building, a new advising center and the remodeled HickmanJohnson-Furrow Learning Center. The new three-story classroom building, Buhler Rohlfs Hall, has offices, classrooms and labs for Morningside’s Sharon Walker School of Education, Nylen School of Nursing, and Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program. “For Morningside’s education students, Buhler Rohlfs Hall is equipped with state-ofthe art technology that mirrors current technology in K-12 classrooms across the region,” said LuAnn Haase, associate professor and
Nursing education professor Mary Kovarna, third from left, demonstrates a medical procedure by using one of the high fidelity patient simulators located in a Buhler Rohlfs Hall classroom that mimics a hospital setting.
Photos courtesy of Morningside College
Susie Lubbers, standing, assistant professor of education, works with students and their iPads during a secondary teaching methods class in Buhler Rohlfs Hall.
chair of the Sharon Walker School of Education. “Education majors now have easy access to technology in our classrooms and are expected to use technology such as interactive white boards and document cameras to enhance the lessons that they prepare and deliver as pre-service teacher candidates.” Nursing students find that some areas in Buhler Rohlfs Hall do not feel like a
On the Cover
Krone Advising Center, left, and Buhler Rohfls Hall are part of the $13 million “academic village” construction project that was completed in the fall of 2014 on the Morningside College campus.
traditional classroom, according to Mary Kovarna, professor and chair of the Nylen School of Nursing. “Nursing areas look and feel more like a hospital,” Kovarna said. “Faculty can create life-like nursing and patient care situations for students in rooms that mimic a hospital setting. High fidelity patient simulators give students practice making diagnoses and care
decisions in a safe, controlled environment. Then students can watch and evaluate their performance with the instructor by playing back a video of the exercise.” Morningside’s new Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program also is based in the new classroom building. “Our ag program prepares Morningside students for career opportunities with a wide range of companies involved directly or indirectly in food production in the United States or around the globe,” said Anthony Kern, a Morningside biology professor and academic chair of the Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program. “We have a curriculum that gives students broad
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Facilities: Ambitious fundraising campaign finances improvements FROM PAGE 3 exposure to scientific, cultural and business principles related to agriculture and food production.” The two-story Krone Advising Center is located next to Buhler Rohlfs Hall and connects to it with an enclosed second-floor walkway. “The advising center is a resource for all students, but it primarily serves first-year students and those undecided on a major,” said Lillian Lopez, vice president for advising at Morningside. “A full-time advising staff builds relationships with students, helps them identify their goals and teaches them how to make the most of the advising experience before they transfer to a faculty adviser in their major.” The Learning Center was remodeled to create a new glass-enclosed main entrance that faces the Hilker Campus Mall. The second floor of the Learning Center also was converted into a study lounge and areas for Academic Support Services and the college’s Writing Center. The most ambitious fundraising effort in Morningside College’s history financed the construction and remodeling projects. Morningside publicly launched its “Vision 2020: Transformation II” fundraising campaign in the fall of 2012 with a goal to raise $50 million by 2019 – the 125th anniversary of the college’s founding. As of early February 2015, the campaign had raised more than $49 million. “The money we are raising is earmarked for our annual scholarship fund, the college’s endowment and facilities improvements,” said Morningside College President John Reynders. “This is allowing us to continue our transformation of the college and the
Photos courtesy of Morningside College
Dave Madsen, assistant professor of mass communications, meets with first-year students in Weikert Auditorium, located on the second floor of the Krone Advising Center. Left: Students gather between classes in the two-story atrium located on the first floor of Buhler Rohlfs Hall. Top right: Student Tanner Johnson, left, meets with David Elder, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric, in the newly remodeled second floor of the Hickman-Johnson-Furrow Learning Center.
educational experiences for our students.” In the fall of 2013, Morningside completed the first construction project funded through the Vision 2020 campaign: a $1.5 million renovation of Eppley Auditorium.
Interior and exterior upgrades to the performance facility included new auditorium seats, curtains, and wall and floor coverings. In addition, lighting and sound systems received enhancements. New landscaping, parking revisions and a 12-foot glass canopy over the main entrance doors are the most obvious changes to Eppley’s exterior. According to Heath Weber, associate dean for performing arts, the Eppley renovation project goes hand-in-hand with an effort to expand performing arts programs at Morningside. “There are great things happening with performing arts on this campus,” Weber said. “We recognize the arts have a vital part in what we do, and they play a vital role in the pride we have in this institution.” Morningside’s Vision 2020 campaign continues to raise money for campus construction projects. A $13.5 million renovation begins this spring for the Lillian E. Dimmitt Residence Hall. The 86-year-old Dimmitt Hall is the largest residence hall at Morningside and is home for nearly 400 students during the academic year. The Dimmitt renovation will be completed in August before students return to campus for the start of fall classes. It will include upgrades to the building’s electric and mechanical systems, including the addition of air conditioning to all student rooms.
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Morningside College launches the Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program Caden McDonald, a sophomore from Logan, Iowa, is part of the first group of students to enroll in Morningside College’s new Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program. Officially launched in the fall of 2014, the new program and its students have had an eventful first year that included moving into the new Buhler Rohlfs Hall on Morningside’s campus. “The ag and food studies major at Morningside caught my attention when I was looking at colleges as a high school senior,” McDonald said. “It’s an area that I’m really interested in studying and working in.” McDonald has been actively involved in the ag and food studies program during its first year and was recently elected an officer in Morningside’s newly formed student ag club. The Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program is designed to prepare Morningside students for career opportunities with a wide range of companies involved directly or indirectly in food and fiber production in the United States or around the globe. Morningside named the program for Regina Roth to
Photo courtesy of Morningside College
Richard Crow, assistant professor of agronomy, conducts his Principles of Ag II class in the area of Buhler Rohlfs Hall that is occupied by the Regina Roth Agricultural and Food Studies Program.
recognize the generous contribution she made to the new academic major. Roth is executive vice president of Beef Products, Inc. in Dakota Dunes, S.D., and a member of college’s board of directors. According to Morningside President John Reynders, the college is uniquely positioned to offer a program of study related to agriculture and food because of its
location in one of the world’s major agriculture regions. “So many students at Morningside come from communities that are anchored in ag related industries,” Reynders said. “And they grow up with a passion, an understanding and an appreciation for the value of this industry. Then there is Sioux City’s long history of serving as the regional center for a wide range of
companies and businesses devoted to agriculture and related support services.” Reynders explained that for many years Morningside offered an agribusiness major with a livestock marketing emphasis that was closely tied to the former Sioux City Stockyards. But that academic program ended nearly 20 years ago. “When we were looking for new programs that would
Congratulations Morningside College! We are proud to have been part of your expansion.
allow our students to go off and flourish and make differences in the world, something related to agriculture and food production seemed like a natural fit,” Reynders said. But, Reynders added, Morningside intended from the beginning to develop a broad-based program that would be different from the type of agriculture program found at most large, state universities. As a first step, the college sought advice and input from international and national companies such as Tyson Foods, Cargill and Beef Products Inc., as well as regional firms such as Midwest Independent Soil Samplers LLC, Palmer Candy Company and Security National Bank.
The result is a curriculum that gives students exposure to scientific, cultural and business principles related to agriculture and food production. “We designed our program to specifically give students the skill sets that they need to have a broad understanding of how agriculture and food production work,” said Anthony Kern, a Morningside biology professor and academic chair of the Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Program. “But another area of focus that we have is giving students additional skills that business leaders tell us they look for in employees – communication, critical
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Ag: Program offers 2 majors FROM PAGE 5 thinking and analytic skills.” Kern said students are introduced to food safety methods, soil science and plant nutrition, and ethical issues in contemporary agriculture. The interdisciplinary curriculum also draws on many of Morningside’s well-established academic programs: biology and chemistry, business administration, economics, history, political science, mathematical sciences, philosophy, and writing and rhetoric. The program offers the Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Bachelor of Science degree and the Agricultural Studies Bachelor of Arts degree. In addition to the two majors, students can select one of the newly developed minors in agribusiness, environmental policy/law, food safety or sustainable agriculture. Students also can choose a variety of already established minors in areas such as chemistry, general business, English, political science, U.S. politics, legal studies, journalism, electronic media production, mathematics, Spanish and sustainability studies. Kern points out that Morningside’s ag and food studies program also is built around the realities of the job market. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that over 50,000 new jobs every year are going to be needed in the agricultural and food sectors,” Kern said. “And these are jobs that require four-year degrees from ag-based programs like ours.” Morningside hired Chris Benson, former vice president of value added meats for Tyson Foods, to serve as director of the college’s
new ag and food program. In addition to overall administrative responsibility for the program, Benson draws on his agribusiness connections to provide students with practical, hands-on experiences in a field related to agriculture or food. “As students in the program enter their junior or senior years, they will participate in an externship,” Benson said. “This will be a semester-long, paid, hands-on experience where our students will work with management and production teams at a business involved in some way with agriculture or food. The externship will provide students an opportunity to gain experience, knowledge and an understanding of that field in a real-world setting. But it also presents students an opportunity to extend that externship into fulltime employment.” Benson has 20 years of agribusiness experience. After graduating from Morningside in 1994 with a double major in agribusiness and economics, he started working for IBP. Benson has held several managerial and executive positions with IBP and later with Tyson. “Our ag program will provide students with an opportunity to have more of a personal relationship, not only with faculty and other students, but with ag-related business managers and employees in this area,” Benson said. “Morningside has many alumni who are agribusiness owners or involved in the food industry, and we believe that those relationships provide us the chance to expose our students to opportunities in those organizations.”
Morningside College’s Krone Advising Center focuses on a new way of advising You won’t find anything quite like the Krone Advising Center on any other college campus. It houses a comprehensive advising program and a dedicated staff focused on meeting the needs of first-year students. “We believe that during the important first year of college, students should have specialized help to identify and achieve their personal, academic and professional goals,” said Morningside President John Reynders. According to Reynders, Morningside is so strongly committed to this philosophy that the Krone Advising Center was constructed specifically for the first-year advising program. From summer registration all the way through to declaring a major, new students at Morningside can count on the team of four first-year advisers to help lay the groundwork for a successful and gratifying college experience. “Our first-year advisers help students explore their interests and set goals for college and beyond,” said Lillian Lopez, vice president for advising at Morningside. “The first-year advisers are experts on Morningside’s academic programs
Photo courtesy of Morningside College
Advisers, staff and first-year students interact in the lobby of the Krone Advising Center.
and departments. The advisers are a valuable resource to help students map out their four-year graduation plan.” Lopez explained that the advisers also help guide new students through Morningside’s policies and procedures and make certain the students know about all the available campus services. “With support from their adviser, first-year students can begin to build important
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mentoring and networking relationships with other students, Morningside faculty and staff, and even community members,” Lopez said. “The first-year adviser also prepares a student to transition to a faculty adviser in the student’s major.” Lopez added that Morningside College takes an all-encompassing approach to guiding students down the path to graduation. “We do not focus only on
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Morningside College appears on U.S. News ‘most efficient’ colleges list
Photo courtesy of Morningside College
Adviser Beth Boettcher, left, meets in her Krone Advising Center office with first-year student Christina Vazquez.
Center: Guiding students FROM PAGE 6 academic advising,” she said. “We also incorporate career development, internships, extracurricular activities and study
abroad. The entire campus community works together in partnership with our students to help prepare them for successful and enriching lives.”
Morningside College is included on a U.S. News & World Report list of the country’s “most efficient” colleges and universities. In the “Regional Colleges (Midwest)” category, Morningside scored second on operating efficiency and was one of only five Midwest regional colleges to make the list that compared spending and educational quality. “Appearing on this list validates our efforts to make a high-quality Morningside College education affordable,” said President John Reynders. “We care about the value our students receive for the investment they make in their education.” For its analysis, U.S. News looked at colleges that scored the highest on overall undergraduate academic educational quality, but that spent relatively less on their educational programs to achieve that quality. According to Robert Morse, chief data strategist for U.S. News, “Schools that are featured on these lists are doing a good job in managing their financial resources relative to other schools that may have far greater financial resources because of more state funding, higher tuition or larger endowments.” U.S. News defined operating efficiency as an
“Appearing on this list validates our efforts to make a highquality Morningside College education affordable. We care about the value our students receive for the investment they make in their education.” JOHN REYNDERS Morningside College president institution’s fiscal 2013 per-student financial resources — money spent on instruction, student services, research and related areas — divided by its overall 2015 Best Colleges score. Only schools that were numerically ranked in the top half of their category in the U.S. News 2015 Best Colleges rankings are included in the analysis. Morningside ranked 23 out of 95 Midwest regional colleges in the 2015 Best Colleges rankings released in September 2014.
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