Hotline // June 12, 2024
This week’s Hotline includes the following articles:
President's Column: Recognizing achievements, retirements and joining the new ‘Frontier’
Greetings from VCSU!
This has been a celebratory, historic and action-packed couple of weeks at VCSU! We’ve received the largest gift in our history, recognized achievements and retirements for our faculty and staff, celebrated spring commencement with our 2024 graduates, families, and friends, and have solidified our athletic conference affiliation for fall 2025.
We are incredibly grateful to the Tharaldson Family for the recent $5M gift to our “Forward Together” Capital Campaign. This gift puts the exclamation point on our first ever campaign for VCSU. The impact of the campaign will be long-lasting and significant, including enhanced student scholarships, a complete renovation of McCarthy Hall, and the addition of an indoor turf practice facility for our athletic programs. Each of these items will enhance the student experience and bring added value and vitality to our beautiful campus, and the plan for moving these projects forward will be at the soonest possible date. In fact, you will begin to see mobilization and work commencing with the McCarthy Hall renovation in mid-June.
Celebrating the contributions, success, and retirements of our faculty and staff is one of the most important events we host each spring. We gathered at the Memorial Student Center for this wonderful event on May 9. Celebrating outstanding achievements of faculty and staff throughout the year, promotions, degree and certification completions, and retirements were on the agenda for recognition. Four retirements this year, amounting to more than 100 years of combined service to VCSU were announced and recognized. What an amazing legacy and solid foundation these folks have left for the university community.
We were honored to celebrate the completion of degrees and certificates for 170 students at our 132nd commencement activities held May 11 at the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse. Gathering to celebrate with this year’s graduates, families, and friends is the highlight and capstone of the academic year. North Dakota State Board of Higher Education member Curtis Biller provided greetings. The student speaker was Madison Yoder, and the recipient of the faculty excellence award, Dr. Travis Knapp delivered remarks. We are so proud of our graduates and wish them the very best as they embark on the next chapter in their lives.
Finally, it’s likely you’ve heard the news that our university athletic program will be joining the Frontier Conference beginning with the fall 2025 academic year. We are very excited to be moving to this new conference in unity with the four remaining North Star universities. The opportunity to expand the size of our conference, while preserving the traditional rivalries we’ve established in the NSAA, will bring new excitement and stability to our athletic programs for the future. The Frontier currently sponsors 12 sports, including football, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, and men’s and women’s golf. With the addition of the five NSAA schools – who all play baseball and softball – the Frontier will also likely begin sponsoring baseball and softball as an official conference sport in the coming years. I’m certain this move will enhance and elevate the experiences of our student-athletes and supporters.
We wish you the best in your summer travels and activities. Should your travels bring you to Valley City, we encourage you to stop by campus and see and enjoy the updates and beauty of our grounds and facilities.
Go Vikings!
Robinson retires from VCSU with more than 50 years of service to ND
Valley City, ND – Valley City State University (VCSU) celebrated Larry J. Robinson on Monday, June 10, with an official program recognizing the naming of the Larry J. Robinson Center for the Arts.
Speakers during the program included President Alan LaFave, former president of VCSU Dr. Steve Shirley, and Valley City Mayor Dave Carlsrud. Robinson also addressed the crowd and offered thanks to his colleagues and family.
“I firmly believe no one in life accomplishes anything alone,” Robinson said. “It takes a team.”
Larry Robinson graduated from Tappen High School and earned his B.S. degree in education from VCSU in 1971. He also earned his Master of Science degree in Educational Administration from NDSU. He started his career as a teacher in Warwick, N.D. then returned to VCSU as the Director of the Memorial Student Center and Student Activities/Auxiliary Services in 1975. In 1996, Robinson was hired as the first Director of the VCSU Foundation. In 2021, he stepped into the role of directing VCSU’s first-ever capital campaign. He and his wife Mary Lee reside in Valley City and are active community members.
Robinson served as a member of the North Dakota Legislature as a senator for District 24 from 1988 to 2019. He served in several leadership positions including on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Higher Education Committee and Veterans Affairs. His leadership helped facilitate funding for a new Veterans’ Home in Lisbon, flood protection for communities in the Sheyenne River Valley and the for the new VCSU Center for the Arts. The $32 million building officially opened for students in the spring of 2022.
The Robinson Center for the Arts is the creative hub for all art and music on campus. The art facilities include a ceramics lab, printmaking, painting, and drawing studio, a woodshop, a photography studio and digital design lab. Music facilities in the building include a 350-seat performance hall, 100-seat choral room, a band rehearsal room, piano lab, recording studio and numerous practice rooms of various sizes.
Heide named ‘Difference Maker’
Erin Heide was nominated as June’s Difference Maker by the Enrollment Services team. They had the following accolades for Erin: “Erin Heide is a difference maker to her own department! She started the 2023-24 academic year with a team of four new admission counselors. She made the transition into our new roles very easy. Erin has shown incredible patience as we have all learned the ropes and have asked many, many, many questions! She does all this while serving on many different campus committees. Her commitment to this office and campus is why she is our Difference Maker!”
Students present at NDCTM
Maddie Giesler and Jasmine Jacklovich, VCSU education students, recently presented “Exploring Sphero: Engaging Learners in K-8 Classrooms” at the ND Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference on June 11.
Jasmine and Maddie are also members of NDCTM. NDCTM members include elementary, secondary, and post-secondary classroom teachers. The council aims to support mathematics teachers across the state as they work to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics. They were accompanied by their faculty mentor, Harmony Richman. Richman commended the students and said, “They were professional, thoughtfully prepared and organized for their presentation. I was there to support them and offer hands on help when we handed the robots out to play, but they represented our program and themselves beautifully. They took advantage of this opportunity with excitement and a passion for education as they attended a variety of sessions.”