NDSUmagazineNORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY SPRING 2003 contents Editor’s note 5 Letters 6-7 Contributors 8-9 On the cover 10-11 Letter to an imaginary friend Introduction by Kathy Freise 12 An homage to Tom McGrath 13-17 Put your finger on it 18-19 Tracking gadget gives professors insight into what students are learning D’oh!-re-mi 20-29 North Dakotan Alf Clausen makes music for “The Simpsons” Excerpts 30-31 Psychology professor Kevin McCaul Lazy bones 32-35 Engineers work on a better bone builder Little time machines 36-37 Historic theaters in North Dakota No longer lost 38-43 Sudanese refugee studies to be an engineer Poetry 44-47 You live it every day Editor Laura McDaniel Editorial staff Cathy Jelsing Dan Koeck Kathy Laid Tammy Swift Volume 3 Number 2 SPRING 2003 Art Direction/Design NDSUmagazine Julie Babler Address changes Send address and name changes to: [email protected] Letters Unless noted “not for publication,” communications to the editor are considered for publication, often in a condensed version. E-mail: laura.mcdaniel@ ndsu.nodak.edu PO Box 5167 Fargo, ND 58105 Fax: 701.231.1989 Volume 3, number 2 NDSUmagazine is published twice a year, in spring and fall, by North Dakota State University, University Relations, PO Box 5167, Fargo ND 58105. NDSU is an equal opportunity institution. President Joseph A. Chapman [email protected] Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs R. Craig Schnell [email protected] Vice President for Student Affairs George H. Wallman [email protected] Vice President for Research, Creative Activities and Technology Transfer Philip Boudjouk [email protected] Vice President and Dean for Agricultural Affairs Patricia A. Jensen [email protected] Vice President for Business and Finance Richard L. Rayl [email protected] Vice President for University Relations Keith D. Bjerke [email protected] editor s note ’ A North Dakota tableau It was a windy spring day when we met cover artist Walter Piehl to take his picture. We’d thought the third floor of the Plains Art Museum would be a good place, but Walter suggested the West Fargo stockyard. We also learned he can keep a straight face for his part of the American Gothic pose. ’ve not thought myself a particularly lucky person. For starters, I had lake-effect snow in a day? How three older brothers, and in high school, had horrible, wiry hair when could it possibly make sense to Ithe glossy Farrah Fawcett flip was required, which is no doubt why I was equate expense and crowds and denied a place on the echelon cheerleading squad senior year. Formative congestion with superior condi- years full of bad luck, it seemed. tions? I don’t know the answers, Such sacrifice seems to be paying off all these years later. What but luck but enjoy the questions. put me in the right place when the right president came along to launch a In circumstances of perception magazine. Aha. The top squad at last. versus reality, people who read Little did I know how much the job would come to mean. I surely did not about the work at North Dakota expect to discover a deeper appreciation for North Dakota, but there it is, State University write letters and reflected most clearly through my counterparts from other universities. It e-mails, sometimes a confession began at an editors’ conference where a guy saw North Dakota on my of being surprised. “Heck,” one guy nametag and launched into a description of trying to get his wife to join him wrote, “I’ve never even been to on a visit here, and wondered what persuasive strategies could I supply in North Dakota, but now I get a little support of his cause. I was unprepared to do tourism promotion that day, piece of it in the mail.” A writer but never again. from a big, private university in the Back in my twenties, didn’t I race along I-94 on trips to Bismarck, my East says “you don’t look like hometown, as fast as I dared (but certainly not exceeding the speed limit, you’re from North Dakota,” in Dad) thinking that this was the dullest stretch of highway ever paved. Now, a complimentary tone, and I laugh nearly forty, I bask. I savor the endless horizon line, the blue sky on a sunny along, imagining what she must day, the space, the photograph I can imagine sending to colleagues in have expected. I’m short and appear congested, claustrophobic places like Baltimore and Pittsburgh, in long- to be brunette (still battling the hair commute cities like Seattle or Los Angeles. but with a skilled stylist who knows Serene in the sunbeam shining through the car window, I drive along and her way around a dye job). Are wish I could whistle like that dad of mine. Crystal Chandelier, maybe, or North Dakotans believed to be tall Green, Green Grass of Home. He doesn’t perform anymore, but absent- blondes? mindedly sings a little “bum bump bumm” tune. I can’t do that either. So On a trip last fall to Boston, I met I keep quiet to ponder my urban colleagues’ fascination with North Dakota. someone from Montana, and I can imagine their homes, have visited many of their cities. I hope they can caught myself thinking, “My, he’s come to North Dakota one day. One look at the view I see every morning made quite a trek,” as if Missoula on the way to work is all it’d take. An unobstructed sunrise, and then rows were unfathomably remote and of all sorts of trees, green in summer, the evergreens snow-tipped in winter. Fargo the center of all activity. And On especially fine winter days, all the trees are coated in crystal, enchanting. another dose of good luck lands in How is it, I wonder, that North Dakota is thought to have bad weather my lap. when upstate New York routinely gets pounded with five, six, eight feet of Thank you for reading. [email protected] 5 with me, nevertheless. I have loved my role in education and attribute letters some of that affection to both Dr. Bovard and NDSU. I wanted to express my thanks to Mark Mathern you for taking time to publish your Casper, Wyoming visit with an excellent professor, Dr. Class of ’82 Bovard, in NDSU magazine. I took two courses from Dr. Bovard with I just finished reading the latest an invitation from him to become a NDSU magazine, and wanted to let TA and begin my Master’s degree you know how much I like it. I had program in his department. That to smile while reading the invitation was a real confidence “excerpts” from Richard Bovard, builder for me and has contributed because Dr. Bovard was my to my success in public education Shakespeare professor back in the both as a Latin teacher and as a early ’80s when I attended NDSU. school administrator. His interest in His classes were always challeng- his subject matter and his eye for ing, and he had a passion for what detail taught me serious lessons he taught. If I could tell him any- about loving students and expect- thing today, it would be that I still ing nothing but the best from them. read and re-read my Shakespeare (One evening, I found him in the plays – though now just for fun. library checking an obscure refer- Not the biggest deal in the world, ence in one of his student’s papers. I know, but sometimes it’s nice to How impressive!) know that your efforts and influ- As a Latin major at NDSU, Dr. ence made a difference. I hope he Bovard recognized my interest and is enjoying his retirement. tied it to his love of Classics. We Kristi Thorfinnson Wentzel Fisher, Minnesota had many discussions about the Romans and their influence on Will Shakespeare. Had my choices put me on another pathway, I might have taken up the offer Dr. Bovard made to me 20 years ago. To stay in Fargo, however, was not an option at the time and seems even less of one now that I have established a family and career in Casper, Wyoming. His lessons have moved 6 NDSUmagazine I am alumnus of NDSU, CS Dept and graduated in the fall of last year (2001) with a Master’s degree. I currently work as a DA engineer at Intel. Dr. Jorgenson was instru- mental in guiding me during my master’s thesis and was also on my committee. I am so glad that the very good work being done by Dr. Jorgenson is getting some attention. The work being done is really cutting edge and it gives students the chance to The article “The Good War?” by Mr. Lyons is obviously trying to develop VLSI design flows that are Michael J. Lyons (Fall 2002 issue) rewrite history when he says the the latest in the industry today! cannot go unchallenged. I guess he Red Army had already assured Oh well, I wish I could’ve been a picked or copied the title from Germany’s defeat long before D- part of it :-) Robbie (Rohit) Nadig Studs Terkel’s book. His question Day. Is he serious? like that of Studs Terkel implies To deny that D-Day was the that it is possible for a war to be defining moment of World War II a good thing, which to my mind in Europe is to ignore reality.