University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well Profile Campus News, Newsletters, and Events Winter 2004 Profile: Student-faculty collaborative: UMM at its best University Relations Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/profile Recommended Citation University Relations, "Profile: Student-faculty collaborative: UMM at its best" (2004). Profile. 24. https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/profile/24 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Campus News, Newsletters, and Events at University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. It has been accepted for inclusion in Profile yb an authorized administrator of University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ProfileFor Alumni, Parents and Friends of the University of Minnesota, Morris UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MORRIS Volume VIII, Edition 1, Winter 2004 lllll~lli~llm111~111~m1~111 3 1956 00474 8428 Contents Good students, good teachers, Page 1 Student-faculty collaboratives: UMM at its best good learning Page 4 Campus news -a message from Chancellor Sam Schuman Page 6 Development news Page 8 Alumni Relations news The featured stories in this newly-formatted issue of Page 10 Alumni Class Notes Profile highlight student-faculty collaboration. That's Page 20 Cougar athletics news appropriate, because in a very real way, UMM focuses Page 25 Events calendar upon student-faculty collaboration! There's a saying that what is required for a fine college education is a Cover: Kurt Refsnider '04, Coon student at one end of a log and a professor at the other. Rapids, conducted field research in That's a bit of an oversimplification (logs can get pretty northern Sweden. Professor Keith cold in Minnesota in February, for example) but it Brugger and Refsnider collected tem­ contains a germ of an importan t truth: if good students get perature and melt data from an alpine together with good teachers, good learning will result. mountain glacier to determine both local and regional climate change. UMM offers many special opportunities for collaborative research: Morris Refsnider's undergraduate research Academic Partners (MAPs), Morris Administrative Interns (MAis), the opportunities were supported by do­ Minority Mentorship Program, the all-University Undergraduate Research nor gifts to the Owen W. and Frances Opportunity Program (UROP), UMM-based undergraduate research, the A. Tate Memorial Fund for Student Honors Program, and specially designated funds from donors. Each of these Learning. More examples of student­ programs, in slightly different ways, offers rich and enticing opportunities for faculty collaboratives on page one. collaborative learning. It is a signature of our campus that all these inviting venues for shared learning and research are available to virtually all our UMM Mission Statement undergraduates. The mission of UMM as an under­ graduate, residential, liberal arts col­ I would also stress, though, the collaborative nature of the learning which takes lege is distinctive within the Univer­ place at UMM is also outside of these more formal undergraduate research sity of Minnesota. The Morris cam­ venues. In small classes, in faculty offices and in countless informal daily pus shares the University's statewide contacts at the Turtle Mountain Cafe or the Mall or the Regional Fitness Center mission of teaching, research and out­ or in a huge range of co-curricular activities, UMM offers one-to-one learning reach, yet it is a small college where challenges. Often, these are student-faculty collaborations but sometimes they students can shape their own educa­ are student-student teams, or faculty-faculty. And, many of our staff and tion. The campus serves undergradu­ administration also are involved in intense learning situations with each other ate students primarily from Minnesota and with students. and its neighboring states, and it is an educational resource and cultural cen­ A college is a community of learners, and the best in struction takes place in ter for citizens of West Central Min­ intimate, rigorous, active conversation-a student, a teacher, a log. I hope you'll nesota. Through its instructional ex­ enjoy these portraits of collaborative education: there are some wonderful cellence, its commitment to research, exemplary illustrations here. But I also encourage you to mull the fact that for its numerous extracurricular programs each such picture in Profile there are literally hundreds of equally inspiring but and services, and its strong sense of unpublicized collaborative ventures. All these profiles in learning are UMM at community, UMM endeavors to its best! achieve its place among the best lib­ eral arts colleges in the nation. Winter 2004 Profile UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MORRIS Student-faculty collaboratives: UMM at its best A trademark of the UMM experience, student-faculty collaboratives exemplify the academic excellence that a small liberal arts learning community provides. At the heart of each partnership is a burning question and the desire to know more. The dynamic relationships built on this equation fuel creativity and ingenuity, and hone critical thinking and problem solving skills. Partnerships with faculty allow students to personalize their undergraduate educations often leading to life-changing discoveries as they identify educational and career goals. Microbiology research with real-life implications Slime. It doesn't sound very scientific, but it's integral to the important research conducted by Assistant Professor of Biology Timna Odegaard Wyckoff '94 and student assistants Jennifer Montgomery '04, West St. Paul, and Meredith Noetzel '03 , Spring Lake Park. The team investigates the production and properties of exopolysaccaride secretions-slime-by communities of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in order to understand its role in the bacteria's ability to resist antibiotics. Benignly present everywhere in the environment, P. aeruginosa has the potential to become a deadly opportunistic pathogen in persons compromised by illness or injury. Cystic fibrosis patients and burn victims are particularly susceptible to pathogenic invasion by this organism. Montgomery, an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program participant, is preparing for a career in which she may one day prescribe antibiotics developed as a result of P aeruginosa research. The pre-med student's responsibility is to conduct a pilot study using another common bacteria, Escherichia coli. The data gathered will be used as a starting point for the P aeruginosa project after preliminary preparation and testing is completed. Noetzel's role on the research team is to construct P. aeruginosa mutants for experimentation by "knocking out" portions of the cells' DNA using molecular biology techniques, one of her favorite laboratory skills. The mutants will be tested for their ability to form biofilms, or communities, and resist antibiotics. Noetzel graduated in December and continues to work on the project as she prepares for graduate school where she will study neurobiology. More research is definitely in the future for this self-described "lab rat." For Wyckoff, collaborative research with students illustrates what it means to be a professor at UMM: "At a large research university, my role would be to conceptually define the experiment and then hand it off to graduate students. At UMM, I'm hands-on, working with the students at every level of a project giving them a quality research experience with real-life implications. Students learn laboratory techniques and concepts, and how research really works. In the lab, I'm researching and teaching." From left: Jennifer Montgomery '04, Dr. Timna Odegaard Wyckoff '94 and Meredith Noetzel '03 (continued next page) Winter 2004 Profile page I UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MORRIS In-depth study of script facilitates understanding of Renaissance drama Intrigue and controversy surround Timothy Finnegan '04, Maplewood, and Assistant Professor of English Gretchen Minton's quest to find 21st century solutions to a 17th century puzzle. A 400-year-old script holds the clues. How many authors contributed to the writing of Timon of Athens, a play attributed to William Shakespeare? Minton and Finnegan spend numerous hours each week combing over a reproduction of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, printed in 1623. The tragedy in question is characterized by numerous inconsistencies, spelling variations, misnamed characters, false starts and irregular verse, leading many scholars to speculate that Shakespeare may not have composed the entire play. Shakespeare may have collaborated with another playwright or other writers may have completed his unfinished draft. Minton and Finnegan believe that Thomas Middleton collaborated with Shakespeare on this play. While many scholars embrace these possible conclusions, others vehemently oppose them, Timothy Finnegan '04 and Dr. Gretchen Minton resulting in intense "intellectual energy" and dramatic debate. Research completed by Minton and Finnegan, as well as recent scholarly developments in Renaissance history and new knowledge about Shakespeare's contemporaries, will inform Minton's work as associate editor of a new edition of Timon of Athens to be published by The Arden Shakespeare, a leader in critical editions of Shakespearean plays. She is pleased to have found an accomplished assistant in Finnegan through the Morris Academic Partnership program. "Tim is an incredible reader," states Minton,