What's Campus Buzz?
Campus Buzz is a monthly publication of the Office of Communications and Marketing
designed to complement the online C-News
and distributed to Concordia faculty and staff.
For the most current Concordia news, please
visit www.ConcordiaCollege.edu/cnews.
Scholarship
and activities information may be submitted to kappes@cord.edu.
Amy Kelly, Editor
Office of Communications and Marketing akelly@cord.edu
Celebrate Christmas at Concordia
With two great events, one in its 81st year and another in its second, Concordia is the place to celebrate Christmas.
Start out the season with the second annual Christmas at Concordia 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29. Tree lighting, area musician performances, arts and crafts, Christmas movies, horse and carriage rides, and chili for charity lead the event.
The Christmas at Concordia event is free and open to the public. Complete the weekend by attending the 2007 Concordia Christmas Concert, with Moorhead performances at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30; 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2. This year's concert, "Come to the Living Water," embraces new art throughout the auditorium - an intimate setting of landscapes, background art, trees and more. The artwork will highlight themes of creation, advent and baptism. The music, featuring more transitional pieces, includes new scorings of hymns and original compositions.
"We've done a lot with the idea of invitation," says artistic director Dr. Rene Clausen. "It's an invitation to come to worship."
Tickets are $12 and go on sale Oct. 29 in the Memorial Auditorium box office located in the Offutt Concourse.
Neuroscience Minor Fillls Need
Interest in neuroscience is growing as word of this new minor spreads.
Dr. Julie Mach, chemistry assistant professor, directs the program and says neuroscience is a highly integrative discipline in which chemistry, biology, psychology, physics and math all provide insight into how the nervous system functions.
Students who complete the neuroscience minor will come to understand how the brain and nervous system acquire, process and integrate information from the environment and how this information influences behavior of an organism.
Science faculty and new departmental hires created the courses to expand the science opportunities envisioned for the college's new curriculum.
Neuroscience is especially applicable for students seeking careers in medicine, pharmacy, psychology and biotechnology, or attending graduate school.
Mach says it is widely known that neurological problems, such as depression and Alzheimer's disease, are some of the most pressing health conditions today.
"Students entering into these professions with a background in neuroscience are likely better equipped to deal with these problems," says Mach.
Rawson Certified as Language Tester
French assistant professor Dr. Gay Rawson recently completed certification as an oral proficiency tester, which now means she can provide Concordia French students internationally accepted testing scores reflective of their French speaking abilities. Certified through the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, rawson can offer both official and unofficial oral proficiency interviews - depending on whether students need an official score for a job or just want the experience of finding out where their speaking skills land.
While she's eager to offer this service to Concordia students, Rawson says just the act of applying for this certification has had a tremendous impact on her teaching style. Her training to ask certain types of questions during interviews has taught her to adjust her questioning during classes as well. rather than asking tough open-ended questions in a beginner's French course, for example, she alters her questions to elicit a simple answer.
"It has really enhanced my teaching in ways I never imagined," Rawson says. "Now I can be sure that the way I ask a question is going to be consistent with the level of most of the class. It helps the students use the language and develop confidence."
Spanish Majors Experience Village Weekend All Spanish, all the time was the goal of the first Spanish and Hispanic studies department immersion weekend at Concordia Language villages. more than two dozen students and seven faculty members spent a recent weekend at the Spanish Language village, El Lago del Bosque, honing their language skills.
"You can speak Spanish for 70 minutes in a class, but that doesn’t get your brain functioning in that language," says Dr. Mary Rice, Spanish and Hispanic studies professor and division chair of Language, Literature and Culture.
Rice says getting the students together for two days of intensive language application, at a site that was specifically meant for that purpose, was a great opportunity. The college funded the event and the Spanish Language village staff coordinated the activities, which included classes in authentic cultural cooking, dancing, games and crafts. They plan to make the retreat an annual event.
African Drum Group to Premiere at Prism Concert
With authentic instruments from Ghana, Concordia's new African Drum ensemble is rehearsing for its premiere performance at the inaugural Prism Concert. The 90-minute concert is at 4 p.m. Nov. 10 and will feature percussion and wind-band groups, as well as a faculty soloist. It will also include the African Drum ensemble, led by associate professor of music Dr. Jeff Meyer and Kyle Maxwell-Doherty '08.
Maxwell-Doherty purchased the African drums and xylophones, called gyils, for the college when he was in Ghana this past summer through the Lilly vocation research program. He learned to play the instruments at the Dagara music Center and wanted others at the college to experience this music, which is very different than Western music.
“Ghanaian traditional music has all been passed down through these traditions of playing the songs,” says Maxwell-Doherty. “There is no sheet music and no real sense of time. It is more call and response oriented.”
In addition to drums and xylophones, the group also uses vocalists and dancers as part of its performance.
Feeding the Fire
The art department's Phoenix Fast Fire wood kiln was fired for the third time oct. 3. It was truly spectator art as more than 250 of Moorhead's Ellen Hopkins Elementary Students came to watch the firing and learn from associate professor of art Ross Hilgers about the firing process.
Firing Facts
10-hour firing 2300 degrees optimal temperature 200 ceramic pieces fired in kiln 30 students needed to stoke fire, rake ash and split wood 48 hours for kiln to cool to 350 degrees Fire stoked every 4 minutes Burned refuse wood
Scholarships and Activities
Dr. David Sprunger (english) has completed an article on J.A. Holvik for the American National biography project, published by oxford University Press. Holvik was a Concordia professor of Norwegian and band from 1923 to 1952. He is remembered particularly for his contributions to the scholarly debate over authenticity of the Kensington runestone, which claims that medieval vikings explored central Minnesota. Lisa Sjoberg (archives) provided key research for the article.
Dr. Douglas Anderson (mathematics and computer science) had his paper "Young's Integral Inequality on Time Scales Revisited" accepted for publication in the Journal of Inequalities in Pure and Applied Mathematics.
David Boggs' (art) reconstruction drawing of the first public portrait of Alexander the Great - developed in collaboration with Dr. Peter Schultz (art) - has been republished by Ian Worthington (Frederick A. Middlebush Professor of History, University of missouri-Columbia) in his new book "Philip II of macedonia. The King behind Alexander the Great," by Yale University Press.
Dr. George Connell (philosophy) presented a paper, "Paradoxical religion in Danish Cinema: Kierkegaardian Themes in Carl Dreyer's 'Ordet' and Lars von Trier's 'Breaking the Waves,'" at the Faith, Film and Philosophy Conference held Sept. 28 in Spokane, Wash., co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Whitworth College.
Dr. Peter Schultz (art) presented two invited lectures in Athens, Greece, during the first week of October. The first paper, "The North Frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike," was given at the American School of Classical Studies. The second paper, "Space and Spectator in the Philippeion at Olympia," was presented at the Danish Archaeological Institute.
Dr. Mark Jensen (chemistry), Travis Bjordahl, Dennis E. Tallman and Gordon Bierwagen had their journal article, "Studies of Electron Transfer at Aluminum Alloy Surfaces by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy," published in ECS Transactions.
Please send scholarship and activities submissions to kappes@cord.edu.
Banner at Concordia
Installations Completed and Implemation Begins
Substantial progress was made to the banner initiative during October. All of the hardware was installed, configured and tested successfully. Due to environmental concerns within our current Lorentzsen Hall computer operations center, all of the new Sun hardware was installed at 702 Communications in downtown Moorhead. The hardware is securely connected via high-speed fiber to the college network. The banner software was also successfully installed and tested in October.
The Banner Steering Committee begins its regularly scheduled meetings later this month. The executive Committee meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and the full Steering Committee meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays. The Steering Committee has broad membership representing the entire college. The committee is co-chaired by Dr. Mark Covey, division chair of Sciences and Mathematics, and Chief Information Officer Bruce Vieweg and has substantial responsibility to "oversee" the banner initiative and to assure that it remains on time and on budget.
Substantial implementation events begin this month, including work on the student, finance, development
and alumni, and human resources systems. There will also be an introduction to oracle technical training session.
Contact banner project manager Marla Branden (mbranden@cord.edu) for a detailed calendar of all banner-related events.
Each month, this section of Campus Buzz will provide specific details on Banner, the new commercial information system at the college.
October 2007 Contents
Interest in neuroscience is growing as word of this new minor spreads. 
10-hour firing 