Vol. 28 No. 10 - October 23, 2023

Truman students tour the Boeing facility in St. Louis during a field trip in the spring. Since 2001, Boeing has sponsored scholarship programs at the University and has awarded more than $250,000 to Truman students.

A decades-long partnership with The Boeing Company continues to grow as Truman recently received a $75,000 grant from the aerospace giant.

Since 2001, Boeing has sponsored scholarship programs at Truman in the areas of business, accounting, math, computer science and statistics. A total of more than $250,000 has been awarded to more than 200 students, making this one of the most impactful scholarship programs conducted through the Truman State University Foundation.

“We are fortunate to have a strong partnership with a global business leader like Boeing in our state that has opened a lot of doors for Truman students and graduates,” said Rashmi Prasad, dean of the School of Business. “Current students benefit from Boeing’s financial support and the hands-on opportunities available through internships and other innovative programs. This has translated to hundreds of alumni going on to successful careers in the industry.”

With this most recent award, Truman will provide 10 scholarships to support students with significant financial need. Funding will also allow for the continuation of The Boeing Bloomberg Terminal for Education in Violette Hall, as well as the creation of an interdisciplinary capstone coursed focused on solving environmental, society and governance challenges. Truman students will be selected from a variety of majors to work as a team to produce solutions to challenges presented to them. The course will be taught by a team of Truman faculty members with solutions presented to representatives from Boeing.

“Boeing is a very forward-thinking company in terms of identifying talent and maximizing it to its full potential. It says a lot about Truman and the type of students we have that this partnership was established more than 20 years ago and it continues to grow today,” said Jim Bergman, instructor of business administration.

Boeing has a successful history of creating and supporting programs at Truman. For more than a dozen years, the Boeing Future Leaders in Thought and Experience (FLITE) has encouraged collaboration between the aerospace company and the University. Designed specifically for underrepresented students, this 10-week program aims to create world-class inclusive thought leaders. Participants spend four days during the week working with Boeing in a specific business capacity, with every Friday dedicated to FLITE School where they learn about one of five topics to help maximize their learning experience and increase their business acumen.

Since 2009, the University’s TRU-Leaders partnership with Boeing has provided opportunities for students with demonstrated high potential in leadership. Each year, 20-25 students are selected by the dean of the School of Business for activities in the spring semester. Participating students are expected to be involved in a business-related organization. As part of the program, they have unique opportunities to visit corporations, receive co-curricular advisement, participate in seminars designed especially for development of leadership and professional attributes, and attend special sessions with business leaders and visiting executives.

Building off of the success of TRU-Leaders, Truman plans to use some of the recent grant to create Boeing TRU-Leaders Next-Gen. Geared toward middle and high school students, this program will not only serve as a recruitment tool for the University, it will also help younger students develop leadership and interpersonal skills to enhance their future career options. TRU-Leaders Next-Gen started as a pilot in spring 2023 at Kirksville High School.

Other benefits from Truman’s partnership with Boeing include field trips to the company’s facilities in the St. Louis area, as well as campus visits and guest presentations from Boeing representatives.

For information about scholarships available to Truman students, click here, or contact Dawn Howd, director of stewardship.

The fall 2023 Celebration of Faculty Scholarship event will take place from 3-5 p.m. Oct. 27 in Kirk Memorial.

This event is designed for faculty members to share recent scholarship, research or creative activity with colleagues from across the campus in a casual, conversation-oriented atmosphere. Attendees will be able to browse posters, articles, books, artwork, slideshows, programs, video demonstration or other artifacts of scholarship, research and creative activity in a leisurely manner. This is also a great opportunity to hear from colleagues who have returned from sabbatical.

Nearly 40 faculty members have already signed up to share their work on more than 50 projects. A variety of departments representing each of the University’s schools will have work included in the event.

Sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, this event is coordinated by the Celebration of Faculty Scholarship Committee.

Truman incorporated the Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center into homecoming festivities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Oct. 21.

Since 2015, Truman has been working to convert the former elementary school into an interprofessional center designed to provide in-depth, interdisciplinary assessment and intervention for children with autism or suspected autism, as well as other neurodevelopmental disorders. The Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center is scheduled to begin providing services to clients later this fall.

“It is very exciting to have this transformational project move to the next phase,” said University President Susan L. Thomas. “It is the persistence and determination of so many individuals and organizations that have made this center a reality. The powerful impact of the Greenwood Center to locally meet the needs of our community, as well as provide educational experiences that will prepare our graduates to provide much-needed services regionally and across the state, cannot be underestimated.”

Financial support for the transformation of the Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center has come largely from the Missouri legislature, which has appropriated more than $7.4 million. A congressional earmark by Sen. Roy Blunt provided an additional $3.42 million in federal funds. Truman also received a $1.1 million grant from the Sunderland Foundation of Kansas City, and Adair County SB 40 sponsored the first year of the director’s salary.

In addition to serving area clients, the Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center will allow for high-quality training for Truman students. Licensed professionals will supervise Truman students enrolled in health-related academic programs including: applied behavior analysis; communication disorders; counseling; education; exercise science; health science; nursing; and psychology.

With in-person services set to begin later this fall, the Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center is currently pre-certifying potential clients. An online form for individuals, family members or guardians of those who may benefit from the center’s services is available at greenwood.truman.edu.

The Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center is in the process of hiring licensed professionals equipped to provide a variety of services. Qualified health care providers interested in career opportunities at the center can email GreenwoodJobs@truman.edu or visit the employment link at truman.edu.

This year’s North Star Music Festival will take place Oct. 27-28.

Organized by the Music Department and Truman’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota, North Star is a festival of modern music. Rodolfo Nieto will be the featured guest artist, with Heather Gilligan as the featured guest composer. The program will also include performances by several Truman students and faculty, Uncommon Practice, and the premiere of a new piece written by Gilligan for the Truman Symphony Orchestra.

Nieto is a singer, actor, composer and lyricist residing in Minneapolis where he performs regularly in the Twin Cities in musical theater and opera. He has performed with Theater Latté Da, Park Square Theatre, Minnesota Opera, Artistry, History Theatre, Lyric Arts and Mixed Blood Theatre, among others.

Gilligan is an American composer who strives to write music both edgy and lyrical. Her fresh, organic style is honest, direct, and compassionate while exploring the limits of emotion from humor to anguish. Her choral work, “I’ll See You in the Morning,” was premiered in 2014 at Carnegie Hall during the annual New York Choral Festival. She was featured in the Washington D.C. International Music Festival, which premiered her orchestral and wind symphony works at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2015 and 2016.

The full schedule of events for the North Star Music Festival is available at nsmf.truman.edu.

The fall “Films and Finger Foods” event of the Kohlenberg Lyceum Series will screen the classic Vincent Price horror film “House on Haunted Hill” at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Del and Norma Robison Planetarium.

Price performed at Truman more than any other university in the country. He established the Vincent Price Theatrical Performance Scholarship, a legacy that continues to support Truman students today.
 
Originally released in 1959, “House on Haunted Hill” features Price as an eccentric millionaire who invites five people to a “haunted house” party. Guests who stay in the house for one night will earn $10,000. As the night progresses, the guests are trapped within the house with an assortment of terrors.

This event is free and open to the public. Because seating is limited and food is provided, the courtesy of an RSVP is requested by clicking here, or by contacting the Office of Advancement at 660.785.4133 or lyceumseries@truman.edu.

This season’s Kohlenberg Lyceum schedule includes two installments of the popular “Films and Finger Foods” events incorporated into the series last year. A second “Films and Finger Foods” event is scheduled May 4 for a movie to be announced.

For more information about the Kohlenberg Lyceum Series, include the full schedule of events, visit lyceum.truman.edu.

Truman’s campus will host German radio personality, theater director, actor and author Jürgen Kuttner, from Oct. 23-27 as part of his tour of the Midwest.

Kuttner is a well-known radio moderator, theater director and freelance artist in Berlin. He came to prominence in the 1990s as a public radio talk-show host and moderator oriented toward youth culture. In 1996, Kuttner began a regular stand-up improvisation show using television video clips as the basis for running commentaries on politics and art at Berlin’s Volksbühne Theater. Since 2000, he has been active as director, with Tom Kühnel, author and actor at numerous theaters across Germany. He also served as one of the co-directors of the Brecht Festival in Augsburg, Germany, to which Truman students contributed. Kuttner toured several U.S. campuses in spring 2018 – including Truman, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University – presenting an improvised video clip show called “I Wanna be Americano!”

While on campus, Kuttner will work with students in German and theatre to present a version of his production of Bertolt Brecht’s adaptation of J.M.R. Lenz’s play “The Tutor” (Der Hofmeister) at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Black Box Theater.  

“The Tutor,” originally by the 18th century dramatist J.M.R. Lenz, is the story of an underpaid and humiliated private teacher who maims himself to maintain his social status. In adapting this play, Brecht wished to rehabilitate a largely forgotten outsider poet and to provoke narrow-minded cultural functionaries in East Germany, where he lived and worked during the last years of his life.

Kuttner’s visit is sponsored by the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, with support from the Theatre Department.

An event in the Professional Development Series hosted by the Education Department in partnership with the Regional Professional Development Center will take place at 6 p.m. Oct. 25 via Zoom.

This session will be led by Lori Pinkston and is focused on what has to be learned and accomplished in the first four years of obtaining a teaching certification.

This workshop is open to any current students or alumni. A Zoom link will be sent on the day of the event to those who RSVP by Oct. 24.

Truman’s Sustainability Month is underway with several events taking place throughout the month. Since at least 2018, the Sustainability Office has led events in both fall and spring celebrating the environment and spreading awareness. This is the second time the office has put on a full month of sustainable events for fall semester, rather than just a week. The theme this semester is “Small Actions, Big Impact.” At the end of the month, the office will host an afternoon with organizations from campus and the wider community during Sustainability Fest from 3-5 p.m. Oct. 27 in front of the Student Union Building.

Stargazers Open House
7:30 p.m.
Oct. 23
Farm Observatory

Slacklining
4:30-6 p.m.
Oct. 24
Quad

Slacklining
4:30-6 p.m.
Oct. 26
Quad

Rave to the Grave
10 p.m.
Oct. 27
Phi Lambda Phi Pavilion

Sustainability Fest and Clothing Swap
3-5:30 p.m.
Oct. 27
In front of SUB

Hike with TruOutdoors
1:30 p.m.
Oct. 29
Meet in rec parking lot to carpool

Stargazers Open House
7:30 p.m.
Slacklining
4:30-6 p.m.
Oct. 31
Quad

Pumpkin Composting & Battery Drive
12-4 p.m.
Nov. 4
Centennial Hall parking lot

Any Truman student planning to live on campus for the 2024-25 school year can now apply for housing online through the housing portal in TruView.

Living on campus provides students with a built-in community of peers, in addition to offering a variety of amenities. All campus residence halls feature furnished rooms, access to laundry facilities and a meal plan. On-campus residents also have all of their utility costs included in the price of their room. More information about applying to live on campus for the 2024-25 academic year can be found online here.

“Students who live on campus perform better academically because of the close connections to fellow students that develop,” said Jamie Van Boxel, director of Residence Life. “It is also more convenient to focus on your academics when you are close to your classroom, study, lab and performance spaces. Having an on-campus meal plan makes it easy to eat a well-balanced meal without taking the time to shop for groceries, prepare meals and do the dishes. We also have some new choices for the coming year, so when you compare housing options side by side, the convenience of living on campus is very plain to see.”

Along with the current existing room options, Residence Life will be offering more deluxe double rooms in some residence halls. Triple occupancy rooms in Blanton-Nason-Brewer Hall, which were rarely in demand, will be converted to deluxe double rooms. Students will now have the option to secure a deluxe double room for the same price as a standard double. For upper-class students, Campbell Apartments will offer single-occupancy options for the first time in recent history.

“Returning students living on campus have more options than a first-year student because returning students self-select their room earlier,” Van Boxel said. “Returning students can group up with their friends to take over a section of a residence hall or a group of apartments in Campbell. Returning students also have the opportunity to live in larger rooms or in an on-campus apartment with more space with a roommate of their choosing.”

The housing portal is open now and can be accessed through TruView. Room selection will take place in the spring semester. Questions about the housing process can be directed to Residence Life at 660.785.4227 or reslife@truman.edu.

Students with an affinity for business can submit their ideas for the annual Bulldog B.I.T.E. elevator pitch contest until Oct. 27.

An elevator pitch outlines the concept or idea for a product, service or project in a short period of time, typically from 30 seconds to three minutes. The length of the pitch mirrors the time spent waiting for and riding an elevator in a high-rise building. The purpose of the pitch is to spur the interest of a potential investor or financial backer.

Bulldog B.I.T.E., which stands for Building Innovation by Truman Entrepreneurs, is a “Shark Tank”-like competition that allows Truman students to pitch a for-profit or not-for-profit concept for a product, service or project. It is open to any Truman student, or team of students up to three members, enrolled during the fall semester.

Students will submit a concept or idea for a product, service or project in a video pitch no longer than two minutes by 10 p.m. Oct. 27. The video should not include any props, except the product prototype, and should be one continuous shot.

Six teams will be selected to attend a live pitch competition at 2:15 p.m. Nov. 16 to present their concept to a panel of judges. The top three finalists receive financial awards: first place will receive the Amanda Gioia Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award of $3,000, second place will receive $2,000 and third place will receive $1,000.

The Bulldog B.I.T.E. is sponsored by Villhard Growth Partners and is coordinated on campus by the Office of Advancement. For complete details and entry information, visit bulldogbite.truman.edu.

The Truman State University Board of Governors is beginning the search for its next student representative.

The Board of Governors is the University’s highest policy making body, charged with the important role of setting policy and providing guidance for the University. The student representative is a non-voting member of the board who voices student interests and opinions relating to issues the board votes on.

Information on how to apply can be found at senate.truman.edu/application, or by reading through the application packet here. All applications will be due electronically to studentgovernment@truman.edu by 11:59 p.m. Oct. 27. Any questions can be directed to Ella Schnake, the current student representative, at ers6535@truman.edu.

Pickler Memorial Library is running its Food for Fines program from Oct. 30-Nov. 10. Anyone with a library fine can bring a can of food. For each can donated, $1 in fines will be waived. Food donations will only forgive fines from overdue materials and not replacement costs for lost or damaged books. All of the food collected will be donated to the Pantry for Adair County as part of the University’s annual Big Week of Giving. Everyone, with or without fines, is encouraged to donate food during the week.

Union & Involvement Services will begin accepting room lottery requests for the spring 2024 semester from 8 a.m. Oct. 30 to 12 p.m. Nov. 3.

Recognized student organizations must be in good standing in order for requests to be processed. Any submissions received after 12 p.m. Nov. 3 will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis once lottery requests have been processed. Forms can be found here. Paper forms will not be accepted.

Contact the Union & Involvement Services Office at union@truman.edu or 660.785.4222 for more information.

Residence Life, in conjunction with the Residence Hall Association, will sponsor trick-or-treating in the residence halls from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 31.

Kirksville community members are invited and encouraged to bring their families into the residence halls to receive candy from campus residents.

Candy distribution will take place in the West Campus Suites multipurpose room, the Missouri Hall Chariton Room, the BNB first floor south lounge, the Dobson Hall lobby and the Ryle Hall main lounge. For a map of Truman’s campus, click here.

Students who would like to sign up to hand out candy can click here. This will be a great opportunity to come hang out with the residence hall community in the lounges and hand out candy to Kirksville families. Please note, students are responsible for providing their own candy during this event.

West Campus Suites is designated as the allergy-conscious residence hall for this event. Those in West Campus Suites who wish to participate are asked to provide small toys or candy that does not contain peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, gluten or soy.

Residence Life is looking for students who will create welcoming environments, develop connections with students and foster a learning-centered community to apply as student advisors for the 2024-2025 school year. Student advisors will have their room and meal fees fully covered.

Anyone enrolled in classes, has lived on campus for at least one semester once employed and maintained a 2.75 GPA, is qualified to apply. The application is open now until Jan. 29. Visit reslife.truman.edu or email reslife@truman.edu for more information.

Sigma Phi Epsilon is hosting Festa’s Fall Festival at 2 p.m. Nov. 4 at 1309 South Florence Street.

This fundraising event will include several games such as a pumpkin carving contest, apple bobbing and trivia. The event is named after Roger Festa, a long-time faculty advisor of the fraternity, who passed away in 2018 from oral cancer. All proceeds of the event will be donated in Festa’s memory to the Oral Cancer Foundation, an organization that funds cancer research, advocates for public awareness and provides support to those currently battling cancer.

The Anthropology Club is co-sponsoring an event with Dr. John Smelcer, one of the last native speakers of the Ahtna tribe in Alaska, at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Del and Norma Robison Planetarium.

Smelcer will share his favorite tribal myths with Truman students, faculty and families in the planetarium. The planetarium itself will be decorated to look like an Alaskan wilderness, complete with Northern Lights. This event is free and for Native American Heritage Month.

The McNair Program provides academic, social and funding support to students from groups who are historically underrepresented in graduate education. Paid summer research internships, funds for graduate school visits and conferences, and academic counseling are just a few of the benefits the program has to offer. Applications are open now with an extended priority deadline of Nov. 15.

Applicants can visit the Adair House for help with applications Mondays from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and 3-8 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and Fridays  8-11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Check eligibility here. For more information visit mcnair.truman.edu, email jfreese@truman.edu or follow the program on Facebook or Instagram.

“What We Inherit,” an exhibition by Chicago-based artists Janhavi Khemka, Maddie May and Thuong Hoài Tran, will be open in the Charlyn Gallery. Their practices examine the complexities of memory, familial stories, inherited objects and learned ways of navigating the world around them. Whether painful, lost or cherished, histories shape people’s lives and identities. Each artist’s works question their understanding of identity through artifacts of everyday ephemera, domestic space and family archives. The works presented in this exhibition link to collective memories and the stories they carry through intergenerational histories and differing backgrounds. They will present a virtual artist talk from 6-7 p.m. Nov. 13 via Zoom.

The University Art Gallery is located in Ophelia Parrish 1114.  For more information visit gallery.arttruman.com.

The Student Recreation Center has recently added mobility flow classes to its fitness class schedule.

Mobility flow is a mix of yoga and physical therapy-like exercises and movements focused on improving overall flexibility and mobility. All ages and skill levels are encouraged to attend. No equipment is required to participate in mobility flow and participants entering the Student Recreation Center solely to attend mobility flow do not need to bring an extra pair of shoes.

Mobility flow is offered at 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Aerobics Room on the second floor of the Student Recreation Center. The full schedule of fitness classes can be found here.

CLAS 310: Classical Antiquity on Screen taught by Amy Norgard is available to take in the spring 2024 semester.

This class will study film, TV and video games set in/around the ancient Mediterranean. Particular attention will be paid to how different forms of screen media influence each other and work together to communicate different notions of the ancient past to modern audiences. Class time may be spent in Truman’s Esports gaming facility playing ancient world video games. Students will be able to access the Esports center outside of class to log hours for gaming homework.

This class counts for the arts and humanities perspective and the aesthetic area of the film studies minor. Contact anorgard@truman.edu with any questions.

Due to changes at the Microsoft corporate level, the University is in the process of transitioning all of its Office brand software to Microsoft 365, often referred to as M365. Ultimately, there should be little difference in terms of user experience once the conversion is complete, and M365 offers some additional advantages over the previous option.

In the past, Office software had to be loaded individually onto each workstation, with each computer needing a unique license key in order to function. By switching to M365, a subscription model, it is not necessary to install software on a workstation. Truman has a campuswide subscription for all of its workstations. However, subscription licenses need communication with a central system to confirm they are valid, so internet access is required. M365 does allow the software to be downloaded for temporary offline usage, which is advantageous when internet access might not be readily available.

Another benefit to a subscription license model like M365 is that updates are automatically available from the central system and do not need to be installed on individual workstations in order for someone to take advantage of any new features.

Some users may still have access to previous versions of Office products – Word, Excel, PowerPoint – previously installed on their system. These products are no longer receiving enhancements/fixes and will stop receiving security updates in early 2025.

Anyone needing assistance with the transition can contact the Help Desk at 660.785.4544.

Any student with an interest in Chinese language, Asian studies or foreign languages can take CHIN 101 in the spring semester.

This course will be taught by Hui-Chiao “Sally” Wang, an experienced Chinese-language educator from Taiwan and this year’s Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) grantee. With a deep understanding of Chinese culture and extensive experience in language education, Wang is dedicated to enriching students’ learning experiences. Under her guidance students will not only develop essential language skills, but also gain a profound appreciation for Chinese culture.
 
CHIN 101 offers students an excellent chance to develop linguistic and cultural proficiency, preparing them for success in the interconnected world and unlocking numerous career opportunities in their future.

In late September, members of the speech team participated in Illinois State University’s third annual online asynchronous pop-up individual events tournament. Senior Megan Ford competed in prose interpretation and received fourth place. Sophomores Briggs Maynor and Alexis Peterson competed as well. Maynor received second place in dramatic interpretation. Peterson received third place in impromptu speaking, qualifying for the National Forensic Association at the end of the year. Freshman Jesse Fields also competed in impromptu at this tournament. The team took home first place in individual event sweepstakes.

In early October, freshmen Payten Luaders and Jesse Fields finished with positive records at Washburn. Lauders was second place runner-up and finished as sixth place speaker. Fields finished as a quarterfinalist and eighth place speaker.

At Western Kentucky, the debate team had much success. Lauders finished as a semifinalist and first place speaker in the junior varsity division, and Fields finished as second place runner-up. Seniors Elijah Baum and Alicia Stout advanced to elimination brackets in the open division, earning their qualifications to NFA. Baum was a quarterfinalist. Stout was a semifinalist and finished as eighth place speaker. Senior Eli Bartz and sophomore Aiden Bressawitz also attended.