MSyou Fall 2012

A supplement to the MSU Reporter Fall Semester 2012

Faces from the campus of Minnesota State University, Mankato

Page 2 MSyou Fall 2012 Faces on Campus Page 3

Today’s issue of the Re-porter features a special sec-tion we as a staff put out once a semester. We like to call it MSYou. It’s spelled like MSU, only a little differently. I know it’s clever, but I didn’t come up with it. I’m just here to over-see its production, along with Ryan Lund, our new News Editor.

This special section ex-plores the lives and personali-ties of Mavericks who stand out from the crowd rather than blending in. The indi-viduals featured are alumni, professors, faculty and staff members who have done extraordinary things with their lives, or have simply done something that makes them unique, something that makes

them happy. As I spend my Saturday af-

ternoon spent curling up with pages of copy to read, pome-granate tea in hand, I think back to a realization I had last semester: The Reporter is more than just my job.

I wouldn’t do this job if I didn’t love every second of it; I wouldn’t spend hours upon hours editing stories and designing pages until the wee hours of the night only to wake up at 6 a.m. the next morning for class. The Report-er is my passion; it is where I find fulfillment, gratitude, happiness, energy.

As a third year senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato, I am one of the lucky ones. People spend their entire lives searching for the one thing that makes them

most happy. I, at only 20 years old, have discovered that I want to be a writer for the rest of my life: that I want to work in media until the day I die and that is what makes me happy.

The faces and names featured in MSYou are also lucky. They have found their passions and they know what makes them happy. They have acheived their goals, or if they’re still trying, at least they know what they want to do and they’re running towards those goals with full force. They understand that making their goals become a reality takes a lot of heard work, but that it’s all worth it in the end.

To those faculty and staff members featured in this is-sue, as well as countless others who are just as worthy of the recognition; your hard work and dedication inspires me. To know that you can be suc-cessful in something you love gives me hope that I will be happy for the rest of my life.

As students, we can all learn from our elders, from those on campus who have far more experience. But we won’t learn anything unless we look directly at their lives, unless we ask them questions and learn from their mistakes.

If you ask a faculty member why they decided to go into their field, they will never turn you down or say that they

don’t have the time for you, or at least they haven’t done so in my experience.

These professors an faculty members love talking to stu-dents, and when you want to write a profile piece on them last minute, they will take the time out of their day to meet with your for breakfast at 7:30 a.m.

They will set aside time to help you with graduation forms or give you their per-sonal contacts so you can land the internship of your dreams.

Whether it’s the librarian passionate about making stu-dent advising more effective or the professor who dedicates their life to teaching art as a form of expression, these indi-viduals are shining examples of how passion and determina-tion can get you anywhere in life.

If you don’t love what you do, a major will simply turn into a job. But if you find your passion, discover what makes you want to stay up until 3 a.m. working, you will find that you not only have a job, you have a career.

As you flip through these pages or browse the MSYou content on our website, I would advise that you take a step back from your life and think about life after gradu-ation: Where do you want to work? What do you want to do? Where do you want to live? What is going to make

you happy? Happiness, not money, is

the one thing that will make you successful in life, or so I like to think (I’m going into a field where money doesn’t necessarily just get handed to you for nothing – maybe this is my way of justifying my career).

Pushing yourself through history and government classes, taking out thousands of dollars in student loans and going to law school in hopes of someday becoming a law-yer will not make you happy if all you want is a fat paycheck. It will, however, make you happy in you genuinely want to fight for the constitutional rights of American citizens.

If you’ve discovered your passion, chase after it until you run out of breath. If you’re not quite sure what your pas-sion is, take classes, volunteer or join an organization. Do whatever it takes to figure out what will make you happy: what gives your live purpose.

Whether you’ve been in your field for thirty years, or are a first year students still undecided about your ma-jor, I wish you all the best in your future. I hope you enjoy reading this special section as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Thanks for the sup-port of this newspaper and the dreams of those in Centennial Student Union, Suite 293. We appreciate it, Mavericks.

What MSYou means to me

MEGAN KADLECeditor in chief

The importance of finding your life’s passion


If you don’t laugh at yourself, some days can get pretty long; wise words from Shirley Piepho.

Shirley Skorr Piepho is the Assistant Director of Minnesota State University’s Scheduling and Conference Services. She is an essential part of the university, and a huge inspiration for success.

The University Scheduling and Conference Services Of-fice is responsible for sched-uling events for all facilities on campus.

The Scheduling and Conference Services is ac-tive every day since much of the university needs help for events.

“There’s a lot of challenge solving but that’s what we’re here for, there’s never a dull moment,” Piepho said.

Piepho is thrilled that they are getting a new university-wide scheduling system that won’t only help her, but her clients as well.

“I have great students working for me, I wouldn’t be able to do my job if it wasn’t for them,” Piepho said. “They’ve always been a number one priority.”

Piepho attended MSU for her Bachelor’s Degree in business, with a minor in business administration in May, 1976. In 2003, Piepho got her Master’s Degree in

educational leadership at MSU.

Within the past four years, Shirley Piepho has received the Mankato Area Council’s award for Quality “Above and Beyond” in July 2012, the Claire Faust Public Service Award from Minnesota State in 2011 and the Convention and Visitor Bureau’s award for Volunteer of the Year in 2009.

She has also received eight other awards for her outstanding leadership and success.

With a resume packed with community involvement, its easy to see why Piepho is such an essential part of the university and the community of Mankato as well.

“There’s a side of that that’s really fulfilling,” Piepho said.

Piepho truly believes that getting to know your community as well as your university can help greatly with networking and getting lifelong experiences.

“You want to get involved, you want to have those life-long experiences,” Piepho said.

As a child, Piepho grew up on a farm in Jasper, Minne-sota.

Growing up with a hard working family that was always eager to get out and help others, turned Piepho into the person that she is today.

“When you grow up on a farm, you have to be a team,” Piepho said. “It was a really good training ground for what I do today, lot of team-work to get the job done.“

Piepho doesn’t know what she would do without her student and grad help, she ap-preciates them and their help greatly.

“My goal is always to make sure I do a good job, also the eight students and one grad student, [to] make sure they learn some life lessons and be able to assist them in that process,” Piepho said.

Piepho said it’s all about nurturing, since there are so many procedures and policies that are very important to follow, it’s all about helping to assist and educate them.

“They are not just put-ting on an event on but their learning to put an event on, and when the event happens, they can be proud of it,” Piepho said.

After growing up on a farm with a hard working family, it was not hard to find the direction Piepho wanted to go in her life.

“I always knew what I wanted to do because of all

the volunteering throughout the years,” Piepho said. “I love working with events and people and trying to get suc-cess.”

With a husband and two kids, her dreams became much more than just her career.

“My son, Marcus, 24, is an army ranger. My dream is for him to come home safely,” Piepho said.

Piepho did not pause when asked what her favorite thing about MSU is.

“The students, no doubt,”

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Shirley PiephoLaughter keeps scheduling director grounded

ERIC PERRINEstaff writer

william cadyabi • msu reporterPiepho, who works with University Scheduling and Conference Services, said that her favorite part of her job is the students.

Piepho / page 15


Sports have always been a part of MSU athletic direc-tor Kevin Buisman’s life, and they still play a major role.

Growing up in Iowa, Buis-man enjoyed tremendous suc-cess as a three-sport athlete, winning a state basketball title and making a state ap-pearance in football while in high school. Lucky for the Mavericks, Buisman has once again found success in athlet-ics, this time in an adminis-trative role.

Buisman’s journey to the head of the MSU athletic department began in Cedar Falls, IA, where he attended the University of Northern Iowa during the 1980s. He spent his learning days study-ing finance and management, while also playing on the football team.

The spring of his senior year, 1987, is when he sat down to think about his future and what he wanted to do. Always thinking he would wind up in personal or investment banking, Buisman asked himself if that was really what he wanted for a career.

“Reevaluating things, I de-cided I wanted to find some-thing that would be a good marriage between my pas-sion for sports and academic background in business and finance,” Buisman said.

Realizing that college

athletics was becoming more and more like a big business, Buisman saw an opportunity in the business side of sports.

“I think there was a big transition going on where it was going to be run more like a business,” Buisman said. “There was going to be a premium put on those sorts of skills.”

Before the ‘80s, athletic administrators typically had a background in athletics, often coming from the coach-ing ranks. Aware of the real-ity that this was a transitional phase, Buisman stayed in Cedar Falls to pursue, and ul-timately receive, his Masters of Business Administration degree in 1989 for something to fall back on.

This extra time at UNI allowed Buisman to gain valuable experience through volunteer work and intern-ships within the athletic department. It also gave him a chance to learn from two extremely successful figures in the college athletics field.

Before making a name for himself on a national scale, Bob Bowlsby was the athletic director at UNI during Buis-man’s time there. Since then, Bowlsby went on to become the athletic director at the University of Iowa as well as at Stanford University, and is currently the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference.

Buisman’s other valu-able experience came when

he sold corporate sponsor-ships for the basketball team coached by Eldon Miller.

Miller was the head coach at Ohio State in 1986 when they won the NIT Tourna-ment, and was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. After the ’86 season, Miller came to UNI for the same position, arriv-ing just as Buisman was be-ginning his own work within the department.

Staying at UNI until 2002, Buisman worked his way up the ladder and was eventually named the associate director of sport management.

Despite working directly under the athletic director, Buisman knew he would need to find a new school if he ever wanted to run his own program.

Being offered a position at two separate institutions, Buisman ultimately landed in Mankato and assumed the role of Director of Athletics.

“I felt like Mankato was the right place for myself and my family in terms of the opportunity being presented,” Buisman said.

Ten years later, Buisman still takes pride in being President Richard Daven-port’s first hire. Also arriv-ing at MSU in 2002, one of Davenport’s first tasks was to hire a new athletic director, and he chose to make Buis-man his first administrative hire.

Looking back at his col-lege days and the decision he ultimately made to pur-sue a sports related career, Buisman has no regrets. He wanted a job that offered variety, primarily to avoid

being stuck at a desk all day in a repetitive setting.

“Some people say variety is the spice of life,” Buisman said. “If that’s the case, then

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Kevin BuismanA passion for sports mixes with business background

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william cadyabi • msu reporterKevin Buisman always thought he would end up in personal or invest-ment banking, though he loves working with Athletics.

Buisman / page 14


Anyone who takes solace in knowing that after a tough day of classes, you’ll have the Otto Rec Center or the Meyers Field House to help sweat your

troubles away, should also acknowledge the fact that it hasn’t always been this nice. It took years of redevelopment and hard work, and much of the credit goes to the MSU Campus Recreation depart-

ment, and, in particular, Cam-pus Recreation Director Todd Pfingsten.

This is Todd’s fourteenth year at Minnesota State Uni-versity, Mankato as the Direc-tor of Campus Recreation. His main duties include overseeing facilities, running the intra-mural sports programs, fitness activities, as well as oversee-ing sport clubs. His road to MSU was an interesting one though, and it dates back to his childhood.

The youngest of 8 kids, Pfingsten grew up on a farm outside of Worthington, and loved every second of it.

They specialized in corn, soybeans and dairy. His dad milked cows for 48 years, and made a living providing for his family.

Pfingsten grew up with a passion for sports, and played quite a bit of basketball, golf and football, and also played golf in college.

They had a big enough yard out on the farm to play a lot of sports right at home, and took full advantage of it, playing football and basketball on a regular basis as kids.

Pfingsten went to junior college in Worthington, and got his two-year degree there, eventually making his way to MSU from 1986-1989, double majoring in accounting and business finance. Right away, he learned his ins and outs in campus recreation, doing a work study program early

on in their department. One of the first things he did was sports officiating, something he took a real passion for, basketball, flag football, and softball in particular.

Eventually, he was offered a job in the campus recreation office. Dr. Marge Hodapp, the director of Campus Rec at the time, and someone that Todd speaks very highly of, eventually offered him a spot working in the office.

As time went on, he be-came more and more inter-ested in Dr. Hodapp’s position, and how one would acquire such a job. She told him to get a master’s degree. Eventually, he did just that.

After a brief stint working for a trucking company, taking advantage of his degrees, he was eventually approached by then Dean of Allied Health and Nursing Don Buchannan, and was offered an opportu-nity to run the program on an interim basis, sadly due to a colon cancer diagnosis that Dr. Marge Hodapp had received a few weeks prior. Todd accepted the position.

8 months after he accepted the position, Dr. Hodapp died of colon cancer. While he was working at the depart-ment, he was able to use her advice when they had worked together, received his master’s degree, and was able to work in the position on a full-time basis, rather than an interim one. Eventually, Pfingsten felt

as though it was time to leave his alma mater to see what else was out there.

“We had a lot of things we have today, but students didn’t have access to quality facili-ties like Otto.” He said. “I al-most felt like it was dead end, as there wasn’t a lot of support at the time.”

He eventually left MSU, and made his way to the Uni-versity of Nebraska, Lincoln, and worked under a big-time Campus Recreation program.

“That’s where I learned everything.” He said. “That’s where I learned what it should look like.”

He went on to say that, to that point, it was the best professional move that he had made, and the football did not hurt. He was there from 1993 to 1999, and was able to see them win three national titles in four tries.

Eventually, he made his way back home. On his way to a Campus Recreation Confer-ence, he ended up seeing his old job title listed at that same conference.

He was happy to hear from their representative that, after a survey of students was done, they had decided to build some new facilities, hire staff, and making the campus recreation program better for students in general. Todd was asked to apply. So, he did.

He ended up getting an in-

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william cadyabi • msu reporterToff Pfingsten learned all there is he needed to know about campus recreation through his work a the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Pfingsten / page 14


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For most students, the process of making a dif-ference at Minnesota State University, Mankato will end when they receive their diplomas. New dreams will begin, some thousands of miles away, others right down the road.

For Associate Director of Security Joel Jensen, his dreams are being fulfilled at the same place where he went to college.

The road to where he is at now was paved with many destinations. With both of Jensen’s parents dedicating themselves to the education world, Jensen found himself moving from one place to another growing up.

“I grew up all over the world,” Jensen said.

Jensen, who graduated high school in Mankato, spent the next 12 years mov-ing from city to city.

“I wanted to get out of Mankato,” he said.

After traveling, Jensen returned to Mankato to pur-sue a degree. A highly edu-cated man, Jensen received his Associate’s degree in 1993, Bachelor’s in 2000, and Master’s in Experiential Education in 2005.

In his 24th year with MSU security, Jensen has seen it all in his tenure.

Jensen described a hor-

rific situation in which a student was car surfing. They turned a corner around Gage, and the student f lew off the car.

He didn’t make it.“Those are the kinds of

things that stick with you,” Jensen said.

He also lamented other tragedies on campus.

“Suicides happen way too often,” he said.

While Jensen remembers the bad, there are also many good memories he has from his time at MSU.

“Someone once found $4,000 in a red money folder. Instead of keeping it, he turned it back in.”

“The money was later used to pay for an inter-national student’s whole semester here. The student didn’t even know whose money it was, he just turned it in because of the look of the money folder.”

Comical stories during his tenure also stand out to Jensen.

“At 3 a.m. one morning, horrible screams starting coming out of the Perform-ing Arts Center. There was a female supervisor there, the police were called.”

“They found a light swinging, and a boot in there – the fire commander thought someone was there. After the police and fire-fighters left, the situation was found to have been

caused by an air conditioner gone awry.”

At the beginning of his tenure, Jensen worked se-curity in and around cam-pus. He is in a much more esteemed position now.

“I am probably viewed in a much more positive light by students now,” Jensen said.

Jensen’s promotion to Associate Director was met with a lot more responsibili-ty. First and foremost Jensen is a security technical spe-cialist. His office, located in a non-descript, small room near the Maverick Bullpen,

belies the fact that his job is very important.

Jensen runs the dispatch center, video cameras and the card access system, and when the director of secu-rity is away on business, Jensen becomes the active director.

Jensen relishes his job, he looks forward to com-ing to work every day. His favorite part of the job is the students.

“My favorite thing in general is interacting with the students, interacting with MSU students. I get more positive reactions now,

for the most part things go pretty well.”

For new security person-nel on campus, Jensen wants to see the right kind of bal-ance on the job.

“There are a lot of job functions, you have to bal-ance them, whether it is holding a door open, an-swering calls, etc., you have to balance them all.”

Receiving this job for Jensen was welcome news. A former Blue Earth County Jail employee, Jensen was never sure what he would

Joel JensenAssociate Director of Security has a long history at MSUNAME HEREstaff writer

• web photo MSU’s Security team deals with any and all personal and public safety issues on campus. The members of this

team work together under Director Suzie Dugan and Associate Director Joel Jensen.

Jensen / page 12


Elizabeth Miller, art profes-sor at Minnesota State Univer-sity, is an amazing artist and professor that has been honored for her work numerous times by regional and state art organiza-tions in the last few years.

Miller is, to say the least, a very nontraditional artis. Her work can be categorized as contemporary drawing and involves a lot of scissors.

“To sum it up, I draw with a scissors I would like to say,” Miller said.

Miller grew up in Blooming-ton, Minn., She started out at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, then transferred out East for her Bachelor in Fine Arts.

In 1999, she moved out East to Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island and received her BFA in painting.

In 2005, Miller got her Master of Fine Arts in drawing and painting at the University of Minnesota.

With multiple awards and honors, and countless past and upcoming exhibitions, many in the art department consider

themselves lucky to have such a talented artist and enthusiastic professor.

How does someone become such an intriguing artist? Well it doesn’t just happen overnight.

Miller has always been in-terested in creative things.

“In kindergarten I thought I was going to be an artist, I don’t think I really knew what being an artist meant until I went to Rhode Island Design,” Miller said.

While in Rhode Island, she was geographically close to New York City which opened her eyes to the art scene.

“I knew I liked drawing, working with my hands, mak-ing things, but I didn’t really know what my career path would be,” Miller said.

Even though many people would try to direct her art into something else, it didn’t stop her from figuring out her path.

“At Rhode Island School of Design there were a lot of people around me that thought it was wonderful to be an artist,” Miller said. “I didn’t know what being an artist was exactly, until I went there.”

An artist who really inspired Miller in her earlier years and

who’s visited MSU, was Polly Apfelbaum. She is still one of her favorites, and through Miller’s art you can see a sig-nificant similarity.

“My interest in art is like my interest in music: very broad, it’s hard to narrow it down to one artist,” Miller said.

Miller moved out of her comfort zone with more than just paper and paint, and found materials that she had an affin-ity for.

“I didn’t start out doing non tradional art, but it’s just how my work evolved,” Miller said.

To say the least, Miller’s art became a nontraditional success.

“I went to New York a lot, it was the first time I really attended a lot of galleries,” Miller said.

“Experimental art and some artists really inspired me.”

Miller didn’t have a desire to be a professor at first, but when she was in graduate school and started teaching, she started to really enjoy it.

“I really loved the direct en-gagement, enjoy helping people make progress, become excited and enthusiastic about some-

Elizabeth MillerFor art professor, variety is the spice of teaching

MOLLY HORNERstaff writer

william cadyabi • msu reporterElizabeth Miller is an art professor at MSU, but unlike some professors, she actually works in the field she teaches.

Miller / page 15

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For Minnesota State Univer-sity, Mankato students, one-on-one time with faculty and staff members is sometimes difficult

to come by due to conflict-ing work or class schedules; however, there is one MSU staff member who goes above and beyond what is required to ensure her students’ success.

Julie Snow, director of

MSU’s Office of Disability Services, was born in 1956 in Osseo, Wis., a rural town of less than 2,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, to Peter Johnson, a dairy farmer, and Louise Johnson, a school teacher.

Snow’s humble beginnings included working on her father’s dairy farm and attending el-ementary school in a one-room school house during the 1950s and 1960s, which resulted in a “fairly sheltered experience” from diversity, according to Snow.

As the child of a dairy farmer and a schoolteacher, “work ethic was pretty ram-pant” and expected in the Snow household for Julie and her two sisters. Hard work was not only expected on the farm, but in the classroom as well, which placed great emphasis on receiving a quality education.

After graduating high school, Snow set out to fulfill her parents’ dream of receiving a quality education by enrolling in Waldorf College’s two-year program in Forest City, Iowa. As Snow’s friends began migrating from Waldorf to MSU in the 1970s, she made the decision to transfer and complete a degree in Mankato.

For Snow, the choice of what to major in was not as clear as the decision to attend college. The time in which Snow grew up in attributed to her inability to choose a major.

“I was definitely one of the

undecided students,” Snow said. “I didn’t have a real clear direc-tion or understanding. When I was a child everyone kind of had a few choices, you were either a teacher or a secretary.”

Even though Snow came from a long line of educators, which includes her mother, aunts, uncles, cousins and one of her sisters, she was “never really drawn to the classroom,” which ruled out the possibility of majoring in education.

Despite heading into college undecided on what degree to pursue, Snow always knew she enjoyed working in the “help-ing profession,” which would aid in her eventual decision to major in Parks, Recreation and Community Education with an emphasis in therapeutic recre-ation – working with individuals with special needs.

After finishing her under-graduate degree, Snow strayed away from recreation in favor of her first professional career in social service. She worked for a community action agency helping low-income families and women to help develop self-sufficiency programs. After 10 years with the agency, she moved to the education setting.

Despite the fact that Snow did not earn an undergraduate degree in social work, she is a licensed social worker. She was granted the license in the 1990s during a “grandfathering pro-cess” where those who worked in the social-service field, with the proper supervision, were

given the social-work license. With the license, Snow worked as a social worker in the Min-nesota Valley Education District for 10 years.

Snow also earned a Master of Educational Leadership degree from MSU in 2004.

In June 2000, Snow began working for MSU as the direc-tor of disability services and American’s with Disabilities Act compliance. As the direc-tor, she supervises a staff of six, plus work-study students, in providing services and accom-modations to students with dis-abilities, according to Snow.

A typical day consists of one-on-one meetings with students who need accommoda-tions for a disability, as well as making sure academic programs and buildings are accessible for all students.

“So, as the director I have kind of a combination plate where I work directly with students.”

“I’ll meet with students [who need] accommodations for their disability but, I also, I kind of have two hats. I’m the director of disability services and also the director of ADA compli-ance for the institution. I also work with departments and administration and all areas of the campus to try and help them make sure that their programs or curriculum [or] facilities or whatever [are] accessible,” Snow said.

Julie SnowRural work ethic drives Director of Disability Services

ERIC PERRINEstaff writer

william cadyabi • msu reporterJulie Snow, Director of the Disabilities Services Office, began career in social work after rural farm life sheltered her from diversity.

Snow / page 14

Often times, students can become easily overwhelmed with school, work and ex-tracurricular activities all competing for their attention. However, what many of these students don’t realize is the insane amount of work some faculty members put into their jobs so these students have an easier time managing at least one aspect of their lives.

Minnesota State University reference librarian Kellian Clink is one of those faculty members. She goes to work everyday eager to help stu-dents succeed, often sacrific-ing personal time to meet with students and spending nearly 12 hours a day on campus.

As a reference librarian since her beginnings at MSU in 1987, Clink works with stu-dents who come to the refer-ence desk located on the first floor of the memorial library with questions on completing academic projects and papers.

She also works with four departments as part of Col-lections Development, going into classrooms and teaching students about different re-search methods in Corrections, Anthropology, Social Work and Psychology. Clink said that she does between 70 and 80 of these sessions a year.

“I think it is so important that students learn their disci-plinary databases,” Clink said. “[The databases] are all a little

bit different. Like Psychology, the unique feature is that you can limit by kind of research methodology.”

For Social Work, Clink cre-ates a custom Google search for the students so they can search one place in order to access approximately 66 dif-ferent websites in one search.

Doing work for the Anthro-pology Department has its challenges due to the fact that many students are doing foren-sics work, sometimes research-ing very odd things.

“They have a lot of students doing CSI kinds of things,” Clink said. “There was a guy rotting up a pig in the back of a car in a lake to look at decomposition.”

But her work doesn’t stop there. Clink also serves on various committees and tasks forces within the University.

These committees include work with graduate student projects, general education requirements, student learning outcomes and the distribution of research grants.

Previously, Clink has served on a laundry list of committees and task forces, written countless papers, given various presentations and done a great deal of research on how the University can more effec-tively serve its students.

Clink serves as a peer mentor, providing new fac-ulty members with guidance outside their department and a strong introduction to MSU.

“It’s someone outside their department who they can ask questions. With those new faculty members, I introduce them to library resources, obviously because I’m a librar-ian,” Clink said. “[I] talk to them about research grant opportunities and how to do a professional development report. Basically, meet with them once a week and visit with them about their depart-ment and just anything they might need to know.”

She also works as a peer consultant, giving professors feedback on their teaching performance through observ-ing their classes and student reactions to these lectures.

Clink is also the faculty advisor for two fraternities at MSU: Sigma Nu and Phi Kappa Psi, though she said her role as advisor serves very dif-ferent functions in these two fraternities.

At Sigma Nu, she serves as an advisor, helping students who are struggling in school while mentoring the group as a whole about academic success.

“For the brothers who are underperforming, they come visit with me,” “Sometimes it’s just a matter of tutoring. Sometimes it’s a matter of getting them into the Counsel-ing Center. Sometimes it’s a matter of just talking to them about time management.”

For the guys of Phi Kappa Psi, Clink’s home tends to serve as their gathering place

for potlucks, meetings, recruit-ment and murder mystery nights since, unlike Sigma Nu, they don’t have a fraternity house.

“I adore them. They’re just wonderful, really high-per-forming students,” Clink said.

In her free time, Clink focuses a great deal on advis-ing research, determining the most effective way to advise students and suggesting to University officials how fac-ulty advisors can better serve their advisees.

Clink grew up in Casper, Wyoming where she worked as both her high school news-paper’s co-editor and also as a contributor to the school’s underground newspaper that featured more poetry and other submissions.

Come college, Clink found herself in Minnesota attending Concordia College in Moor-head, though she’s still not quite sure how she got there.

“I was minding my own business, babysitting in Wyo-

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Kellian ClinkLibrarian focuses on student success and advising

• web photo Kellian Clink, a reference librarian at MSU, focuses her research on

how the University can better serve its students.

MEGAN KADLECeditor in chief

Clink / page 12


Linda BaerInterim VP shares thoughts on MSU

At an institution like Minnesota State University, Mankato, many changes are made in a short amount of time to staff, policies and even buildings on campus. During the constant changes, faculty and staff are hard at work in order to provide the best possible education to their students, and Interim Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, Linda Baer, is no exception.

Baer, who holds a doctor-ate in sociology, has held jobs as a professor, Senior Vice President of Academic and Student affairs at Bemidji State University, as well as interim president and Senior

Program Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation before her job here at MSU.

“The shared governance issues are comparable,” said Baer on her experience work-ing in the administration of different universities.

“[The experience] contin-ued to build some of my com-petencies because seeing those issues helped me get the big picture of all of the campuses in the system.”

Baer is heavily involved in the inner workings of the uni-versity, including academics, research, student affairs and strategic planning. She over-sees many of these workings while also adding her own experiences to the decisions made.

“I came from some really exciting research opportu-nities,” said Baer. “[They] showed some of the best practices across the country, including student success and student opportunities, as well as improving high impact learning practices that faculty and staff have done in other campuses and other states. So I’ve been able to bring some of that literature to the campus.”

One issue that Baer brought up was improving the op-portunities and lives of the students of MSU.

“I think the administrative team has developed good trust and communication with the various unions and the various individuals across the cam-

NAME HEREstaff writer

• web photo Linda Baer, MSU’s Interim Vic President of Academic and Student Affairs, used to work at Bemidji State

University.

Baer / page 12

Douglas MayoPurdue lawyer turned

MSU Vice President of University Advancement

LINDSAY PETERSONstaff writer

william cadyabi • msu reporterDouglas Mayo went to Law School, ran a business and worked for Pur-due University before coming to MSU.

On the outskirts of cam-pus, behind the Chipotle in University Square, is a building where the office of a humble Minnesota State University, Mankato vice president resides.

On the top floor you will find Vice President of University Advancement Douglas Mayo, whose moti-vational journey took him to Indiana, North Carolina and Colorado before he found his place at MSU.

Mayo brings a positive way of thinking to motivate MSU faculty, students and staff to strive towards bigger ideas and enlighten others to accomplish their greatest achievements.

“When people do good things because they believe in it, and work together to pour themselves into do-ing the right thing or bring a solution to a problem,” Mayo said, “Our campus is about that and I think my team does that here, if I can motivate that, that is by far the most exciting part profes-sionally.”

While Mayo was a student in Indiana in the late ‘80s,

he saw himself becoming a teacher for high school social studies and a coach.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Purdue University in 1990 with a double major in history and political science and a minor in secondary education.

Mayo then decided to continue his education in law school.

In 1993, he graduated from Wake Forest University School of Law, a private, American Bar Association-accredited law school in Winston-Salem, North Caro-lina. It is ranked among the best law schools in the na-tion, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Once admitted to the bar in August 1993, Mayo practiced privately in North Carolina for five years before he left to pursue an opportu-nity with his father’s busi-ness, Commercial Plating, Inc.

He said his dad had called and said that things were going pretty good and was wondering if he would be interested in taking over.

“I’ve been telling people how to finance and set up their businesses, so I thought

Mayo / page 15


Being a talented, acclaimed musician is what many people strive for, but few can do it. A lifetime spent learning notes and rhythms can become a huge struggle, something that can take years to master. For Craig Matarrese, being an acclaimed musician is only a small part of his life.

Matarrese, a Philosophy professor at MSU, sees music as a second career- his “plan B” in his choice of profession.

A resident of St. Peter, he admits that being a musician is awfully challenging, in his words “a difficult gig,” but Matarrese wouldn’t want it any other way.

Matarrese often plays gigs in the cities.

“I play jazz and reggae,” he said.

He has also started using his musical expertise to help students at MSU.

“I have started teaching bass in the music depart-ment.”

When he’s not teaching philosophy and music, he works on developing his tal-ent and passion for music at home.

“I have a home recording studio, it’s endlessly interest-ing,” Matarrese said.

His band, Lime Credo, is such a hit at his alma-mater, Northwestern, that the Uni-versity paid for him and his

band to f ly out to Chicago to perform at homecoming in 2009.

“Our first show, three years before, was a smashing success, so much so that they paid us to come out,” Matar-rese said.

Lime Credo was formed at Northwestern in the fall of

1989. The band, which split up after college, was reunited 18 years after their last perfor-mance. The band started their career by playing at fraternity parties.

Gigs have come from all over the place.

“We have had shows in Cleveland, Atlanta and Chi-cago every year,” Matarrese said.

Matarrese, who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, has always been a fan of Minnesota.

“When I was a kid, since I was 9 we came up to the boundary waters and went f latwater paddling, and it was awesome because Minnesota has the best f lat water wilder-ness paddling in the world,” Mattarese said.

Matarrese couldn’t stand the climate of Atlanta. “I hated the heat,” Matarrese said.

Matarrese, who earned his B.A. degree from Northwest-ern University in 1992, was a member of the Pi Kalpha Alpha fraternity, just as his band mates were.

Matarrese also has a Ph.D from The University of Illi-nois, Urbana-Champaign.

Matarrese believes that the best lessons a teacher can give come from the natural environment.

“One of my teaching high-lights was on a paddling trip, the beautiful nature was the classroom. Teaching philoso-phy there for hours, you could almost see students trans-forming, students’ lives were

changed,” Matarrese said.During the trip Matarrese

would make students remove their watches.

“I would make students tell time by the sun, just enjoy the atmosphere,” Matarrese said.

Matarrese relies on an open-style discussion format for his classes.

“I’m not a big fan of lectur-ing people. We talk, argue things, provide momentum. The discussion is collab-orative. If you’re lecturing at people, they zone out,” he said.

The professor has changed his style of teaching since his debut in graduate school.

“When I started teaching in grad school as a young professor, I gave myself all responsibilities. I’ve relaxed a lot since then, more of a risk to involve everyone.

“I feel students know right away if their professor cares about the subject or them. You

get buy-in from that if they know you care.”

Technology has often changed in his 11 years spent here.

“A whole lot more happens online. Every class now has D2L elements,” he said. “A whole lot of content is online. Students are comfortable in this format, I feel this is a change for the better.”

He believes that online learning gives shy students an opportunity to make an impact that they otherwise wouldn’t feel comfortable with a classroom environ-ment.

“Shy students online can come out of their shells writing. Different types of students can get cracks at learning.”

He expects students to put in the effort to learn in his classes.


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Craig MatarresePhilosophy professor talks about his musical side

SAMUEL WILMESstaff writer

william cadyabi• msu reporterPhilosophy professor Craig Matarrese is also a jazz and reggae musi-cian who frequently plays shows in the Twin Cities.

Matarrese / page 14


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pus to improve student success and educational capacity,” Baer said of the relationship between the university and its students.

“We’ve strategized through some of the metrics of our student engagements at the campus to work towards improving the kind of educa-tional environments students have on the campus, as well as structure to help them suc-ceed.”

Though Baer was only ap-pointed the interim vice presi-dent three months ago, she is excited about the current status of the university as well as the direction it is headed.

“I think the campus is in a good place right now,” said Baer. “I’m looking for more opportunities to bring stu-dent success pathways to the students as well as more op-portunities to be successful in completing their degree.”

Baer brings many new facets to the decision making in the school. Recently, she authored a chapter in “Game

Changers,” a book that focuses on information and informa-tion technologies and has been referenced in some of the deci-sion making on campus.

“I certainly understand that, when new ideas come forward, one of the challenges is having good conversations and communication about them so the best can rise to the top. Not to only talk about them, but how to begin to coordinate some of the ideas to make the biggest difference in goals that the campus cares about,” Baer said, describing the effort that it sometimes takes to share her ideas with campus admistration.

Baer, in the ever-changing world of higher education, continues to push for better student life and education dur-ing her time here at MSU.

“I’m very pleased to be on the campus,” said Baer. “It’s a very exciting and energiz-ing place and great things are going on. There’s a strong op-portunity for a better future.

BAER continued from 10

see or hear during a day in the jail.

“I wouldn’t give my home address to anyone there, I wasn’t sure what would hap-pen if I did,” Jensen said.

Jensen, a resident of Sky-line, adjacent to Mankato, sees his current job as a long-term one.

Even in retirement, which he admittedly is not even looking forward to, Jensen is still planning on making a difference in the security world.

“I will still want to help organizations out with secu-rity tech,” Jensen said.

He admits that moving to a warmer place, with few tourists, would be cool; the notion, however, doesn’t seem to be one of his top priorities.

“I don’t often think of this. I’m really not anxious to retire. I do so many job functions, [there’s] so much stuff here to keep me inter-ested.”

JENSEN continued from 6

ming and I got a call from Jim Myers, who still works [at Concordia] still and he said, ‘We’ve got six million dol-lars in scholarships. Do you want to come here?’ And I said, “Sure. Where are you?’” Clink said. “I had never heard of them. I wasn’t musical, I wasn’t Lutheran and that was their strong suit. I have abso-lutely no idea how they got my name.”

Clink still pays tribute to her alma matter by attending yearly Homecoming festivities and staying in contact with various friends and professors, even thirty years after her graduation in 1980.

“I think that one of the other things students should get out of college besides that quest for the truth is a deep sense of community and friendships that will last a lifetime,” Clink said.

Last weekend, while she was in Moorhead for Concor-dia’s Homecoming festivi-ties, Clink remembers seeing, “Welcome Home,” signs around campus and choking up because that is exactly what the University was for her: home.

She attributes this sense of home to the small campus and the sense of community Concordia provided during her undergraduate career, as she states that there was no way she was “popular” in college. She identified herself as a “misfit” throughout high

school and college. During high school, Clink

was the co-editor of her school newspaper, though she also worked on an underground publication with two friends that published poetry and pic-tures of unicorns, among other things.

Clink received her bache-lor’s degree in English and her master’s in journalism from the University of Minnesota, though she always thought that she was “born to be a librar-ian.”

“Even when I was in graduate school at the U of M where I got my first master’s, people would come to me in the library and say, ‘How do I find this?’, ‘Well, let’s go over here together,’” And I totally wasn’t a librarian, but that was true even in high school. I love doing it.”

Clink said that many students don’t understand research methods and issues and that, through her job as a research librarian, she can help those students.

“I really think that informa-tion matters. I think, espe-cially, disciplinary resources are so important for students because this isn’t high school. Students should not be read-ing the textbook and, you know, reacting to thems,” Clink said. “Students should not be reading novels in their English class and just writing a personal response to them. We should be looking at the

literature databases and find out what people with Ph.D’s in literature have said.”

She stressed the importance of not only finding scholarly research, but also the student’s ability to be able to process and analyze that information on their own, without instruc-tor guidance.

“I think the faculty need to have more faith in the stu-dents to do that analysis, go to things the faculty member has not read and to really struggle with understanding the re-search methodology at work, “ Clink said.

Clink argues that this can help students long after they graduate college, whether they are looking to refinance their home, purchase a new car or undergo a new medical treat-ment. She said that research plays a strong role in all these decisions, and students who know how to analyze infor-mation will be better off no matter what career path they choose.

“I want students to graduate from college being convinced that looking for evidence is a really important part of their decision-making,” Clink said. “Feeling is not evidence.”

A passion for research and the desire to discover the truth helps Clink not only in her du-ties as a research librarian, but also as an individual and mem-ber of the MSU community.

CLINK “I want students to graduate from college being convinced that looking for evidence is a really important part of their decision-making.” continued from 9


When it comes to the faculty at Minnesota State, there are some people that you may not see as often as others. There are some that you, for whatever reason, see every-where. Their jobs have them outside quite a bit, whether that’s a coach, a professor with an emphasis on going outside, anything really.

But, the majority of fac-ulty, not just professors, does most of their work behind the scenes, but also do so effec-tively. Take Director of the Children’s House Jodi Male-cha for example.

While she has only been director for the last year, her impact has definitely been made since the day in April when she made her way into the head seat, after years of working in that same Chil-dren’s House that has helped shape her.

Some may be asking, what is the Children’s House? Any-one who has seen the stroller with infants around Wieking Center has seen an employee of the Children’s House, and the kids that go along with it. It’s an organization that takes priority in taking children of MSU students, but doesn’t do that exclusively.

They are open year round, and are “play-based;” a belief that the children can learn most effectively at that age through play. “We provide them with a safe and comfort-

able place to explore and learn about their world” Jodi said. They are the only location of that sort in a 30-mile radius.

This year they have 93 children total, ranging from newborn babies, up to 5 years old. Despite there being a state regulation for a particu-lar number of students to the

amount of kids an organiza-tion holds, this particular house takes it to an entirely different level, having an exemplary amount of college students to watch the kids while the parents are away go-ing to school, work, or what-ever else that parent might need to do that day.

They have different rooms for different age groups of kids. Along with that, there is a certified teacher within every sect of that grouping. That isn’t necessarily some-thing that every organization is required to have, it is simply the standard that Jodi Malecha and the rest of the upper level staff have set up for them-selves to make themselves a higher standard child learning facility.

It’s obvious that Jodi loves her job, to say the least. More than anything, her take on a child’s mind is something that really sticks out.

“What we do with leaves is amazing.” She said. “Looking at the colors, and the textures, and the sizes. It’s amazing.”

Born and raised right here in Mankato, she graduated in 1985 from Mankato State University with a Bachelor of Science in Family and Con-sumer Science, and a Busi-ness Administration minor. In 2010, she received her master’s degree in educational leadership.

At this point, the Children’s House was already opened,

alma mater with her fam-ily, her family, including her mother and two brothers, are now all living in Iowa.

There seems to be one thing that she would like people to know about the Children’s House, that some people may not know.

“I think some might still think that we just play with the children, and don’t realize the focus on what the children are actually learning through the play, and how we’re pur-posefully directing that play” She said. “We are not babysit-ting. I think more people aren’t thinking that anymore, but there are still some out there.”

More than anything, she uses her love for helping kids to help drive her that has formed into a career with the Children’s House that has lasted for over a decade now.


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Jodi MalechaChidren’s House director hopes to help kids

TIM FAKLISstaff writer

william cadyabi• msu reporterJodi Malecha said that the purpose of the Children’s Hose is play and learning rather than simple child care.

and she used it to her advan-tage, working in there as a stu-dent teacher during her time there as an undergrad. That, along with the fact that taking a couple child development-re-lated classes led her to taking initiative, and an interest in helping kids overall.

At this point, she enters her 13th year in the House, and has been director for just over a year on an official basis (she served as interim director for 2 years along with that). Originally, she didn’t want to move to the office, as she enjoyed working with the kids first-hand. But, it all ended up working out, as she was able to achieve acquiring her masters.

As any faculty member here, though, there is more to Jodi Malecha than just work and her pursuit of getting into the professional world. While she grew up right near her


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this is the career path for you.”

Three different sports seasons, along with a wide range of responsibilities, give Buisman plenty of variety.

According to him, the big-gest perk of the job is watch-ing student athletes come in as youthful teenagers and leave as grown adults. The maturation process is what motivates Buisman and gives him personal satisfaction.

When dealing with col-legiate athletics, there are far more important things than wins and losses. The main goal for any athletic director is to help the athletes grow both on the field and as indi-viduals.

Buisman knows he has succeeded when alumni return to visit and thank him for the opportunities and learning experiences they received during their time at MSU.

The MSU athletics depart-ment has seen tremendous success during Buisman’s decade in charge. Under his watch, the women’s basket-ball team became national champions in 2009, and the men’s team reached the Final Four in 2011. While both the baseball and softball teams have made recent College World Series appearances, it is safe to say that Buisman has been doing a fine job.

BUISMAN continued from 4

terview in Mankato, and was offered the job. It was still extremely difficult to decide whether or not to leave.

“That was the most dif-ficult professional decision I ever had to make,” he said.

More than anything, it got him closer to home, and gave his wife a chance to be the stay-at-home mom that she had wanted to be since their kids had entered their lives.

Since the moment he ar-rived at MSU as the full-time director, he has made his name a fixture in the depart-ment of Campus Rec in Min-nesota.

Since he came back, Pfingsten has seen Meyers Field House take a whole new

shape, the construction of places like Otto Rec Center and certain parts of Penning-ton Hall, alongside racquetball courts, big changes to outdoor facilities, a running track and the swimming pool.

“That’s what really moti-vates and drives me,” he said. ”It’s what the students are getting today that I didn’t have 20 to 25 years ago. The deci-sion to come back was a good decision.”

There’s more to Todd Pfingsten than just Campus Rec. Officiating has become a big passion for him as well, basketball in particular. He has managed to work in quite a few big games in the basket-ball world, including 6 high

school state tournaments, 16 section finals, as well as some Women’s Division III NCAA games.

He’s also a family man. His wife Kara also teaches badminton, bowling, and other fitness related classes as an adjunct professor at MSU. His oldest daughter is Charlotte, a 16-year-old going to Min-nesota Valley Lutheran High School. Following her are her brothers, 14-year-old Thomas, and 12-year old Sam.

Pfingsten loves sports, officiating, his family and his roots, but his impact as a faculty member on campus is unquestioned.

PFINGSTEN “It’s what the students are getting todat that I didn’t have 20 to 25 years ago.” continued from 5

As the director of disability services, Snow is given the opportunity and safe setting to provide one-on-one meet-ings with each student seeking accommodation for a disability. Through the meetings, Snow is rewarded by helping to remove the stigma that is sometimes attached to disability.

“I find reward in providing a safe place for students to come and kind of talk about what-ever it is that they’re struggling with,” Snow said.

“I am not here to tell people what to do, but I’m here to help them think through ‘what are my options.’ So, just helping someone think through that and helping them understand that, you know, there’s no right or wrong here, you just have to [do] what you have to do or what the situation requires. I find that rewarding.”

When Snow entered the professional workforce, she had two goals in mind: contribute to her community and society and find a career that provided her with the diversity she had been sheltered from. Since beginning at MSU more than 12 years ago, she has developed the skills re-quired to place her in a position of leadership, which has taken her beyond her original goals.

Snow now helps to serve more than 700 students in the MSU community reach their goal of graduation despite their disability.

Throughout her years in the workforce Snow has maintained the values instilled in her as a child working on her father’s dairy farm.

“I think I’ve maintained the values of hard work and respect-ing others and their thoughts and their values,” Snow said. “I’m definitely different than I was back then, but those core values of respecting others, doing a good job, doing the best that you can, contributing wher-ever you can, whether it’s in the professional field or in your personal life and community. Those are all still really strong.”

Snow’s hard work and dedication to her values paid dividends after her involvement with the aftercare of the 1998 tornadoes that struck St. Peter, Minn.

At the time, Snow was a school social worker for the Le Sueur-Henderson School Dis-trict, a neighboring community of St. Peter.

In conjunction with MSU employees and metal-health providers from the surrounding area, Snow coordinated care-teams that entered St. Peter’s schools to help the students process the events. Her ef-forts resulted in a school social worker of the year nomination.

SNOW

continued from 8

“I want students to put in effort, dig a little. If they can meet me halfway, the texts are hard (He cited European phi-losophy as some of the hardest to decipher), I want students to struggle.”

“Philosophy is composed of thinking about challenging things. I want them to break an intellectual sweat.”

Matarrese believes philoso-phy sets you up for a lifetime of quality learning.

Matarrese, unlike many in the working world, is not planning on retiring- in his

words he plans on retiring “the day I die.”

“I don’t want to retire. I love teaching philosophy. It’s great to be around students, they’re young and full of en-ergy. I feel pretty lucky hav-ing a job I really like,” said Matarrese, who also plans on teaching here for the foresee-able future.

Philosophy goes against the grain of society today, in a fast paced world with instant gratification available for everyone, philosophy’s main theme is time and patience,

and Matarrese believes the world might be better off if they followed some of phi-losophy’s main ideas.

“I think if we took time to make decisions, think about what we are doing before we do it, we would be in a better spot today,” he said.

The professor is not al-lowed much time for hobbies. “Music eats up most of my time.”

One of his main joys is his kids, Sophia (7), and Alexan-dria, (6).

MATARRESE “It’s great to be around students; they’re young and full of energy.” continued from 11


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Piepho said. Piepho gets a different

perspective on life through her students, she talks about how you can never stop learning, which is why she enjoys meeting new people every day.

“I feel really good when students ask me for advice, [it’s the] biggest compliment that I think I could get,” Piepho said.

She hopes to give her stu-dents and staff tools that they may need and hopefully they can use them wisely.

With the Scheduling and Conference center engaged in planning events from the Mankato Marathon com-ing up this month, to the Vikings’ and Timberwolves’ training camps, every day is busy.

Piepho and the Scheduling

and Conference Center plan everything from small to big meetings and conferences.

Few people know about the weddings that often take place often at MSU. She thinks very highly of the university, and “loves to showcase MSU’s beautiful ballroom.”

“We all work together to make sure we produce a good product and that is our mar-keting,” Piepho said.

Despite Piepho’s busy schedule and ability to reach out to so many people on and off campus, she always has time to enjoy the day.

“We’re not perfect, by any boundaries, but we make every effort to make it right,” Piepho said. “If we were per-fect we wouldn’t have any-thing to talk about,” Piepho said.

PIEPHO “We all work together to make sure we produce a good product and that is our marketing.” continued from 3

and enthusiastic about some-thing,” Miller said. “First time I taught, it took a little while, but by the end of the semester I could see I was really inter-ested in teaching.”

Miller teaches it all in the Art Department, everything from Art 100 to advanced drawing.

“Art 100 is turning into one of my favorites to teach, it’s really rewarding to see students say ‘I suck at drawing,’ then see them progress,” Miller said.

“I can see how I can have the most influence, you can take someone if they’re not moti-vated, and you feel like you can have really big interest in them.”

She likes both inexperienced and advanced classes for differ-ent reasons.

Miller and her husband, an artist with two degrees in painting, met at the University of Minnesota and applied all over the country for jobs after getting their MFA’s.

“I thought my husband and I would end up out of state, we wanted to be around family but didn’t anticipate it,” Miller said.

Miller and her husband live in Good Thunder, Minn, and own a large studio space that they share and spend much of their time in.

“I’m really happy to be at an institution that I think is really supportive of what I do and making connections between my own work and student

learning,” Miller said. Miller strives with enthusi-

asm to “share her interests and gain energy within the people.”

“I feel inspired by my col-leagues, they are a great group of people,” Miller said.

When Miller’s hands aren’t wrapped up in scissors she loves being outside running, or walking with her two poodles.

Miller and her husband have always enjoyed traveling, going to new places and meeting new people.

“I love reading biographies, love learning about other people’s lives, it’s fascinating to me,” Miller said.

After spending much time traveling for her job before finally settling here, Miller is content and happy at MSU.

“There’s a lot of freedom and meaningful connections,” Miller said. “People here are just incredible, the faculty and students.”

MILLER continued from 7

‘why don’t I run one?’” Mayo said.

Mayo owned a part of his father’s company as vice president, where he helped set up business and was a courtroom lawyer.

“I had legal education to help the business,” Mayo said, “I spent a lot of time working with others on how to run a business for the environment and also be profitable.”

Mayo soon moved on and took on a new job at Purdue University that utilized his legal and educational back-ground serving as staff coun-sel. At the time there were only four lawyers working at Purdue, Mayo being one of them.

Soon after his employment with Purdue, the university began to set-up corporate and foundation director positions. Mayo was first to hold one of these positions as the Direc-tor of Advancement for the School of Agriculture.

Another career move took him to Fort Collins, Colorado, where Mayo was Director of Advancement for Agriculture and Ag Sciences at Colorado State University.

“My wife grew up about two hours south of Mankato, so we looked at the oppor-tunity to come back to the upper Midwest and it’s been wonderful,” Mayo said.

“The students and the fac-ulty, all people who choose to come to MSU, want to learn so they can make a difference, not just in them-selves, but the world,” Mayo said, “I truly believe that.”

In June 2008, President Richard Davenport appointed Mayo as Vice President for the Division of University Advancement.

“He is a strong leader and an influential fundraiser, and his experience in the private and public sectors will pro-duce outstanding results for our university,” Davenport

said. Mayo is responsible for

overall fundraising efforts and overseeing development, alumni and external rela-tions, including integrated marketing, KMSU-FM radio and printing services.

He says his position at MSU “was a move up, be-cause it’s a whole university.”

University Advancement serves students “by provid-ing scholarship support and grants for student research, enhancing faculty members’ professional development and helping build better facilities where learning takes place.”

Mayo is currently involved in the largest private fund-raising campaign in the his-tory of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, which is comprised of 32 institutions and began in October 2011.

The Big Ideas Campaign for MSU was designed to promote global solutions, real world thinking and generate $75 million in dona-tions to fund university-wide ideas into reality.

“We’re 63 million dollars towards the 75 million dollar goal, as of the end of August 2012,” Mayo said.

The university plans to complete the campaign by June 30, 2013.

Mayo lives with his wife, son and two daughters. His children are ages 17, 15 and 9, respectively.

Mayo says his plans for the future, beyond retire-ment, include doing mission work with his wife and con-tinuing to be a good husband and a good dad.

“You have to have some-thing to offer,” he said.

MAYO “My wife grew up about two hours south of Mankato, so we looked at the opportunity to come back to the upper Midwest and it’s been wonderful.” continued from 10


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