Dedication of Rangeland Complex and Chicoine Center top 2015 news

“I truly thank everyone who is involved with the college because it truly is a fabulous place to live and work,” said Dr. Randy Rhine, president of the college.

In addition to noteworthy infrastructure improvements, CSC students excelled in academics, field experiences and athletics.

In July, students and faculty in the business department teamed up to revive Phi Beta Lambda and two students placed at the national PBL competition.

Members of the Eagle Band played at a Rockies game in September, and their band leader, Dr. Sid Shuler, constructed a seventeenth century style trumpet at a European workshop. Music major Curtis Stevens also traveled to Europe as a summer band camp leader.

Other student successes include a pair of eastern Nebraskans. Joslynn VanDerslice, a junior from Columbus, Nebraska, completed a summer internship with the NASA Mars 2020 mission. And, Jessica Stodola from Clarkson, Nebraska, was presented with the Region 5 National Intramural Recreation and Sport Association Award, an honor that recognizes top students employed in college recreational departments.

In athletics, Damarcus Simpson, a freshman, won the NCAA Division II National Championship in the long jump with a leap of 26-feet, 3 ¾ inches. He also competed in the USA Track and Field Championships and the Pan-Am Games.

In addition to Simpson, two other track and field student-athletes – Stachia Reuwsaat of Black Hawk, South Dakota, and Mel Herl of Eaton, Colorado, – were named All-Americans at the national meet.

During the fall, Chadron State cowboys were first or second in the team standings at four of the five rodeos in the Central Rocky Mountain region, and they have nearly a 400-point lead in the men's team standings at the halfway point in the 2015-16 season.

Of course, the crowning achievement of each semester is commencement. In May, 361 students earned their degrees and 225 earned their degrees in December. In addition, seven CSC graduates received their commissions as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army.

Fall enrollment included 441 new freshman, 260 new transfer students, and 217 new graduate students, maintain the fourth year of total enrollment above 3,000.

In the academic realm, two new deans, Dr. Jim Margetts and Dr. Jim Powell, took the helms of their respective schools in July.

Dr. Jamie Wada was named the Nebraska State College System Teaching Excellence award. He is the third CSC professor in the past four years to win the award.

“We are truly proud of him and the other professors, as well as the wonderful learning environments they provide,” Rhine said.

Applied Sciences faculty member and department chair Dr. Teresa Frink and students will have the opportunity to continue their work assessing the distribution of the swift fox thanks to a $210,000 grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust.

Two CSC professors had books published in 2015. Dr. Kurt Kinbacher’s “Urban Villages and Local Identities,” is an extensive research account of immigrants living in Nebraska, while Dr. Steven Coughlin’s “Another City,” is a collection of poems.

Dr. Laura Gaudet, professor and department chair in counseling, psychology and social work, presented about traumatic brain injuries at two international conferences in China.

Entomology expert and associate professor of physical and life sciences, Dr. Mat Brust, published a paper about his discovery of a grasshopper species not previously recorded in the Pine Ridge area. The information contributed to the launch of a grasshopper mobile app to assist agricultural land and crop managers.

Three significant donations expanded the scope of the CSC High Plains Herbarium collection in May, according to herbarium director Steve Rolfsmeier.

Sadly, the campus community noted the loss of three former faculty members, Zane Dickinson, Michael Cartwright and Jackson Hammitt, and former student and Nobel Prize recipient, Val Fitch.

CSC students, faculty and staff expressed their appreciation to the residents of Chadron, Whitney and Crawford by participating in The Big Event service day in April. Volunteers planted trees, served ice cream to elderly care center residents, removed debris, did yardwork and other maintenance chores at many work sites.

In another service learning project, students organized and invited faculty, staff and administrators to participate in the first Oxfam Hunger Banquet at CSC.

The institution embarked upon an awareness campaign about Title IX issues, specifically sexual assault, which included a theatre department production of “Extremities,” nationally known speaker Jackson Katz and the Social Work senior class conference in October.

To better serve active military members and veterans, a service center was opened in the former West Court #26 building in August.

“It is a challenge to keep all the moving parts of this city within a city working together but it is my pleasure to preside over it,” Rhine said.

In addition to achievement of students and faculty, dynamic alumni distinguished themselves.

CSC alumni won Nebraska School Administrator of the Year, South Dakota Special Education Teacher of the Year, and received the Colorado James Madison Fellowship over the past year.

In 2016, CSC will host a free, public presentation by autism advocate and livestock expert Dr. Temple Grandin Jan. 28. Upcoming Galaxy Series events include the Montana Repertory Theater’s presentation of “All My Sons,” and the Gallery Series will feature Sheldon Museum of Art’s “Romance of the Moon: Science Fiction Invades Art” exhibit in March.

Student theatrical presentations during the spring semester will be “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” in February and “No Holds Bard,” in April. Faculty and student music recitals dot the calendar January through March with four major concerts planned in April.