NDSU Music welcomes jazz musicians James Miley and Eric Richards as guest performers and adjudicators at the annual High School Invitational Jazz Festival, Feb. 10-11. Under the direction of Kyle Mack, the Jazz Festival will feature 21 regional high school jazz ensembles that will work with the guest artists throughout the weekend and participate in a concert on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in Festival Concert Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. 

Composer and jazz pianist Miley, recipient of the prestigious International Association for Jazz Education/American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Gil Evans Fellowship in Jazz Composition, has been a featured composer at the International Jazz composers Symposium in Tampa, Fla., and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2006. His work has been commissioned by many university and high school big bands in the nation and he has appeared as guest composer at numerous festivals throughout the country.

Richards is the assistant professor of composition and jazz studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. He is a composer/arranger, conductor, trombonist, and educator active in a variety of musical media and styles. Richards was chosen in 2006 from a select group of composers to present an original work for jazz orchestra at the inaugural International Jazz Composition Symposium at the University of South Florida. 

Dean Webster has been named chair of the department of coatings and polymeric materials at NDSU, effective Jan. 15. He previously worked as a professor in that department.

As department chair, Webster will be responsible for overseeing department budgets and resource allocation; handling hiring, annual reviews and other personnel tasks; collaborating with department members to establish goals and promoting the department locally, nationally, and internationally.

Best of the Best in Research and Marketing meetings have been set for dates in January and February.

Two meetings in eastern North Dakota will focus on wheat and soybean production recommendations and marketing strategies. The meetings are scheduled for Jan. 31 at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead, Minn., and Feb. 1 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, N.D.

"As in the past, these meetings will present the latest research results addressing some of the most critical issues facing wheat and soybean producers in the region," said Joel Ransom, NDSU Extension Service agronomist and one of the meeting organizers.

More than 60 NDSU students representing 20 teams submitted ideas for new, progressive products or services for the Innovation Challenge ’12. The competition is a new component of the third annual Innovation Week to showcase students’ creative research and development projects.

The teams’ posters will be on display Wednesday, Jan. 25, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Memorial Union Prairie Rose Room. Oral presentations will be from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., in the Memorial Union Great Room and Century Theater. 

Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of Law and founding director for the Center of WorkLife Law, will present “How to have both a job and a life: Excelling in academia without losing your soul,” on Friday, Jan. 20, at 10 a.m. in the Memorial Union Century Theater. The presentation is open to students, faculty and staff.

Wendy Reed, associate professor, was named head of the biollogical sciences department at NDSU, effective Jan. 1.

As department head, Reed is responsible for overseeing department budgets and resource allocation; handling hiring, annual reviews and other personnel tasks; collaborating with department members to establish goals and communicating with the university and the community on behalf of the department.

NDSU head football coach Craig Bohl was elected to the American Football Coaches Association board of trustees by members attending the association’s 2012 convention in San Antonio. He was elected along with Northwestern University head coach Pat Fitzgerald, Southeast Missouri State University head coach Tony Samuel and California University of Pennsylvania head coach John Luckhardt.

NDSU winter commencement ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16, at 4 p.m. in the Bison Sports Arena.

According to Registrar Kristi Wold-McCormick, this is NDSU’s largest fall graduating class. A total of 733 graduate, professional and undergraduate students are eligible to participate, and 520 have indicated they intend to march in the ceremony.

“NDSU commencement officially was relocated to the Bison Sports Arena from the Fargodome upon the Bison football team winning Saturday’s NCAA quarter-final playoff game,” Wold-McCormick said. “The Bison Sports Arena previously was used as the venue for NDSU commencement events and is the best alternative location to meet our ceremony and parking needs. The commencement ceremony itself remains unchanged, and will be a memorable event celebrating the academic success of our students.”

Wold-McCormick urged graduating students to park in the lot south of the Bison Sports Arena, while family members and guests can either park in that lot or in the southeast portion of the Fargodome parking lot. Parking is free.

Terence Barrett, part-time academic staff member in the psychology department, has written a book commemorating heroic actions of forgotten Medal of Honor recipients from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. "The Search for the Forgotten 34: Honored by the U.S. Marines, Unheralded in their Hometowns?" is available for sale online at Amazon.com and on Kindle Books.

Barrett, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for seven years as an aviation officer, spent years researching the lives of 34 medal recipients who went without hometown tributes for four to six decades despite their heroism. In the book, Barrett recounts their stories, hoping to give honor and respect to the men.

NDSU fifth-year landscape architecture students will display their alternative solutions to address flooding of the Red River from Nov. 21 to Dec. 2 at the Red Raven Espresso Parlor, 916 Main Ave., Fargo.

The exhibit, “Landscape Interventions for the Red River Basin,” is a collection of 30 large-scale projects that address social and ecological issues in ecosystems prone to flooding and drought. A reception and chance to visit with the designers is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 21, from noon to 5 p.m. at the same location. The event is free and open to the public.

Dozens of people have been arrested in New York as hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters attempted to march on the New York Stock Exchange.

At a rally to mark two months of protest, police blocked streets and protestors massed at junctions on the edge of the city's fincial district. Scuffles then broke out, with police dragging some protestors away. Protests are planned for cities across the US, two days after police cleared a camp in Zuccotti Park, New York. In New York, city officials said they expected the number of demonstraters to reach tens of thousands. A heavy police presence is expected in New York over the weekend.

A New York court has ruled that a pre-dawn clearance of the Occupy Wall Street camp at Zuccotti Park was legal.

The ruling means protesters will remain barred from setting up tents and sleeping in the park, although New York officials say protest will be allowed.

Police arrested some 200 people in a surprise pre-dawn raid on Zuccotti Park and later held several journalists.

Residents in parts of the US state of Oregon are to cast their votes by iPad during a special election on Tuesday.

The program, designed to make voting easier for disabled residents, is part of a five-county pilot in the north-western state.

The counties are voting to nominate candidates to replace David Wu, who resigned from the US House of Representatives amid a sex scandal.

NDSU will host a flag-raising ceremony in honor of Veterans Day at 8:05 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 10, outside the south entrance of the Memorial Union. Veterans Day is Friday, Nov. 11, the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I in 1918.

The bodies of ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and a top aide have been buried in secret in the desert, Libyan officials say. Following days of apparent uncertainty among the new leadership about what to do with the bodies.

Gaddafi's family wanted them buried outside the former leader's hometown of Sirte, but the National Transitional Council, a governing body in charged with the task of transitioning Libya into a new goverment, had expressed the preference for a secret burial.

Officials have been given very few details of the ceremony.

Dr. Donald Warne began his new position as director of NDSU’s new Master of Public Health program on Oct. 5.

Warne came to NDSU from Sanford Health, where he was director of the Office of Native American Health. Warne earned his M.D. degree from Stanford School of Medicine and a MPH degree from Harvard School of Public Health.

He is a senior policy consultant for American Indian Health Management and Policy Inc., and senior policy adviser for Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board. Warne taught health law and policy at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Warne plans to develop a strong focus on rural and American Indian public health in the MPH program to reflect the needs of North Dakota.

NDSU will begin offering classes for the MPH in partnership with the University of North Dakota in fall 2012.

Amy O'Connor, associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Communication, and graduate student Alicia E. Phillips are scheduled to give a presentation at the upcoming Corporate Social Responsibility in Communication conference in Amsterdam.

O’Connor and Phillips will present “Consumption Conundrum: Millennials perceptions of pink ribbons” during the conference Oct. 26-28.

NDSU received a $250,000 donation from CHS Inc. for developing the commodity trading room in Richard H. Barry Hall.

“It marks another commitment from a major agricultural marketing company in the training of students at NDSU,” said William Wilson, Distinguished Professor of agribusiness and applied economics. “The contribution will accelerate the development of the Commodity Trading Room and allow it to be more comprehensive.” 

Equipped with advanced information sources, trading software and analytical tools, the classroom will be a premier teaching facility for commodity marketing, logistics, trading and risk management.