Olympic Trials Present Volunteer Opportunities

Along with the United States Olympic Education Center's successful bid to host the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Championships comes a rare opportunity for the campus and community to get involved in a high-profile event that is held just once every four years.

The trials are scheduled Dec. 12-16 and will determine the field of American skaters who will represent their country in the 2006 Winter Games.

“If any organizations or faculty want us to speak to a group about getting involved and volunteering, we’d be happy to do that,” said Jeff Kleinschmidt (USOEC). Full Story

PSI Receives $321,000 in Grants

The NMU public safety institute, a division of public safety and police services, has received three grants totaling $321,000 to provide in-service training for Upper Peninsula law enforcement and county corrections officers.

Mike Bath (Public Safety Institute) said the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, or MCOLES, provided the funding through a competitive grant process. A total of $2.7 million was distributed. Full Story

Art and Design Celebrates New Addition

According to Michael Cinelli (Art and Design), it's no accident that the great Impressionist painters of the late 19th century lived and worked in close proximity to each other in Paris.

"Artists tend to congregate in communities and feed off the collective creative energy," he said. "Here at Northern, our department hasn't really had an ability to do that until now. Things have been rather disjointed, but now all programs are under one roof for the first time since the late '60s. Faculty can interact with each other. It is a closed circle with all of the different studio concentrations coexisting in one active beehive."

The unifying force Cinelli described is the recently completed addition to the Art and Design North Building.

Full Story

Author to Visit NMU

Acclaimed nonfiction author Dennis Covington will give a public reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 3, at the Federated Women’s Clubhouse in Marquette. There is no charge.

Covington is the author of two novels and three nonfiction books, including Salvation on Sand Mountain. The book, a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award, is about snake handling and religious transformation. 

His visit is sponsored by the MFA program in creative writing and Passages North magazine.

'Turning Bone into Stone'

First Event in Reynolds Friday

The first performance in the newly completed Reynolds Recital Hall in C.B. Hedgcock will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28.

Nancy Redfern (Music) and Barbara Rhyneer (Music) will perform on piano and violin, respectively. There is no admission charge. Redfern will play “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Musorgsky, and both will perform “Sonata in F major” by Edvard Grieg. The faculty members have had an opportunity to rehearse a few times in Reynolds Recital Hall in advance of their upcoming performance and offer nothing but praise for the venue. Full Story

New Office Sites

Available Online

The art and design addition caused some offices to shift locations this semester. To see the changes, go to

Art and Design Offices.

Likewise, several offices moved from Magers to Cohodas over the holiday break. An updated listing is available at Cohodas Office Locations.