(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Hello and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Coming up later in the show, we'll hear some holiday music from our Prairie musicians.

But first, Matt Olien had a chance to interview the President of the University of North Dakota.

Here is that conversation.

- And my guest is Dr. Andrew Armacost, the President of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

Welcome, doctor.

- It's great to be here.

- Nice to have you finally on "Prairie Pulse."

First off, just tell folks a bit about yourself, your background, where you're from originally.

- Well, I grew up in Milwaukee.

My father was a Coast Guardsman, and so we spent a lot of time moving around the country, but Milwaukee became home and it was, I went to college in Chicago, so kind of a classic Midwest experience.

I was an ROTC student, Air Force ROTC, in college, and that began, that was the start of my Air Force career.

So graduating in 1989, I spent 30 years on active duty in the Air Force, and much of that time went out east to Boston first, to Hanscom Air Force Base, and then ended up following a largely academic career path through the Air Force, so spending time in graduate school in Boston, but then also on the faculty at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

In Colorado Springs, I spent a number of years as a professor, and then as the head of what amounts to our business college, and then finally as the provost, or the Chief Academic Officer.

And so that was 30 years in all, and it went by very quickly and retired from active duty in the rank of Brigadier General in the fall of 2019.

My retirement was the 1st of December, 2019, and then a couple days later I was announced as the President at the University of North Dakota, so just a tremendous experience leading up to where I am today.

- And how has it gone so far?

Four years on the job, tell us about the adjustments and how things are going.

- Well, nobody believes that they'll have to lead through a global pandemic when they first come on as a president of a university, but in spite of those early challenges, life has been absolutely exceptional.

The Grand Forks community has been so welcoming to me and my wife Kathy, and the experience on campus has been absolutely extraordinary.

Wonderful students, amazing faculty and staff members as well, so it's been a tremendous four years.

Well, 3 1/2 years, right, so June 1st of 2020, and it's gone by very quickly, but just with a lot of notable accomplishments across the campus.

It's been a real thrill.

- Well, the big news this fall was the enrollment numbers were up and that is bucking a regional trend, and probably a national trend as well.

Here regionally with UND enrollment going up, what are the numbers and what do you attribute the growth to?

Because some colleges are struggling to keep those numbers up.

- Right, so our programs are a balance between on campus and online programs.

Our charter is, of course, to serve the citizens of North Dakota the best way that we can and also to attract from across the nation.

And the numbers are great, so we had 14,172 at what we call Census Day, which is a time in the fall semester where we make the headcount, and so that's an exceptional number because over the prior two or three years, we had about 1%, roughly 1% increase in enrollments over those periods, but in the last year, from the fall of '22 to the fall of '23, those numbers went up close to 2 1/2%, So that's a significant reflection upon the hard work that's happening on the campus.

Our admissions team and our marketing and communications team are telling the great story of UND and we think it's resonating.

And you mentioned bucking the national trend.

The national trend over that same period of time saw a net reduction of about 7 1/2% overall in college enrollments, first time college enrollments, and so for us to increase at a time when the nation was seeing that dramatic decrease has been just, it's a really good news story coming out of Grand Forks.

- Do you think those numbers can go up even farther?

- Absolutely.

- Next, okay.

- Absolutely.

- You have capacity for that.

- And we're highlighting key programs that we think will draw people from across the state and also across neighboring states, and in fact, having national reach as well, so we're eager to see what next year, and the early returns for the spring semester are looking very good as well, so we're seeing increases in enrollments and registrations for the spring semester, and it's looking very good for the fall as well.

- I know your approach is very hands-on.

I have a coworker whose daughter just started at UND and they met you and you met her and meeting students, meeting parents, that doesn't always happen, I don't think, with campus presidents, but you try to do that.

What's the value of that?

- Right, so education, and in particular, as our students are making a transition either from high school to life after college, or it could certainly be that people are coming to the university at a later stage and making a transition in their careers, but it's a very human business and it's a very human endeavor to come to a university like ours and so what better way to introduce them to the humanity than to be present and to take the time to introduce myself to the students who come to campus and to be involved in all those great kind of human-centered parts of a campus, whether it's sporting events, musical performances, or just everyday life at the university.

We can never be too busy to just say hello to students as we're walking to and from on the campus and to spend a little time with them just to check in and make sure they're doing okay and they're getting the experience that they deserve.

- How does UND, Dr. Armacost, ensure that your graduates can compete with graduates from other big research universities across the country going forward?

- Well, it's making sure that we design and offer programs that are of interest to the students, but also of interest to the nation, to attract faculty members to deliver those amazing programs, and to really nurture the excellence on campus, and the programs that we wanna offer should be rooted in that concept of excellence.

We have a number of avenues by which we promote that and one is our honors program, where we offer an enrichment experience to students who really wanna be challenged on our campus and the numbers in that honors program have grown significantly.

We now have about 250 students per year, new students per year who sign up for that honors program, which offers that enrichment opportunity and that extra academic challenge to them.

So through the design of the programs and offering special kind of nurturing opportunities and the opportunity to compete for national-level programs, that's how we develop our students.

And on the research side, we pursue federal funding through a number of agencies, whether it's the National Institutes for Health or the Department of Defense, and we've put ourselves on the national map through all of those activities, so how we connect to the nation is important, how we compete with other schools, both in the region and across the nation is important as well.

- Do you feel freshmen coming in are prepared for academic success in general?

And if not, what can K-12 be doing better to prepare them?

I know some kids have, my daughter included, you know, covid was a struggle and they lost academic progress.

Are you seeing that a little bit, or with this covid bunch of kids coming in or not?

- A little bit.

I think the issues more are less on the lack of academic preparation and more on how do you unwind habits of kind of being isolated and away from one another.

So K-12 has, I think, done a very nice job picking up where there were gaps during covid and catching up students on reading and math, and all in all, the students are coming prepared, but if there are areas where they need growth, we offer opportunities for that extra enrichment to make sure that they're prepared.

And, of course, partnerships with our two-year community colleges across the campus are important, across the state are important as well.

We have what we call Two-Plus-Two Programs so that if a student isn't quite prepared to come to our program, they can start somewhere else and then eventually come here, but by and large, if a student steps on our campus and they need additional support, we'll make sure that they get it through advising, through extra help in the classroom and so forth, so we've seen some dips, but in general, I think our students are coming out of our K-12 system well prepared to succeed at UND.

- Let's talk about a few key components at UND that people are familiar with.

Let's start with the medical school, tell us about that.

- Great program.

No better source of physicians for the state of North Dakota than to come through UND'S Medical School.

So great, great focus on how do you take top students and prepare them for careers in medicine?

It requires great partnership with the health systems across the state, but we proudly boast that the primary source of physicians for the state of North Dakota is through the doors of our School of Medicine, but there's other health professions on campus too.

Occupational therapy, physical therapy, our nursing college is amazing.

All of those contribute to the fabric of good health within the state of North Dakota.

- How about the Center for Aerospace?

Crucial, especially as pilots start to retire and, right.

- So, and we're seeing high demand out of our aviation programs.

So the Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences comprises aviation, commercial aviation programs, programs in air traffic management, programs in uncrewed or unmanned aircraft, and so a wide swath.

Space Studies is a great program as well that looks beyond the skies and into outer space about the ways that we can contribute there.

And, of course, we see them on air all the time, but our Atmospheric Sciences students, meteorology, produces both staff meteorologists, but also on-air talent that we see in the Fargo area and in Grand Forks and across the state of North Dakota and the region, so great programs, but aviation, space, earth sciences, all key programs for the campus.

- And the law school, of course.

- Law school's amazing.

Again, a primary source of practicing lawyers in the state of North Dakota come through the School of Law.

We have probably 65 to 75 students who come in each year focusing on the practice of law, on tribal law, and making sure that our students go out and practice with the sense of ethics and professionalism that we would expect.

- How did UND kind of get through the covid phase?

You came right into it, and has it pretty much got back to normal now?

A lot of hoops had to be jumped through to make sure, especially that freshman class of 2020 from high school, that was, my son was right in all that.

It was crazy.

- It was tough.

High schools wrestled with this, but we did as well.

Fortunately, we had a great online course delivery system that we flipped a switch in March of 2020 when the nation essentially shut down and we were able to make that transition very, very smoothly because of that commitment to online education.

And in addition, that fall of 2020, when we welcomed these new students, it was a whole different environment.

The logistics of responding to the pandemic, the public health elements, as well as the on-campus logistics, were certainly challenging, but we had an amazing team on campus.

I was fortunate to come into a well-organized group of people.

Dr. Josh Wynne had been serving as President before I came, so no better time to have a practicing physician, a cardiologist, as the president of the university as we made that transition.

And then me with my logistics and military background coming in, I think the combination of Josh and I being in kind of the driver's seat at that point was powerful, but let me again emphasize the leadership that was shown across the campus by staff members and faculty members to get through it.

And the current state of campus, this is probably the first year where it has felt entirely normal again, back to the way things were pre-covid and it feels great.

The activity levels on campus are high, sporting events are happening like they always have, and it's just been a real joy to be on the campus and the life of campus is just, is so great right now.

- And are you one of those who believe that face-to-face in classroom with the professor is superior to online learning?

- So, as I opened my comments, education, higher ed is a human endeavor, and I think the best way to create those human connections is to be face-to-face on campus.

But there are times where people can't come to campus and offering online education is an important element of what we do to give a great UND degree to those who can't otherwise be on the campus, so it's really a portfolio.

And then we're finding too that even those students on campus, sometimes they say, "You know, attending today's lesson or participating in an online class is exactly what I'm looking for."

And student preferences sometimes vary.

Sometimes for a particular subject, some students are saying, "Even though I'm physically on campus, I'd like to take this course online."

- Can you talk about the importance of another high profile thing?

The hockey program at UND, number one ranked right now.

I'm a UND grad, so it's exciting.

What does that add to the university and all the alumni living across the nation?

- Well, certainly hockey is a sport that attracts people across the nation.

When the team travels, I'm always amazed at the amount of green that's in opposing teams' arena.

It's stunning how well our fans travel and the commitment that they make to the sport of hockey and to all of our sports on the campus, but hockey is, at least from a fan base, it draws, right?

We have a 13,000-person arena.

I think our first eight games, we've sold out the arena each time and it's been great to see that kind of support for the team, but we get great support for all of our sports teams and I need to throw attention to them as well.

Our football team made the playoffs again this year.

It's been multiple years in a row.

Our basketball team, men's and women's, are starting off right now with great performance at the front end of the season.

Our volleyball team did great work this fall.

Just all of our teams, NCAA, we had our All-American runner in cross country, Yonca Kutluk, who did an amazing job at the NCAA National, so sports are a rallying cry.

It's a great way for student athletes to come to the campus and get not only a great academic experience, but also a great experience competing with their teammates and great leadership opportunities there as well.

- Do you feel like the students and the alumni have kind of finally embraced the Fighting Hawk's nickname, going back to when the Fighting Sioux nickname was retired, or is it still kind of a transition?

- Yeah, it's still a transition.

I'll be frank.

There are some sports where it seems like the transition has gone almost completely.

And other sports, there's a legacy, and we see hockey, that's where you'll see the greatest number of people wearing the old logo and I always offer a challenge to people that as they think about how to represent the campus, I think it's important for them to recognize that the logo did change and there's this sense of history, of course, that has people still committed to the old logo, to the Fighting Sioux logo, but as they don the jerseys to go cheer on the team, I also ask people to understand and show empathy to people who might feel harm or suffer under the old logo.

I'm approached frequently by Native American students and colleagues who say, "You know, I really feel uneasy, or I feel harmed, or it makes me angry that this is still being worn."

And all I ask is for people, as they choose what to wear, that they consider the reaction of others and to have a sense of empathy, but ultimately people will wear the logo that they identify with, but we are the Fighting Hawks, but I fully appreciate the rich history and the fervor and the enthusiasm that our fans have shown for the University of North Dakota over the years.

- What are some key building projects going on, on campus right now?

- So right now, so we just opened, about a year-and-a-half ago, the Nistler College of Business, which was partially funded by donors, partially by the state, a new Memorial Union, so there's been great success in terms of building up those spaces and others across the campus.

Undergoing a current renovation is Merrifield Hall, which I believe you spent time in.

- Yes, I have.

- And this is a building that was in desperate need of renovation, so that's happening currently.

We have a number of athletic complexes going up, so new coaches' offices and a new kind of indoor human health element of our athletic programs, so locker rooms, weight rooms, and sports medicine complex going up as well.

On the horizon is a new STEM, so science, technology, engineering, and math complex that the legislature generously funded, that will begin in 2025, and the new Flight Ops building as well.

Where the students live also matters, not just where they do their work, and so we rebuilt two new residence halls, West Hall and McVey Hall.

Those were taken down and then rebuilt with modern facilities.

And then Brannan Hall, which is one of our older residence halls, was also renovated, so our goal is to make sure that the places where our students do their work, where our faculty members do their work, and where our students live are modernized and that they have just great amenities.

If you haven't been on campus recently, you should swing by.

It's absolutely stunning the transformation that's happened.

- We have less than a minute to go.

I wanna get your thoughts on AI quickly in higher education.

Lot to unpack there, but just a quick, quick.

- AI is going to have a profound impact on society and there's no better place to address that than a university like UND where we focus on understanding the technology, but also the very human elements that our students should be well-educated in, and how that intersection happens, matters, but AI and the way that we deliver classes will be fundamentally changed by the presence of AI.

- And finally, if people want more information, website.

- UND.edu, it's the best place to go.

- Very simple.

- Just look up, if you wanna search admissions, just search admissions.

If you want to know about the programs, all the information is there.

- Okay, thanks for being on "Prairie Pulse."

- Thanks, Matt, I appreciate it.

- Stay tuned for more.

(gentle upbeat music) - Holiday music is a refreshing sound during this time of year and today we have two regional musicians to perform for you.

Dariann Leigh was involved in music at a young age in Karlstad, Minnesota, but lately spends her time playing on the stages throughout Nashville.

Andra Suchy has made her career in Minneapolis performing her own brand of country Americana music.

Enjoy these sounds of the holidays.

(gentle acoustic guitar music) ("Silent Night") ♪ Silent night ♪ ♪ Holy night ♪ ♪ All is calm ♪ ♪ All is bright ♪ ♪ Round yon virgin mother and Child ♪ ♪ Holy Infant, so tender and mild ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ Silent night ♪ ♪ Holy night ♪ ♪ Shepherds quake at the sight ♪ ♪ Glories stream from heaven afar ♪ ♪ Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia ♪ ♪ Christ, the Savior, is born ♪ ♪ Christ, the Savior, is born ♪ (gentle acoustic guitar music continues) (gentle acoustic guitar music continues) (gentle acoustic guitar music continues) (gentle acoustic guitar music continues) ♪ Silent night ♪ ♪ Holy night ♪ ♪ Son of God, love's pure light ♪ ♪ Radiant beams from thy holy face ♪ ♪ With the dawn of redeeming grace ♪ ♪ Jesus, Lord, at thy birth ♪ ♪ Jesus, Lord, at thy birth ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly peace ♪ (gentle acoustic guitar music) ("Gift I Miss") ♪ It just doesn't feel the same ♪ ♪ Celebrating on this day ♪ ♪ All your presents were wrapped in bows last Christmas ♪ ♪ Just so your name would be under the tree ♪ ♪ It hurts a lot to me ♪ (gentle acoustic guitar music continues) ♪ Hang the stockings, see your name ♪ ♪ It really doesn't feel the same without you ♪ ♪ Just imagining your face ♪ ♪ When you finally see that Santa came ♪ ♪ No, I won't see that this year ♪ ♪ Sometimes I swear that I can feel you here ♪ ♪ When we hung those twinkling lights ♪ ♪ When I look out on those snowy nights ♪ ♪ We put the star up on the tree ♪ ♪ It felt like you were standing here with me ♪ ♪ Oh, whoa ♪ ♪ I will always see your smiling face ♪ ♪ In every memory ♪ ♪ No matter what I do ♪ ♪ I still won't open that last gift for you ♪ ♪ Wish you could see the twinkling lights ♪ ♪ And all the snowy nights ♪ ♪ Which you loved the most ♪ ♪ Or the star up on the tree ♪ ♪ What I would give to have you here with me ♪ ♪ You are the only gift ♪ ♪ That I miss ♪ (gentle acoustic guitar music) - Well, that's all we have on "Prairie Pulse" for this week, and as always, thanks for watching.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.

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