Saint Mary's Newsroom / Campus Notes

Dr. Mallory Knipe

Mallory Knipe, DSW, associate professor in the Master of Social Work program, joined Saint Mary’s University on May 4.

Prior to joining Saint Mary’s, she was the social work program director for North Central University in Minneapolis. She has also previously taught in the University of Wisconsin system for Eau Claire and Madison at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Dr. Knipe began her career in social work as a child protective services worker, practicing in both Oklahoma and Wisconsin, and later moved into the realm of school social work. She began leading professional development trainings during this time, educating teachers and administrators in school districts throughout western Wisconsin on the issue of educating students in poverty.

“My research focuses on critical consciousness development in social work students and the challenges and barriers that hinder this complex process. My research explores teaching methods and other suggestions for overcoming these obstacles and promoting authentic consciousness raising in students,” said Dr. Knipe, who currently has an article in press with the Journal of Teaching in Social Work.

Dr. Knipe holds a doctorate in social work from the University of St. Thomas and a master’s in social work from the University of Oklahoma where she was a Title IV-E scholar.

“I’m looking forward to entering the realm of online education in a full-time capacity, and I’m excited to apply my research on critical consciousness development to this new online platform,” Dr. Knipe said.

Join us in welcoming Dr. Knipe!

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota will introduce an all new dining program on the Winona Campus beginning fall 2020 with expected completion of all projects in summer 2021. Chartwells will offer new meal plans for residential and commuter students, creating greater value and satisfaction through available choices. Saint Mary’s retail dining program will be revitalized in summer 2020 to expand options and improve the overall quality of dining offerings on campus.

View program updates and new meal plan options

To select your meal plan, complete the appropriate form by 4 p.m. Friday, July 31:

• Returning residential students
• New residential students
• Commuter students

Not sure which plan is right for you? Take our meal plan assistant survey to find out.

An information session will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, July 15, at 6 p.m. CT.
Join the Zoom meeting
Meeting ID: 949 0889 5640
Password: 586668

Questions? Contact Student Life at studentlife@smumn.edu.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Saint Mary’s is delivering all summer 2020 coursework remotely. The pass/no credit option made available for the spring 2020 semester is being extended for the summer 2020 semester for all schools and all programs.

Students may exercise this option on a course-by-course basis after informing individual faculty members; however, the decision to move to pass/no credit should not be made lightly and only after consultation with the adviser.

Often standard letter grades are required for those pursuing licensure, certification, or admission to graduate and professional programs. Standard letter grades are often also required by employers who reimburse the cost of tuition.

Frequently Asked Questions

For more information about the pass/no credit option, visit the FAQ page.

Dr. Michael Hahn

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) recently published a piece by Michael Hahn, Ph.D., assistant professor and the Character and Virtue Education program director.

The piece, “Lessons from the Coronavirus for Catholic Higher Education,” highlights learnings from the experience of reacting quickly to restrictions imposed to help contain the coronavirus, including the:

• Value of residential learning
• Necessity of online learning
• Significance of community
• Vulnerability of all institutions
• Centrality of mission

Read the article

This spring, the Academic Continuity Planning Group initiated a survey of faculty and students seeking feedback on the remote teaching measures taken by the university to ensure the safety of the Saint Mary’s community during the spring COVID-19 response.

The purpose of the survey was to guide actions moving forward. The Office of Assessment administered the survey in late May receiving input from 188 faculty and 597 students. Analyzing the survey provided insights on the teaching and learning experiences of our students and faculty across campuses which will inform continued improvement.

Overall, students and faculty took many positives away from the remote teaching experience, but those from classes originally intended to be face-to-face understandably missed seeing their peers in person, asked for more preparation and support on technology tools, and worried about diminished learning.

As a result of the survey findings, Saint Mary’s is already taking the following steps:

• Planning a self-paced course for students to better orient them to courses designed to be online, remote teaching courses, and tools for learning remotely.
• Adding additional training for faculty in online teaching (to complement the experience gained in remote teaching) and modular course design to prepare for any future needs to move classes online.
• Investing more in educational technology staff and support, with two positions already posted to support faculty teaching online, teaching with educational technology tools, and the transition to the new learning management system.

Finally, as an incentive to fill out the survey, we offered the chance to win one of four $25 gift cards to Target. Congratulations to the following faculty and student winners who recently received notification:

Faculty:

• Colleen Weis, course-contracted assistant professor in the education program
• Bill Knutson, MED facilitator
• Lindsay O’Shea, course-contracted voice instructor
• Benjamin Pauli, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology

Students:

• Melissa Johnsen, SGPP
• Amy Anderson, SGPP
• Caroline Woodle, College
• Melissa Varner, College

Metro Transit bus passes are available to purchase from Student Central for the summer semester. To purchase, send a check for $85 to the address below with “bus pass” in the memo line. Bus passes will be mailed to you once payment is received.

Mail checks to:

Student Central Services
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
2500 Park Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404-4403

Questions? Contact studentcentral@smumn.edu.

Originally, this was going to be an essay about how the Lasallian virtue of zeal is essential in the enthusiastic and persistent pursuit of business academic scholarship. I had pithy quotes from both the 17th and 21st century, humorous stories, and a “get it done” message to wrap it all up. But all of that changed in three stages. First, a good friend decided to take a new job in Texas, which meant I temporarily added a second job as vice provost to my duties at Saint Mary’s. Next, was a global pandemic that turned our operating world upside down and quickly transformed our planned and organized weeks into running triage between one difficult and unplanned situation to another. Finally, the horrors of murder, civil unrest, and riots. I really don’t have the words to express, nor could I or should I try to explain, all that has happened. I do know it seems that an essay on zeal and scholarship seems incredibly out of place at this time and moment in history.

That said, I think the virtue of zeal, or zele in a 17th century French context, is a worthwhile one and one that has modern-day application. To Saint John Baptist de La Salle, zeal was the synergy of self-effacement and commitment molded into the service and caring for students (Botana, 2004). In his world of 17th century French spirituality, zeal (or zele as De La Salle would have said it) should infuse your conduct and breathe life into all you do. In contemporary terms, this translates to a commitment of thinking and acting beyond yourself for the betterment of others.

Transformational and servant leadership lived in today’s business world have this common understanding of zeal at their base. For me, this connection has a Hebraic spirituality; that is, as theologian David Ranson suggests, that acting with force and energy to help others beyond self is to find vitality in life and to “come awake.” How then, as scholars and practitioners in the business disciplines, can we come awake?

One of my favorite ideas within the discipline of spirituality and management is the concept of discernment, which can be thought of as entering praxis to determine the true calling or direction in your life. Brother Fred Mueller, scholar of Lasallian pedagogy, suggests a deep discernment helps one determine “where your great passion meets a great need of the world.” Authors in philosophy, such as John Dewey and Malcolm Knowles, would suggest this crossroad of passion and need is where one’s true vocation is identified. Some enter into this discernment through meditation and prayer, others through exercise, some through experiences in nature. There is no right or wrong way; just find what works for you.

So as a business scholar and leader, what is your vocation? Where do your greatest passions lead to the betterment and service of others? How can you use this new knowledge gained in a doctoral program for good?

Take a breath, take some time, give it some thought. The business world needs you.

Reference:

Botana, A. (2004). The educator’s life journey. Rome: Brothers of the Christians Schools.
Ranson, D. (2002). Across the great divide: Bridging spirituality and religion today. Strathfield: St. Paul’s Publications.

We have all heard the phrases, “A purpose-filled life,” “Living life with passion,” “Living life with zeal,” etc. Well, we can’t leave out “YOLO.” About a decade ago, one of my sons was telling me he wanted to do something I considered reckless. I told him to wait. His response was, “Life is short. This is something I am compelled to do now. YOLO.” I gave him a blank look and he responded with, “You have to live life to its fullest. Any moment wasted is never recaptured. Sometimes, you have to be reckless.” I am not asking anyone to be reckless. However, I do implore you to live life with meaning. Live life with a sense of urgency. In life, there is no do-over, nor is there a dress rehearsal. Are you living your one life to its fullest? Hence, the title for this essay is YOLO (you only live once).

In this essay, I will use analogies from my hobbies as an avid gardener and beekeeper. In the winter, everything in the plant world shuts down. In the honeybee world, everything slows down. During the fall, the plants and bees store energy to prepare for the eight months of Minnesota winter. Okay, I am kidding. It is probably closer to five months. But, it is this stored energy that allows them to come alive in the spring. Without this stored energy, they would die. Also, for some plants, this timeout in winter allows seeds to become ready for germination. For example, an apple seed would not germinate without the dormancy of winter.

Coded into seeds from many years of evolution is the message: As soon as spring comes, they need to explode in growth and capture the right moment to germinate. They have to be ready to take advantage of the long daylight hours, capture the energy from the sun, and put it into plant growth for seed production. For example, the pervasive crabgrass that is the bane of many lawn folks is eagerly awaiting the soil temperature to reach 55 degrees for a few days before germinating. At this temperature, it has probably figured winter has passed and the likelihood of freezing to death has passed.

However, once it germinates, its sole purpose is to grow and produce more seeds for the ensuing generations. You can say, the plant has a zeal for life. It has a purpose. Its goal is to live life with zest and grow vigorously as it sends out roots to take in as much nutrition from the soil as it can and put it toward leaf and seed production so it can survive another brutal winter. The better the seeds the grass produces, the better they will survive winter and flourish the next year.

For the bees, a similar thing happens. Going into fall, they store many gallons of honey which they will use as a source of energy. They also collect a lot of pollen which they use as food protein. In the winter, a hive will probably use a gallon of honey a month. In Minnesota, if they are to survive, bees have to have about 5-7 gallons of stored honey. Now to do this, bees must exploit every available moment in the summer as they visit flowers to get nectar and pollen. These are stored within the hive. If these bees do not have passion, zeal, zest, etc. in the summer, they will not survive winter. If they do not live with a sense of urgency, they will literally freeze to death in the winter. They use the honey to generate heat to stay alive. Wired into the bees is the code that says, if we are to survive, we must live life with purpose. The zeal for life is what makes bees so busy.

Fun bee facts:

1. 1. Honeybees must gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey.
   2. One bee has to fly about 90,000 miles — three times around the globe — to make one pound of honey.
   3. The average bee will make only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
   4. A honeybee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
   5. A honeybee can fly for up to 6 miles and as fast as 15 miles per hour.
   6. The bee’s brain is oval in shape and about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has a remarkable capacity to learn and remember things. For example, it is able to make complex calculations on distance traveled and foraging efficiency.
   7. Honeybees communicate with one another by dancing.
   8. A colony of bees consists of 20,000 to 60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honeybees are female, live for about 6 weeks, and do all the work.

So, whether you are a seed or honeybee, it is imperative you live life with passion, zeal, zest, and a sense of urgency. How can we apply this philosophy to our professional life? We need to find places to work where we can identify and resonate with the organization. A few months ago, I read in The Wall Street Journal some comments from employees who worked with enthusiasm, passion, zest, and zeal. Here are the comments:

“Literally helping to save the entire world right now.”
“It’s the first time I felt this isn’t only a job. We’re on the front lines now.”
“Hey, I work at the place that makes that.”
“It feels like we have a responsibility now.”
“Everybody is counting on us to do our part.”

Now, are these people working at some prestigious, glamorous company? No, they work for Lysol. Sometimes, we postpone our passion waiting for the right opportunity to live life with enthusiasm and zeal. So, whether you use the analogy of the seed or the bee, remember it is imperative to hustle when the moments are right and not waste the resource of time. Have a plan and execute it. At the end of the day, it is not the right company that matters. It is the mindset and a choice to live in the moment to the fullest. Remember, YOLO.

References:

Phillips, M. (2020, April 21). The workers at a Lysol plant have a mission now; At a New Jersey factory making the disinfectant spray, employees are feeling inspired and on the front lines against the coronavirus. The Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.

Matter of Trust.org. (n.d.). 20 amazing honey bee facts! Retrieved from https://matteroftrust.org/20-amazing-honey-bee-facts/

Zeal is the first to arrive and the last to leave class. She sits in the front row, shares her M&M’s.

She is chatty and reads … everything — even the optional articles. She giddily posts and reposts in online discussions.

Zeal turns her work in early and always helps classmates.

You leave inspired after spending time with Zeal. She appreciates you. She values you. Your hopes and dreams grow. You are your best self around Zeal.

Zeal celebrates everything — successes, birthdays, Wednesday nights.

She has worked many jobs.

She is funny. She is best friends with Generosity and Humility.

Her glass is not half full or half empty … it’s overflowing.

Best of all, Zeal’s research matters. She is making the world a better place.