Winona businessman Harland Knight was named recipient of the 2006 Minnesota Vision Award, presented by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Chancellor James McCormick presented the Vision Award at the annual Minnesota Development Conference on October 5, 2006 in St. Paul.
 The award recognizes Minnesotans who seek new ways to innovate and who bring an entrepreneurial spirit to their development activities. Knight is an entrepreneur and forceful advocate for community service, economic development and education in southeastern Minnesota. Along with his wife, Pauline, Knight has been a generous supporter of Winona State University. Both have been active volunteers and board members and have endowed several student scholarships at the University.

Among the Best Regionally and Nationally
 U.S. News & World Report named WSU one of its “Top Tier” institutions in the category of Midwestern colleges and universities with master’s degree programs. WSU was ranked 62nd among institutions in the top tier and was the only Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System member listed in that category.
 Last year, U.S. News tabbed Winona State as one of its “Top-50 Most Unwired College Campuses,” based on a survey conducted by Intel. The designation recognizes WSU’s investment to connect students, faculty and staff wirelessly to the Internet as they move about the campus.
 For the eleventh consecutive year, Winona State was named one of America’s 100 Best College Buys, based on an independent ranking of the value and quality of colleges and universities across the nation, conducted by Institutional Research and Evaluation. The report profiles the schools that are the highest rated academically, but also have the greatest value as a function of academic quality, cost of attendance and financial aid available.
 The Princeton Review, a well-known college ranking program, has listed WSU as one of its “Best in the Midwest” for a third straight year. Rankings are based on student opinion data. Winona State is one of only three public institutions in Minnesota receiving the designation, and the only Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System school listed in the “Best in the Midwest” rankings.

2006 Awards of Disinction
Honored at Homecoming
Homecoming 2006 was a huge success on the Winona State University campus, and the naming of the Awards of Distinction winners was a big part of the festivities.

 Dr. James “Chip” Comadoll ’83 and George “Jeb” Griffith ’65 received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Comadoll who graduated summa cum laude from WSU and attended the University of Minnesota Medical School, is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in total joint replacement and sports medicine. Griffith earned his degree in business administration and is known for his entrepreneurial spirit. He founded Winnebago Software Company, a developer of library automation software, was CEO of Miken Sports, a manufacturer of composite sports equipment, and is now CEO of LockNet, Inc., a provider of network security and compliance solutions.
 The 2006 Distinguished Young Alumnae is Debra Lynn Schulze ’89. She received the Associate of Arts degree from WSU and went on to earn a bachelor’s at St. Thomas University in 1992. Schulze is currently vice president of Olympus Aviation, which provides corporate aviation services to several companies in the Twin Cities area. She participates in the WSU Alumni in the Classroom program and has been an inspiration to students who wish to pursue careers in aviation.
 Gary W. Evans received the Distinguished Service Award. From 1987 until 1998, Evans was vice president of university relations at WSU. Currently, he is president and CEO of Hiawatha Broadband Communications, a provider of broadband cable, telephone and Internet services to southeast Minnesota. An energetic supporter of the community and Winona State University, Evans is vice chair of the Winona State University Foundation.
 Larry Holstad ’67, currently Winona State director of athletics, was honored with the Distinguished Faculty and Staff Award. A career educator and coach, the Warriors have enjoyed tremendous athletic success under his leadership. He has won numerous coach of the year awards, and is active in a number of professional organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, NCAA Division II Athletic Directors Association, NCAA Division II Management Council and the NCAA Football Task Force.
 

Grob, Neder, Wicka Inducted into
Athletic Hall of Fame
  Three Winona State University graduates were honored at a ceremony during Homecoming 2006 with induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes Winona State men and women who have distinguished themselves in the field of intercollegiate athletics, either by virtue of their performance on athletic teams representing the university as an undergraduate or by their meritorious support for athletics in the years after leaving the university, as well as coaches and others who have contributed significantly to the success of the WSU intercollegiate athletic program.
 Dr. Gary R. Grob ’62 enjoyed a career at WSU that spanned 44 years as a baseball player, assistant coach, head coach and faculty member. Grob retired with the most wins of any collegiate baseball coach in Minnesota, with a record of 1,020-563-10 for a winning percentage of .643.

    Grob’s awards include the NAIA Baseball Hall of Fame (1989), the ABCA Hall of Fame (2002) and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Hall of Fame (2006). Notably, Grob both played in
the NAIA World Series (1961, 1962) and coached teams in the NAIA World Series (1972, 1988, and 1992). He directed 15 NAIA Midwest Region Championship teams, 15 NAIA District 13 Championship teams, and 15 NSIC Championship teams.
 Patricia C. Neder ’95 earned seven NAIA All-District 13 honors and seven all-conference honors while at WSU.
 The league leader in softball and basketball in a number of categories, Neder still holds the NSIC single-game record for assists with 22. She played for the USA Team Handball squad for a number of seasons and reached a peak when she made the U.S. Olympic team handball and played in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. Currently, she is a member of the U.S. Rugby Team.
 Her awards include NAIA Honorable Mention All-American (1990), NAIA All-District 13 in softball (1987-1989) and NAIA All-District 13 in basketball (1987-1990).
 Wayne S. Wicka ’93 was a force on Warriors football teams from 1988 through 1991. He finished with the second most career sacks with 24, and totaled 364 tackles and 35 tackles for loss. All that led to honors for Wicka from the NSIC, including the Glenn Galligan Award as the outstanding student-athlete among the conference football players. Other awards include NAIA Honorable Mention All-American (1990, 1991), all-conference (1988-91) and team captain (1991).
 Following his collegiate career, Wicka played for the New York Jets in 1992 and the Houston Oilers in 1993. Eventually he returned to where his career started, taking a position as the WSU defensive line coach for five years. During that period, Winona State won two league championships and the 2000 Mineral Water Bowl.

WSU Selected for Community Engagement Classification

 The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a national policy and research center for higher education, has selected Winona State University for its new Community Engagement classification.
 Winona State was one of three Minnesota institutions selected for the classification, joining the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the University of St. Thomas.
 WSU was selected in the Curricular Engagement and Outreach & Partnerships category, one of three categories within the Community Engagement classification. It includes colleges and universities with substantial commitments to both curricular engagement, where teaching, learning and scholarship engage faculty, students and the community, and outreach and partnerships, where resources are applied or provided for community use or collaborative interactions with the community take place.
 The Community Engagement classification is elective. Institutions participate voluntarily and submit supplemental data and documentation describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community. The Carnegie Foundation's other classifications include all institutions and are based on analysis of existing national data.
 The Community Engagement classification is part of the Carnegie Foundation's restructuring of its higher education classification system. Carnegie classifications, begun in 1970, are used for a variety of purposes by researchers, institutional administrators, policymakers and others.

Winona State Joins World Community Grid
Winona State University has joined the World Community Grid, one of the world's largest technology-based humanitarian efforts. The World Community Grid harnesses unused power of the world's computers and directs it towards efforts that will help society.
 Sponsored by IBM, the World Community Grid joins together individual computers to solve pieces of large, complex problems facing mankind. Winona State is contributing the power of 40 of its most powerful desktop computers to perform calculations to compare genome sequences.
 Grid computing is a technology that can collect the power of millions of computers to create a huge virtual system with tremendous computational capacity. The World Community Grid works with a large group of partners around the world. These partners loan processing time directed at a specific project.
 You can read a full story about Winona State and the World Community Grid in the next edition of Currents magazine.

Last Modified: Friday, September 21, 2007 11:30 by Heather Alt