INSIDE this issueMerger combines services .................................................... 6Ron Granger steps up to new position .................................. 8Jewel Dirks updates and develops new courses ...................... 9Diversity component added to classes .................................10Theater season offers variety ..............................................11

Mohammed Waheedretires

Olympian Billy Mills isconvocation speaker 2

Undergraduateresearch 5 3

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Billy Mills, whose come-from-behind sprint victory at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics ranks among the most astounding in Olym-pic track history, is the keynote speaker at Central Wyoming College’s 2012 Convoca-tion Thursday, August 30. Mills, an Oglala Lakota raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, ad-dresses an expected full house at 10 a.m. in the Robert A. Peck Arts Center Theatre. The only American to win an Olympic 10,000 meter race, Mills was shoved to the outside lane by the lead runner and discovered the cinder track on the outside lanes were much firmer than the chewed-up, pulverized inside lanes. “So when I rocketed out wide in the homestretch, I could really fly, really be rewarded for all my speed training,” said Mills in a March 2012 article published in Runners World. Mills quit running competitively after

CONVOCATION SPEAKERGOLD MEDALIST

Billy Mills

August 30

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With resources from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, a team of Central Wyoming College faculty is intent on build-ing a culture of undergraduate research while establishing a model program for co-curricular learning at Central. CWC has been invited to be part of the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (CCURI), a consortium of 35 community colleges nationwide, said Suki Smaglik, Professor of Earth and Physical Science, who applied on behalf of fellow science faculty who were already conducting under-graduate research. Smaglik along with Biology and Microbiology Professor Steve McAllister and Environmental

Sciences instructor Jacki Klancher plan to in-corporate research into several of their science courses using an inquiry-based teaching model where students are exposed to real world sci-ence through a case study. Other members of the undergraduate

research team at Central are Cheryl Veggian, a CWC graduate in Environmental Science and Leadership who participated in most of the research projects at CWC and is still involved with several projects, Cory Daly, CWC’s librar-

CWC faculty fosters research, co-curricular learning

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Under the tutelage of instructors Suki Smaglik and Jacki Klancher, Rob Resner measures the amount of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) in the Big Spring at Thermopolis during the Biology 1080 summer field course.

Photo by Lance E. Murakami

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ian who has been named the Associate Vice President for Student Services, and Division Dean Mark Nordeen, an administrator who has a background in the sciences. CCURI has determined that involvement by administrators is essential to the success of the project. The goal is to give students in biology, microbiology, geology and environmental science courses the chance to do research on open-ended, real-world questions with no predetermined answers, allowing them to experience all the rewards and frustrations that come with that work. “With our emphasis on co-curricular learning, this is a perfect set up,” Smaglik said, explaining CWC is now requiring all degree-seeking students to participate in some type of co-curricular learning. The consortium will provide the college with experts who will turn current CWC research projects into case studies to use in the classroom that will involve all students who are enrolled. The case study creates a scenario utilizing data collected by the CWC research teams along with national and regional data. The study then creates research questions for students to investigate and solve by collabora-tion in the classroom. By exposing first- and second-year students to open-ended research projects, Smaglik said the faculty hopes that the students’ curiosity is piqued and they become more engaged in scientific in-quiry. “We want to increase the number of students who matriculate into CWC science programs and enhance collaborative learning in the introductory level classes using the case study approach,” she said. Smaglik, McAllister and Klancher will begin incorporating the research component into the classes and expand it into other courses taught by fellow faculty. “We really want to develop a research cul-ture,” Smaglik said. “We want it to be what students are coming here for.” While it is rare for community colleges to engage in undergradu-

Research . . . (continued from page three)

ate research, most of Wyoming’s community colleges are doing so because of grant opportuni-ties from the IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), NASA Space Grant and another NSF program called EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Re-search). Funds from these programsare uncertain, so it is fortunatefor CWC to be a part of theinitiative because it provides approximately $60,000 in funds over four years for equipment and supplies as well as faculty and student development. CWC is the only college in Wyoming to be in the consortium. The funding for CCURI is exceptional in that the NSF awarded only one grant of this type this year, and it is the first time that an award of this magnitude has been given to a community college. “We are a model for the university for undergraduate research,” she said, explaining that only juniors, seniors and graduate students get an opportunity to participate in research projects at Wyoming’s only state university. “This allows our students to become competent and confident when they go on to a university.” The overall goal of the initiative is to encourage more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM fields.

Student Gabi Scholes collects water sample for hydrogen sulfide gas and pH analysis.

Photo by Lance E. Murakami

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The man who has devoted the majority of his professional career to the growth of Central Wyoming College has retired after more than 30 years. Mohammed Waheed, who brought his young family to Riverton in 1981 to help CWC launch a public television station, became an important figure in positioning the college to become a leader in technology and distance learning while establishing a progressive student services program to help all students, especially those who were at-risk, to survive and thrive. Retiring as Vice President for Student Ser-vices, Dr. Waheed came to Wyoming in search of a quality place to raise his two daughters and a son who was later born in Riverton. The

community and the college have been greatly enriched by his choice. “You have changed so many lives through your work,” Perry Hammock, the past president for the National Council of Resource Develop-ment, said in a recent email to Dr. Waheed. “You can move on to your next life journey with contentment and pride.” CWC Psychology Professor Jewel Dirks, who worked for Dr. Waheed for many years as the director of CWC’s Student Support Services Program, estimates he brought more than $50 million into the community through various grants he prepared on behalf of CWC. The grants opened many new jobs at the college to better serve students. “His grant writing capabilities are nation-

ally known,” Dirks said, remembering that many institutions attempted to hire him away from Central. Waheed is very humble and always shares success with colleagues, often saying “it takes a village” to write a grant. Many of the suc-cessful grants were developed in consultation with faculty and staff, he noted. Though he is pleased with the work he’s accomplished in his decades at CWC, Moham-med is most proud of his staff, family and his Muslim faith. Born and mostly educated in India, Mohammed and wife, Roxanne raised two doctors and an educator in Riverton who all began their higher education at CWC. Oldest

Mohammed Waheed devotes professional career to CWC;grant writing abilities make college a technolgy leader

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Mohammed Waheed and Financial Aid and Registration and Records staff.

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To enhance student learning opportunities and to launch new success initiatives, student and academic services at Central Wyoming Col-lege are being brought under one umbrella. With the retirement of longtime Vice Presi-dent of Student Services Mohammed Waheed, and the promotion of VP for Academics Jason Wood as the new executive vice president, the two departments will work as one. “The student success piece, in my mind, was paramount,” Wood said. “I think it’s time we focus less on an organizational chart and more on what happens in our students’ lives.” CWC had employed the predominant com-munity college model of dividing the interac-tions with students into two distinct divisions with the academic side of the house focusing on curriculum and instruction and student

services providing support, such as counseling and tutoring, outside of the classroom. In times of tight budgets, the merger is allowing the college to eliminate one administrative posi-tion while elevating existing staff to increase efficiency. An appointed task force spent the better part of a semester studying the merger, and came up with a model for a new chief student services officer that considerably enlarged the scope of responsibilities. A plan was launched to encourage greater interaction and developed a means for creating learning partnerships on campus. With the reorganization, former Library Director Cory Daly has been promoted to the Associate Vice President for Student Services, supervising Registration and Records, financial

aid, counseling and grant-funded programs. Former Campus Safety and Student Life Director Steve Barlow has been named Assistant Dean for Student Services, continuing his oversight of student housing, student activities, campus safety and adding athletics to his responsibili-ties. Assistant Dean for Student Learning Mar-tha Davey is now the AVP for Academics, taking charge of student recruitment and Adult Basic Education/GED, while maintaining supervision over institutional research, accreditation and advising. With “all the excitement and enthusiasm” of bringing the two divisions together came an initiative to formalize co-curricular learning, Wood said. “No one is sure what got that snow-ball rolling down hill.”

Cory Daly Steve Barlow Martha Davey Associate Vice President for Student Services Assistant Dean for Student Services Associate Vice President for Academics

Merger combines services; increases efficiency

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Learning is not limited to what takes place in the classroom yet students aren’t given credit on their transcripts for that experience, he said. A proposal is being brought forward to the CWC Curriculum Committee where students can receive credit for service learning, practi-cal experience/internship, cultural apprecia-tion and professional development. “This formalizes a process of learning out-side the classroom,” Wood explained. Students who have been participating in existing co-curricular projects, such as acting in theater productions or participating in undergraduate research programs, would earn credit. With the merger, students will receive a better learning environment with the college catering to the students’ academic interests as well as their personal and professional con-cerns. “We are all partners in this,” Wood said of the entire CWC staff. “All of us who work at the college want students to be successful.”

daughter Mona is a family practice physician in Riverton and son Aziz is a Riverton Middle School teacher and coach. Daughter Sana is an internal medicine doctor in St. Louis. “We are grateful to the community for adopting and accepting us,” he said, recalling there were colleagues who doubted he would spend more than a year in Wyoming. After finishing his doctoral work, Waheed was hired by then CWC President Richard St. Pierre. While Wyoming’s first public broad-casting station was being launched at CWC, he prepared utilization manuals and trained faculty to offer telecourses – CWC’s first stab at distance education. To better serve site-bound students in this geographically isolated state, he expanded into radio courses and then into computer-as-sisted instruction. He encouraged the faculty to tape their lectures so that students who had missed class could review the material or so that the lectures could be available for summer sessions when faculty was off campus. CWC really jumped ahead in distance edu-cation after Dr. Waheed and then Vice Presi-dent Joe Dolan were successful in obtaining a five-year Title III grant to support academic and student services programs. From there, the two were again successful in getting a $10 million Star Schools grant that allowed the college to build an instructional technology program. With the grant, CWC developed the

Interactive Classroom Network, which made it possible for college lectures to be shared with other schools in the CWC service area. It also provided funds for K-12 educators to take technology courses to improve their teaching skills. Other grants in which Dr. Waheed played an important role include several college prep programs, Gear Up, Educational Talent Search and Upward Bound as well as one of the country’s largest Student Support Services programs. Waheed also played a key role in a community-based job training grant to de-velop the college’s Environment, Health and Safety program as well as a physical therapist assistant program. Student success was always the main focus of his job. “I have always had an open door policy with our students, and have assisted them in all aspects of their lives, giving them the tools necessary to overcome personal cri-ses and challenges,” he said. “It has been such a blessing to know that I have been able to help so many of our students rise above their issues and succeed in their chosen paths.” Waheed, who turns 62 in August, is multi-lingual and has traveled almost every inch of this country as well as in Canada. He has promised his wife to take at least one year off and they will hit the highways to visit family and friends. Part of his family will join him on another trip to Mecca as well. “I am honored to have played a part in

shaping CWC as we know it today and I hope to remain connected to the college after my retirement,” he said.

Merger . . .

Mohammed Waheed devotes career to college . . .(continued from page five)

(continued from page six)

he failed to make the 1968 Olympic team but his story of his run for the gold has kept him travel-ing almost 300 days a year speaking to audi-ences around the world. He was the youngest of seven children, born to a white mother and Native American father. He was orphaned by the time he was 12 and raised by his older siblings. At 15, he was sent to the Haskell Institute, a boarding school for Native Americans in Lawrence, Kansas where he took up cross country and track. He was later recruited by the University of Kansas where he met his wife Patsy Harris.After graduating from KU, Mills wanted to train for the Olympics but his wife was pregnant with their first child so he decided to join the Marines, which had a track team and coach. That would give him just over a year and a half to make the Olympic team. Mills matured as a runner under Marine Corps coach Tommy Thompson who gave him the encouragement to go for the gold. He made the American team for the 1963 world military championships where he ran the 10,000 meters and was outkicked by Mohamed Gammoudi of Tu-nisia, who through an interpreter, advised Mills to include speed workouts.

Mills’ college coach Bill Easton had dis-couraged him from trying more speed work, telling him “Negroes are sprinters, and Indians run forever.” With the advice of the Tunisian, who ironically Mills beat in the Olympics, he adjusted his training to add speed workouts and eventually cracked 50 seconds for 400 meters. The father of four daughters and

grandfather to 11, Mills now live with his wife in Fair Oaks, Calif. He and wife Pat wrote a book on his road to the Olympics called Run for the Red Wil-lows. No publisher bought it, but the manuscript was picked up by a movie producer and the film Running Brave was released in 1983. In 1986, he founded Running Strong for American Indian Youth and the organization’s accomplish-

ments are vast. The foundation has drilled mul-tiple water wells on the Pine Ridge Reservation as well as homes for the elderly and dialysis clinics. The foundation also endowed the Billy Mills Youth Scholarship at the KU for American Indian students majoring in education. The Convocation ceremony is followed by a community picnic that includes a Native Ameri-can dance exhibition by the George Abeyta family. Mills is honored at a powwow at St. Stephens following the picnic.

Granger is new Admin VP

Billy Mills (continued from page two)

Ron Granger is the new Vice President for Administrative Services at CWC, replacing Jay Nielson who retired at the conclusion of the academic year after 13 years at Central. Granger worked with Nielson as the associate vice president this spring and was handed off the responsibility for the college’s budget and several construction projects, including the completion of the new Health and Sciences Center. At his former job at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, Granger was responsible for a $38 million budget, the college’s construction projects, physical plant, grounds, security, auxiliary services and human resources. Early in his career, Granger was a teacher and coach in Buffalo, Wyo.

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Updating classes depends on brain power An in-depth study of the human brain is the impetus for Central Wyoming College Psychology Professor Jewel Dirks to update and develop new courses. A semester-length sabbatical last fall provided Dirks with the opportunity to gain ad-ditional knowledge to enhance the teaching of “ keystone” psychology courses and to prepare curriculum for new courses including psycho-biology. As she studied current controversies with brain science, such as consciousness, memory and free will, Dirks had several “ah-hah” mo-ments with regard to how she delivered materi-als in her general psychology courses. Her intent was to transform the courses

from what she called out-dated, historical-based psych courses to hard science and neurobiology courses. She chose a “radically” different textbook that offers contemporary cutting edge kinds of theories. “I realized that I was not only going to change how I taught the chapters in my general psych courses, but how I was going to teach everything in all classes,” she said of the “riveting” process of making over her courses and delivery. Dirks has completely rearranged the stan-dard sequence of material and is now giv-ing students a more thorough examination of the brain. She is finding her students are enthralled with the new material. “Students

say they are excited about the brain; excited enough to start wearing their helmets,” she quipped. While Dirks admits she is making the most changes in her introductory courses, she said all her courses, including Marriage and Family and Life Span courses will be changed “three fold.” She intends to use contemporary research of current discoveries and controversies. She won’t ignore Freud and Skinner but the histori-cal topics will not be central to the lectures as they once had been. In her sabbatical report, Dirks said CWC students taking the new and improved courses will be more prepared. “My personal goal was

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dIVERSITYValuing

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Central Wyoming College aims to have all students appreciate diversity by providing an atmosphere that promotes acceptance and re-spect as well as course materials to help them recognize the variety of characteristics that make individuals unique. It is so important to CWC that diversity is becoming the institution’s fifth student at-tribute, and the college will incorporate these ideals across the curriculum to ensure all stu-dents who complete their course work under-stand it. The CWC Diversity Committee, which devel-ops a series of programs and events each year to promote diversity, decided last summer to take it from a general education requirement to a student attribute, said Mark Nordeen, the dean of the Arts and Sciences Division and a member of the committee. “It will be a much better system,” he said, explaining that faculty will incorporate diver-sity into the more than 100 courses that are

designated as general education requirements with the exception of physical education. Nordeen said all of the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science programs, which are transfer degrees, are based on 64 college cred-its and half of those include general education requirements. After transferring to a univer-sity, the students take more content courses related to their field of study. Associate of Applied Science degree programs, such as nursing, are designed to prepare students for immediate employment and require only 19 general education courses because the programs require specific content courses in their discipline. “At this stage in the college’s history the most important diversity achievement deepens our commitment from isolated moments into the heart of the education we provide,” said Cory Daly, the college’s new Associate VP for Student Services and the former chair of the Diversity Committee. “All students will soon

to have our students be known as outstanding scholars in psychological/neurological thought when they matriculate to receiving universi-ties,” she said. Dirks appreciated having the semester to conduct the research. “It was a real gift to think that they thought I was worth it,” she said. Dirks has been teaching psychology at CWC since 2001 and came to Central in 1990, first as a Perkins Grant coordinator and then she was the director of the TRiO Student Sup-port Services program.

learn to demonstrate their capacity to under-stand and effectively communicate with people whose identities and values differ from their own.”

Diversity component added to classes

Brain power(continued from page nine)

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The Central Wyoming College Theater Department’s 2012-13 season has some-thing for everyone from political satire to classic comedy, and Irish drama to a rock musical. And when you add in the avant-garde of student-directed theater pieces and experimental shows with a new fea-ture of the season, the season could be truly terrifying. First off is the 24-hour marathon production of 4 (or more) in 24: the Political Edition set for Saturday, Sept. 22. In the 24 hours before the 7:30 p.m. curtain, multiple casts rehearse at least four original, short productions and then immediately perform them. The directing, designing and rehearsals all come together in just one day. “We’re doing it again,” CWC Theater Director Mike Myers said of the innova-tive theater that was done for the first time at Central in 2011. “This time, all the pieces will have American politics as their theme.” Expect the “birth of exciting new theater” and a “clash of ideas,” he said. Theater students join with the CWC Student Activities staff to present a Hal-loween Trail of Terror, Oct. 26 and 27,

inviting “those who dare” for a guided tour of campus where goblins, specters, wraiths and ghouls haunt the grounds. Myers promises “scary fun for the whole family.” The event is free but donations will go to Breast Cancer Awareness groups. Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Odd Couple is staged Oct. 17-21. The male dominated cast will deliver laughs as they take you into the apartment shared by Fe-lix, a tense neat freak, and Oscar, the easy going slob. Myers said this is the “greatest comedy by America’s greatest comic play-wright.” The show runs each night at 7:30 p.m. with the exception of Oct. 21 which is a 2:30 p.m. matinee. With the gals mostly left out of The Odd Couple, Myers purposely selected The Mag-dalen Whitewash for the last fall show. “Our production will mark just the third time this intense new drama from Ireland has been seen in the U.S.,” he said. Scheduled for a run beginning with a Dec. 2 matinee and followed by 7:30 p.m. performances Dec. 6-8, the Valerie Goodwin play is about eight women who are sentenced to hard labor and harsh treatment at the Magdalen

Theater season offers variety:comedy, satire, drama, music

(continued on back page)

HairConnect is a publication of the

CWC Public Information Office and is scheduled to be published quarterly.

2660 Peck Avenue, Riverton, WY www.cwc.edu

Several former and current Central Wyoming College theater students acted in a television show that re-enacted the disappear-ance of Amie Wroe Bechtel who went missing from the Shoshone National Forest in July 1997. The students were hired by the Discovery Channel’s show “Dis-appeared,” which tells stories of missing persons and the families who never give up finding them. CWC Technical Theater Director Chontelle Gray acted as a “point person” for the network and sug-gested CWC theater graduates Amara Fehring, Jeremy Gross and Molly Thornton as well as current students Cody Mock and Aaron King audition for roles. “It was pretty laid back,” said Thornton, who was cast as Amy Skinner, a close friend of Wroe-Bechtel. The theater students had a 3 p.m. call and worked for a total of five hours. “My car might be a bigger star than I am,” Thornton said, explaining the three-person network crew took a lot of footage of her in her Mercury Sable. King, who was cast as Todd Skinner, and Thornton got to do some scenes “where we really got to act.” The Skinners were best friends with the Bechtels and orga-nized the search parties for the 24-year-old Lander women who never returned from a mountain run 15 years ago. Fehring was cast as Wroe Bechtel’s sister-in-law and Gross and Mock were friends who were in the search party. Thornton had the opportunity to watch a few segments from the episode and was impressed by the cinematography. “I’m ex-cited to see what they come up with,” she said. The network has not yet scheduled the installment.

Asylum for getting pregnant out of wed-lock. Set in the 1920s, the story is about the Irish “Maggies” and their struggle for human dignity and freedom. In the spring, the student-directed set of short theater pieces, Showcase 2013, is scheduled Feb. 7-10, taking the usual time of the spring musical. The CWC theater department has been presenting the Show-case for nine years, providing CWC audi-ences with some “cutting-edge” theater experiences. The season finale is the rock musical Hair scheduled for April 12-14 and April 19-21. “It’s entertaining, engaging, power-ful, memorable, and important and it’s art,” said Myers. Hair was controversial when it opened in 1967 as an anthem to the spirit of the 1960s. Some of the great hits from the play are Aquarius and Good Morning Starshine. The Theater Department is selling season tickets (adult single: $25, youth/senior: $10) for admission into The Odd Couple, The Magdalen Whitewash, and Hair. The Showcase and the Trail of Terror are free and admission for 4 (or more) in 24 is $5.

(continued from page eleven)Theater

CWC theater students re-enact disappearnce of Amie Bechtel