Northwest Missouri State University

The fall trimester is in full swing at Northwest, and, as you know, this is always an exciting time to be a Bearcat. Students are back on campus, Homecoming is just around the corner, and the campus is absolutely beautiful.

View Dr. Jasinski's video message to Northwest alumni

An eight-day, seven-night Hawaiian cruise is the next getaway being offered by the Tourin’ Bearcats, the travel program for Northwest alumni and friends.

Northwest President Dr. John Jasinski, First Lady Denise Jasinski and their children will join travelers on the Northwest Alumni Association-sponsored trip.

The excursion, which is open to the public, is May 29 to June 5, 2010. The cost is $2,195 per person, based on double occupancy, and includes roundtrip airfare from Kansas City, insurance, all transfers and port and government taxes. Upgrades are available. Reservations, with a $250 deposit, are due Jan. 22, 2010, and final payment is due by March 8, 2010.

It was early morning May 11, 1973, and Dennis Bowman ’72 was the lone broadcaster at a small radio station in Joplin. As he gave the weather update, Bowman began to notice a disturbing trend.

“On that day it got worse every time I looked at the sky,” Bowman said. “It went from clear, to partly cloudy, to scattered dark clouds and then to a solid wall of black on the western horizon.”

What Bowman was seeing was a wall cloud, extending down from a large thunderstorm system and producing a powerful tornado.

The Northwest athletic training room is now the David “DC” Colt Athletic Training Room. Northwest alumni, students, faculty and staff as well as community members and friends attended the Sept. 25 ceremony.

Colt was a faculty member in Northwest’s Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and was the University’s head athletic trainer for 27 years. In 2008, he became athletic trainer at the Air Force Academy. He and his wife, Susan, live in Colorado.

The Tourin’ Bearcats travel program for Northwest alumni and friends will be returning to the slopes of Colorado for the fourth annual Bearcat ski trip.

The trip is Jan. 6-10, 2010, and includes three days of skiing the Summit (Keystone, Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin) and three nights lodging at Keystone’s River Run Village Condominiums, just steps away from the gondola.

Those wishing to participate in the Northwest Alumni Association-sponsored ski trip are encouraged to reserve their space as soon as possible. A $200 deposit must be submitted by Monday, Nov. 2.

Northwest alumni and friends participated in the 2009 “Hit ‘em and Hold ‘em” baseball alumni weekend earlier this month.

“It’s nice to get as many guys as possible back for the alumni weekend … to get people reacquainted and talking about Bearcat baseball,” said head coach Darin Loe. “It was a great atmosphere all weekend.”

“Teaching the Works of Willa Cather” recently has been published by Northwest’s GreenTower Press. The book is co-edited by Dr. Steven Shively, associate professor of English at Utah State University, and Dr. Virgil Albertini, professor emeritus at Northwest.

Shively and Albertini will sign copies of the book from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, in the Bearcat Bookstore. Albertini also will sign books from 10 a.m. until noon Saturday, Oct. 24, the morning of Northwest’s Homecoming, in the Bearcat Bookstore. 

The Victor family of Omaha, Neb., was recognized during halftime of the Saturday, Sept. 19, Family Weekend home football game as Northwest's 2009 Family of the Year.

Megan Victor, the daughter of Tom and Mary Victor of Omaha, Neb., nominated her family for the award. She and her brothers, Chris Victor and Tim Victor, are triplets, all graduating from Northwest in 2009. Chris and Tim live in Omaha, Neb. Megan is a graduate assistant in the Talent Development Center and will graduate with a master’s in education in 2010. In addition, her sisters, Jodi Victor McDaniel and Julie Victor Moore – who are twins – are Bearcat alumni. Jodi and her husband, Chad McDaniel, graduated from Northwest in 2003 and live in Mount Vernon, Wash. Julie graduated in 2004 and

2006, and her husband, Matthew Moore, graduated from Northwest in 2003 and 2006. They live in Gretna, Neb.

A crowd of more than 200 people, including elected officials, business leaders and senior Northwest administrators, recently gathered in the University’s newly opened Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to hear remarks by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and celebrate the official opening of the 46,000 square-foot business incubator and high-tech academic facility.

Nixon praised the CIE as a unique partnership between private enterprise and higher education, and said the concept of combining the scientific and research resources of a university with the vision and energy of the center’s entrepreneurial tenants holds great promise for economic growth.