Tom Isern, NDSU

Universities, of all institutions, should be learning organizations. If we learn nothing else from our experiences of the past year, we must learn this: buildings are too important to trust to architects and contractors. If you see something going on that looks stupid, and if other reasonable people think so, too, then there's a good chance it is.

Day after tomorrow is commencement, which this time holds especial significance both for me personally and for the History program in corporate. Two PhD recipients will be hooded - the first two PhDs in the history of the History program at NDSU. David Mills completed and defended his dissertation and graduates as of this December; Yolanda Arauza has successfully defended her dissertation and aims for spring term deadlines for official completion. Congratulations to each of them, fine scholars and teachers both - and employed in college teaching, I might add. They are a credit to the program and to the university, but more than that, they have accomplished what they set out to do. Outstanding. I had the privilege of directing Mills's dissertation - well done, Dave.

This is occasion for me to remark, too, on the transformative effect of the institution of a PhD program in our department. It is a game-changer. PhD students bring a level of activity and energy and inquiry that is lacking in departments without PhD programs. This is an internal effect; PhD students make a difference in the expectations we have of one another, and they raise the level of everyday scholarly discourse. This is good for everyone.

Externally, it is the graduate students who do most to represent us and distinguish us abroad. After Christmas Neall Pogue will be off to San Diego to present at the meeting of Phi Alpha Theta. Across town, Jessica Clark will be participating in a poster session at the American Historical Association. Over the past year the PhD and master's students have presented in forums ranging from the Northern Great Plains History Conference to the Organization of American Historians. They have articles in print, in press, and in the pipeline. Miles Lewis earned the Morrill Award for graduate scholarship. Both Mills and Arauza earned distinguished awards and fellowships to further their research and writing. Several of our PhD students are distinguishing themselves, too, as college teachers. I know that Mills, at Minnesota West, and Clark, at North Dakota Science, have earned enviable reputations as teachers, and at the secondary level, Bill Cummings embodies the scholar-teacher. In the area of professional service, Andrea Mott is district graduate representative to the OAH, and Suzzanne Kelley is both a section coordinator for the Western Social Science Association and a member of the program committee of the Western History Association.

So, the PhD students are great for the department; they embody the very mission of the land grant university, and specifically that of NDSU; and they are doing exceedingly well, and well for themselves. Credit to them. Just open a door of opportunity, and they rush through.

Now two of them are exiting this program, and we will miss them. Other dear students and colleagues soon will follow them into successful careers and lives. It's time to recruit new ones, and then tell them tales of the great deeds (and foibles) of their pioneering predecessors. Dave, your portrait is going up in my office, so that I can point to it now and then. You'll have company there soon.