“The lifeblood of any institution is the faculty.” Highlights during Jeppson’s tenure
Former Dean Ron Jeppson Returns to Classroom ‘Faculty first’ was mantra as colleague, chair and dean “My role as a dean, and something I followed to the letter, was to put faculty first,” said retiring mathematics professor Ron Jeppson. “The lifeblood of any institution is the faculty.” > Ron Jeppson retires in May after a 31-year career at MSUM. His final bow will be teaching college algebra, the first class that he ever taught and the experience that inspired his career in education. “I wanted to end my career doing what I love.”
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ong before advocating for faculty, Jeppson was a young man searching for his calling. The Vietnam War interceded. He entered the Air Force and was assigned to Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado, a facility housed 2,000 feet into a mountain that is charged with collecting data from a worldwide system of satellites and radar. He repaired computers. “I do not like administrative work,” he admits. “In the Air Force I made a deal with a colleague that I would do all repair work if he did all paperwork.” It’s ironic that a man who loathed administrative detail ended up being the top administrator for MSUM’s College of Social and Natural Sciences for 12 years.
Discovering the right fit Upon his military discharge, he returned to college exploring the fields of psychology, chemistry and physics. “I was fairly good at math so I took a number of math classes, but I was never interested in it,” he said. However, it became his degree by default. His wife, Joyce, encouraged Jeppson to enroll in graduate school at Montana State University. The puzzle pieces fell into place. “Teaching was a requirement of graduate school,” Jeppson said. “The first class I taught was college algebra. I discovered I loved teaching, and my career was set.” He earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Montana State University. “I had a vision of the type of place I wanted to teach: a midsize university that valued education and valued teaching. When I saw the job announcement at Moorhead State on a flyer, I thought this would be a nice place to be.” His visit to campus confirmed the family-friendly atmosphere, and he was the first of five new mathematics faculty to be hired in 1981.
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Alumnews Winter 2011
> Instituted the College of Social and Natural Sciences student advisory board. “I learned a lot about what’s going on in the university and some of the things we can do to improve the college.” > Improved advising. “The student advisory board helped me see the holes we have in our advising program. There’s still some work to be done in that area.” > Enriched outreach programs. “Getting the Regional Science Center into the College and coordinating that with our ongoing outreach programs was a major achievement.” > Developed bioscience program at North Hennepin Community College. “Many faculty were involved in developing this program, but I reassigned Mark Wallert to do a lot of the heavy lifting.” MSUM/NHCC graduated its first bioscience major in 2009. > Supported Science Lab construction. > Reorganized the Anthropology and Earth Science Department. “The moves and new hires we did in that area turned out really well. I think it’s one of the best departments on campus.”
The caliber of students was “phenomenal,” Jeppson said. “They were often so bright I had a hard time keeping ahead of them.” In 1987, three of his students took first place in a national mathematical modeling competition.
Settling into administration He enjoyed teaching and was hesitant to go into administration, but department chair Milton Legg was retiring and thought Jeppson was the right person to lead the 26-member department. After much prodding, he was named chair in 1993. He became interim dean in much the same way—many faculty members urged him to fill in for Judy Strong, who took another assignment within the administration. “One of the ongoing issues in higher education is financial stability,” Jeppson said. “I became acting dean in 1997 and we had a $3 million budget cut. That seems like peanuts today.” He expected to return to the classroom, but Judy Strong chose to remain in her new post. Once again faculty sentiment encouraged him to apply for the permanent post, which he assumed in 1999. His focus as dean was to hire good faculty (he hired about half of the College’s current faculty) and support them, promote undergraduate research, and deliver outreach programs to K-12 classrooms. “Most of what I did in the college had to do with those priorities,” he said. Jeppson returned to the classroom last year. “It wasn’t hard to go back to teaching, because I never intended to be dean,” he said. Ron and his wife, Joyce, will take a year to travel and spend time with their four children and nine grandchildren. They will then do mission work for their church. > KRISTI MONSON