For more 125th Anniversary events, please visit the UND Calendar.

To volunteer or find out more about the Big Event, please visit the Big Event informational page.

The Great Conversation guest will be Stephen Bloom, journalist and author of Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America. Another UND faculty member and Mr. Bloom will join in a conversation Monday, Oct. 20, 2008, at 7 p.m. Great Conversations will consists of questions from the facilitator and audience. This event will be held in the Chester Fritz Auditorium.

The photo on the green was taken at the beginning of the fall semester Monday, Aug. 20, 2007, at 1:25 p.m. Students, faculty, staff, and members of the community were invited to take part and were given a 125th anniversary t-shirt to wear. In addition to a still photo, the Television Center videotaped the event. The video was set to music and used in a viral campaign to help promote the anniversary celebration. It was also featured on ABC's Good Morning America.

More than 3,000 students, faculty and staff participated. Thank you!

A campus-wide celebration is planned for Wednesday, Feb. 27, from 12:30-3:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom with cake and refreshments. Music, entertainment, and moments in UND's history will be part of the program throughout the afternoon. The 2008 UND Founders Day banquet will be held Thursday, Feb. 28 commemorating the founding of the University, honoring 25 year employees, celebrating the people who are retiring from UND, and presenting awards to faculty, departments, and advisors. This year's dinner will be held in the Alerus Center Ballroom.

Clay Jenkinson, a cultural commentator, humanities scholar and author, was on campus celebrating UNDs 125th Anniversary as Thomas Jefferson, his alter ego. Jefferson spoke about the founding of his own University of Virginia. Later in the day, Clay participated in a panel discussion on the future of education in North Dakota. Events were sponsored by the UND College of Education and Human Development and were free and open to the public.

Clay S. Jenkinson adopts the persona of Jefferson each week on National Public Radio's The Thomas Jefferson Hour to comment on current events and answer questions people may have about Jefferson's thoughts on any and all topics. Clay has portrayed Thomas Jefferson for more than two decades. He is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities highest award, then called the Charles Frankel Award, for his humanities-based first person interpretation methodology.

This Great Conversations Series was held in conjunction with the 2008 Writers Conference March 25-29. The guest was Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight's Children, a Booker Prize novel. Rushdie engaged in a conversation with UND English professor Rebecca Weaver Hightower on March 25, 2008, at 7 p.m. This event was held in the Chester Fritz Auditorium.

The UND Art Collection has been gathered throughout the past 125 years with contributions from students, faculty, and alumni.  UND’s American Indian Art Collection is the first to be catalogued and the North Dakota Museum of Art will hold an exhibition of this collection opening April 6, 2008 through June 15, 2008.  An Afternoon of the Arts is planned for April 6, 2008, from 2-5 p.m., and will offer the Greater Grand Forks community an opportunity to view both collections: the American Indian art at the Museum, and the UND Art Collection at the Col. Eugene E. Myers Art Gallery in the Hughes Fine Arts Center.  Walking art tours between both facilities will be conducted by art students if weather permits. Music and refreshments will be served in both locations. 

Faculty and staff will join UND students in carrying out the Big Event, a service project for the Greater Grand Forks community sponsored by Student Government.  The intent of the event is to thank our community for the many ways they have and continue to support the University of North Dakota.  In the 1930s when the University was on the verge of closing because of lack of funding, Grand Forks city leaders stepped up to help and this is a way to show appreciation for this legacy of collaboration. The Big Event will be held Saturday, April 12, 2008, beginning at 9 a.m.  Service organizations, governmental agencies, non-profit groups, private citizens, and others who have a project thatt can be completed by volunteers in one day can apply for assistance.  The hope and expectation is that every applicant who has a need will be helped.

Volunteer or find out more about the Big Event.