North Dakota State University: Has much to offer

2008-01-02T00:31:00.000-08:00

I wonder sometimes how many of us realize that an institution of the
size and level of NDSU has much to offer the community other than
athletics and a plot up North with cool lights.

This last week was the celebration of Veterans Day, officially
November 11. This holiday was originally to celebrate
the end of World War I, and was originally called Armistice Day, as
the World War I Armistice was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the
11th month.

As part of this recognition, the History Department, the Mathematics
Department, the NDSU HIstory Club and Phi
Alpha Theta(the National History Honor Society) hosted a lecture by
Professor Emeritus Ferdinand("Fred") Haring of
the NDSU Mathematics Department.

Fred was born in Indonesia, the Dutch East Indies then, and was about 10 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He spent the whole war on the Dutch East Indies Island
of Java, growing up under the rule of the Japanese as part of their "greater east Asian co=prosperity sphere." aggression: they wanted the oil.

Fred gave a gorgeous, very professorial lecture describing World War
II from his perspective. He was a little lightson Japanese
atrocities, but nonetheless gave an interesting perspective not many
of have, or know about. Particularly interesting was his description
of the battle of the Java Sea, which took place early in the war, and
apparently was the only seal battle to involve a multi-national allied naval force,
which was almost entirely sunk.

After describing the departure of the Japanese, Fred went on to
describe the foundation of the Republic of Indonesia and the loss of
Dutch influence in what is now Indonesia. This was a harder time for
the Dutch colonials than the Japanese occupation. Eventually Fred wound up in Holland,
where he had never been before, and was educated at the University of
Utrecht and the Illinois Institute of Technology before coming to NDSU
in 1962.

Celebrating another holiday, on November 20 the Vienna Boys Choir will
be performing at Festival Hall at NDSU. This is an internationally
acclaimed choral group that has performed in almost every major venue
imaginable. I understand tickets are going fast, so we might want
to check this out as soon as possible. I hope that we are not
embarassed by low attendance as has happened in the past with world
class performances.

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North Dakota State University: Has much to offer