Profile (1996-)

The Profile is a biannual magazine for University of Minnesota, Morris alumni, friends, and parents. For more information, see the UMM Alumni Association website.

The first iteration of the UMN Morris Alumni Association's newsletter was published in 1964 and went by the name UMM Alumni Association Newsletter. The newsletter was published under this name until 1974, when it changed to the Morris ALUMNews. The newsletter was ceased briefly from 1981-1987. The newsletter began publication again in 1987 as UMM To You, and changed names again in 1996 to Profile.

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Profile: Celebrating Sustainability

2024
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Zavada is First Morton Gneiss Professor; Cougar Days of Giving Event is Resounding Success; Planned Giving is Way for Alum to Give Significant Support; New at UMN Morris: Degree in Three; Cofer Named Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean; Pandemic Challenges Led to Improved Chemistry Lab; Kapemni Program Created with NSF Grant; UMN Morris Archives Receives National Endowment for the Humanities Grant; Morris Model Wins Competition to Energize Rural Communities; UMN Morris Included in Food Justice Initiative Funding; DuHamel Receives McKnight Musician Fellowship Grant; Peters Receives JEDI Award; Brugger Named Fellow of the Geological Society of America; Cai '24 Receives 2023 SEED Award; UMN Morris Students Attend National AISES Conference; Zenner Receives Tate Award for Advising; Inauguration of Janet Schrunk Ericksen, Seventh Chancellor of the University of Minnesota Morris; Spotlight Highlighting Some UMN Morris Alumni Working in Sustainability; New Energy Storage Project; Setting the Scene for Green Theatre in Minnesota; Meet Your New Alumni Relations Officer; Look Who's Back!; 2023 Distinguished Alumni Awardees; Student Athlete Wellbeing Partnership; UMAC Champions; 100th Win for Men's Soccer Coach; First Year of Men's Swimming & Diving; Cougar Student Athletes Earn Academic Honors; Dear Minnesota
Profile: Beyond the Classroom

Spring 2023
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Her Campus, Her Cause, Helen Jane Morrison: 1921-2022; Gift of Rare Maps; Scholarships Foster Study Abroad and Experiential Learning; Burks Appointed to National Transportation Study Committee; Education Building Renamed in Honor of Bill and Ida Stewart; UMN Morris Included in HHMI Grant; Sloan Foundation Grant to Increase STEM Opportunities for Native American Students; Spotlight on MAX Fund; Environmental Studies Internship Leads to Job; International Student Brings New Perspective to Music Research; Renewable Energy Trail Leads Student to a New Experience in a New Setting; UMN Morris Archives Offers Online Trip Back in Time; Randy Koopman '78, UMMAA President; Cougars to Launch Men's Swimming & Diving Program in 2023-24
Profile: Outcomes of a UMN Morris Education

Fall 2022
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: An endowed Psychology chair gift to impact generations of students; Former Physics professor provides out of this world support for Cougar Athletics; Scholarship support veterinary careers; Center for Renewable Energy storage technology launched; University of Minnesota Morris holds first Morris Youth Challenge Institute; Bartlett and Kivi are Fulbright finalists; Sustainability Careers and Pathways webinar series will focus on agriculture; NCHC posthumously honors Sam Schuman with Founders Award; Prayers for a Feverish Planet debuted during Earth Week; UMN Morris creates life-long community, career for international student; Spotlight; Alumni News; Class Notes; Cougar News
Profile: The Student Experience

Spring 2022
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Memorial Fund Enables Students to Showcase Their Work; "Eco" Giving Can Have Lasting Environmental Impact; Giving to the "Max" to Benefit Students; Spotlight: Impacts and History off Native American Boarding Schools; MCSA President Testifies Before Minnesota House Higher Ed Committee; Accessibility, Maintenance Top UMN Morris Legislative Funding Request; UMN Morris Achieves a Million Pounds of Compost; First-Year Class Bucks National Trends; Intro Class Gets Wikified; Nell's Students Gain Skills Beyond the Classroom with Water Quality Research; Terry Finds Inspiration in Summer Internship; Randy Koopman '78, UMMAA President; Look Who's Back!; Remembering Doc
Profile: A Model For Living And Learning

Fall 2021
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Campaign Results; Janet Schrunk Ericksen Named Acting Chancellor; UMN Morris Legacy Spans Four Generations; Giving News; Campus News Briefs; The Big Picture; Alumni News; Class Notes; Cougar News
Profile: Looking Back, Leading Forward

Spring 2021
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: The Power of Possibility; Puppy Love; Looking Back, Leading Forward; Giving News; Campus News Briefs; Alumni News, Class Notes
Profile: Times Like These

Fall 2020
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: The Power of Possibility; Ask the Experts:Social Justice; Time Like These: UMN Morris and the COVID-19 Crisis; 60 Years Since 1960; 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award Winner; Giving News; Campus News Briefs; Alumni News; Class Notes; Cougar Sports News
Profile: A Model for Regional Resilience

Spring 2020
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: A Model for Regional Resilience:Donors and friends are helping UMN Morris optimize local resources to make greater Minnesota a more resilient place; Small Town Heroes: Center for Small Towns pairs students with rural communities to make good things happen; Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice: Morris Healthy Eating increases access to healthy, real foods in rural Minnesota; Giving News; Campus News Briefs; The Big Picture; Alumni News; Class Notes; Cougar Sports News.
Profile: A Model for Faculty Leadership

Fall 2019
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Support System: See how private support enhances our model for faculty leadership; Ending Addiction: A look at Kerry Michael's work with communities to fight addiction; PhD in the Making: See what it's like to be a UMN Morris student these days - and meet one of tomorrow's faculty leaders; Inside the Academy: Test your knowledge about the faculty experience and see what it's really like to be a professor at UMN Morris; And the Winners are: Meet this years's Distinguished Alumni Award winner and the Cougar Hall of Fame inductees; Campus News Briefs; Spotlight; The Big Picture; Alumni News; Class Notes; Cougar Sports News.
Profile: Designed to Perform: The Morrison Performing Arts Center: Beautiful, Smart Campus

Spring 2019
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Nod to the past, look to the future: a look at the celebration of A model for living and learning; Designed to perform: the Morrison Performing Arts Center: step inside the new and improved campus performance venue; Infographic: beautiful, smart campus; Giving news; Campus news briefs; The big picture; Alumni news; Class notes; Cougar sports news.
Profile: Life-Changing Student Experiences: How You Make Them Possible

Fall 2018
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Pay it forward: Chancellor creates an emergency support fund for students; Spring into action: end-of-year celebration photos; #whenindc: Morris student interns take on Capitol Hill; Infographic: Game changer: the Morris student experience; Campus news briefs; Spotlight; Alumni News; The big picture; Class notes; Cougar sports news.
Profile: A Model for Living and Learning: The Campaign for the University of Minnesota, Morris

Spring 2018
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: A new chapter begins: the inauguration of Chancellor Michelle Behr; Model citizens: find out how donors are making Morris a stronger model than ever before; Giving news; Coming home: Homecoming celebrations remembered in photos; Campus news briefs; Spotlight: special edition: Get to know the men and women behind our biggest fundraising effort to date; A model for living and learning: See what the campaign for Morris is all about (and what you can do to help); The big picture; Alumni news; Class notes; Cougar Sports news
Profile: A Room of Her Own: How Private Giving Supports Campus Mission

Fall 2017
Communications and Marketing

In this issue: Music of the Heart: How Sally Finzel honored her family and enhanced Morris's instrument collection; Giving news; Campus news briefs; Spring Fever: Year-end celebrations remembered in photos; Spotlight; A Room of Her Own: How private giving transforms our beautiful, smart campus; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: How Chancellor Behr spent her first 100 days; The big picture; Alumni news; Class notes; Cougar sports news
Profile: New Beginnings: Meet Morris's New Chancellor

Spring 2017
University Relations

In this issue: Giving news; Campus news; Homecoming 2016 recap; Spotlight; Feature: Placemaker; A week on the road with Alumni Relations; The big picture; Info graphic: building bridges; Alumni news; Class notes; Cougar Sports news.
Profile: Inspiring Alumni Leaders

Fall 2016
University Relations

This issue of Profile and my impending departure have given me another opportunity: the chance to think about leadership. Why does it matter? What are the elements of effective leadership? And how is it present in Morris alumni? In the pages that follow we focus on several alumni who provide examples of leadership for the rest of us to study and emulate. As we emerge from a summer of violence in this country and around the world, and as we bear witness to an extremely polarized political election season, it seems appropriate to take some time to reflect on what we value in leaders and in leadership.

--From Chancellor Johnson's message
Profile: We Are Morris

Spring 2016
University Relations

We have established ourselves as a leader and a model sustainable community in the University of Minnesota system, in the state of Minnesota, and in the country. We are a nationally ranked, award-winning public liberal arts college, and we are shameless in our promotion of this success. I am so proud of the work we have accomplished together and so honored to have had the opportunity to serve as chancellor at this school the Regents of the University of Minnesota call the “jewel in the crown” of the university system. It truly has been a joy and a privilege to build on the strong foundation established by those who have come before.

I will miss this place, and most of all I will miss each of you— your candor, your outspokenness, your insistence on consultation and collaboration, your profound desire to shape the communities in which you live, and your belief in this campus’s mission.

--From Chancellor Johnson's message
Profile: Greater MN: Making Outstate More Resilient

Fall 2015
University Relations

It is an economic engine and a home for ideas and action and hope. Today many Morris students come from metropolitan areas, but, like many of their small-town counterparts, they choose to stay in or return to Morris and the surrounding area—eager to benefit from that distinctive small-town spirit and also prepared to contribute to the quality of life that compares so favorably to the urban alternative. You will read about some of these individuals in this issue of Profile. These are individuals who bring their talent and their knowledge to this region and thereby preserve the vitality that is so much a part of rural Minnesota.

-- From Chancellor Johnson's message
Profile: Well Founded

Spring 2015
University Relations

These former students moved on. But others who came to Morris as students stayed or later returned, transforming their temporary home into a more permanent one. They’ve come back to serve as city government leaders; as the highschool principal; as the newspaper publisher. They’ve established businesses here; they are now faculty members at their alma mater. You will read about their stories here.

You will also find in this issue the story of a man who is “from this place”—who considers Stevens County his lifelong home—but who is not otherwise connected to the campus. And yet this man, and a growing number of others like him, have found alignment between Morris’s mission and goals and their own. These individuals have generously provided resources to the university to preserve for generations to come the kind of educational experience that happens here, in their home. Home… is where the heart is; home is where the head is. Morris, a place called home.

--From Chancellor Johnson's message
Profile: Our Place in the World

Fall 2014
University Relations

This issue of Profile speaks to the ways in which campus members are interacting with the world and illuminates our active participation in the 21st-century global community. It includes a story on the ways in which Morris students, faculty, and staff have reached out to and benefited from their interactions with the local and growing Latino community. It also features recent recipients of the David C. Johnson Award for International Service Learning.

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message
Profile: Green Prairie Community

Spring 2014
University Relations

This issue of Profile features the University of Minnesota, Morris’s leadership in environmental stewardship and all things green. But what does it mean to be a leader? What does it take? And why does it matter?

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message
Profile: Stewarding the Legacy

Fall 2013
University Relations

Summer brings many visitors to the University of Minnesota, Morris campus. In June, some three hundred individuals attended the second Rural Arts and Culture Summit, co-sponsored by Morris’s Center for Small Towns and Springboard for the Arts. The summit brought together people who share an interest in the arts and the particular values and quality of life that are uniquely found in small towns. The people gathered for this two-day summit came to explore how these two things—the arts and small-town values—can converge to create vibrant, model communities.

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message
Profile: Legacy & Community

Spring 2013
University Relations

This issue of Profile highlights many individuals who are part of Morris’s history and its legacy—faculty, staff, alumni, and friends who work every day to preserve the legacy of this place, with an eye to the future so that the kind of educational experience we provide today can continue into—and be relevant—for generations to come.

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message
Profile: Twelve from 2012 Where Our Grads are Headed Now

Fall 2012
University Relations

And yet, this issue of Profile does pick out several of our most recent grads, featuring not one but twelve of them. I ask you to remember, as you read about these students, that for each of the twelve students featured here, there are twelve more; and twelve more; and twelve more. There aren’t enough pages for us to include all the stories of our recent graduates. We wish we could.

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message
Profile: Morris Alums at Work: Unique Jobs

Spring 2012
University Relations

This issue of Profile features living examples of the benefits of a liberal arts education as it introduces us to alumni who have used their education as a springboard for interesting careers and meaningful lives. This issue also features a faculty member who is well known to many of you who read Profile—chemistry professor Jim Togeas. This year, Togeas celebrates an extraordinary milestone in his career: fifty years of teaching at Morris, and still going strong! But there’s more to his extraordinary story: fifty years of teaching at the same institution; five decades of alumni who have learned about chemistry and who have learned about life from this dedicated faculty member.

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message
Profile: Nurturing the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Fall 2011
University Relations

Successful entrepreneurs have an uncanny ability to envision the future, to anticipate trends even before they emerge, and to imagine things as they might be. Entrepreneurs aren’t afraid to take risks, to go out on a limb for an idea they have, even if it bucks the tide. In this edition of Profile, you will encounter examples of individuals who exhibit this entrepreneurial spirit, a disposition that characterized this institution from its very founding.

--From Chancellor Johnson's Message