Bethel University Professor of History Diana L. Magnuson is documenting the growth of the Minnesota Population Center. Believing that preserving institutional memory is vital, the Center is supporting Magnuson’s work to capture oral histories of past and present MPC faculty and staff. This is the fourth installment in a series on the institutional history of the MPC.
Bethel University Professor of History Diana L. Magnuson is documenting the growth of the Minnesota Population Center. Believing that preserving institutional memory is vital, the Center is supporting Magnuson’s work to capture oral histories of past and present MPC faculty and staff.
This is the second in a three-part series, with oral histories from the information technology (IT) side of the MPC. For over 16 years, the IT staff has collaborated with the MPC research staff to recode and disseminate data, develop specialized software, and make research more efficient. The “secret sauce of the MPC” is the longstanding synergistic collaboration between IT and research staff.
When Human Resources Associate Mia Riza and Research Associate David Haynes took on the task of creating a diversity program for the MPC in 2015, they looked to their pasts. “I thought of experiences that would have helped me as a student,” says Haynes.
As an undergraduate student, Riza had participated in a diversity program with the Minnesota Historical Society run by Chris Taylor. That program provided a model for fostering professional growth within an academic environment. Haynes and Riza then designed a program that suited the needs of the projects at the MPC. “We thought that a summer opportunity would work best for the Center and also matched students’ needs as they looked for summer internships,” explains Riza, “We want to develop a talent pipeline so that when we have openings later, we have qualified diverse applicants to fill those roles.”