Simple pattern, magnificent designs: State of the University 2025

That’s the UND quilt, a treasure sure to be made even more beautiful during ‘Year of Community,’ president says in annual address 

Editor’s note: In the UND LEADS Strategic Plan, the “Affinity” core value includes calls to “acknowledge the valuable contributions of UND team members” and “enhance programs for all faculty and staff that will cultivate a sense of belonging at the University of North Dakota.”

In his State of the University address, UND President Andy Armacost proudly acknowledges those contributions and strives to cultivate that sense of belonging, in keeping with the goals of the Strategic Plan. 

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At a university known for its commitment to cutting-edge space research, it seems fitting that its president set forth two “moonshot” goals at his annual address to the campus community.

At last week’s State of the University address, President Andy Armacost challenged his audience of hundreds of students, staff and faculty at the Memorial Union to embrace the challenges of innovation and artificial intelligence – both key pillars of his aforementioned “moonshots.”

Armacost’s comments are an allusion to former President John F. Kennedy’s desire to put a human on the moon by the end of the 1960s. In fact, UND celebrated its own “moonshot” moment back in June, when it launched into space the first pair of satellites commissioned by North Dakota.

Armacost had first outlined this vision of satellites during an address four years earlier, and afterward, his comments had been published in the media.

“When you say, ‘to infinity and beyond, sometimes people listen,’ he said.

Armacost’s new moonshots – become North Dakota’s artificial intelligence university, and create four new companies in the state with the help of UND’s Center for Innovation – reflect the progress made over the previous year, one he’d dubbed “the year of momentum.”

UND’s robust scholarship across the natural and social sciences make it a model institution to study the myriad questions — legal, ethical and technical — pertaining to AI, he said.

“There’s no better place to have the discussions about the technology, and what its impact is on our humanity, than at the University of North Dakota,” he said. “We have the people who are interested in these discussions across all disciplines. We want all our students to have these tools, but they should also have skepticism about abandoning their human responsibilities.”

In addition to continued growth in research expenditures in fields such as space, national security and unmanned aircraft systems — highlighted by the University’s accension to a Carnegie R1 institution — enrollment growth remains strong. Last week, UND welcomed its largest freshman class in history to campus.

What’s more, student retention from fall 2024 to spring 2025 stood at 94% — a figure that stands as strong evidence of students’ satisfaction with UND, Armacost said.

Armacost concluded his address by proclaiming 2025 the “Year of Community,” emphasizing the importance of coming together collectively to solve problems in an era of uncertainty toward the future. His conception of community was symbolized by an image of a quilt — in particular, “Our Hospital in the Park,” a quilt by Jolene Mikkelson, a UND alumna and member of the Grand Forks-based North Star Quilters’ Guild.

The quilt hangs outside the radiology department of Altru Hospital in Grand Forks.

Additionally, Armacost said, quilts serve as metaphors for the comfort and warmth drawn from community, as well as society’s collective aptitude.

“These are ways that people gather as a community to create art,” he said. “When we think about other forms of quilting, you think about how a simple pattern can then create so many different designs.

“Us human beings have so many different patterns – each one more beautiful than the next.”

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