The Mind Trekkers, a group of MTU students, visited the board of trustees meeting on Friday, and they brought one of their demonstrations with them.

“We focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) outreach to middle school and high schoolers across the country, as well as in our own community,” Mind Trekker Shilo Dalton said.

The group has visited the board before, last time bringing liquid-nitrogen ice cream with them.

“This time, we wanted to put a Christmas spin on it,” Drew Hull explained. “And we wanted to have something you could take home, to remember.”

(Joshua Vissers/Daily Mining Gazette) Andrew Wells pours a component of the Foam Gnome into Trustee Derhun Sanders’ cup.

The Mind Trekkers walked the board through the creation of Foam Gnomes. The gnomes are made of polyurethane, which is created and inflated through the mixture of isocyanate and polyol resin.

“This is an exothermic reaction, so it releases quite a bit of heat,” Hull said, while cautioning the board members to mix up their gnomes on the table.

Once the board members had the two chemicals mixed together in the small plastic cups, they watched as tornado-shaped foam bubbled up a few inches above the rim of the cup. A little Santa Claus hat, a drawn-on mouth and eyes, and a couple pipe cleaners for arms completed the gnomes.

Jannah Brandt, coordinator for the group through the Center for Pre-College Outreach at MTU, filled the board in more detail during the presentation.

“Students here on campus are the ones who are doing the demonstrations for our students, I just get to help with some of the logistical bits,” she said.

(Joshua Vissers/Daily Mining Gazette) Mind Trekker Shilo Dalton helps Board Treasurer Susan Kerry with mixing her Foam Gnome at Friday’s regular board meeting.

The group of 160 different tech students traveled over 18,000 miles last year to 12 STEM events in seven different states. They interacted with 130,000 attendees in that time.

Their goal is to get young students interested and excited about STEM-based careers.

“When you work with such a young age group it’s really just about exciting them about learning,” Brandt said.

University Senate President Michael Mullins also spoke to the board about some of the proposals and resolutions the Senate has put forward, including one concerning the state of faculty and staff compensation. The resolution states that compensation has been de-prioritized and eroded for a decade or more, and that it is hurting employee productivity, morale, recruitment and retention.

“We wanted to express our frustration with that,” Mullins said.

(Joshua Vissers/Daily Mining Gazette) The MTU Board of Trustees and audience listens to the fiscal report.

He recognized the administration’s efforts to address some of this through bolstering the Tuition Reduction Incentive Program, calling it a great incentive for retention.

“They’ve shown that you do value the employees here at Michigan Tech, but we still have concerns…” he said.

Mullins told the board that the University Senate would still like to see the creation of a body that can transparently consider benefits and compensation issues.

The board also approved unanimously and without discussion the refinancing of certain revenue bonds to pursue lower interest rates, but not extend or increase debt.