Norway Ambassadors visit campus March 8 U.S. Ambassador to Norway Benson Whitney and Norway's Ambassador to the U.S., Knut Vollebaek, will be on campus Thursday, March 8, 9 to 11 a.m. to discuss ways to increase the educational exchanges between the United States and Norway. The meeting will be held in the Idea Lab of the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center. It is very rare for two prominent ambassadors to visit any campus in the United States at the same time. They are coming to us to seek our opinion and advice on the opportunities to significantly expand educational exchanges with Norway. UND has many strong connections to Norway. Just three: * UND is the top destination for Norwegian students studying in the United States (more come to UND than to any other institution in the United States); * UND recently trained many of Norway's air traffic controllers; * UND has the second largest collection of Bygdeboker (similar to county centennial books in North Dakota) in the United States. The visit schedule follows: U.S./Norway educational exchanges, The Idea Lab, Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Centre. * 9 to 9:15 a.m., opening remarks by the Ambassadors Whitney and Vollebaek and Deputy Director General Grethe Sofie Bratlie, Norwegian Ministry of Education. * 9:15 to 9:40 a.m., presentations of student exchanges at UND-Norway: lessons learned. -- Bruce Gjovig, chair, Nordic Initiative, welcome -- Charles Kupchella, president of UND, welcome -- Jan Moen, American College of Norway exchange/Peace Studies -- Steve Finney, Norwegian language program -- Brad Myers, law school exchange -- Linda Olson, medical school exchange -- Arnold Johnson/Richard Schultz, engineering exchange -- Steve Rendahl, communications exchange -- Paul Drechsel, Air Traffic Control contract training -- Will Young, Norwegian students at UND, U.S. students to Norway -- Tori Johnson, Sarpsborg/Grand Forks Public Schools Initiative * 9:40 to 10:15 a.m., discussion with students from Norway and U.S. -- Jonas Rellsve, ANSA, and other Norwegian students: Christopher England, Nick Swingen, Shane Zahrt, Weilu Su, Rachel Piper, Britney Sudmann, Kara Larson * 10:15 to 10:45 a.m., general discussion and wrap-up * 10:45 to 11:55 a.m., answer questions from news media -- U.S. Ambassador Benson K. Whitney -- Norway Ambassador Knut Vollebæk -- Norwegian Ministry of Education: Grethe Bratlie, Deputy Director General -- Norwegian-American Foundation: Bill Frame, chair, NAF Education Initiative (former president of Augsburg in Minneapolis) -- Norwegian Embassy: Christian Hansson, public affairs officer -- Center for Innovation.