Featured Articles

UW-Eau Claire commencement set for Aug. 6

Susan Turell receives national award for work to end sexual violence

Eckardt, Evans assume duties as CIO, Blugold Fellow program coordinator

Three classified staff members retire

Hill reopens after riverbank project completion

UW System news

Parents say they're pleased with LEAP Clinic results

Blugolds name new men's golf, hockey coaches

Symposium to highlight student-faculty research

Four to receive Alumni Association awards

Photo album:
July 23 storm leaves damage

Final issue of Summer Bulletin

UW-Eau Claire commencement set for Aug. 6
UW-Eau Claire summer commencement exercises for 212 candidates for graduation will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, in Zorn Arena. The ceremony is open to everyone, and tickets are not required. A total of 177 undergraduate students will receive bachelor's degrees, and 35 graduate students will receive master's degrees. UW System Regent Peggy Rosenzweig will deliver the "Charge to the Class." Jaclyn de Medicci, Eau Claire, a candidate for a bachelor of arts degree in history, and Julie Laflamme, Long Lake, Minn., a candidate for a bachelor of science degree in health care administration, will present "Reflections." Full story.

Susan Turell receives national award
for work to end sexual violence
Dr. Susan Turell, UW-Eau Claire professor of psychology and coordinator of the university's women's studies program, is the recipient of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center's 2005 Award for Outstanding Advocacy and Community Work in Ending Sexual Violence. Under Turell's leadership, the Center for the Awareness of Sexual Assault was established at UW-Eau Claire. The center is a collaborative effort with a local non-profit domestic violence/sexual assault agency. More than 40 UW-Eau Claire undergraduate students were trained to provide on-call services for the center on a volunteer basis."UW-Eau Claire now has a statewide reputation as a campus with sensitivity for victims of sexual assault," said Ann McKinley, program development coordinator for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which nominated Turell for the award. "All of this would not have happened without Susan's work." Full story.

Eckardt, Evans assume duties as CIO,
Blugold Fellowship program coordinator

Chip Eckardt	Matt Evans

Chip Eckardt, manager of desktop computing in UW-Eau Claire's Computing and Networking Services, has been named the university's chief information officer, and Matt Evans, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has been named coordinator of UW-Eau Claire's Blugold Fellowship program. Both Eckardt and Evans will assume their new duties within their existing workloads, said Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor Steven Tallant.

Eckardt has worked at UW-Eau Claire since 1989, when he was hired as coordinator of office automation, overseeing computing support for the university's administrative staff. His duties continued to evolve as computing support for administrative and academic staff became combined under one unit and the desktop computing group, which he now manages, formed. As CIO, Eckardt will represent UW-Eau Claire at UW System, state, regional and national information and technology management forums and coordinate with UW System on information and technology issues.

Evans joined UW-Eau Claire's physics and astronomy faculty in 1999. He has worked extensively with undergraduate student researchers and has been a McNair scholar adviser. Evans' responsibilities as Blugold Fellowship program coordinator will include, among other duties, leading weekly seminars for new Blugold Fellows, facilitating the student/faculty mentor matching process, coordinating student progress reports and collecting data related to the program's success from both faculty mentors and student scholars.

Three UW-Eau Claire classified staff members retire
Three classified employees at UW-Eau Claire recently retired or will retire this summer:

• John Bergeson, electrician, Facilities Planning and Management
• Patricia Burbach, program assistant 2, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
• Nora Fuller, a program assistant 2, Admissions

Full story.

Hill reopens after riverbank project completion

The hill connecting upper and lower campus at UW-Eau Claire is open to traffic following completion of the Chippewa River bank stabilization project that began last year. The hill, which reopened July 28, had been closed to traffic since mid-July 2004 to minimize traffic on Garfield Avenue during the riverbank project. The hill will be open to traffic 24 hours a day through Aug. 31 and from Sept. 2-5. It will be closed Sept. 1 when UW-Eau Claire students move into campus residence halls. Beginning Sept. 6 and throughout the academic year when classes are in session, the hill will be closed to traffic from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Newly planted vegetation takes root along the Chippewa River on the UW-Eau Claire campus where a riverbank stabilization project recently was completed. (News Bureau photo)

The riverbank stabilization project was necessary because of a history of bank erosion and concerns about public safety and damage to the university's infrastructure along the river that could result from a failure of the bank, according to Andrew Soll, UW-Eau Claire's vice chancellor for business and student services. The project began in January 2004 when trees and other vegetation were cleared from 1,200 feet of riverbank along Garfield Avenue from the university's pedestrian bridge to the Putnam parking lot. Other phases of the project began last July and included the removal of concrete rubble and reshaping the bank, installation of concrete cassions to stabilize the bank, placement of rock riprap, guardrail installation and replanting the bank with noninvasive native vegetation. Plantings included 56 trees, 291 shrubs and a wetland grass mix, said Terry Classen, UW-Eau Claire's director of facilities planning and management.

Classen noted that the quality of construction on the project is excellent, although the time it took to complete was much longer than anticipated and held up plans for a reconstruction project along Garfield Avenue. "We are now in the initial phases of planning a renovation of Garfield Avenue," he said.

UW System news
Backup positions discontinued for new administrative hires: Pending a review of employment policies and practices by the Board of Regents’ Business and Finance Committee, the practice of granting backup appointments for administrative employees within the UW System has been suspended. Read the UW System news release as well as related Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Capital Times articles.

Doyle budget vetoes to impact UW System: Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle on July 25 signed the 2005-07 biennial budget. Don Mash, UW System executive senior vice president, released a memo summarizing vetoed items that have the most impact on the UW System and/or other state agencies. Read Mash's memo.

Parents say they're pleased with LEAP Clinic results

UW-Eau Claire special education graduate student Lynn Martin, center, and undergraduate student Leah Philleo worked recently with participants in the 2005 LEAP Clinic, a program for K-12 students with special learning needs. (Photo by Linda Brunner, UW-Eau Claire special education department)

Fifty area children received special instruction this summer through the Learning Enhancement and Progression Clinic, a collaborative program of the UW-Eau Claire special education department and the Eau Claire School District that ran June 13-July 14. The program, which has been running for about 20 years, provides instruction in reading, mathematics, written expression, spelling, study skills and social skills to K-12 students who need extra assistance and specialized attention for a variety of reasons. Parents whose children participated in this year's LEAP Clinic recently discussed how the program has benefited their children. Full story.

Blugolds name new men's golf, hockey coaches

Jim Maguire

Veteran golf professional Jim Maguire will lead the nationally ranked Blugold men's golf program beginning this fall. Maguire, who was a four-year collegiate varsity player at UW-Stout, has been the head golf professional or assistant golf pro at Wild Ridge Golf Course in Eau Claire (2004), Bass Lake Country Club in Antigo (1998-2003), Town & Country Club in St. Paul (1997), Prairie du Chien Country Club (1994-96), Eau Claire Golf & Country Club (1991-93) and Northwood Golf Course in Rhinelander (1989-91). He currently is account executive and office manager for Commodity Plus Inc. in Eau Claire. He also is the teaching assistant at the Eau Claire Country Club. Full story.

Luke Strand

Luke Strand, an Eau Claire native and a four-year Blugold letterwinner, has been named the new UW-Eau Claire men's hockey coach. Strand, who played for Blugold coach Ian Perrin from 1993-97, comes to the Blugolds after a two-year stint as an assistant coach and assistant general manager with the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League. Following his career at UW-Eau Claire, Strand spent two seasons with the Madison Monsters and one season with the Madison Kodiaks of the United Hockey League. When his playing career ended, he became an assistant coach and head junior varsity coach with the men’s hockey program at St. Norbert College in De Pere. Full story.

Symposium to highlight student-faculty research

Larry Wackett

UW-Eau Claire biology and chemistry students and faculty will showcase the results of their summer research at the second annual Merck Symposium Aug. 11. Students working on the Merck-sponsored project, "Oxidative Chemistry of Azo Dyes," and other students who performed research in the chemistry and biology departments will present the results of their work during the daylong symposium, which will take place in Room 219 of Phillips Hall. The program will include short research talks beginning at 9:30 a.m., with a poster session from 2-3 p.m. The symposium will end with a 3 p.m. seminar by Larry Wackett, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota, who will describe the use of bioremediation in the clean-up of sites contaminated with atrazine.

The Merck Symposium grew out of a Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Grant awarded in 2004 to UW-Eau Claire and assistant professors of chemistry Alan Gengenbach, Sasha Showsh and Marcia Miller-Rodeberg. The grant supports faculty-student research with an emphasis on collaborations between chemistry and biology faculty. Full story.

Four to receive Alumni Association awards
The UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association will present awards to the following four alumni and friends of the university Aug. 6 at a luncheon and ceremony in conjunction with summer commencement:

Mary Jo Gagan will receive the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award. Gagan, a nurse practitioner, has traveled extensively as a practitioner, lecturer, professor, essayist, adviser and consultant, including extensive visits to Southeast Asia. Gagan earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from UW-Eau Claire in 1982, a master's from Michigan State University in 1987 and a doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1996. Currently Gagan works at TLC Healthcare Companies Inc. in Tucson, Ariz.

Denise Sweet, who was named Wisconsin's poet laureate in 2004, also will receive the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award. Sweet earned a bachelor's degree in 1985 and a master's degree in 1987 in English from UW-Eau Claire. She is an award-winning author and an associate professor of humanistic studies at UW-Green Bay.

David John Lassek will receive the Honorary Alumnus Award. An Eau Claire native, Lassek started college at UW-Eau Claire but left to pursue a degree not offered at the university. He later became vice president of navy programs for the U.S. Department of Defense's Armaments Systems Division. Two of Lassek's four children are UW-Eau Claire graduates. A third died in an automobile accident in 1999 while a UW-Eau Claire student, and Lassek and his wife, Patricia, honored their son's memory by creating the John Lassek Memorial Scholarship. They also provide funds to the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity for an annual event in John Lassek's memory.

Gerald Jacobson will receive the Lifetime Excellence Award. Jacobson, a native of Chippewa Falls, received a bachelor's degree in economics from UW-Eau Claire in 1975 and a master's degree in business administration in finance from the University of Chicago in 1976. Since 1988 he has been president of Northwestern Bank, the largest lending institution in the Chippewa Falls area. Jacobson has been an active civic leader in Chippewa Falls and also has been a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students from UW-Eau Claire's department of economics. Full story.

Photo album: July 23 storm leaves damage

A powerful thunderstorm that hit western Wisconsin July 23 left damage in its wake at UW-Eau Claire. Fifteen trees were downed, as well as numerous limbs and branches, like the one at right from the maple tree in front of Schofield Hall. Below, Jim Weber of UW-Eau Claire's grounds crew helped clean up the storm damage.
Below left, Lee Marek (driving front end loader) and Chris Schaedig loaded logs and brush, the remains of a tree that stood near the Davies Center veranda on the Central Campus Mall. Below right, a large section had to be removed from the young oak that had been planted to replace the historic Council Oak tree (which was felled by lightning in 1987 and is pictured on the university's official seal).
This was one of three large spruce trees downed outside of Towers residence hall on upper campus. In addition to the downed trees, several antennae on the hall's roof were destroyed, at least one window was broken and some items stored outside the building were damaged. (News Bureau photos)

Final issue of Summer Bulletin
This is the last issue of the 2005 Summer Bulletin. The first issue of the University Bulletin will be distributed Aug. 22 to coincide with the opening of the 2005-06 academic year.

Summer Bulletin
Published weekly during the summer session by the UW-Eau Claire News Bureau. News items and notices should be sent to the News Bureau, Schofield 201, by 10 a.m. Monday for publication in the following week’s issue. E-mail submissions to Julie Poquette at poquetjm@uwec.edu are encouraged. Faculty/staff news items are published on a space-available basis.