Students to receive 2007-08 scholarship awards
Numerous scholarship awards to UW-Eau Claire students for the 2007-08 academic year have been announced recently, including the following scholarships from the UW-Eau Claire Foundation:

• 3M Accounting Scholarship
• Blugold Promise Scholarships
• Diversity Scholarships
• Jerry and Sharon Ehrmeyer Scholarship
• Karlgaard Computer Science Scholarships
• Larry Ozzello Scholarship
• Carl and Eloise Pohlad Scholarship
• Erle and Alice Porter Rounds Memorial Scholarship
• Sentry Insurance Student Leadership Scholarships
• Brian Stricklin Memorial Scholarship
• Grace M. Walsh Forensics Scholarships

Also recently awarded were the new Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarships, funded by a four-year $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation that recognizes UW-Eau Claire's outstanding faculty and programs in biology, chemistry, biochemistry/molecular biology, chemistry, computer science/software engineering, geology, mathematics, physics, and physics/engineering.

State budget update: Conference committee
to begin work on compromise version
The Wisconsin State Assembly passed its version of a 2007-09 state budget July 10, a version with key differences from the Senate budget passed June 26. (Read related articles from the Associated Press, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal. Also read a statement on the Assembly budget from UW System President Kevin Reilly and UW System Board of Regents President Mark Bradley.)

The Senate budget included funding for several UW-Eau Claire program and building initiatives, including the NanoSTEM initiative, a new academic building, the Davies Center redevelopment projtect and UW System nursing and teaching education initiatives. More information. The Assembly budget would reduce the base UW System budget by $96 million, cap tuition and segregated fees at 4 percent through 2009-11 and eliminate all GPR-funded building projects in the UW System, said Andrew Soll, UW-Eau Claire vice chancellor for business and student services. The Assembly version also includes cuts in financial aid, the veterans tuition remission reimbursement to campuses and faculty retention funds, and it makes some very specifically targeted cuts aimed at administration and university relations, Soll said.

A bipartisan conference committee now will begin work drafting a compromise budget. Gov. Jim Doyle has called for the committee to complete its work by Aug. 1, but legislative leaders said meeting that deadline is unlikely. See related Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Radio Network and Associated Press stories.

Regents to wait until August to set tuition, budget
At its monthly meeting July 12-13 in Madison, the UW System Board of Regents determined it will wait until August to decide on an annual operating budget and set tuition for the 2007-08 school year. The decision is due to the large disparity between the proposed 2007-09 university budget from the state's Joint Committee on Finance and the budget recently approved by the state Assembly (see related story above).

In other business, the regents:

• heard a work summary and recommendations from UW System President Reilly's 2007 Commission on University Security; and
• heard an update on UW System campus partnerships with private banks to provide students with multi-function ID cards that also serve as financial tools.

For complete details on the regents' July meeting, read the Day 1 and Day 2 meeting summaries and view the archved meeting Webcast.

New procedures required after July 1
conversion to PeopleSoft (SFS)
Effective July 1, UW-Eau Claire began using the UW System shared financial system, PeopleSoft (SFS). By the end of 2007, all UW System campuses will be using the same financial system.

The conversion to PeopleSoft means significant changes for UW-Eau Claire campus financial system users, including new terminology; the use of WISDM (Wisconsin Data Mart), a Web-based tool for accessing fiscal year 2008 financial information; a change from local account numbers to "funding strings"; and the discontinued use of the current Bridge financial pages.

University employees are asked to use both the old UW-Eau Claire account number and the appropriate new SFS funding string on all payment submissions, purchase requisitions, chargebacks, transfer documentations, etc. during fiscal year 2007-08, said Jackie Kriesel, budget control/general ledger accountant in the university's Business Office. The use of both numbers will be necessary until all programming changes have been made, Kriesel said.

Find more details about PeopleSoft (SFS) and WISDM on UW-Eau Claire's Business Services Web site, or contact Kriesel at 715-836-2520 or kriesejd@uwec.edu with questions about the conversion.

Water Street lot to close for repairs starting July 19
UW-Eau Claire's Water Street parking lot will close for repairs starting July 19 and will remain closed for at least three weeks, said Kimberly O'Kelly, coordinator of UW-Eau Claire's Parking and Transportation Services.The asphalt removal and repair project should be completed by Aug. 24 at the latest. Free summer parking still will be available in the Haas Fine Arts Center lot, O'Kelly said. For more information, contact the Parking and Transportation Services office at 715-836-2002.

Spouses of deployed soldiers sought for study

Dr. Lois Taft

Dr. Lois Taft, a professor and chair of the nursing systems department in UW-Eau Claire's College of Nursing and Health Sciences, is looking for volunteers to help with a research study, "Stress and Coping Strategies of Spouses of Deployed Soldiers."

Taft would like to interview spouses of National Guard or Reserve soldiers who are soon to be deployed, currently serving, or returned from Iraq or Afghanistan within the past year. She said the interview takes about 60 minutes and can take place in participants' homes or at other locations convenient for them. Interviews will be tape recorded, but information will not be connected to individual participants and the names of all participants will be kept confidential.

"Few healthcare providers will experience what it's like to be the spouse of a soldier deployed to a combat zone, but having an informed understanding of the experience may help us identify ways to support spouses and understand their sacrifices," she said.

Anyone willing to participate in the study can contact Taft by e-mail at taftlb@uwec.edu or leave a phone message at 715-836-4911. Full story.

Music on the Mall, Summer Cinema continue

Peter Phippen Group

'An Inconvenient Truth' poster

The Peter Phippen Group will present an outdoor concert at 7 p.m. today on UW-Eau Claire's Central Campus Mall as part of the university's fifth week of free Summer Session Programs.

The Summer Cinema series will present "An Inconvenient Truth " (2006) at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 17, through Thursday, July 19, in Davies Theatre. The film offers a passionate and inspiring look at one man's crusade to halt the progress of global warming by exposing the myths and misconceptions surrounding the issue. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who re-set the course of his life after his defeat in the 2000 election and launched an all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change.

Wednesday's screening will be preceded by an informal discussion at 6 p.m. in the Skylight Lounge, Davies Center, led by Crispin Pierce, UW-Eau Claire assistant professor of environmental public health, and Jim Phillips, associate professor of chemistry. Free beverages and healthy, locally grown snacks will be provided. Full story.

CampS implementation project progresses

Photo by Rick Mickelson, LTS

PeopleSoft consultant John Gleason was on campus June 19 through July 12 conducting readiness interviews with UW-Eau Claire faculty, staff and students to prepare for the university's transition to the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions product for handling student-based administrative computing. At left,  a still-smiling Gleason interviewed Jan Wittrock of the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Card office. Information gathered during the interview sessions will be used to perform a fit-gap analysis, write the project charter and draft a detailed project plan to guide the CampS transition.

More information about the conversion can be found on the LTS Web site, which also has a connection to the UW-Eau Claire Campus Solutions Implementation Web site.

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. Thursday 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.