Featured Articles

Emerita professor's estate gift supports WAES, geography scholarships

Chancellor Search and Screen Committee to interview candidates

Chancellor's Holiday Reception set for Dec. 5

Cowboy poet/humorist to speak at Dec. 5 Forum

Foundation gets 'Flash-y' with end-of-year appeal

Reducing high-risk drinking to be luncheon topic

'Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy' opens Dec. 1

Jazz I Concert to feature premiere and guest artist

Emerita professor's estate gift supports
WAES, geography scholarships

Ethel Seitz	Kerlin Seitz

A longtime UW-Eau Claire geography faculty member has left $454,000 to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, designating $354,000 to endow a Wisconsin Academic Excellence Scholarship and $100,000 to further endow scholarships for geography students. The estate gift from Ethel Seitz is the largest single endowment designated specifically for WAES awards in the history of the program at UW-Eau Claire. It also is the largest estate gift to the Foundation from a former UW-Eau Claire faculty member. Seitz, a UW-Eau Claire professor emerita of geography, was a member of the faculty from 1966-81. Her husband, Kerlin Seitz, also was a geography professor at UW-Eau Claire from 1966-81. He died in 1985. Ethel Seitz died April 1. Full story.

Chancellor Search and Screen Committee
to interview candidates
UW-Eau Claire's Chancellor Search and Screen Committee will meet Dec. 5 and 6 to interview 10-12 candidates for chancellor. Candidates to be interviewed were selected by the committee following a review of their credentials during two meetings Nov. 7 and 14 with Dr. Jean Dowdall, Witt-Kieffer search consultant.

After the interviews are completed Dec. 6, the committee will meet to select five finalists and the search consultant will begin deep background checks.

In accordance with the established search and screen timeline, the committee is scheduled to forward application materials of five finalists to the UW System by Jan. 6 and meet Jan. 13 on the UW-Eau Claire campus to present five finalists to UW System President Kevin Reilly and the special regent committee.

After Reilly names five finalists, the timeline calls for candidates to visit campus the week of Jan. 23-29, 2006, and be interviewed by Reilly and the special regent committee Jan. 30 in Madison. The Board of Regents is scheduled to appoint a new chancellor during its meeting Feb. 9 and 10.

Chancellor's Holiday Reception
set for Dec. 5
All UW-Eau Claire faculty, academic and classified staff, and emeriti are invited to the Chancellor's Holiday Reception from 3:30-5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, in the Council Fire Room, Davies Center. All are welcome to attend and enjoy food and fellowship with colleagues and friends.

Cowboy poet/humorist to speak at Dec. 5 Forum
Cowboy poet and humorist Baxter Black will speak on The Forum at UW-Eau Claire Dec. 5. The presentation, titled "Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet: An Evening of Cowboy Philosophy," will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Zorn Arena. Described by The New York Times as "probably the nation's most successful living poet," Black has achieved acclaim as a syndicated columnist and radio commentator. Black speaks of his poetry and other writings as remaining true to his Western heritage, his agricultural upbringing and "those stubborn, dedicated, honorable folks who make a living off the land." Black's lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception. Full story.

Foundation gets 'Flash-y' with end-of-year appeal

Click the image above to view "The Promise of Excellence."

University alumni and friends are receiving a different kind of message this year as the UW-Eau Claire Foundation makes its year-end appeal. "The Promise of Excellence," a Flash presentation incorporating audio and video along with text and graphics, was sent to all those for whom the Foundation has e-mail addresses. The audio includes music performed by the University Symphony Orchestra and The Singing Statesmen, a voiceover by a UW-Eau Claire student and a recording of the carillon atop Schofield Hall. "This new way of communicating with our alumni and friends enables us to more effectively show how their generosity has a real impact on UW-Eau Claire students," said Heidi Fisher, director of annual giving and major gifts officer. "The Flash message tells wonderful stories of promise in a way we couldn't duplicate in a print piece." A postcard sent to individuals without e-mail addresses on file includes images and text from the Flash message, along with the Web link to the message. "Donors will see and hear through this message that their support does indeed make a difference in students' lives," Fisher said.

Reducing high-risk drinking to be luncheon topic
High-risk drinking among university students and what can be done to address the problem will be the topic of a Nov. 30 luncheon presentation hosted by the UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association. Melodee Hoffner, project coordinator for UW-Eau Claire's Center for Alcohol Studies and Education, and Jodi Thesing-Ritter, principal author of the U.S. Department of Education grant received by UW-Eau Claire to reduce high-risk drinking among first-year students, will give a presentation from noon to 1 p.m. at Sweetwater's restaurant. Their talk, titled "Reducing High-Risk Drinking: We All Have a Role to Play," is part of the Alumni Association's "Let's Do Lunch" series. Full story.

'Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy' opens Dec. 1
The UW-Eau Claire Theatre for Young Audiences will present "Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy," an adaptation based on the first volume of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 1-3 and 7-10, in the Kjer Theatre. A matinee is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, and school performances will be presented at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 1, 6 and 8. The play, by Sandra Fenichel Asher, is directed by Cheryl Starr, associate professor of theatre arts and director of the UW-Eau Claire Theatre for Young Audiences. Full story.

Jazz I concert to feature premiere and guest artist

Brian Grivna

UW-Eau Claire's award-winning Jazz Ensemble I, under the direction of Robert Baca, professor of music, will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, in Gantner Concert Hall of the Haas Fine Arts Center. Highlights of the concert will include presentation of "Prelude, Fugue and Riffs," a jazz concert work by Leonard Bernstein, and the premiere of "Under the Wire," a jazz clarinet concerto by Gordon Goodwin. Guest artist Brian Grivna will perform on clarinet in both pieces. Grivna, who teaches at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College as well as in his home studio, played with the Buddy Rich Band in the early 1970s and was the staff woodwind performer at the Guthrie Theater for 10 years. He performs jazz at Twin Cities area clubs and plays saxophone and clarinet for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Children's Theater Company in Minneapolis. Full story.

University Bulletin
Published weekly during the fall and spring semesters 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.