Featured Articles

Women's cross country to compete at national meet; football advances to NCAA playoffs

Student ensembles to give fall performances

Blugold alumni check in with updates from California wildfire area

UW System Board of Regents November update

UW-Eau Claire to host regional sales competition

2006-07 Telefund donors give more than $450,000

English master's grad wins thesis competition

Student designer receives regional award

Women's cross country to compete at national meet; football advances to NCAA playoffs

More Blugold athletics action: • Soccer team falls to Wartburg in first-round playoff action (See story, slide show) • Men's basketball team faces Badgers (See story, slide show)

Success by two Blugold athletics teams over the weekend qualified them to compete in Nov. 17 NCAA Division III postseason events.

The women's cross country team placed second out of 37 teams Nov. 10 at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Winneconne, automatically qualifying for the NCAA Division III National Cross Country Meet on Saturday, Nov. 17. The national meet, hosted by St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., starts at 11 a.m. Full story.

The football team took one of seven at-large berths in the NCAA playoffs after finishing its regular season with a three-game winning streak and an overall record of 8-2. UW-Eau Claire will face its first-round opponent, St. Norbert College, at noon Saturday, Nov. 17, in De Pere. Full story.

Student ensembles to give fall performances
UW-Eau Claire's Opera Workshop Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble II, Symphony Band, Wind Symphony and Women's Concert Chorale will give performances this week in the Haas Fine Arts Center's Gantner Concert Hall.

• The Opera Workshop Ensemble will present a free performance of "Dido and Aeneas" by composer Henry Purcell at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, and Tuesday, Nov. 13. The Opera Workshop Ensemble is directed by Dr. Mitra Sadeghpour. Full story.
• Jazz Ensemble II, conducted by Robert Baca, will present "Heeere's Johnny: A Tribute to the 'Tonight Show' Band" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. A special performance by the Chippewa Falls High School 10:30 Jam Jazz Ensemble will precede the Jazz Ensemble II program. Full story.
• The Symphony Band, conducted by Dr. Phil Ostrander, and the Wind Symphony, conducted by Dr. Richard Mark Heidel, will present a joint concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18. Full story.
• The Women's Concert Chorale, conducted by Dr. Alan Rieck, will perform at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18. Full story.

This Oct. 22 satellite image captured thick plumes of smoke drifting across the Pacific Ocean from southern California wildfires. (NASA photo)

Blugold alumni check in with updates from California wildfire area
A recent e-mail message from John Bachmeier, alumni relations director, to many of UW-Eau Claire's approximately 770 alumni living in southern California drew responses from several Blugolds who shared information regarding the October wildfires in that region. Read Bachmeier's Nov. 1 message to southern California alumni and the responses received.

UW System Board of Regents November update
At its Nov. 8-9 meeting in Madison, the UW System Board of Regents learned more about participation by UW campuses in a new nationwide Voluntary System of Accountability designed to provide greater, more uniform accountability information across all public universities and colleges.

Through a web-based College Portrait (see example), institutions participating in the VSA project will provide consistent, comparable, and transparent information to prospective students and their families, as well as to legislators and other stakeholders. UW campuses will be among the first in the nation to fully adopt the new reporting tools.

Other items of business at the regents' November meeting included:

• a presentation on the final 2007-09 biennial state budget, which includes funding for the Growth Agenda for Wisconsin plan;
• updates from UW System Executive Senior Vice President Don Mash and several think tanks on the UW System's strategic-planning process, Advantage Wisconsin;
• discussions by UW System President Kevin Reilly about the Wisconsin Covenant Program and the Nov. 16 launch of KnowHow2GO Wisconsin, part of a national multimedia campaign targeted at prospective college students;
• a status report from a committee reviewing UW System policy regarding allocable segregated fees.

For complete details, see the Day 1 and Day 2 summaries of the regents' November meeting.

UW-Eau Claire to host regional sales competition
Fifty students from marketing programs at eight Midwestern colleges and universities will participate in the first UW-Eau Claire Great Northwoods Sales Warm-Up Nov. 15-17.

The event, a regional sales competition put on by UW-Eau Claire's College of Business, is modeled after the National Collegiate Sales Competition held every spring at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga. According to Bob Erffmeyer, professor of marketing and one of the competition coordinators, this regional competition will not only allow students to "warm up" for the Kennesaw State event in March, it is also a development event designed to increase student interest in sales as a profession. Full story.

UW-Eau Claire Foundation student Telefund caller (Foundation photo by Amy Oldakowski)

2006-07 Telefund donors give more
than $450,000
Interesting fact: Of the $450,060 in donations raised during the 2006-07 UW-Eau Claire Foundation Telefund, $120,207 was secured through matching gifts from donors' employers. Another interesting fact: The average pledge made by 2006-07 Telefund donors was $65.90. Learn more about the Telefund and the student callers who ensure its success in a presentation recently prepared by Foundation staff. View presentation.

English master's grad wins thesis competition

Molly Barnes Nowlan

Molly Barnes Nowlan, Eau Claire, recently was awarded first place in UW-Eau Claire's Distinguished Master's Thesis Competition for her thesis, "Using Performance to Teach Literature in the Constructivist English Classroom." Nowlan received her master's degree in English in May 2007.

Each year, faculty members at UW-Eau Claire are invited to nominate exceptional quality theses, with judging provided by a Graduate Council faculty committee. Associate professor of English Dr. Theresa Kemp, Nowlan's thesis adviser, submitted her paper to the competition, describing it as "well researched" and significantly informed by Nowlan's own practice "as an experienced and talented teacher at Chippewa Falls High School." Kemp went on to call the paper "a fine example of what can be gained through a symbiotic relationship between scholarship and teaching." Full story.

Student designer receives regional award

Winning Summer Session Programs brochure design by student Maria Nocenti.

UW-Eau Claire was one of six campuses to receive graphics awards at the Association of College Unions International regional conference Nov. 2-4 at Northwestern University.

Student graphic designer Maria Nocenti, Oshkosh, received an award for her promotional campaign for the Summer Session Programs series of concerts and films. The entry included the four-color brochure, which opens into a calendar-of-events poster, and examples of the posters and table tents created for the eight-week series. Summer Session Programs is presented by the Activities and Programs office of the University Centers.

A UW-Eau Claire senior, Nocenti designed the publications while working in the University Centers information design services area, where she has worked for four years. She is a candidate for a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design in December. 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.