Featured Articles

Finalists named in vice chancellor search

Project explores cultural communication differences

Researchers plan healthy eating events in schools

UW-Eau Claire AASHE membership includes access to sustainability resources

Energy alert: Guidelines support strategic goals

Students provide subsurface data for local sites

Foster Gallery exhibit features new media art

Contingent attends sustainable agriculture event

Finalists named in vice chancellor search
Four finalists have been named in the search for a vice chancellor for administration, finance and facilities at UW-Eau Claire. The finalists and the dates they will visit UW-Eau Claire are as follows:

• David Dadds, administrator, department of family medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health: Nov. 10-11
• Nathaniel Jones III, chief financial and administrative officer, William Jewett Tucker Foundation, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.: Nov. 13-14
• George Hollins, university business manager, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa: Nov. 17-18
• Greg Garber, assistant professor of finance and accounting, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.: Dec. 1- 2

Links to the finalists' curriculum vitae and the times of their campus open forums are available online.

Project explores cultural communication differences

Sylvia (left) and Claudia Lozano Aguirre, UW-Eau Claire international students from Bolivia, were interviewed recently by UW-Eau Claire student researchers in the WUEC-89.7 FM studio. The sisters are among those whose interviews will be aired in November during the “Culture Talk” radio series.

The first six interviews in a radio series called "Culture Talk" will air at 6 p.m. Nov. 9, 16 and 23 on WUEC-89.7 FM. The series is being produced as part of a faculty/student collaborative research project titled "International Awareness Through Intercultural Radio Interviews," led by Dr. Judy Sims, UW-Eau Claire professor of communication and journalism.

For the project, UW-Eau Claire student researchers are conducting 20 interviews with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. The interviews explore the ways in which verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors vary among cultures.

"If people simply assume that everyone in the world is taught the same values and communicates in identical ways, then it makes it much more difficult to try and do business with each other, resolve conflicts and so on," Sims said. Full story.

Researchers plan healthy eating events in schools

Jamelske	Bica

UW-Eau Claire faculty members have helped plan family activity nights in November at two Eau Claire elementary schools participating in the federally funded Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program during the 2008-09 academic year .The events' focus will be on educating students and their families about healthy eating habits.

Dr. Eric Jamelske, associate professor of economics, and Dr. Lori Bica, associate professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department, are part of a research team evaluating the success of the FFVP for the Wisconsin departments of Public Instruction and Health and Family Services.

Lakeshore and Longfellow elementary schools will host healthy eating family fun nights in their school gyms. The event at Lakeshore will run from 6:30-8 p.m. Nov. 6 and the event at Longfellow will run from 5-7 p.m. Nov. 13. Full story.

UW-Eau Claire AASHE membership includes
access to sustainability resources
As UW-Eau Claire continues its efforts to achieve sustainability, the university has become a member of a national group — the  Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), one of three co-organizers for the Presidents Climate Commitment.

While AASHE’s Web site is partially open to the public, membership gives everyone with a UW-Eau Claire e-mail account (staff, faculty, students) access to AASHE’s members-only materials. Students, faculty and staff also may subscribe to the AASHE Bulletin, a weekly compilation of the latest sustainability news, resources, events and opportunities at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Read a memo from UW-Eau Claire Sustainability Fellow Dr. Kate Hale for details about ASSHE member resources and how to access them.

Energy alert: Guidelines promote strategic goals
The UW-Eau Claire strategic plan has identified stewardship and sustainability as campus values. The university’s recently released carbon neutrality report concludes that use of electrical power and the burning of fossil fuels for heat comprise by far the largest percentage of UW-Eau Claire carbon emissions.

To conserve energy, reduce the campus carbon footprint and help UW-Eau Claire comply with state mandates, university employees and students are asked to cooperate with the following guidelines:

• Do not use electric space heaters to warm areas above the state-mandated 68-degree level.
• Wear warmer garments or bring a wrap with you to the university, if necessary.
• In an office setting, arrange furniture to have one’s desk away from windows and exterior walls. Thermostats are placed on interior walls and, if operating correctly, will maintain the temperature at which it is set, at that location.  In the winter, it will be colder next to the exterior wall.
• Turn lights off in classrooms, labs, offices and other spaces when not occupied.
• Where multiple switching allows for more than one light level in a space, consider using less than the maximum level. Keep in mind that fluorescent lights take a short time to reach their full brightness; wait a few minutes to evaluate how adequate lighting is at a lower setting before increasing the level.
• Turn off copiers and other office equipment overnight or when they will not be used for extended periods of time.
• Unplug any block transformers that may be used to charge electronic equipment or convert them to AC operation.  These transformers can draw electric current even when no device is connected or turned on.
• Turn off computer monitors (especially CRT-type monitors) each night or whenever the computer will not be used for extended time periods. Turn off computer processors during weekends, holidays, vacations and other periods when they will not be used for several days.
• Minimize the use of microwaves, coffee brewers and other electrical appliances.

Questions regarding UW-Eau Claire’s energy conservation guidelines should be directed to Terry Classen, Facilities Planning and Management, at 715-836-5278 or classetl@uwec.edu. Full story.

Students provide subsurface data for local sites

UW-Eau Claire junior geology major Taylor Crist was among the student researchers who presented data to Wisconsin DNR officials and WRR Envrionmental Services Co. staff about the subsurface at the WRR site and at Lowes Creek County Park. (Photo by Rick Mickelson, LTS)

Twelve UW-Eau Claire students enrolled in the class "Engineering Geology and Geophysics" with Dr. Katherine Grote, assistant professor of hydrogeology in the geology department, recently completed a project to help the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources characterize the subsurface at the site of WRR Environmental Services Co. Inc. and at Lowes Creek County Park.

The information generated during the geophysics studies will help provide a better interpretation of the depth to the top of bedrock as it slopes from state Highway 93 to the west toward Lowes Creek. The students made a presentation to DNR officials, WRR staff and a representative of Short Elliot Hendrickson Inc., an engineering firm retained by WRR, at an Oct. 23 meeting at the WRR offices. Full story. 

Foster Gallery exhibit features new media art
A new exhibit, "Changing the Way We Think ... New Media Art," will run Nov. 6 through Dec. 3 in the Foster Gallery of UW-Eau Claire's Haas Fine Arts Center. An opening reception will run from 7:30-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Foster Gallery.

The exhibit is curated by Jian Luo, UW-Eau Claire assistant professor of art & design, whose work is included in the show. Other artists featured are Silvia Ruzanka, Shawn Decker, Doreen Maloney, Dmitry Strakovsky, Yuichiro Nishizawa, Taylor Hokanson, Matt Frieburghaus and Christopher Furman.

According to Tom Wagener, director of the Foster Gallery, new media art originates from an "increasingly technologically dependent society" and "not only challenges traditional creative media and ways of thinking, but also posits new questions concerning all realms of contemporary life." Full story.

Contingent attends sustainable agriculture event

Representing UW-Eau Claire at the recent "Cultivating Sustainable Agriculture" conference at UW-Madison were (from left) Dr. Eric Jamelske, Emilie Carlson, Danielle Gannon, Ane Klomps, Briana Odegard, Dr. Joseph Hupy (kneeling), Dr. Kate Hale, Corey Hilber and Dylan Thomas.

Students, faculty members and an alumnus from UW-Eau Claire attended the "Cultivating Sustainable Agriculture: Higher Education Programs in Wisconsin" conference Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at UW-Madison. Several of the UW-Eau Claire representatives participated in panel presentations during the event, which provided opportunities for new sustainable agriculture initiatives on Wisconsin campuses to learn from each other and establish new formal and informal ties between institutions.

"UW-Eau Claire had a strong showing at the conference with six students and three professors," Jamelske said. " People took notice and were impressed by our work and our knowledge and our commitment to working toward sustainability on our campus."

UW-Eau Claire participants included current and former members of the student organization The Foodlums. Foodlums representatives in attendance were Corey Hilber, a senior economics and mathematics major; Dylan Thomas, a 2008 biology graduate and now an AmeriCorps VISTA member working in the Center for Service-Learning; Ane Klomps, a senior nursing major; Emilie Carlson, a sophomore biology major; Briana Odegard, a junior elementary education major; and Danielle Gannon, a junior English major.

Hilber was a presenter on panels that discussed "Student Gardens and Farms" and "Getting Local, Sustainable Food onto Campus." Thomas presented on "The Role of Students in Shaping Food Intake on Campus." Also, all student attendees presented posters on The Foodlums and local foods survey research.

Faculty members in attendance were Dr. Joseph Hupy, assistant professor of geography and Foodlums adviser; Dr. Eric Jamelske, associate professor of economics and Foodlums adviser; and Dr. Kate Hale, UW-Eau Claire Sustainability Fellow and adjunct assistant professor of English.

Hupy participated in the "Student Gardens and Farms" panel, where he discussed his role as an adviser to The Foodlums, and Jamelske was a presenter during the "Campus Greening and Sustainable Agriculture" session, where he discussed results from a survey on local food purchasing among Wisconsin colleges.

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.