Commencement set for 9:30 a.m. Saturday

Photo by Rick Mickelson, LTS

Summer commencement exercises for 236 candidates for graduation will begin at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 5 in UW-Eau Claire's Zorn Arena. The ceremony is open to everyone, and tickets are not required.

A total of 201 undergraduate students will receive bachelor's degrees, including 92 from the College of Arts and Sciences, 61 from the College of Business, 26 from the College of Education and Human Sciences and 22 from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Thirty-five graduate students will receive master's degrees. The graduates include 15 from the College of Arts and Sciences, including two receiving specialist in education degrees. Two students will receive master's degrees from the College of Business, 17 students will receive master's degrees from the College of Education and Human Sciences and one will receive a master's degree from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

UW System Regent Vice President Mark Bradley will deliver the "Charge to the Class." A reception for graduates and guests will follow the ceremony on the lawn near the clock tower on the Central Campus Mall. The rain site will be Davies Center, Blugold West. Full story.

Three faculty/staff members announce retirements
Two UW-Eau Claire faculty members and one academic staff member recently announced they have retired or will retire this summer. All will receive emeritus status:

• Bobby Pitts, associate professor of art & design
• Dr. Robert Sampson, professor of communication and journalism
• Donald Zeutschel, research coordinator, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Full story.

Seven to receive Alumni Association awards
The UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association will present awards to the following alumni Aug. 5 at a luncheon and ceremony in conjunction with summer commencement:

Jeff and Bridget Nelson	Lt. Cmdr. Craig Ungerecht

Bridget (O'Connor) Nelson, Jeff Nelson and Craig Ungerecht will receive the Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award. Bridget and Jeff Nelson, who met at the UW-Eau Claire Leadership Institute as undergraduates and completed their bachelor of arts degrees at UW-Eau Claire (Jeff in political science in 1995 and Bridget in social work in 1996), have been active in peace and social justice issues since graduating.

Ungerecht, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, received his master's degree in environmental and public health from UW-Eau Claire in 2000. He was one of 34 environmental health officers from the U.S. Public Health Service deployed four days after Hurricane Katrina hit to assist the Mississippi Health Department.

Mary Hilfiker

Richard Schroder

Mary Hilfiker and Richard Schroder will receive the President's Award. Hilfiker, an associate education and school improvement specialist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison, received her bachelor of science degree in education from UW-Eau Claire in 1967. Her career has included teaching, counseling, administrative and educational specialist positions throughout the United States and in Korea. Through the UW-Eau Claire Foundation she has established a scholarship to UW-Eau Claire for a young African from Uganda and the Mary Roelli Hilfiker Experiential Education Scholarship, which provides funding for students who design exceptional community service projects.

Schroder, a 1977 UW-Eau Claire College of Business graduate, is an accomplished information management executive. His career has focused on consulting in technology implementation. Also an entrepreneur, Schroder and his partner have developed a company, Trident Group LLC, for building energy-efficient/intelligent homes. The homes use geothermal heating and air conditioning and intelligent (smart) devices to run their various systems. He has returned to UW-Eau Claire numerous times to speak to Beta Upsilon Sigma, a professional student group, and he and his wife, Evelyn Zabo, have established a fund through the UW-Eau Claire Foundation to support several student scholarships.

John Wallace

Ruth Wallace

John and Ruth Wallace will receive the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award. The couple met at UW-Eau Claire, where they received their bachelor of science degrees in elementary education and master's degrees in special education. John is the principal at South Middle School in Eau Claire. Ruth is a community volunteer and child advocate. She is the founder of the Eau Claire Interfaith Hospitality Network Inc., an organization providing temporary housing and support service for families with children. The Wallaces have been foster parents for more than 25 years and together have worked on numerous community projects benefiting children, including Operation Classmate, a Hurricane Katrina relief effort that over the course of a week raised $65,000 and filled a semitrailer with new supply kits for evacuee students in Louisiana. Full story.

Reminder: Academic year kickoff is Aug. 22 All UW-Eau Claire employees are invited to attend the "Gettin' in the Groove" All-Employee Breakfast and Opening Meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 22, in Zorn Arena. Breakfast will be served starting at 7:30 a.m., and the opening meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. The meeting will include Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich's state-of-the-university address, as well as the presentation of the annual faculty and staff excellence awards. An academic year opening meeting for evening shift employees who cannot attend the Aug. 22 event is planned for 8 p.m. Aug. 23 in the Presidents Room of Davies Center.

Researchers seek fitness study volunteers

Lance Dalleck, right, UW-Eau Claire assistant professor of kinesiology, will lead a women's fitness study that begins in September. (Photo courtesy of the University of New Mexico College of Education, photograph by Corrie Photography.)

Lance Dalleck, UW-Eau Claire assistant professor of kinesiology, and student researchers hope to find 30-40 women ages 45-75 in the Chippewa Valley who have been fairly sedentary up until now but would like to make a change and begin to live healthier. The volunteers seek postmenopausal women to participate in a fitness study that would begin in early September and continue for 12 weeks. Last spring Dalleck and his students did a similar study with women ages 18-45. The study aims to (1) test the effectiveness of general guidelines given for achieving significant health benefits through exercise and possibly develop more specific recommendations, and (2) focus specifically on effective fitness guidelines for women, since they, along with minorities and children, are often overlooked in fitness studies, which tend to focus on white adult males as the norm. For information on participating in the study, which will start around the second week in September, contact Dalleck at 715-836-3774 or dalleclc@uwec.edu. Full story.

This collage image, created by UW-Eau Claire student Seth Koslowski, depicts many of the services offered by the Environmental Adventure Center. Koslowski created the image for the EAC (then the Outdoor Recreation Center) fall 2005 brochure, which won third place honors in April when the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association presented its Creative Excellence Awards.

Outdoor Recreation Center now goes by new name
UW-Eau Claire's Outdoor Recreation Center is piloting a name change to the Environmental Adventure Center, the center's staff recently announced. "The new name more accurately reflects the center's expanded mission, which is to address the adventure and environmental interests of students, faculty and staff," said Dan Langlois, assistant director of University Recreation and Sport Facilities. While the facility's previous name was appropriate when its mission was purely recreational in nature, the expansion of its programs to include such offerings as outdoor skills sessions, environmental education and conservation service projects instigated the name change. "The EAC will encourage even more collaboration and integration between academic departments and our service functions," Langlois said. The Environmental Adventure Center Web site provides more information on the center's services and hours of operation.

Final issue of Summer Bulletin
This is the last issue of the 2006 Summer Bulletin. The first issue of the University Bulletin will be distributed Aug. 21 to coincide with the opening of the 2006-07 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. 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.