Featured Articles

Brian Levin-Stankevich gets Board of Regents approval as next UW-Eau Claire chancellor

Campus to offer two new MEPD programs in fall

State approves Hibbard Hall media lab funding

'Journalism and Beyond' camp will serve students from diverse cultural backgrounds

Marimba virtuoso to give Artists Series performance

Faculty/staff appreciation luncheon set
for Feb. 17

Campus Campaign: Alum's connection with department leads to geology scholarship

Students encouraged to complete NSSE survey

Speaker to address 'puffery' in Super Bowl XL ads

Dr. Brian Levin-Stankevich gets Board of Regents approval as next UW-Eau Claire chancellor

Dr. Brian Levin-Stankevich

The UW System Board of Regents Feb. 10 approved the recent recommendation by system President Kevin Reilly that Dr. Brian Levin-Stankevich serve as the next chancellor at UW-Eau Claire. Levin-Stankevich's start date at UW-Eau Claire will be June 1. See UW-Eau Claire's chancellor search Web site for more information about Levin-Stankevich and the search process.

Also at the regents' February meeting:

• Reilly articulated his vision to "put the University of Wisconsin within the reach of every state citizen" and how that vision can generate a "growth agenda" for Wisconsin. (Read Reilly's remarks.)
• The board approved a proposal to reduce nonresident tuition rates at UW-Milwaukee, the 11 UW comprehensive campuses and the UW Colleges, effective in the 2006-07 academic year.
• The board approved action to forward to campus governance groups for comment a new administrative code chapter, “Procedures for Dismissal of Faculty in Special Cases.”
• The board approved a new salary range structure for UW System chancellors and system executives. The policy provides that chancellors will be evaluated on an annual basis, with greater participation by the regents, and their salaries will be adjusted for market and merit.

For full details, see the Day 1 and Day 2 news summaries from the Board of Regents' February meeting.

Campus to offer two new MEPD programs in fall

Susan McIntyre

The UW-Eau Claire College of Education and Human Sciences and UW-Eau Claire Continuing Education will begin two new master of education in professional development programs in fall 2006. The Initial Teacher Program (MEPD-ITP) is designed specifically for new teachers, and the Professional Educator Program (MEPD-PEP) is for experienced educators. Both programs are 30 credits and combine online and weekend formats convenient for working professionals. Informational meetings are scheduled in March.

"UW-Eau Claire has a long tradition of working closely with teachers in the surrounding area, professionals in the field," said Dr. Susan McIntyre, professor and chair of the COEHS department of curriculum and instruction. "These two new flavors of graduate study provide excellent opportunities for new teachers, as well as more experienced teachers, to continue their professional development while earning their master's degrees." Full story.

State approves Hibbard Hall media lab funding

Hibbard Humanities Hall will be home to a new media lab for UW-Eau Claire communication and journalism students, resulting in all communication and journalism facilities being housed under one roof for the first time.

The State Building Commission has approved funding for a new state-of-the-art media lab for communication and journalism students at UW-Eau Claire. The $1.4 million project, slated for construction in 2007, will create a media lab in Hibbard Humanities Hall, which will include modern technologies used by most news organizations. The project will allow the communication and journalism department to move its television and radio programs from Haas Fine Arts Center to Hibbard Humanities Hall, where all the other programs in the department are housed. If all goes as planned, construction will begin in May 2007 and the lab will be ready for use during the 2007 fall semester. Full story.

'Journalism and Beyond' camp will serve students from diverse cultural backgrounds
Students from several Wisconsin high schools who are interested in careers in journalism will have an opportunity to participate in a career-preparation camp this summer at UW-Eau Claire. The "Journalism and Beyond" camp will be offered to students with diverse cultural backgrounds from select Wisconsin high schools. Funded by a Gannett Foundation grant through the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, the camp is a partnership between UW-Eau Claire and Gannett newspapers. The first camp is scheduled for June 18-24. During the six-day camp, each student will be partnered with a mentor who will be a visiting Gannett journalist. Students and their mentors will work together on assignments and production of a tabloid publication, television newscast and Web site. Students and mentors will be encouraged to continue their learning relationship for a full year beyond the camp. The goal is for the mentors to continue to offer career and learning support. Full story.

Marimba virtuoso to give Artists Series performance

Nancy Zeltsman

Marimba virtuoso Nancy Zeltsman will perform for the UW-Eau Claire Artists Series Tuesday, Feb. 21. Her 7:30 p.m. recital in Gantner Concert Hall of the Haas Fine Arts Center will include works by Thomas Oboe Lee and Steven Mackey, as well as her own compositions. Described by the Boston Globe as playing "with sparkling rhythmic inflection, stamina, speed, accuracy, and a full spectrum of colors," Zeltsman is a leading performer, recording artist, teacher, author, and festival director. She has commissioned and premiered over a hundred works for solo marimba or marimba within chamber music. Full story.

Faculty/staff appreciation luncheon set for Feb. 17
The UW-Eau Claire Foundation invites faculty and staff to the fifth annual Faculty and Staff Appreciation Luncheon on Friday, Feb. 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Council Fire Room, Davies Center. The free luncheon buffet is held in gratitude for faculty and staff's service to the students of UW-Eau Claire and commitment to the university's mission of excellence. Faculty and staff are invited to come as their schedules permit during the 1½-hour event. At 12:30 p.m. Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson will voice her thanks for faculty and staff efforts and service to UW-Eau Claire. Door prize drawings will be held throughout the luncheon.

Greg Beckstrom '84 and Julia (Weinstock) Beckstrom '85 (Contributed photo)

Campus Campaign: Alum's connection with department leads to geology scholarship
The UW-Eau Claire Foundation's Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence campaign has established an infrastructure to support outreach efforts throughout the university. Various departments are learning that consistent communication and contact with their alumni yields results.

Over the past few years, the geology department has focused on strengthening relationships with alumni through newsletters, alumni events in conjunction with professional meetings, inviting alumni back to campus as speakers and sponsoring other projects to keep alumni connected to the department. The geology department's efforts paid off recently when Greg Beckstrom, a 1984 geology graduate, and his wife, Julia (Weinstock) Beckstrom, a 1985 business graduate, established the first alumni-funded scholarship designated solely for outstanding students in geology. Full story.

Students encouraged to complete NSSE survey
The National Survey of Student Engagement will soon arrive on the UW-Eau Claire campus and several hundred other campuses across the country. "The survey is short but has the potential to make a difference in the quality of undergraduate education at UW-Eau Claire because it asks the kinds of questions that matter to student learning and institutional effectiveness," said Karen Henning, UW-Eau Claire's interim policy and planning analyst. Questions address topics such as the amount of reading and writing that's required, how often students interact with students from different backgrounds and cultures, the quality of academic advising, and how often students work with faculty on research and other activities. The survey will be sent to a broad cross-section of students who were randomly selected to participate, Henning said, noting that it takes less than 15 minutes to complete via the Web. Full story.

Speaker to address 'puffery' in Super Bowl XL ads

Dr. Ivan Preston

Dr. Ivan Preston, humorously described by The Wall Street Journal as "the world's greatest expert on 'pure baloney' in advertising," will share his views on truth in advertising with UW-Eau Claire students and faculty on Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 14-15. He will focus on "puffery" in the commercials shown during Super Bowl XL.

Preston, journal communications professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, will speak to student members of the Advertising Federation and the Communication and Journalism Organization Tuesday from 7-8 p.m. in Room 303 of Hibbard Hall. On Wednesday, he will speak to Barbara Arnold's "Fundamentals of Advertising" class from 10-11 a.m. in Room 101 of Hibbard Hall. He will be available to speak to any interested media representatives from 11 to 11:45 a.m. and from 1 to 3:15 p.m. Later in the afternoon, he will speak to two of Dr. Michael Dorsher's classes on "Mass Media Ethics" from 3:45- 4:15 p.m. and from 4:30-5 p.m. in Room 106 of Hibbard Hall. 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.