Featured Articles

Faculty and staff receive 2005 excellence awards

University faces challenges of reduced support, devaluation of public higher education's role

Second annual SoTL Symposium set for today

Getting to know the 2005 freshman class

New freshmen begin Phase II orientation

CNS, TLTDC merge to form LTS

Human Resources newsletter goes paperless

Globalization trends in Third World to be Wednesday's 'Let's Do Lunch' topic

Create a theme basket to benefit United Way

Faculty and staff receive 2005 excellence awards

Recipients of the 2005 UW-Eau Claire excellence awards include (l-r): Garry Running, Susan Turell, Roger Selin, Gloria Fennell and Christopher Kirchman. Not pictured but also an excellence award recipient is Patricia Quinn. (Photo by Rick Mickelson, Learning and Technology Services)

Six UW-Eau Claire faculty and staff members received excellence awards Aug. 23 during the opening meeting of the 2005-06 academic year:

Roger Selin, professor of accounting and finance, received the Excellence in Teaching Award.

Garry Running, associate professor of geography and anthropology, received the Excellence in Scholarship Award.

Gloria Fennell, associate professor of social work and chair of the social work department, received the Excellence in Advising Award.

Susan Turell, associate professor of psychology and women's studies program coordinator, received the Excellence in Service Award.

Patricia Quinn, director of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program and the special assistant for external funding for the associate vice chancellor of student development and diversity, received the Administrative and Professional Academic Staff Excellence in Performance Award.

Christopher Kirchman, a police officer for University Police, received the Classified Staff Excellence in Performance Award.

Recipients received a university medallion and $1,500 from the UW-Eau Claire Foundation in recognition of their commitment to excellence. Three of the awards — the excellence awards for classified and academic staff and the Excellence in Teaching Award for faculty — are supported by Markquart Chevrolet, Markquart Motors and Markquart Toyota of Eau Claire. Full story.

Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson

University faces challenges
of reduced support, devaluation of public higher education's role
During the 2005-06 academic year, it will not be "business as usual" for many departments and programs across the UW-Eau Claire campus due to the effects of budget cuts, but faculty and staff must strive to be "solution oriented and willing to bring about constructive, substantive change that will be helpful to our students as they work with us to create their lives," said Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson in her opening remarks and the Aug. 22 fall meeting of the university's faculty and academic staff. Looking to the university's strategic plan for guidance, "we should spend some time looking at our processes as well as being mindful of what we can do to create the future of this university," Larson said. Read the full text of Larson's opening meeting comments.

Getting to know the 2005 freshman class

Photo by Rick Mickelson, Learning and Technology Services

Members of UW-Eau Claire's 2005 freshman class begin their college careers with an average of 3.4 college credits (or the equivalent) already earned, according to a report by Debbie Gough, UW-Eau Claire's director of advising and new student initiatives. The report was distributed to the university's faculty and staff at academic year opening meetings the week of Aug. 22. Of the 2,060 students in this fall's freshman class, 802 (or 39 percent) had received either Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or College Level Examination program credit or had earned credits by taking college courses while in high school. This is an increase of 2 percent over the number of new 2004 freshmen who entered the university with credit for prior work. In 2005, 24 new freshmen are coming in with sophomore status, compared to eight last year, while three will have junior status (none were so classified last year). The higher number of new freshmen entering with previously earned credits should translate into better course availability and a decrease in the average time it takes students to earn their degrees, the report said. Read the complete report and attachments, including new freshmen demographics, the number of new freshmen in each major and more.

Second annual SoTL Symposium set for today
UW-Eau Claire faculty and instructional academic staff are invited to attend the second annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Symposium today from 1-4:30 p.m. in the Tamarack Room, Davies Center. The event is presented by UW-Eau Claire's Learning and Technology Services and Network for Excellence in Teaching. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Kathleen McKinney, Cross Endowed Chair in SoTL and a professor of sociology at Illinois State University. Also making presentations will be UW-Eau Claire's 2004-05 NET teaching scholars: Gary Don, music and theatre arts; Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, history; Tomomi Kakegawa, foreign languages; Paul Kaldjian, geography and anthropology; Geoff Peterson, political science; and Mitra Sadeghpour, music and theatre arts. Additional faculty and instructional academic staff also will present posters of their research on teaching and learning. To register, contact Catherine Artac at artacca@uwec.edu. More information.

New freshmen begin Phase II orientation

Photo by Rick Mickelson, Learning and Technology Services

The school year will be under way Sept. 1 for UW-Eau Claire's more than 2,000 new freshmen. The new students are invited to attend the second phase of their orientation to the university, which began during Summer Orientation when they registered for classes. "We know once first-year students move into the residence halls, or as commuter students get ready to start classes, they will have many questions. Phase two is designed to help answer those questions, increase students' sense of comfort and belonging and help them feel confidence as they start classes," said Jacqueline Bonneville, coordinator of new student orientation. A welcome picnic featuring Live Band Karaoke will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, on the Campus Mall, followed by Convocation at 7:30 p.m. in Zorn Arena. CUBEfest (Creating the Ultimate Blugold Experience), 10 days of events and activities to welcome and integrate first-year students to the academic community, begins at 5 p.m. Friday with a picnic in the backyard of Towers Residence Hall. Full story.

CNS, TLTDC merge to form LTS
As of Aug. 12, UW-Eau Claire's Computing and Networking Services and the Teaching and Learning Technology Development Center have merged into one unit, Learning and Technology Services (LTS). The merger was the culmination of a summer of planning and execution of specific merger activities. More information about the merger and access to LTS services can be found on the new LTS Web site.

"In accomplishing the merger, the staff chose to focus first on changes that would positively impact our customers: UW-Eau Claire's faculty, staff and students," said Craig Mey, LTS director. "Making assistance intuitive and easy to obtain was the goal of those working on the merger assignments." The following milestones on the way to that goal have already been completed:

• A single place to go and a single number to call to obtain technical help, as well as to check out equipment, is now located at the LTS Help Desk in Old Library Room 1144. Drop-off and pickup of test scoring materials has also been relocated to the LTS Help Desk.
• Assistance with video production and editing has been streamlined and services are more coordinated.
• The Network for Excellence in Teaching (NET), now a combination of NET and the former TLTDC Teaching and Learning unit, will offer services through five programmatic vehicles: one-to-one consulting; yearlong faculty learning communities; multiday teaching and learning institutes; presentations and workshops from national experts; and teaching and learning colloquia.

Additional steps will be taken to complete the merger, resulting in other service enhancements that will benefit faculty, staff and students, Mey said.

Human Resources newsletter goes paperless
UW-Eau Claire Human Resources will no longer be sending printed newsletters to all university employees. Going paperless with the newsletter is one way to cut costs and increase efficiencies, so Human Resources News, which previously was printed in hard copy, will be published only in an electronic online format and distributed via e-mail. Follow this link to read first online edition of Human Resources News. Highlights include:

• Dual choice and benefits fair dates
• United Way "Day of Caring" information
• Campus directory deadline
• Floating holiday information for unclassified staff
• Student payroll timesheet deadlines
• and more!

Human Resources staff members appreciate your comments or suggestions as they continue to make improvements to the online newsletter and the distribution process. If you have any comments or questions, call the Office of Human Resources at 836-2513.

Globalization trends in Third World to be Wednesday's 'Let's Do Lunch' topic
Globalization trends in the Third World, specifically Latin America, Vietnam and India, will be the topic of an Aug. 31 luncheon presentation hosted by the UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association. Rose-Marie Avin, professor of economics, will give a presentation from noon to 1 p.m. at Sweetwaters Restaurant. Avin's talk, titled "Globalization and the Third World: A Force for Good or Exploitation?" is part of the Alumni Association's "Let's Do Lunch" series. The discussion will be based on research Avin has conducted in Nicaragua analyzing the impact of globalization on women and on her observations during her 2005 trips to Vietnam and India. Full story.

Create a theme basket to benefit United Way
This year's campus United Way campaign again includes a fun opportunity for the university community to get creative and/or buy something creative, all while benefiting the United Way of Greater Eau Claire and its member agencies. Interested? Just follow these simple steps:

• As a department, office or unit, determine what type of theme basket you would like to create and purchase or make items for the basket.
• Contact Barb Bowers, Human Resources, at bowersba@uwec.edu or 836-3871 to request raffle tickets and to let her know what theme basket your group is creating.
• Display the basket in your area and sell raffle tickets to anyone and everyone. Tickets are one for $1 or six for $5.
• Bring your basket to the "Day of Caring" event Sept. 16 to be displayed along with the other baskets. Also display your basket in the East Blugold in Davies Center Sept. 29 through Sept. 30, when the lucky winner of each basket will be announced.

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.