Featured Articles

Princeton Review again lists UW-Eau Claire among nation's best college values

National Players to present theater classics

Study reveals plants' limitations in CO2 absorption

Taylor to receive Council for Wisconsin Writers award

Katherine Schneider publishes memoir

Spanish minor to be offered for nursing students

April 24-30 is Honors Week at UW-Eau Claire

Campus to hold tornado drill April 20

Nationally recognized Scandinavian cook to give Geography Seminar Series presentation

Faculty, staff, students honored with Student Development and Diversity awards

Doyle announces identity theft initiative

Princeton Review again lists UW-Eau Claire
among nation's best college values
UW-Eau Claire is one of the nation's best values among undergraduate institutions, according to The Princeton Review. The New York-based education services company features UW-Eau Claire in the 2007 edition of its book, "America's Best Value Colleges." The guide profiles 150 colleges with excellent academics, generous financial aid packages and relatively low costs. It includes 103 public and 47 private colleges in 40 states. Full story.

National Players to present theater classics

National Players, America's longest running classical touring company, will perform two staples of theater repertoire April 26-27 at UW-Eau Claire as part of their 57th annual tour. The Artists Series will present both fully staged productions at 7:30 p.m. in Zorn Arena:

• "Dracula," Wednesday, April 26. Based on Bram Stoker's blood-chilling novel, "Dracula" tells the classic story of peculiar power, twisted passion and hypnotic fascination.
• "The Taming of the Shrew," Thursday, April 27. The verbal sparring never stops in Shakespeare's popular battle of the sexes.

National Players is the touring program of the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts in suburban Maryland. Full story.

Study reveals plants' limitations in CO2 absorption

Tali Lee

UW-Eau Claire ecophysiologist Tali Lee is among the authors of a study published last week in the prestigious journal Nature. The study, "Nitrogen limitation constrains sustainability of ecosystem response to CO2," led by Peter B. Reich, department of forest resources, University of Minnesota, showed that plants may not be as effective at removing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and tempering global warming as had been hoped.

Lee, assistant professor of biology, said plants have been expected to offset some of the rise in global CO2 levels by taking up the greenhouse gas in the process of photosynthesis and incorporating the carbon into new growth. However, it has been a matter of some debate whether the availability of nitrogen, which is also vital for plant growth, could limit this process. The research Lee helped conduct is one of the longest-running studies to tackle this question. Full story.

Bruce Taylor

Bruce Taylor to receive Council
for Wisconsin Writers award
Poet Bruce Taylor, UW-Eau Claire professor of English, is the recipient of the Major Achievement Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. The $1,000 award for lifetime work recognizes Taylor, most recently the author of "Pity the World: Poems Selected and New," for his contributions to the world of poetry, his dedication to nurturing students' talent in UW-Eau Claire's creative writing program, and as the holder of numerous state and national awards and fellowships.

Taylor's special areas of academic preparation and expertise are creative writing, American literature and The First Year Experience. He has served as a member of the Literature Panel of the Wisconsin Arts Board and host of The Writer's Workshop: Wisconsin ETN, and as program scholar and consultant for the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the Lila Wallace Foundation, the L.E. Phillips Library, the Annenberg/CPB Project and Drexel University's First Year Experience Program. Taylor has won awards and fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Fulbright-Hayes, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Bush Arts Foundation. He was the recipient of the 2004 Excellence in Scholarship Award from UW-Eau Claire.

Katherine Schneider publishes memoir

Katherine Schneider and her former guide dog, Garlyn (contributed photo)

Katherine Schneider, UW-Eau Claire senior psychologist emerita, has announced the recent publication of her memoir, "To the Left of Inspiration: Adventures in Living with Disabilities." In her book, Schneider, who has been blind since birth and a Seeing Eye dog user for the past 30 years, takes the reader through the activities of her daily life.

Schneider will give a reading from her book at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 26, in The Cabin of Davies Center on the UW-Eau Claire campus. The book will be available for sale at the reading. She also will sign books at the Eau Claire Borders store at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 13. The book also is available at the Eau Claire Borders store, as well as from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. It is available in accessible format from BookShare.org. Full story.

Spanish minor to be offered for nursing students

Juan Carlos Chaves

Nursing students with an interest in Spanish can now earn a Spanish for Health Professions minor at UW-Eau Claire.

"Future nursing students can graduate with expertise in communicating in Spanish in the area of health care, a growing need in Wisconsin and in the United States," said Juan Carlos Chaves, assistant professor of foreign languages.

The program will be phased in over the course of the next three years. Full story.

April 24-30 is Honors Week at UW-Eau Claire
UW-Eau Claire will celebrate its 34th annual Scholastic Honors Week Monday, April 24, through Sunday, April 30. The week is set aside by the university to recognize students of high scholastic achievement. Numerous programs throughout the week, with the exception of the April 29 Honors Banquet, are open to the public and free of charge. All events will take place in Davies Center unless otherwise noted. See the full schedule of Honors Week events.

Campus to hold tornado drill April 20
Gov. Jim Doyle has proclaimed April 17-22 as Tornado and Severe Weather Awareness Week in Wisconsin. The governor has asked state agencies, including UW-Eau Claire, to conduct a mock tornado drill on April 20. In Eau Claire County the drill will include a mock tornado watch at 1 p.m. upgraded to a mock tornado warning from 1:40 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Outdoor sirens, broadcast stations and weather radios will sound the warning.

The purpose of a tornado drill is to ensure that faculty, staff and students know what to do and where to go should a tornado or severe weather arise. To avoid disrupting classes, actual evacuations are not recommended. Faculty who are teaching are asked to announce the planned drill and read information regarding what to do in the event of severe weather or a tornado. (See information to be read to students.)

Nationally recognized Scandinavian cook
to give Geography Seminar Series presentation

Beatrice Ojakangas

Beatrice Ojakangas, a nationally known cook named to the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2005, will give a presentation at UW-Eau Claire as part of the spring 2006 Geography Seminar Series. She will present "From Bread to Beard: Grains, Place and Finnish Food" at 4 p.m. Friday, April 21, in Room 281 of Phillips Science Hall. Ojakangas, who lives in Duluth, Minn., has written numerous cookbooks, including "Pot Pies," "Quick Breads," "Light Desserts," "The Finnish Cookbook," "The Great Scandinavian Baking Book," and "Scandinavian Feasts." Her presentation is free and open to the public. Full story.

Faculty, staff, students honored with
Student Development and Diversity Awards
Faculty, staff and students who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help students and colleagues reach their unique potential were honored April 12 during the Student Development and Diversity Awards reception. See a listing of the award recipients below.

Photos by Rick Mickelson, LTS
Above left, Amanda Filtz received the Student Development and Diversity Student Assistant Award. At right, University Police Lieutenant Rexann Lemke admires her University Staff Excellence Award. Next to Lemke is David Sprick, director of University Police.

Above left, Kimberly Barrett, associate vice chancellor for student development and diversity, and Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson presented the Older Wiser Learner (OWL) Award to Gloria Hochstein, adjunct assistant professor of English. Above right, Stephen Spina, lecturer of philosophy and religious studies, was the Instructional Staff Excellence Award recipient.

At right, Michael Ojibway accepted the Student Organization Award on behalf of the Native American Student Association and took his opportunity at the podium to promote his group's fundraiser.

2006 Student Development and Diversity Award Recipients

• Older Wiser Learner (OWL) Award: Gloria Hochstein, adjunct assistant professor, English
• Student Development and Diversity Staff Excellence Award: Andrea Gapko, director, Educational Support Services (spring award); Rhonda Stokes, University Services program associate (spring award); Art Lyons, senior student services coordinator (fall award)
• Student Organization Award: Native American Student Association (NASA)
• University Staff Excellence Award: Rexann Lemke, University Police lieutenant
• Instructional Staff Excellence Award: Stephen Spina, lecturer, philosophy and religious studies
• Student Development and Diversity Student Assistant Award: Amanda Filtz, Advising and New Student Initiatives
• Diversity Teacher /Scholar Award: Timothy Bawden, assistant professor, geography and anthropology
• Diversity Advocate Award: Sally Trnka.

Doyle announces identity theft initiative

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle spoke on the UW-Eau Claire campus April 14 to announce the formation of a state Office of Privacy Protection, which will aid victims of identity theft and help law enforcement agencies in identity theft investigations. Read related Leader-Telegram article. (Photo by Rick Mickelson, LTS)

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.