Featured Articles

Regents approve Davies redevelopment project

Grant extends opportunities for geology students

Commencement ceremonies set for Dec. 16

Faculty and staff members announce retirements

Five to receive Alumni Association awards

David Franks receives state lifetime service honor

Laura Hurd wins master's thesis competition

Recent gifts support student scholarships

Outstanding seniors, recent alumni can seek graduate scholarship nominations

New Jazz I CD features Christmas classics

UW-Eau Claire team fares well in regional computer programming contest

Behind the scenes … in UW-Eau Claire's chemistry stockroom

'Seniors' Secret Santa' update

Happy Holidays!

Regents approve Davies redevelopment project
Additional actions related to criminal background checks, faculty discipline, employee pay plan, admissions
A student-initiated proposal to redevelop UW-Eau Claire's Davies University Center received approval from the UW System Board of Regents Friday, Dec. 8, during its two-day December meeting in Madison. The regents voted to add the Davies Center project to the UW System's 2007-09 capital budget request. The up to $48.8 million project will be funded through student segregated fees. The project still must be approved by the State Building Commission, the legislature and governor for inclusion in the overall state budget. See UW-Eau Claire media memo and related Leader-Telegram articles that ran before and after the regents' meeting.

In other business, the regents voted to implement criminal background checks of new employees in the UW System. Each system institution will develop and submit a plan to locally implement the policy. The regents also will forward to the state Legislature a set of proposed changes to state administrative code that will allow the university to quickly address instances of alleged serious criminal misconduct by UW faculty or staff. The proposed rules create an expedited process to dismiss faculty and staff who engage in serious criminal misconduct. The rules would also allow the university to suspend such individuals without pay in specified circumstances.

The regents also voted Dec. 8 to recommend a 5.23 percent pay plan increase for UW System faculty and unclassified staff in each year of the 2007-09 budget biennium. The recommendation asks the Governor and the Office of State Employment Relations to set aside $48 million per year in tax dollars in the state compensation reserve to fund the pay plan in full. The recommendation would not require additional tuition increases beyond those needed to support the UW's proposed 2007-09 biennial budget request, approved in August. The resolution also renews the regents' call for the ability to offer employee domestic partner benefits.

On Dec. 7, members of the regents' Education Committee decided to wait until a future meeting to consider an action that would update and unify several regent policies related to freshman admissions. The action also would ensure continued compliance with U.S. Supreme Court rulings that describe how campuses can consider both academic and nonacademic factors.

Read the Day 1 and Day 2 news summaries for complete details on the regents' December meeting.

Grant extends opportunities for geology students

J. Brian Mahoney

A $221,000 grant from the government of British Columbia will allow J. Brian Mahoney, UW-Eau Claire professor of geology, to continue to offer undergraduate students research opportunities both in the field and the laboratory.

For the past two years, undergraduate geology students at UW-Eau Claire have worked with Mahoney and fellow faculty members Robert Hooper and Lori Snyder, conducting bedrock mapping and associated geologic studies in mountainous areas of western British Columbia under an earlier grant received from the government of British Columbia.

In the summer of 2007, several students will once again work with Mahoney in British Columbia, thanks to a new three-year grant, but this time they will move to the southeast into the Chilcotin Ranges to explore a different environment. Previously they investigated the potential for significant gold, silver, platinum, zinc and copper mineralization in the Coast Mountains. This time they will focus on basin analysis with an eye toward hydrocarbon potential. Mahoney said both grants were driven by the Canadian government's effort to revitalize the economy in central Canada. Full story.

Commencement ceremonies set for Dec. 16

UW-Eau Claire December commencement exercises for 740 students will be Saturday, Dec. 16, in Zorn Arena. Candidates from the College of Business, College of Education and Human Sciences and College of Nursing and Health Sciences will receive degrees during a 9:30 a.m. ceremony. Candidates from the College of Arts and Sciences and candidates for master's degrees will receive degrees during a 2 p.m. ceremony.

Wilson Bradshaw, president and professor at the Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, will deliver the "Charge to the Class."

Allotted tickets are available only to graduates and must be obtained at the Service Center prior to the ceremonies. No tickets are required for remote site broadcasts of the ceremonies, which may be viewed in the Davies Theatre of Davies Center. The ceremonies also will be broadcast live via Web video streaming. A reception for graduates and guests will follow each ceremony in the Spruce-Tamarack Room of Davies Center. Full story.

Faculty and staff members announce retirements
The following UW-Eau Claire faculty and staff members have recently retired or announced they will retire soon:

• J. Roger Selin, professor emeritus of accounting and finance, officially retired from UW-Eau Claire in June after 40 years of service to the university. Full story.
• Fay Bobb, a university services program associate in the Center for International Education, retired in November 2006 after 37 years of service to the university. Full story.
• Joanne Karshbaum, an IS resources support tech senior in Institutional Planning, retired in August 2006 after 25 years of service to the university. Full story.
• Thomas Kazmierski, an engineering specialist in Facilities Planning and Management, will retire in January 2007 after six years of service to the university. Full story.

Five to receive Alumni Association awards

		Top, l-r: Vicky Crane, David Crane, Carter Wahl. Bottom, l-r: Lynn Frank, Linda Clark.

The UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association will present awards to five alumni Dec. 16 at a special luncheon and ceremony in conjunction with commencement. Follow the links on the recipients' names below for biographical information:

Dr. David Crane (att. 1962) and Vicky Crane '81 will receive the Lifetime Excellence Award, which is presented to UW-Eau Claire alumni who have demonstrated longtime and successful commitment to their careers and communities.

Dr. Carter Wahl '98 will receive the Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award, which acknowledges special achievements and great promise of alumni who are within 15 years of their graduation from UW-Eau Claire.

Lynn Frank '69 will receive the President's Award, which recognizes outstanding professional and personal achievements and service to UW-Eau Claire.

Linda Clark '88 will receive the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes distinguished service to the community, state or nation in a manner that brings credit to the recipients and UW-Eau Claire.

David Franks receives state lifetime service honor

David Franks

The Wisconsin Division for Early Childhood and the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association have awarded David Franks, recently retired UW-Eau Claire professor of special education, the Lifetime Service to Young Children and Families Award.

Franks was recognized for being a pioneer in the development of services for young children with disabilities in the state of Wisconsin, and for having a substantial impact on the future of the early childhood special education profession.

The awards ceremony was held during the 52nd Annual Wisconsin Early Childhood Education and Care Conference, "Children Connect Us," Nov. 2-4 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. Full story.

Laura Hurd wins master's thesis competition

Laura Hurd

Laura Hurd, Eau Claire, was recently awarded first place in UW-Eau Claire's Distinguished Master's Thesis competition for her thesis titled "A Comparison of Language Production, Language Comprehension, and Cognitive Functioning in Identical Twins with Williams Syndrome." Hurd received her master's degree in communication disorders in May 2006.

Each year, faculty members at UW-Eau Claire are invited to nominate exceptional quality theses, with judging provided by a Graduate Council faculty committee. Professor of communication sciences and disorders Kristine Retherford, Hurd's thesis adviser, submitted her paper to the competition. The Distinguished Master's Thesis award includes a $200 cash prize, and Hurd, who currently works for CESA-10 as a speech-language pathologist in the Gilmanton school district, will also have her thesis submitted to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools thesis competition for next spring.

Recent gifts support student scholarships

Kathryn Eddis Carter and George Carter

Estate gift endows award for future educators
A recent $50,000 estate gift to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation from George and Kathryn Eddis Carter that will support a scholarship for students preparing for a career in education. The Carter gift significantly endows the Eleanor Eddis Fults Scholarship, which was established several years ago by the family and friends of Eleanor Eddis Fults. Fults, who died in 1989, was Kathryn Eddis Carter's sister. Thanks to the estate gift, the Fults scholarship will fund an annual award of approximately $4,500. Full story.

Stanley and Yvonne Hillestad

Eau Claire couple establish mathematics scholarship
Mathematics majors at UW-Eau Claire will benefit from an endowed scholarship thanks to the generosity of Stanley and Yvonne Hillestad, Eau Claire. The Hillestads recently made a $25,000 gift from a stock mutual fund to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation. The gift established the Stanley and Yvonne Hillestad Scholarship, an endowed fund that will provide a $1,000 annual scholarship to an outstanding mathematics major who has demonstrated great potential and financial need. Full story.

Outstanding seniors, recent alumni can seek graduate scholarship nominations
Outstanding UW-Eau Claire seniors, as well as alumni who have graduated since May 2002, are invited to apply for nomination to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship Program, one of the largest and most competitive scholarship programs in the country. Scholarships can total as much as $300,000 (up to $50,000 per year for up to six years).

The faculty representative at UW-Eau Claire is Andrew Phillips, interim dean of graduate studies and interim associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. He may be contacted at phillipa@uwec.edu. UW-Eau Claire also has a Web site with specific information about applying for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship program. Full story.

New Jazz I CD features Christmas classics
UW-Eau Claire's award-winning Jazz Ensemble I has recorded its first Christmas CD. "Jazz in Clear Water-Christmas Day, My Favorite Day" features nearly 30 current UW-Eau Claire jazz students or alumni performing holiday classics like "Good King Wenceslas," "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Let It Snow," "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night."

Directed by Robert Baca, professor of music, the Christmas CD also includes performances by singer, composer and entertainer Michael Andrew, a 1987 UW-Eau Claire alumnus, and Five by Design, a vocal quintet performing throughout the United States whose core members booked their first gigs as a UW-Eau Claire jazz group. Alumni members include Kurt Niska, Lorie Carpenter-Niska, Terrence Niska and Michael Swedberg. Full story.

UW-Eau Claire team fares well in regional
computer programming contest
The UW-Eau Claire department of computer science on Nov. 11 hosted a site for the North Central-North America region of the Association for Computing Machinery's annual collegiate programming contest. Across the entire region (consisting of seven states and two Canadian provinces), approximately 180 teams of three students competed at 16 sites to solve as many programming problems as possible out of nine problems presented over the five-hour period of the competition. The UW-Eau Claire site roster included six teams from UW-Eau Claire, two teams from UW-Stout and three teams from UW-River Falls. In a year with a particularly difficult set of problems, the highest placing team at this site was one from UW-Eau Claire, which placed 19th (out of 180) in the region by solving two problems. One UW-River Falls team and two other UW-Eau Claire teams also solved at least one problem, finishing 48th, 58th and 66th in the region, respectively. Paul Wagner, associate professor of computer science, was the administrator and head judge for the UW-Eau Claire site.

Behind the scenes … A vibrant university life rarely just happens. More often it's the result of planning, preparation and much invisible work. This newest installment in the series "Behind the Scenes …," produced by Learning and Technology Services to provide a look behind the scenes of various aspects of university life, focuses on the chemistry stockroom in Phillips Science Hall. Behind the scenes in UW-Eau Claire's chemistry stockroom Chemistry stockroom student worker James Zook assists a student in need of a volumetric flask. Learn more about the chemistry stockroom in the newest installment of "Behind the Scenes." (Photo by Rick Mickelson, LTS) If you make the long climb up the stairway to Room 410 of Phillips Science Hall, you'll discover a small service window allowing limited access to one of the university's valuable centers of support for teaching, learning,and scholarship: the chemistry stockroom. You don't need to be a chemist to take advantage of the stockroom's services - the facility provides campuswide support. Whether you need a one-liter "vol" flask, dichlorobenzene or a lab setup, manager Denis Setwyn, a 1999 UW-Eau Claire chemistry graduate, and his dedicated student staff can assist you.  Take an audiovisual look behind the scenes of the chemistry stockroom ..

'Seniors' Secret Santa' update
"Seniors' Secret Santa," a student-sponsored campus holiday fundraising project, has raised $1,694.32 to provide grocery debit cards to area seniors in need. Career Services-Charitable Outreach, a new UW-Eau Claire student organization, received $1,423 in donations from UW-Eau Claire faculty, staff and students as of Dec. 11. An additional $271.32 has been raised through the Schofield Showdown, a penny collection/competition between offices in Schofield Hall.

All funds raised up to $1,500 will be matched by area grocery chain Mega Pick 'N Save. Mega Pick 'N Save stores will distribute grocery debit cards purchased with the funds raised to area seniors identified as having extremely limited financial means.

Donations to "Seniors' Secret Santa" will be accepted through Dec. 13. A donation form was sent Nov. 22 via campus mail to all faculty and staff. Donations, along with the completed donation form, can be dropped off or sent via campus mail to Career Services, 230 Schofield Hall. For more information, contact Career Services at 836-5358.

Happy Holidays!
This is the last issue of the University Bulletin for fall semester. The first issue for the spring semester will be dated Jan. 22, 2007.

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.