Featured Articles

Alumni Association to sponsor Eco Tour April 26

Campus crisis communication plan includes cell phone notification system

'The Conscious Universe' to be CVDSR topic

UW-Eau Claire is alcohol survey series pilot site

Events mark Sexual Assault Activism Week

Geology students receive recognition for research

Blugold athletics news

Campus to hold tornado drill April 24

Online forms help publicize campus news, events

Dinner to benefit Latin American studies program

Alumni Association to sponsor Eco Tour April 26
In observance of Earth Day and to educate people about the natural venues near campus, the UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association, with help from faculty and students, will sponsor the first Eau Claire Eco Tour April 26.

The event, which is open to the public, will include a nature walk through Putnam Park led by UW-Eau Claire biologist Dr. Paula Kleintjes-Neff. Following the hike, the group will bike to Phoenix Park to participate in citywide Earth Day events. At Phoenix Park, the Alumni Association will host a table with displays by faculty and students. After the Phoenix Park activities, the Eco Tour group will bike to Carson Park, where they will canoe on Half Moon Lake and learn about the area's water ecosystems and conservation efforts from Dr. Harry Jol and Dr. Douglas Faulkner, professors of geography and anthropology. Learn more and register for the Eco Tour on the Alumni Association Web site.

Campus crisis communication plan includes
cell phone notification system
In an April 15 e-mail message to UW-Eau Claire students, faculty and staff, Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich provided details of the university's emergency preparedness planning efforts, including a crisis communication system that enables the university to notify students and employees of a campus emergency in multiple, simultaneous ways. Read the chancellor's e-mail message.

Part of the crisis communication plan are text messages via a cell phone notification system, a free service now available to all students and employees. Registration for the cell phone notification system is available on the campus emergency information Web page.

'The Conscious Universe' to be CVDSR topic

Dr. B. Alan Wallace

Dr. B. Alan Wallace will present "The Conscious Universe: Where Buddhism and Physics Converge" at 7 p.m. April 22 in UW-Eau Claire's Schofield Auditorium. The Chippewa Valley Dialogue on Science and Religion presentation will discuss what is currently known about consciousness and how those ideas fit with Buddhist teachings.

Wallace is the president and founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. His published works and research focus on scientific investigations of nature, origins and the role of consciousness, and the study of human well-being and positive psychology. He also is a frequent translator for and collaborator with the Dalai Lama. Full story.

UW-Eau Claire is alcohol survey series pilot site
UW-Eau Claire will be the pilot site for a series of surveys designed by the Minnesota Institute of Public Health to assess the culture of drinking at universities around the country.

"Positive Response" surveys will be sent out during two weeks in April to UW-Eau Claire faculty, students, area liquor outlets and community members. The surveys will look at the perceptions and the norms of alcohol use and abuse by university students. Faculty and students will be surveyed online while liquor outlets and the community will receive surveys in the mail.

Events mark Sexual Assault Activism Week
UW-Eau Claire will recognize Sexual Assault Activism Week April 21-25 with events ranging from speakers to film showings. The events, sponsored by the Center for Awareness of Sexual Assault, Student Senate, the Women's and Gender Equity Center and the Student Wellness Advocacy Team, include the following:

• April 21: Noon panel discussion about sexual assault in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning communities.
• April 22: Noon article discussion on "No Safe Place: Sexual Assault in the Lives of Homeless Women" by Lisa Goodman, Katya Fels and Catherine Glenn.
• April 22: 7:30 p.m. screening of the documentary "Shame" with discussion to follow.
• April 23: Noon screening of the documentary "War Zone" with discussion led by Susan Turell, women's studies program coordinator and professor psychology, to follow.
• April 24: Noon, "Let's Talk About Sex," an interactive dialogue on sexual communication presented by SWAT.
• April 24: 7 p.m., Take Back the Night, a rally against sexual assault with march to follow.
• April 25: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., signing of pledges to help prevent sexual assault.

Full story.

Geology students receive recognition for research

Cale Anger, left, and Anna Baker, far right, recieved honors for their research presented last fall at the largest gathering of geoscientists in the world. Pictured with Anger and Baker is Bridget Kelly, who assisted with the award-winning project and presented different research at the conference.

• American Geophysical Union honor: Two UW-Eau Claire geology students, December 2007 graduate Cale Anger, Spring Valley, and senior Anna Baker, Eau Claire, were recently notified that they won an "Outstanding Student Paper Award" from the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union for a poster and presentation they gave at the AGU fall conference in San Francisco, the largest gathering of geoscientists in the world.

Assistant professor of geology Dr. Katherine Grote said she was particularly proud of Anger and Baker because there is no undergraduate category in the competition, so the two were competing against master's and doctoral degree candidates. Full story.

Crystal Nickel (top photo), Herald Schulz (left, bottom photo) and Taylor Crist posed with their award-winning posters at the Wisconsin Ground Water Association meeting.

• Wisconsin Ground Water Association awards: Another three geology majors won first- and second-place awards for their research at the annual Wisconsin Ground Water Association meeting in Brookfield.

Junior Crystal Nickel, Lake Mills, won first place for her poster, "Vadose Zone Characterization Using Ground Penetrating Radar Groundwaves," with faculty mentor Dr. Katherine Grote. Sophomore Taylor Crist, Eau Claire, and senior Herald Schulz, Seymour, won second place for their poster, "Monitoring Near-Surface Soil Water Content Using Air-Launched GPR Techniques," with faculty mentor Grote.  Full story.

Blugold athletics news

Matt Loen

• Former player Loen named men's hockey coach: After leading the UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey program to one of its most successful seasons ever as interim head coach, former Blugold player Matt Loen has been named the permanent head coach following a national search.

Loen played Blugold hockey under coach Ian Perrin from 1991 through 1995. The Spring Lake Park, Minn., native was the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Player of the Year for the 1994-95 season. He was a two-time All-NCHA first team pick and also one of only four Blugolds ever named to the American Hockey Coaches Association All-American first team. With that award, he stands in the company of Blugold alumni Alex Hicks '04, Greg Robertson '90 and Mike Schwengler '94 as Blugold AHCA All-Americans. Full story.

Jenny Ross

Freshman Ross pitches Blugolds' first perfect softball game: Jenny Ross did what no UW-Eau Claire softball pitcher had done before, sending down all 21 batters in UW-Eau Claire’s first perfect game ever April 15 against UW-Oshkosh. The14th-ranked Blugolds would go on to win the game 3-0 but lost 7-0 in the second game of the doubleheader against the Titans. Full story.

Campus to hold tornado drill April 24
Gov. Jim Doyle has proclaimed April 21-25 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 24. 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.

Online forms help publicize campus news, events
UW-Eau Claire employees and students are reminded of online forms available to notify the News Bureau of campus news and events that should be publicized:

• Submit news about UW-Eau Claire faculty, staff, students or programs via the News Tip Submission Form.
• Notify the News Bureau about upcoming UW-Eau Claire-related events via the Events Publicity Data Form.

The News Bureau also provides the following information submission forms:

• Experts Directory Form: For UW-Eau Claire faculty and staff who would like to be included in this listing of campus experts who can comment to the media on a variety of topics and issues and who may be available to speak to service and professional groups.
• Faculty/Staff Retirement Form: Faculty and staff who are planning to retire should complete and submit this form as soon as their retirement date is set.

Dinner to benefit Latin American studies program
A special five-course dinner to benefit students in the UW-Eau Claire Latin American studies program will be held at 7 p.m. April 30 at Native Bay Restaurant in Chippewa Falls.

For those who cannot stay for dinner, hors d'oeuvres are available for $25 plus a cash bar.

The fundraiser, hosted by the LAS program, is part of an effort to endow the Latin American Studies Scholarship Fund, which will award its first scholarship this spring to LAS students since the program originated 35 years ago.

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.