MAILED: April 26, 2001
EAU CLAIRE —Donations to the
UW-Eau Claire Foundation have paid for the purchase and repainting of a bus used
for university biology field trips. The donations ensure that, for years to
come, students will receive enhanced educational opportunities in field biology,
said interim biology department chair Dr. Darwin Wittrock.
The $22,500 bus
was paid for with money from the Foundation's Biology Advancement Fund, which
is supported by alumni and friends of the biology department; a monetary gift
from the L.E. Phillips Family Foundation; and a gift-in-kind from Ken Vance
Motors, which donated more than half the cost of having the once-yellow bus
repainted.
The two-year-old mini school bus, purchased in the
spring of 2000, replaced an older vehicle that had transported biology students
on field trips for 28 years. The newer bus is used for field trips over a period
of 18 weeks during the fall and spring semesters and also during the
university's summer session. It was officially put into use during a summer
2000 invertebrate zoology course.
The field trips
complement on-campus classroom and laboratory work and allow students to collect
and observe plants and animals in their natural environment, Wittrock said. The
trips are part of the course work for numerous biology classes in ornithology,
zoology, conservation biology, ecology and botany. Wittrock added that the bus
also has transported students to observe organisms at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple
Valley, Minn., and the Como Park Conservatory in St. Paul, Minn.
"The department
of biology would like to thank the L.E. Phillips Family Foundation, Ken Vance
Motors and contributors to the Biology Advancement Fund for providing funds to
purchase and paint the new biology bus," Wittrock said. "The bus has already
been used extensively to transport biology students on field trips to observe
organisms in their natural surroundings."
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JP
[Administrative Offices]
[News Bureau]
Janice B. Wisner
UW-Eau Claire News Bureau
Schofield 201
(715) 836-4741
newsbur@uwec.edu
Updated: April 26, 2001
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