News in Brief
LEADERSHIP
 Patrick Strickler |
Patrick Strickler named director of communications
Patrick Strickler, a communications executive with more than 30 years of public affairs and journalism experience, will become university director of communications Dec. 1.
“Patrick brings with him a wealth of knowledge and broad experience in the management of communications in large and complex organizations, and I am pleased he is going to be joining our team and providing leadership in this strategic area for the university,” Chancellor David Ward says.
Strickler was first vice president and director of public affairs at Firstar Corp. in Milwaukee until late 1998, when the bank holding company was acquired by Star Banc of Cincinnati. Ward says Strickler, who lives near Cedarburg, is serving the university in a consulting role until Dec. 1.
Strickler succeeds Susan Trebach, who left in November 1998 to become executive director of public affairs at the University of Illinois. Amy E. Toburen will continue until Dec. 1 as interim director of the Office of News and Public Affairs, Ward says.
As director of public affairs for Firstar, Strickler was responsible for all internal and external communications for the holding company. From 1990-97 he was executive vice president for public affairs at Mercantile Bancorporation in St. Louis.
Strickler has also worked as a reporter and editor at several newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.
A 1965 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Strickler completed the executive program in strategy and organization at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 1995 and served as a congressional fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. during 1996-97.
Tuition rally culminates at Capitol |
GOVERNANCE
Budget passage needed to help UW fund programs
In a forceful address Sept. 21, UW System President Katharine Lyall strongly urged lawmakers to pass the 1999-2001 budget.
“The time has come,” Lyall said during her Roundtable speech at the Memorial Union. “We are on the job, and our state partners are missing in action. We need them to do their job to move forward.”
Lyall passed out copies of a letter she wrote last week to the budget conference committee highlighting the budget issues most important to the UW System.
Those include fully funding the Madison Initiative at $30 million; providing 5.2 percent raises for faculty and staff; funding financial aid at levels equal to tuition increases; approving funds for Plan 2008, the UW System’s initiative to increase diversity; and supporting continuing appropriation, which will give campuses much-needed flexibility with their budgets.
With the names and contact information of the conference committee members on the back of her letter, Lyall urged faculty, staff and students to lobby them for quick passage of the budget.
“The legislative leaders need to hear that someone is watching them and expecting results,” she said.
Regents: Coke is it
The UW System Board of Regents has approved the extension of the university’s 10-year contract with Coca-Cola.
The revised contract, now good through June 30, 2003, will expand exclusive soft drink “pouring, marketing and sponsorship rights” to Coca-Cola for all athletic facilities, including the Kohl Center. The contract includes a guaranteed payment of $735,250 to athletics, and other financial incentives could increase revenue to more than $1 million.
In other action this month, the regents:
- Signed off on language approved by the Faculty Senate in May to give departments more flexibility in determining the time that new assistant professors can take to earn tenure.
- Approved the $6.2 million addition to the Clinical Science Center Patient/Visitor parking ramp. The project will add two levels and 450 new parking stalls to the ramp.
LEARNING
Asian language institute planned
A national consortium will locate a unique language-teaching institute at the university beginning next summer.
The Center for Southeast Asian Studies will host the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) is expected to offer instruction in Hmong, Burmese, Vietnamese, Javanese, Thai, Khmer, Lao and Tagalog. In addition to the language instruction, the summer institute also will offer area studies courses, lectures and arts events open to the public.
“Not only does SEASSI offer the best instruction for students across the country, but it also gives an interdisciplinary group of scholars a greater sense of community,” says the associate director of Southeast Asian Studies, Michael Cullinane, who was instrumental in bringing the center to Madison. “Our faculty will get the chance to interact with some of the best scholars of the next generation.”
One important initiative will develop new teaching materials for Hmong, Khmer and Lao, Cullinane says. “No other university or institute offers instruction in these languages, and there are few textbooks and supplementary materials in existence for them. SEASSI is the ideal laboratory for pilot-testing new teaching materials,” he says.
A $280,000 grant from the Luce Foundation will fund the teaching initiatives. The United States Department of Education, SEASSI member institutions, the Fulbright Scholars program and student fees will support the summer institute.
Bloomberg writer to visit
Rob Wells, a banking and tax writer for Bloomberg News, will serve as the fall semester’s business writer in residence Oct. 4-8.
Wells writes for Bloomberg, a business news service with bureaus around the world. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers banking and tax news, much of it coming out of Congress.
During his week at UW–Madison, Wells will speak to classes in journalism and business and consult with individual students and faculty. He’ll lead a journalism talk Thursday, Oct. 7, at 3:30 p.m. on “Wired News: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg and How News Services Shape Your News,” in the Nafziger Room, fifth floor, Vilas Hall. The next day, Oct. 8 at 12:30 p.m., he’ll talk to executive MBA students in 4161 Grainger Hall about “Tax Frankenstein: The IRS and How Congress is Trying to Control Its Creation.”
The Wells residency is part of the ongoing Business Writer in Residence program, sponsored by the School of Business, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Office of News and Public Affairs, with support from the UW Foundation.
 Throwing their weight into volunteering University students throw their weight into a “children’s extravaganza” Sept. 18 at James Madison Park in Madison. Student volunteer Matt Kopec, center, and Wisconsin Alumni Student Board President Ross Widmeyer, right, joined in a tug of war with youth from Madison’s Williamson-Marquette neighborhood. About 300 children from various neighborhood centers participated in an afternoon of outdoor activities, games and art projects. Photo: Jeff Miller |
COMMUNITY
SoHE infant care program to celebrate opening
The School of Human Ecology will celebrate the opening of its infant care program Thursday, Sept. 23.
The infant care program will be located at Bethany United Methodist Church, 3910 Mineral Point Road, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held starting at 4 p.m. in the church’s Fellowship Hall.
The ceremony will feature Associate Vice Chancellor Linda Greene; Robin Douthitt, interim dean of the School of Human Ecology; and Lucinda Heimer, director of the Bethany Preschool Laboratory. New staff from the infant care program will also be in attendance.
The Bethany Preschool Laboratory is the second UW–Madison infant care program to open this year. The Infant/Toddler program, 1800 University Ave., opened in June and serves eight children six weeks to 30 months old. The new Bethany infant/toddler program will serve up to 12 children ages six weeks to 24 months. The Waisman Center will open a third infant/toddler program next year.
Funding from a new federal grant to provide child care for low-income student parents is helping underwrite the cost of the campus infant/toddler care programs.
NOTABLE
WPT’s “30-Second Candidate” wins documentary Emmy
“The 30-Second Candidate,” a documentary made for PBS by Wisconsin Public Television, won a national News and Documentary Emmy Award presented by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Sept. 8 in New York City.
“The 30-Second Candidate” won the award for Outstanding Background Analysis of a Single Current Story – Programs. Other nominees in the category were “Awakenings: The Real Story” from the Discovery Channel and “The Last Mile” from NBC.
Kathy Bissen and Dave Iverson co-produced “The 30-Second Candidate,” which explores the evolution of political advertising, its growth and the increasing influence of political consultants, and some possible options for reform.
Wisconsin Public Television’s WHA-TV was the first non-commercial station in the country to win a national Emmy for “Pretty Soon Runs Out,” produced in 1969 as part of a week-long series on Milwaukee.
ON CAMPUS
Economist plans state tour
Economic Policy Institute economist Edith Rasell will tour Wisconsin Oct. 6-8 to discuss Social Security and offer a progressive solution to its funding shortfall.
Rasell’s tour is sponsored by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a research and policy institute. Rasell will speak Friday, Oct. 8, at 1 p.m. in the Madison Senior Center, 330 W. Mifflin Ave.
A senior economist at EPI, Rasell specializes in Social Security, Medicare and health care issues. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in economics, Rasell was a family practice physician. She has authored numerous reports about Social Security, including EPI’s new report Fixing Social Security: The Clinton Plan and Its Alternatives, which examines the state of the program and efforts to reform it. EPI is a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.
German Center to open
A high-ranking German official will be among dignitaries expected to attend events Thursday, Sept. 30, marking the opening of the Center for German and European Studies.
Among the speakers will be Karsten D. Voigt, coordinator for German-American Cooperation, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Federal Republic of Germany.
The center is a collaborative effort between UW–Madison and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
For information, contact Klaus L. Berghahn, 265-8032.
Oates to give campus reading
Joyce Carol Oates, doyenne of the American literary scene, will read from her work during a visit to campus Sept. 27-28.
Oates received her M.A. from the university in 1961. Now on the faculty at Princeton University, she is acclaimed for her novels, short fiction, poetry, plays and criticism.
Oates’ most recent works include the novel “Broke Heart Blues,” a short story collection entitled “Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque,” and a collection of essays and reviews, “Where I’ve Been and Where I’m Going.”
Twice nominated for a Nobel Prize, she has been awarded a Rosenthal Award from the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Book Award for her novel “Them,” a PEN/Faulkner Award and more.
Oates will read from her work Monday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m. in L160, Elvehjem Museum of Art. Her visit is sponsored by the UW–Madison Department of English and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Information: Ron Kuka, Creative Writing Program, 263-3374.
MILESTONES
Rusch, wildlife ecologist dies
Donald H. Rusch, age 60, a wildlife ecologist, died after suffering a heart attack Sunday, Sept. 12, while hunting grouse in the Badlands of North Dakota. He was the foremost living authority on ruffed grouse. Contributions may be directed to: Donald H. Rusch Memorial Fund, University of Wisconsin Foundation, P.O. Box 8860, Madison, WI 53708-8860. The Donald H. Rusch Memorial Fund will be used for biological research and education.
Baldwin memorial Sunday
A memorial is planned in Madison for Ira L. Baldwin, 104, a retired scientist and administrator who died last month nibin Tucson, Ariz. The memorial will be held at First Congregational Church at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26.
Memorials may be made to the University of Wisconsin Foundation-Ira Baldwin Memorial, P.O. Box 8860, Madison, WI 53708-8860; or the Ira-Ineva Baldwin “Best Should Teach” Fund, P.O. Box 1140, Boulder, CO 80306.