Milestones

APPOINTED

Victor M. Macaruso, assistant dean and coordinator of advising, College of Letters and Science, has been elected chair of the Assessment of Advising Commission of the National Academic Advising Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting quality academic advising and professional development of its membership. Macaruso will assume the role at the end of the NACADA national conference held in Cincinnati, Ohio in early October.

HONORED

Fred Fenster, professor of art, will be honored with a Distinguished Educators Award from the James Renwick Alliance on April 25 in Washington, D.C. Fenster is among three exceptional educators who will receive the award for excellence and innovation in teaching of American craft art.

Jim Ferris, faculty associate in communication arts, was chosen as one of three artists to represent Wisconsin at the VSA arts International Festival in June in Washington D.C. Ferris’s poetry will be featured at the festival, which showcases cutting-edge visual and performing art from around the world.

William Ney, administrative program specialist, College of Letters and Science, was selected by the Wisconsin State Journal as one of the “10 Who Made a Difference” in 2003. Ney, who works with the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program, was honored in a feature of the Feb. 29 newspaper.

Phyllis Holman Weisbard, distinguished academic librarian and UW System women’s studies librarian, has won the Association of College and Research Libraries Women’s Studies Section Career Achievement Award. The award, sponsored by Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., is given annually to an academic librarian who has made exceptional contributions to women’s studies librarianship and recognizes long-term commitment to the profession. Weisbard will accept the $1,000 cash prize at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla., June 28.

Hazel Symonette, a senior policy and planning analyst in the office of the vice chancellor for student affairs, was honored at a Feb. 25 reception for being the UW–Madison recipient of the 2003 UW System Woman of Color Award. Provost Peter Spear, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows and past award recipients attended.

OTHER MILESTONES

Gail Frank, who conducted a sabbatical at UW–Madison during the fall 2003 semester with an appointment as visiting professor, Medical School and nutritional sciences, was interviewed regarding diets for the Feb. 20 NBC “Dateline” program.