News in brief
 Games room: Cued for fun Students take advantage of the half-price pool on a recent afternoon in the recently remodeled games room at Memorial Union. Air hockey, video games, darts and other activities are available in the games room, just down the stairs from the Rathskeller. Photo: Brian Moore |
TRANSPORTATION
UW offers incentives for alternative commuting
Transportation Services is offering new options to encourage more alternative forms of commuting to and around campus.
For the first time, university employees are able to pay for Madison Metro monthly commuter and unlimited-ride passes through a pre-tax payroll deduction program. The university also is offering a new discount campus bus pass. In addition, Transportation Services will install new bicycle lockers across campus and is expanding its park-and-ride program between University Research Park and UW Hospital and Clinics.
LEADERSHIP
Nominations sought for dean of students
The search to hire a new dean of students is progressing. A 15-member search and screen committee formed this summer by Chancellor David Ward is now accepting applications and nominations for the position.
The dean of students plays a leadership role in fostering and maintaining a welcoming atmosphere to students of all backgrounds.
Applications and nominations can be sent by Friday, Oct. 1, to Dean of Students Search and Screen Committee chair Hardin Coleman, 133 Bascom Hall. The committee will recommend finalists to Ward, who will select the new dean of students. In addition to Coleman, the search committee is comprised of faculty members Julie D’Acci, Aaron Brower, Kevin McSweeney and Hemant Shah; academic staff members Omie Baldwin, Yvonne Bushland, Richard Daluge, Barry Robinson and Akua Sarr; and student members Tshaka Barrows, Nels Bjorkquist, Adam Klaus, Theo Lesczyski and Déborah Vásquez.
HEALTH
Psychologists study new depression treatment
The standard treatments for depression do not work for millions of people who suffer from the condition. But Medical School psychologists are studying a promising new approach that may greatly improve the odds. The psychologists and a growing number of others believe that an effective way to treat depression is to help people rethink what they want from life and change the ways they try to get it. The National Institute of Mental Health has funded a study to test the treatment, called “self-system therapy.” Explains associate professor of psychiatry Timothy Strauman, who directs the study: “Unlike existing treatments, which usually examine the past to get to the source of depression, this approach focuses on the present and future. It helps people achieve well-being within their existing life circumstances.”
LEARNING
Students to run investment program
Professional investors will provide advice and guidance to real estate students charged with ultimate responsibility for a proposed half-million dollar real estate portfolio.
The real-life exercise is part of a new Business School real estate investment program believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.
A $500,000 fundraising campaign to endow a portfolio is under way, with $300,000 already having been committed.
Environmental monitoring graduate degree planned
Advancements in the technologies of remote sensing, geographic information systems, and global positioning systems will give us powerful new tools to do everything from mapping Wisconsin’s wetlands to guiding land use planning.
Faculty and staff of the Environmental Monitoring Program plan to launch a professional master’s degree to meet the growing demand for expertise in the geospatial sciences.
UPDATE
 Courtesy School of Business |
Fluno project advances
The Fluno Center for Executive Education is now scheduling programs to be held starting in March 2000.
The $24 million, eight-floor building taking shape on University Avenue will be the primary site for the Executive Education program of the School of Business. The Fluno Center will house an auditorium, classrooms, meeting and conference space, and 100 executive residence rooms. On-site dining, a business center, fitness room and underground parking will also be available. The center will be owned and operated by the Center for Advanced Studies in Business, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that supports the activities of the business school.
OUTREACH
The other red meats: UW to study alternatives
A team of researchers will study ways to improve marketing and processing alternative red-meat animals including ratites, such as ostriches, emus and rheas; farm-raised red deer and fallow deer; and bison. The state, in collaboration with the Meat Science Laboratory at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, has received a grant to study this rapidly growing industry. In a five-state region, more than 5,000 producers raise alternative forms of livestock. Meat scientists Dennis Buege, Larry Borchert and Mark Kreul will work to develop testing guidelines to ensure public confidence and generally improve the products. The project should be completed by early 2000. Information: 262-0463.
COMMUNITY
Department marks 50 years with volunteer projects
The Department of Engineering Professional Development is celebrating not only 50 years of continuing education but, through several volunteer projects, its community ties.
The service projects are a way of saying thank you to the community for its longtime support of the department’s outreach mission, says EPD Chair Phil O’Leary. “We felt that as a group we had many capabilities that could be used to benefit the community,” he says.
From program assistants to faculty, department members have embraced volunteer initiatives such as food drives for Madison’s Atwood Community Center, a Habitat for Humanity project, senior-center dinners, highway cleanup, an Arboretum restoration project and Red Cross blood drive.
“I think we’ve learned that it really does feel good to give back,” says Jim Becker, an EPD artist who coordinated the food drive and Habitat for Humanity efforts.
Through the years, both its name and college affiliation have evolved, but EPD’s mission to renew and refresh practicing engineers’ skills is largely the same as it was back in 1949 when it offered its first course for practicing engineers. “We’ve been providing learning opportunities that help engineers and others to gain new ideas, update their knowledge or expand their skills,” O’Leary says.
Today, the internationally recognized department annually offers more than 400 seminars, workshops and short courses that are attended by more than 20,000 professionals.
NOTABLE
 Paula Bonner |
WAA names director
Paula Bonner has been named executive director of the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Bonner, WAA’s associate executive director, will take the new post in January, following the retirement of current executive director Gayle Langer, who has held the job since 1989.
Bonner, who joined the association in 1989, also serves as a special assistant to the chancellor for university relations. Previously, she directed the women’s athletics program at UW–Madison.
“Paula Bonner has been a valued member of the University Relations Team, helping to connect UW–Madison with the people of Wisconsin and alumni around the country,” Chancellor David Ward says. “I am delighted to know her leadership is being recognized with this appointment.”
Ira Baldwin dies at 104
Ira L. Baldwin, 104, a retired scientist and administrator at the university, died Aug. 9, in Tucson, Ariz. Baldwin, professor emeritus of bacteriology and former dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, helped discover bacteria that improved crop yields. A World War I veteran, he held several top posts during a career on campus that spanned four decades. Baldwin, who enrolled at UW as a graduate student in 1925, retired in 1966. In later years, he took an interest in promoting agriculture in developing countries.
Staff secretary steps down
Stephen A. Myrah knows the steps of Bascom Hall quite well. “I’ve been trotting up and down those stairs since 1956 as an undergraduate,” he says.
After more than four decades on campus, Myrah is making those trips less frequently now. He retired July 1 as secretary of the academic staff, although he is still working 10 hours a week writing a history of the academic staff and archiving documents from the past 25 years. Colleen McCabe has taken the secretary’s position.
The secretary of the academic staff coordinates the activities of the Academic Staff Assembly and its executive arm, the Academic Staff Executive Committee, and oversees academic staff elections.
“To me, it was a dream job,” Myrah says.
That’s because Myrah helped found the Madison Academic Staff Association and was long interested in issues involving academic staff at the university. He served on ASEC for 3 1/2 years and was its chair in 1991-92.
“Things at the campus administration level work very smoothly for academic staff in shared governance,” Myrah says. “The challenge now is for shared governance to work more smoothly at the school, college and department level. That’s our next big frontier.”
WPR gets dose of ‘Fresh Air’
“Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, one of public radio’s most acclaimed interview programs, is expected to return to Wisconsin Public Radio after a six-year absence as part of a revised programming lineup scheduled to take effect Saturday, Sept. 25. A Peabody Award-winning exploration of contemporary arts and issues, Fresh Air would join the schedule weekdays at 3 p.m. “Many of our listeners have requested Fresh Air, and it fits very nicely into our mission to provide programming that serves the public needs for cultural and intellectual enrichment,” says Dana Davis Rehm, WPR director.
“Fresh Air” would fill a time slot currently occupied by the radio magazine “To the Best of Our Knowledge.” Produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio International, “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” with host Jim Fleming, will shift its interviews spotlighting provocative thinkers on a broad range of issues to Sunday mornings, 9-11 a.m.
Other schedule changes are planned as well. Rehm encourages listeners to share their comments. Wisconsin Public Radio is a 23-station network with two distinct radio services: the Ideas Network, a talk and issues-oriented service, and National Public Radio News and Classical Music.
Watrous dies at 90
Artist James Watrous, who was associated with UW–Madison for nearly seven decades, died May 25, at the age of 90. Watrous may be best known for his murals of scenes featuring mythical logger Paul Bunyan that adorn the walls of the Memorial Union. He also led a campaign to create the Elvehjem Museum of Art and taught popular art history courses until 1976. “He was a mentor in the best sense of the word,” said John Wilde, an emeritus art professor who kept close ties with Watrous over 61 years.
Asian-American studies pioneer dies at 60
A champion of the Asian experience in America and the founder of Asian American studies on campus died Aug. 21 of breast cancer at the age of 60. Amy Ling, the founder of the first Asian American studies department in the Midwest at UW–Madison and a national pioneer in the field, died at her Madison home after a long struggle with breast cancer.
Ling edited or co-edited numerous anthologies of Asian-American artistic and literary work, including “Yellow Light: The Flowering of Asian American Arts.” Ling was born in China but raised in the United States. She moved to Madison in 1991 to set up the UW Asian-American studies program, which she directed until 1997, when her illness forced her to cut back.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, Ling participated in a UW research study on the effects of exercise on breast cancer survivors.
TECHNOLOGY
Internet gopher service to end this year
The Division of Information Technology has decided to discontinue the WiscINFO Gopher publishing services before the year 2000. Over the years, the Web has replaced Gopher as the Internet medium of choice.
Many older WiscINFO Gopher resources have been republished as web sites and others have been deleted altogether.