Appleton

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A Message From More Light! Leadership

Dear Alumni and Friends of Lawrence,

The More Light! campaign has moved Lawrence forward in both tangible and intangible ways. It is difficult for today’s Lawrence student to recall a campus before the Warch Campus Center, an expanded Björklunden lodge, Riverwalk and Hurvis Crossing. More Light! gifts to our endowment have bolstered the university’s ability to provide necessary scholarships to the more than 90 percent of our students who are dependent on some level of financial assistance. Endowment gifts have created professorships in the sciences and conservatory, increased the total number of faculty at Lawrence and the competitiveness of their salaries. Gifts to the Lawrence Fund have supported new initiatives such as the Lawrence Fellows in numerous disciplines and Posse Scholars, enhancing the fabric of our community and broadening the learning opportunities offered at our university. Awards from private family foundations have enabled Lawrence to strengthen its curriculum, building Senior Experience campus-wide; focused Dance Studies; and Cinema, Media and Cultural Studies in the Humanities.

There can be no question that the unwavering generosity and determination of our alumni, friends and supporters have transformed this institution. The More Light! campaign will have an enduring legacy that will positively impact the educations of countless Lawrentians far beyond our lifetimes. On behalf of the More Light! campaign steering committee and the Lawrence community, thank you for your support of the campaign and the college.

Jill Beck
President

Bill Hochkammer ’66
More Light! Co-Chair

Harry Jansen Kraemer, Jr. ’77
More Light! Co-Chair

More Light! Lawrence Collects

David Hockney. Rembrandt van Rijn. James McNeill Whistler. These are just a few of the renowned artists with whom Lawrence students have the opportunity to become acquainted through courses in art history. Now, thanks to alumni and friends of Lawrence, students can view and reflect upon works by these and other great artists firsthand in the Wriston Art Center galleries as part of the exhibition More Light! Lawrence Collects.

More Light! Lawrence Collects celebrates the conclusion of Lawrence University’s More Light! campaign. The exhibition offers a sample of the art collected (and in a few cases created) by members of the Lawrence community. Their generosity allowed the valuable works from their private collections to travel from near and far to be shared with students, faculty, staff and community members. A special thank you to George Chandler ’51, who permanently gifted a work of art to the college as part of More Light! Lawrence Collects, allowing future generations of Lawrentians to study and enjoy it.

“Light! More Light!” is a fitting motto for a college whose mission is to enlighten its students through a liberal arts education. Exhibitions such as More Light! Lawrence Collects bring the light of additional ideas, techniques and ways of perceiving the world to our campus.

View photos of some of the exhibition works.

This exhibition is currently open to the public and will continue through November 23, 2011.

Lawrence University Adds Wind Turbine to Sustainability Efforts

As Lawrence University’s successful More Light! campaign draws to a close, one of its latest initiatives is coming to life in Northeast Wisconsin.

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A wind turbine is being constructed at Bjorklunden. Photo credit: Matt Jeanquart

With its vast assortment of cedars, pines, firs and spruce, Lawrence University’s 425-acre northern campus at Björklunden in Door County has never had a problem being green.

In a few days it will be even greener, thanks to college’s first venture into wind energy. A 120-foot tall, 50-kilowatt turbine is being assembled and erected on the estate just south of Baileys Harbor and will be generating electricity by mid-November.

In the next 20 years, the turbine project is expected to convert Door peninsula breezes into enough electricity to cover a third of the electrical needs of the 37,000-square-foot lodge that is home to Björklunden’s summer adult seminar series and student immersion weekends during the academic year. The nearly $370,000 project was funded by private donations and grants from Focus on Energy and Wisconsin Public Service.

“This project is a powerful symbol of our long-term commitment to environmental sustainability, and it will have a substantial impact on our energy use and carbon emissions,” said Jason Brozek, assistant professor of government and current chair of Lawrence’s Green Roots initiative.

The wind turbine at Björklunden is only the latest Lawrence effort to harness alternative energy sources. In August, the college installed its second solar panel, a 20-kilowatt array on the roof of Hiett Hall. Utility company and Focus on Energy grants, along with a manufacturer’s rebate, reduced the panel’s cost by more than $65,000 and reducing the college’s investment payback to six years on a panel with an estimated life span of more than 30 years.

The Hiett Hall panel complements Lawrence’s first solar panel, a 2.92-kilowatt unit on the roof of Youngchild Hall. Installed appropriately on Earth Day, 2010, that panel already has generated more than 4,700 kilowatt hours of electricity while reducing the college’s carbon dioxide production by nearly five tons.

Since launching its Green Roots initiative in 2008, Lawrence has twice been named to the Princeton Review’s list of America’s greenest colleges and was ranked 44th nationally on the 2011 Sierra Club’s cool school rankings of the country’s top green colleges.

Among Lawrence’s sustainability efforts:

The turbine will produce a third of Bjorklunden's power. Photo credit: Matt Jeanquart
  • A five percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the past year — and a 41 percent reduction since 2002 — through energy efficiency changes.
  • 100 percent use of recycled paper on campus for photocopying and letterhead.
  • 15 percent commitment of campus food is sourced and produced locally (within 100 miles)
  • The diversion of 30 tons of kitchen waste to the student-run sustainable garden on campus for composting.
  • A total of 12,000 pounds of electronic waste collected and recycled in the campus’ first “e-sweep” last May.
  • First-place in the 2011 Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability’s Campus Energy Challenge with an overall energy reduction of 12.86 percent.
  • 10th place in the 2011 Recyclemania national recycling competition (per capita category) with an average of 39.15 pounds per person.

“From students and faculty to staff, administration and alumni, we’ve pulled together as a community to make environmental sustainability a priority across the entire campus,” said Brozek.