Press Releases

Category: Press Releases

Extending the Reach: $5 Million Campaign Targets Lawrence University’s “Northern Campus” at Bjorklunden

Lawrence University officials today (8/5) announced a $5 million fund-raising campaign to enhance facilities and programs at Björklunden, the college’s “northern campus” in Door County.

The campaign will target funds for the expansion of housing and classroom space at the 425-acre estate’s main lodge, the renovation of an artist’s studio built in 1929 by the original owners of the property and the growth of a Björklunden endowment to support ongoing operations.

The campaign will be chaired by Robert Schaupp, president of P&S Investment Company of Green Bay, a 1951 Lawrence graduate and a member of the college’s Board of Trustees.

“Björklunden is a fantastic asset for Lawrence and for the entire Door County community,” said Schaupp. “We have a great opportunity to ensure Björklunden’s future promise through this effort.”

According to Schaupp, more than $1.5 million has already been committed to the campaign.

Joining Schaupp on the campaign’s steering committee will be Oscar C. Boldt, Appleton, chairman of The Boldt Group, Inc.; Spencer Gould, Ephraim, former director of the Reliable Life Insurance Company of St. Louis, Mo.; Gretchen Maring, Ellison Bay, a 1952 Lawrence graduate; Ellsworth Peterson, Sturgeon Bay, former president and CEO of Peterson Builders Inc. and his wife, Carla, a long-time member of the Peninsula Player’s board of directors; Cyndy Stiehl, Ephraim, a 1989 Lawrence graduate and member of the Board of Trustees, Lee Traven, Baileys Harbor, a 1952 Lawrence graduate; and Richard Warch, Ellison Bay, former president (1979-2004) of Lawrence University.

Located on the Lake Michigan side of the Door peninsula just south of Baileys Harbor, Björklunden Vid Sjön — Norwegian for “Birch Forest by the Water” — hosts weekend retreats and seminars for Lawrence students throughout the academic year and week-long adult continuing-education seminars during the summer. In addition, music recitals and small concerts that are free and open to the public are held there frequently. Björklunden’s facilities, including lodging, are available for use by private, public, and corporate groups for conferences, meetings, and special events.

To accommodate increased usage and demand for the facility, Lawrence plans an expansion and extension of the estate’s main lodge that calls for the addition of 10 new bedrooms with lake views, a large multi-purpose room and a new seminar room, a computer room, a mudroom for the sciences and an observation deck for a telescope. Other new features planned include an elevator, additional bathrooms, storage and mechanical rooms and expanded on-site parking.

The expansion will add approximately 20,000 square feet, more than doubling the size of the existing 17,190-square foot, two-story seminar and conference center. The addition will increase summer seminar sleeping capacity from 22 to 44 and school year sleeping capacity from 54 to 104.

Miller Wagner Coenen and McMahon, a Neenah-based architectural firm that designed the current lodge, will oversee the expansion plans. College officials hope to begin construction by the fall of 2006.

The Björklunden estate, which features large tracts of woods, meadows and more than a mile of unspoiled Lake Michigan shoreline, was bequeathed to Lawrence in 1963 by Donald and Winifred Boynton, a self-taught artist, of Highland Park, Ill., with the understanding that it would be preserved in a way that would ensure its legacy as a place of serenity and contemplation.

One of the estate’s principle features is a small stavkirke — a rustic wooden chapel which the Boyntons handcrafted from 1939-47. The chapel contains 41 hand painted frescoes and numerous carved-wood furnishings and is a popular site for summer weddings.

Björklunden’s original main lodge, which had served as the Boyntons’ summer residence, was destroyed by fire in 1993. A new “lodge,” more than four times the size of the original and accented with decorated ridgepoles that help retain the estate’s distinct Norwegian heritage, was completed in 1996.

Each week during the academic year, groups of Lawrence faculty members and students gather at Björklunden to explore and reflect upon ideas, artistic expressions, and community issues. In the 2004-05 academic year, more than 1,200 students and faculty members, comprising 67 groups, came to Björklunden to study and learn in 30 separate weekend programs.

Popular summer adult education seminars have been offered at Björklunden since 1980. This summer, Björklunden is hosting 30 week-long classes that began late in April and will end in mid-October, accommodating more than 500 seminar participants.

During July and August, the professional classical theatre company Door Shakespeare presents evening pubic performances of “The Comedy of Errors” and Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer” at Björklunden.

Anna Corey, ’04, Awarded Prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship

Anna Corey expected to play the violin and the piano all her life, but came to the realization that her passion for music could not overcome a muscle problem that caused her chronic pain. While a student at Lawrence University, she wound up swapping her music major for her other love: biology.

The 2004 summa cum laude graduate of Lawrence still maintains a certain fondness for “The Orange Blossom Special,” a classic tune she was taught by her fiddle teacher Glenn Wood and encouraged to play by her “adopted grandfather” Al Wagner, who took her under his wing when she was the youngest member of the Beaver Dam Area Orchestra. The powerful impact of good health and the value of sharing with others that she saw in that fiddle teacher endure today.

Corey recently was named one of 76 national recipients of a prestigious graduate scholarship from the Virginia-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to pursue a medical degree. The Beaver Dam, Wis., native was selected from among a national applicant pool of 1,290 nominees representing more than 600 colleges and universities across the country.

Each of the Cooke scholarships is worth up to $300,000, among the largest scholarships awarded in the United States. She was one of only two students from Wisconsin awarded a Cooke Foundation scholarship and the only student who attended a college or university in the state.

“I truly felt honored when I learned I had been named a recipient of one of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarships,” said Corey. “This award provides me with an incredible opportunity and will enable me to pursue my interest in international and environmental health work during and directly after my medical training without the restrictions of student loans.”

Corey, who was elected to Phi Beta Kappa while at Lawrence, applied her organizational talents during her college career on behalf of a variety of social causes, among them Amnesty International, a Hunger Awareness Week on campus and the annual CROP Walk for Hunger in Appleton. She honed her leadership skills at a National Wildlife Federation conference on women and sustainable development and worked as an unpaid intern for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, focusing on hunger and homelessness issues.

Beginning in mid-August, Corey plans to channel her mutual interests in health and service into a medical career, starting with graduate studies toward an M.D. at the University of Wisconsin. She hopes to focus her interests on helping victims of conflict, poverty and natural disasters through organizations such as Doctors Without Borders. She also is concerned about the consequences of environmental degradation on human health and eventually would like to have an impact on environmental policy.

“I believe physicians should not only treat patients but also serve as health advocates and use their credibility as medical experts to influence policy that affects human health,” said Corey. “During the last few years in the United States, there has been an effort to weaken environmental laws that protect our air and water. From a health viewpoint, this is devastating and unacceptable news and I would like to do whatever I can to reverse this trend.”

Candidates for the Cooke Foundation scholarship undergo a rigorous, two-stage assessment by independent panels of academic experts, including graduate school deans, admissions counselors and faculty. The selection criteria included academic achievement and financial need as well as a will to succeed, leadership and community involvement.

“The recipients of scholarships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, whose standards are exceptionally high, exemplify qualities we all admire, particularly that unique combination of ability and drive that sets some people apart,” said Professor Laurie Kohn of the Georgetown University Law Center, who served as a selection panelist. “What the Rhodes Scholarship is to overseas study, the Jack Kent Cooke awards are rapidly becoming to the best students in America who have financial need.”

Through its scholarships, the Cooke Foundation helps highly motivated, highly driven individuals overcome one of the biggest challenges to their careers: the cost of advanced professional or graduate training. The value and duration of each scholarship can total as much as $50,000 per year for up to six years and is based on the cost of attendance or other grants each student receives.

The private, independent Cooke Foundation was established in 2000 through the will of Jack Kent Cooke.  A self-described “indomitable optimist,” the Canadian-born Cooke was a passionate advocate of life-long learning. As a highly successful businessman who once counted New York City’s Chrysler Building among his holdings, he was perhaps best known as the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and later, the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Lawrence University Honors Six Alumni for Career Achievement, Service at Annual Reunion Celebration

Getting fired at the age of 15 from her first job as a part-time assistant at the library — for spending too much time reading! — never dampened Kathleen Krull’s love for books. In fact, her termination produced determination: to create books that meant as much to others as they did to her.

Krull made good on her promise and today is an award-winning children’s author, with more than 50 fiction and nonfiction titles to her credit. Krull will be among six Lawrence University graduates honored Saturday, June 18 for their accomplishments and service as part of the college’s annual Reunion Weekend celebration.

Lawrence will welcome nearly 900 alumni and guests from 41 states (and two foreign countries) back to campus for a weekend-long celebration. Two alumni will be recognized with distinguished achievement awards and four will he honored with service awards during the annual reunion convocation Saturday at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

Krull will receive the Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award. Named in honor of the second president of Milwaukee-Downer College, the Briggs award recognizes alumni of more than 15 years for outstanding contributions to, and achievements, in a career field.

A 1974 graduate with a degree in English, Krull began her career in a variety of staff and editor positions for several different publishers and by 1984 had turned to writing full time, establishing herself as an accomplished children’s author. Working under the pseudonym of Kathy Kenny, she first wrote mysteries in the Trixie Belden series as well as a collection of Christmas carols. Her 1980 book, “Sometimes My Mom Drinks Too Much,” written under the pseudonym Kevin Kenny, earned Krull awards from the Chicago Book Clinic, the Children’s Book Council and the National Council for Social Studies.

She has since explored the famous and the accomplished through a series of award winning “Lives of” books, in which she has profiled musicians, athletes, artists, presidents and extraordinary women. The series has earned numerous honors, including Smithsonian Magazine’s “Notable Books for Children,” the New York Public Library’s “100 Titles for Reading and Sharing” and an International Reading Association Teacher’s Choice Award, among others.

Krull’s passion for music — she was a church organist at the age of 12 — also has inspired several books, among them “Gonna Sing My Head Off! American Folk Songs for Children,” a comprehensive collection of 62 American songs in which she details their origins and 2003’s “M is for Music,” an eclectic look at the world of song in which she examines performers from jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong to rock musician Frank Zappa, instruments from the accordion to the zither and musical styles from a cappella to zydeco.

Working out of San Diego, Calif., Krull’s most recent work includes 2004’s “A Woman for President,” a biography of Victoria Woodhull, who ran for president of the United States in 1872 and a book about Harry Houdini.

Heidi Stober, a 2000 graduate, will receive the Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes Lawrence alumni of 15 years or less for significant contributions to and achievements in a career field. The award honors the 10th and youngest president of Lawrence and an exemplary figure in higher education in the 20th century.

A budding opera star with a growing list of roles, Stober is currently a studio artist with the Houston Grand Opera. She won the HGO’s prestigious Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers in February, 2004. More than 450 singers auditioned for the competition from around the world.

During the HGO’s 2004-05 season, Stober sang the roles of La China in the world premiere of “Salsipuedes,” the Rose in “The Little Prince” and was heard in the world premiere of “Lysistrata” earlier this year.

After earning a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance from Lawrence, Stober pursued a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory, where she earned the John Moriarty Presidential Scholarship and performed the roles of the dew fairy in “Hansel and Gretel” and Laurie in “The Tender Land.”

During the 2002-03 season, Stober sang with the Boston Lyric Opera, performing as Yvette in “La Rondine” and Sally in “Die Fledermaus.” She was recognized with the BLO’s Stephen Shrestinian Award for Excellence.

A native of Waukesha, Stober has sung as a studio artist with Colorado’s Central City Opera, covering the role of Nellie in “Summer and Smoke” and performing the roles of First Wife and First Gossip in the world premiere of “Gabriel’s Daughter.” She also has performed with the Milwaukee Opera Theatre and spent a year as the apprentice soprano in the Utah Symphony and Opera Ensemble Program.

James Auer and Richard Synder will be recognized with the George B. Walter Service to Society Award. Named in honor of Walter, a 1936 graduate and former faculty member and dean of men at Lawrence, who believed strongly that every individual can and should make a positive difference in the world, the award honors alumni who best exemplify the ideals of a liberal education through socially useful service in their community, the nation or the world.

Auer, a 1950 graduate who grew up in Neenah and attended Menasha High School, will be honored posthumously. He died last December at the age of 76.

Considered by those who knew him best to be a classic Renaissance man for his broad array of interests — writing, photography, history and magic among them — Auer spent more than 50 years as a newspaper reporter, features writer and editor, including the last 32 with the Milwaukee Journal, and later the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, primarily as an arts editor.

An enthusiastic supporter of the visual arts and known for his gentle and polite demeanor, Auer was honored with a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year in recognition of his contributions “to the wealth of artistic creativity” in the state.

Auer served as the first president of the board of directors of Appleton’s Attic Theatre and wrote the play “The City of Light” for the company. He began his journalism career in 1953 as a reporter for the Twin City News-Record in Neenah. He spent 12 years (1960-72) working for The Post-Crescent, including the last seven as Sunday editor. In addition to his print reporting, Auer wrote and narrated several award-winning documentaries and was a talented magician.

Snyder, a 1965 graduate with a degree in mathematics, rose to executive vice president of Cognex, a world-renowned high-tech computing company in Massachusetts before turning his attention to becoming “a meaningful volunteer.” Inspired by a trip to Japan, in 1997 he left the corporate world for a volunteer position with a Boston area day-care service. In a project he dubbed “Windows to the World,” Snyder began placing computers in day-care centers that served low-income, single-family homes so that children would have an opportunity to benefit from the technology before entering the school system.
A year later, Synder joined the Boston Public School system to work with its TechBoston program, an initiative designed to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor communities by teaching technical skills to help students who cannot afford to or choose not to attend college prepare for possible careers in high-tech industries.

Two years after Snyder became involved in the project, TechBoston’s enrollment grew from 10 students to 1,500 who were taking classes in 22 Boston high school and middle schools. In 2002, in response to a slow-down in the tech industry, Snyder created a separate company out of the program — TechBoston Consulting Group — to employ students to work on web development and networking projects for Massachusetts businesses and non-profit organizations. In its first two years, TCG generated $130,000 in revenue. Today, the program is used as a model for school districts around the country for similar initiatives.

Stephanie Vrabec will receive the Gertrude B. Jupp Outstanding Service Award. The award honors Jupp, a 1918 graduate of Milwaukee-Downer College who was named M-D Alumna of the Year in 1964 for her long volunteer service to the college.

A 1980 graduate, Vrabec has been a board member of the Lawrence University Alumni Association and served on the executive committee as vice president for two years. She served as a member of the presidential search committee for Rik Warch’s successor and has been a regional event coordinator for the past 12 years. In addition, she has worked as a volunteer for the admissions office, served as co-chair of the 25th reunion steering committee and been a host parent for Lawrence international students.

Jamie Reeve will receive the Marshall B. Hulbert Young Alumni Service Award. Presented to alumni of 15 years or less who have provided significant service to the Lawrence, the award honors Marshall Hulbert, a 1926 graduate known as “Mr. Lawrence,” who contributed to thousands of Lawrentian lives and served the college and the conservatory in many significant capacities during a 54-year career.

A 1995 graduate and fourth-generation family member to attend Lawrence, Reeve has served his alma mater in numerous capacities, including chair of the 10th Reunion Gift Committee and member of the Viking Gift Committee and the 5th Reunion Steering Committee. Vice-president of his senior class, Reeve spent four years as a board member of the Lawrence University Alumni Association and has volunteered as a Career Center panelist. He was selected to represent all alumni as one of the welcoming speakers at last month’s presidential inauguration ceremonies of Jill Beck.

Jazz Director, Spanish Professor Cited by Lawrence University for Teaching Excellence

Fred Sturm was honored a second time for his teaching prowess and assistant professor of Spanish Rosa Tapia was recognized for her classroom contributions as a junior faculty member Sunday, June 12 at Lawrence University’s 156th commencement.

Sturm, director of jazz and improvisational music, was presented Lawrence’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, given annually to a faculty member for outstanding performance in the teaching process, including the quest to ensure students reach their full development as individuals, human beings and future leaders of society.

Tapia was cited with the Young Teacher Award in recognition of demonstrated excellence in the classroom and the promise of continued growth.

Sturm, who received Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award in 1983, is one of only five faculty members to earn both teaching honors. Last month, he was appointed to the Kimberly-Clark Professorship in Music.

A 1973 Lawrence graduate who directed the college’s first student-designed jazz ensemble as a 19-year-old sophomore, Sturm returned to his alma mater in 1977 as a member of the conservatory of music faculty. He left in 1991 to teach at his other alma mater, the Eastman School of Music in New York, where he earned a master’s degree in music composition in 1984, then returned to Lawrence in 2002.

Sturm’s jazz compositions and arrangements have been performed by Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis and Clark Terry, among others, and have been issued on numerous record labels, including Concord Jazz, RCA and Warner Brothers Records. He earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1988 and was named the 2003 recipient of the prestigious ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones, a prize granted annually to one established jazz composer of international prominence.

“Your jazz ensembles have received national recognition for outstanding performance from Downbeat magazine and your jazz composition and arranging students, following in their mentor’s footsteps, are also national award winners,” Lawrence President Jill Beck told Sturm in presenting his award. “Your own compositions and arrangements are acclaimed worldwide. For these accomplishments and your enduring dedication to jazz education at Lawrence and worldwide, we are pleased to honor you.”

Tapia joined the Lawrence Spanish department in 2002 with research interests in Spanish Peninsular and Latin American literature as well as the use of technology applications in foreign language education. Before coming to Lawrence, Tapia taught in the Spanish department at Penn State University, earning that institution’s outstanding teaching award for graduate students, one of only five given university-wide.

In honoring her, Beck said Tapia had “won the hearts and minds” of many students.

“Students say you inspired them to do their best work in your class. They recognize and applaud the high standards you set and express enthusiastic appreciation for the effort you expend to help them reach those goals,” said Beck. “Your colleagues, too, express gratitude for your willingness to share teaching strategies, especially those related to uses of instructional technology in the classroom.”

A native of Ubeda, Spain, Tapia earned a bachelor’s degree in English at the Universidad de Granada, a master’s degree in Spanish at the University of Delaware and her Ph.D. in Spanish at Penn State University.

Lawrence University Honors Former President, Local Jazz Legend and Wisconsin Business Leader at 156th Commencement

Richard Warch will find himself in a familiar spot this Sunday (6/12) for Lawrence University’s annual graduation ceremonies — near the front of the processional and upon the commencement stage. But instead of overseeing the conferring of honorary degrees as he did for 25 years, he will be the recipient of one this time.

Warch, who retired in 2004 as president of Lawrence, along with well-known composer and jazz musician John Harmon and Wisconsin business leader and philanthropist Herbert Kohler will be recognized for their achievements and contributions by Lawrence with honorary degrees during the college’s 156th commencement, which begins at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall green. Two hundred and seventy-nine seniors are expected to receive bachelor of arts and/or music degrees.

During the ceremony, Lawrence will award an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts to Harmon, an honorary Doctor of Laws to Kohler, the chairman, chief operating officer and president of the Kohler Company, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Warch. In addition, the annual Lawrence University Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award will be presented to Marilyn Catlin, a family consumer education teacher at Appleton East High School and Joseph Vitrano, who teaches Latin and English at Wauwatosa East High School.

A baccalaureate service featuring Julie McQuinn, assistant professor of music, will be held Saturday, June 11 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

The three honorary doctorate degree recipients, along with President Jill Beck, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair William Hochkammer and student representative Andria Helm, a senior from Rocky Mount, N.C., will address the graduates during commencement. Both the baccalaureate service and commencement ceremony are free and open to the public.

Harmon, a native of Oshkosh who now resides in Winneconne, has left an indelible musical imprint, locally as well as nationally, as a pianist, composer, arranger and educator. After earning a bachelor of music degree in composition from Lawrence in 1957, he embarked on a musical career that saw him study with legendary pianist Oscar Peterson, work as a performer and arranger in New York City and tour Europe as the leader of a jazz trio. He also was a founding member of Matrix, the critically acclaimed contemporary nonet that recorded five albums in the 1970s and early ’80s.

In 1971, Harmon returned to Lawrence and founded the college’s award-winning jazz studies program. He has remained involved with his alma mater over the years, directing Lawrence’s jazz combo program and teaching improvisation and jazz composition.

As a composer, Harmon has received more than 50 commissions for a wide variety of genres, including orchestra, band and chamber ensemble. In addition, he has written more than 50 works for chorus. He has held composer-in-residence appointments at more than 40 elementary and secondary schools in Wisconsin and beyond and has served in that role at the Red Lodge Summer Music Festival in Montana since 1991.

Harmon’s musical virtuosity has been recognized with numerous honors, among them the Renaissance Award from the Fox Valley Arts Council, the Distinguished Service Award from the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association and the Performance of the Month Award from Jazziz, the international jazz magazine. Most recently, Harmon was elected a fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

Arguably best known for the world-class golf courses he has built in Wisconsin, including Whistling Straits, the acclaimed links course along the shore of Lake Michigan in Haven, Kohler has established himself as a visionary business leader and generous benefactor of the arts.

A graduate of Yale University, he worked his way up through the ranks from high school laborer in the family manufacturing business founded by his grandfather in 1873 to become head of what is now one of the world’s largest privately owned companies. He was named a director of the Kohler corporation in 1967 and held successive appointments as vice president of operations, executive vice president and chairman of the board. He was appointed company president in 1974.

During his career, Kohler has received more than 200 design and utility patents and his business acumen has earned him induction into the National Association of Home Builders’ National Housing Hall of Fame, the National Kitchen and Bath Hall of Fame and the Family Business Hall of Fame of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. In 1997, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which recognizes distinguished Americans who have made significant contributions to the nation’s heritage.

In addition to his executive responsibilities with the Kohler Company, he serves as chairman of the Kohler Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports educational, cultural and preservation projects in Wisconsin.

The Kohler family has held a long association with Lawrence. Just as his mother and uncle had done previously, Kohler served as a member of the Lawrence Board of Trustees (1974-2002). Kohler Hall, a student residence, and the Kohler Gallery in the Wriston Art Center are named in honor of Kohler’s mother and father, respectively.

The Kohler Company, the Kohler Trust for Arts and Education and the Kohler Foundation have supported numerous campus projects and programs, among them Science Hall, Wriston Art Center, the reconstruction of the Björklunden lodge, the Kohler Program in Art History and an arts program endowment. The Kohler Endowed Scholarship Fund has provided financial assistance for countless students.

Warch, the second-longest serving president in Lawrence’s history, was named the college’s 14th president in 1979. Prior to that, he served the college two years as vice president for academic affairs.

During his 25-year tenure, Warch established himself as a national advocate for the residential liberal arts college model of education, promoting the values of teaching and learning as well as civic and voluntary service.

In 1987, he was cited as one of the country’s top 100 college presidents in the two year study, “The Effective College President,” which was funded by the Exxon Education Foundation. That same year, while delivering one of the keynote addresses of the NCAA annual convention, Warch sparked national discussion by calling for the elimination of all athletic scholarships in favor of administering financial aid to all students equitably on the basis of demonstrated need.

Among the most important legacies of Warch’s presidency was the creation of the popular weekend student seminar program at Björklunden, Lawrence’s 425-acre “northern campus” in Door County and the establishment of Björklunden as an integral part of the Lawrence educational experience.

As president, Warch oversaw the construction of six new campus buildings and the renovation of eight others. Lawrence’s endowment grew from $23.4 million at the start of his presidency to $182.2 million at the time of his retirement.

Since leaving Lawrence, Warch has been honored by Campus Compact, a national higher education association dedicated to campus-based civic engagement, with its Presidential Civic Leadership Award and been appointed by Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle to the state Ethics Board.

A native of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., Warch earned his bachelor’s degree in history at Williams College and a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale. He makes his home today in Ellison Bay.

Two State Teachers Recognized as “Outstanding Educators” at Lawrence University Commencement

Marilyn Catlin, a family consumer education teacher at Appleton East High School and Joseph Vitrano, who teaches Latin and English at Wauwatosa East High School, will receive Lawrence University’s Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award Sunday, June 12 during the college’s 156th commencement. Both will be presented a certificate, a citation and a monetary award.

Established in 1985, the teaching award recognizes Wisconsin secondary school teachers for education excellence. Recipients are nominated by Lawrence seniors and are selected on their abilities to communicate effectively, create a sense of excitement in the classroom, motivate their students to pursue academic excellence while showing a genuine concern for them in, as well as outside, the classroom.

Catlin, whose grandfather-in-law coached football at Lawrence for 14 years between 1909 and 1927, began her teaching career in 1973 in Winona, Minn. Since moving to Appleton, she has taught at six schools during three different stints since first joining the district in 1976. She has been a member of the East High School faculty since 1990. In addition to teaching consumer education classes, she has served as the school-age parent coordinator at East for the past 13 years.

She is a member of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention and Parenting Alliance and serves on the district’s School-Age Parent Advisory Board.

Lawrence senior Kassandra Kuehl praised Catlin’s energy, devotion and “optimism not otherwise present in the lives of her students” in nominating her for the award.

“As the teacher for the Student-Age Parent Program, she is often the single resource available to the teen parents of Appleton East on subjects ranging from how to network so that the teens can graduate to the benefits of breast-feeding and how to prevent child abuse,” Kuehl said in her nomination. “Mrs. Catlin focuses her attention on the few students whose very survival depends on her attention.”

A native of Arlington Heights, Ill., Catlin earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics at St. Olaf College and her master’s degree in food science and nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Vitrano has spent his entire 35-year career in the Wauwatosa School District as a Latin and English teacher. He is a former president of the Wisconsin Latin Teachers Association and has served as Wauwatosa East’s athletic director since 1989. He coached the school’s cross country from 1971-95 and was inducted into the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

Julia Ruff, a 2001 graduate of Wauwatosa East, said Vitrano had a “legendary reputation” at the school, attracting students to his Latin classes from across the breadth of the student body. When Ruff couldn’t fit a Latin class into her schedule, Vitrano arranged to tutor her several days a week before the start of classes so that she could continue her studies.

“He is a very dedicated teacher who put in the extra effort to ensure that his best and worst students were given the opportunity to succeed,” Ruff said in nominating Vitrano for the award. “He made a dead language and ancient culture come alive to a broad range of students, an incredible feat of teaching prowess.”

Vitrano, who grew up in the Bay View area of Milwaukee, earned his bachelor’s degree in Latin and secondary education at Marquette University and his master’s degree in comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Lawrence University Launches New Initiative to Prepare Ph.D.s for Undergraduate Teaching Careers

A newly created program designed to provide recent Ph.D. recipients with mentoring relationships, teaching opportunities and research collaborations to better prepare them for professorial careers at selective liberal arts colleges is being launched by Lawrence University.

The Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program will begin at the start of the 2005-2006 academic year. Eight fellows, with interests ranging from musicology to molecular systematics, have been named the program’s initial appointments.
The eight fellows were selected from a pool of more than 240 applicants, who pursued their doctorate or terminal degree at top-ranked research institutions in the United States, as well as Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program is designed to help bridge the divide between graduate work at prestigious research universities – which is often narrowly focused – and the breadth of perspective that is characteristic of successful undergraduate liberal education.

“There clearly is a critical need in higher education to work toward better preparation of the next generation of academics for careers as faculty members,” said Lawrence University President Jill Beck. “Liberal arts colleges have a unique contribution to make in that regard and have, I believe, a responsibility to share with young scholars what are widely seen as some of the best practices in undergraduate education.”

The disconnect between advanced study at the nation’s leading research universities and the realities of college teaching, especially at the undergraduate level, has been a long-standing concern within higher education circles.

In 1993, the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Council of Graduate Schools launched the Preparing Future Faculty Initiative to address the problem at its source, by encouraging graduate schools to better align graduate education with the actual expectations placed upon new faculty entering higher education. PFF was premised on the belief, as founding director Jerry Gaff put it, that “knowing a specialization and how to conduct research is a necessary but not sufficient condition to get a job as a faculty member and to do it well.”

In reviewing nearly a decade of the PFF initiative’s work, AAC&U president Carol Geary Schneider, writing in the summer 2002 issue of Liberal Education, concluded that while there had been some “halting yet tangible” progress … “overall, however, most graduate departments remain firmly unengaged with the educational challenges that confront a changing academy, and, by extension, a new generation of campus faculty.”

The program is distinctive not only in its location — at a nationally ranked liberal arts college — but also in its size and scope. It features an institution-wide commitment and the support and engagement of a broad spectrum of faculty across the breath of the college’s 32 academic departments. And as the program becomes fully established, it will expand from its initial eight appointments to as many as 20 fellows in residence throughout the college in any given academic year.

Lawrence fellows will receive two-year appointments with reduced teaching assignments so that they may engage in tutorials and research projects with undergraduate students. Mentoring relationships with senior Lawrence faculty and among the fellows themselves will be encouraged, as will opportunities for teaching and research collaborations. The program is also designed to increase access to current research methods and topics for Lawrence’s students and faculty.

“In crafting the Lawrence fellows program, we have concentrated on meeting the professional development needs of future faculty,” said Beck. “When the fellows complete their appointments, we fully expect that they will be well prepared as teachers and colleagues to excel in the type of highly individualized instruction that is a hallmark of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges.”
As the job market for new Ph.D.s has tightened, the challenges facing those aspiring to academic careers have grown. Those fortunate enough to land a tenure-track appointment are often ill prepared for the competing demands they face in balancing research or creative productivity with teaching excellence.

While postdoctoral appointments in the sciences have traditionally been available to assist in the transition from graduate degree programs, rarely have these positions focused on the teaching aspects of career development, particularly teaching that is allied with undergraduate research.

“We feel Lawrence is a perfect place for recent Ph.D.s to observe and gain valuable experience in strong teaching and prepare for the next stage in their careers,” said Beck. “Lawrence has an unusually high level of one-on-one learning between students and faculty, through tutorials, independent study offerings, and faculty-student research and artistic collaboration. In the sciences, our faculty emphasize individual ‘hands on,’ laboratory-rich learning experiences at even the introductory levels.

“Such educational practices are valued throughout the liberal arts college sector,” added Beck. “I am confident that, when the fellows complete their time at Lawrence, they will have acquired both the skills and professional perspectives that will lead to highly successful undergraduate teaching careers at peer institutions across the nation.”

“The postdoctoral fellowship program will provide Lawrence with a flexible and adaptive means for enhancing, renewing, and expanding both the curriculum and individualized student learning opportunities,” said Professor of Psychology Peter Glick, who will serve as the program’s director. “This is truly one of those situations where everyone will benefit — the students, the faculty and the postdoctoral fellows.”

Lawrence University, located in Appleton, Wisconsin, is a highly selective undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences with a conservatory of music. Founded in 1847 and committed to providing an undergraduate education in the liberal tradition, Lawrence has an enrollment of 1,350 students from 48 states and 49 countries.

The Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences

Daniel G. Barolsky
Ph.D., Music History and Theory, University of Chicago (expected August, 2005)
Interests: Musicology; the relationship between performance and the history and aesthetics of music; music criticism and analysis
Placement: Conservatory of Music

Melanie Boyd
Ph.D., English and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan
Interests: Theories of gender, race, and sexuality; literary criticism; representations of violence and political identity
Placement: Gender Studies Program

Deanna G. Pranke Byrnes
Ph.D., Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Interests: Evolution and speciation of vertebrates; island and tropical ecology; the use of molecular tools in the study of ecology and evolution
Placement: Department of Biology

Jennifer Fitzgerald
Ph.D., Music Composition, Duke University
Interests: Music composition; women and music; discourses of race in music; multimedia collaborations
Placement: Conservatory of Music

Jennifer J. Keefe
Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Aberdeen (expected July, 2005)
Interests: History of philosophy, especially 18th and 19th century; British Idealism; Scottish Philosophy; the relationship between Realism and Idealism
Placement: Department of Philosophy

Joan Marler
Ph.D., Physics, University of California-San Diego
Interests: Low-energy positron atomic physics; ionization of noble gas atoms
Placement: Department of Physics

David Sunderlin
Ph.D., Geology/Paleontology, University of Chicago (expected June, 2005)
Interests: Paleobiology; paleoclimatology; tectonics; environmental change
Placement: Department of Geology

Annette Thornton
Ph.D., Theatre, University of Colorado-Boulder
Interests: Mime and movement; musical theatre and opera; women’s studies and history
Placement: Department of Theatre Arts

Lawrence University Art Historian, American History Scholar and Jazz Director Named to Endowed Professorships

Lawrence University President Jill Beck announced the appointment of Carol Lawton, Jerald Podair and Fred Sturm to endowed professorships Thursday (5/26) at the college’s annual honors convocation.

Lawton, professor of art history, was named to the Ottilia Buerger Professorship in Classical Studies. Podair, associate professor of history, was named to the Robert S. French Professorship in American Studies. Sturm, professor of music, was named to the Kimberly-Clark Professorship in Music.

Appointments to endowed professorships recognize academic distinction through teaching excellence and scholarly achievement. Lawrence currently has 47 endowed chairs.

Lawton, a specialist in ancient Greek sculpture, joined the Lawrence art department in 1980 and serves as curator of Lawrence’s Ottilia Buerger Collection of ancient and Byzantine coins. She has made research trips to Greece each of the past 25 years. Working with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, she is studying Greek and Roman votive reliefs excavated from the Athenian Agora, the center of civic activity of ancient Athens.

She has received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the J. Paul Getty Trust and is the author of the 1995 book “Attic Document Reliefs of the Classical and Hellenistic Periods” (Oxford University Press).

In 2004, Lawton was recognized with Lawrence’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, becoming the only faculty member to earn all three of the college’s major teaching awards. She was the recipient of the college’s Young Teacher Award in 1982 and the Freshman Studies Teaching Award in 1998. She earned her Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University.

The Buerger professorship was established in 2002 by a bequest from the estate of Ottilia Buerger, a 1938 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lawrence with a degree in Latin. A native of Mayville, Buerger taught Latin and English for several years at high schools in Goodman, Wautoma and Beaver Dam.

Combining a life-long interest in history, classics and numismatics, Buerger began coin collecting as a hobby in the 1950s and wound up assembling a world-renowned collection of ancient Greek and Roman coins. Buerger’s collection of 352 coins was donated to Lawrence after her death in 2001 and is used extensively today as a teaching and research resource for students and faculty studying the ancient world.

Podair joined the Lawrence faculty in 1998. A one-time Wall Street lawyer, he turned his attention to 20th-century American history in the early 1990s, focusing his research interests on urban history and racial and ethnic relations. He was recognized in 1998 with the Allan Nevin Prize from the Society of American Historians, which honored him for the single most outstanding dissertation in American history that year. It was published as the book “The Strike That Changed New York” in 2003 by Yale University Press.

He served as a consulting scholar for the recent Joe McCarthy exhibition at the Outagamie County Museum and worked with documentary filmmaker Richard Broadman as a historical consultant on a film chronicling the history of Black-Jewish relations in modern New York City. He earned his doctorate at Princeton University.

The French Professorship was established in 2001 by a gift from William Zuendt in honor of his former high school counselor and long-time friend, Robert French, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence in 1948 with a self-designed major in American studies. The professorship is intended to embrace a broad array of subjects, including history, literature, political thought and artistic expression, in examining America’s past.

French, a devoted student and collector of items relating to Abraham Lincoln and his legacy, helped establish the Lincoln Reading Room in Lawrence’s Seeley G. Mudd Library. He donated a collection of more than 1,500 items related to Lincoln, among them books, artwork and published speeches.

Sturm, director of jazz and improvisational music, is in his second stint as a faculty member in the Lawrence conservatory of music. A 1973 Lawrence graduate, he first directed jazz studies here from 1977-91, then returned in 2002 after spending 11 years as professor and chair of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music in New York.

An award-winning composer, his jazz compositions and arrangements have been performed by Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis and Clark Terry, among others, and have been issued by numerous record labels, including Concord Jazz, RCA and Warner Brothers Records. Sturm received a Grammy Award nomination in 1988 and was named the 2003 recipient of the ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones, a prize granted annually to one established jazz composer of international prominence.

He concurrently serves as principal guest conductor of the Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public Radio for the State of Hessen) Big Band in Frankfurt, Germany and as visiting conductor of professional jazz ensembles and radio orchestras in Europe. During his nearly 30-year university teaching career, Sturm’s jazz ensembles have been cited by Downbeat Magazine as the finest in the United States and Canada eight times. He earned a master’s degree in music composition from Eastman School of Music.

The Kimberly-Clark Foundation established the Kimberly-Clark Professorship in Music in 1995 in recognition and support of the cultural contributions Lawrence makes to the quality of life in the community.

Two Lawrence University Musicians Earn Top Honors at State Piano Competition

Lawrence University musicians Ka Man (Melody) Ng and Amanda Gessler captured the first- and second-place honors, respectively, at the recent Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Badger Collegiate Piano Competition held May 7 at Lawrence. Both are students in the piano studio of Associate Professor of Music Anthony Padilla.

Ng, a sophomore from Hong Kong, earned $200 for her winning performance, which included works by Bach, Schubert and Liszt. It was the second state title in two years for Ng, who also captured top honors in last year’s Neale-Silva Young Artists Competition sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio. Gessler, a sophomore from Harshaw, Wis., performed works by Haydn, Bartok and Liszt.

Participants in the competition, which is open to students attending any college or university in Wisconsin, are required to play a 30-minute recital.

Smile Power: Lawrence University Psychologist Dicusses Laughter as a Coping Mechanism in Science Hall Colloquium

Lawrence University psychologist Matthew Ansfield discusses his latest research on the paradox of positive facial expressions, such as smiling, in response to anxiety-provoking events Tuesday, May 24 in the Science Hall Colloquium “When Laughter is (and is not!) the Best Medicine.” The presentation, at 4:15 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102, is free and open to the public.

Ansfield will discuss the findings of studies he has conducted, as well as the research of others, on the use of laughter and humor as a coping mechanism when dealing with potentially distressing situations. The presentation will focus on what his research reveals about how laughter and humor can, at times, be beneficial both to people’s emotional and physical well-being as they attempt to cope with negative life experiences.

As a social psychologist, Ansfield specializes in the fields of nonverbal behavior and mental control of thought and action. In addition, he has written broadly on the subject of lies, deception and deception detection.

He joined the Lawrence psychology department in 2000 after spending three years on the faculty at Southern Methodist University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Virginia.