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Human Behavior, National Security, the Arts Explored in 2006-07 Lawrence University Convocation Series

An award-winning researcher on stress, an expert on national security strategy, a theatre executive and an acclaimed social commentator will join Lawrence University President Jill Beck on the college’s 2006-07 convocation series.

Beck will kick off the series Thursday, Sept. 21 with her annual matriculation address, officially opening the college’s 157th academic year. All convocations are held in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel beginning at 11:10 a.m. and are free and open to the public.

Robert Sapolsky, a biologist, neuroscientist, nature writer and Stanford University professor will speak Tuesday, Nov. 7. Since graduating from Harvard in the mid-1970s, Sapolsky has divided his time between field work in Kenya, where he has lived with a group of baboons and highly technical neurological research in the laboratory. His expertise spans pecking orders in primate societies — human as well as baboon — as well as understanding how neurotransmitters function under stress. He is the author of several well-received books, including “A Primate’s Memoir,” which details his more than 20 years’ work as a field biologist, “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers,” a primer on stress and stress-related disease and “The Trouble with Testosterone,” a collection of provocative essays on relationships between biology and human behavior.

Juliette Kayyem, a specialist on counterterrorism, homeland security and law enforcement, visits the campus Tuesday, Feb. 6. A lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Kayyem spent two years as a congressional appointment on the National Commission on Terrorism, a federally-mandated review of how the government could better prepare for growing terrorist threats. She previously served as a legal advisor to former Attorney General Janet Reno, focusing on a variety of national security and terrorism cases. She is the co-author of the 2005 book “Preserving Liberty in an Age of Terror” and the co-editor of 2003’s “First to Arrive: State and Local Response to Terrorism.” Kayyem serves as a national security analyst for NBC News.

Ted Chapin, president and executive director of New York City’s Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, will speak Tuesday, April 17. Chapin, who attended Lawrence in the early 1970s, oversees all the divisions within R&H, including Williamson Music, the Irving Berlin Music Company, R&H Theatricals and the R&H Concert Library. As a 20-year-old college student, Chapin served as a “go-fer” on the set of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical “Follies.” He kept a diary of his experiences as an insider and 30 years later used that diary as the basis for the book “Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical ‘Follies.’” He has served as chairman of the Advisory Committee for New York City Center’s “Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert” series since its inception and is currently a member of the Tony Administration Committee.

Author and social commentator Susan Faludi will be featured at the annual honors convocation on Tuesday, May 22. The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 while working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Faludi earned national attention for the best-selling book “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women,” which examined the attacks endured by women in the wake of the feminist movement of the 1970s. The book earned Faludi the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1991, she followed up with an analysis of the forces that shape the lives and attitudes of men in another ground-breaking book, “Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man.”

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

Arthur Ullian was living what many would call “the good life.” Running a successful real estate development company in Boston that included the Eliot Hotel provided a comfortable lifestyle — influential friends, sailing and skiing trips, frequent travels abroad.

That life, however, took a sudden and dramatic turn on the morning of July 5, 1991, when an innocent bicycle ride on a quiet country Massachusetts road ended tragically. Ullian was unexpectedly flipped over the handlebars of his bike, landed on his chin and hyper-extended his neck. Despite wearing a bike helmet, he suffered a bruised spinal cord that left him a quadriplegic.

Undeterred, Ullian turned his personal tragedy into public advocacy, putting his political, entrepreneurial and financial experience into helping others through neurological research.

Ullian will be among six Lawrence University alumni who will be honored for their career accomplishments and service June 16-18 when the college hosts its annual Reunion Weekend celebration. More than 900 alumni and guests from 38 states and six countries are expected to return to campus to participate in the weekend-long festivities. Two alumni will be recognized with distinguished achievement awards and four will he honored with service awards during the annual Reunion Convocation Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

A 1961 Lawrence graduate, Ullian 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.

Since his accident, Ullian has devoted his life to advancing neuroscience research and raising public awareness on the cost of neurological disease through a variety of organizations and committees. For the past 13 years, Ullian has served as president of the National Council on Spinal Cord Injury, becoming a fixture at congressional hearings where he passionately advocates for increased funding for research. During his NCSCI tenure, he has collaborated with the Christopher Reeve Foundation, the Laskar Foundation and the Dana Alliance, among others.

In addition to his NCSCI presidency, Ullian is currently serving the second four-year term of an appointment that began in 1999 on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health. The committee advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the NIH on biomedical research, medical science and biomedical communications. From 1996-99, Ullian also served as a member of an advisory panel to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), helping review scientific applications for financial support for biomedical research and training on disorders of the brain and nervous system.

In 2005, he was named to the Harvard University Stem Cell Advisory Committee and currently serves as chairman of the Boston-based Task Force on Science, Health Care and the Economy, which examines factors related to biotechnological innovation that will combine to alter medical knowledge and practice, outcomes and costs in the coming decades.

The American Academy of Neurology Foundation recognized Ullian’s efforts on behalf of neurological disorders in 1996 with its Public Leadership in Neurology Award. In 1999, Ullian became just the second recipient of the “CURE” Award, which honors exemplary service and dedication to the field of spinal cord injury research. The Boston-based mentoring organization Partners for Youth with Disabilities honored him for his contributions to the disabilities community in 2004 and that same year, Rutgers University presented him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Growing up on a 50-head dairy farm in Sauk Prairie gave Catherine Statz an early appreciation for rural life and the value of cooperatives. Since graduating from Lawrence in 1996, Statz has dedicated her career to advancing the quality of life for farm families, rural communities and all people as the education director for the Wisconsin Farmers Union in Chippewa Falls.
Statz 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.

As the WFU’s education director, a position she has held since 1997, Statz coordinates a variety of cooperative education programs for its members, their children and the general public. Among her duties is serving as director of Kamp Kenwood on Lake Wissota, a camp she attended herself from the time she was nine years old until she graduated from high school. The camp, which specializes in securing products and services from local farmers, businesses and co-ops, was featured in the 2001 Wisconsin Public Television program “Camp Co-op.”

As camp director, Statz organizes and leads learning opportunities about family farms, cooperatives and social justice for more than 200 youngsters each summer. Among the array of educational and team-building activities she oversees are campfire sing-alongs, where she puts her B.M. in voice performance to work, and “theme nights,” when she utilizes her B.A. in English for a primer on Grendel by staging “Beowulf Night.”

For the past seven years, Statz has collaborated with the Minnesota Farmers Union to organize the annual College Conference on Cooperatives in Minneapolis. Each year, 80 post-secondary students and faculty from throughout the Midwest meet for a three-day educational conference on the challenges facing the cooperative environment and the future face of co-ops.

She also has been instrumental in developing the international Building Cooperative Futures youth program. Started as a pilot program in 2003 with the help of a $5,000 grant from the Cooperative Foundation of St. Paul, Minn., the program has grown into an annual conference held each May to provide a collaborative, cross sectional approach to cooperative education for young adults.

Last month, Statz led a delegation of American representatives to this year’s conference in Manchester, England, where 100 participants gathered from 10 countries. Manchester is near Rochdale, widely considered the birthplace of the modern cooperative movement and conference participants visited the legendary store — now a small museum — on Toad Lane where the first co-op was launched.

In 1999, the Association of Cooperative Educators honored Statz with its William Hlusko Memorial Award to Young Cooperative Educators in recognition of outstanding achievement in cooperative education.

Jose Hernandez-Ugalde, a 1996 Lawrence graduate and native of Costa Rica, will receive the George B. Walter Service to Society Award. Named in honor of Walter, a 1936 graduate, 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 recognizes alumni who best exemplify the ideals of a liberal education through socially useful service in their community, the nation or the world.

For the past four years, Hernandez-Ugalde has served as Costa Rica’s country director for Cross-Cultural Solutions, an international organization founded in 1995 that provides individual and small-group volunteer experiences in 10 countries. The program is recognized for its on-site support and education for volunteers and the year-round presence it maintains in the communities it serves.

Since joining CCS, Hernandez-Ugalde has established two volunteer centers, one in his childhood hometown of Ciudad Quesada and a second in Cartago, the country’s oldest and third-largest city.

Praised as “an ambassador who connects North American and Latin American experiences” by those who have worked with him, Hernandez-Ugalde is responsible for hiring and supervising all in-country CCS staff members. He also matches volunteers from around the world with locally-run partner programs that include everything from working with deaf children and creating positive activities for at-risk youth to helping provide care for nursing homes patients. Beyond placing participants with volunteer opportunities, Hernandez-Ugalde plays a central role in immersing volunteers in the local culture and the lives of the people they are there to help.

His personal interests center around incorporating the arts into his home community and he serves as a liaison in nearby San Carlos for the National Theater Company located in the capital city of San Jose.

Prior to joining CCS, Hernandez-Ugalde worked with the Foreign Service Foundation for Peace and Democracy, where he specialized in conflict resolution and the elimination of child labor. He was a visiting faculty member at the Close-Up Foundation in Washington D.C., teaching courses on civic education and democracy and has served as a protocol official for the United Nations Conference on the Environment.

Margaret (Banta) Humleker, Kathleen (Karst) Larson, and Peter Kelly will each be presented 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 and recognizes Lawrence and Milwaukee-Downer alumni who have provided outstanding service to the college.

Humleker, Fond du Lac, a 1941 graduate, served the college as member of the Board of Trustees for 24 years and has spent more than 30 years as a class secretary. She has served on numerous reunion gift and steering committees over the years and has been a Lawrence representative at college presidential inaugurations. A second generation Lawrence graduate, Humleker also had two sons and a granddaughter earn degrees from Lawrence.

Larson, McAllen, Texas, a 1960 graduate, holds the distinction of being the longest serving class secretary in Lawrence history — 42 years and counting. In addition, she is a long-serving reunion steering committee member and former board member of the Lawrence University Alumni Association. She also has served as a Career Center contact, an admissions office volunteer and was instrumental in helping Lawrence launch LENS, an electronic alumni newsletter.

Kelly, West Newton, Mass., a 1987 graduate, will be recognized with the college’s highest alumni service award at the youngest possible age — during his 20th class reunion. He has served in numerous lead volunteer capacities since leaving Lawrence, including co-chair of his class’ 10th reunion gift committee. He spent three years as a member of the executive committee of the Lawrence University Alumni Association and has been an ambassador peer solicitor the past three years. He also has been active as a Career Center contact and admissions volunteer.

Lawrence University Cites Brandenberger, Carr, Barrett for Scholarship, Teaching Excellence

Physicist John Brandenberg was honored as the first recipient of Lawrence University’s new Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity Award Sunday, June 11 at the college’s 157th commencement. Brandenberger was one of three faculty members recognized during graduation ceremonies.

Karen Carr, professor of religious studies, was presented Lawrence’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, given annually 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.

Faith Barrett, assistant professor of English, received the Young Teacher Award in recognition of demonstrated excellence in the classroom and the promise of continued growth.

The new Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity Award recognizes professional accomplishment in scholarship or creative activity. The award is intended to symbolize the importance of excellence in scholarly and creative work for advancing the mission of Lawrence University, with preference given to those who have demonstrated sustained programs of excellent work for a number of years and whose work exemplifies the ideals of the teacher-scholar.

Brandenberger, the Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics and a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1968, previously was recognized in 1995 with the college’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

A specialist in laser spectroscopy and time-resolved flourescence spectroscopy, Brandenberger has played a leading role in earning national recognition for Lawrence’s physics department as one of the country’s best undergraduate programs. His research on atomic structure has been supported by grants from the Research Corporation, the National Science Foundation, NASA, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the General Electric Foundation and the Keck Foundation. In 1999, Brandenberger became the first physicist in Lawrence history to be elected a Fellow in the American Physical Society for his contributions to physics education in America.

In presenting him with the inaugural new award, Lawrence President Jill Beck cited the “imagination and energy” Brandenberger brings to the classroom and the laboratory.

“For generations of Lawrence students, you have provided a model for the conduct of scientific investigation in the context of a liberal education,” said Beck. “Your success as a scholar has shown in dramatic fashion that high quality research can be done at an undergraduate institution and can serve as an important part of students’ education. Your creative, intelligent and forceful advocacy for scholarly work is truly remarkable.”

A native of Danville, Ill., Brandenberger is a graduate of Carleton College, which honored him with its Distinguished Achievement Award in 2001. He earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in physics at Brown University.

Carr, who joined the faculty in 1987, becomes just the seventh person to be recognized with both the Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Young Teacher Award in the 32-year history of the awards.

A scholar on the history of Christianity and 19th- and 20th-century religious thought, Carr is the author of two books, “The Banaliization of Nihilism” and “The Sense of Anti Rationalism: The Religious Thought of Zhuangzi and Kierkegaard,” a comparative study of religious epistemology.

“Your success at teaching students the nature of early Christianity and the complexities of such thinkers as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard made it clear that you have a special ability to take the most difficult ideas and make them come alive, without ever oversimplifying them,” Beck said in presenting Carr her award. “If the mark of a good liberal education is being able to use knowledge to understand what is vital for the human experience, you have clearly been successful with your students.”

Carr, who grew up near Buffalo, N.Y., earned her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and her master’s degree and Ph.D. in religious studies at Stanford University.

Barrett joined the English department in 2003. A specialist in 19th-century American literature, much of Barrett’s scholarly research has centered around poetry of the Civil War era. She served as co-editor of “Words for the Hour,” a 2005 anthology of American Civil War poetry. She also has two books in progress, “‘To fight aloud is very brave”: American Poets and the Civil War,” which examines works of both popular poets as well as unpublished poems written by soldiers, and “Letters to the World: Emily Dickinson and the Lyric Address.”

Beck credited Barrett for “creating a sense of excitement” about poetry and literature in her classes.

“Students praise your ability to challenge them and to help them reach new levels of accomplishment in both writing and critical analysis,” said Beck. “It is clear that a great deal of your success comes from your individualized learning style that is based on a high level of rich interactions with students. Your teaching has established a balance between attempting to cover a set of important points and allowing students to take responsibility for their own learning.”

Originally from Hartford, Conn., Barrett earned her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Swarthmore College and holds a MFA degree in poetry from the University of Iowa. She also earned a master’s degree and her Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

Hortonville, Pittsville High School Teachers to be Honored as Outstanding Educators at Lawrence Commencement

Hortonville High School biologist Jackie Dorow and Karen Brownell, a mathematics teacher at Pittsville High School, will be presented Lawrence University’s Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award Sunday, June 11 during the college’s 157th commencement. Both will receive 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.

A native of Greenville and a graduate of Hortonville High School, Dorow joined the faculty of her alma mater in 1974. During her 32-year career, she had taught general biology, honors biology, botany, zoology as well as anatomy and physiology. She has served as the chair of the biology department the past four years and also leads Hortonville’s North Central Accreditation School Improvement Committee.

In nominating Dorow for the award, Lawrence senior Angie Geiger, a 2002 Hortonville graduate, praised her former teacher for her enthusiastic and nurturing style in the classroom.

“Ms. Dorow’s classes were nothing short of a challenge,” Geiger said in her nomination. “The assignments, projects and presentations demanded that we put forth the effort to become fluent in the language of biology. Ms. Dorow is a teacher any Lawrence student would adore and any colleague would admire. She changed my life and helped me discover my destiny as a biologist.”

Recognized as Hortonville’s Teacher of the Year in 1989, Dorow is a member of the National Science Teachers Association, the National Association of Biology Teachers and the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers.

She earned her bachelor’s degree at UW-Oshkosh in biology and her master’s degree in education at Aurora University.
Like Dorow, Brownell also returned to teach at her own former high school. Since joining the Pittsville High School faculty in 1976, Brownell has taught virtually every math course, including algebra, geometry and calculus. She also has served as the coach of the school’s math team during most of her tenure. Under her direction, Pittsville has been a consistent top-five finisher in the annual Central Wisconsin Math League Competition, including a string of nine consecutive first-place finishes in the 1980s and ’90s.

Lawrence senior Amalia Wegner, a 2002 Pittsville graduate, cited Brownell’s unflinching determination among the reasons why she was a special teacher.

“Ms. Brownell has never given up on a student,” Wegner said in nominating her for the award. “She believes in every one of her students. In turn, her students try their best because they know someone is trying to help them succeed.”

Wegner recalled Brownell spending her lunch hour, free period and after-school time to tutor a particular student who was struggling.

“When no one else was there to help, Ms. Brownell is there. She is a great teacher who goes above and beyond her duty for her students.”

Outside the classroom, Brownell has coached the girls’ volleyball team for 28 years, winning eight conference titles and making four trips to the state tournament, including second-place finishes in 1986 and 1995. She also has served as Pittsville’s track coach for the past 17 years.

A member of the National Education Association, Brownell earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UW-Stevens Point.

Lawrence University Honors Dintenfass, Perreault for 73 Years of Teaching at 2006 Commencement

When Mark Dintenfass arrived on the Lawrence University campus in the fall of 1968 to teach fiction writing in the English department, he hadn’t planned on sticking around all that long.

“I was told Lawrence was a great place to start your career,” Dintenfass recalled.

Thirty-eight years later, Dintenfass admits it is not a bad place to end a career, either.

Dintenfass and biologist William Perreault, who together have a combined 73 years of teaching experience at Lawrence, will be recognized with professor emeritus status Sunday, June 11 as retiring members of the faculty at the college’s 157th commencement. They will be awarded honorary master of arts degrees, ad eundem, as part of the graduation ceremonies that begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall green.

Dintenfass admits he has become a bit more “realistic” with the aspiring authors in his fiction writing class during the past few years. The changing publishing landscape has made an already tough field an even tougher nut to crack and he doesn’t want to encourage any false expectations.

“That doesn’t discourage the good writers,” Dintenfass noted. “But anyone who gets to be a published writer today has to be a bit lucky. To become a well-known writer, you have to be good and lucky.

“It’s a rougher business now,” added the Brooklyn, N.Y. native. “Publishers use to be interested in good writing. Now they’re all just looking for the next Dan Brown. Good writing has taken a back seat to marketability.”

When Dintenfass cautions his fiction-writing students about the perils and pitfalls of a writing career, he does so with the experience and perspective of someone who has managed to have six of his own novels published. “Make Yourself an Earthquake” was published by Little, Brown the year after he started at Lawrence. His 1982 work, “Old World, New World” (William Morrow) was a Literary Guild Alternate Selection and came within a few thousand copies of creeping on to the New York Times best-seller list.

His other works include “The Case Against Org,” (Little, Brown, 1970), “Figure 8” (Simon & Schuster, 1974), “Montgomery Street” (Harper & Row, 1978) and “A Loving Place” (William Morrow, 1986).

The Wisconsin Library Association honored Dintenfass as a Notable Wisconsin Author in 1986 and the following year, presented him with its Distinguished Achievement Award.

More recently, Dintenfass has turned his attention to theatre, stepping outside the classroom to direct nearly two dozen Lawrence and Attic Theatre productions during the past 25 years, among them Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” and Neil Simon’s “Jake’s Woman.”

“Writing is solitary, but one of the great things about theatre is you get to work with lots of talented people,” Dintenfass said.

While he’s noncommittal about the prospects of a seventh novel getting written in retirement, Dintenfass will continue to pursue his theatre interests, directing Attic’s production of “Lunch Hour” later this summer.

Perreault, professor of biology, arrived on the Lawrence campus in 1971 with an infectious curiosity about cells — plant as well as animal — and how they operate. And three-and-a-half decades of teaching courses on genetics and microbiology have done little to dampen his spirit of enthusiasm. He still relishes the challenge of trying to coordinate molecular techniques with microscopy techniques and the interplay between them in search of a better understanding of how cells work.

During his 35-year career, Perreault has firmly established himself as Lawrence’s electron microscope guru. When Lawrence was planning its new Science Hall in the late 1990s, Perreault personally designed the plans for the building’s microscopy suite. Over the years, he has individually tutored more than 100 students — and a few faculty colleagues along the way as well — on the finer points of using either Lawrence’s transmission electron microscope or the newer $200,000 scanning electron microscope.

“I’m extremely proud of that,” said Perreault of his work with the TEM and SEM.

Before arriving at Lawrence, Perreault spent seven years in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of captain. Two of his years in the service were spent as a microbiologist at the U.S. Army Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

Originally from Cohoes, N.Y., an upstate mill town near Albany, Perreault often has served as the biology department’s “welcoming face.” He taught the introductory course “Principles of Biology” for 33 of his 35 years. He took particular joy in teaching it because the course typically attracted a fair number of students from disciplines outside of the sciences.

“I like to think part of my legacy will be the sheer number of students who received an understanding of the beautiful science of biology because they took my intro class,” said Perreault.

Two of those former students — Beth and Bart De Stasio — went on to earn their doctorate degrees and returned to Lawrence, where they have spent the last 14 years as Perreault’s biology department faculty colleagues.

“At least I didn’t turn them off to biology,” Perreault said of the De Stasios with characteristic good humor. “Part of my legacy is having them both back here. I may not have been the ‘main man’ when they were students here, but I played a part.”

Perreault says he’s approaching the final days of his residency in the third-floor office of Science Hall with the expansive view of the east end of campus with decidedly mixed emotions.

“I’m not too fond of cold weather mornings and 8:30 classes, but I love this place and I love my job. I will miss my colleagues, but mostly I will miss my students.”

Award-winning TV/Film Producer, Humanities Champion to Receive Honorary Degrees at Lawrence University’s 157th Commencement

Emmy-winning television producer and director Catherine Tatge and accomplished businessman-turned-cultural advocate Richard Franke will be recognized by Lawrence University for their achievements and societal contributions with honorary doctorate degrees Sunday, June 11 at the college’s 157th commencement. Graduation exercises begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall Green.

Lawrence will award an honorary doctor of fine arts degree to Tatge and an honorary doctor of humane letters to Franke. In addition, 298 seniors from 36 states and 21 foreign countries are expected to receive bachelor of arts and/or music degrees.

A baccalaureate service featuring Tim Spurgin, associate professor and Bonnie Glidden Buchanan Professor of English, will be held Saturday, June 11 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

Both honorary degree recipients, along with President Jill Beck, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair William Hochkammer, ’66, and student representative Jeni Houser, a senior from Stoughton., will address the graduates during commencement. Both the baccalaureate service and commencement ceremony are free and open to the public.

A 1972 graduate of Lawrence, Tatge has compiled an expansive body of work, producing or directing more than 50 films, television programs and series encompassing genres from public affairs and cultural performances to biographies and documentaries.

As co-founder of New York City-based Tatge/Lasseur Productions, Inc., Tatge has earned a reputation as a leader in arts filmmaking for bringing innovative, intellectual material to the screen, including works on creative genius, spiritual matters and the human condition. She has produced programming for the PBS series “American Masters,” Great Performances” and “Alive TV.”

Tatge has collaborated extensively with noted television journalist Bill Moyers, including the seminal PBS series “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers.” Tatge earned an Emmy award in 1988 for her work.served as producer and director of the six-episode series.

She also has worked with Moyers on nearly a dozen other projects over the years, including the hate trilogy “Beyond Hate,” Facing Hate with Elie Wiesel” and “Hate on Trial,” and the 1996 public television series “Genesis: A Living Conversation.” In 2004, she explored the contrasting world views of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud in the four-part PBS series “The Question of God.”

Playwright Tennessee Williams, dancer/choreographer Martha Graham, West Indian poet Derek Walcott, opera star Barbara Hendricks and famed Hollywood filmmaker William Wyler are among the numerous figures Tatge has profiled in documentary films.

Her current projects include “Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories” which examines the effects of domestic violence on children, “Small Wonders,” a series on the future of nanotechnology and “The History and Future of Democracy,” a four-part series hosted by author and Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria.

She is a member of both the Director’s Guild of America and the Writer’s Guild of America.

Franke enjoyed a 40-year career as an investment banker for the Chicago firm John Nuveen & Co., retiring in 1996 as the firm’s chairman and CEO.

First as Nuveen’s president and later as its CEO, Franke established himself as a friend of higher education and a champion for the humanities, often incorporating the arts into the life of the company. While serving on several cultural boards, including those of the Lyric Opera, Shakespeare Theatre and Chicago Symphony, he embarked on his most ambitious project in 1989, creating the Chicago Humanities Festival, a city wide event designed to “celebrate the powers of ideas in human culture.”

The first festival, held in November, 1990 was a one-day event with eight programs. Under Franke’s leadership and drive as chair of the board of directors, the festival has since grown into the world’s largest celebration of the humanities, covering two full weeks in early November and attracting scores of the world’s foremost scholars, authors, playwrights, historians, artists and performers who offer presentations based around a single theme of universal appeal. This fall’s 17th festival, Oct. 28-Nov. 12, will offer 125 programs on the theme “PEACE and WAR: Facing Human Conflict.”

In recognition of his efforts in raising awareness of the ways the humanities enrich daily life, Franke was honored in 1997 by President Clinton as one of 10 recipients of the nation’s first National Humanities Medal. That same year, Franke was named chairman of the National Trust for the Humanities. Since 1996, he has served as an elected member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to establishing the Chicago Humanities Festival, Franke created the Richard J. Franke Fellows in the Humanities program in the mid-1980s at Yale University, which supports 30 graduate students. In 1990, he also established the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago to foster and promote advanced research in the humanities.
In 2005, Franke added author to his resume, chronicling his grandparents’ journey from Berlin, Germany to Springfield, Ill., and their struggle to build a new life in late 19th-century America in the biographical book, “Cut from Whole Cloth: An Immigrant Experience.”

Franke earned a bachelor’s degree at Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He has previously received honorary degrees from Yale and DePaul University.

Lawrence University Fellows Program Sees Surge in Applications in its Second Year

Drawing from a pool of applicants that soared nearly 300 percent from its initial year in 2005, Lawrence University has appointed five more recent Ph.D. or terminal graduate degree recipients to its Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program for the 2006-2007 academic year.

The five new appointments — representing an acceptance rate of less than one percent from among this year’s 616 applicants — brings the number of program fellows in residence at Lawrence University this coming fall to 12. Seven fellows who received two-year appointments last summer in the first year of the postdoctoral fellowship program will return for their second year.

“After a highly successful start-up year, we are eager to take the Lawrence Fellows program to the next level,” said Lawrence University President Jill Beck. “By substantially increasing the number of fellows and expanding our institutional commitment to the program, we hope to further extend its impact at Lawrence as well as beyond our campus.”

This year’s applicants, who represented many of the top-ranked graduate schools and research institutions in the United States and abroad, accounted for nearly a three-fold increase in the number of candidates applying for positions over the program’s first year.

“The dramatic increase in applicants for this program is both gratifying and reaffirming,” said Beck. “In creating the fellowship program, we were convinced that Lawrence University was the perfect place for recent Ph.D.s to gain valuable experience in strong undergraduate teaching. With a firm commitment to traditional liberal education and our unusually high level of individualized instruction, Lawrence is an ideal setting to help launch the next generation of outstanding college professors. The intense competition for these limited appointments certainly suggests that both the candidates and their doctoral advisors are quickly coming to that same realization.”

The scholarly interests of the new Lawrence Fellows reflect a wide breadth of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, including economics, psychology, religious studies, anthropology, and studio art. They join existing fellows in biology, music composition, English and women’s studies, philosophy, music history and theory, physics, and theatre arts.

Created in January 2005, the Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program is designed to help bridge the divide between doctoral research at prestigious universities — which is often narrowly focused — and the breadth of perspective that is characteristic of successful undergraduate liberal education. The program provides recent Ph.D. recipients with mentoring relationships, teaching opportunities, and research collaborations to better prepare them for professorial careers at selective liberal arts colleges.

Lawrence Fellows 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 are actively encouraged, as are opportunities for teaching and research collaboration.

In December 2005, Lawrence University was awarded a $100,000 grant by the New York City-based Teagle Foundation to support an assessment study of its new postdoctoral fellows teaching program. Lawrence was one of only five institutions nationally the Teagle Foundation recognized with a grant through its Working Groups in Liberal Education Program, which supports projects designed to generate fresh thinking about how to strengthen liberal education.

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 1,400 students from 47 states and 51 countries.

New Two-Year Lawrence Fellow Appointments For 2006-2007

Adam Galambos
Ph.D. Economics, University of Minnesota
M.S., Mathematics, University of Minnesota
B.A., Economics and German Language, University of Northern Iowa
Interests: Microeconomic theory; game theory; social choice theory
Placement: Department of Economics

Joshua Hart
Ph.D., Psychology, University of California-Davis
M.A., Psychology, University of California-Davis
B.A., Psychology, Skidmore College
Interests: Mortality anxiety; denial of death; attachment theory
Placement: Department of Psychology

Karen Park Koenig
Ph.D., History of Christianity, University of Chicago
M.A., Religious Studies, University of Chicago
B.A., English, Lawrence University
Interests: The Reformation; early modern Christianity
Placement: Department of Religious Studies

Amy R. Speier
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
B.A., Anthropology and English, University of California-Berkeley
Interests: Medical anthropology; health tourism; social anthropology
Placement: Department of Anthropology

Valerie Zimany
MFA, Ceramics, Kanazawa College of Art
BFA, Ceramics, The University of the Arts
Interests: Ceramics; Japanese art
Placement: Department of Art and Art History

Returning Lawrence Fellows (Appointed For 2005-2006)

Daniel G. Barolsky
Ph.D., Music History and Theory, University of Chicago
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
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

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

Alumni Organist Concert to be Held at Lawrence University

A special Reunion Weekend organ concert featuring five alumni organists will be held at 9:00 p.m. Friday, June 16, at the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public.

The concert will include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Jean Langlais, Nicolas Gigault, Max Reger, Josef Rheinberger, Jehan Alain, and Jeanne Demessieux. Featured organists include Randall Swanson, ’81, Ryan M. Albashian, ’02, David Heller, ’81, Paul M. Weber, ’00, and Thomas F. Froehlich, ’74.

Swanson has been the director of music and principal organist at Saint Clement Church in Chicago since 1989. Prior to his appointment at Saint Clement, he served as assistant organist and choirmaster under Richard Proulx at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. He has conducted concerts in many of the musical centers of Europe, including Paris, Florence, and Rome.

Albashian held church positions at two of the largest churches in Appleton during his time at Lawrence. Upon graduating from Lawrence, he was awarded the title of artist-in-residence of First English Lutheran Church. In March of 2004, he was on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered playing the 1799 David Tannenberg organ, which he helped restore. Currently, he is an organ builder with Taylor and Boody Organbuilders of Staunton, Virginia. He holds the position of voicer and travels regularly to finish new organs. Heller has been a member of the faculty of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, since 1986, serving as professor of music and university organist. Prior to his appointment, he served as director of music and organist for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Pittsford, New York. An active recitalist, he has performed extensively throughout the United States and has performed internationally in Canada, France, Germany, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Weber is an assistant professor of music at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he teaches organ and music history and directs the Schola Cantorum Franciscana and the Franciscan Chamber Orchestra. He is an active performer, composer, and author, having appeared in numerous concerts and competitions in the United States and Europe. He is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Yale University.

Froehlich has served as organist/choirmaster at St. Michael’s Church in Paris while studying with Marie-Claire Alain and Jean Langlais. In 1977, he left Paris to assume the position of organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, a historic downtown church with a rich history of music and two mechanical-action organs. He has now held this position for nearly 30 years.

Lawrence University Tuba Player Chosen for American Wind Symphony Orchestra Tour

Bethany Wiese, a sophomore tuba player from Davenport, Iowa, has been chosen to perform with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO) during a month-long tour in June.

Wiese, who auditioned through a CD submission, was selected from among a distinguished group of young musicians that included doctoral students from around the nation. She will be the only tuba player in the 40-member AWSO, which performs mostly waterfront concerts on a specially-designed barge.

Wiese will join the orchestra on Monday (June 5) for rehearsals and play her first concert on June 7. She will perform a concert every day with the orchestra through July 6.

“It came out of the blue,” said Wiese, who heard about the audition early last month from her tuba instructor, Marty Erickson. “It’s a pretty interesting group. The orchestra will include 10 musicians from Japan.”

“Beth was prepared and took advantage of an opportunity,” said Erickson. “She’s a wonderful musician. It’s been a joy to work with her.”

This year’s tour will be held primarily in Louisiana and will include stops in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The tour includes community performances and residencies. As part of the residencies, members of the orchestra will perform at schools and teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade instrumentalists as part of the AWSO’s “Winds on the Mon” education program. After finishing the tour in Louisiana, the orchestra will travel to Pennsylvania for a final concert and to record a CD.

“We will be in a lot of areas affected by the hurricane,” Wiese said. “It should be an interesting combination of experiences. The residencies will be a way to apply the skills I’ve learned in school.”

The AWSO was founded in Pittsburgh in 1957 by Robert Austin Boudreau, who has been conducting the orchestra for its entire 50-year history. Initially, the AWSO performed concerts on a renovated coal barge on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania’s Point State Park. In 1976, the orchestra began traveling with its new multi-million dollar floating arts center, Point Counterpoint II. The self-propelled PCP II features a concert stage with an acoustical shell and a chamber theater.

The orchestra has given major waterfront concerts, chamber group programs and church concerts in communities on all the major waterways, including the East Coast, the Intercoastal Waterway, the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Caribbean. In 1989 and 1990, the AWSO traveled to European waters when the orchestra visited the British Isles, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Baltic countries.

Lawrence University Saxophone Studio Recital Features World Premiere of Alumnus Composition

The world premiere of “We Fall…We Rise,” a commissioned work by award-winning composer Javier Arau, ‘98, will be performed Sunday, May 28 at 2 p.m. in Harper Hall as part of the second annual Lawrence University saxophone studio and alumni recital.

Arau’s work as a performer, composer and arranger has been recognized four times by Down Beat magazine. He earned back-to-back “DBs” in 1996 and 1997 as a student at Lawrence for solo performance (tenor saxophone) and original composition, respectively, and earned two more Down Beat awards as a graduate student at the New England Conservatory, where he earned a master’s degree in composition after graduating from Lawrence.

“We Fall…We Rise” is the product of a commission specifically for this recital that Lawrence saxophone alumni offered Arau, who will make the trip from his current home in New York City to attend Saturday’s recital. The composition will be performed by an 15-member ensemble of alumni and current students.

Arau, who moved to New York exactly 10 days before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, says “We Fall…We Rise” is not a tribute to or partisan political statement about “9/11,” but more an expression of a common goal for an end to so much turmoil in the world. On a more personal level, it also represents his own struggle as a young musician trying to carve out his own niche in a city that is both exhilarating and rewarding as well as enormously challenging and unforgiving.

Since 2001, Arau has established himself as a sought-after composer, arranger, saxophonist and music teacher. He performs regularly with various bands at several of Manhattan’s top jazz clubs, his commissions have been performed around the world and his compositional output has expanded to include musical theater and feature films. In 2002, Arau was awarded ASCAP’s first annual Young Jazz Composer Award and two years later he was named a member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop.

In addition to “We Fall…We Rise,” more than 30 alumni and current saxophonists will be joined by a three-member percussion ensemble and a pianist in a multi-media presentation of Louis Andriessen’s “Workers Union.” Alumni and current students also will also perform works by Philip Glass, Michael Torke, and current LU senior Jacob Teichroew.