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Lawrence University Biologist Awarded $200,000 Grant for Zebra Mussel Study

The impact of the exploding non-native zebra mussel population on the ecosystem of the bay of Green Bay will be the focus of a three-year study conducted by Lawrence University associate professor of biology Bart De Stasio starting in March 2005. The research project will be funded by a $206,000 grant De Stasio was awarded by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Program.

A specialist in aquatic biology, especially predator-prey interactions, De Stasio will combine advanced computer modeling with field study research to determine the effects the exotic invader is having in Green Bay on the populations of phytoplankton, benthos, zooplankton and fish species.

Widely considered one of the most productive fisheries in the Great Lakes, Green Bay had been studied extensively prior to the invasion by zebra mussels. But De Stasio’s study will be the first to explore the dramatic changes the coastal ecosystem of Green Bay has undergone since zebra mussels were first discovered there in 1992 and only the third of its kind on the entire Great Lakes basin.

The research project will have three main objectives. One will be to identify information gaps in existing data by conducting field studies on key components of the lower food web at sites that were investigated extensively prior to the zebra mussel invasion as well as analyzing unpublished data from that time period.

The research project will have three main objectives. One will be to identify information gaps in existing data by conducting field studies on key components of the lower food web at sites that were investigated extensively prior to the zebra mussel invasion as well as analyzing unpublished data from that time period.

The study’s third objective will involve the construction of a dynamic energy/mass balance-flow ecosystem model of Green Bay that can be used for comparison with current modeling efforts done for the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario and Oneida Lake in New York.

“Green Bay is an ideal site for this project because of the abundance of good data that had been collected by other scientists and researchers prior to the arrival of the zebra mussel,” De Stasio said. “This study will provide a great opportunity to collect new data and create ecosystems models that will be invaluable to others who are also studying this problem. We want to establish collaborations with researchers at Cornell University and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources so we can determine the impact the zebra mussel is having on similar ecosystems not just in northeast Wisconsin but throughout the entire Great Lakes region.”

The grant will enable two Lawrence students to join De Statio as technicians and summer research assistants each year of the study as well as support one graduate student at UW-Green Bay.

With the support of a 1995 National Science Foundation grant, De Stasio previously established a baseline data set for ecological and genetic dynamics to measure the impact of zebra mussels on the Lake Winnebago watershed.

Native to the Caspian Sea region of Asia, the fingernail-sized zebra mussels are believed to have arrived in the Great Lakes via ballast water discharged from a transoceanic vessel into Lake St. Clair, near Detroit in 1988. Since their discovery, they have spread rapidly to all of the Great Lakes and waterways in many states, as well as Ontario and Quebec. By 1998, they had reached Lake Winnebago.

While most of the biological impacts of zebra mussels in North America are not yet known, information from Europe suggests zebra mussels have the potential to severely impact native mussels by interfering with their feeding, growth, locomotion, respiration and reproduction. They are notorious for their capabilities to colonize water supply pipes of power plants, public water supply plants and other industrial facilities, constricting flow and reducing the intake capacity in heat exchangers, condensers, fire fighting equipment and air conditioning and cooling systems.

A 1982 Lawrence graduate, De Stasio earned his Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University. He joined the Lawrence biology department in 1992 and was named a recipient of the Appleton Joint Rotary Clubs’ 1998 “Cutting Edge” award for leadership and innovation in education.

Two Lawrence University Actors Selected for Irene Ryan Regional Competition

Exceptional performances in Lawrence University’s recent production of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” have earned students Brendan Marshall-Rashid and Matt Murphy invitations to the 2004 Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition as part of the annual American College Theatre Festival.

Marshall-Rashid, a senior from Petoskey, Mich., and Murphy, a sophomore from Eagan, Minn., will be among 200 student actors participating in the five-state regional competition January 13-18, 2004 at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill.

In Lawrence’s four-show production staged last month, Marshall-Rashid played the leading role of Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, while Murphy portrayed Autolycus, a vagrant thief who ends up aiding the princess of Sicilia and the prince of Bohemia.

Participants in the regional acting audition vie for two $500 scholarships and the chance to advance to the ACTF’s national auditions at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., next spring.

The ACTF was founded in 1969 to recognize and celebrate the finest and most exciting work produced in college theatre programs and provide opportunities for participants to develop their theatre skills. Conducted since 1972, the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship was established in the will of the late actress, best known for her role as the lovable and feisty Granny Clampett on the TV hit show “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Lawrence University Violinist Wins State Strings Competition

Lawrence University violinist Claude Halter won the senior division of the 2003 Wisconsin American String Teachers Association (ASTA) competition Saturday, Nov. 8 held at the University of Wisconsin. A junior from Vicennes, France, and a student of assistant professor Stephane Tran Ngoc, Halter performed the first movement of the Sibelius’ “Violin Concerto” and Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz-Scherzo.” He earned $100 as a first-place prize.

By winning the state competition, Halter qualifies for the semifinals of ASTA’s national competition, which will be conducted by audio tape of state performances. A jury will select participants to perform in the national finals, which will be held March 11-13, 2004 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

National Survey Reaffirms Lawrence University’s Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Lawrence University ranks among the top schools in the nation when it comes to providing a high quality undergraduate educational experience according to a just-released national study of effective educational practices.

The 2003 Report of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), co-sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning, details the results from a nation-wide survey of 185,000 first-year students and seniors at 649 four-year colleges and universities.

The student engagement survey was developed by education assessment experts as an alternative to the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” rankings, which have been criticized for placing too much weight on institutional reputation and selectivity in admissions rather than on actual educational outcomes.

The survey annually provides comparative standards for determining how effectively colleges and universities are contributing to student learning based on five measured benchmarks: level of academic challenge; active and collaborative learning; student-faculty interaction; enriching educational experiences; and a supportive campus environment.

Lawrence scored high on all five benchmarks, regularly outscoring the composite mean for the national comparison group of all colleges and universities participating in the survey. Lawrence placed in the top 20 percent of all institutions in all but one instance and in the top 10 percent for the measures “level of academic challenge” and “enriching educational experiences.”

The NSSE benchmark measures assess the extent to which undergraduate students are involved in educational practices empirically linked to high levels of learning and development. Research over the past 30 years has shown that student engagement is critical to successful educational outcomes at the undergraduate level and that colleges and universities that encourage close student-faculty interaction, student involvement in collaborative learning and research, and active engagement in extra-curricular activities offer the most effective educational environment for student learning.

“A demanding and rigorous liberal education, fostered through individual engagement, close interaction between students and faculty members, and a supportive campus environment, is the essence of a Lawrence education,” said president Richard Warch. “Having Lawrence place among the top colleges and universities that participated in a national survey on effective educational practices, one that measures how students are actually learning, is a satisfying reaffirmation of what Lawrence does best.”

Among the NSSE’s specific findings were:

On the measure “enriching educational experiences,” Lawrence scored higher, for both first-year students and seniors, than 90 percent of the 649 four-year institutions participating in this year¹s study.

On the measure “level of academic challenge,” Lawrence’s score, for both first-year students and seniors, was better than 90 percent of the institutions participating in the study.

On the measure “student-faculty interaction,” Lawrence’s score was higher than that of 90 percent of the participating institutions for seniors, and higher than 80 percent for first-year students.

On the measure of a “supportive campus environment,” Lawrence’s score, for both first-year students and seniors, was greater than approximately 80 percent of the institutions participating in the study.

On the measure “active and collaborative learning,” Lawrence’s score for seniors was higher than 80 percent of the other institutions. The first-year student score was higher than approximately 60 percent of the comparison group.
Additional information on the National Survey of Student Engagement may be found on the NSSE Web site at www.iub.edu/~nsse.

Ross, Soler Share 2003 Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition Title

Sophomore pianist Joseph Ross and junior violinist Vincent Soler were named co-winners of the 10th annual Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra concerto competition and will perform as soloists in upcoming concerts.

Ross, who studies in the studio of associate professor Michael Kim, will play Bach’s “Concerto no. 1 in D minor” during the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra’s Jan. 31, 2004 concert. Soler, a student of assistant professor Stephane Tran Ngoc, will be the featured soloist in the May 1, 2004 LSO concert, performing “Poeme for violin and orchestra” by Chausson.

Ross, a graduate of Appleton West High School, and Soler, a native of Montbonnet, France, were chosen as this year’s winners from a field of nine finalists. Lawrence conservatory faculty members serve as judges for the competition. Each finalists is required to memorize a full concerto and then play up to 15 minutes worth from memory any part or parts of the concerto chosen by the judges.

The Lawrence concerto competition was started in 1994 to give students the opportunity to perform a full-length work with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.

Lawrence University Students Earn Six Firsts at State Singing Competition

Lawrence University conservatory of music students earned first-place honors in six divisions, including both music theatre categories, at the 2003 Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) audition competition held Nov. 7-8 on the Lawrence campus.

Senior Jacob Allen, who finished second a year ago in this competition, and sophomore Jennifer Nummerdor won top honors in the upper college division and lower college music theatre categories, respectively.

Other winning performances included Julie Silver in the sophomore women division; Matthew Vitti in the sophomore men division, Pete Petersen in the junior men division and Patrick Ireland, a 2001 winner in the sophomore division, in the senior and continuing senior men division. Allen, Vitti, and Ireland are students in the voice studio of professor Ken Bozeman. Silver and Nummerdor study under voice professor Karen Leigh-Post and Petersen is a student of Joanne Bozeman.

In addition, Alisa Jordheim, a senior at Appleton North High School who studies with Lawrence voice professor Patrice Michaels, placed first in the high school music theatre division. First-place finishers were awarded $100 for their winning efforts.

A total of 49 Lawrence students and two Lawrence Academy of Music students participated in this year’s NATS competition, with 18 of them advancing to the finals. Second-place honors went to sophomore Brad Grimmer and seniors Ricardo Lesperance (graduate division), Matt Schafer and Rachel McNeill while Andria Helm and Elaine Moran earned third-place honors in the senior women and upper college music theatre divisions, respectively.

The 2003 NATS competition featured 425 singers from colleges and high schools throughout Wisconsin. Depending upon the category, competitors are required to sing two, three or four classical pieces from different time periods with at least one selection sung in a foreign language. Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Karen Brunssen, a voice professor at Northwestern University, served as guest judge for the competition.

Lawrence University Extends Smoke Free Policy to All Campus Facilities

Citing considerations for the health of students, faculty, staff and campus visitors, Lawrence University President Richard Warch announced Friday that the college would broaden its current non-smoking policy to include all Lawrence-owned facilities beginning July 1, 2004.

The new policy will extend a smoke-free designation to all student residences, college-owned guest houses, the Viking Room in the student union, Lawrence’s study center in London and college-leased vehicles.

Beginning in 1994 with Kohler Hall, a student residence, Lawrence has progressively increased the number of buildings designated as smoke free. Since 2000, smoking has been prohibited in all Lawrence academic buildings and administrative offices, as well as any new or renovated campus buildings.

“As we all know, smoking and second-hand smoke create significant health risks,” said Nancy Truesdell, dean of students at Lawrence. “As a residential institution, of higher education, we want to insure that we are providing a healthy environment for students, employees and those who visit Lawrence.”

When the new all-buildings policy goes into effect, Lawrence will join Cornell, Macalester and St. Olaf colleges as the only institutions among the 14 members of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest to have a ban on smoking in all campus buildings.

DNR Water Chief Discusses State Groundwater Problems, Solutions in Lawrence University Address

One of the biggest environmental battlegrounds facing Wisconsin’s future is actually underground. Groundwater supplies, one of the state’s most precious and valuable resources, are under siege.

Todd Ambs, the administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Water Division discusses some of the current battle fronts in the address “Fixing Wisconsin’s Groundwater Problems” Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at Lawrence University. The program, in Lawrence’s Science Hall, Room 102, is free and open to the public.

Ambs will outline several major new state policy initiatives designed to deal with a growing array of groundwater-related problems in Wisconsin, including Perrier’s quest to pump large quantities of spring water in Waushara and Adams counties for its international bottling operations, the rise in arsenic levels in private wells near Appleton and a precipitous drop in the groundwater table in the Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay areas as a result of increased consumer demand.

The former executive director for the River Alliance of Wisconsin, a nonprofit organization designed to protect the health of Wisconsin’s streams, Ambs was appointed the DNR’s Water Division chief last year by Governor Doyle. Earlier this year, he was named a “River Hero” by River Network, one of the nation’s premier river conservation organizations.

Ambs¹ appearance is sponsored by Lawrence’s environmental studies program and the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society.

UW-Oshkosh Historian Discusses Russian Economic Transition in Lawrence University Address

Historian Karl Loewenstein shares his first-hand accounts of the changes taking place in Russia, from the twilight of the Soviet Union until the present, in an address at Lawrence University.

Loewenstein, assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, presents “From Socialism to Capitalism: Russia in Transition 1990-2003” Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. In the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The program, sponsored by the Lawrence Russian and East European Club, is free and open to the public.

Loewenstein, who has made four trips to the former Soviet Union since 1990, including as recently as this past summer, will discuss the ways foreign influences and the development of new marketing strategies have affected the lives of ordinary Russian citizens. He believes capitalism has established moderate roots over the last 14 years, but it is capitalism with distinctly Russian characteristics and serious problems which have yet to be dealt with.

A specialist in modern Russia and East European history, Loewenstein joined the UW-Oshkosh faculty in 2002 after earning his Ph.D. in history at Duke University.

Lawrence University Pianist Claims State Competition Title

For the fourth consecutive year, a Lawrence piano performance major has won the Wisconsin state level Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Piano Performance competition.

Michael Brody, a senior double-degree candidate, earned first-place honors at the state competition held Oct. 17 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Erin Grier, a senior from Woodside, Del., received honorable mention recognition. Brody and Grier are both students in the studio of associate professor of music Anthony Padilla.

By winning the state competition, Brody advances to the six-state East Central Division competition on Jan. 16-18, 2004 at Oberlin College in Ohio. Winners at the division level will compete at the MNTA national competition in Kansas City, Mo., next March.

The Wisconsin MTNA competition requires students to play a complete concerto from memory, as well as three shorter contrasting works. Brody performed Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata, Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 and the Bach Organ Chorale Prelude “Ich ruf, zu dir” transcribed by Ferruccio Busoni.