August 2006

Month: August 2006

The Princeton Review Cites Lawrence University As One of Nation’s Best Colleges

Lawrence University has been recognized for its outstanding undergraduate education by the Princeton Review in its 2007 edition of the annual book “The Best 361 Colleges,” which was released today (8/22).

Only about 15% of the four-year colleges and universities in America, as well as two Canadian universities, are included in the book, which features student survey-based ranking lists of top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories, ranging from best professors, administration and campus food to student body political leanings, interest in sports and other aspects of campus life. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book 1 to 361 in any single category.

Lawrence was cited among the top 20 institutions in the nation in three of the book’s student-survey categories: 12th in how accessible professor’s make themselves to students outside the classroom; 12th in how accepting the campus is to the gay community; and 20th in how popular college theatre productions are on campus.

The various ranking lists in the 2007 edition of “The Best 361 Colleges” are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 115,000 students — approximately 300 per campus on average — who attend the 361 colleges profiled in the book. A college’s appearance on one of the 60 lists is a result of a high consensus among the surveyed students about that subject. The 80-question survey asked students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them.

Lawrence University Cited for Academic Excellence, Distinctive First-Year Program in U.S. News’ Annual Best College’s Guide

For the eighth straight year, Lawrence University’s academic excellence, including one of the country’s most distinctive first-year programs, placed it among the top quarter of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s 20th annual “America’s Best Colleges” report released Friday (8/18).

Lawrence was ranked 53rd among 215 leading national colleges and universities in U.S. News’ “Best Liberal Arts Colleges” category. Lawrence was the top-ranked institution in the national category from Wisconsin and Illinois.

In addition, Lawrence was again cited in U.S. News’ distinctive “First-Year Experiences” category for its signature curricular program, Freshman Studies. Lawrence has been included in the first-year experiences list every year since 2001 when U.S. News first introduced its “Programs to Look For” feature. The first-year experiences list is one of eight specialized categories the magazine uses to highlight what it calls “outstanding examples of academic programs that are believed to lead to student success.”

The specialized categories are not distinguished by institutional size or type, but include those cited as “stellar examples” most frequently in a survey of college presidents, chief academic officers and deans of admission. Institutions featured in the special categories are identified alphabetically rather than by a numerical ranking. Lawrence joined Duke, Princeton and Stanford universities, among other institutions, that were cited for distinctive first-year programs.

For the fourth year in a row, Williams College of Massachusetts earned the magazine’s top ranking among national liberal arts colleges, while Amherst College and Swarthmore College were ranked second and third, respectively.

In compiling its annual “America’s Best Colleges”guide, U.S. News & World Report evaluates nearly 1,400 of the nation’s public and private four-year schools, using data from 15 separate indicators of academic excellence such as selectivity, graduation rates, student retention, faculty resources and alumni satisfaction. Each factor is assigned a “weight” that reflects the magazine editor’s judgment as to how much that measure matters. Each school’s composite weighted score is then compared to peer institutions to determine final rankings.

Institutions are divided into several distinct categories. In addition to the best liberal arts college category that measures national institutions like Lawrence, other rankings are based on universities that grant master and doctorate degrees and colleges that are considered “regional” institutions such as St. Norbert College or UW-Oshkosh.

Lawrence University Receives Record $15 Million Gift for New Campus Center

An anonymous donor has given $15 million to Lawrence University toward the construction of a new campus center university officials announced today. The donation is the largest philanthropic gift in Lawrence’s 160-year history — surpassing an $8 million gift for the construction of Hiett Hall — and represents a major milestone in the funding of the proposed $32.7 million facility.

“The Trustees of Lawrence have made a new campus center the highest capital priority for the college,” said Lawrence University President Jill Beck in announcing the gift. “An unprecedented gift of this magnitude will help make that priority a reality.”

Plans are being finalized for the construction of a 100,000 square-foot facility that will house the campus’ dining services and provide much needed space and support for student organizations and extracurricular activities. The new campus center will replace outmoded and outgrown facilities located in the Memorial Union, built in 1951, and Jason Downer Commons, the main dining hall since 1968.

“Lawrence is by design a residential college and residence life is an integral part of a Lawrence education,” said Beck. “The new campus center, which will be made possible by the remarkable generosity of this anonymous donor and others, is a very important next step in enhancing the quality of the life for students at Lawrence.”

The campus center, which is being designed by Uihlein-Wilson Architects of Milwaukee and KSS Architects of Princeton, N.J., will be located on the Fox River bluff along John Street, just east of Lawe Street and next to Sage Hall.

The center, to be built on four levels, will feature large amounts of glass for natural light and outstanding views of the Fox River. Building highlights include an outdoor cafe, a campus store, a mail room, a 150-seat cinema, a “Great View Room” for special events, a dining hall as well as conference rooms and offices for student organizations and administrators. The center will be connected to the main campus via a wide, landscaped “land bridge” over Lawe St.

Lawrence Academy of Music New Horizons Ensembles Looking for Participants

The Lawrence Academy of Music will host an informational session for its New Horizons Band and Orchestra on August 22 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Shattuck Hall, room 163, located in the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, 420 E. College Ave.

The New Horizon ensembles offer adults the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument in a band or orchestra—even if they have no prior musical experience. As a member of a New Horizons Music ensemble, adults have the opportunity to meet new friends and work as a team to learn music for concerts and other performances in the community. New Horizons ensembles perform many times each year in venues ranging from formal concerts to parades to parks and retirement and nursing homes. There are also a number of annual music institutes that participants can attend that cater to New Horizons musicians in locations such as Door County, Aspen, Colo., Lake Placid, N.Y., Palm Springs, Calif., and Sydney, Australia.

Each ensemble offers three 10-week sessions. The New Horizons Band, which includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments, meets Tuesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. beginning September 12. The New Horizons Orchestra, which includes violin, viola, cello, and string bass, meets Thursdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. beginning September 7. Both ensembles meet at Trinity Lutheran Church, 209 S. Allen St., Appleton. The cost is $99 per 10-week session or $270 for all three sessions.

For more information on the New Horizon Music ensembles or to register, call 920-832-6632, e-mail acad_music@lawrence.edu, or visit www.lawrence.edu/dept/acad_music.

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.”