Rick Peterson

APPLETON, WIS. — Appleton’s RiverHeath project, a 15-acre mixed-use development valued at more than $25 million and located on the Fox River below the College Avenue bridge, will be the focus of the second installment of Lawrence University’s 2007 three-part Spoerl environmental studies lecture series on “green” cities.

Mark Geall, founder and project development director of Denver-based Tanesay Development, which is building the RiverHeath project, presents “What’s a Green Neighborhood? Challenges Faced by Green Developers in Appleton,” Tuesday, Oct. 23. The presentation, at 7 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus, is free and open to the public.

Geall will discuss the trade-offs developers face when trying to embrace sustainability while building profitable projects. He also will unveil some of RiverHeath’s plans developed by Milwaukee-based architects Engberg Anderson Design Partnership.

Construction on the RiverHeath project is expected to begin next summer with completion of the first phase slated for the spring of 2010.

The U.S. Green Building Council recently named RiverHeath to a nationwide pilot program for green design that has expanded its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification beyond individual buildings to include entire neighborhoods. RiverHeath is one of 234 projects nationally selected for the new neighborhood program.

According to Geall, RiverHeath scores well in the LEED system because of its downtown location, short walking distances to jobs, schools, and restaurants, close access to public transit routes as well as parks and biking/hiking trails. The project also exceeds the requirements of the USGBC pilot program on several fronts as well, including plans to have nearly 100 percent of its energy needs provided by the Fox River.

Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler concludes the series Tuesday, Oct. 30 with the address “The Geography of Nowhere” at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium.

The series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

APPLETON, WIS. — With a historic presidential election on the horizon, Lawrence University has launched a new Web site, designed to help voters — especially college students — try to find which candidate’s positions best match their own on a variety of important national issues. Called MyElectionDecision.org, the Web site is a project of Lawrence faculty and staff, in a partnership with researchers from the University of California-Irvine.

Lawrence University President Jill Beck said the creation of the Web site was driven by statistics indicating the lack of political participation among many college students. “This is by no means restricted to Lawrence,” Beck said. “It’s a concern I share with faculty members and other college and university presidents.”

The Web site uses a series of interactive questionnaires to assess the users’ ratings on critical issues including Iraq, health care, immigration, the environment, and the economy. Visitors to the site rate which issues are most important to them, take a blind test without knowing which candidate said what, evaluate which issue statements they support, and then, with computer assistance weighing the preferences, find out which candidate most closely supports their views.

By considering the candidates’ own statements on the issues, without regard to their appearance, personality, fundraising ability, or the news media’s interpretation or bias, MyElectionDecision.org strips away many of the factors that have soured people on the political process.

The site is updated as candidates make new statements or change positions. The views of four Republicans (Giuliani, McCain, Romney, and Thompson) and four Democrats (Clinton, Edwards, Obama, and Richardson) are currently reflected on the site. After the primaries, the site will shift its focus to the two surviving candidates.

The 2008 presidential election will be the first without a presidential or vice-presidential incumbent candidate since 1928, and political analysts have said it has the potential to become one of the most historic elections in U.S. history.

“One of the founding traditions of a liberal arts college is the education and creation of good citizens,” Beck said. “When statistics show that only a third of college-educated Americans follow public affairs regularly, and less than two-thirds vote in both national and local elections, it’s clear we can do more in that regard. It’s my hope that Lawrence University and MyElectionDecision.org will contribute to political awareness, inspire debate on the issues, and create greater voter turnout at a time when it has never been more important.”

APPLETON, WIS. — Against a backdrop of U.S. land space increasingly devoted to development at rates far outpacing the percentage of population growth, the ecological, social and political issues surrounding “green” urban growth will be explored during Lawrence University’s 2007 three-part Spoerl environmental studies lecture series.

Donna Erickson, a land-use and landscape planning consultant in Missoula, Mont., opens the series Tuesday, Oct. 16 with the address “MetroGreen: Connecting Open Space in North American Cities.” The presentation, at 7 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus, is free and open to the public.

Based on her 2006 book of the same title, Erickson will discuss how ecology, recreation, transportation, community and green infrastructure can motivate city planning and affect the spatial fabric of contemporary cities. The presentation will examine comparative case studies Erickson conducted on 10 North American cities, among them Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

Erickson is a former professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, where her scholarship focused on open-space and landscape-scale conservation planning. A 2003-04 Fulbright Scholar, she earned degrees in landscape architecture from Wageningen University in The Netherlands and Washington State University. She has written for numerous publications, including Landscape and Urban Planning, Land Use Policy, and Environmental Management.

Other talks scheduled in the series include:

&bullOct. 23 — “What’s a Green Neighborhood?: Challenges Faced by Green Developers in Appleton,” Mark Geall, principal developer at Tansey Development, 7 p.m., Science Hall 102.

&bullOct. 30 — “The Geography of Nowhere,” James Howard Kunstler, noted author and social critic, 7 p.m., Wriston Art Center auditorium.

The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

APPLETON, WIS. — The acclaimed Brentano String Quartet brings its “luxuriously warm sound” to the stage of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel Saturday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. for the opening concert of the 2007-08 Lawrence University Artist Series.

Tickets for the concert, at $22-20 for adults, $19-17 for seniors, and $15-17 for students, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton or by phone at 920-832-6749.

Hailed as “an ensemble of exceptional insight and communicative gifts” by the London Daily Telegraph, the Brentano String Quartet was founded in 1992. It has since performed to popular and critical acclaim in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, among them New York City’s Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Vienna’s Konzerthaus in Vienna, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Sydney Opera House.

In 1996, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center invited them to be the inaugural members of Chamber Music Society Two, a program that has since become a coveted distinction for chamber groups and individuals. Brentano toured Europe for the first time in 1997, earning the United Kingdom’s Royal Philharmonic Award for “most outstanding debut.”

Brentano performs the entire two-century range of the standard quartet repertoire as well as many musical works pre-dating the string quartet as a medium. They have recorded the Opus 71 Quartets of Haydn, the music of Steven Mackey, Bruce Adolphe, Chou Wen-chung and Charles Wuorinen and have collaborated with such artists as soprano Jessye Norman and pianists Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida.

The quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, who is widely considered by music scholars to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” the intended recipient of his famous love confession.

Other scheduled performers on this year’s Lawrence Artist Series are the all-male vocal ensemble Cantus, Feb. 23; classical pianist Jon Kimura Parker, March 7; and the American Brass Quintet, April 19.

APPLETON, WIS. — James Hughes examines the current and future methods for improving human intelligence and controlling emotional states in the opening address of Lawrence University’s annual Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.

Hughes, the executive director and co-founder of the Connecticut-based Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), presents “We Can be Smarter and Happier: The Future of Cognitive Enhancement” Friday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

From psychopharmacology and genetic engineering to nanotechnology, Hughes will discuss several converging technologies, their impact on accelerating human intelligence and the ethical and political questions posed by those technologies.

He teaches health policy as a visiting lecturer at Trinity College and is the author of the 2004 book “Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future.” He also produces Changesurfer Radio, a syndicated weekly program. Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, Hughes earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.

Hughes’ appearance is supported by the Edward F. Mielke Lectureship in Ethics in Medicine, Science and Society. The lectureship was established in 1985 by the Mielke Family Foundation in memory of Dr. Edward F. Mielke, a leading member of the Appleton medical community and the founder of the Appleton Medical Center.

APPLETON, WIS. — A Wisconsin woman whose harrowing 27-hour ordeal of spousal abuse generated national media attention on the issue of domestic violence shares her amazing story of survival Thursday, Oct. 11 in a presentation at Lawrence University as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Teri Jendusa-Nicolai recounts her experience and discusses the warning signs of domestic abuse at 8 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. The event is free and open to the public.

Jendusa-Nicolai was five months pregnant in January 2004 when she went to pick up her two children from her ex-husband’s house in Wind Lake, Wis. Lured inside, she was beaten by her ex-husband with a baseball bat, bound with duct tape, stuffed into a plastic garbage container packed with snow and loaded on to the flatbed of a pick-up truck.

With her two young daughters sitting on the front seat of the vehicle, Jendusa-Nicolai’s ex-husband drove to an unheated storage unit in Wheeling, Ill., where he dumped the container, leaving his ex-wife for dead.

She was discovered the next day — alive — but she lost her all of her toes due to frostbite and her injuries resulted in a miscarriage. Her nightmare experience of abuse and attempted murder was recounted in a segment on ABC’s “20/20” program and helped raise the national consciousness on the issue of domestic violence.

She has since remarried and earlier this year gave birth to her third child, a son. She serves on the board of a Racine women’s shelter and her efforts in speaking out about domestic violence and encouraging women to seek help earned her a Courage Award from the Governor’s Council on Domestic Abuse in Wisconsin.

Jendusa-Nicolai’s appearance is sponsored by the Lawrence University Diversity Center and the Student Organization for University Programming.

APPLETON, WIS. — Every spring since 2002, Lawrence University students have spent a weekend in May turning the Main Hall green into a temporary shantytown. Teams of students would construct makeshift living quarters from salvaged and donated materials and spend the night sleeping in them.

Sponsored by the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity, the annual “Shack-a-thon” program was designed to raise awareness about homelessness and issues of affordable housing as well as funds to support the Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Six Shack-a-thons, and more than $20,000 later, those efforts are being rewarded in a very meaningful and tangible way. Led by student members of the campus chapter of Habitat, Lawrence is partnering with J.J. Keller in co-sponsoring the construction of a Habitat for Humanity home on the northeast side of Appleton. Work on the four-bedroom ranch house located two miles from campus began in early October. It is scheduled to be completed Dec. 8.

Since the Lawrence chapter of Habitat was founded in 1999, student members have worked on a variety of projects across the country, including a record 45 students who participated in Habitat’s 2007 Collegiate Challenge project in New Orleans. The chapter is planning a trip to Latin America during 2008’s spring break. Kristin Morgan, student president of the campus Habitat chapter, says the organization is excited about getting involved on a local project of their own.

“Appleton hosts Lawrence students, faculty and staff from across the globe every year, providing unique opportunities for linking the lessons of the classroom with the greater community,” said Morgan. “The Lawrence co-sponsored home is hopefully one way for the university to say ‘thank you’ to Appleton and continue Habitat’s mission of strengthening communities by helping families own safe and secure homes, including one right here in Lawrence’s own backyard.”

Work on the house, under the supervision of Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity officials, is scheduled on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. A lunch is provided on-site. According to Morgan, J.J. Keller, as co-sponsor of the build, has permitted Lawrence to take the lead on all of the project’s volunteer opportunities in support of Youth Leadership.

“The Lawrence campus has helped raise the financial foundation for the home and J.J. Keller has generously allowed all the volunteer hours to be filled by Lawrentians,” said Morgan. “As a campus community, Lawrence contains an array of diverse talents and together those talents have limitless possibilities. The ‘Lawrence Built’ home marks the potential of a promising future led by civic-minded and actively engaged Lawrentians. The Habitat home is an exciting opportunity to highlight the positive possibilities of youth’s influence in community development.”

Each work session on the house will feature specific projects for the day, covering the full range of construction, including the installation of support beams and sill plates, building stud walls, insulating, roof work, siding, installing windows and doors, hanging cabinets and final landscaping.

Sign-up sheets are posted in the entrance of Downer Commons and all student groups and organizations, as well as individual students, faculty and staff members are encouraged to help with this worthy project. To enable as many volunteers as possible to participate, work schedules have been broken down into two half-day sessions: 8 a.m. -noon and noon – 4 p.m. No experience is necessary to participate and rides from campus to the work site will be provided for anyone who needs one. Questions regarding the project can be directed to habitat.humanity@lawrence.edu.

Check out the project and see the work that has been completed so far.

APPLETON, WIS. — London-based AandBC Theater Company brings its unique version of “The Tempest” to the Lawrence University Wriston Art Center amphitheatre Friday, Oct. 5 as part of the 2007 Shakespeare on the Fox program.

The two-and-one-half hour outdoor performance begins at 6:30 p.m. General admission tickets are available at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in downtown Appleton (920-730-3760). Tickets also will be sold on site the night of the performance.

Prior to the show, members of AandBC Theater Company will present a pre-performance lecture on “non-traditional theatre” at 5 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Combining improvised staging and direct audience contact, AandBC Theater Company’s production of Shakespeare’s popular tale of revenge and forgiveness takes place beneath a large, illuminated helium balloon that casts a moon-like island of light that defines the performance space. Audience members become part of the set by sitting on padded oil drums within the lighted circle.

Founded in 1989, AandBC Theater Company has performed at the Edinburgh Festival and the Bath Shakespeare Festival, among others. During an international tour that has taken the production to the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Romania, Russia and Trinidad, AandBC has performed “The Tempest” at castles, courtyards, churches, public parks, the middle of a rain forest and on a riverbank.

The Lawrence performance is one of 11 scheduled throughout the Fox Valley by AandBC Theater Company during a two-week residency in the area.

Lawrence is one of eight participating members in the Shakespeare on the Fox partnership, a coalition working to enrich and enliven the communities of the Fox Valley through a series of performances, workshops, demonstrations and other interactive programs designed to make Shakespeare accessible to everyone.

For a complete list of activities associated with the 2007 Shakespeare on the Fox program, visit http://www.shakespeareonthefox.uwosh.edu/schedule.php.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University will join nearly 600 other private colleges and universities around the country Wednesday, Sept. 26 in the launch of a new web-based tool designed to assist families in their college searches.

U-CAN — the University and College Accountability Network — was developed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) in Washington, D.C., to help meet the challenge and responsibility of educating students, as well as their families, even before they decide which college to attend.

The first national consumer information tool developed by either private or public colleges, the U-CAN web site — www.ucan-network.org — will be operational Sept. 26.

U-CAN’s goal is to provide detailed information on individual institutions to objectively assist high school students in selecting a college or university that best fits their intellectual, professional and extracurricular interests, their values and personality and their financial circumstances.

The web site’s content and design are completely driven by consumer comments drawn from focus groups conducted in cities across the nation with prospective students and parents from all backgrounds who indicated what they most need to make an informed college choice.

“Lawrence University is delighted to participate in and contribute to U-CAN,” said President Jill Beck. “As an institution devoted to helping individuals realize their full potential, we especially appreciate how this new tool can help students find schools that best suit their own unique sets of interests and abilities.”

U-CAN consists of hundreds of institutional profiles presented in a concise, consumer-friendly common format. Each profile includes comparable data and targeted links to that institution’s own web site for more detailed information on specific aspects of the institution.

The development of U-CAN grew out of a growing concern among American families, members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Education about the need for better and more transparent college consumer information.