Press Releases

APPLETON, WIS. — Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor and a renowned New York City contemporary arts curator will be awarded honorary degrees Sunday, June 15 by Lawrence University at the college’s 159th commencement. Graduation exercises begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall green.

Lawton

Heiss

In recognition of professional achievements and civic contributions, Barbara Lawton, Wisconsin’s first elected female lieutenant governor, will receive an honorary doctor of laws. Alanna Heiss, founder and director of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters. Lawton and Heiss are 1987 and 1966 Lawrence graduates, respectively.

Lawrence is expected to confer 295 bachelor of arts and/or music degrees to 285 seniors from 32 states and 14 foreign countries.

In addition to honorary doctorates, Lawrence also will recognize John Brandenberger, Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics and David Cook, Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science, for 83 years of combined teaching service with honorary master’s degrees.

David Ross, a social sciences teacher at Madison West High School, and Kathy Sager, an English teacher at New Berlin Eisenhower High School, will receive Lawrence’s annual Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award.

Associate Professor of Statistics Joy Jordan presents the address “Connect, Listen, and Be Kind” at a baccalaureate service Saturday, June 14 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The baccalaureate service and commencement ceremony are free and open to the public.

During commencement, Lawton and Heiss will join President Jill Beck, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair Harry Jansen Kraemer Jr. and student Melanie Heindl, a senior from Kaukauna, in addressing the graduates.

Since the age of 16, when she campaigned door-to-door on behalf of Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential bid, Lawton has been active in civic engagement and public service. She made state history in 2002 by becoming the first woman elected lieutenant governor in Wisconsin. She was re-elected in 2006.

Throughout her career, Lawton has been a strong advocate of opportunities for women, economic development and promotion of the arts. She was instrumental in the creation of Wisconsin Women = Prosperity, a nationally recognized economic development initiative between the public and private sectors designed to empower women to make their best contributions in corporate, political and civic life. In 1999, the Wisconsin chapter of NOW honored Lawton with its Feminist of the Year Award.

In 2007, she authored a resolution to combat global warming and promote the development of renewable energy and fuel-efficient technologies that was passed by the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association last summer. As a member of the National Leadership Council for the American Association of Colleges and Universities, she promotes the value of liberal arts education as a national resource for economic creativity and democratic vitality.

Lawton serves as the current chair of the 15-member Wisconsin Arts Board and has led efforts to develop strong arts and cultural programming in all areas of the state. She also was instrumental in helping to pass legislation that provides tax incentives to the film and video game industry in Wisconsin.

A native of Milwaukee, Lawton spent 30 years living in Green Bay, where she was one of the founders of the Greater Green Bay Area Community Foundation, the Education Resource Foundation and the Green Bay Multicultural Center. The Fort Howard Foundation recognized her efforts in 1985 with its Humanitarian Award.

In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Spanish from Lawrence, Lawton earned a master’s degree in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Heiss, once New York City’s first female parole officer for male offenders, is widely recognized as one of the visionary founders of the alternative space movement in the United States and one of the most influential curators in the world. She has been instrumental in advancing the careers of thousands of artists through the use of nontraditional exhibition spaces.

A one-time aspiring concert pianist, after earning a degree in music from Lawrence, the Louisville, Ky., native spent several years in London before moving to New York City in 1970.

Recognizing the city’s world-wide appeal to contemporary artists, she set out to provide invigorating alternatives beyond galleries and museums to showcase their work. A year later she organized her first exhibition in unused spaces beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. She founded the Institute for Art and Urban Resources in 1971 and focused on turning abandoned and underutilized New York City buildings into artists’ studios and exhibition spaces.

In 1976, she transformed a deserted, decaying public school in Queens into the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, which the New York Times once described as “a place in touch with developments around the world and able to bring them here in record time.” With 125,000 square feet of exhibition space, it is the largest contemporary art institution in the United States and among the largest in the world.

Heiss also converted a double-decker clock tower atop a 13-story building near city hall into the Clocktower Gallery, turning it into one of New York City’s most distinctive spaces for innovative exhibitions.

During her career, Heiss has organized or curated more than 700 exhibitions in New York and abroad, edited three books, wrote a fourth and contributed dozens of articles and essays for art catalogs and anthologies.

Her efforts on behalf of contemporary art have been recognized with honors from around the world, including the Mayor’s Award for Contributions to the Artistic Viability of New York City, France’s prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in the legion d’Honneur, membership in the Royal Order of the Polar Star for contributions to promoting the arts in Sweden and the Skowhegan Award for Outstanding Work in the Arts from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

APPLETON, WIS. — David Ross, a social sciences teacher at Madison West High School and Kathy Sager, an English teacher at New Berlin Eisenhower High School, will be recognized Sunday, June 15 with Lawrence University’s Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award during the college’s 159th commencement. Both will receive a certificate, a citation and a monetary award.

Ross and Sager are the 49th and 50th Wisconsin teachers honored for education excellence by Lawrence since the program began in 1985. Nominated by Lawrence seniors, recipients 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.

David Ross

Ross, a Madison native and 1980 graduate of West High School, returned to his alma mater in 1993. He teaches a philosophy and a social issues class for seniors and also has taught U.S. history and Western civilization courses. He serves as an advisor to the Amnesty International Club and the Young Democrats and is a member of West’s scholarship committee. He previous was awarded two outstanding teacher citations by the University of Chicago based on nominations by his former students.

Senior Jeanette Devereaux-Weber praised Ross for his engaging and respectful style in nominating him for Lawrence’s award.

“Knowledge, in Mr. Ross’ classroom, was not something to be passively attained,” wrote Devereaux-Weber. “He was not content to let anyone lay low, but encouraged every opinion. He always expected a sort of nobility from his students. The students some dubbed ‘lazy’ or ‘uninvolved’ were involved in Mr. Ross’ classes.”

Ross holds a bachelor’s degree in history from UW-Madison and is currently completing a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at UW-Madison.

Kathy Sager

Sager began her teaching career in 1977 and joined the Eisenhower faculty the following year. She has taught courses on British and American literature, freshmen honors English and senior advanced placement literature and composition. She has served as a forensics judge and been active in the student-faculty acting troupe.

Senior Leila Sahar, who nominated Sager for the award, credited her former teacher for sparking her own interest in pursuing English as a major at Lawrence.

“Mrs. Sager has always been a very challenging teacher who expects a lot out of her students, however she provides every student with the tools they need to succeed,” Sahar wrote in her nomination letter. “She pushes them to rise to a higher level of both writing and literary analysis.”

A 30-year member of the National Council of Teachers of English, Sager earned her bachelor’s degree in education at UW-Milwaukee and holds a master’s degree in English from Aurora University.

APPLETON, WIS. — Scientists David Cook and John Brandenberger arrived on the Lawrence University campus within three years of each other. And for the past 40 years, they have been synonymous with physics and physics education at Lawrence.

Now they’re ready to take a collective curtain call, having successfully transformed their department into a nationally-recognized model of undergraduate physics education.

Cook

Brandenberger

Cook, Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science and Brandenberger, Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics, will have their combined 83 years of teaching service recognized with professor emeritus status Sunday, June 15 as retiring faculty at Lawrence’s 159th commencement. They each will receive 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.

After joining the faculty in the mid-1960s — Cook in 1965, Brandenberger in 1968 — the two soon forged a friendship and partnership as the architects of an innovative initiative based on the concept of “signature programs” designed to make Lawrence distinctive. After four decades, they depart with pride in knowing “mission accomplished.”

“The initial motivation was the desire to work with larger numbers of students. In order to attract more students, we needed to have something that was unusual, something that wasn’t available at many places, if any,” said Cook. “We sought some funding and ended up getting more than we might have dreamed possible. That allowed us to move quickly in creating a couple of exciting programs that we used to attract larger numbers of good students.”

With the support of nearly $2 million in grants from national foundations, private businesses and other sources, Brandenberger and Cook parlayed vision, enthusiasm, innovation and their respective research interests in laser spectroscopy and computational physics into two high-tech laboratories that became the foundation of the department’s signature programs.

The ensuing result produced a dramatic spike in student interest and national recognition — collectively and individually — along the way. Of the nearly 600 colleges and universities in the country that award undergraduate degrees in physics, only six percent of them graduate five or more physics majors a year. Lawrence will graduate 14 physics majors this year, an all-time high and a projected-record 17 next year.

In 1998, Lawrence was showcased as a “case study” on undergraduate physics education at the national “Physics Revitalization Conference: Building Undergraduate Physics Programs for the 21st Century” in Arlington, Va. Through their collective efforts, Lawrence’s physics program also was profiled in the book “Academic Excellence,” and was included in the Physics Today article, “Why Many Undergraduate Physics Programs Are Good but Few Are Great.”

After working collaboratively for so long, it’s not surprising that they are members of each other’s mutual admiration society.

“It would be difficult to find a more conscientious colleague, with such high standards,” Brandenberger said of Cook. “The dedication, conscientiousness, the giving of extra time to the program and to the students are all David Cook hallmarks.”

“John is a fabulous colleague. We work well together,” Cook echoed. “John steadfastly encouraged my efforts in the computational direction and did yeoman’s service in editing and commenting on the proposals that I had written to the foundations that provided funding.”

Both point to their interactions and relationships with students as highlights of their storied careers.

“We like to think that we made a difference in the lives of a fair number of students, and in my mind, that’s the most important thing that we’ve accomplished,” said Cook, a long-time area church organist who often taught a class on the physics of music. “When certain students were here, we were mentors for them. But in many cases, those students have gone on to significant careers of their own. The tables were turned and those students have come back and been mentors for us.”

“That role reversal has been very important,” added Brandenberger, a model train aficionado when he’s not in his “laser palace” lab. “Seeing students leave Lawrence, develop very impressive careers and after 20 or 25 years get back together with them and be on the receiving end, living through them, savoring their successes, is very special. What better way to have spent a career, to have spent a life, than to feel you have played some role in shaping their success.”

Brandenberger has enjoyed an award-filled 40-year teaching career that began after earning his Ph.D. at Brown University. He was presented Lawrence’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995 and was the initial recipient in 2006 of the college’s new Excellence in Scholarship or Creativity Award. He became the first — and only — physicist in Lawrence history to be elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for research at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Lasers in Greece and was recognized by his undergraduate alma mater, Carleton College, with its distinguished alumni achievement award in 2001.

Along the way he served stints as a visiting professor at such prestigious universities as Harvard, Oxford and M.I.T.

Cook’s important contributions to the study of physics have earned him his share of honors as well, most notably his 2007 election as vice president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, a four-year appointment to the executive board that will see him serve as the association’s president in 2010. The AAPT is the world’s leading organization for physics educators with more than 12,000 members in 30 countries.

While leading the development and incorporation of computers into the physics curriculum, Cook wrote two textbooks “The Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” one of the first to introduce computer-based numerical approaches alongside traditional approaches and “Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics.” In 1990, Cook, too, was recognized with the college’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

“I thought I would be here two or three years and then move on,” said Cook, who earned his doctorate in physics from Harvard in 1965 and started at Lawrence the following fall. “But I discovered that Lawrence is a very special place, partly because the academic program is strong, but mostly because of the relationships among the people — students, faculty, administrators and even the relationship with the town.”

While both will maintain offices on campus in retirement and still occasionally teach a class, having been at the center of the action for so long, a sense of melancholy about turning over the keys to the store is understandable.

“It is difficult to distance ourselves,” Brandenberger admitted as he looks to his soon-to-be professor emeritus status. “We were workaholics for so many years and took pride in what emerged as the result of that work. It’s going to be hard to completely pass it on to our younger colleagues.”

APPLETON — Lawrence University freshman Amy Lauters earned first-place honors at the annual Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Badger Collegiate Piano Competition May 17 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This was the second year in a row a Lawrence pianist has won the WMTA Badger competition.

A piano performance major from Manhattan, Kan., Lauters received $200 for her winning performance, which included Haydn’s “Sonata No. 60,” Chopin’s “Nocturne,” Ravel’s “Jeux d’Eau,” and “Vast Antique Cubes” by Joan Tower.

This was the second competition win this spring for Lauters. In March, she was named one of five winners of the state-wide Neale-Silva Young Artists Competition sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio. She is a student in the piano studio of associate professor of music Anthony Padilla.

Lauters also will compete in the upcoming PianoArts Competition June 19-24 in Milwaukee. She will be one of 10 national semifinalists vying for an $8,000 first-place prize.

Participants in the WMTA competition, which is open to students attending any college or university in Wisconsin, are required to play a solo recital of between 20 and 30 minutes in length. The program must include at least three selections from one of five historical periods: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary.

APPLETON, WIS. — Fifteen Lawrence University art majors will showcase their creativity in the 2008 Senior Art Exhibition at the Lawrence Wriston Art Center, 613 E. College Ave., Appleton.

The exhibition, in the Leech, Hoffmaster and Kohler galleries, opens Friday, May 23 at 6 p.m. with a reception with the student artists and runs through August 1.

The multimedia exhibition will include animation, ceramics, painting, performance, photography, prints, and sculpture works varying in size from 3″ x 5″ to 15 feet.

The students whose work will be featured are Anne Aaker, Kristena Easter, Megan Fonstad, Jessica Holz, Davis Hudson, Jessica Justmann, Hillary Krueger, Emily Leininger, Kelly Mulcahy, Nick Olson, Natasha Quesnell-Theno, Erik Jon Rinard, Ashlee Thatcher, Sara Wexler and Kelly Shaw Willman.

The Wriston Art Center galleries are free and open to the public Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday from noon – 4 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays. For more information on the exhibition, call 920-832-6890 or visit www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston.

APPLETON, WIS. — Award-winning drummer Matt Wilson and his quartet Arts and Crafts bring their imaginative, quirky brand of jazz to the stage of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton, Friday, May 23 at 8 p.m. The concert is the finale of the 2007-08 Lawrence Jazz Series.

Tickets, at $20-22 for adults, $17-19 for seniors and $15-17 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Wilson also will conduct a master class Saturday, May 24 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in Shattuck Hall, Room 46. The master class is free and open to the public.

Lauded by the New York Times as “one of the best drummers of his generation,” Wilson began his career with some cookware, a five-gallon bucket and a pair of drumsticks. From those humble beginnings he has emerged as one of the most sought-after drummers in New York City and worldwide.

The winner of four consecutive “Rising Star Drummer” awards this decade in Downbeat magazine’s International Critics Poll, Wilson also garnered prominent mentions in Downbeat’s Jazz Artist and Composer categories. He earned nominations in 2004 and 2006 for the Jazz Journalists Association “Jazz Drummer of the Year” award.

“Not only is Matt Wilson an extraordinarily gifted drummer, he is an all-around percussion guru,” said Dane Richeson, professor of music and director of percussion studies at Lawrence, who toured with Wilson in Portugal in the mid-1990s. “He plays the drums like he’s conducting an orchestra.”

Wilson can be heard as leader and sideman on more than 160 records with performers such as Dewey Redman, Lee Konitz, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau, among others. His recordings include the acclaimed 2004 album “Wake Up!” and 2007’s “Scenic Route,” his most recent recording with Arts and Crafts.

Formed in 2000, the Arts and Crafts group features the creative talents of Terell Stafford, trumpet; Larry Goldings, piano; and Dennis Irwin, bass. The quartet has performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center and the Newport and San Francisco jazz festivals. They conducted a European tour in 2006.

APPLETON — Mixing humor and danger, the Lawrence University Theatre Arts Department presents five performances of “The Knight from Olmedo,” a tragicomedy by the great Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. The production culminates the theatre department’s year-long celebration of Spanish playwrights.

The play will be performed May 14-17 at 8 p.m. and May 18 at 3 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre of the Lawrence Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton. Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Following the romantic quests of two men pursuing the same woman, the play explores themes of family honor, the power of attraction, the supernatural and respect for authority. The turbulent love affairs and lighthearted comedy are entwined with more dangerous, sinister and supernatural elements throughout the story.

“DeVega gives us a wide-open theatricality that is different from the English language tradition we get from Shakespeare,” said director Timothy X. Troy, associate professor of theatre arts and J. Thomas and Julie Esch Hurvis Professor of Theatre and Drama. “There is a palpable sense of celebration and discovery as each character discovers the limits of his or her own desire.”

Regarded as the greatest playwright of Spain’s Golden Age, the prolific de Vega is known to have penned more than 700 plays during his lifetime. He influenced the tradition of Spanish playwriting by mixing humor and tragedy with a strong commitment to tradition.