Press Releases

APPLETON, WIS. — The Bank of Kaukauna captured its eighth consecutive off-campus title over the weekend in Lawrence University’s 43rd Great Midwest Trivia Contest. With 1,325 points, The Bank finished comfortably ahead of runner-up Six Feet Under, which tallied 1,210 points. Subprime Iowans were third with 1,160 points. The win was the 10th in the past 12 years for the Kaukauna-based team, which received a broken telephone signed by all the trivia masters as a first-place prize.

Bucky’s made it six straight wins among on-campus student teams, edging Morgan Freeman and the North Side, 1,168-1,113. Finishing third on campus was 1972 Soviet Baskyetbol with 1,029 points. Bucky’s was awarded a Batman stocking for its win.

A total of 366 questions were asked during the 50-hour contest that ended at midnight Sunday, Jan. 27. Twelve on-campus and 72 off-campus teams participated during the weekend.

No team was able to answer this year’s “Super Garruda,” the contest’s final question, which asked: “In the ‘Citadel of Opportunity’ section of ‘An Invitation to the International Olympic Committee to celebrate the XIX Olympiad at Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.,’ there is a photograph of a girl wearing a sign around her neck. This sign bears the name of what notable figure?” The answer was Josephine Baker.

APPLETON, WIS. — Ladies and gentlemen, start your (search) engines.

Once again, copious amounts of insignificant knowledge and advanced Internet skills will be put to the test when the 43rd edition of Lawrence University’s annual Great Midwest Trivia Contest — the country’s longest-running salute to all things trivial — kicks off Friday, Jan. 25.

The 50-hour marathon of minutia that simultaneously challenges the brains and tickles the funny bones of hundreds of players on campus and around the country with its grab-bag of questions, eclectic music and off-beat humor, begins anew at precisely 10:00.37 p.m. and ends at midnight Sunday, Jan. 27. For the third year running, the contest will be webcast on WLFM, the Lawrence campus radio station, at www.lawrence.edu/sorg/trivia.

During the contest, questions of varying point values are asked in three-minute intervals via the Internet while teams call in their answers to the WLFM studios.

From its armadillo mascot to its first-place prizes unfit for even the cheesiest white elephant exchange, the trivia contest is steeped in tradition. Following one of the more time-honored ones, Lawrence President Jill Beck will open the weekend’s trivial pursuit by asking the contest’s first question, which, also by tradition, is always the final question of the previous year.

After two years as a participant and one year as a mere master, James Prichard carries the coveted mantle of “Grand Master” for this year’s contest.

“You’re the most important person on campus for 50 all-too-short hours,” said Prichard, a senior from Northfield, Minn. “President Beck gets to ask the first question, but then she has to abdicate to the trivia masters for the next 49 hours and 57 minutes.”

After some gentle tweaking, Prichard promises a 2008 contest that will run “smoother than ever. We’ve really worked on the logistics.”

Prichard is hoping to make more of a connection this year between current students playing on campus and the legions of trivia fans participating throughout the Fox Cities and beyond by offering some new “theme hours” during the weekend that focus on landmark events from previous year’s contests.

“I think some of the people who have been playing trivia for a long time will really appreciate it and enjoy it,” said Prichard. “And I hope current students get a little better sense of some of the long traditions of the contests.”

Two trivia teams have dominated the contest in recent years the way the Boston Celtics once ruled the NBA and UCLA owned college basketball. Amid whispers of retirement, the Bank of Kaukauna juggernaut, winners of seven straight off-campus titles, returns with its high-tech collection of computers with multiple direct connections and load balancing routers, a customized data management repository and even its own specialized score management system.

Employing a considerably less technological tack, the Yuai community has racked up five straight on-campus crowns. With a team typically numbering around 20 — both current students as well as past team members who make a late January trek back to campus — the Yuais approach to its trivia rivals is simple and straight forward according to team member Robby Sutton: destroy.

“Most of us take trivia very seriously,” said Sutton, a junior from Appleton. “My trivia needle is definitely on fanatical. That’s where it needs to be or else we lose.

“Remember,” Sutton added, “it’s all fun and games, unless it’s trivia. Then it’s war.”

The Lawrence trivia contest still serves as a mid-winter siren call to Appleton for many die-hard players, but the switch to a webcast format has turned the contest into a world-wide event. Last year answers to questions arrived from as far away as Europe and Japan.

The contest has undergone its share of changes, mostly technological, since making its debut in 1966 as an alternative for students who didn’t participate in an academic retreat with professors. But one thing that hasn’t changed over the past four-plus decades is the no. 1 rule of the entirely student-run contest: have fun.

“It’s a project that you can really get into,” said Prichard, explaining why he devotes so much of his time to planning and organizing the contest, as well as writing a fair number of its questions. “It’s easy to become consumed by it.

“If at the end of the weekend, everyone who played, everyone who just listened in for a while, all the volunteers who asked questions and answered phones can say they had a great time, then we’ll be able to say ‘mission accomplished.'”

While no team came up with the correct answer to last year’s final brain teaser — the traditional “Super Garruda” — any trivia team worth its clever name will pick up an easy 100 points when that same question reopens this year’s contest. Make a note: Francis Scott Key, Mary Pickersgill, Major Armistead, Rebecca Young, Carolyn Pickersgill, and Neighborhood Cat are the six caricatures framed on the wall of the children’s interactive learning room in the Jean and Lillian Hofmeister building of The War of 1812 Museum.

APPLETON, WIS. — People and places of the rural Midwest and works from the founding artists of the Die Brucke movement of German Expressionism will be featured in the latest exhibition at Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center galleries. The exhibition runs Jan. 18 – March 9.

Photographers Julie Lindemann and John Shimon, both assistant professors of art at Lawrence, will jointly deliver the exhibition’s opening lecture Friday, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the address, which is free and open to the public.

Portraits of everyday people and panoramas of rural landscapes from the Midwest assembled for “J. Shimon & J. Lindemann: Sentimental and Specific” will be exhibited in both the Hoffmaster and Kohler galleries. The exhibition also will include an installation of vintage film projectors and numerous cast-off televisions featuring films and videos of their many and varied subjects.

Collaborators since the mid-1980s, Lindemann and Shimon have focused their cameras on the remote corners of the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin’s Manitowoc County. Among their photographic projects are “Animal Husbandry,” “Midwestern Rebellion” and “Pictures of Non-Famous People.” Their 2004 book, “Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree,” received national media attention, including a segment on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

Prints from Lawrence’s La Vera Pohl German Expressionism Collection will be shown in the Leech Gallery. The display will include the work of painters Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday from noon – 4 p.m. The gallery is closed Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6621 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston/.

APPLETON, WIS. — Dance, movement, theater, text, live music, contemporary pop songs and improvisation will be incorporated in Milwaukee-based Wild Space Dance Company’s performance of “Balancing Forces” Friday, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Stansbury Theatre.

Tickets for the performance, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, can be purchased at the Lawrence University Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, 920-832-6749. The performance is free for Lawrence faculty, staff and students.

The work, which explores the wildly dynamic convergence of balance and the forces that hold or release us from that state, was created through a collaborative process that drew upon choreography and movement concepts from several company dancers.

“I wanted to explore a new process for developing work that would more fully engage company members as choreographers while maintaining an ensemble approach to creating an evening long work” said artistic director Debra Loewen.

“Balancing Forces” features the work of 1998 Lawrence graduate Seth Warren-Crow, who composed several new selections for the project and provides a blend of sampled music and text from various artists with live accompaniment during the performance.

Founded in founded in 1986, Wild Space Dance Company has served as a company-in-residence at Lawrence since 2000. Hailed as “richly imaginative and witty” by the New York Times, Wild Space is known for site-specific works and artistic collaborations.

APPLETON, WIS. — The Tournees Festival returns to Lawrence University in mid-January with its mix of award-winning French cinema. Five films will be shown three times each during the month-long festival, which was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture.

The films, in French with English subtitles, will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium on the Lawrence campus. Admission is $3. An informal discussion session led by a faculty member of the Lawrence French department will be conducted following each Saturday evening screening.

Launched in 1995 by the French-American Cultural Exchange and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Tournees festival provides colleges and university access to new French films that are normally only distributed in major cities. Lawrence was awarded a grant to serve as a Tournees film series host institution for the second straight year.

The films and dates are as follows.

Jan 10, 11, 12 “Paris, je t’aime” (“Paris, I Love You”), 2006, 116 min., rated R

A patchwork of 18 short films by major international directors each shot at a different locale in Paris. Featuring such notable actors as Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Elijah Wood, Ben Gazzara and Catherine Deneuve, each film explores the fragile relationships that bind people who have recently met as well people who know each other well. Among the various narratives that make up this portrayal of Paris is a man torn between his wife and his lover and a father who grapples with a complex relationship with his daughter.

Jan. 17, 19, 20 (No showing on Jan. 18) — “La Moustache,” 2005, 86 min., Not rated

Winner of the International Critics Award (FIPRESCI Prize) at the Chicago International Film Festival, the film follows the torment of a man who impulsively shaves off the moustache he’s worn his entire adult life. Hoping to surprise his wife and friends, he’s stunned when they insist he’s never had a moustache. While he thinks it’s all a charade, he eventually explodes in frustration. His wife and his friends suspect he’s gone crazy and conspire to have him committed to a psychiatric facility.

Jan. 24, 25, 26 — “Daratt,” 2006, 96 min., Not Rated

Set in Chad following a devastating civil war, the film follows young Atim, whose father was murdered before his birth during the conflict, as he seeks revenge on his father’s killer. Instead of finding a cold-blooded murderer, Atim meets a charitable baker who seeks redemption through religion. Atim can not bring himself to kill the man in cold blood, so he goes to work for him as his assistant, creating a strange and complex relationship. The film received the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.

Jan. 31, Feb. 1, 2 — “A tout de suite” (“Right Now”), 2004, 95 min., Not Rated

Lili, an impulsive, 19-year-old living in Paris meets a mysterious, young Moroccan man with whom she falls instantly in love. After learning of his involvement in a botched bank robbery, she flees Paris with him and his two friends, embarking on a cross-continent escape through Spain, Morocco and Greece. As the police close in, Lili is abandoned and left penniless in Athens. She eventually returns to Paris hoping to pick up the pieces of her life, but never quite recovers.

Feb. 7, 8, 9 — “Indigenes” (“Days of Glory”), 2006, 120 min. Rated R

Told through the stories of four courageous men, the film relates the forgotten role of the 20,000 Africans and 130,000 natives of North Africa who were recruited to help liberate France in World War II. Known as “Indigenes,” and often sent to the front lines of the battlefield, the soldiers faced tremendous racism both in the military and French society, forcing them to struggle for equality at every turn. The film received the 2007 Lumiere Award for best screenplay and the Cesar Award for best writing.

APPLETON, WIS. — David Cook, professor of physics and the Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science at Lawrence University, has been elected vice president of the American Association of Physics Teachers by a vote of the organization’s membership.

Starting with the association’s national meeting in mid-January, Cook will begin a four-year appointment to the AAPT’s executive board in which he will serve one year each as vice president, president-elect, president and past-president.

Looking ahead to 2010 when he assumes the AAPT presidency, Cook sees an opportunity to address what he considers “a growing crisis” facing the country.

“We are losing our competitive advantage because of the insufficient number of highly trained scientists and engineers we’re producing,” said Cook, the first Lawrence faculty member ever elected to the AAPT’s executive board. “Science is not held in very high regard. We need to educate the public on the importance of science and increase the appreciation for science education.”

Founded in 1930, the AAPT is the world’s leading organization for physics educators with more than 12,000 members in 30 countries.

“David’s election reflects his national standing as a leader in physics education,” said Lawrence Provost David Burrows. “Lawrence is proud that one of its own has achieved this high honor.”

Cook’s primary responsibilities his first two years on the executive board will focus on organizing the association’s two national meetings conducted each year. As the AAPT’s president, Cook will serve as the organization’s spokesperson to various constituencies, lead meetings of the executive board and plan the agenda of those meetings.

A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1965, Cook said he was humbled “in the face of the confidence the organization has placed in me” upon learning of his selection. “I’m a bit anxious over the responsibilities that lie ahead, but am firmly committed to living up to that confidence.”

During his tenure at Lawrence, Cook has led the development and incorporation of computers into the physics curriculum. He is the author of two textbooks “The Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” which was one of the first books to introduce computer-based numerical approaches alongside traditional approaches, and “Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics.”

With the support of more than $1 million worth of grants from the National Science Foundation, Research Corporation and the Keck Foundation, Cook built Lawrence’s computational physics laboratory, which features 11 workstations equipped with sophisticated software for graphical visualization, numerical analysis and symbolic algebra.

Cook, the recipient of Lawrence’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1990, earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.

APPLETON, WIS. — Acclaimed harpist Alison Attar will accompany the Bel Canto choir’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece “A Ceremony of Carols” in the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir’s “Yuletide Carols” concert. Traditional and contemporary Christmas music will be staged in two performances Sunday, Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave.

Tickets, at $10 for adults and $7 for senior citizens/students, are available at the Lawrence Box Office or by phone at 920-832-6749. Any remaining tickets will be available at the box office beginning one hour before each performance.

Attar’s interest in historical harps has led her to concert halls around the world. She has played with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society, Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival as well as a concert tour of Taiwan.

“The Girl Choir program is certainly honored to share the Lawrence stage with a musician of harpist Alison Attar’s stature,” said Karen Bruno, artistic director of the Girl Choir program.

The “Yuletide Carols” concert will include sacred music, a Spanish carol, an English wassail song, a contemporary composition modeled on 15th-century composition techniques, several traditional carols as well as an audience sing-along.

Amber Evey, a 2005 Lawrence graduate, makes her debut as the new conductor of the Intermezzo Choir (grades 5-7). She had previously worked with the program as a manager and student intern.

Other conductors for the concert include Bruno, Bel Canto (grades 9-12) and Cantabile (grades 7-9) choirs, Karrie Been, Primo Choir (grades 3-4), and Cheryl Meyer, Allegretto Choir (grades 4-5).

The Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir consists of 316 girls representing more than 50 public, private and home schools throughout northeast Wisconsin.

APPLETON, WIS. — Budding opera star Heidi Stober, soprano, joins the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and Lawrence choirs as guest artist in their “Gloria” concert Friday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton.

Highlighting the concert will be performances of Poulenc’s “Gloria,” one of his most famous works, and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy,” the composer’s first attempt to marry instrumental and choral music together and the early precursor to his revolutionary “Ninth Symphony.”

Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, are available at the Lawrence box office in the Music-Drama Center or by phone at 920-832-6749. Any tickets still available will be sold at the box office beginning one hour before the concert.

Stober, a 2000 Lawrence graduate and winner of the 2004 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, has been hailed by Opera News as “the complete package: a winsome presence along with an instrument of stunning brilliance, proportion and beauty.”

She has sung roles with the Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and Boston Lyric Opera. Earlier this year, she made her debut at New York City Opera and in December will perform works from Handel’s “Messiah” and Mozart’s “Exsultate Jubilate” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2005, she was recognized with Lawrence’s Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award.

During the concert, the Lawrence Concert Choir will perform a short set of works by Sweelinck, Bach, Vittoria and Langlais, while Cantala, the women’s choir, will present seasonal music for women’s voices.

Senior Peter Raccuglia, winner of Lawrence’s recent student piano competition, and several members of the Concert Choir will perform as soloists on “Choral Fantasy.” Stober will be the featured soloist on “Gloria,” which will be performed by the Concert Choir, Chorale and Cantala and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.

David E. Becker, director of orchestral studies, conducts the symphony orchestra. Richard Bjella, director of choral studies, leads the Concert Choir and Chorale. Phillip A. Swan, associate director of choral studies, directs Cantala.

APPLETON, WIS. — With the holiday shopping season in full throttle, Lawrence University students are offering bargain hunters a different kind of shopping experience — one with a heart.

Members of the campus organization Students’ War Against Hunger and Poverty (SWAHP) will host the college’s first Alternative Giving Fair Saturday, Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union.

The fair will resemble a traditional market setting, with different booths selling a wide variety of items, both tangible and alternative, focused on national and international humanitarian projects. All gifts are designed to support social, economic and environmental progress in developing regions of the world. The fair will feature live music performed throughout the day by Lawrence students and refreshments will be available.

Booths staffed by members of Lawrence student organizations will feature gifts from around the world, such as jewelry and hand-made tapestries, provided by A Greater Gift, a program of SERRV International, a nonprofit alternative trade and development organization. Ninety percent of the purchase price of the merchandise is returned to the people in the developing countries who made the items.

Shoppers also will have the opportunity to honor family and friends by purchasing “alternative gifts” for nearly three dozen different programs worldwide that are working on issues of education, malnourished children and the environment, among others. Gifts ranging from solar-powered computers for a rural school in Honduras to support services for children suffering from cancer will be available.

“The holiday season is filled with the spirit of giving and what better way to show the true meaning of that spirit than by purchasing a gift that provides hope for someone less fortunate, empowers people in crises, helps protect our planet and contributes to building peace in the global community,” said senior Samantha Gibb, student co-founder of SWAHP. “We’re hoping our giving fair provides a unique shopping experience that touches the heart of the gift giver while also making the world a little better place.”

Many of the humanitarian projects available will relate to the goals and purpose of the particular student organization running the booths. Cards explaining that an alternative present was given in their honor will be sent to all individuals designated by the gift purchaser.

All attending the giving fair will have an opportunity to sign onto the ONE declaration, a national campaign involving more than 2.4 million people dedicated to raising public awareness about the issues of global poverty. Two hundred white wrist bands will be available for individuals wishing to publicly show their support for the ONE campaign.