Press Releases

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.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University President Jill Beck officially opens the college’s 158th academic year and kicks off the 2007-08 convocation series Thursday, Sept. 27 by examining the importance of an educated electorate and the value of student engagement in the political process in her annual matriculation address.

Beck presents “Educating Citizens, Supporting Students’ Political Engagement and Getting out the Vote” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The address is free and open to the public.

Since becoming Lawrence’s 15th — and first woman — president in July 2004, Beck has focused on strengthening Lawrence’s commitment to individualized instruction, increasing collaborative and complementary activities between the fine and performing arts and the traditional liberal arts and sciences and encouraging more active community engagement by Lawrence and its students.

Under her leadership, Lawrence established an innovative postdoctoral teaching fellowship program in 2005 that has since brought 19 recent Ph.D.s to campus for mentoring, teaching opportunities and research collaborations. Beck also organized an international conference on tutorial education earlier this year and established a partnership with the Posse Foundation in 2006 that will bring 10 “Posse Scholars” from New York City to campus each year beginning this fall.

In 1996, while at the University of California, Irvine, Beck founded ArtsBridge America, an outreach program that offers hands-on experiences in the arts by placing university students in K-12 classrooms as instructors and mentors. Lawrence, which now serves as national headquarters for ArtsBridge, is the only private institution to join the program, which includes 22 participating institutions in 13 states and Northern Ireland.

A native of Worcester, Mass., Beck earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and art history from Clark University, a master’s degree in history and music from McGill University, and a Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism from the City University of New York. She served on the faculties of City College of the City of New York and The Juilliard School and has written extensively in the fields of dance history, theory, repertory, and technique, as well as choreographing and directing ballet and modern dance repertory.

From 1995 to 2003, Beck served as the dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, where she established the da Vinci Research Center for Learning Through the Arts, an interdisciplinary center for research focused on learning across disciplines.

Joining Beck on the 2007-08 convocation series are:

• Oct. 2 — David Mulford, U.S. Ambassador to India. A 1959 Lawrence graduate, Mulford has served as Ambassador to India since January, 2004. He spent the previous 11 years as chairman international of London-based Credit Suisse First Boston. From 1984-92, Mulford was the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs, serving as senior international economic policy advisor. Prior to his public service, Mulford was a managing director and head of international finance at White, Weld & Co. Inc., where he coordinated efforts with Credit Suisse on international business. From 1974-83, he served as senior investment advisor to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, managing the investment of Saudi oil revenues.

• Nov. 6 — Paul Hawken, author, environmentalist and entrepeneur. Since the age of 20, Hawken has dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is the author of seven books, including “The Ecology of Commerce,” “Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution,” which President Clinton called one of the five most important books in the world today and 2007’s “Blessed Unrest,” which examines the history of the environmental and social justice movement. He has founded and run numerous ecological businesses, including Smith & Hawken, the garden and catalog retailer and several of the country’s first natural food companies that relied solely on sustainable agricultural methods.

• Feb. 5 — Andrew Sullivan, senior editor of The Atlantic and columnist for the Sunday Times of London. Considered one of today’s most provocative political and social commentators, Sullivan was among the first journalists to experiment with blogging. His blunt observations about issues and people in the news are read by millions in his blog “The Daily Dish.” A native of Great Britain, Sullivan wrote essays for Time magazine before joining The Atlantic. He began his journalism career as a summer intern at The New Republic, where he rose to become the youngest editor in the magazine’s history, earning Adweek’s “Editor of the Year” award in 1991. Sullivan also has written four books, including 2006’s “The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back.”

• May 22 — Terry Moran, broadcast journalist and co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline.” A 1982 Lawrence graduate, Moran has served as co-anchor of “Nightline” since Ted Koppel’s last broadcast in November, 2005. Prior to “Nightline,” Moran spent six years as ABC News’ chief White House correspondent and often served as weekend anchor for the Sunday broadcast of “World News Tonight.” He joined ABC as the network’s legal correspondent, covering the trials of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski. He began his broadcast career as a correspondent and anchor for Court TV, where he received critical attention for his coverage of the murder trials of O.J. Simpson and Erik and Lyle Menendez.

APPLETON, WIS. — Greg Peterson is hoping his new Lawrence University classmates and professors will understand if he occasionally answers their queries in the form of a question. Old habits are hard to break.

One of 376 new students Lawrence officials will welcome Wednesday, Sept. 19 for move-in day and the start of orientation activities, Peterson placed second in the 2007 Jeopardy! Teen Tournament, which aired on national television at the end of July. Leading after the first day of the two-day finals, he wound up with a total of $38,600, finishing a mere one dollar short of the title on the popular game show known for its answers-in-the-form-of-a-question format.

After years of practice, the self-described “quiz show nut” from Park Ridge, Ill., says “it just becomes so natural to say ‘who is’ or ‘what is’ at the start of every sentence.”

Peterson, who arrives at Lawrence after also applying to Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford and Yale universities, is planning on auditioning for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” next summer. In the meantime, he hopes to restart a campus quiz bowl team after he settles in. In 1965, a team of Lawrence students retired as five-time champions on the GE College Bowl, a quiz show that aired on CBS.

Whether or not he finds similar success, Peterson already has helped make school history as a member of Lawrence’s largest-ever applicant pool. For the third consecutive year, Lawrence enjoyed a record-setting number of applications, jumping more than 12 percent to 2,599 over last year’s total of 2,315.

“Lawrence’s visibility on the national scale is rising and there are a lot more students seeking us out,” said Ken Anselment, director of admissions. “We’re increasingly enrolling more high impact, highly involved students and that has a ripple effect at high schools. When underclassmen at these schools see these student leaders heading off to Lawrence, that gets them thinking Lawrence is someplace they should be seriously considering as well.”

Anselment also credits Lawrence’s inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” with boosting interest in the college. The book, written by former New York Times education editor Loren Pope, profiles 40 schools “that will change the way you think about college.”

Since 1998, as a follow-up to the book, Lawrence has participated in a special college fair tour that focuses solely on the 40 profiled colleges. In 2006, the tour made more than two dozen stops in major cities around the country and nine stops in Latin America.

“That’s been huge for us,” said Anselment. “People are coming out in droves on the tour, in part because they want a different perspective on what constitutes quality in higher education.”

The increasing applicant pool coupled with the university’s enrollment cap of 1,400 has enabled Lawrence to increase its selectivity. Lawrence admitted just under 56 percent of this year’s applicants. Two years ago, the acceptance rate was 68 percent.

“It seems counter-intuitive, but when a school starts getting more selective, it builds student interest and that in turn fuels additional application growth,” Anselment explained. “We’re still the high-quality place we’ve always been, but now there are a lot more students interested in us.”

Beginning in 2006, Lawrence became the first Wisconsin college, and one of a growing number nationally, to go “test optional,” eliminating the requirement of standardized test scores (SAT, ACT) for admission, instead allowing students to choose whether they want the admissions committee to consider their scores. This year, the program’s second, actually saw a small increase in the number of students opting to submit test results, 77 percent, up from 75 percent the first year.

“That was a little surprising, but not shocking,” said Anselment. “Going into the test optional phase, we weren’t sure just how many students would take us up on the offer. This year’s bump shows that our rise in applications cannot be attributed solely to our going test-optional.”

Two hundred seventy-five different high schools are represented by this year’s 361 freshmen, who hail from 37 states and 21 countries. While Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota again account for a little more than half of all incoming freshmen, New York surprisingly sent the fourth most number of students (17), with California, Massachusetts, Oregon and China also ranked among the top 10 home areas of new freshmen. Slightly more than 10 percent (37) of the incoming freshmen are international students.

“It’s a strikingly geographically diverse group,” said Anselment.

The academic profile of the incoming freshmen remains as strong as ever, with new students boasting an average high school grade point average of 3.6 on a 4.0 scale, while the average ACT score reached an all-time of 28.9. Twenty percent of incoming freshmen ranked in the top five percent of their high school graduating class, including 10 valedictorians, while 71 percent graduated in the top 25 percent of their class.

“We are thrilled with the quality and energy of this class and with the steady increase in applications. All of this will help us to continue attracting and enrolling the most broadly talented and engaged students we possibly can,” said Anselment.

More than 90 percent of the first-year students received financial assistance from Lawrence. The average need-based financial aid package exceeded $25,000.

“Lawrence continues to surprise people with the strength of our financial aid packages and remains accessible to families from a broad range of financial backgrounds,” Anselment said.

Classes for Lawrence’s 158th academic year begin Wednesday, Sept. 26.

APPLETON, WIS. — Abstract paintings, the intersection of fashion and art and manuscript illuminations will be featured in the latest exhibition at Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center galleries. The exhibition runs Sept. 22 – Oct. 28.

Chicago painter Todd Chilton, whose abstract images will be displayed in the Kohler Gallery, will be the exhibition’s featured speaker Friday, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. A reception with the artist will follow the address, which is free and open to the public.

Chilton’s work often focuses on simple, layered geometric patterns that reveal a subtle sense of humor while also creating a visual tension between openness and resistance. His work was featured last year in solo exhibitions at The Suburban in Oak Park, Ill., and the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Brigham Young University in 2002 and a MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005.

“Turn of the Century Art and Fashion” will be featured in the Hoffmaster Gallery. Pairing garments from the Lawrence theatre department with images from the Wriston galleries’ permanent collection, the show explores the influence of fashion on art. It focuses on fashion trends of the late 19th through the early 20th centuries.

Late medieval and early Renaissance manuscript illuminations will be featured in the Leech Gallery exhibition “The Illuminated Book.” The exhibition was organized and researched by Lawrence students in the art history course of the same name.

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 on Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6621 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston/.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University has been recognized again for its outstanding undergraduate education by The Princeton Review in its 2008 edition of the annual book “The Best 366 Colleges,” which was released today (8/20).

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 366 in any single category.

“We chose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics,” says Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s vice president of publishing. “We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them and our visits to schools over the years. We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents we hear from year-long.”

In its profile of the college, The Princeton Review said Lawrence “attracts bright, motivated, overachievers who are also creative and innovative.” The profile also quotes extensively from students surveyed for the book, who describe Lawrence as a “very tough school academically…but Lawrence teaches you the skills to communicate effectively with the world.” Others lauded Lawrence professors as “amazing, and that’s an understatement….each is excited about his or her field in a way that inspires you to go above and beyond the class assignments.”

Lawrence was cited among the top 20 institutions in the nation in two of the book’s student-survey categories: 17th in how popular college theatre productions are on campus and 17th in how accepting the campus is to the gay community.

The various ranking lists in the 2008 edition of “The Best 366 Colleges” are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 120,000 students — approximately 325 per campus on average — attending the 366 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.

APPLETON, WIS. — Fred Sturm’s latest composition, “Migrations,” is about to receive a high-profile, international premiere.

The commissioned work, which showcases 23 indigenous songs from 21 countries worldwide, will be performed for the first time Thursday, Aug. 30 by 10-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin and the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Big Band at the 22nd annual Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

Sturm, director of jazz and improvisational music at Lawrence University as well as guest composer/conductor for numerous professional ensembles in the United States and Europe, has served as McFerrin’s arranger and conductor on three previous occasions.

“It’s the realization of a dream for me,” Sturm said. “Bobby is the most diversely talented artist I’ve met during my career and I’m honored to be collaborating with him.”

Sturm will spend a week rehearsing with HDR Big Band in Hamburg and then conduct the first performance of “Migrations” with McFerrin at Salzau Castle Konzertscheune. The 13th-century castle is the regional cultural center in Salzau.

The 18-piece NDR Big Band serves public radio for Northern Germany and is regarded as one of the world’s finest professional jazz ensembles. The group has performed and recorded the music of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, among others.

Sturm had been compiling ideas for a world music project for several years. Collaborating with a former student of his, 1986 Lawrence graduate Brian Pertl, an ethnomusicologist and manager of Microsoft’s Media Acquisitions Group, Sturm researched recordings from around the globe.

“We knew we had some great raw material to work with and we were simply waiting for the ideal opportunity to develop and showcase it,” Sturm explained.

That opportunity presented itself last fall when McFerrin’s management engaged Sturm as the composer for the Hamburg performance with the NDR Big Band.

“When we discussed repertoire for the program, I suggested the ‘Migrations’ concept, never expecting them to bite on it. They bit — enthusiastically,” said Sturm.

“When I hung up the phone, I blocked out November to August on my calendar and wrote ‘No social life for you!,'” he added with a laugh.

Sturm and Pertl eventually winnowed more than 2,000 indigenous recordings down to the final list of 23 source recordings. Sturm then transcribed, arranged, orchestrated and “re-composed” the material to create a two-hour concert showcase for McFerrin.

“The music we selected for ‘Migrations’ is typically centuries old,” Sturm said. “It’s pure, innocent, beautiful and powerful. Though the character and styles are as varied as the world’s people who created this music, there is a prevalent common linkage between the selections. Bobby’s improvisations and interpretations of the material I’ve scored are intended to illustrate the musical unity of the world’s people.”

Among the pieces in the work is an aboriginal chant from Australia, a Mbuti Pygmy tribal song from the Ituri rain forest region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an Inuit chant from Greenland.

During the creation of “Migrations,” Sturm would send McFerrin a score and a computer realization as he finished each segment. After receiving the 23rd and final score, McFerrin told Sturm the work was “absolutely brilliant.”

“Bobby has two hours of new music to prepare for this premiere concert and he’s studying this new material all the while he’s continuing to perform complete programs of music with symphony orchestras, choirs and jazz artists around the world,” said Sturm. “He’s incredible!”

Perhaps best known for his infectious 1989 Grammy Award-winning hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” the first a capella song ever to reach no. 1 on the U.S. pop singles chart, McFerrin has appeared around the world as a jazz vocalist, composer and orchestral conductor. He has collaborated on recordings with musical legends Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and cellist Yo-Yo Ma and has served as conductor/creative chair of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1994. He has scored several films and is the recipient of numerous vocal jazz performance awards.

Sturm’s conservatory of music colleague, Professor of Music Dane Richeson, served as ethnic percussion consultant for the project and will appear as drummer/percussionist at the premiere.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University’s academic excellence earned it a spot among the top quarter of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges for the ninth consective year in U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 “America’s Best Colleges” report released Friday (8/17).

Lawrence was ranked 56th among 248 national colleges and universities in U.S. News’ “Best Liberal Arts Colleges” category in the magazine’s annual guide. Lawrence was the top-ranked institution in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan in the national category. For the first time, the U.S. service academies were included in the rankings. Two of them, the U.S. Naval Academy (no. 20) at Annapolis, Md., and the U.S. Military Academy (no. 22) at West Point, N.Y., were included in the national liberal arts category.

Among the factors used in determining the rankings, Lawrence showed improvement from last year’s rankings in more than half of them, among them graduation rate, acceptance rate, percent of classes with less than 20 students and alumni giving rate.

“We obviously are pleased to have the overall strength of our academic program recognized among the top quartile of a very distinguished group of colleges,” said Steve Syverson, vice president of enrollment management at Lawrence. “At the same time, we continue to encourage students as they search for an appropriate college to focus on the best personal match for themselves. The statistical information collected by U.S. News can be of value, but students should determine which pieces of it are of most importance to them in identifying colleges that will best suit their needs.”

The top three ranked institutions in the national liberal arts college category remained unchanged from the previous year, with Williams College earning the no. 1 designation for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Amherst College and Swarthmore College.

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 peer assessment, 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.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University musician Bethany Wiese earned second-place honors Monday, Aug. 13 in the finals of the Tuba Artist Division of the 22nd annual Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival held at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Mich.

A senior from Davenport, Iowa, and a student in the tuba studio of Marty Erickson, Wiese was one of 150 musicians from around the world participating in the competition. She was selected from among 10 semifinalists for the finals, where she performed French composer Eugene Bozza’s “Sonatina for Tuba and Wind Ensemble.” Wiese received $900 for her silver medal performance.

Earlier this year, Wiese won Lawrence’s wind ensemble concerto competition and performed as featured soloist at the ensemble’s May concert. In June, 2006, Wiese was selected by national audition to perform with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra during a month-long summer concert tour. She was the only tuba player in the 40-member AWSO during last year’s performances.

Founded in 1986, the festival honors the legacy of long-time Michigan State University music teacher and band director Leonard Falcone (1899-1985). The festival is considered one of the premiere international euphonium and tuba competitions in the country and is the only annual festival of its kind.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University’s venerable Memorial Chapel is slated for a month-long technical “makeover.”

The 89-year old venue will undergo a total renovation of its existing sound system and receive an upgraded lighting system. The project is scheduled to begin this week (8/6) and be completed in early September.

A new $125,000 sound system will replace the current equipment with a fully digital 40-channel audio distribution system capable of splitting all signals and sending them to the house mix position, stage monitor system and the recording studio control room.

Each split will be totally independent, allowing for simultaneous live sound mixing, stage monitoring and recording. The system will be precisely tuned for the chapel’s acoustics, reducing the need to hire outside sound companies to provide amplification for the larger Artist and Jazz Series concerts.

“The sound system renovation is a project that should yield significant improvement for the audience in terms of audio quality for musical performances and better speech intelligibility for speaking events,” said Larry Darling, director of recording at Lawrence. “When the upgrade is complete, the sound will be more evenly distributed throughout the hall. There also will be balcony sound reinforcement on the sides and the rear.”

The speaker cabinets will be painted to match the existing colors and preserve the chapel’s interior aesthetics.

The enhanced lighting system will feature more fixtures to better illuminate the stage area. In addition to providing more “even” lighting, the new fixtures will be more energy efficient and generate less ambient heat.

“The new lights will eliminate some of the ‘dark pockets’ we had on stage and do a much better job of illuminating the performance area,” said Darling.

Arrow Audio Inc. of Kimberly is overseeing the sound upgrade while the $70,000 lighting system is being installed by Lighthouse Productions of Green Bay.