Press Releases

Category: Press Releases

Lawrence University Shack-a-thon: Raising Awareness, Funds to Fight Homelessness

APPLETON, WIS. — Five years after launching a volunteer project to raise awareness about homelessness and support the local Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Lawrence University students will see their original dream realized later this year.

Thanks to Shack-a-thon, an annual event held each May since 2002, Lawrence students finally reached their goal last spring of raising $20,000, the threshold necessary to partner with other area organizations to sponsor the construction of an area Habitat for Humanity home.

But that doesn’t mean the work is finished. Once again nearly 20 teams of Lawrence students representing a cross section of campus organizations will put their creative engineering acumen to the test Saturday, May 12, turning the Main Hall Green into a weekend shantytown for the sixth edition of Shack-a-thon.

“The objective of this year’s Shack-a-thon is to really return to the roots of how it began,” said senior Emily Palmer, events coordinator at the Lawrence Volunteer and Community Service Center and past president of the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

“Shack-a-thon’s original goal was to co-sponsor a local Habitat for Humanity house. Now that we’ve reached our goal, it is time to remember why we set it in the first place. This year’s event focuses on the current local situation in the Fox Cities. Poverty is not some far away problem in some poor country in Africa. It is right here, in our own town and we have the power and resources to do something about it.”

Palmer said organizers of this year’s Shack-a-thon have set a goal of raising $4,000, which will be donated to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity to be used at its discretion wherever the need is most warranted.

Beginning early Saturday (5/12)afternoon, students will construct makeshift shelters out of donated and salvaged materials while competing for the title of “Best Shack.” The shacks will remain up until mid-morning Sunday with at least one member of each team required to remain overnight in the shack. Funds are raised through pledges students collect for participating in the event. A panel of Lawrence faculty will serve as judges to determine the winner of this year’s “best shack” contest.

In keeping with this year’s theme of returning to Shack-a-thon’s roots, John Weyenberg, executive director of the Fox Cites chapter of Habitat for Humanity, will discuss at 4:30 p.m. local Habitat activities, the housing needs facing Appleton and the Fox Cities and how Habitat is working to alleviate those needs.

Live music will be performed throughout the afternoon by several Lawrence student bands and the Will Smith movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” will be shown outside beginning at 9 p.m. In the event of inclement weather, the movie will be shown in Riverview Loung of the Lawrence Memorial Union.

A candlelight vigil will be held on the Main Hall Green following the movie to commemorate all those who are living with inadequate housing.

Lawrence University’s Falletta-Cowden Awarded Field Research Fellowship in Cyprus

APPLETON, WIS. — Ashlan Falletta-Cowden isn’t looking forward to having to take her final exams a week earlier than her Lawrence University classmates. But such is the price for a six-week summer fellowship to conduct field research in Cyprus.

Cowden was one of 10 students nationally recently awarded a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) scholarship to Davidson College’s Archaeology Field School in Cyprus.

The scholarship, worth up to $6,100, will support Falletta-Cowden’s work with the Athienou Archaeological Project, a multidisciplinary project in south-central Cyprus focusing on the site of Athienou-Malloura and the surrounding valley. The site was used for nearly 2,500 years and encompasses the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and Ottoman periods in the island’s history.

Falletta-Cowden, a sophomore from Petaluma, Calif., pursuing a double major in art history and anthropology, leaves June 2 for Cyprus, where she will assist with an excavation of an ancient temple site in the archaeologically rich Malloura valley. In addition to learning research methods through her fieldwork, Falletta-Cowden will design her own individualized research project as part of the program.

“This will certainly be a unique experience,” said Falletta-Cowden, whose mother is an archaeologist. “Cyprus is such a fascinating, diverse place, with many different influences.”

Working in teams of four or five students with a supervisor, daily field excavations will start at 6:30 in the morning and run until mid-afternoon. Beyond the field exercise, Falletta-Cowden will attend lectures by specialists on such topics as archaeological reconnaissance, topographical surveying and dating methods. The program also includes a comprehensive survey of Cypriote history, art and archaeology from the Neolithic period to the Modern era as well as visits to other archaeological sites and museums.

“This should be such a powerful experience,” Falletta-Cowden said. “It fuses my majors so beautifully. It will be a great way to explore my interests in both art history and archaeology. I’m looking forward to working with the specialists and actually handling artifacts that haven’t been touched since ancient times.”

The Athienou Archaeological Project was established by Davidson College in 1990. Since its founding, more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students as well as specialists or professional archaeologists representing more than 45 North American and European institutions, have participated in the project as trainees or staff members.

Award-winning Poet Elizabeth Robinson Conducts Reading at Lawrence University

APPLETON, WIS. — Poet Elizabeth Robinson, a three-time recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative American Poetry, conducts a reading of her works Tuesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. A book signing and reception with the author will follow the reading.

Prior to the reading, Robinson will field questions in an open forum at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Main Hall, Room 104. Both events are free and open to the public.

The author of eight collections of poems, Robinson’s most recent work, “Under That Silky Roof” (2006), explores the interplay of domestic life, focusing on topics such as companionship, its fecundity and its losses. Robinson also ventures into the manifestations of the abstract, what she calls “the brick floor from which the kingdom of God extends or could extend.”

Two of her more recent titles, “Apprehend” (2003) and “Pure Descent” (2003), were recognized with the Fence Modern Poetry Series award and the National Poetry Series award, respectively.

Her works have appeared in the Colorado Review, the Denver Quarterly and New American Quarterly, among others. Her writing also has been featured in numerous anthologies including Writing from the New Coast, Poetes Americains and American Poetry: The Next Generation. In addition to writing, Robinson serves as co-editor of 26, a magazine of poetry and poetics and EtherDome Press, which publishes chapbooks by emerging women poets.

Robinson earned a bachelor’s degree from Bard College, a master’s degree in creative writing from Brown University, a master’s degree in religious studies and a master’s degree in ethics, both from the Pacific School of Religion.

She has taught at the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University and is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of Colorado.

Robinson’s appearance is sponsored by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund. Established in 1998, the endowed fund brings distinguished poets to campus for public readings and to work with students on writing poetry and verse.

Role of the World Bank in Fighting Poverty Concludes LU International Lecture Series

APPLETON, WIS. — Drawing upon his extensive experience in regional development throughout the world, a World Bank director examines the agency’s role in reducing poverty in the world’s poorest countries in the final installment of Lawrence University’s Povolny International Studies Lecture Series “Africa Today: Problems and Solutions.”

John Roome, operations director in the South Asia region of the World Bank, presents “The World Bank’s Role in Development” Monday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Roome’s address will focus on the strategies the World Bank has employed in tackling poverty, its achievements and the organization’s future role in an environment of changing patterns of aid and financing. He also will discuss the growing role of China in Africa and the emergence of private funding sources such as the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which was created in January, 2002 by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation jump started the Global Fund with an initial $100 million donation and a pledge of an additional $500 million last year.

Since joining the World Bank in 1989, Roome has worked extensively in Africa, focusing on infrastructure issues, including leading the Bank’s support for large roads programs in Tanzania and post-war Mozambique, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, restructuring of the Southern African airline industry and reforming South Africa’s water pricing and allocation policies.

A native of South Africa, Roome earned a bachelor’s degree in statistics/actuarial science from the University of Cape Town and holds master’s degrees in econometrics and management studies from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

The “Africa Today: Problems and Solutions” lecture series is sponsored by the Mojmir Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Named in honor of long-time Lawrence government professor Mojmir Povolny, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.

Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir Represents Wisconsin at Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary Celebration

APPLETON, WIS. — Thirty-one members of the Lawrence University Academy of Music Cantabile Girl Choir will lend their voices to one of the country’s biggest musical events of the year — the 400th anniversary celebration May 11-13 of the founding of the Jamestown colony in Virginia.

The Cantabile Choir has the distinction of being Wisconsin’s lone representative for the three-day-long “America’s Anniversary Weekend,” the centerpiece of an 18-month international commemoration of the 400th anniversary observance of the 1607 founding of Jamestown as America’s first permanent English settlement. The Anniversary Weekend will reintroduce the world to Jamestown, helping visitors discover how the settlement made democracy, free enterprise and cultural diversity defining characteristics of American society.

The Girl Choir’s 7th-9th grade singers will be among several dozen choirs representing nearly every state in the union who will combine to form a 1,607-voice choir Sunday, May 13 for a performance in the historic weekend’s grand finale event. The mega-choir will be backed by a 400-member orchestra selected from musicians from orchestras all around the country.

“We are certainly honored to have been selected to join other top-notch children’s, high school and even adult choirs from across the country for an event of this magnitude,” said Karen Bruno, director of the Academy of Music’s Cantabile Choir. “It’s a special thrill to represent the state of Wisconsin in this historic celebration and the girls are taking that honor very seriously.

“It’s always fun to go on tour, see new places, meet other talented musicians and perform for new audiences,” added Bruno, a 1993 Lawrence graduate. “I suspect the audience for this concert will have a few more dignitaries than we’re used to, including perhaps even her majesty the queen.”

Queen Elizabeth II of England is expected to visit Jamestown for part of the anniversary ceremonies.

The Sunday evening concert culminating the weekend celebration will include a live historical interpretative production told with music, dialogue, color and movement that recounts the key historical events of Jamestown in the years 1607-1619. A finale fireworks display timed and choreographed to the 400-member orchestra and the 1,607-voice choir closes the program.

In addition to their participation in the anniversary’s grand finale concert, Cantibile will be featured in a solo performance Friday afternoon (3:50 p.m.) as part of the weekend’s activities on the festival grounds. They will sing their own combination of American music, including Native American, Hawaiian and colonial-era works.

The choir was selected for the Jamestown celebration by audition tapes submitted from performances of the group during the last three years. Previous trips have taken the Cantibile Choir to New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder. The choir also was invited to perform at the 2003 international children’s choir festival in Toronto.

Other anniversary weekend events include a Friday performance of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, both separately and then combined for the first time ever, to premiere several new works written especially for the commemoration. Saturday’s highlights include performances by three-time Grammy winner Bruce Hornsby & The Noise Makers, legendary funk and R&B artist Chaka Khan, and progressive bluegrass master Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.

Lawrence University Theatre Department Stages Irish Comedy “The Whiteheaded Boy”

APPLETON, WIS. — The multiple roles played by members of a large Irish family, where frustrations and conflicts are tempered by genuine love and generosity, are examined in Lawrence University’s production of Lennox Robinson’s joyous comedy “The Whiteheaded Boy.

Performances are scheduled May 10-12 at 8 p.m. and May 13 at 3 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre of the Lawrence Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton. Tickets for “The Whiteheaded Boy,” at $10 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Robinson, the author of more than two dozen plays, was among the founding members of The Abbey Theatre, the national theatre of Ireland, where “The Whiteheaded Boy” was first presented in 1916. The story centers on the twists and turns of how each member of the Geoghegan family struggles to keep Denis, the family’s “whiteheaded boy” — the traditional Irish designation for the spoiled son who can do no wrong — from failing medical school classes (again!) while his sisters wait patiently to marry and get on with their lives.

Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Timothy X. Troy, who will direct the production, spent time as a visiting professor at the Samuel Beckett School of Drama at Trinity College in Dublin in 2005. While there, the Abbey Theatre presented a well-received revival of Robinson’s play, “Drama at Inish,” which sent Troy searching for other Robinson plays that might be appropriate for a Lawrence production.

“‘The Whiteheaded Boy’ was a good match for our students,” said Troy. “This play includes a variety of themes that are close to the heart of any college student, including the desire for independence and the struggle to live up to family expectations while away at university.”

Chad Bay, a freshman from Sun Prairie, makes his Lawrence theatre department debut as the production’s title character.

Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble Wins DownBeat Magazine’s Outstanding Performance Award

APPLETON, WIS. — One of the nation’s best. Again.

For the third time, the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (LUJE) has been honored by DownBeat magazine with the “Outstanding Performance Award” in the college big band category. The outstanding performance award, part of the magazine’s 30th annual student music awards competition, will be announced in DownBeat’s upcoming June edition.

Under the direction of Fred Sturm, director of jazz studies and improvisational music at Lawrence, LUJE was one of three university jazz ensembles in the United States and Canada recognized by DownBeat. Lawrence was joined by the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Miami as outstanding performance award recipients in the big-band category.

LUJE’s performance award was based on the seven-track CD “Witnesses,” which featured compositions and arrangements written exclusively by Lawrence students. The disk was recorded over the course of two days in May, 2006 by Lawrence recording engineer Larry Darling.

“It’s always a thrill to be recognized with an award like this, but what I’m most proud of is the fact that we accomplished this as an undergraduate institution,” said Sturm, who returned in 2002 to the Lawrence jazz studies department he helped found after leaving for the Eastman School of Music in 1991.

“We have no master of music or doctoral candidates in our bands like many of the schools we compete against.  Every aspect of the recordings we submitted for the award is home grown.  All of the music was composed and arranged by current Lawrence students, performed by Lawrence students and recorded by Lawrence engineer Larry Darling.  Very few collegiate ensembles submit student works for these kinds of competitions because those pieces typically pale in comparison to professionally published compositions and arrangements.

“We won seven of these awards during the 11 years I was in New York,” Sturm added, “and while I appreciated every citation, none of those were as sweet as the one the students have brought home to Lawrence this year.”

In addition to LUJE, 2006 Lawrence graduate Doug Detrick was named the winner of the “Outstanding Jazz Arrangement Award” in the magazine’s college jazz arranging category. Detrick, currently a teaching assistant in jazz studies at the University of Oregon, was cited for his award-winning arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “Single Petal of a Rose,” which he scored for combined symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble. The work was performed and recorded by the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and LUJE under the direction of David Becker last June.

Known as “DBs” and presented in 14 categories in four separate divisions (junior high, high school, performing high school and college) the DownBeat awards are considered among the highest music honors in the field of jazz education.

LUJE was the first ensemble or individual at Lawrence to be recognized by DownBeat, earning the first of its three outstanding performance awards in 1985.  LUJE also was honored in 2000.  Lawrence students have earned 15 DBs since the competition’s inception, including six in the last seven years.

This year’s DownBeat competition drew a total of 865 ensemble and individual entries for all categories in all four divisions.

International Electoral Observation Focus of Lawrence University Lecture on Latin American Affairs

APPLETON, WIS. — One of the country’s leading authorities on Central American politics examines the role of independent election observers in the region’s ongoing movement toward democratization in an address at Lawrence University.

Thomas Walker, professor emeritus of political science and director emeritus of Latin American studies at Ohio University, presents “International Electoral Observation: A Tool for Democratization and Peace in Latin America” Monday, May 7 at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Main Hall, Room 201. The event is free and open to the public.

Starting with the Nicaraguan elections of 1984 and progressing to the present, Walker will trace the evolving role, techniques and importance of international observation in Latin America elections. Throughout this period, electoral observation has been conducted by a variety of international organizations, including the British Parliament, the Latin American Studies Association and more recently, the Carter Center, the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

International observations, according to Walker, serve to reassure voters that the world is watching as well as preserve peace during and following tense electoral contests.

Walker has served as an electoral observer with the Latin American Studies Association in Nicaragua in 1984, 1990 and 1996 and for the Carter Center in Venezuela in 2004 and Nicaragua in 2006. He is the author or co-author of eight books, including “Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle” and “Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion and Regime Change.”

His appearance is sponsored by the Lawrence University Department of Spanish, Lawrence University’s Distinguished Visitor Grant and the Center for Latin American Studies at UW-Milwaukee.

Academic Freedom Issues Focus of Lawrence University Address

APPLETON, WIS. — A university criminologist examines attitudes toward free speech and tolerance on American college campuses in an address at Lawrence University.

Mike Adams, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, presents “The Constitutional Crisis in Higher Education” Wednesday, May 2 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Science Hall, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public.

An outspoken critic of what he calls “academia’s hypocritical stance towards diversity,” Adams will discuss the issues of classroom bias, the free interchange between students and professors and the use of “speech codes” in higher education that he argues often “fly in the face of the Bill of Rights.”

Adams, author of the 2004 book “Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor,” has appeared as a guest on Fox’s “Hannity and Colmes,” and “The O’Reilly Factor” as well as MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country.” He serves as a national columnist for Townhall.com, a conservative news and information website, where some of his recent columns have included “Dennis the First Amendment Menace,” “Legislating Morality” and “My Conversion to Radical Islam.”

A member of the UNC-Wilmington faculty since 1993 and a two-time recipient of the university’s “Faculty Member of the Year” award, Adams recently filed a lawsuit against the university claiming his civil rights were violated after being denied a promotion to full professor in 2006.

The lawsuit, filed April 10 in U.S. District Court against the UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees on Adams’ behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, alleges Adams was turned down for promotion to rank of professor because of his conservative views.

Adams earned both a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in sociology/criminology from Mississippi State University.

His appearance is sponsored by Students for Academic Freedom.

Lawrence University’s Callie Bates Wins ACM Short Story Writing Contest

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University sophomore Callie Bates has been named the winner of the 2007 Nick Adams Short Story Contest sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a 14-member consortium of private liberal arts colleges in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado.

Bates’ winning entry, “The Swans at Roxleigh,” a tale of a declining English country house in the days just after World War II, was selected from among 45 stories submitted by ACM students for the 35th edition of the annual contest. Bates, an English major from Mercer, received a first-place prize of $1,000. Lawrence senior Steve Ringman, Park Forest, Ill., joined Bates as one of the contest’s six finalists for his story “Next Exit.”

“Each ACM campus submitted several stories for this year’s contest, so to have two students from Lawrence make it into the top six is a major accomplishment and says a lot about the level of creative writing going on here,” said David McGlynn, Lawrence assistant professor of English, one of two ACM faculty members to serve as initial readers for the contest. “To have one of our students win the competition means that at least one bright literary star is starting to shine.”

Antonya Nelson, an award-winning novelist and author of five short-story collections, served as the judge of the contest’s six finalists. She called Bates’ story “a lovely meditation on loss and lostness.”

“It places the reader so thoroughly in another place, another time, with such authority,” Nelson commented. “The story reminds the reader that people have endured suffering, caused suffering and survived it for as long as time itself. I felt both transported by and utterly invested in this wonderful piece.”

Bates says she has been “making up stories” for as long as she can remember. She didn’t start writing them down until the summer she turned 10, but has been doing so ever since. She hopes to travel more in the next few years and hopes to visit the place where “The Swans at Roxleigh” was set.

The Nick Adams Short Story Contest, named for the young hero of many Hemingway stories, was established in 1973 with funds from an anonymous donor to encourage young writers.