DISPATCHES

Going for the Green New, eco-friendly campus facilities are flushing inefficiency.

On a rain-splattered Earth Day, Near where the sweeper fill its tanks with a blend of a construction worker ran a clatters down Linden Drive, the ultra-low sulfur diesel and a sweeper on Linden Drive to new Microbial Sciences Building soybean-based biodiesel fuel in clean up a muddy slurry left will feature the campus’s first an effort to improve air quality. behind by dump trucks hauling designed “green roof,” which The new mixture yields a 13 per- dirt from the excavation site for will feature plants and ground- cent reduction in hydrocarbons, the new Microbial Sciences cover in a lightweight soil to a 16 percent decline in emissions Building. The work keeps soil help reduce stormwater runoff. of carbon dioxide, and a 15 per- from running into storm sewers But it’s not just new con- cent reduction in soot emission. that drain into Lake Mendota. struction that is receiving green Not everything on campus Later that same morning, scrutiny. The university has is so squeaky clean. The UW’s officials gathered under the invested more than $29 million coal-fired heating plant, for canopy of a nearby gas station to announce a university-funded pro- MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART gram that will exchange more than “You get to meet people four thousand old gaso- and have eye-to-eye line storage cans for contact, not looking at new, environmentally bright lights. And it’s friendly ones that Dane a forum where you County homeowners get feedback and can use to cut the interaction. I really release of ozone-mak- enjoy it.” ing ingredients into the atmosphere. — Popular recording artist Elsewhere, archi- Sting, on why he led a UW- tects are working on Madison English class a day environmentally sound before a scheduled concert campus buildings, stu- dents are using plumb- in Madison. Old toilets are lined up outside Ingraham Hall, one of several campus buildings ing fixtures that save that has received upgraded facilities in an effort to conserve water and energy. water and energy, and diesel trucks are using cleaner fuels. over several years in improving example, still receives much All across the campus, a efficiency in existing buildings. criticism from environmental green movement is picking up Alan Fish, associate vice chan- groups as a source of air pollu- steam. cellor for facilities, says more tion. The university has invested The planned addition to than 12 million square feet of $12 million in the past decade Grainger Hall, for example, will university buildings have been to ensure it meets state and incorporate a number of envi- audited for energy use, and new federal air standards, and Fish ronmentally conscious design energy management systems says that officials are evaluating principles, including daylighting have been installed. the costs and benefits of addi- — a way of positioning the “We have concentrated on tional changes — such as more building to make maximum use wise use of resources across the clean and efficient technology of the sun’s rays and reduce the campus, replacing 2,000 motors and switching fuels. need for artificial light. Design- with premium-efficiency motors, But even obsolete buildings ers are using more aggressive may turn out being green in the energy-saving technology and installing more than 8,500 occu- end. When Ogg Hall is demol- relying on recycled materials, pancy sensors, retrofitting 6,000 says Kurt Zimmerman, an archi- lighting fixtures with high-effi- ished to make room for new tect with Milwaukee’s Zimmer- ciency units, and replacing 3,000 student housing, its concrete man Design Group. toilets with water saving, ultra- towers will be ground up and “We’re talking about the low flow models,” Fish says. reused in roadbeds. In fact, environment going hand in Earlier this year, the univer- 75 percent of the old residence hand with form and function,” sity’s diesel-powered truck fleet hall will be recycled. Zimmerman says. became the first in Wisconsin to — Dennis Chaptman ’80 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Making it (Point and) Click A tool for the instant-feedback generation may help learning.

Professors occasionally look out JEFF MILLER at the sea of faces in a lecture hall and wonder, “Is this stuff sinking in?” A new technology gaining popularity at UW-Madi- son and nationally is helping to answer that question before final exams settle the matter for good. Personal response systems — better known as “clickers” — allow instructors to get instant feedback to questions posed during a lecture. A growing number of professors are finding the devices helpful for getting a quick read on what students understand or need to review — and injecting some active engagement into the normally passive lecture-hall environment. Here’s how they work: along 43 with textbooks, students pur- Number of UW-Madison faculty chase a clicker that’s roughly the who are members of the size of a television remote and National Academy of Sciences, has about a dozen response but- About the size of a TV remote, the new clickers send an infrared signal to a following this spring’s election tons. During a lecture, professors receiver, where the data are analyzed and formatted into graphics that show instantly how well students are understanding the material. of anthropologist Karen ask students to respond to ques- Strier. UW-Madison has more tions by punching a button on professors in the academy than the clicker, which beams the using it at least once in each through a National Science any public university east of answers to a receiver. The results class, and feedback from stu- Foundation coalition. He and California. are tabulated by software and dents is generally positive. engineering colleague John can be instantly displayed on a “There’s an anonymity that Mitchell have developed a projection screen. students like about this technol- methodology they call “assess- Psychology instructor ogy,” he says. “When you ask for ment-centered instruction,” Jeffrey Henriques MS’89, a show of hands in a lecture hall, which relies heavily on clickers. PhD’98 is a believer in the many students won’t raise them. “We ask multiple-choice- technology. He uses it in his two- This allows everybody to get style questions that have all hundred-student introductory involved without making your- sorts of different purposes,” psychology course, and he says it self conspicuous by committing Martin says. “Some questions yields meaningful information to the wrong answer.” probe specific concepts, others on how well students are Clickers have a long way to probe definitions, others probe absorbing classroom material. go before they’re as common as specific skills, and some even “I like the fact that I can go lecterns and chalkboards, but address student understanding over material from the previous they’re clearly drawing more of how things work.” week,” he says. “If a lot of stu- interest. The devices were Not all students like the dents are getting the answers demonstrated recently at UW- additional expense of a clicker, wrong, I can go back and rein- Madison’s Teaching and Learning but Martin says more students in force those concepts.” Symposium, an annual event his classes appreciate it than Henriques admits he was during which colleagues share reject it. skeptical at first, since the tech- ideas for improving instruction. “I want the classroom to be nology is an added cost to stu- “Clickers can be used to a place where students are dents. (The system he uses facilitate a ‘natural’ active and actively engaged in learning and charges twenty-five dollars per cooperative classroom,” says Jay assessing their understanding,” student.) But he says he is Martin, a mechanical engineer- he says. “The technology assists determined to have students ing professor who was intro- with this in a big way.” get their money’s worth by duced to the technology — Brian Mattmiller ’86 SUMMER 2005 11 DISPATCHES

The Benefit Deficit The UW wants to extend benefits to domestic partners — but some object.

Karen Ryker loved her stu- for diversity at Miller Brewing into the category of social Q AND A dents, her colleagues, and her Company and a member of the issues that elicit an “either- Joe Thompson work as an associate professor UW Board of Regents. “I think you’re-with-us-or-against-us in UW-Madison’s theater and it gives you an edge.” type of mentality.” Life can be tough when you’re drama department, where she But Doyle’s proposal to let “Because of that, it just an upright-walking badger, planned to finish her career. the UW begin offering the ben- doesn’t seem to be something which is why the UW has peo- But the University of Con- efits — part of the two-year the Republican legislature’s will- ple such as Joe Thompson necticut offered her something state budget he submitted to ing to go along with,” he says. ’84 around. A staffer in UW the UW did not: health insurance Athletics’ community relations benefits for her partner of department, Thompson lends twenty-five years, Sarah Jo Burke. a paw ... er, hand ... to help JEFF MILLER “I was very happy there, Bucky interact with his fans, and I know they were happy including maintaining Bucky’s with me,” says Ryker, who left Badger Den Web site (www. the UW in 2002, after more uwbadgers.com/for_kids/) and than a decade. “But this is a big driving the mascot to commu- issue, and we had to look out nity events. for our own future health and Q: So why can’t Bucky well-being.” drive himself? Is it the It is also becoming a big issue paws? for the UW, which is the only A: Yes, it is the paws. They school in the Big Ten that does tend to shred the steering not provide health insurance wheel, not to mention he benefits to the domestic partners gets distracted waving to of employees. The Board of so many people. Regents and Governor Jim Q: All those fans must Doyle ’67 are now calling for a keep him busy. What’s change to the state law that cur- his schedule like? rently forbids the UW from offer- A: Bucky is busier than a ing the coverage. At the same long-tailed cat in a room time, six lesbian state workers, full of rocking chairs. Not including three UW System only is he at all of our employees, have filed a lawsuit sporting events, but he against the state, claiming it dis- This spring, Janice Czyscon (left), an editor with UW-Madison’s College spends time visiting criminates against gay employees of Engineering, celebrated twenty-five years with partner Crystal schools and hospitals and by not providing those benefits. Hyslop, a paralegal with the Wisconsin Department of Justice. But all sorts of other places, without a change in state law, neither is eligible for benefits such as “Even colleagues that are spreading Badger cheer in family health insurance, which they say leaves many gay couples close to you, who know you’re feeling undervalued. his inimitable way. I’m gay or lesbian, they might not kind of like his own per- realize UW doesn’t offer bene- the legislature in February — Fitzgerald says lawmakers sonal Secret Service fits. They just assume,” says comes in an already charged who oppose benefits for agent, minus the sun- David Danaher, an assistant political environment. Republi- domestic partners are firmly in glasses and earphones. professor of Slavic languages cans who hold a majority in the line with their constituents, Q: What’s the first thing who married his partner of ten legislature are pushing for a adding that many Republicans kids ask when they years in Canada in 2003. constitutional amendment to would be “more than willing to meet Bucky? At least one hundred ban same-sex marriages, which go home and kind of make the A: Usually, it’s if they can get employers in Wisconsin, as well has sparked emotional debate case that they were the ones a hug. They also ask as more than two hundred For- on both sides. Scott Fitzger- that killed this entire idea.” things like, “Where do tune 500 companies, provide ald, a Republican state senator The university does offer you live?” and “Why do benefits for domestic partners who serves as co-chairman of other benefits to domestic part- you wear shoes?” of employees. “Given that the powerful Joint Finance ners of faculty and staff, includ- Q: Why does Bucky wear there is projected to be a signif- Committee, says the legislature ing resident tuition and dental shoes? icant labor shortage coming in should be concerned about fac- insurance. But Ryker, who won A: Cement is hard on his paws. the next ten to fifteen years, tors that cause the university to the Chancellor’s Award for you want the very best talent lose qualified staff. But he also Excellence in Teaching in 1997, you can possibly get,” says notes the proposal to provide isn’t the only professor who has Danae Davis JD’80, director domestic partner benefits falls cited the lack of health insur- 12 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Provost Peter Spear — UW- Madison’s second-highest rank- ance benefits as a reason for could be made up with other cal capital as lawmakers weigh ing administrator — has said he leaving. That makes UW offi- funding sources outside the cuts to the UW System. will retire at the end of this cials worry they won’t be able state budget. But Spear says it may take year. Spear, who first joined the to attract top recruits and more But that’s only if the pro- time for the issue to resonate. UW faculty in 1976, returned to professors will decide to pack posal survives this summer’s “Perhaps in another budget serve as provost in 2001, after a their bags. budget negotiations, a prospect cycle or two, people will see five-year stint at the University “It goes beyond frustrat- many see as unlikely. Danaher, that this isn’t just a passing fad. of Colorado at Boulder, and has ing,” says UW-Madison Provost who serves on a committee for It really is a serious need on the been most visible leading the Peter Spear. “We want to get gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans- part of the university in order to university’s efforts to increase the very best people to come gender issues, says university hire and retain faculty and diversity among the faculty, here in all of the disciplines in officials are unwilling to push staff,” he says. “And further- staff, and student body. Spear, which we’re hiring, and to lose the issue because they don’t more, it’s the right thing to do.” who is sixty, says his long-stand- people for a reason like that want to spend too much politi- — Jenny Price ’96 ing desire has been to close out seems a terrible shame, and it his academic career “at a point clearly impacts the quality of when I was really able to enjoy the university.” retirement. I’m delighted it’s Spear says the lack of Code Red worked out that way.” domestic partner benefits makes Wisconsin’s Badgers may Carl de Boor became the ninth a job offer from UW less com- strike fear in the hearts of UW-Madison professor to claim petitive than one from a peer SPENCER WALTS football and basketball the National Medal of Science, institution, and he says it sends teams, but it’s the univer- the nation’s highest honor for a message to gay and lesbian sity’s Harmless Fluffy Bun- research scientists. An emeritus couples, as well as unmarried nies that dominate the field professor of computer science heterosexual couples, that con- of computer programming and mathematics, de Boor has tradicts the university’s efforts — at least in the Midwest. written more than 150 papers to make them feel welcome. The Harmless Fluffy Bun- and books on subjects related to “They feel that they’re nies are graduate students numerical analysis and is a lead- somehow singled out, that the Matthew Anderson and ing expert on spline functions. He state isn’t welcoming to them, Patrick Davidson and sen- received the medal at a ceremony and that makes them question ior Alex Frase ’05, and they clobbered their competition at the at the White House in March. whether it’s a place they want regional stage of the Association of Computing Machinery’s Interna- to come live,” Spear says. tional Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Of 187 teams taking UW-Madison engineering fac- Another complication is the part in the North Central North America region — four of which came ulty donated more than fifty cost of extending coverage. from the UW — the Bunnies finished first, earning a spot at the world World War II maps and his- Doyle asked the legislature for finals in Shanghai, China, in April. torical photographs to the $500,000 a year to fund domes- That makes four straight years that the UW has been repre- U.S. Department of Defense’s tic partner benefits at all UW sented at the world finals of the ICPC, which judges student pro- National Geospatial-Intelligence System campuses, but oppo- grammers on their speed and analytical reasoning. Teams write Agency, which will preserve nents argue that the state can’t programs to solve a set of computing problems — such as calculating them in its archives. The docu- afford it, given tight budgets how much sunlight a given apartment would receive, based on the ments, including invasion maps and exploding health-care costs. length of the day and the height of surrounding buildings. The team and a 1944 air photo taken in And the price tag could go up that solves the most problems in the shortest time wins. northeastern France just prior to because changing the law “Really, each problem has two parts,” says Frase. “You’ve got to fig- the Battle of the Bulge, were would enable other govern- ure out the right way to solve the problems they’ve given you, and then collected by Eldon Wagner, a ment agencies to offer cover- you have to write a program that will successfully do what you want.” now-deceased professor of civil age, potentially including some Frase says that he and his teammates chose their mascot largely out and environmental engineering sixty thousand state employees. of irony. “We figured that most of the teams would take threatening- who led an army battalion that UW System officials estimate sounding names based on computer science puns,” he says. “We went made maps for the Allies. After about 1 percent of the sixteen with Harmless Fluffy Bunnies because we thought it was funny, and the war, he used the maps to thousand faculty and academic because it seemed like the least scary name we could come up with.” launch UW-Madison’s first staff would seek domestic part- At the global competition, the Bunnies proved a bit too harm- course in photogrammetry, an ner health benefits, based on less, managing to complete only one of ten problems and finishing aerial mapping technique that the experience of other Big Ten sixty-eighth out of seventy-eight teams. The home team, Shanghai’s has been used in civil engineer- schools. Jack Wilson, a financial Jiao Tong University, took top honors, with eight correct solutions. ing and other fields. analyst for UW System, says that “We did all right,” says Frase, “though obviously we’d hoped to would cost about $1 million a do better.” year, and that the difference — John Allen SUMMER 2005 13 RESEARCH

Spin Control How the UW and high-tech mapping may figure into the Tour de France.

When the Tour de France begins in July, many people will WOLFGANG HOFFMAN be watching to see if Lance Armstrong can win the cycling race for an unprecedented sev- enth consecutive time. But for Jeff Sledge, the real interest is in how one of Armstrong’s top rivals fares. Sledge, a researcher with UW-Madison’s Land Informa- tion and Computer Graphics facility, helped design equip- ment that American rider Floyd Landis will use to monitor his energy consumption during the race. As the mountains of France test Landis’s body over the course of the grueling three-week event, they’ll also test the promising new technol- ogy, yielding information that could benefit many more peo- ple than just elite cyclists. A device installed on the wheel of Jeff Sledge’s bicycle logs data “From a research stand- about the bike and its rider, including the torque and energy pro- duced by the bike. After putting in hundreds of miles testing this point, this is one of the very “rolling laboratory,” Sledge will soon learn how the equipment does few opportunities we get to in cycling’s premier event, the Tour de France. measure people who are put- ting out energy at the limits of equipment in cooperation with high-end cycling gear. “We human performance,” says Saris Cycling Group, a Madison expect to learn a lot.” Sledge, who developed the company that manufactures The system involves a unique marriage of physiology and the tools of high-tech Beam Me up North mapping, an outgrowth of SPENCER WALTS Sledge’s graduate studies in They’re coming from Illinois, Erwin, a professor land resources. While many plowing through Wisconsin en of physics who is par- performance monitors measure route to northern Minnesota. ticipating in the proj- a rider’s heart rate or pedal But these tourists won’t clog up ect. Yet he and other cadence, the new device is one the roads. In fact, you won’t researchers believe of the first to combine those even know they’re there. neutrinos play a role data with his or her exact loca- That’s because they are in the formation of tion, which is tracked using a neutrinos, subatomic particles atom-building parti- bike-mounted global position- that zip through the universe cles such as protons, ing system (GPS). The result is unhindered by planets and neutrons, and elec- that it can learn to predict how matter. Scientists have begun trons. much energy a rider will need beaming the tiny particles To understand to complete a particular route, through subterranean Wiscon- them better, they given its geography. sin as part of a five-year project are aiming a beam accurate measurements of the For racers like Landis, that aimed at demystifying their of neutrinos from the Fermi particles, but the window of means instant feedback on how elusive nature. National Accelerator Labora- opportunity is small. The parti- their bodies are performing at Produced by nuclear reac- tory in Batavia, Illinois, toward cles make the 450-mile trip in every point on a race route, tions on the sun and other stars, a detector set deep in an old about two and a half millisec- enabling them to gauge neutrinos have almost no mass iron mine in Soudan, Min- onds. Typical Illinois drivers. whether they need to conserve and no charge, says Albert nesota. They hope to take more — Staff energy or crank it up. When

14 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

Landis used the technology dur- Clark’s lab has begun using cycling’s premier event when ing a time trial at the Tour of the monitors as part of an he began experimenting with Georgia earlier this year, he not ongoing study of childhood GPS data as a doctoral candi- only won, but he beat Arm- obesity, for which a local school date in the Gaylord Nelson strong by more than a minute. has been assigning students Institute for Environmental If the France test goes well, bike rides as “homework.” Hav- Studies. He chose to focus on Saris — which supplied Sledge ing a GPS record of where the the sport mainly because it sup- with equipment and expertise kids go not only makes it virtu- plied the dynamic data he — plans to market the system ally impossible to cheat, it also needed to make real-time as part of its CycleOps brand of reveals how different routes assessments. Still, he’s an avid training products. affect their bodies, which could fan, and this year he’ll closely But researchers who have help doctors tailor exercise reg- monitor Landis’s progress from collaborated on the project are imens right down to the exact his computer in Madison. equally excited about how the route they should take. The “Obviously, I want to see technology may soon be used same kind of test might help Floyd do well and the CycleOps by those outside the exclusive bike commuters find routes equipment do well,” he says. circle of endurance athletes. that allow them to pedal to “But the goal all along has Understanding how much work without getting tired and been to create something that energy it takes for people to sweaty. helps people at all levels.” And move across a particular land- For Sledge, a triathlete who that’s why, after this year’s race, scape could turn up all kinds of bicycles three hundred miles a the guy in the yellow jersey new insights, which may influ- week, that hits close to home. may not be the only one who ence anything from how doc- He never set out to design tech- comes out a winner. tors treat childhood obesity to nology that would be used at — Michael Penn how city planners design bicycle and pedestrian routes. “We think it’s one of the

coolest things that’s come down COOL TOOL JEFF MILLER the road in a while,” says Randy Lake Effect Clark ’80, MS’84, manager of In southern Wisconsin, lakes are pay- the UW’s Exercise Science Labo- ing the price for our perfectly mani- ratory. “It’s still very new, but it’s cured lawns and productive farms. groundbreaking stuff. There’s Phosphorus from fertilizer runs off great potential there.” into the water, creating a problem The promise lies in the inte- known scientifically as eutrophica- gration of time- and space- tion, and to everyone else as a lot of related data. As the bike rolls algae. Researchers from the UW Cen- along, its GPS unit communi- ter for Limnology are studying the cates with satellites, both track- phenomenon with a powerful buoy. ing position and tapping into Tim Kratz, a senior scientist huge databases of information with the center, directs the UW’s about the landscape, including research station at Trout Lake in elevation, terrain, and atmos- northern Wisconsin, where the pheric conditions. Those instrument floats on the water. The How’s the water? A research buoy floating on Wisconsin’s Trout specifics put the physiological Lake keeps a vigil. buoy measures differences in water data collected by other moni- temperature, dissolved oxygen, wind tors into a geographical con- speed, and other factors to create a picture of what’s going on under the surface. “We want to learn text, accounting for hills or how metabolic processes are changing in the northern lakes over time,” says Kratz. high winds that might affect Researchers are hoping to learn how the makeup of the lake is changing by studying dissolved gas someone’s performance. The concentrations in the water. At night, tiny lake organisms consume oxygen, and during the day, they information is logged in a file consume carbon dioxide. When too many nutrients are added to the lake, the rate of metabolism that can be broken down sec- speeds up, resulting in algae blooms. And though it’s not a major problem in Trout Lake, the research ond by second, like an instant could help create a greater understanding of how lakes react to change. replay of your ride. — Erin Hueffner ’00

SUMMER 2005 15 RESEARCH

Fascination in Summation A grad student unravels a legendary numerical mystery.

Early in the last century, Srini- up in poverty, he received little discoveries. In the 1990s, how- vasa Ramanujan scribbled a few formal training in mathematics, ever, came a breakthrough that notes into a tattered notebook yet produced a vast body of nobody could have anticipated. and sparked one of the great work before contracting a mys- Working on an unrelated prob- lingering mysteries of mathe- terious illness that took his life lem, Ono spotted an obscure Scientists have discovered a path- matics. Now, a UW-Madison at age thirty-two. He is particu- formula embedded in Ramanu- way by which plant cells pro- graduate student has solved a larly famous for observing how jan’s scrawl, and the chance tect themselves from the harmful problem that has haunted gen- numbers break apart into “par- sighting led him to the amazing effects of the sun, a develop- erations of number theorists. titions,” or sums of smaller discovery that congruences exist ment that could hold important After a year of calculations, numbers. not only for 5, 7, and 11, but for implications for agriculture and Karl Mahlburg PhDx’06 The number 4, for example, all larger prime numbers. the development of bioenergy found a formula that helps can be expressed five ways — 4, The finding entranced resources. The research explains explain Ramanujan’s congru- 3+1, 2+2, 1+1+2, and 1+1+1+1 Mahlburg, who began searching how plants are able to ward off ences — the curious patterns in — giving it five partitions. for simple ways to explain the a potentially toxic byproduct of the ways that numbers can be Working with the prime patterns in all of these congru- photosynthesis known as singlet oxygen. With that knowledge, it may be possible to modify plants WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL/WWW.MERLIN-NET.COM and other photosynthetic cells to harness more energy from sun- light without increasing the risk of damage from singlet oxygen, which could improve crop yields or the efficiency of solar energy resources.

A homing device that helps fire- fighters find their way out of burn- ing buildings won top honors at the College of Engineering’s annual Innovation Days. Designed by students Nick O’Brien, Chandler Nault, and Mitch Nick in cooperation with Madison fire- fighters, the system uses radio transmitters to beam directions to firefighters when they’re navigat- ing smoke-filled buildings. The competition’s $10,000 prize will go toward developing and mar- After a year of calculations, Karl Mahlburg came up with a solution to a legendary mathematics mystery. keting the system.

A team of UW-Madison scientists broken down into sums of numbers 5, 7, and 11, Ramanu- ences. After manipulating “ugly, successfully used single bacterial smaller numbers, which the leg- jan noticed patterns that horribly complicated” numerical cells to make tiny bio-electronic endary mathematician noted in seemed more than just mere formulae for a year, he says he circuits, which could facilitate his journals. coincidence: beginning at the began to see a pattern. the evolution of nanotechnol- “This [work] is the final number 5, for instance, the Mahlburg’s solution is suffi- ogy by making it far easier to chapter in one of the most number of partitions for every ciently complex to fill every page manufacture the tiny devices. famous subjects in the story of seventh integer is a multiple of of this magazine, so it’s enough Using microbes as the basis for Ramanujan,” says math profes- 7, and starting with 6, the par- to say that in the eyes of number nanoscale structures could spare sor Ken Ono, Mahlburg’s grad- titions for every eleventh inte- theorists, he came up with “a nanotechnologists the meticu- uate adviser and an expert on ger are a multiple of 11. fantastically clever argument,” lous work of fabricating devices Ramanujan’s work. For decades, mathemati- says Ono. And in the story of a at the tiny scale, opening the The father of modern num- cians inched forward in the math legend’s great quandary, door to a new wave of tools that ber theory, Ramanujan was search for elementary ways to that’s a great addition. are faster and easier to build. born in India in 1887. Growing explain Ramanujan’s elegant — Paroma Basu

16 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

Craft as Art Boatwright Josh Swan explores the art of woodwork. JEFF MILLER

Seen from underneath, Josh Swan’s Maine peapod boat takes shape in the woodshop at the Mosse Humanities Building. Here, from left to right, Swan and undergraduates Annika Ushio and Reuben Foat clamp steamed cedar planks to the boat’s skeleton.

On May 4, the surface of Lake steaming, and caulking the the process. “I don’t want to Mendota became a canvas to wood into a shape. earn a living doing anything show the work of Josh Swan, Swan, the founder of else,” he says. one of the UW’s spring 2005 Madison’s JW Swan Boatworks, After its launch, the boat artists-in-residence. Painted in came to the UW with the aid has seen relatively little water. hues of deep red and white, of art professor Tom Loeser, It currently resides in Swan’s the untitled piece is not just also a woodworker. Though back yard, awaiting sale. art but craft — seacraft. Swan initially drawn to boatbuilding Proceeds will go, in part, to used his residency to display as a means for learning about support future UW artists-in- the skill of traditional wood- traditional woodworking in residence. working while he built a row- general, Swan fell in love with — John Allen boat by hand. The boat’s May debut “was really successful, if you Badger Read ask me” says Swan. “I mean, Quick: what is Wisconsin’s most important export? she’s seaworthy. And that’s The Harley? Cheese? Incessant polka music? the most important thing.” Raphael Kadushin ’75, MA’78 makes a strong Swan’s creation was a argument for great literature. The UW Press’s Maine peapod rowboat, a humanities editor has assembled some of the best thirteen-and-a-half-foot-long, of it in Barnstorm: Contemporary Wisconsin Fiction, four-foot-wide vessel now available from the press’s Terrace Books designed for use in the New imprint. With selections from state luminaries England lobster fisheries. Lorrie Moore, Jane Hamilton, and Kelly Cherry, When Swan started his project as well as promising newcomer Dean Bakopou- in January, the boat was no los MFA’04 and others, it’s a rare chance to pon- more than a pile of rough der the state’s literary talent — and wonder why cedar boards. Working in a more people haven’t noticed. studio on the seventh floor of “When you think about it, literature is one field where Wiscon- the Humanities Building, Swan sin can really claim to be doing world-class work,” says Kadushin. and ten students spent four True, but cows look better on quarters. months sawing, sanding, — Michael Penn

SUMMER 2005 17 ARTS &CULTURE

Conspiracy Theory Victoria Pagán views ancient conspiracies through a modern perspective.

When Julius Caesar met his end says, her hypotheses apply just theorists to create their own on the Ides of March, where as much to accounts of modern hypotheses as to what really was Marc Antony? Exactly who events. Both ancient and mod- happened and why. stood to gain from the dictator’s ern conspiracy stories, she con- Similarly, the Romans of death? Was it just the work of a tends, display the same mix of the late Republic and early group of disgruntled senators, or were there others, pulling © BETTMANN/CORBIS strings in secret? For classics professor Victoria Pagán, such questions are as tantalizing as theories about whether the Mafia, the Cubans, or even LBJ was behind the assassination of President Kennedy. Pagán recently published Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History, an examination of the way Roman historians wrote about the troubling, secret con- spiracies of their day. But, she

COLLECTION Et tu, James Mason? Hollywood sticks it to Caesar, circa 1953. Tunes of the Times The band Edelweiss & Betty paranoia, power, and the Empire created narratives to may never show up on any- search for meaning. explain the upheavals in their one’s iPod. Nor will their Conspiracies tend to fall at politics. Pagán looks at five COURTESY OF MILLS MUSIC LIBRARYCOURTESY techniques be taught in important points in history. of these conspiracies — the any class, nor the band “There’s a moment when all that assassinations of Caesar and members be inducted into you think you know goes black,” Caligula, an attempted assassi- any hall of fame. But says Pagán. “History has nation of Nero, and two efforts they’re part of American changed. And that’s really scary to overthrow the Republic — music history nonetheless. to think about. When a conspir- and examines how ancient his- There’s a great deal of acy is uncovered, people don’t torians described the plots. range between classical know whom to trust or where “For the Romans, history and classic rock, and thanks the next attack will come from. is display,” she says. “It’s the to Ford Porter, that his- We saw this in America after 9/11 big show and tell.” Roman tory is being preserved at — there was an attack out of the historians used conspiracy UW-Madison. blue, and suddenly we felt we stories to show how the uni- Porter was a letter carrier in Milwaukee for most of his career, were living in a different world.” verse was kept in balance. The “but his passion was record collecting,” says Steve Sundell of the What separates conspiracies wicked might disrupt society, Mills Music Library. Most of the records reflect what was popular from other historical changes is but they are ultimately discov- in Wisconsin during the first half of the twentieth century — jazz, their secrecy. “An epistemologi- ered, caught, and punished. big band, polka, and folk music. “He collected music in a lot of dif- cal gap is the cornerstone of “They wanted to assure their ferent styles, but one of the most interesting areas was folk and any conspiracy,” she says. “At readers that the perpetrators ethnic music from the upper Midwest. A lot of this falls under the bottom, there’s something were caught and that their the broad banner of polka.” The size of the collection and the unknowable.” The Kennedy crimes wouldn’t happen breadth of its recordings are, Sundell believes, unique in the U.S. assassination has its Zapruder again.” Porter died in 1998, and last year, his widow and son donated film, during which the presi- By contrast, modern con- his records — 8,981 forty-fives, 14,806 LPs, and 41,975 seventy- dent’s limousine passes behind spiracy narratives show perpe- eights — to the music library. It’s taken the staff at Mills a year just a highway sign at a crucial trators who often get away to unbox the entire collection and record what it contains, and moment. The Watergate tapes with their crimes. “In America,” librarians are still putting together a database that indexes the have that eighteen-and-a-half- Pagán says, “it’s completely up records. The Porter Collection is available to anyone. minute erasure. The lack of for grabs.” — J.A. knowledge enables conspiracy — John Allen

18 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

Sensitive Act Drama course puts race relations at center stage. Washburn Observatory is hosting an art installation by Martha An African-American man sits Then they write, develop, pro- That was the case for Jodi Glowacki ’72, MFA’78 entitled in the first-class section of a duce, manage, and act in their Beznoska x’05, who took the Starry Transit. Sponsored by the plane, where a white passenger own plays, each twelve-minute course last fall. Madison Museum of Contempo- strikes up a conversation with vignette based on an experi- “I was surprised to discover rary Art and the Department of him about what it’s like to “be ence Sims or one of the stu- just how uncomfortable the Astronomy, the installation uses black.” It quickly becomes dents has had. Topics trip the issues we discussed made me,” sculpture, text, and recorded apparent that the gentleman’s usual set of land mines — affir- says Beznoska, a New York resi- sound to explore the mysteries of multicultural “education” has mative action, hate crimes, and dent who’s studying to become nocturnal bird migration. It will come from watching Pimp My conflicts over religious practice an arts administrator. “I’ve be on display from August 27 Ride on MTV. in the workplace. been taught that you don’t talk through November 6. “I’m the only white guy in about these things, because to America who knows that O.J. didn’t do it!” he says.

What sounds like the punch JEFFF MILLER line to a bad race-relations joke is actually both a real-life expe- rience and a blistering example of Theater for Cultural and Social Awareness, a new course and outreach program piloted by Patrick Sims, a UW-Madi- son assistant professor of the- ater and drama. Sims, an actor with a background in psychol- Undergraduate writing enthusi- ogy and race relations, is using asts and artists have a new the power of live theater to outlet with the launch of shred the barriers that prevent Illumination, the UW’s new people from discussing hot-but- undergrad journal of humani- ton racial and cultural issues — ties. Founded by Adam Black- both in the classroom and the bourn ’05 and designer Marieka business world. Brouwer ’05, the publication is “This is a real meld of race devoted solely to the work of relations and acting,” explains UW undergrads. Blackbourn Sims. “If you present these issues says he received more than 500 in a format that has a story, ten- submissions of poetry, fiction, essays, and artwork for the first sion, and drama, you have the Assistant professor of theater and drama Patrick Sims, right, potential for real discussion.” rehearses lines with teaching assistant Letecia Bryan, seated, and issue, which came out in April. Sims discovered this concept student Meghan Hurley as the group develops a class performance Illumination will publish at least while working on his MFA at based on social and ethnic stereotypes. once a year. For more informa- the University of Wisconsin- tion or to read it online, see Milwaukee, where it was known Theater majors are attracted talk about them makes them http://illumination.library. as Human Experience Theater. to the concept, but so are psy- real. It was really wonderful to wisc.edu. The program used short plays as chology and sociology students. actually discuss some of these a diversity training tool for cor- Sims believes that developing a issues without fear of being For its 150th anniversary, the porate clients such as Harley- different sort of skill set holds a labeled bigoted or racist.” Wisconsin Historical Society Press Davidson and Miller Brewing. huge advantage for traditional Next fall, the program will is holding a Big Book Give- After three years of acting in theater majors, who’ll eventually add an outreach component, away. It will give one school or the program, Sims was tabbed seek work in a field struggling offering its unique approach to public library a set of all its to lead it. In 2004, state budget with a high unemployment rate. diversity training to campus books in print — more than 100 cuts made UW-Milwaukee’s loss “They’re learning the ver- clients. Sims and his students titles. The winner will be chosen UW-Madison’s gain; last fall, the nacular to ease tension in diffi- are already busy developing a by random drawing and university snapped him up and cult situations,” he notes. full-length play dealing with announced on October 17. turned him loose. “Students have a hunger for it, Americans with Disabilities Act In the classroom, Sims’ stu- but they don’t know how to ask issues for their first client: the dents read and study scripts what I call ‘the dumb questions’ UW Hospital and Clinics. featuring tangled racial issues. about race relations.” — Aaron Conklin MA’93

SUMMER 2005 19 CLASSROOM

Behind the Lens Students use science to shed light on the arts.

You don’t have to be a photog- detect the spectrum of colors in physics is everywhere, in every- rapher to understand the inner the world around us. day things. workings of a camera. You just After a Sterling Hall lecture Physics in the Arts was need to think like a physicist. At that focuses on light waves and developed in 1969 by Willy least, that’s the idea behind lenses, students spend lab time Haeberli and Ugo Camerini, Physics 109: Physics in the Arts. experimenting with photogra- UW professors who wanted to The syllabus was designed phy using old-fashioned cam- offer an accessible science with humanities students in eras. They giggle nervously at course to students of diverse mind — those who study the the sight of these gigantic, educational backgrounds. More arts but are not confident in 1950s-era contraptions, with recently, Professor Gelsomina their scientific abilities. Though exposed black accordion bel- DeStasio contributed her Physics 109 is an introductory lows that must be manually knowledge of optics. The class is class, that doesn’t mean it’s adjusted to focus the lens — a hard to get into, partly because easy. The course covers a wide far cry from the tiny, modern it’s known as one of the least range of topics — everything digital cameras they’re used to. painful ways for humanities from the vibrations of a guitar The challenge for Yoshi students to fulfill their science string to the way our eyes Hirai ‘96, a teaching assistant, credit requirement, and partly is imparting the physics of film photography through hands-on because the only prerequisites lab work. He shows the stu- are high school algebra and CLASS NOTE dents how to load the film car- geometry. SPENCER WALTS Managing tridge, manipulate the camera’s The course is divided into Mother lens, and gauge the correct two main areas of study, sound Nature’s Risk exposure time using a light and light, and lab work gives students hands-on practice with Risk Management and meter. The twelve students the complex scientific concepts Insurance 365 and 765: break into three groups, posing taught in lecture each week. Environmental Risk Man- for photographs and struggling Grades in the lab are based on agement to set the cameras at just the right angle while trying to fig- effort, and at the end of the It’s a dicey world for industry today. ure out which button triggers course, there’s no final exam. Not only do corporations run the risk the shutter. According to the syllabus, no of damaging the world around Once they’re finished tak- one who attends lecture regu- them, but there’s also a chance that ing photos, everyone crowds larly and tries to learn in the lab the world might strike back. Environ- into a small darkroom at the fails this course. mentalists launch lawsuits, boycotts, and legislation to try to pun- back of the lab to take turns “Physicists are sometimes ish those companies that they believe are harming nature, turning developing their film. Jessica thought of as a bunch of irrele- profit into loss. There’s a danger in environmental irresponsibility. Jordan x’08 carefully places vant old dinosaurs,” says Profes- But it’s a predictable danger, and a preventable one. Just ask Dan her film into the chemical sor Robert Morse, one of the Anderson. bath and waits a few minutes. course’s lecturers. “But talking Anderson is a professor in the School of Business’s Department Slowly, a faint image of the gui- of Risk Management and Insurance, and a few years ago, he began about how physics is in the arts to perceive a trend among companies to address environmental tar she photographed begins to — music, photography, film — and social justice issues. “Historically, companies have been accused appear, but to her dismay, the shows how physics is relevant to of causing a lot of damage,” he says, “from global warming to picture is overexposed and your everyday artistic life.” exposing populations to chemicals to depleting natural resources. blurry. “Well, that’s depress- Morse uses the principles of The results have included liability suits and boycotts. Companies ing!” she says with a laugh. physics to unlock secrets that have to strategize against this to prevent financial losses.” Though her photo won’t great artists seem to know Anderson developed Environmental Risk Management in the win any awards, Jordan hasn’t instinctively: how to use light to spring of 2003, and the course has seen increasing enrollment failed the experiment. The lab capture a photograph, which each year since then. During the semester, students examine case isn’t about taking artful pic- musical notes create a pleasing studies of how companies work to protect themselves against tures. It’s about learning how harmony, and why violins that environmental backlash. “There’s a lot that companies can do to the pieces of a camera — a look identical are not alike in lessen the damage from — or better yet lessen the risk of — a suit lens, shutter, and film — work their sound quality. During a or major boycott,” Anderson says. together to produce an image. lecture about musical scales, he — John Allen That’s the point of this class: teaches his ninety undergradu-

20 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

The university is preparing for a return to Jerusalem for the first time in three years. The UW is reestablishing its study-abroad partnership with Hebrew Uni- versity, an arrangement that was suspended in April 2002 after a series of bombings at and near the university killed

MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART five Americans. However, in recent months, the Israeli-Pales- tinian political environment has improved, and terrorism has decreased. The first students to resume the program will head to Jerusalem in fall 2005.

In the fall of 2006, the UW will admit its first candidates for a master’s degree in women’s studies/gender studies. Although the university has had a women’s studies program for thirty years, and has offered an undergraduate major since 1985, it has only offered a minor in the discipline at the graduate level. In the spring of 2005, the Teaching assistant Yoshi Hirai helps undergraduate Brooke Pfaff, right, and other students in Physics in the UW System board of regents Arts learn how a medium format Graphex Speed Graphic camera works. During the lab sessions on light, the students learned about lenses, apertures, and how photographic equipment works. Then they took pictures approved expanding the of each other and developed the film in a darkroom. Physics in the Arts aims to teach non-science majors women’s and gender studies about the physics principles that underlie sound and light. offering to full master’s degree status. ates about sound wave forms, tries several times to tune the The science may be difficult, explaining that the more har- instrument, wincing at the off- but Morse makes it accessible Theater and the classroom merge at the Summer Drama monic frequencies an instru- key sound it makes. The tone by changing the terminology. Institute, which the Depart- ment can produce, the brighter this violin makes is muddier Instead of talking about sines ment of Continuing Studies is its sound will be. than Jordan’s, and it has a and cosines, he draws a light holding from June 13 to July 29. To prove that theory, Morse weaker sound signature to wave form on the blackboard. The institute includes a series of asks Jordan, a music major, to match — fewer harmonics regis- Rather than practicing calcula- workshops on such topics as pro- play her violin for the class. She ter on the spectrum analyzer. tions, students learn about ducing musical theater, direct- steps to the front of the room, The two violins may seem iden- sound by hearing a violin in ing, and constructing a dynamic carefully tunes her instrument, tical at first glance, says Morse, class. The ideas aren’t watered drama curriculum. The program and draws the bow across the but they each have a different down, just presented in a differ- sound DNA. As a musician, Jor- is designed for theater educa- strings, producing a clear A ent way, and students who once dan knew that some violins are tors, producers, specialists, note. Morse captures the vio- shied away from physics gain a inherently better than others, and artists. lin’s sound wave on a spectrum new sense of confidence. That’s analyzer, a piece of scientific but she never thought there especially important, Morse Civil and environmental engi- equipment that displays the was a scientific way to measure says, when teaching students neering professor Jeffrey Russell strength and number of the that elusive quality. who have a fear of math. received a Presidential Award harmonic frequencies present in “It’s interesting to see music “Our ultimate goal is to for Excellence in Science, the note. Jordan’s violin, Morse in a different light, but it’s have fun while learning,” says Mathematics, and Engineering notes, “is loaded with harmon- weird to put formulas to stuff Morse. “This just happens to Mentoring in May. Russell has ics. It’s very brilliant.” that I’ve known since I was be learning about sound and been a national leader in Now Morse asks Jordan to five,” says Jordan. “A scale was increasing awareness of diversity play the same note on the always just a scale. I never light.” issues within engineering educa- physics department’s violin. She thought of it as fractions.” — Erin Hueffner ‘00 tion and practice.

SUMMER 2005 21 with a little help from their posse

For decades, UW-Madison has put up woeful statistics when it comes to retaining students of color. But the Posse Program aims to change that — by turning small numbers of students into tightly knit support networks.

by john allen photos by jeff miller

When Danielle Berry x’06 made her first trip to Madison — a two-day visit shortly before classes started in the summer of 2002 — she noticed something wasn’t quite right. A graduate of Chicago’s Whitney Young College Prep High School, where white students are in the minority, she was used to living in a highly diverse environment. The UW looked very different. Where, Berry wondered, were all the black people? “It was the worst weekend of my life,” she says. “I didn’t see another African-American the entire time I was here. I actually went into a store on State Street and asked the clerk where all the black people were. She didn’t know. I couldn’t believe what I’d gotten myself into. I cried the whole bus ride home.” Berry had arrived in Madison with seventeen other incoming freshmen from Chicago, knowing that it was, in part, their job to change this impression of Madison. They were the first students to enter the UW under the Posse Program, one element of the university’s Plan 2008 effort to increase diversity. Posse is based on the theory of safety in numbers. It matches groups of about ten students together into “Posses” while they’re still in high school. The idea is that, if they all enter the same university at the same time, they can help each other through the transitions and culture clashes of college so that they’ll be more likely to graduate. The program emphasizes not only academic abilities, but also lead- ership potential — UW-Madison wants its Posse students to succeed, but it also wants them to act as change agents on and off campus, to help create an environment in which other students of color will be more likely to succeed as well.

22 ON WISCONSIN danielle “It was the worst weekend of my life. I didn’t see another African-American the entire time I was [in Madison]. I actually went into a store on State Street and asked the clerk where all the black people were. She didn’t know. I couldn’t believe what I’d gotten myself into.”

students in New York, sending her first group off to Vanderbilt University. The program has since expanded to include students from Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and it will soon add Washing- ton, D.C. Some twenty-two colleges and universities currently admit Posses, including UW-Madison, which has accepted two Posses each year since 2002. In 2004–05, there were a total of fifty-nine Posse students at UW-Madi- son — four groups from Chicago and two from Los Angeles. The students receive a full-tuition scholarship for up to four years, and during their senior year of high school and their first two years of college, they go through intensive preparation and support: weekly meetings to build a sense of teamwork, individual meetings to instill positive habits and strategies, and a graduate student mentor to coun- sel them both individually and as a The Posse story began long before “I never would have dropped out,” he group about academic and personal Danielle Berry made that first trip to said, “if I had my posse with me.” issues. The Posse Foundation finds the Madison. The program is the brainchild Inspired, Bial reasoned that a posse students and builds the teams; the col- of Deborah Bial, and it’s been sending — a solid set of friends — was the key leges and universities provide the men- groups of kids out of cities and into col- to keeping students in school: if they tors and the money. leges since 1989. went to college in groups, they could And it’s a lot of money. Since the Bial was twenty-three when she first provide each other with a ready-made UW’s Posses come from Chicago and conceived of the idea for Posse. She’d support system. And if those groups Los Angeles, all of the students are from studied English lit at Brandeis Univer- included a diverse selection of talented out of state. For the 2004–05 academic sity and was working with a youth pro- individuals, they would increase their year, full-time, nonresident tuition was gram in New York City when she chances of success — and would “serve $19,866.16, so a Posse of ten students, noticed that a high number of urban stu- as a catalyst for increased individual should they all take four years to gradu- dents left college after only six months. and community development” at the ate, would cost nearly $1 million, includ- She asked one of the kids why, and he institutions they attend. ing ancillary expenses. It’s a sizable price told her that it was a lack of peer sup- Bial created the Posse Foundation tag for just ten students, particularly port that had made school unbearable. and began working with high school when the goal is increasing the ethnic

SUMMER 2005 23 kannitha “I’m worn out, absolutely worn out. I’m tired of always having to give the people-of-color perspective. I spend half my time defending myself. Every time I’m in a class and the topic of racism comes up, if no one else is talking, I can see the [teaching assistant] eyeing me. I’m just tired of it.”

diversity of a student body of forty thou- sand. But if it works, it will produce leaders in the struggle to give the univer- sity a more welcoming climate so that future students of color will feel more at home here. That they don’t is as much a result of Madison’s sympathy as its hostility. “You know how this place is,” says Kannitha Sith x’06, a Posse student from Chicago. Born to Cambodian parents in a Thai refugee camp, she came to America at the age of six and has often felt herself under scrutiny because of her background. “I’m worn out,” she says, “absolutely worn out. I’m tired of always having to give the people-of-color perspective. I spend half my time defending myself. Every time I’m in a class and the topic of racism comes up, if no one else is talking, I can see the [teaching assistant] eyeing me. I’m just tired of it.” That exhausting attention is part of what has made diver- and in her junior year, she spent a semes- at the top of his class. No other member sity efforts so difficult at UW-Madison ter at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University, of his family had ever been to college — and why the university has been will- returning to the land of her birth for the before. His parents, Colombian immi- ing to spend so much on Posse. first time since 1989. In her senior year, grants, work long hours for low wages The program’s payoff comes when she’ll be a multicultural resident consult- — his father drives a taxi; his mother students like Sith are given the strength ant for the learning center in Witte Hall. works in the financial services depart- to push through their discomfort. Like Since the program focuses on ment of a hospital. But he is active and many Posse students, she says her “pas- energy rather than just academics, it’s well-rounded — a musician who plays sion is to fight for social justice through finding leaders in unlikely places. three instruments and is a licensed many facets of life,” and thanks to the Judged by the raw numbers that admis- pilot, flying a Cessna whenever he can. support she felt from her Posse, she sions offices use to screen prospective Though initially suspicious of Posse’s helped coordinate a poetry slam confer- college students, Henry Gomez x’06 diversity goals — “That stuff is too p.c., ence in 2003, “creating a new medium to might not have caught the UW’s atten- too political for me,” he says — he came fight and talk about social justice issues.” tion. Though he says he “kept up a to like the program’s focus on leader- She has worked to create a more inviting decent GPA” when he was in high ship. “Being a leader, being dynamic — community for international students, school in Des Plaines, Illinois, he wasn’t I see that as a challenge.”

24 ON WISCONSIN henry Active and well-rounded, Gomez is a musician who plays three instruments and is a licensed pilot. Though initially suspicious of Posse’s diversity goals — “That stuff is too p.c., too political for me,” he says — he came to like the pro- gram’s focus on leadership. “Being a leader, being dynamic — I see that as a challenge.”

curtail out-of-state enrollment, which hampered efforts to recruit for a more diverse campus. By 1988, students of color made up less than 6 percent of UW-Madison’s student body, and diversity had become such a concern that the UW System launched Design for Diversity, a ten- year plan to double the number of under- graduates from four targeted ethnic groups: African-American, Southeast Asian, Hispanic, and Native American. Of the plan’s eight strategic initia- tives, however, only one specifically aimed at retaining those students after they enrolled. Design for Diversity pro- duced higher numbers of incoming stu- dents in all four groups, but because of poor retention, only the Asian group showed a significant increase. After ten years, the minority student population had increased to just 9.2 percent. Gomez has made a career out of fac- Diversity first blew up In 1998, the university released a ing challenges. He served in student as an issue in 1969, when a group called Retention Strategic Plan, recognizing government positions with Associated the Black Peoples Alliance launched a that minority students “face additional Students of Madison’s legal affairs com- strike against the university, disrupting burdens of cultural isolation and exclu- mittee and its Student Services Finance classes and holding demonstrations. sion simply because of who they are and Committee. He sings in the gospel choir, They eventually issued thirteen “non- their physical characteristics as a person gives salsa music lessons, and was the negotiable demands,” one of which was of color.” Aware that these burdens were vice president of Madison’s Latino to recruit more students of color. The causing heavy attrition, the UW System Men’s Group. He also helped start strike was the largest mass student action placed more emphasis on improving Breaking the Law, a break-dancing up to that time, and though the univer- retention and graduation rates when it event that attracts upwards of five hun- sity responded sympathetically, the tactic drafted its second ten-year diversity dred students. backfired. It scared the regents, who effort, Plan 2008. The university was Posse hopes that people like Gomez believed that the era’s protests and open to ideas like Posse — it just needed and Sith will be part of the answer to demonstrations were the result of agita- Wade Fetzer ’59 to come along and make UW-Madison’s diversity difficulty. tion by students from outside Wisconsin. the program a reality. The regents put pressure on the UW to

SUMMER 2005 25 vanessa She doesn’t feel the urge that many members of her Posse do to get deeply involved with organizations that are focused entirely on her ethnic group. “That’s kind of why I wanted to come to the Midwest. I didn’t want to hang out with people like me all the time. I wanted to experience something different.”

Wade Fetzer is the sort of person who didn’t feel at all out of place when he came to Madison in the mid-1950s. He’s Midwestern and rela- tively well off, having grown up in Chicago’s affluent northern suburbs. He had the support of many friends, includ- ing his girlfriend and future wife, Bev- erly Below Fetzer x’60. And he’s white. The UW was good to Fetzer, and in return, he’s been good to it — his family helped fund campus’s Below Alumni Cen- ter, and he’s a member of the UW Foun- dation’s board of directors and co-chair of its $1.5 billion capital campaign. When he mentioned Posse to university administra- tors, they were willing to listen. Fetzer had become familiar with the program through the action of his own posse. His friend Tim Ubben was trying to get the Posse Foundation’s Chicago section started in 1998, just as the UW was issuing Plan 2008, and he roped Fet- zer into helping to raise funds. Fetzer It took some convincing, however, to scholarship selection to anyone but colle- saw the program’s promise immediately get Posse and UW-Madison together. giate officials. and began encouraging the UW to get Deborah Bial “thought the UW was too “We had certain concerns that Posse involved. big and that their kids would get lost,” had never dealt with before,” says Walter “What I really like about Posse,” he Fetzer says. “She didn’t think that the Lane, the associate dean in the School of says, “is that it isn’t an affirmative-action Posses would be able to make much of Education who serves as director of UW- program. It isn’t about numbers, but an impact here.” Madison’s Posse Program. “There are a about recruiting high-quality students. UW-Madison administrators, facing lot of people that we’re responsible to, It’s about identifying leadership potential. a perpetually tight budget, were equally both at the university and the state level. Posse provides a group of kids who know uneasy, especially as Posse put more Before we spend this kind of money on how to deal with the diversity issue. They stock on the vague concept of leadership students, we have to be sure that they aren’t just going to go to class and take up than on something quantifiable, such as have impeccable qualifications.” space. They’re leaders. They’re involved. grades or test scores. Before UW-Madi- But Fetzer persisted. He brought They’re the kind of students you really son, Posse had never sent students to a Bial to Madison in May to meet with want to have on campus.” state university, never had to justify Chancellor John D. Wiley MS’65,

26 ON WISCONSIN PhD’68 and his staff and to experience large- and small-group activities, individ- this only exposed the difficulty she had campus at its most charming. He prom- ual interviews, writing samples, and connecting with the members of her ised the UW a perpetual supply of ener- resumes. Last year, some 5,500 students Posse. “At first,” she says, “they thought getic students who would give the applied for Posse scholarships; only 5 I was some kind of stuck-up bouzhy,” a university a more welcoming climate — percent of them made the final cut. middle-class girl who thought she was students who would “show not just aca- In the winter before the students too good for the program. She felt dis- demic ability, but also energy and excite- enter college, the Posse Foundation pres- concerted by the workshops and frank ment, both about Posse and about going ents twenty finalists to be evaluated by discussions that were designed to break to Madison.” their intended institution. The UW’s deci- down barriers. “I thought Posse was It took three years, but he wore sion team consists of Lane; Fetzer; admis- some sort of cult,” she says. “Everybody both the UW and the Posse Foundation sions director Rob Seltzer; Judi Roller, wanted to be my family — they were try- down, and in 2001, UW-Madison the associate dean for academic affairs in ing to get too close, and the whole thing entered into a contract with Posse, the College of Letters and Science; and felt claustrophobic.” promising to take in at least one Chicago Darrell Bazzell ’84, who, as UW-Madi- But she stuck with the training, and group a year from the fall of 2002 son’s vice chancellor for administration, when she arrived on campus, she discov- through the fall of 2006. Today, Fetzer oversees Plan 2008 efforts. The team ered how helpful it could be. The transi- boasts, Chicago Posse applicants select then has to choose about ten students to tion to college struck her particularly the UW more than any other participat- include in the Posse. hard. The university wanted the Posse ing school as their preferred destination. Berry had the impeccable qualifica- students to spread their influence as tions that Posse and the UW wanted: near widely as possible and not merely to club the top of her class, an accomplished together, so it arranged that they not live When Danielle Berry pianist, an athlete who played tennis and together. “We encouraged them to live entered her senior year of high school, ran cross country, and a leader with Top with other students,” says Walter Lane. she had absolutely no desire to apply to Teens of America, an African-American “We wanted to be sure that they inter- UW-Madison. “Wisconsin wasn’t even community-service group. When the acted with other people.” on the map,” she says. “I had my own expectations of what college should be, and they didn’t include attending a large, “What I really like about Posse,” Fetzer says, “is that it isn’t an affirmative- predominantly white university.” Her father had gone to the histori- action program. It isn’t about numbers, but about recruiting high-quality cally black Morehouse College, and she students. It’s about identifying leadership potential. Posse provides a group intended to follow in his footsteps. “I of kids who know how to deal with the diversity issue. They aren’t just going wanted to feel the sort of connection that an HBUC [historically black uni- to go to class and take up space. They’re leaders. They’re involved. They’re versity or college] can provide,” she the kind of students you really want to have on campus.” says. “That sense of community is important to me.” But the Posse scholarship was too much to pass up. UW’s decision team saw a group of final- For many Posse students, this Berry joined the hundreds of students ists that included Berry, Kannitha Sith, worked out well enough, but Berry who apply for Posse scholarships each and Henry Gomez, they faced a difficult started out on the wrong foot with her year. “They’re the greatest pool of kids,” decision — “one of the hardest decisions roommate. Feeling isolated on the UW’s says Fetzer. “Many of them have grade I’ve ever had to make,” according to Fet- overwhelmingly white campus, she lost point averages that run above 4.0.” But zer. And so they chose not to decide. That motivation and increasingly cut herself Posse isn’t just looking for bright students first year, the UW didn’t take ten students off from those around her. Further, she — a high GPA doesn’t necessarily mean for one Posse; it took all twenty. Two was in a difficult relationship with a that a student will be a good team mem- groups entered from Chicago in 2002. possessive boyfriend who discouraged ber, a generous friend, or an agent for Initially, Berry found the Posse expe- her from getting involved in Madison improving campus climate. To find the rience uncomfortable. The students were life. At the end of her first semester, candidates who possess those unquantifi- put through thirty-two weeks of training she was on academic probation and able characteristics, Posse Foundation — weekly after-school meetings designed wondering why she had ever come to administrators put those hundreds of can- not only to prepare the students for col- Wisconsin at all. didates through a series of evaluations — lege, but to turn them into a team. But Continued on page 60

SUMMER 2005 27 Posse Impressed with the program’s results like I know my purpose. And I feel like I Continued from page 27 at the UW, more public universities have can help other people.” added Posse to their diversity efforts. Those other people include students This was just the crisis Posse had The University of Illinois joined in 2004, like Vanessa Gonzales x’08. been created for, and Berry’s team — and the University of Michigan in 2005. Gonzales is part of the Los Angeles particularly Jai Thomas x’06 and In spite of that record, however, Posse that entered the UW in 2004. Dominique Davis x’06 — rode to her Posse’s future at UW-Madison is in trou- Intending to study journalism, she hopes rescue. “Jai and Dominique and I, we ble. In 2003, Wiley called Fetzer to tell to work in television or perhaps with a were like a Super Posse,” says Berry. him that the program had hit a financial fashion magazine. “Especially Jai. I think of her as my sis- snag. “The funding just isn’t there,” Fet- Like many of her predecessors, she ter. They were very honest with me, even zer says. “But John could see the impact hadn’t really thought about Madison when I didn’t want to hear it.” that Posse is having, and he gave me a until Posse came along. Instead, she’d Freshman year was a difficult adjust- mandate to raise the money privately to hoped to go to New York University or keep the program going.” ment for Berry, but slowly things began the University of California-Berkeley. But it’s a lot of private money — to get better. “In my second year, I was But a year ago, the UW was the only about $1.5 million a year to meet the pro- more comfortable,” she says. “I was sizable school offered to L.A.’s Posses — gram’s current needs. Last year, Fetzer meeting other people, being myself.” By the other choices, Iowa’s Grinnell Col- was able to raise only $675,000. “We’re her junior year, Berry knew she could lege and California’s Claremont- survive at the UW. just getting started,” he says. Still, expan- sion is doubtful. McKenna, held little appeal for her. “We’re developing a broad-based She quickly made friends on campus — her roommate at Ogg and her cowork- While UW-Madison’s fund-raising strategy” to aid Posse, says ers at the Gordon Commons dining hall. Posses were struggling to gain a toehold vice chancellor Darrell Bazzell. “But unless we’re able to bring private dollars School, she says, is “going okay,” and she on campus, Fetzer was advocating to the table, we will not likely expand to has a good shot at a 3.0 GPA and earning expansion. In 2002, he convinced the additional cities. And it’s uncertain one of Wade Fetzer’s laptop computers. university to enter a five-class contract whether we’ll be able to continue our It’s not that she needs the computer — with Posse in Los Angeles, and he hopes commitment to Chicago and Los Ange- rather, she wants what the computer to add more. “Our dream,” he says, “is to les beyond our initial commitment.” symbolizes: achievement. “When the have Posses at the UW from all five par- Posses get together and they read off ticipating cities. That would give us at everyone’s accomplishments, I want to be least two hundred Posse students on No matter what future sure the others see I’m doing well,” she campus all the time.” the Posse Program has at UW-Madison, says. “I don’t want my name to be the In its first three years, the program the groups have made an impact. As the only one with nothing after it.” has experienced considerable success. Posse students work their way through Though she was surprised when she Every year, it holds a retreat, with each college, they’re beginning to take the arrived in Madison to see how white the participant inviting at least two non- leadership roles that the program prom- UW campus is, she doesn’t feel the urge Posse classmates for a weekend of dis- ised — and finding ways to make cam- that many members of her Posse do to get cussions. In February 2005, the retreat pus more amenable for themselves and deeply involved with organizations that brought some 160 students, along with the students of color who follow them. focus entirely on her ethnic group. “That’s UW administrators, to Lake Geneva to Like Henry Gomez and Kannitha kind of why I wanted to come to the Mid- talk about the role of privilege in higher Sith, Danielle Berry now says she feels education. To encourage Posse students like she “fell into the proverbial gravy west,” she says. “I didn’t want to hang out to keep a focus on academics, Fetzer pot” when she linked up with Posse and with people like me all the time. I wanted pays out of his own pocket to give a lap- the UW. In spite of her initial resistance, to experience something different.” top computer to each one who earns at she’s seeing the program’s rewards play However, she does feel the effect of least a 3.0 grade point average after out in her own life, and she hopes to pass the previous Posses, and she says that their first year. Of the sixty-two Posse that benefit along to others. She and Jai those students have given Madison a students who have enrolled at UW- Thomas are now involved with a campus more welcoming climate. “They say hi to Madison, fifty-nine are still on campus. Women of Color Support Group, and you,” she says. “When you see them in the Should that retention rate — 95 percent Berry became a house fellow at her resi- hall, they know your name. And that kind — hold over to graduation, it would put dence hall, where most of the eighty- of friendliness just makes you more com- Posse well above the current graduation eight students in her house are freshmen. fortable. It makes a huge difference.” rates for both white (79.3 percent) and “Everything is falling into place for minority (54.2 percent) students. me,” she says. “I feel motivated again, John Allen is associate editor for On Wisconsin.

28 ON WISCONSIN The Last Fugitive Thirty-five years after four young radicals bombed Sterling Hall, three have been caught and brought to justice. One was never heard from again. To this day, there is one lingering question about UW- Madison’s turbulent Vietnam days: what happened to Leo Burt?

28 ON WISCONSIN By Doug Moe ’79 But the prints did not match. The home- Liberation after he disappeared into the less man was not Leo Burt. underground in 1972. There were strik- The tips started coming The tips keep coming, but they are ing similarities in the prose, but the man almost immediately. always wrong. eventually arrested as the Unabomber On October 31, 1970, two months was Ted Kaczynski, not Leo Burt. Through the years, there have been after a bomb exploded outside This summer, thirty-five years rumors of sightings — in Norman, Okla- Sterling Hall on the UW-Madison will have passed since the August night homa, in the early 1970s; in Algeria in campus, a waitress in a restaurant when four young radicals parked a van 1972; and in Costa Rica in 1990. None in Cleveland, Ohio, thought one of full of explosives in the driveway outside have panned out. If anything, it is the Sterling Hall. Targeted at the Army utter lack of credible information on her customers was Leo Burt, one of Math Research Center as a protest what has become of Burt that most dis- four men wanted in connection with against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam tinguishes the case. the bombing. She had seen his face War, the bomb killed Robert Fassnacht, That’s what struck Allan Thompson, on an FBI Ten Most Wanted poster. a thirty-three-year-old postdoctoral the Madison FBI agent who handled the Later that night, the customer from the restaurant came out of a Cleveland movie theater, where he had just “Leo simply disappeared. watched Easy Rider. As he started to open his car door, several uniformed police officers approached, guns drawn, researcher in physics, and touched off an investigation prior to Miller, about the and told him to put his hands over his FBI manhunt for the bombers. case when I talked to him in 1995. “I did head. An FBI agent approached him Three men who carried out the fugitive work for twenty-three years. In and said, “You’re being charged as a bombing — erstwhile UW student Kar- every case I worked, someone in the fugitive from justice.” leton Armstrong, his brother Dwight woodwork knew where the person was. After an hour of questioning, author- Armstrong, and then-freshman David Family, friends — somebody,” he told ities realized that the man was a second- Fine — were all eventually arrested, me. “With Burt, there was an intense year law student named Richard served time in prison, and have gotten on investigation of his parents and relatives. Routman, and not a notorious fugitive. with their lives. But their suspected Nothing came of it. Not one iota or indi- Today, Routman is an attorney in accomplice, Leo Frederick Burt x’70, cation in twenty-five years that he’s been Kansas, and every once in a while, he remains at large, making him perhaps the sighted, heard from, or spoken to.” wonders whatever became of Leo Burt. last fugitive of the Vietnam era. Thou- But if Leo Burt has vanished, the In 2003, thirty-three years after that sands of tips have been investigated, interest in him has not. Joe Brennan, Jr., Halloween night in Cleveland, FBI spe- hundreds of theories advanced, and the a thirty-six-year-old student in the grad- cial agent Kent Miller got a call from mystery of Burt has only deepened. uate writing program at Johns Hopkins Denver. Someone had tipped police that After he published Rads, his 1992 University, is currently revising a lengthy a homeless man in the area might be book about the bombing, newspaper manuscript about Burt, with the working Burt. Miller, who had worked the Burt reporter Tom Bates MA’68, PhD’72 title The Last Radical. Brennan’s interest case for fifteen years out of the bureau’s thought he might hear from Burt. When in Burt comes from his father, who was a Madison office, compared a photograph he didn’t, Bates grew even more fasci- classmate and rowing teammate of Burt of the Denver man to age-enhanced nated by the fugitive. In 1995, Bates at Monsignor Bonner High School in images of Burt the bureau had made. wrote a long story for a newspaper in Pennsylvania. Brennan thinks Burt’s There were resemblances, although the Oregon, claiming Burt was the upbringing, and especially his involve- homeless man’s hair was longer. Unabomber, the domestic terrorist who ment in rowing, is critical to understand- “He was real mysterious,” Miller killed three people and injured dozens ing what happened in August 1970 and recalls. “He wouldn’t stay in the same more with bombs, usually mailed, from perhaps the years since. homeless shelter more than four or five 1978 to 1995. Bates based his claim Burt was born April 18, 1948, into a nights, wouldn’t tell anybody where he largely on similarities between the middle-class, Catholic Philadelphia fam- was from.” Unabomber’s “Manifesto,” which had ily. He and his six siblings grew up in a The FBI enlisted an employee of been recently published by the New York brick bungalow, across the street from a the homeless shelter, who managed to Times and Washington Post, and an article cemetery. Leo was an altar boy, and Fri- retrieve a soda can the man had held. written by Burt for the left-wing journal day dinners in the Burt home were fish

SUMMER 2005 29 In 1970, Burt joined fellow radicals (from left) Kar- UPI/BETTMANN leton Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, and David Fine as part of the New Year’s Gang, which vowed to wreak havoc on operations it saw as complicit in the Vietnam War. The bomb at Sterling Hall did little dam- age to its intended target, the U.S. Army Math Research Center, but killed a researcher who was working inside the build- ing. Burt’s co-conspirators all have been captured and sentenced for their roles in the attack. or meatless spaghetti. He was a decent been Burt’s best friend on the team, hav- started writing a lot for the Daily Cardinal student, but it was crew — a widely pop- ing spent the summer of 1968 with Burt and SDS [Students for a Democratic ular sport around Philadelphia in those and his family in Pennsylvania, where Society],” Mickelson says. “At some days — that interested him most. “The they trained for Olympic trials and the point, he started believing what he was central thing in his life was rowing,” says coming season. Mickelson remembers writing.” Brennan. Burt as someone who never fought and Political activism was hard to avoid A number of East Coast universities rarely argued with anyone, even in the on campus in 1969. Two years earlier, wanted Burt to row for them, but he sometimes heated and competitive student demonstrations against the Dow chose Wisconsin, which under coach atmosphere of the locker room. “Never Chemical company had erupted into Randy Jablonic ‘60 had established itself bloody riots. After he left the crew, as one of the best crew programs in the Burt’s circle refocused around Daily country. “He went to Madison solely to Cardinal reporters and the anti-war be part of the men’s rowing team,” Bren- The others remembered activists he met while covering protests. nan says. “He wanted to be with the best. Burt weeping in the He forged friendships with Fine and It was a fateful decision.” Karl Armstrong. “It became another cul- Fateful because while Burt enjoyed back of the car when ture, like rowing, for him to immerse some success in his first year rowing in the radio delivered the himself in,” Brennan says. Madison, the hard reality was that at five In the spring of 1970, when news feet, eleven inches tall, he was shorter news a man had died. broke that the National Guard had shot than the raw, big-boned kids Jablonic four students during a protest at Kent favored. It was physics: a tall man can But then Dwight State University, the already edgy UW- move a boat faster than a shorter one. Madison campus erupted. While cover- Burt’s experience and his intensity — Armstrong sensed a ing a melee between police and students remarked on by all who knew him — change. He looked on Bascom Hill, Burt was beaten by carried him for a time. He could outwork police. And with that, he was no longer anyone and became a weight room leg- at Burt and thought, an observer. end. Yet by his junior year, with the Bad- gers scheduled for a big race out east, “He’s cold as steel.” Over beers at the Nitty Gritty, Burt Burt was dropped from the traveling talked politics and revolution with the squad. While he didn’t quit then, he Armstrong brothers and Fine. “It was a began to clash with Jablonic, and when swore, never told a dirty joke, never had chance to be part of something bigger the coach told him to get a haircut, Burt a date, as far as I know,” Mickelson than himself, yet be a big part of it him- cleaned out his locker. recalls. “It was rowing and studies. Leo self,” says Brennan. Their discussions “His whole life was being a varsity was a good, but not great, student, and turned to the Army Math Research rower,” Brennan says. “It left a huge he studied a lot.” Center, which had recently received a hole.” When Burt left the team, he and $1.8 million contract from the U.S. Tim Mickelson ’71, a rower originally Mickelson remained friends, while seeing Department of Defense, and they started from Deerfield, Wisconsin, may have each other less. “He let his hair grow and to plot. Something had to be done.

30 ON WISCONSIN From the underground, the bombers wrote in the radi- In the predawn hours of August cal journal Kaleidoscope 24, 1970, Kent Miller was working as a that they regretted the support employee for the FBI in his death of Robert Fassnacht, but remained defiant that hometown of Oklahoma City, Okla- their actions were neces- homa. In those days, FBI offices were sary as part of a “world- required to test their teletype machines wide struggle to defeat amerikan imperialism.” every twenty-four hours, and on that night, Miller was supposed to send mes- sages to the office in Milwaukee. patch to the Madison “I’m merrily talking to this guy [by underground paper teletype],” Miller recalls, “and he sends a Kaleidoscope, which message back that the phone was ring- lamented the death of ing. He comes back and says, ‘Big explo- Fassnacht but said: sion at the university. Got to go.’ ” “The destruction of It was big, all right. The blast at Ster- AMRC was not an ling Hall killed Fassnacht and caused isolated act by more than $6 million in damages. But it ‘lunatics.’ It was a also changed the course of Miller’s life. conscious action Eighteen years later, he would be in taken in solidarity Madison, leading the FBI’s ongoing with ... all other investigation, which by then centered on heroic fighters Burt, the only suspect whom they hadn’t against U.S. impe- succeeded in finding. rialism.” After planting the bomb, Burt, the Burt also Armstrongs, and Fine had packed into a wrote his parents small Corvair and headed north out of in Pennsylvania. Madison, toward Sauk County. The oth- He told them he was ers later remembered Burt weeping in looking for journalism work in New the back seat when the radio delivered York City and added, “Did you hear Meanwhile, at a rowing event in the news that a man had died in the about the explosion in Wisconsin? I Canada a few days after the bombing, bombing. But then, as they sat on a bluff didn’t get to see it, but you could hear it Mickelson was approached by mounted near Devil’s Lake, Dwight Armstrong — far away.” police, who wanted to know if he’d heard as he would later tell author Tom Bates From New York, Fine and Burt from Burt. They believed Burt was still — sensed a change in Burt. The twenty- hitched a ride with a friend to Boston, in Canada and might try to contact his two-year-old, who had absorbed the where they spent a night with Fine’s sis- friend for money. Mickelson recalls feel- work of the existential philosopher Jean- ter. According to Bates in Rads, from ing “total surprise” when he heard his Paul Sartre, reinvented himself as the there the pair got a ride into Canada, friend might be involved. He’d not been sun came up. Armstrong looked at Burt checking into a rooming house in Peter- contacted, but authorities would remain and thought, “He’s cold as steel.” borough, sixty miles northeast of interested in their friendship, following The four actually drove back to Toronto. They had only been there a day up repeatedly over the next few years. Madison, lying their way out of a poten- when the Royal Canadian Mounted Before the decade was out, the Arm- tial jam when they were stopped by Sauk Police appeared at the door. Bates wrote: strongs and Fine would be appre- County police, before heading for New “David and Leo hurriedly discarded hended. All four of the alleged bombers York. They split up in Toledo; Karl and their wallets with their IDs, useless now were immediately put on the FBI’s Dwight kept the car and dropped Fine that they had registered with them, and famous Ten Most Wanted list, which and Burt at the Greyhound station, with exited by a rear window. Then they brought the intense heat of a nationwide an agreement to meet a week later in parted company. David hitchhiked south manhunt on them. Since the debut of Times Square. and west, heading for the border cross- the list in 1950, more than 90 percent of That meeting never came off. While ing at Detroit.” the fugitives that have wound up there Fine and Burt did go to New York, they Bates’s next sentence echoes across have been captured. were intent on getting out of the United thirty-five years: “Leo simply disap- Karl Armstrong was the first one States. From New York, Burt sent a dis- peared.” arrested; he’d been living under an alias

SUMMER 2005 31 in Toronto before he was caught in 1972.

Another tip led to Fine, who was busted OF TIM MICKELSON COURTESY in 1976 in San Rafael, California. A year later, Dwight Armstrong was captured in Toronto. Dwight, Bates wrote, “was so tired of living underground that he had in effect given up hiding.”

It would seem nothing could prepare someone for a life underground. Abbie Hoffman, a longtime fugitive from that era, wrote upon surfacing: “A fugitive’s brain is filled with a mass of data — Social Security numbers, job histories, birthdates, coded contacts, even different birth signs. There are at least two dozen names I used. If I exam- ined the problem of who I was, some- thing everyone does in introspective periods, the problem only gets magni- fied. A simple ‘’What’s your name?’ can produce insane giggles.” It is the difficulty of life under- ground — the lies, the constant sense of vulnerability, the complete cutting of ties to friends and family — that makes some people believe Leo Burt is not still on the run.

“I think he died, and nobody both- On the rowing team, Burt fit in with athletes like Tim Mickelson (left), who shared his work ered to tell us,” Chuck Lulling, the lead ethic and competitive spirit. Mickelson recalls him as a serious student who never fought with Madison police detective on the case, anyone. But after Burt quit the crew, he drifted away from his former teammates and toward a different circle of friends. once said. But there’s no proof of that, either. When he took over the investigation in told me, ‘We really sympathize with this checked and their mail perused. When 1988, Miller sent copies of Burt’s finger- guy. We were against the war, too.’ ” an agent is responsible for a suspect on prints to all the medical examiners in If he did survive, Burt’s life under- that list, Miller says, “every thirty days the United States to compare with any ground got easier in 1976, when he was you have to submit a report to head- John Doe bodies. removed from the FBI’s most-wanted quarters telling them about all the fine “That came back negative,” he says. list. Fine had been arrested and work you’re doing [and] all the hard Like Allan Thompson before him, returned to Madison to face charges, investigating you’ve done and are plan- Miller never did feel like the bureau was and a federal magistrate had granted ning to do in the next thirty days. It’s a close to catching Burt, who would now him bail — unusual leniency for a man lot of work.” be fifty-seven years old. Miller had who had spent six years running from Burt wasn’t on the list when Miller agents around the country take pictures justice. The FBI took that as a sign that got the case, which meant that the FBI of Burt’s living male relatives to create the bombers were no longer regarded as checked in with Burt’s brothers and models of what Burt might look like serious threats and removed Burt from father (who is now deceased) from time today. He has also pitched the case to its vaunted list. to time, but it didn’t maintain round- true-crime television programs such as The practical effect for a fugitive the-clock surveillance. “Every once in a America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mys- would have been huge. To be on that list while, you might get a subpoena and teries. “I thought we were going to get is to have your picture everywhere. pull some phone records to see if they on Unsolved Mysteries,” he says. “But More than that, it means even distant had gotten a phone call from Ontario or then someone on the production team relatives have their phone records some place,” Miller says. “Of course, if

32 ON WISCONSIN EEA UEUOF INVESTIGATION BUREAU FEDERAL

Three pictures capture how Burt might look now, when he would be fifty-seven years old. The FBI used pictures of Burt’s relatives and computer technology to create the images, although agents admit the chances they will find Burt grow more remote every day. he’d been on the Ten Most Wanted list, But the theories live on. On the his old life. “He’s cold as steel,” Dwight we’d have been camped outside their Internet, you can read countless far- Armstrong said, and that’s the kind of door.” fetched notions of what happened to resolve one would need. But if the reduced attention makes Burt. One theory, largely discounted, is “I think he’s still alive,” Brennan it easier to stay in the shadows, it also that Burt was actually working under- says, “and I think he’s only caught if he reduces the risk of stepping out of them. cover for the authorities against the wants to be caught.” After pleading guilty to a charge of sec- anti-war movement. In June 1999, police and FBI agents ond-degree murder and receiving a acting on a tip surrounded a white mini- twenty-three-year jail sentence, Karl van in the suburbs of St. Paul, Min- Armstrong was paroled in 1980 and “He let his hair grow nesota. The driver, a woman named lives in Madison. Fine and Dwight Sara Jane Olson, was a mother of three, Armstrong each did short terms in and started writing a lot married to a doctor — except that she prison and have returned to lives above for the Daily Cardinal turned out to be Kathleen Soliah, a ground. Miller wonders why Burt member of the Symbionese Liberation wouldn’t have turned himself in, and SDS,” Mickelson Army, a radical group perhaps best accepted a relatively light sentence, and known for kidnapping Patty Hearst in been done with it. recalls. “At some point, 1974. Soliah had been on the run for “That’s why, late on some nights,” he started believing twenty-five years. Miller says, “I say, ‘Well, maybe he’s dead.’ That leaves Burt, who vanished a It’s either that, or he’s so comfortable as a what he was writing.” decade ago longer than that, as the last fugitive that he’s somewhere where he’s piece of a puzzle that we can’t seem to convinced he’ll never be caught.” put away. And we may never know the The truth is that we don’t know, full picture — because if he isn’t dead, and we may never find out. Firsthand Brennan, who admits to having he might as well be. knowledge of the case is fading. Bates something of an obsession with Burt, “He won’t come forward,” Brennan died of pancreatic cancer in 1999; said recently that “everybody who knew says. “Remember this: whoever he has Lulling passed away in 2000. Both him has a theory of what has happened become, he has been that person a lot Miller and Thompson have retired from to him.” Most everyone agrees that the longer than he was Leo Burt.” the FBI. strength of will — the kind of mind- Tim Mickelson no longer gets calls over-body strength that earned an aver- from the FBI, which is just as well. In age-bodied rower the attention of the Doug Moe ’79, former editor of Madison Magazine and now a columnist for the Capital Times, has thirty-five years, he has heard nothing nation’s elite crew programs — would heard from dozens of people during his career who from Leo Burt. have served Burt well as he abandoned claim to know where Leo Burt

SUMMER 2005 33 Paul Stitt has been a longtime pioneer in getting Americans to eat healthier foods, but when it comes to school lunches, his impact can only be described as super-sized. By Niki Denison

In 1998, Wisconsin’s Appleton Central Alternative High School was dealing with worrisome discipline problems in the classrooms. Students were caught with drugs and weapons. They were hostile to each other and to their teachers, and behavior was out of control. Did the school turn to a psychologist, a consultant, or an education specialist? No — they contacted Paul Stitt MS’69, the owner and founder of Natural Ovens Bakery. “When the Appleton school system came to us and said could you help us, we said we’d love to,” Stitt says. “And we said, ‘Certainly, we know how to correct the situa- tion. Throw out the vending machines with all the high-sugar, high-fat foods; throw out the pop machines loaded with sugar; put in water coolers; and start educating kids about what they need to do to be good to their bodies.’ ”

34 ON WISCONSIN PASKUS STUDIO (3)

“The human brain needs nutrients to function,” says Paul Stitt (above, surrounded by students). “Any biochemist can tell you that, without proper neurotransmitters in the brain cells, nothing is going to happen, no matter what teaching method you use on kids.”

Stitt and his spouse, Barbara, under- no expulsions, no dropouts, no drugs on Seeing this success, the entire Apple- wrote a program that allowed the school campus, no weapons, and no suicides. It ton school district is now phasing in a to start serving a menu emphasizing was the only school in Appleton that had healthier lunch program for its fifteen fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain a perfect record during that period. thousand students. The first year, they products, entrees free of chemicals and Although the food costs were higher, removed the soda and candy machines additives, and energy drinks. the school saved money because it no from the schools (and even from the staff The results were dramatic. Truancy longer had to pay for a full-time police lounges). Now they’re working with a rates took a nose dive. Grades shot up. officer, and with better discipline, it was private hot-lunch contractor to improve Vandalism and littering went down. The able to increase class size from eight to food choices and quality. Even PTA alternative school went five years with fifteen students. meetings and bake sales now feature trail

SUMMER 2005 35 mix and carrot sticks instead of cup- ests. Stitt’s team synthesized a protein ing healthy, whole-grain breads, which cakes, says Assistant Superintendent Lee from methanol, and they felt it had great were hard to come by at that time. Like Allinger. Since the district started paying potential as an inexpensive way to feed many new businesses, the bakery got off more attention to what its students are malnourished millions. Despite the to a rocky start. But Stitt persisted, eating, he adds, “our teachers feel the team’s success, however, the project was expanding his distribution throughout kids are more focused in the classroom.” inexplicably canceled. Stitt, baffled and the Midwest and by mail order. He aug- Nationwide, what we eat has become frustrated, moved on to Quaker Oats. mented his product line with bagels, a hot topic, as obesity rates have grown There he was in for more disappoint- muffins, and other items, and fortified to epidemic proportions in the last ment. Stitt claims that what he calls the his products with flax and vitamins. twenty years. According to the Centers corporate food giants, in the interest of Although Stitt relies solely on word-of- for Disease Control and Prevention, increasing profits, have deliberately set mouth advertising, the company’s 2004 more than 60 percent of American adults out to get consumers to overeat. He sales came in at $26 million, and it has are overweight or obese, and 13 percent learned that they put appetite stimulants experienced steady growth, averaging nearly 15 percent per year. He maintains that his is the only com- pany in the United States with an original Spurlock included a segment on the mission to make foods so filling and satis- Appleton school lunch program in the fying that people could not overeat. “The wisdom within the food industry is that movie Super Size Me, contrasting it you always have to make foods so that people can’t stop eating, or you’ll never with a typical lunch program at an Illinois school sell enough to stay in business. And we that centered around pizza and French fries. say that’s hogwash.” If you make foods that don’t cause people to overeat, he says, word will spread, “and you’ll be of children aged six to eleven are over- in snack food to encourage consumers to gaining new customers all the time.” weight — almost double the figure of eat more. For instance, in his book Beat- Natural Ovens’ success has allowed two decades ago. ing the Food Giants, Stitt claims that Oreo Stitt to get involved in community efforts Experts agree that a big part of the cookies have “twenty-three different like the Appleton school initiative. solution must focus on instilling healthier appetite stimulants,” along with eleven Through his nonprofit Nutritional eating habits in children. Many school artificial colors. The primary purpose of Resource Foundation, he and Barbara districts are removing junk-food artificial sweeteners, he claims, is not to started the Peak Performance Program to machines or replacing their offerings make foods sweeter, but to get people to provide the company’s energy mix and with healthier choices, such as juices, eat more of them. Sugar consumption Brainy Bagels (which include flaxseed to energy bars, or baked snacks instead of has increased since artificial sweeteners optimize brain function) to the Appleton fried. Others, spurred by parental con- came on the market, he says. The aver- Alternative School and more than thirty cern and overweight kids, are starting to age person has consumed seventeen other Wisconsin classrooms for breakfast. revamp their lunch menus. Even pounds more sugar per year since 1980. That later grew into the lunch program. McDonald’s restaurants are starting to Further, he maintains, most food According to Ken Zeichner, assistant offer fruit and other healthy selections. processing strips nutrients from food, dean in the UW-Madison School of Edu- And Paul Stitt couldn’t be happier. leaving the body unsatisfied and causing cation, public schools are hamstrung by These are changes that he and Barbara us to eat more. the need to provide subsidized lunch have been advocating for years. In fact, When Stitt brought up these issues programs. “The government gives sup- Stitt has made it a lifelong mission to get with his former employers, he was port in the form of surplus food, things people to eat more healthfully — a mis- branded as a troublemaker. After moving they need to get rid of that they dump on sion born of his disillusionment with the him to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Quaker the schools that is of questionable nutri- corporate approach to feeding America. fired him, and Stitt says he was black- tional value,” he says. Stitt got his graduate degree in bio- balled and couldn’t get another job inter- Zeichner believes that this type of chemistry, and after graduation, filled view in the food industry. He decided he fare can distract students from learning. with visions of helping to solve the prob- could do better on his own. “A lot of kids in the public schools are lem of world hunger, he signed on for a In 1976, he started Natural Ovens of drugged with Ritalin and other things special project with Tenneco, a multina- Manitowoc Bakery (now just known as because they’re supposedly hyperactive,” tional corporation with petroleum inter- Natural Ovens) with the intent of mak- he says, “and kids are being defined as

36 ON WISCONSIN Why You Can’t Eat Just One Some of the most Kelley has also discovered another ingredient in our makeup weighty research that leads us to pack on the pounds. She found that a habitual on food cravings diet of rich foods causes long-term alterations in brain chemistry. THE I SPOT ILLUSTRATION has come from Ann In one study, she gave rats a diet of chocolate Ensure (a nutri- Kelley, a UW-Madi- tional supplement drink) for several weeks, and she learned that son professor of psy- it induced a change in gene expression in their brains. The rats chiatry. Kelley and her had a decrease in the amount of a gene that helped to regulate research team are study- their reactions to food. ing the chemical systems in the “Interestingly, this pattern is similar to what happens if rats brain that regulate our response to food — specifically, high-fat are given morphine or heroin for several weeks,” Kelley says. “In and high-sugar foods. other words, rich, calorically-dense foods can have marked, long- If you hear the cheesecake in the refrigerator calling to you, lasting effects on brain neurochemistry, and perhaps overindul- you can thank your opioid system. This neurotransmitter system gence in these foods primes the system to want more and more, in the brain seems to be important in the pleasurable and emo- in a manner similar to addiction.” tional response to food. These findings have implications for developing weight-loss Kelley found that if she overstimulates the opioid receptors drugs that act on the opioid system. However, there are also in rats, “they pig out. They will eat three to four times as much other systems in the brain involved in processing information fat as they usually do.” Rats enjoy sweetened fat, and over the about food. The amygdala, which is involved in emotional pro- course of three hours they might typically eat five to seven cessing and learning, is one of them. “If we block the amygdala grams, she says. “But the rats that we treat with this compound in rats,” says Kelley, “they don’t binge-eat anymore.” Conse- [that activates the opioid system] can eat up to twenty-five grams quently, “weight-loss drugs are going to need to target multi- in three hours.” Conversely, Kelley found that when she blocked ple chemical systems in the brain.” Humans are wired with such the opioid receptors, the rats ate a lot less. a powerful system to get us to eat that it’s really hard to turn it Scientists agree that a built-in attraction for high-fat foods off, she says. This complexity tempers her optimism about was beneficial in evolutionary development for ensuring the con- developing effective drugs. sumption of relatively scarce, high-energy food sources. But in It’s much more important, she says, to begin early in life to modern times, Kelley says, this mechanism is highly maladaptive. change eating habits, reduce food intake, and increase exercise. In the Western world, “we are surrounded with unlimited sup- “In terms of policy and government and education, I would really plies of high-fat, salty, sweet, and calorically dense foods. These focus on young people,” she says. “Because once the setpoint foods are everywhere we go — convenience stores, schools, [the point at which the brain gauges how much fat is stored] check-out lines — and often come in the form of huge portion changes and keeps creeping upward, it’s harder and harder to sizes.” This scenario, combined with a sedentary lifestyle, has led push that down. The idea is to really stabilize early in teenage to an epidemic of obesity. years or young adulthood.” — N.D. emotionally disturbed. There’s no ques- and not much else. When she showed so unhealthy that his doctors begged him tion in my mind that at least some of it — them how to follow a healthy diet, those to stop the experiment. I’m not saying all of it — has to do with who stayed on it were amazed at how dif- Spurlock included a segment on the the quality of nutrition. Parents are busy ferent they felt, and their improved atti- Appleton school lunch program in the at all income levels; they’re not necessar- tudes and behaviors helped them to stay movie, contrasting it with a typical lunch ily making sure that their kids get access out of jail. She figured that if it worked program at an Illinois school that centered to good-quality food. for them, it would work in the classroom. around pizza and French fries. Spurlock “To see an independent business- The lunch program caught the eye of and Stitt are now working on creating a person doing [what Stitt is doing] is filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who made version of Super Size Me that is suitable for wonderful,” Zeichner says. “I can’t say the movie Super Size Me based on what showing in schools. It’s obvious that the enough positive things about him.” he felt like when he ate all his meals at two are kindred spirits. Stitt says that The Appleton program was originally McDonald’s restaurants for thirty days Spurlock is “very high energy — he’s just inspired by Barbara Stitt’s work as a pro- in a row. The previously fit and healthy the neatest guy to work with. He’s full of bation officer. She realized that a lot of Spurlock gained twenty-five pounds, and laughs all the time, and he’s having a ball her probationers were junk food junkies his cholesterol and liver profiles became with this concept. The food industry just who lived on soda, caffeine, and sugar, doesn’t know how to take it.”

SUMMER 2005 37 packets with seventy-five pages of infor- mation about how schools can make sim- ilar changes, along with a short DVD telling the story of Appleton Alternative. “The human brain needs nutrients to function,” Stitt says. “Any biochemist can tell you that, without proper neuro- transmitters in the brain cells, nothing is going to happen, no matter what teach- ing method you use.” Older teachers maintain, he says, that today’s students “are much less able to think and remem- ber than they could forty years ago.” To what does he attribute this astounding claim? “My theory is, it’s just plain old lack of nutrients in the food — that the children’s food providers are abus- ing them in not providing them with ade- quate nutrients,” he says. Before the advent of fast foods, children weren’t eat- ing so many empty calories. “If you look at the ingredients in Chicken McNuggets,” he says, “it’s a chemical conglomeration with a little chicken added. When I was a kid, when my mother served me chicken, it was all chicken.” In some cases, he says, kids are going to school without breakfast. “They just kind of run on empty until lunch time. We found that these kids are not too fussy about how the food tastes, as long as there’s enough of it. They’ll eat any- thing that’s loose.” One technique that Stitt says was especially effective with the Appleton students was an agreement that if the kids would eat healthy foods for a Since Stitt started Natural Ovens of Manitowoc Bakery in 1976, it has grown to a $26 million-a- month, then they would get a junk food year business. Food industry wisdom, he says, dictates that “you always have to make food so day. But after one day of eating all the that people can’t stop eating, or you’ll never stay in business. We say that’s hogwash.” snacks, desserts, and soda they wanted, Spurlock, for his part, maintains that Spurlock, Stitt observes, “the fast food he says, “they were so shocked and dis- Stitt “has been leading the charge for industry could be in serious hot water.” mayed at their awful behavior and the healthy school lunches for many years. Meanwhile, the Appleton lunch pro- terrible way they felt that some of the He is setting an example that districts gram has been featured on Good Morning teenagers actually begged us never to nationwide should follow.” America, Stitt has gone on the speaking require another junk food day. They Stitt is also helping to fund a research circuit, and the school’s story has been couldn’t believe they could go from feel- project with the University of Minnesota written up in a number of newspapers. ing so good to just becoming an animal. duplicating Spurlock’s diet with college “Hundreds of school systems have con- No one ever imagined that a simple thing students. (“I wish it were being done at tacted us for information on how to do like vitamins and minerals and so forth UW-Madison instead,” Stitt says.) If sci- [a program] like Appleton did — we get could make such a huge difference. They ence can demonstrate that others experi- up to ten requests a day,” he says. Since thought it was a lack of religion or train- ence the same negative effects as last October, his staff has sent out 1,400 ing or home life or something else.”

38 ON WISCONSIN Mary Bruyette, an English teacher at huge adjustment from eating food that commitment to young people and to the school, concurs. “Students told me we get from one of our public school the link between good nutrition and how awful they felt after junk food day, vendors to healthy — lots of green veg- performance.” and they said they never wanted to feel etables, lots of great stuff.” It’s not easy Thanks to Natural Ovens Bakery, that way again.” It was a lesson for a life- to switch courses, she says, especially she says, the school has been able to hire time, Stitt says. “And whenever they’re because Perspectives has been construct- an outstanding chef, and some of their tempted to eat junk food, they can think ing a new building and doubling the size students are interning in the kitchen. about how they felt last time.” of the student body at the same time. “So The school food policy is modeled in part This past school year, the Stitts it was a time of great growth for Per- after Appleton’s. Perspectives is also started a similar lunch program with spectives, and there were times when we working with teachers to build informa- Chicago’s Perspectives Charter School, thought, ‘I don’t know if we can really do tion about healthy lifestyles into the which includes grades six through this.’ ” But the fact that Stitt kept curriculum and to integrate the message twelve. Eighty-six percent of the stu- encouraging them helped a lot, she says. throughout the school. “There are huge dents come from low-income back- “The other thing about Paul, in benefits for the faculty and staff as grounds, and they are accepted for the addition to being visionary, is that he’s well,” says Campbell. “We’re all eating school via a lottery. just a person with great heart,” she together and we’re loving it.” Those ben- According to Dianne Campbell, says. “At every turn, we’re inspired by efits will soon extend to some five thou- director of external affairs, the new food the fact that he cares so much. He’s a sand students, since the school board program is “off to a roaring start. It’s a remarkable man with a tremendous Continued on page 61

Easing Pain with Vitamin D

Now that Paul Stitt is semi- chronic back pain. “They’ve demonstrated that by giving people retired from Natural Ovens adequate levels of vitamin D, that you can reverse chronic back Bakery, he has turned his pain,” he says. “This was wholly unexpected. I think that’s attention to researching nutri- research that needs to be expanded on, because it could have tional products that help huge ramifications for the cost of medical care.” relieve pain. “My mission is to Stitt has devised a product called Chocolate Sunshine help people get free of pain Almond Clusters that contain 2,000 units of vitamin D per piece. one person at a time,” he says. They’re being used in a Manitowoc nursing home to determine “I've discovered that [a lot of] if eating the chocolates on a regular basis can help to reduce pain is caused by deficiencies, falls. Treatment of broken bones from falls represents a major specifically vitamin D and C expense in the nursing home industry. and calcium and magnesium.” Professor of Biochemistry Hector DeLuca MS’53, PhD’55, a UW- There are currently about Madison vitamin D expert, cautions that too much vitamin D can one hundred people following a dietary pain-relief program over- be toxic, with a risk of hypercalcemia and destruction of organs seen by Stitt’s Nutritional Research Foundation. “We find that such as the kidneys, heart, and aorta. “It’s not something you play within six weeks, two-thirds of the people are almost pain-free,” around with,” he says. “I’d say that about 5,000 units a day would he says. Those who try his program include people with everything probably be just about where 99.9 percent of the population from chronic back pain to fibromyalgia. would be totally safe. I do think the RDA ought to be increased to Many experts believe that the recommended daily allowance 1,000 or maybe to 2,000 units,” he says, but “the true safe level for vitamin D, currently set at four hundred international units per has never been totally determined. That’s the problem.” day, is too low. (That’s why Stitt supplements most of his bakery Recent studies show that vitamin D3 is several times more products with the vitamin.) When vitamin D was discovered, the valuable than the more commonly used vitamin D2, Stitt says. RDA was based on how much it took to prevent the bone disease “When you stop to think about all the money that is spent on rickets. “Now this whole subject needs to be revisited,” Stitt says. osteoporosis, and all the pain, it’s a real crime, when three cents a “Especially in the last seven years, research around the world has day of vitamin D would prevent that problem if we only knew shown that vitamin D deficiency is involved in all types of cancer how much to take.” Many researchers, he claims, are more inter- — it’s involved in diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis — a lot of things ested in doing studies that lead to biotechnology or other patents, besides rickets.” whereas vitamin D is not patentable. “[Determining the new RDA] He cites a 2003 Mayo Clinic report on a University of Min- is something that’s desperately needed by humanity, but that is nesota finding that vitamin D deficiency is a major cause of not necessarily going to make any company rich.” — N.D.

SUMMER 2005 39 Flour Power idealistic graduate student. “That’s the economic cost of obesity in the United Continued from page 39 most important thing to learn to do — to States was about $117 billion in 2000. separate the truth from the chaff,” he says. “I think it should be like the Manhat- recently voted to expand the Perspec- “That’s a mission I’ve been on all my life.” tan Project during World War II,” says tives model, including the lunch pro- Sifting the wheat from the chaff Stitt. “[We need to] put those kind of gram, to seven additional schools in the might seem a fitting occupation for a resources into finding out how to solve coming years. baker, and indeed, Stitt sifted out the the problem and how to prevent it.” For the first year, Perspectives has truth about another grain when he mas- Stitt’s next book will feature focused simply on getting the program terminded the acceptance of flax in the accounts from individuals who have up and running, so it’s too soon to gauge American diet. The seed had been eaten been successful at keeping weight off. its effects. Getting kids to eat healthful for thousands of years in Europe and “They have found that the most effective foods, which is no small feat, has been a Russia, but Stitt says that flawed U.S. method of keeping weight off is for each bigger adjustment for the older students, studies led to the belief that it was toxic. person to work out their own method of Campbell says. But stay tuned for results The key, he says, is not to cook the doing it,” he says. “Prescribed methods, — NBC is planning to monitor the pro- flax at a high temperature, as the from what I’ve read in the literature, gram for the next four years and report researchers did, because high heat gener- have been pretty much gross failures. on how it goes. ates harmful substances. Stitt devised a People get tired of following the book, Stitt insists that university education process that included adding zinc to the but if it’s their own idea of how to do it, departments should instruct future teach- seed, so that he could stabilize it and use then they tend to stick with it.” ers about the impact of nutrition on learn- it in his breads and other products. In February, Stitt went into semi- ing and behavior. Ken Zeichner says that retirement from Natural Ovens. “But I the UW-Madison School of Education don’t want to slow down one bit,” he requires elementary ed students to take “My feeling is that no emphasizes. He’ll focus on researching a health course that includes a nutrition nutritional pain-relief products (see side- segment. But secondary teachers don’t one has a right to bar on page 39), and on the school lunch take the course, he says, and it’s true that entice people to eat food program. Stitt has some strong words most teachers don’t get that information. for Americans when it comes to eating “Our company from the get-go has that’s bad for them.” habits, but what he is advocating basi- been on a mission,” says Stitt. “It just cally constitutes a paradigm shift in the happens to be we make bread. But the way our culture approaches food. real mission was to help mankind and to “We got the FDA to do dozens of “My feeling is that no one has a right make food that’s truly good for people.” studies, and they published ten papers to entice people to eat food that’s bad In Beating the Food Giants, Stitt attributes showing that flaxseed is safe and benefi- for them,” he says. “It really is kind of his altruistic leanings to his family and cial,” he says. Since then, thousands of immoral to put out these enticing desserts his upbringing on a farm in Illinois. In articles have touted flax as a source of that people absolutely can’t resist.” Even graduate school, his role model was UW valuable Omega-3 oils, which help to after having a good, healthy meal, he Professor Karl Paul Link ’22, MS’23, combat inflammation and disease and are says, “you destroy the nutritional benefits PhD’25, who developed the blood thin- hard to come by in the typical American by eating one of those big, gooey desserts. ner dicumarol and it rat-poison counter- diet. “It contains the very nutrients that The sugar totally overwhelms the system, part, Warfarin. people are most deficient in,” Stitt says. and you have this huge blood-sugar spike “K.P. Link was just an extraordinary “A lot of people ridiculed me at the begin- with insulin and all the harm that it does.” professor — probably the greatest oddball ning for promoting flaxseed,” he says, Parents love to coddle their children on earth,” says Stitt. “He was a noncon- “but now I feel totally vindicated to see by bribing them with food that’s harmful formist, and he taught me not to accept all these hundreds of products using it.” to them, he says. “This is what parents conventional thinking.” During the Viet- Stitt believes that the obesity epidemic do in our society.” Instead of rewarding nam War, he says, when the university is “a far bigger problem than tobacco,” children with a candy bar, he’d recom- wanted to prosecute student demonstra- given that only 25 percent of the adult mend a game of catch or some other tors, “Link gave the university money to population identifies themselves as smok- much-needed physical activity. give to the students to defend themselves ers, and obesity is “killing two-thirds of There’s a lot at stake, he says. “I think from the university. He wouldn’t do it in the population.” Government agencies there’s nothing more important in the the typical way — he wouldn’t give it to agree that obesity is a factor in heart dis- whole world than the next generation.” the students,” he laughs. ease, diabetes, cancer, and other serious UW-Madison’s “sifting and winnow- diseases, and the CDC estimates that the Niki Denison is co-editor of On Wisconsin Magazine. ing” statement also resonated with the

40 ON WISCONSIN 40 ON WISCONSIN Dancingwith Her Mind BY MICHAEL PENN MA’97 When a foot injury threatened to end PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER her career, dancer Li Chiao-Ping discovered here have been two periods in Li Chiao-Ping’s life when she did not the limits of the body — and the limitless dance. At first, she didn’t know reach of the human spirit. how. Then, years later, she had to learn it tall over again. It would be easy enough to find on- stage moments to mark the slope of Li’s career: the shows in New York and Toronto, the success of her Madison company, the rack of grants and awards she’s won in her ten years on the UW- Madison dance faculty, the reams of crit- ical praise she’s received. They’re the bullet points on the resume of a rising star — and promises of what may yet come from the forty-one-year-old chore- ographer and performer. But in some ways, dancing hasn’t defined Li as much as not dancing has. It’s in the interruptions that you find the spark of her creativity and the soul of the dancer. The first one began around the time she was four years old, a little ball of kinetic energy bounding around her par- ents’ house in the heart of San Francisco. Her father worked in a laundry, and anthropology; she majored in psychology. that ran between her leg and foot. Doc- there wasn’t much money for extrava- But none stuck, none moved her, none tors discussed amputation. She could gances like dance lessons. But it was in consumed her the way that dance did. not contemplate that particular horror. her, this desire to get up and move. On The second time, she almost lost it all. Her foot — the pivot for a thousand Sundays, she perched in front of the tele- pirouettes and leaps — was the founda- vision, watching old musicals that ran t was freezing outside, seven tion of her dance and of her life. It had during the afternoons. Then she turned degrees and all steel gray. The to be spared. the house into a sound stage, mimicking spring semester was just beginning, Fate has a cruel sense of irony when the moves of Gene Kelly and Fred and there was much to do. As her partner it deals with artists. Beethoven went deaf. Astaire. In her mind, she leapt puddles Douglasi Rosenberg steered their Jeep Monet lost all but the last shred of his and sang in the rain. Cherokee north toward campus, Li occu- sight. And when it nearly took Li’s left In China, her father was a teacher, an pied herself with the mundane affairs of foot on that day in January 1999, every- educated man who left his home in a Monday. She didn’t see the ice. There thing changed. search of opportunities for his family. He was a spin, an oncoming truck, the had goals for his children, and they didn’t crunch of metal, and, then, nothing. Facing page: Li Chiao-Ping performs Ba Ba, a include dancing. They would be mathe- Li awoke in the hospital, perforated solo dance that explores her feelings about maticians, doctors, nurses, professionals. by tubes and wires. Her left ankle had her father, a Chinese immigrant who worked for many years in a San Francisco laundry And oh, did Li try not to dance. She been crushed in the accident, severing while nurturing an artistic side he rarely majored in mathematics; she majored in most of the tendons and blood vessels showed his children.

SUMMER 2005 41 “I want [people] to embrace their creativity — to live in it and be proud of it.”

She had made her name as an athletic thing “in a complete fog” and complained that was good news. One day, Li and performer. A gymnast in high school, she bitterly that he was ruined as a painter. Rosenberg asked if they could record filled her dances with bounding leaps and He went on to complete the Water Lilies the sound. “I think the people at the acrobatic poses. “She has such powerful murals, among his most famous works. hospital thought it was kind of weird, legs,” says Cynthia Adams, the artistic Beethoven, aging and ill, never heard a but they said okay,” says Rosenberg. director of the San Francisco-based note of his Ninth. That became the soundtrack to Li’s Fellow Travelers Performance Group. Li was thirty-four at the time of the return to the stage, an April 2001 Adams recalls how unmistakable Li was accident, and her career was flying. show entitled, appropriately enough, when they first met, at an American Hired by UW-Madison in 1994 to bol- Venous Flow: States of Grace. Though Dance Festival workshop in the late ster a dance department that had fallen deeply personal, including x-ray images 1980s. “The dancers were all in a line, on hard times, she was garnering notice of her shattered ankle as backdrop, the doing leaps across the stage. She just shot both as a performer and artistic director show strove to express Li’s appreciation out above everybody else,” she says. of her own company, Li Chiao-Ping of the community surrounding her — But even after nine surgeries to Dance. She was coming off the Men’s and began to articulate a new idea rebuild and repair it, that foot seemed Project, a series of well-received dances about her art. useless. Li had been in the hospital for created for her by six leading male cho- “I had been working towards a virtu- several weeks before she was able to reographers, with a television documen- oso way of performing, a highly athletic dangle it over the side of her bed. A tary directed by Rosenberg. After the and very technically skilled style of danc- nurse timed her. The goal was to see if accident, a Madison show and a tour ing,” she says. “For sure, my eyes got she could hold it there for five minutes. were scrapped. But while many around opened wide after the accident. Meeting “She was told she would probably UW-Madison privately whispered she people who helped me, I learned a great never walk again without a cane,” says might never dance again, Li had little deal from their lives and experiences, Rosenberg, Li’s husband and frequent doubt. The frequent visits from friends and I saw the gift of that.” collaborator, a filmmaker who is also on and admirers inspired her. She wanted Li’s work since the accident is strik- the dance faculty. “It’s hard to watch her to give something back, and what she ing for how little and how much it has dance now and remember that.” had to give was dance. changed. Though early on her body felt In the hospital, Li underwent atrophied and foreign — “it was like I onet was seventy-two repeated tests to assess the blood flow had suddenly turned seventy,” she says when he was diagnosed in her newly constructed arteries. The — she regained nearly all of her strength with cataracts in both doctors called it “venous flow”; if they and athleticism. Only the ability to point eyes.m He told friends that he saw every- heard the thrum of blood in the vessels, her toes and some balance have not come

42 ON WISCONSIN back to her. “It still gets numb if I’m on it Li says she began to “look outside dance. “Remember these?” she said, for too long,” she says. herself,” feeling movement less intuitively demonstrating each pose. “These are the What’s changed is the emotional and seeing her work more objectively. landmarks, but the journey between depth to her work. Before the accident, Able to rely less on her body, she used them is your own.” critics universally lauded Li’s technical more words and images to carry her The show, a ninety-minute compila- gifts, but some weren’t as sold on her meaning. Her choreography remains tion of works called Laughing Bodies, Danc- ability as a choreographer to dream up physically demanding, often putting ing Minds, debuted in Madison in March. movements that resonated with audi- dancers in precarious-looking positions A multigenerational, operatic affair, it ences. One New York Times writer that seem to flout the whole idea of grav- counted among its cast ten senior citizens described a 1998 performance by her ity. But Li’s new works have gone fur- from one of Li’s community dance work- company as “more earnest than imagina- ther in exploring emotions such as pain, shops and fourteen elementary school tive.” There was the sense that her best loss, regret, and redemption. The physi- students, who at times danced alongside work was yet to come, that age and expe- cality serves the expression. The bodies professionals such as Heidi Latsky, a for- rience would add dimension to her dance, but so do the minds. mer principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones immense skill. Company in New York. “I think early on, she could always n a Friday afternoon a few Some choreographers make a habit fall back on her athleticism,” says Adams. months ago, Li was standing at of incorporating amateur dancers to give “As with any kind of artistry, you bring in the center of a circle of sock- their pieces a communal feel, but since your own experiences, and that’s what footedo senior citizens, working on a seg- her recovery, Li has done it more exten- she had to draw on.” As terrifying as the ment for her latest show. They had been sively and daringly than most. She began accident was, it became a wellspring of rehearsing their routine for days, but it leading eight-week workshops at two new information and emotion for Li to still wasn’t quite right. Madison senior centers, and several of explore. “She was forced to confront all “Here, let’s try this,” she said, lightly the novice dancers have appeared in her kinds of issues you don’t really think springing onto the stage. She raised her shows. “It can be very tricky to bring about when you’re thirty-four,” says arms above her head, assuming the first community people into a show and stay Rosenberg. “It smacked her in the face.” of four positions she had invented for the clear about your intent,” Latsky said after one rehearsal. “But I think she does it, because she has a strong theme that ties it all together.” To knit that theme, Li had the dancers reflect on their differ- ent life stages, looking alternately forward and back on major decisions. For the sen- iors, she had choreo- graphed a free-flowing routine formed around a few basic poses. Her idea was for them to come up with their own movements to get from one of those landmarks to the next, so that at times they’d all be doing the same thing but at others following their own Since her accident, Li has often created dance pieces that mix professional and amateur dancers, including creativity. “What I senior citizens and elementary school children. While their moves sometimes lack the technical perfection of Li’s trained company dancers, she says the spirit of their creativity shines through. Continued on page 63

SUMMER 2005 43 Dancing eventually co-own it with his brother. not feel like they have to divorce them- Continued from page 43 Over the years, Li says their curiosity in selves from it.” her dance has been chiefly commercial: Back on the Lathrop stage, the sen- love about it compositionally,” Is she making a living? How many tick- iors watched as Li repeated the moves, she explains, “is that everyone ends up in ets did the show sell? this time adding turns, steps, and gestures the same place, but they take different Yet for all that time, her father nur- as she twisted through the routine. The paths to get there. For me, that becomes tured an artistic fantasy that he con- effect was mesmerizing. With a pirouette a metaphor for how we all try to get from cealed from Li and her three siblings. here and a subtle movement of her hand point A to point B. The shortest way is a Sequestered in the garage, he painted there, she bridged the physical and emo- straight line, but not everyone always elaborate calligraphy and stashed piles of tional distance between positions, giving follows the straight line.” fine clothes, camera equipment, and them meaning and direction. Joy tum- For Li, there have been few straight musical instruments. Li knew very little bled into sorrow into reflection and lines in life. When she finally gave up about his endeavors until after his death rebirth. It was classic Li, a tiny slice of on math and switched her major at the this past fall, when she helped sort that effortless brilliance that neither age University of California-Santa Cruz to through his private collections. nor trauma have taken from her. dance, her parents were so disappointed “I felt he lived this rich life that was Several among the audience sighed, that, for a time, they stopped speaking to outside what I knew about him,” she their appreciation tinged with perhaps a her. “They wanted me to have a success- says. “It felt like such a sacrifice that he hint of envy. “She makes it look so easy,” ful career, a house with a white picket didn’t let us in on who he was, com- one groaned. They could do the land- fence, a husband, children,” Li says. And pletely. marks, but no one got from point A to although she and Rosenberg do have a “Maybe it’s transference, but I want point B quite like Li. four-year-old son and a house in the sub- so much for that not to happen to other urbs, her own road to those comforts was people. I want them to embrace their cre- Michael Penn MA’97 is co-editor of On Wisconsin very different from her father’s, who ativity — to live in it and be proud of it, Magazine. toiled at the laundry long enough to

44 ON WISCONSIN SPORTS

Badgers at Bat Baseball makes a comeback at the UW. JEFF MILLER TEAM PLAYER Jvontai Hanserd Five things to know about Badger track athlete Jvontai Hanserd ’05: • It’s all about speed for Hanserd, a senior who runs sprints for the Bad- gers. An All-American last season as a member of the UW 400-meter relay team, he is also one of the Big Ten’s best in the 200 meters. • He’s quick off the track, too. Graduating with a degree in international More than a decade after the university put its varsity program in the dugout, players on the UW’s club relations, he’s preparing baseball team show commitment that is anything but minor league. for a career in foreign affairs. • He actually competed in At his position behind second equity in an athletic depart- squads, A and B, the equivalent Camp Randall Stadium base, Matt Rink x’06 wears a ment that was already deeply in of junior varsity and varsity. But even before becoming a red jersey with “Badgers” debt, the UW cut baseball, and baseball wasn’t just making a Badger. Growing up in printed across his chest and a four other teams, from the var- ninth-inning comeback at the Rockford, Illinois, he look of utter intensity on his sity roster. At that point, it UW — clubs were also popping played bass drum for a face. He keeps a watchful eye seemed Badger baseball was up at other universities that drum-and-bugle corps on the runner inching away benched forever. didn’t have varsity teams, such and twice came from first base as the crack But Carlson, who had as Marquette University and to Madison of a bat resonates played baseball since he was a Iowa State. for national through the stands. kid, couldn’t imagine life with- The National Club Baseball competi- He’s part of America’s out the game, and he decided Association (NCBA) was formed tions. pastime, an athletic to take a swing at building a in 2000 to set conferences and • Just how legacy that dates team. He learned that the UW schedules, track standings, and fast is he? back more than a Division of Recreational Sports enable the teams to compete His best century at the UW. supported club teams — stu- on a national level. Each year, time in the But if it weren’t for dent-run organizations that the top-ranked team in each of 200 meters is one UW graduate with a offer intercollegiate competi- the NCBA’s eight regions travels 20.9 seconds — genuine love of the game, tion — and was surprised to to Bradenton, Florida, to play in which equates to more he might not be there at all. find that baseball wasn’t the club-level World Series. In than 21 miles per hour. There was no baseball on among them. With the help of 2003, the Badgers made a run • That’s nothing compared campus in 1999, when Brian Eric Wolosek ’02, he founded for the national title, ending to what he can do at the Carlson ’02 transferred to the one, officially called Club Base- the season tied for third place. helm of a single-engine UW from Winona State Univer- ball at UW, and began recruit- Today, Club Baseball at UW plane. As a licensed pilot, sity in Minnesota. There were ing players by word of mouth. competes in the NCBA’s Western he’s gone more than 200 no practice facilities, no equip- When he saw somebody playing Lakes Conference against three miles per hour. And that’s ment, no coaches, and no fund- catch near the dorms, Carlson other Wisconsin teams — UW- really flying. ing. Eight years earlier, Badger would go over and ask him to Eau Claire, UW-Whitewater, baseball was caught in the join his team. and Marquette. They’re all glove of Title IX, the legislation It was a hit. In its first sea- tough competitors, but the Bad- passed by Congress that son in 1999, the club team had gers’ biggest rival is Eau Claire, requires equal opportunity in twenty players, but within three the team that took the confer- athletics and academics. Facing years, there were enough stu- ence title last year. And though a court order to restore gender dents on the roster to fill two it’s the conference games that

46 ON WISCONSIN SPORTS

count, the Badgers also sched- chow to farmers, is only a few who sent a scout to a Wisconsin Senior Molly Engstrom capped ule games against local varsity years older than many of the game in April. off her UW hockey career as only teams. For club players, who players, and some were his “Back when I was on the the second player in program his- pay out of their own pockets teammates a few years ago. He team, we weren’t real serious. tory to earn first-team All-Amer- for most of the amenities that thinks of them more as col- We played to have fun,” Booth ica honors. varsity athletes get for free, leagues than students. says. “These guys can take it to She and fel- there’s nothing like the respect “I really rely on the older the next level.” low defender that comes with sending a var- guys. They’re almost like assis- Carlson agrees. Now a Carla sity team packing with a big red tant coaches,” he says. “They financial planner in Chicago, he MacLeod, loss on their record. know what I want to teach, volunteers as regional director who “We’re right up there with and the younger ones look up for the NCBA, overseeing statis- repeated as a every Division III team in the to them. It’s a huge help.” tics and schedules for two con- second-team UW SPORTS INFORMATION (3) UW SPORTS INFORMATION area,” Rink says proudly, “if not But while Booth volun- ferences. He can’t help feeling All-American, better.” teered as coach mostly to stay proud of how far the UW made things From March until May, the involved with a game he loves, has come. difficult for Badgers are at bat every week- that doesn’t mean he takes his “Wisconsin is a competitive Molly Engstrom opponents end and practice twice each duties lightly. He and the play- team,” he says. “For the past during a historic season for the week. Many games are on the ers want to win, and these five years, we’ve had basically Badgers, who won twenty-eight road, because there’s no suit- days, they’ve got the talent to the best team in the confer- games and earned the team’s able baseball diamond on cam- do it. Three juniors on the Bad- ence.” first invitation to the NCAA post- pus and it spares the team hefty ger roster are standouts — As of press time, the Bad- season tournament. field-rental fees. When the pitcher Olin Erickson earned gers were second in the confer- team does play in town, it’s usu- all-state honors in high school; ence and competing to get into A strong finishing kick carried ally at Warner Park, home to catcher Zak Koga played with position to play in the World sophomore Chris Solinsky to the local Northwoods League the University of Iowa’s varsity Series. It’s a whole new ball victory in the 3000 meters during team, the Madison Mallards. team for a year; and right game, and this time, they’re the NCAA indoor track and field The Badgers often practice fielder Richie Marrero’s ath- determined that there will be championship meet in March. indoors at the McClain Center, letic abilities caught the atten- no seventh-inning stretch. Solinsky’s championship paced a outdoors at Monona’s Ahuska tion of the New York Mets, — Erin Hueffner ’00 strong showing by the Badgers, Park, and just about wherever who sent a record thirteen com- else they can find space. petitors to the meet and brought Money is a constant prob- Room to Row home third place overall. lem, and players do a lot of fundraising to keep their sport After years of sharing a The UW men’s basketball team MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART swinging. The club receives a few space too small to hold tied a school record by winning hundred dollars each year from them all, Badger row- twenty-five the Division of Recreational ers finally have some games in the Sports, and players contribute room to stretch out, 2004–05 sea- $100 in dues per season to pay thanks to the UW’s son. The for field rental and umpire fees. new boathouse. Com- Badgers Those who have cars drive to pleted in February advanced to away games, and the others pitch along the Lake Men- the Elite in for gas. The team also sells hot dota shore, the two- Eight of the dogs and soda at a Kohl Center story structure contains NCAA tour- concession stand during hockey fifty-two thousand nament for games to raise extra dollars. Last square feet of breath- only the third Freshman rower Liz Grace gets advice on Kammron Taylor year, the players chipped in for ing space for Wiscon- stretching from team manager D.J. Mattison time in the new red jerseys with their names sin’s three rowing during crew practice in the new Porter Crew program’s history, losing to even- stitched in white. teams, which comprise House. tual national champion North “Some of the guys bring more than two hun- Carolina to finish the season with their own batting helmets,” dred athletes. But temperatures keep them inside. a 25-9 record. They are now one says Jeff Booth ’02, who vol- what really excites coaches are And that may be just what they of just eight teams in the country unteers as coach, “and every- its improved training facilities, need to overcome the only that have won at least twenty- one uses their own gloves.” including two moving-water opponent they’ve never man- four games in each of the past Booth, a former player tanks that allow rowers to prac- aged to beat: the long Wiscon- three seasons. whose day job is selling Purina tice their form even when cold sin winter.

SUMMER 2005 47 WAA NEWS

Family Matters WAA honors UW-Madison’s distinguished alumni.

A commitment to family distin- guishes each of this year’s Wis- consin Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award recipients. Whether concerned with the human family, a bio- logical family, a workplace fam- ily, or the UW-Madison family, each of the honorees is com- mitted to making positive changes in the world. The recipients, who came back to campus in May to receive their awards, included United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director Flo- rence Chenoweth MS’70, PhD’86; retired vice chair of Citigroup Paul Collins attended Alumni Weekend with his wife, Carol. Four dif- Paul Collins ‘58; and retired co- ferent entities supported his nomination: the Schools of Business and chair of Fel-Pro, Incorporated, Music, the Division of International Studies, and the UW Foundation. Elliot Lehman ‘38. Chair of the board of Cisco Systems John devoted her life to alleviating forced to leave everything she Morgridge ‘55 and retired the plight of hungry children had behind. She returned to teacher Tashia Morgridge ‘55 around the globe. Madison and enrolled in the received a joint award. The Dis- In 1977, Chenoweth PhD program in land resources, tinguished Young Alumni Award, became the first woman earning her doctorate in 1986. presented to an exemplary UW- appointed as minister of agri- In 1995, she joined the FAO, Madison graduate under the age culture in Liberia. Under her which leads international efforts of forty, went to Anthony Shadid leadership, new high-yielding to defeat hunger. Serving as the ‘90, the Washington Post’s varieties of rice were intro- main link between the FAO, the Islamic affairs correspondent duced and acreage expansion U.N.’s General Assembly, and based in the Middle East. programs were developed. the world, Chenoweth considers In 1980, Liberia’s president, it her mission to deliver this Believing in a true world family, William Tolbert, was assassinated daily message: “It is immoral Florence Chenoweth has in a coup. Chenoweth was that 842 million people go to bed hungry in a world that pro- duces enough food to feed every single person on earth. And 170 million of those hungry people are children.” With political will, she believes, we BRENT NICASTRO (6) can change those figures.

During his thirty-nine years with Citigroup, Paul Collins forged relationships with corporate customers in more than one hundred countries. Although he retired in 2000, his global leadership and knowledge are still sought by top companies and organiza- tions throughout the world. A charter member of the From left: Joe Conduah, Jeanette Harries, Florence Chenoweth, and Carolyn Amegashie MA’79. Chenoweth, original School of Business who returned to the UW after a coup in her native Liberia, describes the university as “a friend to interna- Board of Visitors, Collins was tional students. That helps you so much when you come from another country, and you are lost.”

48 ON WISCONSIN WAA NEWS

instrumental in crafting the innovator in creating a family- public-private funding partner- friendly workplace. ship that resulted in the con- At Fel-Pro, Lehman initi- struction of Grainger Hall. He ated groundbreaking policies helped focus the goals of the such as family leave, flexible international studies program hours, and job-sharing. He is and is vice chair of the UW an emeritus member of the Foundation’s Create the Future UW-Madison School of Human campaign. Ecology Board of Visitors, In the fall of 2001, to honor where he lends his expertise in his mother, Adele Stoppen- early childhood education. bach Collins ‘29, Paul gave the Because Fel-Pro instituted School of Music the largest gift a company family leave plan in its history. The contribution many years before it became will eventually provide for as national law, President Clinton many as sixteen graduate per- requested that Fel-Pro be pres- Elliot Lehman (left and above formance fellowships. He has ent at the landmark signing of with his spouse, Frances, and sons Paul, left, and Ken, right) also endowed two professor- the Family Leave Act in 1993. first came to the UW as a ships for the school — the first Lehman was the only represen- 15-year-old freshman. He has in the performing arts on this tative of corporate America to been involved in the life of campus. According to John be present. the university for seven Schaffer, director of the School decades. of Music, Collins’s gifts have John and Tashia Morgridge “had a bigger impact on our met during their high school program than any other single years in Wauwatosa and pur- event in our 109-year history.” sued undergraduate degrees together at UW-Madison. Elliot Lehman is co-chair John became chair of the emeritus of his family-owned board at Cisco Systems and Graduate School of Business company, Fel-Pro, a premier serves as director of numerous and is deeply involved with the manufacturer of gaskets, nonprofit organizations, includ- Cisco Networking Academies, sealants, and lubricants for ing the Nature Conservancy, which prepare high school and automotive and industrial use. the Tech Advisory Board for university students to design, The company has been hon- Milwaukee Public Schools, and install, and maintain computer ored by Fortune and Working the Wisconsin Alumni Research networks. Mother magazines as an Foundation. He teaches part- Tashia Morgridge taught time at Stanford University’s disabled children for thirteen years and authored Award-Win- ning Activities for All Curricu- lum Areas in 1990. She is a supporter of Reading Recovery, a program for low-achieving first-graders, and serves on UW- Madison’s Board of Visitors for the School of Education. At UW-Madison, the Mor- gridges have established schol- arships, helped fund the construction of Grainger Hall, and donated toward the Red Gym renovation. The Red Gym now houses the Morgridge Center for Public Service, which promotes volunteerism in col- John and Tashia Morgridge have supported many UW efforts because, lege students. In 2004, the Mor- Tashia says, they “can see beyond our own majors to the value that gridges gave UW-Madison the the university offers the world.”

SUMMER 2005 49 WAA NEWS

single largest gift ever As a student, Shadid aug- On March 31, 2002, shortly received from individual mented his studies in journalism before he was to return to donors, which was ear- and political science with Arabic Madison to accept the School of marked for the renova- language courses. After earning Journalism’s Ralph O. Nafziger tion of the Education his undergraduate degree in Award for distinguished Building. journalism, he landed a position achievement within ten years of with the Associated Press as a graduation, Shadid was shot as The Islamic affairs corre- Middle East correspondent in he walked away from Yasser spondent for the Wash- Cairo. Arafat’s compound in the West ington Post since 2003, His daily work ranged from Bank city of Ramallah. Two Anthony Shadid earned reporting on events in the West weeks after a bullet tore open the Pulitzer Prize for Bank to interviewing Taliban his shoulder, he traveled to International Reporting fighters on the Afghanistan Madison to accept the award — in 2004. At that time, the front. His conversations with and lead a forum for students Pulitzer board noted “his religious sheiks, students, and interested in international news. extraordinary ability to activists resulted in his 2000 “UW-Madison gives alumni capture, at personal book, Legacy of the Prophet: the education to change the peril, the voices and Despots, Democrats and the world,” says WAA President emotions of Iraqis as New Politics of Islam. His second and CEO Paula Bonner MS’78. their country was book, Night Draws Near: An “These graduates exemplify the Anthony Shadid credits UW-Madison for turning him into a journalist. “I grew up invaded, their leader top- Odyssey through Baghdad in fluid meaning of family and in Vilas Hall,” he says. pled, and their way of War and Its Aftermath, was pub- how we are all connected.” life upended.” lished in 2004. — Candice Gaukel Andrews ‘77

Bucky Paints Green Bay Red and White

To alumni, Bucky Badger is a of UW grads on Titletown. To eyes — it was such a good, feisty mascot, but he’s a super- prepare for Bucky’s arrival at emotional thing to see them be star to the kids at Green Bay, her school, Jackson Principal that way with a mascot who is Wisconsin’s Jackson Elementary Kathy Costello ‘71, MS’77 so positive and fun.” School. read Badger trivia over the P.A. WAA and the UW Alumni On April 28, Bucky paid for two weeks, decked the Club of Brown County co-spon- them a visit in honor of Badger school out in the children’s sored Badger Alumni Day, a Alumni Day in Green Bay, a drawings of Bucky, and hung a new program that was piloted first-ever, daylong extrava- “Welcome Bucky” sign on the in Green Bay because nearly ganza highlighting the impact front door. The students and four thousand UW grads live in teachers gathered for the metropolitan area. a special assembly in That morning, Bucky the school’s gymna- appeared on the Fox morning sium, eager to catch news program, where he a glimpse of the pop- moonlighted as a meteorolo-

MIKE ROEMER ular musteline mas- gist and grilled bratwursts cot and learn about with the co-anchors. Green Bay the Wonders of Mayor Jim Schmitt officially Physics from faculty declared April 28 “Badger member Jim Rear- Alumni Day” during a break- don. He kept their fast at Lambeau Field. attention with hands- Later that day, Bucky and on demonstrations university leaders visited the until Bucky burst Schneider National headquar- through the gymna- ters and an Associated Bank sium doors in a cloud branch to meet with grads and of smoke. discuss the ways those compa- “The kids just nies could collaborate with the swarmed around UW. To see the Badger Alumni Bucky, chanting his Day photo gallery, visit Students mob Bucky during an assembly at Jackson Elementary School in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Teachers led them in singing “If You Want to Be a Badger” in name,” says Costello. uwalumni.com/alumniday. honor of WAA’s first Badger Alumni Day. “I had tears in my — Erin Hueffner ’00

50 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Compiled by Paula Wagner community of Bellevue, Wash- inspecting architect/engineer Apfelbach ‘83 ington. “In keeping with a services for lending institutions. family tradition,” Kantor notes, Thirty-six years of contribu- “one granddaughter was in tions by Fred Patterson early years the Class of ‘03, and the other PhD’50 were fêted at Purdue Don’t Forget to Write! is in the Class of ‘05 at the University during a December We enjoyed hearing from University of Wisconsin.” ceremony and seminar that Please let us know about your Edwin Rothman MA’39 of Developing Power: How included endowing the Fred L. recent accomplishments, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, who Women Transformed Interna- Patterson Chair in Agronomy. summed up his post-UW life tional Development (The During his career, Patterson transitions, and other significant this way: “Civil affairs and Feminist Press at CUNY) helped to develop more than life happenings. We’re ready to military government officer, includes a memoir by Martha fifty varieties of wheat, oats, ETO, World War II. PhD, Johns Wells Lewis ’45 about her and barley; experts have esti- intercept the (brief, please) Hopkins, 1950. When I retired contributions to the “women mated that the wheat strains details by e-mail at in 1983 as director of the east- in development” movement. alone have increased U.S. farm ern division of the Pennsylvania Other alumnae who provided income by $3.4 billion. Despite [email protected]; Economy League, I was cited memoirs were the late Elsa his 1986 retirement, Patterson by the national Governmental Chaney MS’65, PhD’71 and continued to arrive at his office by fax at (608) 265-8771; or Research Association as a Kathleen Staudt MA’72, at 6:30 a.m. to start the morn- by post at Alumni News, ‘consummate researcher in his PhD’76, a professor of political ing coffee, write, and mentor. independence, integrity, and science at the University of Juanita: Daughter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, professionalism.’ “ Texas-El Paso. Lewis, of Wash- Middle West, the self-published 650 North Lake Street, ington, D.C., is married to memoir of Juanita Sumpter Robert Lewis ’42, a former Sorenson ’50, MS’52, Madison, WI 53706-1476. 40s–50s editor of the Daily Cardinal, PhD’71, completes the trilogy Even though we can’t print and notes that “four of our about the life and times of Inspired by the Winter 2004 On four children,” plus a daughter- Sorenson and her spouse, the everything we receive, we still Wisconsin piece about the UW’s in-law, are Badger grads. late Douglas Sorenson ’51, love hearing from you. French House, Dorothy Wirtz Grandson Adam Lasker ’00 MS’52, MS’56. Travel was the MA’40, PhD’44 shared remem- of Chicago served as the Daily couple’s passion, and it led brances of her own experiences Cardinal’s editor fifty-seven them to more than thirty coun- there. “When I finished my years after his grandfather did. tries. Juanita Sorenson now PhD,” she writes, “I was The Instructional Resource divides her time between Madi- Please e-mail death notices and equipped to teach French to Center in UW-Eau Claire’s for- son and Longboat Key, Florida. all address, name, telephone, and military police in WWII and was eign language department was The American Institute kept on for civilian courses at dedicated to Roma Borst Hoff of Chemical Engineers has e-mail changes to three different universities, ’48, MA’51, PhD’56 in Octo- honored J.D. (Junior De Vere) [email protected]; teaching every course in the ber. Last July, the Concordia Seader PhD’52 and his contri- catalog at the third one.” Language Villages’ Spanish vil- butions to chemical-engineer- fax them to (608) 262-3332; Wirtz, of Phoenix, is now a pro- lage in Bemidji, Minnesota, ing education by naming him mail them to Alumni Changes, fessor emerita at Arizona State called El Lago del Bosque, was a co-recipient of the 2004 University and has published a named for Hoff and her spouse, Warren K. Lewis Award. He Wisconsin Alumni Association, book of poems titled Evolution. Donald Hoff, a resident at the also received the 2004 CACHE 650 North Lake Street, To commemorate the one- University Hospital in the 1950s. Award for Excellence in Com- hundredth birthday of Rotary The couple lives in Eau Claire, puting in Chemical Engineering Madison, WI 53706-1476; or International on February 23, Wisconsin. Education. Seader has been a call them in to (608) 262-9648 the Kenosha, Wisconsin, Rotary George Kennedy MS’50, professor of chemical engineer- Club saluted Al De Simone a Hungarian native and Holo- ing at the University of Utah in or toll-free to (888) 947-2586. ’41. A community-wide cele- caust survivor, is commemorat- Salt Lake City since 1966. bration hailed his many contri- ing the anniversary of the The black cover and stark, Most obituary listings of WAA butions as one of the city’s engineering and architectural white type of Near Occasions of members and friends appear in leading citizens. consulting firm he began fifty Sin (dOOm-AH Books) certainly Alvin (Bob) Kantor ’42 years ago. Since then, the caught our eye. It’s a collection the Insider, WAA’s publication has served on the Council of Chicago-based George A. of poetry by Stuart Friebert for its members. Philatelists for the Smithsonian Kennedy & Associates has MA’53, PhD’58, who’s written Institution’s National Postal provided services to the city of other poetry books, as well as Museum in Washington, D.C., Chicago, the state of Illinois, prose, reviews, essays, transla- since the council began. Now the U.S. government, and a tions, and anthologies. He’s retired from that post, he’s off host of other clients. The firm also taught German at Mount to other pursuits in his home is a pioneer in the practice of Holyoke, Harvard, and Oberlin.

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Friebert, retired in Oberlin, of Phoenix. Silber has recently producer of Best Picture nomi- presentation titled, “Paving the Ohio, since 1997, has recently co-written his third book, nee Ray was Bill Immerman Way to Sesame Street: Using finished a memoir and a novel. Leader Champions: Success ’59 of Los Angeles; Michael Material from International Early-1900s farm life, boy- Secrets (Authorhouse). Mann ’65 of Pacific Palisades, Productions to Educate Chil- hood near a water-powered An exhibit of ivory sculp- California, was a producer of dren about the World.” mill, university studies, and tures is taking center stage another Best Picture nominee, It’s book number twenty- far-flung sea and jungle adven- until January at Milwaukee’s The Aviator; and Tom Rosen- two for Robert Murray Davis tures ... Such is the stuff of Old Villa Terrace. Called Chinese berg ’68 co-produced Million PhD’64, a collection of infor- Mill Stream (Trafford Publish- Myths, Legends, and Symbols: Dollar Baby, which earned the mal essays and cultural com- ing), the third book by Earl Oriental Ivory Sculpture from Oscar as Best Picture. mentary called Ornamental Wobeck ’53 of Roswell, Geor- the Dr. and Mrs. Clifton Hermit: People and Places of gia. The author was an editor Peterson Collection, it was the New West (Texas Tech of Popular Mechanics and then catalogued by Janice Johnson 60s University Press). In Sun Lakes, spent many years in corporate Kuhn ’58, MS’74, an arts Arizona, Davis also writes and communications for the space appraiser and president of both “Can you tell me how to get ... reviews for World Literature and nucleonics industries. Chestnut Court Appraisal how to get to Sesame Street?” Today, Shade magazine, South- Since 1971, Mark Silber Associates and Milwaukee If you’re now humming the west Book Views, and Western ’54 of Poway, California, has Auction Galleries. Retired UW Sesame Street theme song, American Literature, and is been the CEO and president Professor Tse-Tsung Chow and imagine how attached Joanne working on a book about the of Mark Silber Associates, an his spouse, Nancy Wu, greatly Baker Livesey ’61 feels to it landscape and culture of New international management- assisted Kuhn with her research — she’s the assistant VP of Mexico’s Jemez Valley. psychology firm that specializes on the pieces, and added educational outreach for the Hailed as a “safety pioneer, in leadership education and stories about the figures from Sesame Workshop in New York untiring advocate, and distin- performance growth. For the their childhoods in China. City. Livesey shared her work guished leader,” R. (Ronald) last ten years, he’s also been UW grads were well repre- with the International Educa- David Pittle MS’65, PhD’69 a faculty member on the San sented on Academy Awards tion Conference, held in March has retired. He’s been the Diego campus of the University night in February: the executive at the UW’s Pyle Center, with a senior VP for technical policy at the Yonkers, New York-based Consumers Union (CU) — the The First Lady of Boxing nonprofit publisher of Con- sumer Reports — since 2001, Picture this: You’re a professional boxing judge who’s ringside at a title but he joined CU in 1982 as its fight. The boxers’ punches are hard, the crowd’s shouts are deafening, technical director. Pittle, who the fighters are covered in sweat and blood. As a judge, you have a lot to was also one of the original prove to those fighters, to that crowd, to the promoters, and to the spon- five commissioners of the U.S. sors through your keen eye, unbroken concentration, experience, objec- Consumer Product Safety Com- tivity, and judgment. On top of all that, you have to prove yourself as a mission, has been particularly one-of-a-kind: you’re our nation’s first female professional boxing judge. praised for his efforts to reduce Such has been the experience of Carol Blank Polis x’58 — a former the deaths and injuries caused UW philosophy major. The perky, five-foot-one-inch mother of four and by vehicle rollovers. grandmother of three has a pair of Joe Frazier’s boxing gloves hanging “I’ve been teaching English Says Carol Blank Polis on her wall at home, and she makes her judging remarks in purple — her and philosophy at St. Clair x’58, “I call ’em like I favorite color. And one thing’s for sure: she has a lot of stories to tell. see ’em.” Community College in Port It all began in 1971, when Polis’ spouse at the time, Bob, was a boxing Huron, Michigan ... for thirty- referee in Philadelphia. Carol hated the sport, which she found boring, barbaric, and bloody, but she eight years,” began Tom Obee went along to be with Bob. One night, he taught her how to score the matches, and at the end of the MA’66. In April 2004, he evening, turned in her judgments to the state athletic commissioner, who liked what he saw. For the received the annual Phi Theta next year and a half, the commissioner’s assignment for her was to keep it up: keep attending fights, Kappa Board of Directors’ keep learning, keep scoring, and keep turning in her scorecards. Alumni Achievement Award On February 1, 1973, then-Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp appointed Polis to the state’s for his forty-two years (wow!) athletic commission as its first female judge. Since then, Polis, who’s also a public speaker and of service to the organization, realtor in North Wales, Pennsylvania, has traveled to London, Paris, Italy, Denmark, Japan, and which is the international Argentina, judging title fights for the World Boxing Association. honor society for two-year She’s judged “before twenty thousand people in soccer stadiums and before ten people in seedy colleges. Obee notes that his corner joints,” and not surprisingly, Polis has also found herself on such television shows as To Tell career has been enhanced by the Truth and What’s My Line?, and even managed to be part of the film Rocky V. “the excellent professors I had “[Judging] is important to me,” she says, “because it has opened doors. I’ve seen things and and the excellent TA training done things I never would have been able to do.” — P.A. I received ... at Wisconsin.” Harry Morgan MS’67 had the pleasure of seeing a

52 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

building named after him this Evans ’69 has made to under- Fran Ulmer ’69, JD’72 winter when the Harry Morgan standing lanthanide elements, has served Alaska well. She Bookmark Head Start Center opened in the American Chemical Society was the mayor of Juneau in the Carrollton, Georgia. A professor has given him the 2005 Award 1980s, spent eight years in the of early-childhood education at in Inorganic Chemistry, its top state’s House of Representa- the State University of West honor in the field. Lanthanides tives, and further served as Georgia, also in Carrollton, his have long been considered the Alaska’s lieutenant governor latest book is Real Learning: “forgotten elements of the from 1994 until 2002. Now she’s A Bridge to Cognitive Neuro- periodic table” because they become the new director of the science (Scarecrow Education). don’t form compounds easily, Institute of Social and Economic At the Margins of the but Evans’s research has made Research at the University of Renaissance: Lazarillo de them a “fertile subject for Alaska-Anchorage. Tormes and the Picaresque study.” He’s a professor of Art of Survival (Penn State chemistry at the University of Life is about to change for University Press) has earned California at Irvine. 70s little Becky Badger as she Giancarlo Maiorino MA’68, New Yorker Rocco acquires a baby sibling and MA’69, PhD’71, MA’71, (Fredric) Landesman ’69 The Life Skills Foundation in gives him the nickname we PhD’73 the Modern Language made headlines in the New St. Louis, Missouri, has a new all know and love in Becky Association of America’s annual York Times in February when board secretary in Eileen Gets a Brother (Badgerland James Russell Lowell Prize. he purchased Broadway’s third- Recht Schechter ’70, who’s Books). It’s a new children’s Maiorino is a professor of largest theater chain — the five been on the board since 1978 book by Joe Martino ’92 comparative literature and the designated-landmark buildings and has also served as its presi- of McFarland, Wisconsin, director of the Center for Com- that constitute the Jujamcyn dent. Schechter is a co-owner who’s following Bucky parative Arts Studies at Indiana Theaters. Landesman has long and buyer for Lewis and Badger’s childhood through University in Bloomington. been the chain’s president, and London, a specialty juvenile- three more books: Treasure, Susan McDaniel ’68 has now his business partner, Rick furniture company. The Life Yard Sale, and The Storm. accomplished a lot since she Steiner ’68 of Cincinnati, will Skills Foundation helps those The series will include began her career teaching also have a stake in Jujamcyn. with developmental and other lessons in values, and English to immigrants at Landesman and Steiner have disabilities to work and live in 10 percent of the proceeds Milwaukee’s Manpower Train- been some of the producers the St. Louis area. will go to the UW Children’s ing Services in 1969 — and now behind the enormously success- Dennis Schroeder ’70 Hospital Child Life program that work has earned her the ful The Producers — the largest is the 2005 chair of the Con- — a diverse set of resources 2004 ELL [English Language Broadway hit in history, and the struction Industry Institute, a for hospitalized children and Learner] Teacher of the Year winner of twelve Tony Awards. research consortium based in their families. award, secondary level, from They’ve had other huge hits the University of Texas-Austin’s “I’m looking to help kids the Massachusetts Association with Big River, Into the Woods, College of Engineering. (The because that’s what Bucky for Teachers of Students of The Secret Garden, and Smokey UW has been among its funds would do,” Martino says, Other Languages and the Joe’s Café. Oh — and Steiner’s recipients.) Schroeder is also the and he should know: he “put Massachusetts Association for also a world-championship president of BE&K Engineering on the fur” as a Bucky Bad- Bilingual Education. McDaniel poker player. in Birmingham, Alabama. ger mascot from 1988 until lives in the Bay State city of New to the Heller School With his eyes firmly fixed 1992 and is now compiling a Winchester and teaches at for Social Policy and Manage- on the emerging markets of list of former mascots — “to Medford High School. ment at Brandeis University in Eastern Europe, Russia, China, give them the recognition Bill Messner MA’68, Waltham, Massachusetts, is and India — but based at the that they deserve.” PhD’72 has moved east. After Professor Thomas Shapiro Dallas headquarters — Steve Martino’s also a design seven years as chancellor of ’69, whose latest book is The Watson ’70 has become the engineer with Refrigeration the University of Wisconsin Hidden Cost of Being African chair of Stanton Chase Interna- Systems in Madison, and Colleges, he’s left that position American: How Wealth tional, a global executive- he’s created Badgerland to become president of Perpetuates Inequality (Oxford search firm. Watson previously Books to publish his stories. Holyoke [Massachusetts] University Press). He’s also spent twenty-four years with His brother-in-law, Patrick Community College. co-authored Black Wealth/ technology companies. Bochnak, illustrates them. Joyce Wilson MMusic’68, White Wealth: A New Perspec- For his outstanding techni- Look for the books this DMA’84 has earned the 2004 tive on Racial Inequality cal support of U.S. efforts to summer through the Univer- Caleb Mills Distinguished (Routledge), which won the reconstruct the Iraqi health sity Book Store’s Web site Teaching Award from Indiana American Sociological Associa- sector, William Jansen II (www.uwbookstore.com), State University in Terre Haute, tion’s Distinguished Scholarly MA’72, PhD’75 has received or reserve copies online at where she teaches flute per- Publication Award and the the 2004 Superior Health www.badgerlandbooks.com. formance and music literature. C. Wright Mills Award from the Service to the Field Award from In recognition of the many Society for the Study of Social the U.S. Agency for Interna- contributions that William Problems. tional Development (USAID).

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Currently USAID’s senior health garnered a 2004 Reader’s Kentucky, where she directs the since 1979 and its department adviser to the Office of Iraq Choice Award from the Italian program at the Univer- chair since 1991. He’s also a Reconstruction, Jansen has Louisville Eccentric Observer for sity of Kentucky and specializes playwright and the founder of worked all over the world. He’s the best local cable-access TV in medieval Italian works. the Young Actors Shakespeare also a research professor at the show. Moore rocks and rolls in Allaire has translated and pub- Workshop and the liturgical University of North Carolina “Kentuckiana” — specifically, lished a lengthy Tristan manu- drama troupe Soul Purpose. in Chapel Hill and a senior in New Albany, Indiana. script, Il Tristano Panciatichiano With World War II veteran research fellow at Duke Univer- Two UW alumnae are (Brewer); edited The Italian Stanley Edwards, Jr., Julie sity in Durham. Jansen’s spouse putting their values where Novella (Routledge); and was Oldenburg Phend MS’76 of is Kathy Allen Jansen MS’73, their feet are. On July 16 and the abridgement editor for Naperville, Illinois, has written PhD’75. 17, Kathy Rust ’74, MS’85 Schaum’s “Easy Outlines” D-Day & Beyond: A True Story “Carolyn of many names” will be participating in Italian (McGraw-Hill). of Escape and POW Survival is how Carolyn Lieberg Black- Chicago’s Out of the Darkness Thomas Berner ’76 has (Burd Street Press). It’s the story ann (and now Lieberg again) Walk (www.theovernight.org) returned to the States after a of Edwards’s capture, escape, ’72 signed off when she wrote — a twenty-mile journey, from year as the senior legal adviser recapture, and internment in a with news of her fourth book, sunset to sunrise, to raise both to the Afghanistan Reconstruc- German prison camp after his a young-adult novel called funds and awareness for the tion Group. He advised the U.S. plane was shot down on D-Day. West with Hopeless (Dutton American Foundation for ambassador on legal matters This is Phend’s first book. Books). Two previous works are Suicide Prevention. After fif- and coordinated U.S. efforts to Forensic archaeology is a Calling the Midwest Home: A teen years as a UW academic re-establish the Rule of Law in field we’re hearing more about Lively Look at the Origins, staff lecturer in occupational Afghanistan. Berner lives in lately courtesy of the CSI: Crime Attitudes, Quirks, and Curiosi- and physical therapy, Rush now Yonkers, New York. Scene Investigation TV series, ties of America’s Heartlanders commutes from Madison to her The board of governors of and Melissa Connor ’77, and Little Sisters: The Last but “dream job” as a research coor- the Wisconsin State Bar Associ- MA’79 is a national expert. Not the Least. “Just to compli- dinator of UW-Milwaukee’s ation has elected attorney This fall, she was the senior cate things further,” Lieberg Rehabilitation Research Design Edward Hannan JD’76 to the forensic archaeologist investi- added, she once edited books and Disability Center. Laura American Bar Association’s gating war-crimes and geno- for the Pleasant Company’s Kummer ’93 will be walking House of Delegates, its policy- cide allegations against American Girls Collection as this summer as well — nearly making body. He heads the Saddam Hussein’s regime near Carolyn Hardesty. Lieberg lives forty miles on June 25 and 26 Hannan & Associates law firm the Iraqi village of Hatra, and in Portland, Oregon. — in the Avon Walk for Breast in Brookfield, Wisconsin. she’s assisted other exhumation The Judson Center in Royal Cancer (www.avonwalk.org) Stepping into the newly teams in Nigeria, Cyprus, Oak, Michigan, provides “help, in Denver. created position of executive Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Herzegovina, healing, and home” for abused Congratulations and best VP at American Farmland Trust the former Yugoslavia, and and neglected children, disad- wishes to Mary Evans Sias (AFT)’s national headquarters Rwanda. The work of Connor vantaged adults, and families MS’74, PhD’80, who was recently was William Kuckuck and her spouse at the Custer in crisis. At the helm is Marn inaugurated as the fifteenth ’76. He was previously with battlefield has been featured Myers MS’72, who’s been president of Kentucky State Marine Harvest Europe in the on History’s Mysteries and the promoted from chief operating University in Frankfort on Netherlands, Agribuys.com, History Channel, and she officer to president of the non- April 9. and Ralston Purina. AFT, a teaches forensic archaeology at profit agency. The International Associa- Washington, D.C.-based non- Nebraska Wesleyan University Madisonian Rosalie Migas tion of Insurance Supervisors profit, advocates for farm and in Lincoln. Thanks to proud ’73, MS’75, a supervisor at the (IAIS) had an honor in store ranchland conservation, “plan- brother Jeff Connor ’81 — Children’s Service Society of for David Walsh JD’74 at ning for growth with agricul- senior vice president at Ara- Wisconsin, recently finished her its November conference in ture in mind.” mark Healthcare Management two-year term as president Amman, Jordan: as a co- John Paul MA’76, PhD’81 Services in Downers Grove, of the National Association founder and the first chair of is the new director of the Lilly Illinois — for this scoop. of Social Workers’ Wisconsin the association, he was among Fellows Program in Humanities U.S. Secretary of Energy chapter. the first class of IAIS distin- and the Arts — a network of Spencer Abraham has named Patrick Moore MD’74 guished fellows. Walsh, of seventy-seven church-oriented Richard Saykally PhD’77 one (www.mooresongs.com) has Carmel, New York, is executive colleges and universities based of seven winners of the 2004 shared this good news: he’s vice president and general at Valparaiso [Indiana] Univer- E.O. Lawrence Award — the been issued a copyright for 120 counsel at SBLI USA Mutual Life sity. The program provides U.S. Department of Energy’s DVDs of his original songs and Insurance Company. postdoc fellowships for highest honor — in the chem- music videos, plus he’s simulta- A horse lover and owner teacher-scholars who wish to istry category, honoring his neously released 121 one-hour who started riding with enrich their intellectual and pioneering work in the field of DVDs of these works — “proba- Hoofers while at the UW, Glo- spiritual lives while preparing spectroscopy. Saykally is a bly the largest release of music ria Kaun Allaire ’76, MA’86, for leadership roles in higher professor of chemistry at the ever,” he notes. Moore’s talk PhD’93 “now finds the grass education. Paul has been on University of California at show, Louisville Latenite, also to be greener” in Lexington, Valparaiso’s theater faculty Berkeley and is on the staff

54 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

of the U.S. Department of significantly to the develop- is set on twenty-six wooded Christian Luz ’81 of East Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley ment of tourism? It was Nancy acres and offers contemporary Lansing, Michigan. With offices National Laboratory. Anderson ’79, the Midwest architecture, feng-shui-inspired in both cities — thus the firm’s Chicago attorney and CPA marketing and promotion suites, organic cuisine and spa name — they’re providing Jack Siegel ’77, JD’81 created representative for the French treatments, a salon, retail shop, transportation and parking a resource for those who Government Tourist Office and recreation facility with consulting services to the sought to determine which (Maison de la France) in hiking trails. Trumble was previ- Petronas Twin Towers develop- relief organizations would Chicago. In commending her, ously the executive director of ment in Kuala Lumpur, allow them to earmark dona- France’s director of the Ameri- the Convention and Visitor Malaysia, as well as to that tions specifically for victims of cas said, “Everyone agrees that Bureau in the Dells. nation’s federal-government the Indian Ocean tsunami in Nancy Anderson is the smile of administrative capital, Per- December. He studied the list Maison de la France.” badanan Putrajaya. of organizations published “Winter has an almost mys- 80s Even before you read the in the New York Times and tical quality to it at Sundara,” title of the first novel by posted his findings at http:// says Carla Minsky ’79 about The Lansing Melbourne Group Michael Kujawski ’80 charitygovernance.blogs.com. the Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, is the new planning, engineer- (pseudonym: Michael Parker), The chief U.N. election inn and spa that Kelli Trumble ing, investment finance, and the intense stare of the gent on organizer in Iraq is Carlos ’79 envisioned, built, and has development company created the cover tells you there’s some Valenzuela ’77, MA’78. To led as its CEO since it opened in by Peter Flotz ’80 of Mel- wickedness afoot. The title — read his BBC News interview March 2003. Sundara Inn & Spa bourne Beach, Florida, and Unequivocal Malice (iUniverse) with Sir David Frost in January, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ programmes/breakfast_with_ Noodle On! frost/4220277.stm. As an international agricul- How’s life for a guy with noodles on his mind in the wake of tural-development consultant America’s low-carb craze? Great, if your name is Aaron Kennedy and project director for the U.S. MBA’89. As founder of Noodles & Company, a popular restaurant Agency for International Devel- chain that brings international pasta dishes to the masses, Kennedy opment in Bethesda, Maryland, has a passion for food. It was a flash of inspiration, the financial John Bowman MA’78, MS’80 support of his friends and family, and an entrepreneurial spirit that specializes in the transfer of led him to leave his job as brand manager with Pepsi and open his agricultural technology to poor first restaurant. farmers in remote, challenging “I was living in [New York’s] Greenwich Village, and one day, environments. Part of his work I passed a little Asian noodle shop while walking near my apart- is with an “alternative-develop- ment,” says Kennedy. “I knew that people all over the world grew up ment” project in Bolivia — eating pasta, and why not bring all those wonderful flavors together “trying to convert coca farmers on one menu? Make it fast, convenient, fresh, and flavorful, and into legitimate growers of people might like that. And by golly, people liked it.” tropical fruits and vegetables.” In 1993, Kennedy opened Noodles & Company just outside of Denver. After that restaurant “Exactly twenty years after proved a success, he brought Noodles to Madison, where he found a State Street location in 1996 graduating from the UW Law with the help of a friend he’d met in graduate school at the UW. It turned out to be one of the most School, I received another law challenging professional moments of Kennedy’s life: torrential rains lashed Madison for a month degree from the UW Law after the restaurant opening, sending sales and hope down the drain. “We were literally and School. What?!” writes Mike figuratively at the bottom of the barrel, bailing water out of the basement of [the] State Street Weisman ’78, MA’81, JD’84 [location],” he says. of Seattle. He explains that in But Kennedy rallied his team and eventually brought sales up to a rapid boil at the restaurant. June 2004, he earned the Out- Today, the State Street location alone averages more than $100,000 in sales monthly. Nearly a standing Student Award and a decade later, Noodles & Company employs more than three thousand people at 141 restaurants master of laws degree from the nationwide and offers a more extensive menu, including some “noodle-less dishes for carnivores.” other UW — the University of The idea stemmed not from the recent low-carb diet fad, but from market research and casual dis- Washington — in technology cussions with diners — he found that some folks simply wanted fewer noodles and more meat. and intellectual property law Even so, nothing beats a “noodlicious classic.” Wisconsin Mac & Cheese was a comfort-food and policy. “So now I have a favorite on the menu when Noodles & Company first opened, and it’s still the restaurant’s most- matched set of UW law ordered dish. degrees, from schools 1,800 These days, Kennedy is still a Badger at heart. In 2003, he was the first inductee into the miles apart,” he says. UW-Madison School of Business Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, and the trophy — a signed UW Which Badger grad was the football — has a place of honor on his desk. Looking back, Kennedy attributes much of his success 2004 winner of France’s silver to his years as a marketing graduate student at UW-Madison, and says he never would have made Medal of Tourism, given to it this far without his alma mater. — Erin Hueffner ’00 those who’ve contributed

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— then confirms that this tale create skin-care products, and Elizabeth Reninger Bookmark involving a lust for revenge, a license technologies for thera- MS’88 of Boulder, Colorado, murderous madman, and a peutic medical devices. has been a baker, bookseller, corpse is, as the author says, a The contemporary, mixed- teacher of feminist theory, “fresh combination of thrilling media sculptures of Ingrid and research assistant — and horror, crime detection, and Goldbloom Bloch ’85 have now she’s a yoga and qigong insight into the news media.” appeared in 500 Beaded Objects instructor. She’s also published Kujawski is a former editor of (Lark Publishing), FiberArts her first collection of poems, several daily newspapers who magazine’s January/February And Now the Story Lives inside lives in Fox Point, Wisconsin. 2005 issue, and the Fuller Craft You (Woven Word Press), Here’s a toast to Thordur Museum’s touring show in about which one reviewer said, Aegir Oskarsson MA’80, the January, called Trashformations. “To read her is like discovering newly appointed ambassador Bloch will also exhibit at Boca some hidden, ancient grove of the Republic of Iceland to Gallery during the International where holy mysteries are Japan. His diplomatic career, Surface Design Conference in celebrated.” “A Gateway to Sindarin: since 1988, has included service Kansas City in June. She lives in In order to reduce maternal A Grammar of an Elvish at the Icelandic Ministry for Needham, Massachusetts. and child mortality in western Language from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Foreign Affairs, in the Icelandic Bill Patek ’86, ’95 has Afghanistan, the child-relief Lord of the Rings (University delegation to NATO, as head of been promoted from associate organization World Vision of Utah Press) came about the NATO Affairs and Security to principal to studio director is training midwives at the in part because of On Policy Division, as the perma- at the Madison office of JJR, a Institute of Health Sciences in Wisconsin,” began a letter nent representative to the landscape architecture, civil Herat. Upon completion of from Jeffrey Grathwohl Organization for Security and engineering, and urban design the two-year program, they ’81. “Perusing an issue Cooperation in Europe, and firm. Patek is involved with will work in rural, at-risk com- several years ago, I noted most recently, as Iceland’s per- projects on the Madison, La munities. Gene Teofilo ’88 has a small article about UW manent representative to the Crosse, and Parkside campuses, been doing communications grad student David Salo United Nations office in Vienna. as well as in the University work for World Vision in MA’02 and his involvement The new chief economist Research Park. Afghanistan but was rerouted as linguistic consultant with at the Investment Company When John (Jeff) Varick to Sri Lanka in January. the Lord of the Rings movie Institute — a national associa- III ’86 isn’t working as the With a name like Tom, Dick series,” Grathwohl tion of U.S. investment compa- director of marketing strategy & Harry, they’ve got to be good, continued. “He … had a nies based in Washington, D.C. for Johnson Controls Automo- right? That’s perhaps what complete grammar for one — is Brian Reid ’83. Previously tive Group in Plymouth, Michi- Michael Herlehy ’89 was of Tolkien’s elvish languages the institute’s assistant VP and gan, he serves on the board of counting on when he co- and was thinking about deputy chief economist, he’ll WaterPartners International founded a Chicago advertising looking for a publisher.” now head the research depart- (www.water.org) and has trav- agency with this unlikely That’s where Grathwohl, ment, overseeing all statistical eled to Honduras as one of its moniker. Herlehy says that director and senior editor collection for, and analyses of, ambassadors. The nonprofit another Badger founder, at the University of Utah the mutual-fund industry. group has supported water Robert Volkman ’82, “had Press in Salt Lake City, Roxanne Miller Breunig projects in forty-five Honduran also endured the chaos of try- stepped in to ask Salo for his Kunkel ’81 has been selected communities and operates in ing to get a science class as a manuscript — a “rigorous to go to Indonesia aboard the many other developing nations. freshman during Registration treatment that would have USNS Mercy with Project HOPE The National Center for Week. I was comforted by the made J.R.R. Tolkien the to provide medical care to the Research Resources, part of the fact that he can deal with real, philologist proud.” In A victims of the Indian Ocean National Institutes of Health, heart-pounding stress and Gateway to Sindarin, Salo tsunami. She resides in St. has chosen Franziska Grieder knows how to succeed, despite covers the language’s Thomas, Virgin Islands. MS’87, PhD’89 of Bethesda, very long odds.” grammar, morphology, and Scientists H. (Harry) Craig Maryland, as its new associate history, and adds vocabu- Dees II PhD’84, Timothy director of comparative medi- lary, a glossary, and more. Scott PhD’85, and Eric cine. The holder of a DVM 90s Salo, now a UW doctoral Wachter PhD’88 have formed degree and an expert in the candidate in linguistics, Provectus Pharmaceuticals Venezuelan equine encephalitis After his UW graduation, Lorin is not the only Badger (www.pvct.com) in Knoxville, virus, she’s managed the Bradbury MS’90 first ventured connection to Middle Earth Tennessee. The trio is working center’s Laboratory Animal south — to earn a PhD in — UW zoology department to develop therapies that will Sciences Program since 2000 educational psychology in 1992 illustrator William Feeny destroy the most lethal forms and created the Mutant Mouse from the University of Missis- MA’78 created the book’s of cancer with minimal side Regional Resource Centers sippi — and then far north, to cover art. effects, generate biotechnolo- Program. In her new role, Alaska, in 1993. He’s now a clin- gies to detect viruses and Grieder will oversee grantmak- ical psychologist at the Yukon- increase vaccine production, ing to animal-research projects. Kuskokwim Health Corporation

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and leads the United Pente- A thesis titled “Large-Scale America taken by two young ESPN Radio 760’s promotions/ costal Church in Bethel. In Expression Studies for the men, one of whom would one public relations director, for 2003, Alaska Governor Frank Developing Rattus Norvegicus day be known as the revolu- tipping us off. Murkowski appointed Bradbury Heart” was the last stop on the tionary Che Guevara. Sidran, to the state’s Psychologist/ road to a University of Iowa the son of Ben ’67 and Judy Psychological Examiners Board. PhD in genetics for Jennifer Lutrin ’69 Sidran of Madison, obituary Best wishes to Gretchen Schreiber Laffin ’96. She’s produced the last (and longest) Koch ’90, who began Transi- now a research fellow in oph- song on the film’s soundtrack The Wisconsin Alumni Associa- tions Counseling — a solo thalmology and pathology at using the talents of Madison tion (WAA), the university, the practice specializing in grief, the University of Iowa Hospitals musicians Jeff Eckels MMu- city of Madison, and the state loss, and life changes — in and Clinics in Iowa City, work- sic’87 on bass, Carina Voly of Wisconsin all lost an unparal- November in Oshkosh, Wiscon- ing toward board certification MMusic’97 on cello, and his leled supporter when Arlie sin. She’s also an adjunct pro- in human cytogenetics and father on piano. Their hard Mucks, Jr. ’47 died in Madison fessor in counselor education molecular genetics. work paid off on Academy in March. Mucks began playing at UW-Oshkosh. Brian Pope ’98, MBA’02, Awards night when the Oscar football as a UW freshman in Can you name the creator formerly the director of UW- for the Best Original Song went 1939, but was called into mili- and organizer of World Music Whitewater’s Small Business to Jorge Drexler for his music, tary service in 1942 as a fighter Festival: Chicago — the multi- Development Center, has lyrics, and performance of the pilot. After returning to com- day event that presents tradi- launched Clear Advantage tune, “Al Otro Lado del Rio.” plete his degree in agricultural tional and contemporary music Research & Consulting in Gracias to O. (Oscar) Marcelo economics in 1947, he contin- from around the globe in a Janesville, Wisconsin. The firm Suarez MS’93, PhD’00, an ued serving in the Air National variety of Windy City venues? provides marketing research associate professor at the Guard, becoming one of its The man behind the music is and management consulting. University of Puerto Rico- original pilots in the Wisconsin Mike Orlove ’92, program Thirty-four years old and Mayaguez, for telling us about division. Mucks led the Madison director of Chicago’s Depart- already in his third school- Voly’s involvement. “She was Chamber of Commerce as its ment of Cultural Affairs. superintendent’s post? That’s born in Argentina,” he says, executive director from 1952 Together with world-music quite a career climb by David “like me and like Che.” until 1962, and then became fests in Madison and Blooming- Schuler MS’98, PhD’04! In the executive director of WAA. ton, Indiana, the Chicago event January, he was named to the Among his initiatives were is forming a “Midwestern Trian- top job in Illinois’ Northwest 2000s alumni travel, BADGER HUD- gle” of world music. Orlove has Suburban High School District DLES®, the Wisconsin Singers, also created Chicago Summer- 214 — that state’s second This year’s Sundance Film international alumni clubs, an Dance, an eleven-week outdoor largest — and plans to kick off Festival had a bit of Badger educational program for dance and concert series. a “new and energetic dynamic flavor to it: a 35mm work called alumni directors, a new Alumni Josh Bycel ’93 of L.A. in an already top-notch sys- Eating (www.eatingthemovie. House, re-establishing Home- went to Chad in April to assist tem.” Schuler currently com), produced by Dave coming, and acquiring the the refugees — more than half oversees the Stevens Point, O’Brien ’00 of L.A., was one of Bucky Wagon — a cherished of whom are children — who Wisconsin, school district and eighty-two short films selected UW symbol. After Mucks have arrived there after fleeing will begin his new job in July. from nearly four thousand sub- retired from WAA in 1989, he civil war and genocide in Chicagoan Nathan Rabin missions. O’Brien has worked in served as a special assistant Sudan’s Darfur region. Bycel, ’99 buzzed in to report that in TV and film production in New to then-Chancellor Donna a TV writer and producer, says, December, he became a regular York, was accepted into USC’s Shalala, and as a special con- “There’s a reason that Sitcom on the AMC movie-review panel cinema- and TV-production sultant to the UW athletic Writers without Borders hasn’t show called Movie Club with MFA program, and directs department, joining the W been created, but I’m going to John Ridley. The head enter- films. Eating compassionately Club’s Hall of Fame in 2003. raise money for — and aware- tainment writer for the Onion’s chronicles one morbidly obese Wisconsin Governor James ness of — the true heroes: the A.V. Club, Rabin noted that a man’s battles with his food Doyle ’67 and former U.S. doctors, nurses, and aid work- mention here would be much addiction. Secretary of Health and Human ers of the International Medical appreciated: “We’re on basic Attention, West Palm Services Tommy Thompson Corps (IMC).” Bycel committed cable after all, so we can use Beach, Florida, residents! Did ’63, JD’66 were among those to raising at least $50,000 for all the publicity we can get.” you know that ESPN Radio who spoke at Mucks’s memorial the IMC, and worked with the (For more on the Onion, see On 760’s drive-time host, Evan service, but his Wisconsin State group while in Chad. Wisconsin’s Spring 2005 issue.) Cohen ’02, is a Badger? He Journal obituary may have sum- Way to go, Matthew “Local boy makes good” — also appears regularly on the marized his boundless Badger Miller ’93! He’s founded his good music, that is. Madison local NBC affiliate, is a frequent spirit the best: “We will miss own Chicago law firm, Miller & musician Leo Sidran ’99 guest on ESPN Radio’s nation- the man in red. On Wisconsin.” Sweeney, where he’ll continue produced a song — right here ally syndicated The Herd with his practice in commercial and in Madison — for The Motorcy- Colin Cowherd, and writes for Compiled by Paula Wagner Apfelbach personal litigation. He’s been cle Diaries, a film about an epic the Palm Beach Post. Thanks ’83, who, frankly, doesn’t care what a trial attorney since 1996. motorcycle trip across South to Lindsey Cherner ’02, x equals.

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