Phoning Home When Students Drink Dangerously, Parents Now Get a Call

DISPATCHES

Phoning Home When students drink dangerously, parents now get a call.

The university has enlisted a times deal with alcohol and been mostly positive. In several new ally in its long-running drug overdoses that are, liter- cases, she says, excessive drink- struggle against student binge ally, matters of life and death.” ing was a manifestation of drinking: parents. By early October, twenty- other troubles, and by involving Beginning this fall, staff two parents had been notified, parents, Berquam’s office was members from University Hous- says Lori Berquam, interim able to put the student in touch ing and the Offices of the Dean dean of students, and feedback with additional help. of Students started contacting following those interactions has — John Lucas parents and guardians of underage students involved in serious drug and alcohol inci- Halloween Is Again Fright Night dents. The change applies only to serious incidents, such as WWW.MERLIN-NET.COM when a student is taken to a detoxification facility or local hospital for an overdose of alcohol or other drugs, or violations that result in campus judi- cial sanctions. In such cases, staff members meet with the student and explain that par- “It’s not that we wouldn’t love ents will be informed. Most to have you attend the UW, but often, students are encouraged not under these circumstances. to make the initial contact. But when you graduate, come Some students regard the on back for grad school.” policy as an invasion of privacy that could discourage danger- — Chancellor John Wiley, ously intoxicated students from Two partiers recoil from pepper spray dispensed by Madison police in welcoming more than sixty seeking help. “If a parental riot gear to scatter the last Halloween revelers early Sunday morning. students from Tulane, the notification phone call or letter University of New Orleans, accomplishes anything at all,” For the fourth consecutive year, came to Madison for the holi- Xavier, Loyola, and Dillard who the Daily Cardinal wrote in a Madison’s Halloween party day weekend, died early Sun- enrolled for UW-Madison’s fall staff editorial, “it is to put the ended in chaos as police used day morning. The cause is semester after Hurricane Kat- most vulnerable students at pepper spray to disperse revel- under investigation, and police rina shut down their schools. greater risk.” ers who had massed on State are reluctant to say whether it But university officials say Street. The celebration is directly related to Halloween that they studied notification attracted record crowds, and celebrations. Another visitor, policies at other schools before though it avoided any major nineteen-year-old Nicholas enacting the change, and they violence or property damage, Giancana of St. Charles, Illinois, are confident the policy pro- Madison police are hesitant to suffered a serious head injury tects students and their privacy. call the weekend an unquali- after falling in a campus-area Ironically, the new policy comes fied success. neighborhood Sunday morn- in the same semester that the At its peak on the night of ing. He remains in critical con- 2,600 university was picked by the Saturday, October 29, the unof- dition as of press time. Number of access ports, located Princeton Review as the ficial Halloween bash drew Police added stadium light- in 130 campus buildings, that nation’s top party school, seventy thousand to eighty ing and snow fences on State will be created by next summer underscoring an image prob- thousand people, according to Street in hopes of preventing as part of UW-Madison’s devel- lem that administrators have Madison Police public informa- riots, which have taken place opment of a wireless network. been working to counter. tion officer Mike Hanson. the past three years. At two Currently, wireless access can be “We respect the independ- Record attendance contributed o’clock Sunday morning, a found in public areas, such as ence of our students and aim to to a record 468 arrests, most broadcast message instructed the unions, the libraries, and treat them as adults during alcohol related. partiers to leave the area, but some residence halls. their stay here on campus,” There were two more seri- police needed pepper spray to says Chancellor John D. Wiley ous incidents away from State disperse the remaining group MS’65, PhD’68. “However, Street. Adam Haese ’05, a of two thousand partiers. university staff members some- Chicago man who apparently — John Allen

WINTER 2005 9 DISPATCHES

Dollars and Sense A student group offers newcomers a lesson on passing the buck.

One of the biggest stresses on “More than 50 percent of the Since the workshops began Q AND A college students isn’t grades, students have never even talked in 2001, more than four hun- Steven Fosdal deciding on a major, or getting to their family about how col- dred students have attended. into fights with roommates. lege is going to be paid for.” Those numbers will increase as Information technology spe- It’s money. At the workshops, students the program expands — with cialist by day, Argentine tango Especially now, when stu- pass on warnings, such as the financial support from the dancer by night. Such is the life dents carry their own credit Direct Selling Education Foun- of Steven Fosdal ’93, a com- cards and sign apartment dation — to other UW puter programmer at the Divi- leases as early as their campuses, as well as sion of Information Technology freshman year, living Madison Area Techni- and founder of the Madison away from home can cal College and St. Tango Society, which performs require a level of Xavier University in monthly at Union South. financial savvy that Chicago. FOCU$ Q: How did you get started many students just members also staff a in the tango scene? don’t have. And that’s counseling center at A: I first heard some Argentine why members of the the Office of Student music near Milwaukee. Eight Financial Occupations Financial Services, years ago, I signed up for a Club for University where they provide SPENCER WALTS class taught by a student, Students (FOCU$) use one-on-one consulta- where I learned the dance free pizza and prizes to tion to fifteen to twenty behind the music. I started to lure incoming freshmen to students each semester. get my biggest impulses to attend two-hour educational fact that making minimum Michael Gutter, an dance after participating in sessions on budgeting, renting, credit card payments usually assistant professor of consumer workshops at the Tango Nada and credit cards. does nothing to reduce the science, came up with the idea Mas Studios in Chicago. “I think money is more of a balance. The sessions also for Money Talk$ after conduct- taboo in our society than sex cover how to rent an apart- ing a small survey of students Q: It takes two to tango. is,” says Brandon Peterson ment and choose a roommate, on the UW campus. Who is your partner? ’04, MSx’06, one of the first which are critical skills for stu- “Sixteen percent of just a A: Krista Bultman, a physical undergraduate students to lead dents living away from home couple hundred kids that I hap- therapist at Meriter Hospital. the Money Talk$ workshops. for the first time. pened to get to were actually We didn’t meet through having signs of what we call tango. We have been friends ‘financial strain,’” he says. for more than ten years and “They were emotionally were friends as undergrads. Fired Up affected by their debt; they Together we started the Madi- Painting a nighttime were physically affected.” son Tango Society in 1998. sky with streaks of Money, and particularly fire, Miranda Knox Q: How often do dances to the beat of credit, is a mystery to many stu- JEFF MILLER you practice? music played by a dents because most Wisconsin A: On average, two hours a capoeira student high schools don’t offer any group on Library Mall day, three to four times a kind of personal-finance during Global Village, week. But sometimes five an event that show- instruction, says Gutter. He and hours a day, five times a week. cased international the School of Human Ecology student organizations are working with the Great Q: Do your colleagues and cultures. Knox, a Lakes Higher Education Guar- know you tango? Madison resident and anty Corporation to develop A: Yes, they do. Two of them an aspiring acupunc- turist, first learned a pilot personal finance course have even come to some of my about “fire poi,” or to be offered in schools this tango events. dancing with fire, spring. But parents also need during a visit to Thai- Q: Do you tango to provide a good example, land. The event was around the office? part of Wisconsin he says. It’s one thing to tell A: No. I don’t use any sort of Welcome, which students to use credit cards tango at my day job. There kicked off the semes- responsibly, he says, but “if really isn’t room. ter by introducing you’ve seen your own parents incoming students go on shopping sprees, what to college life and to each other. does responsible mean?” — Jenny Price ’96

10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Silence Broken A Pakistani rape victim brings her story to UW-Madison. Washington Monthly magazine tabbed UW-Madison as the At seven o’clock on the last Fri- Network Against Abuse of nation’s top research univer- WWW.MERLIN-NET.COM day in October, Mukhtar Mai Human Rights (ANAA) in 2002 sity in a new guidebook that sat at a table in the Red Gym to draw attention to the seeks to measure “what col- and smiled shyly at the stand- oppression of women in her leges are doing for their coun- ing-room-only crowd. It was an homeland. She originally try,” according to its editors. unusual setting for her first visit planned for Mukhtar to speak The rankings considered factors to an American university, com- at an ANAA symposium in June, such as public service, economic ing so late in the day and at the but Pakistani President Pervez development, and the promo- outset of a festive weekend on Musharraf, fearing Mukhtar’s tion of social mobility. campus. But far more improba- story would “tarnish” his coun- ble was the fact that the thirty- try’s image, barred her from The National Institutes of Health three-year-old Pakistani woman leaving her home. Under fire selected UW-Madison’s WiCell was there at all. from human-rights groups, he Research Institute to establish Three years ago, Mukhtar later lifted the restriction, clear- the first national stem-cell was gang-raped on the orders ing the way for Mukhtar’s bank, a one-stop source that of a tribal council that governs three-week United States trip, will supply lines of human her village in Pakistan. The sen- during which she visited four embryonic stem cells to scien- Mukhtar Mai, who survived a tence, part of a justice system cities and was honored as one tists and offer technical support. brutal rape in her native Pak- The bank will reduce the cost of still alive in parts of the coun- istan, says that she is not alone of Glamour magazine’s women try, was intended to smear her in her fight against oppression. of the year. obtaining stem-cell lines for aca- family’s honor as punishment At UW-Madison, Mukhtar demic research from $5,000 to for an alleged adulterous affair cian who organized Mukhtar’s spoke little about what hap- $500, while continuing to allow involving her younger brother. visit. “When these things happened to her, focusing instead researchers to patent discoveries But when Mukhtar reported pen to [women in Pakistan], on her hope that oppression made using the lines. the crime against her, the case they are supposed to be quiet. can be ended through educa- became international news and But she has spoken about it tion. Speaking softly in Urdu, One of Madison’s most popular made her a symbol for human- and continues to speak about with Buttar providing English winter festivals, Kites on Ice, rights activists around the it. She has changed the history translation, she described how won’t be held this year due to world. of feminism in Pakistan.” she used money paid to her by lack of funding. Corporate “She is a hero,” says Amna Buttar, a native of Pakistan, her government to open two sponsorships and individual Buttar, a UW-Madison physi- founded the Asian-American schools in her village. contributions had made the “This is not how Islam says colorful two-day event possible to treat your women,” she told during its first seven years. Officials at Memorial Union, Guest Geek an audience of more than two hundred. “I am not alone in which hosted the festival the past two years, say they will

JEFF MILLER trying to convey this.” In Pakistan, thirteen men welcome it back if financial charged with raping Mukhtar support is secured in time for remain on trial, and other 2007. Organizers say they are women who report abuse considering selling tickets to continue to face intimidation keep the event alive. and scorn, Buttar says. In a September interview with the A new University Housing resi- Washington Post, President dence hall going up on North Musharraf suggested that Park Street will be named for women may allege rape as a Newell J. Smith ’41, an advo- way to seek money or visas cate for out-of-classroom learn- from foreign countries, coming who headed University ments he has since denied. Housing for twenty-eight years. But at least in one village, women now know where to turn, says Mukhtar. “When men Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made a surprise visit to a computer treat women badly in my vil- science class in October as part of a five-stop college tour to drum up lage, the women say, ‘I’m going excitement about careers in his field. “This generation has the chance to be part of the golden age of computer science,” he told an audi- to go tell Mukhtar.’ ” ence of about two hundred students. — Michael Penn

WINTER 2005 11 RESEARCH

Monkey Business Primate lab and animal rights group fight over land and principles.

Land, law, and research ethics The group offered $675,000 its director, Joseph Kemnitz are combining to stir up a bit- and intends to use the property ’69, MS’74, PhD’76, the center ter feud on the south side of to set up a National Primate had been working to buy the campus. The UW’s National Research Exhibition Hall. property long before Bogle Primate Research Center and “We’d like to have periodic came along. “We’ve been inter- an animal rights organization exhibitions looking at the his- ested in acquiring that piece of called the Primate Freedom tory of the use of primates in land for some time,” he says. Project are fighting over a behavioral and biomedical “It’s a natural place for us to parcel of property on Capitol research,” says Bogle. He imag- look for the expansion of our Court, and the battle is likely ines the hall as a site to explore research facility.” The university to end up before a judge. But the ethics of doing research on had not been able to come to the land squabble is merely the animals that are not only physi- terms with Charly about the latest skirmish in the organiza- cally, but, he contends, men- land’s value, he says. tions’ ongoing struggle over tally and emotionally similar to The center does have con- the nature of the center’s humans. “The whole reason for cerns about having the Primate research and the treatment being of the place is the ethical Freedom Project as a neighbor, of the monkeys it studies. implications of the similarities though. The organization has In May, according to Pri- between our minds,” he says. conducted a Primate Freedom mate Freedom Project founder The Primate Research Cen- Tour that brought protesters to Rick Bogle, the group entered ter studies a variety of human the Madison facility several into an agreement with Roger conditions, including aging and times since the 1990s. During Charly ’78, who operates metabolic disease, reproduction one of the visits, says Kemnitz, Budget Bicycles, to buy a ware- and development, and immuno- one of the center’s buildings house that is adjacent to one of genetics and virology, using was vandalized when a group the research center’s facilities. marmosets, rhesus monkeys, of protesters squirted glue in and other primates as test sub- exterior door locks and then jects. The center’s scientists are chained themselves to railings conducting embryonic stem cell around an entranceway. research and studying such dis- Researchers at the center have

JEFF MILLER eases as HIV/AIDS and Parkin- also been the targets of person’s. But Bogle feels that the sonal attacks. “Several people work too often leads to injury here and at primate research and death for the monkeys. centers around the country In August, the UW’s Univer- have received envelopes in the sity Research Park made its own mail with razor blades in offer on the land — $1 million — them,” he says. which Charly then accepted. In November, groups Bogle believes that this is an of protesters showed up at effort to silence his organization. the homes of several UW pri- The primate research center, mate researchers, including he says, operates under “intense Kemnitz’s, where they handed secrecy. What goes on in the out fliers and shouted at labs is probably more secret Kemnitz through a bullhorn. than inter-office White House Bogle rejects claims that he memos. [Its managers] are doing and his organization incite vio- everything they can to close lence. He has launched a slan- off public information.” The der lawsuit against the Primate Primate Freedom Project has Research Center after a public launched a lawsuit, claiming information officer accused him that its agreement with Charly of encouraging illegal acts. was binding and he had no In the meantime, progress Two marmoset monkeys groom each other in a display at the UW National Primate Research Center, which has long been a target of right to sell the property to the on the piece of land is stalled. animal rights activists. Now, one protest group wants to move in next UW Research Park instead. “I guess it’s a sort of no-man’s door to the center, but the university seems ready to prevent it. The primate research center land,” says Charly. sees it differently. According to — John Allen

12 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

Gender Bender Differences between the sexes may be overblown.

Despite widely prevalent But the differences stereotypes about the pale in the light of the differences between the overwhelming similarities, genders, science is showing providing one of the most that, at least psychologi- SPENCER WALTS thorough scientific coun- cally, there is no interstellar terpoints to the popular gap between men and notion of a significant women. More likely, they gender gap. Those beliefs are chapters from the will fade only with more same book. hard data and more edu- Janet Hyde, a psy- cation, Hyde says. chologist at UW-Madison “Finding unambiguous and an expert on the scientific evidence of simi- psychology of women, larities between the sexes recently distilled the can open our eyes to phe- results of forty-six large- nomena that we routinely scale studies on gender differ- sion and throw much farther see but miss due to public per- ences into one overarching than women. Men also deal ceptions about gender differ- analysis. She found that in the differently, Hyde found, with ences,” she says. case of most traits, such as self- certain aspects of sexuality. — Paroma Basu esteem and mathematical ability, men and women are pretty much the same. Taken together, the studies puncture

many social stereotypes that COOL TOOL GILSON, INC. COURTESY Hyde believes are harmful, such The Little Pipe that Could as the belief that men make better leaders or that adoles- When she does the routine bench work of biotechnol- cent girls have lower self- ogy, Tricia Nason relies on the invaluable assistance of esteem than boys. an unheralded tool: a pipette that functions like an ink “If we keep thinking that dropper. girls are the ones with all the A humble gadget invented by two UW-Madison self-esteem issues, then we alumni, the Pipetman has become an indispensable miss all the boys with low self- part of lab work in fields ranging from plant genetics to esteem,” says Hyde. “And those cancer research. “Every day I do dilutions, and the first are the boys who may end up thing I reach for is my Pipetman,” says Nason, a labora- doing something like [the tory technician at the Madison-based firm NeoClone shootings at] Columbine,” the Biotechnology. Colorado high school where in Ingenious for its sheer simplicity, the Pipetman was The Pipetman, an adjustable micropipette 1999 two disillusioned male the first adjustable pipette, allowing scientists to collect invented by two UW alumni, is a ubiquitous students killed twelve class- and dispense varying amounts of liquid with the touch of tool of biological research. mates and a teacher. a button. Before Warren Gilson ’38 and his son Robert In her analysis, Hyde ’68 invented the device, pipettes had to be made for each specific volume, forcing scientists to constantly explored the relationship switch pipettes and wait for custom-made versions. of gender to an array of “[The Pipetman] is the product of which we’re most proud, because we think it made the most psychological traits, including difference to the research community,” says Robert Gilson, the chairman and president of Gilson, Inc., cognitive abilities, verbal and a large-scale maker of scientific instruments. nonverbal communication, So much of a difference, in fact, that the unassuming lab tool wound up at the center of a long psychological well-being, and legal spat between Gilson and Mettler-Toledo, an instrument maker that acquired a company that motor behaviors like throwing sold Gilson Pipetmans for more than two decades. Since 2001, Pipetman sales have plummeted from distance. In 78 percent of cases, around $400,000 a year to $240,000, and the Gilsons alleged Mettler-Toledo was badmouthing the she found little or no differ- Pipetman in order to sell its own rival products. A three-year court battle ended in June, with a jury ence between the sexes, awarding nearly $600,000 to the Gilsons’ company. although she did find that men That is good news for UW-Madison. Since Warren Gilson’s death in 2002, the Wisconsin Alumni display more physical aggres- Research Foundation has received royalties for every Pipetman sold. — P.B.

WINTER 2005 13 RESEARCH

Add pomegranates to the menu of foods that combat can- Selling Smut cer. Researchers at the UW Med- UW researchers help local farmers market a Mexican delicacy. ical School say that the juice of the fruit, native to the Middle At a late-summer festival five-acre community-supported city’s Mexican-American popu- East, shows major potential to in Madison’s Troy Gardens, farm at Troy Gardens, on Madi- lation is growing rapidly. Addi- combat prostate cancer, the the center of attention was a son’s north side. University tionally, most local groceries most common form of invasive pan full of what looked con- researchers have been helping sell only canned huitlacoche, cancer and the second-leading spicuously like black beans. farmers there identify high- which Zepeda says tastes cause of cancer death in Ameri- Consumer science pro- nothing like the fresh can men. Like red wine and fessor Lydia Zepeda variety. “There’s no green tea, pomegranate juice is stood nearby, encour- texture,” she says. rich in antioxidants, and in stud- aging passersby to Producing fresh ies with mice, extracts of the sample the pan’s con- huitlacoche in Wiscon- juice helped signifi- tents — which turned sin, however, involved cantly slow tumor out not to be beans, a scientific challenge growth. Next, but a mushroom — developing a consis- researchers known in Mexico as tent way to introduce MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART (2) will test the huitlacoche. the fungi into the ears fruit’s ability “It’s kind of spicy,” of corn. At Troy, to prevent and said Dave Drapac, as he Camilla Vargas ’03, treat cancers in tasted one of the tor- a graduate student in humans. tilla-wrapped mush- agronomy, injects a rooms. He said he’d spore-bearing liquid High-quality preschool programs seen huitlacoche — into each ear in a are the most cost-effective way more commonly process developed by of preventing juvenile delin- known in the United Professor Jerald Pataky quency, according to a new States as corn smut — at the University of report produced by UW-Madison growing in a garden Illinois at Champaign- and the UW Extension. Synthe- in Indiana. “I Urbana. The liquid sizing three decades of evidence remember not think- travels down the corn on crime prevention programs, ing of it as a good silk and into each ker- researchers concluded that well- thing,” he added nel. The resulting ears run intervention and prevention wryly. bulge with black fungi programs are less expensive That perception Volunteers cook pans of that fill each kernel than the costs of juvenile crime. is changing quickly. huitlacoche, a fungus that completely, making the Along with preschool, programs Popular in Mexico as grows on ears of corn corn look dark gray. that had the greatest benefit early as the 1500s, (left), during a festival at Huitlacoche thrives Madison’s Troy Gardens. were intensive home visitation, huitlacoche has UW researchers are helping local farmers market the on moisture and grows school-based socio-emotional been used tradition- food, a delicacy in Mexico, to new consumers. unevenly during years learning, therapeutic interven- ally as a meat substi- of drought, which tions, and targeted diversion. tute and is high in affected the crop this important nutrients, including value products that they can year, Vargas says. But she adds UW-Madison’s Katherine essential fatty acids and fiber. grow and sell, and huitlacoche that the fungus would not be Cramer Walsh ’94 is among a More recently, the fungus has may fit the bill, Zepeda says. difficult to grow in the Mid- group of nineteen leading politi- caught the attention of gour- “If you look at the global west. “I think any farm could do cal scientists recommending a met magazines such as Bon gourmet food world, every chef it,” she says. package of reforms to increase Appétit, which has published likes putting their mark on The main barriers to making civic involvement and participa- recipes that call for it. things,” she says. “I’ve seen the crop a success in this part of tion in the political process. In “Not many people know [huitlacoche] with crepes, in the country may be cultural, not their new book, Democracy at about this product, but when lasagna. You could use it in technological. Zepeda, Vargas, Risk: How Political Choices they taste it, they love it,” says Chinese food. It goes very well and UW agronomy professor Undermine Citizen Participation, Martin Hernandez, a graduate with mild cheeses.” William Tracy wrote in a recent and What We Can Do about It, student in development studies. Zepeda says that fresh paper that researchers tried for the authors advocate nearly four Hernandez is working on a huitlacoche sells in Florida for two hundred years to prove that dozen steps, including declaring strategy to market huitlacoche twenty dollars per pound. the fungus was toxic. During Election Day a holiday, taking through restaurants and ethnic Around Madison, consumers this time, they noted, “Mexicans redistricting out of the hands of grocery stores around Madison, are willing to pay less than half continued to eat huitlacoche politicians, and encouraging a project that grew from the that amount. But Hernandez is with gusto.” more civics education. UW’s involvement with the optimistic, in part because the — Katherine Friedrich

14 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

Bach ’n’ Roll Stephanie Jutt proves classical can be cool.

Chamber music isn’t just for public performances each sum- KATRIN TALBOT grandma anymore, thanks to mer and brings the joy of the UW music professor Stephanie music to Madison-area senior Jutt. She founded an organiza- centers, high schools, and civic tion that hosts an annual Madi- groups via free concerts son summer music festival to throughout the year. Listeners take some of the stuffiness out are treated to more than Bach of sonatas. and Brahms — the society plays A classically trained flutist, modern pieces, too, and their Jutt was inspired by a rocking stage is adorned with art instal- house party in Half Moon Bay, lations that enhance the mood. California, where revelers Although artistic directors Jutt blasted music and shot fire- and Sykes are part of every works on the beach till dawn. performance, the rest of the Stephanie Jutt toots her own flute with the Bach But this was no ordinary gath- ensemble comes and goes Dancing and Dynamite Society, a group that aims to ering — what screamed from depending on the show. But if make chamber music accessible. the stereo was Bach’s Branden- there’s one thing that never burg Concertos. changes, it’s the spirit of spon- during the regular season,” “The next morning, the taneity and a love of music. Jutt says. “It’s such an intimate owner went out to check the “As musicians, we were experience compared with our mail, and someone had painted hungry for an opportunity to regular work in orchestras and ‘Bach Dancing and Dynamite learn and perform repertoire other ensembles.” Society’ on his mailbox for a that we aren’t able to do — Erin Hueffner ’00 joke,” recalls Jutt. “The name stuck, and the rest is history!” In 1992, Jutt teamed with COLLECTION Jeffrey Sykes MMusic’89, DMA’00 to bring the society Kids’ Corner to Madison. In the beginning, With well over a million titles, the UW Libraries boast a broad diversity in money was tight. The two their collections. But none of them has shelves that look quite as diverse as musicians recruited a few those of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s Current Collection. With friends to perform with them, its hundreds of pop-ups, pull-outs, board books, and picture books, the and the Madison Civic Center Current Collection offers a thorough survey of the ways in which publishers donated space for two free are trying to grab the short attention spans of today’s youth. concerts. Jutt and Sykes put an The Current Collection contains a copy of every children’s book pub- empty cello case near the exit, lished in the last eighteen months, giving it about five thousand titles at any pleading with the two hundred given time. “What makes it unique,” says Kathleen Horning of the CCBC, concertgoers for spare change. “is that it’s completely undiscriminating. When you look at our collection, That night, they were aston- you don’t see someone’s idea of what’s good in current children’s books. You ished to see the cello case brim- see them all. This helps us accurately follow trends in publishing.” ming with more than $1,500 — What are those trends? According to Horning, the book world is trying funding that launched the to capitalize on big sellers. “Because of the popularity of the Harry Potter society and made their dream books and the Series of Unfortunate Events books, we’re seeing a lot of fan- of infusing fun into chamber tasy and humor right now,” she says. “And there are a lot of gimmicky music a reality. books, ones that look like toys. The number of standard picture books has “We try to keep all of our really dropped off.” programming very fresh and The undiscriminating taste of the collection may be good for research, accessible to the public,” says but it means that few of the items have much lasting quality. Only about Jutt. “We don’t ever dumb it 15 percent of the holdings make it into the library’s permanent collection. down — in fact, a lot of it is chal- Part of the School of Education, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center lenging repertoire for the listen- works to support teaching, learning, and research related to children’s litera- ers as well as the musicians.” ture. Its Current Collection is located in 4290 Helen C. White, and it’s non- Today, the society is a non- circulating. But it’s open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday profit organization with a loyal to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, and 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. on following. It hosts world-class weekends. musicians for three weeks of — John Allen

WINTER 2005 15 ARTS &CULTURE

Selling Cervantes Center for the Humanities aims to spread the word on Don Quixote.

Few campus institutions are story of a self-proclaimed, self- collegiate level, it will work to as quixotic as the Center for the deluded knight, Don Quixote, involve teachers of literature, Humanities, the interdisciplinary and his squire, Sancho Panza, social studies, Spanish, and organization devoted to engag- as they travel around Spain even environmental studies ing staff, students, and the pub- attempting to right wrongs and (with a nod to Quixote’s lic in the intersections among protect the oppressed. Consid- penchant for windmills). literature, history, and culture. ered by many to be the world’s Among those taking part is “It’s very easy to justify first novel and the greatest Maria Coy, who teaches Spanish science,” says at Sun Prairie High Susanne Wof- School in Sun ford, the center’s Prairie, Wisconsin, director and a UW and who attended

English professor. BILL LINDMEIER with her colleagues, “If you’re trying to humanities teachers cure cancer, it’s Betsy Butler and Val easy to get atten- Schroetter. The tion. Getting expo- Quixote, she says, sure is harder for “is such an impor- the humanities.” tant work, but right Then again, now we don’t teach without the very much Cer- humanities, and vantes. We want their focus on lan- to find more ways guage and litera- to fit him into our ture, few people on curriculum.” campus could read- Wofford hopes ily define the term that the Don quixotic. That will Quixote program change, however, will be the first of if the center has many similar efforts, its way. with the center This year, the sponsoring a differ- center marks the ent great-but- four hundredth anniversary of work of Spanish literature, the understudied literary or the publication of Don Quixote book has left its mark through historical work each year. de la Mancha with a year-long, such terms as quixotic, meaning Forging an ongoing connection statewide initiative that links idealistic and impractical, and between high school and col- five campus departments, ten tilting at windmills, fighting lege teachers is one of her classes, and nearly twenty high out of delusion. Its inspiration biggest goals. schools and colleges. The initia- stretches to modern American “Our country would be tive aims to spark deeper study culture and can be found in better if there wasn’t such a big of the work and its influence everything from a Broadway gap between secondary and on Western culture. musical (Man of La Mancha) higher education,” she says. “The Quixote is one of to a Hanna-Barbera cartoon “I want this program to build those books that everyone (Don Coyote and Sancho more ties between us and high knows about, but very few read Panda). school teachers. They don’t anymore,” says Wofford. “It’s The Center for the Humani- make the biggest salaries or get one of the most important texts ties program is coordinated the most credit, but they’re in our culture, yet it’s understud- with Wisconsin’s Department of devoted to their subjects and to ied at the collegiate and high Public Instruction and includes helping people learn. Building school level.” a teacher colloquium, lectures, those ties is what our center is Written in the early curricular resources, and a stu- all about.” seventeenth century by Miguel dent conference next spring. — John Allen de Cervantes, the book tells the At both the high school and

16 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

The Original Reality Show A new Up documentary puts a professor in the spotlight — again.

Nicholas Hitchon has all and casting doubts about the accolades of a quietly what he’s accomplished distinguished academic in his career. Such an career: an armful of extraordinary perspective awards, a cadre of on ordinary life has made devoted students, and a the Up films favorites shelf of publications that among sociologists and MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART includes the 1999 book film critics alike. Roger Plasma Processes for Semi- Ebert has called them “an conductor Fabrication. inspired, almost noble use The ironic political and social But to millions, he’s of the film medium” that designs and illustrations of Mike known not as Professor “penetrates to the central Duffy ’80 are featured in The Hitchon, the materials mystery of life.” Design of Dissent, a new book science expert, but as Hitchon largely from graphics gurus Milton Nick, the gap-toothed boy agrees, which is why he Glaser and Mirko Ilic. Duffy from Yorkshire who grew continues to put up with operates out of his own Madison up before our eyes. the septennial invasion studio, Duffco Design. That’s the image of of his life. “We don’t Hitchon familiar to fans normally see people at Through the end of the year, “The world of this movie barely intersects of the Up films, a series these intervals, and so we the Chazen Museum of Art will with my real world,” says Nick Hitchon of his feature the photography of of British documentaries dual role as a professor and documentary film don’t often get to see the that has followed the subject. trends in ourselves,” he Jacques Henri Latrigue in an lives of fourteen Englan- says. “But if you see exhibit called “A Boy, A Camera, ders since they were you’re thinking, ‘Millions of someone filmed like this, an Era.” The museum calls the seven years old. Beginning with people are going to see this all you can see the consequences exhibit “an exuberant portrait Seven Up, a 1964 television pro- around the world.’ Honestly, I of their choices. It’s a perspec- of a remarkable child artist.” gram intended as a one-time can’t stand to look at them.” tive on the human condition Weavings of War, Fabrics of look at “the shop-steward Those who do will see that I don’t think we generally Memory is a new exhibit at the and the executive of the year Hitchon’s life unfold in stun- have.” Design Gallery, and it brings 2000,” filmmakers have inter- ning time-lapse photography. And in the professor’s case, together a variety of war tex- viewed the original subjects The series meets him as a boy, it seems true enough that tiles, fabrics created during times every seven years through five trodding about his parents’ traces of his adult self were of prolonged armed conflict. The decades, making it one of the sheep farm in muddy boots and visible in that Yorkshire boy exhibit runs until December 11. longest-running documentary wanting to “find out about the who dreamed of the moon — On November 18, it served as the projects in television history. moon and all that.” Within although that’s not exactly opening for a workshop entitled Forty-Nine Up, the series’ minutes, he’s off to study what Hitchon sees in the old “Violent Texts, Violent Textiles,” seventh film, featuring a now- physics at Oxford, leaving Eng- footage. “I can’t believe I actu- sponsored by the Legacies of middle-aged cast, aired on land for a job at UW-Madison, ally looked like that,” he says. Violence Research Circle. British television in September married, raising a son, divorced, — Michael Penn and is slated to debut in the Madison’s Center for Photogra- United States later this year. phy is hoping to document daily For Hitchon, that means life in the city, and it’s asking as reprising a role that has Math Verse many photographers as it can brought more fame — and Physics professor Clint find to take part. Carl Bowser, an more grief — than he ever Sprott PhD’69 and emeritus professor of geology, is cared to have. emerita professor of leading the project along with “The film is a very weird communicative disorders Jackson Tiffany, and their goal is experience, because you’re Robin Chapman mix sci- CLINT SPROTT ence and poetry in their to create a photographic record going on doing your ordinary new collaboration, Images of a entitled “A Year in the Life of thing, and then suddenly, for Complex World: The Art and Poetry of Madison at 150,” which they seven days every seven years, Chaos, a coffee-table book that mixes Chap- hope to display during the city’s these people descend on you,” man’s poetry with Sprott’s full-color, computer- sesquicentennial celebration next says Hitchon, who joined the generated fractal art. Fractals are geometric objects that are irregular on all scales of length. year. Photos taken before March engineering faculty in 1982. They’re illustrated in such natural objects as 1, 2006, will be considered. “You’re asked to talk about snowflakes, clouds, and broccoli — or, like the one these very personal things, and here, they can be generated on a computer.

WINTER 2005 17 CLASSROOM

Beyond Boundaries Students chart a course for the future of cartography. MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART (2)

Jesse Papez x’06 (right) zooms in on a geological map of Wisconsin while Professor Mark Harrower (left) gives instruction. Harrower tries to prepare his students for the challenges of real-world mapmaking.

Mapmaking is an ancient art raphy students use state-of-the- “I want them to understand and science that dates back to art graphic design software to how they’d do the work, even the dawn of civilization, but at represent complex data in digi- if the tools weren’t there.” the University of Wisconsin, it tal maps. But assistant profes- Harrower teaches his uses cutting-edge technology. sor Mark Harrower wants his students more than just the Cartography is advancing at students to remember the disci- principles of beautiful design, warp speed, and today’s geog- pline’s roots while learning the because maps are useless unless newest techniques. they’re functional. A weather Modern maps are designed map, for instance, should offer on desktop computers rather different information than a than scrawled on scrolls, but map of Camp Randall Stadium. today, these budding cartogra- A goal of the course is to train phers learn a history lesson by students to distinguish a good putting pen to paper. The map from a poor one and be assignment sounds simple able to intelligently critique the enough — take a five-inch work of their peers. square map of a fictional coun- Most of these students will tryside, complete with two go on to become professional towns, a railroad, a river, and a mapmakers, so Harrower also Mike Foster x’06 bay — and draw it in a three- teaches them how to effec- uses high-tech inch square. But as the students tively use design programs like tools to design a map of Wisconsin’s in Geography 572: Graphic Adobe Illustrator so they’ll be various bedrock Design in Cartography pore prepared to enter the job mar- zones. Though the intently over their sketches, ket. Having been a freelance class may take they discover that it will be a cartographer before entering advantage of the real challenge to fit the details, academia, Harrower knows latest software, it teaches students such as bends in the river and how to develop assignments to rely on tradi- lengthy road names, into this that will prepare students for tional design prin- tiny space. the real world. He’s applying ciples to create “I worry that designers get many of the principles he maps that are both beautiful and lazy because [today’s] software teaches in his work on the Uni- informative. is so powerful,” says Harrower. versity of Wisconsin’s Campus

20 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

Fruits aweigh! Horticulture students Kris Schmidt-Stumpf x’07 Map Project, which uses aerial task, but it’s deceptively diffi- get to explain it,” says Papez. and Calvin Lietzow x’07 saw photos to produce three- cult. Essentially, the students “You have to make sure that their work launched on Lake dimensional models of build- have to decide what elements it doesn’t confuse the person Mendota in October, when the ings to help make future to keep, such as roads, build- who’s reading it.” UW held its first Giant Pump- planning more efficient. ings, and other landmarks, and Camp’s version, which is kin Regatta. The event, organ- “We really let the students how to illustrate them so that a meant to be used for naviga- ized by professors Jim Nienhuis struggle with realistic scenar- casual visitor could understand. tion, is much more detailed. It and Irwin Goldman, took pump- ios,” says Harrower. “We’re try- Once that’s done, they begin includes hundreds of tiny lines kins that Schmidt-Stumpf and ing to simulate that experience using Illustrator to create an that represent the streets that Lietzow had grown for Horticul- of what it’s like to work for original map, and each student crisscross the city. As the two ture 370: World Vegetables

Newsweek or TIME magazine, has his or her own take on how give each other pointers, they WOLFGANG HOFFMANN where truly you’ve got thirty- it should be done. talk about how much they six hours to create a map for a To get ideas flowing, the learn each time they attend a breaking story. You’ve got lousy students pair up to critique lecture. Harrower infuses his data, but you know what? each other’s designs. Today, class with examples of work That’s life. So you learn how to Jesse Papez x’07, a geology from magazines, newspapers, deal with that.” and cartography student, works and even interactive online These real-world scenarios with Jon Camp x’07, a land- maps like Mapquest to chal- carry over to the lab, where scape architecture major. Papez lenge his students to think students are working to has designed a tourist map of about what they’re trying to improve a digital map of New the city, complete with the achieve through their designs. (even though a pumpkin is tech- Orleans. Starting with the locations of golf courses, parks, “You have this idea about nically a fruit), and used them as roughly drawn map down- and other attractions. Because how to make your map, and watercraft. Students paddled loaded from Google, their job he’s making it for a guide book, then you go to class and you the big ol’ squash in a race is to make a more legible ver- he hasn’t included a lot of think, ‘Oh, well, now that I look between Union Pier and the sion using Illustrator, and it has street names. at it this way, I’m going to start Hoofers’ pier at the Memorial to be pared down to a five-inch “With a map, you only get all over,’” says Camp. Union Terrace. The regatta square. Seems like a simple one chance, and you don’t — Erin Hueffner ’00 proved a little too popular, however — such a large crowd gathered that it collapsed sections of the Hoofers’ pier.

Musician and music instructor CLASS NOTE Scott Wenzel has launched a Living (Room) Laboratory new online course, World Environment, Textiles, and Design 630: Housing Environments for Older People Music: Soundscapes in a Changing World. Wenzel To sum up Professor Michael Hunt’s class in five but they’re very good about listening to our teaches ethnomusicology at the words: there’s no place like home. This is the ideas and telling us why they agree or disagree UW and at Milwaukee’s Cardinal principle that he works so hard to instill in his with them.” Stritch University. The ten-unit students. If they want to find out how to design Though most of the students are majoring course explores the social and appropriate homes for older people, they need in interior design, some are studying issues to do cultural settings of music in to get out of the classroom and spend some with aging or with urban planning. But their everyday life. time where older people live. work at Oakwood is about more than creating Each week, he takes this seminar’s ten visually pleasing rooms. They try to find ways to The schools of medicine, nurs- students off campus and onto the site of Madi- make the facility fit the physical and social needs ing, pharmacy, and veterinary son’s Oakwood Village retirement community, of its population, while keeping the cost of its medicine have joined forces to which is currently building a new, eight-story, construction within budget. create a new Center for Global independent-living facility. There they meet with “We’re basically consultants for Oakwood,” Health. Believed to be the first residents, staff, architects, and representatives says Hunt. “And that’s fun, both for me and for center to combine these four of the construction company to talk about the the students. They get a chance to be in a real-life disciplines, the unit will pursue theory and practice of building successful, situation, making proposals to architects and a mission of developing and sup- functioning homes for the elderly. builders and selling their ideas. And Oakwood porting worldwide health edu- “They’re really terrific with us,” says Hunt. Village gets a team of consultants to look at their cation and research. Its director “It could certainly be awkward, having a bunch work from a theoretical perspective.” is family medicine professor of students give feedback to these professionals, — John Allen Cynthia Haq.

WINTER 2005 21 Two Way A short drive down Park Street Street is all that separates campus and some of Madison’s most diverse and challenged neighborhoods. UW-Madison wants to be a good neighbor — but it’s not always easy for an institution that thinks globally to act locally.

BY MICHAEL PENN MA’97 PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER

20 ON WISCONSIN WINTER 2005 21 Universities such as UW-Madison have been both far reaching and far sighted, prone to overlooking the problems and virtues of their own communities.

Madison Metro Bus 53 not graduated from high school, and the have been the problem. For years, uni- plows up and down Park Street, ferrying median family income is less than half versities such as UW-Madison have been commuters between UW-Madison and a the city average. In the past, those differ- both far reaching and far sighted, prone park-and-ride lot thirty blocks south of ences have made the neighborhoods at to overlooking the problems and virtues campus. On a good day, it’s a five-minute the south end of Park Street seem much of their own communities. ride, barely enough time to crack a novel. farther away from campus than they Those ivory-tower days are over. But in that time, Bus 53 passes a Mexi- actually are. Few faculty live in the area, Now chancellors pepper their speeches can grocery store, an Asian clothing out- and only small numbers of residents with talk of accountability and respon- let, a soul-food catering business, and a have traveled up Park Street to partici- siveness to societal problems. It’s not Laotian restaurant as it winds through pate in the life of the university. While enough to think globally; people rightly some of Madison’s most ethnically the Law School and Medical School want universities to apply some of that diverse neighborhoods. And if it feels have had long-standing outreach pro- vision closer to home. like a passage between disparate worlds, grams in the area, interactions with resi- For UW-Madison, that has meant in many ways, it is. dents have tended to be scattered and taking a critical look down Park Street, Though just three miles long, Madi- fleeting. to a collection of neighborhoods that are son’s busy Park Street covers a lot of To some, it’s hard to believe that often seen as some of Madison’s most demographic ground. At the campus UW-Madison — an institution of global troubled — but perhaps also unappreci- end, the population is mostly white, edu- reach that has little trouble forging rela- ated — residential areas. And as a result, cated, and upper-middle class. At the tionships in places like Thailand or the university has come to realize that far other, 70 percent of the residents are eth- Norway — could be so remote to some more than a bus route connects it to its nic minorities, almost one in three have of its closest neighbors. But that may neighbors.

22 ON WISCONSIN Facing page: At six o’clock in the morning, a Madison Metro bus ferries Cleo Waters, a certified nursing assistant at UW Hospital and Clinics, and other commuters from south Madison to campus. Left: The window of Park Street Shoe Repair, a locally owned shop on South Park Street, reflects the diverse mix of businesses and cultures that line the gateway corridor. Regulars regard George Fabian, the store’s second-generation Italian-American owner, as “the mayor of Park Street.” Lower left: Teenage dancers entertain patrons of the South Madison Farmers’ Mar- ket, a twice-weekly neighborhood market that typifies the local flavor that UW-Madi- son students and staff want to help nourish.

UW-Madison might want a say in how its front door looked, council facilitator Jean Nielsen ’87 asked Billups to join the team. He eagerly accepted, in part because the university had been seeking ways to get more involved in that part of the city. “These neighborhoods are connected to us geographically, but there are also a variety of challenges because of the diversity of cultures and array of incomes there,” he says. “There were a number of social and economic challenges that we felt — and they felt — might benefit from university resources.” Billups connected the planning council with James LaGro, a professor of urban and regional planning, who Five years ago, the in the past,” says LaMarr Billups, a spe- devoted three semesters of course curric- university rented office space in a con- cial assistant to the chancellor for com- ula to the Park Street project. Students verted strip mall on South Park Street to munity relations. “I think there’s a trust led community meetings and helped resi- try to establish closer ties in south Madi- that has been built up, where people dents form a new set of urban design son. And while it hasn’t all been block don’t see us as the eight-hundred-pound guidelines for how Park Street should parties and barbecues, there are signs of a gorilla anymore.” look and feel as it is redeveloped. The neighborly relationship forming. The UW Like all good relationships, this one university even picked up the tab for has twice expanded its space at the Vil- began with common ground: Park the planning council’s office space in the lager Center, which houses the Campus- Street, which begins at the bypass free- Villager Center. Community Partnerships Office, as well way skirting Madison’s south side and Universities have been more eager to as the Law School’s Neighborhood Law ends at the foot of Bascom Hill, is one of take active roles in their communities in Project, the Volunteer Income-Tax Assis- the city’s most traveled thoroughfares, part because of the criticisms levied tance program, and educational opportu- the main gateway to campus for anyone against them by groups such as the Kel- nities such as the Odyssey Project, a free approaching from the south. It’s also logg Commission on the Future of State humanities curriculum for non-traditional loud, crowded, and blighted in spots, and and Land Grant Universities. Formed in students. Research activity is on the rise, UW-Madison and its neighbors have 1996, the panel warned that universities and faculty have signed on to help resi- been drawn together by a kind of mutual were becoming increasingly isolated and dents work through the area’s most sig- angst about its future. out of touch with local communities, nificant redevelopment plan in years. In 2000, the city’s South Metropoli- and, if that trend persisted, they would “We’re becoming more relevant [to tan Planning Council launched an effort become “exhibits in a kind of cultural community members] than we’ve been to redevelop the street. Figuring that Jurassic Park: places of great interest and

WINTER 2005 23 curiosity, increasingly irrelevant in a is an ideal partner for that model. When establish the gardens. world that has passed them by.” Since large numbers of African-American fami- Building relationships, however, isn’t then, grant money for community-service lies moved into the neighborhoods at the as easy as just stepping off the bus. King work has blossomed, and everyone talks swampy south end of Park Street in the says neighbors sometimes doubt the uni- admiringly about what the commission early 1900s, whites derisively called the versity’s motives when it comes knocking, labeled “the engaged institution,” where area “Hell’s Half Acre.” But those neigh- especially over things like beautifying professors and students were in tune borhoods have evolved to be strikingly Park Street. “I think the question is, ‘Do with local needs and able to deploy their diverse, dynamic communities, with you really care about people in the neigh- talents to help solve problems. nearly equal shares of African-American, borhood, or do you just want to have a To make it happen, many universi- Asian, Hispanic, and white households. prettier front door to campus?’ ” she says. ties, including UW-Madison, have In recent years, the neighborhoods have “You really have to prove that you can be pumped resources into community out- been troubled by higher-than-average trusted, that you have something to offer reach and added dozens of new courses rates of poverty and crime, and cultural and something that is of value.” where students participate in service- clashes have sometimes thwarted To Boyd Rossing, that means talking learning projects. Gerry Campbell, who attempts to build cohesive community less and listening more. A professor of directs UW-Madison’s Community leadership to address those issues. But human ecology who specializes in com- Scholars program, says the goal is not the neighborhoods also have a flavor of munity leadership, Rossing leads a project just to bring university resources to com- multiculturalism that the university called Family Voices, which is one of the munities that may need them. “It’s about savors. In community gardens at the keystones of the UW’s efforts. Beginning understanding that we have as much to southside Quann Park, African-Ameri- in 2002, Family Voices has convened learn from the people who operate and cans grow okra and corn alongside meetings of African-American residents of live in these neighborhoods as they do squash tended by Hmong gardeners and south Madison, where sometimes the UW from the university,” he says. “At a Latino-farmed beans and peppers. organizers do little more than take notes. knowledge-based institution, it can be “The university is always looking for “We spend time really getting to easy to get the impression you know diversity. Well, here we have it,” says know families and hearing them talk more than other people, and sometimes Sarah King MAx’06, a landscape archi- about the issues that concern them,” says that is the case. But not always.” tecture graduate student who bought a Rossing. From those sessions, he and South Madison, in many respects, home in the area in 2001 and helped other faculty are identifying issues on

24 ON WISCONSIN “It’s about understanding that we have as much to discuss next steps. They were met by learn from the people who operate and live in these an audience of some sixty faculty, many of whom wanted to hash out plans for neighborhoods as they do from the university.” research projects that dealt with everything from housing to health care. “We were totally overwhelmed,” says Nielsen. “I think the university culture is to open the door and invite a thousand people in to talk about the issues, and, at that point, we needed to stay focused on what we could accomplish.” She says there are still times when it seems the university and the community are speaking different languages, but things are getting smoother, albeit gradu- ally. “The idea is to figure out how we can bring faculty and students — and all the resources they have to offer — to work with the community, and the key phrase there is with,” she says. “This can’t be the university coming in and saying, ‘We’re here to help.’ It takes getting to know the community and understanding Facing page: Under the shade of a “sunflower house” planted by its needs.” neighborhood children, south Madi- son resident and UW graduate student Sarah King (center) talks with It’s ninety degrees students in Gerry Campbell’s food systems class about the variety of on the summer afternoon that I visit produce grown in the Quann Com- the south branch of the Madison Public munity Garden, one of Madison’s Library, and it seems as if half the largest shared gardens. neighborhood has fled there to cool off. Above: On a canvassing trip to spread the word about the work of Children ramble about, avoiding their a local neighborhood association, homework and waiting for a turn at south Madison resident Rick Flowers computer terminals. A librarian helps a (left) and UW undergraduate student Aerin Spitz (right) mix Spanish and girl find Africa on a large world map. English to converse with Amaury Adults chat softly about books and jobs. Giron outside his home. Spitz took If you want to understand what the on the project as part of UW-Madison’s Community Scholars program, which seeks to involve students in local issues as a learning experience. south Madison community wants, Ileana Above: At the South Madison Public Library, Patsy Diaz (right) gets advice Rodriguez ’95 tells me, this is the place from Clara Burke, a UW-Madison graduate student in English who tutors to go. Rodriguez, a community outreach writers as part of the Writing Center’s free assistance program. Twice counselor with the UW’s Division of a week, residents can meet with instructors to discuss professional or personal writing, such as Diaz’s budding novel about a guardian angel. Continuing Studies, has been doing that for ten years. Every Monday evening, she unfurls a red UW-Madison banner which the university and the community tion like that to come in and overwhelm a over a table and spends two hours can cooperate, such as promoting parent community,” he says. fielding questions from residents about ... involvement in schools and bringing That is exactly what happened early well, everything. Officially, she’s there to healthy foods to the neighborhood. on in the university’s partnership with help adults who are seeking to return to Achievements are admittedly modest, the South Metropolitan Planning Coun- school, but to many, she is the face of the but Rossing says it’s essential not to let cil. Encouraged by the work they’d done university, a smiling font of knowledge ambitions get beyond reality. “UW- on the Park Street redevelopment plan, about its myriad resources. Madison is a huge place, with an interna- the university invited council facilitator “My husband hates to drive my mini- tional reputation and thousands of Nielsen and a few other community van, because it’s totally full of timetables students, and it’s very easy for an institu- members to a meeting at the Red Gym to and brochures and information about

WINTER 2005 25 “I think there’s a trust that has been built up, where people don’t see us as the eight-hundred-pound gorilla anymore.”

every department on campus,” she says. than ever before. Beyond beefing up the finish line,” she says. Born in Puerto Rico and fluent in the financial assistance available to This is how the university’s reputa- English and Spanish, Rodriguez relates low-income and part-time students, the tion is being reconstructed in south well to the concerns, frustrations, and university has created new opportunities Madison, case by case, client by client, fears some people have about UW-Madi- such as the Odyssey Project, which open relationship by relationship. No one son. She interrupted her own UW stud- doors to students who might have found doubts it is making a difference. But ies, returning to finish as an adult, and them closed a few years ago. what many yearn for is the day when she knows firsthand that only the fortu- “I always wanted to take classes, individual stories such as Holmes’s are nate follow the straight roads to their but I could never afford it,” says Pam the rule, not the exception. There’s great degrees. She says many of the people she Holmes, who has lived in south Madison depth in the anecdotes, but perhaps not speaks with have been led to believe that for twenty-one years. “The great thing yet much breadth. UW-Madison has little to offer them, about the Odyssey Project is that it’s “It’s a slow process,” says Rossing, either because it’s too expensive or too free, as long as you work hard and you’re noting that many of the people who come competitive. Most of the time, those willing to learn.” to Family Voices meetings are residents prove to be misconceptions, she says. Holmes completed the yearlong who have already been active in their “We’re here to guide people and show Odyssey course as part of its first class communities. “There’s a gulf of under- them that they have options that can help in 2003–04. She has also participated in standing on both sides. But if you think them get to where they want to go,” she Family Voices and the Grassroots Leader- about it, that isn’t really surprising. Tra- says. “The UW does offer lots of evening ship College, a community-run training ditionally, universities have been kind of courses and distance learning that some- program that teaches organizational and isolated, and the idea that they would times can work for people.” leadership skills. She credits the univer- connect back to local communities his- There’s no question that more paths sity for inspiring her confidence. “I feel torically hasn’t been part of that mission. into UW-Madison’s classrooms exist like when I start something now, I can see People aren’t used to thinking about a

26 ON WISCONSIN them, they can overcome some of those stereotypes. And those are lessons that they can carry with them to virtually every community in the country.” Gerry Campbell also took students to south Madison in September to learn about the community gardens at Quann Park. The hope is that students will sustain those connections on their own by returning to study or volunteer. “Students tend to lead very compart- mentalized lives, and I think they often haven’t learned to think about other dimensions that affect their lives,” says Campbell. They have a tendency, for Facing page: A South Park Street coffee house serves more than just example, to think that the only way to lattes; it’s also become a place for learn about another culture is to do a community planners to brainstorm semester abroad. But, he says, “There is ways to better the neighborhood. Here, Will Warlick, Margaret Nellis, a level of experiences available here that Anne Turk, and Jim Winkle hash does not require crossing an ocean.” out plans to plant flower beds along the Park Street median. In the limited social geography of many students, Quann Park might as Above: Jacquelyn Hunt transcribes the concerns of fellow parents during a Family Voices meeting focusing well be across an ocean. But that, too, on south Madison schools. Part of UW-Madison’s outreach efforts in south could change. It’s a guarded secret Madison, the Family Voices project tries to help organize and mobilize among some graduate students that residents to work on local issues. south Madison, with its proximity to Right: At the UW Space Place, Natalie Hoover, graduate student and Science is Fun volunteer, shows Megan Elsert how to make a battery using strips of campus and relatively inexpensive hous- copper and zinc. The interactive museum, which hosts many family events, ing, is a good place to live. Four years moved to a new space in south Madison’s Villager Center earlier this year. ago, Sarah King and her partner found they could afford mortgage payments university in that way.” “There is so much to be learned from on a ranch home there, even on two Resources are a problem: the univer- these neighborhoods,” says Margaret graduate-student stipends. sity has applied three times for money to Nellis, who manages academic partner- “We love this neighborhood,” she start a Community Outreach Partnership ships with the community for University says. “It has such an interesting history, Center, a program run by the U.S. Health Services. She has taken groups of and the neighbors are such neat people.” Department of Housing and Urban faculty and students on “cultural tours” Living there has also intersected Development, but has yet to win fund- of south Madison, introducing them to a nicely with King’s educational goals, ing. Most of the projects in south Madi- few of its residents and gathering places. giving perspective and balance to her son rely on university funding, along Last semester, she helped organize a two- studies. “I feel like you can learn so much with a mix of local grants, for support. week series of lectures about the area just by living here and talking to people,” At the Villager Center, UW-Madi- for students at Chadbourne Residential she says. For the past four summers, she son’s presence has sparked other ven- College. With a long — yet relatively helped children from her neighborhood tures that give the place a lively feel. unappreciated — history as a multiracial plant a flower garden at Quann. One Madison Area Technical College offers neighborhood, south Madison provides day, she taught them how to separate classes there six days a week, and the compelling local examples to enrich sunflower seeds from their seedheads by UW Space Place, a hands-on astronomy studies of civil rights, urban planning, tossing them in the breeze. “We were museum, has recently moved in. But the and culture studies, she says. sifting and winnowing,” she says. “I mall hasn’t yet evolved into the kind of “Some students will admit to me that know that’s what we’re supposed to be vital meeting place where a student they’re afraid to go into these neighbor- doing at the university, but this was actu- might sit down for coffee with a commu- hoods. There are so many assumptions ally sifting and winnowing. I think that nity member, and that’s what many say is about people who live there,” Nellis says. impressed me more than them.” needed to help students build on their “I think when students have the opportu- classroom learning. nity to meet people and interact with Michael Penn is co-editor of On Wisconsin.

WINTER 2005 27 A Quest for Quitters Michael Fiore has a plan that could lengthen the lives of 3 million Ameri-

cans and save billions in BACKGROUND PHOTO: GARRY HUNTER/GETTY IMAGES health care costs. It’s the most ambitious campaign against cigarettes in our lifetime — and it could all go up in smoke. By Jenny Price ’96 Photos by Jeff Miller

28 ON WISCONSIN ichael Fiore’s first case at the UW Medical School was both a success and a numbing failure. Not long after arriving on Mcampus in 1988, he began working with a middle-aged woman who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and had tried to quit at least a dozen times. She told Fiore she had a new reason to kick the habit: her first grandchild was on the way.

Fiore counseled the woman and supplied But when he thinks about the 46 anybody who had those two virtues her with nicotine gum — the only medi- million Americans who smoke — and the really belonged in the tobacco-control cine then available to help people quit estimated 70 percent of them who wish business,” Koop says. smoking — and she indeed gave up ciga- they didn’t — Fiore sees more than just a Koop put Fiore to work examining rettes for good. But soon after, doctors pressing public-health issue. He vividly the public-health implications of Ameri- found an orange-sized tumor in one of remembers that first patient, for whom cans’ tobacco use. Scrutinizing surveys her lungs. She died within eight months. his advice was too late. It’s personal for dating from the 1960s, Fiore concluded “It really drove home for me the per- him, and it will remain so until every that smoking was more prevalent among sonal tragedy of tobacco dependence in smoker who wants to quit can do so. less-educated populations as well as our society and in our state,” Fiore says. “We want it to be as easy to get racial and ethnic minorities. He also Now fifty-one, Fiore directs UW- smoking cessation treatment as it is to found that most smokers who tried to Madison’s Center for Tobacco Research walk down to the corner store and buy quit gave up cold turkey, without any and Intervention, an agency that enlists a pack of Marlboros,” Fiore says. support or medication to wean them seventy staff in the effort to curb tobacco from the addictive effects of nicotine. use. In the nearly twenty years that he’s “There’s a powerful misconception been fighting his war on cigarettes, he has Fiore’s campaign to halt tobacco that tobacco use is just some bad habit helped thousands of smokers give up use was launched when he began work that smokers should be able to overcome tobacco, conducted research that has led as a medical epidemiologist in the U.S. on their own,” Fiore says. to better strategies for those who want to Office on Smoking and Health, under That realization helped ignite a quit, and pushed his fellow doctors to take then-U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett period of unparalleled intervention, tobacco use seriously as a health risk. Koop. Fiore arrived with a medical as doctors and public-health agencies Considered by many to be the degree and a master’s degree in public began to do more to help smokers shake nation’s leading authority on beating health from Harvard University, and he the addiction. After he arrived at UW- nicotine addiction, Fiore was asked three was fresh off a residency at the Centers Madison, Fiore began pushing for policy years ago to lead the development of a for Disease Control and Prevention, reforms that would prompt clinicians and $130 billion plan to dramatically cut where his work had included studies health care systems to ask patients about tobacco use in the United States during of the health effects of groundwater their tobacco use, and, beginning in the next twenty-five years. The position pesticide contamination and of living in 1991, he argued that whether patients has put him at the helm of the federal homes with mold or allergen growth. smoke should be one of the vital signs government’s most ambitious attempt to “The things I remember about him that doctors routinely monitor, along end smoking, and squarely at the center were his unbelievable energy and his with pulse, respiration, blood pressure, of a legal squabble that may put that very passion against tobacco, and they were and temperature. Today Fiore’s influence plan in jeopardy. evident almost immediately ... I felt that on the day-to-day interaction between

WINTER 2005 29 doctors and their patients is palpable: counseling if he were a smoker. In later year program that would cost just 70 percent of doctors now ask their interviews, he derided the plan as “fatally $10 billion. Complaints from health patients about smoking, a dramatic shift flawed,” arguing that the government has advocates and some Democratic mem- away from the passive attitudes of old. no legal grounds to ask tobacco compa- bers of Congress prompted an internal Many states have since initiated support nies to pay for such a broad approach. investigation into whether government centers and phone banks to help smokers quit. In Wisconsin, Fiore’s staff organizes the state quit line (see sidebar, page 61). In 2002, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson ’63, JD’66 asked Fiore to lead a group of experts in developing a national strategy to help Americans beat nicotine addiction. The sixteen-member committee came up with a twenty-five- year, $130 billion plan that Thompson says will become the “cornerstone of the controlling and the limitation of tobacco use in this country.” Among the plan’s features are a twenty-four-hour national quit line providing counseling and free nicotine-replacement drugs, a massive media campaign, and millions of dollars for research to find better treatments for smokers who want to quit. The plan — based on expert testimony, published articles, and scientific data — is at the center of the U.S. Jus- tice Department’s racketeering case against six cigarette makers. The lawsuit claims that the companies conspired to mislead the public about the health effects of smoking and to market cigarettes to children, and most observers believe that Fiore’s plan forms the core of what the government would seek as remediation if it wins a judgment against the industry. And that has put the plan’s proposals under intense scrutiny, both In a session with a patient enrolled in a smoking cessation study, Fiore affirms that “taking from industry lawyers and some smokers this step is a really a tremendous gift to yourself.” themselves, who feel the government’s case is an affront to their rights. Tobacco appears to have the courts lawyers were pressured to seek lower In May, Fiore was called by the gov- on its side on that issue. Both a federal damages. The judge also allowed anti- ernment as an expert witness and subse- appeals court and the U.S. Supreme smoking groups to present arguments quently endured more than eight hours Court have ruled that racketeering laws that the government failed to represent of cross-examination by Philip Morris limit the scope of damages that the gov- the public interest in the case. lawyer Ted Wells, who at times crowded ernment can seek in the case. Because of Regardless of the outcome of the the witness stand and suggested the those restrictions, any judgment against case, Fiore maintains that the plan’s cost plan’s projections for how many smokers the tobacco companies is likely to be for is reasonable, especially relative to the it could reach were overstated. Wells also far less money than Fiore’s plan costs. In price of smoking, which he tabulates as pointed out that the plan was so sweep- their closing arguments, justice depart- $150 billion a year in health care costs ing it would allow a billionaire such as ment lawyers suprised many observers tied to tobacco use and $180 billion in Warren Buffet to get free medication and by asking the judge to approve a five- lost productivity and absenteeism.

30 ON WISCONSIN “This program — for twenty-five works, not everyone has adopted his an analysis of the nature of tobacco years — costs $130 billion. We’re spend- vision of a smoke-free society. After the dependence. His studies have shown that ing three times that amount every year in city passed an ordinance outlawing tobacco withdrawal symptoms last much costs from tobacco,” he says. “When put smoking in bars, Fiore joined a group of longer than previously thought, with in that context, it’s really a pretty modest doctors, nurses, and health care workers some patients exhibiting more severe investment.” at a press conference supporting the ban, symptoms two to three months after “I think anybody that’s looking at while at the same time, a crowd of bar quitting than in the first week after they this on a rational basis would say this is a owners and smokers protested across stopped smoking. The center also con- hell of a buy,” adds Thompson. “I think town, demanding the city repeal the ban ducted some of the first research on we’ve got to be much more aggressive.” to restore lost business. nicotine replacement drugs. Some smokers take issue with that Nothing he or anyone else has kind of thinking. A shrinking, but learned suggests quitting is easy, and nei- increasingly defiant group, hard-core Recent figures from the federal ther is telling someone to quit. “When smokers are growing resistant to the government show that the rate at which you are in the business of public health, ramped-up efforts to get them to quit. smokers are quitting has slowed, sug- you really are telling people to say no Many argue that a national stop-smoking gesting that some people will continue to to a lot of things they like to do,” says campaign, while well-intentioned, is smoke despite knowing the health threat Koop. “And it takes a special person to unrealistic and would result in far fewer it poses. Just 3 percent of U.S. smokers say no and not sound judgmental.” That’s smokers quitting than Fiore predicts. quit between 1990 and 2003. where Fiore succeeds, Koop says, noting “I was considering quitting myself To Fiore, statistics such as these that his warmth and passion for helping people are enough to outlast the powers of addiction. “There’s a powerful misconception that “He’s always really upbeat about it,” says Larry Meiller PhD’77, whom Fiore tobacco use is just some bad habit that smok- helped quit smoking thirteen years ago. “He congratulates you for every day that ers should be able to overcome on their own.” you’re not smoking, and he’s a great cheerleader, along with knowing a whole eight or ten years ago, and all this started underscore the need for more activity, lot about why we need to quit and how up and I thought, ‘I’m going to smoke. not less. “Most smokers have periods of we can quit.” Nobody’s going to tell me not to,’ ” says quitting, when [nicotine addiction] goes In Meiller’s case, it took a combina- Garnet Dawn, who serves as Midwest into remission but then relapses when tion of counseling sessions and nicotine regional director for The Smokers Club, they go back to smoking,” Fiore says. gum, which he says he still chews from Inc., a nationwide group that promotes “It’s the nature of the chronic disease time to time. A professor of agricultural smokers’ rights. that some people [will] relapse.” journalism and host of a daily talk show Dawn says that the mass-marketing Helping smokers quit has been the on Wisconsin Public Radio, Meiller says campaigns by anti-tobacco groups have primary mission of Fiore’s campus cen- that sharing his attempt to quit with lis- “become so extreme that people are ter, which he founded in 1992, the same teners helped, but talking with Fiore and almost beginning to laugh at it.” She also year he was honorably discharged after his staff about what triggered his smok- sees those efforts as driven by the influ- serving in the U.S. Army Reserves in the ing made the biggest difference. That ence of large pharmaceutical companies Persian Gulf War. Its headquarters are meant giving up coffee, which he always that would benefit from mass distribu- tucked away on the second floor of a paired with cigarettes, and taking note of tion of nicotine replacement medications. modest office building a few blocks from when he lit up, such as when he got off Fiore’s center, she notes, is partially Camp Randall Stadium. The center gets the air or finished teaching a class. funded by the Robert Wood Johnson two-thirds of its $6.3 million annual Now sixty-one, Meiller says that his Foundation, the nation’s largest philan- budget from the federal and state gov- previous attempts at quitting on his own thropy devoted to public health. She and ernments, with the remainder coming left him a “basket case.” One colleague other smokers’ rights advocates say that from pharmaceutical clinical trials and who didn’t smoke even asked him, the foundation’s stock in Johnson & nonprofit organizations. Its staff has “Would you please start smoking again?” Johnson, whose subsidiaries manufac- grown from five to seventy people. Still, when he came to Fiore for help, the ture and market nicotine patches and Fiore’s research focuses mainly on doctor was brutally frank about how hard inhalers, represents a conflict of interest. the role doctors and other clinicians play it is to quit, telling him it usually takes Even in Madison, where Fiore in motivating smokers to quit, as well as smokers multiple attempts to succeed.

WINTER 2005 31 A Line on Quitting Persistence, Fiore says, is what In 2001, Fiore’s Center for Tobacco Research and will make the national plan effective. The Intervention helped create a state telephone idea is that the more access smokers have support network for smokers seeking help quitting. to support, the more often they’ll give Since the line’s debut, thirty-six thousand people quitting a shot. Based on the increased have dialed up its free services, which include over- number of attempts, the proposal prom- the-phone counseling, self-help materials, and referrals to treatment programs. ises that 5 million Americans will stop When a person calls the Quit Line, he or she is given a twenty- to forty-minute initial smoking within one year — thus pre- assessment, including questions about frequency of tobacco use and motivations for venting 3 million premature deaths. quitting. Counselors offer advice on how and when to quit, based on scientific “If we really want to control the dis- research. Quit Line callers receive a free quit kit in the mail and are offered additional appointments with counselors for follow-up assistance. ease and help every individual with the disease to put it in remission, we’ve got to The Quit Line's services are available to all tobacco users who want to quit, as well as give them the evidence-based treatments family and friends who are concerned about a tobacco user. Counselors are available we know make a difference,” he says. seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., at (877) 270-STOP. One of the plan’s key components is a $3.2 billion-a-year, twenty-four-hour-a- year dedicated to researching new treat- tify in a court case against the tobacco day national quit line. The toll-free num- ments for tobacco dependency. Current industry, he rarely accepts, aside from a ber would do more than just serve as a treatments result in only 10 to 30 percent class action case in New York ten years place for smokers to call for counsel and of smokers being able to quit for the ago. The federal case was different, he advice; it also would be a vehicle for pro- long term, Fiore says, and putting more says, because of its potential for making viding free nicotine replacement thera- money into research could raise that rate a dent in tobacco use. pies to smokers who want to quit. Those to 50 percent. The plan would establish “For the first time, we’re having a who call the quit line, which would more research centers, like the one at dialogue about how important it is to incorporate existing state-operated lines, UW-Madison, to work on the problem help smokers quit,” he says. would get at least four follow-up calls to and spend a half-billion dollars a year to And that’s a thrilling prospect not help them stay on track. train and educate doctors, nurses, and only for Fiore, but also for his former Based on the plan’s recommendation, other health care professionals to inter- boss, Koop. Fiore keeps a photo of the Thompson helped secure a $25 million vene with patients who smoke. Fiore two in his office, which Koop signed, “No annual budget to get a national quit line says that seven of ten smokers visit a disappointment, yet. Our expectations operating. But while the current line doctor each year, but few are offered are still high.” Koop says he wrote that provides over-the-phone counseling, it treatment options. because a lot of young people who go into does not offer medications. Although he That’s the same number of smokers public service “have great expectations describes the existing line as a critical who say they want to quit. Fiore says and then they just sort of fizzle out.” first step, Fiore says that a new line will twenty-five years is a reasonable time Fiore and Koop still speak every two remove barriers to treatment by reaching frame for making that happen, because weeks and see one another every couple segments of the population in which the 40 percent of smokers who want to of months. The former surgeon general, prevalence of smoking is higher and quit will try in any given year, but just who now heads up his own heath insti- people often can’t afford treatment. 6 percent of them will succeed. tute at Dartmouth College, says they “If we look at how smoking has Yet, none of these proposals will have a father-son relationship. And evolved over the last fifty years, it’s come to pass if the plan continues to sit Fiore enthusiastically cites Koop as hero, increasingly concentrated in the least- on the shelf. mentor, and friend. advantaged members of our society,” “In the future, smokers are either “It was sort of prophetic that this Fiore says. going to have access to treatments to youngster who came and was so excited The national plan calls for a $1 billion- help them to quit or they’re not,” Fiore and doing something about tobacco a-year media campaign to educate the says. “And to have a plan over the next eventually did the best thing anybody’s public about the quit line and the dangers twenty-five years that helps people quit, ever done about tobacco,” Koop says. of smoking, an amount, Fiore says, that is to me, is an incredibly appropriate for- “What remains to be seen now is needed to counter the $10 billion to $12 ward-looking remedy. Now, I don’t say a whether the government has the guts to billion the tobacco industry spends on remedy in a legal sense; I mean in a real act on it.” advertising and promotion each year. practical, real-world sense.” Another element is $500 million a Although Fiore is often asked to tes- Jenny Price ’96 is a freelance writer living in Madison.

32 ON WISCONSIN JAMES STRACHAN/GETTY IMAGES

BY DOUGLAS HAYNES

DOUGLAS HAYNES ne of the toughest things Lynn Haanen ’04 has ever done is dis- mantle bookshelves to build caskets for babies who have died. Since 1997, when she began directing Guatemala’s Escuela de la Montaña (Mountain School) — a nonprofit Spanish language school — Haanen says it’s been “very, very common” in nearby Ovillages for children to die from preventable diseases within their first year. Often, they die from respiratory illnesses as a result of being strapped to their mothers’ backs while the mothers cook over open wood stoves.

32 ON WISCONSIN LEARNING TO LIVE WITH LESS By bringing students from prosperous countries to Guatemala to live with rural families and learn Spanish, Lynn Haanen hopes to expose them to how the poor live and to create lasting social change.

and you bring your own shovel, and you and would push for government policies dig the grave yourself and hope that the that promote sustainable development spot that they showed you doesn’t have here.” By creating an opportunity at the other caskets in it already,” Haanen says. Mountain School for more privileged Unsettling experiences like these are people to experience living conditions in commonplace for Haanen, a Wisconsin a developing country, Haanen hopes that native who has lived most of the past she’s generating lasting social change, not twelve years in one of the Western only in Guatemala, but also around the Hemisphere’s poorest countries. But that world. By the time she leaves at year’s doesn’t mean she’s numb to them. end, she will have introduced some two “On a human level, it’s so important thousand students to the reality of rural to be with people and to accompany Guatemalan life. them and to be responsive to them,” The Mountain School, like many Haanen says. “But it’s more than just Spanish schools in the country, uses lan- being part of the job. I think it’s being a guage instruction to generate income for responsible human being, and I think social justice and education programs in Lynn Haanen (left) believes that if more Americans visited developing countries, they that’s something that’s all too often miss- surrounding communities. This particu- would shop differently and would push for ing in life in the First World, that we lar school is unusual, however, due to its more sustainable government policies. don’t really put as a priority, taking care remote, rural location and the degree to of other people.” which it immerses students in the daily “If the family can’t afford a casket, This is why Haanen directs the lives of displaced farm-worker families. they build a casket,” she explains. “We’ve Mountain School. She believes that if All of the Escuela’s students study Span- given away a lot of wood to make caskets more Americans visited developing coun- ish four hours a day, five days a week, with. Wood and nails.” tries, they would create a more compas- one-on-one with a local instructor. Then the family has to bury the child sionate society. “If people were exposed Started in May 1997 as a rural sister in one of rural Guatemala’s crowded to how people live in the Third World,” school of the Proyecto Linguístico Quetzal- municipal cemeteries. “You go up there, she says, “they would shop differently teco de Español (PLQE) — a collective of

WINTER 2005 33 Spanish teachers in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second largest city — the

Mountain School began with an average (3) DOUGLAS HAYNES of three students per week. The school building itself is an old plantation owner’s home in the Pacific Slope community of Nuevo San José, about an hour’s drive down the Sierra Madre Mountains from Quetzaltenango. It houses up to fourteen students at a time, and in a typical year, more than four hundred people from fifteen countries learn Spanish there. Nuevo San José is a community of Mayans who have lived Mountain School teacher Tito Monterrosso (left) tutors two students in the school’s kitchen. and worked for generations on a nearby One American student said that her stay at the school left her with “greater feelings of awe coffee plantation, or finca. After strug- and respect for humanity.” gling for more than a year to get the plantation owner to pay their salaries, Victoria’s oldest daughter, Claudia, told survive, so students leave with some idea community members won their back me to have a seat in one of two plastic of what it means to be poor. wages and benefits but were evicted. In chairs pulled up to a wobbly-looking Alisha Laramee, one of the students 1993, twenty-seven families from the plastic table in the kitchen. Another in my group, heard about the Mountain community pooled their resources to pur- daughter, Martha, set an overflowing School from other young adults in the chase the land at Nuevo San José, with bowl of refried black beans and rice in U.S. who had studied Spanish in assistance from the Catholic parish in the front of me to eat with a pile of warm, Guatemala or were involved in social nearby town of Colomba. mealy tortillas. justice activism. During the following week, I “I chose the Mountain School hile studying there in 2004, I looked forward to every meal with Vic- because I wanted to spend time in a rural ate three meals a day, like all toria and her children, who played soc- area with families and with a commu- Mountain School students, in cer with me in the dirt path beside their nity,” Laramee says. “The meals my host W house and asked me to borrow books mother made were delicious, but mostly I the dirt-floored kitchen of a local family. On my first evening in Nuevo San José, from the Mountain School to read just wanted to talk to her and know a lit- Haanen took my fellow students and me aloud to them every day. One evening tle bit more about what it means to have through the village and introduced us to before dinner, Victoria’s husband, Felix lived her life. Inevitably, any student our host señoras. Before I could say more — who was gone half the week work- who visits the Mountain School leaves than a nervous “Buenas tardes” to Victoria, ing at a gas station in a town an hour with greater feelings of awe and respect my host, six of her seven children pulled away by bus — gave me a tour of the for humanity than visiting any mansion me by the hands into a ring-around-the- village, showing me the community’s or eating any four-course meal could rosy-like song and dance with words that new two-room school, its coffee and ever give.” I couldn’t decipher. As we circled around banana fields, and its meeting place: a One of Haanen’s professors at UW- the room next to a pile of unshelled ears sheet-metal structure open on one side Madison, Latin American historian Steve of corn almost as tall as me, I and supported by poles. Stern, echoes this sentiment. “The world smelled corn tortillas cook- “I think the reason students come needs socially responsible ways to con- ing on a wood-fired here is [that] we’re involved with the nect people from prosperous countries stove. Before long, community,” Haanen told me one evening with people in less prosperous places,” he on the patio of the four-room, cement- says, and Haanen’s work with the Moun- block casita she shares with her tain School “breaks down the separation partner, Bob Hilliard, who is between outsider and insider. That’s from England. While we drank pretty remarkable.” Guatemalan rum and Coke and Averse to polarities that keep people listened to the perpetual trill of apart, Haanen directs the school with the tropical insects, Haanen said that conviction that “the work of social justice more than anything else, she doesn’t have to be politically left or wants students to accompany right.” She credits UW-Madison with local people in their struggle to nurturing this belief. he first time that Lynn Haanen guerrillas, political and human rights find willing employees. But first, she had traveled outside Wisconsin was activists, health workers, and others. to ensure that they would provide safe, T during her junior year at UW- Although Haanen intended to stay in nutritionally balanced meals. Madison, in 1976, when she went to Guatemala for only three or four months, “We had to convince them, first of Washington, D.C., to work for the late she ended up accepting a job offer from all, that amoebas and parasites existed,” Senator Gaylord Nelson LLB’42. She the PLQE. In 1997, when the PLQE Haanen recalls. “I still have this memory was a political science major then and bought a property in the coffee-growing of this woman holding up a glass of had already been involved in campus region of Colomba Costa Cuca — one of water and saying, ‘It looks clean to me.’ ” politics, such as the teaching assistants’ the poorest areas in Guatemala — to Still, Haanen feels that the local struggle to unionize, which she acknowl- start the new Mountain School, Haanen women performed well, despite difficult edges as her “first exposure to issues of was named the school’s director. circumstances. “We would not have class and what it means to be a worker.” opened the school [and had] meals in the “It was an exciting time,” Haanen hen Haanen arrived in Nuevo community unless we had a pretty high says, when “demonstrations were a big San José, she was the first level of trust in them from the very part of being on campus,” and students W foreigner most of the residents beginning,” she says. “In my experience were quite integrated into the Madison had met. Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil with eating with them, they were very, community. One thing that particularly war had just ended, and families were very careful under circumstances that appealed to her about Madison was an living in sheet-metal shacks and subsist- none of us would be able to deal with.” active community providing help to ing mainly on what they could earn Haanen’s community relations skills refugees from war-torn Central America. doing day work on the plantations. The were tested, however, when a week Then in 1978, Haanen’s father left average wage on the coffee plantations before the first students arrived, her new her mother and brothers, leaving them then, as now, was about $2.60 a day. employees backed out of their agree- “economically pretty destitute,” she says. As Haanen describes her neighbors’ ment. Haanen called a meeting, and “So I decided to take a year off so I could situation, her normally light-hearted eventually she elicited from the potential work full time and be in a position to voice turns to quivering indignation. “I hosts that they were embarrassed by help my mother and my brothers, and get so upset, because it’s really not fair their poverty and worried that they then go back to school and finish.” But in that people here have to live in these couldn’t feed the students well enough the fall of 1979, she was appointed to the conditions, and have to face the kind of on the pay the school had proposed. The county board, and then she started a new crises that they have to face, and have women assumed, Haanen recalls, that job working for the North Farm Cooper- to die because they don’t have access to they had to serve fruit and meat at every ative. She put her plans to return to adequate health care,” she says. meal, something impossible for most school aside. Although Haanen faced distrust at rural Guatemalans to afford. Haanen went on to work as a legisla- first, her goal was to develop relation- Haanen assured them that students tive aide in the Wisconsin State Senate ships in the community. She did not want were coming to see what life is really like and as co-director of constituent rela- the school to become a paternalistic in rural Guatemala, and she promised to tions for Wisconsin Governor Anthony development project that simply handed pay them well enough to make a profit. Earl in the mid-1980s. “The UW rein- out money to those it deemed in need. The women agreed to try forced in me that you have to contribute One of Haanen’s first strategies to the arrangement, and to the world,” she says. establish relationships was to recruit fif- a year later, they During the 1980s, Haanen became teen local women to cook for and host gave positive eval- increasingly involved in the Wisconsin Mountain School students. By offering a uations of their Coordinating Council on Nicaragua hard-to-come-by salary, she was able to experiences. (WCCN) and fell in love with the coun- overcome some initial skepticism and try on a trip there in 1988. In 1993, hop- Providing meals for the school’s students ing to spend a year working in Nica- has created a stable source of income ragua at women’s centers connected with for thirty-two families in the rural village of Nuevo San José, which, WCCN, Haanen first journeyed to Quet- like many Guatemalan com- zaltenango, Guatemala, to learn Spanish. munities, is desperately She chose the PLQE Spanish School in need of jobs. there for its involvement with social and political issues. The school educates through lectures, conferences, and excur- sions to meet with union leaders, former “Students come and share our poverty,” work in both the community — building was impressed by how user-friendly the one of the hosts said. Now local women brick stoves, for example — and as a campus had become since the late seven- clamor to get on the waiting list to feed Spanish teacher are connected by what ties. The university “does everything pos- Mountain School students, and the he calls his “responsibility to teach about sible to help you succeed,” she says, “and school provides a stable source of income the reality of life in Guatemala.” This I can’t say enough about how good my to thirty-two families. form of education gives him hope that experience as a returning student was.” Abelino Gómez, Hannen’s adminis- the situation in Guatemala can improve, Faculty members such as Steve trative assistant since the school’s found- little by little. Stern, Leigh Payne, and Richard Davis ing, has also found his life changed. Escobar also identifies the Mountain eased Haanen’s transition by encourag- Previously, Gómez had worked for School’s largest community project — ing her to bring her life experiences into coffee plantation owners who, according the classroom. Despite Haanen’s under- to Haanen, expect employees to simply “The world needs socially graduate status, Stern, chair of the his- follow orders without question. responsible ways to connect tory department, welcomed her in his “The first few years that he was graduate seminar Political Violence and working here with me, he would not people from prosperous coun- Memory in Latin America. “What was even invite someone in for a drink of tries with people in less pros- really clear to me,” Stern says, “was that water, because he felt it was not author- she was a remarkable person who was ized,” Haanen says. “Now you can see perous places...” and Haanen’s deeply committed to social justice work.” the difference in him. He takes initiative work with the Mountain School Her participation helped everyone to on things. He knows he’s a representa- learn more, he adds, because her field tive of the school, and he acts that way. “breaks down the separation experience enabled her to see between And, increasingly, he is the person that between outsider and insider. the lines of what was obvious and raise we put out front to the community.” the level of discussion. During my second visit to the Moun- That’s pretty remarkable.” tain School, I had breakfast one morning lthough Haanen knows everyone with Gómez before he went to work. the Young Leaders Scholarship Program in Nuevo San José and consid- Chickens and crowing roosters ran — as a source of hope. In 2005, the pro- A ers it home, she insists that she around our feet in his kitchen. He said gram enabled ninety-seven local seventh- knows only one layer of social relations he likes working at the school because to twelfth-graders to pay for the fees and in the community. “I’m keenly aware of he has a lot of responsibility, and there’s materials of a secondary education. what I don’t know,” she says, naming no boss. Gómez calls Haanen his “com- These students also attended regular friendship in rural Guatemala as a mys- pañera,” a term of respect that indicates meetings at the school, reinforcing the tery that still eludes her. Nonetheless, she he sees her as his colleague. Haanen idea that they are special, “which is not a can imagine living in Guatemala the rest seeks his opinions about everything message that kids in the country here get of her life. The primary obstacle to this is from what groceries the school needs to very much,” Haanen says. her lack of long-term financial security. whether she should lend money to a local Haanen finds inspiration in the local “I will be fifty next year and have to woman who wants to take her sick father scholarship students’ avid thirst for find a job that pays more and includes a to a traditional Mayan doctor. knowledge. Many of them frequently pension or, at the least, access to the U.S. Haanen also hires maintenance staff, pick coffee, cut and haul firewood, take Social Security system,” Haanen says. “I night watchmen, housecleaners, and care of their siblings, and still find energy do not want to find myself at retirement seven Guatemalan teachers. Rony for their studies. Seeing this keeps her age without the ability to choose where I Escobar, the school’s most experienced motivated. want to live. If here, I want the resources teacher, sleeps in a dormlike room at the to visit family and friends in the U.S.” school during his work week. Though eturning to UW-Madison to fin- With this in mind, Haanen and her his family lives several hours away by ish a degree after nearly twenty- partner, Bob Hilliard, recently decided bus and he could make more money R five years away from college to leave the Mountain School in Decem- using his training as a lawyer, Escobar could be a daunting experience. When ber 2005. “I am not worn out or burned chooses to work at the Mountain Haanen decided to take a yearlong sab- out,” Haanen explains, “but the school is School, he says, because it allows him batical from the Mountain School in very successful now, so it’s a good time “to help develop the country.” 2003 to finish her bachelor’s degree, she to bring someone else in with new ideas “I’m a neighbor here, not just a faced the extra challenge of having lived and energy.” worker,” Escobar says, “and this gives in a developing country for ten years. Haanen and Hilliard — who does my job great personal satisfaction.” His But when she returned to Madison, she the Mountain School’s accounting — will

36 ON WISCONSIN continue to raise funds for the Young Hilliard and Haanen fear would have a But she’s bearing witness to them. When Leaders Scholarship Program and help detrimental impact on the local commu- I last saw her, she was taking pain medi- with anything the PLQE collective asks. nity, they would like to see similar proj- cine to a man named Maximiliano, who In the meantime, they plan to live for six ects start in other rural villages that could hardly move on his wooden bed to twelve months in Hilliard’s native desperately need jobs. “Replicating this covered with rags. “He’s had constant England, where they can more easily model in fifty different rural communities health problems since he suffered an explore future possibilities. would make a huge difference in the accident on the job two years ago,” she Leaving Nuevo San José will be so Guatemalan economy,” he says. said. With no worker’s compensation or sad for Haanen that she has told few A recent letter that Haanen wrote health insurance, he can’t afford any people in the community. “I have avoided gives tragic confirmation of the need for medication, and his family is in constant talking about this, because whenever I jobs. In late February 2005, four girls financial stress because he can’t work. tell anyone I am leaving, we both end up from the neighboring village of Santo “I have this feeling that his body is in tears,” she says. Domingo, one of whom was a Young just giving out, and there’s not a whole Another reason Haanen doesn’t take Leaders Scholarship recipient, drowned lot that the doctors are going to be able leaving lightly is her delight in her job. in Tapachula, Mexico. The fifteen- and to do for him,” Haanen said on the way “There’s no such thing as a typical day. sixteen-year-olds had gone to Mexico to back to the school. Then she stopped That’s probably why I’ve stayed here,” work in a packing plant to earn money walking. A little girl was playing alone in Haanen says. “I think Bob finds it more for their families. the dirt beside the path, and Haanen frustrating than I do, because he’s maybe “They all should have been in school paused to chat with her. Although she not as used to it. I’ve always had jobs instead of far away from home working,” had just visited Maximiliano, Haanen where you had to be able to drop every- Haanen wrote. “Their deaths were the still mustered a smile for the girl. thing and deal with an immediate crisis direct result of the poverty and high I remembered what she once told me: or an immediate interruption, so I kind unemployment of our area.” “Life is so immediate here.” of thrive on that.” Haanen is the first to admit that

But Hilliard is a staunch advocate neither she nor the Mountain School can Douglas Haynes ’96 lives in Lebanon, New Hamp- of the school’s mission. Rather than single-handedly change the harsh reali- shire, and teaches writing at New England College. expanding the Mountain School, which ties of life and death in rural Guatemala.

WINTER 2005 37

History Overturned Twenty-five years after one of the UW’s most brutal crimes, changing science is turning a settled history into an open question: will we ever know who killed Charise Kamps? By John Allen

ON JULY 12, 2005, MADISON sentenced to a term of life plus sixteen The new evidence “doesn’t prove LOST A SENSE OF CERTAINTY. years. During the trial, the prosecution that Ralph Armstrong couldn’t have On that date, the Wisconsin Supreme used two important pieces of physical done this,” admits law professor John Court overturned the conviction of evidence — semen and hair samples — Pray of the Wisconsin Innocence Pro- Ralph Armstrong MSx’79, stripping to link him to the crime scene. The state ject, a UW organization that, like the the ending from the understood narra- national Innocence Project, aids prison- tive of one of the most brutal crimes in She had, on at least one ers it feels were wrongly convicted. The the university’s history. Wisconsin Innocence Project didn’t Twenty-five years earlier, on June occasion, locked herself represent Armstrong, but it did submit 24, 1980, the body of Charise Kamps out and been forced to a brief in support of his appeal, and x’83 had been discovered, bloody and break into her own apart- national Innocence Project founder naked, in her West Gorham Street Barry Scheck argued on his behalf. apartment. She had been beaten, raped, ment. This, she discov- “We don’t have proof of innocence,” and strangled. Justice moved swiftly, ered, was not difficult – Pray says of Armstrong’s appeal. “What however: Armstrong was in custody that simply climb the back fire we have is DNA evidence that changes very day. escape, then pop a screen the facts of the case.” In other words, For those attending the UW then, the prosecution’s original theory no and for Madison in general, the murder out of an open window. longer fits. If the murderer did leave dominated the summer. Reports on the Afterward, she didn’t the semen and the hair, he can’t be investigation ran on the front pages of replace the screen. Armstrong. And if Armstrong is the city and university newspapers until the killer, then those pieces of physical arrest was made public in July. At the used the best science available at the evidence must be irrelevant. time, the Capital Times wrote that the time, but forensic labs had no way of Prosecutors, however, remain con- crime “shocked women across the city.” identifying evidence based on DNA vinced they have the right man in cus- But their shock must have been then. Today they do, and analysis shows tody. “Our belief is that [Armstrong] did assuaged in March 1981, when Arm- that neither the semen nor the hair came commit the crime,” says Dane County strong was tried, convicted, and from Armstrong. district attorney Brian Blanchard, who

WINTER 2005 37 has assigned assistant D.A. John army was mopping up what then self out and been forced to break into Norsetter ’68, JD’71 to look into retry- appeared to be a successful invasion of her own apartment. This, she discov- ing the case. Afghanistan, and in Southeast Asia, the ered, was not difficult — simply climb Norsetter declined to speak about Vietnamese army was making incursions the back fire escape, then pop a screen the trial, feeling that it would be ethi- into Thailand, where it killed several out of an open window. Afterward, she cally “tricky ground” to talk about a U.S. marines in small firefights. Had didn’t replace the screen. matter that is currently in litigation. students known then that Carter would Three weeks after she rented that “Right now,” he says, “I have nothing to lose the 1980 presidential election, they apartment, on the evening of Monday, add to what’s already in the record.” would likely have found little comfort. June 23, she attended a party at the That record offers a seamy picture of His opponent, Ronald Reagan, used home of her coworker and friend Jane Madison. It’s a story full of sex, drugs, rhetoric that was, if anything, even more May, who lived above the Pipefitter. It and rock ’n’ roll, as well as science les- bellicose. To them, war seemed a very was a good night to be on State Street. It sons, hypnosis, and, as a key witness, a real possibility. was very warm outside — the tempera- transvestite prostitute. Most important, Still, buried among the alarmist edi- ture had topped 90 degrees all week. it has a satisfying conclusion: punish- torials and political updates, the Cardinal Musician Jackson Browne was filming a ment for the guilty. But a quarter cen- offered a recurring bit of city news: the video nearby, and many people were tury later, the case offers something else: number of sexual assaults reported in gathering to watch. The small group at a sobering lesson about the transience town each week. Madison was then the party included two more Pipefitter of science — about how evidence that experiencing an upsurge in violence. coworkers, as well as May’s boyfriend, seems to prove one thing may, in the In 1979, the city had suffered a record Ralph Armstrong; his brother Steve; fullness of time, prove something else, or number of rapes, and safety was becom- and a friend, Greg Kohlhardt. Kamps’s nothing at all. ing such a concern that the city passed fiancé, Brian Dillman, wasn’t there. He an ordinance requiring all apartment was at home in McGregor, Iowa. buildings to have security locks on exte- Both alcohol and cocaine were avail- If the pages of the Daily Cardinal rior doors by June 1, 1980. Still, in the able at the party, which broke up around are an accurate record of life at UW- first half of that year, assault figures 6:30 p.m., when several of the group, Madison, then June 1980 was a jittery were rising again — 10 percent above including Kamps, went to dinner at time. This may have been the summer of the same period in 1979. Seventy-seven Namio’s, a supper club. They then went The Empire Strikes Back, the summer of sexual assaults were reported to the to Kohlhardt’s home to drink beer and The Blues Brothers, and a time before the police between January 1 and June 30. watch M*A*S*H, and then on to Arm- Equal Rights Amendment had failed. But One of them was Charise Kamps. strong’s apartment in Fitchburg, where it was also a month when inflation topped Armstrong set up a deal to buy more 14 percent with rising unemployment. cocaine. By 10:00, they were back at And at the UW, as at campuses across the Kamps had come to UW-Madison May’s apartment on State to watch the country, students were obsessed with one in the fall of 1979 to study elementary evening news. Kamps left at around looming threat: the draft. education. Her mother was a school- 10:45 to go home. Armstrong departed That summer, President Jimmy teacher in Potosi, Wisconsin, and her about fifteen minutes later. Carter signed into law the Military father chaired the teacher education pro- Kamps walked the five blocks to her Selective Service Act, requiring college- gram at UW-Platteville. According to building. Next door, Riccie Orebia had aged males to register for a potential the Wisconsin State Journal, she had sur- just come out to sit on the big, brick draft, the first since the Vietnam War. vived a bout with cancer, and the experi- porch of 120 West Gorham. Orebia had Registration was set to begin in July ence had made her eager to pursue all little else to do. He occasionally worked 1980, so in June, the campus was filled life had to offer. The summer after her the streets as a prostitute, sometimes with outrage and despair. “Registration freshman year, Kamps decided to stay in dressed as a man, sometimes as a leads inevitably to a draft,” one Cardinal Madison, subletting an apartment on the woman. Madison was cracking down editorialist warned. “And a draft leads third floor of 134 West Gorham, and on prostitution, especially in the State inevitably to war.” paying for it with money she earned Street area, where the newly designated That sounded far more prescient in working at the Pipefitter, a State Street pedestrian mall was becoming a magnet 1980 than it does today. That summer, head shop. for vice, and the city had recently passed America seemed besieged with military The Gorham Street house did have a an anti-loitering ordinance. Sometime crises. In Iran, revolutionaries had been security lock, but Kamps, like many stu- after 11:00 p.m., May called Kamps to holding the U.S. embassy staff hostage dents, was careless with her keys. She talk about plans to go water-skiing the for more than half a year. The Soviet had, on at least one occasion, locked her- next day. After that, no one — except

38 ON WISCONSIN the murderer — saw or spoke with Armstrong’s arrest. “If he had really Kamps again. killed Charise, he wouldn’t have gone It was May who discovered Kamps’s back to [Kamps’s] apartment Tuesday body the next day. Dillman had been and told police where he was.” trying to reach his fiancée throughout But the police had good reason to the previous night, but her phone line take a hard look at Armstrong. First, was continually busy. Worried, he asked there was his personal history. Armstrong May to check up on her. Around noon, had been convicted of rape and sodomy she went to Kamps’s apartment, let her- in New Mexico, and he was in Madison self in, and found the phone off the hook on parole, having served seven years — and Kamps lying in a pool of blood. out of a 30- to 150-year sentence. He’d She’d been dead for ten to twelve hours. earned his undergraduate degree from Santa Fe College while in prison, and had even attempted an escape during his The police came quickly, along graduation. His cocaine purchases were with the Dane County coroner. Not far a parole violation, and that was all the Charise Kamps behind them were the district attorney, reason police needed to hold him. Jim Doyle ’67, and assistant D.A. John Further, his alibi was poor. He said Norsetter. Madison alderwoman he’d gone back to his Fitchburg apart- Authorities were shocked by the Sheila Chaffee MA’87, ment after Kamps left May’s place, aim- scene. “This is a horrible, animal type of whose daughter, Laura ing to set up another cocaine deal. When thing,” coroner Clyde Chamberlain told x’83, lived in Kamps’s it fell through, he returned to May’s the Capital Times. “The sexual assault was apartment by around 1:00 a.m. and spent severe,” he said to the Daily Cardinal. “She building, told the Capital the remainder of the night with her. was sexually assaulted by a maniac.” Times that “everyone is Though May supported Armstrong’s Kamps had been strangled, evidently relating to [the murder] in claim, she couldn’t be sure exactly when with the belt of her bathrobe. Her body some way.” She described he returned, admitting under cross- showed signs of penetration with a examination that it could have been as “blunt, non-yielding object” in her conditions in the late as 3:30. Her building manager, who throat, vagina, and anus, according to downtown neighborhood was up until 1:15, hadn’t seen or heard pathologist Robert Huntingdon. Police as living in a state of siege. Armstrong come back. found little sign of struggle in Kamps’s “I’ve talked to women of Still, much of the evidence in the apartment. There had been no forced all ages,” she said, case was more suggestive than conclu- entry, and though the house had a sive. Police found witnesses who said watchdog, no one had heard it bark. “and every single one of they’d seen Armstrong and Kamps flirt- The Daily Cardinal questioned them is scared.” ing during the party at May’s apartment, whether the city’s new security-lock law and that Armstrong had given her $400 was having any effect, noting that, at conditions in the downtown neighbor- that day as partial repayment of a loan one time, the lock in Kamps’s building hood as living in a state of siege. “I’ve from Dillman. No money was found in had been removed, following complaints talked to women of all ages,” she said, Kamps’s apartment after her murder, from residents who were accidentally “and every single one of them is scared.” and on June 24, Armstrong deposited locking themselves out. The landlord, Madison police assigned some thirty more than $300 into his bank account. Michael Langer, defended his building’s officers to the case, and during the next The implication, police felt, was that security, implying that determined two days, they interviewed as many as Armstrong had stolen the money back. rapists were impossible to stop. “You eighty people. However, they focused on Laura Chaffee, Kamps’s neighbor, can put all the locks in the world on Ralph Armstrong almost immediately. claimed she’d heard music coming from these apartments,” he said. “It isn’t Kamps’s apartment after midnight — going to help.” music that sounded like Grand Funk’s Madison alderwoman Sheila Chaffee According to Armstrong and his Survival. This, a witness reported, was MA’87, whose daughter, Laura x’83, supporters, he was just a convenient fall Armstrong’s favorite album. lived in Kamps’s building, told the Capital guy. “I think the police just want to hold And then there was Riccie Orebia. Times that “everyone is relating to [the someone to look good,” an anonymous He told police that, at around 12:30, murder] in some way.” She described friend of his told the Capital Times after he’d seen a man matching Armstrong’s

WINTER 2005 39 description enter and leave Kamps’s returned a guilty verdict on both counts building three times in less than an hour. — first-degree murder and first-degree To help enhance his recall, a detective sexual assault. The maximum sentence took him to be hypnotized. Afterward, was life for the murder charge, twenty Orebia produced a more detailed years for rape. Judge Michael Torphy description, and on July 1, he identified gave Armstrong life plus sixteen. The Armstrong in a lineup. stiff sentence, Norsetter believed, would However, Orebia made a problem- send a message. “I can’t imagine the atic witness for several reasons. Not parole board would even consider him only did he have a criminal record, but JOURNAL JACKSON III–WISCONSIN STATE JOSEPH W. in less than twenty years,” he said. between the identification and the trial, he recanted his report. He told Arm- strong’s attorney that he had lied to It would, in fact, be nearly twenty-five police — that Armstrong could not years before Armstrong would have a have been the man he’d seen entering chance at freedom. That quarter century Kamps’s building — and he signed a saw a revolution in forensic science that Ralph Armstrong at trial statement to this effect. By the time of has chipped away at the evidence in his the trial, he was again saying that he was case. positive Armstrong was the man, claim- In 2001, though, Today, both scientific and legal ing that he’d lied to the defense team in Armstrong received authorities have much less confidence in an attempt to get himself removed from another boost. Thanks hypnosis than they did in 1980, though the witness list. the practice had its critics even then. With the exception of Orebia, the to advances in DNA One of them, UW psychology professor case was circumstantial, but it was sup- technology, labs could John Kihlstrum, testified on Arm- ported by physical evidence that put identify smaller and strong’s behalf, noting that hypnotizing a Armstrong in Kamps’s apartment: his smaller samples — even witness is just as likely to result in con- thumbprint was on a bong there. He also ones as small as a single fabulation as in improved memory. had small amounts of blood under his (Currently, twenty-eight states ban hyp- fingernails and toenails. And there were hair. His team had the notically enhanced testimony. But Wis- the semen stains and hairs found at hair evidence tested, and consin isn’t among them.) Armstrong the scene, which while not definitive, they found, again, that and his attorneys challenged Orebia’s certainly were suggestive. he hadn’t been the source admissibility while he was on the stand To make sense of what they sug- and in appeals for years afterward. gested, the state had to rely on its scien- of the evidence. Today the case is considered one of the tists. Before DNA, the tools used to leading precedents establishing the match evidence to suspects were much ent murder weapon. It examined the state’s rules for allowing witnesses to be less exact, depending on a little chem- samples using more than sixty character- hypnotized. istry and a lot of examination of outward istics, including the scales on each hair’s Meanwhile, in other cases, a now characteristics. Such analysis gave the surface, their form, their color, and the ubiquitous tool for forensic science was prosecution little confidence about the distribution of pigmentation. From this, growing into maturity: DNA. In 1988, semen. It had come from a type A secre- analysts concluded that ten of the sam- accused serial rapist Tommy Lee Ander- tor, meaning a person who secretes ples, including two recovered from the son became the first American convicted blood type A antigens into body fluids. belt, were either “similar” or “consistent” using DNA evidence. But a tool for the Some 80 percent of the world’s popula- with Armstrong’s hair. prosecution can be equally useful for the tion are secretors, and 40 percent have During the trial, Norsetter told the defense; the following year, Gary Dot- blood type A. Armstrong fit in this cate- jury that Armstrong’s hair was “in son became the first person to have his gory, but so did nearly a third of the every place in that apartment ... consis- conviction overturned through DNA world’s male population. tent with his killing Charise Kamps. ... profiling. Dotson had been convicted of The hairs, on the other hand, seemed There is no explanation for why that abduction and rape in 1979, but genetic to show something more. The state hair was found in every place that the analysis proved that the key piece of evi- crime lab collected some forty-eight defendant was except that he murdered dence — semen found on the victim — hairs from Kamps’s apartment, including Charise Kamps.” had not come from him. The Dotson three from her bathrobe belt, the appar- After a seven-day trial, the jury case helped inspire the creation of the

40 ON WISCONSIN Innocence Project, which has been Prosecutors countered that the hair, attorneys argue belong to the true killer. drawing heavily on DNA evidence in its too, was overstated in its importance. But the state now contends that they efforts to overturn potentially wrongful After all, their witness, Coila Wegner of came from the victim and thus do not convictions. the state crime lab, had admitted that exonerate Armstrong. Still, this means For Ralph Armstrong, DNA evi- she couldn’t make a positive identifica- that the hair, like the semen, is merely dence has been a late boon. In 1991, his tion from hair samples. A jury, they irrelevant. Original witness Riccie Ore- defense team had the semen stains from argued again, would not likely have bia is easy to locate, but he is no less the Kamps murder analyzed, and the reached a different conclusion. problematic now than in 1981. He has results showed that he hadn’t been the The case rose through the state’s spent much of the past two decades in source — rather, Brian Dillman had appellate courts for four years, as vari- and out of jail for offenses ranging from been. Armstrong argued that his convic- ous judges considered the merits of the forgery to arson, his most recent arrest tion should be thrown out, but prosecu- challenge. This time, the Wisconsin coming in July. tors countered that the semen evidence Supreme Court agreed with Armstrong’s In 2005, witnesses have departed, wasn’t important enough to overturn attorneys, though only by a four-to-three and memories are fading. Former D.A. their case. vote. Although it didn’t consider what Jim Doyle has gone off to the governor’s “This is actually something that the likely jury outcome would be with mansion, and even the Pipefitter is comes up quite frequently,” says John the new evidence aired, it did conclude preparing to leave its longtime State Pray. “One of the things that’s confusing that the original trial hadn’t adequately Street address. Today, only two police in cases like these, where there’s new considered the case. The new DNA evi- officers are assigned to investigate the evidence, is that Wisconsin has a weird dence, it decided, created different pos- Kamps murder. standard. The defendant has to show by sibilities altogether. “The State used the Still, Brian Blanchard hopes that the clear and convincing evidence that there physical evidence assertively and repeti- case was so prominent in 1980 that peo- is a reasonable probability that the jury tively as affirmative proof of Arm- ple’s memories will be strong. “This was would reach a different conclusion. We strong’s guilt,” wrote Judge Louis a big deal then,” he says, “and I think feel that this puts a double burden of Butler in the majority opinion, and so those who were involved will be more proof on the defendants.” “we conclude that the real controversy likely to remember these events. Plus, The prosecution reasoned that as was not fully tried.” we’ve still got John [Norsetter] work- Dillman had been in Iowa that night, he The conviction was removed, and ing on the case. As he’s been here since couldn’t have been the murderer. Fur- who killed Charise Kamps once again the beginning, his experience will be ther, as he was Kamps’s fiancé, it should became an open question. invaluable.” be no surprise that his semen was found If Dane County decides not to pros- in her apartment, and therefore this ecute Armstrong again, they have sev- DNA evidence was merely irrelevant. In fact, many cases like eral choices to make. They could set Since prosecutors had been open with Armstrong’s may be waiting for a small him free, of course. But they could also the jury that the semen could have come discovery in physical evidence, or for an send him back to New Mexico, where from any of a third of Madison’s men, advance in science to open up new pos- he’s still under sentence, and ask and since they had mentioned at trial sibilities. According to Jerome Geurts, authorities there to revoke his parole. that Dillman could have been the director of the state crime lab in Madi- According to Pray, this may offer prose- source, it was reasonable to think the son, scientists there spend time between cutors the easiest route if they want to jury hadn’t based its verdict on that one current work combing through the cold keep Armstrong in jail. piece of evidence. The prosecution case files, looking at old evidence with “New Mexico has a different stan- argued that the jury would not likely new techniques. “The worst enemies of dard and a different burden of proof have reached a different conclusion. The physical evidence are moisture, UV radi- than Wisconsin does,” Pray says. “They appeals courts agreed, and Armstrong ation, and heat,” he says. “But we tend may be able to get his parole revoked, remained behind bars. to store evidence in cardboard boxes in either for the drug violations or even for In 2001, though, Armstrong received cool, dry, dark storage rooms. We don’t murder.” another boost. Thanks to advances in really know what the life span of DNA Still, an air of uncertainty would DNA technology, labs could identify is under these conditions. It could be hang over the case. And as time passes, smaller and smaller samples — even thirty or forty years.” Madison must decide whether it is ones as small as a single hair. His team But twenty-five years after the capable of proving who killed Charise had the hair evidence tested, and they Kamps murder, little remains in the way Kamps. found, again, that he hadn’t been the of evidence — only the two hairs found source of the evidence. on the belt, which Armstrong and his John Allen is associate editor of On Wisconsin.

WINTER 2005 41 SPORTS

It’s a Curl Thing For Maureen Brunt, the Olympics are a stone’s throw away.

This past spring, Maureen

TEAM PLAYER Brunt x’05 had to ask her USA CURLING ASSOCIATION Joe Thomas professors to allow her to miss a few classes so that her curling Five things to know about team could compete in a tour- Joe Thomas, a junior offen- nament. Most did their best sive lineman for the football to accommodate her, but they Badgers: didn’t exactly appreciate what • Thomas is a two-sport ath- Brunt was doing. lete, competing in both When she got back, one football and track and professor asked her before a field. He earned honor- lecture how that “little curling able mention All-Big Ten thing” went. honors in football in 2004 “Oh, well, we won,” Brunt and was a second-team answered. “And now I’m going All-Big Ten shot putter in to the Olympics.” track. That’s right — the Olympics. • In the shot put, he holds A few weeks after she gradu- Wisconsin’s indoor record ates in December with a degree with a throw of sixty-two in English, Brunt will jet off to feet and one-quarter inch. Torino, Italy, where she will join • Majoring in real estate the U.S. women’s curling team and urban land as it competes for a gold economics, medal. Thomas says Curling, a five-hun- his favorite dred-year-old sport that piece of originated in Scotland, Maureen Brunt (right) literally swept through college, balancing real estate is kind of like shuffle- coursework with curling competitions. Now she’s about to earn her is Camp board on ice. Team degree — and a trip to the Winter Olympics. Randall’s members take turns turf, par- gliding a large granite ticularly stone along a stretch of Olympics in Nagano, Japan, but But curling is nothing after a win ice, while teammates use many people were first intro- new to Brunt, a Portage, such as the brooms to sweep the ice duced to the sport when it was Wisconsin, native. Her parents, nighttime victory and guide the stone toward featured heavily during NBC’s avid curlers themselves, intro- over Michigan earlier scoring targets. It debuted as a twenty-four-hour coverage of duced her to the sport when this year, when it’s full of medal sport at the 1998 Winter the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. she was six years old, and she celebrating Badgers. • Snack time? When the

295-pound lineman gets Camp Randall Colossus INFORMATIONUW SPORTS (4) the munchies, he usually whips up two frozen piz- Enormous ear of corn? Precarious pile of pigskin? zas for himself, but even People are making those comparisons — as well as some we can’t print — that does not fill him up. about the new sculpture outside Camp Randall Stadium. The forty-eight-foot-tall • The Brookfield, Wisconsin, obelisk, installed in November, towers over Regent Street and Breese Terrace, native is also an ardent providing a dramatic and controversial entry into the renovated stadium. fisherman. Last summer, Featuring a tall column that morphs into a stack of resin footballs, the sculp- he caught a twenty- ture is the work of Donald Lipski ‘70, an acclaimed artist who won a $200,000 pound, thirty-six-inch cat- commission to create the piece, which he says reflects a modern take on classical fish while fishing at Lake obelisks that stood outside ancient temples. “The thought came to me of a pile Mendota before a class. It of footballs, stretching up to the sky,” he says. “Hopefully, people will make their took him thirty minutes to own metaphors. Maybe they’ll see a striving to get to the top.” heave in the fish, causing We’ve heard many fans say that they’d rather see a statue of a Badger legend him to be late for class. such as Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch x’42. But others like that the piece flouts convention and looks to the future, rather than the past. All we know for sure is that if the point of public art is to provoke discussion, then Lipski’s obelisk is a big winner. — Staff

44 ON WISCONSIN SPORTS

has been competing ever since. Curling communications director team’s fresh-faced appeal means For the third year in a row, These days, however, curling Rick Patzke. The United States is it is likely to see plenty of cover- Simon Bairu x’06 is the Big is more than just recreation. now home to fifteen thousand age on NBC — or, as Patzke calls Ten’s best cross-country runner. Brunt trains as much as any foot- curlers and a growing number it, “Nothing But Curling.” Bairu won the conference cham- ball or basketball player on cam- of supporters. Although they’re young, pionship race to pace the Bad- pus, practicing twenty hours a “We definitely have more the Curl Girls have been com- gers, ranked second nationally, week. Balancing training with fans now,” says Brunt. “More peting together for a while. to their seventh consecutive Big her college coursework has been people know about the sport Brunt met the other women Ten title. UW runners finished in difficult. Because there are no and understand what they see when she was sixteen, at a five of the top six positions en NCAA-sanctioned curling teams, [since] the 2002 Olympics.” curling camp in Eau Claire, route to a record-breaking Brunt had to plead with profes- And Patzke thinks that Wisconsin. During her freshman eighty-five-point victory. sors to get time off to compete in Brunt and her teammates will year at UW-Madison, they asked tournaments, often completing help the sport’s popularity rise her to join their team, and they Senior Amy Vermeulen scored six tests and papers weeks ahead of again during the upcoming began doing well at national goals in three games to lead the when they were due. But earning Winter Games, which take place and international competitions. UW women’s soccer team to its a UW degree was important to February 10–26. In the past, U.S. Earlier this year, the team took first Big Ten tournament title her, and so she became a master curling teams have featured a a silver medal at the women’s since 1994. After finishing the of multitasking. lot of people in their thirties and world championships in Scot- regular season in seventh place “It was not uncommon for forties. Brunt and teammates land, which has led many to in the conference, the Badgers me to walk in on Maureen Cassie Johnson, Jamie Johnson, consider the Curl Girls a strong upset three teams to earn an blow-drying her hair with one and Jessica Schultz, all of whom threat to win the country’s first automatic berth in the NCAA hand and reading for a class are in their early twenties, break Olympic curling medal. championship tournament. with the other,” says Amber the mold for a sport that is “They have the killer Acker ’05, Brunt’s former room- rarely seen as young and hip. instinct,” says Patzke. mate. “She uses every second.” Dubbed the “Curl Girls,” the — Joanna Salmen x’06 After finishing her degree requirements in August, Brunt moved to Bemidji, Minnesota, to train with her teammates IN SEASON full time and get ready for the Men’s Hockey Olympics. She will come back to How’s this for frozen tundra? campus in December to formally For the Badgers’ February 11 graduate — and to reunite with Former Wisconsin rowers Beau contest against Ohio State, the friends she left behind. Hoopman and Paul Daniels Green Bay’s famous Lambeau “She was like the prom won gold medals at the 2005 Field will be covered by a queen of college,” says Acker. FISA World Rowing Champi- portable ice rink to host just “Everyone knows her. Every- onships in September. Hoopman the second outdoor hockey where we went, people would and Daniels rowed with the U.S. match in major-college history. be coming up to talk to her.” men’s eight, which outpaced And if that’s not enough But Acker says that Brunt’s crews from Italy and Germany to excitement for Wisconsin popularity had nothing to do take the championship. Hoop- hockey fans, Milwaukee’s with her status as an elite ath- man, who now owns gold Bradley Center will host the lete. “I am sure most of those medals from the world champi- 2006 NCAA Frozen Four. people didn’t know how great Adam Burish onships, the Pan American she was at curling until they Circle the dates: December Games, and the 2004 Olympic found out about the Olympics. 30–31, Badger Hockey Showdown, Kohl Center; January 27–28, Games, was also part of the It is just a testament to what an UW hosts conference rival Minnesota; April 6–8, Frozen Four, American straight four crew, amazing person she is off the Milwaukee. which finished fifth in the finals. ice,” she says. Keep an eye on: Senior Adam Burish, junior Robbie Earl, Many of Brunt’s friends and sophomore Joe Pavelski, who form the UW’s most potent originally thought of curling as goal-scoring line. “some crazy sport on ice,” she says. But that is changing. Since Think about this: If you’re one of the forty thousand fans who the 2002 Olympics, membership have a ticket for the Frozen Tundra Classic, be advised: the aver- in curling clubs has gone up age temperature in Green Bay for February is a chilly 19 degrees. 15 percent, according to USA Enjoy intermission.

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Generation to Generation Badger grads offer advice to incoming freshmen. “Get at least seven hours of sleep every weekday night.” “One needs a good map represent alumni, I really compiled them and posted and strong legs.” wanted them to speak through them on its Web site. The “First and foremost, dive me,” she says. “So instead of posting has found resonance in headfirst and be a Badger.” trying to imagine what they’d with graduates as much as If alumni know one thing tell these students, I went to students. about UW-Madison that current them and asked them directly.” “Thanks for reminding me students don’t, it’s what it takes Bonner sent an e-mail to why I love Madison so much,” to survive. After all, by defini- the members of WAA asking wrote Sue Botnick Strait ’78, tion, alumni have successfully them what they thought new who didn’t submit advice of her completed their time on cam- students ought to know. In less own, but who says she felt an pus, while students are still than a week, she’d received affinity with what others had Report Card working their way through. more than four hundred replies. said about their first experi- But Wisconsin’s alumni, as “The response was overwhelm- ences on campus. “I sent this WAA has just released its annual WAA president and CEO Paula ing, both in the number of piece along to my daughter, a report for the 2004–2005 fiscal Bonner MS’78 found, are responses and in their mes- freshman living at the Lang- year. Titled “Degrees of Influ- more than willing to share their sages,” says Bonner. “I was don. I told her I’m a sentimen- ence,” the document describes wisdom, good will, and survival deeply touched by the sense tal twit but that she should the work the association has strategies with current students. of affection and obligation read it anyway.” done to connect UW grads to In September, Bonner spoke that our alumni feel toward You can read the alumni their alma mater and to each at the Chancellor’s Convocation current students.” e-mails at uwalumni.com/ other. Bonus feature: did you for New Students, a ceremony Bonner felt that the freshmanadvice. know that Bucky can play the that welcomes freshmen and responses deserved a longer — John Allen guitar? See the video online at transfers to the UW-Madison life than the few minutes uwalumni.com/influence. campus. “Since I was there to she had on stage, so WAA BRENT NICASTRO

Showtime!

The latest benefit for WAA members offers an inexpensive way to experience campus culture. Those who join WAA will now receive 10 percent off the price of tickets for all programs at the Wisconsin Union Theater. You’ll find the theater schedule at www.union.wisc.edu/theater, and membership information is available at WAA’s Web site, uwalumni.com/membership.

Leaders from more than a dozen alumni chapters hop a ride on the Bucky Wagon during the Homecoming parade down State Street in October. They had gathered in Madison for WAA’s Chapter Leader Fall Forum, a training and networking event aimed at building stronger organizations.

46 ON WISCONSIN 46-48 WAA NEWS 11/28/05 2:30 PM Page 47

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Diving into History Learning event introduces alumni to submarine warfare.

A group of UW grads experi- an in-depth look at the lives of enced a taste of the naval life sailors. Over dinner, Pawlish SARAH SCHUTT during a two-day tour of duty shared his experiences as a sub- in September. After a discussion mariner. After a guided tour of with war veteran Dean the Cobia, participants learned Pawlish ’50, the group firsthand about the sleeping boarded the USS Cobia, a accommodations on a subma- World War II submarine, where rine by staying overnight in the they had a chance to maneuver vessel’s officer’s quarters. The the gun turrets and “take the next morning, they toured the conn” in the control room. Maritime Museum for a lesson A National Historic Land- about Wisconsin’s shipping and mark now docked at the Wis- military history. consin Maritime Museum in “We found out that service Manitowoc, the Cobia sank two on a submarine was voluntary,” Japanese ships bound for Iwo says Joyce Baer ’55, MS’70, Jima. Although it was not man- who attended with her spouse, ufactured in the Badger state, George Socha MS’50. “Some it’s representative of twenty- of them had to sleep in the tor- eight submarines constructed pedo room, and those bunks! in Manitowoc during WWII. You’d be lucky to have six You’re in the Navy Now, inches above your nose.” Ten-year-old Sam Schutt explores one of the more cramped spaces on a Wisconsin Alumni Lifelong — Erin Hueffner ’00 board the USS Cobia: its torpedo tubes. Learning event, gave Badgers

Meeting China’s Economic Challenge

Is China a growing threat to the yuan, is gaining power

the U.S. economy? More than compared to DEONE JAHNKE 150 alumni gathered for a pro- the dollar, China holds approxi- gram in October at Milwau- mately $160 billion in debt to kee’s University Club to find countries other than the United out. “China’s Growing Power: States. Friedman spoke about Can America Compete?” was the Chinese political situation, sponsored by the UW-Madison and both he and Nichols Department of Political Science, fielded numerous questions the Robert M. La Follette after the talks. School of Public Affairs, and Many alumni attended the WAA. It was part of the On the event because they had enjoyed Road program, which brings having Nichols and Friedman as speakers and events to alumni professors while they were on living outside of Madison. campus. “I had Nichols in ’67,” Don Nichols, director of says Larry Sussman ’67, the La Follette school, and MA’69. “He spoke openly to Edward Friedman, professor classes. He’s not afraid to listen in the political science depart- to other people.” ment, were speakers. Nichols Karen Dean ’72 summa- said that while China has many rized the reaction of many of the assembly plants, the U.S. is bet- Milwaukeeans at the event Left to right: George Patterson ’76, Richard Bennett ’87, and Doug ter positioned for manufactur- when she said, “I think that On Wilson picked up tips on China’s rising economic influence during a ing high-tech goods such as the Road is a wonderful pro- UW-Madison On the Road event in Milwaukee in October. medical instruments. And gram, reaching out to communi- although the Chinese currency, ties and people who aren’t in

WINTER 2005 47 46-48 WAA NEWS 11/28/05 2:30 PM Page 48

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Standing Up for Stem Cells Alumni contact their legislators about bio research bills.

For Patricia Finder-Stone — she was trained as a nurse September, although it was MS’75, the case is simple: stem and taught bioethics in Green vetoed by Governor Jim Doyle cell research offers the best Bay — but also in personal expe- ’67. Still, the bill comes at a par- opportunity to improve the rience. Her husband, Mark ticularly awkward time, given length and quality of life for Stone MS’57, died in 1998 that UW-Madison’s WiCell patients suffering from debili- from complications of a stroke. Research Institute was named tating problems. Her conviction “If there had been the the country’s only National Stem is rooted not only in her career appropriate research done,” Cell Bank by the National Insti- Finder-Stone says, “I have no tutes of Health. (See page 11.)

BRENT NICASTRO doubt that my husband would “People were certainly very have been able to recover and enthusiastic about this issue,” to live longer.” says Mike Fahey ’89, WAA’s In September, Finder-Stone director of state relations and came to the 2005 Priority one of the event’s organizers. Forum, sponsored by Alumni “It generated a lot of phone for Wisconsin, to hear how leg- calls, a lot of contact to us and islation then before the Wis- to legislators.” consin assembly and senate Finder-Stone, who says she might affect UW-Madison. left the meeting feeling “fired University and alumni leaders up,” hopes that it will encour- spoke about the budget battles age others to increase their the UW has fought during the efforts to convince legislators last few years, and how the leg- and the general public to sup- islature is mandating internal port the UW in its research policies within the UW System. endeavors. “In my work as a But what captured her nurse, I’ve cared for many peo- interest the most was a discus- ple with disabilities, so it’s very sion of the legislature’s pro- distressing to see limitations on posed ban on reproductive and research that could help them,” Paula Bonner (left) congratulates Tim Higgins ’77 and his spouse, therapeutic cloning, which she says. “As alumni, we all Jonna, during the Badger Action Network’s 2005 Priority Forum in could severely restrict the ability need to become involved in September. Higgins received the David Ward Advocacy Award, which of Wisconsin scientists to study advocacy, because [medical honors alumni who work on the university’s behalf with state and human embryonic stem cells. research] is something that local government. Higgins testified before the Wisconsin assembly to promote raises for faculty, and he hosted alumni gatherings to brief The bill passed the State assem- affects us all.” alumni interested in contacting the legislature about the UW budget. bly in June and the senate in — John Allen

New Initiative Allows Alumni To Take a Stand for Wisconsin

“So, you went to Wisconsin?” more than ten times the state’s can access the economic data, legislative issues — has now How many times have you annual investment. learn the latest legislative been folded into Alumni for heard that question? The names That’s why the recent news, read about the real- Wisconsin. of the state and the school have budget cuts to the UW System world impact the cuts are hav- In conjunction with the new almost become synonymous, have a lot of Wisconsin’s resi- ing on schools and colleges Web site and expanded advo- and rightly so — the economic dents — and faculty — worried. from the people working cacy group, WAA has created a well-being of the state is inex- The cuts were passed without there, contact your legislators new ad campaign: “Wisconsin: tricably linked to the strength much public debate or opportu- and the governor, and sign a A State. A School. A Stand.” and health of the University of nity to evaluate the facts. petition of support. (See the first ad in this series on Wisconsin. To give alumni a central WAA has also created an the back cover of this issue.) See The university creates place where they can learn advocacy group called Alumni www.alumniforwisconsin.org to almost 75,000 jobs in the state, about how the recent budget- for Wisconsin, which will spon- read why alumni like Kathy and its presence generates cutting trends are affecting sor various support-oriented Costello ’71, MS’77, principal nearly $347 million in state and the present and future of the events and initiatives. The for- of Annie Jackson Elementary local tax revenue. The impact of university, WAA has created a mer advocacy arm of WAA, the School in Green Bay, are taking UW-Madison alone on the new Web site at www.alumni- Badger Action Network — a a stand for Wisconsin. state’s economy is $4.7 billion, forwisconsin.org. There you group of alumni interested in — Candice Gaukel Andrews ’77

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ALUMNI NEWS

Compiled by Paula Wagner Family and as a regular on their the U.S.S. Johnston in 1944, Apfelbach ’83 TV program, The King Family spent twenty years in the aero- Show. He also appeared in space industry, and then spent eighty-plus movies, specializing twenty more working for the Tell Us about It early years in cult and horror films such as U.S. in South Korea and with The Man from Planet X, The the navy. Retired since 1993, Are there recent achievements, Lester Hale ’34 writes that his Incredible Petrified World, and but studying computer science transitions, or other important mother predicted he’d become The Astounding She-Monster, at Weber State University, a doctor, preacher, or “possibly and he wrote, directed, and Cerna does 540 pushups daily life events you’d like to share? just an actor,” and he says that produced the 1959 film The and recommends maintaining Please e-mail the the “U of W steered me to all Hideous Sun Demon. Clarke’s a “pleasant outlook on life.” three professions and more.” 1996 autobiography was called “It was exciting for me to (brief, please) details to Hale married Susannah Kent To “B” or Not to “B”: A Film return to Norway — a great- Hale MPh’33, and then, Actor’s Odyssey. He died in June grandchild of immigrants — [email protected]; inspired by WHA’s School of in Los Angeles. to exhibit my sculptures,” writes mail them to Alumni News, the Air, helped to establish an “For over sixty years,” Kati (Katherine) Monson Casida educational radio station in writes Harriet Haugen Johnson ’53 about her show, Models for Wisconsin Alumni Association, Louisiana. At the University of ’43, “we have followed the Large Sculptures. The Norwegian 650 North Lake Street, Florida, he was the theater activities of the university with show ran this summer, and director, organized and keen interest.” Both retired its U.S. counterpart began in Madison, WI 53706-1476; directed the Speech and from the education field, John- October at San Francisco’s Steel or fax them to (608) 265-8771. Hearing Clinic, and eventually son and her spouse, Vermont Gallery. In 1993, Casida founded became an administrator, Johnson ’42, live in Bayfield, Nordic 5 Arts (www.nordic5arts. Space limitations prevent us from retiring after thirty-eight years. Wisconsin, and have returned com), a group of professional printing every item we receive, but Next? At age sixty, Hale was to campus often, at times artists of Nordic/Scandinavian ordained a Presbyterian representing the Chequamegon birth or descent in the San Fran- we do love hearing from you. minister and served churches Alumni Club. Vermont spent cisco area. She lives in Berkeley. in Florida and Louisiana for thirty-five years as a teacher, In August, Peter Merenda twenty-five years. Today, his coach, and school superintend- PhD’57 received the American “sole work, and the work of his ent throughout Wisconsin, and Psychological Association’s 2005 Please e-mail death notices and soul” is being the webmaster of was a member of the Great Division 5 Samuel J. Messick www.god-talk.info. Lakes Fishery Commission. Award for Distinguished all address, name, telephone, “We look back on our univer- Scientific Contributions. While and e-mail changes to sity experience,” Harriett con- delivering the accompanying 40s–50s cludes, “as one that prepared address, Merenda commended [email protected]; us for an active and rewarding UW Professors Chester Harris fax them to (608) 262-3332; Visitors to Door County, life, and we feel blessed indeed and Julian Stanley; sadly, Stan- Wisconsin, may very well have for the years we spent there.” ley had died the week before. mail them to Alumni Changes, met Eunice Koller Manz ’40 — The Paul H. Nitze School of Merenda helped to found, and Wisconsin Alumni Association, she and her spouse, Larry, previ- Advanced International Studies then was a professor and chair ously owned Manzes’ Specialty (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins has of, the psychology department 650 North Lake Street, Foods in Sister Bay. But, instead Rosanne Klass ’50 of New York at the University of Rhode Madison, WI 53706-1476; of retiring in the usual way after City to thank for its recent Island from 1960 until 1984, they sold their store in 2004, addition: her archives on when he became an emeritus or call them in toll free to they’re working again, this time Afghanistan and the Soviet- professor. He recently co-edited at the Door County Bakery near Afghan War — one of the Adapting Educational and (888) 947-2586. Sister Bay. “We have traveled all largest such collections in Psychological Tests for Cross- Most obituary listings of WAA over the world,” says Eunice. private hands. An expert in the Cultural Assessment. “We really want to enjoy our field, Klass founded and headed Grief becomes tangible in members and friends appear in home now.” The couple resides the Afghanistan Information Not So Small a Circle: A Fatal the Insider, WAA’s publication in Egg Harbor. Center at Freedom House for Disease, a Mother’s Love, and a The late Robert Clarke ’42 more than a decade. She’s a Daughter’s Courage (Falconart for its members, published thrice led a fascinating life, and we visiting research associate with Media) by Rita Wittich Stout ’58 annually and inserted into thank his good friend Benoni SAIS during this academic year. of Lakewood, Colorado. It’s the (Bud) Reynolds IV ’42, LLB’47 of After a search that began story of her daughter — an On Wisconsin Magazine. Winnsboro, South Carolina, for in 1977, the former Charles energetic, talented young sharing it with us. Through Daniel Powell ’50 confirmed woman who developed an Clarke’s marriage to Alyce King that his real name is Carlos acute form of leukemia and of the singing King Sisters, he Daniel Cerna. The Ogden, Utah, died seven months later at the appeared on tour with the King resident survived the sinking of age of twenty-six. Stout kept a

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ALUMNI NEWS

journal of her only child’s and athletic director. He retired the last thirty-five years at Bookmark struggle and, ten years later, in 1990 and lives in Milwaukee. Colorado State University in has shared the experience with Fort Collins, where he’s a pro- the help of two Madison-area fessor of atmospheric science. friends: George Allez ’57, MA’59 60s More than four decades of provided the cover design, lay- contributions recently earned out, and editing; and John Bass As a commissioner for the Carol Anderson ’65, MS’69 the ’61 printed the book. Stout has Chicago Commission on Human American Association of Family also created a UW scholarship. Relations, Charles Fischbach ’60, & Consumer Sciences’ highest David Walsten ’58 is a JD’67 is among those who national honor: its Distin- gentleman of diverse interests. enforce the Chicago Human guished Service Award. She’s His Sesquipedalian’s Vade Rights and Fair Housing Ordi- an emerita professor of Cornell Mecum was the “self-published nances. Since 2002, he’s also University and president of Getting into college these compilation of arcane words and served on the Mayoral Task LORAC Consulting, and lives in days can seem like a full-time expressions” that earned him Force on Employment of People Cobb, Wisconsin. job, complete with a moun- the undergraduate poetry prize with Disabilities. Additionally, Lawrence Kern ’65 writes tain of paperwork, a huge in 1956. He later became a Fischbach is an arbitrator, that “the esteemed committee expenditure of time, and lots senior editor for Encyclopaedia adjudicating labor and employ- of the Irish Israeli Italian Society of stress. Britannica and the editor of ment disputes. of San Francisco bestowed upon To the rescue comes the Field Museum of Natural The University of Ottawa [him] the auspicious Three I’s Admission Matters: What History’s magazine. Retired since honorary doctorate that Gail Society Certificate of Apprecia- Students and Parents Need to 1990 and living in Denmark, Guthrie Valaskakis ’61 received tion at the Israeli Celebration Know about Getting into Col- Wisconsin, Walsten’s also written in June came on the heels of Luncheon on June 8, 2005, for lege (Jossey-Bass), a new Wisconsin Mammals, and was writing Indian Country: Essays his distinguished contributions book that’s co-authored by the author and designer of Stave on Contemporary Native Cul- as an attorney in San Francisco.” Marion Franck MA’72. Churches of the World. ture (Wilfrid Laurier University Best wishes to several She’s a columnist for the Humanism, What’s That? Press). She’s the director of Badgers who have retired Davis [California] Enterprise A Book for Curious Kids research at the Aboriginal Heal- recently: Dan DuVall ’67 has left and a featured writer in (Prometheus Books) offers ing Foundation in Ottawa, a the DuPont Company after publications for parents at answers on the subject from professor emerita at Montreal’s thirty-eight years, most recently the University of California- Helen Haberman Bennett Concordia University, and a serving as a senior environmen- Davis. MA’59 of Rockledge, Florida. founding member of Manitou tal specialist in Buffalo, New Addressed to both She’s retired from teaching College — the first post- York. He now lives in The Vil- parents and students, Admis- English at a Coral Springs, secondary institution in eastern lages, Florida. Kenneth Lemmer sion Matters demystifies the Florida, high school and at Canada designed specifically for ’69 of Waunakee, Wisconsin, college-admissions process. Lynn University in Boca Raton. Aboriginal students. In 2002, has retired from Oscar Mayer It gives the straight scoop on Bennett “remembers Madison Valaskakis received a National Foods after thirty-four years what’s changed since parents fondly and sends greetings to Aboriginal Achievement Award. and is now a consultant to the went through the process the friends she knew there.” Thanks to her brother, Gregg food industry. And the West themselves, how to create a Dale Ericson ’59 of Marsh- Guthrie ’64 of Lac du Flambeau, Bend [Wisconsin] School District strong application package, field, Wisconsin, has taken on a Wisconsin, for sharing her news. will miss Jim Oakley MA’75, what’s up with the new SAT, challenge in the energy arena: When Is Daddy Coming who’s been teaching Spanish what colleges look for in he’s founded American Energy Home: An American Family there since 1980. He plans to applicants, what to consider for America. Ericson’s goals are during World War II is a Wiscon- continue his work with world- with early decisions and early to foster concern for the world- sin story in three ways: Richard language education in Ashland, actions, and how financial wide production and consump- Carlton Haney MS’64, PhD’70 Wisconsin, and notes that 2005 aid works. tion of oil, promote the use of of Whitewater wrote it; the is the Year of the Languages. The book also includes corn ethanol and methane, and Wisconsin Historical Society Susan Tinkelman Earl ’67 checklists, timelines, and call attention to the energy Press published it; and it focuses and Tom Kohler have created sample applications, all with resources of our Badger state. on Janesville during the war. a book that former President the same goal: to help stu- Richard Nicolazzi ’59, The National Academy of Jimmy Carter called “...a mod- dents navigate this enormous MS’60 was inducted into the Engineering has welcomed Tom ern-day parable from which process and find the colleges West Allis [Wisconsin] Central Vonder Haar MS’64, PhD’68 for we can all learn.” Illustrated that are just right for them. Hall of Fame in June, we heard his “fundamental analysis of with Earl’s photos, Waddie from Mary Jane Pellegrino the earth’s radiation balance Welcome & the Beloved Com- Haugaard-Lippert ’51 of and its impact on climate.” munity (Inclusion Press, www. Kenosha, Wisconsin. And with He began this research as a waddiewelcome.com) tells how good reason! Nicolazzi spent meteorology student under Earl’s home community of nearly thirty years at the school the late UW Professor Verner Savannah, Georgia, came to as a coach, assistant principal, Suomi, and has continued for learn and work together under

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the guidance of Welcome — campus annually to march with 70s city’s consumer-affairs commis- a seventy-nine-year-old gentle- the UW alumni band. We thank sioner, as well as the founding man with cerebral palsy — and his daughter, Melissa Paulson- Hearty congratulations to president of the Times Square his friend Addie Reeves. Earl Conger ’92 of Milwaukee, for James Berryman MS’70, Business Improvement District. says that she learned about sharing this great news. PhD’75, who’s received the Her parents and sister are Badger social change from the late UW The Twin Cities Business 2005 Maurice A. Biot Medal grads, and her grandfather was Professor Harvey Goldberg ’43, Monthly was right when it from the American Society of UW President Clarence Dykstra. PhD’51 and is now a manager in called commercial real-estate Civil Engineers. He’s been a Virginia Hyde PhD’71 is a community agency that links maven Russ Nelson ’69 the “ace physicist at the University of considered the nation’s leading elderly and disabled people of space” in a June 2004 article. California’s Lawrence Livermore scholar on D.H. Lawrence. She’s with support networks. Kohler “There are very few people in National Laboratory since 1981 among only fifteen people and Earl returned to Madison in the industry who know as much and lives in Danville, California. worldwide to earn the Harry October to tell Welcome’s story as he does,” one client opined. Gretchen Dykstra ’70 has a T. Moore Award for Lifetime at several venues. With Tina Hoye and John Tietz weighty responsibility: to raise Achievement, which she Ben Hall ’67 is a man who ’69, Nelson founded Nelson more than $500 million for a received at the International pursues his passion — a passion Tietz & Hoye, a Minneapolis- memorial, museum, and two cul- D.H. Lawrence Conference in for sailing. Since 1984, he’s been based commercial real-estate tural buildings at Ground Zero in July. Hyde, an English professor with Hall Spars & Rigging, a brokerage that has played a big New York City. This duty is part at Washington State University company that produces carbon- part in reshaping the Twin of her new role as president and in Pullman and a former UW fiber masts for high-perform- Cities’ skylines. He’s also chaired CEO of the World Trade Center instructor, was honored for ance sailboats and deals in the Minneapolis Downtown Memorial Foundation, whose her work to place Lawrence’s marine hardware and products Council. During his UW days, board includes David Rockefeller, Kiowa Ranch on the National from its factories in Bristol, Nelson traveled to Norway Robert De Niro, Barbara Walters, Register of Historic Places. Rhode Island, and Breskens, through the Viking Scholarship and Michael Eisner. It’s a complex Tim Wipperman ’71 was Holland. Hall, a VP and one-third program and remains active in process, but Dykstra is up to the one of four Nashville men owner, oversees the company’s that as well. challenge: she was previously the honored in June as Fathers of involvement in the America’s Cup and other grand-prix racing programs. He’s also the Classmates Exec Moves to Handbags with Class “resident speed freak”: a three- Prior to 1995, if Michael Smith ’83 were like most Americans when it time North American A-Class came to staying in touch with high school classmates, he maintained close catamaran racing champion. ties with a handful of good friends, bumped into acquaintances in unex- Kudos to Aquine Jackson pected places, and reunited with the masses every decade or so. ’68, PhD’80, the new chief Then along came Classmates.com. The online community, founded academic officer in the Milwau- by an ex-Boeing employee, has changed the way we reconnect with our kee Public Schools’ (MPS) Office pasts. It also altered Smith’s career path: he served as its president and of Academic Excellence. A CEO for three years. recent reorganization puts him “We grew to offer more services to our member base, so that you in charge of six divisions and really could get in touch with any group of people from any part of your departments. Jackson has been life,” says Smith. “It began with just high school, but now reconnects peo- with the MPS for thirty-six years ple from K–12, college, the military, and work places.” (You’ve probably and was previously its director seen the pop-up ads on your computer.) of the Office of Neighborhood Smith’s background in direct marketing, product development, and Schools, one of the entities he Bag man: Michael Smith managing consumer brands helped to grow Classmates from 35 million now supervises. wants to give everyone members in 2003 to more than 60 million today. For the second time in five the chance to carry a top- notch handbag. He also had a successful, fifteen-year run with the Dodgeville, Wisconsin, years, the Cedar Grove-Belgium clothing company Lands’ End. There, as CEO and president, he oversaw a quarter-billion dollars in revenue School District in Sheboygan, growth and the launch of the first Web site for a major apparel retailer. Wisconsin, has been named one Smith’s latest venture is Bag Borrow or Steal (www.bagborroworsteal.com), a first-of-its-kind online of the Best 100 Communities service that allows paid members access to designer handbags the way Netflix does with movie DVDs. for Music Education in America “People like having higher-end handbags, but don’t want to spend the $5,000 to $10,000 it costs for — and Band Director Thomas a half-dozen top-of-the-line handbags,” Smith says. “This allows them to borrow one or two at any Paulson ’68 is largely responsi- given time, and keep them for as long as they need them.” ble: “Mr. Paulson is the main Founded in Hollywood, Florida, Bag Borrow or Steal will soon move to Seattle. That’s great for reason why [115 out of fewer Smith, who, as an avid outdoorsman, enjoys the Washington wilderness and serves on the board of than 300] kids join band,” said REI, the Seattle-based consumer cooperative for outdoor enthusiasts. one student. Paulson consid- And as for the next class reunion, Smith will be ready: he’s been maintaining connections with old ered the late UW Band Director friends and searching for others. Ray Dvorak his friend and — Scott Holter mentor, and he returns to

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the Year. The Father’s Day Intervention Certificate. She senior adviser and coordinator Bookmark Council lauded each recipient lives in suburban Wilmette. for Iraq policy. A career member for balancing his personal and Leadership for Hard Times of the U.S. Foreign Service, in professional life, while serving (Rowman & Littlefield) — a work the past decade Jones has been as a community role model. about leadership and school the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, Wipperman went to Nashville reform — is the third book by Kazakhstan, and Lebanon, as to become a session trumpet George Goens PhD’73 of well as the chief policy officer player, but spent twenty-nine Litchfield, Connecticut. and deputy administrator for years as an executive at Warner Looking for some Wiscon- the Coalition Provisional Brothers Music/Warner/Chap- sin fiction? Try a mental vaca- Authority in Baghdad. pell. He’s now the chief creative tion at the Star Lake Saloon Madisonian Stephanie officer for Equity Music Group, and Housekeeping Cottages Golightly Lowden ’76, ’80 has a company that he started with (University of Wisconsin Press) seen her wish come true: she’s Spirit of Wisconsin: A Historical singer Clint Black. — which is also the title of become the writer she always Photo-Essay of the Badger State The University of California- the first novel by poet and wanted to be. Her first book, (Speranza) is a collection of, Riverside Chancellor’s Award for author Sara Rath ’74. It follows Emily’s Sadhappy Season and a tribute to, the ordinary Excellence in Mentorship of Hannah Swann as she leaves (Centering Corporation), was and extraordinary people Undergraduate Research went her content, college-town life inspired by the death of her who have made the Badger to Professor Nancy Beckage ’72 to operate the rundown resort father when she was nine. State what it is. The black- in June. She was also elected a she’s unexpectedly inherited in Lowden’s latest work, Time of and-white book is the tenth fellow of the American Associa- the Wisconsin Northwoods — the Eagle (Blue Horse Books), creation of the American tion for the Advancement of and finds herself embroiled in a is a historical novel for young Writers and Photographers Science in 2003 for her research battle with an international readers about the hardships Alliance (AWPA), and it was in insect endocrine host-parasite mining company. Rath lives in and journey of a young Ojibwe edited by longtime AWPA relationships. Beckage teaches Spring Green, Wisconsin. girl. “I was thrilled,” she writes, Director David J. Marcou entomology, cell biology, and An eleven-month tour of “when the Council for Indian ’73 of La Crosse. neuroscience at UC-Riverside duty in Afghanistan has earned Education — a group of Native The work includes a and was a USDA research ento- Captain James Pickart ’75 the American educators — put their prologue and introduction by mologist and assistant professor Global War on Terrorism stamp of approval on it.” former Wisconsin Governors at the UW from 1987 until 1990. (GWOT) Medal, the GWOT The International Society Lee Dreyfus, Sr. ’49, MA’52, Peter Benwitz ’72 has Expeditionary Medal, the for Clinical Densitometry has PhD’58 and Patrick Lucey earned his second Achievement Afghani Campaign Medal, the recognized Eric Binder ’77 as a ’46, respectively, and a fore- Medal for Civilian Service for Army Commendation Medal certified clinical densitometrist word by Governor James work in Germany at U.S. Army with Valor, and the Bronze Star. after he passed a rigorous exam Doyle, Jr. ’67. Garrison Mannheim as chief Pickart, a special-operations on bone-density testing for Interspersed with many of the Engineer Resources officer with the Combined Joint osteoporosis. Binder is a physi- essays, look for photos of Management Division. The Special Operations Task Force, cian with Susquehanna Internal Charles Lindbergh x’24 first medal, given in 2003, used his skills as a veterinarian Medicine Associates in Camp speaking at the UW, Vince recognized his efforts as chief to work with Afghan and U.S. Hill, Pennsylvania. Lombardi, John Muir, of operations and maintenance mounted units. American Experience — Robert “Fighting Bob” La at U.S. Army Garrison Hessen. From director of informa- television’s longest-running Follette 1879, Sally Field as The Times-Standard in tion technology, to VP of tech- history series — premiered a the Flying Nun (do you know Eureka, California, as well nology, and now to president: documentary this fall called the Wisconsin connection?), as three affiliated weekly this is the path that Jeff Forbes Two Days in October. The film Frank Lloyd Wright x1890, newspapers, are now under ’76, MS’83 has taken at Wood- details two days in October World War II flying ace the leadership of publisher craft Supply Corporation since 1967 when a Viet Cong ambush Richard Bong, that giant David Lippman ’72. he joined the woodworking- nearly wiped out an American six-pack in La Crosse, the Ellen Deitelbaum Lunz ’72 supply retailer in 2001. The battalion, and a UW student Wisconsin Singers, and has spent thirty-three years as a Parkersburg, West Virginia- protest became the first cam- badgers — both Bucky and speech and language patholo- based firm operates seventy- pus anti-war demonstration the musteline variety. gist, mainly in the Chicago eight stores that offer to turn violent. The executive The book also honors area. She’s been honored as educational experiences such as producer of American Experi- Wisconsin’s “firsts and bests”: a clinical lecturer at North- Woodcraft University, in-store ence is Mark Samels ’78 of it’s the home of the Republi- western University and has classes, women’s programs, and Medford, Massachusetts, and can party, kindergartens, the appeared as an expert witness My First Projects for kids. the film is based on They typewriter, the first Christian for the Chicago Board of Edu- Richard Jones MS’76, Marched into Sunlight, a Science church, and jazz cation, where she’s worked for PhD’80 was sworn in as U.S. recent book by Pulitzer Prize great Bunny Berigan. the past twenty-six years. Lunz ambassador to Israel in Septem- winner David Maraniss x’71 What a state! also has a private practice and ber, having most recently served of Washington, D.C. recently received her Early as the U.S. secretary of state’s And speaking of David

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Maraniss x’71, he called Doug NPR: The Trials and Triumphs of After a career in real-estate Pamela J. Nash MS’82, PhD’89 Moe ’79 “the inimitable chroni- National Public Radio (Colum- development and exports, deserves some of the credit for cler of Madison” when he com- bia University Press) — tells how J. (Jules) Fredric Schwalb ’81 that. As principal of Madison mented on Moe’s latest book, the entity has tried to embody entered the Reconstructionist Memorial High School for the titled Surrounded by Reality: its ideals, from its days of virtual Rabbinical College in Wyncote, past seven years, she imple- The Best of Doug Moe on Madi- obscurity in the 1970s to the Pennsylvania, and recently mented the “neighborhood” son (Jones Books). A lifetime organization it is today. A for- graduated as a rabbi with a system of smaller learning com- Madisonian, Moe has written mer radio journalist, McCauley master’s in Hebrew letters. Best munities within the larger a daily Capital Times column is now an associate professor of wishes to him as he becomes school setting. Now Nash has about the city since 1997. communication and journalism the new rabbi of the Hebrew become the Madison Metropol- at the University of Maine and Congregation of Somers in itan School District’s assistant lives in Bangor. He’s also edited Shenorock, New York. superintendent for secondary 80s Public Broadcasting and the Madison is known for its schools, with oversight responsi- Public Interest (M.E. Sharpe). excellent high schools, and bility for all of the city’s middle New to the helm of the Milwaukee Public Museum as its president and CEO is Daniel Finding a Place in the World Finley ’80. He’s spent the last Dora Lievow ’70 fourteen years as county execu- In the small town of Camden, Maine, is quite literally tive of Waukesha [Wisconsin] changing lives. She’s a founder and co-director, with Emanuel Pariser, County, overseeing its $250 of the Community School (www.thecommunityschool.org), an innovative million budget and 1,300 learning center that opened in 1973. employees. Finley is credited Since then the school and its staff have altered the life paths of well with providing a “new energy over five hundred high school dropouts — very much for the better. About and vision” to the museum, 80 percent of these students have not only earned high school diplomas, which has recently experienced but have also become responsible community members. Most of those a financial crisis. without diplomas have also found constructive roles, and some 40 percent What a diverse — and busy of the school’s graduates have gone on to post-secondary education. — career journey Joseph Lievow and Pariser believe that their students save themselves from Williams MA’80 has been on! their troubled pasts, but these transformations are greatly aided by the He’s the new global technology intensive environment and one-on-one focus of the staff at the “C-School.” director for Microsoft Corpora- Its hallmark work is a six-month residential program, offered twice tion, but on the way, he’s each year for eight high school dropouts aged sixteen to twenty. But before worked offshore for Exxon, Learning that involves they start, these students must complete readiness “tasks,” such as seeking tried his hand at Texas politics, the whole person and the counseling or quitting pot. taught business at four univer- discovery of self-worth Then the program requires its students to work at jobs in the commu- and mutual respect are sities, picked up an MBA and a nity, study with tutors at night, do household chores, pay rent, cook meals, crucial to the success of perform community service, participate in six camping trips, and complete PhD from the University of students at the Commu- Texas-Austin, become chief nity School in Camden, workshops in such topics as conflict resolution and sexuality. And they architect for Sun Microsystems, Maine, co-directed by develop their own individual graduation plans, which help them to pass the and most recently, was the Dora Lievow ’70. school’s competency tests in five subject areas. director for solutions architec- In addition to the residential program, the C-School runs an outreach program, through which its ture with Microsoft. We hope former students make contacts back to the school to seek advice, references, or just some friendly voices. he’ll get some rest at home in And in 1994, it added a third program called Passages, which sends teacher-counselors out to help teen Fort Collins, Colorado. parents study at home for their high school diplomas and demonstrations of mastery in twenty-four core Poly Hi Solidur, a subsidiary skills, including budgeting, job hunting, math, and early-childhood development. of the Menasha Corporation, What the school’s three programs have in common is assisting those with nontraditional learning now has a Badger as its presi- styles, troubled backgrounds, or a history of chronic failure in conventional educational settings. The dent: Mark Yde ’80. The Fort students’ individualized curricula are carried out within the context of a community of relationships — Wayne, Indiana, company an approach the directors call “relational education.” is an engineering plastics But while the C-School changes lives, its success hasn’t come without challenges. Lievow and Pariser manufacturer. have spent thirty-plus years keeping Maine’s education officials convinced that this tiny school deserves Those who shaped Amer- certification for serving a student population that no other school has been able to reach or teach. The ica’s public broadcasting system town of Camden needed some convincing, too, but these directors have dealt with such obstacles in the envisioned it as a “civilized same way that they deal with troubled teens: by relating respectfully and realistically with all parties. It’s voice in a civilized community,” an approach that works for them, their school, the community, and most importantly, the students they’re and a clear alternative to grooming to find their places in the world. — P.A. commercial broadcasting. A new book by Mike McCauley ’81, MA’92, PhD’97 — called

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and high schools. California, consulting firm, Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, he Bookmark Duke University Press called Polidora Communications. received $10,000 and a week- has recently published Sex Congratulations to Wiscon- long trip to Disneyland in July; in Development: Science, sin’s new Pediatrician of the his school received $5,000; and Sexuality, and Morality in Year, as named by the state’s he and the principal attended a Global Perspective, co-edited chapter of the American Acad- six-day professional-develop- by Stacy Leigh Pigg ’82. She’s emy of Pediatrics: John Meurer ment institute at Walt Disney an associate professor in the MD’86. He’s an associate profes- World in October. Thanks to Department of Sociology and sor of pediatrics and chief of Carmen Zimmermann Arm- Anthropology at Simon Fraser general pediatrics at the Med- bruster ’89, John’s spouse, for University in British Columbia. ical College of Wisconsin in Mil- sharing this. Neil Willenson ’92 is a quiet Did you know that the waukee, the medical director of hero: at age twenty-two, his Dune series of sci-fi novels is the Downtown Health Center, compassion for a little boy co-authored by Kevin Anderson and the director and principal 90s with HIV led him to found ’83? He writes the popular investigator of the Fight Asthma Camp Heartland — a sum- works with Brian Herbert, Milwaukee Allies coalition. We know of at least a few mer camp that allows young the son of Dune creator Frank The new president of Wisconsin residents who’d love people affected by HIV and Herbert. Anderson also recently Robert Morris University near to have the new position held AIDS to come together in co-wrote Frankenstein: Prodigal Pittsburgh is Gregory Dell’Omo by Ave Bie JD’90: she’s joined fellowship, support, and Son with Dean Koontz; pro- PhD’87. He was most recently the board of the Green Bay acceptance. duced the Saga of Seven Suns the vice president of external Packers. A Titletown native, Bie Now in its twelfth year, novel series; co-wrote fourteen affairs at Saint Joseph’s Univer- is one of four women on the the onetime summer camp Young Jedi Knights books with sity in Philadelphia, and had forty-five-member board. She’s has become a year-round his spouse, Rebecca Moesta; and served as dean of its business also a partner in the Madison charitable organization called has created sci-fi anthologies, a school as well. office of the Quarles & Brady the Camp Heartland Center. coffee-table art book, and thirty Since his days at the UW — law firm, a past chair of the It gained a permanent home comic books. In all, Anderson “a campus for which there is no Public Service Commission of in Willow River, Minnesota, can claim thirty-three bestsellers substitute,” says Tim Mackesey Wisconsin, and a former deputy in 1997, in part through the and more than eighty books ’87 — he’s earned a master’s in secretary of the state’s Depart- generosity of its spokesper- published — and he does much speech pathology and now has ment of Corrections. son, baseball Hall-of-Famer of this writing by capturing his a private practice in Atlanta. “Explore more, live more!” Paul Molitor. And, to give thoughts on a hand-held tape He’s also busy serving as presi- exults Eric Ringdahl ’91 — a voice to this journey and to recorder while hiking in the dent of the Georgia Speech- man who lives by his words. these children, Willenson has mountains near his Monument, Language-Hearing Association, A resident of Whister, British published A Journey of Hope: Colorado, home. developing treatments for stut- Columbia, he’s recently Inspiring Stories of Courage Wendy Nehring MS’83 is tering, and teaching seminars. launched Pantheon Helisports and Unconditional Love (Camp the editor of Core Curriculum In June, the ground east of (www.pantheonheli.com), Heartland/Midpoint Trade for Specializing in Intellectual the UW’s Chamberlin Hall was a custom helicopter-skiing Books). and Developmental Disability hit by a wave — or rather, Wave: operation in the Pantheon Willenson talks about (Jones and Bartlett Publishers), a sculpture installation by artist Mountains north of Whistler. why he founded the camp, as well as the associate dean Peter Flanary MFA’88. Created “Come ski the biggest peaks in and about the children who for academic affairs, the director for the physics department as North America, and name your have touched his life so of graduate programs, and part of the Chamberlin Hall own runs!” Ringdahl beckons. deeply, but mostly, A Journey an associate professor at the renovation, Wave is a twelve- “Wild, pristine, and huge…” of Hope is about the thoughts Rutgers College of Nursing in foot-diameter bronze circle that Want to take him up on it? of the campers, aged seven Newark, New Jersey. She’s also incorporates four-foot “waves” With great sadness, David to sixteen: it’s their medium recently edited Health Promo- and whose interior was filled Feldman ’92 shared that Matt for sharing the heartaches tion for Persons with Intellectual with granite cobblestones. Wiederkehr ’92 died in Septem- and triumphs of their lives and Developmental Disabilities, Flanary teaches art at the UW ber 2004 of colon cancer. While through photos, drawings, and co-authored Intellectual and creates art in his Mineral Wiederkehr fought for his life, poems, and stories. It’s also a and Developmental Disabilities Point, Wisconsin, studio. he laid the foundation for Matt’s tribute to Camp Heartland’s Nursing: Scope and Standards From a field of more than Promise (www.mattspromise. counselors, volunteers, and of Practice. fifty thousand nominees, John org), a not-for-profit organiza- the sixty campers who have Ligeia Polidora ’84 has put Armbruster ’89, ’93 received tion in South Orange, New died of AIDS complications. her twenty-plus years of experi- one of forty-five 2005 Disney Jersey. Its mission — his legacy — All book-sale proceeds ence in marketing and public Teacher Awards in recognition is to make a difference in the benefit Camp Heartland relations — the last ten as the of his creativity, innovation, lives of young people who are (www.campheartland.org). director of public affairs for and ability to inspire. A history facing terminal illnesses; advance San Francisco State University — teacher at North Crawford the fight against these diseases; to work in her own Sonoma, Junior High and High School in and ensure “comprehensive,

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innovative, and compassionate and co-produced Four Seasons’ film producer and jewelry UW Alumni Club of Austin. care.” Wiederkehr had been (www.fourseasonstheatre.com) designer Tonia Kim ’97, Move over, mustard employed by Google, and Feld- inaugural production in August attorney Josh Kaplan ’98, and makers: Madisonian Jennifer man is a senior sales associate at — Ragtime: The Musical — prostetic engineer Eric Neufeld Connor ’01 has purchased the Citi Habitats in New York City. with the Middleton [Wisconsin] ’98. Their goal is to provide Rendall’s Mustard business Sandra Gittlen ’92 has Players Theatre, which he also no-cost prosthetic limbs and (www.rendallsmustards.com) started a high-tech communica- co-founded. A Ragtime lecture orthotic braces to those who and is relaunching the gourmet tions firm, SLG Publishing.net, series featured UW Professors need them. So far, ROMP brand in four flavors: honey, near Boston. She’s a technology Sandra Adell MA’88, PhD’89; (www.rompglobal.org) has cranberry, garlic horseradish, editor, writer for print and Diane Lindstrom; and Michael projects in Nicaragua, and honey dill. In July, Rendall’s online publications, webcast Leckrone. Guatemala, and Ecuador. rolled out the condiments host, author of Network “Although I went to Barrett Rubens ’97 was one online, to groceries in Wiscon- World’s Home Base column, and business school, I became a of the twelve smart, strong, and sin and Illinois, and naturally, an industry educator. Gittlen middle-school math teacher competitive young lawyers who to the Mount Horeb [Wisconsin] was previously a writer and in 1999,” began Brenda Shock appeared on Bravo’s The Law Mustard Museum, headed by editor at Network World, Arnett ’95 of Cedarburg, Wis- Firm reality show this summer. Barry Levenson MA’73, JD’74. where she developed and consin. “I share my experiences “It’s essentially the search for hosted technology road shows, from the UW and the business the best young trial attorney in and worked with its network- school with my students to the nation,” writes Rubens, of obituary ing site, Fusion. enrich my math classes.” In the City of Chicago Corporation Using his experience as March 2004, Arnett received a counsel’s office. They were pit- Jack St. Clair Kilby MS’50, who Georgia Congressman Charlie Kohl Fellowship from Senator ted against each other in real was integral to the development Norwood’s legislative assistant Herb Kohl ’56 for her excel- court cases and slowly elimi- of the microchip, died in June in charge of health-care issues, lence in teaching. She was also nated. Sadly, Rubens was elimi- in Dallas. In 1958, as a new as well as the national policy nominated for a Presidential nated after the third episode. employee of Texas Instruments, director for the National Asso- Teaching Award this year and For eight years, Seattle Kilby designed and demon- ciation of Community Health earned a chance to represent Seahawk offensive lineman strated an integrated circuit — Centers, Christopher Koppen Wisconsin in Washington, D.C. Jerry Wunsch, Jr. ’97 and the a device that formed the ’92 has founded Avancer In one of the nation’s largest Wunsch Family Foundation foundation of modern electron- Health Policy in Alexandria, counties — Wake County, North have provided children with ics and personal computers, and Virginia, and serves as its Carolina — first-grade teacher cancer and chronic blood disor- paved the way for miniaturizing president. The lobbying and Elizabeth Robertson Henning ’96 ders the chance to attend both the transistor, which had been consulting firm promotes was one of ten finalists, out of their Circle of Friends Winter co-invented ten years earlier community-based health care. 128 nominees, in the running for Week in Wausau, Wisconsin, by the late John Bardeen ’28, The Milwaukee-based Wake County 2005 Teacher of and their reunions of past MS’29. (The transistor replaced National Association of Minor- the Year. “It just demonstrates attendees. The foundation the vacuum tubes of the earliest ity & Women Owned Law what an outstanding job the UW (www.wunschfamilyfounda- computers.) Among Kilby’s sixty- Firms (NAMWOLF) has named School of Education has done tion.org), of which Wunsch is plus patents was the first for Renuka Vishnubhakta ’93 as its in preparing students for teach- president, hopes to provide hand-held calculators, and he managing director. Established ing careers,” writes her father, these children with memorable won the 2000 Nobel Prize in in 2001, the association’s mis- Donald Robertson MBA’68 of and empowering experiences. physics for co-inventing the sion is to increase the use of Salem, South Carolina. The proud father of New integrated circuit. “The impact minority- and women-owned With a doctorate in physics, Yorker Courtney Skiba ’99 of Kilby’s invention is pro- law firms by corporate Amer- a specialization in astrophysics, wrote to us about her role as found,” notes UW engineering ica. Vishnubhakta notes that and research interests in radio- InStyle magazine’s fashion mer- Dean Paul Peercy MS’63, PhD’66. the UW Medical Foundation is telescope studies of solar wind chandising manager and her “It set the stage for the comput- a NAMWOLF corporate partner. using the Very Long Baseline former work at GQ magazine. ing revolution, which in turn Madison now has a new Array, Peter Kortenkamp ’96 of She was a UW lightweight crew made possible the Information theatrical option: the Four Sea- Iowa City, Iowa, is immersed in member and keeps in touch Age … [and] forever changed sons Theatre. Its artistic direc- science — but he also loves with lots of Big Apple Badgers. the pace of innovation.” tor, Andrew Abrams ’94, has music. He earned a master’s in recently returned from New horn performance, played with Compiled by Paula Wagner Apfelbach York City and touring to start the American Institute for Musi- 2000s ’83, whose inner child has been a real the group with Christopher cal Studies’ Festival Orchestra in brat lately. Lange ’96, its public relations Austria, and now plays with Adam Loewy ’00 is taking on director; development and out- numerous symphony orchestras. two new roles in Austin, Texas: reach director Sarah Marty ’97, The nonprofit Range of he’s started the Loewy Law Firm, MS’01; and Amanda Poulson Motion Project (ROMP) is both which specializes in litigation ’98, the executive director of its the brain child and the labor of and real estate law, and he’s also youth theatre. Abrams directed love of three Chicago grads: been elected president of the

WINTER 2005 55 PHILANTHROPY

Peace of Mind Grants ensure quality child care options for working parents. MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART

Philanthropic investment in UW-Madison promises to provide a tremendous return as the university applies its resources to

bring greater understanding of our On the road to quality child care: a fund established in 2002 expands the options for classified staff who are parents. Here a child plays on a colorful rug-turned-map at the university’s Preschool Lab. world and to find answers to society’s most critical problems. For more For many parents in America, their academic achievement of need for child care across child care ranks second — right and social development,” says campus and in the community. information about the University behind earning an income — Lasky. “All families need access “I know Chancellor [John of Wisconsin Foundation or on the list of the greatest con- to quality care.” D.] Wiley is a strong advocate cerns they face as employees. Now retired, Lasky spent for child care and understands Create the Future: The Wisconsin “Child care plays a much more thirty-five years on the UW this is a critical issue in recruit- Campaign, call (608) 263-4545. important role than just allow- campus. She studied, taught, ing and retaining young ing parents to go to work,” and nurtured in her roles as stu- staffers,” says Lasky. “I’ve had says Patricia “Pat” Lasky dent, clinical nursing instructor, wonderful support from classi- MS’68, PhD’80, who recently assistant professor, researcher, fied staff, which is why I sup- made a third gift to the Classi- director of the pediatric nurse port the Classified Staff Child fied Staff Child Care Grants practitioner program, and asso- Care Grants fund.” fund, for which she is the ciate dean for the undergradu- In addition to serving as an largest donor. ate program and outreach at advocate for children, Lasky is a Created in 2002, the fund is the School of Nursing. health care activist. She joined designed to help recruit and Lasky became a pediatric a group of Milwaukee health retain classified staff, who often nurse because she enjoyed the care advocates to create the are hired in entry-level positions challenge of working with sick Wisconsin Center for Nursing. and serve as the front line of children and their parents. She The center is a partnership contact for students, staff, and learned to communicate, com- among employers, educators, faculty. The Office of Campus fort, and reassure, and she and policy-makers to devise a Child Care offers grants on an became a well-known advocate strategic plan to deal with the emergency or annual basis to for children during her career. pending shortage of nurses. classified staff who use regu- She has served on various cam- She also helps nurses who come lated child care. pus child-care committees, vis- to the United States from other “Professor Art Reynolds’s ited day care centers as part of countries, ensuring that they research in the School of Social her research, and now serves on receive the proper education Work has shown us how qual- the Madison Mayor’s Early Child- and are capable of passing the ity of care impacts children hood Care and Education Board. licensing tests. down the road, in terms of She sees clearly the broad range — Tracey Rockhill ‘87

56 ON WISCONSIN PHILANTHROPY

Paying Homage Scholarship sends a message from son to father.

Some children show their par- ment business, COURTESY OF GEORGE HAMEL, JR. COURTESY ents how much they mean to mostly manag- them with greeting cards. ing capital for George Hamel, Jr. ‘80 went a colleges and little further. He set up a journal- universities. ism scholarship in honor of his “My wife, father, George Hamel, Sr. ‘66. our kids, and I The army sent the elder meet my par- Hamel to the University of Wis- ents every year consin-Madison to get his grad- for a football uate degree in journalism when game in Madi- George, Jr. was a boy. Sometime son,” George, later, the younger Hamel, who Jr. says, noting hadn’t been back to Madison that they’ve since early grade school, turned also traveled to eighteen and began looking at road games colleges. and bowl “I was a pretty good writer, appearances. as well as interested in sports,” “As one of George Hamel, Jr. (left) is helping budding journalists through an undergraduate scholarship he established he recalls. “None of the colleges seven kids, with in honor of his father (right). in Virginia had a good journal- lots of other ism program, so I applied to grandchildren in the family, fol- “I did consider, ‘What could Wisconsin and was accepted.” lowing the Badgers is a good I do to let my father know how At the UW, George, Jr. way to keep in touch and have much I thought of him?’ It’s a played what was then varsity something in common,” he says. great way to show how much reserves basketball, with Bo “It’s really helped improve our he means to me while he’s still Ryan as one of the assistant bond.” alive, and to have his name live coaches. He transferred to The George Hamel Under- on while helping students communication arts, where he graduate Scholarship is tar- improve their lives,” says earned his degree. Since then, geted to an out-of-state George, Jr. he has succeeded in the invest- journalism student. — Chris DuPré

Top of the Hill The Bascom Hill Society has long stood as the pinnacle of philanthropy in support of UW- Madison. It is indeed fitting, then, for the society’s new scholarship to support a top student. The Bascom Hill Society Scholarship will provide financial assistance to an academically successful junior or senior who also has made outstanding philanthropic or volunteer contributions to an accredited university or community organization. Applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher and show an unmet financial need. Leadership qualities also will be a factor in selection. The scholarship will provide the equivalent of full tuition and room and board to one deserving resident or non-resident student per year. A selection committee is charged with reviewing qualified applicants. “This prestigious award is in keeping with the mission of the UW Foundation and the philanthropic spirit embodied in the members of the Bascom Hill Society,” says UW Founda- tion president Sandy Wilcox. “The student who will be presented with this scholarship already will have gone far in becoming the kind of adult who makes all of us associated with UW-Madison so proud.” — Chris DuPré

WINTER 2005 57