DISPATCHES

Eye on Safety Smile — your residence hall may be on camera.

Beginning this spring, JEFF MILLER security cameras have started keeping watch on life in several UW residence halls. Installed around the entrances and common areas of four residence halls, the cameras run constantly, although “Finding normalcy on they’ll only be viewed campus during those by staff in response to days was very hard.” incidents. Housing offi- cials decided to install — Former Dean of Students them to heighten stu- Paul Ginsberg, speaking about dents’ sense of security the struggle to create consensus — but at the same time, among protesters and support- they stress the need to ers of the Vietnam War, during a strike a balance campus forum highlighting UW- between safeguarding New doors installed at Sellery Hall sound a remote alarm if left ajar for more Madison’s legacy of student students and respecting than sixty seconds — just one of the new security measures in place at several campus residence halls. activism. Five former campus their rights. leaders and protesters joined the Finding that balance panel to survey a century of sift- is not always easy. After dents keys to enter their halls erwise limit access. But he adds ing and winnowing on campus. a sexual assault was reported in and instead creating central that additional security restrictions Ogg Hall in January, students entrances where staff would need to be measured against the and staff in various residence check identification for everyone costs to student privacy and free- halls met to discuss safety con- entering the building. dom, as well as the limitations cerns. Several house fellows said Paul Evans, director of UW imposed by aging architecture. that they would support tighter Housing, says that his office is still Evans notes that unfortu- restrictions on access, including considering whether to close nate incidents sometimes can moving away from giving stu- down secondary entrances or oth- help raise awareness about the steps the university already takes to try to ensure safety. Despite A Dose of Legal Aid the addition of high-tech meas- ures like cameras, many of those The needs of the elderly often “Older people often don’t contact with the client’s health precautions are decidedly low- go well beyond health care, recognize their problems as care providers,” she says. tech — what housing officials even when they find themselves legal. They assume that if you Meanwhile, the clinics help call “environmental security.” as patients. In the case of don’t have something, you do health care professionals under- Dora Valentin, the residence Medicare and insurance entan- without it,” says Betsy Abram- stand the priority of legal issues life coordinator at Sellery Hall, glements, they may need a son, a clinical assistant professor to their patients, says Barbara says students are encouraged to lawyer as much as a nurse. at the Law School who directs Bowers, professor of nursing. take ownership in their commu- A new collaboration the program. “We’re trying to “It’s important for nursing stu- nities, beginning with house between UW-Madison’s schools make the connection that, if you dents to hear what patients tell meetings to elect leadership and of law and nursing aims to give get the benefits you’re entitled law students when asked ques- them both, linking students of to, your health could improve.” acquaint residents with hall tions that the nursing students each profession with elderly While health care providers activities and organizations. generally don’t ask,” she says. patients in two Madison outpa- often don’t have the time or Building community in this way “Hearing the answers makes it tient clinics. The Elder Law Clin- expertise to dispense such advice, can be a security measure, clear that health care providers ics provide free legal advice on law students can — to everyone’s increasing accountability among probably should be asking ques- topics such as Medicare and benefit, says Abramson. “The students for making sure doors tions they have not been asking.” insurance eligibility and direc- idea is that lawyers will do a bet- are locked and strangers don’t tives for health care. ter job of advocacy if they are in — Dennis Chaptman ’80 roam freely, Valentin says.

10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Other methods include mir- accommodate tighter security, “If we don’t get buy-in from rors that allow front-desk staff but for now, the goal is to find students on, for example, locking to see around corners and even ways to make existing halls both doors, they may start propping regular trimming of shrubs safe and comfortable, Evans the door open and undermine around entrances. Computer says. He and Kevin the plan,” says Helmkamp. “In terminals in common areas are Helmkamp, assistant director that case, our effort to make a often positioned strategically to for residence life, are studying safer environment can turn draw people into lounges and what other steps might be nec- around and create a less-safe create safety in numbers. essary to help students feel hall. Working with our residents With demand for on-cam- secure, but both say that stu- is a critical piece of creating a pus housing rising steadily, new dent support is critical to ensure safe place to call home.” 299 residence halls may be built to those measures work. — Josh Orton ’04 Score bowled by Greg Thorn of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, during the UW Comprehensive Cancer Missing Student Case Raises Questions Center’s “Bowlin’ for Colons” It was the end of a very long lying to investigators. It is not what role the university should event, highest among the 650 week, one that began with a known whether she will return play in the emotional develop- people who bowled to help student missing and ended with to UW-Madison, or whether she ment of its students. Even before advance colon cancer research. Audrey Seiler x’06 accused of will face disciplinary action from the Seiler case, representatives The event raised $30,000 to staging her own abduction. the university. from the dean of students, hous- fight the disease, the second- Dean of Students Luoluo Hong But for Hong, the dilemma ing, health services, and campus deadliest form of cancer in the sat at a borrowed desk, churning goes well beyond Seiler’s situa- police were meeting to discuss a United States. through a list of phone calls to tion. While the case was unusual growing number of disruptions reporters, all of whom had the for its high drama and media in and outside the classroom. same question: what did she attention, it’s far from the only And while there’s think of this extraordinary case? story of a student in trouble. In no inherent con- The truth was that Hong fact, those stories are becoming nection between didn’t really know. more common, and that is students acting “I struggled personally with pressing the university to recon- out and their the two sides to this situation,” sider how it supports students mental health, the she said later. “On one hand, who show signs of distress. group is walking she is accused of doing some- The challenge stems from a the same fine line thing against the law, and we generation of students that seems between support can’t condone that. But on the increasingly burdened by the pres- and accountability other hand, we have to imagine sures of college life. According to that runs through that Seiler’s actions were a sign a recent national survey, nearly 30 the Seiler case. of distress, and we know that percent of college students said “We’re trying students have different ways of they often felt overwhelmed, and to define an insti- Audrey Seiler went missing asking for help.” nearly half reported that at least tutional policy on for four days in late March. In the aftermath of the once in the past year they felt too these issues,” says Seiler case, many around the depressed to function. Hong. “As an UW felt similarly torn. Reports of At UW-Madison, the offices institution of higher education, the student’s disappearance on that help students with such it’s our responsibility to support March 27 triggered a massive struggles report similar trends. the holistic development of stu- search-and-rescue mission, Nearly 4,500 students sought dents, not just their intellectual which ended four days later therapy from the university’s development. If we accept that when she was found in a marsh Counseling and Consultation Ser- responsibility, then we also have on the south side of Madison. vices last year, and both the num- to recognize that each and every Soon after, police began to ber of cases and their complexity one of us in the campus com- doubt her story about being have grown steadily, says Robert munity shares in that responsibil- abducted from her campus-area McGrath, director of the service. ity, and we’ve got to coordinate apartment, and she now faces At the same time, adminis- our efforts.” criminal charges for allegedly trators are trying to hash out — Michael Penn

SUMMER 2004 11 DISPATCHES

No Contract Zone Teaching assistants stage two-day walkout over dispute.

Many discussion sections were the end of their two-day walk- “I don’t think the majority Q AND A silent, the journalism school’s out. They later abandoned of undergraduates see TAs as Michael Begler ’90 Muckraker Grad Student Lounge threats to withhold students’ workers. But they need the col- was empty, and the most grades at the end of the semes- lective power to act against the Begler, along with his Madison melodic rendition of “Solidarity ter, but the impasse left raw way the state treats them,” Mar- roommate, Jack Amiel ’00, Forever” on campus could be feelings on all sides. shall says. wrote the script for The Prince heard on a picket line outside One strike placard taped to On the other side, Frank and Me, a 2004 movie in which the School of Music. a kiosk just off Library Mall that Harris, outgoing chairman of actress Julia Stiles plays a UW UW-Madison’s three the UW College Republicans, student who, like many Bad- thousand teaching and believes the walkout was a gers, carries on a romance with project assistants have T slap in the face of students the crown prince of Denmark. worked for nearly a year who faced higher tuition this Q: How did you come up without a contract. In late year. “The action taken to with the idea for The Prince April, many of them under- strike negates the one and Me? scored their dissatisfaction implicit reason they are A: Actually, the script was an with the protracted negoti- teaching assistants — to edu- existing project at Paramount, ations by walking off the MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBAR cate,” he says. and it was originally set at Indi- job for two days and set- While supporting their ana University. Jack and I ting up picket lines. right to fair compensation, inherited it, and we pretty Although assistants Chancellor John D. Wiley much rewrote the whole thing. receive waivers on graduate- MS’65, PhD’68 also urged Q: Why did you move it to school tuition in return for TAs to accept the state’s Madison? their services, their wages offer. In an open letter to A: Bloomington [Indiana] isn’t and benefits are negotiated TAA members, he recognized really our experience. Madison with the state, which has the contributions of assis- gave us what I think of as the asked TAs to pay for part of tants, but added that “the ideal campus life. So we tried their state health insurance current compensation for- to fit in things we remembered packages, as most university mula is a fair trade for an — life in the Rathskeller and employees now do. The state opportunity to teach, work offered a contract that would Action Abe: Bascom Hill’s famous icon closely with faculty, and people going to the north showed signs of support during teaching stacks in Memorial Library to give TAs a 4.6 percent wage assistants’ two-day walkout in April. obtain a high-quality, post- fool around, things like that. hike while requiring them to graduate education.” pay a minimum of $9 a Negotiators for the state Q: But it wasn’t filmed in month for health insurance. read, “I Support the TAA,” had declared an impasse on May 6, Wisconsin, was it? However, the Teaching Assis- been altered to read, “Robots citing no progress in the talks A: No, for budget reasons it tants’ Association, which bargains Support the TAA.” Several and no clear hope that future was shot in Toronto. I wanted it on behalf of TAs and PAs, balked chalked messages on Bascom sessions would be productive. to be shot in Madison — you at the offer, believing that assis- Hill bemoaned the walkout with “The state has been negotiating know, the Terrace and State tants’ wages are too low to war- sayings such as, “All I Want for in good faith for nine months, Street are hard to duplicate. But rant fees for health insurance. In Xmas is a Discussion Section.” and it is time for the TAA to writers don’t really have any say. the past academic year, the aver- But many faculty and stu- come forward with a more seri- Q: Have you got any new age TA with a half-time appoint- dents respected the picket lines, ous offer,” said Karen Timber- project in the works? ment was paid $12,144. either relocating classes or aban- lake, director of the Office of A: We’ve got another picture “We’re not slaves. We add doning them altogether. Amy State Employment Relations. that came out May 28 called value to this campus,” says Jon Marshall, a senior majoring in But Puthoff says TAA mem- Raising Helen. Puthoff ’01, a TAA spokesman. East Asian studies, not only bers feel strongly about the prin- “TAs are incredibly cost effective, refused to cross the picket lines, ciple of free health coverage and because of the number of stu- but she joined one outside of want to defend it for future gen- dents we teach and the incredi- Helen C. White Library. She says erations of TAs. With the sides ble amount of tuition money that she is considering graduate so far apart, he doesn’t believe comes in to campus.” school, and how the strike is that substantial progress will be TAA members marched from resolved will play a role in where made until at least the fall. campus to the state capitol at she attends school. — Dennis Chaptman ’80

12 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES DISPATCHES

Catching a Ride UW-Madison gets a car to share. UW-Madison’s Dictionary of American Regional English was one of six projects show-

MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBAR campus traffic. “After all, a lot of people carpool or take the bus to cased on get to campus, and many of Capitol Hill in them need a car for short trips Washington, during the day. Community Car D.C., to cele- has similar goals to ours, and this brate Humani-

T looks like a good synergy.” ties Advocacy The program is the brain- Day on March child of Sonya Newenhouse 15. Cherished MS’92, PhD’97, who says that by linguists UW-Madison’s participation was and lovers of lingo worldwide, vital in getting the first Commu- the colossal research project has nity Cars rolling. “This is sort of published four volumes of an extension of the Wisconsin uniquely regional words and Idea,” she says. “We couldn’t phrases, collected and have done this without the uni- researched over the past four For people like chemistry professor Martin Zanni, the UW’s new com- versity. Faculty and alumni were decades. munity car offers a better way to steer around campus parking issues. instrumental in getting it off the ground, and they’re helping us In only its third year since form- On any given weekday in fall or — a Honda Civic — in a space in stay successful.” ing, the Clean Snowmobile spring, some fifty thousand stu- the Helen C. White parking For students like Rebecca Team won the top prize at a dents, faculty, and staff make garage and subsidize up to 250 Cors ’89, who’s pursuing a grad- national competition to create their way to campus to carry out free trial memberships for fac- uate degree in land resources cleaner, more efficient snowmo- management, the program is the business of the university. ulty, staff, and students. biles. perhaps the only way she could While some bike, walk, bus, or “We want to give people a Nine have access to a vehicle. “Having carpool, a great many drive, chance to try this out,” says engineer- a car on campus is very handy,” competing for a short supply of Renee Callaway MS’94, man- ing stu- she says. “It seems like such a parking around campus. ager of the Transportation dents waste to have all these cars just “There’s just more and more Demand Management Program, worked parked in rows all day.” and more cars,” says chemistry which is charged with easing to retool — John Allen professor Martin Zanni. “To get an off- a parking space costs a lot of the-shelf money. It’s crazy. Some people are sled, paying a thousand dollars a year.” The ABCs of UW-ese replacing But Zanni and others have UW-Madison is a place where soup that swirls around campus. its engine found a way to cut down the has- you wouldn’t stick an OAR in the The division (known as BUSSVC) with a hybrid gas/electric model sle and expense of parking, while water, you can’t reach PAR on a recently created an index of cam- that proved cleaner and quieter keeping the convenience of a golf course, and you’ll never find pus acronyms, which is online at than the original. handy car. They’re sharing the use a microscope in the LAB. Around www.bussvc.wisc.edu of communal vehicles through a some parts of campus, the native /acronym/acronym.html. The No strangers to grumbles, cam- citywide program called Commu- tongue isn’t English guide explains more pus parking officials raised a few nity Car. This spring, the UW — it’s university than a hundred eyebrows when they inadver- began promoting the plan to help adminispeak, a unusual abbrevia- tently sent out a batch of ease the car crunch on campus. jumble of tions, including $2,004 parking fines shortly Launched in October, Com- acronyms that LAB (Legislative after the new year. A computer mistake caused about three munity Car owns four vehicles, only barely resem- SPENCER W Audit Bureau), which are parked at various bles human lan- OAR (an Outside hundred letters to go out to locations around Madison. guage. Activity Report), parking violators, soliciting the ALTS Members pay to use the cars for But thanks to and PAR (Personnel inflated fines for past-due tick- short errands, returning them to UW-Madison’s Activity Report). ets. Last heard, no one had their designated lots. In Febru- Division of Business Without it, a lot of forked over the full two grand. ary, UW-Madison offered to Services, there’s now a man- what goes on here might be place one of the program’s cars ual to translate the alphabet LIT (lost in translation). — J.A.

14 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

An Eye for an Owl UW veterinary clinic has plenty of odd tales about odd tails.

Even for veteran veterinarian heart failure, a macaw with an Then, she was the team’s only Joanne Paul-Murphy, this abdominal tumor, and a parrot veterinarian, but now she has patient presented a unique case. suffering from seizures. the aid of partner Jean Paré In December, a great horned owl Life in the Special Species and clinicians Kurt Sladkey and Service is a continual stream of Barry Hartup, as well as Chris new challenges, Paul-Murphy Hanley, a resident who also aids says. “We’re pretty much always the Milwaukee County Zoo. in learning mode.” She and her “Designer pets are really colleagues are responsible for all popular right now,” she says.

JEFF MILLER (3) those beasts you wouldn’t find “We see people with sugar glid- in a typical home or farm — ers [a nocturnal Australian mar- wild creatures, zoo animals, and supial], hedgehogs, and prairie “non-traditional companion ani- dogs. They aren’t really adapted mals,” she says. In other words, to be domestic, but people keep their patients include just about them as pets, so we give them everything that isn’t a cat, dog, the best care we can.” horse, pig, cow, or chicken. One of her current charges The team diagnoses and is a parrot suffering from a treats a variety of mammals, sneeze. Paul-Murphy and her birds, reptiles, and fish. “It’s not colleagues hope to restore him Is it better like this? Katie Diehl, a resident in veterinary oph- thalmology, checks the new lenses doctors gave a great easy to do surgery on a fish,” to his healthy state so he can go horned owl, which had been blinded by cataracts. she says, “but we’ve done it.” back to singing opera and Paul-Murphy, whose Mozart. had been picked up in northern research ranges from controlling “We like those kinds of Wisconsin, sightless and starv- urban deer populations to study- challenges,” says Paul-Murphy. ing, suffering from cataracts. ing the kakapo, a rare, flightless “It’s fun to face something com- Sight is perhaps the most impor- parrot, has headed up the Spe- pletely different.” tant sense to the predatory birds, cial Species Service since 1991. — John Allen and blinded owls are generally euthanized or kept in captivity. But in January, the UW vet- Band of Birders erinary clinic performed an unprecedented procedure on the As the orioles and goldfinches catches are reported to a bird, implanting lenses in its eyes return to campus in springtime, national laboratory, which coor- in an effort to restore its sight so so, too, does a flock of volun- dinates research on bird popula- that it could be released back teers who are helping researchers tions and migration patterns. into the wild. Paul-Murphy, who understand how these and other — M.P. heads the Special Species Service migratory birds live. Setting up at UW-Madison’s veterinary wide, airborne nets across a clinic, was responsible for nursing prairie near Picnic Point, they the owl before and after surgery. temporarily snare birds of several The operation itself was per- species long enough to weigh formed by her spouse, ophthal- them, measure their wings, and mologist Chris Murphy. After attach numbered bands around adjusting to its repaired eyes, the one of their legs. owl was set free in April. In its third year, the effort is But there was little time to coordinated by Mara McDon-

rest on that success. Even before ald, a staff member in the Volunteer Katie Fitzmeier cra- the owl had left the UW’s care, genetics department, and usu- dles an American goldfinch Paul-Murphy and the special ally draws students, teachers, caught near Picnic Point in species team were dealing with children, and local birdwatchers March. Birds that frequent the prairie are tagged and measured new problems — a camel in to observe or pitch in. The data so that they can be tracked in podiatric distress, a ferret with collected during the spring future years.

14 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

Mine on the Moon Fusion researchers want to go where man has been before.

When President Bush GSFGD announced his desire to send humans back into deep space, he brought a dream of a UW- Madison research team one giant leap closer to reality. Scientists with the UW Fusion Technology Institute have been working on a plan to har- ness the moon as a source of energy since 1985. That year, during a 2 a.m. eureka moment, team scientist John Santarius realized that the moon’s surface might contain large amounts of helium-3 atoms, one of the most promising fuels for creat- UW researchers envision a day when mining machines would traverse ing power through fusion. the moon, harvesting helium-3 as a source of energy. Fusion — a nuclear reaction could be used to mine and supporting compounds, including through which multiple atoms process helium-3, but two of the water, oxygen, nitrogen, and car- combine to form new ones — organizations that might help bon, and more than six thousand can generate energy that is them test their theories have tons of hydrogen that could be cheaper and cleaner than fossil thus far remained skeptical. used in energizing fuel cells. fuels or nuclear power gener- “NASA doesn’t believe we’ll “By going back to the ated by fission, the splitting of ever get fusion to work, and the moon,” says Kulcinski, “we atoms. Unlike the fuels currently Department of Energy never remove one of the barriers used to create fusion, helium-3 thought we’d go back to the blocking our research — the atoms don’t release any radioac- moon,” says Kulcinski. “Both very idea that we are never tive material, which makes them agencies think they can do their going back.” an attractive alternative. The part, but they don’t trust each — Emily Carlson only problem is that helium-3 is other. This is where we’ve been pretty rare on Earth. ever since.” On the moon, however, it’s Bush’s call for a lunar base plentiful. Data from lunar sam- could change that. The president COOL TOOL ples suggest the moon contains has targeted putting a base on more than a million tons of Who Cut the the moon by 2020 as a precursor Cheese? helium-3, enough to supply the to launching a manned mission earth with energy for at least to Mars. Those plans could give From the only-in-Wisconsin one thousand years. the UW researchers an opportu- file, there’s now a better way “A fuel cycle fueled entirely nity to send along equipment to slice the Cheddar. UW by helium-3 reactions would and get their first chance to see engineers Xiaochun Li and produce nuclear energy without how it works in space. Hong Seok Choi MS’02 are generating any nuclear waste — Although most of that tech- using the same laser light at that’s the ultimate goal,” says nology is geared toward mining work in eye surgery to carve Gerald Kulcinski, a professor of helium-3 — such as an institute- cheese into nifty shapes, nuclear engineering who directs designed bucket-wheel excava- including Motion Ws and the institute. tor, which can scoop up enough Bucky Badgers. But their Despite that promise, the helium-3 each year to power Mil- nimble work is no mere cheesy gimmick. Health-conscious con- institute’s work has been stuck waukee — researchers say it can sumers want thinner slices of cheese on their burgers and salads, between a rock and a hard also be used to support life on but conventional blades aren’t up to the task, says Li. Instead, he place. Researchers have col- the moon. For every ton of found a variety of laser light that melts away a better-than-razor- lected data and even designed helium-3, the excavator also pro- sharp line — creating a technology that really is cutting edge. prototypes of equipment that duces nine thousand tons of life- — M.P.

SUMMER 2004 15 RESEARCH

Scientists have devised a way to freeze and store human embry- Ditch the Dodgeball onic stem cells that may make UW Health rolls out a new kind of gym class to fight obesity. them much more useful to the researchers who are trying to Homework usually means book how to improve childhood phys- exercise physiologist and former unlock their potential. With current reports, maybe a few trigonom- ical education.” gym teacher, Clark supervised techniques, only about 1 percent etry problems, or a chapter on At the beginning of the blood and body-composition of stem cells survive the process of the French Revolution. But for study, the students were tests and had students hit the freezing and thawing necessary to fifty-seven students at River Bluff treadmills to gauge their fitness. distribute them to labs around the Middle School in Stoughton, Back in Stoughton, half the JEFF MILLER country. Using a chemical that Wisconsin, homework recently students went off for normal some animals produce to protect included a little something dif- gym classes, while the other half cells in low temperatures, the UW’s ferent: bicycle riding. enrolled in a program with non- stem-cell research team upped the The assignment was part of traditional activities like bike rid- survival rate about twenty-fold. Fit-4-Life, a new take on tradi- ing. On bikes donated by the The new method not only gives tional physical education classes Trek Bicycle Corporation, stu- researchers more cells, but created by the UW Children’s dents rode after school, logging increases their genetic variability, Hospital, the UW Health Sports their activity levels in journals. which makes them more useful for Medicine Center, and River Bluff. During class, the students experimentation and potential It’s part of an effort to find more received individual instruction therapeutic use. effective ways of keeping kids in and feedback on their progress. shape — a battle of the bulge Organizers say the year-long A hairy water flea, found in the that schools may be losing. experiment is working. “The kids rain ponds of an Oregon desert, is “We’re facing an epidemic seem to enjoy this more than generating more than just flea- of pediatric obesity in this coun- Seventh-grader Nicole Ellingson they would a traditional physical of Stoughton, here testing her sized interest. UW zoologists have try,” says Aaron Carrel, a pedi- fitness at the UW Exercise Lab, is education class,” says Bob determined that the animal is one atric endocrinologist and among those liking the new Hanssen, the physical education of a kind, medical director of UW Health wave of gym class. teacher at River Bluff who helped a species SPENCER W Sports Medicine’s pediatric fit- to coordinate the study. “We never ness program. “What we’re brought to Madison to spend want to turn these kids on to

before ALTS hoping to do with this program some time with Randy Clark moving. We want them to enjoy seen. is to help improve the overall fit- ‘80, MS’84, manager of the UW physical activity.” Fleas ness of our children and learn Exercise Science Laboratory. An — Aaron R. Conklin play key roles in the ecology Wisconsin Rock Tour of freshwater ponds, and finding At various points in the past bil- place,” says Attig, a Attig and one never seen before is nothing lion years or so, Wisconsin has professor with UW Dott, an emeritus short of remarkable. “It is incredi- had white-sand beaches, soaring Extension who professor at UW- bly unlikely that you’re going to mountains, and land-crushing gla- works with the Madison, left liter- find anything new and different ciers. But you can’t see any of Wisconsin Geolog- ally no stone today,” says zoologist Stanley them now — unless you know ical and Natural unturned telling Dodson, whose lab identified the where to look for the evidence. History Survey. that story. They new flea. “That’s why this is a spe- Robert Dott, Jr., and John Essentially spent four years tra- cial animal.” Attig PhD’84, experts on the everything about versing the state to state’s geology, unlock those mys- the way Wiscon- assemble the guide, UW engineers have a way to teries in their new book, Roadside sin looks now — which highlights the make hot-selling wireless tech- Geology of Wisconsin. Part of a from its North- geologic formations nology a little less hot. Cell state-by-state series published by woods lakes to its along thirty-five driv- phones and other handheld elec- Mountain Press of Montana, the rich farmland to UW’s own Bas- ing routes. An intro- tronics often get quite warm dur- guide is like having a geologist in com Hill and Picnic Point — is a duction teaches enough basic ing heavy use, but engineers have the glove compartment — which function of geology. The effects concepts of reading the land a new prototype that stays cooler can be a pretty handy thing. are so deep that geologists that anyone should be able to without sacrificing power. The “I can’t think of a better named the last Ice Age after Wis- understand the locations, the design could result in cell phones place than Wisconsin to see a consin, and they touch not only authors say. To buy copies from that receive more data while stay- variety of geology and land- the state’s terrain, but also its cul- the survey, call (608) 263-7389. ing powered longer. scapes, sometimes literally in one ture and social history. — M.P.

16 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

Living the High Life Commercials and promotions fill Errol Morris’s life after Oscar.

increase the immediacy of the film’s message. The counter- insurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the recent release of David Maraniss x’71’s book They Marched into Sunlight, have increased atten- tion on the Vietnam War. Morris says that the political overtones of The Fog of War have surprised even him. “His- tory kind of caught up with the movie.” He says he’d like to continue that kind of work, and one of the projects he’s now working on is a television series that will cover current, politically charged topics. — John Allen When Errol Morris ’69 heard many of the popular “high life” that his film The Fog of War had series of commercials for the won this year’s Academy Award Miller Brewing Company. Femmebombed for best documentary, he had lit- Morris has been in even tle time to celebrate. He’d pre- more demand since Fog first School of Human Ecology visiting artist Janet Morton, below, wraps pared for the awards by making started gaining critical praise, yarn around a massive spool as part of her installation project, Fem- mebomb. For a few weeks this spring, she draped the SoHE building sure that he’d be very, very busy. after its showing at the 2003 in pink fabric, at right. The high life was calling. And so Cannes film festival. The process But her art, alas, was P was 7-Eleven. of promoting the movie, he says, fleeting — high winds ASKUS STUDIO destroyed the piece on “It’s been a blur, to tell you has gone on “longer than with April 29, only five days the truth,” Morris says. “I any other film” he’s made. “My after its debut. “I wanted to be sure that I had a lot wife calls it ‘flogging the Fog.’” meant for my art to be of work right after the Oscars, The film’s popularity is a tes- temporary,” she told the Wisconsin State because I didn’t think I’d win. tament not only to its cinematic Journal afterward, “but And, as my wife says, I would achievement, but also to its topi- not this temporary.” have been depressed if I lost, and cality. The Fog of War is a sort of maybe even more if I won.” autobiography of Robert McNa-

Creating an Oscar-winning mara, the secretary of defense in JEFF MILLER film has meant more fame but the Kennedy and Johnson also more responsibility. Prior to administrations. Morris con- The Fog of War, Morris was best ducted interviews with McNa- known as the director of such mara, beginning in May 2001, acclaimed feature-length docu- and found his subject “endlessly mentaries as The Thin Blue Line, fascinating — McNamara Mr. Death, and Fast, Cheap, and embodies the twentieth cen- Out of Control. But his most- tury.” The result is a story that is seen work seldom runs more told entirely in McNamara’s than thirty seconds. He’s voice, describing the events and directed a multitude of commer- principles that shaped this archi- cials for clients that include 7- tect of America’s involvement in Eleven convenience stores, the the Vietnam War. CVS drugstore chain, and As Morris was making his Quaker Oats. And he created movie, world events aligned to

SUMMER 2004 17 ARTS &CULTURE

Behind the Song Professor’s new book finds the soul in soul music.

Ask Craig Werner for his post- he says, not out of pet theo- JEFF MILLER modern theory on hip-hop ries. music, and he might look at you In his latest book, Higher quizzically. While Werner Ground: Stevie Wonder, teaches a course on African- Aretha Franklin, Curtis May- American music and considers field, and the Rise and Fall of himself a big fan of hip-hop, American Soul, Werner follows he’s not likely to engage in an his faith in the stories. The ivory-tower discussion about it, book weaves together the or about any other type of biographies of three titans of music, for that matter. soul, set against the backdrop Instead, the professor of the civil-rights movement searches for the story behind the that paralleled their careers. music, exploring the lives of its Noting that funk musician performers and the historical George Clinton once called context in which it was created. Wonder the “minister of cul- Truths grow out of those stories, ture” for the “chocolate cities,” Werner makes the case that the stories and music of Professor Craig Werner’s fascina- tion with music — and the mean- those three artists reveal a lot ings behind it — rings true in his COLLECTION MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART about the successes and fail- latest book. Out of Africa ures of the movement. From the slave trade to the “Stevie, Aretha, and Curtis music impulse] of call and recent flood of refugees encountered the obstacles of response,” he says. “We have to fleeing war and starvation, the [civil-rights] movement and, listen to those calls, and we have millions of Africans have at the same time, participated in to respond to them honestly, not emigrated to nations the advancements of the new through some set of precon- around the globe, often world the movement created,” ceived ideas or beliefs.” setting up distinct commu- says Werner. “The movement Werner’s background is in nities in the lands where lived in Aretha’s kitchen.” literature, and he can still riff on they settle. The evidence of those communities has generally been The book is another chapter Joyce or Faulkner with authority. ephemeral, but James Danky MA’73 and his African Diaspora Col- in Werner’s quest to use music as But he breaks the mold of a typi- lection are trying to change that. a tool for understanding the six- cal academic critic, having served Danky, the librarian for UW-Madison’s newspapers and periodi- ties and the struggle for free- on a committee for the Rock and cals collection, has spent the last thirteen years building not just the dom. The soul music of those Roll Hall of Fame and trading world’s largest, but perhaps the world’s only, collection of African days, he believes, was an aes- notes with the likes of Bruce diaspora publications — newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and thetic response to a range of Springsteen and John Fogerty. journals created by and for people of African descent living in experiences African-Americans “The [perspectives] that are Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Such publications, he lived during that time. His previ- easiest to leave out are the ones says, “have been only lightly collected” around the world, which ous writings have explored the that don’t come from within the “makes black people easier to dismiss from the historical record.” political context of songs such as academic world,” he says. Danky’s goal, he says, is to “collect and identify examples of “A Change is Gonna Come,” the That’s something Werner everything ever produced” that fits the diaspora description. Cur- Sam Cooke standard that was has seen firsthand in his work rently, his collection has more than four hundred titles, but Danky is also the name of his previous with a Vietnam veterans’ writing adding more at a rate of fifty to a hundred a year, and after a trip to book. But in his current book, group, which reflects the side of Europe this spring, he brought back forty-five pounds of newspapers Werner regards freedom politics him that prefers people to theo- and magazines — including Ras Tafari Speaks and Omo-Oodua from a bit more skeptically, pointing ries. “I believe we have to make London, Ebène and H+M from Paris, and Mundo Africa from Spain. out inconsistent leadership and a conscious effort to go out and For now, Danky admits, the collection is only “loosely cata- wavering hope that affected the get those stories,” he says. logued” and kept in file drawers in his home and office. But he’s civil-rights movement during his Without them, he says, there willing to make copies available for research. “If someone asked me, subjects’ careers. would be no call, and no way of I’d be more than happy to share.” “At the intellectual core of knowing how to respond. — J.A. Higher Ground is the [black — Josh Orton ’04

18 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

Troy Story What really happened in ancient city is still emerging. The Elvehjem Museum of Art has acquired a painting by Theodore Helen, the haunting hottie that many, more than one hundred Dating back to graduate Robinson, one of the most impor- legend says touched off the Tro- researchers are now helping to school at Cincinnati, Aylward tant American Impressionists of jan War, is turning out to be the excavate the various layers of has spent every summer except the nineteenth century. The work, face that launched a thousand history. one unearthing the more mod- entitled On a Cliff: A Girl film crews. The work has so far yielded ern Greek and Roman cities, Sewing, was created in the mid With Brad Pitt rampaging little proof of the Trojan War — which were thriving places in 1880s and depicts a young across the multiplexes and a at least not as it’s portrayed in their own right. In those cities, woman who is thought to be the host of Troy-related documen- the Iliad. The seventh iteration of the epic tales of Achilles and object of the artist’s unrequited taries on cable, the ancient Troy does appear to have ended Hector were very much alive — affection. The painting is the gift backdrop of Homer’s Iliad is sud- with a great battle of some kind even if they may have been of Juli Plant Grainger ’48. denly topical — a bit strange for around 1200 B.C., Aylward mythological. a city whose defining moment notes. “It’s not impossible that “People who lived there cer- Best-selling science fiction author may never have happened. specific evidence of conflict tainly believed that their city was Kevin J. Anderson ’83 has Scholars have debated for years between these legendary armies built upon this legendary site,” released a new graphic novel whether Homer’s epic, which called Veiled Alliances, the latest chronicles the bloody battles volume in between Greek and Trojan sol- RICHARD ROSS his Saga of diers over Helen, was fact or fic- Seven Suns tion. Now, the debate is going series. mainstream. “These are questions that History pro- I’ve been dealing with for sev- fessor Stan- eral years, and other archaeolo- ley Payne gists have worked on their received whole lives,” says William Ayl- the Eliza- ward, a professor of classics beth A. who began digging — literally Steinberg — into the story of Troy in 1996. prize for his latest book, Fascism “The movie is a great opportu- in Spain: 1923–1977. Payne also nity to have a broader discussion received recognition for his contri- about those questions.” butions to the field of compara- Discovered by amateur William Aylward shows a documentary film crew the field where the tive political religions. The UW’s archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann battle of Troy may have taken place — or may not have. Fluno Center hosted “Compara- in the 1870s, ancient Troy sits in tive Political Religions in the Mod- western Turkey near the mouth of could come out of the site,” he he says, noting that Alexander ern Era: A Conference in Honor of the Dardanelles. A veritable says. “There’s a large amount of the Great was among the pil- Stanley G. Payne” in May. baklava of civilizations, it’s actually work yet to be done.” grims to visit the supposed bat- nine cities piled on top of each In February, Aylward tlefield. And that, perhaps, is School of Music viola professor other, spanning some three thou- escorted a Discovery Channel testament enough to the impor- Sally Chisholm and her spouse, sand years of occupation. The crew around the site for an tance of Troy. “The question we violinist Eugene Purdue, traveled Greek siege of Troy would have episode of Unsolved History, might ask ourselves is whether to Pyongyang, North Korea, for taken place around the twelfth which aired in May. When it’s really important to prove the the Spring Friendship Art Festival century before Christ, putting it pressed to say whether the Tro- historicity of the Trojan War. If in April. The couple was among about four layers down in the jan War occurred, Aylward the people who lived there only five Americans (including rubble, beneath Roman and answered no — a skepticism believed it happened, why not Jamie Schmidt ’96, MMusic’98) to Greek reconstructions of the city. based on the fact that excava- just take their word for it?” play at the event. Archaeological work at the tions haven’t turned up any Beginning this fall, UW stu- site has ebbed and flowed since written or artistic accounts of dents can take Aylward’s word Schliemann’s finds, but since the battle from the time it is for it in a new course devoted 1988, it’s been booming. In a supposed to have taken place. specifically to Troy, covering all project coordinated by the Uni- That doesn’t mean, though, nine of its lives. No word on versity of Cincinnati and the that he dismisses the importance whether Pitt will guest-lecture. University of Tübingen in Ger- of the legend. — Michael Penn

SUMMER 2004 19 CLASSROOM

Brain Teaser In neurobiology lab, there’s usually more than meets the eye.

Graduate student Jules “We really are prisoners of neuroscience training program. Panksepp is off target. It’s not a our own brains,” he says. “You know you’re going to hard throw to make — maybe a “Everyone thinks that what we miss, but you can’t do anything four-foot toss to hit the big X on see, feel, touch, and hear is real- about it.” the board. But he can’t hit it. ity. But there are a lot of cases The problem, Yin explains, is “It’s strange,” he says. “I’m where you can show how our that the brain learned too much. aiming right at the target.” But brains are fooled.” With the goggles mucking up that’s not where the little blue And that’s the case with the the brain’s normal routine, it balls of Play-Doh are heading. ball-throwing exercise, which thinks about what’s wrong and Each time he tries, they veer off Yin runs as part of his Systems creates a new set of instructions to the left, as if pulled there by a Neuroscience lab for graduate that produces the right result. magnet. If this were baseball, students. The pretense is to test Once the goggles are removed, he’d have walked the bases full. the brain’s capacity for motor those new rules have already But this is Tom Yin’s lab, learning — the skill that enables gone on autopilot, and that’s the and that means there’s probably people to ride a bike or type route the brain follows. It takes a twist. Yin, a professor of physi- without really thinking about several throws to unlearn that ology who teaches introductory what they’re doing. After a few new motion. neurobiology to undergraduates times performing those tasks, When students get the and graduate students, likes the brain basically hardwires the chance to try it for themselves, experiments that trick the brain. instructions into the circuitry. It’s the laughter turns to fascinated Partly, that’s because the brain is as if the part of the brain that disbelief, and disbelief turns to so easy to trick. controls movement says, “Wait, curiosity. “Could I walk on a bal- I know how to do this — no ance beam wearing the gog- need to check with the boss.” gles?” one student asks. In the experiment, Yin has Reconsidering, he adds, “Okay, students wear goggles with a low balance beam. With lots CLASS NOTE

SPENCER W lenses made from prisms, which of pillows.” A Taste of shift the wearer’s vision to the Reactions such as those are Summer left or right. With the goggles why Yin doses his teaching liber- ALTS Folklore 539: The Folk- on, students instinctively aim at ally with activities like the ball- lore of Festivals and where their eyes tell them the throwing exercise. “This course Celebrations target is, causing them to throw is an easy one to teach, because wide of the mark. Eventually, everyone is interested in [his or From Cinco de Mayo to motor learning kicks in, and see- her] own brain,” he says. “And Syttende Mai, from ing that the balls aren’t going you have a ready subject avail- America’s largest Polish where they’re supposed to go, able for experimentation. A lot Fest in Milwaukee to the brain makes adjustments. of things you can try on yourself the Ho-Chunk Nation Within about a dozen throws, or on your roommate.” Powwow outside Bara- most people learn to compen- Of course, not everything boo, Wisconsin’s line-up of local summertime traditional parties is a sate for their altered vision and about the brain is that easy. testament to the state’s cultural melting pot. And this year, Janet hit the X. Although the past thirty years Gilmore’s students are hoping to find out just what it is that’s melt- The surprising part is what have seen an unprecedented ing in those pots — and kettles, skillets, grills, and deep-fryers. happens when students remove period of discovery about how Gilmore is reviving a course in which students look at the ways the goggles. With nothing hin- the brain works, much about the that customs survive and are transmitted through community par- dering their aim, they still miss gray matter still defies even the ties. Gilmore is focusing the class on foodways, “the practices by — but in the opposite direction. best scientists in the field. Proce- which food is eaten, displayed, cultivated, and prepared — the If they threw to the right wear- dures like magnetic resonance totality of food as a cultural experience,” she says. She’s also ing the goggles, their first few imaging, or MRI, are revealing a encouraging her students to explore the rich variety of cultural throws without them invariably great deal about which parts of events at nearby summer festivals. “I like to have my students do sail off to the left, usually to the the brain relate to specific func- fieldwork,” she says. They seem to enjoy it, too — both the summer chuckles of their classmates. tions like movement or memory and fall offerings of Folklore 539 are completely full. “It’s a weird feeling,” says — and in some cases, decades- — John Allen Panksepp, who is enrolled in the old beliefs about how the brain

20 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

Aiming to prepare the executives of the future for the global mar- ketplace, the Department of East JEFF Asian Languages and Literature MILLER created a course in Business Japanese Communication last spring. The first-time offering is tailored to enhance students’ vocabulary for business-specific situations and to develop their ability to effectively negotiate with people from different cul- tural backgrounds.

Uniting work from faculty in his- tory, literature, and music, the UW now offers a Celtic Studies program, which will give students a chance to explore their interest in the legacy of the peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Although most of the Celtic- interest courses have been around for some time, they’ve been spread across different Prism goggles aren’t the only thing that tricks the eye in Tom Yin’s neurobiology labs. The professor of departments. By creating a uni- physiology loves to show students how reality isn’t always what we make it out to be. fied program, history professor James Donnelly says, the UW can works are being overturned. seems to disappear from their I feel only one point, but when I take advantage of the “Celtoma- Some of the things Yin teaches peripheral vision, and then reap- open my eyes, it’s still the same nia that has been flourishing on his students today almost directly pear. What’s happened is that paper clip. Yin explains that our U.S. campuses since the 1970s.” contradict what he was taught the dot has fallen into the blind fingertips have more sensory thirty years earlier. spot, a small hole in our vision receptors than our arms, which Don’t worry — it’s not the second “Our knowledge of the where the optic nerve joins the is why I felt both points there, (or is it third?) coming of brain is very fragile,” he says. eye. Most of us don’t even real- but not on my forearm. Godzilla. Rather, Monsters and “We have a pretty good idea ize that hole is there — and Simple as they are, such Science: The History of Verte- where the basic functions are that’s the point. Our brains cover experiments carry an important brate Paleontology, is a new online course that blends geology located in the brain, but as far it up, filling in the gap to create lesson. Many of Yin’s students and history of science. Offered as mechanisms — how we learn a seamless view of reality that go on to become doctors or for the first time this fall, the class — we’re a long way from under- isn’t quite perfect. work in clinical settings, and in will give a view into the shifting standing that.” Back in his office, Yin shows those contexts, it is important to and sometimes uncomfortable But what we don’t know me other ways in which our recognize the limitations of even relationship between paleontol- can be as important a lesson as senses let us down. He takes a the most finely honed brain. It’s ogy, the other sciences, and cul- what we do know. During lec- paper clip from his desk and not unusual, for example, for ture at large, especially in the tures on perception, for exam- folds it into a narrow V, so that the perceptions of people with nineteenth and twentieth cen- ple, Yin likes to test students the two ends of the wire are neurological disorders to be turies. The geology and geo- about how well they see the close together. He tells me to written off as abnormal, as the physics department offers a world — which, as they discover, close my eyes and presses the artifacts of a brain that isn’t number of popular online isn’t as well as they think. points of the clip onto my finger. working properly. courses, which are open not only He draws two dots on a “Can you tell if that is one point “But what is normal?” he to degree-seeking students, but board and asks a volunteer to or two?” asks, still holding the paper to anyone around the world who approach the board while look- Easy question. “Sure, it’s clip. “Reality is only what we can tune in via the Web. ing directly at one dot with one two.” think it is.” eye closed. As students come Then he places it on my near the board, the second dot forearm. “How about now?” — Michael Penn

SUMMER 2004 21 native

Student Casey Brown ties a bag filled with tobacco to a tree branch, a symbolic prayer offering common to many American Indian tribes. The tree, planted in 1988 atop Observatory Hill as a sign of unity among indigenous peoples, stands near an effigy mound, making it an impor- tant place in the cultural practices of American Indian students. UW-Madison’s campus is full of indigenous history. But for today’s American Indian students, a minority among campus minorities, the struggle is to create a present that is as rich as that past.

By Michael Penn MA’97 Photography by Jeff Miller The night air on University Avenue stank of liquor and foul language. It was past mid- night, and Kyle Aragon x’07 wanted no part of the drunks on the sidewalk. He had midterms in the morning, and he’d been at the books all day. He was too tired for trouble. The names were easy to ignore — “Hey, Big Chief! Hey, Geronimo!” — he’d heard those before. It was the bottle that got him. It hit right below the temple, knocking off his glasses. He came up swinging, and then four guys were on top of him. When it was done, he had a busted lip and a burning fire of disgust that told him it was all over. It was time to go home. Home, as in New Mexico. Back to the family, back to Mom and Dad. They had sup- ported him when he wanted to go more than a thousand miles away for college. But now, just six months into his freshman year, they were telling him, “We sent you to col- lege to learn, not to get harassed.” When he told them about the fight on University Avenue, they drew the line. “You’re coming home,” they said. And this time, he didn’t argue. He was through fighting.

News spreads fast, even on a campus this size. and eyes and a mane of shoulder-length black hair, Within a few days of that February night, a lot of stu- Aragon looks like what many would consider the dents knew what happened to Aragon. People he archetypal American Indian. Add a silver-and- barely knew came up to him, saying, “You would turquoise necklace and rings — some of which he have been really good here.” His friends begged him forged himself — and he appears to have fallen to stay, offering free rent in exchange for meals. He “straight out of a storybook,” as one of his friends was known as a good cook. says. In Madison, those looks were like a magnet for But it wasn’t just his culinary skills that would be attention, and not all of it good. He overheard missed. UW-Madison had worked hard to recruit dozens of whispered comments and snickers, which Aragon, who grew up on the Acoma Pueblo reserva- made him wonder if he was really welcome so far tion near Albuquerque. In high school, he was a from home. two-sport athlete and a standout student interested Football weekends invariably brought heckling in mechanical engineering, a field where American tailgaters, some of whom threw trash at him or told Indian faces aren’t often seen. The university offered him to “go back to the reservation,” he says. He him a lucrative scholarship package, and, even grew reluctant to walk the five blocks from Wendt though none of his family had left the state for col- Library, where most engineers study, back to his lege, he accepted. “I wanted to see snow,” he laughs. room at Witte after dark. “It began affecting my It was a different kind of chilly climate, though, schoolwork,” he says. By the time the men jumped that awaited him in Madison. With deep brown skin him on University Avenue, he’d heard enough.

SUMMER 2004 23 “My friends would tell me that that trove of indigenous heritage. Last year, kind of stuff happens to everyone,” he surveyors working on Picnic Point found says. “I got tired of always hearing that a six-thousand-year-old basalt cutting it happens, that it’s normal. It shouldn’t tool, a reminder that Native people have be normal.” called campus home for several millennia. Among American Indian students, When Casey Brown came to campus especially, it happens all too often. Of the for his freshman year, his father took him 135 American Indian or Alaskan Native on a meandering hike past dozens of students who entered the university as those sites, which were built by the freshmen between 1992 and 1997, more ancestors of their Ho-Chunk tribe. “We than half followed Aragon’s path into were going through people’s back yards,” and out of UW-Madison. Only 54 — or recalls Brown, a native of Black River 40 percent — earned degrees within six Falls, the political hub of the Wisconsin years of arriving. (The average six-year Ho-Chunk. “I think it was that that graduation rate for all students during really made me want to come here — that same period hovered around 77 per- almost to reclaim it in a way, to make it cent.) And while some went on to earn Ho-Chunk again.” degrees elsewhere — Aragon, for exam- Steeped in such ancient tradition and ple, will continue his studies at the Uni- A few weeks after leaving Madison, Kyle within a day’s drive of eleven modern- Aragon came back for the spring powwow, versity of New Mexico this fall — the an annual tradition among Native students. day tribal governments, UW-Madison numbers reveal a frustrating failure of would seem a logical focus of such a minority students to fare as well as their ten-year outline for achieving a better quest. But although Wisconsin is home peers at UW-Madison. mix of races in the student body. to more Indian reservations than any That so-called “retention gap” has “Improving retention for minority stu- state east of the Mississippi, the presence persisted for years, and it cuts across dents and faculty would make every of American Indian students on campus every minority group on campus. Among other diversity goal easier to achieve,” remains small. Even in multicultural the freshmen who came to UW-Madison says Bernice Durand, an associate vice affairs, Native students feel their voices in fall 1997 (the most recent cohort for chancellor who leads UW-Madison’s are outnumbered. “We are the minorities which six-year figures are available), 60 diversity efforts. “If everyone who came of minorities,” says Dana Miller ’03, now percent of African-Americans, 63 percent stayed, we’d be closer to a critical mass of an engineer with Hewlett-Packard in of Hispanics, and 67 percent of Asians minorities on campus. It’s easier to recruit Boise, Idaho. “When people think of graduated from UW-Madison, compared a student to a campus where there are diversity, we’re the smallest group here, to 80 percent of white students. enough others of the same background.” and our concerns kind of get left out.” “It’s a huge gap, and a huge con- But no one feels the sting of attrition Some of that has to do with history. cern,” says Provost Peter Spear. more than UW-Madison’s American Although the education of Indians Spear says cases like Aragon’s are Indian community. With only 230 Ameri- appears in the charters of several of the disconcerting because they reveal cracks can Indian or Alaskan Native students country’s oldest universities, including in the support network the university enrolled in fall 2003 — about one for Harvard, Dartmouth, and William and tries to create for students. While there’s every 182 students on campus — it’s by Mary, college campuses were foreign nothing to suggest that Aragon’s attack- far the smallest racial group classified by territory for generations of Native peo- ers were students, he says the responsi- the university. UW-Madison’s retention ple. By 1932, after not quite three cen- bility for campus climate still falls with gap may just look like a number on a turies of American higher education, the university. “We know [students] page to some, but American Indian stu- only fifty-two American Indians in the have the ability to succeed when we dents suffer the losses viscerally. entire country had bachelor’s degrees admit them,” Spear says. “That a rela- “I lose friends every semester,” says from U.S. universities. tively large percentage does not graduate Casey Brown x’05. For some tribes, widespread enroll- suggests that we’re not doing enough to ment in colleges didn’t arrive until casi- support them and help them succeed.” nos did. While not all tribes have enjoyed Another effect of the gap is to under- economic prosperity from gaming, col- mine the university’s efforts to recruit a UW-Madison is Native lege enrollment of American Indians diverse group of students to campus — a ground, home to twenty-two Indian jumped 80 percent from 1980 to 2000, troubling reality that puts it high among archaeological sites, including effigy according to an American Council of the priorities in Plan 2008, the UW’s mounds and ancient camps that shelter a Education annual report released last

24 ON WISCONSIN With only one American Indian among every 182 students on campus, it becomes essential for students like Brown to “walk two worlds” — to find ways of integrating into the majority culture while keeping touch with their heritage.

October. But success in college remains which families and students are making “When I called home to complain, my another matter: nationally, only about 38 decisions about college.” parents would say, ‘Well, if it’s that bad, percent of Native students who go to col- Cabrera says that even students who why don’t you come home?’ I ended up lege earn a degree — about the same have what it takes academically can not calling home after that,” she recalls. percentage as at UW-Madison. encounter problems at a place like UW- Feeling frustrated and alone, she Any number of factors might con- Madison, especially if they come from dropped out after two years. tribute to that disparity. Students leave rural communities that pale in size and A lot has changed since then. After college for a broad range of reasons, complexity to a large campus. Students marrying and having two children, Cald- including academic or financial trouble, from those communities may lack role well returned to UW-Green Bay to finish homesickness, or better opportunities models who can help prepare them and her bachelor’s degree and is back in elsewhere, and many situations are nurture them through the transition. Madison pursuing a PhD in curriculum beyond universities’ control. What hap- Cathy Caldwell MA’91 recalls how and instruction. This fall, her son will pens before students show up on campus difficult it was to leave her home on the enter UW-Madison as a junior, after also proves to be fundamental to their Menominee reservation in northeastern spending two years at the College of the success. “The true roots start at the sev- Wisconsin back in 1974, when almost no Menominee Nation — an option that enth or eighth grade,” says Alberto one from her high school went on to col- became available three years ago, when Cabrera MS’82, PhD’87, a professor of lege. At UW-Madison, she would hear the university and the tribe signed an education who studies why college stu- her roommate call home and be reas- articulation agreement that facilitates dents drop out. “That’s a critical point at sured that college was worth the effort. transfers from the tribal college.

SUMMER 2004 25 Wunk Sheek, a Ho-Chunk phrase signifying Indian people, is the largest American Indian student organization on campus, and its weekly meet- ings offer a chance to build community and share common experiences. “It’s like my second family,” one member says.

Also new is the People program, a But the alienation that Caldwell To a certain extent, all minority stu- promising series of pre-college courses experienced has not gone away. Espe- dents face that transition, but American that the university began in 1999. Stu- cially for the one in three American Indians have unique circumstances. dents enroll in the program as early as Indian students who come to UW-Madi- Although the UW-Madison Native com- the eighth grade, shoring up their aca- son from reservations, the sudden adap- munity is small, it’s immensely complex, demics and learning what it takes men- tation to living in a white-dominated including members of some thirty differ- tally and emotionally to make it in world can be difficult. “You’ve been sur- ent tribes and a spectrum of back- college. Among the first cohort of kids to rounded by family members and commu- grounds and experiences. Some are go through the program — part of a pilot nity who know your family, and many of enrolled members of their tribes, while project in inner-city Milwaukee — every the people you run into each day are others have little or no touch with tradi- one graduated from high school, and members of your tribe,” says Gary tional ways. And the stereotypes are twenty-four enrolled at UW-Madison. Sandefur, a sociology professor who is a strong. “People think you’re either a rich All but three are still on campus — an 88 member of the Chicksaw tribe. “Then casino Indian or a poor, alcoholic percent retention rate. The program has you come here, and you won’t even nec- Indian,” says David O’Connor x’05, an now been expanded to other school sys- essarily run into another American Ojibwe from the Bad River reservation tems, including tribal schools serving Indian all day long. It’s just a real sense in northern Wisconsin. Menominee and Ho-Chunk communities of loss for many people as they try to “The press hasn’t been kind to us; in Wisconsin. make that adjustment.” Hollywood hasn’t been very kind to us in

26 ON WISCONSIN let’s stay together how the uw is trying to keep students in school

Introductory courses in mathematics, chemistry, and psy- says it’s becoming more common for students to “stop chology are the basic building blocks of a lot of freshman- out,” rather than drop out, taking a few semesters off to year schedules. But in the wrong combination, they can work or tend to personal matters before returning. also be a recipe for disaster. The university did conduct a pilot project in the fall of After poring over hundreds of academic records, stu- 2002, tracking down some two dozen minority students dent affairs staff noticed that students who attempted who had left school. Mary Louise Gomez PhD’85, an edu- courses in all three of those subjects during the same cation professor and member of the university’s diversity semester often found themselves in hot water. Soon, when oversight committee who conducted the interviews, says students sign up for that challenging trifecta, they will get a few dominant threads emerged from her conversations. “It warning call from an adviser or administrator — one of the was a much more complex picture than I thought it would small ways in which the UW is trying to win the battle be,” she says. against attrition. Many students couldn’t name a particular reason for It’s called “just-in-time” intervention, and the university leaving, but instead cited a mosaic of individual circum- hopes to do more of it in the coming years. Student affairs stances and motives. “I was hoping that there would be an staff are working with several departments to help watch answer that had an easy, clear remedy. But I don’t think for telltale signs of difficulty among students, who may there’s a single fix that we can apply,” Gomez says. “We then be offered alternative courses or help from tutors. need to be as thoughtful and complex in our response as While such measures seem to push the envelope of students were in telling us their stories.” pushy, they reflect a trend toward making the university a To Bernice Durand, the associate vice chancellor who is more sheltering, protective place. That approach seems to leading the UW’s diversity efforts, such experiments illustrate work well in learning communities, where students respond the need to learn from students themselves what it will take to favorably to personalized relationships with faculty and staff. support them. She notes also that some promising programs “I think the very important factor there ... is that there are haven’t been in place long enough to show up in the six-year faculty and staff who are very well connected with students, graduation rates the university uses as a benchmark. who are concerned about them,” says Ruby Paredes, an “We might not know for a generation whether we’re on assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. “People are the right track,” she says. “There aren’t any quick fixes — invested in their success, and getting that kind of encour- it’s especially hard to change attitudes.” agement is critical.” — M.P. The hard part is applying troubleshooting outside the classroom, where many of the problems begin for students who drop out. Nearly six in ten of the students who leave the retention gap UW-Madison do so in good academic standing, but are According to long-term trends in graduation rates, minority drawn out by a constellation of other personal or social students drop out more frequently than their peers. issues. In those cases, the issues may be factors beyond the university’s control, such as family or medical emergen- % graduated after six years cies. Other defections, such as transfers to more suitable YEAR OF ENTRY ALL STUDENTS MINORITY STUDENTS academic programs, don’t necessarily impugn the job UW- 1992 74.2 51.3 Madison is doing. 1993 74.8 52.7 A particular challenge is determining the role climate plays, especially for minority students, who drop out in dis- 1994 76.7 53.1 proportionate numbers. One step that may help clarify the 1995 77.9 53.5 issues is to do exit interviews with students who leave. But 1996 77.6 51.2 there are logistical challenges, says Provost Peter Spear. 1997 78.8 56.4 “Many students don’t know that they’re leaving when they leave,” he says. “They go home for the summer, and they Source: UW-Madison Data Digest, 2003–04 don’t know then that they won’t return for the fall.” Also, he

SUMMER 2004 27 While David O’Connor, at right, says harassment of American Indian students does happen all too often, he believes it’s a sign of “a few bad apples spoiling the bunch.” He combats those negative influences by filling his social life with events such as a spring cookout for American Indian students — where he says he can focus on the “good apples.” depicting who we are; the American cur- place on campus where they feel really riculum hasn’t been very kind to us,” It’s a four-flight climb comfortable and safe, where they’re to the nosebleed heights of South Hall to says Aaron Bird Bear, who runs the Col- going to get validation.” find Aaron Bird Bear, and I’m lucky to lege of Letters and Science’s American The job has its frustrations, which catch him. As adviser, counselor, and may explain why Bird Bear is the fifth Indian Student Academic Services office. friend to the 152 American Indian under- person to hold the position since it was “All of those attitudes are brought to this graduates currently studying on campus, created in 1992. (Two of the five were campus, and as these young people are he’s a busy guy. “I go where the students interim advisers.) When he took the job, going through struggles with identity are,” he says. “I’m not in my office much.” a few students told him, “We’ll see how and expressing themselves, a lot of Bird Bear is something of a one-man long you last.” And the past year has Natives find that this is a really difficult retention force, connecting students with been one of those times that try his forti- climate to endure.” He says those issues, everything from a calculus tutor to a ride tude. During the spring semester, a con- more often than academics, are what home for spring break. When he was make students want to leave. “They just tentious Dane County referendum over a hired four years ago, after studying engi- proposed casino in Madison put Ameri- never quite adjust to the climate, and neering at the U.S. Naval Academy and can Indian students at the middle of a they end up going somewhere else.” a short stint as a snowboard instructor in raging debate over tribal rights and sov- In the face of such challenges, Bird the Colorado Rockies, he pledged to ereignty. (The measure, which would Bear says, “the best goal we have is maintain face-to-face contact with every have allowed the Ho-Chunk Nation to strengthening and empowering our com- Native student on campus. He reckons expand a current bingo hall into a full- munity.” Even among the small popula- he’s now seen about 127. “I know when blown casino, was soundly defeated.) tion of Natives on campus, he says, there they arrive on campus, and I go track “People tended to ask the first Indian is still strength in numbers. them down,” he says. “They need some- they ran into, ‘What do you think about

28 ON WISCONSIN this?’ And a lot of them wanted to argue for all incoming American Indian stu- finger, he says, “I told them, ‘I’m just about it,” Sandefur says. “When you dents. “It was to help me, as well — to going to show up. Don’t worry about have an issue like that, it brings the kind cope with the things I was encountering.” me.’ But they secretly got together and of attention to Indian students that they did this. And that made me happy, don’t necessarily want.” because I didn’t think I left that much of Perhaps not accidentally, more inci- On a chilly Sunday an impact on the UW campus.” dents of harassment against Native stu- in early April, I head to the Kohl Cen- But Aragon may have been the voice dents were reported in the past three ter’s practice arena to see that commu- American Indian students needed to hear months than during any period Bird nity for myself. Wunk Sheek’s annual to embolden their own. Since the inci- Bear has been on campus. “We’ve had a powwow is perhaps the most complete dent, Milligan-Myhre, who didn’t adver- tough year,” he says. picture of Indian community on campus. tise her heritage during her first four It only got worse with Kyle Aragon’s For most Natives, community means years on campus, has become an outspo- departure. Around the offices of Wunk more than just people of the same gener- ken advocate for students. Casey Brown Sheek, UW-Madison’s main American ation hanging out together: it’s kids and has found something within himself, too. Indian student organization, there was parents, friends, neighbors, strangers, He says he understands now what his more anger than shock. “We all know dogs, food, music, and arts. The pow- father was trying to tell him by taking people who have had bad things happen wow is all that. To the heartbeat rhythm him to all those effigy mounds. “Over the to them, but that’s the one that pushed of five drum circles, some two hundred course of this semester, I’ve realized how me over the edge,” says Kathy Milligan- dancers, singers, and spectators mingle, important my traditions are,” he says. Myhre, a microbiology graduate student swapping stories between traditional As we talk, Brown pulls his hair from Alaska’s Inupiaq tribe. “It was the dances. The event runs on well into away from his face. For as long as he can straw that broke the camel’s back.” evening. After a long year, the whole day remember, he’s worn it short, and he’s But it also proved to be a thread that feels like a big smile. not used to having it droop down over tied the community together, rallying There, I see Kyle Aragon, whom his eyes. But this time, he’s going to let it them to a cause that they say ultimately Wunk Sheek named as an honorary grow. “I feel like if I cut it now, I’d be let- may improve the environment for dancer for the event, enabling him to ting down Kyle,” he says. “I don’t want Native students. Wunk Sheek organized make the trip back to Madison. Decked to hide anymore.” a series of chat rooms, where elders from out in traditional clothing, with silver local Indian communities reassured stu- around his neck and waist and on every Michael Penn MA’97 is co-editor of On dents that recent incidents were not the end of the world. “It wasn’t just the students, it was faculty members, the community,” says Wunk Sheek member Lina Martin x’05. “Everybody just started to really look out for each other even more.” In recent years, UW-Madison has grown rich with community-building experiments, particularly among students of color. The university’s diversity plan has spawned some new ideas, including a summer orientation for minority students and a multicultural learning community, which opened last year. But communities come in many forms, from formal organi- zations to informal study groups. The common thread is that students often seek out safe havens — places where they feel comfortable being themselves. “I tried to surround myself with peo- ple like me, who had similar experiences,” Adrienne Thunder, left, an adviser with the UW’s Cross-College Advising Service, congratulates says Dana Miller, who before graduating graduating senior Danielle James at a spring ceremony honoring twenty-nine American Indian in December organized a summer retreat students who earned degrees this year.

SUMMER 2004 29 IN CONTROL When their experiments involve human

Nancy Klein just wanted to feel better. Dying of cancer is hard, but living with it isn’t a whole lot easier, and Klein DA VID MCLIMANS had been living with breast cancer for a long time. First diagnosed in 1980, she’d had a mastectomy, gone through the treatments, and felt the relief of hearing the words in remission. But remission isn’t the same as cured. In 1998, the cancer returned, and more lymph nodes, and in stage three, the Klein did as her oncologist told her. daunting than before. It was metastasiz- tumor is greater than five centimeters She had the radiation, then went on ing. It had progressed to stage four. wide but hasn’t yet progressed to any tamoxifen for five years. She was part of Physicians speak of breast cancer in other organ. Stage four is metastatic can- the lucky 21 percent. She’s alive today, terms of its stages. Stage zero is when cer — the disease is spreading, first to the and at the age of fifty-three, in remission conditions in a woman’s breast favor the bones, usually, then to the brain. for a second time. But a lucky cancer development of the disease, but no tumor There is no stage five. patient is still a cancer patient. is evident. Stage one is a tumor less than Today, the survival rate for breast “After going through the treatments, two centimeters in diameter with no pen- cancer, when it’s caught in its early I felt an extreme amount of fatigue,” she etration of the lymph nodes. In stage two, stages, is 96 percent. Once the says. She couldn’t perform the daily the tumor has grown to between two and disease metastasizes, the rate drops tasks that she’d enjoyed, nor return to five centimeters or has begun to affect the to 21 percent. work as a special education teacher in

30 ON WISCONSIN subjects, researchers walk an ethical in those schools alone, including Woods’s exercise study for cancer patients, and tightrope — they must protect eight hundred new ones are added to the mix each year. There are also separate the rights of individuals while seeing IRBs for the College of Letters and Sci- them as an aggregate sample of ence and the School of Education. And in 2004, UW-Madison launched a new humanity as a whole. BY JOHN ALLEN “minimal risk” IRB to look just at studies that don’t involve potential medical risk but might violate subjects’ privacy — studies that look at, for instance, past medical records. Due to increases in funding from the Exercise Study and started recruiting National Institutes of Health and the women in stage four to participate. This pharmaceutical industry, Fost says, the was the study Klein wanted to join. number of experiments involving human It seemed like a perfect match: Klein subjects has increased at a pace of 5 to 10 wanted to feel better, and Woods and her percent a year for the last twenty years. colleagues wanted to help women like The Comprehensive Cancer Center, for Klein to feel better. And yet what the two example, lists twenty-two active clinical women wanted wasn’t exactly the same. trials for breast cancer alone. The McAr- The patient wanted improvement as an dle Lab for Cancer Research notes that individual, and the researcher wanted to its staff produced more than seventy arti- help women in general. While Woods did cles on their cancer studies in 2003. hope to see Klein increase in vitality, There are, of course, other diseases to more importantly she needed data, to see research as well, and the university has an aggregate improvement among all the people looking into many of them. women who took part in the study. All of this research activity can create Therein lies the essential quandary great potential for trouble, either per- about studies that involve human sub- ceived or real. “The press coverage of jects. When patients join an experiment, scientific experiments tends to focus on they hope to get better, but actually they the dark side,” says Fost. “You still hear Watertown. “I didn’t feel like I knew my sign up to be a statistic, and the differ- the term guinea pig thrown around a lot. body anymore,” she says. ence in focus between the individual and At the same time, the American public She had done everything that stan- the aggregate can be the source of ethical tends to have an overly rosy picture of dard medicine demanded, but still she felt and legal problems. As part of its effort to research, and many people believe it’s less than wholly alive. So when she heard address those problems, the UW depends better to be in a study than to get stan- about a UW study that might help, she on its institutional review boards, and on dard treatment. Both views are oversim- told her doctor that she wanted to join. the experience of Norman Fost. plifications.” Teresa Woods, a professor at the Wis- As human-subject research consin Psychiatric Clinic and the “Human-subject research,” increases, concern with bioethics must HealthEmotions Research Insititute, had says Fost, “is a growth industry around grow alongside it, and Fost has long a hypothesis that she wanted to test. She here.” been directing that growth. Arriving at believed that if women with stage-four A pediatrician by training, Fost has UW-Madison in 1973, he virtually cre- cancer began performing supervised built his career around bioethics. He ated the university’s medical ethics pro- exercise, they would improve both their chairs UW-Madison’s institutional gram. He’s worked to include ethics physical and mental health. The idea was review board (IRB) for the health sci- education in the UW’s medicine-related intriguing, if counterintuitive: it required ences, which means it’s his job to ensure fields — not just on the health sciences asking women to put their weakened that all the human-subject research that IRB, which he’s chaired since 1977, but bones and bodies through yet more comes out of the hospital, Medical through the graduate and undergraduate strain. So Woods, in collaboration with School, School of Nursing, and School of ethics courses he teaches every year. the Sports Medicine Center and the kine- Pharmacy receives careful review. He “For most faculty, being on an institu- siology department, put together what’s estimates that there are currently two tional review board is a sideline,” he called the Metastatic Breast Cancer and thousand active human-subject protocols says. “It’s a major part of my career.”

SUMMER 2004 31 Fost was a resident at Johns Hop- nearly twelve thousand words, but what When Fost first became chair of the kins University in 1966 when America’s it boils down to, essentially, is this: health sciences IRB, its staff numbered scientific community suffered an ethical researchers must see to it that risk to “exactly one, plus a clerical person to earthquake. A physician named Henry subjects is reasonable in relation to possi- help keep track of everything,” he says. Beecher published an article in the New ble benefits; subjects must be selected in Today, there is a full-time staff of ten England Journal of Medicine entitled an equitable manner; and before devoted specifically to IRB work, plus “Ethics in Clinical Research,” though researchers can do anything to them, additional aid from graduate students. what it revealed was anything but. subjects — or their surrogates — must That doesn’t count the actual members of Beecher highlighted dozens of recent give their informed consent. This last the health sciences board — twenty-five cases in which scientists deceived their item can be the most difficult. Since from within and outside the science com- subjects, subjected newborn babies to experiments are based on hypotheses munity. multiple x-rays, or injected live hepatitis and assumptions, the researchers can’t be Every research protocol must receive virus into mentally impaired children. certain what to expect, either in general the IRB’s approval at least once a year. “It was a bombshell,” says Fost. “It or for each specific subject. Typically, when a researcher wants to had a tremendous effect.” And it was Still, the law requires scientists to do begin a study, he or she draws up a pro- part of what gave Fost his calling. certain things — to give the subjects an tocol — a description of the hypothesis When Beecher’s article was pub- explanation of the purpose of their and experimental design, as well as an lished, there was no public oversight research, a description of the procedure, assurance of how the study will protect governing research, though this was an assessment of foreseeable risks and both the safety and privacy of its sub- about to change. In 1974, shortly after benefits, disclosure of alternative courses jects. The researcher then submits Fost joined UW-Madison’s faculty, the of treatment, and assurance that partici- twenty-five copies of the protocol to the federal government began to develop pation is voluntary, that the subjects may board. The IRB’s staff writes a series of what’s known as the Common Rule, the refuse or withdraw without penalty. reviews of the protocol, evaluating how regulation that, with a few alterations The enforcer of the Common Rule is they feel it measures up to ethical and over the last three decades, still governs the IRB — every institution that receives regulatory standards, to assist the board how American research is carried out. federal aid for its research must have at in its review. At its biweekly meetings, The full name of the rule is Title 45 least one. An IRB’s goal, according to the board reviews each protocol and then (Public Welfare), Part 46 (Protection of Fost, is “to look at the experimental design votes either to approve it or to hold it Human Subjects), of the Department of and determine, first, whether anything can over for further review. Health and Human Services Code of be learned from the study, and second, While the board serves as a filter Federal Regulations. It contains four whether the information given to the sub- against bad studies, its major effect is to subparts and forty-six subsections, and jects is complete, clear, and candid.” act as a tutor to help researchers under-

PROTECTION FROM EXPLOITATION: Key Developments in the History of Human-Subject Research 1947: Nuremberg Code designed to diagnose or aid Health begins requiring research Congress passes the National After World War II, the experiments patients, and non-therapeutic organizations and universities to Research Act, making the Common conducted in Nazi concentration research, which is chiefly designed create institutional review boards to Rule for the protection of human camps come to light. In reaction, to advance science and does not look into all federally funded subjects a federal regulation. the scientific community creates offer direct diagnostic or therapeutic research involving human subjects. 1979: The Belmont Report the Nuremberg Code, ten princi- value to its subjects. “In research on 1974: The Tuskegee A National Commission for the Pro- ples for the conduct of ethical man,” it states, “the interest of sci- Syphilis Study tection of Human Subjects of Bio- human-subject research. These ence and society should never take The New York Times publishes a medical and Behavioral Research include gaining voluntary consent precedence over considerations story revealing the existence of a releases a report, named for the from subjects and avoiding unnec- related to the well-being of the sub- four-decade examination of the pro- Smithsonian’s Belmont Conference essary pain and suffering. ject.” The declaration has since gressive effects of syphilis. Some Center, defining ethical research as been revised five times. 1964: The Helsinki Declaration four hundred African-American men that which maintains respect for per- The eighteenth World Medical 1966: The first IRBs were enrolled in the study in 1932, sons, is beneficent, and is just. Assembly issues a statement of The New England Journal of Medi- and although all of them had Researchers are required to seek recommendations guiding physi- cine publishes Henry Beecher’s syphilis, they were told only that informed consent, to give an cians in biomedical research involv- “Ethics in Clinical Research,” which they had “bad blood” and were assessment of risk and benefit, and ing human subjects. The describes twenty-two unethical, given no treatment. The govern- to be equitable in selecting subjects. declaration defines the difference harmful, and even “bizarre” studies. ment would apologize to the surviv- between medical research, which is In reaction, the National Institutes of ing men in 1997. In reaction,

32 ON WISCONSIN P stand ethical and legal principles so that ASKUS STUDIO they can construct experiments that pro- duce scientifically valid data and respect the rights of individuals. “Outright rejec- tion almost never happens,” says Fost. “Out of every thirty new protocols, prob- ably between one and three will be held over for further review because the issues they involve are complicated. The other twenty-seven will be approved, usually with modifications. Even the ones that need further review are virtu- ally all eventually resolved.” But academic issues of scientific valid- ity, ethics, and the law can become mud- dled in the public eye, particularly when crossed with a more emotional question: do the researchers give the subjects what they want and think they need? Experiments are all about isolating the one variable that makes a difference. This is the principle that underlies the classic experimental design, Cathy Burt, left, and her fellow exercise leaders were the chief point which ideally works like this: a scientist of contact for Nancy Klein and the other women who took part in the comes up with a hypothesis, X will cause breast cancer and exercise study. Burt and Klein maintain a close rela- tionship, while investigators like Woods can keep a more dispassion- Y. He or she then collects a certain popu- ate distance when examining data. lation (the subjects) and randomly divides them into two statistically identi- cal sets. One set, the experimental group, undergoes X — an exercise regimen, for The data the research team is pro- trol group that they could help best by instance. The other set, the control ducing will add one more tile to the remaining sedentary. group, does not. If the experimental broad mosaic that researchers are con- “It was hard,” she says. “Some of the group shows a greater propensity for Y structing in their effort to understand the control-group women dropped out right (say, an improvement in physical and relationship exercise can play in treating away — maybe 20 to 30 percent, which mental health, as defined by strength and breast cancer. For the last seven years, isn’t uncommon for a study. A lot of peo- endurance tests and psychometric UW-Madison’s HealthEmotions ple come in with an attitude of ‘Either I exams), then the hypothesis is supported: Research Institute has been conducting do the exercise study or I drop out.’ ” X probably does cause Y. exercise studies with women at earlier While she says that ethically, she Woods’s breast cancer study may stages of the disease, and some of those couldn’t force the control-group women eventually follow this design, though it studies continued beyond the feasibility not to exercise at all, she knew the study doesn’t now. For the moment, she’s run- stage to run classic experimental/control needed that data as a point of compari- ning a feasibility study, which means that protocols. son if it was to prove anything. “We all she doesn’t expect to produce definitive Cathy Burt ’98, an exercise specialist knew in our gut that this was helping the data proving quantitatively how exercise with the Sports Medicine Center, served women,” she says. “Even though I hadn’t does or doesn’t benefit women with stage- as an exercise leader with the earlier seen the numbers, I knew. But this is one four cancer, but rather whether such studies and fills the same role for Woods. of the criticisms with research. Unless patients are capable of completing the pro- Burt and her fellow exercise leaders have you have hard data, you can’t say tocol. “All we’re trying to learn is whether been responsible for working closely unequivocally that your therapy has had it’s feasible for women to do this,” she says. with the subjects, taking them through a positive effect.” So far, the number of subjects has been their physical assessments and helping to Woods’s feasibility study has been small — Woods has run three cohorts of design their exercise programs. In the self-controlled — the subjects are women through the process, each with no earlier studies, it was Burt’s job to tell the assessed before they begin the exercise more than ten women. women who’d been assigned to the con- Continued on page 62

SUMMER 2004 33 program, again during, and again after If I could somehow decide whether I’d be in the they finish. The pre-experiment data serve as the control, a baseline by which experimental or placebo group, I’d pick the placebo. researchers can gauge each subject’s improvement. If the women feel stronger to about thirty-five, thanks in large part be passive conduct or non-invasive con- and more upbeat at the end of the study, to new, aggressive treatments. duct — but it is ‘conduct’ nevertheless,” it would indicate that exercise is benefi- Taking blood samples from new- the Andes and their attorneys wrote in cial. However, one disadvantage to a self- borns, researchers divided them into two their complaint. “It still involves the same controlled study is that it’s difficult to groups, experimental and control. All the result, that is, unnecessary and inten- prove that the hypothesis is the sole samples were tested for CF, and the par- tional injury to the person.” cause of change. For instance, skeptics ents of the children in the experimental Since by 1991, the doctors believed may argue that the women in Woods’s group were immediately contacted and that early intervention was helping the study showed improvement simply offered treatment if their test was posi- children, the argument runs, their duty because more time had passed since their tive. Those samples in the control group to the individuals involved in the study initial cancer treatments. weren’t tested until four years later. Most outweighed their need to gain further Nevertheless, Woods is considering families with CF children in this group information in the aggregate. By not keeping that self-controlled model when found out in the usual way: in time, typi- notifying them about C.E.A.’s condition, she expands her study, as asking women cally before the children were four years the Andes believed, the researchers had to join the study and yet remain seden- old, symptoms presented. violated their rights to due process and tary would make recruiting “a tougher During the first few years of the had committed malpractice. sell,” she admits. “Nobody wants to be in study, researchers found that early The law didn’t see it that way. From the control group.” screening seemed to provide nutritional the Dane County Circuit Court all the benefits. In 1991, they published an arti- way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which This highlights a potential cle in the American Journal of Clinical declined to take up the Andes’ case in problem for researchers: to many sub- Nutrition stating that “the majority of January 2003, judges repeatedly jects, being stuck in a control group feels infants with CF, when they are diag- rejected their claim. like being deprived of care. Norman Fost nosed via neonatal screening and Meanwhile, though the legal judg- knows this problem well. Until a year managed with appropriate dietary inter- ments have been consistent, the verdict ago, he was a lead player in a drama that vention and supplements,” showed a of science has altered. The benefits of challenged the role of the control group delayed onset of the nutritional effects of early screening now appear much less in human-subject research. the disease. There were no apparent conclusive. “Ten years later,” says Fost, In 1985, the UW embarked on an drawbacks, except that some children “when we look at the children who had ambitious piece of research, under the registered a false positive, causing their early screening, some of them are doing direction of Medical School dean Philip families unnecessary anxiety. worse.” The CF children who received Farrell. The Wisconsin Cystic Fibrosis It seemed like a pretty good system the intervention were much more likely Neonatal Screening Project, hailed by — except to Charles and Linda Ande, than those in the control group to be the university as the “gold standard of whose daughter, known now in legal cir- infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pediatric clinical trial designs,” began cles as C.E.A., was born with CF in bacterium implicated in 90 percent of all testing children — 650,000 of them over 1993. C.E.A. was randomly assigned to CF deaths. Even the researchers were the course of a decade — for cystic fibro- the control group, and her parents didn’t surprised by the turn. But, says Fost, sis (CF), one of the most common deadly learn that she was sick until she was “that’s why we do the studies.” genetic diseases. Fost was one of the UW nearly two. By that time, they had con- And this shows what most people study’s investigators, and among the ceived another child, who also turned out don’t really understand about scientific hypotheses that it looked at was whether to have CF. studies, says Fost. No matter how com- identifying CF children at birth and giv- When they learned about the study, monsensical the hypothesis may sound, ing them earlier intervention would help the Andes became upset. Alleging that the likelihood is that it’s got something them live longer, healthier lives. CF their daughter had been “unknowingly wrong. He estimates that only between 5 causes mucus to build up in a person’s chosen to be a human guinea pig in a and 10 percent of new therapies succeed. lungs, pancreas, and liver, putting him or state-run human-research project,” they During the years of the CF court her at great risk of pulmonary and diges- filed suit against the study and its spon- cases, he had to put up with “almost uni- tive disorders. The average life span of sors, naming Fost and Farrell among the versally bad press” about the study the disease’s victims has risen over the defendants. “Failure to provide the treat- because people felt that it treated the last few decades from less than five years ment to the controls, or at least to pro- control group children with indifference. vide the information to the controls, may “The common reaction of the media is

34 ON WISCONSIN that the non-screened group was some- Aware of the danger, Woods has pro- areas, and when assessed again in June how getting the short end of the stick — ceeded with caution. She says that, as and November, she was maintaining that being in a control group is somehow her subjects are so physically compro- much of the improvement. She was so getting the short end of the stick,” he mised, she and her colleagues have been impressed that she joined her local ath- says. “But a control group almost always scrupulous about getting their physicians letic club and continues to meet with does better. If I were in a clinical trial to sign off on participation. But many other women from her cohort — even and could somehow decide whether I’d doctors are reluctant to place their though three of those seven women have be put in the experimental group or the patients into an experimental program, died since the study ended. placebo group, I’d pick the placebo.” and so finding subjects has been an Stage four, after all, is the end of the ongoing struggle. road. Norman Fost’s experience “We’re still recruiting,” says Woods, Still, Klein believes that her road is with the CF study provides a cautionary “but not at the rate we had hoped. It’s lengthening. “It was a challenge at first,” tale for those conducting human-subject been difficult finding physicians who are she says. “The fatigue is always a chal- research. A scientist may do no actual willing to refer their patients. Their lenge. But by the end, I knew I could do harm and yet pay the price for acting response has been bimodal — some are this stuff again. Maybe I wasn’t achieving in a way that’s perceived to be unfair. thrilled to help us, of course, but others super feats of endurance, but I learned a Researchers must be especially careful think we’re crazy.” lot about myself as a woman, and I when their subjects are in a position to For Nancy Klein, Woods’s crazy plan learned that my condition is something I take on more risk than they aree aware of seems to work. It was “an absolutely out- can live with and shape a life around.” — for instance, when they’re children or, standing experience,” Klein says. Before For Klein, living with cancer became as in the case of Teresa Woods’s Metasta- she entered the study in October 2002, easier. But will what worked for her tic Breast Cancer and Exercise Study, researchers assessed her emotional state, work for others? That depends on when they suffer from a severe illness. heart rate, lifting strength, and walking whether Woods can collect enough expe- “People often join studies when they speed and endurance. The exercise lead- riences from individual subjects to find a have no other known effective treat- ers supervised her through a sixteen- broader truth. ment,” says Fost. “When they have can- week regimen of aerobic training. By cer, they are much more likely to want February 2003, she had improved in all John Allen is associate editor of On Wisconsin. experimental treatment.”

SUMMER 2004 35 Reclaiming

Alumni have worked hard to resolve a contentious dispute over what to do with the former Badger Ordnance Works near Bababoo.

By Susan Lampert Smith ’82

SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE A CLAIM TO THIS LAND. Consider the story of Mary Hill. When she died in 1945, she couldn’t be buried next to Jacob, her husband of fifty-four years, or their little girl, Verna, who died of diphtheria at age three. Their final resting place, the Pioneer Cemetery, had been swallowed by the Badger Ordnance Works, a large parcel of land seized by the U.S. Army for use as an ammunition plant during World War II. The separate burials weighed on the family, says Marcia Colby, who is married to Jacob and Mary Hill’s great-grandson, Tim Colby, and works on the family’s fifth-generation dairy farm just outside the plant’s fence. If you’ve ever driven over the Baraboo Hills on Highway 12, you’ve seen the dilapidated industrial complex of the former Badger Ordnance

34 ON WISCONSIN ng Badger

ANDY KRAUSHAAR Works, which sprawls across the plain frequently heroic, always interesting his- looking like an Eastern European factory tory of this unique Wisconsin landscape from the Cold War era. is being written. It is proving to be as However, the land upon which the controversial a chapter as all the others Badger Ordnance Works was built is one in the long history of this land, and it is of Wisconsin’s most significant natural evolving with the help of a number of landscapes. Its 7,354 acres encompass local leaders with UW-Madison ties. what was once a broad prairie with Under the current plan, the U.S. gov- islands of oak savanna, where ancient ernment is expected to transfer the land people lived and hunted; the high, in roughly three equal pieces to the Ho- wooded bluffs at the southern edge of the Chunk Nation, the Wisconsin Depart- Baraboo Range; and a view to the banks ment of Natural Resources (DNR), and of the Wisconsin River, with its shining the USDA for its existing Dairy Forage and shifting sandbars. Research Center, which is operated in It’s perhaps best known to UW partnership with UW-Madison. At press alumni as the site of Badger Village, time, the parties were still working out which helped house the influx of veter- details involving the allocation of land, ans attending the university after World the creation of a rail easement through War II (see story, page 37). Most of the the property, and the final wording of a complex was thrown up in haste in 1941 memorandum of understanding. and 1942, as the nation equipped itself to In her years working on the issue fight that war. But in 1997, the army of Badger’s future, Marcia Colby has decided it no longer needed the property, learned that many people have passion- which had been largely closed since the ate — and often conflicting — histories end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Since with the plant. then, a small group of employees has These include the Ho-Chunk people, maintained the buildings and begun who count the plant as part of the vast some cleanup and demolition work. Wisconsin lands they lost during fraudu- The task of deciding how to use the lent treaty making. Because the plant is land was thrown to the people. Sud- considered surplus federal land, the tribe denly, another chapter in the often tragic, has a claim on it. JILL METCOFF

Slides like the one above provided workers a quick escape in case of fire at the Badger Ordnance Works. Top: the buildings at Badger have been in slow decay since the plant was mothballed nearly thirty years ago.

SUMMER 2004 35 ZANE WILLIAMS It seemed that Bad- ger was heading for a future rooted in yet more controversy and bitterness.

These photos, which show in striking detail the history of the Badger Ordnance Works, are part of a traveling exhibit called Inside the Fence. The collection combines the work of several area photographers. Many of the Inside the Fence pictures are currently on display at the Sauk County Courthouse administrative building in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

They were followed by those who ANDY KRAUSHAAR tionists who saw the army’s abandon- established productive farms on the rich ment of Badger as an unprecedented prairie soil. When the U.S. government opportunity to restore a giant piece of needed land for the war effort, it seized land connecting the Wisconsin River and the farms of eighty-five families. the Baraboo Hills. And then there were Then there were the more than thirty those who wanted the buildings to spur thousand workers who saw making industrial development and jobs in rocket propellants and ammunition as Sauk County. their patriotic contribution. Michael Goc, To paraphrase retired state historian author of the Badger history Powder, People Jack Holzhueter ’57, MA’66, nearly every and Place, counts at least twenty-three family in Wisconsin seems to have some deaths of Badger workers, ten in explo- sort of personal connection to Badger. It’s sions and the rest in other types of indus- no wonder that even the current degree of trial and vehicle accidents at the plant. resolution appeared unlikely in the late And its neighbors have suffered, too, 1990s, when it seemed that Badger was from water contaminated by chemicals heading for a future rooted in yet more seeping from the plant. Also at the table controversy and bitterness. A hastily to decide Badger’s future were conserva- devised plan to divide up the property —

36 ON WISCONSIN RememberingBadger Village

The late Doc (Venor J.) Peckham ’48, MS’51 and his spouse, Lindy, UW

were among the thousands of married couples who flooded cam- -MADISON ARCHIVES (2) puses after World War II, attending college on the GI Bill. Because housing in Madison was scarce, especially for married students, the university ended up locating the Peckhams and hun- dreds of others thirty-five miles west of Madison, at the Badger Vil- lage apartments recently vacated by the war-era workforce. It might not have had the romance of life along Langdon Street, but the thousands of Wisconsin students who called it home between 1946 and 1952 loved it. Those students included future governor Lee Dreyfus ’49, MA’52, PhD’58 and his spouse, Joyce, as well as flamboyant attorney Ken Hur LLB’51, who served for a time as the village’s justice of the peace. The UW decided to lease housing at Badger Village because it was ideally set up for married students, with its school, playgrounds, post office, and community center. The university also acquired a Badger also offered an acclaimed elementary school, a kindergarten fleet of thirty-five worn-out school buses to haul students back and for four-year-olds, and a nursery school. forth over hilly Highway 12 to Madison, beginning each day’s first “If you had a problem, there were always experts around,” she run shortly after 6 a.m. says, recalling that when one of her children had trouble with stut- One male student described the ride to Michael Goc, author of a tering, she consulted psychology graduate students living nearby for Badger history called Powder, People and Place, like this: “Remem- advice. One of the students advised the Peckhams to “ease up, slow ber, these were school buses for school kids … you sat crunched in a down, and lower our expectations.” The stuttering got better. seat with your knees against the seat in front.” “Since we were mostly poverty stricken, we had fun times on a Lindy Peckham remembers that while the men were gone to shoestring and a keg of beer,” Lindy Peckham recalls. “When stu- Madison all day, life at Badger was a whirl of social activities with dents graduated and moved out, lots of them just set their overly other young mothers. “We were all having babies,’’ says Peckham, used furniture on the curb for pickup by anyone in need.” who had her third child at the Baraboo hospital while living at Bad- Helen Wick ’46 and her spouse, John ’48, MBA’49, lived at the ger. “They called it Rabbitville.’’ complex in 1951 and 1952, and recall another consequence of the Peckham says that green spaces between the buildings, where close quarters. “If someone had measles at one end of Badger, you’d women gathered to hang laundry on the clotheslines, served as the get it at the other end,” she says. But she also remembers good times. area’s social centers. The children played and their mothers talked. “The philosophy of the veterans coming back from World War II was that they would get an education, have babies, and start a busi- ness, all at once,” Helen says. “No one worried if we could afford it.” The Wicks are a good example of that philosophy. John left the university just short of his PhD in business, and went on to found Wick Building Systems in Mazomanie. The Wicks also had their third child while living at Badger Village. Helen remembers the local police taking her to the hospital, because all the family had was a jeep — “not the best transportation for a woman about to have a baby.” Wayne Hatz, who is collecting video reminiscences from people who lived at Badger Village, says he’s heard enough stories about midnight runs to the hospital that he believes “80 percent of preg- nant ladies were taken to the hospital by police,” including Joyce Dreyfus, Wisconsin’s future first lady. He says that women who wor- ried about having babies so far from their own mothers soon found they had a support network of many other young mothers. “These women had tunnel vision about getting their husbands through school,” Hatz says. “One woman told me she’d do anything she could to make it easier for her husband to study and get his degree.” Welcome to Rabbitville: After World War II, Badger Village helped People interested in sharing their stories about life at Badger house UW-Madison’s own little baby boom as married students Village for the Badger History Project may contact Carol Sorg at (above) flocked to universities on the GI BIll. (608) 356-5883. — S.L.S.

SUMMER 2004 37 In 1941, the U.S. Army seized land for the Badger Ordnance Works, which would make ammunition to fight America’s wars. Though the plant closed in 1975, transforming the site has been tricky, especially as some 900 of the factory’s 1,400 buildings are considered to be contaminated by the chemicals used to make so many munitions. and use much of it for industry and com- their own view, but an alliance grew out Local conservationists and historians mercial purposes — foundered amid bick- of that — a cooperative spirit, and it was decided to sponsor a series of lectures ering and angry meetings. neat to see it evolve.’’ about the history of Badger. The first Then slowly, painstakingly, people Another committee member, Curt talk, by retired UW-Madison geologist worked to weave together a plan for the Meine MS’83, PhD’88, recalls a second Robert Dott, drew some three hundred land that would not only restore it to its turning point on a sub-zero January people to the high school on a Monday natural beauty, but would also seek to evening at the Sauk Prairie High School. night. Other UW speakers in the series heal the loss and anger that marked so ANDY KRAUSHAAR much of its past. Marcia Colby and others joined the Badger Re-Use Committee, formed by Sauk County to replace an earlier, appointed group that fell apart. She says a turning point came when U.S. Repre- sentative Tammy Baldwin JD’89 found money to hire Diane Adams MS’99 to act as a facilitator. Adams, who wrote her thesis on Badger, works for the Seat- tle-based EnviroIssues, which helps communities work through complex environmental problems. “I think it was the fact that she was impartial,’’ Colby says. “There was so much passion, and [the committee] was able to harness that energy into some- thing positive. It’s been an incredible process, where everyone began with

38 ON WISCONSIN ZANE WILLIAMS JILL METCOFF

“Most people look at Badger and see a bunch of beat-up buildings …”

Journal in Madison, has covered the Bad- way than to bequeath them a large and ger debate from the beginning. He says viable piece of Wisconsin’s original land- that one of the most difficult problems scape to love and to cherish in perpetuity.” has been getting people to perform a The re-use committee’s final report included Stanley Temple, of wildlife ecol- demanding leap of imagination. called for a mixture of future uses at ogy, and Bill Cronon ’76, of the history “Most people look at Badger and see Badger: ecological restoration, agricul- department. a bunch of beat-up buildings,” Seely says. ture, recreation, and education. It also “I think people were hungry for an “But Meine was asking them to look at called for active community involvement opportunity to learn, listen, and talk that plant and see the beauty and the nat- in the transition to these uses. The new about this place and the background of ural significance of the land beneath all owners (the DNR, the Ho-Chunk, and the issue,’’ says Meine, who lives in the clutter.” Even more difficult, Seely the Dairy Forage Research Center) are nearby Prairie du Sac. “That was the says, was that people were being asked to expected to work jointly to realize the moment when I first believed that we look beyond the divisive human history goals of the re-use plan. Cleaning up the could overcome the differences.’’ of the plant, beyond the loss of native contaminated land and ground water Meine, who also works for the Inter- lands and family farms, beyond the deep remain the responsibility of the army, national Crane Foundation and is author emotions from years of war. and that process is expected to take a of a biography of ecologist Aldo But slowly, with the patient dedication decade or more. In addition, most of the Leopold, is one of the unsung heroes of of people willing to sit through countless plant’s 1,400 buildings will be removed, the process. Although he has years of hours of meetings, a consensus began to and since about 900 are judged to be experience in international conservation emerge, nursed along by Meine and oth- contaminated, disposing of them will also issues, he notes that working with one’s ers. The key was to have the property’s prove a thorny issue. neighbors on such a contentious issue three separate owners cooperate on man- Meine thinks that Badger would can be much more difficult than, say, aging the tract as a single piece of land — present an excellent site for UW preparing a conservation plan for that is, as a natural area. Most conserva- researchers interested in re-using and Bulgaria. But ultimately, it may be tionists urged this approach, including reclaiming “brownfields,’’ contaminated more satisfying. UW-Madison botanists Hugh Iltis and former industrial sites. There’s also The committee’s challenge was to Donald Waller, who wrote a letter to area plenty of work for restoration ecologists. create a future for the Badger property newspapers in 1998. The plan is to restore at least a third of that reconciled past conflicts over the “Let us not divvy up the Badger land the land to native oak savanna and tall- land. And, says Meine, another goal was and squander this unique opportunity,” grass prairie. Meine notes that the 1,200- to “allow people to see this land through they wrote to the Wisconsin State Journal. acre UW Arboretum, where prairie the naturalist’s eye.’’ “We are, after all, here on this earth to do restoration began in the 1930s, is still a Ron Seely, a science and environ- but one simple thing, to be good ancestors work in progress, so restoring Badger ment reporter for the Wisconsin State to future generations. And what better will likely take generations.

SUMMER 2004 39 The Ho-Chunk are interested in grassland species, such as bobolinks, preserved the pasture,” he says. In other protecting cultural resources at Badger have declined by 90 percent as prairie words, as farms outside Badger’s fence and using some of their land for what and unplowed pastures disappeared. But modernized by using row crops and early would be the nation’s third buffalo pre- Mossman found ninety-five species of alfalfa cutting, the abandoned farmland serve. (For a vision of how the restored birds nesting in Badger’s unlikely setting, preserved the bird-friendly pastures of prairie would look with buffalo, see framed by old ammunition buildings and long-ago agriculture. Siberian artist Victor Bakhtin’s painting the slides that used to allow workers Mossman’s bird study helped change at www.SaukPrairievision.org.) And the quick escape in case of an explosion. Liv- the minds of those who wanted Badger USDA will use its part to support con- ing among the acid plant and the nitro- to be used as an industrial park. But tinued research on alfalfa and other dairy glycerine buildings were upland working at Badger also changed the forage crops. sandpipers, dickcissels, meadowlarks, researcher. Mossman is a wildlife ecolo- Already, Badger has spawned several and Henslow’s sparrows, to name a few. gist, but he found himself drawn to the projects by UW researchers and alumni. “One of the many ironies of Badger history of the place through his work Students from the Gaylord Nelson Insti- is that by taking over the farms, they with the Badger History Project. The tute for Environmental Studies partici- pated in several workdays to restore oak savannas inside the Badger fences. JILL METCOFF Meine says the army had to halt the work due to tightened security, but it will likely resume under the new owners. Other studies have involved wood recy- cling, large-scale prairie restoration, and the community decision-making process. Maybe the most important develop- ment so far was a 1998 study by Michael Mossman MS’84 of the Wisconsin DNR. Mossman found that the grassland between Badger’s dilapidated buildings has become an important refuge for endangered birds. His findings were sig- Badger’s 7,354 acres encompass what was once prairie with oak savanna. Top: Dave Fordham nificant, because some once-common came to the plant in 1971 and stayed to run the facility as the army phased out its use.

40 ON WISCONSIN JAMIE YOUNG

“… But Meine was asking them to see the beauty and the natural significance of the land beneath all the clutter.”

project led to worker reunions at the JILL METCOFF plant, film documentaries on life there, and a book. Pete Shrake, of the Sauk County Historical Society, says the opening of Badger probably had more impact on the county than any other twentieth-century event. Eventually, the history group hopes to realize one of the goals of the re-use plan to establish a museum near Badger’s front gate to tell the natural and human history of the site. “The stories of the workers, the dis- placed farmers, the employees who died in explosions, and the Vietnam War pro- enemy of those who wanted to restore how the family had sacrificed for the big- testers — all of that makes a neat story to Badger. Over time, Fordham changed, ger cause of Badger. tell,” Shrake says. He envisions that one and so did those who sparred with him, “You can’t give the local people there day, there will be trails leading through Meine says. “Through the process, people enough credit,” says the State Journal’s the restored prairie, with markers that tried to become bigger than what they Seely. “It would have been very easy to point out the former locations of ammu- were.” Before Fordham died in early simply give in to all the frustration and nition factories and old farmsteads, 2003, he had become a staunch advocate anger of past years. Instead, they took where the old garden flowers still bloom. of returning the land to prairie. the hard route, putting together a future Nearly everyone who was involved in Fordham also helped heal old that not only acknowledges the land’s the Badger Re-Use Committee process wounds. Marcia Colby says he worked human stories, but restores and protects changed in some way. Meine gets tears in to get the army’s permission to rebury a remarkable piece of Wisconsin’s natu- his eyes when he talks about the late Mary Hill next to her husband and ral landscape.” David Fordham, who came to the plant daughter. But when the permission in 1971 as an engineer and stayed on to finally came through, the family decided Susan Lampert Smith ’82 writes for the Wisconsin State run the facility as the army put it into it wasn’t that important anymore. Per- Journal and is a frequent contributor to On Wisconsin Magazine. mothballs. Because he represented the haps the important thing was that the army, Fordham was often cast as the army, in some way, had acknowledged

SUMMER 2004 41 For Badgers young and old, the centuries-old game of euchre is still aces.

BY BOB COOK

When juniors Mike Emer, Chris Huard, and Jeff Hall first time-honored interruptions of conversation and drink. And arrived at UW-Madison, the three friends from Appleton East because euchre doesn’t require a peg board, as cribbage does, High School lived in different residence halls, but all shared a it’s portable enough to play in a Northwoods cabin or bass typical Madison experience. To break the ice among the boat or dorm room. mostly new students on their floors, someone took out a deck Or even the remotest place on earth. Just ask James of cards, threw out every one but the nines, tens, jacks, Madsen ’82, chair of the physics department at UW-River queens, kings, and aces, and started recruiting players. Emer, Falls. A few years ago, Madsen spent six hours playing euchre who lived in Kronshage Hall, recalls the initiation. “We were while on a flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Antarc- playing hearts,” he says, “and someone came up and said, ‘I’ve tica, where he was headed to join a research team burying got a better game. How about euchre?’” light detectors in polar ice caps to seek out subatomic particles Euchre, like any card game, involves strategy and nuance, called neutrinos. Initiated by UW-Madison professor Francis rewarding experience and players’ attention to chance and Halzen, the project involves dozens of Wisconsin scientists — detail. Yet the game is stupefyingly easy to learn. It’s like a which makes it rife with euchre players. pared-down version of bridge, where players work in pairs to “It’s an easy game to kill time with,” says Madsen, who win tricks in a chosen suit, or trump. But there are no bids or played some euchre as an undergrad and sometimes plays with contracts, and only twenty-four cards to worry about. Games friends while ice fishing. “There’s a little bit of strategy, but not take only about fifteen or twenty minutes, depending on the enough that you can’t be sleep-deprived and still play it.”

42 ON WISCONSIN Which makes it perfect for college deck of cards was made in 1392 for invented by eighteenth-century central students. In Madison, bars and restau- France’s King Charles VI — who was European peasants peeved at their local rants along State Street offer euchre insane.) Cards are part of the Wiscon- head of state, is worth less than a ten. nights, where five bucks gets you a drink sin culture — several aspects of culture, Cribbage is played with a wooden and five hands. The Chadbourne Resi- really. There’s the well-chronicled Tav- pegboard, which logs what to the unini- dential College’s annual Olympic Games ern Culture, which offers the perfect tiated often look like undecipherable, — which pit residents in athletic and setting for shuffling the deck. But volleyball-like scores for each hand — skill competitions — include a euchre there’s also Deer Camp Culture and 15-2, 15-4, 15-6. It’s most associated event. So does the Dean’s Cup, the with the northern part of the state, espe- yearly showdown between students in cially deep in the heart of Packerland. the medical and law schools. Former Packer Jerry Kramer’s book, It’s no wonder that it took only a few Instant Replay, includes a memorable games freshman year before Emer, A relic of a game — some- diary entry about the game, written soon Huard, and Hall were hooked. Last after Kramer arrived for training camp spring, they even chartered their own thing grandparents taught before the 1967 season. “I’ve also got a campus euchre club. handful of books and, most important, “Everyone I’ve met from Madison to grandchildren over old my cribbage board,” Kramer writes. knows how to play or knows of the “Cribbage is the national pastime here; I game,” says Huard, fresh off of a round card tables — has not usually support myself in the game ... of euchre at Pizzeria Uno on State Street. [W]e try not to spend too much time in merely survived the video our rooms, except for playing cribbage age. It has thrived, even and sleeping.” ◆ The Deal But while sheepshead and cribbage have their hard-core adherents, euchre Euchre fits nicely into Wisconsin’s long among entertainment-savvy has the strongest case as King of Cards, history with cards. Like its affection for college students. Ace of Games, Queen in the Hearts of making and consuming beer, which didn’t Wisconsin card players. Ben Goebler, wane with Prohibition, the state’s passion the euchre columnist for two southwest- for euchre and other games never faded ern Wisconsin newspapers — and one when card-playing got a bad rap. of the few practitioners of euchre jour- After James Polk was elected presi- Ice-Fishing Shanty Culture, as well as nalism anywhere — says that he sees dent in 1844, for example, newly the Nineteenth-Century Social Culture, games at senior centers where people anointed First Lady Sarah Polk set all of which pushed card-playing into “come in wheelchairs and walkers so about to clean up the White House — the mainstream of Badger State life. they can get to the table.” and not with a whisk broom. A devout Eventually, parents sent their kids off Presbyterian, she banned dancing, alco- to Madison and other places, where hol, and card-playing at the executive they settled into Dorm Culture, Greek ♠ Turning Tricks mansion. Four years later, when Wis- House Culture, Off-Campus Apartment consin gained statehood near the end of Culture, and Student Bar Culture, There are a few variations, but more than Polk’s lone term, the state honored the where the main activity — killing time likely, a euchre game will look like this: famously expansionist executive by with groups of friends — goes well with four players in teams of two, each partner naming a county after him. But it hardly a round of cards. sitting across from the other to form a embraced Sarah Polk’s famously reduc- In particular, Wisconsin loves three square. Each player is dealt five cards tionist entertainment style. The new card games: sheepshead, cribbage, and from a twenty-four-card deck — only the state entered the Union drinking, danc- euchre. Sheepshead is popular in com- nines, tens, jacks, queens, kings, and aces ing, and, especially, playing cards. munities with a strong German back- are used. The remaining four cards sit Wisconsin never had the cardus ground, which is why in some places before the dealer, three face down, the top interruptus that overran other parts of you’ll still hear it called by its German card face up. It’s then up to the player to the nation, where some feared card- name, Schafkopf. The game’s rules are the dealer’s left to decide whether he or playing offered a gateway to the greater complicated for the beginner, but it’s she, with the help of his or her partner, debauchery of drinking, heavy petting, enough to think of it as a trump-bidding can win at least three out of five “tricks” and general moral turpitude. (Critics game in which the most powerful card is — rounds in which each player plays a love to note, for instance, that the first the queen. The king, as befits a game card, and the most powerful one wins. If

SUMMER 2004 43 RASHID (2) BOB

Journalism graduate students Mike Boyle, left, and Mike Schmierbach, far right, play a round with faculty members Katy Culver and Douglas McLeod in the Fireside Room of the University Club. J-school alumni — whose ranks may include as many intense card players as editors or writers — have a standing euchre game at professional conferences that has run for more than a decade.

that player passes, it goes on around the beginners constantly, but most people believed to have first brought the game table until someone either decides to order pick it up after a few hands. across the Atlantic. If you go to Yahoo’s the card up, making that suit trump, or The bowers also hint at the game’s euchre Web site and ask where the online everyone passes. Once trump is set, the roots. According to Pagat.com, bower players are from, for instance, you’ll get rounds play out, and the team that claims comes from the German Bauer, or peas- Indianas, Michigans, and Ohios — places the most tricks wins a point. ant, which was another name for the with lots of Amish and their descendants. Games go to ten points, and there jack. The game is widely thought to have But the game has clearly been in Wiscon- are plenty of variations on rules, scor- developed in the late eighteenth or early sin for some time: early histories of Madi- ing, and strategy. (For a primer, go to nineteenth centuries in the Alsace-Lor- son note euchre as a popular pastime the card-games Web site Pagat.com.) raine region along the French-German among the city’s first white settlers, who The trickiest part is figuring out the border. (An early spelling of euchre was came to town in the 1840s after its desig- bowers. The most powerful card, called the German Jücker.) Over time, the nation as the state capital. the “right bower,” is the jack of the game traveled around Europe, where But definitive works on euchre’s cul- trump suit. Second best, or the “left new versions and rules spawned. tural heritage are hard to find. Like a lot bower,” is the jack of the same-color According to Pagat.com, the joker was of leisure activities, it’s escaped the eye suit. So say someone calls spades: the created to serve as high trump for a of most historians, who probably con- jack of spades is the highest card and British version of the game. sider it too trivial for serious academic can win any trick, while the jack of In the United States, the Euchre Belt scrutiny. “Among the conservatively clubs becomes the second most lethal. mostly traces the westward movement of conceived academic disciplines, who The suit-shifting left bower trips up the Pennsylvania Dutch, who are would pay attention to this stuff?” asks

44 ON WISCONSIN Jim Leary, director of UW-Madison’s eight members, sometimes players have King of Hearts folklore program. to wait a while to get on a team. Goe- ♥ For one, Leary. As a senior in high bler’s Mount Vernon team has a waiting So simple, so competitive, so danger- school in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, he list of three, down from seven, but that ously alluring, euchre hooks converts spent weekends ignoring the legacy was before Mount Vernon got a second like a prize muskie. That happened to of Sarah Polk by hanging out in local team, he says. John Schmid, Jr. JD’69, a senior part- taverns, drinking a few beers, and play- The Sugar River league is about ner with Axley Brynelson in Madison, ing euchre as a warm-up to an evening more than cards: it’s a social club as unit- whose law firm biography states that he of dancing. In 2001, he formed the ing as the Elks or American Legion. For is “known as someone who has never Center for the Study of Upper Mid- example, when a player dies, Goebler turned his back on a cribbage board or western Cultures to coordinate research says, the league gives a cash donation to game of euchre.” Schmid grew up in on things like euchre, which he says the deceased’s memorial fund. (Goebler Erie, Pennsylvania, and managed to are part of what makes the Upper Mid- shared this right after attending, with duck the card bug both as an undergrad- west unique. other Sugar River players, the funeral of uate at Beloit College and as a law stu- a fellow league member.) On a lighter dent. What got him wise to the ways of note, if a player gets “skunked” — that Wisconsin card games were fishing trips is, loses a game ten to nothing — with friends who were natives of the ♣Trumped Up Goebler makes up a “skunk card” for state. “I used to play a lot of bridge,” he a public presentation. says. But euchre “is quick, and it’s easier Leary says Wisconsin’s devotion to the As a chronicler of the game, Goebler to keep track of the cards. game doesn’t come from the Pennsylva- is perhaps no Roger Angell, but he pulls “When we aren’t in a boat,” Schmid nia Dutch so much as from its high no punches, even against his own team. says, “we’re playing euchre.” concentration of Norwegian immi- “Mount Vernon, at one time, was almost All of which points toward euchre’s grants. That connection may explain unbeatable,” he wrote in December amazing durability. A relic of a game — why the most intense euchre action in 2003, “but with new and somewhat inex- something grandparents taught to grand- the state fires up around the heavily perienced players, it has been a tough children over old card tables — has not Norsk regions southwest of Madison — merely survived the video age. It has the same towns that provide readers for thrived, even among entertainment- Ben Goebler’s euchre column in the savvy college students, by being just Mount Horeb Mail and New Glarus Post- interesting enough to keep doing. Messenger. “I used to play a lot of When Emer, Huard, and Hall Since 1930, these towns have been formed Bower Power — which last year part of what is called the Sugar River bridge,” says one player. was an officially registered student Euchre League. Originally, says Goebler, organization — they didn’t have tourna- teams went from house to house once a But euchre “is quick, and ments or big spectacles in mind. They week from October to April — from just wanted a way to make contact with after harvest to before planting. Eventu- it’s easier to keep track more players. And although they say ally, the league’s teams were hosted and Bower Power is currently on hiatus, that sponsored by taverns in the participating of the cards. When we doesn’t mean cards are on the outs. Emer burgs of Mount Horeb, Verona, New and four roommates (who don’t include Glarus, Hollandale, Blue Mounds, and aren’t in a boat, we’re Huard or Hall) spent the past winter Belleville, with Sauk City, Basco, and break building an eight-person card table even Madison sending teams from time playing euchre.” for their off-campus house. The prime to time, says Goebler, the league’s unoffi- event will be weekly poker nights, but the table hosts euchre as well. cial curator. Now seventy-seven, he has “Euchre, it’s a simple game for sure,” played in the league since 1948 and cap- Emer says. “There’s more socializing and tained a team from his native Mount Ver- talking. It’s more automatic — you can non since 1951. row to hoe as Captain Goebler’s just play.” Most league players are in their Hayshakers lost their fourth game last fifties and sixties, Goebler says, Thursday night.” although that isn’t a sign that younger “The reason euchre is so popular,” Bob Cook, a regular commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and sports columnist for generations don’t play the game. With a Goebler says, “is because it’s only a five- Flak magazine (www.flakmag.com), has lived in the maximum of twelve teams, each having card game, and it’s just so competitive.” euchre-rich portions of Michigan, Indiana, and

SUMMER 2004 45 SPORTS

The Kindest Cut Athletes often go great lengths — and short ones — to help others.

Badger athletes typically give up a UW SPOR TEAM PLAYER lot to compete. But along with

Boo Gillette the usual loss of sleep and free TS INFORMATION (7) time, there’s another sacrifice Five things to know about soft- apparent among the women’s ball player Boo Gillette x’05: crew this season. A few rowers • The team’s starting catcher, are tearing their hair out — liter- she leads the Badgers in ally — for a good cause. runs batted in and has a Team captain Beth Redfearn batting average above .350 x’05, for example, has lost the this year. long, blond ponytail she wore last • During a game this spring season. She donated eleven against Michigan State, inches of her hair to Locks with the Badgers of Love, a charity that trailing 6-0, she provides financially hit a grand slam Acts of kindness from several members of the UW women’s crew disadvantaged chil- and knocked in made waves recently — but for many UW athletes, giving back is an dren suffering from six runs to spark essential part of the game. long-term hair loss a dramatic with custom-fitted comeback. UW Among Badger athletes, Big Red Life Skills program, wigs. She was inspired won, 11-8. charity runs more than just scalp- which helps promote leadership • A natural leader who by photos she saw of the deep. Members of all twenty- among student-athletes. Part of was voted a team captain as children on the Locks of Love three varsity sports participate in an NCAA initiative begun in a sophomore, she is president Web site in 2002 and decided to community service, whether 1991 to encourage academic of the UW’s Student-Athlete take action. building houses for Habitat for excellence, community service, Advisory Board, which repre- “It seemed like such a sim- Humanity, speaking to children and personal development, the sents nearly eight hundred ple way to help someone else,” at banquets, or serving meals at program helps athletes find student-athletes. Last year, Redfearn says. “I realized how senior centers. And while their opportunities to fit community she was Wisconsin’s repre- much I take for granted such a work away from competition service into their busy lives. sentative at the annual NCAA simple thing, my ponytail. After often doesn’t draw headlines, it “Volunteerism is not a new Leadership Conference. that, it seemed selfish not to makes a difference. initiative with the UW Athletic •From her pale skin, most make a donation. I mean, for the Aside from donating their Department,” says Mike Moss, people never guess that rest of my life, I can grow new locks, members of women’s an associate athletic director she’s a native of Fort Laud- ponytails over and over, but crew volunteer throughout the who oversees the program. erdale, Florida. Wisconsin’s some people can’t.” Madison community. This year, “The students are encouraged academics and softball pro- Redfearn’s donation Redfearn organized team service to do community service.” gram — but not its weather prompted teammates Malika programs including a Toys for Moss says when Barry — attracted her northward. McCormick x’05 and Colleen Tots holiday drive, a night of free Alvarez took over as football • When she was born, her Gosa x’05 to chop off their babysitting at the Eagle Heights coach, he began encouraging mother looked at that light hair for the charity, as well. “It student apartment community, team members to visit patients skin and blond hair and hasn’t quite caught on to the and a penny drive to help build at the UW Children’s Hospital, called her “Boo Bear.” The whole team of thirty women,” a new playground for a local which has become an annual fall tag stuck, and now no one jokes Redfearn, “although that middle school. tradition. calls her by her given name, would be at least a couple of Supporting that volun- But these days, Badgers visit which is Laura. — M.P. hairpieces.” teerism is a priority of the UW’s with the kids almost year-round.

IN SEASON Kathy Butler ’97 Suzy Favor Hamilton ’91 Beau Hoopman ’03 Olympic The 1995 NCAA cross-country The three-time Olympian is gearing The former Badger rower was a Games champion has already been in the up for another run at the 1,500- gold medal winner at last year’s Olympics once before, competing meter title in Athens. Hamilton was Pan American Games and won a Badger athletics may take a sum- for Canada in 1996. Now, runner-up in the event at last year’s preliminary race this spring, put- mer hiatus, but not its athletes. Sev- she’s out to return U.S. championships, and this may ting him in good shape to join one eral current and former UW stars under a new flag. A be her last shot at an Olympic of the U.S. boats. Six other former are gearing up for a shot at this native of Scotland, medal. She’ll have competition Badger rowers are in contention summer’s Olympic Games, which she’s shooting to make at the U.S. Olympic trials from for seats, led by Matt Smith ’00 run from August 13–29 in Athens. Great Britain’s team in fellow Badgers Jenelle and Katie Hammes ’00. Here’s who to watch for in Greece: the 5,000 meters. Deatherage ’00, MPT’03 and Bethany Brewster ’03. SPORTS

The men’s basketball team lose, he brought cookies and ence of tennis player Katie Led by second-team All-American makes trips in the spring, and words of encouragement to the McGaffigan x’05, who makes guard Devin Harris x’05, the Bad- the men’s hockey team began Badgers after games. For nearly time to volunteer three days ger men’s basketball team com- visiting last winter. Men’s hockey a decade, a succession of Bad- each week at an after-school piled a school record twenty-five coach Mike Eaves says the team ger hockey players spent time program, where she helps super- victories and advanced to the sec- wanted to do something as a with him, watching movies or vise the kids and makes arts and ond round of tribute to former Badger Dan just hanging out, and many past crafts projects with them. the NCAA tour- Boeser x’04, a cancer survivor and present team members “Being on campus all the nament. Harris, who has maintained close ties attended his funeral. He was time, I don’t get to interact with the first Badger with patients since his recovery. buried in his UW hockey any younger children,” she says, since Don “The guys would wear their jer- sweater, with a hockey stick and “and that’s something I miss.” Rehfeldt ’50 to seys to the hospital,” Eaves says. puck by his side. To read more about the pro- be named the “Some of them played with the It’s often true that when ath- gram, visit the “Badgers Give Big Ten’s most Devin Harris kids in the arts and crafts room, letes give, they get as much in Back” section at uwbadgers.com outstanding and the rest went room to room return. That has been the experi- — Erin Hueffner ’00 player, averaged more than nine- to just chat.” teen points a game, and his scin- Although making time to tillating play in the Big Ten volunteer between the Burying the Hatchet conference tournament helped demands of practice, games, Wisconsin win the title for the and classes was a challenge, it After more than fifty years of for grabs when Wisconsin and first time in school history. turned out to be a wonderful heavy use, the Paul Bunyan Ax Minnesota meet for the 114th experience. “We just want to has lost its edge. time on November 6. Senior swimmer Bethany Pendle- give back for the great support The ax, the ceremonial tro- — Josh Orton ’04 ton shattered a conference record we get,” says Eaves. phy kept by the winner in one event and won another at And sometimes, a special of the annual Wiscon- the Big Ten championship meet, fan can make a lasting impact sin-Minnesota football highlighting a record-breaking on the athletes. Andrew Thiel, game, has become too season for women’s swimming. a thirteen-year-old from Marsh- fragile for the rough- Pendleton, the Big Ten’s swimmer field, Wisconsin, became an and-tumble world of of the year, and Carly Piper led a adopted member of the UW college football. And so strong UW effort at the NCAA hockey team until his death in it’s been retired to the championship meet, where the February. He was diagnosed College Football Hall of Badgers finished tenth, the best with an untreatable brain tumor Fame in South Bend, showing in team history. when he was one year old and Indiana. was subsequently confined to a The W Club created For his record-setting stinginess in wheelchair. But Thiel’s the ax in 1948, and after the net, UW hockey goaltender indomitable good spirit became fifty-six years — more Bernd Brückler x’05 won a place an inspiration to the Badgers, than half the lifetime of on the Ameri- who looked forward to his high- Division I’s most-played can Hockey fives as they entered the ice. football rivalry — there Coaches Thiel so endeared himself to was little room on the Association’s the team and coaches that he handle for any more All-America was given an all-access pass to scores. A fresh, clean After fifty-six years, the battle-weary team. Brück- the locker room, where win or replacement will be up Paul Bunyan Ax is ready for retirement. ler allowed

only 2.09 Bernd Brückler goals per Adam Mania x’05 Kirk Penney x’03 Carly Piper x’05 game this season, a school record, As a junior this season, Mania won Madison’s favorite Kiwi has been At last year’s Pan American Games, helping the Badgers qualify for honorable mention All-American honing his basketball game in the Piper swam for a relay team that the NCAA championship tourna- honors in the 100- and 200- Canary Islands with an eye toward won the gold and set a new U.S. ment for the first time since 2001. meter backstroke. A dual rejoining New Zealand’s national record. She’s qualified for the citizen born to Polish team this summer. He was part Olympic trials in three events — parents, he has a good of the Tall Blacks’ 2000 the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter shot at making Olympic team, as well as the freestyle — and will lead a group Poland’s Olympic squad team that finished a surprising of at least nine Badger swimmers in one or both of those fourth place at the 2002 World who will compete at the trials. events. Championships in the sport. SUMMER 2004 49 WAA NEWS

The Night the Stars Came Out WAA honors UW-Madison’s distinguished alumni.

They make us laugh. They make speaks for the quality of a UW- kickoff fund-raising event for the us think. They make us believe in Madison degree.” Artists Fund.” In 2002, Kacz- the future. They’re UW-Madison marek spoke with the alumni Jane Kaczmarek is one of those graduates, and this year they chapter in Los Angeles at a Wis- alumni who make us laugh. She were also the recipients of the consin Evening among Friends is perhaps best known for her Wisconsin Alumni Association’s and was presented with the first Emmy-nominated role as Lois Distinguished Alumni Awards. Badger of the Year Award from Wilkerson, the mother on the Fox Malcolm in the Middle that club. network’s hit television series actress Jane Kaczmarek ’79, Malcolm in the Middle. Her You can’t think about world con- Earth Day founder and former career also includes considerable servation without thinking about Senator Gaylord Nelson LLB’42, success on stage and in film, as Senator Gaylord Nelson. He Toshiba President Tadashi Oka- well as on television. An educa- received his UW-Madison law mura MBA’73, and philanthropy tion major with a certificate in degree in 1942 and joined the executive Joan Edelman Spero theater and drama, Kaczmarek U.S. Army during World War II. ’66 were back on campus during entered Yale University’s School After the war, he returned to Alumni Weekend in May to of Drama after graduating from Madison to practice law. He was accept their honors. The Distin- UW-Madison. In 1982, she made elected to the Wisconsin State guished Young Alumni Award, her television debut in the ABC- Senate in 1948 and held that presented to an exemplary UW- TV movie For Lovers Only. office for ten years. In 1958, he Madison graduate under the age Since then, she’s appeared was elected governor and served on many television programs, two terms, after which he spent including Felicity, Frasier, and eighteen years in the U.S. Senate. Hill Street Blues. Her films Throughout his political include Pleasantville, Falling in career, he sponsored or co-spon- Love, and Uncommon Valor. sored a variety of bills aimed at She’s earned four Emmy Award promoting conservation. His best- BRENT NICASTRO (5) nominations for Outstanding known achievement was found- Actress in a Comedy Series, and ing Earth Day, which was first three Screen Actors Guild and celebrated on April 22, 1970. three Golden Globe nominations Nearly 20 million people partici- for Best Performance by an pated in this collective expression Actress in a Television Series. of public will to create a sustain- Among other accolades, she able society, making the event an received an American Comedy instant success. Since then, Award and two consecutive Indi- ninety-five wilderness protection vidual Achievement in a Comedy bills have been passed, adding awards from the Television Crit- approximately 80.5 million acres ics Association — the only to the National Wilderness woman to be so honored. Kacz- Preservation System. In 1995, marek is married to Madison Nelson was awarded the Presi- Jane Kaczmarek and her spouse, of forty, was given to Mark Sax- native Bradley Whitford, who dential Medal of Freedom, the Bradley Whitford, had two enmeyer ’89, a Fox TV special- appears in the NBC drama series highest honor given to civilians in engagements in Madison in assignment reporter based at the West Wing. the United States. May. Whitford spoke at the UW commencement. network’s Chicago affiliate. Not only is Jane Kaczmarek a In 2002, the Institute for “Our 2004 Distinguished regular contributor to the UW Environmental Studies at UW- Alumni Award recipients are a Foundation, she also supports the Madison was renamed in Nel- stellar group of alumni,” says Madison arts community. Accord- son’s honor. Consistently rated Paula Bonner MS’78, president ing to Tony Forman, managing among the nation’s best, the and CEO of the Wisconsin director of the Madison Repertory Gaylord Nelson Institute for Alumni Association. “The fact Theatre, “She has been an ardent Environmental Studies is widely that their accomplishments are supporter of theater in Madison. known for its environmental felt throughout the world In July 2001, she headlined our scholarship and achievements.

50 ON WISCONSIN WAA NEWS

products,” says Yoshiyuki Kasai MS’69, president of WAA’s alumni chapter in Japan. “In particular, Toshiba has achieved zero emissions of waste eighteen months earlier than originally targeted.” On September 18, 2001, Toshiba Corporation announced it would donate $1 million in support of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. “We have been moved and impressed by the courage of the police, fire- fighters, and emergency-services personnel who have taken on such great burdens, and by the Gaylord Nelson, shown here with his spouse, Carrie Lee, is no resolve of the American people stranger to the Union Theater. In his acceptance speech, he reminisced about attending the theater’s opening, where he saw to rise above and overcome Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne perform. these dreadful events,” wrote Okamura in a letter to New York Another alumnus with his eye on “Toshiba achieved a great Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor the future of the earth is Tadashi deal in the areas of effective uti- George Pataki, and the World Okamura, president of Toshiba lization of resources, prevention Trade Center Relief Fund. “We Corporation. Toshiba is well- of global warming, strengthen- stand by our American friends in known throughout the world for ing control of chemical sub- this time of need.” its manufacture of electrical com- stances, development of Okamura is a member of ponents, computers, and commu- environmentally conscious prod- the dean’s advisory board for the nications systems. Perhaps less ucts, and recycling of end-of-life UW-Madison School of Business. well known is that under Oka- mura’s leadership, Toshiba has moved to the forefront of creat- ing a recycling-based society. Okamura received his bach- elor’s degree at the prestigious University of Tokyo in 1962. After coming to Madison and earning his MBA in 1973, he returned to Japan to work in Toshiba’s instrument and automation division. He became a vice president in 1996, and president and CEO in 2000. In August 2003, Toshiba developed one of the world’s most advanced CT scanners in its renowned medical-imaging equipment division. The scan- ner’s ability to capture sixteen one-half-millimeter slices simulta- neously allows it to cover a large area of the body in a short time — a necessity in trauma cases. Toshiba’s commitment to Tadashi Okamura and his spouse, Hiroko (right center), met with WAA’s Asia coordinator, Kim the future is exemplified in the Santiago ’88 (in red), and her mother, Nedra Santiago ’79. way it conducts business.

SUMMER 2004 51 WAA NEWS

fellowships are awarded to Nel- took his first television job at son Institute graduate students KOVR in Sacramento, California. who show outstanding promise Since moving to Chicago in as future leaders in nonprofit or 1994, his work has earned him governmental conservation in one national and fourteen the United States. regional Emmy Awards, a Spero is a member of the national Edward R. Murrow Wisconsin Alumni Research Award, six regional Society of Foundation board of trustees. Professional Journalists awards, Her book, Politics of International and ten regional Associated Economic Relations, is in its sixth Press awards. edition and is one of the most He may be best known for widely used textbooks in interna- producing, writing, and co- tional-relations courses today. hosting the 2001 TV series The “In addition to Ms. Spero’s Experiment in Black and White distinguished career in academia, and 2002’s The Experiment: Gay When she accepted her award, As president of the Doris Duke international policy, business, and Straight. These revolution- Joan Spero (in red) made her Charitable Foundation, Joan and philanthropy,” says Dean ary broadcasting projects aimed first appearance on the Union Edelman Spero is responsible Gilles Bousquet of the interna- to bridge the racial and sexuality Theater stage since working on a tional studies and programs divides that exist in Chicago and Humorology production with her for directing the activities of a sorority. To see more photos of $1.5 billion fund that supports department, “she still finds time the whole nation. The projects this year’s distinguished alumni, a variety of causes, including to serve her alma mater. In 2001, are currently used as conflict- visit uwalumni.com/onwisconsin. the performing arts, environ- mental preservation, medical research, and the prevention of child abuse. Spero graduated from UW- Madison with a degree in inter- national relations and joined Columbia University’s faculty as an assistant professor of political science in 1973. From 1980 to 1981, she served under President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. ambas- sador to the United Nations Eco- nomic and Social Council. Afterward, she became a vice president with American Express, but in 1993, she returned to government service Provost Peter Spear (left) congratulates Mark Saxenmeyer on his as Undersecretary of State for Distinguished Young Alumni Award, which honors the achievement Economic, Business, and Agricul- of a UW-Madison graduate under the age of forty. tural Affairs. In this role, she was a leading adviser to President Bill she shared her foreign-policy resolution teaching tools in Clinton at G7 Economic Sum- expertise with more than three nearly one hundred schools, uni- mits and helped promote U.S. hundred students, faculty, and versities, churches, and work- exports and investments. community leaders as a speaker places in the United States. Later Today, Spero presides over at the inaugural Eagleburger this year, Saxenmeyer will take several other operating founda- Forum, and she graciously offers The Experiment: Gay and tions created by philanthropist her ideas and expertise on inter- Straight to South Africa, where Doris Duke, including the Foun- national studies.” he’ll talk about the series and dation for Islamic Art. On cam- Mark Saxenmeyer is an Emmy- work with aspiring journalists. pus, the Doris Duke Charitable winning television reporter for “These representatives of Foundation supports the Doris the Fox affiliate in Chicago. UW-Madison alumni not only Duke Conservation Fellowships After graduating from UW- are stars,” says WAA’s Bonner, at the Gaylord Nelson Institute Madison’s School of Journalism “they reach for them.” for Environmental Studies. The in 1989,the New Jersey native — Candice Gaukel Andrews ’77

52 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Compiled by Paula Wagner Cooper received the Lifetime When Barcelona, Spain, Apfelbach ’83 Achievement Award from the played host to the Seventh UW’s Nurses’ Alumni Organiza- International Symposium on the tion. In September, she earned Science and Processing of Cast Don’t Forget to Write! early years the President’s Award from the Iron in September 2002, tribute American Association for the His- was paid to one of the “most Whether you’ve been away from “I’m writing on behalf of my tory of Nursing, and in Novem- well-known personalities in cast the UW for six months or sixty mother, who must be among ber, the American Academy of iron” — none other than Carl your oldest living (but long-lost) Nursing designated her a “Living Loper, Jr. ’55, MS’58, PhD’61 years, please send us the alums,” writes Tom Mitchell, the Legend.” Cooper, who retired of Madison. The retired UW (brief, please) news of your recent son of ninety-six-year-old Heidi from UW-Madison in 1983, lives professor of materials science accomplishments, transitions, (Adelheid) Wagner Mitchell in suburban Middleton. and engineering presented the ’28. “She recalls her years in Who’s really the Big first paper of the symposium. and other significant happenings. Madison fondly.” Tom Mitchell Cheese? According to the RoseDog Books caught notes that his mother used her National Cheese Institute (NCI), our attention with word of two Alumni News operatives are on music degree to create a “long it’s UW Professor Emeritus new adventure novels set in the e-mail duty at apfelbach@ and productive career as a college Elmer Marth ’50, MS’52, American West of the 1830s: and secondary school teacher,” PhD’54, who’s received the Spirit of the Scalp and Spirit of uwalumni.com; standing by the and then retired to Shrewsbury, NCI’s highest honor, its Laureate the Trail, crafted by E.H. fax at (608) 265-8771; and Vermont. Heidi Mitchell still plays Award. NCI Chair Lou Gentine (Edward) Haines ’57. The piano for town functions and said of Marth, “His ground- author himself went west as a opening mail at Alumni News, occasionally fills in at the local breaking research is a key reason young naval officer and lived in Wisconsin Alumni Association, church, where she was the long- that the cheese industry enjoys California, where he became time organist and choir director. the excellent food-safety record fascinated with that state’s early 650 North Lake Street, that it has today.” In addition to history and culture. Now retired Madison, WI 53706-1410. his publishing, consulting, and in Fort Myers, Florida, Haines 40s–50s public speaking endeavors, is at work on a novel about Although space limitations Marth was the co-inventor of a Sherman’s march through After WAA’s reunion planners cottage cheese-making process Georgia and the Carolinas. prevent us from printing posted their list of “lost class- that was issued in nine coun- What’s not to love about everything we receive, mates” from the Class of 1943 tries. He lives in Madison. radio mysteries? If you read on the WAA Web site, at least R.J. (Robert) Theisen ’51 Private Eyelashes: Radio’s Lady we love to hear from you. one was located: (C.) Anne of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Detectives (BearManor Media), Stimple Steytler ’43, MA’45. sent us an account of his recent you might find even more. In this Please e-mail death notices and From her daughter, Jeanne Pitz, trip aboard the Trans-Siberian new work, author Jack French all address, name, phone, and we learned that Steytler has lived Railway. Departing from Madi- ’58 discusses in depth the forty- in Pittsburgh for about thirty son in July 2003, Theisen even- four network radio series that ran e-mail changes to years. Both of her spouses — tually arrived in Vladivostok, between 1930 and 1960 and [email protected]; the late Edmund Steytler and the Russia, where he met up with featured a fictional female sleuth late David Stimple, to whom she his daughter, Tracy, who’s a Rus- as the lead — such femmes as mail them to Alumni Changes, was married as a UW student — sia desk officer for the Depart- Nora Charles, Jane Sherlock, Miss Wisconsin Alumni Association, had been history professors and ment of Commerce. The pair Pinkerton, and Candy Matson. taught at what was then the continued on to visit many sites, Spiced with dozens of rare pho- 650 North Lake Street, Virginia Polytechnic Institute. including Lake Baikal, Moscow, tos of the women who graced Madison, WI 53706-1410; During her nearly four and St. Petersburg, with Theisen the microphones — Marlene decades in nursing, Signe Skott arriving almost a month later in Dietrich and Joan Blondell among fax them to (608) 262-3332; or Cooper ’48 provided service to Chicago — “all the way around them — it’ll give you a feel for call us at (608) 262-9648 or the Army Nurse Corps in India, the world,” he concludes. the Golden Age of Radio. French, to the UW Hospital as head Attorney Gordon Gregory of Fairfax, Virginia, is quite a toll-free at (888) 947-2586. obstetric nurse, to the UW ’52, LLB’55, a founding partner sleuth himself — he’s a retired FBI Most obituary listings of WAA School of Nursing as a professor in the Detroit firm of Gregory, agent who’s also a professional whose priority was continuing Moore, Jeakle, Heinen and actor with stage, film, and televi- members and friends appear in education, and to the field of Brooks, received the 2004 sion credits. WAA’s semiannual member nursing history, through her Distinguished Service Award Liebe Hanya: Mary Wigman’s extensive writing and preserva- from the labor and employment Letters to Hanya Holm (University publication, the Insider. tion work. Finally, 2003 was the law section of the State Bar of of Wisconsin Press) — compiled, year to honor it all. In May, Michigan in January. edited, and extensively annotated

SUMMER 2004 53 ALUMNI NEWS

by (M.) Claudia Schroeder Swazi cultures. Johnson is the fisheries professionals by award- Bookmark Gitelman ’58 — contains vivid curator of the Ames Library of ing him its Meritorious Service letters, written between 1920 South Asia at the University of Award. Ney is a professor of and 1971, by two women who Minnesota in Minneapolis. fisheries and wildlife science at were at the center of twentieth- Four UW graduates are Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and a century dance modernism. Mary working to create sustainability fellow of the American Institute Wigman was a pioneering chore- for our world through the of Fishery Research Biologists. ographer and dancer in Germany. Millennium Institute (MI, Fleming & Company Her disciple, Hanya Holm, took www.millenniuminstitute.net), Pharmaceuticals has a new Wigman’s ideas to the U.S. in an Arlington, Virginia, nonprofit president in Tom Johnson 1931 and became a celebrated research and service firm. MI MS’68. Previously the executive Broadway choreographer. President Gerald Barney MS’63, VP of the Fenton, Missouri- Gitelman, of New York, herself PhD’67 founded the institute in based manufacturer of products appeared on Broadway and the 1983. Daniel Gómez-Ibáñez such as Ocean nasal spray, concert stage, taught at the city’s ’65, MA’67, PhD’72, a former Johnson has also held numerous Are you concerned about Nikolais/Louis Dance Theatre Lab, UW assistant professor of positions at Pharmacia and the food that goes onto your table and into your mouth? and is an emerita professor of geography, serves as the chair of Upjohn in Kalamazoo, Michigan. If you’re not, perhaps you dance at Rutgers University. its board of trustees. The director Now here’s a gent who should be, contends food- of modeling and analysis is knows his grass: Monroe Miller safety consultant Rebecca Weishuang Qu MS’84, PhD’86, ’68, the golf course superintend- Borst Hohlstein MS’83. 60s while Kristen Barney MA’89 ent at Madison’s Blackhawk “Even with current programs rounds out the Badger quartet as Country Club for the past thirty and safeguards in place,” she Justus Paul MA’60 — dean of MI’s operations coordinator. Cre- years, has earned the U.S. Golf says, “approximately 76 mil- the UW-Stevens Point College of ated as a follow-up to the Global Association’s annual Green Sec- lion Americans will fall victim Letters and Science for the past 2000 Report to the President, the tion Award for “distinguished to water- or food-borne illness eighteen years — is retiring in July Millennium Institute is a pioneer contributions to golf through each year — of these, over after thirty-eight years as a faculty in using computer modeling and work with turfgrass.” He’s also five thousand will die. And member and administrator. He’s integrated analysis for holistic, won awards — nineteen years these statistics precede our also been that institution’s official long-term national planning for running! — as the volunteer edi- newest threat: the deliberate historian and wrote The World Is sustainability. It has also part- tor/publisher of the publication contamination or destruction Ours: A History of the University nered with the Carter Center, The Grass Roots. Miller’s most of our food supply.” To learn of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the World Bank, United Nations important industry contribution, more, consider Hohlstein’s 1894–1994 (Worzalla Publishing) agencies, and the U.S. President’s however, may have been spear- Food Fight: The new work: in 1994. Five years later, Paul Council on Sustainable Develop- heading fund-raising campaigns People’s Guide to Food Safety in a created Wisconsin History: An ment, among others. to build the UW’s O.J. Noer Turf- Dangerous World, Second Edition Annotated Bibliography with his A member of UW-Green grass Education and Research (Goblin Fern Press). Fully spouse, Barbara Dotts Paul Bay’s founding faculty was Facility and to fund four annual revised in 2003, the book is MS’68, who’s a retired associate named the Herbert Fisk Johnson graduate research fellowships. a plain-language reference guide that offers straight professor of UW-SP’s Learning Professor in Environmental Stud- We were pleased to hear answers to those who are con- Resource Center. ies at the institution’s December from Dianne Post ’69, JD’78, cerned about the threats of If you’re one of those folks commencement. It was Professor who’s a legal adviser in Phnom anthrax, Salmonella, botulism, who swoons over a bride in V.M. (Vellillath Madhathil) Penh, Cambodia. She’s currently E. coli, Listeria, mad cow dis- white — a Victorian notion that Ganga Nair PhD’64, an working with the Human Rights ease, plague, staph, cholera, dominates Western bridal dress instructor in natural and applied of Cambodia Project on issues of agri-terrorism, and more. The — perhaps you’d like to explore sciences who’s known for his domestic violence, child abuse, Madison-based author and the wider world of wedding research in the diseases of trees, and sex trafficking. Post was illustrator has been a food attire and marriage rituals reforestation, and forest medici- previously a gender specialist in bacteriologist for more than offered in Wedding Dress across nal plants around the world. India Russia and has consulted in twenty years and has taught Cultures (Berg Publishing). has honored Nair with fellowship many countries. university-level courses in Co-edited by Donald Clay in its National Academy of Sci- microbiology and food bacte- Johnson ’62, PhD’80, the book ences, and China has presented riology. Since 1995, Hohlstein is a collection of essays that him with its Scroll of Distinction 70s (www.rhohlstein.com) has discuss the values and traditions for scientific achievement. also been a speaker and associated with wedding dress The American Fisheries Soci- Kurt Vonnegut is one of the few trainer in the food protection within the Andean, Berber, ety has lauded the contributions American writers since Mark and testing industries. Canadian, Greek, Inuit, Japan- of John Ney ’67 to its member- Twain to have gained and ese, Korean, South Asian, and ship of more than ten thousand sustained a high level of popular

54 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

acceptance while walking the Carpets, and her Mongolian product is a sequel to Chester literary cutting edge, contends textiles are going into the Meets the Walker House Ghost, Bookmark Jerome Klinkowitz PhD’70 in Philadelphia Museum of Art. based on the lore and landscape his new book, The Vonnegut “I am a UW grad who of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Effect (University of South Car- dropped out of corporate life and Not everyone can claim the olina Press). A pioneer in “Von- went back to school at a Quaker title of vice president of blood negut studies,” he describes this seminary in 1997,” began a note services, but Rick Hart ’72, work as a comprehensive treat- from Paul Buckley ’71, MS’72, MA’76 can. Coming from his ment of the writer’s twenty-book PhD’74 of Richmond, Indiana. post as the senior VP of opera- body of fiction. Klinkowitz is He’s spent the last several years tions at the St. Joseph Regional himself the author of forty books, translating five of William Penn’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, including the complementary, theological works into modern Hart has now joined the non- 1998 work in which he analyzed English. The result is his new profit Blood Center of Southeast- It’s an intriguing approach: the writer’s body of nonfiction, book, titled Twenty-First Century ern Wisconsin, considered one applying the guidelines you’d Vonnegut in Fact. Klinkowitz Penn: Writings on the Faith and of the top transfusion-medicine use to find a dream guy to teaches English at the University Practice of the People Called organizations in the world. finding a dream job. It’s also of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Quakers by William Penn Euromoney magazine chose what New Yorker Wendy The list of credits compiled (Earlham School of Religion). a UW graduate as the recipient Straker ’97 espouses in her throughout the career of Three 1972 grads are news- of its global 2003 Best Legal first book: Sexy Jobs in the City: production and costume makers in the legal profession: Adviser in Islamic Finance award: How to Find Your Dream Job designer Franne Sandler Lee Peter Gaines ’72, JD’75 has Michael McMillen ’72, MD’76, Using the Rules of Dating x’70 is impressive. She got her joined Faegre & Benson as a a partner in the New York and (Hangover Productions). start designing theater sets and partner in its Minneapolis office. London offices of the law firm The work offers entertaining, costumes for Alice in Wonder- He was previously a partner in of King & Spalding. In January, irreverent, and candid land and earned an Obie Award. the London office of Vinson & he was also appointed the chief inspiration for young career That led to Broadway, two Tony Elkins. Another new partner — legal officer for the Islamic women who want to work in Awards, her first TV credit work- in the New York City office of Financial Standards Board, which those “sexy” industries: TV, ing on Saturday Night Live’s first Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus — comprises sixteen Middle Eastern broadcasting, publicity, fash- five years, and an Emmy Award. is Christa Stutius Hildebrand and Southeast Asian countries, ion, film, advertising, music, She’s also designed for films, ’72, MA’73, PhD’80, JD’83. the World Bank, the Interna- the Internet, and magazines music videos, and commercials; And in Chicago, Harold Kaplan tional Monetary Fund, and the (who knew?!). Full of inter- opened a Nashville art coopera- ’72, MA’75 has been named to Asian Development Bank. views with successful women tive called the Plowhaus; and the management committee of McMillen makes his home in who are already working in teaches at Belmont University his firm, Gardner Carton & Quakertown, Pennsylvania. these fields, the book offers realistic views of these jobs’ and the Watkins Film School, Douglas; has become the firm’s L.G. (Lester) Lennon ’73 “looks,” salaries, working both in Nashville. new chair; and was named one sent a brief note to let us know hours, girl-to-guy ratios, When she looks back, Janet of twelve Outstanding Bank- that his book of poetry, The required skills, responsibili- Wittler Roberts ’70, MA’74 ruptcy Lawyers in the country Upward Curve of Earth and ties, lingo, and cons — the says she’s been “far away for for 2003 by Turnarounds & Heavens (Story Line Press), “nastier truths about those most of the thirty years since Workouts magazine. received a “nice, three-quarter- bright lights.” Straker says, graduation” — and she’s been “As an anthropologist who page, lead review” in the “This is the book I wanted busy! Roberts has worked with taught for many years at UW- Philadelphia Inquirer. when I was twenty-three Save the Children, UNICEF, and Madison, I’ve reinvented myself Acknowledging that even years old and just starting in international education in by writing fantasy,” says Madis- therapists need help sometimes, out in New York City — Mongolia and Russia, and was in onian Mary Fandrick Grow Washington, D.C., psychologist dissatisfied with my job, over- Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan in ’72, MA’85, PhD’91. Her latest Ellen Doolittle Baker MS’74, worked, and underpaid.” Her 2000–01 on a Fulbright award. book is Chester & the Mystery PhD’76 has authored Caring for solutions — marathon inter- Returning to Philadelphia, she’s of the Tilted World (Studio 17), Ourselves: A Therapist’s Guide to viewing, self-help books, and taught at several universities, in which heroic Chester, the Personal and Professional Well- scouring help-wanted ads and worked in architectural preserva- author’s cat, takes a magical Being (American Psychological the ’Net — left her feeling tion — an interest that began journey to the land of the Association Books). She has a overwhelmed and lost. After a at the UW — and earned a ancient pharaohs. Grow shares special interest in the therapeutic year of soul searching, National Endowment for the that writing this tale was a benefits of personal journaling, Straker found her passion in Humanities Award. Her “experi- refuge from the hard labor of and has led workshops at the writing and vowed to share ence with the carpet world” trying to renovate an old farm in National Museum of Women in what she’d learned with “any- became a paper presented at southern France, which she was the Arts on journal writing as a one who is searching for her own perfect fit.” the International Congress of doing concurrently. The finished women’s folk art form.

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Hearty congratulations go to Museum of Television & Radio War Philosopher Fred Freitag ’74, who’s been one and ponder the words of its new of the Top Doctors in Chicago — president, Stuart Brotman When Thomas Barnett ’84 a listing of the city’s top 1,500 MA’75: “The museum continues

advocates “shrinking the gap,” ROBER physicians, as rated by their peers to be the premier trust of televi- he’s not referring to cutting a chain

T INVERSO — for the past several years. In sion and radio’s heritage, and a store’s inventory — he’s talking about narrowing the divide between January, Chicago Magazine also place for all of us to commemo- globalized nations and those least honored him with a spot on its rate and celebrate how these connected to globalization. peer-rated list of the Windy City’s media convey artistic excellence, In his book, The Pentagon’s New top 350 doctors. Freitag is the historic significance, and social Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First associate director of the Diamond impact.” Since 1981, Brotman Century (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), the Headache Clinic in Chicago and has been the president of his Naval War College senior strategic lives in nearby River Forest. own Lexington, Massachusetts- researcher and Pentagon adviser When the words bat saliva based management consulting emphasizes, “States least connected to globalization appear in a press release’s head- firm, but has had a parallel overwhelmingly account for where we’ve gone with military line, they tend to catch your eye, career on the law faculties of forces since the end of the Cold War.” To reduce the frequency and when Badger news follows, Harvard, Boston, and Tufts Uni- of these interventions, he says, we need to move from a it’s even better. Such was the versities as well. containment strategy to extending globalization, thus shrinking case with the news about Ross “Unveiling Insulin Insights” the gap between rich and poor countries. Levine ’74, MD’78 and George was the headline of an article “Extend globalization; invite everybody to the party; and Newman, a UW Medical School about Michael Mueckler ’76, when’s everybody’s in, terrorists won’t hold the same sway,” associate professor and professor PhD’82 in the Record, the cam- he says. “The would-be suicide bomber will have other options; of neurology, respectively. They’re pus newspaper at Washington his life won’t be as pointless.” the primary UW investigators on University in St. Louis [Missouri], Barnett, an award-winning instructor who was named an international study that shows where Mueckler’s a professor of one of Esquire magazine’s “best and brightest” in 2002 and that using a synthetic drug cell biology and physiology. He’s christened a “philosopher of modern war,” collaborated with derived from vampire-bat saliva made a name for himself in the the broker-dealer firm of Cantor Fitzgerald in a pioneering appears to extend the window of areas of sugar metabolism and study about globalization’s impact on national security. It examined — among many scenarios — possible terrorist opportunity for treating acute diabetes, discovering in 1985 attacks on Wall Street. Ironically, several workshops that were ischemic strokes from three to the first gene and protein that part of the study were held atop the World Trade Center, nine hours. “This is the biggest transport glucose into cells, and which would be the main 9/11 attack target and would result in breakthrough I’ve seen in twenty three years later, cloning the the death of many of the company’s employees. years,” says Howard Rowley, gene for the glucose transporter In Barnett’s view, the attacks reflected the “ultimate rise of the a UW Medical School associate 4 protein (Glut4). Mueckler is lesser-includeds,” or non-state actors, striking out against global- professor of radiology who’s the also the associate director of the ization’s main symbols of power. Theory had become reality. lead radiologist on a twin U.S. Washington University Diabetes As the assistant for strategic futures, working in the Office study to identify the drug’s Research and Training Center, as of the Secretary of Defense, Barnett advised senior leaders on proper dosage and effectiveness. well as the editor-in-chief of the “transforming” the Pentagon’s long-range war planning from The National Labor Relations American Journal of Physiology: fighting “near-peer” armies to contending with the new type of Board (NLRB) has promoted two Endocrinology and Metabolism. threat. “I’m the most optimistic of all DOD [Department of UW grads within its ranks. Con- From the frosty forty-ninth Defense] strategists,” he says. “We’re on the verge of making stance Traylor JD’74 is the new state came a note from Randy war as we know it obsolete.” deputy regional attorney in the Zarnke MS’76, PhD’78 about At UW-Madison, Barnett majored in international relations Overland Park, Kansas, office. his new book, Fairbanks Hockey and Russian literature, studying the language with legendary She joined the board in 1974 Pioneers: A Tribute to the Hockey Lydia Kalaida, instructor and singing bass in her Slavic as a field attorney. Terry Ann Community in the Golden Heart choir. His junior-year election to Phi Beta Kappa was a “life- Morgan ’81, JD’88 is now the of Alaska. In addition to paying changing event.” At Harvard, he earned a master’s degree in deputy assistant general counsel homage to all the folks who Soviet studies and a doctorate in political science. in the NYC-based division of have contributed to the sport Barnett’s parents, John Barnett LLB’49 and Colleen operations management, which locally, Zarnke is making a Clifford Barnett ’46, MA’55, JD’90, met as students at UW- Madison; all six of his siblings attended the university; and he directs the work of the NLRB’s contribution himself: he’s met his future spouse, Vonne Meussling Barnett ’82, MS’85, thirty-two regional offices. Mor- donating all book proceeds to when they worked at Paisan’s, the University Square restaurant. gan has worked for the board in the Fairbanks youth hockey The couple lives in Portsmouth, Rhode Island; has three chil- its Milwaukee, Cleveland, and, organization. To get a copy, dren; and is in the process of adopting a baby girl from China — now, New York City offices. contact Arctic Lions Hockey, thus “shrinking the gap, one person at a time.” — Joel H. Cohen The next time you’re in the c/o Cork Bradish, 495 Panorama Big Apple or L.A., visit the Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99712.

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Barbara Paul ’77 of San Meanwhile, Jeremy Graff ’97 eighties graduates: Lindquist & Francisco is now the senior VP has become a CIMA (Certified Vennum in Minneapolis has cho- Bookmark and chief medical officer for Investment Management Ana- sen three Badgers — Eric Peck Beverly Enterprises, which oper- lyst), a distinction accorded to ’84, JD’93; Joseph Humke ’92; ates skilled-nursing, assisted- only 2,500 people in the U.S. and and John Wambold ’92 — as living, hospice, and home-care Canada. Graff is a Minneapolis- new partners. David Gorberg centers. To accept this new posi- based financial consultant with ’85 writes that Law Office Com- tion, Paul stepped down from the Bromelkamp Group, part of puting magazine has chosen the her post as a director for the RBC Dain Rauscher. Web site that he designed and Centers for Medicare and Med- Roger Stoller MS’79, a operates (www.MyLemon.com) icaid Services (CMS), part of the research staff member in the for the Philadelphia firm of U.S Department of Health and metals and ceramics division Gorberg, Gorberg and Zuber as Human Services (HHS). While at of the Oak Ridge [Tennessee] one of the nation’s best law-firm CMS, Paul led the launch of HHS National Laboratory, has joined sites. In Kansas City, Missouri, Secretary Tommy Thompson the board of ASTM International. Michael Brown ’89 is a new ’63, JD’66’s Nursing Home and For nearly two decades, he’s been associate at Shughart Thomson “I’ve been traveling to Cuba Home Health Quality Initiatives. extremely active in and lauded by & Kilroy, and from Minneapolis for twelve years,” says Linda The Labyrinth Group, a ASTM, one of the world’s largest came word that Terrance Howe ’82, MA’87, PhD’95. Minneapolis-based investment voluntary standards-development (Terry) Newby ’89 is a new “The more I learn about the firm that specializes in hedge organizations. Stoller is also officer at Leffert Jay & Polglaze. country, the more I realize fund products, has welcomed an adjunct professor of nuclear We also heard about two how little I know.” We’re James Rovner ’78 aboard as engineering at the University of eighties grads who are movers impressed nonetheless. As its new chief investment officer. Michigan at Ann Arbor. and shakers in the advertising an associate professor of At the UW, he participated in and marketing world: Michael Spanish and the director of the business school’s Applied Antonucci ’85 has joined Latin-American Studies at Securities Analysis Program. 80s McCann Erickson’s Detroit office Wake Forest University in Most recently, Rovner was the as its senior VP/executive director Winston-Salem, North president of HLI Management This will put a song in your heart of broadcast production. Most Carolina, Howe is also the in Minneapolis. — or at least in your mind: Gary recently with Leo Burnett in founder and nurturer of that A press release about Denton ’81 has been elected to Chicago, Antonucci was hailed university’s Cuba Summer Christine Blumer Spangler ’78 the international board of the as “an absolute star in this busi- Study Program — six weeks came accompanied by a note Barbershop Harmony Society. ness” by McCann-Detroit’s chief of learning at the University that said, “I am her proud During his three-year term, he’ll creative officer. Meanwhile, Lisa of Havana, along with excur- mother, Virgil Petter Blumer help guide the nonprofit group Hull ’88 has joined Charleston/ sions and workshops, during which Wake Forest students ’41 [of Madison], a former Latin of more than 31,000 male, Orwig in Hartland, Wisconsin, as team up with Havana’s and Spanish teacher at Monroe close-harmony singers in the an account supervisor after eight university and elementary- [Wisconsin] High School, 1944– U.S. and Canada. When Denton years in the Wisconsin governors’ school students to learn 1949.” Spangler’s news is that, is not making music with the administrations as chief of staff, about Cuban culture, history, Men of Note chorus, he’s the after starting at the Daily Jeffer- communications director, press and architecture. Howe has information systems and services son County Union as a “cub secretary, policy adviser, and also turned her knowledge operation manager for Delphi reporter” in 1978, she’s now the political strategist. into a new book — Transgres- Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, news- Corporation and lives — “in har- You’ve no doubt heard that sion and Conformity: Cuban paper’s managing editor and has mony” — in Westfield, Indiana. the UW’s beloved Camp Randall Writers and Artists after the earned two editorial-page awards Picture this: you join a has been undergoing a major Revolution (University of in the 2004 Better Newspaper company in August as its chief facelift. One of the Badger grads Wisconsin Press) — that’s Contest, sponsored by the Wis- operating officer, and by early involved is Wendy Johnson been called the “ultimate consin Newspaper Association. January, you’re the president as Thorson ’85, a senior interior guide to understanding the Two Badgers have worked well. That’s the path that James designer for Berners-Schober cultural policies of the hard to achieve special recogni- Lillie ’83 has taken in Rye, New Associates, the Green Bay, island.” In it, Howe delves tion in their respective fields — York, at the Jarden Corporation, Wisconsin, architectural and into the political, aesthetic, and they’ve added acronyms whose home products carry engineering firm working on racial, and historical factors to their titles in the process. brand names such as Ball, the project. Thorson is oversee- that have influenced — Christine Stroebel-Scimeca ’78, Diamond, FoodSaver, and Kerr. ing space planning, primarily and constrained — Cuban associate vice president and finan- Alumni News HQ over- of the private-box suites and culture, its artists, and its cial adviser at Morgan Stanley in flowed with news from the legal athletic offices, as well as color intellectuals, both during Mequon, Wisconsin, is now a CFP profession this spring. Here’s and furniture selection for the and after the Revolution. (Certified Financial Planner). what we’ve heard about some entire renovation.

SUMMER 2004 57 ALUMNI NEWS

“Wisconsin Bookstore acclaimed for his research on Pulitzer Power Trio Quenches the Thirsty Mind” water quality, animal-waste began a piece in the American treatment, and nutrient-recom- The Pulitzer Prize jury Booksellers Association’s publica- mendation systems for crops. was smiling on Badgers this tion Bookselling This Week. It spring when it conferred told the story of Jodee (Jodeen) three of its coveted honors 90s on Lowell Bergman ’66 Miller Binder Hosmanek ’87, (“Breaking the News,” who, while contemplating a “Bill Hunt [’90] has made a Spring 2000 On Wisconsin, career change away from teach- name for himself in Hollywood, pictured at left); Anthony ing high school chemistry and Shadid ’90 (“One Shot in biology, decided to fulfill her and has been the editor of the Ramallah,” Summer 2002 On dream of owning a bookstore. Internet’s most respected DVD Wisconsin); and Abigail Ten days later, she’d bought a Web site — www.thedigitalbits. Goldman ’92. building in Richland Center, com — since 1997,” writes The New York Times Wisconsin, and in November, Hunt’s spouse, Sarah McCall received the Public Service opened Ocooch Books & Liba- Hunt ’90. She adds that he’s category award — consid- tions — a bookstore that also helped to influence the forma- ered the most distinguished sells specialty beer, wine, scotch, tion of the DVD format and Pulitzer, and the only one that doesn’t include a $10,000 prize and handspun yarn. co-published a book in October — for the work of Bergman and his fellow investigative Taking her place among the that reached the number forty- reporter David Barstow. They produced a series that “relent- Badgers who are helping to three spot on amazon.com’s Top lessly examined death and injury among American workers make the world more inclusive is 100 list: The Digital Bits Insider’s and exposed employers who break basic safety rules.” Norma Register PhD’87. Since Guide to DVD (McGraw-Hill/TAB Bergman is also a producer and correspondent for the 2002, she’s been a contributing Electronics). The couple lives in PBS documentary series Frontline; an adjunct professor at the writer for Urban Spectrum, a Irvine, California. Graduate School of Journalism at UC-Berkeley; and the periodical dedicated to “spread- When you look at the founder of the Center for Investigative Reporting and the ing news about people of color” volunteer record of Gary Kalas Investigative Reporters and Editors Group. in her home community of ’90, it’s easy to see why the Before joining the New York Times in 1999, Berkman spent Chicago Bears chose him as one twenty-one years as a producer, reporter, and supervisor for Denver. Register also contributed of ten Chicago-area finalists for ABC News and then CBS News, where he was a producer advice on socially sensitive their third annual Bears Commu- for 60 Minutes. His efforts to tell the story of Jeffrey Wigand, language to the Dictionary of nity Quarterback Award, which a former Brown & Williamson Tobacco executive, on 60 American English 1997, 2000, Minutes were the subject of The Insider, a 1999 Academy and she’s helping to develop a honors Walter Payton. As a team Award-nominated film. Bergman was a Daily Cardinal reporter historical resource on Colorado’s coordinator for the Chicago in 1965. He lives in Berkeley, California. African-American organizations. Cares program, Kalas has put in Shadid, a Washington Post Islamic-affairs correspondent, What would it be like to go more than five hundred hours of earned the Pulitzer in the International Reporting category for to work every day in a casino? service since 1995. His compas- his “extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the Kip Ritchie ’88 has been doing sion and hard work were recog- voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, it since he became the market- nized at a December luncheon their leader toppled, and their way of life upended.” ing director of Milwaukee’s with first-runner-up honors — Shadid speaks and reads Arabic, which offers him insights Potawatomi Bingo Casino in and the knowledge that he’s uncommon to most Western journalists covering the Middle 1997, and now he’s been pro- setting an inspirational example. East, where he’s based. He received the UW School of moted to assistant general man- Roger Kittleson MA’90, Journalism’s Ralph O. Nafziger Award in 2002, shortly after ager. Ritchie is a member of the PhD’97 has hit the tenure trail at he was shot in Ramallah while reporting for the Boston Globe. Forest County Potawatomi Tribe. Williams College in Williamstown, Shadid has also worked for the Associated Press and was the Soil scientist Matias Vanotti Massachusetts, where he’s an Daily Cardinal campus editor in 1990. MS’89, PhD’93 has been named assistant professor of history. Kit- Goldman, who followed in Shadid’s footsteps as the Daily the South Atlantic Area’s Early tleson’s research focuses on the Cardinal campus editor in 1991, is part of the four-person Career Scientist of 2003 by the politics of culture in modern Brazil. Los Angeles Times team that is sharing the National Reporting Agricultural Research Service He’s completing his first book, A prize for its series “The Wal-Mart Effect” — an “engrossing New Regime of Ideas: Transforma- examination of the tactics that have made Wal-Mart the (ARS) — the chief scientific tions of Political Culture in Porto largest company in the world, with cascading effects across research agency of the USDA. Alegre, Brazil, 1845–1895, and is American towns and developing countries.” This is Goldman’s On the staff of the ARS Coastal beginning a second project on second Pulitzer; she was also part of a staff team that covered Plains Soil, Water, and Plant the 1994 L.A. earthquake. — P.A. Research Center in Florence, race, region, and masculinity in South Carolina, Vanotti is Brazilian soccer.

58 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Congratulations go out to planning, and other services to participated in Leadership these attorneys who graduated the U.S. national security com- Milwaukee, an eight-month in the nineties: Jonathan Fogel munity. Previously, McDonald was program for emerging leaders, ’91 is the new chair of the fam- the deputy director of ReadyNet and is an engineer mentor to ily law department at Hellmuth in Oklahoma City, an initiative of elementary school students. & Johnson in Minneapolis, while the Memorial Institute for the Dreams, love, mysteries, and Kyle Fox ’92 has become a Prevention of Terrorism. madness: these are what you’ll partner in the Austin, Texas, More than two hundred find in At Shadow Edge (Amber office of Vinson & Elkins. people competed for the Dragonfly Press), a collection of Milwaukeeans Douglas Patch national, two-year fellowship that poems and prose written over a JD’95 and Dennis Connolly the Environmental Leadership period of more than thirty years JD’96 are new shareholders at Program (ELP) ultimately awarded by Mike Sabacinski MS’99 of Godfrey & Kahn, and the real to Bridget Bergquist ’96. ELP Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania. estate law firm of Pircher, brings together rising leaders The writings, which encompass a Nichols & Meeks has welcomed from all sectors of the environ- range of styles, are also illustrated Carrie Risatti ’95 to its Chicago mental community and supports by Sabacinski. office as a new associate. them as they develop solutions. The word from two Bergquist, of Cambridge, Massa- Milwaukee companies is that Kris chusetts, is a PhD candidate in 2000s Lueneburg Naidl ’91 has been the Woods Hole Oceanographic promoted to executive vice presi- Institution-MIT Joint Program. “We grow brains” is the motto dent — from her previous role Many little girls would love of the NeuronFarm, where as VP — of the public relations to have someday the position Ankur Malhotra MBA’01, a firm of Zeppos & Associates, and that Jamie Schmidt ’96, graduate of the UW’s Weinert Dean Poulos ’94 is a new VP at MMusic’98 does: he’s the music Center for Entrepreneurship, is Ellingsen Brady Advertising, after director for the Pleasant Com- now the chief operations officer. serving as its director of new busi- pany’s new American Girls Place The firm is a Madison-based ness and as an account executive. NYC. But Schmidt first used his educational software startup Ted Osthelder ’92 and his master’s in opera conducting that recently launched a new spouse, Jill McNaughton ’92, to music-direct the shows pre- Web site (www.NeuronFarm. are partners in life and partners sented in the theater at the com) to introduce its products: in aid of Wisconsin Governor original American Girl Place in e-learning literacy modules that Jim Doyle, Jr. ’67. They’ve Chicago — the first retail and incorporate evidence-based moved back to Madison from entertainment site launched by learning theory, interactive feed- New Mexico, where Osthelder the Madison-based firm known back, and real-time assessment. had been the director of opera- for its high-end dolls. Schmidt The “excellence in teaching tions, and McNaughton had also music-directed Godspell at and dedication to music educa- been the finance director, for Chicago’s House of Blues. tion” that Madisonian Joanna Governor Bill Richardson’s cam- If you were to look among Grace MMusic’02 has demon- paign. Osthelder is now Doyle’s the ten New Faces of Civil Engi- strated as a full-time, independ- director of external relations, neering for 2004 — as chosen ent piano and horn teacher was while McNaughton is the Doyle nationwide by the American recognized recently. She received for Wisconsin campaign director. Society of Civil Engineers — the 2004 Music Teachers Both spouses were named 2002 you’d find that of Nahid Afsari National Association Studio political “rising stars” by Cam- ’98, a structural engineer at Teacher Fellowship Award, given paigns and Elections magazine. CH2M HILL in Milwaukee. The annually to a studio teacher, Kathleen McDonald ’94 New Faces program honors under thirty-five years old, of any is playing a part in the war on engineers who have been out of instrument, nationwide. Grace terrorism. With a recent promo- college between two and five also developed a course for the tion to senior associate at DFI years. Afsari is working on UW-Madison summer music Government Services in Washing- replacing the interchange that clinic in 2003 called Practice ton, D.C., she manages support links three interstate highways Strategies, which grew out of to the Department of Homeland near Marquette University — her focus on efficient practicing. Security’s Office of Domestic Pre- an expanse traveled by more WAA’s alumni news editor, Paula Wagner paredness. DFI provides research, than three hundred thousand Apfelbach ’83, wonders how the heck it analysis, simulation, strategic motorists daily. She also got to be swimsuit season again.

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