College Magazine | Fall/Winter 2018 Lost in Time
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College Magazine | Fall/Winter 2018 Lost in Time Face to face with the Cretaceous Reflecting the mission of the college, St. Norbert College Magazine links the institution’s past and present by Contents chronicling its academic, cultural, spiritual and co-curricular life. ST. NORBERT COLLEGE MAGAZINE In Print Online Vol. 50, No. 3, Fall/Winter 2018 A sampling of related content available at snc.edu/magazine. Cover Story Page 7 Involved: There are 109 student A new Wellness by Design initiative orgs active on campus, this year. We at St. Norbert is meeting the needs of spoke with a few of them at September’s today’s college students – a generation Involvement Fair (page 9). that is increasingly attuned to the importance of emotional wellness, In the beginning: It’s a new year on say campus professionals. campus (page 11), the place never looked better, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you! Page 10 In the hands of the experts: Joy Pahl (Business Administration) Revisit can’t claim to feel joyous all the time, but Page 16 some of our most notable buildings via our (page 12) fortunately she says her extreme optimism student-led virtual tours . “can pass for joyfulness in a pinch.” It’s an My Room/His Room: Installed: interesting thing, says Joy-with-a-capital-J, When the seventh abbot of (page 14) to be named for an emotion! Burke 215 St. Norbert Abbey was blessed at his Installation, he found a unique way They’re both SNC-educated. They like to to honor those who had held the sacred think about things. And they have both, trust before him. Page 18 in different eras, fitted their tall frames happily into one of the smallest spaces on Page 13 In pieces: Rebecca (Schmeisser) campus: Burke 215. One, a history and Unpacking a Plesiosaur McKean ’04 (Geology) and Riley Hacker “If it isn’t a struggle for beauty, what are we political science major, has the world at his ’17 talk about their discoveries (page 18) struggling for?” – Brandon Bauer (Art) When Rebecca (Schmeisser) McKean feet and will graduate this year. The other and the painstaking work of finding out ’04 (Geology) discovered a plesiosaur fossil is now a college president – president of more about fossils unlike any ever seen. in Grand Staircase-Escalante National this very institution, in fact. Monument, she knew that it was unlike In hockey futures: anything else so far found in the Tropic Spencer Carbery ’06, Shale. Now, after three years of diligent head coach of the Hershey Bears, is one of work on the shoulder section – three years many hockey alums now taking lessons of toil over bone fragments little larger Page 23 learned at St. Norbert into the future of his sport (page 26). than dust – McKean is finally face to face Cradle of Coaches with her find once more. She is beginning In the ‘60s: (page work on the skull. Athletes of the 1960s The collegiate sports landscape is 27) huddle up to share memories. littered with coaches who pursue Departments On our cover: Rebecca McKean at work positions at bigger schools or higher In living color: (page in the field. Photo courtesy McKean. As a new mural 6 Guest Editorial NCAA divisions only to find they had 34) takes shape in the Bush Art Center, things pretty good where they were. many hands join in the work. 7 News of St. Norbert That’s not the case at St. Norbert, where the coaching carousel stops 27 Alumni of St. Norbert intentionally for many of those who lead the Green Knights’ athletics programs. Keep an eye open throughout this edition for 34 Connection more links to content on the web. Follow us snc.edu/magazine on your favorite social media channel, too. Just search for St. Norbert College. Small matters Cute critters, faculty children, mud and water: It’s all in the name of science. When Adam Brandt (Biology) and his students trap small mammals as part of a long-term biodiversity study at the abbey pond, he invites his colleagues to bring their children out to watch the fun. Here’s Brandt talking to his daughter Lily in com- pany with other young scientists Emilia (left) and Lucy (right), the children of Erik Brekke (Physics). 4 St. Norbert College Magazine | Fall/Winter 2018 snc.edu/magazine 5 In My Words / Lee Reid News OF ST. NORBERT COLLEGE #1 CONCERN Let me level with you Sixty-one percent Wellness initiative for a healthy campus of college students nationally head to their As mental health issues are finally campus counseling losing their remaining stigma, changes in A few weeks before I first joined the Informational Rather, let’s dig in to analyze and improve the process.” center due to anxiety, attitude are especially noticeable among Technology Services team at St. Norbert, I met the A culture of no blame opens up ideas, lowers according to the today’s college students. A study by the American Psychologi- division directors Krissy, Scott, Ravi and Rob. It was feelings of vulnerability and starts to build trust. We Center for Collegiate Mental Health over lunch. I gave a little talk about plates and bowls, start to listen better, we get excited about making cal Association. Other reasons for their visits revealed a 30 percent jump in the number and I think the group was puzzled a bit by my analogy small improvements, we’re not afraid to experiment, include depression of college students across the country – except for Rob who was busily enjoying his burger. we don’t get down when things go awry, and we start (49 percent), stress seeking counseling services over a seven- The lunch was nice and somehow, later on, I learned to transform our precarious plates into safe bowls. (45 percent), family year period, from the 2009-10 school year concerns (31 percent), I’d got the job. It’s the same safe environment, in fact – one that through 2014-15. And that’s despite the The talk goes like this: The name of the game is welcomes diversity of perspective, critical thinking, academic perfor- mance (28 percent) fact that college enrollment during this Plates & Bowls, and the goal is for a team of three to experimentation and hands-on learning – that our , chief informa- and relationship time increased just 5.6 percent. Lee Reid NEWS tion officer and vice lower a plate of six marbles through a hole in the floor students have always experienced in their classrooms. issues (27 percent). That’s a sign that today’s students are president of information to a basement where a dinner table is set below each We become more effective, together, in working much more aware of emotional wellness technology services, ini- hole. To achieve this they each use a short fishing toward our goals. than previous generations, say campus tially joined the ITS team in pole, fishing line, and a 9-inch plate with three evenly Along the way, inevitably we drop a few marbles. professionals. The college’s approach to NORBERT OF ST. the spring of 2016. Prior to spaced holes drilled around the rim. Each player ties In the IT world, these are the times where the inter- investments in wellness was recently the joining SNC, Reid’s career their fishing line to the plate and then the team places net connectivity is down, deadlines are missed and spanned 33 years with IT focus of a cover-lined article in Healthy the marbles to begin the task. The first team to lower systems don’t perform well. We run over to try and What is TAO and engineering teams. Campus, a publication of the American the plate of marbles to the waiting table without restart the technology in a classroom, only to find we self-help? Lee holds four U.S. patents College Health Association. and several certifications, dropping any of the marbles wins. don’t have the right tools. We launch a few ideas; for Therapy Assisted The stigma around mental health has having worked at Gen- Oh, and the players are blindfolded. all those that help move the college forward, there are Online (TAO) Self-Help decreased over the years, and St. Norbert, eral Motors, IBM and How can you win such a game? Success, I believe, some that don’t pan out so well. offers materials and three startup firms on interactive modules to like other colleges, is also seeing a higher lies in the level of experience and, more notably, trust But we have colleagues to help us with their feed- numerous assignments assist with a variety of demand for on-campus counseling and among the team members. A team that trusts one back – both when we get it wrong and when we get devotes resources to all of these wellness Eight Dimensions that encompassed health concerns such related services. And St. Norbert is well- of Wellness robotics, control systems, another to maintain the delicate balance that is it right. They help us to learn how to be better; and as stress, anxiety, dimensions, it will focus on the emotional, networking, software required, that uses the right amount of communi- we’re especially grateful for the times when they trust anger management, positioned to help. environmental and physical dimensions The USSAMHSA says development and enter- cation among players and manages to compensate us to be a supporting partner in their success at SNC. communication, and The college has always viewed the during the next three years, responding wellness encompasses eight dimensions: prise architecture.