Summer 2006 11 Dispatches

DISPATCHES

Plays Well with Others UW’s innovative cluster hiring program shows results — but will it continue?

Where Walter Block’s business challenging — as promised. would have said, ‘That has card lists his faculty title, it “Clusters were really a bril- nothing to do with us,’” says should say, “Continued on next liant idea to intervene in the Anne Miner, a business profes- card.” Block, a rising star work- smokestack model,” in which sor who helped develop the ing on medical-imaging tech- academic departments operate cluster. “They don’t think that nology, is an associate professor mostly independently, says anymore.” of biomedical engineering. And Laurie Beth Clark, assistant “People are talking with an associate professor of med- vice chancellor for faculty and each other, and I think that’s ical physics. And an associate staff programs. “I think what the single most important professor of radiology. we’ve shown is that people are objective of the clusters,” says “And I’m hoping to get an finding ways to work across Charles Cohen, a history pro- appointment in electrical engi- disciplines.” fessor who hired four professors “Guys in the house used to make neering soon,” he says. Faculty hired under the as part of a cluster on religious fun of me for watching her show For Block — and several program have generated tens studies. He adds that the cluster until they tasted her recipe for dozen professors meatloaf and mashed potatoes.” like him — hop- JEFF MILLER ping departmen- — Junior Brian Nagle, a mem- tal fences isn’t a ber of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, hobby. It’s a big on how cooking tips from reason why Martha Stewart’s lifestyle show, they’re here. Col- Martha, have improved the qual- lectively known ity of food served in the house. as cluster hires, Stewart interviewed Nagle during these faculty were anE AprilPI broadcastLOG andU laterE sent brought in under the fraternity a signed apron. a unique UW pro- gram that recruits small groups of faculty who work at the intersection of several differ- ent fields. Created by former Chancellor David Ward MS’62, PhD’63 850 in 1998, clusters Associate professor Walter Block, left, describes some of his research on medical The average number of mopeds were meant to imaging technology to radiology professor Thomas Grist. As a cluster hire, Block has parked on campus on a typical challenge the aca- a part-time appointment and an office in the radiology department, which gives him access to clinicians and facilities that help him push his research forward. day, according to UW Transporta- demic status quo tion Services estimates. Starting while helping the in fall, moped drivers will be university establish expertise in of millions in grant money and program was “absolutely criti- required to purchase an annual emerging areas of knowledge sparked new research collabora- cal” to anchoring the religious parking permit, a step campus — fields such as nanotechnol- tions in areas such as genomics, studies program, which recently officials think is necessary to ogy and genomics, which don’t computational sciences, and began offering a core curricu- help keep the growing buzz of fit neatly into any one academic environmental science. They lum for majors. scooters under control. discipline. The program has have enabled the creation of Perhaps nowhere is the funded 140 faculty positions in new interdisciplinary programs, bridge-building potential of 49 clusters, which were chosen such as one on entrepreneur- clusters more evident than in from more than one hundred ship that brings together biomedical engineering, where proposals during five rounds of expertise in business, law, and Block is one of three professors competition. engineering. hired to develop new medical Now, as many of those fac- “There are conversations technology. An expert in med- EPILOGUE ulty approach key stages in between different departments ical imaging, Block has two their careers, the experiment that if you’d said ‘entrepreneur- offices — one in the Engineer- appears as innovative — and as ship’ to them ten years ago, ing Centers building, where he

10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

is surrounded by people who home departments, which often “One of the great strong know how to build things, favor depth over interdiscipli- points of this university is the and one in the Clinical Sciences nary breadth in tenure reviews. lack of institutional barriers to Center, where he works along- So far, cluster professors are this kind of thing,” he says. “In side the medical professionals earning tenure at the same pace some very top-down universi- who will ultimately use those as other faculty, but many of the ties, it’s very hard to collaborate tools in patient care. hires are just now approaching with people outside your “That makes it very easy their review periods. How well department, if not impossible. to work on projects together,” they fare may be a telling sign But here, it’s wide open and has he says. of whether the program is been for a long time.” Robert Radwin, chair of indeed fostering new respect “When departments do this biomedical engineering, credits for expertise that reaches across right,” adds Foley, “they create a the cluster hires for fostering a departmental boundaries. lot of other parallel benefits that collaborative atmosphere “Any interdisciplinary fac- can pay off for years to come.” throughout the unit, which now ulty pose a particular tenure — Michael Penn involves nearly sixty faculty from challenge to institutions that five colleges. “It wasn’t that we have created discipline-based weren’t doing these kinds of depth models for research,” says

Q AND A MICHAEL MESSNER things before, but the cluster Clark, adding that the university has helped amplify it,” he says. is beginning to encourage Liah Hansen ‘06 Clusters played a significant departments to “articulate new and Chloe role, he says, in the department criteria for how to look at excel- Britzius ‘06 landing a $3 million, five-year lence in broad knowledges.” Talk about face time: recent grant to translate research into These obstacles haven’t grads Liah Hansen, left, and marketable technology. discouraged other institutions Chloe Britzius are trying to While those results are from adopting the cluster fund a trip around the world promising, the cluster-hiring model. The University of Califor- by selling their foreheads as advertising space. The two charge experiment does have some nia, the State University of New companies a fee, beginning at eighty dollars a day, to put a tem- rough edges. Searches that York, Purdue, and Virginia Tech porary tattoo of the company’s logo on their foreheads. At their involve multiple departments are among the universities that Web site (www.youtattoous.com), they’re offering eighty days of are often cumbersome and in a have launched similar programs, head space, and they hope to raise enough money to begin their handful of cases have dissolved and Florida State University travels in September. into turf battles. A few clusters recently announced plans to Q: What is the strangest thing you have had to put on your have not yet been able to fill fund two hundred new faculty forehead? their allotted positions, and oth- positions via cluster hiring. A: We don’t think any of them are “strange.” ers have already lost faculty to At UW-Madison, tight more lucrative offers elsewhere. budgets have prevented the Q: Is there anything you would not put on your forehead? Departments have some- university from adding any new A: We talked a lot about this issue before starting the project. times fallen victim to the “overly clusters since the last round was We aren’t willing to wear anything obscene ... we decide on a democratic Wisconsin thing,” approved in 2003, which has case-by-case basis. says environmental studies raised some questions about Q: What is the typical reaction? professor Jonathan Foley ’90, whether the program will con- A: Double takes ... sometimes triple takes. Some people have PhD’93, who leads a cluster tinue. Clark says the administra- been very curious and have asked us about what we are doing, on emerging environmental tion is committed to continuing and we explain it to them. threats. Before hiring three pro- with existing clusters, and it Q: What is the most memorable reaction you have gotten? fessors for his cluster, he set a will explore opportunities for A: When we wore the tattoos for Patrick Properties, a girl came up rule: “Leave your baggage at expanding the program if to us and asked us where she could sign up to wear tattoos, too. the door. If it looks like you’re funding becomes available. angling for your department, Michael Pariza ’67, a food Q: Do you wear it to parties or class? you’re out,” he says. “I was science professor who serves on A: We have worn them to class and handed out fliers to people ready to be a jerk about it, but the UW’s cluster steering com- coming into our classes. We wore them to the bars and to the everyone got along great.” mittee, hopes that happens, say- Memorial Union Terrace. Another potential issue is ing that no place may be better Q: Do you have the feeling you have something on your whether young assistant profes- suited for a long-term commit- face even when you don’t? sors hired under the program ment to interdisciplinary clusters A: Actually, it is the opposite. We sometimes forget that we have are able to get tenure in their than UW-Madison. them on and start to wonder why people keep staring at us.

SUMMER 2006 11 DISPATCHES

Face to Face Students aren’t the only ones logging in to the Facebook.

It’s finals week, and the students from around the coun- tial employers are finding ways libraries and computer labs are try to create their own Web into the Facebook to get a can- packed. Some students are pages. Students post photos did look at students’ social lives. ferociously typing, attempting and discuss their interests with Isabel Owen ‘06, for exam- to finish their last papers of the “Facebook friends” whom they ple, learned that her current semester, but at about every invite to drop by. For thousands employer “Facebooked” her of students at UW- before hiring her. At the time Madison and else- she did not have an account. She where, it’s a virtual does now, but she says she con- hangout where siders carefully what she posts. they can post “I see some people’s pro- announcements of files with photos of them doing parties, send mes- beer bongs and acting crazy, sages to friends, and maybe at one time that MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART and join online chat was fine,” Owen says. “But groups with names now, you never know who is such as “All I Want looking at the site. You really to Do Is Drink on have to censor yourself.” the Terrace.” Many students now suspect What makes the that campus authorities such as Facebook unique police officers lurk on the Face- from other net- book to monitor their actions working sites such and pick up tips about parties as MySpace or where underage drinking may Who’s looking at your Facebook site? Students may assume they’re Friendster is that it be going on. Suspicious of that sharing college exploits with their peers, but increasingly, professors and employers are dropping in for an unfiltered look at student life. is intended exclu- very thing, one group of stu- sively for students. dents at George Washington You must have an University advertised a party on other computer, students are “.edu” e-mail address to regis- the site, hoping the police enthralled by a less academic ter or access pages, leading would take the bait. Police did pursuit. They’re all logged in many students to believe only indeed show up at the party — to the Facebook. their friends will see what they where they found students with The Facebook is a social post. But increasingly, faculty, a root beer keg and cookies. directory that allows college administrators, and even poten- Madison police officer Tony Fiore says his department does not use the Facebook to search for parties, because “there are UW Prof Appears in Time just too many parties posted.” As Richard Davidson seeks to unravel the mysteries of the brain, Nor do campus officials say he has Time on his side. they monitor the sites without True, he’s only fifty-four and has a lot of productive career a specific cause. ahead. But more to the point, the magazine Time recently tabbed But the Facebook’s expand- the UW-Madison psychology professor as one of the one hundred ing circle can be good for stu- most influential people of the year. dents. Teaching assistants and Davidson directs the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain some faculty are beginning to Imaging and Behavior, where he is probing how brain mechanisms use the site to get to know contribute to emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety. their students, and often stu- He’s best known for pioneering research on meditation: with the dents invite their professors to cooperation of the Dalai Lama, he brought Tibetan monks to his lab join their Facebook friends. to observe activity in their brains as they meditated. The magazine “I have had TAs over the credits Davidson for fostering collaborations between East and West past year Facebook me and it that are opening new knowledge on the mind-body connection. has made our relationship much Time’s wide-ranging list of doers and thinkers includes such better,” says Brigid Harvey ‘06. figures as Pope Benedict XVI, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Condoleezza “I never hesitate to send them a Rice, and Katie Couric. message asking about class.” — Staff — Joanna Salmen ‘06

12 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

Engineering Recovery An expert in organizational change turns his eye to addiction.

When David Gustafson trial and systems engineer was Gustafson brings an engi- approached an addiction treat- working on behalf of the treat- neer’s mindset to improving ment center in 2003, seeking to ment center and had donned a these numbers. He helps treat- kick a thirty-year heroin habit, fake persona to experience its ment programs critically exam- the facility wanted to admit processes firsthand. ine their processes with an eye him immediately, but its beds As director of the Network toward four key goals: cutting were full. So the center staff for the Improvement of Addic- the time it takes to get into a suggested, “Why don’t you call tion Treatment, Gustafson treatment program, boosting back once a week and let us works with more than forty patient admissions, reducing know if you’re still interested,” agencies around the country in appointment no-shows, and keeping patients in recovery longer. Participating programs report 40 to 50 percent gains in all of those areas — success that has the network and its

BRUCE FRITZ partners looking to spread their theories and techniques. “There are 13,000 treat- ment agencies in this country; we’re working with forty-four,” says Gustafson. “There are a few more that might benefit from this — like 12,950.” Gustafson has spent forty years helping organizations change their operations to become more productive, and much of his work has focused on improving health care. He has developed technology to help people cope with serious illness, such as cancer, and facili- tated quality improvement processes for a number of health care providers. But addic- tion treatment is fairly new to him. He joined the network in 2003, when it was launched David Gustafson knows that addicts can reap great benefits from treatment coun- with funding from the Robert seling programs — but only if they have access to them. His network helps centers Wood Johnson Foundation and improve their efficiency so that they can reach out to more patients. the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. the would-be patient recalls. an effort to increase the pro- Gustafson says people For seven weeks, Gustafson ductivity of treatment pro- involved with treatment pro- dutifully phoned, getting in grams, many of which struggle grams tend to be receptive to return a terse recording on an to handle patient demand and change, because they work to answering machine. There was keep people on a course to create change in their patients’ “no feedback about what was recovery. According to figures behaviors every day. happening or whether I was from the national Substance “We tend to say, ‘Just look moving up the chain,” he says. Abuse and Mental Health Ser- at yourself and think about “Simply, ‘Leave a message.’” vices Administration, less than how you bring about change in His story might have ended 10 percent of the estimated 23 the work you do every day. there, except for this: Gustafson million Americans in need of Now take those concepts and wasn’t really a heroin user addiction treatment get it, and apply them to the business hoping to change. Instead, the of those, half drop out without processes,’” he says. renowned UW-Madison indus- completing programs. — Madeline Fisher PhD’98

14 ON WISCONSIN RESEARCH

Talkin’ ’Skahnsin Linguists listen to how we talk ’round here.

For newcomers to Wisconsin, a The researchers will study Scientists may have a little more humdrum visit to the store can this lingual battle by collecting time to help ward off a potential

turn into a startling cultural audio recordings of native Wis- SPENCER WALTS outbreak of avian flu among experience when the cashier consinites and analyzing them humans, according to the find- politely asks, “Do you wanna with acoustic equipment that ings of a UW-Madison flu beg for that?” breaks speech apart into sound researcher. Virologist Yoshihiro It’s one of the more comical waves, allowing them to iden- Kawaoka studied human tissue manifestations of the unmistak- tify exactly why someone from samples and learned that able Wisconsin accent. Just as Chicago sounds different from although the virus responsible they pronounce bag more like someone from Rice Lake. affect dialect over time. for avian flu can replicate in beg, native Wisconsinites pro- Salmons and Purnell say “As opposed to other humans, only cells deep within nounce many words just a little their work can have important dialects in America, Wisconsin the respiratory system have differently. Milk can sound like implications for how English is English has been grossly under- receptors that allow the virus to EPILOGUE taught in schools and may lead melk, for example, while cot studied,” Salmons says. “This is enter. The research helps explain to new questions, such as how often comes across as cat. just the tip of the iceberg.” why the virus rarely infects ethnicity and immigration will These curious bits of the — Paroma Basu humans, and it also suggests that ’Skahnsin accent speak volumes existing strains of bird flu must to linguists such as Joseph undergo genetic changes before Salmons and Thomas they are capable of posing a seri- Purnell. The UW-Madison ous threat of a pandemic. “No JEFF MILLER professors have launched the one knows whether the virus will Wisconsin Englishes Project to evolve into a pandemic strain, study why Wisconsinites talk but flu viruses constantly the way they do — and how change,” Kawaoka says. “Cer- those regional speech patterns tainly, multiple mutations need may change over time. to be accumulated for the virus Contrary to popular belief, to become a pandemic strain.” regional accents have not diminished in the age of mass The largest individual gift in UW- media. In fact, they’re shifting Madison history — $50 million and becoming more distinctive from alumni John ’55 and Tashia all the time, making them a ’55 Morgridge — will pave the living model for linguists who way for pioneering scientific col- hope to understand what influ- laboration at the Wisconsin ences people’s speech patterns. Physicist Pamela Klabbers shows off the processing card that Institutes for Discovery. The Wisconsin is a particularly drives the world’s fastest camera. Morgridges’ donation will be intriguing place to ask that COOL TOOL matched by the Wisconsin question, because it sits at the Picture This…and This…and This… Alumni Research Foundation to intersection of two radically help build the facility, which will different regional trends. Think that hot spiffy digital camera you just bought is fast? bring together scientists to attack UW-Madison researchers have developed a $6 million camera To the west, people tend to the problems of disease and that puts it to shame. It’s designed to capture particle collisions — pronounce caught like cot, a advance regenerative medicine. about 40 million of them every second — making it the world’s pattern linguists refer to as the fastest image processor. “Low-Back Merger.” Mean- A UW-Madison team has devel- Who needs all those snapshots of protons banging into each while, parts of southern Wis- oped a unique ranking system other? Well, particle physicists do. They’ve long searched for the consin are being influenced by that seeks to preserve Wiscon- elusive and short-lived bits of matter that are released when a speech pattern, known as the sin’s lakes and rivers. The larger particles crash — particles that they’ve only theorized exist, “Northern Cities Shift,” which researchers divided the state but never seen. The UW’s “camera” will be hooked up to a giant tends to make cot sound more into 1,600 hydrological units and accelerator in Switzerland that will create collisions between par- like cat. identified the areas where con- ticles traveling near the speed of light. Not only will the camera “Wisconsin is probably the servation efforts are likely to be process an image about every twenty-five billionths of a second, only place [in the United States] but it will self-edit those images, sending data about only the most effective. Those results will where two huge, highly con- most interesting collisions. Now that’s a feature we’d like to see help guide restoration of water- flicting linguistic patterns are on some of our friends’ cameras. shed lands that keep pollutants colliding,” says Purnell. — Michael Penn from spilling into waterways.

SUMMER 2006 15 DISPATCHES

Walking on Common Ground UW’s new provost gets out of the office to define a collective vision.

When Patrick Farrell was mile away.” MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART An academic staff appeals com- named provost, shoe sales peo- Capitalizing mittee ruled that UW-Madison ple throughout Madison quietly on that breadth is officials did not have sufficient cheered. among Farrell’s evidence to reprimand Paul That’s because Farrell, a most significant Barrows, former vice chancellor mechanical engineering profes- priorities as for student affairs, for alleged sor and former executive associ- provost. As the sexual harassment. After two ate dean of the College of university’s chief days of testimony, the five- Engineering, vowed to put seri- academic officer, member panel voted unani- ous mileage on his loafers as he he will guide the mously to recommend that the assumed duties as UW-Madi- university’s curric- university overturn disciplinary son’s second-ranking official. ular mission dur- actions taken against Barrows And true to his word, he spent ing a time when last year, saying that the his first month on the job this many depart- New provost Patrick Farrell says that recogniz- university failed to show that spring crisscrossing campus to ments are pressed ing the UW’s unique character is “more than Barrows’s behavior amounted visit each of the UW’s twelve by budget con- just a morale issue.” to sexual harassment. Provost schools and colleges. cerns. He inherits Patrick Farrell is reviewing the What he got — aside from an agenda full of challenges: “He will be an outstanding case and will make a final EPILOGUE footsore — was a renewed protect and enhance the quality provost,” says College of Engi- decision in the matter. appreciation for the diversity of UW-Madison’s faculty, pro- neering Dean Paul Peercy that makes UW-Madison truly mote diversity on campus, and MS’63, PhD’66. “He is a vision- The Wisconsin Union’s ambi- unique among public universities. continue to push advances in ary leader, but his style is very tious renovation plan is still “We have a broader array teaching and learning. participatory. And he brings the alive — thanks to a technicality. of programs than almost any In some respects, Farrell is perspective of an engineer, The Union is asking students to other institution I know of,” a surprising choice to manage which is to solve problems.” accept a $192 annual hike in says Farrell, who was named to that task. On the engineering Farrell was a driving force segregated fees for the next succeed Peter Spear as provost faculty since 1982, he became behind the creation of an inno- thirty years to help underwrite in March. “That clearly has an associate dean in the college vative, hands-on design course the plan, which includes renova- some challenges in supporting in 2001 and was promoted last for freshman engineers, and he tion of Memorial Union and the that breadth of activity. On the year to executive associate has also been active in UW- construction of a new Union other hand, that’s a huge asset. dean. Yet while he is relatively Madison’s Teaching Academy, South. An April student vote on If you would like to talk in per- new to central administration, which pursues excellence in the the referendum was invalidated son to an expert in almost any those who know him say he has classroom. due to glitches with online bal- field you can think of, they’re built a reputation as a creative, Chancellor John Wiley, loting, which is good news for here. They’re less than a half a decisive leader. who selected Farrell from a the Union, because initial results pool of three finalists, describes had students narrowly voting him as a “sound decision- down the measure. A Touch of Glass maker” who combines “sharp, analytical thinking and consul- For the first time in decades,

JEFF MILLER tative decision-making style.” UW-Madison got a visit from He says the university will bene- mumps. The viral disease fit from Farrell’s ability to bring made a Midwestern comeback people together to pursue com- late last year, causing some six mon goals. hundred cases in Iowa, predom- That is Farrell’s intention in inantly among college students. making all those house calls. It spread to the UW campus in Recognizing the university’s April, and by early May, eight common values is “more than students were confirmed to just a morale issue,” he says. have the disease. Although “It’s about acknowledging most students received mumps where the real strengths of this vaccines as children, university campus are, and saying those officials warned students to Glass artist Lisa Koch targets propane flame at the surface of a gourd- are the things we want to use take precautions to avoid shaped glass vase during a recent “blowslot” session at the UW Glass spreading the disease — such as Lab. Koch, a biochemist who also lectures in the art department, is as the basis for taking this cam- working on a new series of vases incorporating a technique called pus to the next level.” not sharing beer at the annual incalmo, which involves fusing colored sections of hot glass. — Michael Penn Mifflin Street block party.

SUMMER 2006 13 ARTS &CULTURE

Goldberg Standard Alumni honor legendary history professor.

In the 1960s there was one IRA BLOCK standard for influence among UW humanities professors — the Goldberg standard. History professor Harvey Goldberg ‘43, PhD’51, who taught at the UW from 1963 to 1987, helped define the UW for a generation, mesmerizing his students in the classroom and shaping their thoughts for years after graduation. Now a group of UW alumni in New York have banded together to memorialize the legendary teacher and continue

COLLECTION EBLING LIBRARY

The Royal Clockwise from left: Marc I. Pessin ’65, Howard Schwartz ’70, Richard Touch Bonomo ’68, Michael Steven ’64, Ellen Meyers ’71, and Lissa Hirsch ’72 In the 1700s and 1800s, there gather in a classroom at the Brecht Forum in New York City. The group dedicated the room to honor the late Professor Harvey Goldberg, was no better medical school whose history classes had a profound effect on their UW experience. than the one at Edinburgh University in Scotland. It pro- his work by dedicating a class- students who weren’t enrolled duced such minds as Joseph room in his honor at New York in his courses. Lister, who pioneered the use City’s Brecht Forum, a thirty- “He was a bundle of of antiseptic, and Arthur Where do babies come from? The year-old political and cultural energy. He started each lecture Conan Doyle, who created 1672 text De Mulierum Organis venue for the progressive with a gulp of breath and Sherlock Holmes. The library of by Reinier de Graff offered early community. would go from there,” recalls the Royal Medical Society of medical students a little insight. The Forum also hosts an Ellen Meyers ‘71, a founding Edinburgh was then the envy of It came to the UW as part of the annual Harvey Goldberg Lec- member of the Harvey Gold- the scientific world. Today, thanks Royal Society collection. ture, the second of which will berg Classroom and the Teach- to the late medical librarian take place on October 6. It will ers Network, a nonprofit Helen Crawford, many of those books reside at the Ebling Library, feature a performance by Ben organization that supports which serves the UW’s health science programs. Sidran ‘67, himself a Goldberg public school teachers. “We Medicine has come a long way in the last hundred years (discov- disciple, and a talk by UW his- were on the edge of our seats. eries include, for instance, germs), but the Royal Medical Society of tory professor Jeremi Suri, We never scheduled a class Edinburgh hasn’t — forced into smaller quarters in 1969, it had to who is publishing two books in after his because he would sell many of its historical books. Between 1969 and 1970, Crawford 2006: Henry Kissinger and the always go over [time] and we jetted from Madison to Britain three times, working feverishly to American Century and The didn’t want to miss a thing.” acquire as many of these volumes as she could. She succeeded in Global Revolutions of 1968. Goldberg, who taught an purchasing 55 percent of the medical texts for the UW, including a In l963, UW President Fred estimated twenty-five thousand comprehensive set of dissertations. Harvey Harrington recruited students in his career and “The collection includes works from primarily the sixteenth to Goldberg, a social historian, supervised ninety-nine PhD the nineteenth centuries,” says Greg Prickman, Ebling’s historical away from Ohio State Univer- dissertations, was “all about services librarian. “They show the early efforts to understand what sity, where his eloquent lec- humanity,” says Meyers, and diseases are and how the body works.” As such, they represent a tures and passionate social many of his students are still timeline for the history of medicine. But they also offer a personal consciousness had already in touch with his ideals and glimpse inside the minds of some of history’s most famous doctors. made him famous. values. The October 6 event is “The books were used fairly heavily,” says Prickman. “And so there Soon Goldberg’s lectures in open to all. To learn more, con- are often graffiti and notes in the margins.” Agriculture Hall were attract- tact Meyers at emeyers@teach- The Edinburgh collection is non-circulating, but patrons can find it ing standing-room-only ersnetwork.org. in the Ebling Library’s reading room. — John Allen crowds, bringing in even — Karen Roach ‘82

16 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

Ethics for Engineers Engineers turn from math to books to tackle knotty problems.

Instructor Laura Grossen- believe they’ll confront again Communication Program, which bacher jokingly describes a new and again as tomorrow’s work- Grossenbacher directs, has chosen course in the College of Engi- ing scientists and engineers. to offer this special topics course. neering as “a book club for engi- “For better or worse, a lot of “In the Technical Communica- neers.” It’s a class where students times scientists and engineers are tion Program, we’re trying to inte- put aside their engineering texts the people we want to listen to, grate ethics as much as possible,” to sample works that include especially on technological says Traci Kelly, who led the Richard Rhodes’s Pulitzer Prize- issues,” says David Doncheck team-taught course this spring. winning historical tome, The x’08, a geological engineering “Why? Because we like it. We Making of the Atomic Bomb, and geology major. “So, if we think it’s really important. And essays on science such as Douglas just know as engineers how because we hear from students Adams’s The Salmon of Doubt, something works technically, but that they aren’t getting a lot of and fiction such as Alan Light- we don’t know how it works in ethics in their other classes.” man’s Einstein’s Dreams. society or some of its conse- The course also plunges However, for the engineers quences, how are we ever going engineers into a learning envi- enrolled in The Social and Ethical to make any kind of informed ronment where problems can’t Impacts of Technology, their statement on these issues?” be solved with calculators. “The book club isn’t a diversion. Nor is Finding opportunities to students do a certain type of it merely a means to polish rusty grapple with philosophical mat- processing in all of their other communication skills. Instead, ters can be difficult in engineer- engineering classes, and it’s these students use the course ing. The curriculum is so packed difficult and complicated. We readings to launch discussions of with technical content, students wanted this class to be a differ- such weighty issues as scientific often can only shoehorn in a ent type of complicated,” says ambiguity, the social responsibil- handful of humanities credits. Kelly. “And we wanted it to be ity of scientists, and the pitfalls That’s one major reason why the challenging and fun and disturb- of technology — topics they College of Engineering Technical ing — all of those things at the same time.” Every week, students read an average of thirty to forty pages

CLASS NOTE JEFF MILLER on topics from the grave and Foiled Again (and Sabered, Too) momentous (nuclear weaponry and artificial intelligence) to the Kinesiology 157: Topics in Fencing amusing and trendy (blogging In the panoply of official UW titles, you won’t find the term and online networking). They swordmaster. But perhaps that should be obvious. On a also frequently take up the non- campus famous for its peace demonstrations, precious few technological, such as Darwin’s students and faculty resort to dueling to settle their affairs of theory of evolution, sustainabil- honor. Nevertheless, the university does keep a swordmaster ity, and “green” design. on its faculty, albeit with the unassuming title of associate To help structure discussions, lecturer. David Glaeser ‘78 is pleased to keep Wisconsin stu- instructors and students post their dents prepared to defend themselves with the long blade. reactions to each week’s set of Glaeser teaches the UW’s only fencing course, a class that readings on an online forum combines exercise and martial artistry with lessons in history. Students learn not only how to thrust before class meets. Often they and parry, but also what those terms — and a host of others — mean. The course is divided into three answer provocative questions distinct sections: foil (the lightest sword, which relies on the thrust), saber (which is heavier and com- posed by the instructors, such as, bines thrusting and cutting), and archaic weapons, which combines study of a variety of skills, from “Is it ever ethical to develop fighting with rapier and dagger to wielding a four-foot-long medieval sword. “Along with each weaponry for use against civil- weapon,” Glaeser says, “I try to teach a little history of the society that used it.” ians?” or “Should the engineering Glaeser has his own lengthy history with the UW fencing course — he first became acquainted community participate in debates with it when he took the class as a freshman in 1971. He continued to pursue fencing as an avocation over sustainability and attempt to while teaching high-school German, but returned to the UW as an instructor in 1998. influence public policy?” Topics in Fencing is offered each semester and meets on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, with But the students are also the foil section meeting first, followed by saber and then archaic weapons. Though the number of encouraged to develop their own sword-wielders at the UW is relatively small, Glaeser’s classes generally fill up. “I get a lot of questions, ideas, and arguments repeaters,” he says. “Because this is a topics course, students can take it again and again.” independent of the suggested — John Allen themes. For many, it’s one of their

18 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

What’s it like to work post-global- ization? Students who take part first experiences voicing their The course is “a breath of immediately suggested they in the International Academic opinions in a classroom setting. fresh air,” adds Megan Sharrow open the sessions to other stu- Internships Initiative will find “I’m shy, so one reason I x’08, a nuclear engineering dents, too — it would give engi- out. The eight-week program, went into engineering is you major. “We know engineering neering students an opportunity created by the Division of Inter- don’t really have to talk,” says isn’t all about the numbers, and to broaden their education national Studies, the College of LaShunda Manly, a continuing- now we’re getting a chance to be beyond problem sets. Engineering, the School of Busi- education student and an electri- exposed to that.” Five other students eventu- ness, and the Institute for Cross- cal engineer by training. “I mean, ally joined the pair in the first College Biology Education, gives you do have to talk in the work- (2) MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART Social and Ethical Impacts of undergrads an opportunity to force, but I would rather just do Technology course in spring work in Europe, Asia, or Africa. the math and not have to say 2005. This year, the class grew to what I feel about things. But you sixteen — eleven engineers, two Assistant Professor Mark Har- can’t do that [in this course].” English majors, and three special rower of the geography depart- A frequent theme in class is students — with Oliver on board ment and his students received a the social responsibility of scien- EPILOas aG studentUE instructor. With no “best in category” award for dedicated budget or staff at the map design from the American moment, the course’s future is Congress on Mapping and Sur- uncertain. Grossenbacher hopes veying. Harrower’s Visitor Map to see it continue, possibly with and Guide — a map of campus help from departments such as — took the top honor in the philosophy or history of science. reference map category. In the meantime, the instruc- tors are dedicated to giving the It’s the end of an era when it students the best experience comes to class registration, as possible, which for Kelly means the university announced in seeing students arguing on the spring that it won’t produce a steps outside after class. paper timetable for fall semes- “I want them to have that ter’s classes. As students register, intense energy of ‘This is the most they’ll have to look up their class important topic in the entire times online. This marks the first Megan Sharrow, above, and Grant McNeilly x’08 listen as faculty world and we must discuss it to time in the university’s history associate Thomas McGlamery, below, at left, leads a discussion in that it has only produced an Social and Ethical Impacts of Technology, a team-taught course in the its death right now!’” she says. electronic timetable. The UW College of Engineering. Although she hasn’t yet wit- nessed any extracurricular debates, has put its timetable on the Web tists and engineers — and the For this opportunity, Shar- Kelly says the students are showing since 1994, but it also printed a uncertainty that often surrounds row and her classmates have signs of deep involvement with the paper version for each term the “right thing” to do. No work engineering physics student Kyle material. She relates one student’s through summer 2006. illustrates this more powerfully Oliver x’08 to thank. An avid vow to buy copies of Rhodes’s book than The Making of the Atomic reader and writer himself, Oliver for everyone in his family. (When Christopher Ochoa JD’06 has Bomb. In it, author Rhodes details was already an admirer of Niels the price of the 886-page book seen many different sides of the how the world’s most brilliant Bohr, a great scientist who could proved prohibitive, he bought American justice system. Freed physicists came together to create write, and Douglas Adams, a them used copies of Einstein’s after a wrongful conviction a weapon that ended World War great writer who could tackle sci- Dreams instead.) Another student through the efforts of the II, but also killed thousands of ence. And after taking a history says she thinks about her class- Wisconsin Innocence Project, Japanese civilians and launched of science course, Oliver wanted mates’ perspectives at night, in bed. Ochoa entered the UW Law the nuclear arms race. to continue reading classic works “We have students coming School and graduated in May. Given the risks of newer on science and technology, but a to us after class, in between innovations, such as nanotech- heavy course load left him little classes, or on e-mail saying, ‘Did Music from the age of nology, genetic engineering, and time. So, with three or four read- you see this?’ and ‘Oh, and I also Cervantes, Columbus, and the cybernetics, the students know ing ideas in hand, he approached saw that,’” Kelly adds. “So, it’s conquistadors will be the topic they’ll likely face similar quan- Grossenbacher in fall 2004. clicking for them. They’re seeing of study during this summer’s daries as tomorrow’s engineers. “I basically asked, ‘Hey, can all these great connections, and Madison Early Music Festival. “It’s thought-provoking to take I get a credit for reading these so I think they spend a lot more This will be the seventh annual on issues like these and say books and talking with you time mulling over these ideas celebration of medieval and there’s more to this than just about them?’” Oliver says. Seiz- than they anticipated.” Renaissance music, and it will ‘Can it be done?’” says Doncheck. ing opportunity, Grossenbacher — Madeline Fisher PhD’98 take place from July 8 to 15.

SUMMER 2006 19 When Wisconsin’s two hockey teams each brought home national titles, it marked an unprecedented feat. But winning isn’t all these programs have in common.

BY DAN UTTECH ’01 Men’s photos by Jeff Miller Women’s photos by David Stluka

BY DAN UTTECH ’01 One day after watching the way, routing Minnesota, 3–0, on the last Each team, for example, is led by a men’s hockey team win its first weekend in March to win the program’s former Badger legend. Women’s coach national championship since first NCAA title. Two weeks later, the Mark Johnson ’94 and men’s coach 1990, UW athletic director men completed the sweep with a thrilling Mike Eaves ’78 were teammates on the Barry Alvarez stood in the com- 2–1 victory over Boston College. UW’s 1977 national championship team, At a jubilant rally the following day, and Johnson trails only Eaves as the pany of champions and declared: more than two thousand Badger fans program’s career leading scorer. (John- “We own college hockey!” turned out to celebrate the dual champi- son completed his UW degree after his You could argue that Alvarez, the onships. “To bring home two national National Hockey League career.) Both former football coach and newly championships in one year is just over coaches took their jobs in 2002, and each addicted Badger hockey fan, was caught the top,” Chancellor John Wiley MS’65, built his program to a championship level up in the euphoria of the moment. But no PhD’68 told the gathering. in four seasons on the job. college hockey program had ever had a For the Badger hockey programs, the This season, both Eaves and John- moment like this. Flanking Alvarez were joint celebration was fitting, because this son could call on a national player-of- two tall trophies, marking the first time year’s teams have been linked by so the-year candidate to lead their squads. in NCAA history that a university won many similarities. That each wound up Junior Sara Bauer led the women’s team both the men’s and women’s national hoisting national championship trophies in scoring and won the Patty Kazmaier championships. The women paved the is only the beginning. Award, given to the nation’s top player.

20 ON WISCONSIN For the men, junior goaltender Brian had a Burish as captain. Adam ’06 was a The men’s and women’s hockey programs had reason to celebrate all season long: in Elliott was a finalist for the Hobey Baker fifth-year senior for the men’s team, January, the teams were ranked number Award and earned first-team All-Amer- while his sister Nikki ’06 was a senior one at the same time, an NCAA first. And in ica honors. Both coaches surrounded co-captain for the women. the end, that’s where they finished, making Wisconsin the first university ever to win their stars with plenty of homegrown The Burishes, from Verona, Wiscon- dual national championships on the ice. talent: thirteen players on the men’s sin, were the first brother and sister roster hail from Wisconsin, as do eight to skate for the Badgers, forcing their With all that in common, Wisconsin’s on the women’s team. parents at times to choose which team’s hockey teams seemed destined to wind The connections don’t end there. games to attend. up in the same place. But destiny’s The teams’ top goal scorers — sopho- “[Our parents] said all year, ‘We’re course is usually riddled with storms. more Jinelle Zaugg and junior Robbie only going to watch the number one team And this, too, links the teams. Earl — each netted twenty-four scores. in the country.’ So when the girls were In January, both teams stood atop Their leading scorers (combining goals number one, they watched the number one the national rankings, the first time in and assists) were underclassmen — team in the country, and when we were history they’d held those spots at the Bauer for the women, and sophomore number one, they watched us,” Adam says. same time. Things were looking bright Joe Pavelski for the men. And each team “What a neat problem to have.” for the Badgers, but the storm clouds

SUMMER 2006 21 From the Burishes to the outstanding goal- tenders who overcame mid-season health troubles, these teams had much more than trophies in common. Clockwise from bottom left: women’s goaltender Jessie Vetter makes a save; men’s goaltender Brian Elliott does the same; siblings Adam and Nikki Burish hoist champsionhip trophies; the women’s team gathers after defeating Minnesota in the title game; the men’s team celebrates its win; and forwards Robbie Earl and Angie Keseley strike similar poses.

were gathering. The men’s team had an 18-2-2 record and was heading into a big weekend series with Denver when its star goalie, Elliott, injured his knee during practice. He missed the next eight games, and the Badgers lost seven of their next ten. Elliott regained his health and his form in time to help Wisconsin win nine of its last ten games and earn the number one seed in the NCAA tournament. “I’m proud of our players and our coaching staff, in the way we handled the adverse situations that we had,” Eaves says. “We stayed focused on trying to control the things we could. You need the recognition that there are things out of your control — things that you hope fall into place.” The women’s team lost its top rank- ing after back-to-back conference losses in early February, the only time all year the team dropped consecutive games.

22 ON WISCONSIN fashion, earning an 11–1 record and overtime periods — 111 minutes and becoming the first woman to post two 13 seconds — to defeat Cornell, 1–0. shutouts in the Frozen Four, where she And to add to the similarities, the win- was named as the tournament’s most ning goals in both games were scored by outstanding player. freshman forwards: Tia Hanson for the After enduring regular-season women, Jack Skille for the men. storms, the UW squads each caught a So was it all destiny, a predeter- break in the NCAA tournament sched- mined course that drew both teams ules, playing all their matches within toward the top? easy driving distance of Madison. The “Destiny is a combination of prepara- men never left the state, winning two tion meeting opportunity,” says Eaves. games in Green Bay before advancing to “It’s the habits that form and what the Frozen Four round in Milwaukee. you do with opportunities,” adds After hosting the first round in nearby Johnson. “In order to get opportuni- Middleton, the women’s team traveled ties, you have to prepare and have up I-94 to Minneapolis for the Frozen things go your way.” Four. And although the women ulti- Eaves notes that it was Forrest mately had to defeat Minnesota on its Gump who said: “I don’t know if we home ice, a huge Badger crowd turned each have a destiny, or if we’re all just out for virtually all of the teams’ tourna- floating around accidental-like on a ment games. Some fans, including breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both.” Alvarez, the Burishes, and even a tuba Maybe it was destiny, maybe it was player from the Alumni Band, traveled “floating around accidental-like,” and back and forth between Minneapolis maybe it was both. Whatever you choose and Green Bay to catch both the men’s to believe, some force underlies this first round games and the women’s unique and landmark year for Badger Frozen Four. hockey, a year that led members of the “We live in a real unique city, and women’s team to start labeling Wisconsin we have an unbelievable university,” as “the new state of hockey.” Destiny is Johnson says. “But the support [the one word for it, but historians may some The latter was a 3-1 defeat to Minnesota, fans] give to us is unmatched anywhere day look back on the unprecedented whom the UW would face again in the in the country.” achievements of 2006 and choose national title game. In their tournaments, both Badger another term: Women’s goaltender Jessie Vetter teams survived multiple-overtime games Legacy. also overcame health problems, missing to advance to the Frozen Four. The women needed two overtime periods, a the first eight weeks of the season while Dan Uttech ‘01 works as a writer for University battling mononucleosis. But like Elliott, total of 90 minutes and 10 seconds, to top Communications and is pursuing a degree in the redshirt freshman recovered in epic Mercyhurst, 2–1. The men went to three elementary education. He traveled to the women’s Frozen Four as a member of the Alumni Band.

SUMMER 2006 23 REVOLUTION IN GEAR It’s sporty, it’s red, and it’s called

BY ERIK NESS ut on the taxiway of the Equinox, with an average fuel economy of deserted Lone Rock Airport, twenty-one miles per gallon, into a thirty- PHOTOS BY the command comes: “Hit it!” five-miles-to-the-gallon hybrid that team JEFF MILLER O Danny Bocci ’05 punches members have nicknamed Moovada. the gas on the brand new Chevrolet They will need to meet next-generation Equinox and accelerates hard into the emissions standards, stay within budget, deepening autumn night. The engine and maintain or exceed the utility and rushes, tires squeal, and the fluid lines of performance of the original car. the vehicle recede into running lights. It First came a facelift: students all goes off like a scene from a slick TV repainted the car with a modified ad, except that instead of a film crew, DeWalt NASCAR scheme in red and there is twenty-two-year-old Liz Casson black. The rest of the to-do list is formi- ’06 in a gray hooded sweatshirt, running dable: design, build, and replace the a hand-held video camera. And instead front and rear subframes. Rebuild the of a catering spread, Dan Mehr ’06 electrical system for the higher voltage works a grill loaded with brats and burg- required by the electric motor and its ers and ribs. Grocery bags of chips, $2,000 battery. Fit the electric motor. cookies, and soda spill open at his feet, Build the emissions system. Add a clutch and students grab handfuls while man- and transmission. Swap the gasoline ning the radar gun and the laptop and engine for a high-end diesel. Replace the waiting for their turn at the wheel. gas tank. And write software to make The group is festive, and no wonder: everything work together. they’ve been waiting a year for this car, Previous Wisconsin teams have done envisioning it in their heads and on com- similar tasks, and done them well. Dur- puter screens. Now they can touch it, ing the past seven years of the competi- hear it, and gun it. The tires are still a tion, sponsored by the U.S. Department glossy showroom black, the interior of Energy and the automotive industry, exudes that new-car smell, and the seats UW-Madison has won five times. are a little stiff. For UW-Madison’s But things are different now. While hybrid vehicle team, it’s time for rubber the idea of building a hybrid car was and muscle and steel. once a novel engineering exercise, it’s This car is the heart of Challenge X, now an economic imperative for Amer- a national competition that pits teams ica’s struggling auto industry. Even from seventeen North American univer- before the Iraq war and the effects of sities in a three-year quest to convert a Hurricane Katrina sent oil prices soar- standard-issue, gasoline-powered car into ing, General Motors and Ford teetered a hybrid that combines internal combus- on the edge of bankruptcy, their impos- tion and electricity for maximum effi- ing fleets of trucks and sport-utility vehi- ciency. During the next nine months, the cles seeming like dinosaurs in a new age UW team will reimagine, re-engineer, and of fuel efficiency. And while the market endlessly reassemble its vehicle, trans- for hybrid cars is still small, companies forming it from an off-the-assembly-line such as Toyota, which sometime this year

24 ON WISCONSIN Moovada.Moovada.

race cars and one designing a more environmentally friendly snowmobile. Before any of those students roll up their sleeves and start tinkering, Bower insists on diversions — anything from a wheel- barrow race or a contest to suck down a stack of saltines and a soda — to build rapport and ease tension. On a day last fall, not long after the Equinox landed, the exercise is to design a module to protect an egg from a twenty-foot drop, using only one piece of paper, a roll of Scotch tape, a few straws, and some rubber bands. Although not a single egg survives, the exercise does the trick, and the students are loose as they head into the garage, a sprawling, quadrilateral room in the Engineering Centers Building with vehicles propped up and popped apart in every corner. Could this car Liz Casson, a senior in electrical Could this car engineering and the hybrid team’s leader, designed and built by UW engineering students sits cross-legged on the floor, struggling with the suspension on a five-year-old change the way we drive? Baja car. Plenty remains to be done on the Moovada, but she wants to leave those opportunities for less-experienced team members. Besides, she plans to take the Baja for a spin around Bower’s wooded lot during the team’s fall bonfire. will pass General Motors as the world’s faces a problem that significantly paral- “I’ve always liked to build stuff, ever largest automaker, are miles ahead. lels the challenge for Detroit: how to since I was little,” she says. “If something In 2004, General Motors replaced engineer a comeback. wasn’t working, I wanted to know why.” Ford as primary sponsor of the hybrid- Vehicle-design competitions exist to car competition and tailored it to fit its Glenn Bower has three rules: give students an opportunity to pursue vehicle-development process. As a result, have fun, learn something, and that curiosity. In cooperation with the the rules changed, the vehicle changed, don’t hurt yourself. Bower, a faculty Department of Energy, the auto industry and Wisconsin’s success changed. After associate in mechanical engineering, has sponsored dozens of contests since the first year of Challenge X, which cul- advises some one hundred students who 1987, in part to showcase new technol- minated in preliminary judging last sum- participate in the university’s various ogy, but also to offer college engineers a mer, UW-Madison placed tenth. And auto-design teams, which also include sample of the auto-design process. now UW’s proud vehicle-design program groups working on Baja and Formula Many, like Casson, have little

SUMMER 2006 25 experience working on cars before they sign on. Casson was attracted as a fresh- man by a display of the UW’s hybrid car — then a 2002 Ford Explorer — because it was the same model her dad drove back home in Potomac, Maryland. “The team was a family,” she remembers. “I liked that, because as a freshman, you’re looking for friends. It’s a huge school.” With no mechanical experience, Casson started out working on the team’s newsletter. In time, she learned to weld and made herself useful on the band saw. “Just hanging around the garage pro- vided the opportunity to explore,” she says. “I don’t think you need to come in with the background of taking apart engines or building tractors. I just think you need to come in with the drive to figure out why something isn’t doing what you think it should.” Students get to tinker with engines, but they’re also tinkering with their career options. Many past participants have gone on to work in the auto indus- try. Julie Marshaus ’99, MS’02, who designs exhaust gas recirculation valves for Delphi Corporation, says she owes her job to the hands-on experience she earned as a team member. “A lot of peo- ple in industry don’t have a good grasp of the challenges of the future technology,” she says, noting that she’s met colleagues who didn’t know that a hybrid vehicle uses a different voltage because “they’ve never been around it.” “This is your opportunity to make mistakes,” says Casson. “So you can nance of the Ford-run FutureTruck Now, in the first year, teams receive learn now, and you’re going to be way challenge was no accident. a disembodied engine compartment and ahead of your field.” “That team in particular is very a library of computer files. They design Mistakes? Her voice shrinks and she business savvy, and they have a very their vehicles entirely on computer. looks embarrassed. “I’ve shorted batter- good reputation,” she says. After passing that test, teams get the ies,” she confesses. “I’ve never done any- Challenge X — so christened Equinox and turn it into a mule vehicle thing that devastating, like blow up an because the Equinox is a cross between a — a rough cut that tests the new drive- engine — which we have done before. car and a sport-utility vehicle — was alt- train, but lacks polish. The final goal is a As long as you learn from your mistakes, tered to mirror GM’s vehicle-develop- showroom-quality vehicle, down to the we’re happy.” ment process and now puts more cup holders. That willingness to dive in has helped emphasis on computer modeling and Last summer, teams traveled to GM’s fuel the success of the UW design teams. design in its early phases. “We had a offices in Auburn Hills, Michigan, to Kristen De La Rosa of Argonne National monster garage approach to competitions present the results of the design phase. Laboratory, which oversees the competi- in the past,” says De La Rosa. “A lot Not surprisingly, judges selected the tion, says Wisconsin students are known of the engineering decisions were based most conceptually advanced plan — a for their outreach and their cooperation on ‘What can I get my hands on?’ and fuel-cell-powered hybrid designed by with other teams and that their domi- ‘What can I fit into the vehicle?’” the University of Waterloo in Ontario,

26 ON WISCONSIN aluminum, to shave pounds and enhance fuel efficiency. But because aluminum fabrication is expensive and less forgiv- ing, they first perfect the design in steel, which has its frustrations. “You get the feeling for the real thing here, and you sense other potential problems, too,” says Dave Ahlman x’06. But, he confesses, “I’d rather be doing it on a computer.” “It’s just not the same,” counters Kevin Stutenberg x’08. “If you’re design- ing something on a computer screen, it’s not nearly the same as going out and pulling it off or machining it on the lathe. That’s where you learn all the little things, like [that] you have to add a little tolerance.” Stutenberg, a certified helicopter mechanic, has a little more perspective than the average undergrad. Deployed to Iraq as a flight engineer for the massive Chinook helicopter, he eventually became a door gunner. “I think one great reason for advancing the hybrid program is that we are less dependent on the Middle Eastern countries, because they do tend to be a little less stable than we Getting the Moovada in gear takes more are,” he says. than just gears. Clockwise from upper left: students install newly modified engine On screen or under the hood, components under the hood; programmers Ahlman and Stutenberg embody the sift through thousands of lines of computer code that help run the car’s dual engines; spirit of engineering, but it’s not the only a crowded to-do list reminds the team of factor at play in the making of a success- looming deadlines; sparks fly as a student ful vehicle. Technology often takes a uses a grinder to hone a part to be installed in the car; and the team blows off steam by back seat to economic reality, and those racing mechanic carts across the terrazzo tile tensions are already showing up in the floors of the Engineering Centers Building market for hybrids, which account for lobby. less than 2 percent of all automobile sales Canada — as the winner. Though order, will equal a finished vehicle. On a in the United States. With two engines disappointed by their tenth-place result, Friday in October, several students are instead of one, hybrids cost several thou- UW students are more confident of their retrofitting a clutch, while three others sand dollars more than similar gasoline- chances now that the competition has scan a printout, trying to master the five powered cars, and automakers aren’t moved on to the nuts-and-bolts work. thousand lines of code that will eventu- likely to stick with them unless they sell “We’ve developed a strategy over the ally run the Moovada. within broader market segments. years for setting goals for ourselves that Meanwhile, another group of “Unfortunately, we have to have an are realistic,” says Casson. While other students works on the task of mounting economic incentive,” says Bower. “Right teams opted for more experimental the Moovada’s rear electric motor. They now, it’s people interested in high tech- approaches, she says Wisconsin has a have uncovered a problem with their nology — engineers — and environmen- design it can build. strategy and now must reconfigure a talists buying [hybrids].” two-hundred-pound jig of welded, In fact, a sleek red car right in the As the semester progresses, the one-inch angle iron. Two men with a hybrid team fleet offers a perfect lesson pace in the Engineering Centers sledge hammer and a grinder tackle in these automotive economics. Dusty garage slowly picks up. It’s a free-form that indelicate job. and partially disassembled, with a library choreography, with small teams tackling In the final car, this and other of technical manuals scattered on the tasks that, when combined in proper subframe elements will be made of Continued on page 60

SUMMER 2006 27 rear dash, few people might recognize it Moovada — it’s another engineering by the new Challenge X format. “We as a billion-dollar car. But that’s how challenge to be mastered. already have enough book work and much money General Motors spent computer work here,” he says. “The developing the notorious EV1. “Who took off the Big ass nuts on accreditation boards are saying we need Still touted as the most efficient pro- the end of the half shafts in the more hands-on [activities].” The oppor- duction vehicle ever made, the all-electric rear???? We cannot find them and have tunitity to get under the hood, he says, EV1 was created in the late 1990s to looked everywhere. Give us ... “ The has been a big reason these contests have meet California’s strict environmental hurried e-mail from Danny Bocci stops thrived at Wisconsin. “When it gets to regulations. But even as GM was pour- in mid-sentence, then screams: “WE the grease monkey stage, or just the ing resources into the car’s development, NEED THESE SO WE CAN DRIVE grunt stage, our team has been more the industry was battling California in TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!” willing to get dirty, get in the shop, stay court, a legal maneuver that ultimately It’s a Monday night in late February, in long hours, forgo the parties.” toppled the standards. GM pulled the and crunch time for the Moovada. The But the message of Challenge X is plug and recalled the eight hundred car needs to be operational by Thursday, that the auto industry — and those who experimental vehicles, much to the when the team is to demonstrate it at a work in it — must adapt to new environ- anguish of a small cadre of fans. Former press event in Milwaukee. Executives ments. And for Wisconsin, there are Baywatch star Alexandra Paul chained from Johnson Controls, which is donat- promising signs that more than just a herself to an EV1 junkyard in protest. ing a battery to the team, and from GM vehicle is coming together. Although it may have been a finan- will be on hand. But Bocci, a computer Bocci’s next e-mail to the team comes cial boondoggle, the EV1 is a foundation engineer who has been working to per- at 5:45 on Tuesday morning, and it begins: for the automotive future. Without its fect the Moovada’s control software, “It’s alive!” The calibration is still pretty innovation, the U.S. hybrid effort would needs a working vehicle before he can rough, but the initial conversion from gas- be even further behind companies such test the code. guzzling Equinox to Moovada is done. as Toyota and Honda, which have the Bocci is the senior member of the “I have a very realistic sense of how best-selling models. GM is gambling that crew and the only one who has experi- much work is left,” Bocci says. But as lessons learned in building the EV1 will enced an entire vehicle build. His dad the team prepares for the next round of help minimize its hybrid investment and was an engineer for Motorola and a ham judging this June, he and others are shift the paradigm to an all-electric car radio enthusiast, and ever since Bocci pleased by the progress. powered by a fuel cell. could pull up a chair, he’s spent hours “I saw people working as a team for Meanwhile, Challenge X gives the at his dad’s side. “I always thought I’d the first time this year, with ten or twelve industry seventeen different solutions to work at Motorola, but my real passion is people working toward the same goal,” the basic engineering problem of making vehicles,” he says. He once built a racing says Bower. “Before, two or three people hybrids work. Mark Johnson, a director tractor that did thirty-five miles per hour. were doing all the work. in GM’s product development group, “That was an experience,” he laughs. “A “I’ve been learning over the years to says that the competition “allows us to lot of the first-generation design only make them struggle,” he admits. “They leverage some of the best and brightest lasted four or five blocks.” have to get upset and realize that there is and most technologically capable young Even since Bocci joined the team, a better way.” It’s a lesson that is begin- minds in North America. This generation the atmosphere around the garage has ning to sink in, both for the students and is totally in tune with sophisticated soft- changed. While it was once the play- for the auto industry at large. The stu- ware tools, computers, math modeling, ground of habitual shop rats, technology dents have something to teach us all and simulations, and they’re undoubtedly has altered people’s relationship with about the challenge of our automotive going to take this industry on its next cars. “Ten years ago, people still had future: instead of all the environmental technological leap.” vehicles that were eight or ten years old, hand-wringing, the political grandstand- To Casson, however, the EV1 isn’t a and they had to replace distributor caps ing, and the relentless failure of Detroit harbinger or history lesson. “It’s just an and spark plugs. People still did timing to forge a path beyond our gas-addicted engineering challenge,” she says. “When lights,” says Bower. “Now, you just plug plight, it’s simply time to pull a few all- you come up with an idea to do some- it in, and the computer tells you what’s nighters and get the job done. thing, and you work through it, and you wrong.” The trend has hurt the UW’s get stuck, and you keep working on it vehicle teams: where once Bower had Erik Ness is a freelance writer living in Madison. His last article for On Wisconsin, about the and keep working on it ... when you’re sixty to eighty students working on the environmental effects of coal mining in West done, the feeling you have of accomplish- hybrid car, it’s down to a core group of Virginia, appeared in the Winter 2004 issue. ment is incredibly rewarding.” That’s about twenty students. what keeps her plugging away at the For that reason, Bower isn’t thrilled

28 ON WISCONSIN ARTS &CULTURE

The Power of Parody African professor explores the subversive world of political cartoonists. Students at Hillel had a chance to get Lost in March — they Tejumola Olaniyan knows that very low,” Olaniyan says. “But on tough issues, he says that the heard from two writers of that the distance from the tip of a there is a high degree of visual lit- work of their African counter- award-winning ABC program, political cartoonist’s pen to the eracy. Cartoons have always been parts differs in significant ways. Adam Horowitz x’94 and Edward door of a prison cell — or the very popular. People regard car- “In Africa, the issues they are Kitsis ‘93. The writers screened muzzle of an assassin’s gun — can toonists as trusted guides to help faced with are issues of life and an episode, discussed their cre- be frightfully short. them make sense of the chaos of death and the macropolitical issues ative process, and shared insider In his native Africa, of extreme inequality, tor- highlights about the show. Olaniyan has seen the cost. ture and injustice, and Algerian cartoonist Guer- MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART poverty. That propels them It’s often been said that UW- rovi Brahim was murdered to be more edgy,” he says. Madison marches to the beat of in 1995. Tony Namate, a “Cartoonists in the west have its own drum — and campus is cartoonist in Zimbabwe views that are more micro. about to get a lot more drum- mers. The Drum Corps Interna- EPILOGUE and a friend of Olaniyan’s, “You actually have to is in hiding, fearing retribu- be creative to be corrupt tional World Championships tion from the government here. In Africa, we’re talk- will be held at Camp Randall of Robert Mugabe. ing about very vulgar cor- from August 8 to 12. Madison Another Algerian, Lamari ruption, and with impunity. last hosted the competition Chawki, received a three- They are faced with issues in 2002. year prison term for mock- that are far more urgent,” ing that nation’s flag. he adds. Is Stalin set Earlier this year, when Another difference is for a come- political cartoons in an artistic. Because they are back? Soci- obscure Danish publication often dealing with the ology rocked the Islamic world and same big-picture issues professor unleashed widespread civil again and again, African Theodore unrest and death with their cartoonists must reinvent Gerber depiction of the prophet their styles to keep readers and his SPENCER WALTS Mohammed, Olaniyan was interested, Olaniyan says. colleague not surprised. A professor of American cartoonists tend Sarah Mendelson from the Cen- English and African lan- to adopt a style and portray ter for Strategic and Interna- guages and literature, he issues through that lens. tional Studies released a survey was already at work on a The common thread, in February that indicated that book about the ability of car- Teju Olaniyan reads political cartoons in his though, is that political young Russians hold an ambiva- office in Van Hise Hall. “Studying cartoons lent or even positive view of the toons to sear into people’s gives good insights into a country’s political cartoonists everywhere play hearts — and land their cre- culture,” he says, “because cartoonists often an important role in attack- dictator. Some 56 percent of ators in serious jeopardy. have wider, more robust views of political ing the status quo. And them felt he did more good than “Cartoons may seem to events, and because of their wide audience. although many people have bad and 51 percent said he was Everyone loves cartoons.” But not everyone be innocuous and childish, suggested that it was irre- a wise leader. loves a cartoonist. Olaniyan’s work explores but they are very powerful,” the pressures these artists face. sponsible for Danish newspa- he says. “Political cartoons pers to portray the prophet William Broad MA’77, a senior are supposed to upset their Mohammed in cartoons, writer for the New York Times, target.” the political scene.” Olaniyan suggests it would be takes a look into the past to see Olaniyan’s focus is on the The power of political car- more irresponsible to squelch how the ancients tried to fore- developing nations of Africa, toonists in Africa is such that when cartoonists’ freedom to critique tell the future with The Oracle: places often beset with problems a former Nigerian regime insti- society. The Lost Secrets and Hidden of war, disease, poverty, and cor- tuted a national “War Against “There are all kinds of speech Message of Ancient Delphi, ruption. His forthcoming book Indiscipline,” one of the discour- in this country that I don’t like published this year by Penguin. will examine how cartoonists in aged activities — along with things and would like to pulverize into The book combines science and English-speaking African nations such as littering — was cartooning the ground. Much of it is speech history, but reads like a detective — including Kenya, Ghana, South the head of state. directed at people like me,” he story, following the efforts of an Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria — That subversive nature says. “But the question is, would archaeologist and a geologist frame those issues for readers appeals to Olaniyan, who first I want to sacrifice freedom of as they worked to uncover once who often don’t have many other developed a liking for cartoons as speech for the benefit of not and for all the secrets of the sources of news. a high school student in Omu- hearing those forms of speech? Oracle of Delphi, one of the “The literacy in terms of Aran, Nigeria. And while Ameri- The answer is no.” most influential prophets of being able to read and write is can political cartoonists also take — Dennis Chaptman ‘80 ancient Greece.

SUMMER 2006 17 PuttingFaithinScience ILLUSTRATION BY DENNIS HARMS© IMAGES.COM/CORBIS

28 ON WISCONSIN Intelligent design — an alternative theory of life supported by many Christians — argues that science alone can’t explain the mysteries of our existence. And most Americans agree. Why has science been so unconvincing?

By Deborah Blllum MA’82 More than 130 years after his declara- have indicated that they will explore tion, science has reshaped the world in whether their schools should teach other “The impregnable position of ways that even the most optimistic physi- ideas in science classes — from Kansas, science may be described in a few cist might have failed to imagine. Yet which is already working to alter text- words. We claim, and we shall wrest theology still matters, religion remains books, to Florida, which has ordered a from theology, the entire domain of one of the world’s most powerful forces, complete textbook review in 2007. and — to take the most contentious case Among the scholars following — and cosmological theory. All schemes of the moment — Charles Darwin’s the- worrying over — these trends is Ronald and systems which thus infringe ory has yet to be accepted by millions of Numbers, a UW-Madison professor in upon the domain of science must, people around the world. the history of science and medicine. Using evolution theory as a measure, Along with many of his peers, Numbers in so far as they do this, submit to a startling number of people seem to find suspects that a more conservative U.S. its control, and relinquish all thought science inadequate as a way of under- Supreme Court is likely to support one of controlling it.” standing the world around them. A of those efforts, overturning a long tradi- — John Tyndall, to the British Association recent survey by the Pew Forum on tion of upholding standard science in the for the Advancement of Science, in 1874 Religion and Public Life found that classroom. At the same time, evolution three-fourths of Americans are dissatis- critics are growing increasingly refined fied with Darwin’s explanation of life. in their attempts to inject other ideas into A Gallup poll last fall reached a similar the curriculum. Some are now pushing cience stood transcendent when conclusion, adding that a majority of for “critical evaluation” of evolution the- SJohn Tyndall, the great Irish the dissatisfied were educated men and ory and its alternatives, a strategy that physicist, made his famous women — in fact, college graduates. experts think is less likely to run afoul boast, standing atop the technological Further, the Gallup survey found that of constitutional prohibitions on mixing advances of the mid-nineteenth century: 53 percent of those questioned preferred church and state. telegraph cables linking North America to believe that God created humans in “They may win that one when it to Europe and Europe to Asia, the peri- their present form. And of those who did comes along,” Numbers says. odic table of elements newly devised, and accept evolution, most considered the But for Numbers, one of the leading useful inventions from celluloid to the process so complex as to need help from scholars of the creationist movement, the pressure cooker amazing consumers. an “intelligent designer.” critical question for science is not what Beyond technology, researchers were Such potent cultural beliefs are might happen, but what already has. Far redefining the natural world, most changing the landscape of education in from wresting cosmological theory from notably with the 1859 publication of the United States. School boards in the theologians, science appears to be Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Grantsburg, Wisconsin, and Dover, losing tread with the public on one of its Species. There was nothing, it seemed, that Pennsylvania, have flirted with requiring most basic tenets. And Numbers may be science couldn’t explain or accomplish. science teachers to devote class time to one of the best people in the country to Except, of course, to live up to intelligent design as an alternative to ask why. Tyndall’s expectation that it would — evolution theory. And while those efforts “As I see it, my job at the moment is or could — become the only way to failed, experts are less sanguine about the not to solve the problem but to help diag- understand life on a challenging planet. next round of challenges. Eighteen states nose it so that it can be solved,” he says.

SUMMER 2006 29 ntering Numbers’s office, in the conflicts between facts and faith in the theism. It was one big ball of wax. It was EDepartment of Medical History post-Darwinian world. He was born in at once exhilarating and terrifying.” and Bioethics, is akin to entering Boulder, Colorado, in 1942, the bright The book, published in 1976, con- a cave of books. Books rise along the and curious son of a Seventh-Day cluded that White was often mistaken walls in towering cases. They cobble the Adventist missionary, who himself was about the world, and sometimes know- wide surface of his desk. They climb like the son of an Adventist minister. “I come ingly so. Before it was released, officials stalagmites in stacks that rise from the from four generations of Adventists,” at Loma Linda, having learned of its floor. Numbers sits behind his piled desk Numbers says. “I’m the first son not to conclusions, asked Numbers to leave. like a priest of paper, white-bearded, be a minister, which makes me the family His work went over no better with his kind-faced, surrounded by the troubled black sheep.” family. “My father was so humiliated history of science and religion. Expecting to follow the family that he took early retirement,” Num- Those volumes weave a history of tradition, Numbers started writing bers says, and although the two men two worlds that have collided far more sermons when he was five years old. eventually made their peace, for years, often than they have connected. A signif- Even when he was in graduate school, his father refused to be seen with him icant reason, says Numbers, is scientific at the University of California at Berke- in public. arrogance, which neither began nor ley, he remained true to his religion, The best thing that came out of his ended with Tyndall’s grandiose claims keeping to the Adventist community critical scholarship, he says, was that the of a world illuminated only by science. at the university. UW offered him a job. He moved to Modern examples include the British But at Berkeley, provoked by science, Madison in 1974 to join the university’s geneticist Richard Dawkins, who Numbers began to wonder about the history of science department, the oldest routinely couples the words faith and rightness of his beliefs. He found it of its kind in the country. Yet no one, ignorance, and the American philosopher increasingly difficult to reconcile his including Numbers, imagined that cre- of science Daniel Dennett, who recently church’s doctrine — part of which says ationism would become such a powerful told the New York Times that religious God created the earth six thousand years modern force. “belief can be explained in much the ago — with fossil records that detailed “There are wonderful statements same way a cancer can.” millions of years of plant and animal life. from the time, people saying that we’re

“We’re not going to get very far by assuming that all these people are too stupid to know what they’re talking about or that creationists don’t know anything. Of course, I grew up with people who were creationists, so I already knew that a lot of them were very smart.”

“Dennett and Dawkins say believing After joining the faculty at Loma on the road to secularization and just in God is stupid. Which is stupid,” says Linda University, an Adventist college in mopping things up,” Numbers recalls, Numbers. “We’re not going to get very southern California, he began research- smiling. It was his own background that far by assuming that all these people are ing a book on Ellen G. White, the famed prompted him to continue gathering too stupid to know what they’re talking nineteenth-century prophetess of the information on the issue, exploring it, about or that creationists don’t know Adventist church, whose visions of wondering about where it was going. anything. Of course, what helped me young-earth creationism helped define its He was also encouraged by David in that perspective was that I grew up religious beliefs.Yet the countering evi- Lindberg, longtime chair of the depart- with people who were creationists, so I dence of science, with its catalogues of ment and a renowned scholar of science already knew that a lot of them were ancient fossils, troubled him enough to in the medieval period. Lindberg had a very smart.” wonder if White was wrong, and that, he background similar to his colleague’s, The story of how Numbers arrived at admits, “was a very slippery slope. At the having been raised by an evangelical Wisconsin is in itself an illustration of the same time, I was questioning my lifelong minister father, and like Numbers, he

30 ON WISCONSIN found in history a subversive kind of gent design proposes that the complexity standards — testability, repeatability, truth, which led him to question his of biological life is itself evidence of a and predictability — intelligent design belief system. designer, a higher being at work. An thus fails to qualify. In the eyes of most “Historical study is corrosive,” says example, given by the Discovery Insti- researchers, the “controversy” surround- Lindberg, now a professor emeritus. tute, a conservative think tank in the ing evolution may be religious or politi- “Once you start asking questions about Pacific Northwest, is that some living cal, but it is not scientific. why someone you’re studying believes cells are so incredibly complex that they “The difference between science and something — whether it’s true, where simply could not have been built by non-science is a standard problem, dis- it came from —if you’re honest, you random mutation. Advocates say that cussed for many years as a philosophical end up asking the same questions of science has failed to explain such issue,” says Elliott Sober, a UW-Madison yourself.” complexity — or to acknowledge the professor of philosophy who has studied In 1978, the two men decided to inadequacy of its explanations. the question of whether creationism can organize a national conference on science “Of course, intelligent design is a be considered a scientific theory. How, and religion, which led to a heralded strategy to get around separation of he asks, does one calculate and test the book, God and Nature. Their thinking church and state in this country,” says explanations of intelligent design? To turned out to be prescient, seeming to Numbers. But it’s also revealing. hypothesize that God created the earth’s anticipate a surge of creationist activism Fundamentalist Christians who support species, for instance, a scientist would in the early 1980s. Two states, Arkansas intelligent design argue that science is need testable probabilities that species and Louisiana, passed laws requiring insufficient as a means to understand the with certain features would arise based creationism to be included in science mystery of life, yet they know they can’t on the designer’s intentions. So far no curricula, leading to a challenge that ignore research findings entirely. The one studying science, philosophy, theol- reached the Supreme Court. In 1987, solution is to rewrite them. As Numbers ogy, or intelligent design has come up the court tossed out the laws as unconsti- puts it, “the ID people want to baptize with a way of doing that. tutional, noting that creationism was their own views as science.” “Maybe we’ll find a better way of religion masquerading as science. In Grantsburg and Dover, school thinking about testability,” Sober says. That case gave evolution a legal board members bought the argument, “You can’t rule that out. But I doubt victory, but a hollow one. Scientists and calling for intelligent design to be taught that’s going to turn out right and for educators were faced with the reality as a critique of evolution, suggesting that now, I think we can say that if a theory that more than a century of science had it remains an unsettled question of sci- is not testable, it is not science.” not altered deep-seated beliefs within ence. What has genuinely infuriated So far, the courts — and the court the Christian community about the many researchers is that no such scien- of public opinion — seem to agree. In origins of life. tific controversy exists. The tenets of nat- Grantsburg, the school board last year “By this time everyone knew that we ural selection and gradual evolution are withdrew its November 2004 motion to were looking at a very hot issue,” says not merely widely accepted — they have put intelligent design into its science Numbers, who testified in the case. He been shown to work in the lab and in the curriculum after heavy public protest. began work on a book chronicling the wild. Scientists have observed evolution A central California school district also origins and modern rebirth of the cre- in progress in species from simple bacte- dropped a planned intelligent design class ationist movement. The Creationists was ria to sophisticated creatures, and they early this year, and in February, the Ohio published in 1992, before most people have used evolutionary theory to make board of education backed away from had ever heard the term intelligent design. and test predictions about how species requiring biology teachers to discuss the Yet it reads like a predictive lesson on change over time. In one recent study of controversy surrounding evolution. the confrontations of the day, describing chimpanzees at the Massachusetts Insti- In the Dover school board case, a the “amazing resiliency of Christian tute of Technology, researchers showed federal judge delivered a blistering defeat beliefs” and exploring why those beliefs that the genetic mutations forecasted by to intelligent design in December of last have often been posed as a challenge to Darwin’s theory actually have occurred. year. “To be sure, Darwin’s theory of scientific explanations of our world. “What makes evolution a scientific evolution is imperfect,” wrote Judge explanation is that it makes testable pre- John Jones III. “However, the fact that dictions,” the lead scientist on that exper- a scientific theory cannot yet render an ow at work on a revision of The iment, the Nobel laureate Eric Lander, explanation on every point should not be NCreationists, Numbers is focused said in announcing the study. “You only used as a pretext to thrust an untestable these days on intelligent design, believe theories when they make non- alternative hypothesis into the science the modern inheritor of the creationist obvious predictions that are confirmed classroom or to misrepresent well-estab- movement. The basic argument of intelli- by scientific evidence.” By the most basic lished scientific opinions.”

SUMMER 2006 31 In Grantsburg and Dover, school board members called for intelligent design to be taught as a critique of evolution, suggesting that it remains an unsettled question of science. What has genuinely infuriated many researchers is that no such scientific controversy exists.

Still, no one expects this to be the gospel before it was too late. discussion is to ensure that people final word on the teaching of science. The More pragmatically, American text- don’t misinterpret the role of research. Discovery Institute’s John West, who books were revised during the post-Sput- Their message, she says, is that science angrily told reporters following the Dover nik race to the moon, with a science-first explains how things work or happen. decision that it indicated nothing more emphasis that was far more dogmatic It does not give meaning to them. than the opinion of an “activist judge,” about Darwinian science. Numbers says Bertka says the point is clear and foresees more success for intelligent the changes helped spark a new sense of correct, but she fears that people will design in places such as Kansas, where alarm and a powerful us-against-them draw a different conclusion from that the state school board voted last fall to mentality in the Christian right. message: “that science is irrelevant to redefine science to include the supernatu- Science, however, was slow to recog- people’s lives,” she says. “And I worry ral and to encourage science teachers to nize these cultural shifts, often dismissing that we’re seeing the consequences of question the theory of evolution. criticism of evolution as uninformed or that now.” unimportant. When Kansas convened public hearings to discuss the merits of reationists have waged this battle intelligent design, most scientists stayed ichael Zimmerman, dean of Cbefore, most famously in the away, thinking that if they refused to Mletters and science at UW- 1925 trial of Dayton, Tennessee, testify, it would be obvious that the idea Oshkosh, had that same fear schoolteacher John Scopes, who was wasn’t even worth discussing. They were while listening to national media cover- charged with teaching evolution in his shocked when the decision went so age of the Dover case. The basic message classroom. While the case was ultimately clearly against them. of fundamentalists, he recalls, was dismissed due to a technicality, the popu- “The average scientist in the lab is “choose evolution or choose heaven, lar perception is that the attention sur- not just unaware, but very hostile to the choose creationism or choose hell. And I rounding the Scopes trial resulted in a idea that there might be extra-scientific was just so angry. I know Americans are triumph of science over superstition. But ideas influencing his or her work,” Ruse a religious people. And I know even if it also helped shore up a determined core says. “[Thomas] Kuhn made this point they don’t go to church, if they are of Biblical literalists, who would keep the well — science is a form of indoctrina- forced to choose, they’ll choose religion. evolution debate on a slow simmer for tion. Hard work when you are young, And this was a false choice.” the next several decades. poor pay, having to do what the boss Zimmerman, an evolutionary biolo- Michael Ruse, a philosopher of demands, and so forth. It is very much gist, has been fighting back by trying to science and religion at Florida State like becoming a Jesuit. You are taught build a consensus around the idea that University, says events of the mid- that you are different, that culture stays science and religion are not in opposi- twentieth century helped fire up that outside the lab, and if you are to be tion. After the Grantsburg school board debate again. “The bomb at the end of successful, then you believe this.” voted to allow the teaching of intelligent the second world war made people Only one national science organiza- design, he began rounding up signatures think of Armageddon,” he says. “And tion, the American Association for the on letters of protest. He organized a let- the Cold War again gave the feeling Advancement of Science (AAAS), runs ter signed by administrators from all the that the end times might be near.” a program dedicated to working on the UW campuses, a letter signed by theolo- Many devout Christians were fur- relationship between science and reli- gians and biologists, a letter signed by ther motivated by the founding of Israel gion. Its director, a planetary geologist anthropologists, a letter signed by geolo- — interpreted by fundamentalists as named Connie Bertka, admits that it is a gists, and a letter signed by professors at a sign of Revelation, as predicted in unique idea in the culture of science. She private universities. And then, he did the Bible — and the approaching new acknowledges that many scientists see no what he considered the really hard work. millennium, convincing many that reason for a dialogue involving religion, He persuaded two hundred ministers the world needed to return to the contending that the only necessary from around Wisconsin to sign a state-

32 ON WISCONSIN ment saying that they didn’t agree with tion in this country, it makes sense for While Numbers served as an adviser the action of the school board, that they the scientific community to look for ways on the bill, he says he’s “not a big one on thought the truths of the Bible and the to encourage that work.” passing laws, and I don’t think religion discoveries of science could peacefully Both she and AAAS are working in should be squelched.” But he agrees coexist, and that churches should teach that direction, meeting with members of generally that scientists need to make religion and schools should convey the clergy interested in science lessons their case more forcefully. And he’d science as accurately as possible. Many and providing written materials. This prefer to see it done in the classroom. around the state credit this clergy letter, summer, the group will publish a book, “I would begin and end with the in particular, for influencing the The Evolution Dialogues, which provides teaching of evolution,” he says. “We’re not Grantsburg board’s decision to rescind information about natural selection, really teaching evolution, even at the uni- its intelligent-design proposal. including the theory’s history and cul- versity level. Part of the problem is that Last year, after watching news cover- tural perspectives. She hopes that semi- everyone wants to teach in their specialty, age of the Dover court battle, Zimmer- naries will use some of the information, and evolution spans a whole range of spe- man decided to make his clergy letter in particular with the next generation of cialties. But we could put together a team national. By early 2006, more than ten the clergy. of specialists — and I think we should.” thousand clergy members had signed the At the same time, Elliott Sober hopes But Numbers is a realist, and he letter, representing every state in the the next generation of scientists will recognizes that the bigger problem for country, countless religious denomina- learn to better communicate what they science is something that John Tyndall tions, small churches, large cathedrals, do and what it means. never considered: if it came down to an and “presidents of seminaries, ministers “Scientists didn’t show up in Kansas, either-or scenario between science and in the military, clergy from red states and and they now realize that was a mistake,” religion, the ultimate loser may be our blue states, every territory except he says. “There’s a growing awareness in own humanity. For all its illuminating American Samoa,” Zimmerman says. the scientific community that they need power, scientific knowledge rarely leads The letter reads, in part, “We believe to better communicate with the public, to absolute certainty, and few of us that among God’s good gifts are human do a better job of explaining. They need would be satisfied with strict facts alone

“The average scientist in the lab is not just unaware, but very hostile to the idea that there are extra-scientific ideas influencing his or her work ... You are taught that you are different, that culture stays outside the lab, and if you are to be successful, then you believe this.”

minds capable of critical thought and to show up and make the case.” to help us comprehend our existence. As that the failure to fully employ this gift is Sober is among a cohort of UW- Albert Einstein famously noted, “Science a rejection of the will of our Creator.” Madison scientists who are backing a bill without religion is lame; religion without Zimmerman says it shows that the “shrill introduced in February in the Wisconsin science is blind.” If, as scientists argue, voices of the fundamentalists” are not the state legislature that seeks to keep accepting intelligent design is choosing only voices of religion in this country. “political and religious influence” out blind faith, is the alternative something Many scientists hope the letter makes of science classes. The bill, introduced by more than lameness? “The will to believe a point, emphasizing the ways in which Demo-cratic state representative Terese is so strong,” says Numbers, “that it can science and religion connect, rather than Berceau ’73, is the first bill in the country trump any empirical evidence.” conflict. “There are theologians who that seeks to protect the integrity of have worked to consider what a loving science instruction in the classroom. It Deborah Blum MA’82 is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning God means in relation to the fact of would require that any scientific material science writer and a professor in the School of evolution,” says Connie Bertka, of the taught be testable, described by natural Journalism and Mass Communication. Her latest book, Ghost Hunters: William James and the AAAS. “Is that the job of the scientists? processes, and “consistent with any Scientific Search for Life after Death, will be No. Can we help theologians understand definition of science developed by the published in August. the science? Yes. I think given the situa- National Academy of Science.”

SUMMER 2006 33 MANY PEOPLE OPEN THEIR WALLETS WHEN FACED WITH THE STARK REALITY OF ORPHANED CHILDREN AROUND THE GLOBE. BUT ONE UW GRADUATE DOES MORE THAN SEND MONEY – HE MAILS MEMORIES.

BY ERIN HUEFFNER ‘00

Above: Ben Schumaker, who founded the Memory Project, is also an artist who has joined high school volunteers in painting portraits of orphans to provide them with mementos of their childhoods. The photos on the following pages depict children from an orphanage in Sierra Leone.

34 ON WISCONSIN When his art teacher asked for volunteers to paint young man in Guatemala, however, Schumaker might never portraits of children last spring, Tom Muto readily have found his calling. After graduating from UW-Madison, Schumaker decided agreed. It would just be one more assignment to take care of, to travel across Central America for a few months. He wanted he reasoned. He had dabbled in art classes all through high to hone his Spanish skills and find a chance to volunteer. So school, and usually, like most high school seniors, his greatest when he stumbled upon a Web site that offered free room and concern was how the quality of his work would affect his board to anyone who would help take care of children in a grade. But as his portrait of a little girl began to take shape, the Guatemalan orphanage, he figured it would be an easy way to Wolcott, New York, student found himself worrying more get involved. about whether she would like it. “I brought a whole bag of donated medicine for them,” he “Everyone worked harder on [the portraits] than they did explains. “But then I found out that there was no doctor or with any other project,” he says. “Giving them to someone else, nurse for miles around. Since there was such a need for health we wanted them to be a lot nicer.” care for these three hundred kids, and since I had shown up And he really wanted the girl to like the picture. She’s an with this medicine, I basically got put in charge of being the orphan, and Muto’s painting would be more than her portrait. orphanage doctor.” It would be one of her only possessions. As a psychology graduate, he had no medical training, Muto was among a thousand high school students across but Schumaker agreed to help anyway. He thought the role the country working on the Memory Project, a program would entail little more than kissing bruised elbows and putting founded by social entrepreneur Ben Schumaker ’03 to make a Band-Aids on scraped knees, but he quickly learned that many difference for forgotten children. His mission is touching the of the children were afflicted with a host of serious ailments that lives of orphans around the world who have nothing and no went far beyond the expertise of an American with a few med- one to call their own. If not for a chance encounter with a ications on hand. Further, the orphanage was so poor that the

SUMMER 2006 35 kids had no access to basic sanitary supplies such as soap and Heartland in Willow River, Minnesota, a summer program for clean water for bathing, making hygiene all but impossible. kids affected by HIV that was founded by Neil Willenson ’92. “It got to the point where I couldn’t walk through the Schumaker was intrigued by what Willenson had accom- orphanage grounds without kids coming up to me and pulling plished, especially since they were both fresh out of college. “I my shirt and rubbing the rashes on their arms and saying, thought, I’m not too young to do this — I could make [some- ‘This itches! Help me!’ ” he recalls. “So I was fairly depressed thing like] this happen,” he says. while I was there. I really hated my role, because I had never Schumaker wanted to give the children something valuable felt so powerless. I wanted to do something, but I couldn’t do and help them build a positive sense of identity. After giving the anything.” matter some thought, he came up with the idea of portraits. If One day, a young man stopped by the orphanage and told Schumaker could get high school art students to paint pictures Schumaker that he’d grown up without family. He said that he of the orphans and send them as gifts, the children would have didn’t have any photographs of himself as a child, no belong- a memento of their youth, a bit of history to hold on to. ings from his early years, no parents to share memories with. He spent a day e-mailing art teachers at high schools across His childhood was a blank slate, and he didn’t want any other the country to ask if they wanted to get their students involved. orphaned kids to share in his fate. Schumaker also began contacting U.S. nonprofit groups that “The man said that we should do something to help these work with orphanages overseas to ask if they would provide kids — help them make little scrapbooks to hang on to photographs of children who wanted their portraits done. belongings and develop a sense of personal heritage,” says Of the one hundred teachers he contacted that fall day in 2004, Schumaker. fifteen agreed to work to make his idea a reality. The Memory Some months later, when he thought back on that Project was born. encounter, Schumaker was inspired to do something about the It soon became a full-time, unpaid job. As the Memory Proj- idea. By then back in the States, he went to work at Camp ect gathered momentum, Schumaker, who is currently pursuing

36 ON WISCONSIN a master’s degree at the UW-Madison School of Social Work, he knows this will be a major event in these kids’ lives, because considered dropping out to focus all of his energies on his cause. these are kids who own nothing more than the clothing that the He might have abandoned his education if now-emeritus profes- orphanage has given them.” sor Mona Wasow ’66, MS’68 hadn’t convinced him that a grad- Through the Memory Project, Schumaker also hopes to uate degree would help him to achieve the Memory Project’s raise awareness of global humanitarian issues among American goals. She and director of field education Barbara Hughes children. When he sends teachers photos of children, Schu- arranged for his work with the Memory Project to satisfy an maker also offers talking points and facts about their living independent reading requirement and half a semester of field- conditions. Many of the world’s orphanages are located in work. “Ben is so far ahead of the curve,” says Hughes. “Most Africa, where bloody civil wars and the AIDS epidemic have people his age haven’t had these kinds of experiences.” left more than 11 million children orphaned and without a basic Schumaker has managed to find time to run the Memory education — a scenario that leads to perpetual poverty. Chil- Project in between his classes and his part-time position as a dren in households affected by AIDS are often forced to drop research assistant. The project has no funding, so the schools out of school to help support their families. In Sierra Leone, for involved agree to pay for supplies and shipping costs to mail example, only 41 percent of children attend primary school. the artwork. In that first school year, more than one thousand Schumaker hopes that the American students will develop portraits were painted and sent to orphans in thirteen coun- the compassion and drive to try to improve living conditions tries, including South Africa, Bolivia, Haiti, and China. By the around the world. They could get involved in service and inter- end of the next school year, young artists across the country national issues, he suggests, or perhaps in their local AIDS had mailed nearly four thousand more likenesses. campaigns. “AIDS is something that orphans millions of chil- “One person I’m working with on this is coming back from dren around the world, but it’s something people can work on Uganda next month,” says Schumaker. “He’s taking pictures of right here in the U.S.,” he says. all the kids in that orphanage who want portraits. He said that It wasn’t long before some of the students involved in the

SUMMER 2006 37 Memory Project wanted to do more for the children they that are sent to shelters in the northern part of that country, painted. “Everybody was so into it,” says Debby Teska, an art where a brutal civil war rages, its armies populated by kid- teacher at North Rose-Wolcott High School in Wolcott, New napped children. In the past few years, as conflict has esca- York. “They’d come to class ready to work, they’d take their lated, more than forty thousand children are forced to walk for portraits home, and they’d ask me, ‘Can we do something miles each night to government-controlled towns so that they beyond just the drawing?’” can sleep in safety. Teska and the students decided to organize a clothing drive The Books of Hope offer these displaced youngsters a few at the high school, and the community responded by donating minutes of solace before they go to bed. Because Uganda’s gently used backpacks, coats, shoes, and raincoats. The school’s national language is English, the stories don’t need to be trans- Future Business Leaders of America group pitched in by pur- lated, and they offer a way for the children to learn to read. To chasing fifteen new backpacks and loading them with school date, participants have sent ten thousand handmade books to supplies. Everything was sent to an orphanage in Sierra Leone Uganda, with their school districts covering the cost. — the home of the children whose portraits they’d painted “It’s been inspiring,” Schumaker says. “Teachers have told during the spring semester. The following school year, Teska’s me how dedicated their students are to the project. Some of the students couldn’t wait to get started on the project again, so schools have even started to send teddy bears, blankets, and Schumaker sent her photos of children from Mexico. “I want to published children’s books in addition to the handmade ones.” get more schools interested in doing this,” Teska says. “It takes Many of the high school students who work on the Memory some extra work. But it’s so worth it.” Project are deeply affected by the idea that they’re helping some- The most recent aspect to emerge from the Memory Project one less fortunate. One student in Minnesota who painted a pic- is the Books of Hope program, an effort to provide homemade ture of an orphan from Sierra Leone developed an intensely books to children in Uganda. American students from kinder- personal connection — so much so that she wanted to share garten through college level write and illustrate uplifting stories more than her talent with the girl. She wanted to share her life.

38 ON WISCONSIN “I got a call one day from this student’s mother, who said their home and their lives to someone in need. The family is they’d talked about it as a family and wanted to know if the girl thinking of finding another child to adopt. was available for adoption,” Schumaker says. Unfortunately, as “I feel like if this whole thing resulted in just one child having it turned out, none of the children in that orphanage were a loving family,” Schumaker says, “it would all be worth it.” eligible for overseas adoption due to legal issues.

But Schumaker was moved by the fact that the Memory Erin Hueffner ‘00 is an editorial associate for On Wisconsin. To learn more about Project had inspired the student’s family to consider opening the Memory Project, visit

Le’ad Rosenblith, left, and Courtney Silverstein of Park- way Central High School in Chester- field, Missouri, were among the 4,000 students who com- pleted portraits this past school year. The Memory Project has now branched out into sending hand- made books, as well as clothing and other needed items, to children around the world.

SUMMER 2006 39 The Importance of BeingAlice Across the country, agricultural organizations are abandoning their beauty queens and spokesmodels, but Alice in Dairyland is surviving through adaptation.

BY JOHN ALLEN

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALICE IN DAIRYLAND. Back in 1948, when Wisconsin was celebrating its centennial, the Alice in I don’t mean to sound ghoulish — I don’t want the Dairyland concept was born out of a braincase of Gena Cooper ’05, the fifty-eighth and fetish for legacy, for connecting the state’s storied past with its ambitious (until June 5) current inhabitant of the Alice persona. future. That first Alice, Margaret I’m not after flesh and bone. I’m after legend. I want McGuire Blott, hosted the State Fair’s Centennial Exposition. To show that she the head of the Big Alice, the ten-foot-tall mechanical was more than a pretty face — that she statue that used to stand astride the State Fair like a was also a symbol of technological inno- vation — the fair constructed the ten- milkmaid Colossus. foot mechanical Alice.

40 ON WISCONSIN BOB RASHID

The fifty-eighth Alice in Dairyland, Gena Cooper, strikes a pose at the Blue Star Dairy in Arlington, Wisconsin. As farming has modernized, so has Alice. Today, she’s more of a marketer than a beauty queen.

Behind Big Alice was a screen with word. It frightened them, I think, but Big Alice is gone now, removed 1 two-way mirrors, and hidden behind there was a sense of wonderment, too.” from the fair after about a decade’s use.2 the screen were Blott and members of Because Big Alice was a hit with And it’s no surprise. A giant android her court. They could work levers to fair-goers, it returned each year. But must have seemed like the epitome of make Big Alice stand and sit, and Blott didn’t — then, as now, Alice was futuristic technology in 1948 — the because the robot had a speaker in an annual appointment. To make sure Wizard of Oz brought to life. But today its mouth, they could make it talk to that the giant always looked like each the crowd. year’s reigning woman, the fair took off 1 The mirrors were shaped like Wisconsin state maps. 2 Not even Zimmerman seems to know exactly when it “Parents loved it,” says Jerry Zim- its head and changed its complexion, departed. I imagine the robot simply walking off one merman, the fair’s historian. “And kids hair, and eye color. day in search of giant mechanical cows to milk. But, were — well, maybe awestruck is the best That’s the head I want. as you’ll see, this isn’t so.

SUMMER 2006 41 it would look hopelessly quaint. The human Alice might have met a similar fate, had she not learned to evolve. People such as Gena Cooper have kept Alice relevant by elevating her from an agriculturally themed beauty queen into the symbol for legacy she was meant to be: a marketing force that personifies a unified flow from farming’s traditions to its high-tech future. As Alice, Cooper3 has spent much of the past year on the road, speaking to COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (3) elementary and high school classes, media outlets, and commodity groups. When she’s sitting still, however, she’s usually on the fourth floor of the Depart- ment of Agriculture and Consumer Pro- tection’s office building on the far east

Big Alice went into storage when it became too expensive to maintain. Left in a barn, it slowly disintegrated, and no one ever heard of it again. Except for its head. side of Madison, where the only farm in sight is a cubicle farm — a room full of four-foot-high fabric walls. As a professional setting, it’s one many recent grads would recognize, though Cooper’s salary — $35,000 — is a bit low for someone with a degree in biochemistry. Still, her perks include a greater number of tiaras (one) and sashes (ten) than most of her classmates will receive.4 The tiara — which is made of fourteen-karat gold, platinum, and diamonds and includes three large stones (two citrines and an amethyst) — is actually the third crown the agriculture department has had to commission for each year’s new Alice during a crowning 3 The real Alice Cooper — the rock star — took on Alice Alice. Two previous tiaras were either ceremony. Or the fact that, for the entire in Dairyland number 31, Laura Oldenberg, in a milking contest in 1978. There is no record of who won. lost or stolen and haven’t been recov- year that Cooper spends in the job, peo- 4 Actually, there are twenty sashes — ten in various col- ered.5 When Cooper isn’t wearing it, ple will always publicly call her Alice, ors in regular sizes, and then ten more in tall sizes. 5 The current tiara is stamped “Property of the State of she keeps it locked in a wooden box.6 not Gena. These are relics of that time Wisconsin” inside the band. Should any of you readers, “These are some of our mementos of in your tiara collections at home, find one with a similar when beauty pageants seemed the height stamp, please return it to its rightful owner. The state antiquity,” Cooper says. And the position of shrewd marketing. will be happy to receive it and is not likely to ask any gives many nods to antiquity. Such as questions. The first Alice in Dairyland was 6 The sashes, which are less valuable, are kept in a selecting only women. Or announcing selected based on simple criterion — Tupperware container.

42 ON WISCONSIN Opposite page: This was Big Alice during her debut State Fair in 1948. The ten-foot-tall robot inspired awe among children. This page: Alice’s duties have varied widely over the years. In 1951, Margean Czerwinski helped promote Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Note the original tiara. In 1955, Barbara Brown struck a more traditional pose, milking a cow by hand. looks. The state’s centennial commission understand and communicate.” If Jerry Zimmerman has his way, sent out a call for photographs, and of As agriculture has become more a new generation will be awestruck by the five hundred submitted, its represen- diverse, it’s also grown more political. Big Alice. He’s looking for a sponsor to tatives liked Margaret Blott’s appearance Increasingly, Alice’s duties include finance construction of a replica of the best. Presumably, her milky-white com- answering those who protest farming robot. The original, unfortunately, is long plexion gave visible evidence of the practices — and not just dairy and fur. gone. Big Alice went into storage when it virtues of a diet rich in calcium. The next At an event promoting the use of became too expensive to maintain. Left year, the centennial having ended, the ethanol as a fuel, Cooper was physically in a barn, it slowly disintegrated, and no Department of Agriculture took over the confronted by an ethanol opponent. one ever heard of it again. Alice program. In the ensuing decades, it Cooper, who was raised on a farm Except for its head. used her for a broadening collection of near Mukwonago, Wisconsin, feels a “A few years ago, a Milwaukee Journal marketing needs. She became not only keen interest in protecting the Alice reporter named Loren Osman said he the face of Wisconsin farming, but its legacy.8 “Alice is a part of Wisconsin’s saw it in a rummage sale going for ten or voice as well, making her job more about history,” she says. “She’s a woman that twenty-five dollars,” Zimmerman says. people skills than an alluring smile. people throughout Wisconsin respect. “Now he kicks himself every day because Today, selecting Alice is far more Having grown up on a farm, I know that he didn’t buy it. I guess I would, too.” complex than it was in 1948. Cooper had female agricultural role models aren’t A new Big Alice would be something. to submit a resume, write essays, and easy to find. Alice in Dairyland has truly But it seems to me that, to perfect this give speeches, both planned and extem- been one of the most visible role models monument to legacy, it would need to top poraneous. This more rigorous process for women in agriculture.” that new body with its original noggin. has reduced the number of women who And so she proudly answers to a And so, if you know where it is, please: apply for the job down to around two name that isn’t hers, faces down activists, bring me the head of Alice in Dairyland. dozen each year. But it helps the state promotes milk-drinking among high Seen any suspicious big, mechanical heads? find a candidate who will be able to school students weaned on soda, and If so, contact John Allen, associate editor of handle the challenges of being a roving responds to inquiries about a ten-foot- On Wisconsin, at [email protected]. agricultural ambassador. tall mechanical statue that disappeared 7 And they didn’t just talk about it, either. Alice number “The first Alices only talked about before she was born and that will never 19, Jo Ann Cupery, presented a basketball made of cheese,” Cooper says.7 “I have to cover bear her likeness. cheese to the NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers in 1967. Thirty years later, Alice number 49, Holly Meudt the entire agricultural spectrum — not “It’s what people ask about more ‘97, presented cheese to the Green Bay Packers when just dairy and corn, but mink farms, fish than anything else,” she says. “They they won the Super Bowl. 8 Coincidentally, Alice number 1, Margaret Blott, now a farms, ginseng growing. It’s a lot to remember that statue.” retired schoolteacher, lives in Mukwonago today.

SUMMER 2006 43 SPORTS

In a Class by Themselves A new course helps athletes tackle college life.

When fans watch Bad- JEFF MILLER TEAM PLAYER ger sports teams, they Nathan Brown see some of the best- Five things to know about prepared and most- UW decathlete Nathan competitive college Brown ’06: athletes around. What • You need more than two they may not see is hands to count the events that underneath those in which Brown competes. cardinal-and-white He’s a Big Ten champion jerseys, those athletes and UW record holder in are just ordinary kids, the indoor heptathlon and coping with all the competes in the shot put, mundane stresses of javelin, and the ten-event college. They’re learn- decathlon during the out- ing how to live on door season. their own. They don’t • An academic All-American get enough sleep. last year, Brown has twice They worry about earned the best grade midterms. They miss point average on the track their parents. team, and his major is no What’s more, slouch: biochemistry. they’re doing it all • He recently earned a while trying to be In a room decorated by pictures of past Badger stars, Kelli Richards leads $7,500 scholarship from student-athletes, a UW–Madison’s newest student-athletes in a discussion about money manage- ment, one of the life skills covered in a new class she designed for athletes. the NCAA to help fund hyphenated existence postgraduate studies, that pulls them in mul- which he’ll use to enroll in tiple directions at once. time this year, the course gives athletes took the course during the UW Medical School, For many athletes, that creates “a kind of continued orienta- its pilot campaign, and Richards which he chose after earn- a unique kind of pressure that tion” about what it takes to says it may eventually become ing a near-perfect score on you can’t begin to appreciate succeed as a student-athlete, a requirement for freshmen his MCAT. until you’ve run a 1,600 in their says Kelli Richards, who competing in UW-Madison’s • A native of Madison, he track spikes. teaches the course. twenty-three varsity sports. was recruited by several “It was a big transition for Richards coordinates the “I think it’s really helpful Big Ten schools to me,” says Carly Ducharme, a athletic department’s Champs to be able to talk with other play football, freshman on the Badger track Life Skills program, an NCAA- athletes who know what but injuries and field team. “I don’t sponsored initiative that pro- you’re going through,” says led him to think a lot of people motes athletes’ personal and Ducharme. Her friends outside focus on understand the time academic development. She of sports often don’t under- track. His commitment it takes to designed the course to reach stand the demands on her time, brother, be an athlete here. You student-athletes early in their she says. “When I get home at Matt know that you’re going careers, when they often strug- the end of the day, that’s my x’07, is on to have four to five hours gle with the colliding demands only time to study. But they’ve the Badger every day devoted to your of classes, sports team sched- already done their studying, football team; sport, and that doesn’t leave ules, and their social lives. The and they want to go out.” his mother played college much time for other things. once-a-week, one-credit course Mickey Perry, a freshman basketball at UW-Stevens It’s hard to keep a balance.” covers topics such as time man- basketball player, says the Point; and his father This spring, Ducharme took agement, stress reduction, and course helped him devise coaches high school track. a class with a group of people good study habits. strategies for keeping track of • His grandparents have who can relate. Titled Counsel- Technically, the class is open his multiple time commitments, never missed a track meet, ing Psychology 115: Contempo- to anyone, but its content is something he admits he didn’t following the team to rary Issues Affecting Student- skewed heavily toward scholar- do very well during his first places such as Arizona, Athletes, it’s the first officially ship athletes, who typically semester on campus. Virginia, and California to listed UW-Madison course spend twenty hours a week or “That was definitely my cheer on their grandson. designed specifically for varsity more in practices and athletic biggest challenge. You’ve got athletes. Offered for the first training. About sixty student- so many things to do, with bas-

46 ON WISCONSIN SPORTS

ketball and with your classes, tinge differently when viewed violence themselves, but also At the NCAA indoor track and and it can be kind of over- through the eyes of a student- because they can help forward field championships in March, whelming sometimes,” he says. athlete. For one thing, competi- the discussion about consent UW runner Chris Solinsky suc- “It’s hard work, but it’s doable. tors in high-profile sports often and sexual responsibility.” cessfully defended his title in the You see people who can do it, have a public stature that Diversity is another signifi- 3,000-meter race, becoming the and you know it can be done.” amplifies their actions on and cant issue for student-athletes, first Badger to earn back-to-back Although the athletic off the field, and that means who represent one of the most national championships since department offers tutoring and their mistakes earn as much racially, geographically, and 1971. Led by Solinsky’s perform- other assistance to student-ath- attention as their successes. economically mixed communi- ance, the men’s team earned sev- letes, the course reinforces mes- In class, they hear that with ties on campus. “The student- enth place at the championships. sages they get from coaches celebrity comes responsibility. athlete population is so diverse, It also won both the indoor and and others, says David Harris, “It’s about helping them to especially compared to the rest outdoor Big Ten titles for the an associate athletic director in make smart choices and good of Wisconsin,” says Richards, a third consecutive year. charge of academic services. decisions during their time former college volleyball player “We know that being a here,” says Harris. who is finishing a master’s Freshman sensation Yi Ting Siow student-athlete can be very Carmen Hotvedt, a vio- degree in counseling psychology. paced the Badger women’s rewarding, but we also know lence prevention specialist for “I think they experience diversity swimming team to a ninth- it’s a lot of hard work,” he says. University Health Services, says a little more intensely than place finish at the NCAA champi- “We felt this course was it’s important to speak directly other students do, and we try onships in March, the team’s another way that we could give to student-athletes about these to help them talk about that.” highest rank ever. Yi, one of them information that can help issues, in part because “they During one session, Richards eleven Badger swimmers who them get the most out of their can use their public status as asks students to write about “a qualified for the championships, experience here.” leaders and opinion setters. I time in your life when you felt placed fifth in the 200-yard indi- And that includes exploring think there’s a special responsi- different,” which provokes dis- vidual medley and sixth in the issues such as relationship vio- bility for student-athletes to cussion about racial and cultural 200-yard breaststroke. She lence, drug and alcohol abuse, know the limits, not just so identity. Students then divide teamed with Anna Trinidad, and race relations, which also they won’t commit dating into small groups to talk about Emily Carpenter, and Jen Illescas how these issues affect their on the 800-yard freestyle relay, teams. A football player tells a which finished twelfth and was Mile Markers INFORMATIONUW SPORTS (2) member of the soccer team that one of five UW relay teams to his teammates “sometimes score points at the meet. On a cool evening in May, former fight about whether to play UW track star Matt Tegenkamp country music or BET [Black The men’s golf and softball ’05 became the first person to run Entertainment Television].” teams took top honors in the a sub-four-minute mile in Wiscon- When it comes to accom- inaugural Champs Cup, a new sin. A little more than a second plishing goals, though, he says, competition among the UW’s later, Chris Solinsky x’08 became “We always work together.” twenty-three varsity sports pro- the second. For Perry, who grew up in grams. Teams earned points for a Both milestones came during Maywood, Illinois, a predomi- range of academic and extracur- the highlight event of the Wiscon- nantly African-American suburb ricular activities, including class- sin Twilight track meet at the UW’s Chris Solinsky leads the pack. of Chicago, interactions such as room excellence, personal McClimon Memorial Track. Crowds these have helped him ease growth, community outreach, lined the track to watch the mile, a into a campus culture that bears school spirit, and participation in special event in which seven runners sought to break the storied little resemblance to his own. student-athlete leadership four-minute barrier. Tegenkamp, who now runs professionally for “I’ve met people from all over groups. The competition was cre- Nike, sprinted past Solinsky in the last two hundred yards to finish in the world in this class,” he says. ated to encourage participation 3 minutes, 56.38 seconds. Solinsky crossed the line at 3:57.8. “A lot of athletes hold stuff in the Champs Life Skills pro- “It was awesome,” Solinsky said of the race atmosphere. “I’ve in, because they’re afraid they’ll gram, which promotes personal never seen this many people here for a meet. To have this many get in trouble if they talk about and academic achievement people here and right on the track was great.” what’s going on,” he says. “But among Badger student-athletes. Steve Lacy ’78 had held the honor of running the fastest mile here, you can bring stuff up and on state soil for more than twenty years, finishing in 4:00.4 in 1979. hear what other people think. Since track’s conversion to metric distances, however, mile races It’s helped me not be afraid to have rarely been staged. The Twilight event was the first mile race ask questions anymore.” run at UW’s outdoor track since 1973. — Staff — Michael Penn

SUMMER 2006 47 WAA NEWS

Voices Heard ’Round the World WAA honors UW-Madison’s distinguished alumni.

Six alumni who worked for BRENT NICASTRO (6) positive change in their com- Nominate munities, their countries, or Someone the world were honored at the for a 2007 Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Distinguished Distinguished Alumni Awards Alumni Award program in May. The honorees were chosen for having demon- Do you know a UW-Madison strated what the power of a graduate who exemplifies the voice alone — or several thou- best of the university? To nomi- sand joined together — can do. nate him or her for a Distin- The 2006 program marked guished Alumni Award or the seventieth anniversary of Distinguished Young Alumni the annual event, which is part Award, which recognizes of Alumni Weekend. The recipi- alumni under age forty, see ents, who came back to campus uwalumni.com/awards. The and the Wisconsin Union The- Wisconsin Alumni Association ater to accept their awards, will accept nominations until included Quarles & Brady- Former governor of Delaware and president of the National Audubon October 13, 2006. Madison attorney Jeffrey Society Russell Peterson, right, with spouse June, says he has “often Bartell, retired governor of been labeled a troublemaker. But I stir up trouble for the right rea- sons. If a person wants to change the direction on how things are Delaware Russell Peterson, for- going — for the better — he will invariably cause trouble.” mer UW athletic director Pat Richter, and Florida Interna- For 15 years in a row, Jeffrey Jean Geran, a member of the Not only has his law career tional University professor Bartell, left, with his spouse, policy planning staff at the U.S. been one of service to the state, Angela ’69, JD’71, was listed Judith Hicks Stiehm. The two Department of State. but Bartell has dedicated signifi- as one of the best lawyers in Distinguished Young Alumni “The voices of our 2006 cant time and energy to UW- America. But he’s also one of Awards, which honor exemplary Distinguished Alumni Award Madison and the state’s arts Madison’s most active arts UW-Madison graduates under patrons. As chair of the Wiscon- winners have resounded community. He chaired the the age of forty, were given to sin Foundation for the Arts, he throughout the world, mobiliz- $1 million capital campaign for helped bring Madison’s Overture Benjamin Karlin, executive pro- ing support for a clean environ- the Memorial Union Director’s Center and Monona Terrace into ducer of Comedy Central’s The ment, for universal education, Fund, and since 1992, he has being, and he’s raised funds for Daily Show with Jon Stewart the Wisconsin Union and the for thoughtful political action, been chair of the Wisconsin and The Colbert Report, and to Law School. for furthering the arts, and for Foundation for the Arts. Bartell peace,” says Paula Bonner was instrumental in the creation MS’78, president and CEO of of two of Madison’s signature the Wisconsin Alumni Associa- icons, the Monona Terrace tion. “They are making sure and Overture Center for the that the many diverse voices Performing Arts. Bartell’s late that emerge from the University parents, Gerald ’37, MPH’40 of Wisconsin benefit all of us.” and Joyce ’38 Bartell, received a joint Distinguished Alumni Jeffrey Bartell ’65, JD’68 was Award in 1978, making him the Wisconsin’s assistant attorney first second-generation graduate general from 1968 to 1971. to receive the award. When he was appointed Wis- consin commissioner of securi- As a chemist at DuPont in the ties at age twenty-nine in 1972, 1940s and 1950s, Russell he became the youngest securi- Peterson ’38, PhD’42 was a ties commissioner in the coun- leader in the development of try. For fifteen years in a row, the synthetic fiber Dacron. He Woodward/White, a New York served as governor of Delaware corporation that lists the top from 1969 to 1973. He spent his legal talent in the United four-year term instituting long- States, has named Bartell one overdue reforms, such as abol- of the best lawyers in America. ishing the whipping post and

48 ON WISCONSIN WAA NEWS

debtors’ prison. A pioneering He brought the department out environmentalist, Peterson of a $2.1 million budget deficit successfully blocked an attempt and led it into compliance with to convert the state’s unspoiled Title IX regulations. Wisconsin coastal zone into a multibillion- student athletes earned more dollar network of refineries Academic All-Big Ten honors and petrochemical complexes. during the 1990s than any other In 1971, Peterson was named school in the conference. A the World Wildlife Fund’s three-sport letterman himself, Conservationist of the Year. Richter played baseball, basket- As the founding chair of the ball, and football. As athletic President’s Council on Environ- director, he led the UW to three mental Quality, Peterson was the national championships, forty- first politician to call for a world- nine Big Ten championships, wide ban on the use of ozone- and eight bowl games. depleting chlorofluorocarbons When Richter stepped down (CFCs). In 1978, he found his from his athletic director’s role dream job when he was named in 2004, Chancellor John Wiley president of the National MS’65, PhD’68 said, “Pat’s Audubon Society, where he commitment and service to the served for six years. Today, the University of Wisconsin, through Union Art Gallery. An ardent As UW athletic director from 1989 to 2004, Pat Richter, right, Russell W. Peterson Urban three administrations, is beyond advocate for women’s rights, with spouse Renee, oversaw a Wildlife Refuge along Delaware’s compare. Through his leadership she became vice-provost at the renaissance in Badger sports. Christina River is a 225-acre and ability to assemble a strong University of Southern Califor- He inherited a department home for 143 species of birds departmental team, UW Athletics nia in 1984, when few women with a $2 million deficit and and 55 species of fish. is more fiscally sound, more were being appointed to such established instead a $6 million reserve, and his tenure saw highly competitive, and more visi- posts. She is the author or co- Pat Richter ’64, JD’71 holds the construction of the Kohl ble worldwide than ever before.” author of nine books, including the record for the longest Center, the University Ridge her most recent, Champions for Golf Course, and the Goodman tenured UW-Madison director In her days on campus, Judith Peace: Women Winners of the Softball Diamond. of athletics — he served from Hicks Stiehm ’57 was a student Nobel Prize for Peace. 1989 to 2004, a period now senator, co-founder of a literary In 1995, the Peacekeeping known as “The Richter Era.” magazine, and chair of the Institute at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylva- nia, invited Stiehm to be a visit- ing professor. For her research there, the army bestowed its highest civilian honor, a Distin- guished Civilian Service Medal. In 2000, Stiehm traveled to Namibia, where her research on gender and peacekeeping was the subject of a three-day confer- ence. That report formed the foundation on which United Nations Security Council Resolu- tion 1325 was built. The ground- breaking measure was the first-ever to require women’s par- ticipation at peace negotiations. Its first implementation was in Afghanistan following 9/11. A professor at Florida International University and a member of the Stiehm has been a member Council on Foreign Relations, Judith Hicks Stiehm traces her activism of the New York City-based back to the UW. “I was indelibly stamped by two themes,” she says. “First, that one must sift and winnow; and second, that the bound- Council on Foreign Relations aries of the university are the boundaries of the state.” and was appointed to the U.S.

SUMMER 2006 49 WAA NEWS

Defense Advisory Committee on Women in Service. She recently mobilized support to build a girls’ school in rural Afghanistan, which will soon open its doors.

The first of two Distinguished ALYSKA BAILEY ALYSKA Young Alumni Awards was pre- sented to Jean Geran PhD’01. When she came to UW-Madi- son to earn her PhD, Geran brought with her field experi- ence in Africa and Asia for international nonprofits, and previous positions at the United Buckin’ Badger Nations and the World Bank. Bucky takes a turn on the With this background and her mechanical bull during All- Thai language skills, she was Campus Party, a weekong, the ideal candidate to research alcohol-free event that took the effects of Thailand’s 1997 place in April. The party was organized by WAA’s student economic crisis on the poor in TV producer Ben Karlin, left, with fiance Paola Guastini, got his start affiliate group, the Wisconsin remote, rural areas. with the Daily Cardinal. “I went to work for the Cardinal because it Alumni Student Board, with After graduation, Geran seemed to be staffed with very smart people, and I always liked the idea of learning by doing,” he says. “I also really wanted to see my sponsorship by PepsiCo. was employed by the U.S. name in print. Though I was young, my ego was very advanced.” Department of State. Soon after she was hired, reports began circulating that the Sent to Iraq in 2003, Geran the staff of the Daily Cardinal Burmese army had raped hun- helped create the first Abuse as a sportswriter and columnist. dreds of Shan women in the Prevention Unit, charged with He used that experience to get While working for the U.S. area just over the border from preventing and investigating a freelance job at the 1992 Department of State, Jean the site of her earlier fieldwork. human rights abuses in human- Summer Olympics in Barcelona Geran, third from left, with When Burmese military leaders itarian assistance programs. She for United Press International. family, has been charged with denied the reports, Geran vol- helped document the country’s In 1995, Karlin became the trying to investigate and pre- many mass graves, a leftover of editor of The Onion, Madison’s vent instances of human rights unteered to go to Thailand to abuses. She has twice earned gather testimony from the Saddam Hussein’s regime. popular satirical newspaper. A the department’s superior honor women. Her interviews raised year later, he moved to Holly- Benjamin Karlin ’93 arrived in award, and former Secretary international awareness and wood to work on a variety of Colin Powell wrote that her Madison in 1989, not knowing spurred the State Department television projects. He con- “selfless dedication to that mis- what he was going to study to initiate a U.N.-led investiga- tributed material to the feature sion represents the highest stan- and sick with mononucleosis. dard of service to our nation.” tion into the incidents. film Ice Age and the Cartoon After one semester, he joined Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast. In 1999, Jon Stewart, who was impressed with Karlin’s work on The Onion, appointed him as head writer for The Daily Show. Karlin has received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing and a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. Today, he is the show’s executive producer and executive pro- ducer of The Daily Show’s spin- off, The Colbert Report. If you’d like to learn more, you can view biographical videos of the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients at uwalumni.com/daa. Candice Gaukel Andrews ’77

50 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS early years “In 1950, hundreds of Relieving Distress and Trauma married vets eager to take in Schools and Classrooms What’s the Good Word? advantage of the GI Bill were (Corwin Press). Two new works by Badger all competing for housing in Imagine talking to Paul Please let us in on your authors capture memories Madison,” began a letter from Revere’s mother-in-law … or of diverse lives: Looking Back- recent accomplishments, Evelyn Zatlin Newman ’49, Helen Keller’s teacher, Annie ward, Thinking Forward: A MSx’54 of Delray Beach, Sullivan … or the first female transitions, and other Nuremberg Prosecutor’s Florida. Enclosed were fun pho- doctor in the Old West. When Memoir with Numerous important life happenings. tos and a delightful, nostalgic you go to a performance by Commentaries on Subjects of story about Newman and her living-history player and story- You may e-mail the Contemporary Interest (Hamil- spouse, the late Donald New- teller Kate (Kay) Carney ’55, ton Books) by Drexel Sprecher (brief, thanks) details to man ’49, MS’52, PhD’54 — you can! The six characters ’34 of Chevy Chase, Maryland, one of those veterans — who whom Carney has created pre- and Tarboro to Katmandu … [email protected]; were newlywed grad students sent historical, role-playing pro- (AuthorHouse) by Job Savage, mail them to Alumni News, at the time. Living in a series of grams and workshops under the Jr. PhD’55 of Wilmington, microscopic apartments with title Heroic Women You Can North Carolina. Sprecher’s work Wisconsin Alumni Association, horrid landlords was, Newman Talk To (www.katecarney.info). includes a chapter called says, “quite an adventure.” She says this endeavor — her 650 North Lake Street, “Three Challenging Years at UW-Green Bay Chancellor third career — combines her the University of Wisconsin,” Madison, WI 53706-1476; Bruce Shepard thinks that Sally first two careers as an actress while Savage offers several Kuebler Killoran ’53 and her and as a director and instructor or fax them to (608) 265-8771. sections on his UW years as spouse, Bernard Killoran, are at several colleges. Carney lives well. (Since receiving Sprecher’s Space limitations preclude very special. In December, he in Watertown, Massachusetts. book, we’ve heard the sad presented the couple with the In December, Madison resi- publishing every item we receive, news that he died in March.) Chancellor’s Award for their dents Robert ’58, MD’61 and but we do appreciate hearing scholarship work and support Bonnie Bogenschneider ’62, 40s–50s of “all things UW-GB.” WAA’s JD’83 Block took part in the from you. Brown County alumni chapter Fellowship of Reconciliation’s has also honored the Killorans. (www.forusa.org) first interfaith A recent article in the Journal The Badger state has peace delegation to Iran. The of Biological Chemistry praised apparently been a popular sub- goals of the ten-day trip were the lifetime work of Saul Please e-mail death notices ject, as books by authors who to foster understanding and to Roseman MS’44, PhD’48. graduated in the ’50s, ’70s, and formulate peaceful ways to de- and all address, name, telephone, Dubbed “one of the most ’90s have been pouring in to escalate governmental tensions. important founders of the and e-mail updates to Alumni News HQ of late. One Robert is a retired internal- field of biochemistry called of them was St. Croix Tales and medicine physician, and Bonnie [email protected]; glycobiology,” Roseman is a Trails, available from its author, is a peace activist, nonviolence professor of biology at Johns fax them to (608) 262-3332; newspaperwoman Rosemarie trainer, and attorney. Hopkins University in Baltimore Gawlitta Vezina Braatz ’54 Studying the organ in the mail them to Alumni Changes, and a member of the National of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, at UW School of Music has led to Academy of Sciences. Wisconsin Alumni Association, [email protected]. many fascinating endeavors for There was a whole lot of Elder-law attorney Paul (John) Richard Torrence ’58. 650 North Lake Street, red goin’ on in Sarasota, Moors ’54, MA’60 of Tucson The New Yorker was the man- Florida, at the annual Bratfest, Madison, WI 53706-1476; or has written A Legal Guide for ager for prodigy organist Virgil held at Siesta Public Beach in Elders: An Easy-to-Understand Fox, a representative for the December. Of the local alumni call them in to (608) 262-9648 Explanation of Solutions to Italian pipe-organ builders group’s 180-some members, or toll free to (888) 947-2586. Legal Issues Encountered by Fratelli Ruffatti, and an execu- 75 brat-eaters gathered to help Our Elders and Their Families tive with the Rodgers Organ raise scholarship funds for Sara- Most obituary listings of WAA (Desert Badger Press). The last Company. Eventually Torrence sota high schoolers to attend page of the book leaves the became the adviser to the members and friends appear the UW. The Sarasota Observer reader with a very rational mayor of St. Petersburg, Russia, captured some of them on film in the Badger Insider, notion: “Procrastination is not and worked directly with then- and in print, including Mary a good option!” first-vice-mayor Vladimir Putin. WAA’s publication for its and Allan ’48, LLB’50 Jones; Barbara Klessig Oehlberg Since returning from Russia in Jim and Joyce Wilson ’51 members, which is published ’54 of Solon, Ohio, is the author 1999, Torrence has co-authored Huber; Bill and Betty (Eliza- of Reaching and Teaching Virgil Fox (The Dish), which was thrice annually and inserted into beth) Morton ’55 Davidson; Stressed and Anxious Learners released by his company, Circles Emer Schaefer ’60; and Hugh On Wisconsin Magazine. in Grades 4–8: Strategies for International. and Mary Moss ’62, MS’77.

SUMMER 2006 51 ALUMNI NEWS

60s at Nova Southeastern Univer- tems, but he was also inducted Bookmark sity in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of where she earned her PhD. Zenith Electronics Corporation Fame in May at a Kennedy Chicagoan John Gable VP Wayne Luplow ’62 has Space Center gala. The Houston collaborated with a team of ’66, MA’72 is on the rise again resident was the pilot of the Zenith research engineers to at Lee Hecht Harrison, a global first Spacelab mission in 1983. develop the digital TV transmis- career-management firm. He’s Michael Morman ’69 sion system that forms the been promoted to senior vice has been a prolific inventor for technological heart of high- president of business develop- Kimberly-Clark. A principal K-C definition TV. As a result, he’s ment and practice leader for research fellow, he retired in been named one of three the company’s Signature 2004 after twenty-eight years recipients of the 2006 Masaru Service in Chicago and the and with an illustrious list of Ibuka Consumer Electronics Midwest. Signature Service is achievements: 289 invention Award from the IEEE technical Lee Hecht Harrison’s personal- disclosures, 63 issued patents, professional society. Luplow ized service for advising senior and more than 20 pending This new book’s title — lives in Libertyville, Illinois. executives in career transition. patent applications. Morman Locker Room Diaries: The Naked After forty years with the Jack (Jacob) Alpert ’68, also received the Lifetime Tech- Truth about Women, Body Maine School of Law, Professor MS’75 has been the director of nical Achievement Award from Image, and Re-Imagining the Orlando Delogu MS’63, JD’66 SKIL, the Stanford Knowledge the Association of the Nonwo- “Perfect” Body — will hook has stepped down from full- Integration Laboratory in Stan- ven Fabrics Industry. most women right away. time teaching, but anticipates ford, California, since 1980. SKIL When Bob Soules, Jr. ’69 After all, how many women continuing as an emeritus pro- (www.skil.org) is a nonprofit received his invitation to WAA’s do you know who aren’t just fessor and completing a series educational research foundation Founders’ Day celebration in a teeny bit concerned about of writing projects. He lives in whose mission is “to identify the the Phoenix area this spring, he what their bodies look like? Portland, Maine. causes and cures of temporal had an excellent reason for Author Leslie Goldman Among the newest blindness, and thus find cogni- declining: “We will be in South (Alter) ’98 says that Madi- inductees to the Science Hall tive solutions to global prob- Africa during that time. We are son is where her passion for of Fame — part of the USDA’s lems.” Alpert was also a UW dedicating an orphanage, the women’s health began, and Agricultural Research Service varsity cheerleader, Hoofers ski construction and operation of her book tackles our beauty- (ARS) — is veterinary medical club president, and sailing club which we are supporting for obsessed culture head on to officer Charles Beard MS’64, captain. He lives in Shawnee AIDS children who have lost reveal what goes into shaping PhD’65. He joined the ARS’s Mission, Kansas. their parents to the disease.” a woman’s body image. Southeast Poultry Laboratory Roger Schlobin MA’68 To conduct her research, in Athens, Georgia, in 1965 and has established an unusual Goldman — a women’s there developed the test to library collection that’s among 70s health and medical writer for detect avian influenza antibod- the largest of its kind in the the American Medical Asso- ies in serum and egg yolk — world. His gift, the James and Nancy Bunge PhD’70 has ciation in Chicago — donned still considered the global “gold Virginia Schlobin Collection of compiled a collection of a towel and spent five years standard” for avian influenza Literature of the Fantastic, con- twenty-nine interviews with talking with women of all diagnostics. This good news tains more than four thousand leading writers that she spent ages and sizes. Why, she came from School of Veterinary works of fantasy, sci-fi, gothic, twenty-five years conducting. wanted to know, are so few Medicine dean emeritus Barney horror fiction, the supernatural, It’s called Master Class: Lessons of them content with their Easterday MS’58, PhD’61; and “the weird,” and resides from Leading Writers (Univer- appearance? How can we Beard was his first PhD student. at East Carolina University in sity of Iowa Press), and in it, end our unrealistic quests for Clarice Conner Yentsch Greenville, North Carolina. you can read about the writing the “perfect body”? ’64, MS’65 is the curator of Schlobin is a Purdue University and teaching methods of the The answers came from education at the Mel Fisher professor emeritus of English, likes of Allen Ginsberg, Donald some wise women who had Maritime Museum in Key West, a founder of the International Hall, and Wallace Stegner. learned to like their bodies Florida, as well as a research Association for the Fantastic in Bunge is a professor in the just as they were. Blending scientist and consultant. She co- the Arts, and the author of the Department of Writing, that wisdom with expert founded the Bigelow Labora- first original electronic novel to Rhetoric, and American Cul- opinion, Goldman has tory for Ocean Sciences in West be published over the Internet: tures at Michigan State Univer- crafted an intimate, no-guilt Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer sity in East Lansing. work (www.lrdiaries.com) founded the J.J. MacIsaac Flow Dragon (Omnimedia, 1994). From Indianapolis, Chuck that she hopes will inspire Cytometry/Cell Sorting Facility And how’s this for impres- Ricks ’70 says that he’s “com- other women to do the same. at Bigelow. In January, Yentsch sive? Not only has Brewster pleted a year in Afghanistan as Da Capo will “unveil” it in received the 2005 Distinguished Shaw, Jr. ’68, MS’69 become mentor and systems developer early June — just in time Alumni Achievement Award the vice president and general for the assistant minister of for swimsuit season. from the Oceanographic Center manager of Boeing NASA Sys- defense for parliamentary,

52 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

social relations, and public affairs, and for the new Afghan Egypt for the Eco-Traveler National Army.” While many hotels today are catering to the business traveler with Two very different works high-speed Internet access, cell phone rentals, mini offices, and about the Badger state — both multiple data ports, one lodge in Egypt has taken a decidedly opposite written by ’70s grads — arrived tack. Adrère Amellal is an eco-lodge that’s about “respect for nature, recently. One was Wisconsin engaging indigenous people, and offering experiences for the culturally Politics and Government: Amer- minded and environmentally sensitive traveler,” says the lodge’s ica’s Laboratory of Democracy creator, Mounir Neamatalla ’70, MS’71. (University of Nebraska Press), Neamatalla, who also holds a 1976 doctoral degree in Environmen- by James Conant ’71, MA’74, tal Health and Quality Management from New York’s Columbia PhD’83, a professor of govern- University, believes that Adrère Amellal “has a particular characteristic ment and politics at George of provoking curiosity about the place and its people.” Because more Mason University in Fairfax, Vir- than 95 percent of the staff are indigenous oasis inhabitants, contact ginia. The other was Miracles of with local culture begins at breakfast, continues during desert safaris, the Spirit: Folk, Art, and Stories and extends into conversations at dinner, served amid the dunes. from Wisconsin (University Located in the Sinai desert about forty-seven miles east of the Press of Mississippi), by Ann Libyan border, the lodge was constructed by about 150 local craftsmen Parker ’72, MA’79, MFA’91 using traditional materials. A centuries-old mixture of sun-dried salt of Baraboo and Don Krug ’79, rock mixed with clay, call kershef, was used to build the walls. Kershef MA’88, PhD’93 of Vancouver, maintains indoor temperatures at moderate levels, making air condi- British Columbia. Mounir Neamatalla runs an eco-venture — an oasis tioning unnecessary. Ceiling beams were made of palm wood harvested “I just published my first haven for the eco-minded — from dead palm trees, while the doors, windows, and fixtures were novel (third one written) called in the Sinai desert. fabricated from annual trimmings of the palm reeds and olive trees The Dummy,” shares Alan that surround the lodge on seventy-five acres. The plumbing is Ferguson ’71, ’80 of Sebast- contemporary, but wastewater first settles in self-contained sedimentation tanks, allowing the super- ian, Florida. The work, pub- natant to flow through perforated pipes into a sealed wetland. There, papyrus plants are grown to lished by AuthorHouse, follows complete the biodegradation and waste-reduction process. a boy who, circa 1964, was mis- The number of rooms — seventeen, plus ten suites — was limited by the amount of water available diagnosed as being “retarded.” in the on-site natural spring. The location at the foot of a mountain was chosen so as to build on Despite torment from bullies nonarable land and to properly blend the edifice into the horizon line, rather than to detract from the and other obstacles, his charac- beauty of the landscape. All agriculture on the land is chemical free. ter and inner strength help him Neamatalla, who earned his UW-Madison degrees in engineering, credits his university education to live a successful life. “Also in with giving him the eco-lodge idea. “It was during my years at the University of Wisconsin that I the future,” adds the author, became deeply conscious of the real value of cultural diversity and the importance of cross-cultural “there will be a very steamy exchange in charting the course for the sustainable development of our planet,” he says. novel about the UW’s School of While Neamatalla says guests are not “screened,” he does like to get to know them before accepting Business from 1977 to 1980.” them. He notes that travelers who come to the lodge are “like-minded in the sense that they are respectful How the Moon Regained of the natural environment, its surroundings, as well as the indigenous culture of the oasis. Most tell me Her Shape (Sylvan Dell) is the there is something special about the location: you can’t see exactly what — but you know it’s there.” first children’s fiction picture While it all sounds very new-agey, Neamatalla’s choice of locale is very “concrete.” “Every day the book by Janet Heller ’71, tentacles of progress dig their fingers a little bit deeper into the skin of this ancient culture, bringing MA’73. Influenced by Native both its bright and dark sides,” he says. “For example, Egypt’s trend toward concrete-block buildings American tales of how the is devastating one of its most precious resources — its cultural identity. Adrère Amellal was intended to moon dealt with insults from counter the escalating spiral of uniformity and to serve as an example of both indigenous beauty and the sun, the story also helps chil- simple utility.” To learn more about the eco-lodge, go to www.adrereamellal.net. dren to cope with bullies. Heller — Candice Gaukel Andrews ’77 teaches English and women’s studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Charles Prebish PhD’71, edge,” he writes, “only five behind the creation of a new of the World Trade Center a long-time professor of reli- other scholars of Buddhism sub-discipline,” usually called site. Allan Swerdlowe ’71, gious studies at Penn State, who have taught in North Western Buddhism. principal architect at New was recently the subject of a America during the past fifty Within days of 9/11, the York’s Design Seven Associates, festschrift — a volume called years have been honored with American Institute of Architects is the new chair of NYNV’s site- Buddhist Studies from India a festschrift,” and one was his and other planning organiza- planning committee — as well to America: Essays in Honor of major UW professor, the late tions established New York as a board member of the Daily Charles S. Prebish (Routledge). Richard Robinson. Prebish New Visions (NYNV) to provide Cardinal Alumni Association. “To the best of my knowl- notes that he’s “the pioneer expertise in the rebuilding The recently promoted VP

SUMMER 2006 53 ALUMNI NEWS

of residential services at the How would you take a collaboration of universities Bookmark Conservation Services Group charge of a publishing program and industrial partners that (CSG) is energy-industry veteran that produces more than ten gives student teams the chance Paul Berkowitz ’72. The thousand information products to solve real-world problems. nonprofit CSG is based in West- annually? Gregory Allord ’76 borough, Massachusetts, but is mastering that task as the Berkowitz lives and works in new head of the U.S. Geologi- 80s Madison to further its mission of cal Survey’s (USGS) national providing energy-saving prod- science publishing program, What’s it like to take care of a ucts, services, and technologies. based at its duty station in $115 million mutual fund? Ask Speaking of conservation, Madison’s University Research Ronald Kaliebe MBA’80. He’s the UW’s new Beers-Bascom Park. With more than thirty been named co-manager of the Professor of Conservation is years of USGS experience, Mairs and Power Balanced Vincent Burns MA’89, David Mladenoff ’73, MS’79, Allord was also the creative Fund at the Mairs and Power PhD’94 has co-authored a PhD’85. With the Department force behind the organization’s investment advisory firm in St. new collection that examines of Forest Ecology and Manage- online Publications Warehouse. Paul, Minnesota. the roots of global terrorism ment since 1994, he’s best Gail Amundson ’76, Georgia Cielenski ’80 and and its current state. It’s known for his ecosystem MD’80, the associate medical Scott ’82 Roeming know called Terrorism: A Documen- process model, called LANDIS, director for quality improve- about transformation. When tary and Reference Guide which simulates successional ment and an internal-medicine Congress passed NAFTA in 1995, (Greenwood Press). change in forested ecosystems. physician with HealthPartners the couple began to transform The work includes more It was the subject of a special in St. Paul, Minnesota, has the Geo Group — a Madison than seventy documents — issue of Ecological Modelling in become a national “go-to” video-production company that some never before in print — December 2004. Mladenoff has person. She’s been appointed Georgia founded in 1991 — into that illustrate political and also been involved in assessing to two panels — the National a foreign-language-services ethnic terrorism, its role in Wisconsin’s potential wolf habi- Quality Forum and the Agency agency with offices in four the Cold War, and its place tat — work that’s fundamental for Healthcare Research and states. Through a network of in Middle Eastern violence. to designing the state’s wolf- Quality — both of which were more than five hundred transla- Much of it, however, deals recovery plan. created to develop U.S. health- tors, they offer translation, with how Middle Eastern ter- Ron Suppa JD’73 made an care quality measures. Such interpreting, desktop publishing, rorism has affected the U.S., interesting career leap — from work is “critically important,” software localization, media pro- and in particular, the 9/11 entertainment law to movie and says Amundson, “because what duction, and technical writing. attacks — what led to them, TV writing and production — gets measured, gets improved.” Cheryl Alexander DeMars and what followed. These and his new book, Real Screen- Billed as “the one-and-only ’80, MS’84 can now add the documents span the 1950s to writing: Strategies and Stories complete guide to Madison, title of CEO to the list of leader- 2004 and come from varied from the Trenches (Thomson Wisconsin,” Madison: The ship positions she’s held at The sources, including recently Course Technology), shares what Guide (Jones Books) has arrived Alliance since 1992. The Alliance declassified CIA reports and he’s learned along the way. on the scene to aid Mad City is a Madison-based, employer- suicide bombers’ final letters. Suppa’s resume includes writing insiders and visitors alike. Its owned and -directed health Following each document or producing twelve feature author, lifelong resident Gwen care purchasing cooperative. are detailed analyses and films and award-winning teach- Evans ’79, has not only found In The Power of Greed: extensive print and online ing at UCLA Extension. He lives the best that our fair city has Collective Action in Interna- bibliographies for further in Westlake Village, California. to offer in the way of eats, tional Development (University reading and research The National Birth Defects events, accommodations, of Alberta Press), author options. Other facets of the Prevention Network honored attractions, culture, kids’ stuff, Michael Rosberg PhD’80 book are its essays, sixty- one of its co-founders, Russell nature, shopping, and more, challenges international-devel- five photos, more than fifty Kirby ’74, MS’77, PhD’81, but she’s also tossed in plenty opment wisdom in suggesting “Did You Know?” sidebars MS’91, with its 2005 President’s of special surprises. that in order for development on related subjects, and an Award in February. He’s a The National Academy of to be successful, it must speak exhaustive resource list that professor and vice chair of the Engineering has chosen John directly to the self-interests of includes Web sites, print, Department of Maternal and Lamancusa MS’79, PhD’82 as those in the targeted areas. and video resources. Child Health at the University one of five educators to share He lives and works in Belize. A former journalist and of Alabama at Birmingham. the 2006 Bernard M. Gordon Whenever news coverage Fulbright scholar, Burns Kirby adds that his daughter, Prize, which honors innovation turns to Iraq, Ambassador Dan also co-edited the Encyclope- Milwaukeean Amelia Kirby in engineering and technology Speckhard ’80, MA’82, MS’83 dia of World Terrorism, works ’05, “duplicated her dad’s education. Lamancusa is a is probably somewhere in the in the publishing industry, experience by graduating from professor of mechanical engi- midst of it — he’s the director and lives in Sandy Hook, the UW, through the honors neering at Penn State and the of the Iraq Reconstruction Man- Connecticut. program, in three years.” director of its Learning Factory, agement Office in Baghdad.

54 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

Speckhard also has extensive

experience with NATO and Art for Art’s Sake — and Her Own HANK KOSHOLLEK/ received the NATO Service In 2000, Madisonian Muriel Simms ’68, MS’75, PhD’02 was working Medal for his crisis-management on a doctorate in educational administration and curriculum and work in Macedonia. In addition, instruction, and her mother had just died. For relief from stress and he was U.S. ambassador to intense emotions, Simms turned to art classes — a “therapeutic, but THE CAPITAL TIMES Belarus from 1997 to 2000. committed hobby” that led her to create a line of greeting cards and, “I never thought I would in 2002, to launch a company called Bunnyworks (www.bunnyworks. have something noteworthy to com) to market them. share in an effort to make the Art — and dance as well — were hardly new pursuits for Simms, UW proud,” writes Jennifer however. Her personal passion for the arts has always intermingled Ulmen-Shamy ’80, but now with her professional passion for education. From childhood, through the Virginia Art Education college, and then during her twenty-nine years as a schoolteacher, Association has chosen the administrator, and principal, she’s studied tap, jazz, modern, and Roanoke teacher as its 2006 African dance, plus collage, decoupage, calligraphy, and drawing. Creating greeting cards Elementary Art Educator of the Simms’s cards are all handmade with materials such as fabric, like this one allows Year. “I continue to be inspired yarn, foil, thread, wire, and beads, and they encompass several design Muriel Simms to turn by my experiences [at] the themes. Some focus on nature and flowers, while her “Sassyfrass inward and to reach out. university,” she says. Ladies” line features African-American faces and profiles, some of which have been popular requests. Management, Gender, While her cards are outlets for creativity and a means for turning inward, they’re also creations and Race in the 21st Century that Simms wants increasingly to share. She sends some of them herself, noting, “One of the motiva- (University Press of America) is tions for making the cards was that I did not like the ones I saw in the stores. At times, I felt the need the latest book from Margaret to send a card that represented me.” Foegen Karsten MBA’81, But, the more the compliments have rolled in, the larger her hopes: Simms aspires to selling her a professor of business adminis- products in retail stores nationwide as well as on her Web site. “I would like to figure out a way to tration at UW-Platteville. She’s mass-produce the designs,” she adds, “because the designs are where the heart is.” There are a few, also edited a three-volume set though, that she just will not sell. “Attaching myself to these cards is strange,” she says, “but I love it.” that’s coming out this summer Beyond Bunnyworks, the semi-retired Simms teaches graduate students part time at Madison’s called Gender, Race, and Eth- Edgewood College and is part of Sisters in Business United, an entrepreneurial group of African- nicity in the Workplace (Green- American women artists and artisans. wood Publishing/Praeger). Simms also cares deeply about the past and future of Madison. She’s interviewing descendants Theater, dance, and live of African-American settlers who came to the city in the early 1900s, with plans to create a compre- music are not merely marginal hensive resource called Settlin’: The Stories of Madison’s Black Pioneer Families. She’s the secretary of art forms — they’re crucial to the board for the newly formed Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, whose goal is to help prepare our culture, argues David African-American youth for the business world. And she’s an environmental activist as well, Román ’81, MA’84, PhD’90 working to save Madison’s Cherokee Marsh from housing development. in Performance in America: Whatever happens with Bunnyworks and these many endeavors, Simms finds in her card-making Contemporary U.S. Culture the same stress relief that she did when she began, as well as a desire to continue making them for and the Performing Arts friends and family, no matter what. “I am beginning to think of card-making as part of my wellness kit,” (Duke University Press). He’s she says. “They are my babies now. Creativity is [in] me, so the relationship with the cards will remain.” a professor of English and — Paula Wagner Apfelbach ’83 American Studies at the Univer- sity of Southern California and lives in L.A. “turf” as the new metro editor professor of health science men’s ice-hockey team for the This service sounds awfully for the New York Times. A at California State University third straight Winter Games, tasty: chef Karen Tursi ’81 promotion from deputy metro in Long Beach. Their charge is leading Team USA to a silver owns CHOP Personal Chef editor, it sounds well deserved: to develop a new multicultural, medal in 2002. At forty-four, Services (www.chop-pcs.com), Times executive editor Bill collaborative curriculum to Chelios is also the oldest through which she develops Keller said, “No editor ever train Cal State-Long Beach American ever to compete in menus, customizes recipes, went wrong putting his faith in students and community an Olympic Winter Games ice- shops for food, and prepares Joe Sexton. … His joy and pride members in disaster and hockey tournament and one meals in the homes of “hungry in great journalism are infec- bioterrorism preparedness. of only two American players clients in the Chicago area.” tious.” Sexton joined the paper Badger hockey fans were to be named to four Olympic Tursi has now been elected to in 1987 as a sports reporter. no doubt ecstatic to see Chris squads — 1984, 1998, 2002, and her second term as president A $97,000 U.S. Department Chelios x’85 take the ice at 2006. He currently plays for the of Chicagoland Personal Chefs. of Health and Human Services yet another Olympic Games Detroit Red Wings. Joe Sexton ’82 has New grant has gone to (Gloria) this winter in Torino, Italy. The In December, John Gosbee York City in the palm of his Veronica Acosta-Deprez former Badger hockey great MD’85 was greeted with cheers hand, so to speak — it’s his MS’84, PhD’89 and a fellow was captain of the U.S. Olympic — a Cheers Award, that is, from

SUMMER 2006 55 ALUMNI NEWS

the Institute for Safe Medica- (Jacqueline) Mohr PhD’89 and Politics.” While Sklenar Bookmark tion Practices. The accolade knows. In November, Mohr, a finds that interesting, what’s recognizes those who have set professor of marketing at the more fascinating, she says, is a standard of excellence in University of Montana in Mis- the way she financed her the prevention of medication soula, received the 2005 award education: as a private chef for errors and adverse drug events. for Montana, as part of the U.S. one of the world’s top contem- Gosbee, an expert on human- Professors of the Year program. porary-art collectors. Sklenar, factors engineering, leads the of Las Cruces, New Mexico, development of patient-safety admits, “I had no professional resources for the Veterans 90s experience as a chef — only a Health Administration at the strong desire to earn a PhD. VA’s National Center for Patient “After living in Israel for six I guess that says something Safety in Ann Arbor, Michigan. years,” writes Alison Dudock about the work ethic I learned Don’t worry about the pig Janus ’90, “I teach Hebrew to from growing up in Wisconsin.” Author Kevin Kaduk ’01 that’s flying over Wisconsin’s adults and children in Silver (David) Clay Wallin ’91 celebrates what’s right with Lake Michigan shore, just south Spring, Maryland. I have four followed up his Vanderbilt the world — when it’s base- of Algoma — he’s tethered to daughters. I’d love to get e-mails MBA and three years with ball season in Chicago, that the Flying Pig Gallery & Green- from old friends from Madison.” Hewlett-Packard in Latin is — in Wrigleyworld: A Season space (www.theflyingpig.biz). You can write to Janus at America by co-founding eSkye in Baseball’s Best Neighborhood It’s the mission of co-owner [email protected]. Solutions, an Indianapolis- (New American Library, Susan Connor ’86 to offer an Four Badger physicians have based software and services www.wrigleyworld.com). “amusing, inspiring, and educa- affiliated with the Milwaukee- firm that focuses exclusively on With experience as the tional peek at art and gardens” based Medical College of Wis- the beverage-alcohol segment. Badger Herald’s sports editor through her eclectic art gallery, consin. Internist Aysha Shaikh As eSkye’s VP, Wallin handles and managing editor, the unconventional greenspace and Schaper ’90, MD’93 is a new nationwide sales from his home tough part wasn’t the writing plant offerings, and coffee-and- staff physician at the Sunnyslope office in Coral Gables, Florida. — it was the location. Kaduk tea bar. “I am very proud of this Health Center in Brookfield, It seems fair to say that spent three years as a Kansas project,” says Connor, “and as well as an assistant clinical Peter Wood MMusic’91 is City reporter, “climbing the would love to share it with — professor of medicine. Eric devoted to the trumpet. He’s a journalistic career ladder by and have it be a destination of Hohenwalter ’94 has joined new assistant professor of trum- covering prep sports” and — other Badgers!” the medical staff of Froedtert pet at the University of South “battling an on-again/off- Only a handful of U.S.-based Hospital, has become an assis- Alabama in Mobile; he’s princi- again case of homesickness.” physical therapists are certified tant professor of radiology at pal trumpet in the Gulf Coast Finally, a 2004 trip to to perform the European-based the medical college, and serves Symphony Orchestra in nearby cover the Cubs did him in: he Schroth method of scoliosis as co-director of the vein pro- Biloxi, Mississippi; and he’s the tossed his job aside to move treatment, and Cindy gram at Medical College Affili- CD-reviews editor of the Inter- back to Chicago — not to get Bruechert Marti ’86 recently ated Hospitals. In Racine, Allen national Trumpet Guild Journal. another newspaper job, but, became one of them. This Last ’94, MD’00 is the new “I graduated not knowing he told his soon-to-be-former approach (www.skoliose.com) assistant director of the family- what I was going to do with boss, “to watch baseball. You allows patients to be more medicine residency program at my life …” began a note from know, drink some beers, have proactive in their care through a All Saints Healthcare, and he’s Marsena Haack Konkle ’93 some fun. combination of physical therapy become an assistant professor of of Lake Zurich, Illinois. After “Most importantly,” and exercise to slow the progres- family and community medicine years of editing college text- Kaduk says, “I wanted to sion of spinal curvature. Marti at the medical college as well. books, “I’m finally where I know about the neighbor- is part of the newly launched Lastly, Timothy Fenske MS’97, want to be: on the other side hood. I wanted to under- Scoliosis Clinic at Spinal Dynam- MD’99 has joined Hohenwalter of publishing.” About her stand how it became a living, ics of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa. on the medical staff of Froedtert debut novel, A Dark Oval Stone breathing thing — a circus, Did you catch the Badger Hospital, and has been made an (Paraclete Press), Publishers a spectacle on game days.” on the cover of U.S. News & assistant professor of medicine Weekly says, “Issues of faith, Quitting his job to hang World Report on January 9? in the medical college’s division grief, and identity mingle in out around a baseball field It was Major Jonathan Fox ’89 of neoplastic diseases and a quiet, sober story.” may have been impulsive, — an officer with the American related disorders. Congratulations are in but the resulting debut book, unit that oversees security The title of the dissertation order for Vic (Victor) Perini full of humor and love for operations in western Mosul — that Elizabeth Sklenar MS’90 MS’93, vice president of opera- the Cubs, fulfilled Kaduk’s whose work in Iraq was profiled recently completed to earn her tions at Methodist University “quest to find the heart and in a ten-page story. You can doctorate at the University of Hospital in Memphis: he’s soul of the idiosyncratic read it at www.usnews.com. New Mexico-Albuquerque was earned the Young Healthcare neighborhood — and state Being chosen as the Profes- “The Power of Resistance: Four Executive Award from the of mind — that has come to sor of the Year for your entire Mexican Women Intellectuals Tennessee Hospital Association. be known as ‘Wrigleyville.’ ” state is quite an honor, as Jakki and Their Influence on Culture “How did menopause

56 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

change from being a natural MA’97, PhD’03 has written Her organization produced the Burst Collective, a consortium of (and often welcome) end to Voices and Votes: How Democ- Heritage Health Index — the composers, performing artists, a woman’s childbearing years, racy Works in Wisconsin first comprehensive study on and music producers for which to a deficiency disease in need (University of Wisconsin Press). the condition of U.S. collections Kiefer is also the PR director. of medical and pharmacologi- The passion of Becky — and found that inattention We heard this straight from cal intervention?” asks UW- (Rebecca) Weinke Boys ’95 and improper storage of arti- the LPGA: Malinda Johnson Madison assistant professor is helping stressed-out families facts at museums and libraries ’04 “is considered the best of Judith Houck MA’94, PhD’98. to “find the missing peace” — are leading to the degradation the best among female golfers You can read her answers in her family time. Through her of irreplaceable items. as a member of the Ladies new book, Hot and Bothered: Janesville, Wisconsin-based Professional Golf Association. Women, Medicine, and resource called Simple Smiles, In 2006, she will compete for Menopause in Modern America Boys “teaches the basic build- 2000s nearly $50 million in prize (Harvard University Press). ing blocks of effective parent- money in thirty-four tourna- The chief of staff to ing through creative insights The Gilder Lehrman Institute of ments as part of the pre-emi- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and family activities.” Her busi- American History has awarded nent women’s pro golf tour.” is Ron Huberman ’94 — ness includes a monthly publi- Jay Driskell ’00 a research And Johnson was an art major! a former police officer; the cation, workshop, and Web site fellowship to study at the architect of Operation Disrup- (www.simplesmiles4u.com). Her Schomburg Center for Research tion, which uses street cameras spouse is Neal Boys ’95. in Black Culture. Driskell, a Yale obituary to thwart drug deals; and the “I started my own law University doctoral candidate, former executive director of firm,” writes Faun Phillipson has titled his project “Race In the pre-Civil Rights era, the city’s Office of Emergency ’96. The new practice, Phillip- above Party: African-American Mabel Murphy Smythe-Haith Management and Communica- son & Uretsky, has offices in Voters, the NAACP, and Race PhD’42, honorary degree ’91 tions. Now, a Chicago Tribune New York and New Jersey, and Formation, 1908–1965.” This was a beacon: an African- piece said, Huberman is “the specializes in securities defense fellowship follows four others American woman with a distin- police in a different way”: he’s and regulatory law. at Duke University and Yale. guished career in international charged with snuffing out City Congratulations to the Summer Davis ’02 may affairs. She died in February in Hall corruption, making city new global director of sales be going to Disney World — Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1962, President Kennedy government more efficient, and marketing for the GE but not for the usual reasons. and overseeing Chicago’s daily appointed Smythe-Haith to the Water & Process Technologies’ This Indianapolis middle school operations and public services. U.S. Advisory Commission on Household Water Group: D. English teacher has been While loath to beat his own International and Cultural (Douglas) Samuel Karge ’97. nominated for a Disney Teacher drum, Jerry Jansen ’94, MS’95 Affairs, and two years later, she He joined the company in 1997, Award, which honors creativity did share his career shifts as a was President Johnson’s choice and eventually led the launch in the classroom. Award hon- “police officer working as a as the U.S. representative to of the Logix control and Merlin orees will be fêted at a July social worker, finally finishing UNESCO, the United Nations drinking-water system. Karge gala, where one will emerge a degree at age forty-eight, Educational, Scientific, and lives in Racine, Wisconsin. as the 2006 Disney Teacher of and then earning a master’s Cultural Organization. Further Badger football fans will be the Year. degree.” He spent twenty-five appointments followed as interested to hear that “Touch- “In a generation of social, years with the Shorewood Hills President Carter named her U.S. down Tony” Simmons ’97 political, and musical medioc- police department, right near ambassador to the Republic of and Joshua Martin MBA’02 rity, This World Fair has set the UW, and retired in October Cameroon and Equatorial are working together. Martin itself against the grain,” states 2004 as its chief. From there, Guinea from 1977 until 1980, has opened Orange Shoe Gym the Web site for the Minneapo- Jansen drove down the street and she was deputy assistant (www.orangeshoegym.com), lis-based rock/pop/crunk band and became an assistant chief secretary of state for African a Madison facility offering with the UW Police Department. (www.thisworldfair.com). affairs until 2000. personal training and group fit- Two ’90s grads recently Naturally, it’s headed by a Associated Black Charities shared news of their books, ness classes. Simmons, who set Badger — lyricist, vocalist, honored Smythe-Haith (and both about the politics of the a record for touchdown recep- pianist, guitarist, and “front Colin Powell) in 1990 as Black Midwest. Journalist and free- tions before playing in the NFL man” Chris Kalgren ’03. And History Makers, and she’ll also lance writer Sean Scallon ’94 for the Patriots, Browns, Colts, This World Fair has this big be remembered for her art of Arkansaw, Wisconsin, was and Giants, has joined Orange news: it recently signed with collection — she was a primary pleased to announce his pre- Shoe as a trainer. record label EMI. contributor to the African Art miere work, Beating the History is slipping away Does the organizational Collection at Spelman College’s Powers That Be: Independent before our eyes, and Kristen chart at your office include a Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta. Political Movements and Parties Overbeck Laise MA’98, direc- box for “company evangelist”? of the Upper Midwest and tor of the Washington, D.C.- The one at Milwaukee’s Burst based Heritage Preservation Records does, and the name of Compiled by Paula Wagner Apfelbach Their Relevance to Third Parties ’83, who has the older part down, but of Today (Publish America), (www.heritagepreservation. Steven Kiefer ’03 fills it. Burst keeps wondering when the wiser part and Madisonian Jon Kasparek org), wants people to know it. Records is one of three arms of is going to kick in.

SUMMER 2006 57 PHILANTHROPY

Reaching out to Wisconsin A Minnesota company helps renovate mechanical engineering facility.

Although 3M is best known as Mechanical Engineering Build- science, engineering, and busi- a Minnesota corporation, the ing, constructed in 1930 around ness education — disciplines manufacturing giant has a a then-existing machine shop. important to society and tech- huge Wisconsin presence and To create a facility for twenty- nology companies like 3M,” employs many UW-Madison first century engineering in a says Barbara Kaufmann of 3M. alumni, particularly engineer- pre-World War II building, the “Facilities are one part of the ing graduates. university has demolished the education experience, and we It made sense for 3M Com- structure and will replace it are pleased to support this munity Giving, the charitable with a four-story addition for endeavor, which will advance arm of 3M, to give $1.6 million academic and research pro- teaching and learning opportu- toward a renovated and grams, as well as a fifth floor nities for faculty and students.” expanded Mechanical Engi- that will house the mechanical The 3M Auditorium will be neering Building, as part of systems and a basement a 3,045-square-foot lecture hall the Mechanical and Industrial containing heavy-duty Engineering project. The gift laboratories.

includes $1.4 million, along Project details OF THE COLLEGE ENGINEERING COURTESY Philanthropic investment with 3M multimedia projectors, include bringing the elec- valued at $200,000, that will trical and data infrastruc- in UW-Madison promises to provide help equip the building. In ture up-to-date, installing a tremendous return as the recognition of the contribution, a new central system for the university will name the heating, ventilation, and university applies its resources to facility’s main lecture hall the air conditioning, and bring greater understanding of our 3M Auditorium. adding a new elevator to “This generous gift to the make the building more world and to find answers to society’s College of Engineering reflects accessible to people with most critical problems. For more 3M’s commitment to innova- disabilities. The historic tion,” says College of Engineer- limestone façade will be information about the University ing Dean Paul S. Peercy preserved, and a new of Wisconsin Foundation or MS’63, PhD’66. “The new main entrance will be Mechanical Engineering Build- created. Create the Future: The Wisconsin ing will have the facilities and “This project at the resources to conduct research University of Wisconsin- Campaign, call (608) 263-4545. and educate engineers in a new Madison is in keeping age of discovery.” with our tradition of The project will update the giving, which targets

An artist’s renderings capture the reno- vated and expanded Mechanical Engineer- ing Building as seen from Engineering Drive, and the building’s atrium.

58 ON WISCONSIN PHILANTHROPY

with 159 seats. It will feature home to six 3M manufacturing Foundation Science and Tech- multimedia and will be capable plants and more than 4,000 3M nology Fellows Fund to provide of originating and receiving employees, and the company supplemental financial assis- satellite video transmissions. has a Wisconsin payroll that tance to selected university The 3M Auditorium will be exceeds $200 million annually. graduate students. The fund used for classes, meetings, Each year, 3M exports more helps students meet the costs seminars, and other functions. than $400 million worth of of tuition, fees, books, and At least 340 UW-Madison products from the state. other educational expenses. graduates work for 3M in the In 2005, another major gift — Chris DuPré United States. Wisconsin is of $450,000 established the 3M

Remembering Tyler And the Show Goes On Siblings will have a special space at UW’s new children’s hospital. Do you have materials or Tyler Tracy was born in 2002 Austin. With memorabilia that would be with pyruvate dehydrogenase a hospital OF THE TRACY FAMILYCOURTESY of interest to a particular complex (PDHC) deficiency, a full of tubes, UW campus archive, rare genetic disorder that does monitors, museum, or library? If so, not allow carbohydrates to and other let Daniel Kennedy ’70 be processed. To stay alive, interesting serve as a philanthropic he needed a special infant things, it was example. He’s donated his formula imported from the a challenge collection of programs — United Kingdom. When the keeping dozens from Broadway formula was banned from Tyler’s sib- and off-Broadway theater importation by the U.S. Food lings out of productions, film pre- and Drug Administration harm’s way. mieres, and opera and because of a labeling issue, In 2003, other performances from a Tyler’s parents did everything at the age variety of venues world- they could to save their son’s of seventeen wide — to the Memorial life — including launching a months, Library’s Department of media campaign to bring Tyler lost his Special Collections. An attention to their plight. battle with educator and the propri- Jeff ‘93 and Kristin Tracy PDHC defi- etor of Daniel Kennedy of Lodi, Wisconsin, did what ciency. Not Kristin and Tyler Tracy Communications Services any parents would do to keep long after in New York City, their child alive. Tyler’s story, that, the Tracys began a “We don’t have many Kennedy hopes that featured at first on local televi- campaign to raise $200,000 to resources,” says Jeff Tracy. “It’s his gift will enhance the sion stations and in Madison name a new sibling care center really just Kristin and me try- library’s resources for newspapers, eventually made “Tyler’s Place,” to honor Tyler’s ing to get the word out and students and faculty in headlines across the country. memory. They established the reach our goal. We know that theater, film, and music. The government backed down, Tyler Tracy Foundation and are someday soon, a family will allowing the infant formula, working hard to ensure that be utilizing the resources of a called Ketocal, to be available a sibling care center will be sibling care center and will be once again. included in the new American grateful it is there. They will The Tracys found special- Family Children’s Hospital. have one less thing to try ized care for their son at the “While the idea of the to manage, to have to cope UW Children’s Hospital. What sibling room was a welcome with, to have to worry about. they didn’t find, however, was surprise to me, the fact that Having an opportunity to do a supervised area where their the Tracys are making it a real- all that and honor Tyler’s other two children could play ity is not,” says Tyler’s physi- memory in the process is what while they dealt with the reali- cian, Joseph Mahoney. “After keeps us going.” ties of Tyler’s life-threatening my experience with the Tracys, To learn more about Tyler, condition. It was difficult for I see this as not just making the his family, and how to help the Tracys to give full attention experience better, but as being make Tyler’s Place a reality, to Tyler’s care and keep an eye essential for parents to provide visit www.tylersplace.org. on daughter McKayla and son better care for their family.” — Sue Zyhowski

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