DISPATCHES Open for Business The MBA gets a makeover for a specialized age. This fall’s crop of MBA students JEFF MILLER (2) in the School of Business will pioneer a revamped curriculum that shifts its focus to meet their specific career goals. The program allows students to tailor their graduate school experience in one of four- teen career specialties, including applied security analysis, supply chain management, product management, risk management “Cancer is not a death sentence anymore.” and insurance, and applied The UW’s Grainger Hall likely will be expanded to house a revamped corporate finance. The changes MBA program. are part of the school’s drive to — Model Cindy Crawford, strengthen the national rankings sizing a first-year overview with for Entrepreneurship, and the during a reunion of cancer sur- of its MBA program. second-year studies in a broad newly endowed Nicholas Center vivors at UW Children’s Hospital “We have made a conscious area, such as marketing or for Applied Corporate Finance, in November. Crawford’s choice to be the best program accounting. The revamped first which offer students real-world brother, Jeffrey, was a patient at available for students with a clear year will provide a strong busi- experience, interaction with the hospital twenty-five years career objective,” says Michael ness foundation in a range of business executives, and a ago before dying of leukemia. Knetter, dean of the school. areas, but the second year will strong sense of community. Wisconsin’s new approach allow students to home in on Changes to the MBA pro- differs from “general manage- career specializations and gain gram come as the school plans a ment” MBA programs that pro- a depth of expertise. $40 million addition to Grainger vide a first-year overview, Knetter says the career Hall, which would extend from followed by a year of electives specializations will operate out the building’s east side. If the with no specialized major. And of academic centers, such as the expansion is approved, it would it is more targeted than “tradi- A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing open in fall 2007. tional major” programs empha- Research, the Weinert Center — Dennis Chaptman ’80 President Lyall to Retire In the fast-burnout world remembered for establishing of higher-ed administration, the UW System as a key player where presidents and chancel- in Wisconsin’s economic devel- lors rarely serve for a decade or opment. Chancellor John D. 29 longer, Katharine Lyall has Wiley MS’65, PhD’68, one of decided twelve years is enough. more than fifty chancellors Number of UW-Madison Lyall, president of the hired during Lyall’s tenure, says professors who appear on a list twenty-six-campus UW System she was a strong advocate for of the most-cited experts in since 1992, announced in students and staff despite a their fields, according to a February that she will retire at trend of dwindling resources. national survey of scholarly publications by a leading the end of the academic year. Toby Marcovich ’52, The fifth person and the first indexer. Fewer than one-half LLB’54, UW Board of Regents Katharine Lyall, president of the woman to lead the system, the UW System since 1992, will of 1 percent of researchers who president, who will head the sixty-two-year-old Lyall said it is retire in September. published during the past two search for Lyall’s successor, “an appropriate time for new decades made the list. energy and fresh leadership.” hopes to name a new presi- says. “It will take an extraordi- An economist who also dent by June. “Katharine is nary individual to follow in her holds a professorship at UW- one of the smartest, hardest- footsteps.” Madison, Lyall may be best working people I know,” he — Michael Penn SPRING 2004 11 DISPATCHES Numbers Game Crowning UW-Madison’s ‘Grand Integrator.’ On a Tuesday evening in Febru- “In the beginning, it’s painful — contest, which began with ary, Jeremy Rouse approached you get a lot of water up your twenty-five competitors, includ- a blackboard in Sterling Hall and nose — but once you learn the ing undergraduate and graduate met his opponent. Only one of basics, you can start playing students majoring in mathemat- them was to survive the show- games and having fun.” ics, computer science, chemical down of speed and prowess, Integrals, one of the engineering, and even a few Q AND A thereby going on to the third fundamental building blocks undecideds. Heather Olson round of the university’s first- of calculus, are essentially long “We’ll make better scientists Olson x’06 earned perfect ever calculus competition and summations, which can be used if we encourage students to scores on both the SAT and possibly being crowned the to predict phenomena in math learn more math,” Reardon says. the ACT before enrolling at “Grand Integrator of Madison” and science. Engineers, physi- At the blackboard, the UW-Madison, the only school — a title coveted by math cists, and, increasingly, biologists speed of the chalk picked up to which she applied, in fall enthusiasts. use the tools of math to answer as Rouse and his contestant 2003. She entered with thirty- As Rouse awaited the prob- questions such as how much raced toward their final answers. four AP credits, which means lem, he circled his shoulders and weight a bridge can hold before When the buzzer sounded, it she’s already a sophomore. stretched his back to warm up. it collapses, how long it might was Rouse’s opponent who Finally, the mathemat- Q: Did you ace both tests ics graduate student, JEFF MILLER on the first try? one of fourteen A: I got a perfect score on the finalists, put his yellow SAT on my first time. The first chalk against the time I took the ACT, I got a board and began thirty-five [out of a possible writing figures. thirty-six]. For the next few Q: Thirty-five wasn’t good minutes, fifty specta- enough? tors sat in rapt atten- A: Well, after I took the SAT tion as chalk raced and got a perfect score, I said, loudly across the “Why not?” boards. The scratching slowed, then stopped Q: What prepared you for entirely, as Rouse success on the test? stepped back to A: I got a good night’s sleep review his lines of beforehand. And I guess I paid calculations, momen- attention in class. tarily stumped. A few Q: What are you studying? in the audience scrib- Mathematics graduate student Jeremy Rouse ponders his work in the heat of A: I’m thinking medical science bled calculations onto competition during the UW’s first-ever Integration Bee. or medical microbiology and notebook pages. One immunology, looking toward drew figures in the air. medical school afterward. The scene was exactly take a cup of coffee to turn cold, came away victorious, although the sort of drama the contest’s or how large a population of he, too, would later be beaten. Q: Where will you go then? mastermind, James Reardon, bacteria can grow in a few hours. After four rounds and about A: I’m thinking of the UW wanted to create. An outreach “Math is the language of thirty-five integrals, Boian because I’m in the Medical specialist with UW-Madison’s the universe,” says Reardon. Popunkiov MA’01 was named Scholars program. So I just Wonders of Physics program, “You can’t expect to know the winner. Popunkiov, a mathe- have to keep good grades, and Reardon based the contest on physics if you don’t know the matics graduate student, earned I don’t have to take the MCAT one he competed in at the Mass- language of math.” one hundred dollars, thanks to — that’s nice. achusetts Institute of Technology. But these days, physics stu- a donation from the University By bringing it to Madison, he dents often struggle with math Book Store, and the honor of hoped to show students that more than they do with science, being the university’s greatest math is both important and fun. Reardon says. It’s partly for this integrator. “Learning calculus is like reason that the Wonders of At least until next year. learning how to swim,” he says. Physics program sponsored the — Emily Carlson 12 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES Book Smarts Student site offers option to rising textbook prices. Phillip Certain PhD’69, dean of the College of Letters and Like many students, Michael textbook rental program, as some Science, announced plans to Comstock x’06 knows that other UW System campuses have. retire after eleven years leading hitting the books often means “It’s a reasonable request,” UW-Madi- son’s largest taking a financial hit. JEFF MILLER (2) says Paul Barrows, vice chancel- “When you’re paying four lor for student affairs. “Students college. The hundred or five hundred dollars are paying higher costs, and in a chemistry a semester for books, that’s a year when our tuition went up professor pretty big strain, on top of 18 percent, the responsible thing developed a tuition and housing,” he says. for us to do is to take an honest reputation as But Comstock, a computer look at what can be done to give a careful science student who dabbles students some relief.” leader and as a Web site architect, thinks Barrows expects to convene problem-solver, particularly for there’s a better way to make a committee of students, faculty, his adroit handling of budget the bookends meet. In Decem- and staff to study the feasibility cuts within the college.