DISPATCHES Teaching the Teachers A new program seeks to expand access to in-demand languages. Like the 1957 launch cational system, and of Sputnik, the Soviet JEFF MILLER teaching across dif- space satellite that ferent cultures. UW- sparked renewed Madison faculty will emphasis on math and lead the courses, and science, the terrorist participants will experi- attacks of September ence class simulations, 11, 2001, have become complete videotape a wake-up call for analyses, and post and American educators. share their ideas with Responding to a need other students on discus- for greater understand- sion boards. Any fluent ing of world cultures, speaker of a less com- schools are ramping up monly taught language curricula in languages will be eligible to enroll. such as Arabic. Magnan says native “It’s really an speakers represent a key awakening of the defi- resource in helping meet cit in our culture,” says the booming demand for Antonia Schleicher, instruction in languages $363,500 a UW professor of Afri- such as Arabic, and the Money raised to benefit the can languages and lit- goal of the program is new UW Children’s Hospital erature and executive to help them succeed in by auctioning off forty-four director of the National passing along those skills decorated cows, which were Council of Less Com- to American students. prominently installed around monly Taught Lan- “A lot of these Madison as part of the guages (NCLCTL). “You [instructors] just came CowParade Wisconsin need language ... to from these countries,” exhibit during 2006. be able to understand she says. “They don’t the thinking of people. know how the American Language is the win- educational system works. dow to any culture.” It’s very important to But in many cases, help these new teachers the problem now isn’t understand the situation demand — it’s keep- in which they’re working ing up with it. Even at and what these American UW-Madison, home to students are like.” an extensive variety of But the real payoff language programs, may be in increasing the departments have at times strug- To deal with this dilemma, number of opportunities Ameri- gled to find instructors able to Magnan and Schleicher are join- cans have to learn languages that teach Arabic and other languages ing forces in an effort to train are becoming increasingly impor- that aren’t widely taught in the more people to teach these less tant to the country’s economic and United States. This past fall, the commonly taught languages. political future, she says. university had to cancel an Ara- The Language Institute and the “I think sometimes people bic course for lack of a qualified NCLCTL plan to launch an online just don’t realize the possible teacher. training program designed impacts of certain languages “There may be the need, to help native speakers of before they get more familiar there may be the desire to do a languages such as Arabic learn with them,” says Magnan. “The language, but if we can’t get a how to be effective teachers. more remote it is, in a sense, the good teacher, [we’re] not going Expected to be offered by more important it is, because to deliver a good course,” says 2009, the training program will many Americans don’t speak it, Sally Sieloff Magnan, direc- include four courses, covering and therefore, we have more tor of UW-Madison’s Language the fundamentals of language misunderstanding.” Institute. instruction, the American edu — Elli Thompson x’08 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES Cheney, Feingold Agree on Value of UW Poli Sci Despite different views on many KIM KULISH/GETTY IMAGES Other notable UW alumni, issues, some leading politicians including Roberta Draper ’55, from both ends of the political producer of congressional news spectrum have agreed on at at NBC, and Ron Bonjean ’93, least one thing: a UW-Madison press secretary to former U.S. political science degree is instru- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, mental in their lives and public CHIP SOMODEVILLA/CORBIS offered similar perspectives in service careers. Cheney Feingold the newsletter, which is posted Several well-known political at www.polisci.wisc.edu/. science graduates, including Vice all but a dissertation while “The education we offer President Dick Cheney PhDx’68, studying for his doctorate at is valued by both liberals and a Republican, and Democratic UW-Madison in the 1960s. conservatives, both Republicans U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Feingold, who has served and Democrats,” says Graham ’75, contributed brief essays for Wisconsin in the Senate since Wilson, professor of political the department’s alumni news- 1993, wrote that excellent fac- science and department chair. letter, focusing on what their ulty have given the department “These essays demonstrate UW-Madison education means its strong reputation. how students over the years to them. “The debates and conversa- have used their political science “I can draw a straight line tions I had in class more than educations as a springboard to from my decision to study at the thirty years ago still come back public service, and how their University of Wisconsin to the to me, and they still help guide knowledge has transformed career in public service that I’ve my decisions as the Senate delib- public policy and public dialogue found so deeply rewarding,” erates both domestic issues and in very meaningful ways.” “What kept me going was the wrote Cheney, who completed foreign policy,” he wrote. — Dennis Chaptman ’80 ‘You can do it’ that was whis- pered and implanted by my mother so deeply that it turned into ‘I can do it’ — a whisper that Q and A this one cheese, and echoed deeply within myself.” Mark Johnson we looked at it, and MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART A senior scientist at UW-Madison’s Center for something was not — Florence Chenoweth MA’70, Dairy Research, Mark Johnson spends much of right. We put it in our PhD’86, the United Nations Food his time researching ways to create better-quality mouths and almost and Agriculture Organization’s Wisconsin cheese. For many years, he has served immediately we both representative to the U.N. General as a judge at both the U.S. and the world cham- just spat it out. Assembly, speaking at the UW’s pionship cheese contests. 2006 commencement ceremonies, Q: What about the at which she received an honorary Q: Have you always liked cheese? best experience? degree. She returns to campus this A: When I was a little kid, we had a cheese fac- A: I was judging fla- semester as a Distinguished Inter- tory in town, and the owners were good friends vored cream cheeses, national Visitor. of ours. They would have cheese fondues or and there was one [that] just melted in your serve a lot of cheese when we’d go over to their mouth. I didn’t realize I was doing this, but I kept house, and I hated the smell. I didn’t want to coming back and re-sampling it. Somebody came eat that stuff! I never really tasted it until I came over, and he was watching me do this, and he said, here. I started becoming more adventuresome. “Why don’t you just take a tub of it home?” Q: What goes into the cheese-judging Q: Do you ever get sick from trying so many process? cheeses in one day? A: The first thing we do is look at appearance — and A: You never eat it. You’re putting it in your then we cut it open. You smell it and see if you can mouth and then spitting it out. The first time I pick up any flavors that are atypical. But most of ever judged, I actually ate it. By the end of the [the judging] comes from when you put it in your day, I was so stuffed. Now I realize you have to mouth. What we look for is what the body and spit it out or you can’t get through the day. texture of the cheese is — how firm it is, whether it kind of melts in your mouth — and then the tasting. Q: Where do you think the best cheese is from? A: I gotta say our cheese makers [in Wisconsin] Q: What is the worst experience you’ve had — I’ve never tasted any better. I’ve judged their judging cheese? cheeses, and I know I like them. I prefer Wisconsin A: [A judging partner and I] both took a wedge of cheeses. There’s nothing that I like that I can’t get here. SPRING 2007 11 DISPATCHES Housing for Kindred Spirits The Ewing Marion Kauffman A new private residence follows a trend toward faith-based living. Foundation has named UW- Madison one of nine “Kauffman Campuses,” granting the university $5 million to help train students in the principles and practices of entrepreneurship and spur greater research commercializa- tion statewide. The plan calls for a number of new student education initiatives, including the development of a residential learning community focused SPENCER WALTS on entrepreneurship and the establishment of new courses in the field. The initiative will also work closely with the future Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery It’s not always easy for students growth in alternative housing, open to students of all faiths. by establishing internships for to make college a home away the Pres House, a Christian “It’s sort of a movement undergraduate and graduate from home. To assist with that organization on campus, will to make universities smaller by students interested in research transition — and to enhance a open a seven-story hall in fall getting students to live together commercialization and technol- student’s campus experience — 2007.