Lawrence in the News: Spring 2003 and Summer 2003

A sampling of media clippings about Lawrence University, its faculty, students, and alumni from Spring 2003 and Summer 2003. For more clippings, check out the Lawrence in the News index page.

Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
September 2, 2003
Headline: Late starts, happy endings for college applicants students can gain entry to schools after deadlines
Byline: Jay Mathews
Excerpt: Much of the recent debate over college admissions has been about students having to apply too early, often by Nov. 1 of their senior year in high school. But there is a little-noticed group of students with a very different problem: For varied reasons, they apply very, very late and sometimes do not find -- or get into -- the right school until after Labor Day. Many high school seniors in this competitive era find themselves past the May 1 deadline for submitting their deposits, with no acceptance letter from a college they want to attend. Some misjudge the market. Some are too distracted by personal or family issues to complete the application in time. Some find, too late, that they are unable to attend the college they picked and have to start talking fast if they are going to go anywhere at all. Steven Syverson, dean of admissions and financial aid at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., said that because his school starts classes late, usually about Sept. 20, "seldom does a year pass that we don't have someone who decides, after the first few weeks enrolled elsewhere, that they would prefer to enroll at Lawrence." College guidebooks and ratings lists focus their attention on very selective schools that reject many applicants, obscuring the fact that the majority of U.S. colleges accept nearly everyone who applies and often have room for more. Seven days after the May 1 deposit deadline this year, the National Association for College Admission Counseling published the results of its annual Space Availability Survey, reporting that more than 300 colleges and universities still had room for qualified students in the fall 2003 freshman or transfer classes. Even colleges that are full find they have places because some freshmen do not show up, in what admissions officers call the "melt."

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota
August 31, 2003
Headline: Jailed mom kills self
Byline: Todd Nelson and Lisa Donovan
Excerpt: Mine An Ener, the troubled St. Paul native and Pennsylvania professor accused of killing her 6-month-old disabled daughter less than four weeks ago, took her own life Saturday in the Ramsey County jail. Ener, 38, apparently put a plastic garbage bag over her head and suffocated herself, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said late Saturday. An associate professor of history at Villanova University, Ener faced a charge of second-degree murder in the Aug. 4 death of her daughter, Raya Donagi, who had Down syndrome. Ener had been suffering from post-partum depression, had talked of suicide and had had thoughts of harming her child. Her daughter had been sick since birth and until shortly before her death had relied on a feeding tube. Ener told police she hated the feeding tube, feared the circumstances were hopeless and wanted to spare her child a lifetime of suffering. Ener was taking anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication while in jail and had spent some time in a straitjacket. When she appeared briefly in a jailhouse courtroom on Wednesday, authorities had taken her clothes and given her only a blanket to wear, a precaution taken because of concerns about suicide risk. The medication appeared to be helping Ener's mental state, which likely put her at some risk for hurting herself, her lawyer said. She was still expressing hopelessness at her situation. Research shows that hopelessness is a better predictor of a suicide attempt than depression, said Gerald Metalsky, an associate professor of psychology at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. The key for women suffering from post-partum depression, and for their family members, he said, is their view of the future. Post-partum depression is treatable with medication and counseling. "The truth is, things are likely to get better with treatment," said Metalsky, who also directs a private clinic, the Anxiety, Stress and Depression Center. "It's a slippery slope, and they should get it checked out. Even people who are very, very bright, if they don't know that much about depression, then that lack of knowledge can be harmful."

Miami Herald, Miami, Florida
August 30, 2003
Headline: Dean faces the test of a lifetime. The former Vermont governor's off to a great start, but can the dazzle last?
Byline: Peter Wallsten
Excerpt: Howard Dean, the once-unknown physician-turned-governor of a tiny state, climbed to the podium in a downtown Seattle park this week and looked out in amazement at the scene below: 10,000 people, chanting his name in unison. By all measures, the events of the past month have elevated Dean, 54, to the top of the heap of Democrats seeking the nomination to challenge Bush in 2004. He is raising more money, generating more excitement and garnering higher polling numbers than anyone -- surpassing the race's supposed heavyweight, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, in a recent poll of New Hampshire voters by a 38-17 margin. For all of the glory of his campaign's surprising success, Dean is about to undergo the test of a lifetime: The scrutiny and scorn from opponents in his own party, who view him as too liberal to pose a potent challenge to Bush; from Republicans seeking to discredit a potential Democratic nominee; and from a national media eager to dig into the life and times of an obscure former governor of a largely white state with a third the population of Miami-Dade County. Dean's leading rivals are already charging that his dazzle will not last, that he is tapping an "anger vein," as one opposing strategist put it, rampant in a limited set of young, mostly white protester types. In speech after speech, Dean dismisses the party establishment and the other Democratic candidates for forsaking their values by seeking to woo conservatives. "He's saying things that people want to hear, and he's saying them loud," said Jennifer Dieter, 22, a recent graduate of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., who attended a noisy late-night gathering in a Milwaukee airport hangar. How does he compare to, say, Bob Graham? "To me," she said, "Bob Graham didn't pop out there and really give it his all. He said he's from the electable wing of the Democratic Party, but to me it's not about the electable wing. It's about supporting the values of Democrats in the United States."

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota
August 24, 2003
Headline: Wisconsin quiz
Excerpt: Doesn't it seem like your really smart college kid just got home for summer vacation? Next week he or she is heading back to school. A lot of those schools are in Wisconsin. And we're about to test your college knowlege.

5. This Wisconsin school, affectionately referred to as "The Cookie College," is in an east central Wisconsin community known to history buffs as the birthplace of the Republican Party. It's a rippin' good place to get a college degree. [Answer: Ripon College]

8. This college, located on a wooded bluff above the banks of Wisconsin's Fox River, is home to the award-winning Wriston Art Center, the Ruth Harwood Shattuck Hall of Music and an $18 million science facility, which opened in the fall of 2000. [Answer: Lawrence University]

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota
August 24, 2003
Headline: Depression obsession. Call it the power of Prozac, but more Americans are seeking and finding mental-health help
Byline: Kay Harvey
Excerpt: At least 6.6 percent of Americans, or 13 million to 14 million people, seek treatment for depression each year, according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study released this year. More than three in 20 people will experience serious depression in their lifetime, according to the NIH study. More women than men seek treatment for depression, but the number of men asking for help gradually has climbed. While triggers for depression usually are personal, many causes are visible in cultural trends. More people are living alone than ever before, according to 2000 U.S. Census numbers. People are marrying later and nearly half of them are divorcing. Many people don't know their neighbors. And when asked to get involved, many say no. Even those who live with others may feel isolated, says Gerald Metalsky, an associate professor of psychology at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and director of the Anxiety, Stress and Depression Center. In most marriages, both partners work outside the home. Many work more than 40 hours a week. When they get home, there's more work to do. And TVs and computers compete with human interaction. A hectic home life is hard on both men and women, he says. But it may be harder on men from a psychological standpoint because many rely solely on their partners for an emotional outlet. "Men don't have as much emotional support in the environment as women do," says Metalsky, a clinical psychologist. "For men, there's sort of a pressure-cooker building. In some cases, it's just a question of how it will come out -- as anger and irritability, marital problems, drug or alcohol abuse, or depression."

[The story also appeared in the Charlotte Harbor (Fla.) Sun Herald, Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel, Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times-Leader, and WTPO Radio Website (Washington, DC)]

Belfast Telegraph, Belfast, United Kingdom
August 17, 2003
Headline: A touch of thought
Byline: Colin McAlpin
Excerpt: You don't need a battery of mind-blowing special effects to chalk up a screen success. You don't need characters, dragged from the pages of an obscure Stateside comic-book, or ear-splitting explosions and shoot-outs, or mad car chases ... all you need is a thoughtful script, and a clutch of outstanding performances. Which is what the 'small' indie film, Roger Dodger, delivers ... along with a major award from the famous Tribeca Film Festival in New York, and a couple of performers from Hollywood 'royalty.' Campbell Scott, who plays the slick and self-regarding Roger, is the son of the great actor, George C. Scott. For his performance as the cynical and manipulative Manhattan advertising copywriting Roger, he has been picking up rave reviews. It's another success for Campbell, who began his career in the 1988 Five Corners: "I would always prefer an interesting and challenging role, than one which offers just a bit of empty 'stardom' ... films like Roger Dodger are exactly the sort I'm keen on." Campbell studied Theatre and Performing Arts (Drama) at Lawrence University, in Wisconsin, and in 1990 was listed as one of 12 Promising New Actors. He was awarded the Career Achievement Award at the 2002 Westchester County Film Festival. Roger Dodger is the sort of thoughtful and literate film that is out of the normal screen scene, but it's been selected as one of the best Stateside releases of the summer.

Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
August 17, 2003
Headline: Menomonie grad's career goes south -- to Bolivia
Byline: Pamela Powers
Excerpt: A Menomonie High School graduate who has helped teach the past three years at the Biosphere in Arizona is moving on to other environmental endeavors. Jake Brenner, 25, will leave for Bolivia in mid-September as part of his Fulbright Program scholar award. Brenner will live outside of Cochabamba in a small village called El Poncho. "It is an eco-village," said Brenner. "It's a community of people who are trying to set up a sustainable community." A sustainable community stems from the idea that a community can continue indefinitely by not relying on nonrenewable resources, Brenner said. Brenner graduated from Lawrence University, where he studied Spanish and biology. For the past three years he has worked as a teaching assistant for an ecology course at the Biosphere 2 Center, a nonprofit educational and research affiliate of Columbia University. In 1999-2000, Brenner spent 10 months in Costa Rica studying an eco-village called Durika. He plans to use that research as well as what he learns in Bolivia to compare the two sites. After finishing his Fulbright Program next July, Brenner plans to seek his master's degree and Ph.D. to teach at the college level.

New York Daily News, New York, New York
August 6, 2003
Headline: Scott knows indie movie drill
Byline: Joe Neumaier
Excerpt: Why would anyone see a movie called "The Secret Lives of Dentists"? Fear, says Campbell Scott. "People are scared of dentists, in a good way -- it's a mix of comedy and pain," Scott says, smiling. "It's great when people are pulled up short, when they come in thinking a film is funny and then say 'Ahhh' in surprise at the serious parts. Then they laugh again." Scott, the son of actors George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst [and graduate of Lawrence University], plays a 38-year-old family man and dentist who suspects his wife (Hope Davis) is having an affair. Overcome by jealousy and a stomach flu, he hallucinates about how and why to leave his marriage, egged on by the imagined urgings of an angry patient (Denis Leary). Scott's movie career started with high-profile roles in 1991's "Dying Young" (opposite Julia Roberts) and Cameron Crowe's "Singles" in 1992. But since then, he has stayed with small-scale projects that don't get national distribution. Last year's example: He played a fast-talking womanizer in the tiny but critical favorite "Roger Dodger." Scott produced "Roger Dodger" and is an executive producer of "Dentists."

[When the story was picked up off the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service wire and reprinted in the August 7 edition of the Appleton Post-Crescent, under the headline "LU grad Campbell Scott knows the indie movie drill," the reference to graduating from Lawrence was inserted.]

Downbeat Magazine
August 2003
Headline: Jazz on campus
Excerpt: Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., presented Alligator Records president and founder Bruce Iglauer with an honorary Doctor of Music degree in June. Iglauer graduated from Lawrence in 1969.

The Scotsman, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
July 31, 2003
Headline: At a university near you -- Harry Potter and the philosopher's work
Byline: Karen McVeigh
Excerpt: It would take a spectacularly bright seven-year-old to spot the likeness between an ancient Greek philosopher and Albus Dumbledore, the wise old headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But that doesn't stop academics from writing theories on whether Aristotle was his secret role model. It was, after all, Dumbledore who told Harry, his classic moral-work-in-progress, in the second book: "It is our choices, Harry that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." This is a true Aristotelian perspective, according to Tom Morris, one of many experts in the rapidly-expanding field of Potter academia. While many children are still struggling through JK Rowling's lengthy fifth novel to find out who dies and whether or not Harry gets to snog Cho Chang, theologians, philosophers, literary critics and even lawyers are poring over the subtext in the search for something deeper. Academic treatises on the Potter phenomenon are flourishing in Britain and abroad. Deconstructing Harry, it seems, is the discipline of the moment. Rowling herself wrote the book as a moral tale, so it is perhaps less surprising that it is a hot topic among philosophy students. In the soon-to-be-published Wisdom of Harry Potter, Edmund M Kern, an associate professor of history at Lawrence University, in Wisconsin, writes with enthusiasm on the thinking behind the tale. Harry's wisdom is similar to that of the Stoics', with their fatalism and belief in endurance and perseverance, he argues: "Fate shapes Harry's life, but his responses to it are not unlike what ancient philosophers such as Zeno, Marcus Aurelius, or Seneca would suggest. Why, seeing how Harry reacts to the evil Voldemort, one would almost think he had read the 16th-century Dutch philosopher Justus Lipsius, who wrote The Book of Constancy, which counselled steadfastness during the ongoing political violence of that time."

Horsesmouth.com, New York, New York
July 24, 2003
Headline: What to do when an advisor Is depressed
Byline: Julie Sturgeon
Excerpt: Should you get involved if a financial advisor seems to be suffering from depression? You bet. Here's how to handle a delicate situation both tactfully and effectively. It's easy to see and understand investors' pain over the bear market roller coaster. But the damage runs much deeper and closer to home. According to Alden Cass, a researcher at Nova's Center for Psychological Studies, 23% of the financial advisors surveyed since Sept. 11 meet the definition of clinical depression. That's approximately three times the numbers the National Institute of Mental Health claims for the general population. Intervention may be necessary, but it's rarely easy. There's still plenty of stigma attached to depression, notwithstanding the fact that Prozac has become a household word. Managers who rely heavily on relationship building have a leg up when dealing with depressed FAs, says Gerald I. Metalsky, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Lawrence University who operates the Anxiety, Stress and Depression Center in Appleton, Wisc. "The more trust, the more flexibility you have in being helpful," he explains. Experts recommend that you approach the seemingly depressed employee with a casual, open-ended comment such as: "I notice that your behavior has changed lately. What's going on?" Then, says Metalsky, probe the person's responses for three key areas: How long have you had this difficulty? How persistent is the feeling? To what extent is it interfering with your function in the office? Experts also say you should encourage depressed employees to confide in one or two colleagues about their condition -- they don't need to bare all, but a simple request for support with projects or clients can help foster patience among colleagues. Managers, of course, can't breathe a word about an FA's mental status to anyone else. You should, however, watch carefully for signs that other staffers are suffering negative effects due to a colleague's depression. Depressed individuals may be unable to pull their full weight -- and "they can be annoying," Metalsky says bluntly. For example, they tend to seek frequent reassurance and may repeatedly ask questions like, "Am I doing OK?" "Does it look like I'm screwing up?" Plus, Metalsky adds, empathetic co-workers who try to pull a pal out of the dark depths often become frustrated, angry, and depressed themselves, although it's generally a mild form, rather than the clinical disease that cripples work abilities.

The Capital Times, Madison
July 23, 2003
Headline: Here's to a dynamite summer of classical music
Byline: Kevin Lynch
Excerpt: Few classically oriented music groups put out a summer smorgasbord of music like the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society. Their new season might prove to be their best example ever of why good music is worth enjoying and celebrating. Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society maintains superlative performance standards -- and dares to be offbeat, conceptual, theatrical and entertaining. Take a look at the season's programs, which open with four concerts this weekend. This weekend's program, "American Currents," will showcase "maverick American composers, descendants of 19th century immigrants who blazed or are blazing trails for the future of American music," says BDDS co-director and pianist Jeffery Sykes. The second program, "Continental Drift" (Aug. 1-3), acknowledges immensely varied cultural traditions from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe that have influenced American music. "Continental Drift," includes two works that are arguably American masterpieces. Samuel Barber's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" helped make a name for superstar soprano Dawn Upshaw, whose recording perfectly captured Barber's heartrending setting of a James Agee text, evoking childhood in the South with a vivid sense of memory and loss. Pulitzer Prize-winning Joseph Schwantner's "Sparrows" for soprano and chamber ensemble was performed by Present Music here a few years ago in a concert that proved to be this writer's concert of the year. Set to poems by 18th century haiku poet Kobayashi Issa, "Sparrows" is a lyrical, exotically textured paean to nature, with ethereal high-register passages for soprano (to be sung by Patrice Michaels of Lawrence University).

New York Times, New York, New York
July 19, 2003
Headline: The phenomenology of Harry, or the critique of pure Potter
Byline: Patricia Cohen
Excerpt: You knew, of course, that Harry Potter's desire for a gold cauldron instead of a pewter one is an obvious example of commodity consumption, and that snobbish centaurs and enslaved elves are indicative of a conservative worldview in which "social hierarchies prevail among magical people and creatures." No? You have much to learn. You must have missed the panels on J. K. Rowling's oeuvre that have occasionally popped up at academic conferences over the past couple of years. But now, with a new Harry Potter book and a new series of book-length studies on the way, the academy is starting to bring the scholar's full toolkit to bear on Potterville. Historians and philosophers, literary critics and sociologists, psychologists and lawyers are all taking a turn at deconstructing Harry. In the soon-to-be-published "Wisdom of Harry Potter," (Prometheus), for example, Edmund M. Kern, an associate professor of history at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, is preoccupied with the books' moral philosophy. Harry's wisdom is the Stoics', with their fatalism and their belief in endurance and perseverance, he argues: "Fate shapes Harry's life, but his responses to it are not unlike what ancient philosophers such as Zeno, Marcus Aurelius, or Seneca would suggest." Why, seeing how Harry reacts to the evil Voldemort, one would almost think, Dr. Kern surmises, that he had read the 16th-century Dutch philosopher Justus Lipsius, who wrote the neo-Stoic classic "The Book of Constancy," which counseled steadfastness during the ongoing political violence of that time. Aside from Lipsius, Stoicism has influenced early Christian writers like St. Augustine, medievalists like Boethius, Renaissance masters like Erasmus, Spinoza and Kant, and contemporary thinkers like the University of Chicago philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, Mr. Kern points out. The Harry Potter books, he writes, "might just comprise the most visible contribution to Stoicism's re-emergence as a viable, practical philosophy offering comfort and guidance in these uncertain times." A bit enthusiastic, perhaps, but such outsize claims may spring from insecurity. After all, no less a figure than Harold Bloom has derided Ms. Rowling's writing as "goo," while William Safire in this newspaper scornfully (though presciently) predicted that "scholarly tomes will be written about the underlying motifs of the Potter series," despite its being largely "a waste of adult time." Christian fundamentalists, meanwhile, are continually trying to ban Harry from libraries, insisting that witchcraft and wizardry are devilish temptations. So perhaps it is no surprise that nearly all the scholars focusing on Harry felt compelled to defend their work against these slights, citing an intellectual pedigree that runs from Charles Dickens to Bruno Bettleheim.

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison
July 10, 2003
Headline: Jazz award winners bypass city
Byline: Kevin Lynch
Excerpt: I read the winners of the 2003 Jazz Journalists Associations Seventh Annual Jazz Awards and felt mixed emotions. It was great to have these worthy people honored. Wayne Shorter was The Man, winning musician of the year, tenor saxophonist of the year and top combo and best album awards for "Footprints Live!" (not to mention his incandescent performance at the Chicago Jazz Festival last summer). Shorter played Madison in 1997, in duo with Herbie Hancock. But only a small handful of the winners have performed here in recent years. The best of jazz ought to be heard live. Living in hip Madison, I was saddened by the irony. Why do so many touring musicians take the A-train right on past this city? We have a fair amount of local clubs and quality local musicians and, I think, a pretty fair jazz audience. This remains a medium-sized city with big-city cultural aspirations, but jazz still lacks the proactive financial base that most other arts enjoy here (except perhaps dance). Appleton, with its strong music program at Lawrence University, now seems to attract top-flight jazz performers better than any Wisconsin city. Here's hoping the Overture Center will spur opportunities for jazz and other arts that thrive in the best venues other than big concert halls.

The Fresno Bee, Fresno, California
July 10, 2003
Headline: Lasting impressions
Byline: Don Mayhew
Excerpt: For almost as long as people have been tattooing their bodies, parents have been threatening their kids that if they come home with ink in their skin, they're in big trouble. But the popularity and acceptance of tattoos rarely has been as high as it is today. Tattoos regularly are used in television commercials and magazine ads to sell other merchandise. A parade of athletes and entertainers with tattoos can be seen every night on E!, MTV and ESPN. Tattoo artist Jim McQuaid, owner of Skin Decor, says "tattoos really started picking up steam in the early '90s." McQuaid says the decade's tattoo-clad musicians -- among them Cher, Janis Joplin and the Allman Brothers -- had a lingering effect. Once the province of the young and muscular, tattoos regularly cross demographic boundaries. Many people are getting their first tattoos relatively late in life. McQuaid had one 72-year-old woman come into his shop a couple years ago and get a butterfly on her ankle. Yet a significant segment of the tattooed population remains young. Judith Holland Sarnecki, who teaches French and gender studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, has written about the history of women and tattoos. Sarnecki says the homogenization of American culture may be one reason why many young adults opted for tattoos in the '90s. "It was a way for a generation to express itself," Sarnecki says. "Young people wanted to find a way to say, 'I'm here. I'm different. I have my own way of being creative.' " From devils to pinup girls, designs that were popular 50 and 60 years ago remain so. The difference is that they're often rendered with more nuance and variety of colors. They look more realistic. Death and divorce. Births and birthdays. Difficult times often draw people to tattoo. "It's a way of marking that time in their lives, what they were feeling in that moment," McQuaid says. Lawrence University's Sarnecki found the same thing while visiting studios in Seattle and San Francisco during the past few years. She came away fascinated by the way "tattoos could be used as autobiography, especially for people who didn't feel articulate, who weren't going to write 'Angela's Ashes.'"

Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California
July 4, 2003
Headline: War's curse on the White House. No wartime president has served another full term. A tale of battered health, hurt reputations and lost elections
Byline: Ed Stockly
Excerpt: Call it the curse of the wartime president. Not a single American president who has led the country into a major war has gone on to serve another full term in the White House. Not James Madison after the War of 1812. Not Woodrow Wilson after World War I. Not Lyndon Johnson after Vietnam. And not George H.W. Bush, who won a popular war but was unable to win over everyday Americans a second time. Will the current President Bush, who is expected to raise record amounts of money in his re-election bid, be able to buck this long and curious trend in American history? Every president who has led this country into full-scale war has paid a heavy price politically and personally. Most chose not to run for reelection and, upon leaving office, saw their vision for America rejected by the voters, their party defeated and their rivals elected. Some left office with shattered reputations, fading into a marginalized obscurity and irrelevance. And the few who survived grueling reelection campaigns were swiftly cut down by illness or assassination. "Sometimes the people who lead you in war are not necessarily the people the public wants to lead in peace," said Jerald Podair, an assistant professor of American history at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. "Winston Churchill, who bravely and courageously led the British through World War II, was bounced out of office right at the end of the war." Founding Father James Madison, the fourth president, saw his presidency falter after he reluctantly asked Congress to declare war on England in 1812, a conflict often called the second war of independence in large part because England kept drafting Americans into its navy. "This was not a war that helped Madison or his presidency," said Podair. "Madison didn't want the war, it was a very unpopular war." And it didn't go well. Madison was forced to flee the White House to escape a British invasion, said Podair, which diminished his stature and reputation in the eyes of the public. After winning the Mexican War in 1848, James K. Polk, a Southern Democrat, saw the White House handed over to the Whig party, which promptly quashed his plans for expanding the slave states westward. While the United States fared well in that conflict (in defeat, Mexico abandoned all claim to a large portion of the American West, including California, New Mexico and Texas), President Polk paid a high price for his success. He was succeeded in the White House by the Whig party's Zachary Taylor, with whom Polk had a mutual dislike and mistrust. Three months after Taylor assumed the presidency, Polk fell ill and died. He was 53 years old. "Polk was worn down personally by his conduct of the war," said Podair. "He tried to do everything himself, and he basically worked himself to death managing the Mexican War." Likewise, the Second World War took its toll on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president. Truman picked up the mantle for Roosevelt, first winning the war, then enjoying a remarkable victory over Republican Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election. In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded South Korea and, under the auspices of the United Nations, Truman committed the American military to war. "Truman knew this wasn't going to be a popular war because the best we could hope for was to repel the North Korean invasion," said Podair. "With the Korean War settling into a stalemate, which the American people weren't used to I don't think he could have beaten Eisenhower, and I think he realized that himself." When Truman didn't seek the Democratic nomination in 1952, he joined the ranks of Madison, Polk and Wilson, wartime leaders who chose not to run for reelection. Truman left office with the nation still at war. Likewise, Johnson bowed out of the 1968 presidential race pledging to focus his efforts on ending the war in Vietnam rather than face the distraction of a presidential campaign. "He came into office with a very strong domestic agenda," Podair said. "He wanted to complete the work of the New Deal, but he destroyed his presidency over a foreign policy issue in a country he probably had barely heard of before his presidency." Johnson died two years before the war's end at age 64. Johnson, Wilson and Truman all saw their cherished political agendas derailed by war. In 1992 George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, became the only American president to ever lead the country into a major war, then lose reelection. What does this mean for the current president and his political agenda? While it's certainly possible that Bush can follow his military success with a political triumph, history is not on his side.

[The article also appeared in the following publications: Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, Cape Girardeau (Mo.) Southeast Missourian, Charleston (S.C.) Post & Courier, Concord (N.H. ) Monitor, Glen Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star, Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World, Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, South Bend (Ind.) Tribune, Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, Tampa (Fla.) Tribune, The Nashville (Tenn.) Tennessean]

The Todd Feinburg Show
[Nationally syndicated talk radio program aired on more than 40 radio stations around the country]
June 28, 2003
Guest: Claudena Skran, Associate Professor of Government and Department Chair, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis.
Program abstract: Professor Skran discussed the history of refugees and the legal status of Palestinian refugees in particular.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee, Milwaukee
June 27, 2003
Headline: Brewers whiff. Abele pitches for Bucks
Byline: Pete Millard
Excerpt: It's not surprising the Milwaukee Brewers approached Milwaukee philanthropist Chris Abele about buying into the club. What's surprising about the Brewers' presentation to Abele in May at Miller Park is that the club's management thought it could convince the Milwaukee millionaire to buy in but take only a minority stake. Abele has distinguished himself as a contributor to the Milwaukee arts community and has committed millions of dollars to youth and civic organizations. However, his generosity is not extended to sports franchises. Furthermore, Abele has a knack for making good business decisions and if he invests in the Brewers, he would need to control the club. "I know the economics of baseball," said Abele. "The team has $135 million in debt and risky future projections. Nobody wants to touch that." Abele, who is the oldest child of Vermont billionaire John Abele, graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton and then settled in Milwaukee. He manages his family's philanthropic ventures and runs two small businesses out of his 3rd Ward office. Abele manages the day-to-day operations of CSA Philanthropy and the Argosy Foundation that trace their origins to his father's business. CSA Philanthropy and the Argosy Foundation's source of wealth comes from the success of Boston Scientific Corp., a $2.7 billion company with 13,000 employees. Abele's father is a co-founder and chairman of Boston Scientific, a Massachusetts firm that pioneered the use of new medical devices leading to less invasive surgical procedures. John Abele is ranked by Forbes magazine in 2003 as the 137th richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion. Abele seems much more enthusiastic about his chances of becoming a minority investor in the Milwaukee Bucks.

Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts
June 24, 2003
Headline: All the presidents' books. Summer's here, and college presidents are diving into books they've been saving. A peek into their eclectic reading lists.
Byline: Mark Clayton
Excerpt: "Let me tell you about the very rich," wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. "They are different from you and me." Well, college presidents are a breed apart, too, and especially so in summer, when it comes to enjoying the riches of reading. While the rest of the world munches on the book-world equivalent of snack food, these literary connoisseurs use their summer months to voraciously consume quantities of the very best - the steak tartare of current literature - lightly sprinkled with a few classics. Like professors, whose reading lists the Monitor explored last summer, college presidents are an unusual subculture. Their tastes are just as omnivorous and eclectic as professors, but with an even stronger tilt toward nonfiction and biographies. An unscientific Monitor survey of the summer reading lists of 48 of America's college and university presidents from 20 states - a third of them women - may provide the impulse, perhaps even inspiration, to seek out more and better books to read this summer. Survey results showed a natural bias toward books about university life, such as "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation," by Neil Howe and William Strauss. Several presidents read books that explain science in layman's terms, such as Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything." On the whole, though, college presidents' summer picks seem to be a cream- skimming exercise, which means their choices are rarely the most current books out there. A few include bestsellers. But their summer picks are most notable for the many titles that don't naturally spring from the lips, but should. A few presidents do admit that, in all honesty, their tastes sometimes tip in summer even to popular fiction. Richard Warch, president of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., too, is reading Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything." But he also fesses up to reading Elmore Leonard's "When the Women Come Out to Dance: Stories" and a novel, "The Gardens of Kyoto" by Kate Walbert. It turns out he's in good company.

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison
June 22, 2003
Headline: UW roots for Michigan in court, but it says its policies for diversity are different
Byline: Karen Rivedal
Excerpt: With a mix of hope and trepidation, college and university leaders throughout the country are awaiting a landmark decision from the U.S. Supreme Court about the use of race in admissions policies. The court is expected to issue a ruling as soon as Monday in two cases pending against the University of Michigan. Plaintiffs argue that white applicants were unfairly denied admission to the university's law school and undergraduate class because of policies that give varying degrees of preference to minority students. The impact of next week's ruling - in the high court's first statement on affirmative action in higher education since 1978 - could reach far beyond the Wolverine State. The ruling could bar race considerations in admissions at all colleges and universities - public and private - or it could clearly reinforce the use of affirmative action as one way to achieve greater diversity among students on campus. The decision could limit the academic independence of colleges and universities, mandating not just race-neutral policies in admissions but also in financial aid and other programs serving students. Or it could clear the way for even greater autonomy. The only sure thing, those involved say, is that this week will provide some answers. At UW-Madison, there are no hard-and-fast rules or set criteria that guarantee admission, officials said. But increased demand in recent years has pushed test scores and class rankings steadily up for each freshman class. UW-Madison now ranks among the top 10 percent most selective colleges and universities in the country - a group numbering about 215 out of 2,100 institutions, according to self-reported data in the current issue of Peterson's Four-year Colleges Guide. In Wisconsin, only Beloit College and Lawrence University are considered as selective. And it is the nation's most selective institutions that are likely to be most affected by the Supreme Court ruling. Elite institutions with very high entrance requirements are more likely to need to use affirmative action to achieve a diverse class. Meanwhile, most of the country's colleges and universities have an open admissions policy in which anyone who qualifies is accepted, so that race or any other preference factors are usually not an issue. At Lawrence University in Appleton, President Richard Warch said the Michigan case at heart was about how much the court values diversity, and how much it will tolerate academic independence, with implications for all kinds of university policies, not just admissions. "There is this large and potentially vexing matter of institutional autonomy that is at stake here," Warch said. "The government already tells us many things that we can and can't do, and this would be another example of that concern."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
June 15, 2003
Headline: Professor conjures up Potter prediction
Byline: Geeta Sharma-Jensen
Excerpt: You can say it's tea-leaf reading, or just Pottermania gone to pot, or historical witchcraft turned into fortunetelling, or just plain insouciant guesswork. Whatever you want to call it, history professor Edmund Kern may have the most informed handle these days on what might come in the much-hyped fifth Harry Potter book that arrives in stores at midnight Friday. Kern, an associate professor at Appleton's Lawrence University, teaches a course on religion, magic and witchcraft. And his interpretations of the lore of alchemy and witchcraft in the Potter books indicate to him that our hero Harry will find "like-minded individuals" who will help battle evil Voldemort. And oh! bring out the hankies -- at some point, perhaps in the book after this one, Harry will lose his mentor, the most able, wise and benevolent Dumbledore. Author J.K. Rowling's choice of title alone -- "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" -- carries great significance for those who know how to interpret such matters. "The Order of the Phoenix refers to a like-minded group of people, that is, people who are resisting the return of Voldemort," Kern says. "There is a reason for my speculation. Within alchemical imagery, historically, the phoenix has been an image of constancy. Following its destruction, the phoenix rises from the ashes; it symbolizes destruction and re-creation. "Within alchemical symbolism, which Rowling uses again and again, the phoenix symbolizes the reconciliation of opposites. I think Harry is going to meet other like-minded individuals who are resisting Voldemort and are resolute in the face of adversity, and they will pursue the return to order after his defeat." Kern is nothing if not persuasive. He has spent more than a year studying Rowling's symbolism as well as Harry's moral character. His interpretations are fleshed out in his book, "The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices," which Prometheus Books will publish in September. Rowling is well-informed on the symbols of magic and alchemy, Kern says, noting that the wizards and witches she mentions in the first four Potter books "are all historically accurate -- they're either from history, legend or myth." Take the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which highlights a stone that results from an alchemical process. In alchemical philosophy, such a stone is called the Philosopher's Stone (the title of the book in England). The stone's symbol is the phoenix, which represents the reconciliation of opposites, particularly the snake and the lion. The snake and the lion are the banners of two of the four houses at Hogwarts, the witchcraft boarding school that Harry attends. The snake is the symbol of the generally evil house of Slytherin, and the lion is the banner of the generally good house, Gryffindor. Here then are the opposites, and from this opposition will emerge the phoenix. In recent months -- as there was in advance of the last Potter adventure -- there's been much talk of a major death in the coming book. Kern's theory is that it'll likely be Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts school. "Harry is very much the traditional hero of legend, and heroes usually have mentors who are taken away from them before they can complete their quest," Kern says. "Dumbledore may not die until the sixth book, but at some point I think his time will be up." The bespectacled Harry is literature's typical mythical hero. As Kern catalogs, "he's born of special parents, his life is threatened, he's separated from family, he's recognized as a hero, he has a special mark and so on." "My central argument is that J.K. Rowling presents updated stoic moral philosophy," Kern says. "And what I mean by that is that Harry's chief virtue is old-fashioned constancy, which is resolution in the face of adversity." Morally, Harry is a stoic, a boy who accepts circumstances and works through them. His opposite, the villainous Voldemort -- the name means flight or theft from death in French -- doesn't accept fate and tries to change things beyond his control, a desire that creates all of the trouble in the books. "What struck me as significant is that Rowling presents Harry's life as filled with uncertainty and danger, and the best way to meet that is to remain true to oneself and cultivate inner virtue in the face of threatened danger," Kern says. "Stoic philosophy advises strong individualism in the face of circumstances -- simply put, stoicism contends that individuals can control themselves but nothing else. You cannot change the behavior of other people, you cannot change the nature of the world and most importantly, you cannot change the workings of fate. . . . What that means is that people are responsible for their own decisions, feelings and actions."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
June 13, 2003
Headline: Prepped for success
Byline: Michael Hunt
Excerpt: Each morning Sam Schuler awakes is yet another reason to convince himself he hasn't been living a dream these past 18 years. Long after spending 20 years as a Wisconsin high school coach and PE instructor, including the 17 he put in at Oak Creek, the humble Blanchardville native and UW-La Crosse graduate could soon win his second NBA championship ring as vice president and player personnel director of the San Antonio Spurs. There are hops and there are jumps in professional advancement. In Schuler's case, from suburban Milwaukee gym teacher to the pinnacle of the NBA, this is motorcycle-over-the-Grand-Canyon stuff. "I liked coaching and teaching at the high school level, but there was a time when I was wondering if I could do anything else," Schuler said between games at the NBA Finals. "(The chance) appeared and I jumped at it. I've never been sorry, for sure. I've been able to do things and experience things that most people in high school never have a chance to do. So I've been very fortunate." "His history of finding players, especially in Golden State, is significant," Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said. "Sam's always been a voice of reason." When current Spurs coach Gregg Popovich left Nelson's staff in 1994 to become San Antonio's general manager, the first man he hired to help him with the draft was Schuler. It was perhaps the greatest career move an NBA man could make, given the enormous fortune that has shined on the Spurs, first with David Robinson and later when the franchise hit the all-time lottery jackpot with Tim Duncan. Lawrence University associate director of public affairs Rick Peterson, who was one of Schuler's Oak Creek students, remembers him as a soft-spoken man so laid back that his heart rate probably never exceeded 45 beats a minute. Among other things, that's the secret to NBA survival. Just as important, Schuler says, is this: "I've been in the right place at the right time."

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison
June 10, 2003
Headline: DNR proposal would cut mercury. Proposed regulations would affect state's biggest utility companies
Byline: Associated Press
Excerpt: The Department of Natural Resources is proposing regulations that would require the state's biggest utility companies to cut the amount of mercury emitted from smokestacks. The regulations, if approved this month by the Natural Resources Board, are an effort to make it safer to eat fish caught in state waters. They would require We Energies of Milwaukee, Alliant Energy of Madison, Wisconsin Public Service of Green Bay and Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse to cut mercury emissions by 40 percent in 2010 and 80 percent in 2015. There are no similar federal requirements. In 2001, the DNR broadened its fish consumption advisory from 341 lakes to all the more than 15,000 lakes in Wisconsin. Anglers caught and kept a total of 19.3 million fish in the 2000- 2001 fishing season, according to the DNR. "We put millions of dollars a year in fish management and to protect the fishery, and we can't eat the fish," said former DNR Secretary George Meyer, who is ending a one-year appointment at Lawrence University as a lecturer on environmental policy to become executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. Wisconsin must do what it did in 1986, when it became the first state in the country to enact acid rain legislation, Meyer said.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
June 9, 2003
Headline: DNR rules target mercury
Byline: Lee Bergquist
Excerpt: With an eye on making Wisconsin's fish safer to eat, the Department of Natural Resources is proposing regulations that would for the first time clamp down on mercury emitted from utility smokestacks. Years in the making, the regulations would require the biggest utilities to cut mercury emissions by 40% in 2010 and 80% in 2015, if approved later this month by the Natural Resources Board. The new limits would mean higher utility bills as power companies pass on the costs of new technologies that zap the pollutant, which is a byproduct of burning coal at power plants. A growing body of science has pointed to the dangers of eating too much mercury-laden fish, prompting the DNR in 2001 to sharply broaden its fish consumption advisory from 341 lakes to all of the more than 15,000 lakes in Wisconsin. The advisory presents a conundrum for the state: The safety of fish casts a pall over one of Wisconsin's most popular outdoor activities at a time when health professionals are extolling the virtues of fish as a high source of protein that is low in saturated fat. But because of concerns about damage to kidneys and the nervous system, the DNR continues to urge people younger than 15, nursing mothers and women of childbearing years not to eat more than one meal a week of panfish and no more than one meal a month of larger fish. "We put millions of dollars a year in fish management and to protect the fishery, and we can't eat the fish," said former DNR Secretary George Meyer, who is ending a one-year appointment at Lawrence University as a lecturer on environmental policy to become executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. "Mercury is clearly a health hazard." Wisconsin must do what it did in 1986, when it became the first state in the country -- ahead of the federal government -- to enact acid rain legislation, Meyer said. The legislation cut the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitted from smokestacks. A long-term goal is for Wisconsin to get rid of the fish advisories for mercury, but DNR officials say that could take years. There are no existing federal requirements to reduce mercury emissions from current coal-fired powered plants.

Madison Capital Times, Madison
June 9, 2003
Headline: DNR seeks large cut in mercury. Utilities targeted, say rates would rise
Excerpt: The Department of Natural Resources is proposing regulations that would require the state's biggest utility companies to cut the amount of mercury emitted from smokestacks. The regulations, if approved later this month by the Natural Resources Board, are an effort to make it safer to eat fish caught in Wisconsin's waters. They would require We Energies of Milwaukee, Alliant Energy of Madison, Wisconsin Public Service of Green Bay and Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse to cut mercury emissions by 40 percent in 2010 and 80 percent in 2015. There are no similar federal requirements. Mercury is a byproduct of burning coal at power plants. Mercury that goes up smokestacks eventually settles on land and water. In water, bacteria convert mercury to a more toxic form, methylmercury, which accumulates in fish. Eating too much mercury-laden fish could damage kidneys and the nervous system. "We put millions of dollars a year in fish management and to protect the fishery, and we can't eat the fish," said former DNR Secretary George Meyer, who is ending a one-year appointment at Lawrence University as a lecturer on environmental policy to become executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. "Mercury is clearly a health hazard." Wisconsin must do what it did in 1986, when it became the first state in the country to enact acid rain legislation, Meyer said.

Star-Ledger, Newark, New Jersey
May 23, 2003
Headline: Sexual stereotyping survives! By consensus, one gender's stubborn, one's moody. (Guess)
Byline: Carrie Stetler
Excerpt: In New Jersey, at least, its official: Women are more emotional, and men can't multi-task. That's according to a Star-Ledger/ Eagleton-Rutgers Poll on the differences between men and women. A majority of the New Jerseyans surveyed backed conventional wisdom -- women are more emotional and compassionate (80 percent); men are more aggressive (62 percent) -- though there were one or two surprises. When it comes to brains, for example, only 16 percent of men considered themselves smarter, while 34 percent of women voted for themselves (though more than 60 percent of both genders said it made no difference). Women, in fact, gave themselves higher marks on nearly everything from morals to people skills. There's a reason for that, according to Peter Glick, a social psychologist at Lawrence University in Wisconsin who studies gender attitudes. "Women are more likely to demonstrate a strong in-group bias in how they rate traits," he said. "Women are the lower-status group. They're trying to establish themselves in new roles. They're more likely to be assertive. They're more likely to be resentful of men in a way that men aren't likely to be resentful of women because of their (own) higher status." Both sexes, however, thought women were "more manipulative" (53 percent overall, with 63 percent of men and 43 percent of women saying so). If you're in a lower-status group, being manipulative is justified to get what you want," said Glick. "If you're in a higher-powered situation, you don't have to be manipulative. You can be straightforward. "You can also be more willing to take risks," noted Glick. Sixty-one percent ranked men higher on this trait. Men also scored higher on both stubbornness and self-centeredness. Forty percent of respondents ranked men first for each trait, compared with 24 percent who said women were the stubborn and 21 percent said women were the more self-centered. "These are the traits of the powerful," said Glick. "Men are more concerned with being respected than being loved. In a way, men are more willing to accept this description. It's like the macho man who says, I'm a jerk and I'm proud of it." Do the results of the poll mean that stereotypes are true -- that men are tough and women are weepy? Said Glick: "Men and women occupy different kinds of roles. Woman's role is to be the relationship partner, the domestic person, the rearer of children. These are roles that demand those kinds of traits. They're socialized to have those traits. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're inherent."

Wisconsin State Journal, Madison
May 22, 2003
Headline: Davis springs into Jazz for worthy cause
Byline: Kevin Lynch
Excerpt: It's also time to mark the calendar for the Performing Arts at Lawrence University jazz series in Appleton, which has outdistanced Milwaukee's Pabst Theater as the best jazz concert series in the state. Here's the lineup: Vocalist Kurt Elling with the Lawrence Hobgood Trio, and the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Singers. The Grammy-winning jazz singer and neo-beat stylist will do a big concert with his masterful piano trio and Lawrence's first-rate jazz instrumental and vocal ensembles. This should be special, even for those who have heard Elling live in Madison. Mingus Big Band. Extending the mighty repertoire of incendiary bassist-composer Charles Mingus, this is arguably the best big band in jazz. Dave Douglas New Quintet. Douglas is the all-everything, award-winning trumpeter-composer who leads a variety of impressive, cliche-free ensembles that create new musical crosscurrents and, one hopes, new audience crossovers. Stefon Harris Quartet. Harris is the new main man on jazz vibes, as some people discovered in his Civic Center concert last year. The concerts are all at the Memorial Chapel, which is a fine hall acoustically, if unusual as a jazz concert setting. They've been doing concerts here for years and very successfully. The celebrated composer-arranger Maria Schneider with the Lawrence jazz ensemble was an unforgettable experience a few years ago.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
May 21, 2003
Headline: Lawrence University dean leaving for new job
Excerpt: A dean at Lawrence University was named president of Macalester College in St. Paul Tuesday. Brian Rosenberg, dean of the faculty at Lawrence, succeeds Michael McPherson, who is leaving next month to become president of the Spencer Foundation in Chicago. Rosenberg, a scholar of Charles Dickens who joined the Lawrence administration in 1998, was selected by the Macalester trustees after a national search. Before coming to Lawrence, Rosenberg was an English professor at Allegheny College.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 21, 2003
Headline: Macalester meets its new leader: Brian Rosenberg
Byline: James Walsh
Excerpt: The chairman of the search committee made no secret of his great expectations for new Macalester College President Brian Rosenberg. And Rosenberg, while addressing the challenges facing higher education, acknowledged that while this is not the best of times, neither is it the worst of times. With apologies to Charles Dickens, such literary opportunities make it seem fitting that the 16th president of the St. Paul college is an expert on Dickens. But really, Rosenberg said Tuesday, it's ironic. Dickens, after all, had no love for bureaucrats and administrators and their suppression of human expression. There is no danger he'll become like the headmaster in "Oliver Twist," he said. "I've probably learned more about what to try to avoid as an administrator from Dickens," Rosenberg said with a smile, noting that the author resisted calls to run for Parliament. "I am going to work very hard not to let administrative structures get in the way of relationships." What he will be, said those associated with Rosenberg's selection, is a great fit for the 1,800-student college committed to internationalism, diversity and academic achievement. "Rosenberg emerged from an especially strong candidate pool as a person who deeply shares Macalester's fundamental values, and reflects those values in his personal and professional life," said David Ranheim, a college trustee who was chairman of the search committee. Rosenberg comes to Macalester from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., where he has been faculty dean and Dickens scholar. Before going to Lawrence, which like Macalester is a small liberal arts college, he was an English professor at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. An award-winning teacher, he is also the author of more than two dozen articles on Dickens and other novelists. He also has written two books. "Brian Rosenberg will be an outstanding president of Macalester College," said Mark Vander Ploeg, chairman of the school's Board of Trustees. "He has excellent leadership and people skills and has a vision about the importance of liberal arts colleges and Macalester's role." Rosenberg replaces Michael McPherson, who is stepping down next month after six years at the helm. An economist by training, McPherson led Macalester through impressive financial growth. The college raised more than $55 million and diversified its endowment, which had been concentrated in Reader's Digest stock. New construction has boomed on campus and scholarship funding was increased. Continuing that momentum in difficult economic times will be a challenge, Rosenberg said. A shaky stock market has decreased endowment values. Sources for other funding have declined. And families looking at colleges are having a tougher time affording the ride. Does that mean Macalester has become a bleak house? Not at all, Rosenberg said. It means that the college must spread the message that a liberal arts education remains vital. Sometimes the advantages aren't seen until years after graduation, he said. That can clash with a society that demands more immediate measures. "One has to continually make the case for the values of these colleges," he said.

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota
May 21, 2003
Headline: St. Paul: Macalester names its new president
Byline: Kristina Torres
Excerpt: A New York City native who has quickly risen through the ranks of the private residential liberal arts colleges he champions was introduced Tuesday as Macalester College's 16th president. Brian C. Rosenberg, 47, a scholar on author Charles Dickens and the dean of the faculty at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., was the unanimous choice after a seven-month national search. He starts Aug. 4. "It should go without saying that I am absolutely delighted and deeply honored," said Rosenberg, a graduate of Cornell University who received his master's and doctoral degree in English from Columbia University. "Macalester's commitment to academic excellence in the context of civic engagement, internationalism and diversity is, in my view, right in virtually every sense -- ethically, practically, socially," Rosenberg said. "It will be a privilege to work to continue to strengthen and articulate that commitment." A lifelong Yankees fan, Rosenberg also gulped down a "Go Twins." Self-deprecating humor, it turns out, is one of his trademarks: "If only my mother, who is in New York, could see me now," he said to a packed, appreciative house at the St. Paul college. "She would take back everything she said." Richard Warch, president of Lawrence and Rosenberg's boss for the past five years, said his chief academic officer needed to keep that sense of humor but "working with him has been a pure pleasure." "He certainly embodies the values that have defined Macalester over the years," said Warch, who will retire in June 2004 (though he didn't think Lawrence -- a Macalester competitor -- would try to steal Rosenberg back). "He's not someone who comes with an agenda, so much as someone who comes with a deep appreciation of the place he will be coming to." Rosenberg succeeds President Michael McPherson, who leaves next month to head the Chicago-based Spencer Foundation, which funds education research. In a statement, he praised Rosenberg as a "wonderful choice" who "understands the world of liberal arts colleges ... and the distinctive characteristics that make Macalester such an exceptional place." The new guy also happens to be very smart and well spoken, a trait not lost on Macalester's search committee. After meeting Rosenberg for the first time, Patrick D'Silva, the lone student on the committee, "walked out and, I thought, this guy is really smart. And I like that, that my college president has that kind of intellectual prowess." Rosenberg, who finds some amusement in being a top administrator because Dickens was so anti-institutional, said he sees Macalester's location in the Twin Cities as a positive and that those ties need to be strengthened. But he made clear his commitment to maintaining Macalester's reputation in academics and in international and civic education, as the school looks forward and tries to build on its national standing.

San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, Texas
May 21, 2003
Headline: Spurs on superstitious minds
Byline: Amy Dorsett
Excerpt: When it comes to watching his beloved Spurs play, Ken Garza has a few rules to follow, from the way he walks to what he wears and eats. Garza -- like countless others -- is superstitious. For 16 years, the 29-year-old security guard has been bound by a quirky regimen that dictates his game day schedule. "When I come to the arena, I walk a certain path all the way to my seat and say 'Hi' to the same employees and wear the same clothes every time," Garza said. "When I watch them at home, I wear the same clothes and sit in a certain area of the house and eat the same food every time. We do good that way." With any luck, his ritual will help the Spurs tonight, when they go against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. The Spurs, who lost the first game in a nail-biter Monday night, can count on help from fans other than Garza, who are convinced their actions have an impact on the team. Some light candles, while others won't allow themselves to watch the game, insisting they jinx the team. Edmund Kern, an associate professor of history at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, has studied superstition traditions. He said that as long as there has been recorded history, there have been superstitions. "It offers people some control over things that are really beyond their control -- or at least the illusion of control," he said. "By going through a ritual, they gain a certain degree of confidence. It allows them to overcome nervousness and face the task at hand." Athletes aren't immune to superstition. For example, Kern said many of them eat the same meals before games. One of the most common ritualistic behaviors is the carrying of good-luck charms, Kern said. Some superstitious behaviors don't involve materialistic items. "When they're throwing those foul shots, I won't look at them," fan Gloria Hernandez said as she buried her face in her hands, mimicking her game time behavior.

Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, Illinois
May 14, 2003
Headline: Best and brightest
Excerpt: Stephanie Piszkiewicz, a senior at Hersey High School, participated in a recent weekend physics workshop at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. She is the daughter of Frederick and Sandra Piszkiewicz, Arlington Heights. Piszkiewicz attended lecture and laboratory sessions conducted by Lawrence physics professors and received hands-on experience with a multitude of lasers, atomic force microscopes, scientific workstations featuring computation/graphics equipment and a large plasma torus. She was selected for the workshop based on strong performance in high school physics, chemistry, mathematics, computing and scientific extracurricular programs.

Madison Capital Times, Madison
May 12, 2003
Headline: Lou Gehrig's disease patient still has hope
Byline: Rob Zaleski
Excerpt: He had suspected for a long time that something wasn't right. There were days when the muscles in his hands would cramp -- when he couldn't so much as clip his nails or type on a computer. Was it merely, Joel Ungrodt wondered, part of the aging process? He was, after all, pushing 60. And nobody had to remind him that, although he still exercised regularly, it had been four decades since he had helped lead underdog Wausau High School to a startling 74-65 victory over Menomonie in the title game of the state boys basketball tournament. And it had been nearly that long since the 5-foot-10 Ungrodt had set a single game scoring record of 41 points for Lawrence University in Appleton. But when he returned home from jogging one day nearly two years ago and discovered he couldn't do a single pushup, Ungrodt decided to have some tests done. And those tests confirmed his worst fears. He had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or as it's more commonly known, Lou Gehrig's disease -- after the famous New York Yankee who was just 37 when ALS took his life in 1941. Ungrodt, the founder and executive director of Family Works, a Madison agency that provides treatment foster care, immediately knew what that meant. He had read "Tuesdays With Morrie" the poignant, best-selling book about a Brandeis University professor who died of ALS, and knew what a truly frightening disease it is. He knew ALS attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing patients to slowly lose control of their muscles, and that in the latter stages they have trouble swallowing and breathing and become totally paralyzed. He also knew that, more than a half century after Gehrig's death, researchers still had no idea what caused ALS and that there's no cure. And that -- although there's now a drug, Rilutek, that can briefly extend a patient's life -- most ALS patients live just two to five years from the time of diagnosis. So the news "certainly was a blow," Ungrodt says now. Today, some 23 months later, Ungrodt -- who is married and has two grown sons -- says he's doing reasonably well. While he can no longer use his hands and needs assistance eating and getting dressed, he can still walk and, in fact, still hasn't missed a day of work in 20 years. Ungrodt says he finds it frustrating that ALS isn't as well known as multiple sclerosis and other serious diseases and, as a consequence, receives far less funding for research. So, with what time he has left, Ungrodt wants to do something about that. To that end, he plans to spend the next few weeks trying to generate a large turnout for the Muscular Dystrophy Association's 12th annual "Great Walk" on Saturday, June 7.

The Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois
May 11, 2003
Headline: Deregulation gains are not free of pain
Byline: James P. Miller
Excerpt: Times change. The loudest voices these days are calling to have the federal government free industries, including the media, from the burden of regulation. But there was a time when regulation was considered the progressive idea, and business the dangerous force to be reined in. In fact, most of the regulatory agencies now under fire for allegedly thwarting market efficiencies and stifling corporate innovation were created specifically to protect the public from being ripped off. However well-intentioned the thinking behind the creation of the nation's regulatory agencies, the regulators grew increasingly powerful. Over time, their grip on many industries became oppressive, critics contend. In the airline industry, the Civil Aviation Board restricted new entrants, effectively making the existing handful of carriers a cartel. And because the board dictated maximum and minimum fares, airlines competed mainly on the basis of frequent flights, fancy-in-flight dinners and other amenities, said Daniel Alger, a deregulation expert and an associate professor of economics at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. The board made airlines provide below-cost service to tiny cities in rural markets. But the carriers didn't care because the government set prices on more desirable routes high enough to offset those losses. By the late 1970s, sentiment in favor of government oversight had turned. The Interstate Commerce Commission stopped controlling routes and rates for train and truck service. Deregulation of those transportation industries "has been very close to an unqualified success," said Lawrence University's Alger. But in sectors that have historically been "natural monopolies" -- that is, where the expense of establishing a competing system is so great that it deters new entrants -- it has been less successful. Efforts to deregulate natural gas pipelines and electricity markets have produced "a mixed bag," Alger said. Although the successful deregulation of long-distance telephone service has cut consumers' costs by half, he said, the related effort to deregulate local phone service has been "a complete failure."

[The story was also published in the Orlando, Florida Sentinel on May 11, under the headline "Once upon a time, regulation seen as a force for good. But the view now is that deregulation is needed to unleash market forces."]

The Chronicle of Higher Education, Washington, D.C.
May 9, 2003
Headline: Short Subjects: Writes of passage
Byline: Will Potter
Excerpt: We asked several professors who are retiring this year to estimate the number of student papers they have graded -- the paper trail they have left after decades of teaching. They multiplied the number of years they have taught by their average number of students each year and the average workload for each student (papers and essay exams). Here are the results (the average is 22,860):

Peter A. Fritzell, English, Lawrence University (Wis.): 28,000 papers in 36 years.
"Whew. And this is at a small school, where the teaching load isn't what you would find at a big state school."

Education Week, Bethesda, Maryland
May 7, 2003
Headline: SARS fears prompt many schools to cancel student trips to Toronto
Byline: Marianne D. Hurst
Excerpt: Many schools in the United States have canceled student trips to Toronto because of fears that their pupils might be exposed to the potentially fatal respiratory illness known as SARS. Despite a recent study released by Chinese researchers that suggested SARS may be less dangerous to school-age children than it is to adults, most school officials in the United States said that they would continue to act conservatively, relying on advisories from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health departments. SARS, which began in China, has killed more than 300 people worldwide. The first cases in Canada were reported March 15. Since then, more than 140 cases have been reported in the Toronto area, and 21 of those people have died, according to the WHO. However, the apparent ebb of the disease in Toronto, which hasn't reported a new case in more than 20 days, prompted the WHO to lift its travel advisory last week. Still, the action offered little consolation to students from the Lawrence Academy of Music, a special program that is part of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wis. Twenty-eight members of the academy's choir, who are in grades seven through nine, were not allowed to attend the Toronto International Choir Festival on April 23.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
May 5, 2003
Headline: Employers giving up health care control. Rising costs blamed on broad benefit plans
Byline: Joe Manning
Excerpt: Reducing soaring health care costs in southeast Wisconsin will require significant reductions in the benefit packages available to area workers, a new study shows. The study, completed by economics professor Merton D. Finkler at Lawrence University in Appleton, concluded that health insurers' ability to negotiate discounts from providers has been eroded to the point that it barely exists. The erosion has occurred, the study indicates, because area employers are demanding such wide networks of hospitals and providers for the benefit plans they provide to workers. The result is that large hospital and physician groups wield tremendous clout when negotiating with insurers. And that, the study concludes, is one of the major reasons why health care costs in the Milwaukee area are the highest among 20 metropolitan areas in the Midwest. The study's finding that health care costs in southeast Wisconsin are higher than in other parts of the country is nothing new to beleaguered area employers who have struggled with annual double- digit premium increases for four years. But the study places some of the blame for soaring costs on employers themselves. The study points out that companies are contributing to the skyrocketing costs by purchasing generous health care plans that offer wide choices of hospitals and physicians as well as generous benefit levels. Finkler said HMOs and health insurance companies -- as well as employers -- contribute to rising health care costs by surrendering their "market power" to physicians and hospitals. The study, paid for by health insurer Cobalt Corp., said costs are higher here by 25% or more compared with other communities, including Madison; Chicago; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Detroit; Cleveland; St. Louis; and Des Moines, Iowa. In 1990, the average health insurance premium in the Milwaukee area was $89.21 per member per month. By 2001, the figure had risen 132.7% to $207.62 per member per month, the highest premium paid among the 20 metropolitan areas sampled by Finkler. Finkler said his findings support a study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting 14 months ago that found health care costs in the metro Milwaukee area were 55% higher than in other areas of the Midwest. Finkler said his study shows that large physician and hospital groups dictate the prices they are willing to give insurers. Because similar market dominance by providers does not exist in other metropolitan areas in Finkler's study, he concluded that large physician groups, as well as hospital organizations, were the overall reason behind higher costs in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Health insurance companies in the Milwaukee area have "put their billfolds on the table and gave up their market power," essentially telling providers to take what they wanted, Finkler said. The bargaining power now held by providers stems from insurers being compelled by employers to provide plans that feature large provider groups in their networks, Finkler said. That gives providers a significant advantage when it comes to negotiating discounted prices.

WebMd
May 5, 2003
Headline: Stigma hinders depression treatment. The stigma of mental illness such as depression often makes the illness hard to diagnose and treat
Byline: John Casey
Excerpt: It is perhaps its invisibility that places major depression among the more insidious disorders that afflict humankind. You can neither spot it on an X-ray nor detect it with a toxicology screening. Medical professionals can find it difficult to diagnose. To make matters worse, a lingering stigma too often attaches to those who have depression, further hindering diagnosis and treatment. Depression affects about 10% percent of Americans at some point in their life. About 18.8 million people suffer from depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Major depression is the leading cause of disability both in this country and in the world at large. Women worldwide have about a twofold greater risk of having depression than men. So does anyone ever really get over depression? "Depression is a very treatable disorder, but it is also a recurring disorder," says Gerald I. Metalsky, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and executive director of the Anxiety, Stress, and Depression Center there. "Once you've had one major depressive episode, your chances of having another is high." There are three types of mood disorders, and each requires its own treatment. Major depressive disorder -- This refers to episodic, primary, severe depression lasting at least two weeks. This diagnosis is made using a set of criteria when a person has five or more depressive symptoms and daily impairment in functioning. "We have very good treatments for major depressive disorder," says Metalsky. "With medication and cognitive-behavioral therapy, we see a success rate of 70% to 80% within 10 to 15 sessions of therapy, though sometimes more sessions are needed." Dysthymic disorder -- This chronic but less severe form of depression is diagnosed when depressed mood persists for at least two years. This disorder usually begins early in life. "Treatment is similar to that of major depressive disorder, but it is a more slippery disorder and in some ways requires greater vigilance," says Metalsky. "The symptoms aren't as severe, but they take longer to treat and recur more easily." Bipolar disorder -- Depression alternates with mania in this disorder, which is characterized by abnormally and persistently elevated mood or irritability and symptoms including overly-inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, increased talkativeness, racing thoughts, distractibility, physical agitation, and excessive risk taking. "Medication is needed for bipolar patients, usually lithium or Depakote along with an antidepressant," says Metalsky. "Talk therapy works well here, too, since many bipolar patients spend a lot more time depressed than they do in the manic stage." Relapse rates are high for all types of mood disorders, Metalsky says, but in therapy people can learn skills that they can take with them to combat depressive thoughts and habits. These skills can in turn help a person reduce the frequency of major depression recurrence.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
May 5, 2003
Headline: Study: Milwaukee has highest health care costs among 20 Midwest cities
Excerpt: A new study says health care costs in the Milwaukee area are higher than those in 19 other Midwest metropolises. The study was completed by economics professor Merton D. Finkler at Lawrence University in Appleton and paid for by health insurer Cobalt Corp. It said health care in Milwaukee cost at least 25 percent more than in communities such as Madison, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis and Des Moines, Iowa. Finkler concluded the rising costs were related to health insurers' eroded ability to negotiate discounts from health care providers. The study said employers have demanded such wide networks of hospitals and providers for the benefit plans they provide to workers that large hospital and physician groups can then dictate the prices they are willing to give insurers. Similar market dominance by providers does not exist in other metropolitan areas in Finkler's study, giving him reason to conclude that was driving up costs in the Milwaukee metropolitan area.

[The story was picked by the Madison State Journal and published on May 6, 2003 with the headline: "Milwaukee health care costs more. Study: Expenses higher than 19 other areas in the Midwest"]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
May 4, 2003
Headline: Another Door County awaits off highways
Byline: Donna Marie Pocius, Special to the Journal Sentinel
Excerpt: The Door Peninsula has 250 miles of shoreline with most shops and hotels located on Highways 42 and 57. A journey off these highways opens up the rural side of the Door Peninsula. Travelers can soak up some of the culture by visiting with artists and business owners in areas where they live and work. Travel east on County EE until you hit Highway 57 in Baileys Harbor. Then go a mile south until you reach Boynton Lane, intersecting Highway 57 on the east. Take this gravel road, leading through the grounds of Bjorklunden. Deep in the woods on this 405-acre estate, where Lawrence University of Appleton offers education programs, stands the 15th- century Norwegian-style Boynton Chapel. Tours of the chapel, led by university students, run from 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays from June 16 to Aug. 27. You'll hear the story of the late Winifred and Donald Boynton, who handcrafted the chapel from 1939 through 1947 on their estate. They adorned the intimate chapel, which seats about 20, with their art -- 41 frescoes and ornately carved furnishings and wood trim. Envisioning a sanctuary of peace for people of all faiths, the couple carved an angel of peace in a wooden cross on the altar. A fresco near the entrance greets all the world's religions with symbols -- the lotus leaf and flower, the six-pointed star, the cross and others. The fresco above the altar includes an angel depicting Meyers Graham, the Boyntons' oldest granddaughter. The baptismal font -- the last piece these self-taught artists completed -- is considered the chapel's finest woodcarving. As you leave, take a closer look at the front step to the chapel. The Boyntons purposefully weathered its middle, replicating ancient chapels in Norway, where Winifred traveled.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
April 28, 2003
Headline: Salvaging tropical hardwoods for profit
Byline: Paul Foy, AP Business Writer
Dateline: Salt Lake City
Excerpt: When some of the overseas crafts he was buying arrived in packing cases of mahogany, Tim O'Brien began to think about the business possibilities for a valuable hardwood so common in some parts of the world it was being used for pallets. On his travels to Indonesia he also watched some of the world's finest hardwoods being junked at demolition sites. Now O'Brien is salvaging those tropical hardwoods - usually large beams from old buildings and mosques - and cutting, planing and sanding the wood into fine furniture. The wood can be as much as 300 years old, giving it sought-after patina - the rich oxidized color, usually dark, that comes only from aging and affirms the value of antique furniture. O'Brien is salvaging more than 25 species of tropical hardwoods, a few so rare they can be obtained only from old buildings. Some of the dark-red hardwoods smell as sweet as perfume, still fragrant from their oils despite decades or centuries of use. O'Brien operated Tropical Salvage on a shoestring, and now the venture appears to be paying off. Within months, after his next shipment of finished goods arrives from Java, he expects shops from San Francisco to London to carry his furniture, and he also plans to sell planks for flooring. His first, ad-hoc sales are finally starting to cover his travel, manufacturing and shipping costs. O'Brien has poured about $40,000 into the venture over 2 1/2 years, using money he made at a Salt Lake City crafts and clothing shop, Grunts and Postures. O'Brien, 43, wasn't trained as a businessman or craftsman. He's an English literature major who graduated from Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis., with a case of wanderlust. Years later, O'Brien turned his attention to salvaging tropical hardwoods. Outside of a few teak traders, he knows of nobody else doing the same thing on the same scale, and says there's plenty of salvage wood for competitors. The business satisfies O'Brien's passion for environmental and social justice. He can reuse rare hardwoods, save forests, put native people to work, make quality furniture and give U.S. customers a bargain.

Times-Picayune, New Orleans, Louisana
April 25, 2003
Headline: Ex-Jaguars coach elected to Hall of Fame
Byline: Fred Robinson
Excerpt: Former Southern University and Alcorn State coach Marino Casem, whose teams won seven Southwestern Athletic Conference championships, has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Casem, along with Eastern Kentucky's Roy Kidd and Delaware's Harold "Tubby" Raymond and six former players, make up this year's class for Divisions I-AA, II, III and NAIA. The six players elected to the Hall were quarterback Brad Calip (East Central Oklahoma, 1981-84), end Willie Richardson (Jackson State, 1959-62), tight end Dwayne Nix (Texas A&M-Kingsville, 1965-68, 75), tackle Calvin Roberts (Gustavus Adolphus, 1949-52), running back Ben Stevenson (Tuskegee, 1924-30) and running back Scott Reppert (Lawrence University -Wisconsin, 1979-82).

Chicago Sun-Times; Chicago, Illinois
April 10, 2003
Column Name: Between the Lines
Headline: Iraqi information chief has nothing on Hootie
Byline: Ron Rapoport
Excerpt: We suggested here last month that one way to clean up college sports would be to take the profit out of them by dividing the proceeds from the football bowls and basketball tournaments among all NCAA institutions. Richard Warch, the president of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., wrote to say he had advocated exactly that in a speech before the NCAA convention 15 years ago. Walter Byers, then the head of the NCAA, said he disagreed. Bo Schembechler's reply was a little more blunt. That's Michigan's money," Schembechler said.

Madison Capital Times; Madison
April 2, 2003
Headline: Hunting amendment passes by a landslide. Critic says it will tie up court system
Byline: Robert Imrie
Excerpt: In a landslide victory for outdoor sports enthusiasts, Wisconsin voters amended the state constitution Tuesday to make fishing, hunting and trapping guaranteed rights. Wisconsin joined only a handful of states that provide such constitutional protections. The change was seen as a pre-emptive move to make sure those widely popular outdoor sports were protected from animal rights groups and the whims of political and social change that could threaten them in the future. George Meyer, former secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources who now teaches environmental studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, said the overwhelming approval of the amendment indicates hunting and fishing traditions remain strong in the state. "That is a good sign for the future," he said. The amendment may not stop groups from trying to ban certain types of hunting, but it will "give them pause," he predicted. "They will know it is not just a matter of winning the Legislature," he said. "There is another hurdle. They would then have to come up with the money or the resources when it would be challenged in court."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee
March 30, 2003
Headline: A great right emerged from the sorrow of a great wrong
Byline: James Auer
Excerpt: Joe Schreiter's mother died at an assisted-living facility in Appleton on Feb. 19 -- the fourth anniversary, almost to the hour, of Joe's passing. That means I'm free to write about Joe -- his life, death and enduring legacy -- that I've wanted to get into print for years. Joe was a boyhood chum of mine, a fellow actor at Attic Theatre in Appleton, a former Marine and the guy who cut my hair for 26 years. He was murdered on Feb. 19, 1999. Or, more accurately, he was shot early on the morning on that date as he got out of his car after a fender-bender near his west side home. Joe's death was memorialized in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by two extremely brief stories: one announcing that he had been identified after being found shot "in an alley" in the 1800 block of N. 39th St., the second reporting that he had died at Froedtert. Why bring up Joe Schreiter, his happy, productive life and unjust death, four years later, and in the context of my work as an art critic? That's simple: his affection for culture, in general, and music, in particular. His legacy of love for grand opera and the concert stage lives after him at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton. During his 49 years of life, Joe had put together one of Milwaukee's finer collections of classical recordings -- several thousand operatic and orchestral CDs, many of prime historic interest. Several months after his death, Beimborn contacted Lawrence University and asked whether the conservatory might be interested in providing a home for Joe's trove of CDs. The reply was an immediate "yes." A group of Lawrence students and librarians arrived, cataloged and packed 1,800 of Joe's CDs and toted them back to Appleton, where they have been made available to budding instrumentalists and vocalists at the school. Joe's own voice has been stilled, but the operatic overtures, arias and duets he so adored are still being heard and enjoyed. One likes to think that, in some fashion, this has pleased Joe, wherever he may be. I know it has pleased the students and faculty. Somehow, a great right has emerged out of a terrible wrong. Beauty has survived an unbelievable atrocity. Truth, if not triumphant, is at least redeemed. Too bad his mother will never know.

 

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