July 2005
The Lawrence Academy of Music offers three summer camps: a new one-week
residential Music Camp for middle-school and high school wind and percussion
instrumentalists
and two week-long day camps, Piano Odyssey and Jazz Odyssey.
At Björklunden, course offerings in the popular Summer Seminars adult-education
series range from coral reefs to Puccini, from Door County birds to Nordic
myths, and from fine-tuning your knitting to improving your bridge. Lawrence
alumni faculty members teaching at the northern campus this summer include
Bart De Stasio ’82, Dale Duesing C’67, Fred Sturm C’73, Daniel
J. Taylor ’63, and Timothy X. Troy ’85.
Anna Corey ’04, Beaver Dam, is awarded a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation graduate
scholarship, which she applies to her medical studies at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. She is one of 76 scholarship recipients selected
from a national pool of 1,290 applicants.
August 2005
The annual reception honoring members of The
Boynton Society begins with
a series of faculty-taught classes under the heading “The Björklunden
Experience: Liberal Learning on the Northern Campus” and is attended
by 140 members of the Society. At the conclusion of the evening Lawrence trustee
Robert Schaupp ’51 announces a $5 million fund-raising effort, Extending
the Reach: A Campaign for Björklunden, to fund an addition to the lodge
that will nearly double its capacity to accommodate the rising interest in
academic-year weekend student seminars, as well as the growing popularity
of the Summer Seminar program.
For the seventh consecutive year, Lawrence is ranked among the top quarter
of the nation’s leading national colleges and universities in U.S.
News and World Report’s “Best Liberal Arts Colleges” category.
The magazine also cites Lawrence in its “Great Schools, Great Prices” listing,
which compares an institution’s academic quality to the net cost of attendance,
and the Freshman Studies program is included, for the fourth consecutive year,
in the “First-Year Experiences” category.
Twenty students who have spent the summer conducting research in collaboration
with or under the supervision of science faculty members present their findings
in an all-day symposium before an audience of peers and professors. Topics
include the physics of non-uniform strings, the study of inflammatory processes
involved in rhinovirus-induced exacerbation of asthma, the effects of zebra
mussels on the aquatic ecosystems of local waterways, and the use of scanning
tunneling spectroscopy for imaging single-walled carbon nanotubes.
September 2005
A near-record 433 new students — 404 freshmen and 29 transfer students — begin
the 2005-06 academic year with Welcome Week orientation activities. The class,
which brings Lawrence to its enrollment goal of 1,400 students, nearly matches
the all-time mark of 451 new students in the fall
of 1973. The Computer Science Club goes right to work, helping the new students
connect their computers to the campus network and dealing with “virus
issues.” The club hosts virus-removal workshops in the second week
of each academic term.
President Jill Beck opens the academic year at the traditional Matriculation
Convocation, at which she delivers an address titled “A
Question of Values: Community Engagement, Altruism, and Liberal Education,” in
which she describes “the interrelationships
between academic learning and the learning that takes place in real-world
situations” and
goes beyond that to examine the role of community engagement in “the
development of character and the refinement of personal values.”
New tenure-track faculty
members include photographers Julie
Lindemann and John Shimon, who share an appointment as assistant professors of art, and
Steven Paul Spears, assistant professor of music. David
Becker joins the conservatory faculty as a tenured full professor and director of
orchestral studies. Non-tenure-track appointments are made in anthropology,
art, English, government, Japanese, music theory, psychology, religious studies,
and the library.
The Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program is inaugurated
with the appointment of the first eight postgraduate fellows: Daniel G. Barolsky,
Ph.D.,
University of Chicago (music); Melanie Boyd, Ph.D., University of Michigan
(gender studies); Deanna G.
Pranke Byrnes, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
(biology); Jennifer Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Duke University (music); Jennifer
J. Keefe, Ph.D., University of Aberdeen (philosophy), Joan Marler, Ph.D.,
University
of California-San Diego (physics); David Sunderlin, Ph.D., University of
Chicago (geology); and Annette Thornton, Ph.D., University of Colorado-Boulder
(theatre
arts). The program provides
recent doctoral-degree recipients with mentoring relationships, teaching
opportunities, and research collaborations to better prepare them for professorial
careers
at selective liberal arts colleges.
Franklin M. Doeringer, professor of history and the Nathan M. Pusey Professor
of East Asian Studies, is the 2005 visiting professor at the Lawrence
London Centre. During the Fall Term, he teaches two courses, The
Global Century: 1914-1991 and A Tale of Two Cities: Tokyo and London 1600-2000.
Students from Tokyo’s Waseda University arrive for the fourth year
of the Thematic
Studies Abroad (TSA) program, in which they undertake courses
in English, Freshman Studies, and American society and also select elective
courses in one of three thematic areas: environmental public policy, gender
studies, or international studies.
The Lawrence Academy of Music introduces Foundations, a
new musical-enrichment class for first and second graders to experience and
develop rhythm and pitch
skills — the foundations of music. Foundations bridges the
gap between the Academy’s Early
Childhood Music program and the time
when students begin studio lessons and ensembles.
Wriston Art Center Galleries’ first exhibition of the academic year features
works by Latin American artists, including Roberto Matta and Mauricio Lasansky,
from Lawrence’s Permanent Collection; prints and sculptures by Racine
multi-media artist Molly Carter; and works by Milwaukee artist Chris Niver.
Niver, who works with traditional needlework techniques to create contemporary
embroideries, delivers the exhibition’s opening lecture.
P.J. Hilbert ’06, Lake Villa, Ill., blocks a field-goal attempt on the
game’s final play to preserve Lawrence’s 38-36 win over Carroll
College in the Banta Bowl. It is the first victory for new Vikings head football coach Chris Howard.
The Mielke Summer Institute for teachers from the Appleton and Shawano school
districts has two components. In June, on the Lawrence campus, schoolteachers
and Lawrence
faculty members explored the theme “The Fine Arts: Crossing Borders,
Breaking New Ground.” In the fall, the group reconvenes for a weekend
retreat at Björklunden. The program is made possible by a grant from
the Mielke Family Foundation, Inc.
October 2005
Lawrence is one of only 15 institutions nationally to receive a grant from
the National Science Foundation’s Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education
program. The $200,000 grant will be used to support an expansion of the college’s
growing nanotechnology and nanoscience initiative by incorporating nanoscience
experiments and activities into core geology and environmental science courses.
A $100,000 NSF-NUE grant in 2003 helped launch Lawrence’s program,
which began by focusing on interdisciplinary research opportunities in chemistry,
physics, and biochemistry.
The second University Convocation of the year features environmental ethicist
and author Christopher Stone speaking on “Mending
the Earth: Ethical Issues in Healing the Global Environment.” Stone
is the J. Thomas McCarthy Trustee Professor of Law at the University of Southern
California.
Serene Sahar ’06, New Berlin, and Lisa Ritland ’09, Lodi, win
the No. 2 doubles title at the Midwest Conference Tennis Championships with
a 7-5, 6-3 decision over Lake Forest College’s
Brittany Richardson and Jaime Jackson. It is Lawrence’s first conference
doubles title since 1988. The Vikings, who finish with a dual match record
of 13-4, qualify for the four-team conference championship tournament for
the first time since its inception in 1999.
Gary Van Berkel ’82, head of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s
Organic and Biological Mass Spectrometry Group, delivers a Science Hall Colloquium
on “What is Mass Spectrometry?”
Assistant Professor of Economics Yoko Nagase presents a “History of Environmental
Issues in Japan” at a Main Hall Forum in which she reviews five historic
Japanese pollution cases and discusses the role each played in the development
of Japan’s modern environmental policy.
A memorial service is held in Memorial Chapel for Kwabena
(Kobby) Buanya ’08, from Accra, Ghana, who died in September of an accidental drowning that took
place during a regularly scheduled, supervised aquatic practice by the men’s
soccer team.
The campus organization GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, Other, or Whatever) observes
National Coming Out Day by sponsoring “Coming Out Confessionals,” a
program in the Underground Coffeehouse in which a number of students speak
candidly
about being gay, bisexual, and transgender and the processes they went through
to come out to family and friends.
The weekend Student Seminar series at Björklunden, founded in 1996,
begins its tenth year. Over the years, academic departments, athletic teams,
and a
variety of student organizations have developed programs at the northern
campus that range from intensive language study to play rehearsals to departmental
retreats. During 2005-06, more than 1,300 students and faculty members will
participate in 81 separate weekend programs.
Mindy Luber ’07, St. Louis, Mo., and Jackie Bean ’09, River Falls,
both score twice as the women’s soccer team routs Knox College 9-0.
The Vikings have never lost to the Prairie Fire in 12 contests.
Lunch at Lawrence is a monthly series of noontime lectures given by members
of the faculty for audiences drawn from the Fox Valley community. This year’s
first lecture, by Patrick Boleyn-Fitzgerald, associate professor of philosophy
and director of the interdisciplinary area on biomedical ethics, is titled “Bioethics
After Terry Shiavo.”
Fall Festival, the autumnal event that combines Family Weekend and Homecoming,
welcomes families and alumni for a weekend of information, entertainment,
and sports. Events range from a women’s volleyball game to a football
game against Grinnell College and also include a choir concert, a Latin dance
party,
a question and answer opportunity with Provost and Dean of the Faculty David
Burrows, four mini-courses taught by Lawrence faculty members, and a wind
ensemble and symphonic band concert.
At the annual Blue and White Dinner during Fall Festival weekend, six new
members are inducted into the tenth class of the Lawrence University Athletic
Hall
of Fame. George Walter ’36, William Lawson ’47, Joseph Lamers ’61,
Mark Frodesen ’71, Robin Chapman Linnemanstons ’83, and Steve Jung ’90
are the inductees.
Lawrence Nees, professor of art history at the University of Delaware, presents “The
Career of Godescalc, Artist at the Court of Charlemagne,” as the 2005 Chaney
Lecture, named in honor of Professor Emeritus of History William
A. Chaney. The
lectureship was established in 1999 in honor of Chaney’s retirement as
the George McKendree Steele Professor of History.
The Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Fred Sturm ’73,
and the Lawrence University Wind Ensemble, directed by Andrew
Mast, assistant
professor of music, perform, by invitation, at the 2005 state conference of
the Wisconsin Music Educators Association.
The women’s cross country team takes second at the Midwest Conference Championships
for the third consecutive season, with Joy Manweiler ’08, Princeton; Rachel
Lucas ’06, Apple Valley, Minn.; and Colleen Detjens ’06, Lisle,
Ill., all earning all-conference honors.
Christopher Queram, executive director of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare
Quality, delivers the opening address of the three-part 2005-06 Edward F. Mielke
Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics, titled “In Pursuit of Value: The
Evolution of Quality-Based Purchasing.”
The Lawrence University Artist Series presents the Academy of St. Martin in
the Fields Chamber Ensemble, a group created in 1967 to perform the larger
chamber
works — from quintets to octets — with players who customarily
work together, instead of the usual string quartet with additional guests.
The 2005 Lawrence Jazz Alumni Showcase Concert celebrates the 70th birthday
of composer and jazz pianist John Harmon ’57, D.F.A’05 with a program
featuring many of his original works performed by a cast of Wisconsin’s
most notable jazz performers.
The volleyball team finishes the season on a high note with a 30-25, 30-23,
30-27 victory over Ripon College. Kelly Mulcahy ’08, Glendale, and Alicia Onisawa ’07,
Tampa, Fla., earn All-Midwest Conference honors for the Vikings, who compile
a 10-15 record.
November 2005
The 25th annual Jazz Celebration Weekend features performances by jazz vocalist
Jane Monheit, with an opening set by the Lawrence University Jazz Singers,
and by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, with the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble.
The men’s soccer team rallies from a 2-0 deficit to beat Ripon College
3-2 in the semifinals of the Midwest Conference Tournament. Doug McEneaney ’08,
Chicago, Ill., scores the game-winning goal in the 84th minute. Lawrence falls
to St. Norbert College in the championship game the following day. Five Vikings
are named to the all-conference team, and Blake Johnson wins Coach of the Year
honors.
Monica Rico, assistant professor of history, delivers the November Lunch at
Lawrence lecture, speaking on “Telling It Like It Was?
Travel Writing Through the Ages.”
Lawrence International hosts its annual African-Jamaican Dinner. LI is a student
organization of nearly 100 members, representing more than 50 countries.
Seven Lawrence students earn first-place honors at the 2005 Wisconsin Chapter
of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition. A total
of 39 Lawrence students and one student from the Lawrence Academy of Music
participate in the competition. In addition to the first-place winners, five
students take
home
second-place honors.
Chicago artist Antoni Contro delivers the opening lecture for an exhibition
at the Wriston Art Center Galleries that includes her “A to Z,” a
27-piece, collage-based exhibit that features works on paper that merge drawing
and Polaroid photography. Also on display are “Photographs of the
Athenian Acropolis — The Restoration Project,” a traveling exhibition
of large-scale photographs by Socratis Mavrommatis, chief photographer of the
Acropolis Restoration Service, and “Ceramics of the Classical World,” a
selection of ancient Greek and Etruscan pottery from the Lawrence permanent
collection and the Ripon College Classical Antiquities Collection.
Cellists Stephanie Smith, a student of the Lawrence Academy of Music, and Joe
Loehnis ’06, Appleton, place second and third, respectively, at the Wisconsin
Cello Society
competition. Also this month, the Academy’s Tutti! Scholarship Benefit
and Italian Dinner raises over $9,000 for scholarships to aid area students
who otherwise would not be able to participate in its programs.
The second lecture in the 2005-06 Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical
Ethics features Carolyn Smith-Morris, assistant professor of anthropology at
Southern Methodist University, speaking on “The Ethics of Research in
Indian Country: An Anthropological Perspective.”Composer and author Samuel
Adler participates in a five-day guest residency that includes a public lecture,
a New Music Concert featuring several of his compositions, and a Lawrence Wind
Ensemble and Symphonic Band performance that Adler conducts.
The fall play is Language of Angels, by Naomi Iizuka, directed by Katherine
Privatt, associate professor of theatre arts.
Saxophonist Jesse Dochnahl ’06, Ennis, Mont., and pianist Jesse Pieper ’09,
Fond du Lac, are named co-winners of the 12th annual Lawrence University Symphony
Orchestra
concerto competition. Each wins the opportunity to perform as soloist in an
LSO concert.
December 2005
Lawrence is awarded a $100,000 grant by the New York City-based Teagle Foundation
to support an assessment study of the Lawrence
Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program. Lawrence is one of five institutions that the Teagle
Foundation
is recognizing with grants through its Working Groups in Liberal Education
Program, which supports projects designed to generate fresh thinking about
how to strengthen
liberal education. The Lawrence grant will support a working group of faculty,
staff, students, and administrators who will study the fellows program and
assess the degree to which it is achieving its intended goals.
Lawrence musicians claim the top two places at the 20th annual Concord Chamber
Orchestra’s concerto competition. Soprano saxophonist
Sara Kind ’05 is named the competition’s winner, and pianist Alvina
Tan ’06, Penang, Malaysia, is runner-up. Kind is the fourth Lawrentian
in the past five years to win the competition.
Claire Getzoff ’06, Evanston, Ill., ties her career high with 30 points
and breaks the school scoring record in the women’s basketball team’s 67-65 victory at Illinois College. Getzoff, who finishes her career
with 1,487 points, breaks the record of 1,225, set by Sarah O’Neil ’92.
Getzoff earns All-Midwest Conference honors for the fourth time and is named
to the All-Central Region team for the third time.
Violinist Burku Göker ’07, Istanbul, Turkey, accompanied by pianist
Eric Jenkins, ’07, Portage, performs by invitation at the annual memorial
tribute to Ismet Inönü, Turkey’s first prime minister and second
president, held on the Ankara campus of Baskent University.
The Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, Concert Choir, Women’s Choir, and Chorale
perform three composers’ settings of “Magnificat” in a holiday
concert that features Chad Freeburg ’99 as soloist. Titled “A Bach
Family Christmas,” the program includes versions of the biblical Canticle
of Mary by Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, and Nicholai
Porpora, a collaborator of Johann Christian Bach.
In their own holiday concert, the Academy of Music’s Girl
Choirs, more
than 250 voices strong, perform “Choral Classics,” music that has
stood the test of time — from lullabies to spirituals. Members of the
choirs, selected by audition, include girls from eight to 18 years of age
representing more than 50 schools from throughout Northeast Wisconsin.
January 2006
Lawrence and its ArtsBridge America program share with five other universities
in a $250,000 grant from the National Geographic Society Education Foundation,
to be used to bring “Mapping the Beat,” an innovative geography-through-music
curriculum to Fox Valley elementary schools.
The public is invited to a community open house at the WLFM studios in the
Music-Drama Center, during which station staff members offer tours of the
remodeled facility
and give demonstrations of some of the newly installed equipment. WLFM converted
from an over-the-air FM signal to an all web-based broadcast format at the
start of the 2005-06 academic year, which also marks the 50th anniversary
of the station’s
founding.
January’s Lunch at Lawrence lecturer is Terry Gottfried, professor
of psychology, speaking on “Good Ear for Languages: Relation
of Music Training to Learning Chinese Tones.”
Author and objectivist philosopher Andrew Bernstein, a senior writer for
the Ayn Rand Institute, lectures on “Religion vs. Morality,” challenging
the belief that morality can only be based in religious faith.
Robert F. Perille ’80, Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Charlot Nelson Singleton ’67,
Atherton, Calif., are elected to the Lawrence University Board
of Trustees at
its winter meeting. Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr. ’77 is the new vice chair
of the board; Cynthia Stiehl C’89, who steps down from that position, continues
as a trustee and a member of the board’s executive and academic affairs
committees.
Collected Stories, by Donald Margulies, is performed as the senior theatre
project of Melissa Law ’06, Appleton.
Nathan Engstrom, program director of Madison-based Green Built Home, delivers
the first lecture of a three-part environmental studies series, speaking
on “Better
Building...Better Living...Better World!” and discussing the emerging field
of “green building,” with its emphasis on resource-efficient methods
of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and even demolition. The
three-part series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society,
established in 1999 by Barbara Gray Spoerl M-D’44 and her husband,
Edward.
The Conservatory of Music presents a many-faceted Concert for Humanity, “dedicated
to those still suffering and grieving in the wake of tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes,
floods, and tornadoes, as well as in remembrance of those who have lost loved
ones in terrorist attacks and wars across the globe.” Members of
the conservatory faculty offer instrumental and vocal performances, as
well as
readings of prose
and poetry. Members of the audience are encouraged to consider gifts of
volunteer time or money to local, national, and international charitable
organizations.
Participants in a faculty recital and lecture on Dominick Argento’s
From the Diary of Virginia Woolf include Karen Leigh-Post C’79,
associate professor of music, mezzo-soprano; Dmitri Novgorodsky, assistant
professor of music, piano; Karen Hoffmann ’87, associate professor
of English; and students of the Gender and Modernist British Literature course.
The theme of the 15th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration, sponsored
by Toward Community: Unity in Diversity, is “Where
Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
Daniel Taylor ’63, Hiram A. Jones Professor of Classics, presents “The
Olympic Games 776 B.C.-2006 A.D.” as an Archaeological Institute
of America Lecture.
The dance marathon craze of the 1930s is recreated when Milwaukee-based
Wild Space Dance Company performs “Physical Evidence” in Stansbury
Theatre. Wild Space has been dance-company-in-residence at Lawrence since
2000.
Rob Neilson, sculptor and assistant professor of art, delivers the opening
lecture for a Wriston Art Galleries exhibition that includes two examples
of his work, “A
Face in Time” and “Unrequested Proposals,” as well as “The
History of Printmaking: A Series of Prints by Warrington Colescott,” from
the college’s permanent art collection.
Geoffrey Kemp, director of regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center
in Washington, D.C., delivers the opening address of a three-part lecture
series, “Pariah
States and Policy Responses,” sponsored by the Mojmir
Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Kemp’s topic is “The Axis of Evil: The
Current Membership.” Other speakers in the series are Lee Feinstein, deputy
director of studies and senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and International
Law at the Council on Foreign Relations, “A Duty to Prevent”; Jack
DuVall, president and founding director of the International Center on Nonviolent
Conflict, “The Right to Rise Up: People Power and the Virtues of Civic
Disruption”; and John Merrill, chief of the Northeast Asia Division, Bureau
of Intelligence and Research, U.S. State Department, “Reading North
Korea.”
The first University Convocation of the Winter Term features Harvard University
theoretical physicist Lisa Randall speaking
on “Warped Passages: Unraveling
the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions.” Randall
is known for her theories positing a new, fifth dimension of infinite extent
beyond the four known dimensions of time and space.
In its 41st year, the Great Midwest Trivia Contest breaks new ground by
being webcast on the Internet rather than broadcast on radio. Hosted by
newly digitized
WLFM, the nation’s longest-running salute to all things inconsequential
attracts 65 off-campus teams and ten from on campus.
The Vikings beat St. Norbert College 79-68 in De Pere and become the lone
unbeaten men’s basketball team in the nation at any level.
February 2006
The men’s basketball team ascends to the No. 1 spot in the D3hoops.com poll. It marks the first time a Lawrence team has ever been ranked No.
1.
Keven Bradley ’06, Omro, scores on a lay-up at the buzzer to beat Carroll
College 64-63 in Waukesha. The win gives Lawrence its third consecutive Midwest
Conference men’s basketball championship. The Vikings later defeat
Carroll 68-62 to win the MWC Tournament championship at Alexander Gymnasium.
The Winter Term play is Finding the Laughter Again, an exercise in improvisation
by guest artist Bo Johnson and a group of Lawrence students.
The Black Organization of Students commemorates African-America history
and culture with the fifth annual Celebration of Black Heritage: “New
Beginning of the Sistah.”
John Weyenberg, executive director of the Fox Cities chapter of Habitat
for Humanity, and George Elias, a member of the organization’s board of directors, discuss
Habitat’s efforts to promote “green building” practices in “The
ReStore Recycled Building Materials Project,” second lecture in the
environmental-studies series on green architecture.
The Artist Series presents the Empire Brass quintet with Douglas Major,
organist. The Empire Brass enjoys an international reputation as North
America’s
finest brass quintet. The musicians, all of whom have held leading positions
with major American orchestras, perform over 100 concerts a year.
Matthew Stoneking, associate professor of physics, delivers a Lunch at
Lawrence lecture titled “Star in a Jar: The Prospects for Fusion
Power in the 21st Century.”
Four faculty members present a Main Hall Forum titled “What Is ‘Masculinity?’ — And
Why That’s the Wrong Question.” Participants are Melanie Boyd,
Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender Studies; Paul Cohen, professor of
history and the
Patricia Hamar Boldt Professor of Liberal Studies; Randall McNeill, associate
professor of classics; and Monica Rico, assistant professor of history.
Lawrence University Opera Theatre presents The Magic Flute by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, conducted by David E. Becker, professor of music, and directed
by
Tim Troy ’85, associate professor of theatre arts and the J. Thomas and Julie
Esch Hurvis Professor of Theatre and Drama, with Bonnie Koestner C’72,
associate professor of music, as vocal coach.
Saxophonist Benny Golson, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master,
is joined by the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble in a Jazz Series concert.
Composer,
arranger, lyricist, and producer, Golson has given hundreds of performances
and
made a major contribution to five decades of world jazz.
“Focus on: Chicago,” a series of events and activities designed to
enhance Lawrence’s visibility in the Windy City, begins with “Picturing
Peace,” an
exhibition of photographs by students in the ArtsBridge America program.
From February through May, other activities include appearances by the
Concert Choir and the Lawrence
Chamber Players and a day of community service by Lawrence
students and alumni, as well as admissions
advertising in two issues of
the regional edition
of Time magazine, among others.
For the fifth consecutive year, the student organization V-Day
Lawrence University performs Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. Proceeds
from the three performances go to benefit the Fox Valley Sexual Assault
Crisis Center; Men
Can Stop Rape,
a national organization that focuses on ending sexual violence through
education; and KIWOHEDE, an organization in Tanzania that educates, shelters,
and rehabilitates
women rescued from sexual slavery and domestic abuse.
Paul Rybski ’95, a systems scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s
Robotics Institute, discusses his research and contributions to the development
of robots that can determine their own internal “state” as
well as that of other nearby robots. His Science Hall Colloquium talk is
titled “Robust State
Estimation for Intelligent Physically Embodied Systems.”
Three Lawrence students win honors at the 2006 Midwest Horn Workshop, an
event sponsored by the International Horn Society. Dan Severson ’09, Edina, Minn.,
earns first-place honors in the low horn orchestral excerpts competition. Anna
Suechting ’08, Elk Mound, and Karen Oliver ’09, Lexington,
Mass., receive second-place recognition in the solo horn and high horn
orchestral
excerpts competitions, respectively.
Steve Vander Naalt ’06, Carol Stream, Ill., paces the men’s swim
team to a second-place finish at the Midwest Conference Championships, and Lawrence’s
Kurt Kirner is named the men’s Coach of the Year. Vander Naalt wins conference
championships in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke and teams with Adam Kolb ’06,
St. Paul, Minn.; Pat McCrory ’09, Racine; and Kyle Griffin ’09, Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, to win the 800 freestyle relay. Jeff Brown ’09, Oshkosh,
takes the league title in the 3-meter diving. The Lawrence women claim
third place at the league meet.
March 2006
Nancy Gates Madsen, lecturer in Spanish, presents “The Art of Truth-Telling:
Memorials to the Disappeared in Buenos Aires” in a Main Hall Forum.
Kolade Agbaje-Williams ’06, Evergreen Park, Ill., takes first in the triple
jump and second in the long jump and is named a Most Outstanding Performer in
the field events at the Midwest Conference Indoor
Track and Field Championships.
The Lawrence men place seventh with 52 points. On the women’s side,
Lawrence is eighth with 26 points.
The Lawrence Concert Choir, under the direction of Richard Bjella, professor
of music, and the Women’s Choir, conducted by Phillip Swan, assistant professor
of music, are two of only five college choirs selected to perform at the North
Central–American Choral Directors Association division convention
in Omaha, Neb.
Judy Corbett, founder and executive director of the Local Government Commission
in Sacramento, Calif., speaks on “Beyond Green Buildings: Planning for
Sustainable Neighborhoods and Regions” as the final lecture in the environmental
studies lecture series dealing with issues of “green” building.
Men’s basketball star Chris Braier ’06, Wauwatosa,
wins the Jostens Trophy, which recognizes the most outstanding players in
NCAA Division
III
based on basketball ability, academic prowess, and community service. Braier
also is named the Midwest Conference Player of the Year and a D3hoops.com
All-American.
The magical men’s basketball season comes to an end in the Sweet 16
of the NCAA Division
III Tournament. The Vikings beat the University of St. Thomas 63-59 in
the second round before falling to Illinois Wesleyan University 71-68 at
Alexander Gymnasium. The Vikings finish the
season with a 25-1 record, which includes a 25-game winning streak.
The Artist Series brings to the Memorial Chapel stage Russian pianist Olga
Kern, winner of the gold medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition in 2001.
Andrew Wong ’06, Wauwatosa, drives in a school-record nine runs in
the baseball team’s 18-8 win over Kalamazoo College in Fort Myers,
Fla. Wong, who is named an ESPN The
Magazine Academic All-American for the second straight year, belts a three-run
homer and a grand slam in the game.
Lawrence University and Attic
Theatre officials announce an agreement that
brings the community-theatre company’s productions back to the Music-Drama
Center, where it staged its plays from 1959 until 2003. In August 2006,
Attic mounts two shows in Cloak Theatre.
Poet Cole Swensen, author of ten books, including The Book of a Hundred
Hands, discusses her work in an open forum and conducts a reading. Her
appearance
is supported by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund, which brings distinguished
poets to
campus for public readings and to work with students on writing poetry
and verse.
Percussionist Michael Truesdell ’06, Verona, and soprano saxophonist
Sara Kind ’05 are named two of the five winners in the 12th annual
Neale-Silva Young Artists competition sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio.
This is the
sixth time in nine years that Lawrence
music
students have won or shared top honors in the Neale-Silva.
Goaltender Andrew Isaac ’07, Mississanga, Ontario, and defenseman Josh
Peterson ’08, Duluth, Minn., are named to the All-Midwest Collegiate
Hockey Association team. The Vikings finish the season with a 9-14-4 record.
Forward Mason Oakes ’06, Superior, becomes the second player in school
history to be named a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, given
each year to college hockey’s finest citizen.
A production of “’night, Mother,” a one-act play by Marsha
Norman, is the senior theatre project of Siri Hellerman ’06, Edina,
Minn.
March’s Lunch at Lawrence lecture is “Shaking Hands with Hitler:
France’s Dark Years, 1940-44,” by Judith Sarnecki, professor
of French.
Leila Sahar ’09, New Berlin, registers a perfect score and earns an “outstanding
witness” award as one member of Lawrence’s six-student team competing
in the American Mock Trial Association’s 48-team national tournament.
Lawrence, in just its second year of mock trial competition, qualifies
for the national
tournament after placing seventh among 20 teams at the regional tournament
in mid-February.
Pianist Krystle Maczka ’09, El Dorado, Ark., is invited to play at
the dedication of a new grand piano at the William J. Clinton Presidential
Center
in Little Rock.
Jeff Lipschutz, professor of painting and drawing at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh,
delivers the opening lecture for an exhibition in the Wriston Art Center
Galleries that includes his “Desert,” a
collection of images primarily of the modern American West. Also featured
is “The
Women of the Augusti: Coins from the Ottilia
Buerger Collection of Lawrence
University,” curated
by Jennifer Nummerdor ’06, Appleton, as part of her senior honors
project.
Wrestler Ben Dictus ’06, Appleton, qualifies for the NCAA Division III
Championships for the third consecutive season but is eliminated after two matches.
He finishes his career third on Lawrence’s career wins list with a record
of 107-48. John Budi ’07, Appleton, who is 26-10 at 174 pounds, is named
to the Scholar All-America Wrestling Team by the NCAA Division III Wrestling
Coaches Association. Budi’s selection marks the 13th consecutive
year Lawrence has had a wrestler honored for academic achievements on this
team.
April 2006
The final Artist Series concert of the year features the Ethos Percussion Group,
a quartet performing traditional compositions from Central America, West
Africa, and Asia, as well as new works by contemporary composers.
Lawrence International’s 30th Annual International Cabaret and Dinner
includes 75 performers and 16 performances from every continent, making it
one of the biggest Cabarets in recent memory. An occasion to celebrate life
though music, dance, and cuisine from around the world, its theme is
“Festival of Life.”
Daniel Hertel ’09, Sheboygan, defeats Lake Forest College’s Robert
Burda to win the consolation title at No. 2 singles at the Midwest Conference
Men’s Tennis Championships. Lawrence takes eighth place in the team standings.
Lawrence University Musical Production (LUMP) presents You’re a Good
Man, Charlie Brown, directed by Jacob Allen ’03, associate director
of conservatory admissions, with choreography by Rebecca Young, ’07,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and musical assistance by Bonnie Alger ’06, New Milford,
Conn. Based on Charles Schultz’ popular
comic strip, the show is made up of little moments picked from the life of
everyone’s favorite “Peanuts” character
.
Yasar Ersoy, assistant professor of archaeology at Turkey’s Bilkent University,
delivers an Archaeological Institute of America address titled “Early
Iron Age Archaeology and Culture of the Eastern Aegean” in which he describes
the latest research regarding the origins of the first-millennium B.C. Ionian
settlements of western Asia Minor.
The sixth annual Lawrence Jazz Writers Concert, “New Music for Larger
Jazz Ensemble,” features the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (LUJE)
and Jazz Band.
Philosopher and New York University Professor Peter Unger discusses the concept
of the immaterial soul in a pair of addresses, “Why
We Really May Be Immaterial Souls” and “How Immaterial Souls Can
Have Free Will,” during a two-day visit to Lawrence sponsored
by the Stevens Lectureship in the Humanities, established in 1967 by 1906 Lawrence
graduates David H. and Ruth Davis Stevens.
Lunch at Lawrence features Mark Jenike, associate professor of anthropology,
speaking on “Human Evolution: Recent Discoveries and What They Mean.”
Margaret Battin, distinguished professor of philosophy and adjunct professor
of internal medicine, Division of Medical Ethics, at the University of Utah,
presents “The Least Worst Death? The Disputes over Physician-Assisted
Suicide,” final installment of the 2005-06 Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series
in Biomedical Ethics.
Kurt Krebsbach ’85, associate professor of computer science, presents
a Science Hall Colloquium titled “Planning to Plan: Deliberation Scheduling
using GSMDPs,” in which he discusses the latest research developments
to enable robots and other “automated
planning agents” to maximize their
on-board computational powers.
The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announces that Ben
Hane ’06, East Dundee, Ill., a German and history double major, has been named a 2006-07
Fulbright Scholar and will teach English at the high school and vocational
school level
in Germany for ten months beginning September 2006.
Alumni and alumnae of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving
teams gather for a reunion marking the 50th anniversary of the team, which
has had only two coaches during that time: R. Gene Davis from 1956 to 1991
and Kurt Kirner from 1991 to the present. Sadly, Coach Davis, who has been
in failing
health, dies shortly
after the reunion, on April 14.
Lawrence’s eighth annual Earth Day Festival begins with a group trash
clean-up of the north bank of the Fox River, features a variety of earth-friendly
activity and information booths from student and community environmental organizations,
includes a “Bring Your Own Plate and Cup” picnic lunch, and is
highlighted by an appearance by folk singer Peter Siegel.
Ten members of Lawrence’s Model United Nations group are among the 3,500
college students attending the National Model United Nations Conference held
at the U.N. building in New York City. The Lawrence students represent Liberia
and have spent nearly six months studying and preparing.
The Conservatory of Music celebrates the 100th birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich
and the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with concerts by the Lawrence
Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of David Becker, and the Lawrence University
Concert Choir, Women’s Choir, Chorale, and White
Heron Chorale, conducted by Richard Bjella.
May 2006
The softball team sweeps the top honors on the All-Midwest Conference North
Division team and qualifies for the four-team league tournament for the fifth
consecutive season. Catcher Loni Philbrick-Linzmeyer ’06, Green Bay,
is named the Player of the Year, Catherine Marinac ’08, St. Paul, Minn.,
is chosen as Pitcher of the Year, and Kim Tatro is named Coach of the Year
for the fifth time in 14 seasons. The Vikings fail to win the league title
but finish with a 17-16 record for their ninth winning season in ten years.
Skappleton, Lawrence’s decade-old festival of Ska music, features such
bands as Mustard Plug, The Invaders, I Voted for Kodos, Something to Do, and
more.
The Theatre Arts Department presents Our Country’s Good by Timberlake
Wertenbaker, directed by Timothy Troy ’85. The play, set in Australia’s
Botany Bay penal colony, traces one of the more unusual events of the new settlement,
the staging of George Farquhar’s play, The Recruiting Officer, using
an all-convict cast.
Gordon Taylor ’65 presents a slide-illustrated lecture “Dr. Grant
and the Christian Tribes of Kurdistan, 1835-44” based on his 2005 book,
Fever and Thirst: A Missionary Doctor
Amid the Christian Tribes of Kurdistan. Dr. Asahel Grant, a country doctor
from upstate New York, was among the first Americans to live in the Middle
East.
John T. Gates, visiting assistant professor of music, speaks on “Romantic
Dualism in Schumann’s Eichendorff Liederkreis” in the Mortar Board
First Chance/Last Chance lecture series, which features Lawrence faculty members
who are in either their first or last year at the college. Later in the month,
John Shimon and
Julie Lindemann, assistant professors of studio art, will present
a First Chance/Last Chance lecture, “Contemporary Art from the 1980s
to the Present: A View from the American Midwest.”
Joe Loehnis ’06, Appleton, becomes the first golfer in
Lawrence history to be named to the NCAA Division III Ping All-America team
by the Golf
Coaches Association of America. Loehnis, a third-team selection,
also earned all-conference honors for the third time after taking second at
the Midwest Conference Championship. The Vikings take third place at the league
tournament, with Matt Orth ’06, St. Cloud, Minn., and Andy Link ’06,
Rochester, Minn., also earning all-conference honors.
The Student Organization for University Programming (SOUP) brings singer and
songwriter Ben Kweller to campus for a major concert, which also features an
opening set by the Lawrence student group Denes.
The one-man play Marx in Soho is presented by Students for Leftist Action.
The final Jazz Series concert of 2005-06 is by the Joshua Redman Trio, also
known as The Elastic Band.
Christopher Impey, University Distinguished Professor and deputy head of the
astronomy department at the University of Arizona, delivers two lectures as
a Harlow Shapely Visiting Lecturer from the American Astronomical Society.
For a Science Hall Colloquium, he addresses “Cosmic Evolution: From Big
Bang to Biology” and the next day speaks on “Probing Dark Energy
with Quasars” at a Physics Colloquium.
Rob Neilson, assistant professor of studio art, delivers a Lunch at Lawrence
lecture on “Balancing the Public and the Art in Public Art.”
Peter DeVries ’84, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Entomology
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, delivers a Recent Advances in
Biology lecture titled “Wisconsin Biodiversity
Informatics.”
The Mêlée modern-dance company presents its annual concert, “Dance:
Music Made Visible.”
The Fifth Annual Lawrence Shack-A-Thom raises nearly $3,800 for Habitat for
Humanity. Participating student groups build shacks on Main Hall Green from “found” materials
and sleep in them overnight.
Physicist Laura Greene, a leading experimenter in the physics of novel materials,
discusses her research on high-temperature superconductors in a pair of lectures
at Lawrence. On consecutive days, Greene, the Swanlund Professor of Physics
at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois,
presents “High Temperature Superconductors: From Broken Symmetries to
Cell Phones” and a more-advanced follow-up talk titled “High Temperature
Superconductors: Playgrounds for Broken Symmetries.”
Judge D. Michael Lynn ’65, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern
District of Texas, delivers the Honors Convocation address, “American
Justice: Proud Promise or Oxymoron — How Does the Legal System Measure
Up?” and also conducts an afternoon question-and-answer session. At the
convocation, as is traditional, students and others are recognized for their
achievements during the academic year.
The world premiere of “We Fall...We Rise,” an alumni-commissioned
work by composer Javier Arau ’98, is a highlight of the
second annual Saxophone Studio and Alumni Recital. In addition, more than 30
alumni and current saxophonists are joined by a three-member percussion ensemble
and a pianist in a multi-media presentation of Louis Andriessen’s “Workers
Union.” Alumni and current students also perform works by Philip Glass,
Michael Torke, and Jacob Teichroew ’06.
Drawing from a pool of applicants that soared nearly 300 percent from its initial
year in 2005, Lawrence University appoints an additional five recent Ph.D.
or terminal graduate degree recipients to its Lawrence
Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program for the 2006-07
academic year. The five new appointments — representing an acceptance
rate of less than one percent from among 616 applicants — bring the number
of postdoctoral fellows in residence at Lawrence in fall 2006 to 12. Seven
fellows who received two-year appointments in the first year of the program
return for their second year.
Bethany Wiese ’08, a tuba player from Davenport, Iowa, is chosen to perform
with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra during a month-long tour in June.
She is the only tubist selected for the 40-member orchestra, which performs
mostly waterfront concerts on a specially-designed barge.
An alumni physics symposium honors Professors John Brandenberger and David
Cook in their last year of full-time teaching with presentations by seven graduates
of the department. Topics range from “Physics
of PET Imaging and Its Use in Radiation Treatment of Cancer” to “Birth
of Neutron Stars.”
June 2006
The annual Science Hall, Briggs Hall, and Youngchild Hall Faculty-Student Poster
Session is held in the Science Hall atrium.
The weekend before Commencement, President Beck and members of the senior class,
in what they hope will become a tradition, plant flowers at the campus entrance
and other spots along College Avenue.
Tim Spurgin, associate professor of English and Bonnie Glidden Buchanan Professor
of English Literature, is invited by the graduating Class of 2006 to speak
at their Baccalaureate service on June 10. Class officers taking roles in leading
the service are Lou Perella, president; Maggie Leverence, vice president; Carmen
Jeglum, class secretary; and Claire Thompson-Vieira, class agent.
On June 11, 298 seniors from 36 states and 21 foreign countries receive bachelor’s
degrees at Lawrence’s 157th Commencement. Honorary doctoral degrees are
awarded to Emmy-
winning television producer and director Catherine Tatge ’72, Doctor
of Fine Arts, and businessman-turned-cultural advocate and founder of the Chicago
Humanities Festival Richard Franke, Doctor of Humane Letters. Both honorary
degree recipients, along with President Jill Beck, Board of Trustees Chair
William Hochkammer ’66, and student representative Jeni Houser ’06,
Stoughton, address the graduates.
Each year, the college recognizes members of its faculty for excellence
in teaching and scholarship. John Brandenberger, the Alice G. Chapman Professor
of Physics, is the first recipient of the new Excellence in Scholarship and
Creative Activity Award; Karen Carr, professor of religious studies, is presented
the Award for Excellence
in Teaching; and Faith Barrett, assistant professor of English, receives the
Young Teacher Award. At the Honors Convocation in May, Michael Orr, professor
of art history, was announced as the winner of the 2005-06 Freshman Studies
Teaching Award.
Retiring faculty members Mark
Dintenfass, professor of English, and William
Perreault, professor of biology, are recognized at Commencement with honorary
Master of Arts degrees, ad eundem, and promotion to the rank of professor emeritus.
Dintenfass has taught at Lawrence since 1968 and Perreault since 1971.
Hortonville High School biologist Jackie Dorow and Karen Brownell, a mathematics
teacher at Pittsville High School, are the 2006 recipients of Lawrence University’s
Outstanding Teaching
in Wisconsin Award. The award recognizes secondary-school
teachers for excellence; recipients are nominated by Lawrence seniors who were
their students in high school.
More than 900 alumni gather for Reunion
Weekend, June 16-18. Celebrating reunions
this year are the Classes of 1941, 1951, 1956, 1960-62, 1966, 1981, 1985-87,
and 1996. Special guests on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Lawrence’s
Brombaugh Opus 33 tracker organ are alumni of the conservatory who, as the
Tracker Backers, campaigned for its creation.
The Reunion Convocation, presided over by Lawrence University Alumni Association
President Linda Laarman ’73 and featuring
an address by President Beck, is also the occasion for presentation of gifts
to the college by reunion classes and the awarding of alumni awards. Honorees
include Arthur D. Ullian ’61 (the Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement
Award); Catherine A. Statz ’96 (the Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni Distinguished
Achievement Award); Jose Hernandez Ugalde ’96 (the George B. Walter ’36
Service to Society Award); and Margaret Banta Humleker ’41, Kathleen
Karst Larson ’60, and Peter G. Kelly ’87 (the Gertrude Breithaupt
Jupp M-D’18 Service Award).
The theme of the 2006 Mielke Summer Institute in the Liberal Arts is “Foxes
and Hedgehogs, Bees and Spiders: Liberal Education in Difficult Times.” Open
to teachers from the Appleton and Shawano school districts, the institute is
made possible by a grant from
the Mielke Family Foundation, Inc.
The 2006 Summer Institute for Secondary School
Teachers is an intense enrichment
experience for those who teach Advanced Placement or other accelerated courses
for high school students capable of college-level work. Subject-matter areas,
taught primarily by Lawrence faculty members, include British and American
literature, calculus, chemistry, microeconomics, European history,
music theory, psychology, Spanish language and literature, and world history.
www.lawrence.edu