UW-Green Bay, Chancellor, FYI November 2008

Jamie Kuhn.
“My first major was biology. However, the interdisciplinary program at UW-Green Bay allowed me to explore other areas of interest, and student organizations allowed me to learn about government and participate in it. It is the reason I’m doing what I’m doing today.”

— Jamie Kuhn, Class of ’95, chief of staff for Wisconsin State Sen. Mark Miller and just one of the alumni serving in politics or public service featured in the November print edition of Inside UW-Green Bay magazine

Students expect record turnout

War, an iffy job market and rising college costs have UW-Green Bay students paying close attention to the McCain-Obama race.
“It is vital for us as students, to get our voices heard in this upcoming election,” said Amber Stuettgen, a senior Social Change and Development major. Amber Stuetgen. “We have heard a lot of talk about the financial crisis being the worst our nation has been in since the Great Depression, and we are losing loved ones to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Statewide, the Wisconsin Student Public Research Interest Group has been touring campuses to mobilize voters.
As of mid-October, WISPIRG’s efforts at UW-Green Bay had resulted in well over 1,000 new registrations alone, making it likely the voter registration for this election will easily surpass that for the 2004 Bush-Kerry race. In that election, 1,215 voters — all residents of the housing complex — cast ballots at the on-campus polling site.
About 2,000 students live on campus. Another 4,000 commute. Robert Guise, the UW-Green Bay coordinator for WISPIRG, factors in those students when he says he expects to have approximately 80 percent of the student body registered to vote on election day.
Ricky Staley, president of the Student Government Association at UW-Green Bay, says a strong primary turnout in spring was another positive indicator.
“One of the beautiful systems we have in this country is the ability to create change. It is one of our responsibilities as an institution to get students to stand up and do something that will make a difference,“ said Staley. “This election is groundbreaking in our country’s history and it’s awesome to think of the impact we could have.”
The voter-registration success at UW-Green Bay has even gained national mention. At one point this fall, the campus ranked among the top 10 in the Ultimate College Bowl. The nationwide competition will provide a Death Cab for Cutie concert, scholarship money and Guitar Hero II games for the school that registers the largest percentage of voters.
According to Staley, the biggest push now is getting students to the polls on Nov. 4. The dedicated polling place for on-campus residents is in the newly renovated University Union.
Predictions? While it’s conventional wisdom that young people trend liberal, that’s up for debate, at least among the 18-to-21-year-old voters who live at UW-Green Bay. In 2004, the Stars and stripes artwork. results on campus (Kerry 624, Bush 591) closely mirrored larger city and regional patterns.

— Reported by editorial intern Sarah Duchow, senior, Communication major, Oconomowoc

War and peace: Common Theme energizes campus

“Waging War, Waging Peace,” the University’s first Common Theme initiative, is off to a roaring start. Faculty, staff and hundreds of students — many crowding for the speaker’s autograph afterward —attended a presentation by war correspondent Kevin Sites in October. Students described the event with phrases such as life-changing, extremely informative, powerful, eye-opening and unbiased. Another Common Theme event was the theatre program’s intense contemporary drama “The Balkan Women,” which received four-star reviews. In addition, a University Wind Ensemble concert focused on a performance of the 9-11 tribute piece, “A Hymn for the Lost and Living.”
The full, year-long series of events tied to the war-and-peace theme is listed at www.uwgb.edu/commontheme. In the next several weeks alone:
• Nov. 7, 4 p.m. Phoenix Room, University Union, free, student United Nations summit simulation
• Nov. 11, 7 p.m. Phoenix Room, University Union, free, “Private Soldiers: A Year in Iraq with a Wisconsin National Guard Unit,” soldiers share their stories
• Nov. 14, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., University Union, $99, the continuing education workshop “War, Bereavement, and Resilience,” for human services professionals

Supervalu’s Jackson returns to serve:
six reappointed to Council of Trustees
A 1976 UW-Green Bay alumnus who is now president and chief operating officer of the Twin Cities-based Supervalu Corporation has been named to the UW-Green Bay Chancellor’s Council of Trustees. Mike Jackson joins the 19-member Council of Trustees, which advises the Chancellor and University and serves as a liaison between UW-Green Bay and the community at large. He will serve a three-year term. In addition to the appointment of Jackson, six Trustees have been reappointed. They are Paul Beideman, president and CEO of Associated Banc-Corp., Green Bay; Rick Beverstein, vice president of AON Risk Services, Green Bay; Robert DeVos, senior vice president-business development, GENCO Inc., Green Bay; Donald Harden, retired president, Bellin Foundation, Green Bay; Louis LeCalsey III, president and CEO, Tufco Technologies Inc., Green Bay; and Virginia Riopelle, civic and community leader, Green Bay.

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Revised 10/28/2008