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April
is a timely month to make that case. In fact, our “Exhibit A” will be
on display, for all to see, on Wednesday, April 14. Exhibit A is actually more than 50 exhibits — student exhibits — in our third annual Academic Excellence Symposium running from 1 to 3 p.m. in the University Union’s Phoenix Room. Don’t miss it. Nearly one hundred of our best student researchers and performers set up booths, displays and posters describing their work, its scientific basis and community application. It is perhaps the single best opportunity for those who aren’t immersed daily in the academic experience to fully appreciate the sophistication and quality of the results being achieved by UWGB students. Among the dozens of exhibitors are the following, just a sample: • Leslie Schroeder and Alexis Watson (Information and Computing Science) Embracing corporate uncertainty • Tricia Senkbeil (Education) Writing collaborative at Red Smith School, Preble High School and UWGB • Sarah Wilk (Natural and Applied Sciences) The effect of prescribed burns on vegetation and arthropods in a northern barrens community • Sarah Voss (Human Development) Development of learning activities to teach about societal attitudes that impact the elderly • Elizabeth Meissner (Communication and the Arts) Art and its uncertainty — facing reality As chancellor, I attend many performances, athletics events, student award programs, ceremonies, special events and visiting lecture programs, and on rare occasion even find time to sit in on classroom presentations. You get a great feel for what UW-Green Bay faculty, staff and students are accomplishing. I think the Symposium, though, adds something extra. Seeing all these displays in one room drives home how our students are “Connecting learning to life.” I hope to see you there, on April 14, in the Phoenix Room. We should also celebrate those students contributing to the first-ever “Posters in the Rotunda” session in Madison on Tuesday, April 27. Students and faculty from all UW schools will display examples of faculty-directed student research for Wisconsin legislators in the Capitol Rotunda between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Among our exhibitors are the following... again, just a sample: • Aimee Monhead, Green Bay Quantitative Morphology of Mars Pathfinder Rocks & Correlation with Multispectral Data • Jill West, Grafton Watch What You Wear: Exploring Sexism • Cofrin Center for Biodiversity students Various studies on small mammals, deer browsing, soil microenvironment, breeding birds, and frogs of Great Lakes coastal wetlands While students around the state are doing advanced work, I am confident our UW-Green Bay participants will stand out, nonetheless. They are the products of an excellent and especially effective liberal arts education. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTOP OF NEXT COLUMN |
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Liberal arts education is education that liberates from the tyranny of one’s
own experience.The “liberal” in liberal arts or liberal education has
nothing to do with politics. It means “liberating.” We critically examine and consciously choose the concepts and definitions we will use, personally, to know the world. That is the liberation from the tyranny of our own experience. Today, we are helping people prepare for careers that do not yet exist, to be effective members of societies that will face challenges that we do not yet know. What we know today, and what we can do today, will have rapidly diminishing relevance. At UWGB, we excel at problem solving because of our commitment to multiple perspectives. Certainly, we emphasize learning how to learn. And, we emphasize engagement in society. But, on the more academic side, what will matter most in dealing with the future is the capacity to grasp the new and novel, from multiple perspectives. That is the UW-Green Bay approach. Proudly on display in April to those visiting the Academic Excellence Symposium and Posters in the Rotunda. Congratulations to all our participating students and their faculty and staff mentors. Before I close, I’d like to share a few words in remembrance of Dr. Ann Lydecker. Ann’s tragic death in a car accident made headlines last week because she was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The news hit with particular force at our house, because the Lydeckers were good friends. We first made their acquaintance when Ann and I were provosts. We were on opposite coasts, but our paths crossed frequently through national professional organizations, conferences and common issues. When Cyndie and I moved to Green Bay not long after Ann and Bill settled in River Falls, we were on opposite coasts again... but this time, of Wisconsin, on either end of Highway 29. Our families would see each other several times a year, and Ann became an invaluable professional mentor to me, helping introduce me to the ways of the UW System. We also happened to share an interest in better connecting our campuses to their respective communities. She was a marvelous leader and an accomplished educator whose tenure ended much too soon. I believe that along with their many achievements together, her colleagues in River Falls will remember her greatest gift was the ability to transform any place she went to a more humane and caring place, for years to come. That’s quite a legacy. I know Cyndie joins me in expressing condolences to Bill, their children and friends. Ann Lydecker set an example that makes us all the richer for learning from it. Thank you for connecting learning to life,  Bruce Shepard |
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