July 1998

Registration opens for part-time "specials"
at UW-Green Bay

GREEN BAY - The latest enrollment update from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay holds good news for Northeastern Wisconsin residents interested in registering as "special" students.

Projections which show that UW-Green Bay is on course to stay within its fall 1998 enrollment limits will permit the registration, as planned, of about 300 additional part-time students for the fall semester. Registration began this week and continues through the first day of classes on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

(The category "special" typically describes adults who are not necessarily pursuing degrees but are interested in courses for personal enrichment or career advancement. They are allowed to sign up for undergraduate or graduate courses that still have openings once degree-seeking students have accommodated. Most "specials" take only a single course.)

Some of the fall courses with openings include introductory sections in accounting, business, art, chemistry, communication, computer science, environmental science, the humanities, and a variety of fields in the social sciences.

Those interested in applying for fall admission as specials will be asked to complete a short, one-page application form. Students who were enrolled as specials during the spring semester do not need to re-apply. Those not already admitted or enrolled should contact the UW-Green Bay Admissions Office at 920-465-2111 for more information.

By Katharine C. Lyall, President
University of Wisconsin System

Meeting customers' needs is the driving force behind every successful Wisconsin business. The University of Wisconsin System is no different. While the curriculum is forged by faculty, we work hard to deliver our services in the most convenient and efficient manner for our students.

Last year, we began a new pilot program at two UW campuses that is specifically designed to meet the needs of students who wish to complete their undergraduate degree in four years. At UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, a small group of freshmen signed a "graduation contract" that commits each of them and the university to work together to fulfill the students' goal of graduation in four years.

This fall, the four-year graduation contract will be offered statewide, at every four-year UW System campus. Students wishing to participate will attend a required informational workshop prior to the start of classes.

Once a student signs the graduation contract, he or she will work closely with an adviser dedicated to helping the student achieve the four-year graduation goal. The adviser will help plot a degree plan, assist in obtaining required courses, and monitor the student's academic progress.

If a required course is not available, the campus will approve a substitute or waive the requirement. If for some unlikely reason a student follows the recommended schedule of classes, does passing work, and still does not meet the requirements of his or her major, the UW will pay for any additional classes needed to graduate. (Such a circumstance might occur if an external licensing authority were to change its requirements midstream.)

I'm excited about this program because it helps students and it's good for the UW System. Students who know what they want and who are able to sign the four-year graduation contract will help every UW campus to schedule faculty and instructional resources more efficiently. I stress the word "able" because this program isn't for every student. Some undergraduates switch academic majors well into their undergraduate experience. Others don't choose a major until after their sophomore year. Some students, for financial reasons, take a lighter credit load each semester to accommodate work needed to pay for college expenses. Still others have family responsibilities, or opt to pursue a double major. All of these can legitimately extend a student's program.

A recent study by the UW Board of Regents found that since the early 1970s, less than 25 percent of new freshmen in the UW System have graduated in four years or less. Students who do so, however, significantly reduce their cost of college.

In most academic programs, the opportunity to graduate in four years has never been brighter. Some programs, however, cannot be completed in four years due to internships, licensing, specialized coursework, study abroad or field experience required by employers.

Graduating "on time" has always meant different things to different people. Some students don't expect to graduate in four years. For those who do, the four-year graduation contract is a customer-friendly tool to help them succeed.

To learn more about the four-year graduation contract, please contact the Admissions Office of the UW campus in your area, or call the toll-free HELP Line at 1-800-442-6459.

GREEN BAY - Toft Point, A Legacy of People and Pines, tells the history of a significant natural area on Lake Michigan in Door County, and much more. The new book by Roy Lukes, chief naturalist and administrator of the Ridges Sanctuary in Bailey's Harbor from 1964 to 1990, is published by Nature-Wise, Egg Harbor.

Toft Point is part of the 743-acre Toft Point Natural Area administered by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The land bears the family name of Thomas Toft, a Danish immigrant who in 1871 got a job as a stone quarry foreman on the point. In 1874, he married Julia Anne Panter, the daughter of English immigrants, and she joined him at the quarry. The following year, Thomas Toft began acquiring land on the point, and much of it remained in possession of Toft heirs until The Nature Conservancy purchased it in 1967 and turned over its management to the Cofrin Arboretum Program at UW-Green Bay.

Lukes tells how the land might have been Jensen Point - Toft's actual family name - had Thomas and his brothers not decided when they arrived that Wisconsin had too many Jensens, and took the name Toft in honor of their home region in Denmark.

Thomas Toft and his wife had eight children and though the family moved to Bailey's Harbor in 1891, they not only kept the property on the lake shore, but maintained a strong connection to it. Thomas died in 1919, and the following year, in order to generate income, daughter Emma Toft and her mother began operating a rustic resort at Toft Point. Over the next 62 years, until her death in 1982, Emma Toft became irrevocably identified with teaching about and preserving nature through her efforts at Toft Point and her work on the board at the Ridges Sanctuary.

Lukes incorporates newspaper items, letters, academic research, and reminiscences about and by Toft family members, as well as his own recollections to provide a detail-rich narrative. He even includes a few of Emma Toft's recipes.

In a chapter devoted to the natural history of Toft Point, Lukes explains how unique its plant life is in Northeast Wisconsin: the nearest location with equal diversity of boreal (northern) plant species is halfway to James Bay in northern Canada. Another chapter tells about the native American inhabitants of the region before Europeans came.

Readers interested in more information about either natural or human history at Toft Point will find the appendices useful. They include descriptions of the plant communities, lists of common plants and animals, a list of natural history studies done at Toft Point, a history of land transactions at Toft Point, the Toft family tree, and an essay about early Bailey's Harbor. A list of references and a bibliography provide leads for those who might want to do more reading.

Lukes dedicates the book to the Toft family, "pioneers in land preservation, who understood and respected the land to which they belonged."

At the end of the book, Lukes observes how much Baileys Harbor and Door County have changed since Thomas Toft arrived there. But, he observes, "Today, 1998, Toft Point is a lot like it was 126 years ago in 1870. In fact many of the trees that were fairly large then are even bigger today....Wildflowers that bloomed and birds that nested from year to year continue to do so, and the mosquitoes and deer flies are just as pesky now as they always have been."

The author, a Kewaunee native, has taught in Madison, Wisconsin Rapids, and Door County school systems and conducts nature workshops for children and adults throughout Northeast Wisconsin. Lukes is a graduate of UW-Oshkosh and has a master's degree in education from UW-Madison. He writes a regular column carried in several newspapers.

For information about the book's availability: Nature-Wise, P. O. Box 105, Egg Harbor, Wisconsin 54209.