Heard from the stage at Saturday's mid-year commencement at the Weidner Center — Visiting Regent Frederic Mohs offered greetings from UW System, kind words for UW-Green Bay's progress on its various initiatives, and an admiring anecdote about Chancellor Mark Perkins's ability as a leader and advocate. Commencement speaker and key statehouse aide Bob Wood, who scored points with humor, stories from his own experience and some straightforward advice, also drew applause for sharing his excitement at the prospects of Phoenix basketball in a new on-campus facility by the year 2004. Graduating senior Andrea Stiff, class speaker and recipient of the Alumni Association's Outstanding Student Award, delivered her tightly crafted seven-minute speech almost entirely from memory. Last but not least, new announcer Prof. Brian Sutton expertly recited nearly 300 names with nary a mangled Paulescak or Dzimiela in filling in for longtime "voice of commencement" Michael Murphy, whose duties as interim dean occupied him elsewhere on stage.

Look ahead to January and UW-Green Bay Jazz Fest XXXI scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, in the Weidner Center. Jazz Ensemble I, directed by John Salerno, and Vocal Jazz Ensemble, directed by Chris Salerno, will be hosts to guest artist, saxophonist Billy Drewes. Drewes has been composing, performing and recording since the mid-1970s. He is represented on more than 60 recordings, half a dozen of them released in 2000 alone. Most recently he has performed and recorded with artists such as Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, John Schofield, former Jazz Fest guest artist Kenny Werner, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Call 2217 for tickets.

Teams from UW-Green Bay won the two top spots in the 8th annual Global Marketplace competition, a business simulation exercise that allows students to make all of the decisions that a start-up business might make. The five-student "Inatech" group was named "market master," and students calling themselves "Virtucom" took second place. Three UW-Green Bay teams competed against students from Tennessee State University, Zamosc College of Management and Public Administration and Czestochowa University of Foreign Languages and Economics, both in Poland, and the University of Economic Sciences in Hungary. The UW-Green Bay students who competed are all members of the Senior Seminar in Business Problems course taught by Alla Wilson, Business Administration. Wilson says the goal of the exercise is to integrate all the functional knowledge in a business.