About 550 researchers from throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as other countries are gathering on campus this week for the 44th annual conference of the International Association for Great Lakes Research. IAGLR is a scientific organization that promotes research on the North American Great Lakes and other large lakes of the world. Conference co-chairs Prof. David Dolan, Natural and Applied Sciences, and Victoria A. Harris, Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, say the organization provides a forum for airing research-based theories about courses of action for restoring the Great Lakes and arriving at consensus. More than 400 scientific papers on topics ranging from food webs and fisheries to cormorant management to remediation of contaminated sediments to evidence of climate-driven global change will have been presented by the time the four-day conference wraps up Thursday (June 14).

UW-Green Bay researchers chaired tracks and presented papers and posters at this week's IAGLR conference on campus. Professors Emeritus H.J. (Bud) Harris and Paul Sager, Natural and Applied Sciences, were two of the three chairs of a track on The Green Bay Ecosystem. Harris also chaired a track on Contaminants in Wildlife and Sager led sessions on Plankton in the Great Lakes. Prof. Brian Merkel, Human Biology, was co-chair of Human Health Effects from Eating Great Lakes Fish, and also chaired sessions on Economic, Social and Education Issues in the Great Lakes. Prof. Tara Reed-Andersen, Natural and Applied Sciences, led the track on Riparian Zones and Watersheds. And Prof. Emeritus Robert Wenger, Natural and Applied Sciences, chaired Analytical Tools Applicable to Ecosystem-Based Decision-Making in the Great Lakes. Among those presenting papers were Tom Erdman, curator of the Richter Museum; Prof. Robert Howe, Natural and Applied Sciences; and Harris and Wenger. Prof. Andrew Fiala, Humanistic Studies, and Prof. David Dolan, Natural and Applied Sciences, made a joint presentation.

Prof. David Dolan, Natural and Applied Sciences, and Victoria A. Harris, Sea Grant Institute, co-chaired the organizing committee that brought the IAGLR conference to campus. Committee members included Prof. Emeritus H.J. (Bud) Harris, Natural and Applied Sciences, and student Amy Fettes. Dolan chaired the program committee. Victoria Harris and Bud Harris served on that group, along with Prof. Emeritus Paul Sager, Professors Kevin Fermanich, Tara Reed-Andersen, and Patricia Terry, all of Natural and Applied Sciences, and Michael Kraft, Public and Environmental Affairs, and Brian Merkel, Human Biology.

Dr. Li Wei, who spent the year 2000 as a visiting scholar at UW-Green Bay, returned this week to attend the IAGLR conference on campus, along with two colleagues from China. Dr. Yang Zhifeng is director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Beijing Normal University and Dr. Xia Xinghui is a lecturer at the Institute. Dr. Xia presented a conference paper. The visitors also toured the Green Bay/Fox River watershed and other points of interest and met with other researchers in this country. Li Wei, an associate professor at the Institute at Beijing Normal University, spent last year in Green Bay sponsored by the Asian Visiting Scholars Program, established by Professors Emeritus H. Jack Day and Robert Wenger and their wives Jan Day and Lena Wenger.

The UW System news bureau shares information today regarding Wisconsin Act 11, the legislation passed in late 1999 to provide increased benefits to participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System. The state Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it upholds all aspects of the law, which had been held up by legal challenges. The changes made to the WRS by Act 11 include the following:

— increases the percentage multiplier for creditable service performed prior to Jan. 1, 2000, to 1.765 (for most employees);

— allows those who are participating employees in the WRS on Jan. 1, 2001, to participate in a variable annuity program;

— removes the existing 5 percent interest rate cap on employee required contribution accumulations for certain employees;

— increases the maximum amount of an initial annuity to 70 percent of a person's final earnings, if the person is a participant in the WRS when the bill was signed into law.

Still have questions after reading the previous two items and surfing out to the various news sites? Be patient. The UW-Green Bay Human Resources Office expects to distribute additional information via email later this week.

Heading to Oshkosh today? Call ahead. Parts of the city are apparently still without electricity, two days after Monday night's severe thunderstorms. UW-Oshkosh was closed yesterday with crews dealing with outages and widespread damage caused by winds in excess of 70 mph.

Thursday, June 21, is the date; noon is the time; and the flagstand plaza above the Instructional Services Building is the gathering place for the "Picnic Lunch/Arboretum Walk" organized by the Classified Administrative Support Committee. Lemonade will be provided. All are invited to bring a bag lunch, relax, and enjoy a short walk to the Prairie Pond with naturalist Gary Fewless of NAS. RSVP by this Friday to Carol Wolske.

In the shadow of Lambeau Field and the Resch Center, the future of small business development arrived at 835 Potts Ave. with Tuesday afternoon's ribbon cutting for the new Business Assistance Center. More than 100 people attended. UW-Green Bay is a partner in the venture, which brings under one roof help for entrepreneurs, business start-ups, and emerging or existing businesses looking for assistance with business planning, counseling, mentoring, financing and education. On-site partners include: UW-Green Bay's Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the Advance program of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, the Great Lakes Asset Corporation and the Senior Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). "Small business is where the growth is in our economy," says Jan Thornton of Outreach and Extension. "Consequently, we are excited about bringing all of the services for small business to a centralized, one-stop location rather than having people drive all over Brown County to get the help they need. Doug Gjerde, SBDC coordinator, notes that SBDC had 350 people each year who used business counseling services and 1,200 more who took seminars and workshops when SBDC was headquartered on campus. "Move us to a new location at the Business Assistance Center with Advance, which serves 30 tenants in its small business incubator and has successfully graduated 86, and SCORE, which counsels 350 businesses per year, and it's a real destination for small-business people who want to improve their companies."

A book by Prof. Andrew Kersten, Humanistic Studies and History, has received the 2001 prize for the best book published in American history in 2000 by a graduate student or former student in the History Department at the University of Cincinnati. Kersten's book, Race, Jobs, and the War: The FEPC in the Midwest, 1941-1946, was published last year by University of Illinois Press.

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