Vol. 33, No. 66 / July 15, 2002

New web design launches today!

Visitors to www.uwgb.edu are seeing a dramatically different design. UW-Green Bay is retooling its Website beginning with the institutional homepage unveiled today (Monday, July 15). The new page features images, news, and navigation tools designed to get users to most pages in as few as two clicks. Gone is the photo-in-the-middle layout that, while eye-catching when new in 1999 (it once showed up in a national survey of college students as to their favorite designs), ultimately fell short in terms of ease of use and navigability. The new site is, of course, a work in progress. The homepage and the next tier of pages are the first and most noticeable of a series of changes expected to be phased in before the opening of fall semester classes. Questions about navigation features, organizational structure, or new services should be directed to webmaster Paula Ganyard at ganyardp@uwgb.edu.

What's new?

With the new design, the left column presents two clearly delineated approaches for entering the site: by constituency group or by a menu of frequently visited destinations. The links for constituency groups send users to pages of particular interest, allowing them to get to their information destination faster. For example, the Faculty & Staff page provides instant access to such commonly used resources as Web Outlook email accounts, the Student Information System, and administrative forms. Along with the list of frequently visited sites (Admissions, Athletics and Weidner Center/Arts, among others) the homepage also includes an "A-Z Index" and a new campus search engine powered by Google for quick navigation. Marketing and University Communication will update images and content for the "Campus Welcome" and news headlines in the center and right columns.

What's elsewhere?

Several items have been moved off the front page. Web Outlook is now found on the "Current Students," "Faculty/Staff," and the A-Z Index pages. The Student Information System is also on these pages. The Administrative Forms are located on "Faculty/Staff" and A-Z Index. The "UW-Green Bay Today" page has been discontinued now that news and campus welcome are on the homepage.

Finally, banner brings common look

One other significant change with the new Website involves common visual imagery. The new web site incorporates the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay wordmark and logo throughout. A banner containing the wordmark, logo, and a navigation bar to key pages (including the Library, Departments & People, Current Students, and Faculty & Staff pages) will be found on all administrative department web pages, providing for continuity and easy navigation. The new homepage is at http://www.uwgb.edu

Lab Sciences groundbreaking was picture-perfect

Last Tuesday's gathering for Lab Sciences groundbreaking was a festive get-together for UW-Green Bay people past and present. Hope Mercier, Jim Wiersma, Chuck Ihrke, Don Larmouth, Donna Ritch, Sen. Dave Hansen and others too numerous to mention were captured in snapshots. For an online gallery, start at the groundbreaking photo of Founding Chancellor Edward Weidner and his wife, Marge, at http://www.uwgb.edu

Contractors announced for Lab Sciences; work to begin soon

Heading the list as general contractor for the Laboratory Sciences project is Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah. Other local firms announced today are Van Den Heuvel Electric, Inc., De Pere, electrical; and August Winters, Appleton, plumbing. For more news, click on http://www.uwgb.edu/univcomm/news/archive/2002july.htm#contractors

Plier is named a Fulbright Senior Specialist

Prof. John Plier, Communication and the Arts, has been named by the Fulbright Foundation to its roster of Fulbright Senior Specialists. The Senior Specialist program is part of the Fulbright Scholars Program, through which scholars and artists are sent abroad at the request of foreign countries to provide lectures, master classes, concerts, evaluations, and other services in their areas of expertise. Senior Specialist assignments typically are two to six weeks in duration.

Tiny spiders are big news for Draney

Prof. Michael Draney's research and his presentation of it at the June annual meeting of the American Arachnological Society in Riverside, Calif. launched him into the news. The recent hype over the new "Spiderman" movie probably didn't hurt, either. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Chicago Sun-Times newspapers both carried stories. Draney was the lead author, along with Petra Sierwald and Nina Sandlin of Chicago's Field Museum of a paper they presented, "Inventory of linyphiids from burned and unburned oak woodland/savanna habitats in Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois." The paper was the result of three years Draney invested in helping the Field Museum identify hundreds of tiny sheet web spiders in its collection. Sierwald credits Draney as "one of seven or so people in the world" who is knowledgeable about sheet web spiders.

Press, of course, dubs him 'Spiderman'

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel carried a major feature on Prof. Michael Draney and his work; the Chicago Sun-Times story (already gone from its on-line archive) noted that one of the Cook County spiders Draney identified is a "first' in the U.S. Draney, who teaches in Natural and Applied Sciences, notes a few factual errors in the otherwise excellent media coverage. Former student Bruce Snyder's name was misreported, and spiders were referred to as "insects." They're not. Ever. They are arachnids. You can view the Journal-Sentinel article at http://www.jsonline.com/news/gen/jun02/55786.asp

UW-Green Bay grad shares in arachnological spotlight

UW-Green Bay May graduate Bruce Snyder presented a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Arachnological Society along with Prof. Michael Draney, and got ink in the Journal-Sentinel story, too. Their poster, "A survey of the terrestrial non-insect macroarthropods of Toft Point Natural Area, Wisconsin," reported on a three-day blitz at Toft Point last spring during which the two collected 90 species of spiders, 10 of which had never before been reported in Wisconsin. Snyder had received a Cofrin Arboretum Research Award for the project and reported on the survey at an on-campus symposium presented by grant recipients in March.

UW-Green Bay nursing student takes home award

Recently, Jon Hagen, RN, UW-Green Bay Collaborative Nursing Program student and flight nurse on the ThedaStar helicopter, received the 2002 Nightingale Award celebrating excellence in nursing practice. This award includes $1,000 and a commemorative art piece representing the spirit of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. The award received was for exceptional care provided by Jon to the Mark Roher family after Mrs. Roher was seriously injured in an auto crash in 2001. As Mr. Rohrer stated, "Hagen provided the type of care that saved Lisa's life. After the accident, Hagen continued to care about Lisa and our family." The nursing faculty here has learned of additional stories of extraordinary care provided by Hagen aboard ThedaStar, reaching out to trauma victims with holistic, professional, and extremely competent nursing care. Faculty members have contact information if other members of the campus community would like to extend congratulations to Jon Hagen for an award well deserved.

New: LTE staff members are now eligible for email

Effective immediately, Information Services will provide e-mail accounts for all LTE staff hired to work more than 30 days. LTE employees will be added to the UW-Green Bay distribution list and thus will receive all communications distributed to the entire campus. The process of setting up the accounts will be automatic. When the Human Resources Department receives a completed LTE form, the staff will forward a copy of the form to Ruth Anderson of CIT, who will enter the employee into the PeopleSoft Campus Community database. The email account will be available to the employee the next day. Supervisors will be responsible for ensuring that new employees are shown how to access their email accounts. Information Services is happy to provide training as needed. Supervisors should call the Help Desk (2309) to schedule training.

Whose idea? Yours!

Incidentally, the need to provide accounts for LTEs was identified by colleagues speaking up in a "Get to Know" session with Chancellor Shepard. Human Resources and Information Services worked together to craft the solution.

Supervisors should call Ruth Anderson with questions

There may be some LTE employees hired prior to July 15 who do not currently have an email account. For such cases, supervisors should notify Ruth Anderson, who will take the necessary steps to set up an email account.

Dining services management includes old, new

The top management team for UW-Green Bay's new dining service will include a mixture of new and familiar faces. The changes are due to the University's new dining services contract with Sodexho Campus Services, which takes effect Aug. 12.

First the new. Wisconsin native Jeff Lee has been named general manager of dining services. He comes here from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., where he has been general manager of dining services since 1992. Lee is a 1981 graduate of UW-0shkosh. His first job in dining services was at Marquette University. The catering director also will be new to campus. He is Sarjit Singh, catering director at Kalamazoo College in Michigan since 1997. Singh is a 1986 graduate of Eastern Michigan University and has worked in catering since 1982.

Now the familiar. Tammy Elliott, currently assistant director/retail manager of food services, will stay on as retail manager. Jay Larson also will continue as executive chef. Tonia Hassemer, formerly of catering, has been hired by Sodexho as an administrative assistant.

P.S.: 'Lunch Ladies' have been invited to stay

And, in case you haven't heard, you'll continue to see the familiar, smiling faces of the food-service and checkout workers known affectionately by students as the "lunch ladies." According to Kurt Willmann, executive director of Business Enterprises and Project Administration for UW-Green Bay, the intent under the Sodexho contract is to retain all hourly employees who have worked under Chartwells' management of dining services. In fact, the most prominent departure with the switch is that of outgoing dining services director Jim Laughlin, who'll leave campus but remain in Green Bay. He has been named senior purchasing manager for the Lambeau Field account of Levy Restaurant Sports and Entertainment Group.

Governor's Health Care Listening Session Set for Green Bay

The second state health care listening session hosted by Gov. Scott McCallum will take place at 3 p.m. on Monday, July 22, on the UW-Green Bay campus. The listening session here will take place in the Phoenix Room of the University Union. Insurance Commissioner Connie L. O'Connell and Health and Family Services Secretary Phyllis Dubé will again lead the session. The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) has a Web page with information about the listening sessions at http://oci.wi.gov/special/listen.htm. The page includes a schedule for future sessions, written testimony from participants at the first session in Milwaukee, and details about the Governor's WEHL initiative.

NEWIST, public TV unit draw kudos

High praise from a prominent corner came recently for the people of NEWIST and the Wisconsin Public Television production unit housed on campus. Journal-Sentinel media columnist Joanne Weintraub wrote of their budget situation in late June. While the news is dated, her glowing reviews of their past efforts are not. The column is archived at http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/jul02/55956.asp

Briefs

Prof. Emeritus Jack Frisch, Communication and the Arts, has been invited to present a paper at a major international conference, "after Beckett d'après Beckett" in January 2003 at the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf Theatre in Australia. Frisch's paper is entitled, "An Influence Addendum: who influences whom?" Frisch, since the mid-1950s, has directed most of Beckett's early works, and his doctoral dissertation was on irony in Beckett, Pinter, Ionesco and Genet. He has made many presentations on Beckett, including a 1991 Beckett Symposium in Monaco. The Sydney conference is endorsed by the Beckett International Foundation and the Samuel Beckett Society, and features prominent academics, artists and theater practitioners.

Prof. John Plier, Communication and the Arts, spent two weeks in Germany in May, working with a well-known vocal pedagogue, and then traveled to Slovakia, where he presented a concert on June 2 at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Bratislava. His work with Roberta Cunningham in Berlin was funded partially by a Communication and the Arts faculty development grant, and by a grant from a private foundation. In Bratislava, Plier sang a recital of Franz Schubert's "Winterreise," op. 89, accompanied by Slovakian pianist Robert Pechanec. Plier also conducted master classes in musical theater for advanced students at the Academy.

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