Tickets are still available! Get into the Irish spirit by celebrating St. Pat's Day early. While the University Union will not be serving green beer (a local custom for some in these parts) the selection of Irish food by Jay Larson and his staff is sure to impress. The date is Friday, March 8, from noon to 1 p.m., in the Phoenix Room. The menu: Brotchan Roy (a leek oatmeal soup), ballymaloe spiced beef and gravy, cod, crusty roast potatoes, butter cabbage, roast parsnip and carrots, Irish soda bread, and apple custard pie. Tickets are $7.25 for students, $8.25 for faculty/staff, and $9.25 for community members. Irish harp music will be presented by Cheryl Murphy. See the University Information Center to buy tickets before Wednesday.

The Phoenix Sports Center sends word that a new class, "Fitness Light," starts this week. Options include a weekday session (noon MWF) and an evening session (7 p.m. Thursdays), offering the choice of either three times or one time per week. Certified instructor Londa Kline will keep your feet moving and your heart pumping by leading participants through low-impact and joint-safe movements set to music. The details:

Session I, MWF noon-1 p.m., March 4 through April 12, $54
Session II, Thursdays, 7 to 8 p.m., March 7 through April 25, $24

To register, call the PSC at 465-2449.

All are invited when Wisconsin Public Service Corp. unveils and demonstrates its information kiosk at 10:45 a.m. Monday (March 4) at the kiosk located between the Winter Garden windows and the Center for Biodiversity on the second floor of Mary Ann Cofrin Hall. The kiosk is a source for information about — among other things — the building's solar performance, earth-friendly construction and daylighting design. Among the fascinating "bells and whistles" is real-time read-out of the amount of electricity being generated by sunlight on roofing panels and "vision glass" in the building.

Wisconsin Public Service Corp. partnered with UW-Green Bay in making possible the technology that enables Mary Ann Cofrin Hall to generate part of its electricity from the sun. The photovoltaic roofing and glazing are the first such installations in Wisconsin; the "vision glass" is the first installation of its kind in the U.S. It's partly a research project to determine the cost and performance of photovoltaic technology, and agencies including the State of Wisconsin and the U.S. Department of Energy are interested in the results. The data also is useful to graduate student John Potokar, who is using it in his thesis project. He's working with Profs. John Stoll, Public and Environmental Affairs, and John Katers, Natural and Applied Sciences.

The American Intercultural Center will be celebrating a 30-year anniversary on Monday, March 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. with a campuswide reception. The event celebrates a history that began in March 1972 when the precursor to the AIC, the Ethnic Heritage Center, opened on the third floor of the library. At that time an acting board, consisting of faculty and students, was in charge instead of a director. Want to know more? Join your colleagues in the AIC for the 30-Year Anniversary Celebration!

Ed Thompson, Libertarian candidate for governor of Wisconsin and brother of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, will visit the UW-Green Bay campus Tuesday, March 5. Thompson will speak to two American Government and Politics classes: Nicholas Whitman's class at 8 a.m. in Room 210 of Mary Ann Cofrin Hall and Denise Scheberle's class at 9:30 a.m. in Room 250 of Rose Hall.

Expect to hear more about the governor's proposal for his Budget Reform Bill in the coming weeks, beginning on Tuesday. Gov. Scott McCallum will deliver his State of the State Address to a joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday (March 5) at 7 p.m.

The UW-Green Bay women's basketball team last night took a first step toward earning the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Phoenix beat last-place Butler 63-45 in the conference quarterfinals. Meanwhile, top threat and No. 2 seed UW-Milwaukee is out, having dropped a 75-67 stunner to underdog UIC. UW-Green Bay is favored tonight in the semifinals vs. Loyola in Chicago. UW-Green Bay, 22-6 overall, beat Loyola by 14 and 19 points during the regular season.

The women's basketball game tonight (Friday) will be played at 7:30 p.m. in Chicago. Previous schedules listed a later start time. The game will be carried by WNFL-AM1440. Sunday's championship game take place at 2 p.m. at Loyola's Gentile Center.

If you want to see Ousmane Sembene's film, "Faat Kine" (Senegal, 2000), but can't make it to the scheduled showing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (March 6) at the Neville Public Museum, you may be able to catch it on campus. Anyone is welcome when Prof. Kenneth Fleurant shows the film at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Christie Theater to his Francophone World class. The film is about the struggles and triumphs of a single mother in Dakar, Senegal, and, according to its director, is a tribute to the everyday heroism of African women. Prof. David Coury, coordinator of the Green Bay Film Society series, notes that the theme fits nicely with other Women's History month events.

The opening reception for Midwest Print Invitational: Digital Focus runs from 4:30 to 7 p.m. today (March 1) in the Lawton Gallery, with a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m.

Going to Madison next weekend? The Wisconsin Triennial exhibition at the Madison Art Center opens with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 9. Among the highlighted artists is Prof. Carol Emmons of UW-Green Bay, who was invited to create a new site-specific installation, "Surveying Desire." Admission is $5.

The Art Agency "Empty Bowls" benefit raised just under $1,600 for Paul's Pantry — its "best ever" charity event. Members express their appreciation to all who came to have chili and a bowl, and to all who helped. Prof. Curt Heuer and his ceramics students made the bowls; students from Jazz Society provided music during the event; Kavarna, Title Town Brewing, the Stadium View Sports Bar, Legends Sports Bar, and Bistro by George donated chili; Not by Bread Alone provided bread; Lox, Stock and Bagel gave bagels; and Chartwells was generous with toppings and services.

Rachel Gaunt, who'll talk on "Badvertising: Advertising's Distorted Women and Girls" at the Women's Recognition luncheon at noon on Wednesday (March 6) will be the guest from 8-9 a.m. Tuesday (March 5) on the Tom Clark Show on Ideas Network stations of Wisconsin Public Radio. Gaunt will talk on misrepresentation of women in advertising and take questions from callers. The radio program will repeat from 8 to 9 p.m.

Three Environmental Science and Policy graduate students are presenting papers today (Friday, March 1) at The Wildlife Society's annual statewide conference in Madison. David Marks is presenting a paper on a study entitled "Feasibility of Administering an Oral Reproductive Inhibitor to Resident Canada Geese," which he and several other students carried out with Kurt Vercauteren, a biologist in the USDA-APHIS National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, CO. Steve Price and Mike Stiefvater are presenting a second paper entitled "Wildlife-Related Research at UW-Green Bay." These talks were the result of an invitation by the statewide chair of the society, who expressed an interest by himself and others about research by UW-Green Bay students.