marquette matters oct. 2011
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Marquette Matters October 2011TRANSCRIPT
CAMPUS HAPPENINGS
OCTOBER 2011
100-percent participation is goal for Community CampaignThe Marquette University Community Campaign will run through Friday, Oct. 14, with goals of 100-percent participation among university employees and $300,000 total dollars raised. The campaign gives faculty and staff the opportu-nity to make donations that support three priorities: Marquette University, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and the United Performing Arts Fund. Rana Altenburg, Arts ’88, vice president for public affairs; and Dr. William Cullinan, PT ’81, dean of health sciences, co-chair this year’s campaign. For more information or to donate, go to marquette.edu/mucc. Employees can select which priority they wish to support, as well as payment options such as payroll deductions.
Free retreat to focus on “Listening to God’s Heart Beat”The Faber Center for Ignatian Spirituality will host its free, fall retreat, “The Heart of the Matter: Listening to God’s Heart Beat in the World,” Friday, Oct. 28, to Sunday, Oct. 30, at the Jesuit Retreat House, Oshkosh, Wis. Check-in is Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Departure is after Sunday’s noon lunch. Dr. Laurie Cassidy, assistant professor of religious studies at Marywood University, Scranton, Penn., will serve as retreat director. Register at marquette.edu/faber/retreatregistration.shtml. Space is limited.
Farmers’ market to be held on campusThe last of three “Fresh Fall Farmers’ Markets” will be held Tuesday, Oct. 11, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Parking Lot A (next to the Weasler Auditorium). Items for sale include apples, potatoes, onions, carrots, squash, cider and fresh flowers. Free green grocery bags will be given to the first 200 people. The market is sponsored by MUSG, Sodexo, the Center for Health Education and Promotion, the sustainability program, the Office of Residence Life and the Alumni Memorial Union.
Marquette role in transition from prison to community highlighted at nonprofit galaProject Return, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that facilitates the transition from prison back into the community, will highlight its connection with Marquette faculty and students at its annual gala Saturday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. in the AMU Ballroom. Dr. Ed de St. Aubin, associate professor of psychology, and Department of Social and Cultural Sciences faculty Drs. Heather Hlavka, assistant professor; Rick Jones, associate professor; and Darren Wheelock, assistant professor, have conducted research with Project Return, which has supported dozens of Marquette interns. Former Green Bay Packer Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila will be the keynote speaker. Cost is $50. For more information contact de St. Aubin at 8-2143. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Department of Psychology.
MARQUETTE
C O NT I N U E D O N PAG E 2
A living lab of structural engineeringOpening celebration for newest campus building is Oct. 7By Tim Olsen
When the wind comes rushing down
Wisconsin Avenue on a breezy Milwaukee day,
not only can College of Engineering students
measure the wind speed, they can also study
the real impact of the wind on a structure in
a densely populated urban landscape. Thanks
to the planned wind instrumentation on the
roof and more than 100 sensors built into the
new Engineering Hall, students, faculty and
researchers around the world will be able
to study a vast array of structural behavior
data with monikers such as “lateral load” and
“strain/stress response” from the structure
of the building itself. Data from the sensors
will be available on monitors throughout the
building, including a large screen adjacent to
the first-floor elevators.
“A unique aspect of Engineering Hall is
the instrumentation array for displaying and
experiencing structural behavior real-time in
a very large building,” said Opus Dean Robert
Bishop. “The goal of the instrumentation is to
provide opportunities for undergraduate and
graduate students to generate models for phys-
ical behavior, measure physical behavior and
resolve conflicts between engineering models
of behavior and real behavior. I would contend
that this has never been done in an engineering
college building.”
Engineering Hall is a $50 million,
115,000-square-foot facility specifically designed
to be a living laboratory for students, according
to Bishop. He said students will see various
types of bracing and fire protection, realize
the impact of solar panels and water retention
storage, and be able to access a wide variety of
tools and equipment. “The details of the building
— from the exterior design and front canopy to
the stained and polished concrete floors, from
the LED lighting to the experimental green roof
— are designed to display
engineering and help
students understand basic
engineering principles,”
he said.
With a primarily glass
exterior and the extensive
use of glass for interior
walls, laboratories, shops
and classrooms are readily
visible to students and
visitors. Exposed finishes
and mechanicals help students understand
basic construction and building management
principles and options.
The high bay Engineering Materials and
Structural Testing Laboratory features a 3-foot
thick floor, a strong wall that can support
150,000 pounds of load at
any location and a 10-ton
rolling overhead crane. It
is not unusual for a civil
engineering program to
have a large-scale physical
testing facility, according
to Dr. Chris Foley, chair
of civil, construction
and environmental engi-
neering. However, there
are relatively few schools
around the country that have a combination
strong-floor and L-shaped strong-wall testing
facility, he said.
“That combination is unique,” said Foley,
“along with our strong-floor, strong-wall
Senior engineering student Caitlin Collins participates in mill training under the direction of Tom Silman, mechanical services supervisor, in the Discovery Learning Machine Shop in the new Engineering Hall.
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Engineering Hall Opening CelebrationThe Marquette University College of Engineering will celebrate the opening of Engineering Hall, Friday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. Speakers will include President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., and Opus Dean of Engineering Robert Bishop. The ceremony will take place in a tent south of Engineering Hall.
MARQUETTE MATTERS
testing facility being situated in the heart of
Engineering Hall. Facilities at other schools
are located off campus, and students rarely
see what is going on there. Ours provides
much greater impact with regard to graduate
and undergraduate engineering education by
affording opportunities to see, question and
learn about what is happening in the space.
Our goal is to merge research and teaching
activity in the space with graduate student
research going on right next to undergraduate
teaching activity.”
Other lower-level laboratories focus on
thermal fluids, thermodynamics, shock physics,
smart power systems, engines and power
electronics/electric drives. On the building’s
first floor, in addition to a multipurpose lab
for freshman design classes and the college’s
extensive K-12 engineering academies and
teacher workshops, the Jaskolski Discovery
Learning Laboratory offers cutting-edge tech-
nology, a large projects lab and a machine
shop where students can take an idea from
concept to working prototype.
Only the first two floors of Engineering
Hall are currently open. Additional labs in the
five-story building will focus on engineering
research and teaching in the fields of sensors,
ergonomics, biomechanics, nano devices, water
quality and electrical and mechanical systems;
they will be completed during the 2011-12
academic year.
The new building is the first of a two-part
initiative, with a 135,000-square-foot, $50
million second phase already designed and
fundraising underway.
Engineering C O NT I N U E D F R O M PAG E O N E
Dr. Sharron Ronco sees many of the pieces
in place to create a “culture of assessment”
at Marquette. It’s just a matter of building
on what’s there.
“A culture of assessment is one in which
we don’t even have to think about the assess-
ment process itself,” said Ronco, Arts ’72, who
was hired as assessment director in August. “It
just comes naturally to make decisions based
on evidence, and we always seek the evidence.
Evidence is not an add-on as part of a job every
year for accreditation, but becomes a part of the
fabric of the institution.”
Some of her first steps in that direction are
simply to listen and learn Marquette’s existing
assessment system. “There’s a very well-devel-
oped and defined assessment system — for the
institution, for programs and for some compo-
nents of the core curriculum,” she said.
Ronco, a Milwaukee native, came to Marquette
from Florida Atlantic University, where she was
associate provost for Institutional Effectiveness
and Analysis. She earned a master’s degree in
curriculum and instruction from the University
of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and, after teaching
bilingual education, a Ph.D. in educational
research and statistics from the
University of North Texas.
At Marquette she sees opportuni-
ties to create new assessment measures,
provide incentive grants to programs
to develop more innovative assess-
ment strategies, and find better ways to
assess core competencies within the core
curriculum. She is also serving on the
accreditation steering committee and will
help develop some of the standards on
evaluation and assessment. (See p. 4.)
“Assessment of learning outcomes
helps us understand specific ways in
which we can improve the learning
experience of our students,” said Dr.
Gary Meyer, vice provost for undergraduate
programs and teaching. “Accrediting bodies
today assume assessment is ongoing. They
want to know how results have been used to
make changes and the effects of those changes
on learning.”
Faculty are doing assessment in their day-
to-day teaching whether they realize it or not,
according to Ronco. “Assessment is already part
of the goals faculty set for student learning,” she
said. “Then, they consider instructional strategies,
make assignments and assess results. They make
changes — to the course or to the curriculum
— and figure out whether it worked. So they’re
already doing assessment.
“As a graduate of Marquette, I want to help
deliver the kind of education that I had here,
which was phenomenal,” she said. “Assessment
has a lot to do with making sure the education
stays as good as it was for me.”
Learning the results of teaching“Culture of assessment” is goal of new assessment directorby Tim Olsen
After holding an introductory assessment workshop in September (above), Dr. Sharron Ronco, assessment director, is planning an advanced workshop for February.
Don’t let the name fool you. Student Safety
Programs serves as a resource for more than
Marquette students every day, which is a point of
emphasis as it celebrates its 25th anniversary on
campus this year.
Although primarily used by students,
employees use SSP transport and escort
services, too, particularly for escorts to their
vehicles when working at night, according to
Dan Kolosovsky, Department of Public Safety
sergeant. “Employees could make even more use
of it, though,” he said.
LIMOs run 365 days a year from 5 p.m. to
3 a.m. (5 p.m. to 4 a.m. on academic weekends).
Safety Patrol teams are available by calling
8-6363 daily from 5 p.m. to midnight.
To celebrate the SSP anniversary, Safety Patrol,
a service of Student Safety Programs, is issuing
a ticket to each campus community member to
whom it provides an on-foot escort this semester.
Ticket recipients then email their name and the
number on the ticket to [email protected] to
be eligible to win a Blu-ray player, which will
be awarded via random drawing at the end of
the semester. Around the 25th of each month,
a random LIMO driver or Safety Patrol escort
will also award a small prize during a shift. The
anniversary celebration will culminate with a
gathering of SSP alumni April 21, 2011.
“It’s largely a student-run organization,” said
Kolosovsky. “The students have energy that’s
unreal, and good insight. They have fun, but
they get the job done.”
6.7 million riders laterStudent Safety Programs celebrate 25 years by Tim Olsen
They get it done so well, in fact, that
Kolosovsky was regularly asked by other
academic institutions for information about
building a safety program. In response, he
posted to the DPS website Student Safety
Program’s Blue Prints for Success about how to
create a program.
“Imitation is the best compliment, and we’ve
had a lot of that,” he said.
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Student Safety Programs by the numbers
15 — LIMO vans in fleet (plus LIMO Scout and a handicap-accessible vehicle)
13 — passenger capacity per LIMO (6 for LIMO scout; 1 for HAV)
1,100 — Individuals escorted by Safety Patrol last year
50,000 — Individuals escorted by Safety Patrol over the past 24 years
300,000 — Passengers transported by LIMOs last year
6,700,000 — Passengers transported by LIMOs over the past 24 years
As director of the Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center in the College of Nursing, Stacy Barnes spends a lot of time solving problems, trouble-shooting and planning ways to train future health care workers in geriatrics. Not only is finding solu-tions essential to her job, it is also helpful for her hobby, geocaching.
Geo … what?Geocaching is like an outdoor treasure hunt. The
goal is to track and find a cache (think of a small, unsuspicious-looking item — anything from a fake rock to a toolbox) using geographical coordinates with a GPS device. Or, as a popular T-shirt worn by avid geocachers reads, “I use billion dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods. What’s your hobby?”
Barnes has been geocaching approximately 90 times; about 80 have resulted in finding a cache. “I love the excitement of every geocaching adventure because I never know what sort of cache I will find or what is inside,” Barnes said.
Most caches contain a logbook, where geocachers sign their names and see who has previously found the cache. Some caches contain trinkets like small toys or stickers. Barnes explained that when finding a cache, you can take an object and replace it with one of your own.
According to geocaching.com, there were more than 1.5 million caches as of early September 2011 and more than 5 million geocachers worldwide. There is even a geocache located on Marquette’s campus, which Barnes has found. “Searching for
Marquette Matters is published monthly, except June, July and August and a combined issue for December/January, for Marquette University’s faculty and staff. Submit information to: Marquette Matters – Zilber Hall, 235; Phone: 8-7448; Fax: 8-7197Email: [email protected]: Tim OlsenGraphic design:Nick Schroeder
Copyright © 2011 Marquette University
“Take Five” is a brief list concerning an interesting aspect of Marquette life. Email your list suggestions to [email protected].
TAKEOn the SideStacy Barnes – Geocacher
By Anne Spindler
“On the Side” offers a glimpse of faculty and staff interests outside of Marquette. Email your story suggestions to [email protected].
Pope Benedict XVI took steps
to bring the Catholic Church
into the digital age in late June
by sending out his first Twitter
message. The pope used an iPad
to send a message about the
launch of a Vatican news portal
and had enough room left over
in the 140-character limit to offer
his “prayers and blessings.”
“I think tweeting is a mark of
his grasp of how important it is
to communicate in social media,
which is particularly effective
with youth,” said Dr. William
Thorn, associate professor of
journalism in the J. William and
Mary Diederich College of
Communication.
During his sabbatical this semester, Thorn
will visit Rome at least twice to help continue that
progress to integrate social media like Twitter and
Facebook into Vatican communications.
“Our goal in the coming six months to a year
is to help Catholic media come to grips with the
digital era,” Thorn said. “At World Youth Day, the
pope was adamant about the need for young
people to help the Church get involved in all
the modern ways of communicating.”
In addition to that work, Thorn will continue
research on a book about the history of chil-
dren’s magazines as well as lay groundwork
for a conference at Marquette about the
future of religious publishing.
Returning to the Vatican will be highly
familiar territory for Thorn, who has worked
with Vatican communications officials since 1982
and taken three previous sabbaticals and more
than 50 trips to Rome. In 2008, he was honored
as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy
Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
Thorn previously worked for Pope John Paul
II to draft and edit documents about Vatican
communications, which included a section from
the current pope — then Cardinal Ratzinger —
about the rapid pace of change in communica-
tion technologies. In his work at the Vatican he
will also draw on his 30 years of experience at
Marquette, including efforts to help work digital
media into curriculum.
“Our experience grappling with that is
something I can take from Marquette into
this kind of reform movement,” Thorn said.
Helping the Vatican go digital By Tim Cigelske
caches makes walking and hiking even more enjoy-able,” she said. “It is a global hobby that inspires me to get outdoors and explore new areas. It is exciting to think about how many geocaches are hidden, waiting to be found.”
Stacy Barnes has found around 80 geocaches, including one on the Marquette campus.
The five busiest of the 10 campus dining locations from the beginning of the academic year through mid-September in average customers per week, according to University Dining Service, were:
1. McCormick Dining Hall — 18,733
2. Marquette Place at AMU — 11,514
3. Cobeen Dining Hall — 10,773
4. Brew Coffee House (four locations) — 8,102
5. Schroeder Dining Hall — 7,436
5
Dr. William Thorn (left), associate professor of journalism, is working with the Vatican to integrate social media into Vatican communications. Pope Benedict XVI (right) sent his first message via Twitter in June.
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Benefits enrollment for 2012
The 2012 benefits enrollment period will begin with Benefits Information and Wellness Day on Monday, Oct 24, and run through Friday, Nov. 11. On-campus health risk assessments will be offered Oct. 24 through Nov. 18. On-campus HRA appointment scheduling will be available online beginning Oct. 3.
Features of the 2012 benefits plan include:• a 10 percent discount on the employee
portion of the 2012 medical premiums for those who complete the two-part HRA;
• university/employee cost-sharing at 80/20 percent;
• the consolidation of medical plan options from four plans to two;
• registered same-sex domestic partner eligibility for coverage in the univer-sity’s health insurance plans (medical, dental, vision);
• increased vision coverage but no premium increase for vision; and
• a minimal premium increase for dental coverage
Everyone choosing a medical plan, even if previously enrolled, must re-enroll at myjob.mu.edu. Those participating in a flexible spending account also re-enroll annually.
MARQUETTE HAPPENINGS
MARQUETTE MATTERS
Suicide among indigenous youth to be discussed
Allison Hedge Coke, poet and author of Blood Run, will discuss how situational depression can lead to suicide attempts by indigenous youth at “Blood on Our Hands: Preventing Suicide Among At-Risk Native Youth” Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m. in the Weasler Auditorium. The program is sponsored by the Office of Public Affairs, Multicultural Affairs and the Department of English.
Oct. 6 features four campus lecturesFour campus lectures will take place Thursday, Oct. 6:
• The Law School’s Barrock Lecture, “Reality-Challenged Philosophies of Punishment,” by Robert Weisberg, Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. professor of law at Stanford University, at 12:15 p.m. in Eckstein Hall.
• The Klingler College of Arts and Sciences’ “Ethics of Enhancement” by Dr. Ryan Spellecy, associate professor of bioethics and medical humanities and psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin, at 4 p.m. in Lalumiere 140.
• The College of Education’s Tommy G. Thompson Lecture, “Language, Bilingualism, Cognition and Learning in Early Childhood,” by Dr. Eugene García, vice president for education partnerships at Arizona State University, at 4:30 p.m. in the AMU Monaghan Ballroom.
• Raynor Memorial Libraries’ “Louisa May Alcott Wrote That? Alcott and the Civil War,” by Dr. Angela Sorby, associate professor of English, at 4:30 p.m. in the Raynor Library Beaumier Suites.
Chinese writer and media commentator to give Chalmers lecture
Jianying Zha, writer and media commentator, will deliver the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences’ Allis Chalmers International Affairs Lecture, “Transformation in Modern China,” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, in the Weasler Auditorium. Zha is the author of several books, including Tide Players: the Movers and Shakers of a Rising China and China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids and Bestsellers are Transforming a Culture. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and other magazines and newspapers.
Cultures of China and the West to be explored at conference The Department of Philosophy will host a conference, “Unsettled Boundaries: Philosophy, Art, and Ethics East/West: A Meeting of Chinese and Western Scholars” Oct. 12-14. The conference will explore common ground between the cultures of China and the West with a focus on their respective philosophies and arts, including traditional and contemporary views. The conference is free and open to the public. More information is available at unsettledboundaries.wordpress.com or by contacting Dr. Curtis Carter, professor of philosophy, at 8-6962. Advanced registration is requested by emailing [email protected].
As students have buckled down for deep
study, so, too, has the reaffirmation steering
committee. This fall marks the beginning of the
self-study process in preparation for an on-site
peer review visit as required by the Higher
Learning Commission in fall 2013 or spring 2014.
The self-study is a critical part of the process
colleges and universities undergo every 10 years
to earn reaffirmation of accreditation. During the
next two years, conversations on campus will
revolve around standards, outcomes, mission,
integrity and more.
The conversations are critical and enormously
helpful, according to President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J.
He went through the process as president at The
University of Scranton and also served on a
Middle States reaffirmation review team.
“The experience intensifies engagement
and teaches us to think in new ways about
what we’re doing and why,” Father Pilarz said.
“Faculty, administrators, students and alumni
express a very powerful sense of ownership
and pride in their institution when given the
opportunity to think about how to continue the
500-year-old work of Jesuit education. Suddenly,
better ways of doing things, innovative ideas
for programs and surprising thoughts about
a school’s future surface. I also see this work
helping prepare us for the strategic-planning
process. That type of work does not occur in
a vacuum and the knowledge gained through
the self-study will be valuable.”
“This is an opportunity to tell Marquette’s
story,” said Dr. Gary Meyer, vice provost for
undergraduate programs and teaching. “As part
of the self-study, we will look at where we were
10 years ago, consider the higher education envi-
ronment today and think about how we might
improve Marquette in the future.”
Meyer and Dr. Toby Peters, associate senior
vice president, co-chair the steering committee
that is guiding Marquette through the reaffirma-
tion process.
Marquette prepares for reaffirmation of accreditation Self-study offers opportunity for reflection and inspirationBy Joni Moths Mueller
Many of Marquette’s colleges are accredited
by program-specific agencies to ensure academic
programs and practices meet specific criteria.
In a similar way, a regional accrediting body
reviews the university as a whole. Marquette
is a member of the North Central Association
of College and Schools, and the HLC is the
accrediting agency.
In addition to certifying that the university
meets specific quality standards, reaffirma-
tion is considered a crucial tool for prompting
schools to think about how to improve on what
they are doing and be accountable for expecta-
tions of higher education identified by the U.S.
Department of Education.
“The organization sets standards for the work
we do and gives us the opportunity to ensure we
are meeting them and operating at the highest
level,” said Meyer, referring to the HLC.
The university will evaluate its performance
on five criteria as required by the HLC: mission;
integrity; academic programs — quality,
resources and support; academic programs —
evaluation and improvement; and resources
and planning.
To prepare for the self-study, 17 individuals
representing a cross-section of the university
have agreed to serve on a steering committee.
The committee chose the theme for the self-
study of Reflect • Affirm • Inspire to connect
to both the Ignatian tradition of reflection and
action and the energy surrounding the new
leadership of Father Pilarz.
“In essence, we want to reflect on the work
we do, affirm the ways in which we meet and
exceed standards, and serve as an inspiration for
achieving even greater excellence,” said Meyer.
Father Pilarz will invite approximately 12
individuals, including faculty, staff and students
to serve on each of nine subcommittees charged
with writing the first draft of the self-study. The
draft will be circulated in fall 2012 so that every
member of the university community has the
opportunity to provide feedback before the draft
is finalized. The final draft is due to the HLC in
summer 2013.
“It’s not just up to the steering committee
and subcommittees to look at how we are doing
the work of Marquette University,” said Peters.
“We want everybody to take ownership of the
process, to be aware of our progress, and to
offer input.”
A website with documents pertaining to the
self-study process, background on the HLC, FAQs
and milestone dates will be available in late
October. Meyer and Peters will be available to
explain the process and goals of the self-study
to campus offices and university community
members. To schedule a presentation starting in
late October, call Lori Ozminkowski in the Office
of the Provost at 8-6456.
Important Dates in Marquette’s Reaffirmation ProcessFall 2011 and spring 2012 — Subcommittees organized; evidence gathered and outline created
Summer 2012 and fall 2012 — First self-study draft completed
Spring 2013 — Draft released to campus for review and comment
Summer 2013 and fall 2013 — Final draft written and submitted to HLC
Fall 2013 or spring 2014 — Review team visits Marquette
ReflectAffirmInspire