These Days at Ripon these days at ripon

Berenses Donate Booksto Library

For several years now, Todd and Betty Berens of Ripon, Wis., have been donating books to Lane Library. The couple recently added a significant number of Western Americana books and maps — approximately 3,500 pieces. The 105 cartons of books weighs in at nearly 5,000 pounds. The collection, which also includes framed maps and a 10drawer map cabinet filled with more maps, will be known as the Dale L. Morgan Memorial Library of Western Americana. Morgan was a senior historian at the University of California’s Bancroft Library.

“This is a wonderful and very special gift from a non-alum who has become an active member of the college family and a generous donor,” says Bill Neill ’67, interim vice president for development.

The collection includes an original copy of a Lewis and Clark journal and other items related to frontier history

With support of a $1,500 grant from the Fond du Lac Area Foundation, the collection will be the focus of a Lewis and Clark bicentennial exhibition.

New Trustees Join Board

Recent additions to the board of trustees include Thomas Domencich ’55 and special graduate trustee Emily Hanson ’03.

Domencich, of Hobe Sound, Fla., is founder and chief executive officer of Thomas Domencich Enterprises, a private investment firm. Previously, he was president of Merrimack Telecommunications in Providence, R.I., and has also served as an economic and financial advisor.

Domencich and his wife, Nephele, maintain the Thomas and Nephele Wing Domencich Foundation, supporting non-profits ranging from hospitals to animal advocacy groups. He has served on the board of trustees at Tufts University.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in economics from Ripon, he obtained a master’s of business administration from Indiana University and did post graduate work at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkley.

“I had a great time at Ripon and loved the entire experience. It has shaped my whole life, in large ways and small,” says Domencich. He says he looks forward to helping maintain that experience for future students, including his nephew, James Domencich, a first-year student from Mequon, Wis.

Hanson, originally from Roseville, Minn., graduated magna cum laude with majors in economics and mathematics. She was a member of the soccer and swim teams, was a resident assistant and a phonathon caller. She is now a commercial insurance underwriter for Wausau Insurance Companies in Milwaukee.

PRESIDENTS’ DINING ROOM RECEIVES A FACE LIFT

While the College has been doing the presidential shuffle, so too has the Presidents’ Dining Room in the Pickard Commons. The presidential portraits housed there have been rearranged and given new identification plates. Previously, not all portraits had identification, and those that did were difficult to read. Now, each portrait has an easily read plate including the president’s name, years served and the name of the artist.

Added to the room were portraits of

Paul Ranslow and a copy of first president William E. Merriman’s portrait — the original hangs in Merriman House. Both were painted by Green Lake, Wis., artist Pat Dobrinska.

Portraits displayed in the Presidents’ Dining Room are: Merriman; Richard C. Hughes, Silas Evans 1898, Clark G. Kuebler, Fred O. Pinkham, Bernard S. Adams, William R. Stott and Ranslow.

Hefty Returns To Classroom

After a 30-year hiatus from teaching, Thomas Hefty, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Cobalt Corp., has returned to the front of the classroom at Ripon this fall. He last taught an economics class at Ripon in 1970.

“Teaching is largely story telling, and I have many more stories to tell now than I did 30 years ago,” says Hefty, who is teaching a course in strategic management.

Hefty has served as Wisconsin’s deputy insurance commissioner, as assistant general counsel for the Sentry Insurance Group, as president of Competitive Wisconsin Inc., and as an attorney in the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. He spent 20 years at Cobalt, joining Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin in 1982. He was named chief executive officer of Blue Cross & Blue Shield and United Wisconsin Services in 1986. Under Hefty’s leadership, Blue Cross was converted to a shareholder-owned company. Blue Cross and United Wisconsin were merged in 2001 to form Cobalt.

Hefty recently joined the corporate, health care, government relations and insurance practice groups of Milwaukee law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C., and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has appointed him to head a state economic development council.

He says he has long wanted to get back into teaching and treasures the opportunity to teach at what he considers to be one of only three traditional liberal arts colleges remaining in Wisconsin. “The strength of the traditional liberal arts education is that it remains relevant to today’s students due to the full range of values it brings to the decision-making process,” says Hefty. “It instills understanding and provides context — both are important as investors, employees and the public focus on business ethics.”

Hefty received an honorary doctorate from Ripon in 2002.

Research Fund Honors Earle Scott

An endowed research fund has been established to honor the late Earle S. Scott, professor of chemistry from 196287. Scott, who remained involved in promoting the study of science at the college and in local schools, died in mid-2002.

The Earle S. Scott Endowed Student/Faculty Research Fund will provide at least one student, directed by one faculty mentor, the opportunity to conduct research in the student’s selected discipline, according to Lorelei Carson Marshall ’81, who established the fund and serves as chair of the fund committee.

“This fund helps honor a man who cared deeply about students and encouraged their scholarship and research, here at Ripon and after they graduated,” says Bill Neill ’67, interim vice president for development.

Roy Receives Illinois College Award

Jody Roy, associate professor of communication, has been honored by her alma mater for her work with Students Talking About Respect (STAR). Roy received the young alumni award, given to an Illinois College graduate under the age of 40 who has excelled in his or her profession and in service to the community and nation. Generally given to a single alumnus/a each year, this year’s award was presented to Roy and two classmates — Katherine Stewart of Wilton Manors, Fla., and Therese Thien or Marion, Ill. — for their collaboration in organizing the STAR program. STAR is a nonprofit educational corporation teaching young people across the country about hate crimes, gangs and violence prevention. Incorporated in 2002, the program has quickly grown to 30 high school and middle school chapters in 11 states. Roy serves as STAR’s executive director. Stewart and Thien are chair and vice chair, respectively, of STAR’s board of directors.

New Faculty Faces

There are several new faces, as well as a couple of familiar faces, on the faculty this year.

Suzanne Katz has joined the educational studies department as an assistant professor. She received her bachelor’s degree from Smith College, a master’s from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and her doctorate from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where she also taught middle school. She is teaching “Human Relations in Education,” “Literacy Development in the Middle/Secondary Schools” and “Philosophical and Social Issues in Education.”

Emily Stovel is an assistant professor of anthropology. She came from Binghamton University, a center of the State University of New York where she was assistant director of the Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies

Program. She received her bachelor’s degree from Trent University and her master’s and her doctorate from Binghamton University. She is teaching the introductory anthropology and archaeology courses.

Hong Wu joins the business administration program as an assistant professor. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nankai University of Tianjin, China, and received her doctorate from West Virginia University. Her interests lie in international economics and macroeconomics.

Two familiar faces have returned to campus to teach. Lori Bergeron ’95 is a visiting assistant professor of biology, and Steve Martin ’96 is an instructor of communication and director of the forensics program.

Bergeron received her doctorate from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and then joined the department of molecular and experimental medicine at the Scripps Research Institute as a post-doctoral scientist. She is teaching the anatomy and physiology and molecular biology courses.

Martin is a doctoral candidate at Pennsylvania State University where he was an instructor in the campus’ learning edge program. He received his master’s degree from Colorado State University.

Two Receive Fulbright Grants

Two recent graduates are among the 1,100 students from throughout the

Calendar of Events

Nov. 27-28

Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 5-7

Dickens of a Christmas

Dec. 5

Jazz Ensemble Concert

Dec. 7

Choral Union Concert

Dec. 9

First-Year Studies Celebration

Dec. 12

Last Day of Classes

Collegium Musicum Concert

Dec. 15-19

Final Exams

Dec. 20-Jan. 18

Winter Break

And the Winner Is…

written by her and her late husband and former economics professor John “Jack” Livingston ’49. The drawing was held to help raise money for the John Livingston ’49 Endowed Economics Scholarship. Nancy and Jack’s theses were discovered by former interim president Dave Williams as he was rummaging through books at the city library. Williams approached Nancy with the idea of raffling them off to raise funds for the scholarship. More than 50 gifts were made in the effort, totaling more than $9,000. The value of the scholarship fund, established in 1990, stands at more than $57,000. Jack Sturm ’58 won the raffle, receiving a copy of Jack’s thesis, “Bank Reserve Requirements and How Effectiveness as an Instrument of Monetary Control May Be Enhanced,” and a copy of Nancy’s thesis, “A Survey of Educational Travel Courses Offered from 1946 through 1951 in which Elementary School Teachers Could Participate.” Jim Kneser ’69 received second prize — a copy of Nancy’s thesis.

United States participating in the Fulbright international education exchange program.

Anthony Zydzik ’02 and Alison Karijolich ’03 received Fulbright teaching assistant grants. Thanks to the grant, which covers travel expenses and medical insurance and provides a monthly stipend, the two are spending 10 months in Europe teaching English.

Zydzik is one of two students selected to Belgium, while Karijolich is one of 80 selected for Germany. Zydzik is a teaching assistant in the English department at a Belgium university. Karijolich serves the Paedagogischer Austauschdienst, or educational exchange service, in Germany teaching English to 12 to 18 year olds.

Overall, the Fulbright program, named for former U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, placed students from the United States in more than 70 countries for 2003-04. The program was established by the U.S. Department of State in 1946, following World War II, to increase the mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. Funded primarily by the State Department, with additional resources from other participating governments and host institutions, Fulbright grants are awarded for university teaching, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools.

“It is not rare, but certainly not commonplace for a small, liberal arts college like Ripon to receive two Fulbright teaching assistant grants,” says Walter Jackson, program manager for the U.S. Student Programs Division of the Insti- tute of International Education (IIE). IIE coordinates the activities relevant to the U.S. Student Program and conducts an annual competition for the scholarships.

WRPN, COLLEGE DAYS RECEIVE AWARDS

Ripon College student media were recognized for both print and radio journalism in awards competitions sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Northwest Broadcast News Association(NBNA) at the Midwest Journalism Conference last spring. Ripon was the only school to be recognized for both print and radio journalism by the SPJ in its 2002 Mark of Excellence Awards.

The College Days received five awards, the highest number received by any school in the competition. The biweekly paper was named one of the top three non-daily publications in the region. Sonya Sorich, a senior from El Dorado Hills, Calif., placed first in the general column category with her column “Sonya Says.” An editorial about the suspension of the physics major at Ripon won a second place award for best editorial. Michael Timm, a senior from Milwaukee, Wis., and Jason Fischer ’03 placed third in the in-depth reporting category for their piece on how marketing pressures may motivate curriculum changes. Kristen McCullough, a senior from Woodstock, Ill., placed third in general reporting for her feature on the mayoral bid of Adam Weiss ’03.

In the radio division, WRPN-FM received awards for best newscast, feature, sports report and in-depth report. No other school was honored in this division.

Union Now Available

Goosebeary Village Sampler in downtown Ripon is offering the second Ripon College building replica to the public. The wood cutout, in the shape of Harwood Memorial Union, joins a similar piece of Bartlett Hall. Goosebeary is developing a series of the wood pieces of historic landmarks in and around the city of Ripon. The piece may be ordered from the business at a cost of $15.99 plus tax, shipping and handling. Call 920-748-1233 or write them at 200 Watson St., Ripon, WI 54971. Or, people interested in the piece may visit their Web site at www.goosebearys.com

SCIENCE STUDENTS RECEIVE AWARDS, PRESENT RESEARCH

Jessica Stockton ’03 and Colin Whitmore ’03 were awarded travel grants to present their research at national science meetings earlier this year. Also presenting at the meetings were Bridget Campion ’03 and Christopher Thode ’04.

Stockton conducted research during the summer of 2002 with the assistance of a grant from the Merck Foundation. She was awarded an all expense paid trip to present her findings at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Denver. Stockton was nominated for the Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program Student Poster Competition by Colleen Byron, associate professor of chemistry. Her poster was titled “Comparison of the Electron Transfer Properties of Wild Type Glutaryl-CoA Dehydrogenase with Clinically Relevant Mutated Forms of the Enzyme.” Campion also presented her findings from her summer research on “Regulated Volume Decrease on Hyla chrysoscelis Erythrocytes” at the AAAS meeting.

Whitmore was awarded a National Science Foundation and Research Experiences for Undergraduates leadership grant to present a poster at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in New Orleans. Whitmore performed his research during the summer of 2002 at the University of California at Santa Cruz. His poster was titled “Singlet Oxygen Production from the Photosensitizers in Micelle Solutions.”

Thode also presented his findings to the ACS from research he conducted on osmium tetroxide at Loyola University in Chicago during the summer of 2002. r

Corrections/Clarifications

Dana Lee Harnagel-Hruska ’42 was incorrectly identified as a man in her obituary on page 52 of the spring issue of Ripon Magazine Don Williams ’42 let us know and added, “Dr Harnagel was a beautiful woman.”