Publications

A Newsletter for the Viterbo College Community
Vol. 12   No. 3  September 8, 1998

The Thursday evening coffeehouse is back in operation. From 8 to 10 p.m. students from the Connect Program will be brewing cappuccino, latte’, hot chocolate and other beverages in the Student Union. Flavored beverages, as well as decaffeinated options, are available. Faculty and staff are invited to bring a couple of dollars and a couple of friends and visit with the students on their turf. A complimentary Connect mug will be presented to the first five faculty or staff members served each Thursday evening in September.

Classroom presentations related to alcohol/drug and prevention issues are available from Anne Ellefson, AODA Specialist. Prevention research suggests such curriculum infusion into relevant academic fields facilitates the achievement of both the goals of individual courses and the goals of prevention. While there are obvious topical connections for students in human service majors, there are also ramifications for a number of academic fields, including business, communications, nursing, education, and criminal justice.

Alcohol and drug abuse continues to be a component in a number of problems adversely affecting individuals and institutions: health problems, crime, mental health issues, violence and aggression, lowered academic performance and attrition, family dysfunction, delinquency, car crashes, poor employment performance, conflict, and premature death. Related prevention issues address topics such as stress management, decision making, goal setting, assertive communication, conflict management, social skills, risk/resiliency, and alternative activities.
Presentations are intended to provide introductory information; sample topics are:

To arrange a presentation, contact Anne Ellefson x3807, SDC #7.

Each year Viterbo focuses on pertinent diversity issues during Diversity Days. This year, as a part of the 25th anniversary remembrance, we would like to focus our explorations on the Vietnam War. In order to make this happen we need your expertise and interest. This is an invitation for you to become part of planning an interdisciplinary forum in which we can explore this significant part of our history together. If you are willing to share in this initiative, please contact S. Anita, x3171, by Sept. 11.

Memos only
From: Todd Ericson
To: Faculty, staff, administrators
Re: Sexual Harassment Workshop has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m on Thurs., Sept. 17, in the FAC Recital Hall. This workshop will take place immediately following the Staff Assembly meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. in the Recital Hall. All faculty, staff, and administrators who did not attend the initial workshop on Aug. 26 are expected to attend this workshop. We will maintain an attendance record. Please contact Todd x3856 with any questions. Thank you.

Bits and pieces
Notice: Effective immediately, the five-part purchase order forms will be available in the business office.

Casual Dress Day
Sept. 11 Employee Day

Employee Assistance Center (EAC) is for all Viterbo employees and their families. For more information contact Franciscan-Skemp (608) 791-9530, (800) 493-3960.

For 24 hour Security needs call x3911.

Class cancellations: Teacher class cancellation line: 796-3080 or 796-3190. Students call for class cancellations: 796-3200.

Connections  is published weekly by the Public Relations and Marketing office. The next issue will be published Mon., Sept. 14 with a deadline of noon on Thurs., Sept.10. Send your announcements via campus mail to the public relations office, MC228 or E-mail to: sakluess@mail.viterbo.edu
A copy of Connections is placed in each employee’s mailbox.

Lively Canadian Brass to open Bright Star Season Sept. 20. What better way to open up another exciting Bright Star Season at Viterbo College than with the lively sound and showmanship of the Canadian Brass.

Blending virtuosity, musicality, comedy and wit, the Canadian Brass has inspired equal measures of laughter and admiration from packed houses around the world for over 27 years.

The quintet has found great success mixing two key ingredients in their shows: music and comedy. And don’t expect anything less in the  Sept. 20 Bright Star Season performance at the Viterbo College Fine Arts Center. Showtime is at 7:30 p.m.

The quintet’s lively shows involve casual choreography, quick lighting changes, mime, physical clowning, absurd costumes and a running thread of good humored commentary not unlike successful vaudeville acts of old.
Members of the Canadian Brass discovered a long time ago that it is OK to have fun with music, with their audience and with each other, all without compromising their high standard of performance.

The group also is known for its sharply contrasted fare, ranging from the severity of J.S. Bach’s “Art of Fugue” to the hilarious foolery of Peter Schickele’s (better known as P.D.Q. Bach) opera “Hornsmoke.” In between, you are likely to hear music by Gabrieli, Pergolesi, Bernstein, Wagner, Sousa, Ellington and even the Beatles.
A limited number of tickets are available for the Sept. 20 performance of the Canadian Brass. For ticket information, call the Viterbo College Box Office at 796-3100.

Seven faculty from Viterbo College, coordinated by S. Anita Beskar, Viterbo’s Director of Global Education, participated in an intensive four day faculty development workshop provided by HECUA. The May workshop in St. Paul engaged participants in experiences similar to those provided in HECUA student programs, with a focus on building a community of learners, issues of power and privilege in service-learning relationships, the ethics of knowing, and sound pedagogical practice in experiential education. Faculty then developed curriculum incorporating what they learned for courses to be taught this academic year.

Lyon Evans, English, will lead a book discussion on Gary Wills’ Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership at the Viroqua Public Library on Sept. 23.

The Coulee Region American Heart Walk is scheduled for Sat., Oct. 3 (Oktoberfest Saturday) and Viterbo College will be represented by a team of employees, students and family members once again this year.

The walk will raise funds to assist the American Heart Association in its fight against the nation's Number One Killer—Heart Disease!

Participants will leave from Riverside Park at 8:30 a.m. and follow the parade route. A 5-mile run is also scheduled.

There is no registration fee—just solicit donations to sponsor you.

Contact Chris Sanger, MC 214, x3070 to become a member of the Viterbo Team. The first 25 to register will receive a Viterbo t-shirt designed for the American Heart Walk.

End of the Millennium Tour to Spain’s Costa del Sol. May 27-June 10, 1999. Do you have a travel brochure outlining this adventure? Call S. Bernyne, x3197 or visit her in the Learning Center to receive yours.

Twenty places for V.C. travelers are being held ONLY until October 1.

To reserve spaces, a $250 deposit is required. Inquire about details.

Celebrate the end of this century with friends and colleagues. Act now.

P.S. No, we’re not planning on running with the bulls.

—S. Bernyne Stark,
 Tour Coordinator.

Viterbo does right thing in field situation

The new Viterbo College Athletic Complex has taken a lot of heat the last year—some warranted, some not.
The latest round of verbal abuse has been directed toward the soccer field, which was to be ready for the start of the 1998 campaign.

The powers to be at Viterbo, and most certainly anyone involved in athletics at the school, heard such comments as: “The soccer field is a mess,” or “You’re actually going to play soccer on that field,” or “The grass looks terrible.”
Well, not anymore.

The soccer field is green now, and not a psychedelic mixture of greens, yellows and browns like it was last month.

For those of you who don’t have the foggiest idea of what I’m talking about, the new soccer field was seeded in early November with hopes of plush green grass being the end result by August. Well, that didn’t happen. Much of the seed never took or was washed away by one of the many drenching rainfalls the Coulee Region experienced the last few months and the result was a soccer field that looked like a waste land.

All that changed last week when the field was re-graded and long rolls of sod were installed. The difference is like night and day.

Now, according to the experts at River City Lawnscape, Inc., the company that turned a field of weeds into a field of dreams, there will be soccer this season. If things go as planned, both the women’s and men’s soccer teams will play there either Sept. 27 or Oct. 4. That much time is needed for the new sod to take root.

And who do we have to thank for this miraculous turnaround? Well, we can start with Director of Athletics Bruce Erickson, whose tenacity led the powers to be to make a decision to tear out the old grass and start over. And let’s not forget the powers to be, who made the right choice in the end.

Verify e-mail
Please verify your E-mail address which is located on the Viterbo College home page on the internet.
If you have not previously accessed this information, please follow this procedure: Once in Viterbo’s home page click on the top left icon entitled “About Viterbo.”
Then click on the button labeled “Faculty Staff Directory.”
If your entry is incorrect or missing, please inform Marcia Brodt of the Murphy Center reception Desk, x3060 or dial 0.
Your immediate attention to this request is appreciated by Mark Franz to assure a current home page.

The Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of Wisconsin's Roman Catholic bishops, and the Dept. of Religious Studies at Viterbo College will be co-sponsoring the third in its series of public policy lectures when the Rev. Augustine Di Noia, O.P. speaks at the college on Sept. 23.

Father Di Noia's topic will be Public Policy Implications of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Programs. Fr. Di Noia is the Executive Director of the Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

The Directives speak to six issues of Catholic health care: 1) social responsibility; 2) pastoral and spiritual responsibility; 3) relationships between patients and professionals; 4) issues in care for the beginning of life; 5) issues in care for the dying; and, 6) formation of new partnerships with health care organizations and providers.

"Health care policies affect Catholics as advocates for the poor, as providers of services, and as employers who purchase health care for their employees and these policy debates have moral and ethical considerations," explained WCC Executive Director John Huebscher. "These facts make this a most appropriate time to discuss the policy implications of the Ethical and Religious Directives."

The lecture and discussions begin at 7 p.m. in the College Church.

Rev. Di Noia's lecture will be followed by responses from Dr. Glenn Forbes, President of Franciscan Skemp Healthcare (FSH) in La Crosse and Char Baier, Patient Care Director for Surgery at FSH. Both will speak from the perspective of lay Catholics in health care professions.

The WCC co-sponsors such a lecture every other year with a Catholic college or university. The 1994 lecture took place at Marquette University in Milwaukee and the 1996 lecture was held at St. Norbert's College in Green Bay.

Welcome back for another academic year! I hope that it was a good summer for all and that the start of the new semester has been going smoothly.

We in Student Development spent the summer offering hospitality to graduate students in Education and to groups who used our residence facilities. Also, we scurried around getting ready for the return of students.
Several new people joined the Student Development staff: Anne Ellefson, Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) Prevention Specialist (SDC office #7), Jason Ramaker, Director of Living and Learning for Residence Life, Marian Hall South Annex (MHS Annex), Chris Helixon, Women’s Softball coach, Mark Jenkins, Women’s Volleyball coach, and Dale Varsho, Men’s Baseball coach, all in MHS Annex. Two people joined the SDC staff: Brent Brigson is now a full-time Hall Director in charge of the apartments and houses, student protective services, and graduate school housing (MHS Annex); and Kim Piasecki is in charge of MHS and Marian Hall North (MHN) and Director of the Student Union (MHN Terrace).

Jason, Brent, Kim and I spent two weeks preparing our Resident Assistants (RAs) on how to deal with situations that can occur when 575 people live in the same area. We completed CPR and Basic First Aid Training; the nine new RAs simulated experiences acted out by the returning seven RAs, testing their conflict management and mediation skills, their knowledge of college policies and procedures with an exciting game of “Viterbo College Jeopardy”; experiential and simulated exercises on the diversity of gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals; and campus resources and procedures making the residence halls feel more like “home.” I am thankful for the wonderful Resident Life Staff we have this year. They are willing to work and cooperate to make living in the Residence Halls a wonderful, positive experience!

Diana Beran and her troupe of 24 students facilitated 3.5 days of orientation for new students. The Orientation Program began with a ritual designed by Campus Ministers Earl Madary and S. Sue Ernster to introduce them to the history and Franciscan charism of the college, to formally welcome them to the campus and to assist them in bidding farewell to their family members in a mutual blessing. Students were grouped into “O families” of 12-15, making banners, chants and skits representing their “O families,” learning about campus resources, discussing skits about social decision-making—partying, drinking, date/acquaintance rape, and diversity,— watching City of Angels at the Rivoli, attending the SAB-sponsored dance, and engaging in community service. My thanks to Diana and the “O” leaders for their spirit and work to welcome the new students!

Soon Student Government Association (SGA) will have its WebPage up and running. The SGA office in the Student Union has regular office hours to be in better contact with students. In Fr. Tom’s absence I will be the advisor to SGA.

Finally, it wouldn’t be summer if there wasn’t a little golf. Student Development and Institutional Advancement personnel sponsored an Annual Golf Fund raiser for Women’s Athletics in June at the La Crosse Country Club. It was a modest, yet fun-filled, exciting start of an annual event to raise money and awareness of our four women’s athletic teams. Stay tuned for information about next year’s golf tournament and banquet!

That’s “all the news that’s fit to print” from Student Development! Have a wonderful semester and come visit us in the SDC (aka, the Little House on the Prairie).

Amusing irrelevant facts
Only 55 percent of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks.
Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.
Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.

Quote
Happiness, wealth, and success are the by-products of goal-setting; they cannot be the goal themselves.
   —John Condry