Publications

A Newsletter for the Viterbo College Community
Vol. 12   No. 6  September 28, 1998

Headlines abound about binge drinking on college campuses. Binge drinking, defined as five or more alcohol beverages during one drinking episode for males and four drinks for females, is a widespread and destructive pattern correlated with a host of adverse consequences for individuals and campus environments. College students who binge drink are statistically at risk for lowered academic performance, sexual assault, unplanned sex, chemical dependency, drink/drive crashes, depression, dropping out, physical assault, and legal trouble. During the 1997-98 academic year, student deaths related to binge drinking became the topic of documentaries and cover stories across the nation.

However, there are some effects of binge drinking that don’t make headlines. Research from Harvard School of Public Health described those effects as “second-hand binge drinking.” In surveying students who make low-risk choices related to alcohol consumption, they found such students experienced significant consequences from others’ high-risk drinking choices. Students attending colleges with “medium” binge-drinking rates reported second-hand effects:

The majority of college students do not report a pattern of binge drinking. Many are making low-risk choices. But, even these students find their lives disrupted and their college experiences changed by the reality of high rates of binge drinking on campuses. Binge drinking is a complex problem; it’s unlikely there will be a quick fix. Information about strategies to address the issue of binge drinking at the collegiate level is available from the campus AODA prevention specialist, Anne Ellefson, x3807.

In response to recommendations by legal counsel, Viterbo College has drafted a revised sexual harassment policy which streamlines the process for identifying and responding to a complaint, steps which are essential to protect the rights of the complainant and mitigate liability for the College. Five draft copies of the revised policy are on reserve in the library for your review. Please forward comments to your elected representative to the Human Resources Committee, or directly to Todd Ericson, x3086, by Oct. 30.

The City Clerk's office will be set up in the Student Union from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fri., Oct. 2 to register City of La Crosse residents to vote. Bring a form of identification with your name and La Crosse address (utility bill, checkbook, driver's license).Takes about five minutes. Do you civic duty and register to vote!

Memos only
From: Jason Ramaker, Director of Living and Learning for Residence Life
To: Faculty and Staff and Administration
Re: Residential student phone and mail box numbers

To contact residential students via phone or campus mail, an alphabetical list is in the Copy Center. The campus student phone directory should be coming out in mid-October. In the meantime, if you need a copy of this list, one can be made in the Copy Center and charged to your dept.

If you have postings that you want placed in the residence halls, apartments and houses, send your information via campus mail to the Residence Life Center / Jason Ramaker. This information will be distributed to the     RA’s to be placed on their floors.

Bits and pieces
Casual Dress Day
Oct. 2 Spirit Day

Mark your Calendar: Employee Christmas Party, Fri., Dec. 11. Baus Haus.

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.

Please direct all Campus Phone Directory updates to Marcia at MC front desk.

Notice: Copies of the student handbook and calendar are available at MC Front Desk. Copies for students are available at the SGA office in the student union. NCA Review: Open session for students: 3:10 p.m., Oct. 5, Robers Conference Room. Open session for faculty, administration, Tues. Oct. 6.
Watch for schedule of NCA Review in next week’s Connections.

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 office. The next issue will be published Mon., Oct. 5 with a deadline of noon on Thurs., Oct. 1. 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.

Viterbo people
Congratulations and welcome to new Viterbo employee:
Dean A. Sanderson, Programmer/Analyst started 9/16.

The Art Education Department announces Afterschool Art Workshop. Classes will meet for eight sessions on Tuesdays from 4:30-6 p.m. in FAC 319, Oct. 13 through Dec.1.

The following classes will be offered: Making Books and Scrolls: students write and or illustrate stories using a variety of drawing and painting media to produce artist’s books and scroll; Creature Creations: creating real and imaginary animals, environments and habitats, students will use clay, paint, sculptures and dioramas; Costumes, Masks and Puppets: with fictive and cultural stories as a guide, students compose performances as they create costumes, masks and puppets with a variety of materials; Building Cities and Bridges: with a variety of sculptural and building materials, students will construct houses, buildings, cities, bridges and hideouts.

The Workshop is open to children ages 5 to 12. The classes are taught by Art Education students and staff. Cost: $25. Register with Judy Stafslien, x3767.

Viterbo Production of “Once Upon a Mattress” Oct. 9-11. The Viterbo College Music and Theatre Arts departments, under the direction of Susan Rush, will present “Once Upon A Mattress” as part of the 1998-99 Bright Star Season.

Based on the classic fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea,” Viterbo’s spectacular production brings to life wizards, minstrels, jesters, kings, queens, lords and ladies, a love-sick prince and the sensitive fairy princess.

Excellent seats are available for all three shows. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 796-3100.

Planning for Diversity Days Jan.-Feb. 1999
25th Anniversary of Vietnam War A luncheon meeting for anyone with ideas that may contribute to the development of a Humanities Grant to support the endeavor is scheduled for 1 p.m., on Thurs., Oct. 1 in Global Education, MC 402A.

Celebrate the fall semester from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Wed., Oct. 7. Popcorn, Pepsi, door prizes and the new and updated Learning Center power point presentation will be running. Join the fun!

This week: Death Penalty Awareness Week, sponsored by Social Justice.
 
Sunday Mass is at 4 p.m. at the College Church.
 
Look for posters and more information on the CROP Walk, Oct. 11, starting at 12:45 p.m. at Myrick Park.
If interested, please contact S. Sue Ernster, x3708.
“Walk so others can live.”

The annual scholarship luncheon will be held in the FAC lobby at noon on Thurs. Oct. 1. The event is held each year so that students and donors have the opportunity to meet. This year more that 250 students will receive scholarships donated by individuals, organizations and businesses.

Please keep in-house mail envelopes in circulation.
All out-going mail to be metered must have a department name to which postage is to be charged on the front of the envelope. If you have large bundles of outgoing or in-house mail. please bring them into the Copy Center.

Health Services at Viterbo will offer flu immunizations for employees and students beginning Thurs. Oct. 15. Fee is $5. Call Marilyn Jaekel, x3806 prior to Oct. 10 to make a reservation.
A flu immunization clinic will be held from 8 a.m. to noon, on Wed. Oct. 28 in MC conference room, from noon to 2 p.m. in the BNC lobby and from noon to 2 p.m. on Fri., Oct. 30 in the SDC.

Make room for another hero

Last Monday when I came to work, the first thing I heard in the halls was two faculty members talking about Mark McGwire and the day he had in Milwaukee the day before.

Throughout the day, I must’ve heard the St. Louis slugger’s name at least 10 more times.

Being a Cardinals fan, that did my heart good. And to make it even better, I was at the game so many Viterbo people were making reference to. It was a special day, indeed. Here’s my story:

From the time my now 3-year-old son Alexander began thinking for himself, he has had just two heroes in his life…his mommy and daddy.

Well, all that changed in the last month. Alex’s list of heroes grew by one. He now goes around mimicking, praising and talking about this hero as much as he does mommy and daddy.

Alex has taken to swinging a make believe bat, smacking a make believe ball out of a make believe stadium with make believe fans standing and cheering him on in his home run trot. If you haven’t already guessed the name of this newfound hero, he’s the king of swat, the big league baseball basher, the lofty long ball hitter, Mark McGwire.

Just like his parents, Alex has caught the Mark McGwire fever. And last weekend Alex got a chance to be a part of real baseball history.

Not only did Alex get to see his first major league baseball game, he got to see history in the making when McGwire hit his 65th home run (and 66th, which mistakenly was ruled a ground rule double instead) in the Cardinals’ 11-6 throttling of the Brewers.

You could see the amazement in his eyes when 52,000 fans stood and roared whenever McGwire batted.
And in the first inning, McGwire didn’t let anyone down when he cranked a 381-foot shot to left field. It was incredible, to say the least. A day I don’t think Alex will ever forget.

You are invited to attend the dedication of the new playing fields for women's and men's soccer, men's baseball and women's softball at the Outdoor Athletic Complex at 3:45 p.m. on Sun., Oct. 4. The ceremony will take place between the women's soccer game against UW Stout and the men’s game against Gustavus Adolphus College. Come early and stay later to watch the V-Hawk women and men soccer teams play their inaugural games on the soccer field. Women's game begins at 2 p.m., men's game at 4 p.m.

…“An Evening With the Professionals” from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Wed., Oct. 14 in the FAC, Hospitality Suite. Alumni will share their experiences with Viterbo students in pre-professional medical programs. Refreshments will be available.
Please respond to the Alumni Office, x3072, by Oct. 5. Sponsored by the Viterbo College Alumni Office.

What's up, Viterbo! My name is Sam Hinton and I'm your Student Government Association (SGA) President for the 1998-99 school year. I want to stress what we're doing to improve and increase visibility in SGA and let you know of a few events coming up.

SGA is an elected board of student representatives who serve the Viterbo campus in a number of capacities. One function of SGA is to allocate the $35 student activity fee each student pays per semester to support student services, the publications Touchstone and Lumen, activities, events, and clubs. The fees also cover publishing the student calendar /handbook and discounts for FAC events.

The most important part of SGA is to make sure the voices of students are heard and recommend policies pertaining to student life. Throughout the year, students bring certain issues and concerns to our attention. We evaluate the concerns and take the necessary actions to improve the campus.

The Students Activities Board (SAB) is a sub-committee of SGA responsible for coordinating on campus activities, such as Hog-wild and Homecoming. SAB makes decisions more towards activities, than funding. New members will be elected soon. If you're interested in becoming a member, contact Amy Rorvick, x3802. SAB is a great organization to join if you wish to get involved on campus.Organizing campus activities is fun and you make a lot of friends in the process.

SGA representatives are now available to speak with students in our Student Union office Mon. & Wed., 10-4, Tues. & Thurs. 9-12, 2-4, x3802. If you have a comment, concern, or suggestion, we're here to listen.

I'm proud to say we're now on the information super-highway! Our new webpage is under construction, but will soon feature student government news, minutes from meetings, and discussions of important issues. There will be an SGA representatives page, with mail-links and pictures, so everyone can get to know their representatives. The address is http://www.viterbo.edu/students/sga/index.htm. Visit our site in a couple of weeks. Our new e-mail address: SGA@mail.viterbo.edu. for your questions or recommendations. A special thanks to Neil Rouse and Mark Franz for helping us set everything up!

The eagerly awaited campus phone directory will be out in a couple of weeks! This year's directory will look like a miniature phone book and list both local and home phone numbers, mail addresses, E-mail addresses, class status, and majors! It will be combined with faculty extensions, so it will be the only book you need to contact the Viterbo community. Getting the directory together takes time. After the students have settled in, the college is required to allow three weeks for anyone to come forward and request that their information not be disclosed. A better quality phone book also takes longer to be put together, but I assure you it will be worth the wait!

Elections for Freshman representatives are being held on Tues., Sept. 29 in the Student Union. Don't forget to vote! Family Weekend is planned for Oct. 9 -11.

I'm looking forward to seeing you on campus and hearing from you on the web. The more input we have, the better job we can do as your representatives!

Jack Havertape will be featured in next week’s column of NEWS you’ll notice.

CLEP exams will be offered Thurs., Oct. 29. Fee for each exam is $44. A limit of two exams may be taken. Test information, registration forms, and sample questions may be obtained from the registrar’s office, MC 212. Registration deadline is Fri., Oct. 2.

The ADVANCE Program Office is offering a Review session for CLEP examinations, led by Lyon Evans, for any student taking the CLEP exam for English 103, Composition and Elements of Argumentation, 10 a.m.- noon, Sat., Oct. 10, in MC 553. Cost: $10 (due by Oct. 8). Bring paper & pen. For more information call x3370, or MC 504, by Oct 8.

Katie O’Reilly is a 9-year-old suffering from cancer. Her grandmother Mary Wetterling ’90 is an active alumni board member at Viterbo. If you are interested in helping Katie out, tickets for an   extravaganza are available from Sally Emerson in the alumni office, x3072.

We are just two days away from the conclusion of the Employee Campaign. So far, more than 150 employees have turned in their pledge cards and have made pledges to Viterbo. If you have not responded, please turn in your pledge card to the Institutional Advancement office by Wed., Sept. 30.
As we begin our descent, please fasten your seat belt, your tray table is up and your seat is in the upright position…and thank you for flying with Viterbo.
—Barry Fried,
    Pilot, Employee Campaign

Dee Decue will be speaking with the Introduction to Environmental Studies class (ENVS 200) on Oct. 5. Dee has lived and worked in India on a UN-sponsored project concerning sustainable living and tropical forest restoration in India. Everyone is invited to attend. The class meets at 3:10 p.m. in MC 414. Please call Michael Lauer, x3466, for more details.