WAA News
Generation to Generation
Badger grads offer advice to incoming freshmen.
“Get at least seven hours of sleep every weekday night.”
“One needs a good map and strong legs.”
“First and foremost, dive in headfirst and be a Badger.”
If alumni know one thing about UW-Madison that current students don’t, it’s what it takes to survive. After all, by definition, alumni have successfully completed their time on campus, while students are still working their way through. But Wisconsin’s alumni, as WAA president and CEO Paula Bonner MS’78 found, are more than willing to share their wisdom, good will, and survival strategies with current students.
In September, Bonner spoke at the Chancellor’s Convocation for New Students, a ceremony that welcomes freshmen and transfers to the UW-Madison campus. “Since I was there to represent alumni, I really wanted them to speak through me,” she says. “So instead of trying to imagine what they’d tell these students, I went to them and asked them directly.”
“Get at least seven hours of sleep every weekday night.”
“One needs a good map and strong legs.”
“First and foremost, dive in headfirst and be a Badger.”
If alumni know one thing about UW-Madison that current students don’t, it’s what it takes to survive. After all, by definition, alumni have successfully completed their time on campus, while students are still working their way through. But Wisconsin’s alumni, as WAA president and CEO Paula Bonner MS’78 found, are more than willing to share their wisdom, good will, and survival strategies with current students.
In September, Bonner spoke at the Chancellor’s Convocation for New Students, a ceremony that welcomes freshmen and transfers to the UW-Madison campus. “Since I was there to represent alumni, I really wanted them to speak through me,” she says. “So instead of trying to imagine what they’d tell these students, I went to them and asked them directly.”
Bonner sent an e-mail to the members of WAA asking them what they thought new students ought to know. In less than a week, she’d received more than four hundred replies. “The response was overwhelming, both in the number of responses and in their messages,” says Bonner. “I was deeply touched by the sense of affection and obligation that our alumni feel toward current students.”
Bonner felt that the responses deserved a longer life than the few minutes she had on stage, so WAA compiled them and posted them on its Web site. The posting has found resonance with graduates as much as students.
“Thanks for reminding me why I love Madison so much,” wrote Sue Botnick Strait ’78, who didn’t submit advice of her own, but who says she felt an affinity with what others had said about their first experiences on campus. “I sent this piece along to my daughter, a freshman living at the Langdon. I told her I’m a sentimental twit but that she should read it anyway.”
— John Allen
Bonner felt that the responses deserved a longer life than the few minutes she had on stage, so WAA compiled them and posted them on its Web site. The posting has found resonance with graduates as much as students.
“Thanks for reminding me why I love Madison so much,” wrote Sue Botnick Strait ’78, who didn’t submit advice of her own, but who says she felt an affinity with what others had said about their first experiences on campus. “I sent this piece along to my daughter, a freshman living at the Langdon. I told her I’m a sentimental twit but that she should read it anyway.”
— John Allen
Diving into History
Learning event introduces alumni to submarine warfare.
A group of UW grads experienced a taste of the naval life during a two-day tour of duty in September. After a discussion with war veteran Dean Pawlish ’50, the group boarded the USS Cobia, a World War II submarine, where they had a chance to maneuver the gun turrets and “take the conn” in the control room.
A National Historic Landmark now docked at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, the Cobia sank two Japanese ships bound for Iwo Jima. Although it was not manufactured in the Badger state, it’s representative of twenty-eight submarines constructed in Manitowoc during WWII.
You’re in the Navy Now, a Wisconsin Alumni Lifelong Learning event, gave Badgers an in-depth look at the lives of sailors. Over dinner, Pawlish shared his experiences as a submariner. After a guided tour of the Cobia, participants learned firsthand about the sleeping accommodations on a submarine by staying overnight in the vessel’s officer’s quarters. The next morning, they toured the Maritime Museum for a lesson about Wisconsin’s shipping and military history.
“We found out that service on a submarine was voluntary,” says Joyce Baer ’55, MS’70, who attended with her spouse, George Socha MS’50. “Some of them had to sleep in the torpedo room, and those bunks! You’d be lucky to have six inches above your nose.”
— Erin Hueffner ’00
A group of UW grads experienced a taste of the naval life during a two-day tour of duty in September. After a discussion with war veteran Dean Pawlish ’50, the group boarded the USS Cobia, a World War II submarine, where they had a chance to maneuver the gun turrets and “take the conn” in the control room.
A National Historic Landmark now docked at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, the Cobia sank two Japanese ships bound for Iwo Jima. Although it was not manufactured in the Badger state, it’s representative of twenty-eight submarines constructed in Manitowoc during WWII.
You’re in the Navy Now, a Wisconsin Alumni Lifelong Learning event, gave Badgers an in-depth look at the lives of sailors. Over dinner, Pawlish shared his experiences as a submariner. After a guided tour of the Cobia, participants learned firsthand about the sleeping accommodations on a submarine by staying overnight in the vessel’s officer’s quarters. The next morning, they toured the Maritime Museum for a lesson about Wisconsin’s shipping and military history.
“We found out that service on a submarine was voluntary,” says Joyce Baer ’55, MS’70, who attended with her spouse, George Socha MS’50. “Some of them had to sleep in the torpedo room, and those bunks! You’d be lucky to have six inches above your nose.”
— Erin Hueffner ’00
Standing Up for Stem Cells
Alumni contact their legislators about bio research bills.
For Patricia Finder-Stone MS’75, the case is simple: stem cell research offers the best opportunity to improve the length and quality of life for patients suffering from debilitating problems. Her conviction is rooted not only in her career — she was trained as a nurse and taught bioethics in Green Bay — but also in personal experience. Her husband, Mark Stone MS’57, died in 1998 from complications of a stroke.
“If there had been the appropriate research done,” Finder-Stone says, “I have no doubt that my husband would have been able to recover and to live longer.”
In September, Finder-Stone came to the 2005 Priority Forum, sponsored by Alumni for Wisconsin, to hear how legislation then before the Wisconsin assembly and senate might affect UW-Madison. University and alumni leaders spoke about the budget battles the UW has fought during the last few years, and how the legislature is mandating internal policies within the UW System.
For Patricia Finder-Stone MS’75, the case is simple: stem cell research offers the best opportunity to improve the length and quality of life for patients suffering from debilitating problems. Her conviction is rooted not only in her career — she was trained as a nurse and taught bioethics in Green Bay — but also in personal experience. Her husband, Mark Stone MS’57, died in 1998 from complications of a stroke.
“If there had been the appropriate research done,” Finder-Stone says, “I have no doubt that my husband would have been able to recover and to live longer.”
In September, Finder-Stone came to the 2005 Priority Forum, sponsored by Alumni for Wisconsin, to hear how legislation then before the Wisconsin assembly and senate might affect UW-Madison. University and alumni leaders spoke about the budget battles the UW has fought during the last few years, and how the legislature is mandating internal policies within the UW System.
But what captured her interest the most was a discussion of the legislature’s proposed ban on reproductive and therapeutic cloning, which could severely restrict the ability of Wisconsin scientists to study human embryonic stem cells. The bill passed the State assembly in June and the senate in September, although it was vetoed by Governor Jim Doyle ’67. Still, the bill comes at a particularly awkward time, given that UW-Madison’s WiCell Research Institute was named the country’s only National Stem Cell Bank by the National Institutes of Health. (See page 11.)
“People were certainly very enthusiastic about this issue,” says Mike Fahey ’89, WAA’s director of state relations and one of the event’s organizers. “It generated a lot of phone calls, a lot of contact to us and to legislators.”
Finder-Stone, who says she left the meeting feeling “fired up,” hopes that it will encourage others to increase their efforts to convince legislators and the general public to support the UW in its research endeavors. “In my work as a nurse, I’ve cared for many people with disabilities, so it’s very distressing to see limitations on research that could help them,” she says. “As alumni, we all need to become involved in advocacy, because [medical research] is something that affects us all.”
— John Allen
“People were certainly very enthusiastic about this issue,” says Mike Fahey ’89, WAA’s director of state relations and one of the event’s organizers. “It generated a lot of phone calls, a lot of contact to us and to legislators.”
Finder-Stone, who says she left the meeting feeling “fired up,” hopes that it will encourage others to increase their efforts to convince legislators and the general public to support the UW in its research endeavors. “In my work as a nurse, I’ve cared for many people with disabilities, so it’s very distressing to see limitations on research that could help them,” she says. “As alumni, we all need to become involved in advocacy, because [medical research] is something that affects us all.”
— John Allen
New Initiative Allows Alumni To Take a Stand for Wisconsin
“So, you went to Wisconsin?”
How many times have you heard that question? The names of the state and the school have almost become synonymous, and rightly so — the economic well-being of the state is inextricably linked to the strength and health of the University of Wisconsin.
The university creates almost 75,000 jobs in the state, and its presence generates nearly $347 million in state and local tax revenue. The impact of UW-Madison alone on the state’s economy is $4.7 billion, more than ten times the state’s annual investment.
That’s why the recent budget cuts to the UW System have a lot of Wisconsin’s residents — and faculty — worried. The cuts were passed without much public debate or opportunity to evaluate the facts.
How many times have you heard that question? The names of the state and the school have almost become synonymous, and rightly so — the economic well-being of the state is inextricably linked to the strength and health of the University of Wisconsin.
The university creates almost 75,000 jobs in the state, and its presence generates nearly $347 million in state and local tax revenue. The impact of UW-Madison alone on the state’s economy is $4.7 billion, more than ten times the state’s annual investment.
That’s why the recent budget cuts to the UW System have a lot of Wisconsin’s residents — and faculty — worried. The cuts were passed without much public debate or opportunity to evaluate the facts.
To give alumni a central place where they can learn about how the recent budget-cutting trends are affecting the present and future of the university, WAA has created a new Web site at www.alumniforwisconsin.org. There you can access the economic data, learn the latest legislative news, read about the real-world impact the cuts are having on schools and colleges from the people working there, contact your legislators and the governor, and sign a petition of support.
WAA has also created an advocacy group called Alumni for Wisconsin, which will sponsor various support-oriented events and initiatives. The former advocacy arm of WAA, the Badger Action Network — a group of alumni interested in legislative issues — has now been folded into Alumni for Wisconsin.
In conjunction with the new Web site and expanded advocacy group, WAA has created a new ad campaign: “Wisconsin: A State. A School. A Stand.” (See the first ad in this series on the back cover of this issue.) See www.alumniforwisconsin.org to read why alumni like Kathy Costello ’71, MS’77, principal of Annie Jackson Elementary School in Green Bay, are taking a stand for Wisconsin.
— Candice Gaukel Andrews ’77
WAA has also created an advocacy group called Alumni for Wisconsin, which will sponsor various support-oriented events and initiatives. The former advocacy arm of WAA, the Badger Action Network — a group of alumni interested in legislative issues — has now been folded into Alumni for Wisconsin.
In conjunction with the new Web site and expanded advocacy group, WAA has created a new ad campaign: “Wisconsin: A State. A School. A Stand.” (See the first ad in this series on the back cover of this issue.) See www.alumniforwisconsin.org to read why alumni like Kathy Costello ’71, MS’77, principal of Annie Jackson Elementary School in Green Bay, are taking a stand for Wisconsin.
— Candice Gaukel Andrews ’77
