TIP/New developments for fall semester

With fall classes slated to begin Tuesday, Sept. 5, the University of Wisconsin–Madison has a number of new programs, facilities and academic developments that may be of interest to the news media. The following are some possible story angles:

— End of an era for Liz Waters Hall

“In her own room each girl is surrounded by those comforts and conveniences which she herself would be quick to suggest; outside, she finds those facilities which will make her life in the hall approximate that of a home of refinement.”

So reads the 1940 dedication book for Elizabeth Waters Hall, a lavish (for its time) lakeshore residence hall that for 65 years served as home for women undergraduates. That will change this fall, when Liz Waters opens its doors for the first time as a co-ed residence hall for about 500 students.

Liz Waters may have been the Newell Smith Hall of its time, with local newspaper articles gushing about life in “the lap of luxury.” Apparently, men noticed as well: A 1978 Badger Herald article refers to a campaign by campus men to gain access to what was “generally considered the most desirable dorm on campus.”

Demand still exists for a women’s residence hall, and that distinction will be held this fall by Cole Hall, 625 Elm Drive, also along the lakeshore.

— Agriculture, environment stewardship merge in new master’s program

As society’s expectations for agriculture evolve, agricultural professionals face challenges far beyond those of raising crops or livestock. They also contend with increasingly complex environmental, animal welfare and labor issues, and must navigate difficult negotiations involving all the various stakeholders.

To prepare students to understand, study and facilitate such discussions, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has established a new master’s program in agroecology, the field of study that focuses on the intersection between agriculture and the broader social, biological and physical systems involved. The program will offer a full complement of courses this fall.

Graduates of this unique program will be prepared to take the lead in complex negotiations necessary to resolve conflicts between farmers, agribusinesses, environmental organizations and other nongovernmental organizations, as well as federal, state and local governments.

— FIGs incorporate an international flavor

There’s a new focus this fall around UW–Madison First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs), in which roughly 20 entering freshmen enroll in three thematically linked classes together for a semester. FIGS have gone global, with 15 of the fall semester’s 29 clusters having core international content. Eight of the “international” FIGS are new this year and another eight involve language instruction.

Among the new FIGs being offered for fall are: Subjects and Citizens in Global Cultures; The Imperial Republic: The United States and Its Empire in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia; Anime in Post-Modern Japan; and Race and Ethnicity in the Americas. Among this year’s language offerings are French, Japanese, Latin, Spanish, Thai, Yoruba and Yucatec Mayan.

FIGs have been open to first-year students since their debut in 2001. They help foster a student-faculty connectedness in smaller classes, as well as greater student camaraderie. FIG participants have achieved higher retention and graduation rates thus far compared to their peers.

— International Learning Community takes on Arabic

This fall, Arabic will be the newest language residential program added to the International Learning Community (ILC). An initial group of three residents will be immersed in the Arabic language for activities and casual conversation, supported by a native speaker, in the learning community housed at Adams Hall.

The ILC offers students the opportunity to be surrounded by the language and culture of a foreign country without leaving campus. That kind of everyday immersion is deemed critical to mastering a foreign language. Arabic will join German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese as official ILC languages.

— New course: A lab where you slice, dice and saut�

From planning to shopping, chopping and arranging flowers, a group of senior dietetics students will take part in a pilot course dedicated to fine art of healthful cooking for large groups.

The project, which began with seven students last spring, extends labs for the program’s food management course from University Housing facilities to the kitchens at the UW Hospital and Clinics. It is designed to give the future dietitians a crash course in culinary skills and the logistics of large-scale food service operations.

“The goal for these labs is to give students experience in the administration and management of on-site food service operations, which will prepare them for the internships they typically pursue after graduation,” explains Monica Theis, a registered dietitian and dietetics program instructor in the food science department. The program is housed within the nutritional sciences department, but some of the coursework is completed through food science.

As professionals in an applied field, dietitians use science-based knowledge about food and nutrition to prevent and treat disease. They might work in a clinical setting, as a food service administrator or in a community nutrition program.

— New high-tech engineering building opens for student use

UW–Madison undergraduate engineering students will attend classes in phase one of the new Mechanical Engineering Building. Built on the site of the World War I-era “Sawtooth” machine shop, the modern four-story structure couples 1920s craftsmanship evident in the existing historic building with state-of-the-art classroom and laboratory technologies.

The building, which features three large lecture halls and seven classrooms, is home to four new facilities with tools designed specifically for industrial and systems engineering students. Classrooms and lecture halls all are equipped with one or more LCD projectors, an AMX component control system, laptop hookup, document camera and a DVD/VHS player. Later this year, one will be equipped with videoconferencing technology.

Three computer labs and some faculty laboratories also have LCD projectors. Faculty, staff and students are expected to begin occupying the new building in late August. In phase two of the project, workers will gut and renovate the existing Mechanical Engineering Building.

— Business course explores equity and diversity in the work force

A general business course known as SEED, or Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity, focuses on diversity, equity, and leadership as assets to create the future. The class was first offered as a general business pilot in fall 2005 and received some of the highest evaluations of any School of Business class.

The course originated as a social justice seminar in African American studies, but the material was adapted for the School of Business to focus on the development of future leaders. The goal of the seminar is to examine through the “textbooks of our lives” issues of privilege and oppression as it plays out in the arenas of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and ability in America.