FVTC Womens Basketball Times/2015AprilFoxTimesAll4... · FVTC Womens Basketball 2014—2015 ... speaking with Representatives and ... Accompanying me were fellow classmate and Phi

April 2015

A student–run publication

FVTC Womens Basketball 2014—2015

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Articles can be submitted to [email protected] DIGITAL VERSION OF THIS PUBLICATION CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED AT: www.fvtc.edu/foxtimes

2 From the Editor 6 Club Spotlight 16 Tucker’s Take 18 Afternoon of Gardening Project Semicolon 19 Supreme Court candidates differ on campaign funding, recusal 20 Board overseeing Wisconsin’s for-profitschoolsfightsforits life 22 Iron mine is halted, but battle scars remain 23 Do policymakers care what people think? It depends 24 Wisconsin cuts back on long-term institutional care for the disabled 26 State’s move toward community supports follows national trend 27 Gov. Scott Walker budget would shake up long-term care programs; disabilities advocates concerned

29 Autism 30 Cold Weather 31 Hot Weather 32 Professional Communications — The “Buy One, Get 3 Free” Program 33 FVTC Students, Staff, and Faculty Have Long History of Support for Autism Awareness 36 Poetry Corner 2015 Manawa Snodeo a Success 37 Comics by Phil Hands

FACEBOOK.COM/FVTCFOXTIMES | 1

CONTENTSFox Times | April 2015

AdvisorShannon Gerke [email protected]

Fox Times Staff MembersRich Weber – Editor In ChiefPatty Jacob – Editor of FunWilliam Miller – Layout & DesignTucker JahnkeKaren Brown

ContributorsShiloh Besaw Panar VangDenni Rae LecusRachel MolineShiloh BesawYolanda WeberJordan Terrell Kevin Grondahl

Bill LuedersMadeleine Behr and Kate GoldenLiz JonesSteeve PauleusSean KirkbyLiz Jeffers

2 | FVTC STUDENT PUBLICATION | APRIL 2015

FVTC’s SGA Visits Madison 2015By Rich Weber

Why, hello there. From this month forward, we will be

featuring articles from the staff at Wisconsin Watch. Great people providing high quality investigative reporting. I asked Liz Jones, Manager of the Instructional Excellence department to write an article on Autism since April is Autism Awareness Month.

My editorial this month is a tale of two polar opposite experiences with our legislators. Have a great month.

Imagine a world where Technical College students can visit the State of Wisconsin Capitol and meet with legislators. Now imagine a world where those legislators listened intently and were happy to see and hear these students point of view. That is exactly what happened.

On Sunday, February 15th, 2015, the Fox Valley Technical College Student Government Association, along with the Oshkosh Student Board traveled to Madison. Nine students and two advisers went on a journey to advocate on behalf of all Technical College students in the State of Wisconsin. Yes, all 379,000 of them.

Since I am the Vice-President of FVTC’s SGA, I also fulfill the duty of Governor to the Wisconsin Student Government, as 1 of the 16 Governors from all 16 Technical Colleges in the Wisconsin Technical College System.

Why were we there? To explain and drive home the point to the legislators that Technical Colleges are an important piece of their districts economies.

There were three key points that we discussed with the 10 legislators we met with on Tuesday, the 18th.

• Increased state financial aid• Transferring of all Technical College credits to the

University of Wisconsin system• We oppose a tuition freeze on the Technical College

System

Increased state funded financial aid. Making education more accessible and affordable for as many students as possible. The WTCS has a +90% job placement rate for graduates within 6 months of

graduation. There are not any stats on graduate job placement for the UW or Private College systems. That to me is quite interesting. If their stats were as high, they would be shouting it from the rooftops, right?

• UW System gets $58 million each year• Private Colleges get $26 million each year• Technical Colleges get $18 million each yearThe transfer of all Technical College credits to the UW system. I am not certain how many ways a Written Comm or Intro to Psychology class can be taught. So why should I pay $3-400 per credit for a UW class,

when I can get the same class and education at the Tech level for $133 per credit? Imagine the amount of money that would be saved.

A tuition freeze sounds great on paper. Once you take a step back and view the big picture, you realize that

F rom The Edit or

WSG President Joseph Dolzani and I, Rich Weber

WSG President Joseph Dolzani, Me, WSG Vice-President Craig Collins

FVTC’s Delegation with Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch

continued on next page...


tuition is the only means for the Technical Colleges to adjust revenue. The greatness of the Tech system is it’s ability to adapt and change as needs arise in the local districts. If revenues are frozen, they would not have the funds necessary to maintain up to date equipment for students to train on, and with.

Employers love the graduates coming from the Tech system because they are ready with the needed skills to do the job on day one. It just doesn’t make sense to kneecap the Tech system and “fix” what isn’t broken.

I, and my SGA compatriots enjoyed our time in Madison, speaking with Representatives and Senators that actually paid attention and cared. It was refreshing to meet with politicians that listened, asked excellent questions, and were happier to see us than we could have ever expected. Did we make a difference? I believe that we did. One legislator at a time if need be.

It was an exhausting and whirlwind three days. I look forward to participating again next year.

Meeting with State Senator Luther Olsen Me hanging with fellow Governors in Madison


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I Should Have Known…By Rich Weber

This past week I volunteered to speak on behalf of Fox Valley Technical College’s 50,000 students, along with the 379,000 students that comprise the Wisconsin Technical College System at the Joint Finance Committee’s State Budget Hearing, in Brillion, WI.

Accompanying me were fellow classmate and Phi Theta Kappa member Liz Jeffers, and Phi Theta Kappa Vice-President Angie Cook.

Sadly, the State of Wisconsin has fallen into a pit of despair as it is being led off of the compassionate, educational, and fiscal cliff by Governor Scott Walker. The budget bill eliminates long term care assistance for the disabled and elderly, and guts even more from the K-12 public schools, all the while throwing money at private for profit schools, AND! AND! giving the hapless Milwaukee Bucks $300 million dollars for a new stadium.

Apparently we don’t need to worry about education, the disabled, or the elderly. The 7 fans that show up to Bucks games need a brand new stadium paid for by the taxpayers. If I sound disgruntled and angry, well, you get the picture.

Anyhow, hundreds of concerned taxpaying voters showed up to share their displeasure with the directions this budget bill is intending to go. Here is a photo that summarizes how much the legislators on the Joint Finance Committee cared.

To be fair, I understand the draw of Candy Crush or whatever it is that politicians do when they are ignoring the very taxpayers that pay their salaries. Well, no, actually I don’t. Senator Lasee played on his phone for hours. Literally, for hours. His battery life must be much better than mine…

We arrived at the hearing at 9 am, an hour before it began. I did not get my chance to speak until 2:30 pm. In those hours Liz, Angie, and I watched the lackadaisical attitudes, the complete and utter apathy and contempt the legislators had for those of us speaking out.

Each voter speaking implored the committee to use common sense and compassion when making the final decisions regarding these issues. Not one single citizen speaker was out of line, none of them were rude or sassy in any way, shape, or form.

When my chance to speak in opposition of a tuition freeze on high demand programs came up, I was so flustered at the reception all of the previous speakers had received I was almost incapable of delivering my points in a coherent manner. I felt that I botched my opportunity to sway opinions to the proper side of the discussion. After I spoke, many members of the audience stopped me and said that I stated my case eloquently and effectively.

When the Student Government Executive Board visited Madison a few short weeks ago, and met lawmakers one on one, the reception wasn’t like the budget hearing was. Post here. We were warmly welcomed and paid attention to. The budget hearing was the exact opposite of that experience I wonder if they were the same legislators.

I was shocked, stunned, and utterly unprepared for the experience. Though, in retrospect, I should have known. I am the Vice-President of the Fox Valley Technical College Student Government Association. If I ever treated a fellow student in the manner those of us were regarded at the budget hearing… wow, I hope someone would set me straight.

I will leave you with the best line from the budget hearing. A very nice retired teacher explained in full the missteps this budget proposal will do to the state of education in Wisconsin. Then she finished with this.

“I’m not going to thank you for listening today because I think that’s your job!”

How the stage looked for most of the day. Apparently the legislators had more important things to do…

Me and Angie Angie and Liz

Senator Frank Lasee would rather play Candy Crush than

listen to constituents…

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“Congratulations! Your Chapter, Beta Epsilon Omicron, has been selected as a 2014 Honors Case Study Challenge Award winner.”

This was the first sentence in an email that was sent to us from Nicole Duvall, a Key Services Associate from the headquarters at Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society in Jackson, Mississippi. The Honors Case Study Award is the first Award that our Chapter has ever won! Upon receiving this Award, we were also notified that not only is this the first Award, but it is also the first time that a Wisconsin Chapter won this particular Award. We are honored to be recognized for all the hard work we did as a team, as a chapter, and as a unified group of individuals dedicated to growing within the Phi Theta Kappa Organization.

What is The Honors Case Study Challenge? The Honors Case Study Challenge offers the opportunity of Scholarship and an enhanced learning experience through current events in our society. It was our challenge to read the newspaper daily, and to create the Honors Case Study based upon our reading. With numerous rules in place, and

a deadline to meet, our Chapter pulled together a winning piece entitled, “The Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage.” For those who keep current with headlines in the news, this was a hot topic in Wisconsin last year.

With there being over 1,200 Chapters in the Phi Theta Kappa Organization, only five chapters could be recognized and honored with the Honors Case Study Challenge Award. Again, we are very proud to be one of those five Chapters. This was an excellent opportunity to have participated in during 2014, and we are going to put forth our efforts toward this winning goal again for 2015. For anyone on campus who may be curious to read our winning piece, be sure to stop by one of our Chapter meetings and ask us about it. We’d be happy to share our overwhelming joy and our growing recognition as a Chapter in the Honor Society with others!

by Dianne Tyler, PTK Public Relations Officer

On March 6th and 7th 2015, Fox Valley Technical College and Beta Epsilon Omicron was honored to be the Host Chapter for the Phi Theta Kappa 2015 Wisconsin Regional Convention. There are 29 Chapters in the Wisconsin Region and we were proud to welcome all of the attending Chapters into our school. During this outstanding event, we were able to showcase Fox Valley Technical College and Beta Epsilon Omicron.

The two day Convention focused on the entrepreneurial spirit and involved many activities. We were ecstatic to have two amazing keynote speakers — Amy Pietsch and Chris Czarnik — speak during our Convention on the topics of Entrepreneurial Mindsets and Leadership Skills. Several break-out sessions revolved around the entrepreneurial theme, and the attendees were notably engaged while feeling inspired. We had a wonderful panel discussion consisting of four area entrepreneurs that shared, “How Entrepreneurial Ideas Shape our Society.” The energy in the air was powerful and gratifying during both days of the

Convention and we couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.

During the 2013/2014 school year our Chapter worked hard and grew remarkably. This earned our Chapter a tremendous amount of recognition, which in turn led us to not only be the hosts of the Convention, but to receive many awards as well. Some of these awards carry a substantial cash value with them and bragging rights. The Convention was an energetic and memorable scholarly atmosphere for our Chapter to be a part of. A list of the awards that our Chapter won are noted below. You can also find these awards located in the display case down the International hallway, just outside the library.

• A large plaque just for hosting the Regional Convention

• 5 Star Chapter Award — A research based project in the 5 Star Chapter Plan that ends in a physical project to raise awareness for a cause, both in the school and in the community. continued on next page...


Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society would like to give you (our recent Inductees) the recognition that you deserve. On March 12, 2015 your achievements have proven to be commemorative and will continue to provide you with great opportunities towards your future success. Your dedication, hard work, commitment, and outstanding performance is inspiring and recognized by all. We congratulate you, welcome you, and are greatly honored to have you as new members of our Phi Theta Kappa chapter, Beta Epsilon Omicron.

Congratulations!

• 5 Star Competitive Edge Awards were given to six individuals in our Chapter who completed their personal Competitive Edge Phi Theta Kappa Goals. This earned those individuals a 5 Star Pin, and awarded our Chapter with a free International Convention registration for San Antonio Texas in April 2015, and also a free Honors Institute registration for New Mexico in June of 2015.

• The Honors Case Study Challenge Award — Winning this award gave our Chapter special recognition during the Regional Convention for being the first Wisconsin Regional Chapter to EVER win this award. This award is the Award in which our Chapter will be recognized and honored at the International Convention in San Antonio, Texas next month, April 2015.

• Most Distinguished Chapter Officer Team — this

is out of the 29 Chapters in the Wisconsin Region• The Spirit Award — this is for the Chapter that

showed the most growth in the last year out of the 29 Chapters in the Wisconsin Region.

• First place award for the Honors in Action category of theme seven — There were 9 themes in which our Chapter could choose from. Theme seven “Health and Medicine as Frontiers” was our chosen theme we researched, documented, wrote about, and broke down into the category of Esophageal Cancer. Esophageal Cancer was then our project based action which involved the school and the community, leading to our “Pie-in-the-Face” fundraiser we held in the fall of 2014.

Dunn, Jaclyn

Langston, Tim

Straschinske, Matthew

Erdman, Megan

Lemm, Michele

Vandervelden, Michael

Fischer, Donia

Long, Ryan

Vanderzanden, Samantha

Freese, Candice

Mauthe, Alison

Venveen, Daniel

Geiger, Tanya

McLoughlin, Jenny

Walsh, Brian

Geiser, Joshua

Mendez Diaz, Kevin

Waters, Bryan

Gillis, Megan

Nehmer, Jessica

Weber, Douglas

Basler, Carly

Hogan, Hannah Marie

Plutz, Sara

Bebo, Brandon

Hoopes, Elizabeth

Pongratz, Peggy

Booth, Daryl

Hupfer, Hannah

Potkay-Mott, Heather

Borowitz, Wayne

Hutchinson, Robert

Pritzl, Megan

Bravo, Marcos

Janssen, Heather

Ramirez, Daysi

Briske, Jason

Karamoko, Kroman

Ramsey, Bethany

Buchholtz, Daniel

Keenan, Austin

Rank, Spring

Cavaiani-Washington, Brandon

Kenny, Laura

Rasske, Gregg

Chahir, Stephanie

King, TaSheena

Rhode, Robert

Christensen, Connie

Kizewski, Ezra

Rzentkowski, Vicki

Congdon, Jody

Komarek, Angelica

Schiesl, Sheila

DeAgostino, Tony

Kozic, Paige

Schimke, Jennifer

Dilge, Andrea

Krause, Gunther

Schraufnagel, Joseph

Dimmock, Kevin

Krause, Kalynn

Sell, Kathryn G

Grondahl, Kevin

Nelson, Abigail

Weishaar, Jonathan

Groshek, Brenda

Nelson, Eric

Wenzel, Christiana

Hartl, Tiffany

Nirschl, Jennifer

Westmoreland, Cory

Femauer, Brittni

Oliva, Katheryne

Xiong, Michael

Hencke, Franciane

Oppermann, Lisa

Yang, Ling

Hintz, Stephen

Ortega, Jolene

Young, Carol

Hoffmann, Jeffery

Parvin, Paige

Zoglman, Becky


HSU stands for Hmong Student Unionby Panar Vang

HSU is a student organization which promotes higher education to address the concerns and needs of Hmong students. The Hmong community provides leadership opportunities to serve as an academic, social, and networking resource for Hmong Students at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC).

HSU currently has 30 members. Within the 30 members we have accomplished the following;• Eggrolls Sale• Thanksgiving Pot Luck• Interpreting for Salvation Army Christmas

Distribution • YMCA Culture Night• Harbor House Donation Distribution • Club Recruitment Pho Night• Open Gym Fundraiser

HSU would like to thank SGA for the assistance in funding the trip to Hmong National Development Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. With this opportunity, HSU will

bring back their experience and knowledge to help build a better education, leadership, and motivation to Fox Valley Technical College and the Hmong Community.

April is Asian-Pacific Islanders Heritage month. During the month of April there will be three events that the Multicultural Student Services, Hmong Student Union (HSU), and the International Exchange Club be presenting. The first event that will begin on April 2 is the Fashion & Dance Show. Students from the Multicultural Student Services, Hmong Student Union (HSU), and the International Exchange Club will display their heritage clothing. Some pieces are beautifully hand stitched, while some are vibrant in color. Members will also be explaining about the importance of the clothes and how it pertains to their culture. The second event will be Taste of Asia on April 9. It gives you an opportunity to interact and savor the wonderful aroma of Asian-Pacific Islanders cuisine. Also it’s a chance for Asian-Pacific Islander to explain why the food is important to them. The third and last event is Mind, Body, and Soul: Hmong Shaman Presentation on April 15. We will have guest speakers who will share about their life experience as they heal through the mind, body, and soul of other beings.


Horticulture Club Fox Times Article by Rachel Moline

Winter snow doesn’t stop the Horticulture Club from growing its members. Our club continues to have over twenty zealous members that contribute their efforts to promote themselves and the community. Activities this semester include fundraising sales, member education opportunities, and volunteering for community projects.

The main way we garner our green is by giving green. The Horticulture Club’s Green Thumbs Plant Store is opening the greenhouse doors to the public every Wednesday from 4pm to 6pm to sell plants the students have propagated. Come straight on back behind the AG building and check out the great prices and even better plants.

The fundraising efforts from plant sales help support our club opportunities that promote learning and expanding ideas for members. Examples of these opportunities are trips such as the Wisconsin Public TV Garden Expo, water

jug challenges to see who can come up with the best d.i.y. repurposing gardening idea, and participating in the Urban Gardening Conference being held here in the campus’s AG building in April.

Although sales and activities are fun, the best part about the club is the community volunteerism. Our members are making efforts to adopt the Appleton Public Library’s atrium to help them maintain their plants. Also, once it warms up we will be helping with spring startups at the Riverview Gardens and Heckrodt Wetland Reserve.

When it comes down to the people who make up the Horticulture Club, they grow more than just plants. They grow each other through friendships, ideas through challenges, and spirit through helping the community. I feel honored to be part of this club as it truly embodies the purpose behind the Fox Valley Technical College.

FVTC & DECA — A Winning Combination for Your FutureBy Denni Rae Lecus

We’re all familiar with FVTC’s tag line, “Knowledge That Works”, but what happens when you put that knowledge to work in a realistic business situation to:

• Solve a problem?• Perform a corrective action?• Increase production?• Find your target market?• Create a business plan?• Increase your customer base?

You could find yourself in a DECA Competitive Event. Why not take what you’re learning in the classroom to a new level? Your experience will help you to hone your critical thinking skills. Whether it’s a role play, business simulation, or a prepared event, you will walk away with a deeper knowledge and understanding that you can take to work.

Recent ActivityFVTC Appleton hosted the Northeast Regional Event on February 7th. Around Forty students came to our campus from Oshkosh, Green Bay, and even Wausau. Our Regional Vice President, Arshi Yadav Shah, put together a great program. There were informative breakout sessions, comprehensive tests, and competition. The keynote speaker for the day was Tim Bergstrom. His presentation gave us an insight to the like-family workplace that is Bergstrom Automotive.

Community InvolvementDECA is also about community involvement; it encourages relational activities like volunteering. Several members partnered with the Salvation Army and the Marines’ Toys for Tots campaign to help families have a Merry Christmas.

A civic consciousness project is chosen at the State level and all chapters are asked to raise funds and increase awareness for that cause. The Wounded Warrior Project was the focus of this year’s efforts. I can’t wait to see the check presented to a representative from WWP at the Wisconsin Career Development Conference (WCDC) in Madison on March 7th. Our chapter, through bake sales, wristband and pin sales, raised $1,100.00 to help our deserving men and women of Service.

LeadershipEvery year DECA participates in the Fall Leadership Conference which provides motivational speakers and workshops for improving skills. A National Leadership Conferences is held in New York every year, as well.

In closing, if I had to come up with my own tag line for DECA, it would have to be something like, “Experiences That Accelerate Learning in Leaders”. For more information about DECA’s competitive categories, go to http://www.collegiatedeca.org and click on the competitive events tab. You can also contact our Advisor, Jeff Meverden, at [email protected] or the chapter President at [email protected].


What does Earth Day mean to you?by Students and Staff at FVTC

The International Exchange Club and the Natural Resources Club collaborated to bring a universal perspective that also reflects on the individuals who participated in this article to the reader in hopes that they may find their own importance and meaning in Earth Day.

“Going around making the world a better place” — Jacob Aull

“Make the world a better place” — Elizabeth

“Keeping our world a place that everyone can have a place to relax in....nature destresses us!” — Jackie Miller

“The planet is very important because it is my home” — Silvia Gongora

“Home” — Shiloh Besaw

“Remembering it’s not just our planet” — Ben Nendzer

“A reminder to respect the planet” — Rich Weber

“The planet is not ours” — Christiana Coakley

“Being green” — Lao

“Green life” — Bee Yang

“Such life, so Earth, much green” — Matt Johnson

“Go green” — Simulata Uaisele

“Green” — Choua Vue

“Protecting the natural aspects of Earth, going green, and using less.” — Julie Melnarik

“I like air, thank you trees” — Clint Plotter

“Tree Hugger!” — Naomi

“Protecting the thing I love most, the forest” — Anonymous

“Respecting nature” — Doug

“Respect and love mother nature” — Panar Vang

“Be kind to one another, recycle, and flush” — Anonymous

“Recycle” — Kelsey Koechell

“Recycling” —Brianne

“Environmental awareness” — Hue Xiong

“It’s our future existence” — Glen

“Important Awareness” — Anonymous

“Nature” — Brittany

“Family” — Izzy

“Love” — Kayla Dorschner

“Protect” — Zaida Landry

“Future” — Beverllyn Vasquez

“Sustainable development” —Julien

“Breathe” — Allisen Stojanovic

“Refresh” — Ya Thao

“Preserving the world’s health” — Michelle, Megan, Sydney

“Health” — Ruth Arana

“Love, peace, and health” — Denise Thao

“A clean and healthy world to live in” — Marilyn

“Cleaner” — Yolanda

“Clean environment” — Pleasure

Conservation” — Adam

“Humanity’s salvation” — Chad Cizek

“Preservation” — Aaron Gorenc

“Creation” — Luke

“Reforestation” — Elita

“Protection” — Leo

“Clean Air —No Pollution” — Jacob Last

“Conservation” — Richard Evers

“Helping save the Earth!” — Jeremy King

“Clean Earth” — Landin Depas

“Aware of Earth’s natural resources, know about how to use them” — Paofa Marú

“Earth Day means new, new growth, chances, a day to remember the wondrous things that mother nature has to offer. A day to reflect where we were and consider where we as a people are healing, and what we are leaving behind.” — Michael Milspaugh

“Earth day to me is a reason to celebrate this beautiful rock we live on, by being grateful and thinking of ways to positively affect it for future generations.” — Kyle Ziolek

“Earth day is mainly made to be an awareness on preserving our natural resources for future generations to come, which we should be doing every day.” — Anonymous

“Recycling and saving the Earth” — Devonte Hadley

“Making the campus, community, and the world a clean and healthier pace. Leaving the Earth a better place.” — Anonymous

“Remembering that we are curators of the Earth” — Anonymous

“Earth day is a great day to evaluate your environmental wellness” — Brandy Hankey

“Recycle and be aware of how you treat the Earth” — Anonymous

“Earth day means people trying to save the Earth for future generations” — Sherry

“Loving our Earth” — Josh Buckley

“Taking care of the Earth, keeping clean” — Vic Gardener

“Remember to take care of the Earth” — Becky

“Acknowledging the Earth” — Koua Thao

“Protect Earth” — Farzana Fayeza

“Protect our most valued resource” — Jan Case


Earth Day’s a Great DaySubmitted by: Natural Resources Club

by Shiloh Besaw

Earth Day is the celebration of the Earth. It is a time when people around the world educate each other on issues that threaten the Earth’s environment and share enthusiasm for what it has to offer.

Some people originally celebrated Earth Day on the first day of spring, on or around March 21st. A Wisconsin U.S. Senator, Gaylord Nelson, proposed a bill in 1970 that designated April 22 as the nation’s day to celebrate Earth. The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act are believed to be results of the 1970 Earth Day.

People do not necessarily need a specific day to celebrate the Earth; it can be Earth Day every day. The things that people do to celebrate Earth tend to increase in volume on the first day of spring and April 22. There are a lot of ways people celebrate Earth Day. Planting trees is a great way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean up pollution, secure soil to prevent erosion, and provide homes for biodiversity. Making objects that support nature such as homes or feeders for organisms is a great way to celebrate, along with converting old objects that are considered trash into useful everyday items. This is also a great day to learn more about the environment so you know what you can do to make a difference. People try to reduce, reuse and recycle, by avoiding buying items that come with a lot of packaging, not using disposable plates or cutlery, and using a cloth bag when shopping to avoid getting plastic bags. Another way to celebrate is to give things that you can no longer use to people who can, this avoids filling our landfills with items that aren’t really trash. You can also celebrate by going on a mission to pick up litter anywhere you see it, the more litter there is the harsher the conditions for the environment. People have fairs or events on Earth Day to help educate the public on ways to make a positive impact on the environment. An interesting custom is to wear green and/ or brown, or other Earth colors along with badges displaying views on the environment. Having meals that are prepared from locally grown produce and or are organic is not only healthy but a great way to reduce negative impact on the environment. Buying a carbon offset will fund reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through projects like wind farms that reduces the need for fossil fuels. Riding a bike or any other form of human powered transportation to get to and from places is a neat and rewarding way to celebrate Earth Day.

There are 22,000 partners in 192 countries that are involved with the Earth Day Network, an organization that grew out of the first national Earth Day on April 22, 1970. This organization spreads knowledge about Earth Day

and helps organize events to do so. Cultures all around the world celebrate Earth Day in similar ways as listed above.

Arbor Day is related to Earth Day in that it is a day to plant a tree much like Earth Day. National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but depending on what state you live in the best time for planting may vary and thus it is celebrated on different days. In Wisconsin it is celebrated directly on National Arbor Day.

If you want to help with Earth Day you can go to http://www.earthday.org/ and make a pledge to follow through with for Earth Day. FVTC will also be celebrating this year with many events that will be available on the website http://www.fvtc.edu/public/ where you can click in the search bar and type Earth Week for more information on what we are doing. Keep your eyes peeled for events that will be happening the week before the week of April 22nd, during, and one week after at FVTC. Thank you for your interest in the planet, and remember every day can be Earth Day!

Sources:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/environmentalchemistry/f/earthday.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Celebrate-Earth-Day

http://www.earthday.org/node/68

http://www.earthday.org/

http://www.arborday.org/arborday/arborDayDates.cfm

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Everyday Heros FVTC Practical Nursing Clubby Yolanda Weber, Vice President

We meet once a month, our next meeting is: TUESDAY APRIL 14, 20152:30 — 3:30 pmRm.: A160A/BBoard Officers President: Ellen Wittwer (2nd semester) Email: [email protected] Vice President: Yolanda Weber (1st semester) Email: [email protected]: Kristi K. (2nd semester) Email: [email protected] Kris Rickert (2nd semester) Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Michelle Simpson (1st semester) Email: [email protected] club’s motto is “Everyday Hero’s FVTC Practical Nurses”. Our recent events include a food charity where we raised over $100 and received 165 items-way over our 100 item goal for the food pantry in December 2014. We participated in the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics. Even got a few of our wonderful staff member to participate. The Practical Nursing Club in conjunction with Harbor House will be providing training on identifying signs of domestic abuse.April 21, 2015 3 — 5 PM. FVTC Appleton Campus Room HS 301Open to everyone!Hope to see you at our next meeting.




LeRoy ButlerBy Tucker Jahnke

My name is Tuck Jahnke. I am a Wood Manufacturing Technology student at the S.J. Spanbauer campus in Oshkosh. I had the honor of meeting former Green Bay Packers Safety Leroy Butler on February 25 about being a champion at the Appleton campus.

Leroy’s presentation was very enjoyable and he also held a small autograph session afterwards in which he was giving away 8X10’s of himself and copies of his book — The Leroy Butler Story: From Wheelchair to Lambeau Leap.

As for his presentation... Leroy begins by taking a couple of kids on stage with him and he had been telling them about the dangers of bullying and the importance of leadership — “Lead, don’t follow!” Basically saying, if you can lead people well, they will begin following you becoming an inspiration to them and future generations.

He is from Jacksonville, FL and was in a wheelchair as a kid. He had a dream of playing professional sports, despite his difficulties. Leroy then mentions he tried baseball, but could not hit the ball due to the pitcher constantly aiming at his head because of him being in a wheel chair (ouch!)

He wanted to be a NFL player, but was told “You can’t play professional football... YOU’RE IN A WHEELCHAIR!!!” He had a dream of what he wanted to do and was going to let NOTHING get in his way. When he got to Florida State he had poor grades and performance during freshman and sophomore years. By the time he was a junior he began to improve and by senior year he had proved he could play.

Leroy’s draft story is really crazy! It was 1990 and he told us he was waiting for a phone call. After waiting for 2 rounds of the draft, he wondered what the problem was. Turns out his sister had been on the phone while the San Francisco 49ers were trying to get a hold of him! After getting his sister off the phone it rang. The Packers were on the phone.

Drafted to one of (if not THE) the most iconic teams in the NFL! He said “If you play for any NFL team, you are somebody. But if you play for the Packers, you are a LEGEND!” I don’t think Leroy could have said it better!

IN the 1995 NFL playoffs the Packers lost to the Cowboys in the NFC championship game. As a result, the Packers had one goal for the next season. “We win the Super Bowl next year, that’s all we talked about the next season!” In the 1996 season, GB won Super Bowl 31 in January 1997, beating the Patriots 35-21 in New Orleans.

The next year, GB went to the Super Bowl AGAIN, this time VS the Denver Broncos in San Diego. GB lost Super Bowl 32 to the Broncos 31-24. The only time the Packers lost the Super Bowl in five appearances.

On November 18, 2001, during a game VS the Atlanta Falcons in Green Bay, Leroy had a nasty tackle which broke his shoulder in 3 different places. He had been hoping to continue playing once the injury healed properly, but sadly, it did not. After 11 seasons with the Packers (1990-2001), Leroy Butler decided to call it a career.

The Packers went to the playoffs that year with a 12-4 record (just like the 2014 season!) They won their wild card game VS the 49’ers, 25-15, but lost in the divisional round to the Rams, 45-17. The Rams went on to the Super Bowl and lost to the Patriots. (Coincidence to Seattle’s win VS the Packers in the NFC Championship game in January then losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl.)

Overall, I rate Leroy as an inspirational speaker and very fun person to meet and listen to. He has a good sense of humor as well. Not just that, I got to shake hands with him and get my photo taken with him — he looks like he is having a lot of fun with me! Very interesting evening indeed! GO FOXES!

Tucker’s Take



Jacy GoodBy Tucker Jahnke

This is Tuck Jahnke with an article about Jacy Good, survivor of a distracted driving accident — use of a cell phone while driving to be exact. I was so moved by Jacy’s presentation on March 25 at the Riverside FVTC campus, that of the speakers I have seen this school year, I think she was the best of them.

What was touching was the Q&A session afterwards, there was only ONE question asked — nobody else could think of anything to say, even me! In any case, Jacy’s story goes like this: (be prepared to cry if you are an emotional person)

The date is Sunday, May 18, 2008. It is the day of Jacy’s college graduation from Pennsylvania College, about an hour 1/2 from her hometown of Lancaster, PA. Approximately halfway home from the ceremony Jacy was involved in a horrifying crash caused by an 18-year-old man talking on his cell phone — came to a red light and stopped.

An 18-wheeler and Jacy’s family station wagon with her parents were coming from opposite lanes on the intersecting road (this is a 3-way “T” intersection). The man on his cell phone was caught up in the conversation he was having, he FORGOT he was at a red light and turned left. The big rig swerved to avoid the man’s van, which ended up with front end damage only. Jacy’s family wagon was slammed head-on by the rig at 45 mph trying to avoid the man in the van.

Jacy’s parents were killed instantly upon impact. Her mother would have had a chance to survive if she had refasten her seat belt after a gas station break 5 minutes before. As for Jacy herself, the last thing she remembers is the gas station before the crash.

Jacy stated she would have been dead at the scene had it not been for an off-duty paramedic who heard the crash. The injuries she suffered were immense, I counted as many as 11. They included:• Both feet broken• Broken wrist• Broken collarbone

• Broken tibia AND fibia• Shattered pelvis• Lacerated liver• Crushed arteries• Partially collapsed lung• Traumatic brain injury

The doctors told Jacy due to the severity of the injuries, she was given a 10% chance of survival. She spent 3 months in the hospital.

Lastly, some words of wisdom and inspirational thoughts to take seriously in relation to what you just read: What is the price of life? THERE ISN’T ONE!!! Once you lose it, you don’t get another! Is texting, calling, updating a Facebook status, tweeting, etc while driving worth changing another person’s life for the worse, much less killing them and ending their future in seconds? NOT AT ALL!!!

What more do I need to say? Just remember 3 simple words about texting and driving: It can wait. GO FOXES!

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Afternoon of Gardening by Kevin Grondahl

April 18th — 1 to 4 pm FVTC Appleton Campus, Agricultural Building

Free!

Ever think about growing a garden? The thought of having fresh vegetables straight from your own yard makes your mouth water? Then you look at your space and think, where to begin! In many cases this is where most people stop because of many reasons. They rent and can not tear up the yard. There isn’t enough space. All we have is a small deck. There is help! Looking “inside the box” you will realize anyone can have a garden.

More and more we hear the term “urban gardening”. This type of gardening is a varied and creative way to garden. In many situations long straight level rows of soil just is not feasible. Planting has to be done where ever there is space. Patios, decks, or roof tops! This is where Afternoon of Gardening comes in.

Kevin Grondahl, a student at FVTC studying Information Technology, has created an event for people to become inspired to start their own gardens. It is called “Afternoon of Gardening” taking place in the Agricultural Building on the FVTC Appleton Campus. Kevin became an urban

gardener because he rents and is not able to removing sections of the yard for a garden. Through the many adventures of growing produce, Kevin, wanted to help other realize they can do it too. There are many things taking place to help people to become better educated in the world of urban gardening.

During the event there will be different organizations on hand to talk about what they do and to answer questions about gardening. FTVC also graciously offered to lead tours through the green houses on campus to learn the different approaches the school does when growing in small spaces. As participants leave the event they will receive information for the locations of area community gardens to visit. Finally there is the “Golden Trowel Challenge”.

This challenge is an opportunity to think creatively on growing in different spaces. The rules are simple: Must be movable, small enough to fit on a porch, and cost less than $20.00 to build. All entries must be present for judging by the participants. Winner will receive the Golden Trowel!

If you want to learn more, or sign up to take the Golden Trowel Challenge, visit: www.facebook.com/afternoongardening

Project Semicolon; Your Story Isn’t Over yetby Karen Brown

As we get further into the new semester pressure builds to do well and succeed. The more seasoned students are trying to keep going; knowing their goal is drawing closer. The newer students are treading unknown territory; unsure of what to expect and learning how to juggle everything. A new semester brings new courses, new people (both students and instructors), new trials/tests, and new struggles in life itself. It’s not easy to deal with everything and those beasts of burden can weigh heavy on the mind, body, and spirit.

With all that pressure and stress, it’s no wonder why 80%-85% of all people suffer from some form of depression. Not always, but that is where most addictions are formed. People look for a release; an escape from what they are going through. Before they know it, the addiction has taken control of them. Some go to an even darker place where only self-inflicted pain momentarily eases their suffering. Yet for some others they can no longer see any positive light in their life, nor do they hold any hope for themselves for the future and resort to escape by taking their own life.

There’s so many with depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues, eating disorders, and anything else that makes someone not feel like the wonderful, special person they deserve to be. It is for all of these people mentioned, and a story of love, that project Semicolon was founded by

Amy Bleul in the spring of 2013. Amy grew up with a dark past filled with bullying, rejection, self-injury, addiction, abuse, and more. The few people who did support her kept her pushing forward, even when she lost her father to suicide. Though she started this project to be an inspiration and show people there is a brighter future, it now has become a global symbol of hope and love.

Do a google image search for “semicolon project” and browse over the pictures. There’s so many out in the world who has been supported by this to the point of having the courage to continue fighting on, to keep going no matter what. As you walk around in your day to day lives, look at the people who pass by. You have no more clue what they have been through and what they are battling, than they have about you. What if they needed someone’s help but were too scared or ashamed to ask for it? You don’t have to be a superhero; just be a friend. One might ask, “Why use a semicolon as the symbol?” A semicolon represents a sentence an author could’ve ended, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life. Don’t let the story end. http://www.projectsemicolon.com/


Supreme Court candidates differ on campaign funding, recusal by Bill LuedersWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Here’s one difference, among many, between the two candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court on the April 7 ballot:

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, seeking her third 10-year term, said her campaign will not accept contributions from political parties or from attorneys and litigants with pending cases. Her challenger, Rock County Circuit Court Judge James Daley, reported recent in-kind contributions of nearly $7,000 from the Republican Party of Wisconsin, for campaign staff and consulting.

Bradley, in an interview, said she’s “concerned with how that fits into Wisconsin’s tradition of a nonpartisan judiciary. I wonder how he thinks it fits in, or if he cares.”

Daley did not agree to an interview but responded to written questions, including one about his GOP backing. “I appreciate the support from those that appreciate my respect for the rule of law,” he wrote.

Bradley is often described as a liberal, a term she avoids applying to herself, preferring such descriptors as “tough, fair and independent.” Daley, elected as a Republican district attorney before his 26 years as a judge, has sent out tweets using the hashtag #tcot, which stands for “top conservatives on Twitter.”

Asked about his self-identification as a conservative, Daley wrote that he would be “a neutral arbiter of law” who will not “insert my personal opinion into court actions.” He rips his rival as a “judicial activist” while defending his website postings that champion a state voter identification law, a conservative cause celebre.

The business lobby group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has announced it will back Daley. Previously, WMC and Wisconsin Club for Growth together provided an estimated $8.3 million for “issue ads” helping elect conservative justices Annette Ziegler, Michael Gableman, David Prosser and Patience Roggensack — well more than the $3.2 million spent by these candidates’ own campaigns.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is now poised to hear three legal challenges of the John Doe probe into allegedly illegal coordination between the campaign of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and outside groups including WMC and Club for Growth.

The John Doe special prosecutor, Francis Schmitz, has asked one or more justices to bow out of these proceedings, a position supported in a recent court filing by six law professors from around the nation. They cited a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a West Virginia justice should have recused himself from a case involving a coal company whose chief executive made nearly $3 million in independent expenditures helping him get elected.

That decision prompted some states to toughen their recusal rules. But in Wisconsin, court conservatives in 2010 instead approved a new rule written by WMC and another interest group that expressly allowed judicial participation in cases involving contributors.

Bradley, who wrote a blistering dissent from that decision, declines to say whether she thinks the Wisconsin justices elected with help from WMC and Club for Growth should recuse themselves from the John Doe cases. But that’s exactly what Bradley herself has done, over a seemingly lesser conflict — because her son practices law with one of the attorneys involved.

Daley also declined to comment on “the recusal decisions of my potential colleagues.” But what about himself? If WMC were to spend $1 million or more helping him win, would Daley refrain from taking part in cases involving WMC?

In his written answer, Daley said that because “as a candidate, I cannot control or even coordinate with outside groups under the law,” he does not support “dictating recusals based on their participation.”

But the John Doe challenges now before the court, which could be resolved before next month’s victor is sworn in, concern this very issue. WMC and others insist coordination between candidates and outside groups that run issue ads is perfectly legal. But Daley is saying that coordination is illegal, in defense of his ability to rule on cases involving WMC. It’s an interesting position.

Fox Times is looking for photographers willing to take random pictures, attend sports events, and attend school events. Email [email protected] if interested!

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley

Judge James Daley


BoardoverseeingWisconsin’sfor-profitschoolsfightsforitslifeGov. Scott Walker wants to eliminate EAB, but agency leader says the move would leave students vulnerableby Madeleine Behr and Kate GoldenWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

David Dies fears that if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in eliminating the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board, the for-profit schools it oversees will ramp up practices that could harm students.

“If you basically throw the rule book out, I can guarantee you that they will take advantage of their ability to market and recruit as aggressively as possible,” said Dies, the board’s executive secretary.

The proposal to eliminate the EAB is part of Walker’s proposed 2015-17 budget. Since its unveiling in February, Dies has been trying to persuade state lawmakers to reject the idea.

Dies said his small agency is already “outmatched” by the private, for-profit colleges it oversees. Behemoths like the University of Phoenix and Globe University are a far cry from the mom-and-pop schools that dominated the sector 20 years ago.

Walker believes dumping the EAB will “benefit schools by eliminating a costly and unnecessary regulatory burden,” according to his spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick.

But Dies said his agency does not in fact cost the state money — its operations are funded by fees to the schools — and that the “vast majority” of schools do not support the agency’s demise.

“Almost every institution is confused as to why we would want to do this,” Dies said. “The EAB oversight really provides some legitimacy and integrity for the sector.”

In a position paper detailing his views, Dies wrote that Walker’s budget proposal would leave Wisconsin as “the only state in the nation without any meaningful oversight for private postsecondary education institutions.”

Wisconsin Sen. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, who serves on the Senate education committee, is still mulling whether or not to support the proposal, said his spokesman Mike Mikalsen.

“We think the EAB does some very important stuff, but we have some concerns about how the EAB carries out its business,” Mikalsen said. He cited a 2012 proposal to require schools to graduate at least 60 percent of their students as an example of the board being too “aggressive.”

Dies said the proposal, which matched national accreditors’ standards, was intended “as a starting point to having a conversation,” but died in the face of resistance from legislators and schools.

Colleges have drawn criticismThe Wisconsin Educational Approval Board oversees 252 for-profit and certain nonprofit postsecondary schools, enrolling about 60,000 students. Outside its jurisdiction

are the UW System and technical, religious and recreational schools.

For-profit schools that seek approval from the EAB must pay fees, submit detailed information about their finances, enrollment and programs, and have a student complaint process.

Walker’s proposal would eliminate the seven-member board and its six full-time and one part-time staff positions, as well as its $605,000 annual budget.

Its remaining responsibilities would be divided between the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the Department of Financial Institutions and Professional Services, newly created in the budget.

“This proposal is part of the governor’s overall goal to streamline state government to make it more efficient, more effective, and more accountable,” Patrick said.

For-profit colleges have come under growing scrutiny in recent years, accused of aggressive, misleading marketing, selling worthless degrees and leaving students with debts they cannot pay.

A 2010 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that recruiters lied to its undercover agents at all 15 campuses it investigated. Colleges were hit by lawsuits and U.S. Senate hearings, CEOs were called onto the carpet by their accreditors, and the U.S. Department of Education came out with a package of federal standards designed to prevent problems.

States have faced criticism from national and local education experts for failing to thoroughly review schools operating within their borders.

“Lax state oversight must end,” said the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center in a 2014 report, which

David Dies, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Education Approval Board, says that Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal to dismantle his agency will leave the state without any meaningful oversight of for-profit colleges. Photo March 25, 2015.

Madeleine Behr / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism



recommended states avoid relying on “accreditation as a substitute for oversight.”

Dies said he has long asked for more resources. The agency lacks in-house counsel despite a near-constant need for legal advice, and the staff is hard pressed in dealing with giant for-profits.

“When you come into a meeting, they have three to four attorneys across the table,” Dies said. “That’s where it gets difficult, because they look at us and say, ‘Who are these guys telling us how to improve our business model?’ ”

The increase in online schools poses a problem, as some have failed to seek state licensure before enrolling Wisconsin students. The EAB can “barely get to the schools and approve the schools that we’re responsible for now,” even with the addition of a full-time and part-time staffer in 2012, Dies said.

But he maintains the agency has still been able to help students. When Anthem College closed its Brookfield campus in August 2014 — displacing 150 students— the EAB helped move equipment and some students to nearby Milwaukee Career College in Wauwatosa.

Will students be more vulnerable?Oversight of higher education in the United States is often described as a “triad” of the federal government, states, and regional or national accreditors. States are charged with authorizing schools and responding to student complaints.

“We want to make sure, whatever that process is, that states have some process to vet these institutions — that they’re good enough for serving residents of the state,” Dies said.

State statutes require the EAB to track school data, visit campuses and review curriculums, among other responsibilities. According to the budget proposal, DATCP would handle student complaints, while DFIPS would authorize schools to operate in the state.

Only schools with students taking federal financial aid would need authorization from DFIPS. Smaller institutions with no students receiving federal aid would not need approval to operate in the state.

The budget proposal says all the EAB’s “necessary functions” will be transferred, but Patrick did not respond to a question about how those were defined.

Dies is concerned that some oversight requirements — curriculum and program reviews, refund policy requirements, and disclosure of costs and policies — may simply end.

Stephanie Cellini, an economics professor at George Washington University, said Wisconsin led the nation at tracking data on what happens to students. She worries the data would deteriorate if the EAB were eliminated.

“It seems like EAB was doing the right thing,” she said. “Wouldn’t it make sense to add staff to EAB?”

Small schools support agencyThe operators of two small schools said they hoped the

EAB would stick around.

Laura Ehmann, the CEO of Midwest Maternal Child Institute, which has had a total of 17 enrolled students in Milwaukee since 2012, said she still plans to say her school is EAB-approved should the proposal pass, to distinguish her school from “fly-by-night” midwifery schools that lack approval.

“Having the state’s approval is a big deal for schools,” Ehmann said. “The rigorous process we have to go through to get approved is absolutely what we wanted.”

Jerry Klabacka, president and CEO of Diesel Truck Driver Training School with 718 enrolled students in Sun Prairie since 2012, said, “I think it’s an unnecessary, unproductive, almost destructive piece of legislation.”

He saw competitors behaving badly in the past — taking federal money despite high default rates, failing to do credit checks, and “milking the soup lines in Chicago” for students with the lure of cash.

“The industry needs regulation,” said Klabacka, whose family has run the school for 50 years.

EAB at workAnother small school under the EAB’s jurisdiction is the Wisconsin School of Professional Pet Grooming, in Oconomowoc, with two instructors and 20 enrolled students since 2012. Recently, four students lodged complaints against the school’s director, Delores Lillge, alleging “harsh, demeaning criticism and personal attacks,” hitting a misbehaving dog on the head with a metal comb, and calling a student with disabilities “a dummy.”

EAB staffer Pat Sweeney wrote Lillge a scolding letter describing the students’ concerns and directing the school to address them. And he helped the students negotiate a partial refund and certificates of completion, to which three out of the four agreed.

Lillge said she agreed to “small” improvements but denies the students’ allegations and said a confidentiality agreement prevented her from discussing the matter.

The EAB is designed to prevent complaints like those to the pet grooming school, Dies said. If it is eliminated, he predicted, “complaints are going to increase significantly.”

The waiting area for the Wisconsin Education Approval Board, which oversees the operations of giant for-profit colleges, is a converted cubicle. Photo March 25, 2015.

Madeleine Behr / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism


Iron mine is halted, but battle scars remain by Bill LuedersWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

In late 2011, Bill Williams stood on a ridge in the Penokee Hills, overlooking his company’s proposed site for a $1.5 billion iron ore mine. A reporter asked him about the environmental challenges posed by such a project.

Williams, president of Gogebic Taconite, batted the concern away. If a problem should arise, he told the reporter, “we have to engineer our way out of it.”

In late February, Williams announced that his company was dropping plans for the northern Wisconsin mine for now, saying the environmental challenges proved too great. That drew the mother of all “I told you sos” from Bob Jauch, a former Democratic state senator whose district included the mine site.

“I always had the impression that this company was not ready for this project,” Jauch says. He says it was focused more on the political process than on the challenges posed by the mine itself. And he rips Gov. Scott Walker and GOP lawmakers for having “genuflected to (the company) in blind obedience” to pass a mining bill that weakened state environmental protections.

Jauch says the bruising political battle over the mining bill “tore the community apart. It pitted neighbor versus neighbor. It destroyed relationships. And for what? All to come to the conclusion that this thing was never feasible in the first place.”

Tracy Hames, executive director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, says it was abundantly apparent that the number and quality of wetlands on the proposed mine site would be practically impossible to mitigate, as required under state and federal law. “This is an unbelievably special place.”

George Meyer, former secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources, agrees the wetland challenges and potential complications due to Native American treaty rights likely doomed the project from the start. Meyer now heads the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, which did not oppose the mine but fought the changes to the mining law.

In March 2012, the Legislature’s effort to retool this law failed when then-Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, refused to go along. In that fall’s elections, Republicans increased their control of the state Senate to 18-15, enough to overcome Schultz’s opposition. The bill passed in March 2013.

The nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign tallied more than $15 million in donations to state political campaigns from pro-mining forces between 2010 and mid-2012. Groups on both sides spent more than 14,000 hours lobbying on the mining

bills between 2011 and 2014. And Gogebic Taconite funneled $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth, which helped Walker and other Republicans in the 2011 and 2012 recall elections.

Walker’s 2013 State of the State speech featured out-of-work union miners in hard hats representing some of the thousands of jobs he said the mine would bring. Now the promise of those jobs has evaporated, and the state is left with weakened protections.

“I think the credibility of the Legislature took a major hit, as did the governor,” Meyer says.

Williams told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that while his company had good relations with regulators under Walker, “there is probably still a subculture at the DNR, for lack of a better word, that is green.” He and Walker also blamed federal wetlands mitigation requirements; but these were in place earlier, when both were aglow with optimism about the mine.

Gogebic Taconite says it will continue to look into the possibility of a mine. And while declining prices for iron ore make that unlikely in the near future, Ashland County Board member Charles Ortman told the Ashland Daily Press this prospect is “never really gone for good, not until that pile of ore is gone.” He worries that there will now be a push to relax federal rules.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” he said, “but we saw what happened here, and the same man who made that happen is now running for president.”

Bob Jauch


Do policymakers care what people think? It dependsby Bill LuedersWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Legislative hearings are usually low-interest events. Not so with the two recent hearings held in the Wisconsin state Capitol on the fast-tracked right-to-work bill prohibiting private workplaces from requiring union membership or dues.

A total of 1,756 people registered a position for the first hearing, on Feb. 24, a tally of the official record shows. The record for the second hearing, on March 2, lists 1,065 people with a view to share.

Here’s the breakdown in terms of how they stood on the bill: 62 in favor, 2,759 against.

Gov. Scott Walker proclaimed the bill a victory for workers’ rights. Yet precious few workers turned out to show their support for the freedom he and other Republicans delivered, using language taken almost verbatim from a corporate-funded national conservative group.

Lawmakers who passed the bill nonetheless insist they acted in accord with public opinion. One poll taken in January by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank, showed 77 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “no Americans should be required to join any private organization, like a labor union, against their will.”

This same poll showed support for right-to-work fell to just 50 percent when the question was whether all workers who “share the gains won by the labor union” should have to join and pay dues. Still, this and a poll by Public Policy Polling, affiliated with liberals and Democrats, found a much more evenly divided populace than suggested by the hearing turnout.

Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, notes that there are two components of public and political opinion. One is size; the other is intensity.

On right-to-work, Franklin says, public opponents may have led in intensity but not numbers. And politically, the pro-bill fervor among GOP lawmakers overwhelmed the opposition — even from some businesspeople, who typically lean Republican.

Franklin cites another example. A clear majority of Wisconsin residents support Common Core educational standards — 62 to 29 percent, in the WPRI poll. But intense opposition from some quarters has led lawmakers to attack the standards and Walker to propose banning the test associated with their use in Wisconsin.

Politicians, Franklin adds, are naturally more mindful of the views of those who support them. The most recent Marquette poll, in October, found that 57 percent of respondents backed a higher state minimum wage. But

only 28 percent of Walker backers favored an increase, compared to 87 percent of those backing his Democratic rival, Mary Burke. Walker and other Republicans are cool to raising the minimum wage above the current $7.25 an hour.

The poll also showed majority support for accepting federal funds to expand health-care coverage, and majority opposition to making women seeking abortions have an ultrasound. But again, Walker supporters were aligned with his positions: no to federal funds, yes to ultrasounds.

Majorities of respondents also supported a Voter ID requirement and drug-testing of those who get food stamps and unemployment benefits, ideas the GOP backs. These majorities were stronger among Walker supporters.

Policymakers, Franklin says, are moved not just by poll numbers but by the “ideology within the party and the interest groups they’re aligned with.”

Consider whether Wisconsin should require background checks for private gun sales and gun shows. A March 2013 Marquette poll found this idea had 81 percent support, including 75 percent of self-identified Republicans, making it as popular in Wisconsin as Aaron Rodgers. Yet a bill to this effect was dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Legislature last session. No hearing. No vote. No debate.

Franklin attributes this to the strength of pro-gun interest groups and intensity of lawmaker opposition. “Public opinion is not unimportant,” he says, “but it is far from powerful enough to determine every policy outcome.”


Charles Franklin

photo by Bryce Richter


Wisconsin cuts back on long-term institutional care for the disabled Parents, guardians worry that state’s move to community placements endangers vulnerable patients By Sean KirkbyWisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Aaron Underwood’s seizures finally came under control when, at age 3, he was admitted to a state care facility for the developmentally disabled. His mother soon realized the treatment he received there was better than what she and her husband could provide.

“I’m surprised he didn’t die from what I did because I made some stupid mistakes,” said Rebecca Underwood, who lives near the city of Hartford, about 30 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

Aaron, 35, still lives at Central Wisconsin Center in Madison. He is unable to sit up without support. Lacking purposeful movement, he functions at the level of a four- to 12-week-old infant, unable to speak.

The care the facility provides its residents and their families, his mother said, “turns their lives around.”

But fewer Wisconsin residents are receiving institutional care. In 1970, the state’s three centers housed 3,700 people. At the end of last year, their total population was 389.

Only two still provide long-term care – with patients living at the facility for at least six months, and often for years. Neither has admitted new patients in more than 15 years.

The decline is part of a national movement to take people out of institutions and integrate them into the community. But Underwood, who with her husband runs a coalition of family members and advocates for people with intellectual disabilities, worries the trend may have gone too far. In one recent case, a family has gone to court to compel the state to provide long-term institutional care.

On the other hand, some disability rights advocates would like the state to end long-term institutionalization altogether.

“There’s really no reason for people with developmental disabilities to need that level of institutional care,” said Mitch Hagopian, an attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin, a state advocacy group that is part of a federally mandated network of protection agencies.

“There are sufficient community resources available to provide adequate care for people and in a setting that’s more natural and integrated into the community.”

From long to short-term careWisconsin’s public state institutions for the developmentally disabled are CWC in Madison, Northern Wisconsin Center in Chippewa Falls, and Southern Wisconsin Center in Union Grove. The facilities are staffed by interdisciplinary teams that include physicians, therapists and nurses.

“They work around the clock and they do an excellent job,” said Dr. Ted Bunck, the former Bureau of Center

Operations director at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Bunck, who oversaw operations at the state centers until his retirement in January, said the teams individualize care for their residents.

The state’s Medicaid program pays about $3,000 monthly — roughly $100 per day — for a person receiving a nursing home level of care as part of Family Care, one of several long-term programs offered by the state.

For the three state centers, the costs are much higher, ranging from $821 a day at CWC to $1,385 a day at Northern Wisconsin Center. The majority of costs at the state centers are borne by Medicaid, using state and federal dollars.

Family Care cost a total of $1.3 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The total funding for centers during that time was $128.3 million.

Gov. Scott Walker’s biennial budget modifies Family Care, to expand the program statewide and change the way it operates. Advocates for people with disabilities worry the changes could jeopardize the safety of vulnerable participants in the program.

The budget keeps funding about the same for the centers.

CWC last admitted a new patient for long-term care in 1997. Since then, the number of people receiving that level of treatment has decreased from 440 in June of that year to 217 at the end of 2014. Southern Wisconsin Center has seen a similar decline.

Northern Wisconsin Center ended its long-term care program in the mid-2000s, but still provides treatment that lasts from one to three months. Similar programs are offered at the other two state facilities.

Rebecca Underwood’s son Aaron has lived at Central Wisconsin Center, one of the state’s centers for the developmentally disabled, for more than 30 years. She says the care the center provides its patients and their families “turns their lives around.” Photo Feb. 25, 2015, in Madison.

Kate Golden/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism



“Going forward, the centers’ future mission is really emphasizing short-term, specialized kinds of services,” Bunck said.

Fighting to stayAbout 200 people a year receive short-term medical care or intensive treatment programs at the state’s centers, before returning to live in the community. Bunck said community settings, which include a wide range of services, are “now the best and most common way for people with intellectual disabilities to receive long-term care.”

That care can be delivered in people’s homes, small and large residential care facilities or group homes and in nursing facilities.

But last year, at least one family went to court to ask that its child be protectively placed into long-term care at CWC. The family has petitioned Dane County juvenile court, according to the family’s attorney, and the child remains in short-term care while the case is pending.

Underwood’s husband, Kevin, described the case in a letter sent in January to DHS Secretary Kitty Rhoades. He said the state was ignoring the recommendation of the physician, who felt CWC offered the best therapeutic setting to meet the child’s complex medical needs.

The family declined comment and requested anonymity, because the case is still in court. But it did convey through an intermediary that “our child has benefited in countless ways” from being at CWC, including weight gain, physical and functional advances, and a significant reduction in chronic pain formerly treated with narcotics.

“Our child’s situation at CWC is, simply put, finally humane,” a family member said in an email through the intermediary. CWC “starts by addressing the medical needs — for patients who require a facility level of care, comprehensive synchronized medical care from a multi-disciplinary staff.” Absent such care, “there is suffering.”

Other families, Underwood wrote, have given up trying to get their children into the facilities “due to their inability

to engage in an expensive court battle with the state.” He argues that Wisconsin’s freeze on long-term care violates a federal rule requiring a choice between institutionalized care and home and community-based services.

“Having the right to choose is meaningless and lacks value,” Underwood wrote in a letter to the state last August. “Individuals in Wisconsin are being denied that choice even though facilities exist.”

But Brian Shoup, administrator of long-term care for DHS, wrote back that federal law does not require that institutional services be offered on an indefinite or extended basis.

“Rather, it requires the state Medicaid agency to provide choice between home and community-based services and institutional services,” Shoup wrote. He added that only a court can order placement in a state center, and then only if it is the most integrated and least restrictive setting appropriate to the person’s needs.

Quality of lifeRebecca Underwood insists that CWC qualifies under the least-restrictive standard, given her son’s intellectual disabilities and complex medical needs.

During a reporter’s visit in December, Aaron would not stop groaning. His mother massaged his back, rocked his wheelchair back and forth, and pushed it through the underground hallways that connect the buildings at CWC. This quieted him for a few moments, before he began groaning again.

“Existing and having a quality of life are two different things,” Underwood said. “When you have profound developmental disabilities coupled with medical fragility, that’s 365-day, 24/7 care they need.”

Natalie McClellan, whose son has lived at CWC for about 20 years, also does not see community placement as an option. Her son A.J., 30, was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that paralyzed him from the waist down. Because of another physical disability, he is fed through a tube. And a case of meningitis at the age of 5 left him with an intellectual disability that has complicated his physical disabilities.

“The bottom line for A.J. is his quality of life is completely dependent on how healthy he is,” McClellan said. She said her son has been healthier at CWC because of the quality, the consistency and coordination of care it provides, which is unavailable outside of the facility.

Underwood said that while CWC is not perfect, the facility has received awards for high standards and been used by the federal government to train inspectors.

In contrast, a state investigative report from 2007 documents a case in which an individual who was transferred out of CWC to a facility in New London was twice sent to an emergency room after a feeding tube came out. The person’s guardian was never told of these developments, violating a state rule, until the situation led to a two-week hospital stay.



There have also been problems in other states, including Texas, Virginia, Connecticut, New York and Louisiana.

In Georgia, at least 30 deinstitutionalized people died unexpectedly over a four-year period, a 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found. Individuals in community settings were punched, whipped with a belt, or denied medication and medical care. In one case, a prolonged failure to have a bowel movement caused a man to vomit blood, and die.

But attorney Hagopian of Disability Rights Wisconsin said people with serious developmental and physical disabilities have been successfully placed in Wisconsin communities for decades.

When Northern Wisconsin Center ended long-term care in 2006, he notes, the guardians of many residents believed it would be “impossible to provide safe and adequate health care” outside of the institution. In his view, “it wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now.”

A survey found that guardians of Northern residents relocated to community living were generally satisfied. Seventy-eight percent felt their wards had opportunities to interact with the community. However, only about half said they were welcomed into it.

‘Critical mass’As the number of people receiving long-term care at the state’s centers continues to decline, some worry the centers may be shut down altogether. Marsha Hall, who worked at the center from 1975 to 1988 and was the guardian of a CWC resident who died in November, shares this concern.

There “has to be a critical mass of residents” for the facility to function, Hall said. She believes those who are relocated or die should be replaced by people who could benefit from this setting, to keep it viable. She stresses that those who remain at the centers are “medically fragile and complicated folks who really can’t be managed properly in a community setting.”

Bunck said there are no plans to close the centers. Short-term programs will continue to operate and “be an important part of the whole Wisconsin system.”

But as the trend toward deinstitutionalization continues, Underwood warns that more families are being shut out of the decisions that affect the quality of their loved ones lives.

“The decision as to what is the best setting is best left up to families and the individuals’ treating professionals,” she said. “Not DHS personnel sitting in offices far removed from the situation. Not politicians, nor anyone lacking personal knowledge of each particular situation and need.”

State’s move toward community supports follows national trendThe state of Wisconsin’s declining reliance on state-run centers for people with intellectual disabilities, including a steady decline in the number of people who receive long-term care and an effective freeze on new admissions, fits a national pattern.

Of the roughly 350 such facilities operating between 1960 and 2012, more than 200 have been closed, privatized or downsized to 15 or fewer residents, according to a report from the University of Minnesota.

Michigan Law School professor Samuel Bagenstos, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney who played a role in court negotiations guaranteeing community-based services in Delaware and Georgia, has written that an alliance between disability advocates and fiscal conservatives drove deinstitutionalization in the 1970s and 1980s.

The alliance, he noted, held together “just long enough” to move people out of expensive institutions, but began to break down once it came to investing in community services. He noted that advocates are now fighting to ensure and expand the availability of these supports.

In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court found that segregating people with intellectual disabilities violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. It said that states must provide community-based services when appropriate.

“The overall direction that long-term supports are going nationally, internationally and in the state, is toward community-based supports,” said Beth Swedeen, executive director of the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, a federally funded state board that helps people with developmental disabilities become independent and included in community life.



Gov. Scott Walker budget would shake up long-term care programs; disabilities advocates concerned Gov. Scott Walker is proposing sweeping changes to the state’s long-term care programs for the elderly and disabled, but the lack of detail has advocates concerned.

Walker’s 2015-17 budget calls for expanding the Family Care program statewide by Jan. 1, 2017. Currently, some individuals are receiving long-term care under other programs including IRIS, (Include Respect, I Self-Direct).

“The governor’s Family Care reforms end the state’s fragmented delivery of health and long-term care, while establishing the focus on the overall health and well-being of our members,” said Kitty Rhoades, secretary of the state Department of Health Services, in recent testimony before the Joint Finance Committee.

The budget would eliminate the state statute that created the IRIS program, which currently serves more than 11,000 people with long-term care needs. Rhoades said the services provided to these individuals will continue.

“I spent eight years building self-directed services,” said Rhoades, a former Republican legislator. “I’m not letting up.”

But Barbara Beckert, director of Disability Rights Wisconsin’s Milwaukee office, said the self-direction option of Family Care is “far more limited and has less flexibility” than IRIS. Beckert said few specifics have been provided about the change, and there has been no demonstration that it will lead to fiscal savings.

Beckert is also concerned about the state’s proposal to require managed care organizations to operate statewide as opposed to just in a particular region

“I’m very dubious that’s going to be a smooth transition and I’m very worried about the safety, independence and well-being of the 55,000 individuals who are counting on these services for their quality of life,” Beckert said.

— Sean Kirkby

Swedeen said “overall, community settings are safer and healthier” as people rate their health, safety and happiness higher there than they do in institutions. She cites research showing that most people develop stronger daily living skills than those who remain institutionalized. She said the state should use public dollars “for what works best.”

But not everyone is convinced that deinstitutionalization is always the best policy. Nationally, the pushback against this trend has been

led by VOR, an Illinois-based nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of people with developmental disabilities and their families.

Tamie Hopp, the group’s director of government relations and advocacy, notes that Medicaid rules say guardians for those with developmental disabilities must be “given the choice of either institutional or home and community-based services.”

— Sean Kirkby

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April is Autism Awareness Monthby Liz Jones

During April, students will likely see the occasional TV ad or hear something on the radio about children or adults living with autism. For many people, these ads will fade into the background and largely be ignored. For a growing number of people in our Fox Valley Technical College community, however, living with autism or supporting a family member with autism is a daily reality. According to a recent Wisconsin Technical College System report, FVTC has the largest number of students identified with autism and that number is growing — not only here but also around the state.

In Wisconsin, at least one child is diagnosed with autism every day. That child and his or her family can face years of challenges that the rest of the community might not even realize. For Autism Awareness Month to succeed, everyone should know at least something about this prevalent and sometimes devastating disability.

First, the facts:

• Autism is now the most prevalent developmental disability — affecting more children than cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, hearing loss, and vision impairment. In fact, more children will be diagnosed with autism than with childhood leukemia, diabetes, and cancer combined.

• The CDC estimates that 1 in 68 babies born in the US will develop autism.

• The prevalence of autism in the US has increased by more than 119% just since 2000.

• Autism can cost a family as much as $60,000 per year in medical testing, treatment, therapies, and other expenses.

• Autism occurs in boys nearly 5 times more frequently than in girls.

• Autism affects families across all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.

Autism is frequently referred to as a “spectrum disorder,” meaning that someone can be afflicted severely or mildly, or to any degree in between. A mild form of autism is called Asperger’s Syndrome, in which a person has relatively normal cognitive and language abilities. In Asperger’s Syndrome, a person’s social abilities are impaired, which means that even people with the mildest forms of autism can be severely handicapped by the disorder if they don’t receive appropriate treatment. For example, many people with Asperger’s syndrome have great difficulty in daily living skills, relationships, and employment.

The diagnosis of autism is made based on testing and observation by a specialist such as a Developmental Pediatrician, a Child Psychologist, or a Pediatric Neurologist. Children with autism exhibit a series of

abnormalities and delays — typically in communication, social interactions, self-help, cognition, and play. They often display self-stimulatory behaviors such as rocking, hand flapping, spinning, toe-walking, and lining up of objects. Sometimes they engage in repetitive and ritualistic behaviors, and have odd body movements. Autistic children often appear to be far more interested in things than in people. Some children with autism are aggressive toward others, throw frequent severe tantrums, or display self-injurious behaviors although for many autistic children these behaviors are very rare or nonexistent. Children with autism often do not understand facial expressions or gestures and often display non-typical eye contact.

About a third of all children with autism appear to develop normally or nearly normally in infancy, only to regress during the toddler months. Certain rare diseases can cause autistic behaviors, such as Rhett‘s syndrome, Fragile X, or Tuberous Sclerosis. However, in the vast majority of cases of autism, there is no discernible cause. One thing researchers do know is that there is a strong genetic predisposition towards the disorder. There is a greater likelihood of having a second child with autism if you already have one child with the disorder.

To date, there is no cure for autism, though researchers are coming closer to determining what goes wrong in the developing child‘s brain, which might give us clues as to possible medical treatments in the future. In the meantime, many children are benefiting from a form of therapy known as Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention, to the point that some are achieving normal or near-normal functioning; something that was never thought possible in the past. Participating in an Autism Awareness Month activity, such as the Fox Cities Walk-4-Autism is one way to support children and families facing the challenges of autism.

For more information about autism in general and what you can do to help, go to www.friendsofautism.org.


F x Times


Cold weather:by Steeve Pauleus

The Earth was created with different types of climates. Some countries have cold weather and others have hot weather. Each person in each country has to adapt to different climates. I had the chance to ask two different people from two different countries about their country’s climates. And to ask them some interesting questions to share with other people about what they think of climate in their home country.

Matthew Busch is from United States. He was born in Appleton, WI. One of the coldest places in the US. He grew up in Appleton and still lives here. He is one of the people who answered my questions about cold weather.

1. Where are you from? Appleton, WI.

2. Have you always lived in United State? Yes.

3. Which part of the United States are you from? Midwest.

4. Have you traveled to other States? Yes, I was just in Louisiana in January. It was nice there. It snowed and people were going crazy because they weren’t used to it.

5. Is where you live now colder than other places you have traveled in US in the winter? Yes, it is really nice in some places, in the US. It is strange when you leave where you are from and go there because it doesn’t seem like it should be the temperature it is.

6. Tell me about the cold weather, what do you think it? I don’t really mind the cold weather. I enjoy different things about all the seasons in Wisconsin. The thing I like about winter is beautiful snowy nights and sitting

by the fire with my wife and kids and watching it snow.

7. What is the average temperature, during winter, where you live now? And, what is your ideal temperature? The average temperature is probably somewhere around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. I prefer it to be about 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

8. Do you like the cold weather? I don’t love it, but I think it is a nice change from the hot weather in the summer. I wouldn’t want it to be cold all the time or hot all the time.

9. What kind the activities you do in the winter? I like to read by the fire, go sledding, ice skating, and watch movies with my family.

10. How long can you stay outside in the cold weather? I think I could stay outside all day if I had the proper clothing, but if it was extremely windy, I would want to make sure none of my skin was exposed. The worst thing is when you get wet feet when you are outside and it’s cold. If my feet get wet, I won’t last long.

11. What do you think are the differences between people who live in cold climates and hot climates? I think that people who live in cold climates are more tough. Too much hot weather makes people soft.

12. Do you want to live in another country that has a warm climate? No, as I said before, I love that Wisconsin experiences all 4 seasons.

13. Can you share something that happened in your life during winter? Christmas is in winter and it is my favorite time of the year. I love celebrating the birth of Christ with my family. I also love to give and receive gifts in remembrance of Him. We also sled down the hill at my parent’s house and ice skate on Lake Winnebago.

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Hot weather:Andrene Busch, Matt’s wife is from Jamaica. She was born in Jamaica. It is an Island located in the Caribbean and is one of the warmer countries on the Earth. She grew up there, but she has live in Appleton since 2005. She is one of the people who answered my questions about hot weather.

1. Where are you from? Originally Jamaica and now I live in Appleton, WI.

2. Since when do you live in United State? 2005.

3. Which part of the United States do you live in? The Midwest.

4. Did you already travel in other States in US? Yes, I have gone to New York, Nevada, Florida, Connecticut, Georgia, and I think I have been to other places but I can’t remember.

5. Tell me about the temperature in your country? It’s hot and sweaty in Jamaica. You have the sea breeze so it’s not humid like it is in Wisconsin.

6. What kind the activities do you do when the temperature is very hot? People go swimming in the river and that seems to help cool them down. They play cricket and football every day, even when it’s hot.

7. Was it hard for you to adapt to the cold weather in Wisconsin? I still haven’t adapted, hahaha, so yes, especially during blizzards and it’s even worse when I have to shovel the snow.

8. Tell me about the cold weather, what do you think about it? I don’t like it. I hibernate when it’s cold.

9. Is where you live now colder than other places you have traveled in US in the winter? I’ve never travelled

in the winter, but I can tell you it is by watching the weather.

10. What is the average temperature, during winter, where you live now? And, what is your ideal temperature? The average temperature is around 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I like 75 degrees.

11. What about Jamaica? 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit most days.

12. Do you like the cold weather? No!

13. What kind the activities you do in the winter? I don’t do much. Lay by the fireplace. Work. I like to go to the indoor pool.

14. How long can you stay outside in the cold weather, when it is really cold? From my house to the warm car or from the car to work.

15. What do you think are the differences between people who live in cold climates and hot climates? People dress differently when they are from cold and hot places.

16. Do you want to live in another country that has a warm climate? I would, but I don’t want to give up the other things that come with living in Wisconsin.

17. Can you share something that happened in your life during winter? My car battery died when I had to be at work. My defroster also broke in my car and my windows fogged up. I had to call my husband to come pick me up.

At last, to conclude, we can say that each person has to adapt to the climate where they live.

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Professional Communications — The “Buy One, Get 3 Free” Programby Liz Jeffers

I have found that The Professional Communications program here at Fox Valley Technical College is the one that receives many confused looks and blank stares when mentioned. When I indicate that I am the Professional Communications program to people, other than staff members who are familiar with all the programs offered, the responses I usually receive are:

• “Professional Communications? What is that?”• “So, you learn how to communicate professionally?”• “Oh, that’s the writing one right?”• “Interesting. I’ve never heard of the Professional

Communications program.”

This confusion or lack of knowledge about the program could be due to the fact that the Professional Communications program is not necessarily considered one of the “popular programs.” We don’t have uniforms to identify us, we don’t drive around in vehicles advertising Fox Valley Technical College, and we don’t travel in packs around campus. In fact, some of us are never on campus at all. This is because the Professional Communications program is one that can completed entirely online. A lot us choose to come on campus; however, to be near our teachers and the resources available to us such as the software on the school computers that we don’t have on our personal computers. If you look closely, we are the ones with blood shot eyes from staring at computer screens all day. We are the ones clacking away at our keyboards as we finish up yet another writing assignment. We are the ones who spend all day on discussion boards getting to know our fellow classmates who we may or may not ever meet face-to-face. We are the Professional Communications students at Fox Valley Technical College.

The Professional Communications program was started as a fully online program at Fox Valley Technical College about five years ago. It provides students the opportunity to create a career for themselves that combines communication and technology. As stated on the Fox Valley Technical College website, “With this degree, you’ll be the one making things ‘user friendly’ in your office or company. You will use and combine a variety of communication media, including print, audio/visual and Internet. And you’ll gain skills in web graphics, social media, designing and writing web content, video and mobile device publishing.” These skills are gained in classes such as

• Intro to Web Graphics• Designing Content for the Web• Writing Content for the Web• Social Media• Publishing Content for Mobile Devices

Many communication and business skills are learned as well through classes such as,

• Intro to Professional Communications• Proposal/Grant Writing• Research Methods for Professional Communications• Intercultural Communications

When you walk across the stage and receive your Associates Degree in Professional Communications at Fox Valley Technical College, you also receive three extra certificates with it. You do not have to take any extra classes to receive these certificates because these classes are required for the Professional Communications program in the first place. The three extra certificates that you receive are “Digital Media”, “Writing for the Web”, and “Grant/Proposal Writing.” One of the biggest aspects of the Professional Communications program is the amount of career opportunities available to you after graduation. Dianne Tyler, a current Professional Communications student, states

I had wanted to go back to school for about two years prior to enrolling, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I would find myself browsing college websites and courses but was unsure of the “right” program for me… when I stumbled across the Professional Communications Program, I was immediately interested. I took into consideration the future outlooks for job growth, the vast amount of careers it entailed and the salary expectations and realized that this was not only up my alley, but something that I felt I was capable of doing, and doing it pretty well.

Vast career opportunities are only one of the great things about the Professional Communications program. Another thing that tends to draws students to this program is the classes themselves and the real-world experience they give you. When asked what drew her to the program, Kris Wilson, recent graduate from the Professional Communications program, says that,

I was most interested in the real-world writing experiences like those found in the grant writing and web writing classes…In the grant writing class each of us worked with a different non-profit organization so I learned how the process worked from the beginning.

Wilson, who graduated in December of 2014, found herself able to utilize the many skills she learned in the Professional Communications program courses in her job as ‘Technical Writer and Editor’ for the Learning Innovations Department here Fox Valley Technical College. “I’ve always enjoyed writing.” states Wilson, “My classes in the Professional Communications program… specifically, classes in ‘Intercultural Communication’, ‘Developing Product Documentation’, ‘Information Design, and Writing Content for the Web’ have helped me develop different writing styles that I use every day in my job.”

Despite being a smaller program, Professional Communications students are starting to make a name for themselves on campus by participating in things like BIZsquad. BIZsquad, which is a class comprised of top students chosen by faculty from varying programs is dedicated to helping local businesses and non-profits with projects that will assist in their growth and prosperity as an organization. These projects can require quite a bit of writing and one of the things PC students are particularly



good at is writing. It is my understanding that, because Professional Communications students can be counted on to have a love and passion for writing, BIZsquad hopes for at least one Professional Communications student to be a member of their group each semester. I have the honor of being a part of the 2015 BIZsquad and I hope to be able to demonstrate my love for writing in the coming weeks. Wilson, who was a member of BIZsquad in Fall of 2014 says that, “…the great mix of classes in the Professional Communications program helped me not only be successful in the BIZsquad class, but also be a resource for classmates” She continues by saying, “I was able to help in class when writing questions came up. Because of my experiences in classes like ‘Designing Content for the Web’, I was also able to help create documents and graphics using the Adobe suite of programs.”

Everyone knows that an instructor can “make or break” a class. A great instructor can make you love the class; a bad instructor will have you questioning every reason you had for enrolling in school in the first place. I’ve

experienced a plethora of bad instructors, and I can honestly say that none of them have been instructors at Fox Valley Technical College. This is especially true in the Professional Communications program. The instructors in the Professional Communications program are really passionate about working with you to ensure that you are nothing but successful in your academic and professional careers.

These things and more make the Professional Communications program the great program that it is. Students who pursue this path have the opportunity to have careers in things such as ‘Technical Writing’, ‘Web Content Developer’, ‘Researcher’, and ‘Editor’. If you find that you have a passion for writing and learning about developing web content, then the Professional Communications program may be the program for you. If you’re interested in learning more about this program, contact the Professional Communications Program Chair, Patty Hutjens by phone at 920-993-5217 or by e-mail at [email protected].

FVTC Students, Staff, and Faculty Have Long History of Support for Autism Awarenessby Liz Jones

For the past ten years, FVTC students, faculty, and staff members have turned out in full force to support the Fox Cities Walk-4-Autism, the culminating event for Autism Awareness Month. For the past several years, members of the Criminal Justice Student Association have volunteered to provide traffic and crowd control for the event, which draws over 4,000 participants. In past years, baking students in the culinary arts program made puzzle-shaped cookies and members of the OTA club assisted in the children’s play area. Last year, FVTC Student Life led an effort to provide all forms of volunteer assistance—from helping with set up and serving lunch to directing walkers along the route. “More than half of our volunteer squadron is made up of members of the FVTC community” said Jim Jones, Executive Director of Friends of Autism, the charity that hosts the walk. “We couldn’t do it without their help.”

Every sixteen minutes, a child in the US is diagnosed with autism. Friends of Autism, Wisconsin’s largest autism charity, is dedicated to fighting autism right here in the Fox Valley and state-wide. The charity uses the money raised through the walk to support both research into treatments for the disorder and support here in the community. Over the years, the charity has underwritten the cost of bringing national experts on autism to the Fox Valley to provide free, world-class training for parents, teachers, and therapists in our area—including two large workshops/seminars at FVTC. In addition, the charity assisted with the development of a special Autism Certificate offered as part of the FVTC Early Childhood associate degree program and recently developed an FVTC Foundation scholarship for Early Childhood students who plan to pursue careers that include supporting children or adults with autism.

Over the years, Friends of Autism has donated more than $300,000 toward autism research, education, and awareness. In addition, through its Family Grant Program, Friends of Autism has donated thousands of dollars directly to families in the Fox Valley and throughout the state to help with the expenses associated with autism treatment.

The 10th Anniversary of the Fox Cities Walk-4-Autism is April 25th at Tanner’s Grill & Bar in Kimberly. Over 4000 walkers and volunteers are expected to make this walk the largest one-day autism event in the state.

If you would like to volunteer, or for more information about autism, please visit www.friendsofautism.org.



TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR SERVICES!What can the Wellness Coordinator help students with?

“Good question! My ultimate goal is to help you reach your personal wellness goals in mind, body and spirit. There is no cookie cutter mold that works for everyone so I will work with you to find what best fits you personally. Maybe your goal is a physical change or stress management or maybe you just feel unfulfilled and don’t know what is missing in your life. I am here to be your health coach, encourager and friend as you go through your own amazing transformation to become your ideal self whatever that may look like.”

~ Brandy Hankey, Wellness Coordinator

In the Wellness Center we offer a variety of FREE services to you as students:

Group Exercise Classes — Check out our current group fitness schedule online at fvtc.edu/fitnesscenter to find a time that works for you. Classes range from 10 minutes to 1 hour and are for ALL fitness levels!

15 Minute Individual Consultations — Come to the Wellness Center desk to schedule your consultation when it works for you. We offer a variety of consultation topics:

• Fitness Assessment – You will undergo a test which includes 1 minute of pushups, 1 minute of sit up, 3 minute step test and a flexibility test to give you a starting point. Each month come back and retake this assessment to track your progress!

• Body Measurement Assessment – During this appointment we will record all your current body stats including: height, weight, inches, body fat and blood pressure. Knowing your numbers is a powerful tool and a GREAT way to start any program.

• Nutrition Assessment – Come to this appointment with a food log with at least a 3 day food record log and together we will create a realistic eating plan.

• Equipment Orientation – During this meeting we will show you around the Wellness Center and teach you how to use the equipment, show you proper form while using the machines and set you up for success during your workouts.

If you have any questions about services offered please see Brandy Hankey, our Wellness Coordinator.


The Stone by Denise Pollei

Today a tiny stone was thrownInto a great big pondAnd though it made no noise at allIt touched the world beyond.That tiny stone createdA ripple of traveling ringsThose rings then grew and expanded With messages to bring.Each ripple then invitedA friend to come alongAnd with that invitationCame a voice to sing the song.

In time there was a chorusThat echoed to the treeAnd the melody it carriedHas reached out to you and me.And still the song is carriedIts melody so sweetSo take it out and share itWith all of those you meet.

Winter to Springby Jordan Terrell

“Let the winter end and bring me sunshineso that I can lay in the grass and feel complete and divine.Let the worries and anxiety of the cold disappearlike a star that shines so bright and flashes by oh so clear.Watch the snow turn to liquid as it sizzles awayLike as if our dreams are truly reality to trick us or dismay.

Watch the trees start to smile as the birds begin to singAs we start to remember all of the perfect little things like spring.”

2015 Manawa Snodeo a success!Fox Valley Technical College OPE Monster shop and Power Sports program were involved at Manawa on Bear Lake for the 8th Annual Snodeo Event on February 19-21, 2015... Weather was a little cold during setup on Thursday afternoon but turned out perfect for the weekend. Friday Nite has awesome fireworks with Ice ovals for the snowmobile and ice bikes. Saturday followed with Sno-cross event, Kitty Cay races and the Radar Runs which the OPE and Power Sports were in charge of. Top speed on the

radar run was 132 MPH! There were 224 runs on the radar run! Fun was had by all who were present. OPE and Power Sport Programs invite guests to attend their meetings and are welcomed to join their clubs. Both clubs will be competing in State Skills competition this year at Madison Alliant Energy Center on April 27-29, 2015. Admission is free to people who want to see the competition held on the center floor

Poetry Corner


Comics by Phil HandsU

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FVTC Womens Basketball Times/2015AprilFoxTimesAll4... · FVTC Womens Basketball 2014—2015 ... speaking with Representatives and ... Accompanying me were fellow classmate and Phi