CAMPUS HAPPENINGS

OCTOBER 2011

100-percent participation is goal for Community CampaignThe Marquette University Community Campaign will run through Friday, Oct. 14, with goals of 100-percent participation among university employees and $300,000 total dollars raised. The campaign gives faculty and staff the opportu-nity to make donations that support three priorities: Marquette University, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and the United Performing Arts Fund. Rana Altenburg, Arts ’88, vice president for public affairs; and Dr. William Cullinan, PT ’81, dean of health sciences, co-chair this year’s campaign. For more information or to donate, go to marquette.edu/mucc. Employees can select which priority they wish to support, as well as payment options such as payroll deductions.

Free retreat to focus on “Listening to God’s Heart Beat”The Faber Center for Ignatian Spirituality will host its free, fall retreat, “The Heart of the Matter: Listening to God’s Heart Beat in the World,” Friday, Oct. 28, to Sunday, Oct. 30, at the Jesuit Retreat House, Oshkosh, Wis. Check-in is Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Departure is after Sunday’s noon lunch. Dr. Laurie Cassidy, assistant professor of religious studies at Marywood University, Scranton, Penn., will serve as retreat director. Register at marquette.edu/faber/retreatregistration.shtml. Space is limited.

Farmers’ market to be held on campusThe last of three “Fresh Fall Farmers’ Markets” will be held Tuesday, Oct. 11, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Parking Lot A (next to the Weasler Auditorium). Items for sale include apples, potatoes, onions, carrots, squash, cider and fresh flowers. Free green grocery bags will be given to the first 200 people. The market is sponsored by MUSG, Sodexo, the Center for Health Education and Promotion, the sustainability program, the Office of Residence Life and the Alumni Memorial Union.

Marquette role in transition from prison to community highlighted at nonprofit galaProject Return, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that facilitates the transition from prison back into the community, will highlight its connection with Marquette faculty and students at its annual gala Saturday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. in the AMU Ballroom. Dr. Ed de St. Aubin, associate professor of psychology, and Department of Social and Cultural Sciences faculty Drs. Heather Hlavka, assistant professor; Rick Jones, associate professor; and Darren Wheelock, assistant professor, have conducted research with Project Return, which has supported dozens of Marquette interns. Former Green Bay Packer Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila will be the keynote speaker. Cost is $50. For more information contact de St. Aubin at 8-2143. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Department of Psychology.

MARQUETTE

C O NT I N U E D O N PAG E 2

A living lab of structural engineeringOpening celebration for newest campus building is Oct. 7By Tim Olsen

When the wind comes rushing down

Wisconsin Avenue on a breezy Milwaukee day,

not only can College of Engineering students

measure the wind speed, they can also study

the real impact of the wind on a structure in

a densely populated urban landscape. Thanks

to the planned wind instrumentation on the

roof and more than 100 sensors built into the

new Engineering Hall, students, faculty and

researchers around the world will be able

to study a vast array of structural behavior

data with monikers such as “lateral load” and

“strain/stress response” from the structure

of the building itself. Data from the sensors

will be available on monitors throughout the

building, including a large screen adjacent to

the first-floor elevators.

“A unique aspect of Engineering Hall is

the instrumentation array for displaying and

experiencing structural behavior real-time in

a very large building,” said Opus Dean Robert

Bishop. “The goal of the instrumentation is to

provide opportunities for undergraduate and

graduate students to generate models for phys-

ical behavior, measure physical behavior and

resolve conflicts between engineering models

of behavior and real behavior. I would contend

that this has never been done in an engineering

college building.”

Engineering Hall is a $50 million,

115,000-square-foot facility specifically designed

to be a living laboratory for students, according

to Bishop. He said students will see various

types of bracing and fire protection, realize

the impact of solar panels and water retention

storage, and be able to access a wide variety of

tools and equipment. “The details of the building

— from the exterior design and front canopy to

the stained and polished concrete floors, from

the LED lighting to the experimental green roof

— are designed to display

engineering and help

students understand basic

engineering principles,”

he said.

With a primarily glass

exterior and the extensive

use of glass for interior

walls, laboratories, shops

and classrooms are readily

visible to students and

visitors. Exposed finishes

and mechanicals help students understand

basic construction and building management

principles and options.

The high bay Engineering Materials and

Structural Testing Laboratory features a 3-foot

thick floor, a strong wall that can support

150,000 pounds of load at

any location and a 10-ton

rolling overhead crane. It

is not unusual for a civil

engineering program to

have a large-scale physical

testing facility, according

to Dr. Chris Foley, chair

of civil, construction

and environmental engi-

neering. However, there

are relatively few schools

around the country that have a combination

strong-floor and L-shaped strong-wall testing

facility, he said.  

“That combination is unique,” said Foley,

“along with our strong-floor, strong-wall

Senior engineering student Caitlin Collins participates in mill training under the direction of Tom Silman, mechanical services supervisor, in the Discovery Learning Machine Shop in the new Engineering Hall.

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Engineering Hall Opening CelebrationThe Marquette University College of Engineering will celebrate the opening of Engineering Hall, Friday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. Speakers will include President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., and Opus Dean of Engineering Robert Bishop. The ceremony will take place in a tent south of Engineering Hall.

MARQUETTE MATTERS

testing facility being situated in the heart of

Engineering Hall. Facilities at other schools

are located off campus, and students rarely

see what is going on there. Ours provides

much greater impact with regard to graduate

and undergraduate engineering education by

affording opportunities to see, question and

learn about what is happening in the space.

Our goal is to merge research and teaching

activity in the space with graduate student

research going on right next to undergraduate

teaching activity.”

Other lower-level laboratories focus on

thermal fluids, thermodynamics, shock physics,

smart power systems, engines and power

electronics/electric drives. On the building’s

first floor, in addition to a multipurpose lab

for freshman design classes and the college’s

extensive K-12 engineering academies and

teacher workshops, the Jaskolski Discovery

Learning Laboratory offers cutting-edge tech-

nology, a large projects lab and a machine

shop where students can take an idea from

concept to working prototype.

Only the first two floors of Engineering

Hall are currently open. Additional labs in the

five-story building will focus on engineering

research and teaching in the fields of sensors,

ergonomics, biomechanics, nano devices, water

quality and electrical and mechanical systems;

they will be completed during the 2011-12

academic year.

The new building is the first of a two-part

initiative, with a 135,000-square-foot, $50

million second phase already designed and

fundraising underway.

Engineering C O NT I N U E D F R O M PAG E O N E

Dr. Sharron Ronco sees many of the pieces

in place to create a “culture of assessment”

at Marquette. It’s just a matter of building

on what’s there.

“A culture of assessment is one in which

we don’t even have to think about the assess-

ment process itself,” said Ronco, Arts ’72, who

was hired as assessment director in August. “It

just comes naturally to make decisions based

on evidence, and we always seek the evidence.

Evidence is not an add-on as part of a job every

year for accreditation, but becomes a part of the

fabric of the institution.”

Some of her first steps in that direction are

simply to listen and learn Marquette’s existing

assessment system. “There’s a very well-devel-

oped and defined assessment system — for the

institution, for programs and for some compo-

nents of the core curriculum,” she said.

Ronco, a Milwaukee native, came to Marquette

from Florida Atlantic University, where she was

associate provost for Institutional Effectiveness

and Analysis. She earned a master’s degree in

curriculum and instruction from the University

of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and, after teaching

bilingual education, a Ph.D. in educational

research and statistics from the

University of North Texas.

At Marquette she sees opportuni-

ties to create new assessment measures,

provide incentive grants to programs

to develop more innovative assess-

ment strategies, and find better ways to

assess core competencies within the core

curriculum. She is also serving on the

accreditation steering committee and will

help develop some of the standards on

evaluation and assessment. (See p. 4.)

“Assessment of learning outcomes

helps us understand specific ways in

which we can improve the learning

experience of our students,” said Dr.

Gary Meyer, vice provost for undergraduate

programs and teaching. “Accrediting bodies

today assume assessment is ongoing. They

want to know how results have been used to

make changes and the effects of those changes

on learning.”

Faculty are doing assessment in their day-

to-day teaching whether they realize it or not,

according to Ronco. “Assessment is already part

of the goals faculty set for student learning,” she

said. “Then, they consider instructional strategies,

make assignments and assess results. They make

changes — to the course or to the curriculum

— and figure out whether it worked. So they’re

already doing assessment.

“As a graduate of Marquette, I want to help

deliver the kind of education that I had here,

which was phenomenal,” she said. “Assessment

has a lot to do with making sure the education

stays as good as it was for me.”

Learning the results of teaching“Culture of assessment” is goal of new assessment directorby Tim Olsen

After holding an introductory assessment workshop in September (above), Dr. Sharron Ronco, assessment director, is planning an advanced workshop for February.

Don’t let the name fool you. Student Safety

Programs serves as a resource for more than

Marquette students every day, which is a point of

emphasis as it celebrates its 25th anniversary on

campus this year.

Although primarily used by students,

employees use SSP transport and escort

services, too, particularly for escorts to their

vehicles when working at night, according to

Dan Kolosovsky, Department of Public Safety

sergeant. “Employees could make even more use

of it, though,” he said.

LIMOs run 365 days a year from 5 p.m. to

3 a.m. (5 p.m. to 4 a.m. on academic weekends).

Safety Patrol teams are available by calling

8-6363 daily from 5 p.m. to midnight.

To celebrate the SSP anniversary, Safety Patrol,

a service of Student Safety Programs, is issuing

a ticket to each campus community member to

whom it provides an on-foot escort this semester.

Ticket recipients then email their name and the

number on the ticket to SSP@marquette.edu to

be eligible to win a Blu-ray player, which will

be awarded via random drawing at the end of

the semester. Around the 25th of each month,

a random LIMO driver or Safety Patrol escort

will also award a small prize during a shift. The

anniversary celebration will culminate with a

gathering of SSP alumni April 21, 2011.

“It’s largely a student-run organization,” said

Kolosovsky. “The students have energy that’s

unreal, and good insight. They have fun, but

they get the job done.”

6.7 million riders laterStudent Safety Programs celebrate 25 years by Tim Olsen

They get it done so well, in fact, that

Kolosovsky was regularly asked by other

academic institutions for information about

building a safety program. In response, he

posted to the DPS website Student Safety

Program’s Blue Prints for Success about how to

create a program.

“Imitation is the best compliment, and we’ve

had a lot of that,” he said.

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Student Safety Programs by the numbers

15 — LIMO vans in fleet (plus LIMO Scout and a handicap-accessible vehicle)

13 — passenger capacity per LIMO (6 for LIMO scout; 1 for HAV)

1,100 — Individuals escorted by Safety Patrol last year

50,000 — Individuals escorted by Safety Patrol over the past 24 years

300,000 — Passengers transported by LIMOs last year

6,700,000 — Passengers transported by LIMOs over the past 24 years

As director of the Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center in the College of Nursing, Stacy Barnes spends a lot of time solving problems, trouble-shooting and planning ways to train future health care workers in geriatrics. Not only is finding solu-tions essential to her job, it is also helpful for her hobby, geocaching.

Geo … what?Geocaching is like an outdoor treasure hunt. The

goal is to track and find a cache (think of a small, unsuspicious-looking item — anything from a fake rock to a toolbox) using geographical coordinates with a GPS device. Or, as a popular T-shirt worn by avid geocachers reads, “I use billion dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods. What’s your hobby?”

Barnes has been geocaching approximately 90 times; about 80 have resulted in finding a cache. “I love the excitement of every geocaching adventure because I never know what sort of cache I will find or what is inside,” Barnes said.

Most caches contain a logbook, where geocachers sign their names and see who has previously found the cache. Some caches contain trinkets like small toys or stickers. Barnes explained that when finding a cache, you can take an object and replace it with one of your own.

According to geocaching.com, there were more than 1.5 million caches as of early September 2011 and more than 5 million geocachers worldwide. There is even a geocache located on Marquette’s campus, which Barnes has found. “Searching for

Marquette Matters is published monthly, except June, July and August and a combined issue for December/January, for Marquette University’s faculty and staff. Submit information to: Marquette Matters – Zilber Hall, 235; Phone: 8-7448; Fax: 8-7197Email: marquettematters@marquette.eduEditor: Tim OlsenGraphic design:Nick Schroeder

Copyright © 2011 Marquette University

“Take Five” is a brief list concerning an interesting aspect of Marquette life. Email your list suggestions to marquettematters@marquette.edu.

TAKEOn the SideStacy Barnes – Geocacher

By Anne Spindler

“On the Side” offers a glimpse of faculty and staff interests outside of Marquette. Email your story suggestions to marquettematters@marquette.edu.

Pope Benedict XVI took steps

to bring the Catholic Church

into the digital age in late June

by sending out his first Twitter

message. The pope used an iPad

to send a message about the

launch of a Vatican news portal

and had enough room left over

in the 140-character limit to offer

his “prayers and blessings.”

“I think tweeting is a mark of

his grasp of how important it is

to communicate in social media,

which is particularly effective

with youth,” said Dr. William

Thorn, associate professor of

journalism in the J. William and

Mary Diederich College of

Communication.

During his sabbatical this semester, Thorn

will visit Rome at least twice to help continue that

progress to integrate social media like Twitter and

Facebook into Vatican communications.

“Our goal in the coming six months to a year

is to help Catholic media come to grips with the

digital era,” Thorn said. “At World Youth Day, the

pope was adamant about the need for young

people to help the Church get involved in all

the modern ways of communicating.”

In addition to that work, Thorn will continue

research on a book about the history of chil-

dren’s magazines as well as lay groundwork

for a conference at Marquette about the

future of religious publishing.

Returning to the Vatican will be highly

familiar territory for Thorn, who has worked

with Vatican communications officials since 1982

and taken three previous sabbaticals and more

than 50 trips to Rome. In 2008, he was honored

as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy

Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Thorn previously worked for Pope John Paul

II to draft and edit documents about Vatican

communications, which included a section from

the current pope — then Cardinal Ratzinger —

about the rapid pace of change in communica-

tion technologies. In his work at the Vatican he

will also draw on his 30 years of experience at

Marquette, including efforts to help work digital

media into curriculum.

“Our experience grappling with that is

something I can take from Marquette into

this kind of reform movement,” Thorn said.

Helping the Vatican go digital By Tim Cigelske

caches makes walking and hiking even more enjoy-able,” she said. “It is a global hobby that inspires me to get outdoors and explore new areas. It is exciting to think about how many geocaches are hidden, waiting to be found.”

Stacy Barnes has found around 80 geocaches, including one on the Marquette campus.

The five busiest of the 10 campus dining locations from the beginning of the academic year through mid-September in average customers per week, according to University Dining Service, were:

1. McCormick Dining Hall — 18,733

2. Marquette Place at AMU — 11,514

3. Cobeen Dining Hall — 10,773

4. Brew Coffee House (four locations) — 8,102

5. Schroeder Dining Hall — 7,436

5

Dr. William Thorn (left), associate professor of journalism, is working with the Vatican to integrate social media into Vatican communications. Pope Benedict XVI (right) sent his first message via Twitter in June.

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Benefits enrollment for 2012

The 2012 benefits enrollment period will begin with Benefits Information and Wellness Day on Monday, Oct 24, and run through Friday, Nov. 11. On-campus health risk assessments will be offered Oct. 24 through Nov. 18. On-campus HRA appointment scheduling will be available online beginning Oct. 3.

Features of the 2012 benefits plan include:• a 10 percent discount on the employee

portion of the 2012 medical premiums for those who complete the two-part HRA;

• university/employee cost-sharing at 80/20 percent;

• the consolidation of medical plan options from four plans to two;

• registered same-sex domestic partner eligibility for coverage in the univer-sity’s health insurance plans (medical, dental, vision);

• increased vision coverage but no premium increase for vision; and

• a minimal premium increase for dental coverage

Everyone choosing a medical plan, even if previously enrolled, must re-enroll at myjob.mu.edu. Those participating in a flexible spending account also re-enroll annually.

MARQUETTE HAPPENINGS

MARQUETTE MATTERS

Suicide among indigenous youth to be discussed

Allison Hedge Coke, poet and author of Blood Run, will discuss how situational depression can lead to suicide attempts by indigenous youth at “Blood on Our Hands: Preventing Suicide Among At-Risk Native Youth” Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m. in the Weasler Auditorium. The program is sponsored by the Office of Public Affairs, Multicultural Affairs and the Department of English.

Oct. 6 features four campus lecturesFour campus lectures will take place Thursday, Oct. 6:

• The Law School’s Barrock Lecture, “Reality-Challenged Philosophies of Punishment,” by Robert Weisberg, Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. professor of law at Stanford University, at 12:15 p.m. in Eckstein Hall.

• The Klingler College of Arts and Sciences’ “Ethics of Enhancement” by Dr. Ryan Spellecy, associate professor of bioethics and medical humanities and psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin, at 4 p.m. in Lalumiere 140.

• The College of Education’s Tommy G. Thompson Lecture, “Language, Bilingualism, Cognition and Learning in Early Childhood,” by Dr. Eugene García, vice president for education partnerships at Arizona State University, at 4:30 p.m. in the AMU Monaghan Ballroom.

• Raynor Memorial Libraries’ “Louisa May Alcott Wrote That? Alcott and the Civil War,” by Dr. Angela Sorby, associate professor of English, at 4:30 p.m. in the Raynor Library Beaumier Suites.

Chinese writer and media commentator to give Chalmers lecture

Jianying Zha, writer and media commentator, will deliver the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences’ Allis Chalmers International Affairs Lecture, “Transformation in Modern China,” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, in the Weasler Auditorium. Zha is the author of several books, including Tide Players: the Movers and Shakers of a Rising China and China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids and Bestsellers are Transforming a Culture. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and other magazines and newspapers.

Cultures of China and the West to be explored at conference The Department of Philosophy will host a conference, “Unsettled Boundaries: Philosophy, Art, and Ethics East/West: A Meeting of Chinese and Western Scholars” Oct. 12-14. The conference will explore common ground between the cultures of China and the West with a focus on their respective philosophies and arts, including traditional and contemporary views. The conference is free and open to the public. More information is available at unsettledboundaries.wordpress.com or by contacting Dr. Curtis Carter, professor of philosophy, at 8-6962. Advanced registration is requested by emailing universityspecialevents@marquette.edu.

As students have buckled down for deep

study, so, too, has the reaffirmation steering

committee. This fall marks the beginning of the

self-study process in preparation for an on-site

peer review visit as required by the Higher

Learning Commission in fall 2013 or spring 2014.

The self-study is a critical part of the process

colleges and universities undergo every 10 years

to earn reaffirmation of accreditation. During the

next two years, conversations on campus will

revolve around standards, outcomes, mission,

integrity and more.

The conversations are critical and enormously

helpful, according to President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J.

He went through the process as president at The

University of Scranton and also served on a

Middle States reaffirmation review team.

“The experience intensifies engagement

and teaches us to think in new ways about

what we’re doing and why,” Father Pilarz said.

“Faculty, administrators, students and alumni

express a very powerful sense of ownership

and pride in their institution when given the

opportunity to think about how to continue the

500-year-old work of Jesuit education. Suddenly,

better ways of doing things, innovative ideas

for programs and surprising thoughts about

a school’s future surface. I also see this work

helping prepare us for the strategic-planning

process. That type of work does not occur in

a vacuum and the knowledge gained through

the self-study will be valuable.”

“This is an opportunity to tell Marquette’s

story,” said Dr. Gary Meyer, vice provost for

undergraduate programs and teaching. “As part

of the self-study, we will look at where we were

10 years ago, consider the higher education envi-

ronment today and think about how we might

improve Marquette in the future.”

Meyer and Dr. Toby Peters, associate senior

vice president, co-chair the steering committee

that is guiding Marquette through the reaffirma-

tion process.

Marquette prepares for reaffirmation of accreditation Self-study offers opportunity for reflection and inspirationBy Joni Moths Mueller

Many of Marquette’s colleges are accredited

by program-specific agencies to ensure academic

programs and practices meet specific criteria.

In a similar way, a regional accrediting body

reviews the university as a whole. Marquette

is a member of the North Central Association

of College and Schools, and the HLC is the

accrediting agency.

In addition to certifying that the university

meets specific quality standards, reaffirma-

tion is considered a crucial tool for prompting

schools to think about how to improve on what

they are doing and be accountable for expecta-

tions of higher education identified by the U.S.

Department of Education.

“The organization sets standards for the work

we do and gives us the opportunity to ensure we

are meeting them and operating at the highest

level,” said Meyer, referring to the HLC.

The university will evaluate its performance

on five criteria as required by the HLC: mission;

integrity; academic programs — quality,

resources and support; academic programs —

evaluation and improvement; and resources

and planning.

To prepare for the self-study, 17 individuals

representing a cross-section of the university

have agreed to serve on a steering committee.

The committee chose the theme for the self-

study of Reflect • Affirm • Inspire to connect

to both the Ignatian tradition of reflection and

action and the energy surrounding the new

leadership of Father Pilarz.

“In essence, we want to reflect on the work

we do, affirm the ways in which we meet and

exceed standards, and serve as an inspiration for

achieving even greater excellence,” said Meyer.

Father Pilarz will invite approximately 12

individuals, including faculty, staff and students

to serve on each of nine subcommittees charged

with writing the first draft of the self-study. The

draft will be circulated in fall 2012 so that every

member of the university community has the

opportunity to provide feedback before the draft

is finalized. The final draft is due to the HLC in

summer 2013.

“It’s not just up to the steering committee

and subcommittees to look at how we are doing

the work of Marquette University,” said Peters.

“We want everybody to take ownership of the

process, to be aware of our progress, and to

offer input.”

A website with documents pertaining to the

self-study process, background on the HLC, FAQs

and milestone dates will be available in late

October. Meyer and Peters will be available to

explain the process and goals of the self-study

to campus offices and university community

members. To schedule a presentation starting in

late October, call Lori Ozminkowski in the Office

of the Provost at 8-6456.

Important Dates in Marquette’s Reaffirmation ProcessFall 2011 and spring 2012 — Subcommittees organized; evidence gathered and outline created

Summer 2012 and fall 2012 — First self-study draft completed

Spring 2013 — Draft released to campus for review and comment

Summer 2013 and fall 2013 — Final draft written and submitted to HLC

Fall 2013 or spring 2014 — Review team visits Marquette

ReflectAffirmInspire