These Days at Ripon these days at ripon MELLON SUPPORTS GLOBAL AWARENESS, OFF-CAMPUS OPPORTUNITIES
Ripon recently received a $25,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support two initiatives that support global awareness among faculty and off-campus learning opportunities for students during the next two years. The first initiative provides for two, two-day retreats to gather representative groups of faculty members from various disciplines and Andrew W. Mellon focus their energies on ways to connect and provide mutual support for courses and programs dealing with global awareness and international studies. “The more faculty understand what we are trying to do with our global-studies programs the better it is for the coherence of our curriculum,” says William Schang, dean of faculty and project director for the international studies activity. “Global studies is critically important for liberal arts students today, and we are looking for ways we can sharpen and collaborate on what we already offer,” he says. The second initiative provides support for an increase in the variety of offcampus, student-learning opportunities. Such opportunities have proven valuable in broadening students’ understanding of the disciplines they study and increasing participation in the wider intellectual life of those disciplines, according to Chris Ogle, dean of students and project director for the off-campus activities portion of the grant. In the past, the dean of students office has helped fund student participation in a wide range of off-campus conferences and workshops. That budget,
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however, is limited and therefore some trips had to be denied, says Ogle. “Without a doubt students get a unique learning experience when they step out beyond the campus,” Ogle says. Fewer than 30 students receive funding for off-campus learning activities each year. Ogle says the grant could triple that number.
GOPLIN RESIGNS, WITTLER ’76 FILLS POST TEMPORARILY Michele Baran Wittler ’76, registrar since 1985, has been named acting vice president and dean of admission and financial aid. Wittler, who has also served as assistant dean of academic affairs since 2000, replaces Scott Goplin who resigned from the post in June. Goplin has joined the staff at TriState University in Angola, Ind., where he serves as vice president for enrollment management. During his tenure at Ripon, Goplin led a team of admission professionals who assisted in increasing the college’s enrollment each of the last six years. Last fall, Ripon enrolled 1,001 students, the highest since 1973 and an increase from 612 in 1997. President David Joyce says he is pleased that Wittler has agreed to step in to provide “creative leadership to this important area of the College.” Wittler, he says, “knows what it takes for students to be successful at Ripon
Brooke Tireman Konopacki ’94
Michele Baran Wittler ’76
and she certainly knows the strengths of the institution. She is passionate about the College and, most importantly, she will look at the admission process with a fresh perspective.” In addition to Wittler’s appointment, Brooke Tireman Konopacki ’94, former director of admission, has been named director of admission/assistant dean of admission and will handle the day-today operations of the office.
READING EXPERIENCE TO EXAMINE WORKERS’ STRUGGLES The working poor, affordable housing and labor unions are just some of the issues addressed in the 2004 Ripon College Reading Experience (RCRE) book — Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich spent three months working as a waitress, a professional house cleaner and a Wal-Mart associate, spending about one month at each job in Florida, Maine and Minnesota. Written in 2002, the book chronicles Ehrenreich’s struggle to make ends meet while working for hourly wages. Led by Professor of French Linda Clemente, who is serving her second year as faculty representative of the RCRE, students will coordinate activities to raise awareness about the struggles Ehrenreich faced. “Students hope to present this fall not just on problems but on solutions already in place to help the working poor,” Clemente says. They will do this by working with agencies in Milwaukee, such as the