Impact A Summary of the Rising to Distinction Campaign
Fall 2016
$20 Million
Rising to Distinction Campaign Surpasses $20,000,000 Goal
$18 Million $16 Million $14 Million $12 Million
Campaign Chair Bill Boehm The Rising to Distinction Campaign has reached a successful conclusion. Congratulations and thank you to all who helped make this dream a reality. Five years ago, the notion of completing this campaign was an unspoken wish. You, the friends and alumni of UWRF, made it happen. In this issue of Impact, I think you will gain a good sense of the broad and meaningful effect this campaign has already had and will continue to make on UWRF.
$8 Million $6 Million $4 Million $2 Million
$21,920,619 total
$10 Million
We should celebrate this accomplishment, of course - the first ever comprehensive campaign conducted by the UWRF Foundation. Faculty, administrators and the Foundation staff worked as a team to make the contacts and complete the work. They, too, deserve our thanks for a job well done. My personal celebration, though, is for the students who benefit from the new facilities, scholarships, the lectures and even the infrastructure improvements these funds provide. I know you join me in that celebration. It’s why we give both time and money to this wonderful institution.
Bill Boehm, ’70 2
$6 Million
$4 Million
GOAL
COLLEGES, UNITS AND PROGRAMS
CAPITAL
FACULTY SUPPORT
$2 Million SCHOLARSHIPS
This is not an endpoint, however. It’s a beginning. In a time when state support for higher education is declining, not just here in Wisconsin but nearly everywhere, there is no other option. This success must be a springboard to a higher level of sustained giving to the UWRF Foundation. It’s a way, and a very good one at that, to ensure that the students and faculty get and give the high quality education we desire for them.
$8 Million
FUND FOR DISTINCTION
Campaign Reflections
$10 Million
FALCON ANNUAL FUND
Rising to Distinction
Totals as of June 30, 2016
Scholarship Stats
40
70
272 $969
Current Average Scholarship Falcon Awarded (mean) Scholars
623
$668,686 Falcon Scholars contributions Total $ of Scholarships have been Awardedto received date
Falcon Scholars of Scholarships $2,000 graduated or more
Falcon 546 Scholars Total # of Stats Student Recipients 2015-16
690 14
Falcon TotalScholars # of graduated Scholarships ahead of schedule Awarded
60 $723
Falcon Scholars studied abroard Average or Scholarship completed a Awarded research (median) project this year!
Kathleen Hunzer (center) and the 2020 class of Falcon Scholars.
Falcon Scholars Program Benefits Campus Created in 2012, the Falcon Scholars Program offers alumni and friends of UW-River Falls the ability to support outstanding students with scholarships. Students who qualify receive a renewable, four-year scholarship of $1,000 for each year of their education. We spoke to Kathleen Hunzer, director of the Falcon Scholars, Chancellor’s Scholars and Honors Programs about the Falcon Scholars Program and where she sees it going in the future. How does the Falcon Scholars Program benefit the campus? The scholarships allow students to work fewer hours and dedicate that time to strengthening their academics, and to being more involved in campus activities. Many hold leadership positions on campus and in community organizations. They also often work as tutors in campus help centers. The Falcon Scholars are eligible to receive $2,000 in their junior or senior year to pursue either a study abroad experience, or to complete a research project with a faculty mentor. Students who travel abroad return to campus with a better understanding of other cultures and an increased sense of independence, while students who complete a research project learn the values of collaborative inquiry, careful planning and how to research a topic. These students add a positive attitude and a strong academic drive to our campus. Can you give me a few specific examples of how it has helped students? This year, 63 percent of Falcon Scholars were named to the Dean’s List. Twenty-five percent of those had a 4.0 GPA. These students were awarded more than $450,000 in on-campus and off-campus scholarships and have earned internships with companies such as Schalow’s Nursery, Lincoln Business Improvement Group, Medtronic, Winfield Crop Protection Company, Lawrence Cumpston & Associates, KS Dairy Consulting, Supervisor Systems and many other companies. Students from all of my programs have presented at campus, national, and international scholarly events. They have traveled to more than 30 countries, including Fiji, India, Greece and Taiwan.
What is the program’s larger effect? Programs like Falcon Scholars recruit and retain very talented and dedicated students to our campus across almost all majors — infusing the entire campus with intellectual energy and campus involvement. All of our students act as role models for their peers and are ambassadors for their programs. Our Falcon Scholars have also held a variety of leadership positions on campus, such as Vice President of the Student Feminist Organization, Secretary for Society for Undergraduate Research, Student Manager for New Student and Family Programs, Farm Bureau President and many others. Where do you see it going in the future? Thanks to the financial support of our donors, Falcon Scholars will be assisting UWRF students for many years to come. With generous support, our programs can grow and provide our students with a private university experience at a public university price. What are the greatest challenges it faces moving forward? The greatest challenge for all of our programs is securing continued funding to not only sustain them, but also to grow the programs in a way that will benefit our students, the campus and our community. How important are private contributions? Without donors, the Falcon Scholars program would not exist. Many of our talented, dedicated students would not be on our campus. What is the best part about working for Falcon Scholars? The best part of my job is working every day with students who are intelligent, hard-working, driven, kind and involved. I am very fortunate to work with some of the best students on campus, helping them reach their goals and achieve their dreams. Many years ago a colleague said that my students tend to imprint on me in the same way chickadees imprint on a mother bird. Each day, I embrace how fortunate I am to have so many great chickadees in my nest. 3
More than 110 New Funds Created During the Examples of the impact campaign contributions have made at By the time Leah Granlund began work at the UW-River Falls Dairy Pilot Plant (DPP), she had already spent most of her life working with milk, cheese and cows. Granlund was raised on a dairy farm in Blair, Wis, but the DPP taught her a side of the industry that she could have never learned from her family farm alone. Granlund calls her experience of working in the processing of dairy products an “eye-opener” that gave her the experience she needed to find a job after college. “It was a really cool experience because I got to learn both sides (of the dairy industry),” Granlund said. The DPP is UWRF’s fully-functioning dairy production facility, and is unique to the UW system. Under the leadership of Michelle Farner, DPP manager, the facility is operated solely by students like Granlund — offering first-hand experience working in the industry. It’s been so successful that it will soon undergo a host of major additions to keep pace with changes in the dairy industry.
Donations Help Fuel Dairy Pilot Plant Expansion
There are plans to increase the size of the plant and to upgrade equipment essential to the dairy production process, like a new homogenizer, cheese vats, pasteurizer and ice cream freezers. “This is going to enable us to keep up with what the industry is expecting” Farner said. That’s important, especially for students like Granlund, who said her time making processed cheese spreads at the DPP enabled her to land a position at Whitehall Specialties, a Wisconsin cheese maker. “It really gave me the opportunity to walk into Whitehall and get the position I’m in today,” she said.
Butler Scholarship Enables International Research Bailey Vitek gets a thrill from the quiet of a biology laboratory. Alone, with only her experiments in front of her and her headphones sending rapper G-Eazy’s voice directly into her eardrums, Vitek is simultaneously focused and at peace. The experience is unlike any other, and it’s a big reason why she wants to be a scientist. “Being in the lab is just so nice,” said Vitek, a Rosemont, Minn. native. “Everyone is working for the same things. It’s exciting to see the results.”
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Thanks to the John E. Butler International Research Scholarship, Vitek has had a lot of lab time lately. The scholarship, which financially supports students who spend a semester abroad conducting scientific research, recently allowed her to travel to Jena, Germany where she worked side-by-side with researchers at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. It was her second trip to the institute and it gave her the opportunity to continue her research into avian chlaymdia — which can have devastating effects on the poultry industry, and possibly human health.
Vitek said her team of researchers were interested in learning how much of the wild bird population had strains of the disease. It was more than they expected, and now the research will be published in a major scientific journal, with Vitek named as one of the authors.
“They taught me everything,” Vitek said. “They were very generous. It was an amazing experience for an undergrad. Thanks to the scholarship, I was able to work with the same people again.”
“It was a great experience for me because I really don’t know where I’d be right now if I didn’t go (to Germany) the first time and the John Butler Scholarship didn’t enable me to go back,” she said. “It changed my life.”
Vitek with fellow researchers Konrad Sachse (left) and Christiane Schnee (right) at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute lab in Jena, Germany.
Rising to Distinction Campaign UWRF.
Donors Aid Math Department Remodeling Project When the UW-River Falls Mathematics Department recently fell short of the money they needed to buy furniture for their newest classroom, they turned to gifts made to the Math Department through the UWRF Foundation. Remodeling work done to an aging North Hall classroom expanded the space, enabling the department to fit 45 students into the room. That was important, since recent budget cuts to the UW-System has created demand for professors to teach larger classes, said Kathy Tomlinson, chair of the Mathematics Department. But they still needed quite a few new desks. It is an example of how even small gifts make an incredible impact. “Our faculty report it is a much better teaching environment,” Tomlinson said. On their own, the department paid for a full remodel of the room, located in North Hall 18. It was oriented like a rectangle, but on its side, with the small end at the front of the room,
Tomlinson explained. That orientation made it difficult for students to see and hear the professor’s lessons. It also restricted the ability of the professor to interact with students and to hear their ideas. Now the room is wide, rather than deep, everyone has a great view, and the professor can more easily assess student understanding. “As a result, even if you sit in the back row of the classroom, you’re going to be closer to the action,” Tomlinson said. To do it, they had to straighten one wall and buy a new projector. Then — with the help of donors — they replaced the old desks with tables and chairs to encourage collaboration among the students. The new furniture allows the students to use notes, books and electronic devices simultaneously. “It really facilitates interactive engagement in the classroom, which is what we’re trying to do,” she said.
STEM Majors Get a Boost from Minnesota Legislator’s Scholarship A scholarship and financial gift established to honor the memory of a Minnesota legislator is helping to fulfill the increasing nationwide demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics teachers. Last year, $5,000 was donated to aid in establishing the university’s novel STEMteach program. The program offers a pathway for candidates who majored in math or science as an undergraduate, or who have work experience in math and science fields, to obtain their Wisconsin teaching license for middle or high schools in one year. The money came from Susan Vento and is in honor of her husband, U.S. Representative Bruce Vento. So far, staff have used a portion of the gift to buy video cameras for students to record their lessons for review. The rest will be used to buy materials for the students’ apprentice teaching classes. The Vento gifts are also funding scholarships that support students pursuing a science education degree, which was a cause close to Bruce’s heart. Mike Collins of St. Paul, Minn. and Chelsey Turner of Spring Valley, both graduate students seeking teaching licensure at UW-River Falls, each received $5,000 from the Bruce F. Vento Science Educator Scholarship earlier this year. The second cohort for the program begins in June with eight new students. Turner said she was grateful to the Vento family for establishing the scholarship. Having worked several jobs to support her undergraduate education at UWRF, Turner said the scholarship enables her to focus solely on her graduate degree.
Mike Collins, a member of the first STEMteach cohort, teaches a lesson about cryogenics to students attending a session at Washington Technology Magnet School in St. Paul.
“I’ve always been scrambling to get enough money to get through school,” Turner said. “When I learned I got the scholarship, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.”
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Rising to Distinction Campaign Makes A sample of gifts that made a difference Spring St. Sixth St.
Fifth St.
Fourth St.
Second St.
Mai n St .
Downtown
Spruce St.
Spring St.
ake orge
Oak K
Third St.
Cascade Ave.
Wild Rose Avenue
Falcon Scholars kinnic South Fo nic Ri rk of t e Kin h
r ve
This innovative program provides student recipients with a four-year scholarship plus funding for student research or study abroad. To read more about the Falcon Scholars program, see page 3.
Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity (URSCA) Fund Support for the URSCA office makes a significant impact on the program’s ability to provide more students with research opportunities.
Falcon Center
S. Main St.
Set to open fully in summer 2017. To read more about the facility, see page 8-9.
Smith Stadium at Ramer Field A rededication for this facility upgrade occurred on Sept. 19, 2015. Upgrades included new lighting, press box and entrance plaza and installation of AstroTurf.
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Campus-Wide Impact NORTH
Math Department Classroom
Walker D. and Helen Bryant Wyman Visiting Professorship Birch St.
Every gift, large or small can make an impact. Individual gifts restricted to the Math Department provided furniture in a newly remodeled Math Department classroom. To learn more, see page 5.
Funded with the first $1 million gift from a living donor Dr. Bry Wyman, the fund enables for annual visiting professors in Art and History.
Wasson Lane
Cas cad eA ve.
Cresent St.
Knoll
Bill Boehm Outdoor Classroom
v ue Thisespace enhances teaching in investment and portfolio management courses.
To Lab Farm #1
se Ro ild W
Glenn Potts Financial Trading Room A
As a tribute to the successful completion of the Rising to Distinction campaign, an outdoor classroom has been installed between the Centennial Science Hall and Kleinpell Fine Arts buildings. See a photo of the classroom dedication ceremony on page 1.
Dairy Pilot Plant
Rod Nilsestuen Legacy Fund
This facility upgrade will replace significantly outdated equipment and further help to prepare tomorrow’s industry leaders. To read about student impact of the Dairy Pilot Plant, see page 4.
Provides for public lectures and events in the areas of agriculture and conservation.
Kraft Foods/Oscar Meyer Animal Welfare Fund
Provides significant funding for international student research projects. To read about one recipient’s experience, see page 4. S. Wasson Lane
Supports a faculty scholar in animal welfare, develops animal welfare education and provides research in food animal welfare.
John E. Butler International Research Endowment
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Falcon Center
Soccer and Softball Teams Begin Using Falcon Center With the new softball field completed in April, UW-River Falls sports teams are already getting comfortable with the new Falcon Center, the largest building project in the university’s 140-year history. Head Softball Coach Amber Dohlman said the field’s new press box, stadium seating, in-ground dugout, turf and batting cages have generated a lot of interest in the program from spectators and students alike. “The field is number one or two in the conference in terms of quality,” said Dohlman, adding that they played to sellout crowds anxious to get a peek at the new facilities. “People want to see it. It’s better than some Division One softball fields out there.” Weight rooms and new locker rooms are expected to open in September. “Other schools see it and they are awestruck,” Dohlman said. “I’ve got alums that were on the coaching staff who would love to come back and play on it.” It’s the same for the women’s soccer team, too, according to Sean McKuras, the team’s head coach. McKuras said he expects the new locker and classrooms to expand what they can offer future recruits. “I am very excited for all of the things that the new Falcon Center will bring to the students on this campus and our surrounding community,” he said. The new soccer field will also open this year. McKuras said its design will allow the team’s fans to have a great view of the field, and for the players to have a true home field advantage. “We are very lucky to have access to such a beautiful field,” he said. “I look forward to using this venue to bring together our past, present and future soccer players.” When construction is finished in 2017, the Falcon Center will encompass 162,300 square feet of space for UWRF athletics and student recreation. It will include new classrooms, a human performance laboratory, a gymnasium, dance studio, auxiliary gym, offices, locker rooms, training rooms and other supporting spaces. It also includes remodeling about 14,670 square feet of space in the Hunt/Knowles complex. 8
Campus Spaces Named During Campaign • Bill Boehm Outdoor Classroom • Rick Bowen Court • Brainerd-Kasten Colt Barn • “Poor Old” Sidd Brandt Men’s Basketball Coaches Office • Champions Gate • Neil Christenson Entrance (Page Arena) • DeLonais Garden • Paul B. Dykstra Men’s Hockey Locker Room • Mike Farley Home Coaches Box • Grassland Dairy Products, Inc. Raw Milk Handling Area • HealthPartners/Hudson Hospital Wellness Office
The DeLonais Garden at the Falcon Center Beginning in the fall of 2018, visitors to the main entrance of the Falcon Center will be greeted with a serene garden. Driven out of a desire for guests to have a gathering space in front of the building, Kathy DeLonais and the DeLonais Foundation have graciously donated funds to turn this vision into a reality. The DeLonais Gardens is slated to include a crushed stone pathway with multiple seating spaces and a variety of sustainable flowers and shrubs. Deciduous trees will provide canopied shade and the garden will contain a natural water feature. Whether you are a student in search of an outdoor study space, or a guest waiting to be picked up after watching a thrilling win by the Falcons in the new sports complex, the DeLonais Gardens will provide a beautiful spot to meet those needs.
• Karen E. Leonard Student Lounge • Emogene Nelson Classroom • Don Page Arena • Fran Polsfoot Gate • Dr. Glenn Potts Financial Trading Room • Royal Credit Union Community Room • Dr. Gary Thibodeau Health and Human Performance Laboratory • Twin Cities Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Athletic Training Room • WESTconsin Credit Union Athletic Director’s Office • Wheelock Commons • Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association Conference Room • Dr. Keith Wurtz Active Learning Classroom • Dr. Judy Wilson Health and Human Performance Conference Room • Zimmerman Gateway
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Rising to Distinction Campaign Highlights Chancellor Dean Van Galen and Chris Mueller, Assistant Chancellor of University Advancement and President of the UW-River Falls Foundation, announce the capital campaign goal of $20 million reached six months earlier than anticipated Jan. 19, 2016, during the spring campus Opening Meeting.
Dr. Bry Wyman is greeted by Grace Swensen April 28, 2012, at the Rising to Distinction Campaign Launch.
Arlin and Marilyn Albrecht surrounded by the first class of Falcon Scholars on Sept. 4, 2012, during a Falcon Scholars Donor Recognition event.
Former Chancellor Gary and Emogene Thibodeau at the 2012 Scholarship Recognition event.
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UWRF students helped Wanda Brown create a glass ornament during an April 8, 2015, luncheon and glass blowing demonstration held for donor society members.
Bob Woodward, two-time Pultizer Prize winning investigative reporter and non-fiction writer, speaking at the May 2, 2014, Scholarship Benefit Dinner.
Daymond John, founder and CEO of global lifestyle brand FUBU and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” entertained the crowd during the April 24, 2015, Scholarship Benefit Dinner.
Green Bay Packer legend Bart Starr served as keynote speaker April 19, 2013, for the Scholarship Benefit Dinner.
Chancellor Dean and Mary Van Galen speak with the late Jo Page and son, David Page, on Aug. 27, 2012, about the future Don Page Arena following a campus-wide Opening Meeting.
Ribbon cutting during the Sept. 19, 2015, David Smith Stadium at Ramer Field Rededication.
Contributors, friends of UWRF and university personnel at the May 2, 2014, Falcon Center Groundbreaking Ceremony.
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410 S. 3rd St. River Falls, WI 54022
Campaign Celebrated September 23, 2016
2015 graduate and Falcon Scholar Gillian McDonald spoke about the impact of scholarship support during the program.
Terri ’77, ’85 and Steve ’74 Wilcox display chocolate bars imprinted with the UWRF logo.
Interim Provost Faye Perkins hugged retired Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Mary Halada.