This year, the telethon raised a record $4,400 and over $400 in supplies. Area businesses, which donated, were Petco, Sam's Club, Trane Federal Credit Union, K-Mart, Walgreens, Target, and the La Crosse Vet Clinic gave a certificate for rabies and distemper vaccinations. The majority of the monetary donations pledged during the telethon were for $100 or more. Many of the donations were given on behalf of viewers’ pets.

In addition, many guests were ushered in during this two-hour telecast. Communication Studies professor Scott Dickmeyer, his three sons, and their dog Sam (adopted from the Humane Society) made an appearance. U.S. Representative Ron Kind pre-taped an in studio interview segment with his two sons and their dog Libby (adopted from the Humane Society) which aired during the telethon. Dr. Mike Tollefson was the photographer for the evening.
Many Communication Studies students were instrumental in making this year’s event a success. Becki Sherven and Julie Haley, primary fundraisers, raised over $400 before the telethon went on the air. They placed canisters at Petco, 151 Hair Salon, The Big Muddy Bistro, and Pets R Pals and contacted local businesses. Other Communication Studies students who assisted with this event were Brad Fisher (executive producer); Beth Leard (producer, director, and scriptwriter), Adam Dvorak (producer and technical director), Jake Jahimiak (producer), Nicole Lukaszewski (producer and phone bank); Becki Sherven and Julie Haley (phone bank); Julie Buesgens (assistant director); Ben Mollet, Adam Rogahn, and Joe Stadele (cameras); Tim Bevers (audio and set design); Ryan Berger (tape operator); Dan Walters (technician); Mike Fuschel and Anton Sella (floor directors); Staci Melby (teleprompter); Ashley Smeltzer and Adriana Christians (graphics); Dan Morency (graphic design); and Jackie Kissel and Jeff Xiong (line producers).

The evening proved to be a time for the university, community, and area businesses to form a strong partnership, which benefited a very needy nonprofit organization.

Undergraduate Research/Activities

Research that Dr. Doug Swanson developed with the assistance of the fall, 2001 CST 362 students (Tools & Strategies classes) will be published in Volume 2 of the Social Science Journal in 2004. The research is titled "Homeland Attack and Homepage Response: A Preliminary Review of Affected Business Entities' Online Corroboration/ Explanation of September 11 Economic Impact."

The research examines the reporting of negative economic impact resulting from 9/11 terrorism incidents. It's a mostly qualitative study of corporate web sites. Among businesses that publicized a claim of negative economic impact from 9/11, 84% made no mention of injury claim(s) on their institutional web site. Of businesses that did make online corroboration/ explanation of media reports, fewer than half did so with detailed financial reports and most used rhetorical strategies that made business issues sound ambiguous while focusing blame for problems on variables outside the organization's control.

Research that is being developed with this semester's CST 362 students is focusing on the use of the World Wide Web by religious apostate (dissenter) groups. This semester's CST 362 classes participated in a literature collection exercise, a web site framing analysis, and a content analysis of 13 apostate web sites.

Information was gathered about how apostate groups use the web to build and maintain "interpretive communities" where they can share their beliefs. Dr. Swanson has categorized the data and an article will be submitted to the Journal of Media and Religion.

Results will also be incorporated into a conference paper for presentation at the AEJMC conference (Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication) in Kansas City in August 2003.

Several students had papers accepted to the 2003 Central States Communication Association convention in Omaha.

Stuart Shave, Leah Scholl, Ryan Wieters, Katie Kvam, and Sara Guggisberg co-authored the paper “Generic and Situational Constraints in Presidential War Justification Speeches. The essay examines similar strategies used by recent U.S. Presidents to justify going to war.

Tana Mann authored “Papal Public Address Post September 11th: A Thematic Analysis.” The essay explains major themes used by the Pope in addressing issues of war.

Both papers were developed in the spring 2002 War Rhetoric class, a special topics course taught by Dr. Laura Nelson and Dr. Michael Tollefson.

Students in Intercultural Communication performed stories they created in class at Toland Theatre on October 24th.

Robyn Watson, a Telecommunication Major, was followed on December 6 by Scott Forsythe, a news and documentaries producer for MTV. When Robyn entered the university last year, she was profiled in an MTV documentary on little people. The follow up documentary is scheduled to air on February 1.

Faculty News

Dr. Scott Dickmeyer recently published the article “Give it to me straight Doc, how much longer can I coach: The length of the Individual Events season and its effects on the wellness of coaches” in the National Forensics Journal.

Dr. Dickmeyer was also elected to the executive board of the Training and Development Division at NCA.

Robert Eberle held a workshop at the Northern Plains Regional Fall Leadership Conference held at UW-L on November 2-3. The subject was “Leaders Under Fire – Remaining Calm and Focused During Media Interviews.” Mr. Eberle also spoke to the Rochester Optimists Club on December 6. The topic was the “Four Most Important Character Traits for Leaders Who Want to inspire Others.”

Dr. Cheri Niedzwiecki presented “Gender Communication in the Family” at the Women’s Studies Lunchbox/Soapbox on October 30th.

Dr. Niedzwiecki attended the Pre-Conference on Family Communication Scholarship at the National Communication Association in New Orleans Nov. 20.

Several guest speakers from the community and UW-L recently shared their experiences in Dr. Niedzwiecki’s Family Communication classes. Speakers included: Deb Cowan from Family Resources, Jim and Joann Putz, Mike Tollefson, Ayesha Patnaik, Beth Hartung, Pastor David Holt of First Evangelical Free Church, Natasha Eydelman, and Stephanie and Kylie Squiers.

Students wrote reaction papers to compare and contrast the parenting and communication styles of the speakers.

Several students in the course helped with the
parents of cadets in the Wisconsin National Guard Challenge Academy. They were Kristin Raether, Matt Bielanski and Caitlyn Squire.

Ronda Knox has been accepted for associate membership on the graduate faculty at UW-L.

Dr. Pat Turner and Dr. Cheri Niedzwiecki received a $5,000 grant from the Affirmative Action Office to create a video on Gender Communication.

Alumnus Update

Dodie Lindbergh, a May 2002 graduate, has worked for Americorp*VISTA at Big Brothers Big Sister. In that capacity she has developed programs in schools to make it appealing and convenient for students to get involved in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Dodie has been so successful in recruiting volunteers to the program that Big Brothers Big Sisters has had to hire new staff.

Debatable Results

Students in CST 310 (Debate) completed their in-class debate tournament this week. Faculty members and students served as judges for debates over the role of the U.S. as the world’s police.

The top two teams (Todd Fabos & Nathan Larson vs. Lindsay Murty & Stephanie Connolly) were scheduled to debate in the final round at press time. Other results are as follows:

Team Competition
3rd: Jude Tindall & Allison Bouska
4th: Colleen Bradek & Janet Teeling
5th: Matt Faron & Maggie Peters

Individual Speakers
1st: Lindsay Murty
2nd: Jude Tindall
3rd: Allison Bouska
4th: Janet Teeling
5th: Todd Fabos
6th: Nathan Larson
7th: Steph Connolly
8th: Matt Faron
9th: Laura Olson
10th: Jenny Brennan