CST Dept. News

9/07/2004

Rodney Oppreicht Recovering From Surgery
 
As many of you are aware, Rodney Oppreicht is resting at home after heart bypass surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. The department is pleased to announce that Rod is doing well. He plans to take the balance of this semester off and be back with new energy and enthusiasm for spring term. We send him our very best wishes for a speedy recovery! Rod’s CST 110 classes have been assumed by other faculty – and we thank them for helping out.
 
Grad Night Oct. 14
 
Interested in going to grad school? Then you need to attend Grad Night, Thurs., Oct. 14 at 6:30 in the Ward Room. At Grad Night, you’ll learn more about specific opportunities for you in Grad School (duh- that’s why they call it Grad Night). Bring $3 for an info packet when you come to Grad Night. See Dr. Ronda Knox for more information.
 
CST 110 Research Pool
 
Students, don’t forget that you have an opportunity to earn extra credit in CST 110 through participation in the Research Pool. See your instructor – or watch for notices on the bulletin board outside of the CST Research Room.
 
Family Communication Students Collecting Life Stories
 
The students in CST 336/Family Communication are busy with an exciting Service Learning Project. Students in the class are collecting stories from residents of Ping Manor and Forest Park, two local assisted living apartment complexes. The students meet regularly with their resident to visit and collect their life stories, with a special focus on family experiences. The residents will be presented with their life stories prior to the holidays. Dr. Linda Dickmeyer reports that both the students and the residents are very excited about this opportunity to learn from one another. A September ice cream social allowed all participants to meet and there will be a Christmas party in December. Special thanks to our contact person, Fawn King, who happens to be related to Karen King, our awesome departmental program assistant!
 
Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internships
 
Dr. Doug Swanson is the CST Department contact person for Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internships for summer, 2005. Dow Jones provides paid internships at some of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers. The internships are for college juniors, seniors, and graduate students who have a strong interest in and aptitude for copy editing. A current events + copy editing test is required for those who apply. The deadline for taking the test is Oct. 31, 2004. To find out more about the process, visit http://DJNewspaperFund.dowjones.com  To get an application form for the internships and to take the test here at UW-L, contact Dr. Swanson at 785-6955.
 
Comm Club Events YOU Need to be Involved With
 
The Communication Club has decided to improve the CST Resource Room (aka ‘Comm Lab’) as its service project this year. The club will raise money, along with a group of students in the CST 412 Persuasion class, to improve the looks and function of the outdated lab. If you would like to help the cause, the first fundraiser is a brat fry at Festival Foods on Oct. 9. The stand will be outside Festival and Comm Club members will be volunteering their time throughout the day. Food and beverage will be available between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Come out and support this worthy cause!
 
Immediate plans for the COMM CLUB are as follows:
 
Oct. 5: Meet at the Cellar for food and announcements.  Officers will meet there at 5:00 to get things in order.  We'll be discussing Disabilities Month (Anna is contacting the office to find out more details), future meetings/fundraisers, possible layouts/colors for new Comm lab/ Resource Room, and will also hand out a worksheet for groups to answer questions regarding panel-related questions (see below), and comm. Lab related questions.
 
Oct. 19: (CAREER EVENT) Panel of people with careers in Communications. 
Anna will be organizing the speakers and we'll be asking people to give us input about what they'd like to find out and who they'd like to hear from at the Oct. 5 meeting.  Location yet to be determined, most likely somewhere in Cartwright.  We’ll also serve light refreshments through Chartwell’s.
 
Nov. 2:  (SERVICE EVENT / FUNDRAISER) Rather than meeting this day, we'll be asking people to sign up for a one-hour shift at one of the Krispy Kreme booths on campus (see more info below) on one of the mornings we'll be selling them.
 
Nov. 16:  "Sundaes and SNAP's"- We'll be having an advising session for Comm students who will be thinking about what classes to take during the spring semester.  We'll have a "build your own ice cream sundae" thing going, too...as a nice little incentive for people to come.  Location is yet to be decided.
 
Dec. 7 (SOCIAL EVENT) Christmas Party!
 
**We’re also checking on the Turkey Trot as another possibility for a service event.
 
Krispy Kreme Fundraiser:  We decided that we'd do our part in trying to begin raising money to re-vamp the Comm Lab/ Resource Room by selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts during the busiest passing times on campus.  We're planning on selling them at least three or four mornings (if we sell a lot, maybe more) during late Oct. and early Nov.  We were thinking it would be best if we had stations in Whimberly, Cartwright, and Cowley with two one-hour (approximately) shifts each morning.  One shift can run from 8:30ish until 9:45ish, and another can run from 9:45 until 11ish.  This would mean that we'd need six people to sign up for each morning that we run the fundraiser (I’m such a math whiz).  The number of mornings we sell might also depend on how many people sign up.  We're hoping the cancellation of the Nov. 2nd meeting will prompt more of them to volunteer.  Amanda will be contacting Krispy Kreme about their fundraising programs.
 
Amanda will also be asking the Student Organization Office/Student Senate if there is any way we can receive a grant for the room.  Although we’d love to get started on the comm. Lab this semester, we figure that this will be more of a “fundraising” time and that we’ll begin the comm. Lab “face lift” spring semester if we can’t begin before break.
 
Lambda Pi Eta Membership Info
 
Lambda Pi Eta is the official Communication Studies honor society of the National Communication Association. The UW-L chapter of Lambda Pi Eta is looking for new members—like you! To be a member, you must have completed at least 60 semester credit hours, have a minimum GPA of at least 3.0 for all courses taken, be in the upper 35% of your institutional academic class, have at least a 3.25 GPA for all Communication Studies courses taken, and have completed 12 semester credit-hours in communication studies.
 
If you are interested in becoming a LPE member, you must meet the honor society's requirements and pay a one-time, lifetime membership fee of $30. Submit your SNAP and a $30 check made payable to the Communication Club by Oct. 15 to Dr. Ronda Knox in 315 Center for the Arts.
 
PRSSA is Coming – SOON!
 
We are pleased to announce that the department will soon have its own chapter of the PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America). You may have heard that there are 234 PRSSA chapters in colleges and universities around the country, and 7,730 undergraduates who are members in those chapters. Soon, there will be 235 chapters – and 7,730 members, plus YOU!
 
Special thanks to Noel Lee, Sarah Nohr, Kelle Simonson for being our CST “spark plugs” on this project!
 
More details forthcoming!
 
Students Against Cancer Group
 
Dr. Cheri Niedzwiecki is the faculty adviser for a new student group, Students Against Cancer. The group is sponsored by the American Cancer. The purpose of the group is to increase awareness of cancer and ways to prevent it – and to work on breast cancer awareness, tobacco prevention and other specific issues. Dr. Niedzwiecki is part of a panel presentation on Breast Cancer Awareness for the Women's Soapbox/Lunchbox on Wednesday Oct. 6 in the Women's Resource Center on the third floor in Wimberly Hall.
 
 
MacKenzie Vlack and Jessica Corey, students who started the
Colleges Against Cancer student group, interact with
representatives of the American Cancer Society.
 
Dr. Niedzwiecki talking to MacKenzie and Jessica at the panel
on breast cancer prevention Oct. 6 for the Women's Studies
Lunchbox/Soapbox.
 
Student Research Team at Work
 
Several CST students are working with Dr. Swanson on a research project for the AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication). Kim Allman Jill Johnston, Marie Luepke and Steve Phalen are compiling the results of a national survey, to determine what AEJMC members think about association participation and conference attendance. The results will help illustrate the extent to which institutional support is a factor in members’ AEJMC involvement. A random sample of members was surveyed over the summer, and the response rate is approximately 40% (which is pretty darn good for a summer survey of faculty!). The group’s report to the AEJMC is due Nov. 1.
 
‘You say WACADA, I say WACADA’
 
Dr. Doug Swanson was among approximately ten UW-L faculty and staff who attended the meeting of the Wisconsin Academic Advising Association in Green Bay on Sept. 23-24. Tim Walls, campus-wide academic advisor in CLS and SAH, is this year’s president of WACADA.