“These are major changes we’re making,” said Debbie Gray-Patton, assistant director of the First-Year Experience (FYE). “There are so many people who this is really impacting.”

Incoming students now experience smaller class sizes, themed classes and the exploration of “signature questions” that get them thinking about the world around them and how it connects with their studies.

“The hallmark of the program is our focus on first-year students and increasing student retention,” assistant political science professor Tracy Slagter said.

First-year students often arrive on campus with butterflies, worries and questions, wondering if they’ll fit in, if they’ll succeed and if they will be able to form relationships. The USP directly addresses these concerns and takes into consideration the modern college student.

During their first semester, students will be enrolled in their first Quest class, capped at 25 freshmen students. The small class replaces the freshmen pit classes, which often are intimidating and don’t allow first-year students to develop initial connections with their professors and other students.

With a variety of Quest I classes available, students can pick topics that vary from the geography of coffee to the origin of pirates. These are subjects that UWO senior and peer mentor Joe Infusino-Braun, of De Forest, believes are sure to lure students in.

“This is how they’re redefining general education… These are the topics that are going to interest people, they’re going to have this initial hook,” Braun said.

During this first set of classes, students also will have the benefit of learning from others who have “been there, done that” through the guidance of a trained peer mentor. Gray-Patton has played a major role in integrating the USP into the University and hiring dedicated students to help make incoming first-year students’ transition easier.

The team of students is made up of 15 ambassadors and 72 peer mentors. The ambassadors’ original role was to educate themselves about the USP in order to spread the word to faculty members and students about the program. These ambassadors also were hired to help hire and train a group of peer mentors and, now that the program has begun, also act as peer mentors themselves.

The peer mentors sit in on the students’ Quest I classes once a week in order to make themselves readily available to students and to make better connections.

Senior Austin Pippin, of Racine, believes that his role as a peer mentor is integral for first-year students who are often hesitant about approaching a professor with questions they may have.

“I can be a medium from the students to the professor or give students the resources they need,” he said.

Pippin was able to see the positive results of the USP within the first week of classes, when he was approached by a first-year student and asked for advice about scheduling classes, joining clubs and becoming more involved.

Junior and lead student ambassador Molly Merrill, of Oshkosh, said that peer mentors can help the first-year students adapt to a new lifestyle.

“The peer mentors are there to help students get acclimated with the University, to understand what the Math Lab is, or what the Center for Academic Resources does for you,” Merrill said. “We tell them to go to Titan Nights, because as a freshman you may be a little scared, you’re out of your element, you’re not really sure what everything is all about.”

These resources were developed to help freshmen students succeed in their first year and throughout their college careers.

“I think they should understand campus resources and know that it’s not a bad student who goes to seek out campus resources, but that the best students are going to go,” Slagter said.

Gaining knowledge about campus resources in addition to developing a connection with the campus itself are both important aspects of a first-year student’s success at UWO, and the USP addresses both of these through the help of the peer mentors. Peer mentors are vital to the development of first-year students and provide them with the personal connection of someone who has already experienced what UWO has to offer.

The peer mentors help guide first-year students through USP with the intention of providing students with the resources they need to be successful and the skills they will need throughout life as they pursue their dream careers.

“Undoubtedly, these connections will enhance their time here at UW Oshkosh and perhaps carry into their futures,” said peer mentor and UWO senior Sarah Kofler, of Prentice. “Students are responding to the program with excitement– they understand how these connections will provide them with the best education possible.”

As UWO begins the journey of “out with the old and in with the new,” first-year students are already reaping the benefits of the USP.

“They’re engaged and they’re talking to each other and they’re making friends,” Merrill said. “They know each other and they’re getting involved.”

The most rewarding part for Kofler has been watching the students enter their class for the first time. “They are eager to find out more about the USP, are eager to get to know each other and eager to embark on this educational experience,” she said.

Waving the USP off on its maiden voyage, Gray-Patton, Slagter and the ambassadors and peer mentors are looking forward to seeing the positive effects it has on UWO students and their future success.

“To quote my old supervisor, former Dean of Students Jim Chitwood, ‘We want to make sure first-year students are becoming second-year students.’ Really, that’s the bottom line; getting them what they need to be successful and stick around and feel like this is where they belong,” Gray-Patton said.

Four new members were elected to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Alumni Association’s Board of Directors in May.
The 24-member, volunteer board works to build connections among alumni, students and the University. The new members include:

• Tom Boyson ’72, of Oshkosh
• Paula (Vermeern) Dinse ’07, of Oshkosh
• Mark Duerwaechter ’88, of Sherwood
• Melissa Hunt ’05, of Oshkosh.

Abraham

In July, two-time UW Oshkosh alumna Diane (Vanheuklon) Abraham ’84 and ’87 MBA, took over as the leader of one of Oshkosh’s most visible and transformative community organizations, the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation.

Carrell

UW Oshkosh communication professor Lori Carrell released a new book, Preaching that Matters: Reflective Practices for Transforming Sermons, which was published in April by the Alban Institute. It is based on years of sermon communication research with hundreds of clergy and more than 30,000 listeners. Carrell also is the director of both the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the University Studies Program.

Brunsell

Eric Brunsell ‘02 MS, associate professor, curriculum and instruction in the UW Oshkosh College of Education and Human Services, created a massive open online course (MOOC) earlier this year—a first for a UWO professor—for teachers to learn about the new Next Generation Science Standards in a more hands-on way.

Places

Horizon Village

UW Oshkosh’s newest residence hall building—Horizon Village—was awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Horizon joins UW Oshkosh’s newest academic building, Sage Hall, which also achieved LEED Gold certification when it opened fall 2011. Funded through student-approved fees, Horizon Village is a 340-bed residence hall featuring apartment-style living suites.

Alumni Welcome and Conference Center

Construction is underway at UW Oshkosh’s Alumni Welcome and Conference Center. Once completed next spring, the state-of-the-art venue located on the Fox River will serve as a gathering place and new front door for the University. Check out a time lapse video of the Center’s construction.

Biodigester groundbreaking at Rosendale Dairy

In June, partners broke ground on UW Oshkosh’s largest biodigester, a biogas plant that will include a public education center at Rosendale Dairy, the state’s largest dairy farm, in Pickett. The facility is funded by the UW Oshkosh Foundation; partners include UW Oshkosh, Milk Source, BIOFerm and Viessmann Group, Soil Net, Alliant Energy and Infinity Lawn and Garden.

Pride

Annually, the Outstanding Young Alumni Award is given to alumni who have graduated within the last 15 years. Selection is based on professionalism, civic accomplishments and future promise. The five recipients of the 2013 award include:

• Shane Arman ’10
• Kathleen Briquelet ’08
• Jeffrey Koga ’04
• Oliver Schinkten ’03
• Luke Whitburn ’98.

Awards are also given to distinguished alumni who are active in their fields and widely recognized for their career accomplishments. Read more about the Alumni Awards.

College of Nursing

The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, or NCLEX, is the standard barometer of a nurse’s knowledge and skill. For the last eight quarters, no group of students in the UW System has earned a pass rate like UW Oshkosh College of Nursing undergraduates have. They have had the highest NCLEX first-time pass rate of all UW System schools with 96 percent.

UW Oshkosh’s new University Studies Program—which launched this semester—already is garnering attention as a national model for general education reform. The Association of American Colleges and Universities has touted UW Oshkosh’s innovative program as the lead case study in its new publication Ensuring Quality and Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale.

In 2013, UW Oshkosh celebrates five years as a Fair Trade institution. The University’s Fair Trade journey is continuously evolving through extended offerings on campus. The University currently offers a number of fair trade clothing and jewelry items sold in University Books and More, and fair trade coffee and tea can be found in many campus locations as well.

“Boy, if you can get through college and get through it without much debt, that’s a tremendous head start in the next phase of your life,” Russ Hutchison ’64, said.

Recently, Russ and Jean, of Waukesha, really began to think about what their education—and their subsequent life experiences—meant to them.

After much thought and consideration, they created the Hutchison First in the Family Scholarship, which will—after they are gone—provide financial assistance to first-generation college students pursuing an undergraduate degree in the College of Education and Human Services at UW Oshkosh. The scholarship was developed as part of their estate plans.

“These kinds of decisions evolve slowly over time, they don’t just jump into your head one day,” Hutchison said. “We hope this scholarship allows a student to go to college who probably wouldn’t get there without it. It’s tuition, books and fees.”

Russ and Jean Hutchison in 1964

Both Jean and Russ were first-generation college students. They met at UW Oshkosh, where they both studied mathematics. They both firmly believe their degrees helped move them forward and paved the way for the rest of their lives. Throughout their careers, Jean taught math and English at various levels, and later taught hand weaving—one of her passions, and Russ had several career pursuits, including engineering, law and as a trade association department director.

“The beauty of planned gifts is they allow people to retain their assets during their lifetime,” said Donna O’Brien, development director with the UW Oshkosh Foundation, the campus entity that facilitates donations. “And, it allows them to control the final distribution of the assets they worked so hard to acquire.”

O'Brien

Friends, like the Hutchisons, who establish a living legacy with the UW Oshkosh Foundation are recognized as members of the Rose Legacy Society. Soon, those members will be acknowledged within the new Alumni Welcome and Conference Center on a legacy donor wall.

“It’s such a pleasure working with people to explore how they want to be remembered, and the impact they want their final gift to make,” O’Brien said.

For more information about the UW Oshkosh Foundation, visit uwosh.edu/foundation

Check out photos from the program’s historic first week.

Check out a photo gallery that tracks progress on construction of the Welcome Center. And watch a live webcam of the project.

Learn more about project.

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Police Department and two of its officers earned recognition by state and national agencies last fall. The University Police Department was recognized by the state for its involvement in the Click It or Ticket program, which focused on enforcing the state’s mandatory safety belt law. Officer Brad Hanson received a Wisconsin Department of Transportation award for his commitment to traffic safety and outstanding effort to keep Wisconsin’s roads safe during the Click It or Ticket mobilization. Officer Trent Morgan received a similar award from the U.S. Department of Transportation for his commitment to traffic safety and outstanding effort to keep Wisconsin’s roads safe during Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

Colleen Merrill ’09 and ’10 MBA, recently took the lead as director of the UW Oshkosh Small Business Development Center. The organization is within UW Oshkosh’s fleet of offices strategically created to help support, sustain and enhance the community’s, the region’s and the state’s budding and long-standing small, large and family-owned enterprises.

UW Oshkosh Chancellor Emeritus John E. Kerrigan, who led the institution through a period of remarkable academic achievement and success from 1990 to 2000 while forging ground-breaking educational partnerships at home and in countries around the globe, died Nov. 5 in Dallas, Texas. He was 76.

Renewable-energy and academic partners with UW Oshkosh, Viessmann Group CEO Martin Viessmann, and his wife Annette, pledged a generous gift in December to the UW Oshkosh Foundation to create the University’s first fully endowed chair, which will support UW Oshkosh’s new Sustainable Technology Program. The Viessmann Endowed Chair in Sustainable Technology will, for decades, allow UW Oshkosh to play a visionary and international academic leadership role in renewable energy technologies.

UW Oshkosh Titans alumnus Andy Moriarty ’08, returned to his alma mater Saturday, Nov. 3, as honorary football captain. Moriarty, who majored in communication at UW Oshkosh and set several records playing running back for the Titans between 2003 and 2007, led the coin toss to start the game against UW–Stevens Point.

Places

Construction is underway for the Alumni Welcome and Conference Center, which is located at the corner of Wisconsin Street and Pearl Avenue. The finished conference center, including a 440-person ballroom, breakout rooms and a 50-person executive board room, will serve as a gathering place and front door to campus. The Welcome Center, which will provide a 30-percent increase in large-group campus meeting space, should be ready to hold events in spring 2014.

Kolf Sports Center was rededicated on Feb. 9, after a recent renovation and update to the main field house. Renovations brought the facility up to date, making it more guest friendly.

Pride

UW Oshkosh was named the seventh most military friendly college in the country by Military Times’ Best for Vets review.

UW Oshkosh stood out among a record 650 schools and was acknowledged for its care toward military veterans and active-duty service members.

The UW Oshkosh Titans football team had a flawless regular-season. The storybook season sent the team to the playoffs for the first time in program history while coaches and teammates earned national recognition.

The UW Oshkosh Dance Team earned top honors at the Dance Xtreme USA 2013 AmeriCup competition in Minneapolis in February. The team won first place in the competition’s collegiate-level “Pom”routine category and second in the “Lyrical” dance category. The tournament pitted the UW Oshkosh dancers against collegiate teams ranging from Wisconsin and the upper Midwest to Mexico.

Sage Hall is, officially, as good as “Gold.” UW Oshkosh’s newest academic building, which opened in fall 2011, earned LEED Gold Building Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. That distinction puts the 191,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art academic center at the top of a short list of buildings in the New North region and state of Wisconsin to reach LEED’s Gold echelon.

The Arbor Day Foundation named UW Oshkosh a 2012 Tree Campus USA in honor of its commitment to effective community forestry management. This is the third consecutive year of recognition for UW Oshkosh.

To read more UW Oshkosh news, visit UW Oshkosh Today.

Viessmann Group CEO Martin Viessmann visits Allen Farm

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is undergoing an era of collaboration that, simply put, turns waste—true waste, like food scraps, lawn clippings and even cow manure—into energy and learning.

First, there was the first-in-the-Americas dry fermentation anaerobic biodigester located on Witzel Avenue that produces actual energy from food waste (including waste collected from Reeve Memorial Union), yard waste and crop residuals. Then, in late 2011, a small farm biodigester named Titan 55 was conceived and planned for the 150-head, family-owned Allen Farm; the biodigester there turns its waste into energy.

And now, the planning for a second, large-scale biodigester (nicknamed BD2) with energy innovators the Viessmann Group is underway at Wisconsin’s largest dairy farm, Milk Source’s Rosendale Dairy.
Once operational, BD2 will turn the farm’s livestock manure waste into energy while simultaneously creating an on-site lab for energy scientists at UW Oshkosh. The process involves anaerobic digestion, the bacterial decomposition of organic matter that occurs in the absence of oxygen. In the odor-controlled environment of the biodigester, the gas produced is safely combusted and turned into electricity. The revenues that will come from the energy’s return to the grid will advance UW Oshkosh’s operations and educational mission. A groundbreaking will be held in late spring.

Rosendale Dairy, Wisconsin's Largest Dairy Farm

“In Wisconsin, education and agriculture go hand in hand. Partnering with the UW Oshkosh Foundation and UW Oshkosh to help turn modern agriculture into energy in such a cutting-edge way is exciting for Rosendale Dairy and the state’s dairy and ag industries,” said Jim Ostrom, co-founder and partner of Milk Source. “This is an extension of a long-formed bond between education and farming in this state. This project is a testament to the type of innovative thinking and practices we strive for on a daily basis.”

Once completed, Rosendale Dairy will be home to one of Wisconsin’s most dynamic research, renewable energy production and public education facilities in the state, said UW Oshkosh Foundation President Arthur H. Rathjen.

“This is a multifaceted win for our students and the state of Wisconsin, and it is the kind of innovative, entrepreneurial project the UW Oshkosh Foundation believes is essential to the future of our thriving institution,” Rathjen said. “We’re
addressing a real need for real people.”

To learn more about collaborations and partnerships at UW Oshkosh, visit the UW Oshkosh Foundation website.

It reads like a movie script…

… A coach leads his team to an undefeated, regular-season record, a first conference title since the 1970s and storybook playoff run… A record-breaking, nationally recognized hometown quarterback with a rocket-engine arm and an aptitude for escaping the pocket, racks up yards… A campus and community fan base awakens to the talent before them and rides an unprecedented surge of Titan Pride.

From its first kickoff to its last tick of the clock, 2012 was a season for the record books for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Titans football team.

A flawless regular-season record, punctuated by the defeat of the national-champion UW-Whitewater Warhawks (on the team’s Homecoming field, no less), led to a thrilling bid by the Titans for their own national crown.
A week after traveling across the country to defeat No. 3-ranked Linfield College in overtime on that team’s Oregon home field, the Titans football team fell to the University of St. Thomas squad on that team’s home field 28-14 Saturday, Dec. 8. St. Thomas would eventually lose to perennial football powerhouse Mount Union in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Football Championship.

While it ended short of the ultimate goal, the Titans’ journey was incredible.

Cerroni earns national, D3 Coach of the Year candidacy

Pat Cerroni’s focus and determination in leading the Titans to their historic year earned him a place as one of five finalists for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. Around the country, coaches were rated on a series of criteria, including fan voting, wins, team penalties, sportsmanship, academic performance of their athletes and charitable contributions. Quickly, as the Titans climbed the D3 rankings, so did their coach’s ascent toward the award.

In the end, Cerroni’s bid came up short. However, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and D3football.com named him their 2012 NCAA Division III West Region Coach of the Year. He also earned CaptainU’s, the largest youth and college sports network’s, 2012 NCAA Division III Football Coach of the Year title.

Wara posts legendary year

UW Oshkosh quarterback Nate Wara became one of four candidates for the Gagliardi Trophy, the NCAA Division III’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the most outstanding player in the division nationally.

The senior from Oshkosh led UWO to its most successful season in the program’s 118-year history and, despite falling short of the Gagliardi honor, earned Offensive Player of the Year from D3football.com. He additionally received NCAA Division III All-America honors from the AFCA— the first Titan to be recognized since the AFCA All-America program began in 1945, according to UW Oshkosh Athletics.

The Titans averaged 37.5 points per game with Wara behind center. The team effort was enough to earn several Titans All-American D3 honors: Fourteen Titans were selected for four All-America squads, including cornerback Tim Filter (a senior from New Berlin) and running back Cole Myhra (a junior from Menomonee Falls) as second-team honorees. UW Oshkosh Athletics noted tackle Brandon Peter (a senior from Allenton) was picked for the third team and linebacker Taylor Goodman (a senior from South Wayne), center Ben Strehlow (a senior from Brandon) and defensive end Andrew Thompson (a senior from Greendale) earned spots on the fourth team.

Check out more photographs of the UW Oshkosh Titans in action.
To share your Titan Pride, visit UW Oshkosh Athletics.

Dexter Filkins, a reporter for The New Yorker and The New York Times who has reported on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, will speak on Nov. 10 at the “Iraq War in Retrospect” symposium planned in UW Oshkosh’s Reeve Memorial Union.

The free, public symposium, co-sponsored by Military Veterans Museum, Inc., is the culmination of a week-long lineup of UW Oshkosh programming and events titled “War Through Their Eyes: Eyewitnesses, Combatants & America’s Newest Veterans.” Speakers, film screenings, art exhibits and forums will take place on campus throughout Veterans Week 2012, November 6 through November 10. Veterans Day is Sunday, Nov. 11.

The Saturday symposium welcomes a broad audience of participants to publicly examine and help preserve the diverse experiences of the Iraq War, said UW Oshkosh Department of History Prof. Stephen Kercher.

“Dexter Filkins is recognized, and has been rightly honored, as one of our era’s most skilled, exhaustive and thorough war correspondents and storytellers,” Kercher said. “He and his work embody what the Iraq War in Retrospect is all about.”

“Our special objective with this symposium is to really give a broad range of analysis, in a scholarly yet accessible way,” he said. “We are inviting a diverse audience to join us and consider the experience of journalists in Iraq and Afghanistan, the way filmmakers interpret the experience of these wars, the experience of the medical professionals who served, the experience of people who objected to the wars. And, finally, we need to provide a context for the geopolitical forces that accounted for these wars taking place in the first place. You can never talk about the experience of veterans without examining why they were sent to war in the first place.”

The Oshkosh-based, nonprofit Military Veterans Museum, dedicated to educating the public about the experience of war veterans, worked with UW Oshkosh to secure the grant making Filkins’ keynote visit and the Nov. 10 symposium possible. The partners’ collaboration is funded by a $10,000 major grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.

Military Veterans Museum is also working to raise funds and complete its new “Fields of Honor” museum honoring and preserving the experiences of U.S. war veterans south of Oshkosh, near U.S. Highway 41 and State Highway 26.

“Dexter Filkins has dedicated himself and his work to sharing the experience of war through the stories, service and sacrifice of its veterans,” said Larry Smerling, vice president of Military Veterans Museum’s board of directors. “Both his presentation and the rest of the Iraq War symposium’s programs are strongly aligned with the mission of our organization and, most importantly, they will deeply involve the public, educators, historians and veterans themselves.”

• Free, online registration for the Nov. 10 symposium will be available starting the week of Oct. 8 at the UW Oshkosh Veterans Week website, www.uwosh.edu/veteransweek.
  

Dexter Filkins, contributed photo by James Hill

Before his tenure with The New York Times, Filkins worked for the Los Angeles Times, where he was chief of the paper’s New Delhi bureau, and for The Miami Herald. In 2009, he was part of a team of Times reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for covering Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has received a George Polk Award and two Overseas Press Club awards. Most recently, he was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. He lives in New York City.

Filkins’ presentation is just one component of the day-long Nov. 10 symposium. Students, staff, war veterans and archivists from the UW Oshkosh Department of History, UW Oshkosh Veterans Services Center, Military Science Department, American Democracy Project and Forrest R. Polk Library are also involved in the event’s sponsorship, coordination and content.

“A veteran’s war-time experience is a seminal moment in his or her life,” said Shawn Monroe, Veterans Resource Coordinator at UW Oshkosh. “An opportunity to better understand that moment is an opportunity to frame veterans’ personal stories within the larger canvas of the human experience. The Iraq War Symposium provides a rare opportunity to examine the factors, the players, the effects and experiences of our society in near-real time.”

The symposium will include six, 90-minute sessions moderated by UW Oshkosh professors, featuring special panelists, including Iraq War veterans who attend UW Oshkosh and who are members of area communities. The sessions’ subjects range from the role of women in the war, the work of war journalists and correspondents, how media and film have portrayed the war and the preservation of veterans’ memories and records in a digital era.

Kercher said the symposium will also feature a “memory corps” project, encouraging veterans of a digital, and often delete-able era, to preserve their artifacts and experiences for the sake of their historical value. UW Oshkosh Archivist Joshua Ranger is helping coordinate the effort.

“It will ultimately be an interdisciplinary program, looking at the Iraq War through different lenses but prioritizing the lens of the veteran,” Kercher said. “We want to make sure we have eyewitnesses — the reporters are those people with the eyes and ears we’ve relied upon to develop our sense for what these wars were like for everyone involved. The symposium also addresses the experience of veterans, both on the battlefield and in their difficult transition on the home front.”

Registration for the free symposium will be available soon.

The UW Oshkosh Veterans Week lineup leading into the Saturday, Nov. 10 symposium and Veterans Day will be equally engaging. The list of speakers and events follows:

• Tuesday, November 6, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Reeve Union Theater); Vietnam War Veterans panel discussion led by Greg Olson, Department of Communications.
• Wednesday, November 7 (time TBD) (Sage Hall, 1210) Co-sponsored by the Women’s Advocacy Council; Screening of the film “Lioness,” with a talk-back panel led by female Iraq War veterans.
• Thursday, November 8, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Sage 1210) Co-sponsored by the International Film Series; Screening of the film “In the Valley of Elah,” with talk-back led by Kelly Wilz, UW Marshfield film professor who has written about Iraq War films), Troy and Frances Perkins and war veterans.
• Friday, November 9, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., (Reeve Union Theater and Steinhilber Gallery); “War Through Their Eyes: Warriors & Nurses at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh” event coordinated by UW Oshkosh’s Grace Lim and Shawn McAfee, who, in collaboration with UW Oshkosh students, developed the original “War Through Their Eyes” multimedia project in 2009.

Learn more:

• Military Veterans Museum Inc.
• UW Oshkosh Department of History
• “War Through Their Eyes: From UW Oshkosh to the Middle East and Back”
• Wisconsin Humanities Council

Slated to open April 1, Oshkosh’s downtown hotel (the former City Center Hotel) will re-open its doors with a brand new everything. The 176-room waterfront property is currently undergoing from-the-ground-up renovations. Upon its reopening, it will be a state-of-the-art business hotel anchoring the city’s downtown and serving as an economic catalyst for the entire community.

The UW Oshkosh Foundation and local hoteliers Richard Batley of RB Hospitality in Neenah and John Pfefferle of Pfefferle Companies Inc. in Appleton took over ownership of the hotel last February. The dedicated partners—with the rallying efforts of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation—are bridging campus and the Oshkosh community, said UW Oshkosh Foundation President Arthur H. Rathjen.

To complement the downtown hotel,another state-of-the-art facility—a 22,000-square foot Alumni Welcome and Conference Center—will be built just blocks away along the water on the southern edge of the UW Oshkosh campus. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Oct. 13.

“Both projects expand the synergy of the partnership between the University and the community,” Rathjen said. “A renovated, full-service convention hotel will enhance our community, serve area businesses, support scholarships and internships and complement our plans for the Alumni Welcome Center.”

To-date, the hotel has been gutted of its original interiors, the elevator has been modernized and the lobby has been opened up for a living room area and business center, said Mark Spielbauer, construction project superintendent.

The interior design phase begins this fall; individual hotel rooms, the ballroom and the restaurant along the waterfront will be beautified with a modern-day look.

Once up and running, the UW Oshkosh Foundation, in collaboration with its private sector partners, will oversee and manage the investment in the project. No state or tuition dollars will be used in the renovation or the project’s financing, Rathjen said.

To learn more about the UW Oshkosh Foundation, visit uwosh.edu/foundation