McQuillan was nominated by April Dutschek. Portions of her nomination follow.

“Kate has become an incredible addition to the Provost Office. After the retirement of a great colleague, Kristy DeBolt, Kate has not only filled her shoes, but gone above and beyond in so many ways, especially with additional work duties.

“She has taken the time to learn all that is required with great detail, as well as undertake new projects. Her most recent amazement if you will…is her incredible attention to detail with the new University Studies Program.

“Kate was the hub of all paperwork and courses for this new program, as it all came across her desk for her recording purposes and preparation prior to review by the University Studies Program Committee. She made certain it was all logged and assisted so many staff in a large variety of ways. She worked diligently with Lori Carrell, all of the college offices, Registrar staff, the Senate office, and AVC Carleen Vande Zande to keep all these angels together to help as many of these courses proceed as needed.

“The time frame that came with the first stage of implementation for USP was almost impossible, but due to Kate’s amazing organization, persistence, and eye for detail, the USP Program had a successful first year. She not only does this work all with incredible precision, but she also does it with a friendly, professional, and extremely likable personality. She is always willing to help how she can, and I think UWO is a better place with her here! I believe she is more than deserving of this award, and would be honored to see her receive it.”

The CSAC Awards & Recognition Committee submitted this announcement. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to contribute calendar items, campus announcements and other good news to UW Oshkosh Today.

• Email the editors. 

Each Sunday, many of the 40 million Americans who attend church are hoping to hear a sermon that will inspire them to make meaningful change in their lives.

But 95 percent of all sermons offer explanation or commentary with no call for change, said University of Wisconsin Oshkosh communication professor Lori Carrell.

Carrell’s new book, Preaching that Matters: Reflective Practices for Transforming Sermons, published in April by the Alban Institute, is based on years of sermon communication research with hundreds of clergy and more than 30,000 listeners.

She has published some 17 articles on the subject as well as an earlier book, The Great American Sermon Survey.

Her academic interest stems from wanting to debunk the myth that spoken words are fleeting and that they immediately evaporate. “Every utterance has the potential to live on forever in the minds and actions of others,” said Carrell, who also studies the process and impact of communication in the classroom.

Yet, some 78 percent of church-goers have never had a conversation with their preacher about a sermon. “It’s no wonder preachers don’t know what members of their congregations think about their sermons,” Carrell said.

Preaching That Matters challenges preachers to “listen” to their listeners and actually have discussions with their listeners before they preach.

In addition, Carrell’s book offers preachers other practical, research-based techniques to improve the effectiveness of their sermons. Through a Lilly grant and the Center for Excellence in Congregational Leadership (CECL), Carrell provided professional development in communication for clergy and studied the impact on their listeners.

She learned that specific preparations can make a big difference. Listeners are more likely to take action after a sermon, if their preachers identify a goal or “sermon response” that they hope to achieve; spend time orally crafting their sermons instead of writing down their words in a silent, solitary process; and listening to their listeners on a regular basis before they deliver their sermons.

Carrell’s research also shows sermons that simply affirm the shared beliefs of a community have not gone far enough. Listeners need to be challenged to work together to meet local or global needs.

Carrell, who has a doctorate in speech communication from the University of Denver, is the director of both the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the University Studies Program at UW Oshkosh.

Learn more:

• University Studies Program at UW Oshkosh 
• Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at UW Oshkosh

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s new director of the Office of Grant sand Faculty Development has commanded local police departments, taught in higher education classrooms and helped author more than $200 million in college and university grant and contracting projects.

UW Oshkosh announced Robert W. Roberts as the office’s new director on May 17. Roberts will begin his role at UW Oshkosh July 1.

“I feel privileged to be given the opportunity to join a team of highly competent professionals at a University that is considered a leader in faculty development and grant work in the state of Wisconsin,” Roberts said.

Roberts most recently served as Interim Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs, Senior Grants and Project Development Specialist and Criminal Justice Assistant Professor at UW-Platteville. He was previously Dean of Criminal Justice and Executive Director of Federal Relations for Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton. From 1994 through 2000, he served as Chief of Police and Village Administrator in the Village of Waunakee. He served in those same roles in the town of Iron River from 1993 to 1995.

UW Oshkosh Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Perry Rettig said Roberts’ experience immediately puts him in a position to help advance an office with a distinction in the UW System – one that combines faculty development and grant efforts under one roof, led and coordinated by one director and a team of colleagues.

“Bob will be able to come in on Day One and advance an already excellent, highly-regarded program and take it to a new level on behalf of faculty, staff and students,” Rettig said.

Roberts earned his bachelor of arts in criminal justice from UW-Platteville. He earned a masters of science in education from Capella University in Minneapolis, MN and a masters of public administration from UW Oshkosh.

“The staff at UW Oshkosh impressed me with their dedication and passion, and I am confident that I will be able to establish immediate success with faculty who are committed to innovation and progress,” Roberts said.

“Being invited to work alongside professionals who share a vision for expanding programming and improving service to students humbles me, and I am excited to take on new challengers and meet new colleagues,” he said.

Between 2000 and 2012, the UW Oshkosh Office of Grants & Faculty Development has helped the institution grow its annual grants and private support from $8.8 million to $11.8 million, a 34 percent increase. Since 2000, the Faculty Development Fund has awarded more than $6 million for teaching, research, small grants, sabbatical and other opportunities. Among its many accomplishments in the 2011-12 academic year, the office helped secure UW Oshkosh’s two largest grants: $385,635 from the U.S. Department of Education supporting the Student Support Services Program; and $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy, supportive of UW Oshkosh’s innovative Anaerobic Dry Digestion facility, or biodigester. The office also helped support a record-breaking 34 scholarly papers, submitted to the UW Oshkosh undergraduate research journal “Oshkosh Scholar.”

Learn more:

• Office of Grants and Faculty Development at UW Oshkosh

Check out This Week in Focus…

The stellar symposium was part of the 17th annual Solar Olympics, an event hosted by the SolarWise for Schools program, an educational initiative of Wisconsin Public Service.

SolarWise for Schools began in 1996 as a science-based educational program from the Wisconsin Public Service Community Foundation. The program provides participating high schools within the Wisconsin Public Service area with curriculum on renewable energy. Since its inception, 50 schools have joined the program.

SolarWise for Schools Manager Mike Moore said the Solar Olympics are a culmination of everything the students learned over the course of their classroom education on renewable energy. It is an opportunity for students to put classroom lessons into practice.

Students demonstrated their knowledge by racing solar powered cars, displaying solar cookers and water heaters, presenting their renewable energy essays and showing off their energy inspired artwork. Competitions in t-shirt design and solar Jeopardy were also held. Prizes of bronze, silver and gold medals were awarded for the winning schools in each category, as determined by a team of judges.

Ben Mitchell, a student from Green Bay Southwest High School, said the education he received broadened his knowledge on the subject of renewable energy.

“I care about the environment but in terms of energy and stuff… I didn’t know anything before I took the class,” he said.

Mitchell was involved in the community outreach portion of the event, in which students were expected to present a persuasive argument to a community group that creates awareness to the subject of renewable energy and encourages people to support school efforts in this area. Mitchell and his school earned second place in this category.

Moore said UW Oshkosh is a good example of putting these ideas into practice.

“This University is doing a fantastic job of living… sustainability,” he said.

UW Oshkosh is one of three schools that alternate as hosts of the Solar Olympics each year. Last year’s event took place at UW-Stevens Point;  UW-Green Bay is also host. Both UW Oshkosh and UW-Stevens Point were among 21 schools across the nation that were awarded a spot on The Princeton Review’s 2013 Green College Honor Roll.

Ken Kozak, a Wisconsin Public Service coordinator at the Solar Olympics, said he has an engineering background and was involved in the approval of UW Oshkosh’s anaerobic dry fermentation biodigester, which generates energy from the gas produced by decomposing plant and food waste. Kozak said the University has a “delightful campus” with great diversity between old and new buildings.

“It’s efficient, it has the diversity… and you have some awesome folks that run this University,” he said.

In welcoming the Solar Olympics competitors to campus, Chancellor Richard Wells stressed the many ways that the University has integrated renewable energy technology and sustainable practices into the campus community. UW Oshkosh features sun-tracking solar arrays outside Sage Hall, an Environmental Research and Innovation Center that helps test swimming beach waters and a soon-to-launch University Studies Program, the transformed UW Oshkosh general education program launching this fall that will include an understanding of sustainable practices as one of its key facets.

“There are many reasons why UW Oshkosh has built a national reputation and distinction as being Wisconsin’s most sustainable University,” Wells said.

And the same form of education and practices of sustainability are the goal of SolarWise for Schools. In addition to educational curriculum, each participating high school receives a solar-electric system that supplies a portion of the school’s electrical needs. According to SolarWise, if each high school in the Wisconsin Public Service area implemented one of these systems, it would eliminate the need to burn 225,500 pounds of coal, which would prevent 470,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, over the course of 20 years, each school using this system will have produced 60,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity and saved $7,000 in energy costs.

SolarWise for Schools was awarded the 2013 Green Power Leadership Award for Best Green Power Education by the Center for Resource Solutions for its educational efforts.

Kozak said that UW Oshkosh and those schools who are also part of the SchoolWise for Schools educational partnership can feel confident that these efforts will not go to waste.

“You can never forget that your money is well spent on efficiency,” he said.

See more:

• Snapshots: Solar Olympics at UW Oshkosh 

Governor Walker’s proposal to freeze UW System institutions’ tuition over the 2013-15 biennium is very good news for our students in regard to affordability. At the same time, it is very challenging news for our college, university and UW Extension communities. The tuition freeze, coupled with the Governor’s call for what amounts to a $94 million reduction of the originally proposed $181 million increase in UW System institutions’ 2013-15 state GPR funding, will, once again, test us on how well we can maintain and, more importantly, improve the quality education every UW student deserves. As in the past, we will do our very best to make it work.

The tuition and state budget changes were announced by the state Department of Administration on May 15. The UW System issued a statement in response.

Questions will arise as to what could be compromised at UW Oshkosh as we reallocate our fiscally responsible and strategically developed and applied fund balances to address lost revenue due to the tuition freeze and budget reductions. We outlined an array of fund-balance-supported programs and initiatives in a late-April analysis of our UW Oshkosh fund balance totals and uses, and I encourage people to revisit that document. With the legislature still about one month from acting on the Governor’s proposals, what we can commit to at this point is to pledge that our budget decisions at UW Oshkosh will be made thoughtfully and with the input and leadership of our deeply dedicated faculty, staff and student leadership governance groups.

Again, UW Oshkosh can make this work. As we have grown and preserved record student enrollments over the last decade, we have repeatedly faced budget challenges. With student, faculty and staff input, we have done our very best to minimize the erosion of educational quality and efforts to ensure student success. That will continue.

Meanwhile, we must ask that our many stakeholders continue to support our journey down an innovative, creative and entrepreneurial path as we develop new revenue streams, programs and initiatives to preserve and enhance educational quality.

When all is said and done with respect to our final UW System and UW Oshkosh budgets, our most critical and urgent challenge remains how to provide fair and competitive compensation for our outstanding faculty and staff.

First, it is imperative that the Governor and Legislature provide all the authority, flexibility and accountability the UW System Board of Regents needs to develop and implement a short- and long-term, comprehensive compensation plan. This is critical to help us close a huge and widening faculty and staff compensation gap between UW System institutions and their peer institutions in the Midwest and throughout the nation.

Secondly, UW institutions must be supported and expected to reallocate existing funds and identify new innovate ways to generate new funds that will be dedicated to faculty and staff compensation.

Failure to do either of these things – to give our Board of Regents necessary flexibility and to empower campuses to reallocate and develop new revenue resources addressing our long-standing compensation challenges – will seriously erode our ability to provide the higher-quality education Wisconsin wants and our students deserve at a fair, subsidized price.

Assuming modest pay plan funding increases in the 1-to-3-percent range over the next several biennia, the absence of pay plan funding over the last several years still leaves our institutions an estimated six to 12 years from catching up to the median compensation levels at peer institutions. We are not talking about matching or exceeding peers’ top pay scales. We are looking at approximately a decade just to reach the average. And this is based on the extraordinary assumption that peer institutions will not experience any pay increases over that same time period.

Put simply, we cannot provide a better education at a better price value for our students without fair compensation and development funds for our deeply dedicated faculty and staff. We must not lose further ground on this as we face these new budget challenges before us.

Four new members have been elected to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Alumni Association’s Board of Directors to serve three-year terms, beginning in July 2013.

The 24-member, volunteer board works to build connections among alumni, students and the University. Key recent initiatives include developing alumni chapters, making connections with new and emerging alumni, strengthening the alumni LinkedIn group and planning for implementation of the alumni mentor component of UWO’s new University Studies Program.

The new members include Tom Boyson ’72, of Oshkosh; Paula (Vermeern) Dinse ’07, of Oshkosh; Mark Duerwaechter ’88, of Kaukauna; and Melissa Hunt ’05, of Oshkosh.

In addition, five current members were reelected to the board: Scott Barr ’86, of Appleton; Amanda Betts ’10, of Appleton; Steve Buss ’86, of Midland, Texas; Brooke Buntrock ’04, of Milwaukee; and Jim Rath ’76, of Sherwood.

Board officers elected for 2013-2014 include Rath, president; Barr, vice president; Buntrock, treasurer; and Betts, secretary.

Meet the New Members

Boyson, a UWO business grad, is the owner and general manager of WISS/WAUH radio station in Berlin. He is interested in serving the University and helping with UW Oshkosh alumni marketing.

Dinse, a nursing graduate, who works as a registered nurse at Mercy Medical Center, is looking forward to becoming more involved with UW Oshkosh.

With a secondary education degree, Duerwaechter serves as the superintendent of the Kaukauna Area School District. He is a proud Titan who has a strong work ethic and ability to problem-solve.

Hunt, an urban planning major, works as an account manager with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. She has provided resources and support to businesses working with UWO’s Business Success Center.

Alumni board meetings are held on campus. Board membership is open to all UW Oshkosh alumni who are excited about the University’s past, present and future. All candidates are elected through a nomination process.

• Learn more about the UW Oshkosh Alumni Board