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The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has been named host to two national conferences and one regional conference next year.

The National Summit on Smokeless and Spit Tobacco, as well as a conference on immersive technologies in education and the Adult Student Recruitment and Retention Conference, all are slated to come to Wisconsin in 2009, thanks to the efforts of the Office of Continuing Education and Extension (CEE)

“Our mission is to make people’s lives better by extending the resources of the University to the people,” said Chris DeIuliis, CEE’s assistant director.

DeIuliis attended the fourth National Summit on Smokeless and Spit Tobacco in March and presented a proposal for UW Oshkosh to host the following year’s summit, which was accepted.

The fifth National Summit on Smokeless and Spit Tobacco will be held Sept. 21-23, 2009, at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison. Between 400 and 500 professionals and youth attendees are expected to attend.

“This will be a high-profile program for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and it has the potential to make a significant, positive difference — not just in Wisconsin, but also across the country,” DeIuliis said.

While the rate of smoking statistically has declined on a national level, use of smokeless tobacco products has been constant or on the rise over the same period of time, DeIuliis said.

The Summit on Smokeless and Spit Tobacco is the only forum to provide the latest information and research on how to prevent smokeless tobacco use to those in the smokeless tobacco field, including health care professionals, public health and policy officials, tobacco treatment specialists, researchers, physicians, dental professionals, state, tobacco prevention and control administrators, educators and other advocates.

DeIuliis already has been meeting with top tobacco prevention personnel in Wisconsin and developing a planning committee to ensure a strong coalition of support for the program.

“We also want to have a strong youth component to our program because if we can keep kids from using tobacco products at all, we make our jobs that much easier later on,” DeIuliss said.

In addition to the summit, UW Oshkosh will co-host a conference on immersive technologies in education with Ohio University Nov. 18-19, 2009. An adult student recruitment and retention conference for the Midwest is slated for April 20-21, 2009, at the Madison Concourse Hotel.

For more information about the Office of Continuing Education and Extension, visit www.uwosh.edu/cont_ed.