Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - In 2005, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Foundation set up the Platteville 1866 Fund to support student-centered activities on campus. The fund depends on the generosity of UWP's alumni and friends, whose gifts to it are used to guarantee essential services for current students. Monies from the fund were recently distributed to various campus agencies for use during the 2006-07 academic year.

The Platteville 1866 Fund supported five initiatives for the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science (EMS). Chemistry majors with an emphasis in criminalistics will be able to travel to the annual meeting of the Midwest Association of Forensic Scientists in Indianapolis, Ind., to present their research projects to an audience of professionals in the field. Forty chemistry students will travel to a national conference in Chicago to explore employment options. Students majoring in mathematics education or elementary education with an emphasis in math will have the opportunity to attend the Wisconsin Mathematics Council's Green Lake meeting to give presentations and meet other educators in their field. A large sum will be used to purchase software and licenses that students need in seven courses of the Master of Science in Engineering Program. FIRST Robotics Team members will transport themselves and their robots to area schools and to the FIRST Robotic Regional Kick-off and Competition in Milwaukee.

"Recently, we had three new high school students come to the FIRST Robotics work meeting as a direct result of robot demonstrations conducted at Platteville High School. It is great to see young students excited about science and technology, and the funding received from the UWP Foundation Platteville 1866 Fund is instrumental for us to continue this work," said Clyde A. Holverson, a mechanical technology specialist in EMS.

The College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture (BILSA) received funding for several initiatives, as well. They will use Platteville 1866 funds to support four initiatives: to provide scholarships to help students with the costs of studying abroad, to assist in better educating women about non-traditional industrial technology management careers through special events, to increase hands-on learning with machines in the industrial studies labs and to hire more horticulture students to work in Pioneer Gardens for experiential learning.

"The department of industrial studies greatly appreciates the donated Platteville 1866 funding to assist in educating women in non-traditional industrial and technology education careers," said Lyn Bouck, an occupational management safety professor in BILSA.

The College of Liberal Arts and Education received Platteville 1866 funding for two initiatives. Some of the monies were used to secure the first endowment for the Adopt a Band Member program, developed to generate ongoing income for the UWP Marching Band. The rest of the funds will support teacher placement and travel to the Aldine School District near Houston, Texas.

The athletics and recreation department acquired funds to increase communication between it and its student body through flat screen message centers in Williams Fieldhouse. It will also be able to replace the carpeting in the Pioneer Fitness Center because of Platteville 1866 funding.

"Without this funding, we would not have been able to provide these upgrades. The message centers allow the department to communicate with our students on a variety of items, event schedules, Pioneer Activity Center schedules, intramurals, and so forth, in a first-class manner. We no longer have to use flyers and bulletin boards. The flooring in the fitness center, which gets about 8,000 usages per month, was badly worn and in need of replacement. This will benefit all students, faculty, staff and community members who use the facility," said athletic director Mark Molesworth.

A portion of the allocations also went to fund campus-wide collaborative initiatives. Human resources received funds to support their efforts to recruit diverse applicant pools. The University International Education Committee will coordinate a conference on internationalizing the curriculum with their allocation.

As support from the state of Wisconsin diminishes, UW-Platteville depends more and more on gifts from alumni and friends. The UWP Foundation developed the Platteville 1866 Fund in recognition of UWP's history and in preparation for a secure future. The fund will support community scholarship, student research, tutoring and student assistance, cultural enrichment, museum and historical activities, student-driven entrepreneurial endeavors and extra-curricular activities.

Anyone interested in giving to the 1866 Fund may contact Gina Udelhofen at (608) 342-1968 or udelhofg@uwplatt.edu. For general information on various Foundation funds, interested parties may visitwww.uwplatt.edu/foundation/.

Contact: Dennis Cooley, assistant chancellor for University Advancement, (608) 342-1309,cooleyde@uwplatt.edu Prepared by: April Schmidt, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, schmidap@uwplatt.edu