Conclusion: WSU employee morale better than mostWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- After doctoral research on college employee morale, the communications director at Winona State, Tom Grier, has concluded that the university generally scores well. Winona State's success is due in part, he said, to everybody being continually reminded about the institution's mission. "With all of the banners on campus, Winona State's mission statement is very clear to every student," Grier said. Alas, not all is perfect. Grier believes Winona State needs to more meaningfully recognize faculty and staff. An easy step would be to reschedule the annual Employee Recognition Day from the afternoon to the evening so family members could attend, he said in an interview. Grier's dissertation, in public relations, written at the University of Minnesota, involved three years and continuing travel. In one three-month period Grier interviewed 18 university presidents and public relations officers from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota regarding university morale. This included asking about each president's interaction with staff members, how the university communicated with employees about image building, how well defined and well-known the university mission statement was among employees, and how employees were rewarded or recognized. He then held focus groups to find out how college employees thought their president and public relations professionals were doing in these areas. Many times, Grier said, the president and public relations officer would say one thing and the staff would say the opposite. Grier focused on three Minnesota colleges, including one from the University of Minnesota system and two from the state college system. Grier visited each of campus nine times over an intense three-month research period. Intentionally he didn't include Winona State in his study. Grier's 224-page dissertation is available at the Winona State library.
Reporter: Whitney Wolfe
Background: WSU public affairs officer earns doctorate |
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Krueger: Budget difficulties loomWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- The president of Winona State, Darrell Krueger, who has been talking gloom and doom to campus leaders for weeks, laid out the university's bleak but fluid financial situation in a pre-holiday message to all campus people. Krueger noted that state revenue forecasters predict a $1.95 billion deficit for the next biennium. "We do not know what our share of the deficit will be," Krueger said. He noted that a five percent cut would leave Winona State with a budget shortfall of $3.2 million. "If tuition alone was used to solve this problem, students would experience an increase of nearly 15 percent," he said. "If the budget cut is 10 percent, the shortfall would be $4.7 million, resulting in a 23 percent tuition increase." He noted that other revenue-raising tools, besides tuition increases, could be employed. He underscored uncertainties: "It is early in the process and not much is known about the real depth and breadth of the problem. Nonetheless, we will feel the impact."
Background: WSU looking at possible 23% tuition hike
Background: Krueger's planning guidelines
Background: Fiscal forecast gloomier than expected
WSU taps Eau Claire prep softball coachKIMBERZLY GRUBBAWinona State University softball coach Greg Jones sees Kimberly Grubba, his new assistant coach, as a good fit. "Her experience with softball has a good history to it," said Jones. Grubba coached high school softball in Eau Claire, Wis., last season. The team won the state tournament. Jones knew Grubba when she played at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point earlier when she played at the Chippewa Falls, Wis., high school. At Chippewa Falls she was named to the all-state first team. At the time Jones was the freshman softball coach at Chippewa Falls. |
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| WINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- The new assistant softball coach for the Winona State University, Kimberly Grubba, said much that she knows about coaching comes from learning how not to do it. At the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she played third base, she said one coach benched players for making one error in the field. "It was mentally challenging to put up with it," said Grubba. She remembers standing up to a coach for one of her teammates and was then benched. Negativity, she said, is not her approach. At Winona State, she said, "I hope I can teach the girls to grow not only as athletes but as individuals." Her bad UW-Stevens Point experience included a medical red-shirt in 1998, when she tore every muscle in her ankle and had to get pins and screws put in so he could walk again. Even so, the team won the Division III national championship. During her senior season Grubba had a .271 batting average, scored 14 runs, had one home run, 10 RBIs, and had a slugging percentage of .365. This year Grubba is a graduate assistant at Winona State. She earns a $6,000 tuition credit as assistant coach.
Reporter: Jon Susek |
Did sex occur? Swab samples turn up negativeWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- The Saint Mary's University student whose complaint led to sexual misconduct charges against a uiversity webmaster was concerned about catching a sexually transmitted disease, police say. Many facts of the incident, on Oct. 12, are unclear in court documents because of contradictions in the accounts of the men, but it is clear that the student almost immediately went to Gunderson Lutheran Hospital for a sexual assault examination. Swab samples, however, showed no saliva, police said. Accused in the case is Christopher James Heidel, 36. In a police interview, Heidel denied oral contact. Police quote Heidel in a secretly recorded meeting after the incident, with the student carrying a hidden recorder, as apologizing, as admitting to losing control because he had been drinking, and as agreeing to seek counseling. About oral contact, police said Heidel told the student in the secretly recorded meeting that he understood his concern but that sex diseases were "not transmitted that way."
Background: Recollections vary in massage case
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Winonan nips rowdy parties in budWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- A long-timer in the Winona State University neighborhood, Stan Pollock, said he tries to see his transient college student neighbors as individuals and approach them that way. It helps reduce partying problems, Pollock said. He lives at 409 W. Wabasha, next to house with a partying reputation. When there is a party, Pollock said, he walks in early and says he'll call police if it gets too loud. "It's been a struggle, but it does work," he said.
Leader: WSU booze violations come in all sizesWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- The chair of the student Alcohol Task Force at Winona State University, Tony Romaine, is hopeful that boozing excesses can be curbed through peer pressure and education. Messages reciting the university alcohol policy, either e-mailed or snailed or both to every student, received little measurable response, he acknowledged. So is the Task Force information initiative working? Some students chose to ignore the letter because they are tired of hearing about the issue, Romaine said: "I don't think they're becoming numb to it. They're definitely not numb to the issues. They're just not outspoken, maybe nervous." The task force, made up of six senators and two voting Dorm Council members, hopes to develop changes in university alcohol policies. "The university is really good about listening to Senate suggestions," Romaine said. A successful policy must differentiate between major and minor violations," he said.
Reporter: Jenny Butler
Background: Booze task force meets in January
Foreign students anxious about job prospects
WORK PERMITSFor foreign students to get a job in the United States after graduating, they must apply for what's termed Optional Practical Training, said Terri Markos, international students director at Winona State University.
Then they apply for a work permit, which takes about four months to be processed.
Once they receive a work permit, they are eligible to work in their major field of study.
Markos said she has never had a student denied a work permit. |
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| WINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- Foreign students graduating from Winona State are concerned that current U.S. economic instability will affect their job opportunities, said Terri Markos, the director of the university's International Student Program. Some foreign grads have been laid off because of the recession and others have decided to complete a second major, Markos said. "They are doing additional work to make themselves more employable, which makes sense," she said. Mass communication is one of the hardest fields, Markos said: "Even in good times, masscom majors have some difficulty." Markos credited this problem to the law of supply and demand. "The U.S. needs people who have degrees in science and math and, until recently, computer science," she said. Markos said the foreign students are concerned just as every other graduating student: "Anyone is frustrated and concerned when they're graduating and the job market doesn't look good, no matter if you're an international or an American student." Markos doesn't think the current job market will affect whether students from other countries will choose to study in the United States. "It won't keep them from coming here," she said. "Most of the students don't come here necessarily to stay to work, though a percentage does," she said. "They're coming to get a high quality education." Markos was hesitant to say that the Sept. 11 events had any effects on the job market for foreign students. "It's too hard to know," she said. "The economy in general is bad. That affects them."
Reporter: Angie Anderson
Background: Hiring data look dim for college grads
Background: Hiring data dim
Background: Foreign students anxious
Outlook by fields:
Accounting | Advertising | Art | Aviation | Aviation mechanics | Business | Communication | Computer science | Criminal justice | Elementary education | Engineering | Finance | Journalism | Nursing | Paralegal| Photojournalism | Public relations | Social work | Specialized education | Television | Therapeutic recreation |
Columnist: Who wants to be a landlord anymore?WINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- With the new city constraints on landlords, especially those aimed at rowdy college students, many people don't want to get into the renting business, said Daily News columnist Jim Galewski. Citing his own observations, Galewski said:| "I live within three blocks of WSU. Ten years ago, when a house went up for sale, neighbors would hold their breath hoping a landlord wouldn't buy it for student housing. That's not as big a problem anymore. Landlords aren't rushing to buy a house for income property -- it's not worth it." |
Galewski cited city crackdowns for code compliance, noise, parking and, yes, the keg law, as focused on students but hurting landlords.
Congress OKs more higher-ed aid for vetsWASHINGTON, December 16, 2001 -- The Senate voted to increase higher-ed benefits for veterans more than 50 percent over the next two years. The House earlier passed the bill.
Theater student Clinton Jeffrey has heard stories about the days when the Winona State University theater department did performances around town."A lot of people have wondered why we stopped doing that," Jeffrey said. With his production of his own "Llamas of Daede" County" at the Acoustic Cafe, he hopes to "resurrect the pattern of performing in public."
The play had six characters, played by Sean McPherson, Nisha Papaconstadinou, Tiffany Rice, Mark Benzel, Seth Carstensen, and Andrew Knauff. For half of the cast it was their first college performance. They began four-day-a-week rehearsals in mid October. |
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| Llamas at the Acoustic?
Some doubted it could be doneWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2001 -- It may be a first for the Acoustic Cafe, the audience and the cast, but for playwright-director Clinton Jeffrey, the production of "The Llamas of Daede County" was no new thing. "Llamas" was his second play while attending Winona State University. For everyone else, however, it was a wholly new experience. Although Acoustic Cafe, on Second Street downtown, books many forms of entertainment, Jeffrey had to do some convincing to get "Llamas" on the playbill. For two weeks Jeffrey lobbied the entertainment coordinator. Then the manager, Pete Bell, needed convincing. Jeffrey quickly became adept at explaining "The Llamas of Daede County," which is not what the title implies. The play, a comedy built around life's irrationalities, has nothing to do with llamas. The play to highlight the strange ways people communicate by using anecdotes, Jeffrey explains with practiced patience: "The play is filled with those moments when you stop and think, 'Hey, wait a minute. That's not quite right.'" It's one of those stories where you're waiting for a connection, and then all of a sudden it hits you square between the eyes."
Reporter: Sara Greenlee |
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UNDER-AGE
BOOZERS
WHO GOT
CAUGHT
BEING
STUPID
DON'T
TELL
THEIR
MOTHERS
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CAMPUS
SALARIES
Louis
DeThomasis
SMU president
2000: $139,281
Darrell
Krueger
WSU president
2001: $152,130
Jim Johnson
Tech president
2001:
$125,000
OTHER
SALARIES
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