The 16-show, 18-performance season is described as offering an eclectic selection of titles designed to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Those responsible for programming the series — which includes Broadway, comedy, dance and more — say they expect the lineup to appeal to Weidner enthusiasts and curious newcomers alike. Potential audiences learned of the season’s first performance last week, when comedian Lewis Black’s “Running on Empty” tour announced the acerbic comedian will play the Weidner at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16.

“We are tremendously excited to announce the Weidner Center’s new schedule of events for the coming year,” said Weidner Center General Manager Kate Green. “A great deal of thought, planning and input from the community have gone into programming the season. The lineup of shows reflects the quality of performance, variety of entertainment and accessible pricing many individuals indicated as being important.”

The lineup announcement event marks a critical milestone in the inaugural season of UW-Green Bay’s five-year Strategic Plan to reinvigorate its signature performing arts venue. UW-Green Bay Chancellor Tom Harden in late 2011 outlined tentative budgetary and staffing structures for the Weidner Center, part of a comprehensive plan for the venue’s future. That plan has four primary goals: enhancing the Weidner’s Performing Arts Series (traditionally referred to as “mainstage” programming); increasing access to the venue for faculty, staff and students; providing more opportunities for various community groups; and continuing an emphasis on K-12 educational programming. The Weidner on May 10 announced its 2012-13 Stage Doors Education Series, an 11-show, 21-performance lineup that will provide entertaining, curriculum-enhancing learning opportunities for students throughout Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

UW-Green Bay worked with an outside consultant and numerous stakeholder groups to establish a sustainable plan for the Weidner Center’s future. Individuals from those groups will be among those in attendance during the May 22 season lineup announcement, for which invitations were sent earlier this spring. Members of the news media are invited to attend and cover the event. A news embargo on the lineup will be lifted as soon as it is announced during the event, and the full schedule will be posted online at www.WeidnerCenter.com by 7:30 p.m.

“The lineup announcement is the critical next step in our five-year plan to reinvigorate this one-of-a-kind venue,” Harden said. “We are pleased to be sharing this performance schedule — first with those who helped shape its creation, and then, at roughly the same time, with the greater Green Bay community.”

The Weidner’s vision for the future took a significant step forward in April 2012, when UW-Green Bay Theatre and Music presented the groundbreaking musical Cabaret on the Weidner Center main stage. It was the first time in more than a decade Theatre had staged a performance there, and the production’s success — including back-to-back near sellout crowds and rave reviews — served as an unofficial kickoff for the venue’s revitalization efforts. The Weidner Center will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2013, marking the milestone with a fresh outlook and plan for the future.

For more information on the Weidner Center, visit www.WeidnerCenter.com, call 800-895-0071 or 920-465-2726, or follow the venue on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Weidner-Center-for-the-Performing-Arts/15015305278) and Twitter (@WeidnerCenter).

#12-91

The Humanistic Studies professor announced close to 700 names Saturday (May 12) as UW-Green Bay observed a record-breaking spring commencement before a full house of 5,000-plus at the Kress Events Center.

For approximately 90 minutes, Sutton narrated the parade of proud graduates. Each student arriving at the platform hands Sutton a slip with name and phonetic pronunciation, if needed. He also announces fields of study, along with individual academic honors (cum laude, magna and summa). Once Sutton reads their names, the students are released to march across the stage to receive their diploma cover, handshake from the Chancellor, and well wishes from the Provost and a designated faculty member in their field.

Sutton took over the candidate-announcing duties from the previous long-time announcer, former faculty member and academic administrator Prof. Michael Murphy, who retired after announcing his last group of graduates in May 2000.

Although Sutton recognizes many of the graduating seniors, a highlight at Saturday’s commencement came near the very end of the long afternoon. Musical Theatre students Shelbi Cox and Molly LeCaptain marched with those receiving Theatre degrees, the next-to-last group to cross the stage. Cox and LeCaptain (in photo below) are musical collaborators and vocalists with Sutton in his band Rough Draft.

Kathleen Christensen directs the Working Longer program at the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, based in New York City. She is a summa cum laude graduate of UW-Green Bay, having received her bachelor’s degree in Urban Analysis in 1973.

In his introduction, UW-Green Bay Chancellor noted that Christensen has been a pioneer in promoting research and public policy aimed at issues related to working women, a field she helped found more than 30 years ago. He predicted that her Working Longer project — charged with assessing the economic consequences for individuals and the federal budget of an aging workforce that is working longer — will have similar impact.

Christensen told a story or two about her career and offered four (or five) main take-aways for the 700 or so 2012 graduates who took part in the ceremony:

• Balance your short- and long-term goals — You need to earn a living and might not be able to tackle your biggest hopes and dreams right away;

• Choose an important problem to work on — Even if your current job seems unrelated, don’t lose contact with your core interests and concerns;

• Life is not linear — “I know my own career path looks weird from the outside. But I can tell you – from the inside – it feels just right”;

• Work is not your life — “If our research shows anything it shows that a majority of parents experience a real time famine – they feel they do not have enough time to be a good parent and a good worker. Hard as it is, don’t shortchange your family.”;

• Microwave those cleaning sponges — “The kitchen sink is one of the filthiest places in the house.”

* * * * *

The prepared text of Christensen’s address is as follows:

Chancellor Harden, members of the Council of Trustees, devoted parents, restless siblings, dear spouses, grandparents and friends, congratulations. But most of all, congratulations to you, the Class of 2012.

You have made it! Each of you has worked hard and achieved much in order to be here today. You deserve to be very proud of your accomplishments.

I gave a lot of thought about what to say today, because I know that hardly anyone ever remembers what their commencement speakers says. I have been to four graduations in my life and remember only one of them and that was because I laughed. Unfortunately, however, humor in the laugh-out-loud kind of way is not my strength, so you will likely not laugh, which leads me to conclude that you will not likely remember anything I say.

Nevertheless, I want to tell you a story. While the details of it may seem of little relevance, I want to draw from it key lessons I have learned about life, work, and family.

It was 1979. I was in my fourth year of graduate school and six years out from Green Bay.

I was completing my doctoral dissertation on the philosophy of science, using hermeneutic phenomenology. This is a philosophical tradition focused on illuminating the meaning of taken-for-granted life experiences and opposed to the application of natural science methods to the social sciences. Okay, I know: It is an obscure subject matter, but it fascinated me.

On one particularly crisp fall morning, I stumbled upon a New York Times article about this woman, Felice Schwartz, who had started an organization, Catalyst. Its goal was to help working mothers launch and advance their careers. This may seem like old news now, but at the time it was pretty ground breaking. Keep in mind this was the late 1970s, a time in which it was unusual for mothers to work – for pay. The notion of balancing work and family did not exist, because most women still left the workforce when they had children. But the nation was seeing a new pattern – women were having babies and continuing to work. In that moment, I saw a very different future, and I was seized by wanting to understand how working mothers, particularly professional ones, could advance their careers and raise a family.

So I roared into the office of my advisor, a proper Dutch philosopher who was very formal in his attire and demeanor. I was almost breathless and I blurted out that I wanted to switch the topic of my dissertation. No more hermeneutic phenomenology for me. I wanted to study corporate women and how the workplace could be restructured so they could better balance the demands of work and family.

He pulled himself up, drew back, looked me in the eye and said, “That is stupid. Really, really stupid.” I was stunned. What was he saying? Women didn’t matter? Two earner couples didn’t matter? Changing the workplace didn’t’ matter? I didn’t matter?

He went on calmly to say, that if, at this point, I switched to topics, it could delay me up to four years. He concluded saying, “This dissertation is not your life’s work. Finish it. And then you can make working mothers and work-family issues your life work.“

And I did just that — while it was not always easy or effortless — I finished my dissertation, got my Ph.D. in geography, became a professor of psychology, and wrote seven books about work and family. And then I moved to the foundation world where we funded over $125 million worth of research on working families and launched a national campaign to make workplaces more flexible. Over the last several years, I have worked with CEOs, U.S. senators, and the White House to create a workplace that allows American men and women to have full lives and not to have to choose between being a good parent and a good worker. This became and continues to be my life’s work.

But in that moment with my advisor in 1979, I learned several things and I want to share these insights with you.

Balance your short and long term goals. While we may all have grand ambitions that can carry us through our lives, in reality most of what we do is found in the immediacy of the day, the month the year. We must have a paycheck to cover housing, food and family. But we must also keep our eye on our long term dreams and goals. Everything cannot be done at once. So I learned that it often is most expedient not to take the simple direct route, but to do short term things as best I can, even when they are frustrating and I feel I have better things to do. I finished that dissertation, even though I had lost significant interest in it, but that Ph.D. degree took me a step further in pursuing my life’s work.

Choose an important problem to work on. I cannot overemphasize this. We all have choices to make as to what problems to focus on. In this economy, while many of you may feel that you just have to take what is available, keep focused on what is most important to you. Find little ways on a daily basis so that you can sustain your focus. If your most pressing concern, for example, is the environment, figure out how best with your talents you can work on it. Even if your job seems entirely unrelated — think creatively about to how to address the important problems that can make a difference.

There is no magic way. If you cannot focus on the problem in your job, work on it as a volunteer. But whatever you do, pick an important problem that will make a difference and approach it in the way that you best can.

I worry when young people are told to “find your passion.” I realize from my daughters that this “find your passion” command is a terrible burden and often feels to be an impossible task. Few of us know what our passion is as we look to the future. Most of us discover our passion by looking backwards. So, follow your interests and concerns. What makes you want to wake up in the morning? And then — and only then — for the lucky ones — will you find your passion.

Life is not linear. While our lives can have purpose, rarely can they be planned in any detail.

I have a Ph.D. in geography, but did a dissertation in philosophy of science and went onto be a tenured professor in psychology. At each juncture, I had to make choices and decide to pursue what I cared most deeply about in light of what opportunities presented themselves.

I am reminded of a book that anthropologist Mary Catharine Bateson, daughter of Margaret Mead, wrote entitled Composing a Life. Bateson shows us that life itself is an art form, not a linear, predictable process. In many cases life is improvisational art. We do the best we can at each potential turning point, given the information and the self-knowledge we possess. Losing a job, having a child at an unexpected time, changing careers, getting a divorce — these are all creative opportunities for us to stop, decide which way to go at each of these critical moments in time and then move on. As you will likely hear many times, life is what happens when you planning other things. I know my career path looks weird from the outside. But I can tell you — from the inside — it feels just right.

If you are lucky enough to find your life’s work, do not forget that work is not your life. Your life is your life and work fits into it, but should not exhaust it. Most of you will end up at some point being a working parent, whether as part of a couple or on your own. If our research shows anything it shows that a majority of parents experience a real time famine — they feel they do not have enough time to be a good parent and a good worker. Hard as it is, don’t shortchange your family. On your deathbed, no one ever says, I wish I had spent more time in the office.

You have great adventures ahead of you. Make sure that you compose your lives in ways that are meaningful to you and your families.

And, in closing, I will share one life message from the one graduation speech I remember — Always microwave your sponges. The kitchen sink is one of the filthiest places in the house.

Congratulations Class of 2012!

Dave, Class of 1971, has kept touch with his alma mater through the years and, if anything, has only increased his involvement in the years since he was elected to the Wisconsin Legislature.

The couple had reason to be smiling at UW-Green Bay Commencement on May 12. Regular attendees at Phoenix women’s basketball games at the Kress, this time the Hansens were cheering for daughter Carolyn Bicoy.

Carolyn, a returning adult student, passed within a few feet of her parents’ close-in seats en route to the platform to receive her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education.

The Green Bay couple was recognized with the institution’s highest community honor, the Chancellor’s Award. Their relationship with the University dates to the late 1970s and includes substantial involvement with, and support of, the University’s academic mission, the fine arts and Phoenix Athletics.

Chancellor Thomas K. Harden, in honoring the Hinckleys, called them “perfect teammates for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and its students.”

He noted that Dr. Hinckley has been a familiar figure on the bench at soccer and basketball games both home and away for more than 30 years, volunteering his time as Phoenix team physician. (The Chancellor elicited smiles when he added, “He sometimes volunteered his advice to the referees, as well, but we won’t get into that today.”)

Dr. Jim Hinckley is a member of the UW-Green Bay Athletics Hall of Fame. The training and sports medicine area at the Kress is named the James Hinckley Sports Medicine Center in his honor.

Patricia Hinckley is a former teacher and gifted and talented coordinator for Ashwaubenon High School. She supplemented her master’s degree preparation with secondary education certification at UW-Green Bay. In 2008 the Hinckleys endowed a UW-Green Bay scholarship fund — one of the University’s largest — in Patricia’s name, with preference to women student athletes pursuing careers related to mathematics, science or education.

The couple’s philanthropy on behalf of the University began in 1981 with generous annual contributions to the Founders Association for student scholarships and academic enhancements. They later became active supporters of the Phoenix Fund for athletics, and the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts.

(Jim Hinckley poses, below, before the ceremony with friends and former UW-Green Bay Phoenix Athletics administrators Dan Spielmann and Jeanne Stangel.)

Crain, whose seven-year term as a Regent recently concluded, briefly addressed the graduates and Kress Center audience of about 5,000 during the opening minutes of the ceremony.

She reflected on her nearly lifelong relationship with UW-Green Bay, and the fact that much has changed over the last decade with respect to state funding of public higher education. Reduced funding has made things difficult for students — “rising tuition and the threat of long-term debt are troubling,” she said — and for the institution, as well, because the University is challenged to retain top faculty and staff members following at least five years of pay freezes and givebacks.

Former UW System Regent Judy Crain

Serious change is coming to American higher education, she advised her audience, and solutions will require that eyes and minds be open to new opportunities and efficiencies. She praised the leadership of Harden, the UW-Green Bay chancellor.

Crain asked the newest class of UW-Green Bay alumni to support their alma mater not only through financial and volunteer contributions but also through energetic advocacy.

Harden announced after Crain had concluded her remarks that the Regent Emerita would also be receiving emerita recognition from UW-Green Bay’s Council of Trustees/Foundation Board of Directors. Board members voted unanimously at their most recent meeting to recognize Crain’s lengthy service to the institution. She had served on the UW-Green Bay Council from 2002 until 2005 and her appointment to the statewide Board of Regents.

They met up Saturday, May 12, at the Kress Events Center, for a rare graduation tripleheader. Classmates at UW-Green Bay, the father and two daughters crossed the stage within a few minutes of each other to receive diplomas at May 2012 commencement.

Twins Jennifer and Sarah, now 23, enrolled right out of Chilton High School and roomed together on campus their first few years. Jennifer is the History major with minors in Business Administration and Humanistic Studies. Sarah majored in Human Development. Wes, 56, is the tech guy, completing 60 credits online through the Adult Degree Program.

Wes and his wife, Carol, have five daughters, and the single ceremony made it convenient for the extended clan. “It was never a plan,” says Wes, “and then one day we compared notes and realized, ‘Hey, we’ll all be graduating in May!”

Only natural, when you consider the Two Rivers couple has been married two years and tied the knot about the time they enrolled in UW-Green Bay’s Adult Degree Program for returning adult learners. They met while students at Lakeshore Technical College.

The Barbeaus graduated through the Bachelor’s of Applied Studies program, which awards University-level credit for tech-school preparation and involves completion of a liberal arts bachelor’s through online or on-campus participation.

Stephanie served as graduating class speaker. Posing before the ceremony, from left, are sisters Emily, Libby and Stephanie, with mom, Janice Freis.

Stephanie Freis

Freis, a psychology major, has been accepted at one of the nation’s top Ph.D. programs in social psychology, at Ohio State University, where she will pursue her career goal of becoming a university-level faculty member and researcher, with an eye toward serving disadvantaged populations. For more on her college career and selection to serve as class speaker, click here.

David Depeau

David John Depeau got a nice round of applause when he was acknowledged at May 2012 commencement as recipient of the Outstanding Student Award, as chosen by the Alumni Association from among some 900 members of his graduating class.

Depeau, of New Franken, graduated summa cum laude with three majors: Public Administration, Political Science and Environmental Policy and Planning. He is a returning adult student who enrolled at UW-Green Bay after serving five years as an officer with the Milwaukee Police Department in one of the city’s poorest and most troubled precincts. He says the experience deepened his desire to improve himself and his community, and encouraged him to pursue pre-law studies.

Depeau (prounounced DEP-poe) intends to begin law school next fall, with a long-term goal of remaining active with social justice issues through legal advocacy.