By: Nathan Skutley
Why do UWM-WC students go where they go after class? And what are they there to do?
Looking around our campus
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A Presidential Life
By Jake Hanus
“Honestly, it’s a lot on my plate and it’s a little overwhelming.”
The President starts his day off at UWM-WC in his very own parking spot. He pulls his belongings out from the backseat of his SUV and is ready to go.
Nate walks the steps to make it to his first class. Unfortunately, he says he’s late for because, “I have a lot of meetings to attend to. These meetings are usually Model UN, SGA, or going over my internship in Milwaukee or Madison. Honestly, it’s a lot on my plate and it’s a little overwhelming.”
Mr. President is sitting in Digital storytelling listening to Megan Muthupandiyan. The president likes to create He created the Model UN team at this school. In fact, it is his main passion. “ I started it because I wanted an opportunity to build myself up as a leader and to provide a place for people to discuss politics in an environment that doesn’t feel hostile, but diplomatic.
Nate stops and talks to Tate, a fellow member of SGA. Now, this is only one person. On a regular basis, he talks to about 5 people in the hallways in between classes. He says he talks to so many people because “Connections are everything, especially when it comes to politics. I find myself really intrigued by people cause I really like to figure out what they’re talented in.”
Nate keeps a notebook about his daily schedule Nate says, “I literally live and die by my schedule, I need to have a plan because it becomes so much I can’t keep track of it all unless it’s written down.” In this schedule, he has his plans and goals for the day. He also writes down the homework that he needs to get done for the day.
Nate gets his title of Mr. President from SGA. It’s related to what he wants to do with his life. “I’m in SGA because I wanna run for public office one day.” It boils down to Nate wanting to help people in the future.
See to Believe
by Catrin Homuth
“Art exists because life is not enough.” – Rerreira Gullar
Ellison, Haley, Marissa: Powerful women, expressive artwork, creative exploration
Lunch at Noon: Insight to UWM-WC’s Lunch Hour
A giant burst of people walk into the cafeteria as soon as it hits noon, instantly breathing life into the dead silent area.
I roll into the cafeteria after my digital storytelling class at 11 am. At this time, there are very minimal students, with everyone spread out far from each other, all immersed in their own work. I plop my stuff on an empty table, making a loud noise in a quiet room. I pull out my laptop and start on my own work. As the clock ticks closer to noon, more people start to trickle in as they finish their final morning classes.
A giant burst of people walk into the cafeteria as soon as it hits noon, instantly breathing life into the dead silent area. What once was a calm place of serendipity instantly became a place of chaos. I’m now surrounded by groups of people laughing, eating, and talking with each other.
And it stays like this until the lunch hour is over. As soon as it nears 1 pm, the cafeteria becomes a barren island once again, as if there was no one there before.
I believe that’s the beauty of the cafeteria at UWM-WC. There is just this one hour of the day where many students come to eat and wind down with their friends before they have to face their afternoon classes. It’s a place to study, relax, chill with your fellow peers, and grab a quick snack. What more can you ask for?
Perhaps some more food than the stuff offered from the vending machines- but that’s a topic for another day.
The Commuter Backpack
What do students bring to survive their long days on campus?
By: Cassie Kraemer
Already used to the commuter lifestyle, I, Cassie Kraemer, second year sophomore, like to bring some extra cash on campus to buy coffee. I can’t go a day without drinking it, so my coffee mug is always in my hand. Gum is the after coffee snack I use, along with chap stick in my bag. While working for my double major in special education and elementary education, my pencil bag keeps me motivated to work hard for my dreams.
First year freshman, Grace Vogel spends her free time around campus reading! If she has a little lighter of a class load, she will find a spot on campus and read. While in class, Grace sets aside her laptop to enjoy an engaging class.
Getting used to the college lifestyle, first year freshman Henry Anderson uses the journal as his planner which keeps track of his assignments for the week. While up to date on today’s technology, Henry uses his wireless headphones to listen to music. Some students cannot listen to music while they study, however, Henry listens to mainly music with just instruments while he does his homework.
Sophomore Jake Hanus makes his calculator handy as he uses it for his macro economics class. While having two online classes this semester, Jake uses his laptop to type papers, do assignments, and keep on task with his classes. Going old school, Jake likes to take notes in his notebooks. He believes he can retain the information better by writing down his notes.
The 1980’s fad Scrunchies have made a comeback, and freshman Kaitlyn Sawatzke brings two scrunchies with her to class so she can put up her hair while she works on homework. She brings two with her just in case she loses one. After the crazy noon hour, Kaitlyn brings starbursts for something sweet after she eats lunch. Burt’s Bees is a popular, natural formula brand that Kaitlyn trusts and loves to use, especially in winter Kaitlyn uses her assignment notebook to help her remain caught up in her classes
While striving to finish his freshman year of college, Andrew De Tuncq gets through his day by listening to music. Andrew enjoys popular artists like Post Malone and The Weeknd. He can study hard while jamming out to some tunes with his headphones. If he’s in the noisy cafeteria, he will crank the music while enjoying his snack (if he remembers to bring one).
I’m no longer welcome in the bookstore.
The Professor’s Lair
Every office tells a story of a life of passion, creativity, and commitment. What stories do your professors’ offices hold?
“This is my small attempt at growing plants in a windowless office,” professor Ashley Smith says. Professor Smith, who teaches biology here at UWM Washington County, is a plant biologist by training, and plant passionate by life.
“I use Monopoly in my Introductory Accounting class,” professor Carl Gahala, says, leaning on his tower of games. “My students play as if they are doing the accounting for a business.” But it’s not all fun and games: at the end of the course they have to put together a financial statement that reflects the transactions they’ve made through the game!
“This is my backyard,” UWM Washington County mathematics professor Mohan Thapa says, pointing at one of the two photos he has of the Himalayan mountain range in his office. “This here is approximately right where my house is.”
It was a trip to the library with his high school English teacher that sparked Professor Toye Ekunsanmi’s life long passion for microbiology. Another big love is his four children, one of whom made him this insulated mug with their photos. “I call this my trophy of parenting,” he says.
Professor Chris Yogerst probably has the most identifiable office on campus–it’s filled with comic book and film artifacts! “Any piece of popular culture . . . you should be able to learn something about its historical moment. The reason I am still interested in any of these things is because of it’s place in history.”
In English instructor Rachel Barger’s office, students will find copies of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Journal. She has been researching the best practices in teaching students composition for nearly two decades, and presented at the conference last year.
Instructor Matthew Madsen’s office, while spare, has one real treasure–a photo of his son Maverick. At two and a half the little boy is living up to his name and embracing his Wisconsin roots. “He’s taken up performing trust falls off the ottoman,” Madsen shared. “And no matter the weather, he wants to be outside.”
The System Is Flawed
My final biology grade freshman year of college was a solid “C-“. Calculus also kicked my butt (C baby, a whole half-letter grade above bio). And English? God, I love English but I still forget when a colon and semi-colon are appropriate – I use them, sometimes interchangeably, and hope to god I’m correct. Art? I cannot express how much joy art brings me. I could try to write it down and attempt to put it in words, but that’d be impossible. How can you write emotions that extend beyond human comprehension? You can’t.
“I’ll be at UWGB got elementary education”
Such confidence.
“Wow,” It was all I could say. My high school friend, Emily, was telling me her plans after summer. She knew what she wanted. I didn’t. “So like, just little kids? No high school or beyond?”
“God no, too much Algebra.”
“Fair enough.”
“What about you?”
“Art.” I punctuate with silence and then, “I think. Illustration? I like drawing in my sketchbook.”
Emily commended me, supported my decision, applauded me for doing what I loved. But I hated it. I was a high school senior, not fully developed in any way (isn’t the age everyone throws around 25?) and you want me to pick out a career path I want for the rest of my life? I always thought that it was the dumbest ass expectation considering I know nothing, much less what I want to be until I retire. But I knew I wanted to pursue art. I wasn’t sure I was capable of freelancing like Dan Gerhartz, so illustration would have to do.
So I applied fir UW Eau Claire since they had an illustration major. I put in the down payments, signed up for housing, filled out forms, and attended orientation. I told everyone I knew and come full circle, Emily reaches out two or three weeks before dorm move-in.
“I know someone who needs a book illustrated. Nothing that would be on store shelves, but something to put under your belt and to build your resume.”
I said yes.
So I started on this book and I worked and did 12 illustrations, plus four more in case they wanted options. I spend so much time on this project… and I hated it. Oh my god I hated it so much how could someone do this? For hours? And not feel like their eyeballs were being pulls from their sockets. I had done this so many times before on my own time and for my own pleasure, but doing it for a client? Drawing something that wasn’t my desire in my sketchbook? It was different, so different, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. Certainly not for the rest of my life.
So, looking at the calendar I had two weeks before school started and approximately 2 seconds away from a crisis. In a last minute, mother-suggested effort, I applied to UWWC. Panic, panic, panic. Cancel UWEC enrollment. New applications. Panic. Acceptance. Less panic, but panic. Enroll in classes. Panic. First day of classes. Panic, because why not.
And then I was in Anna Moisiadias class. It was a digital design class my counselor suggested to fill the suggested 15 credits per semester and it focused on the adobe suite applications. I had never touched Photoshop before in my life, much less any of the other programs like illustrator and indesign but it was related to art so I was open to learning. Anna taught us all the programs; had us design collages, posters, tattoos, business cards, and logos. All these things required so much planning and effort and forced us to treat it like we had a client in need of a design. We couldn’t be late with a client so we can’t be late in the class.
And I noticed something. Even while being put to the grind, I was enjoying what I was doing. I wasn’t ditzing about in my little art world, I was being forced to create something according to the rules of another person like when I was illustrating. But, unlike the illustrating, I was enjoying it? I looked forward to it? It was a passion. It was also an answer.
“So just for reference, I like to know even if your just considering, Is anyone going into art?” Anna dropped the question one day before class when most of us were finishing up our final projects. A lot of us said yes and she follows up with, “What for?”
I can finally answer what I’ve been asking since day one: “Graphic design.”
I Guess It’s Gotta Be Dramatic
By Nathaniel Skutley
In September 2019 I began my first semester as President of the Student Government Association. I was excited and had many goals to reform the SGA, but it didn’t go according to plan. At a meeting later in the year, a senator we’ll refer to as “L” proclaimed to me in a meeting;
“We the Senate are dissatisfied with your leadership and would like to give you a chance to resign.”
“Excuse me?” I asked in complete shock, quickly responding before he could, “No, I will not resign and I look forward to seeing you all next week.”
To understand how this happened and where it came from, I had to have a moment of reflection with my good friend and Vice President of the Student Government, Jordan Bellante.
I went to Jordan some time later that day at the comfy seats tucked away by the stairs in the cafeteria. Jordan, with his deep echoing voice, and I, discussed and decided we needed to understand their viewpoint, and that started with the beginning of my presidency.
To start the fall semester, I thought it was necessary to implement and pass a new constitution as soon as possible. After reviewing the previous constitution for the UWM-WC SGA and 104 google doc suggestions later, we decided we needed a new one.
By the authoring of Jordan and myself, it added a substantial amount of material concerning all forms of procedure and a judiciary. The beautifully dry document was 12 pages compared to the previously two paged constitution.
I was very confident in it being passed in the first two meetings, but my projection turned out to be a little off, by five months. The entire semester unraveled into contention on the document that was supposed to be uniting and non-partisan, I didn’t even know there were sides or even parties within the UWM-WC SGA! The most opposition emerged from a senator who was on the losing end of my presidential campaign, we’ll refer to them as Senator F.
Senator F rallied new members of the SGA into a belief that the new constitution was “shady.” This erupted from a summer meeting erecting the proposed constitution, of which they couldn’t make. This created even more animosity in this person towards myself, not to mention the campaign I won, that continued to boil as the semester began. Within the first three weeks of my presidency, our advisor received a complaint about me and my communication. We talked as a whole SGA about communication and we decided on Snapchat and Microsoft Teams as our form of communicating. Snapchat would turn out to be the bain of my presidential existence as it created more misunderstandings within the SGA. Many messages were taken out of context which lead to Senator F and their allies dumping fuel on the fire. Most were from myself and lead to more complaints, that were directed at the advisor and not myself.
Over the semester I continued to hear whispers of drama within the SGA Senators, but decided it wasn’t my place as a leader to get involved. This, along with my lack of knowledge of complaints due to them never approaching me in person, lead to my complete shock when Senator L asked for me to resign. This led to two trail like settings where I sat in front of a room and had senators describe their problems with me, for an hour and a half each. Pretty invigorating, not gonna lie. Many good points of constructive criticism came from members who were not in league with Senator F, of whom didn’t show up to either meetings. I said all of about 30 words during each meeting to acquit myself. With the help of Jordan, basically acting as my defense lawyer while masterfully staying as bipartisan as possible, the allies of Senator F had their arguments defeated one by one. One declared I was corrupt, dramatic I know, for announcing to the SGA during session “the chair would look favorable upon a motion for *Blank.” This is in contention for the most absurd of the claims as it is a common phrase used by a chair within Robert’s Rules of Order, however, it demonstrated the ignorance of many of the senators due to faulty veteran influence, something I have strove to fix and have begun to today. In the end, the estimated Senator Dominc Robson declared, “Every single allegation has been dropped.”
Realizing the obvious
One of the biggest struggles I have had throughout my educational career has been writing. I have had a bad relationship with writing since a very young age for one reason, its challenging. Like most people I enjoy challenging myself, however, writing is a challenge I haven’t figured out how to overcome. I have taken countless writing and literacy classes, talked to classmates, and teachers but for some reason I was still struggling. I would watch other students sit down and write pages on pages without flinching. Meanwhile I’m stuck on the first sentence trying to put all my ideas together so I can continue writing. My teachers always told me “just write down all of your ideas”, “make a flow chart”, or some other ‘method’ that was supposed to make the process easier. All this ever did was frustrate me more and added another step to the already lengthy process.
I don’t dislike writing; I just don’t particularly enjoy it. To me it feels like manual labor minus the satisfaction of actually accomplishing something. Every paper I write whether it’s a 10-page research paper or a 600-word story seems to take longer than it needs to. I’m not the most patient person when it comes to schoolwork and I usually get flustered -even angry- at the mention of having to write a paper because I know I will be stuck on it for hours. I have spent entire days trying to gather my thoughts in an attempt to make a coherent paper. Usually my mind turns into the equivalent of a carnival cash booth; where you have to grab as many tickets as you can while their being blown around you. The lack of progress leads to procrastination which leads to rushed ideas, ending with a less then satisfactory product.
I have only been able to turn in one writing assignment and feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to with it. During my junior year of high school, my Honors English teacher assigned us to write an ode about any object we wanted. After spending roughly three hours writing terrible odes at home, I picked a random one and accepted my fate. It was absolutely terrible and the more I thought about it, the more I hated it. So, since I was going to do bad on the assignment, I decided to write another one making fun of my failing grade. I handed it in feeling oddly excited, like I had accomplished something with my writing. Not to brag but it turned out to be my teacher’s favorite ode of the year. This ode assignment gave me hope that I could overcome my struggles with writing. I went on the take two more writing classes my senior year, despised both of them. However, I felt more confident in my writing abilities going into college because of them. Then in college I took English 101 and its equally aggravating twin, English 102, at Washington County. After spending countless hours writing papers for those classes that I wasn’t proud of, I had enough. I said to myself, “If you aren’t required to take anymore English classes, you’re not going to”
A month later when I found myself voluntarily signing up for English 290: Digital Story Telling. I wasn’t thinking about the class to be writing intensive. However, looking back I realize how dumb that was, it is an English class After all. The first assignment in the class was enjoyable because I got the take a trip down memory lane (that was a pun), making it easy to write about. However, this second one wasn’t so easy. We have to write a story about conflict and growth that we have faced here on campus. As usual I had no clue what to write about and quickly decided I would worry about it on Friday when it was due. I never stopped thinking about what I would write about. I contemplated just making a story up, until Thursday night in my superheroes in mythology class. My professor, Dr. Peterson, was teaching us about how every myth is a metaphor that can be applied to our lives.
“Myths are just a bunch of lies” he said, “They construct narratives that are meant to put you in a relationship with your own life.”
I thought this was just a bunch of crap until he started to elaborate. He used Athena, goddess of war and wisdom, as an example. He showed us a picture of her standing with a large metal helmet on her head, an owl on her shoulder, and holding a shield with Medusa’s head on it. The helmet representing war, the owl representing death, and the shield representing protection, in literal terms.
“You can look at this story in two ways” Dr Peterson said, “You can either be an idiot and take it literally, or you can look at it for what it is, a metaphor.”
He went on to explain that Athena with all her armor is a representation of any task you face in life. If you try and fight her head on, Medusa’s head will turn you to stone, freeze any progress you’ve made, and you will lose. But if you take a step back and reflect on what you are trying to accomplish, Much like Perseus using the reflection of the mirror to defeat medusa for Athena, you will have a much easier time completing what you need to. This really resonated with me. I Felt stupid for not realizing this was the obvious reason I struggled with writing assignments, I was always taking them head on. I was trying to force my way to the end, when I should stop and reflect on what I want and need to accomplish. Now I’m looking forward to future writing assignments to see how well I can apply this story to my own life.
The CGS Catalyst 