Voice Shorts

Commencement deadline approaches
The deadline to apply for Fall Commencement is Sept. 28, 2007.  Applications are available in the registrar’s office, 105 North Hall. 
For more information contact the registrar’s office at 715-425-3342. Information regarding graduation and commencement can be found at http://www.uwrf.edu/commencement/.

Undergraduate conference to be held
At 8:30 a.m. Sept. 29 the first-annual UW-River Falls’ all-undergraduate academic conference will be held. The conference provides a presentation for student work related to nature, artifice and the self. The presentations range from sophisticated and entertaining short stories to critical analysis of famous works, in addition to the works of undergraduate students.
Award-winning author and journalist Masha Hamilton will be presenting the keynote speech.
For more information about the conference and the keynote speech, visit www.uwrf.edu/lit.  The event is free and located in the St. Croix River Room of the University Center.

Masha Hamilton visits UW-River Falls
At 5 p.m. Sept. 29 Masha Hamilton, the author of three award-winning novels, Staircase of a Thousand Steps, The Distance Between Us and The Camel Bookmobile, will be on campus.
According to the Public Relations Office, Hamilton worked as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press for five years in the Middle East. She also spent five years in Moscow, where she was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, wrote a newspaper column, “Postcard from Moscow,” and reported for NBC/Mutual Radio. She reported from Afghanistan in 2004, and in 2006 she traveled in Kenya to research The Camel Bookmobile. The Brown University graduate has been awarded several fiction fellowships.
The event is free and located in the St. Croix River Room of the University Center.

Professor lectures about genocide
On Oct. 2 Dr. Stephen Feinstein will be on campus. The title of his lecture is “When ‘Never Again’ is a Cliché: The Complicated Role of Rescuers in Genocide.”  Feinstein has directed the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies for the last 10 years. 
An active scholar of Russian and Soviet history, Professor Feinstein began teaching courses on the Holocaust at UW-River Falls.  He continues to teach and lecture on issues related to genocide throughout the world; he has published numerous articles on holocaust and post-holocaust art.
The event is co-sponsored by The Edward N. Peterson Lecture Series Endowment and the UWRF History and Philosophy Department.
The lecture is at 4:30 p.m. with a reception at 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and is located in Abbott Concert Hall, Kleinpell Fine Arts.

Interstate 35W bridge bid stirs controversy
State officials said that they would move quickly toward resolving a dispute over the bidding process for the contract to rebuild the collapsed Interstate 35W bridge, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The issue erupted this week when the Minnesota Department of Transportation said it would award the contract to the company that made the highest bid. Two of three unsuccessful bidders immediately filed a formal protest with the state’s Department of Administration, and a spokesman for the agency said investigating the dispute is “the top priority.”
MnDOT chose the winner, a team led by Colorado-based Flatiron Constructors, based on a formula that factored in the cost, duration of construction and an evaluation of the technical aspects of each proposal. Flatiron’s technical score was 91.47, putting them over the top, despite a bid that was the most expensive, being $57 million more than the lowest bid. The proposal from Flatiron Constructors’ includes building a concrete bridge.
MnDOT will have to pay bills for the I-35W bridge reconstruction as they come in, and then seek federal reimbursement since the bridge reconstruction is the main priority that could affect other projects.

Student seeks cast for short zombie movie
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 29-30 a UW-River Falls student is holding an open-casting session for a short film.  Actors, actresses, costumers, makeup and special effects artists are wanted. No exeperience is needed, but a love for horror movies will help.
Casting call will be in Kleinpell Fine Arts room 108, The Black Box Theater.

Minnesota writers to visit River Falls
Minnesota mystery writers, Ellen Hart, Carl Brookins and William Kent Krueger will be at the River Falls Public Library at 7 p.m. Oct. 3, according to the River Falls Journal.
Their newest work, Resort to Murder, will contain 13 mystery stories by Minnesota authors, all set at locations around the state.
Ellen Hart is the author of more than 20 novels. Hart was a kitchen manager for a sorority at the University of Minnesota for 12 years. Hart is twice the winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Crime and Detective Fiction.
Carl Brookins was a freelance photographer and a television program director before becoming a writer full-time. Brookins has written crime fiction reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine and for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
William Kent Krueger received the Anthony Award for best first novel. Krueger writes the Cork O’Connor series.
The event is free to the public. The authors will have books for sale and signing will be available. For more information call 715-425-0905.

Month of October dedicated to cyber safety
Throughout the month of October, FredNet Services and IT Services will be posting information and hosting events around campus designed to help protect both your computer and yourself online.   
Each week will be themed and targeted at informing you about a specific danger or challenge we all face in increasingly online-based lives.
The theme for the first week in October will be Viruses and Spyware. Information to help you protect yourself against the predations of viruses and spyware will be available in the University Center, on posters around campus and on Channel 24.