For Ankur Desai, the decision was essentially a no-brainer.
Two years ago, when he became chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS), Desai looked around and quickly realized how important the department’s discretionary and donor funds were in supporting a genuine sense of community. A long list of key initiatives, from student travel to scholarships to departmental diversity efforts, depended on these funds.
Bolstering those priorities is a big part of the reason Desai and department administrator Christi Levenson have created a matching gift for the 2023 Day of the Badger giving event on March 28-29. For every gift made to the department during Day of the Badger, Desai and Levenson will match it, up to a total of $600. Across the College of Letters & Science, other departments will deploy similar matching gifts (see sidebar).
For donors, matching gifts represent a fantastic opportunity to make the dollars they choose to give go much further. For Desai, it’s a question of leading by example.
“From my perspective, it's very much an opportunity to give back but also an opportunity to encourage and show alumni just how important these funds are by making a commitment as a faculty member,” says Desai. “We're investing in the strength of our department, and we hope that you can come along for the ride.”
The impact of the matching gift donations is real.
Recently, a couple of graduate students received invitations to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Women in the Sciences Leadership Workshop. Discretionary dollars helped to cover their flight and registration fees. In January, the department was also able to use discretionary funds to send nine undergraduates to the American Meteorological Society’s annual conference.
“It's a small amount of money, but they don't have a way to pay for it and it provides them professional development that they bring back to the department,” says Desai. “These events are the place where students can show off their research but also start looking at graduate programs and start interviewing for jobs. If we can't send students there, then they miss out on those opportunities.”
Desai and AOS used donations from last year’s Day of the Badger to renovate an alumni lounge located across from the department’s undergraduate lounge.
“It used to be called the Map Room because back in the days of paper weather charts, it’s where everyone hung up their paper charts and they would sit and talk about the weather,” says Desai. “That space kind of came into disuse when everything moved to electronic, and we lost that community. By building that room back up, we’re able to create a space where people are encouraged to hang out. And now we’re using electronic displays, coffee makers and other things to encourage people to linger and make connections.”
Donations generated by this year’s matching gift will help create an event that will generate even more connections: The AOS department’s 75th anniversary celebration, scheduled for October 2023.
#GeoBadgers
So many people recommended that Jamie Robertson do his graduate work at UW–Madison that he found he couldn’t ignore them.
And only some of them were Badgers.
Robertson had done his undergraduate work in geological engineering at Princeton in the late 1960s. His senior thesis advisor, William E. Bonini, who received a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the UW-Madison in 1957 and his mother, who held a degree from the University of Michigan, urged him toward Madison. So, in the fall of 1970, Robertson joined the UW–Madison Department of Geoscience’s polar research program, a choice that led to several exciting trips to New Zealand and Antarctica to study glaciology in Marie Byrd Land and on the Ross Ice Shelf. Five years later, Robertson, who went on to a career in petroleum exploration, had a PhD in geophysics.
But he also had much more than that. The Department of Geoscience is renowned for generating lifelong connections among its alumni — so much so that members of that community, bonded by their love of rocks, have dubbed themselves GeoBadgers — and Robertson is a perfect example. He spent eight years on the department’s Board of Visitors and remains a senior advisor, returning to Madison regularly for alumni events. Drawing from his professional work, he has provided the department with geoscience data, advisory time and financial support.
“The education I got in geoscience was the foundation of a successful career in oil and gas exploration,” says Robertson. “When someone has that, they want to give back.”
And so, Robertson has. For Day of the Badger 2023, Robertson has created a $10,000 matching gift. He’s hoping that his fellow GeoBadgers will contribute to Geoscience’s 2023 fundraising focus, the Sharon Meinholz Graduate Student Fund, which pays for student participation in geoscience conferences.
In addition to teaching and research, Robertson appreciates the dedication of Geoscience to outreach.
“I swear every time I come back to Madison, I see school busses lined up outside the Geology Museum,” Robertson laughs. “I’ve always viewed the Department of Geoscience as a group that sees the state of Wisconsin as an integral part of its mission.”
Teaching (and Supporting) Music
Some Badgers have deep Madison roots. And that’s certainly true for Garry and Joanne Owens, both of whom grew up here. Garry received all three of his music education degrees at UW: a BA in 1969, an MA in 1978 and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in 1992. Joanne spent her career in academic medicine, working for various departments in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The Owens’ also have deep musical roots. They have become some of the strongest supporters of the Mead Witter School of Music. They’re both members of the School’s Board of Advisors. Garry is also the current President of the School’s Alumni Association. And they’ve both donated regularly to the School, including helping to establish funds named for professors Gerald Olson and James Smith and legendary former UW Marching Band leader Mike Leckrone.
This year, for Day of the Badger 2023, they’re taking things a step further. They’ve created a $10,000 matching gift designed to support an endowed scholarship named for Susan C. Cook, the longtime director of the Mead Witter School of Music, who stepping down in May to take a sabbatical before returning to teaching.
Garry understands the challenges Cook has faced in her decade at UW, from fundraising and creating an expansive new performance facility (the Hamel Music Center) to navigating budget cuts and faculty cutbacks. His career in music education has taken him from Michigan to UW-Green Bay to the Northern Arizona University where he served as the school’s Director of Performing Arts, and finally to Texas Tech, where he served as Director of the School of Music and Founding Dean of its College of Visual and Performing Arts.
“She has navigated multiple storms magnificently,” says Garry of Susan Cook’s School of Music tenure. “She has made a tremendous difference.”
Garry and Joanne understand how vital scholarships are to the health of a music school like Mead Witter — not just to maintain a healthy spirit of competitiveness, but to ensure that talented students are always there to enrich the experience for everyone.
“The more we can have in terms of scholarship support, the stronger the school can be,” says Garry. “There’s a sense of history that’s important in that process.”
The couple have lived in the Tucson, Arizona area for the last decade, but make a point of coming back to attend four or five Badger football games each year, along with trips to see family and friends. Garry has spent the last 17 years as a consultant For AGB Search conducting national searches for senior administrators in higher education, including the search that brought Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to UW–Madison.
“When you’re first building your career, you tend to stray away from your college experience to attend to your career and family,” says Garry. “Later, when you’re in a more reflective time, it all starts coming back. That’s a strong pull when you realize what your experience and education have done for you.”
Joanne echoes the sentiment: “Supporting a scholarship like this is like closing a circle on our experience,” she says. “It’s wonderful.”