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Newsletter of the MHRLR Program - Fall 2003Lurie CeremonyThanks to all who attended the16th Annual Lurie Ceremony on September 22, 2003. Interim Chancellor, Bob Greenstreet, gave the opening remarks while Deans Meadows and Prasad awarded the prizes.This year two outstanding students were awarded the Melvin Lurie Memorial Prize, Linda Daley and Anne Wilson. They join the ranks of our fifteen other outstanding graduates. The Milwaukee Public Museum and AFSCME District 48, Local 526 were awarded this year's Labor Management Cooperation Prize. In their presentation the winners talked about their experience in making the transition from being "more nearly public" to "more nearly private" and using this transition as an opportunity to cooperate and work together in tackling this enormous task. A good time was had by all. Congratulations to all our winners! Spring ForumWe're planning our next spring forum and would love to have you there. The forum is part of our wish to regularly host discussions on topics of interest to the human resources and labor relations community. The forums are designed to bring professionals, students and faculty together around a pertinent policy issue.The topic this year will be "Labor Management Relations Today: What Works and What Doesn't." We anticipate up to five leading bargaining partners from Wisconsin and FMCS Commission Ronald Sweet will be our moderator. We're going to ask the participants from labor and management to give us their sense of best practices and to discuss what works in maintaining an effective labor management relationship, what doesn't work and how to move toward what does. This should be valuable information for many of you and we anticipate there will be a big crowd. The event is being sponsored by the MHRLR Alumni Outreach Fund and is held with help from the Milwaukee Labor Management Cooperation Council. The forum is planned for the evening of March 31st in the Heftner Center so mark your calendars. We will be sending out invitations as the date approaches. We hope to see you there! Time for an Alumni Council?Over the last few years we have received phone calls from alums sharing a common theme. They have all expressed a desire to continue to be involved, in some fashion, with the program. They valued their education at UWM and feel they have something of significance to offer current students. One might fashion an internship with their current employer. Another may have an idea for a great speaker to come to class. The resource base of our nearly 300 graduates is enormous. Their talents and skills can be of immeasurable value to the program by expanding what we offer in the classroom and raising the visibility and stature of our degree.An idea we will be discussing in the coming months is that of creating an Alumni Council. This would be a group of alums who would stand as a valuable source of information, of help and advice and as a source for leadership. We'd like you to think about this idea in general and also whether or not you might participate. We're obviously not interested in weekly teas, but we have some concrete ideas and bet you have some as well. Send your thoughts to us on what an Alumni Council might do and if you'd like to be involved! 2002-2003 GraduatesCongratulations to the following new MHRLR alumni:December 2002: Angel Larson, Deborah Wallendal, Yolanda Martinez May 2003: : Jamila Bennett, Lidia Cortes, Linda Daley, Lakesha Fells, Scott Hoffland, Alonzo Kelly, Theresa Laura, Rachael Moebius, Babjide Obasa, Maria Schmitt, Vinay Singh, Tiffany Snow, Lisa Sutherlin, Donna Wagner, Anne Wilson August 2003: : Lana Cramer Good luck and best wishes! Friends, Alumni and Student NewsThanks for all of your responses to our request for updates. We very much enjoy hearing your news so keep them coming! Here's what we have learned so far...Peter Rogowski is still working with GE and was recently promoted to the role of HR Manager for Global Technology, Information Management and Quality Al Levy has been busy this past summer representing the County of Milwaukee in four of the cases which came out of the "pension episode." On a personal note, Al is a grandfather for the sixth time. Recent graduate Jamila Bennett has relocated to the Washington DC Metro area. If any MHRLR alumns in the area are looking for a highly qualified HR professional, Jamila would be interested in talking to you. Alonzo Kelly still manages to keep his sense of humor about him as Human Resources Director at Washington Manor. Jide Obasa was recently transferred to a Madison store in his position as Assistant Store Manager for Target. Amy Krymkowski is out in California working for The Men's Warehouse. Becky Beer is on the move again. She recently took a position with Rembrandt Commercial Cleaning Corporation in Waukesha as the Director of Human Resources. Assistant Professor Keith Bender (the IR 701 Prof. for recent grads) published a book this fall, coauthored with Robert Elliot, Decentralised Pay Setting: A Study of outcomes of Collective Bargaining Reform in the Civil Service in Australia, Sweden and the UK. Congratulations to him and think of all the field trips he was able to enjoy! Directors CornerThis has been a fine year for MHRLR and we appreciate your continued support. We had our first six graduates in the new Graduate Certificate in International Human Resources and Labor Relations. We encourage those of you who are interested and graduated some time ago to investigate whether a return to Milwaukee's East Side to earn the Certificate might not be fun and rewarding! International visitors last year included Dr. Uwe Jirjahn from the University of Hanover in Germany and Ioannis Theodossiou from Scotland (and Greece). This fall saw the unveiling of our new Research Tools for Practitioners and the early returns are positive. Gone are the weeks of regression analysis (although there is still some) and in its place is an emphasis on questionnaires and survey design. This reflects, in good part, the input from students and alumni and we're pleased to deliver a quantitative class that better reflects the needs of the professionals we train.Please pay particular attention to the short article in the newsletter about the Alumni Council that we hope to start. The Council will give us a more formalized setting to get opinions and feedback, allow participants closer communication with the program and be a vehicle for goal setting. Also note the Spring Forum coming up. We'd love to have your participation. As always, we remain most proud of your accomplishments which continue to put us in a good light. So send us your news so we can spread it around! In times of big budget cutbacks we can also use your financial help, so send a check to us made out to the UWM Foundation and we'll put it in the "MHRLR Alumni Outreach Fund" to help pay for visitors, speakers in class, the Spring Forum (and perhaps a reception for alumni?). Many Thanks. John Heywood, Director MHRLR University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201 |
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