Cal Jett, a history and Spanish double major from San Marino, California, was among the students inducted on May 28.

鈥淚t allows students to engage in historical academia on a larger scale,鈥� he said.

Added Octavia Chudnow, a history and music performance (voice) dual degree senior from Fountain Hills, Arizona: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good professional opportunity for historians to get their work out and to meet other historians.

The Alpha Ro Mu chapter of Phi Alpha Theta was made possible by generous alumni-funded grants: the Brayton Fund for Excellence in History and the Chaney Fund for Excellence in History. Via these funds, the charter fee was covered, and Lawrentians who were elected to the honor society had their lifetime membership fees paid for.聽

鈥淏eing able to attend the conferences and having your article read by other people is really cool, and I hope people take advantage of that,鈥� said inductee Victoria Lopez, a senior history major from Houston, Texas.聽

To be inducted, students must have taken four courses in history, maintain at least a 3.1 grade point average in history courses, and maintain a 3.0 overall GPA. With more than 400,000 members and 970 chapters across the United States, Phi Alpha Theta creates a vast network of students and professors working together in pursuit of good research and intellectual exchange. Phi Alpha Theta sponsors journals for students to publish their research and holds conferences where they can practice presenting in front of their peers.聽

Vance is excited for what students will do with this new opportunity.聽

鈥淚nducting is just the beginning,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hy shouldn鈥檛 we try to get really creative? That鈥檚 the point鈥攑rofessionalization, and connecting with other people, and realizing, 鈥業 can do this.鈥欌��

Alpha Ro Mu鈥檚 inductees were recognized at the 2025 Honors Convocation, and those who are graduating received a special set of cords to wear during Commencement.聽

鈥�We create our history together every day,鈥� Woodford said. 鈥淭o the members of our community who contributed your stories, your photos, your passions, your funds, and your knowledge to this project, thank you.鈥�

The documentary will hopefully spur new interest in the histories of Appleton and Lawrence. It also provides a reminder that our actions today will 鈥渞everberate鈥� when future generations study this community, Woodford said.

鈥淢ay those reverberations be increasingly harmonious and may those who come after us take similar pride in our good works as the pride we take in the good works of those who came before us,鈥� he said.

It was on January 15, 1847, that Lawrence Institute was granted a charter, one year before Wisconsin became a state and six years before Appleton would be incorporated as a municipality. It was founded as one of the nation鈥檚 first co-educational institutions of higher learning, and in the ensuing years would see the establishment of a world-class music conservatory, a merger with Milwaukee-Downer College, and the emergence and growth of academic programs that now annually lands 糖心vlog on lists of the best liberal arts colleges in the country.

The documentary explores how the decision of Amos A. Lawrence, a Boston merchant, to launch a college in a wilderness setting along the Fox River would lead to the development of a surrounding city, the taming of the Fox River through a series of elaborate locks and dams, the emergence of a burgeoning paper industry along the banks of the river, and the challenges and opportunities that flowed from there.

Lawrence .

PBS Wisconsin鈥檚 . Look for the Appleton edition beginning April 24.

The contest will be streamed on Twitch for the third consecutive year. The asking of last year鈥檚 Super Garuda鈥攖he final question of the previous year鈥檚 contest鈥攚ill again open the trivia marathon, with this year鈥檚 Super Garuda then closing the contest 50 hours later at midnight Sunday. In between, 300 questions and lots of chaos.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 just so both inherently Lawrentian and inherently unique,鈥� said Nick Mayerson, a senior government major from Oostburg, Wisconsin, who is serving as head master (HM), leading the team of 12 trivia masters (TMs) in planning and executing the contest. 鈥淭here is nothing like it in the world. You cannot say this has been done before or that I can find this somewhere else. You cannot. It is something that is so bizarre, and it has evolved every single year. In some ways it鈥檚 a tradition, but it鈥檚 also its own thing every single time. The common thread is the sort of love for trivia as a concept. But everything else evolves and I think that keeps it alive.鈥�

Similar, but different

This year鈥檚 contest, with pirates as a theme, will stream on Twitch with calls coming in via a phone server on Discord. Some traditional phones will be in the mix as well, with a rotating cast of volunteers on hand on the fourth floor of Briggs Hall to answer calls. The use of Discord allows for players across the contest to communicate with each other, one of the evolutions of the contest over the past couple of years.

鈥淧layers can chat with each other, which builds a sense of community that I don鈥檛 think we really had in years past because there really wasn鈥檛 a central place for players to talk to each other,鈥� Mayerson said.

Another change is early access to a full schedule. Theme hours have long been a popular part of the contest, but what those were and when they鈥檇 land was a closely guarded secret. Not anymore. Sharing the schedule ahead of time, Mayerson said, will give players who can鈥檛 dedicate 50 hours to the game a chance to jump in when they鈥檙e most excited.

Mayerson said the contest鈥檚 ongoing embrace of its history and traditions while remaining fluid enough to change with the times is what鈥檚 kept it relevant all these years. Alumni continue to be passionate about playing, and past TMs and HMs have been generous with their support and ideas as Mayerson and his team have looked to put their own stamp on the contest.

The weekend trivia blitz annually draws between 500 and 800 players spread across roughly 80 off-campus teams and another 15 or so on-campus teams.

Where the contest was once mostly a wild scramble through reference books and other printed materials, it is now what Mayerson calls 鈥渁n internet scavenger hunt.鈥� Where once it was broadcast over the air on the campus radio station, it is now streamed, available worldwide. Yet, there is familiarity. The questions remain obscure. The prizes are still odd. The armadillo is still the de facto mascot. Sleep is still random.

鈥淚f it was the same thing it was 58 years ago, it wouldn鈥檛 still be going,鈥� Mayerson said. 鈥淓ven though it was probably pretty awesome 58 years ago.鈥�

Mayerson said he came to be part of the trivia contest the same way many Lawrentians are drawn to it. He was a first-year student when others on campus started talking to him about joining a team. He played, he loved it, and by his sophomore year was auditioning to be a trivia master. He served as a TM for two years before being named this year鈥檚 head master.

The work the trivia team puts in is not unlike the preparations for a theater production, Mayerson said. It takes everyone pushing in the same direction, committed to the group goal. Then when the weekend finally arrives and the 50-hour marathon commences, pure joy amid the chaos.

鈥淪eeing it all come together about 25 hours into the contest when everyone is exhausted and you鈥檙e still smiling and you鈥檙e still excited to be there, and even though it鈥檚 hard, there is still so much passion in the exhaustion,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I love about it.鈥�

Need to know

• Registration for the Great Midwest Trivia Contest takes places at 8 p.m. on the first night of the contest.
• Trivia 2023 will begin at 10:00:37 p.m. Jan. 27 and end around midnight on Jan. 29.
• The contest will be streamed live on Twitch at .
• You can join the official Trivia 58 Discord server at .

We鈥檒l start our tour far back in the mists of the geologic past, with the beautiful stone panels around the fireplace in the 4th floor lounge of Hiett Hall. This is the Morton Gneiss, a high-temperature metamorphic rock quarried in southwestern Minnesota, part of an ancient continental fragment exposed in the Minnesota River Valley. The Morton Gneiss is famous to geologists because it once held the record as the oldest known rock in the world. The oldest parts of this rock formed 3.5 billion years ago, during the Archean eon of Precambrian time, long before the dinosaurs, in fact before there were any plants and animals on land, or oxygen in the atmosphere鈥攁nd probably even before Earth had settled into the habit of plate tectonics.

Morton Gneiss was a popular building stone in the first decades of the 20th century, and many buildings throughout the U.S., including the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, were clad in this venerable rock. The panels in the Hiett fireplace once served as the facing stone of the J.C. Penney building in downtown Appleton. When that building was demolished in 2002鈥攖he same year Hiett Hall was under construction鈥攆aculty in the Geology (now Geosciences) Department asked the owner of the building to donate the polished stone to the university. The slabs were recut and incorporated into the impressive fireplace.

Even from the few panels here, one can infer a significant amount about the early geologic history of the North American continent. Using a basic geologic concept called the 鈥減rinciple of cross cutting relationships鈥� (the idea that if feature A is cut by another feature B, A must be older than B), it is possible to 鈥渞ead鈥� the sequence of events that formed this rock. Look for inclusions (isolated bits of older rock engulfed by younger igneous rock), foliations (layering defined by aligned minerals), veins (planar intrusions), pegmatite masses (partially remelted areas with large crystals), and boudins (pulled-apart blocks).

If you don鈥檛 want to think that hard, you can just enjoy the rock aesthetically!

Stop 2: The Rock, on Main Hall Green

A Lawrence icon, The Rock was originally brought to campus in 1895 by geology students from a field trip in the New London area鈥攁n incredible feat, given that the boulder weighs more than two tons. It inspired equally ambitious pranks and hijinks by many subsequent generations of students who repeatedly moved, buried, painted, and hid it鈥攗ntil 1998, when it finally disappeared from campus altogether. Its whereabouts were unknown for almost 20 years until expert sleuthing by students Sarah Axtell 鈥�17 and Jon Hanrahan 鈥�16 led to the rediscovery of The Rock on a local family farm that was home to two brothers who were students at the time of the 鈥渞ocknapping.鈥� The family agreed that The Rock belonged back on campus, and it was installed at its current site in 2018. Axtell and Hanrahan told the full story of The Rock鈥檚 odyssey in their podcast, No Stone Unturned.

At the time of its homecoming, The Rock was cleaned of the many layers of paint it had accrued, and for a few weeks its natural granitic exterior was exposed for the first time in decades. Geoscience faculty fortunately examined the boulder before it was painted again and noted its similarity to rocks in Waupaca, Shawano, and Menominee counties that are part of the 鈥淲olf River Batholith,鈥� a complex of mainly granitic intrusions that represent subterranean magma chambers that fed a chain of volcanoes in Wisconsin 1.45 billion years ago. Granites of this same age probably occur in the deep subsurface beneath Appleton and the Lawrence campus (below the layered sedimentary rocks described at the next stop). Long after those granites had crystallized, and the volcanoes above them had eroded away, a Pleistocene glacier must have picked up a chunk and left it near New London, where it caught the eye of members of the class of 1895. For now, we hope, The Rock has no further travel plans.

For more information about the The Rock, read here

Stop 3: Main Hall exterior

Dedicated in 1854, Main Hall is Lawrence鈥檚 oldest surviving building and was the first building in Appleton to be added to the National Register of Historic Places (in 1974). The rock used for its distinctive exterior鈥攊vory-colored dolostone, a cousin of limestone鈥攊s of course far older, though its origins are somewhat elusive.

A 1953 article in the Lawrence alumni magazine marking the centennial of Main Hall stated that the stone had been quarried from the riverbed immediately below campus, an assertion that also appears in Marguerite Schumann鈥檚 1957 history of Lawrence, Creation of a Campus. This was questioned, however, by Lawrence history professor Charles Breunig in his 1995 book, A Great and Good Work: A History of 糖心vlog. Breunig cited documents indicating that the university had paid laborers in the early spring of 1853 to 鈥渨ork at a stone quarry鈥� and 鈥渞epair the road to the quarry,鈥� suggesting a source away from campus.

University archivist Claire Cannell recently located the original stone mason鈥檚 handwritten contract, which . It does not mention the origin of the stone.

Breunig speculated that the stone may have come from quarries at what is now High Cliff State Park on the northeast shore of Lake Winnebago, but the rock there is Silurian dolostone, part of the Niagara series, which tends to be more massive, uniform, and barren of fossils (as you will see at Stop 4). In contrast, the stone on the exterior of Main Hall鈥攁s well as Brokaw鈥攊s flaggy, slightly clayey, and commonly quite fossil-rich.

A variety of fossils can be seen if one examines the rocks closely. Most of the stones in the building were laid with their bedding in horizontal position, so that beds are seen in cross section, and in these stones, it is difficult to discern fossils. Look for larger blocks in which the flat bedding planes face outward; on many of these surfaces, fossils of marine organisms can be found. These include brachiopods (also called lamp shells), stems of crinoids (stalked organisms related to starfish), bryozoa (branching, coral-like creatures) and rare trilobites (extinct arthropods鈥攁nd Wisconsin鈥檚 official state fossil). 鈥淭race fossils鈥濃�攂urrows and crawling tracks鈥攃an also be observed on many of these blocks. This particular assemblage of fossils is typical of rocks of Ordovician age (ca. 450 million years old), which form the bedrock in the Fox Cities area. Similar stone is excavated today at two quarries that were operational in the 19th century: one near the town of Mackville north of Appleton and one near the Fox River in Kaukauna, downstream from the city. It is possible that the Main Hall stone came from one of these, or from a smaller, now-forgotten quarry closer to campus.

A free online guide to fossils in Wisconsin鈥檚 bedrock鈥攊ncluding some seen in the walls of Main Hall鈥�. A bedrock geologic map of Wisconsin is available at:聽聽(On this map, the Ordovician rocks used in Main Hall鈥擲innippee Group鈥攁re shown in green, and the Silurian dolostones of the Niagaran Escarpment are in gray).

Stop 4: Science Atrium

The Atrium connecting Steitz and Youngchild halls hosts a number of geologic features spanning a billion years of geologic time.

The walls display the classic look of Silurian dolostone from the Niagara Escarpment, about 400 million-years-old, a bit younger than Main Hall鈥檚 rocks. These rocks probably came from quarries in the area between Fond du Lac and Milwaukee. Silurian dolostone is used on the exteriors of many other campus buildings including Briggs, Memorial, and Kohler Halls, Mudd Library, the Quad buildings, and the Warch Campus Center. Rocks at Lawrence鈥檚 Bj枚rklunden campus are approximately the same age but were deposited close to an ancient reef complex on the Silurian sea floor and contain abundant fossils, especially corals.

The floor of the atrium is made of feldspar-rich gabbro, a coarse-grained igneous rock, in both polished and unpolished slabs. Although we have not been able to locate records of its source, such stone is quarried in northeastern Minnesota, where, 1 billion years ago, magmas welled up in a great tear in the Earth鈥檚 crust known as the Midcontinent Rift. Some of that magma erupted at Earth鈥檚 surface and formed a thick sequence of lava flows that are exposed today on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, at Copper Falls State Park in Wisconsin, and in the Porcupine Mountains and Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The high density of the gabbros and lavas caused the crust in the region to sag, creating the topographic basin that forms Lake Superior, which holds 10% of all of the planet鈥檚 fresh water.

A sculpture in the southeast corner of the Atrium is labeled 鈥淭ennessee Marble,鈥� though it is technically just a black, organic-rich limestone. This distinctive rock has been quarried at Clinch Mountain northeast of Knoxville and is of middle Cambrian age (ca. 500 million years), making it a bit older than the stone of Main Hall (and about the same age as sandstones at Wisconsin Dells and elsewhere around this state).

Finally, pay respects to the two cycad plants in the northwest and northeast corners. This gymnosperm species has changed little since the Cretaceous Period 80 million years ago and would have been a favorite snack of herbivorous dinosaurs. The LU campus also hosts at least one representative of another Cretaceous species鈥攁 ginkgo tree that stands between Raymond House and Kohler Hall.

Stop 5: Hurvis Crossing

The stone sculptures on either side of the footbridge over Lawe Street are examples of the Shona artistic tradition of Zimbabwe, which has roots as far back as 1200 AD and experienced a renaissance in the 20th century. Geologically, Zimbabwe is a sister to the Lake Superior region鈥攑art of an ancient continental shield with rocks dating from the Archean eon. Although we do not know the exact locations where the stones for these sculptures were quarried, the rocks are probably older than 2.5 billion years. Both pieces were carved from varieties of basalt (although the plaque near the sculpture of the woman with long hair says it is serpeninite).

Stop 6: Warch Campus Center

As you enter the campus center, say hello to more Silurian dolostone on the exterior of the building, and perhaps add a word of gratitude to all dolostones and limestones鈥攃arbonate rocks鈥攆or storing 99% of the carbon dioxide ever exhaled by Earth鈥檚 volcanoes over geologic time. The precipitation of carbonate rocks in shallow ocean environments, most of it by marine organisms, is the planet鈥檚 long-term carbon sequestration scheme. Organisms ranging from scallops, clams, and corals to tiny zooplankton combine calcium ions in seawater with a dissolved form of carbon dioxide to form calcite (CaCO3), thereby locking the gas away in mineral form over geologic timescales. If not for this biogeochemical service, Earth would be a runaway greenhouse planet like its sister Venus. Unfortunately, the process is far too slow to keep up with human-generated CO2 emissions. But we should all thank carbonate rocks for making Earth such a hospitable place for hundreds of millions of years.

We can use the main Campus Center stairway as an analog geologic time scale. If the entry level is the present day, and the base of the stairs outside the Commons represents the formation of the Earth 4.56 billion years ago, then each step represents about 80 million years. So, as your foot leaves the top step, you鈥檝e already passed the beginning of the Ice Age, 3 million years ago. One step down, you are in the middle Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era (80 million years ago), when dinosaurs munched on cycads and ginkgoes. Just before you reach the first landing, you are in the Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era (360 million years ago) when the Appalachians were newly formed. On the landing (step #5), you are in the Silurian (400 million years ago) when the dolostone of the Niagara Escarpment was formed and a coral reef thrived near what is now Bj枚rklunden.

Another step down (#6) takes you to the Ordovician (450 million years ago) when the dolostone of Main Hall was deposited, the seafloor teamed with marine organisms, and the first plants began to colonize the land. One more step (#7) and you have passed through the Cambrian (which began 543 million years ago) when black limestone was deposited in Tennessee and golden sandstones in Wisconsin鈥攁nd animal life burst on the scene in the event called the Cambrian Explosion.

Five more steps down (#12), you have reached 1 billion years ago, in the Middle Proterozoic Era of the Precambrian, when what is now the Lake Superior basin was a seething sea of lava and the rocks of the Science Hall Atrium floor were formed.

Pass the second landing (#24) and go seven more steps (#31); you are now at 2.5 billion years ago, in the Early Proterozoic Era, at the time of the Great Oxygenation Event when free oxygen first arose in the atmosphere (thanks to photosynthesizing microorganisms).

Thirteen more steps down (#44) you are at 3.5 billion years ago, when the Morton Gneiss in the Hiett Hall fireplace formed.

At the base of the steps, you have reached the time of the formation of Earth. Pause for a moment to recover from that journey, and return to the present day. Exit through the doors outside Andrew Commons and descend to the path along the river.

Stop 7: River path

As you start down the path, look left at the hillside behind the metal steps that exit from Somerset Room. As a way to control erosion, the slope has been covered with glacially-transported cobbles (they may be partly covered by vegetation in summer but are nicely visible in spring and fall). The variety of rock types reflects the geologic diversity along the path of the Green Bay ice lobe as it flowed down from Ontario, through the Upper Peninsula and into eastern Wisconsin. See if you can identify rocks encountered earlier on this tour: dolostones, granites, gabbros, and gneisses.

Now walk eastward along the river path. This natural terrace鈥攊t continues west of Lawe Street to the campus garden, the ground level of Briggs Hall and the LU tennis courts鈥攊s the flood plain of the Fox River. In general, it is not a good idea to build on a flood plain, which rivers use as 鈥渙verflow valves鈥� during times of high water. The lower Fox, however, is a highly controlled river, with two dams upstream from campus, one at its outlet from Lake Winnebago in Menasha and the second at Olde Oneida Street.

Following the path downstream (east) you will encounter informational plaques on 鈥淓arly people of the Fox River鈥� and 鈥淭he River in Time,鈥� highlighting the long natural and human history of the river. The Fox鈥檚 geologic evolution shaped human settlement in two important ways. First, by glacial happenstance, the headwaters of the Fox River near Portage lie within only a mile or so of a stretch of the lower Wisconsin River, a major tributary of the Mississippi. This means that the Fox River provides a connection between the Great Lakes and the entire Mississippi watershed, which includes 40% of the area of the continental United States. Long before Europeans arrived in North America, First Nations peoples used the Fox as a route for trade. In the 1840s, a canal was built at Portage making it possible for steamships to travel all the way from New Orleans to Menasha.

The second extraordinary attribute of the Fox is its longitudinal profile鈥攖he change in elevation with distance downstream. Most rivers are steepest in their upstream reaches, and their gradients, or slopes, become gentler toward their mouths. The Fox is the opposite: between Portage and Lake Winnebago, it is a lazy, slow-moving river that drops only 36 feet in 110 miles, for a gradient of 0.33 ft/mile or 0.06m/km. But the Lower Fox from Lake Winnebago to Lake Michigan at Green Bay falls 169 in just 39 miles, a gradient of 4.33 ft/mile or 0.83 m/km. The extraordinary water power of the Lower Fox is what first attracted Amos Lawrence, from a Massachusetts textile milling family, to the area.

The reason for the Fox鈥檚 unusual profile is that the lower part of the river is a relatively recent addition. Until about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age, the Appleton area was under the bed of a great meltwater lake known as Glacial Lake Oshkosh, which was impounded by ice. As the last ice melted and the lake drained, the channel of the modern river was established, and the river began to cut down through the clayey lake sediments to the level of Lake Michigan. The elevation difference between Main Hall Green and the river path represents the erosive work done by the river over the past 10,000 years.

During this same time, small tributaries to the Fox did their best to keep up with the downcutting done by the main river. In Appleton, many of these creeks have now been rerouted underground, and their valleys are used as public green spaces including Peabody, Jones, and Arbutus parks. Lawrence鈥檚 Banta Bowl occupies the channel of one of these 鈥渓ost tributaries.鈥�

Now retrace your steps and return west on the river path, carefully crossing Lawe Street. Stop to visit SLUG, the Sustainable 糖心vlog Garden鈥攁 model for sustainable agriculture, which uses compost from the dining halls to nourish the soil, in a closed loop system that mimics natural biogeochemical cycles. Geoscience students have also used the garden as a test site for a carbon dioxide sequestration strategy in which crushed basalt, a common volcanic rock, is added to soils. Calcium-bearing minerals in the basalt react with CO2 in the atmosphere to form calcite, mimicking the geologic carbon cycle (see Stop #5), and other elements in the basalt help to provide nutrients for plants.

Continue past the back of the Wellness Center to the steps east of Briggs Hall. At the top of these steps, turn right, then immediately left to the mulched area between Sampson House and Youngchild Hall.

Stop 8: Rock pile and geoscience department

Next to the exterior wall of Youngchild, you will find a treasure trove of rocks from all over North America and beyond鈥攕amples collected and studied by geoscience students and faculty but no longer needed. Feel free to take anything that catches your eye鈥攁nd then stop into the second floor of Youngchild Hall to see if any resident geoscientists are on hand to help identify your rocks.

Matt Murphy 鈥�06 of Brooklyn, New York, was among the alumni joining the tailgate party at the Banta Bowl. He called the homecoming celebration 鈥渟pecial and long overdue鈥� and said the timing is ideal as the community comes out of the dark days of the pandemic.

鈥淭he thing that resonates with me the most right now is how exciting it is for our community to come together,鈥� said Murphy, who serves as president of the 糖心vlog Alumni Association (LUAA). 鈥淚t鈥檚 been so long since our community has come together in a meaningful way, and not just the campus community鈥攖o be able to invite the alumni community and families to an event that focuses on joy, fun, excitement, being together, and celebrating is so needed.鈥�

Kaleidoscope, meanwhile, was presented at the Fox Cities PAC for the first time since 2017. First introduced in 2006 and traditionally held every two or three years, it is a full-on musical extravaganza, with nearly 400 students in 11 ensembles performing from all over the PAC鈥檚 Thrivent Hall鈥攐n stage, in the orchestra pit, in the balconies, and in the box seats.

Featuring bursts of music coming from all directions, nearly non-stop for 50 minutes, it provided a showcase of the myriad talents in the Conservatory. The performance concluded with all of the ensembles gathering together on stage for a finale led by a surprise guest conductor, President Laurie Carter.

Brian Pertl, dean of the Conservatory, told the nearly full Fox Cities PAC that Kaleidoscope is a needed re-connection with live music after so many public performances were paused over the past two years. Being able to showcase the breadth of talent among Conservatory students and faculty in one spectacular performance was a sight to behold.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very rare moment in our Conservatory when all of us get to share the stage together and get to enjoy the entire array of all the different kinds of music we make,鈥� Pertl said.

Murphy was part of the first Kaleidoscope as a senior in 2006. He said he is thrilled to see it continue.

鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting as an alum who has been out of college for a good 16 years to see that tradition is alive and well,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e heading toward the culmination of our 175th year. This homecoming weekend, including Kaleidoscope, ties it all together. These are great reasons to bring us all together as a community. This is all about community, and the timing could not be better.鈥�

The introduction of the mascot added some buzz to the weekend. The mascot鈥攖o be named in the coming days via student submissions and a vote of the Lawrence community鈥攚as introduced following a nearly year-long process led by a Mascot Committee made up of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Lawrence鈥檚 nickname remains the Vikings, but the antelope in Vikings gear will make appearances at events across campus, athletics and otherwise. It ties into Lawrence鈥檚 deep history鈥攁n antelope is featured on the familiar Amos Lawrence Family Coat of Arms and is part of the Lawrence Athletics logo that was introduced in 2021.

The mascot brought some energy to multiple events over the weekend. It drew enthusiastic applause from students when it took the stage at Friday night鈥檚 student talent show. And it brought a steady stream of photo ops at the tailgate party before it led the Vikings football team onto the field for the game against Cornell.

鈥淭he goal was to create something that celebrates our Viking identity, aligns with our culture, and is as inclusive and unique to Lawrence as possible,鈥� said Matthew Schmeltzer, director of creative services and a member of the Mascot Committee.

The mascot is an opportunity to have some fun while embracing Lawrence鈥檚 175-year history, a chance to infuse some school spirit into the campus culture.

鈥淭he antelope is a mascot for all, and it鈥檚 a really fun and exciting way to bring the entire campus together,鈥� Schmeltzer said.

Matt Baumler, associate vice president of Alumni and Constituency Engagement, said the bonds built between students and alumni through the weekend will be the foundation to grow and celebrate this tradition.

鈥淪eeing the Banta Bowl and the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center full with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and families were moments of pure joy,鈥� he said.聽鈥淐ountless experiences were shared between alumni and students; between families and their athletes and performers; between faculty and their former students; between all of us.聽These experiences forever unite us as Lawrentians.聽 A new tradition has been formed with Blue & White Homecoming Weekend and I can鈥檛 wait to see how it grows in the future.鈥�

鈥淵ou have ensembles in different places in the PAC,鈥� said Mark Dupere, director of orchestral studies. 鈥淭he large ensembles are on stage and there are groups down in the pit; then we have smaller ensembles in the balconies.”

Each ensemble performance will be brief, the music eclectic and non-stop.

“It鈥檚 like a taster, which is a fun element and is very different than a normal concert,鈥� Dupere said.

Find details of the 2022 Blue & White Homecoming Weekend

Dupere will lead the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra. Other Conservatory faculty will lead the Wind Ensemble, the Viking Chorale, the Concert Choir, Cantala, among others. There will be an opera number, a horn octet, and more.

鈥淭he audience is seated per usual, but the performance aspect is going to be like a collage concert,鈥� Dupere said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like tapas. They鈥檙e not full meals; they鈥檙e little tasters. You have a group here in this balcony, another in this balcony, someone on the stage. It鈥檚 a great effect.鈥�

They will all come together for a grand finale.

The Kaleidoscope concert had been held every two or three years, giving each class a chance to participate. But the pandemic interrupted the schedule, making this the first Kaleidoscope since 2017.

Some students will be performing in multiple ensembles, adding complications to the coordination. Moving from an ensemble on the stage to one in the balcony will require some precision, and a bit of hustle.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the fun thing about this,鈥� Dupere said. 鈥淭he whole performance is showcasing the wide variety, the breadth of the Conservatory and what we have to offer here, and it shows how the students can really flourish performing in different ensembles.鈥�

Tickets are $20 ($15 for seniors, $8 for students). LU discount tickets of $8 are available at the 糖心vlog Box office with an LU ID. Tickets are available from the LU Box Office at 920-832-6749 (聽is open Monday-Saturday, 1-6 p.m., and is located inside the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave.) or from the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center,920-730-3760, .

While Lawrence students have celebrated each fall with Blue & White Weekend, this marks the first time in more than 20 years that alumni and families have been invited to join in a true homecoming weekend. It鈥檚 expected to again become an annual celebration.

鈥淲e are beyond excited to celebrate all things Blue & White with this new Viking tradition,鈥� said Matthew Baumler, associate vice president of Alumni and Constituency Engagement. 鈥淚t will be a celebration of both our success over the past 175 years and the bright future that lies ahead.聽What excites me most, though, is that it will be an opportunity for our full community to come together.聽There is something for everyone鈥攕tudents, faculty, staff, alumni, and families鈥攁nd everyone is invited to join.鈥�

The weekend will include the introduction of Lawrence鈥檚 newest Viking. Watch for details on that shortly.

The four days of events kick off Thursday evening with student competitions, followed by a full slate of activities on Friday鈥攃ampus tours, a president鈥檚 reception, outdoor student games, the annual Vikings Athletics Hall of Fame dinner, a choir concert, and a student talent show.

That will be followed by a Saturday packed with events to connect Lawrentians, including a Life at Lawrence panel, the tailgate party at the Banta Bowl in advance of the football game, the Conservatory鈥檚 Kaleidoscope extravaganza at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, and a homecoming dance in Warch Campus Center.

The celebration closes on Sunday with a farewell brunch and a jazz performance at Warch.

Read more about the much-anticipated Kaleidoscope concert

Kaleidoscope will be among the big draws. First introduced in 2006 and held five more times over the next 11 years, it is an all-encompassing Conservatory performance, showcasing ensembles large and small. Held at the Fox Cities PAC in downtown Appleton, the Kaleidoscope’s nonstop, 75-minute format provides a rapid-fire musical spectrum showcasing the variety and mastery of students attending the Conservatory. It features a wide array of ensembles, from traditional orchestra and jazz ensembles to less familiar wind octets and clarinet ensembles. Music will come from the stage, the balcony, and other spots throughout the PAC鈥檚 Thrivent Hall.

Nearly 400 students in 12 ensembles are taking part.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a real long program, but it鈥檚 kind of like popcorn,鈥� said Mark Dupere, director of orchestral studies. 鈥淵ou have ensembles in different places in the PAC. The large ensembles are on stage and there are groups down in the pit; then we have smaller ensembles in the balconies.”

Each ensemble performance will be brief, the music eclectic.

“It鈥檚 like a taster, which is a fun element and is very different than a normal concert,鈥� Dupere said.

The performance is a nod to the university鈥檚 175-year history and will be a much-anticipated piece of the Blue & White Homecoming Celebration.

Lawrence has been , with the upcoming Blue & White Homecoming Weekend building on momentum from a Founder鈥檚 Day celebration held early in the year, a community picnic that was part of inauguration weekend in the spring, the opening of an , and the display of celebratory banners across campus.

In a convocation that has traditionally served as a kickoff to a new academic year, Carter welcomed the Lawrence community back to campus with a speech titled, 鈥淭ime to Shine.鈥� Faculty processed in full regalia, led by faculty marshal Julie McQuinn, associate professor of music. The Welcome Week Choir, directed by Stephen Sieck and Phillip Swan, co-directors of choral studies, and with first-year student Rebecca Reynolds on flute, performed Hine ma tov.

鈥淭his is a new year鈥攁nd the first in three years in which we return to primarily in-person activity鈥攁nd it is a time for Lawrence to shine,鈥� Carter said.

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Carter applauded accomplishments of faculty, students, and staff over the past year, saluted the perseverance to shine despite 鈥減andemic fatigue,鈥� and thanked trustees and alumni for remaining committed and engaged.

She said the work of the guiding coalitions and the Strategic Planning Committee, and the enthusiastic support of the Board of Trustees, has Lawrence moving forward in four key areas of focus: clarifying and enriching the curricular experience; strengthening the student experience; enhancing institutional sustainability; and supporting a strong workplace culture. The study of data across areas of admissions, enrollment, and financials is helping to guide decisions, preparing Lawrence to thrive amid the challenges in higher education.

鈥淭he data showed that Lawrence continues to hold steady in this challenging and shifting higher education landscape,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e continue to be the top liberal arts university in Wisconsin, but we cannot become complacent. We must improve our position nationally and internationally so that we can continue to attract the best and brightest students of all backgrounds.鈥�

The changes and investments that are coming to support the identified priorities do not move Lawrence away from the liberal arts, Carter said. Rather, they provide an opportunity to lean more fully into the liberal arts.

鈥淚t is about living them out loud,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is about investing in a student-focused liberal arts environment for the students of today and tomorrow. It is about supporting all community members in an environment that provides them with a sense of belonging and embraces excellence. It is about embracing challenges and opportunities by elevating our strengths.

鈥淪o, let鈥檚 acknowledge that we need to increase application numbers, enrollment, and revenue. We have to stem the tide of the Great Resignation. We must improve selectivity without compromising diversity. We must pivot toward a brighter future. Thanks to our devoted trustees, we will spend the next three years investing in our future.鈥�

Carter closed her address with a challenge to the campus community and a nod to Lawrence history as the university continues to celebrate the 175th anniversary of its founding in 1847.

鈥淟et us elevate the arts and sciences, holistically support students, faculty, and staff, and embody a liberal arts education that continues to evolve, as has been the case for 175 years at Lawrence,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd let鈥檚 do it by building bridges, by listening instead of judging, by igniting one another鈥檚 candles rather than extinguishing them. Let鈥檚 join together to light the future with the brilliance of what it means to be a Lawrentian. This is how we will achieve our goals.鈥�

Before they made their way to the Main Hall steps, the students鈥�383 first-year students and 18 transfers鈥攚ere greeted with applause at the arch from members of the Lawrence community and dignitaries from the City of Appleton, Outagamie County, the Appleton Area School District, and the regional business community.

Appleton Mayor Jake Woodford 鈥�13 and Carter joined Lawrence Trustee Susan Long Hall 鈥�76 and her husband, David Hall, in a ribbon-cutting at the arch prior to the procession. The Halls funded the construction of the arch.

鈥淭his is a new landmark that will become part of new traditions for our students and graduates, hopefully for generations to come, and it carries a message to the Fox Cities community that we are here, we are part of this downtown, we are part of this community, and we are excited to welcome newcomers and old friends to our campus,鈥� Carter said.

Lawrence Arch unveiled for campus community

Woodford called the arch a beautiful symbol of the bonds between Lawrence and Appleton.

鈥淥ne of the things that鈥檚 really important about the design of this new arch is that there鈥檚 no gate,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important for all of us to remember that the Appleton community is open to the Lawrence community and the Lawrence community is open to the Appleton community. And together we鈥檙e stronger, more vibrant, and richer for all people.鈥�

Susan Long Hall told those gathered that she was moved to support the arch project because of the way her time at Lawrence shaped her life. She said it was the liberal arts education and related experiences at Lawrence that gave her the tools to shift her focus mid-career, eventually earning a doctorate and launching a business focused on improving reading skills for children.

鈥淭he relationships I had with faculty here is what gave me the confidence to do those things,鈥� she said, calling the investment in the arch a way of paying that forward.

A welcome to campus

The newest Lawrentians arrived on campus Monday, kicking off several days of orientation, including the taking of the traditional class photo on the steps of Memorial Chapel.

During Tuesday鈥檚 President鈥檚 Welcome, senior Malcolm Davis, president of the 糖心vlog Community Council (LUCC), presented the Class of 2026 with their class color鈥攔ed. They assume red from the outgoing class, carrying on a tradition that is a nod to the history of Milwaukee-Downer College, which merged with Lawrence in 1964.

It鈥檚 a tradition, Davis told the incoming students, that鈥檚 part of 鈥渂uilding a sense of unity.鈥�

Chris Clarke, vice president for student life, greeted the students with a message about learning, growing, and being involved. Be an active participant in your student journey, he said.

鈥淏eing a Lawrentian comes with many benefits, as 20,000-plus alumni can tell you,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淏ut these wise and successful alumni will also tell you that Lawrence will challenge you. For if this experience doesn鈥檛 challenge you, it will not change you.鈥�

Move-in Day: Meet the Class of 2026

Peter Blitstein, provost and dean of faculty, said it鈥檚 expected that incoming students will feel a sense of uncertainty and nervousness. That comes with the newness of the experience. But, from First-Year Studies through Senior Experience, he said, Lawrence faculty are prepared to teach, guide, and support you through that journey.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 promise to alleviate all possible anxieties, but I can promise that you鈥檝e joined a community that will support you in a compelling journey of self-discovery and personal development,鈥� Blitstein said.

Carter spoke to the students about the struggles of spending more than half of their high school years in a global pandemic, with the academic experience and most extracurriculars disrupted or disjointed. It is nothing short of 鈥渞esilience and strength鈥� that has brought these students to this point. Be engaged, be involved, and be supportive, she said.

鈥淏ut also remember that it鈥檚 important to take time for yourself,鈥� Carter added. 鈥淲alk along the beautiful Fox River. Watch a movie with friends. Read a good book on Main Hall Green. Anything to ensure that your light is rekindled and tended to along the way.鈥�

Welcome Week has come with the theme 鈥淭ime to Shine.鈥� Senior Preston Parker, a dual degree student majoring in voice and computer science, built on that theme with a performance of This Little Light of Mine.

With the Class of 2026 now moved in, as well as fall student-athletes and international students, the campus is bustling again. The rest of Lawrence鈥檚 student body arrives later this week, with classes beginning Sept. 12.

鈥淲e have been preparing for you to arrive for many months,鈥� Carter said, 鈥渁nd we are so excited for you to experience all that Lawrence has to offer.鈥�