Welcome to The Cupola Post, featuring stories about members of our Pointer family, our campus community and all things related to our Central Wisconsin home.
The Cupola atop Old Main has served as a symbol of our university since 1894. First-year students seal their covenant with the university by touching a wooden replica of the cupola as they depart Convocation, at the start of their journey as Pointers. This hands-on tradition is repeated at Commencement, as graduates mark their transition from students to alumni.
Touching the cupola is a symbol of the lasting connection between UWSP and members of the Pointer family. In much the same way, we hope The Cupola Post reaffirms that connection and helps you “keep in touch” with your alma mater.
Kim Westerman | December 2025
When Mary Cray talks about courage, she doesn’t speak in abstractions. The Riverside, Illinois, resident remembers vividly the day in 1965 when she boarded a plane bound for Alabama to march alongside Dr. Martin Luthe…
Kim Westerman | October 2025
For Emmitt James, BA Arts Management ’15, Stevens Point was more than just a college town — it was the launchpad for a career in music. From the moment he stepped onto campus, James immersed himself in opportunities…
Kim Westerman| October 2025
When Paul Kirby walked across the stage to graduate from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in December of 1978, he carried with him more than a degree. He carried the profound sense that UWSP had given him the…
Kim Westerman | September 2025
For many, the journey to higher education is a straight line. For Howard Pope, it was anything but. A 2004 UWSP Math graduate, Pope’s story is a testament to the value of persistence, creative thinking, and the power…
Kim Westerman | September 2025
The UWSP After Flags Scholarship was established out of a unique connection between UWSP and the entertainment industry and was created by someone who, though not a UWSP alumnus, has maintained deep and lasting ties t…
UWSP Staff | September 2025
The estate of Mary E. Reinhart was generously gifted to the UWSP Foundation upon her passing in 2023. Mary’s father, Harold Reinhart, received his degree in 1924 from what was then Stevens Point State Normal School…
Kim Westerman | September 2025
Dana Zahorik, a self-described “Mama’s girl” in her youth, wanted to go to college at 17 knowing she wanted to be a college counselor. After a high school experience in which she did everything from cheerleading to th…
UWSP Staff | August 2025
The library, at the center of the UW-Stevens Point campus, a place where generations of students pore over resources, lost in thought and the ambition of their own scholarly work. As this place transitions to a new sp…
UWSP Staff | June 2025
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is entering the public phase of its “Discover Your Purpose” comprehensive campaign, announced the UWSP Foundation Board, with the goal of raising $100 million dollars…
Kim Westerman | August 2025
Jake Dickert, newly minted head coach of the Wake Forest University football team in Winston-Salem, NC, is a man on a mission. He was hired, of course, for his winning record, but his work is much broader than his foo…
Kim Westerman | May 2025
This year’s NFL draft was held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 23, 24, 25, and four Point alumni were front and center for the action.
Kim Westerman | May 2025
Steven Salmon arrived at UWSP knowing he wanted to write. Because he had cerebral palsy, this dream wasn’t as simple as setting pen to paper. A history instructor at Madison College had suggested that Point might be…
Kim Westerman | April 2025
When Jay Joseph chose UWSP, it was mostly because he knew he shouldn’t go to a Big 10 school as most of his high school friends had done. As he put it, he needed to “be independent, grow up a bit, and stretch [himself…
Kim Westerman | April 2025
Why did three of the most prominent industrialists of the 20th century — Howard Hughes, Sir Geoffrey DeHavilland and Henry Kaiser — come to Marshfield, Wisconsin? Ask Sara Witter Connor, who has had a front-row seat a…
By Kim Westerman | April 2025
When Kevin Ile, (BS’19 and MBA ’20) and Jordan Stefanik (BS’19 and MS ’21) met as freshman at Stevens Point in 2015, little did they know they’d have a lifetime bond. They played basketball together, watched movies at…
Kim Westerman | March 2025
If you had told Brian Riedel, a graduate of the Athletic Training Program at UWSP less than a decade ago, that in seven years he would be part of a professional sports organization that would win the Stanley Cup, he l…
Kim Westerman | March 2025
In Harlow’s first year in the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance program at UWSP, the phone rang in Jim Moore’s ballet class, and he hollered out for someone to answer it. The caller was the legendary Jerome Robbins…
Kim Westerman | February 2025
Honorable Lawrence P. (Patrick) Auld, United States magistrate judge for the Middle District of North Carolina, faced a dilemma every Mother’s Day when he searched for a meaningful gift for his mother, lifelong teache…
Kim Westerman | February 2025
Ray Ackerlund is a quiet disruptor. An introvert by nature, Ackerlund’s first job out of college was in sales, a field that seemed like a foreign language to him. He now runs the company that offered him his first opp…
Jeanne Nagle | January 2025
Alumnus Tim Kroeff ’75 was already in discussions with College of Natural Resources Dean Brian Sloss about funding a refresh of the Trainor Natural Resources building décor when flooding this past summer damaged a la…
