Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Friday, July 25, 2008

KJ Lang: Traveling the U.S. to put Viterbo on the map

By KJ Lang / La Crosse Tribune

In the past year, Rick Walters, Viterbo’s theater department chairman, has visited Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, New York and California.

The goal? Attracting cream-of-the-crop theater students.

“There is a really excellent theater program here, and we would like to have the highest possible caliber theater student in the program ... so we go in search of that,” Walters said.

He compares effort to that of sports teams.

“All the sports programs, they want the best athlete, so you have to go out and sort of arm wrestle the other universities for them,” he said.

Walters said Viterbo is in the infancy of making its theater department nationally known.

One way it is doing that is through the Unified Auditions, which Viterbo participated in for the first time last year, Walters said. These auditions bring together schools across the county that offer bachelor of fine arts programs in theater and conduct simultaneous auditions and interviews for entry into their programs.

Being invited to join the Unified Auditions was an opportunity to meet talented students at a reasonable cost, increase recruitment of more diverse students and provide Viterbo more visibility in metropolitan regions, said Rick Artman, Viterbo’s president.

“This is one of a number of ways we plan to strengthen the program, grow enrollment of very talented students and put Viterbo on the national map, thus increasing career opportunities for our graduates in the field,” said Artman.

Viterbo ended up recruiting seven students at the Unified Auditions. Walters estimates that about 50 percent of theater students come to Viterbo after learning about the school at one of the its recruitment events across the country.

“We believe we have a theater program that is worthy of national distinction,” said Walters. “The only way you can move in that direction is if you actually reach out beyond your local area and start to become known to a broader audience.”

While Viterbo doesn’t have a lot of money to market itself nationally, it can make some of these important face-to-face visits, Walters said.

And it gets results. Walters sees more students adding Viterbo to their list of schools of choice along with other schools with nationally established theater reputations, such as the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind., Webster University in St. Louis and Roosevelt University in Chicago, Walters said.

“Sometimes we win that little dance and sometimes we don’t,” he said.

Regardless, being on the list is a move in the right direction, he said.

KJ Lang can be reached at (608) 791-8226 or klang@lacrossetribune.com.