Bridging Campus and Community

Program of the Month: Thursdays at the U

Our Program of the Month for March originates in Rice Lake. Rice Lake Community Media has partnered with UW-Eau Claire Barron County’s campus for the last several years in producing and distributing a weekly lecture series called “Thursdays at the U”. Thursdays at the U features speakers on a variety of topics from Minnesota’s Flag and Conflicting American Dreams to Why Do Birds Sing.

Current coordinator of Thursdays at the U Laura Holden said the program started in 2004 and was open to just faculty and staff. By 2010, the lecture series was opened to the general public. Each week, Thursdays at the U welcomes between 25-150 audience members depending on the topic.

Rice Lake Community Media has been recording and archiving the lecture series since the mid-2010’s. Starting in 2022, the series has been broadcast and livestreamed most weeks and starting in 2023, the program has been captioned after the broadcast. Stories have been shared with both the campus and Rice Lake Community Media that several retirement home facilities around the area set aside time for residents to watch each week’s broadcast and they utilize the captioning to help with those who are hard of hearing to enjoy the program.

 A calendar of upcoming lectures is available on the UW-Eau Claire Barron County website at: https://barron.uwec.edu/business-community/free-viewing-lecture-series/

 Archived lectures are also available at that site and Rice Lake Community Media’s website at ricelaketv.com. Lectures are available on tv as well as livestreaming most Thursdays starting at 12:30pm.