Rubes.

GOLDBERG TEAM SEEKS REPEAT

We’ll know on March 26 if Stout is destined to repeat as Rube Goldberg champions as they defend their title in the national championship at Purdue University. Last year’s Egyptian-themed machine has been replaced by a southern bayou mansion, and this year’s many-stepped task to accomplish is watering a plant.

NORTH HIGH BAND’S GOOD WILL MISSION TO NEW ORLEANS

This year the North High School Band is packing up two buses and heading down to New Orleans on March 18. The band will head to one of the oldest neighborhoods in the French Quarter and perform at McDonough High School. The 93 students will play for the high school, and then head outside with their eight chaperones to begin landscape and painting work on the McDonough’s property. The neighborhood is still feeling the effects of flooding from Katrina, and each person will do their part by spending four hours on the exterior of the school. The band takes a major trip every other year, and this year is an even better experience since the students get to give back to the community they are touring.

HUTCHINSON PLANS MORE CUTS

Eau Claire’s workforce is looking like it’ll take a hit in the near future, as Hutchinson Technology announced restructuring plans that will likely mean eliminating at least 200 jobs at the Eau Claire branch. The Hutchinson, MN-based company’s big-picture plan is to reduce the 2,275-person workforce by 30 to 40 percent and move the assembly operations to Thailand. These reductions are intended to profit the company, reducing costs by $45 to $60 million a year, but it also means cutting about 700 to 900 domestic jobs. The cuts could begin as early as the end of March.

STOUT BECOMES MASTERS OF THE DESIGN UNIVERSE

Stout recently received approval from the Board of Regents to offer a Master’s Degree program in Design. This will be the 18th masters-level program offered by Stout, which also has 40 undergrad programs, and their first so-called terminal degree. But the biggest deal is that, along with already having a strong design program (with about 900 students right now), Stout will be the only school in the UW System to have a master’s for it. Ray Hayes, interim dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, said the program will be offered through a hybrid model that combines standard on-campus curriculum delivery with flexible online, weekend, and late-day options, to accommodate the working professional. The program will begin in January 2012. For more info, go to UWStout.edu/programs/mfad/.