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Dan Erdman
Designing the
Future of the
Union
Although Dan
Erdman does not
feel like an oldtimer,
he admits he
has family ties to
the Union going back over half a
century.
Today, as a member of the Memorial Union
Building Association Board of Trustees and
member of the Design Committee for the
Wisconsin Union building project, he is
working to extend those ties well into the
future.
“I really looked forward as a child to our
family’s regular dinner outing at the
Memorial Union cafeteria,” says the Madison
native. “Back then it was a place for the
Dion Wisniewski:
An Essential Student
at the Union
Dion Wisniewski
views his job as the
student supervisor
at Essentials as an
opportunity to
exercise his
leadership skills and
to interact with the multicultural
student body and Madison
community.
In fall 2007, Dion, a native of Delavan,
Wis., will be a junior majoring in medical
microbiology and immunology. Taking the
advice of a friend, Dion began working at
Essentials in August 2005. After working
whole community, and there were lots of
families dining there. The highlight for me
was definitely the aquarium at the entrance.”
Dan is the youngest child of UW
graduates Marshall and Joyce Erdman. Joyce,
as a student in the 1940s, became the first
woman president of the Wisconsin Student
Association and later served as a MUBA
Trustee. In fact, it was Ted Crabb who asked
Dan to fill the vacancy left on the board
after his mother’s death in 1992.
After graduating from the UW-Madison
in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in art
history, Dan received a master’s of
architecture degree from the University of
Illinois in l986 and moved to San Francisco,
in part to get “away from the family
business.” That business was his father’s
Marshall Erdman & Associates, a nationally
recognized design and building firm in
Madison. While Dan was working for a
small architectural firm in San Francisco, his
father recruited him to help develop and sell
a new furniture system Erdman & Associates
was manufacturing called Techline.
Dan eventually did join the family
business and moved back to Madison in
1991. Today he is back on his own, where
his business pursuits range from designing
two years at Essentials, Dion is now the
student supervisor at the Essentials desk.
When not working for Essentials, he
facilitates two of the training workshops for
new Wisconsin Union employees. One
workshop is Union 101, which is an
introduction to Wisconsin Union
employment. It includes a history of the
Wisconsin Union, a survey of the facilities
and services available at the Memorial
Union and Union South and customer
service training. Another is cashier training
which covers the Wisconsin Union’s cash
procedures.
All the Union employee training
workshops are created and facilitated by
students. The student leaders review and
update the training annually. Mary Hoddy,
the Coordinator for Staff Education and
Training, advises the students conducting
these workshops.
Dion states that the single most
important thing he has learned at Essentials
is how to work with a hugely diverse group
of people. “You work with and serve every
ethnicity of student and staff and the
and building homes, to developing
commercial real estate, to owning a small
neighborhood café.
While an undergraduate at the UW-
Madison, Dan was a volunteer on the
Memorial Union Art Committee and fondly
remembers working with Jan Fox, the
advisor to the Art Committee at that time.
As a Trustee, Dan served as MUBA
representative on the Union Council, where
he was surprised by the students in the
Wisconsin Union Directorate.
“I was amazed at how much time and
effort the students dedicated to their roles at
the Union,” Dan said. “It’s nearly a full-time
job for some of them. And I thought I had a
full schedule as a student!”
As a member of the Design Committee,
Dan is happy to lend his experiences to the
project. He will be involved in planning the
new Union South building and refurbishing
Memorial Union. As Dan aptly puts it:
“This is a huge moment in the history of the
Wisconsin Union, and I am excited to be a
part of it. We all will be helping shape the
future of the Wisconsin Union that will be
around for years to come.”
—Lucy Lloyd
general Madison population. You learn to
be very patient and to handle a wealth of
information about the Wisconsin Union,
the UW-Madison campus and the city of
Madison. It is a great opportunity for
Essentials employees to broaden their
knowledge and awareness of all the
programs and offerings at UW-Madison.”
Essentials is in many cases the first and
most important contact for visitors to the
UW-Madison campus. The Wisconsin
Union embodies the spirit of the University.
It is “essential” these students get it right!
In addition to his work at Essentials,
Dion is a volunteer at Meriter Hospital in
the Emergency Room. After graduating
from college, Dion plans to attend medical
school. Dion is an avid Wisconsin hockey
and football fan and plays the violin in his
spare time.
We thank Dion and all the Wisconsin
Union student employees for their
contribution to the vitality and strength of
the Wisconsin Union and the University.
—Lucy Lloyd
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