I has earned its second national award in three years. Down Beat magazine, the premier jazz publication in the United States, announced the honor in a spring 1998 edition which featured the magazine's annual student music award winners. Other schools in contention have as many as 12 jazz faculty members and offer master's and doctoral degrees in jazz studies, he said, noting that UW-Eau Claire's jazz studies area is made up of all undergraduate students and the university does not offer a jazz studies degree. Participation in jazz ensembles is not required for any degree at UW-Eau Claire, Baca said. It is purely voluntary on the part of students, yet the university has four large jazz ensembles and 18 jazz combos, he said.
Excellence is second nature with our students.