University of Wisconsin System leaders are working on safety protocols that could enable students to return to campus if the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into fall, System President Ray Cross told Regents Thursday.
May 8, 2020
Top Stories
Zoom celebrations, speeches, lights display: UW-Madison gets creative with commencement amid COVID-19 pandemic
Thousands of UW-Madison students in the Class of 2020 imagined the culmination of their college career to end at Camp Randall Stadium. They pictured the moment they’d throw their mortarboards high into the sky and sit in Abe Lincoln’s lap for the quintessential photo opp.
Research
Primatologists work to keep great apes safe from coronavirus
Seven years ago, a respiratory virus swept through the 56 chimpanzees in the Kanyawara community at Kibale National Park in Uganda, where researchers have studied chimp behavior and society for 33 years. More than 40 apes were sickened; five died. “Chimpanzees looked like limp dolls on the forest floor,” coughing and sneezing and absolutely miserable, recalls disease ecologist Tony Goldberg of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It was just horrendous.”
Paul Fanlund: How to think about science in the time of COVID-19
With scientists and science itself seemingly under attack during the COVID-19 crisis, I find myself wondering what Dietram Scheufele thinks.
Higher Education/System
UW Regents waive some admission requirements, continue searching for new president and cautiously plan students’ return to campus
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Thursday held a special meeting Thursday, voting to waive test score requirements for incoming freshman, discussing campus reopening plans and providing an update to the search for the next UW System president.
UW System Estimates $212M In Losses Through Summer Due To COVID-19
Estimates from the University of Wisconsin System Administration Office show the state’s 13 universities and branch campuses are expecting more than $212 million in losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic through the summer semester. The numbers were described as “catastrophic” during a Thursday meeting of the UW Board of Regents.
Bill Berry: The UW System is one of Wisconsin’s best hopes for the future
Sometimes I tell friends here the university keeps us young. More so, these great institutions keep us hopeful. To watch young people come to a UW campus as nervous freshmen and grow into confident, well-educated leaders of the future is an honor of sorts.
Regents: No ACT/SAT required at UW schools (except Madison)
In response to concerns that this may hurt potential UW-Madison applicants, Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the university is working one-on-one with “a very small number of people” who may not have had the opportunity to take the exams. She said the vast majority of applicants were able to do so before submitting applications, which were due Feb. 1.
Cross: UW working on protocols for students’ return in fall
University of Wisconsin System leaders are working on safety protocols that could enable students to return to campus if the coronavirus pandemic stretches into fall, system President Ray Cross told regents Thursday.
UW System prepares for academic program cuts, layoffs as financial losses mount
Cross’ three-part plan entailed the consolidation and specialization of curriculum at individual campuses, the centralization of administrative services and increased usage of online classes.
Campus life
Soyeon Shim is a big picture entrepreneur at the School of Human Ecology
When Soyeon Shim was young, she wanted to be a teacher.
“I’d come home and gather all the kids in the neighborhood and play like we were at school and I was the teacher,” she says.
For a girl growing up in South Korea, there weren’t many other options. “Teacher or nurse,” Shim says. “But in the back of my mind, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.”
State news
DWD: State Unemployment Fund Could Be Depleted By October
That number is “incredibly high,” said Dr. Laura Dresser, associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison think-tank COWS.
Crime and safety
Chancellor Blank makes statement on new Title IX rules
New rules narrow definition of harassment, include schools in legal process.
Agriculture
Dairy Cows Are Being Sent to Slaughter as Demand for Milk Plummets
“It looks like cow numbers are still going up and milk production is still going up, so there’s countervailing forces,” Jared Hutchins, a researcher in dairy economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said by phone.
Athletics
50 in 50: Mark Johnson stars in Miracle on Ice
On any list of the top 50 sports moments in the United States over the past 50 years, Miracle On Ice will inevitably be near the top, if not No. 1.
UW football season ticket holders contemplate renewal
There are many uncertainties surrounding the 2020 college football season. Now, Badger football fans are struggling with a tough decision, whether to renew their tickets with the deadline on Monday.
Opinion
Coronavirus Group Testing Can Help Fight the Pandemic
There is no test fairy. Keeping the curve flat, having gone through so much pain to flatten it, is going to require a level of infection reconnaissance we don’t yet know how to achieve. We’ll need improvements in manufacturing, we’ll need more people to do the tracing work a test can’t, and we’ll need to get more out of the materials we have.For the last of those goals, group testing is a promising way forward.
Jordan Ellenberg (@JSEllenberg) is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin and the author of “How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking.”
UW Experts in the News
Wisconsin Supreme Court justices pledged not to write new law. Could they do that in coronavirus case?
Quoted: “The question I have is why they should be going to court at all,” University of Wisconsin Law School constitutional law professor David Schwartz said. “(GOP lawmakers) are asking the court to basically rewrite this law — to turn it into something much narrower than it is.”
How not to lose the COVID-19 communication war.
COVID-19 has put science in a tricky spot. The good news, as National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt explains, is that scientific expertise is back in high demand: “When the chips are down and everything is on the line and you can be the next person in the hospital bed, it’s the experts that you want to listen to.”
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Apple growers worried about Friday’s freeze forecast, how gardeners can prepare
Quoted: A horticulture expert from UW-Madison explained there are a couple steps home gardeners can take to prepare for the freeze.The first is to take advantage of the warmth during the day and to irrigate. “Water the plants. Water the soil,” Amaya Atucha said.
UW-Madison Related
Ex-Green Beret Behind Venezuela Raid Suspected of Plagiarism
Goudreau’s apparent intellectual property theft was first detected by an anonymous social media sleuth who published his findings under the handle @Z3dster on Twitter.
“That #SilvercorpUSA site is special,” the person wrote.“If anyone was doing business with him, this should’ve raised some serious red flags,” @Z3dster said in an interview on what he said was a burner phone, after first being reached via a direct message on Twitter. He declined to provide his real name or location but said he is a system administrator with a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.