As students return to campus for the fall semester, colleges are taking measures to protect students, physically as well as mentally, from the pandemic and its effects.
Back on campus, COVID-19 challenges students’ mental health
The Capital Times
September 2, 2020
Top Stories
Research
UW Health vaccinates first participants in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial Wednesday
WISC-TV 3
UW Health and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is starting to vaccinate the first participants in the AstraZeneca COVID-19 clinical trial Wednesday.
UW partners with biotech company to develop COVID-19 vaccine
Badger Herald
’There’s no one out there doing anything like this,’ spokesperson of biotech company said.
Higher Education/System
Deborah Birx touts masks in Wisconsin as conservatives try to throw out the state’s mask mandate
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Birx was in Madison to talk to Wisconsin officials and health care representatives about COVID-19 as part of a tour of states. Among those she met with was Tommy Thompson, the University of Wisconsin System president whom she knows from his time as health and human services secretary under President George W. Bush.
“I think he has taken a very serious and public-health approach to this,” Birx said. “He has a plan for surveillance testing, he has a plan for surge testing … and I think equally importantly, he has a plan for caring for students who become positive.”
She suggested that could help UW avoid the problems of colleges that have seen clusters of cases once students arrived on campus.
Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson talks college campuses amid pandemic
WISC-TV 3
Wednesday is the first day of classes for University of Wisconsin campuses. UW-Madison has tested about 15% of its students and staff on campus for COVID-19.There have been 124 positive results, about the same number off campus.
UW System Begins In-Person Classes As Outbreaks Drive Other Major Universities Online
Wisconsin Public Radio
Tens of thousands of students started classes Wednesday at most University of Wisconsin System campuses, just months after concerns about COVID-19 led administrators to send them home to take courses online.
Campus life
UW-Madison students prepare for semester with skepticism
WKOW-TV 27
Classes at UW-Madison will start Wednesday, but some students think they’ll be sent home soon. “I’d give it a month, maximum,” sophomore Daniel Sendelbach said Tuesday afternoon.
UW-System schools set expectations for residence halls, COVID-19 enforcement
NBC-15
There are a few rules that every student is expected to follow. Firstly, every resident will be tested every two weeks. UW-Madison Housing Dir. Of Communications Brendon Dybdahl said everyone living in a dormitory on campus was tested for COVID-19 on move-in day.
Community
What new police accountability measures would mean for Madison: An interview with Matthew Mitnick
Daily Cardinal
Mitnick, a UW-Madison student and former candidate for the Madison City Council, is a current member of the Madison Public Safety Review Committee.
Athletics
Trump talks to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren about starting football season ‘immediately’
Wisconsin State Journal
Ahead of his visit to Kenosha on Tuesday, President Donald Trump tweeted he’d spoken to Big Ten Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren about starting the football season “immediately.”
Opinion
Column: For everyone’s safety, UW must revert to fully online courses for fall semester
Badger Herald
UW’s response to the ongoing pandemic is insufficient, university must consider revising Smart Restart plan for upcoming semester.
UW Experts in the News
Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today
The New York Times
These experiments follow a long history of scientists openly testing vaccines on themselves and their children, but they have become less common in recent decades, according to a medical historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What is ‘herd immunity’? Can it fight COVID-19?
NBC-15
Quoted: As explained by Jeff Pothoff, the chief quality officer at UW Health, the herd immunity approach assumes that people who get infected with COVID-19 develop antibodies preventing re-infections. Currently, experts aren’t completely sure how long antibodies can last.
Madison City Council approves years-in-the-making civilian oversight for police
Wisconsin State Journal
But UW-Madison law professor Keith Findley said civilians need help accessing the PFC’s process for disciplining officers because it’s complicated and officers usually have legal counsel while residents do not.
Obituaries
LaCroix, Richard Lee
Wisconsin State Journal
Richard’s first position was a management role with UW-Extension at Ashland and Spooner Agricultural Research Stations. Thereafter, he served in Calumet and Fond du Lac counties as a Dairy Agent.
Baumgartner, Lawrence Edward
Wisconsin State Journal
Larry spent most of his working years at UW Madison. He started in the mail room and worked his way through many positions, because every few years he wanted something new and challenging. His last campus position was working in heating and cooling at Biotron Laboratories.
UW-Madison Related
Virologist Explains His Quest To Track Down The Origin Of COVID-19
The Federalist
Latham holds a master’s degree in crop genetics and a Ph.D. in virology. He was subsequently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In addition to having published scientific papers in disciplines as diverse as plant ecology, plant virology, toxicology, genetics, and genetic engineering, Latham is the director of the Poison Papers project, which publicizes documents of the chemical industry and its regulators. Recently, I interviewed Latham to discuss his work on COVID-19.