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December 28, 2020

Research

Members of Congress send mixed messages on getting vaccinated

Posted on
ABC News

Quoted: Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin who consulted on guidelines for prioritizing the COVID-19 vaccine for the National Academies of Science, said showing confidence in the vaccine is good reason for elected officials to be vaccinated early in the process. This may be especially true for Republican leaders. A December poll from ABC News/Ipsos showed Republicans were four times as likely as Democrats to say they would never get the vaccine.

“The amount of vaccine hesitancy that has been created in the last 20 years, 25 years is profoundly disturbing and goes deep into our society. So it takes a long time to build up confidence for people, and people who are unsure,” Charo told ABC News.

Biden and the Underseas Cable: Underworld Massive internet cables may already be below water—but they can still drown.

Posted on
Slate

Quoted: Paul Barford, a University of Wisconsin computer science professor and co-author of a study on the effects of climate change on the internet, sounded less worried about cables sinking anytime soon, because of the financial interests of the telecoms firms involved with cables. But he still says planning now is important. From the get-go, “simply assessing what the current state of this infrastructure is would be something that the government could potentially motivate and potentially help to facilitate,” Barford said. And considering how “unbelievably expensive” these cables are, with costs running into “tens and hundreds of millions of dollars,” it would be a boon if the federal government poured in “funding to help facilitate new deployments or to harden current infrastructure.”

Higher Education/System

Forget fairness: Canceling all student debt makes great economic sense for America — here’s why

Posted on
Business Insider

Noted: In this week’s episode of “Pitchfork Economics,” Nick Hanauer and David Goldstein spoke with Fenaba Addo, an associate professor at University of Wisconsin Madison whose research focuses on racial disparities and student debt.

Addo points out that “approximately 45 million borrowers” owe more than $1.5 trillion in college loans. And while a few disingenuous pundits would like to claim that figure is largely made up of people spending above their means to attend overpriced elite institutions, the truth is that only six percent of student loan borrowers owe more than $100,000.

Medical schools see surge in applicants, thanks to “Fauci effect”

Posted on
CBS News

Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison, like others, has had a record number of medical school applicants. Dr. Mary McSweeney, assistant dean of the medical school, attributed the increase to a national sense of purpose.

“After 9/11 there was a huge increase in the number of young people going into the military. And now, we see a physician, Fauci nationally, and [Dr. Jeff] Pothof more locally, two physicians who are inspiring the next generation of young people to come and be part of the solution,” she told Channel 3000, a CBS affiliate in Madison.

The university’s medical school has received 6,400 applications for 176 spots this year, Dr. Sweeney said.

Bond Boom Comes to America’s Colleges and Universities

Posted on
The Wall Street Journal

Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison hasn’t been as fortunate.

Unlike most public universities, the flagship can’t issue debt of its own because of state statutes. It instead participates in the state’s issuance and refinancing of tax-exempt general obligation bonds. Campus administrators have been citing the pandemic in discussions with lawmakers this fall to press for the ability to issue bonds, said Laurent Heller, the school’s vice chancellor for finance and administration.

Among other pressures, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been hit by lost revenue related to room and board and its athletics program, whose 80,000-seat football stadium has been sitting empty since March. It has furloughed staff and made other cost cuts but still expects to have a significant budget shortfall in the fiscal year ending in June, he said.

State news

2020 Staff Picks: Judge Nia Trammell makes history, brings a unique perspective to Dane County Circuit Court

Posted on
Madison 365

Noted: Trammell was born in southern Nigeria but considers herself a Madisonian after living the majority of her life here, she said. She grew up in the Northport Apartments on Madison’s north side before moving to the south side. She graduated from West High School and got her undergraduate and law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said growing up as a Black child in Wisconsin she never visualized or envisioned herself as a judge. She is the first lawyer in her family and the first judge.

He’s served 30 years of a life sentence for killing a man at age 16. Prosecutors say he deserves to get out of prison now.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Torsrud could be the first of dozens of inmates serving life who might get out sooner. The Public Interest Justice Initiative, a joint project between Chisholm’s office and the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, was launched in 2019 after the Remington Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School found that more than half the 128 inmates serving life sentences for juvenile offenses were from Milwaukee County.

Agriculture

Consumer Demand For Butter, Other Dairy Products Remain Strong During Pandemic

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “Pandemic cooking is a real thing,” said Mark Stephenson, head of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Restaurants have used a lot of butter, but we’re seeing greater sales even going through retail now than we did the sum of retail and restaurants before that.”

Community

One of Grafton High School’s ‘most renowned’ graduates and his wife gave $750,000 for athletic facility improvements

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Ted Kellner, a 1964 Grafton High School graduate, and his wife, Mary, made the donation to the district’s Enhancing Our Future athletic complex campaign. While at Grafton, Ted Kellner was an All Conference athlete in football and basketball and a participant in track, baseball, National Honor Society and student council. After high school he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1969, a district news release said.

Arts & Humanities

Health

‘I’m Really Happy This Is Happening’ ER Nurse Gets Coronavirus Vaccine

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Mariah Clark awoke on Dec. 16 to an exciting text message from her supervisor: She would get her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine the next day.

“I knew that we’d be among the first” to get vaccinated, said Clark, whose work as an emergency department nurse at UW Health in Madison puts her in direct contact with COVID-19 patients and elevates her to the top tier of people recommended for vaccination.

“I didn’t think I would be getting it quite so soon,” she said.

UW-Madison medical school applications increase 26 percent amid pandemic

Posted on
NBC-15

UW-Madison admissions representatives say applications are up a record-breaking 26 percent.An incoming medical student says COVID exemplified existing issues in the healthcare field, and she’s ready to combat them. “Becoming a doctor is a really good way to be a catalyst for change within the black community,” Oyinda Fawole, incoming medical student said.

Business/Technology

Obituaries

Szybalski, Waclaw Tadeusz

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Dr. Waclaw Tadeusz Szybalski, a long-time professor at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020.

Ross, Jeanette

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Jeanette Ross, Professor, Emeritus Status, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, died Dec. 21, 2020, at her residence in Madison.

Ross, John E.

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

John Elton Ross, distinguished emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and pioneer in the study of the role of mass communication in environmental decision making, died Dec. 3, 2020. He was 94.

UW-Madison Related