As a professor for 49 years, at one of the UW System’s two-year campuses, I would like to answer President Thompson’s question with a resounding NO! Please, leave the two-year colleges alone! Give our new relationship with the four-year campuses time to grow.
February 25, 2021
Higher Education/System
Budget breakdown: What is in Gov. Tony Evers’ proposals for the UW?
Gov. Tony Evers delivered his $91 billion budget proposal last week, including $191 million in new investments in the University of Wisconsin System over the 2021-2023 biennium.
Campus life
How ‘Thin Blue Line’ became controversial symbol of the police
The image was banned by the police chief at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department for officers on duty. Chief Kristen Roman said in an email to staff in January that the symbol has been “co-opted” by “extremists.”
ASM discusses UW lobbying accusations, endorses QLaw FASO statements
ASM also introduced legislation condeming RecWell, Wisconsin Union’s request for additional segregated fees for students.
UW Frozen Meals Program expands to UW Hillel, aims to address food insecurity in pandemic
’Food insecurity is potentially a big factor for a lot of students currently because of the pandemic, so we’re hoping to continue to be a good campus partner in this program,’ UW Housing registered dietitian says.
New legislation from ASM denounces xenophobic and transphobic groups, supports COVID-19 vaccine efforts
The Associated Students of Madison on Tuesday voted to endorse two statements from student organizations denouncing xenophobia and transphobia on campus.
UW addresses COVID-19 false positives as students discuss concerns, frustrations
The university says that the chance of a false positive COVID-19 test result is extremely low, as both the saliva-based and nasal swab testing options utilized on campus are polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and considered the “gold-standard” of coronavirus tests.
High school seniors experience virtual UW-Madison recruitment events
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has created virtual events. These events provide resources and information for perspective students to access.
State news
Tension is growing in the Wisconsin State Capitol as some Republican lawmakers refuse to wear face masks
Quoted: “Indoor settings with prolonged exposure present the greatest risk for transmission, hence why universal masking is particularly important – even if the individuals are immunized,” said Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute.
Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s preventive medicine residency program, said if lawmakers who choose to go maskless are vaccinated against COVID-19, then the risk is lower.
“One obvious question for people not wearing masks is whether they have been vaccinated. If they have, then it seems to be a reasonable thing to do,” Remington said. “That is, the vaccine provides sufficient protection to significantly reduce the risk of becoming sick or getting others sick.”
Crime and safety
Former UW football star sues over 2018 expulsion
Cephus was expelled, reinstated following sexual assault allegation, trial.
Health
‘We’ve definitely been busy’: UW-Madison adds contact tracers spring semester as testing expands
The University of Wisconsin – Madison’s University Health Services has a team of about 100 contact tracers, roughly double that of last semester, according to registered nurse Carlotta Soeder.
Athletics
Lions WR Quintez Cephus sues Wisconsin over 2018 expulsion
Cephus was suspended from the Badgers football team in August 2018 and was expelled from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for violating its nonacademic misconduct code as part of a Title IX investigation following his arrest on second- and third-degree sexual assault charges.
Opinion
Is it possible to have safe and equitable elections?
Holding elections in the coming years will not be simple but it is within our grasp to have a safe and uneventful elections. Using proven scientific methods is the path to improvement.
Dr. Laura A. Albert is a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Barry C. Burden is a professor of Political Science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW Experts in the News
Picture a deserted downtown
Denia Garcia, a UW–Madison sociologist whose specialty is race and ethnicity. The answer is that immigrants are a self-selected group. They have the resources and motivation to uproot themselves for a foreign shore. Often, they move to the U.S. to provide better opportunities for their children. Social networks of kin and friends are extraordinarily helpful in navigating their strange new world, including its prejudices, Garcia points out.
2020 Was Good For Meat Sales. But Pandemic Demand Stretched Small Processors Thin.
But according to Jeff Sindelar, meat specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, higher meat prices and empty store shelves weren’t simply due to problems with production. Just like toilet paper and hand sanitizer, consumers who don’t normally buy ahead were stockpiling meat in their home freezers.
Lone high-energy neutrino likely came from shredded star in distant galaxy
As for the future, “We might only be seeing the tip of the iceberg here. In the future, we expect to find many more associations between high-energy neutrinos and their sources,” said Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not directly involved in the study. “There is a new generation of telescopes being built that will provide greater sensitivity to TDEs and other prospective neutrino sources. Even more essential is the planned extension of the IceCube neutrino detector that would increase the number of cosmic neutrino detections at least tenfold.”
Expanding tax credit could lift millions of kids out of poverty
“So it’s going to go up from $2,000 to $3,000 for all children, and then an additional $600 for young children,” said Katherine Magnuson, who runs the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin lawmakers introduce bipartisan effort for ranked voting in federal elections
UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said ranked-choice voting systems, such as the proposed bill, removes some power that parties have in choosing their nominees for office because there would no longer be partisan primaries.