Written by Jordan Ellenberg, a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin and the author of Shape and How Not to Be Wrong.
Noted: At the University of Wisconsin, administrators are acknowledging the mental health difficulties of the pandemic year by urging first- and second-year students to establish healthy coping mechanisms and participate in a 30-day meditation challenge through the Healthy Minds Innovations app (which does not connect students with therapists).
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will require all students, employees and visitors to wear masks when gathering indoors beginning next week, in line with new masking guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from the Milwaukee Health Department.
The university will also require weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated faculty, staff and students who are not 100% online.
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson warned lawmakers Thursday against tying the university’s hands on efforts to prevent COVID-19 transmission on campuses, following a statement from a Republican lawmaker.
State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Wednesday he will move to require UW get approval from the Legislature’s GOP-controlled rules committee before enacting any virus-related requirements. Nass co-chairs the committee, which he said plans to vote Tuesday to block the UW virus protocols without a public hearing.
Noted: When she heard the news, Caitlin Yang, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, took a moment and let the wave of emotion wash over her, alone in her apartment.
Yang, a rising junior and member of the Hmong American Student Association, said Lee’s victory showed that Hmong women could break down gender barriers and defy norms in a culture where parents don’t normally place much importance on athletic achievement.
She hoped Lee’s victory would empower women to “find who they are and what they are capable of and know that they are capable of it,” she said.
’I’m not going to get that year back in terms of learning,’ UW student Charles Shors says about his decision to take a gap year due to COVID-19.
This might be the year for ticks. Or cicadas. But not so much for mosquitoes.
With a long and cold spring earlier this year, mosquitoes didn’t have as much of a chance to ramp up in numbers, said Lyric Bartholomay, a professor in the department of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wiscconsin-Madison.
“I don’t have complete evidence of that, but that’s what I suspect,” she said.
Mosquitoes are pesky, no doubt, but Bartholomay said they’re also integral to the health of local habitats, specifically to birds, bats, ducks and other species that feed on them.
In fact, Bartholomay said that in places where mosquito larvae are well controlled, birds get less protein, which then impairs their own reproduction.
“It’s very likely that (mosquitoes are) really important in a way we under-appreciate,” she said.
Quoted: Keith Findley, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Yamahiro can essentially pick any licensed attorney in the state for the task.
That person will then review all the evidence in the case. They could ask the police for more reports or issue subpoenas as well.
“She or he will then evaluate all of the evidence and determine whether it’s appropriate to proceed with a prosecution,” Findley said.
DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said the more contagious Delta variant combined with the typical conditions of college living meant UW officials should be left to decide which prevention measures are necessary.
Co-sponsors and proponents of the bill spoke Thursday during an Assembly Committee on Health public hearing to urge lawmakers to join the more than one dozen other states in the country that require hospitals to get written and verbal consent from patients before pelvic exams are done under anesthesia for the educational benefit of medical students. Currently, some hospitals rely on general consent forms that don’t specify procedures done for training.
UW Health adopted a policy in 2019 requiring informed consent for “educational sensitive exams.” Previously, UW Health — like most teaching hospitals — received general consent from patients to allow medical students to train during their procedures, but did not specifically mention pelvic exams. The policy is up for review in 2022.
Quoted: Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY the image was misleading.
“Because elections are decided by the votes of actual people rather than the land represented by county borders, it is incorrect to conclude that a state is ‘red’ or ‘blue’ because most of the counties in that state are of the same color,” he wrote in an email. “Many counties in the U.S. have extremely small populations that do not contribute much to the statewide result.”
Noted: The attraction probably wasn’t our recent swampy weather; Gunkel was born and raised in Waukesha County, and went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
