The University of Wisconsin System will not cooperate with legislative efforts to control campuses’ COVID-19 policies, interim System President Tommy Thompson said Tuesday in his strongest rebuke of Republicans to date.
August 25, 2021
Top Stories
UW System Refuses To Submit COVID-19 Safety Restrictions For Republican Approval
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson says he will not comply with an order from Republican state lawmakers to submit COVID-19 safety restrictions and requirements for their approval. Thompson said he doesn’t think the state Legislature will sue over the matter but said if it goes to court he’s confident the UW will win.
Research
UW-Madison further commits to the study of psychedelics
After years of research, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is finally launching a new center for its ongoing studies into psychedelic compounds.
New book explores the unique opportunities and challenges facing Hmong American media
One day pre-pandemic, Lori Lopez, a UW-Madison associate professor of media and cultural studies, joined a Hmong teleconference call with more than 1,000 listeners.
The call was not a meeting or presentation, but a live call-in radio program where people could share their stories, listen to conversations or get news about their community.
She said it was a radio station — without being a radio station.
“I was like Hmong people are being really entrepreneurial and coming up with all sorts of really cool media solutions to the fact that they’re such a small community and they can’t really have a traditional media structure,” the director of the Asian American Studies Program told Madison365.
Now, seven years later, she released her book titled “Micro Media Industries: Hmong American Media Innovation in the Diaspora” on Aug. 13.
For the sake of rural science students in Wisconsin, we have to get broadband right
Noted: One of the best examples demonstrating both the limitations and the potential of broadband for science is our collaboration with the Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Each summer, Morgridge holds a series of Rural Summer Science Camps designed to expose students from isolated settings to some of the world’s top scientists who lead them in cool experiments on campus. They are exposed to exciting ideas and the joy of science. Most importantly, kids walk away from these camps with the confidence in knowing “I can compete at this level.”
Higher Education/System
Tommy Thompson says UW System will enact COVID-19 policies without legislative approval
UW System interim President Tommy Thompson won’t be deterred by Republican lawmakers who say he needs their approval to enact COVID-19 regulations on campuses, he said Tuesday.
Tommy Thompson: I have no plans to cede UW COVID policies to lawmakers
Column by interim UW System president Thomnpson: The University of Wisconsin System owns a critical responsibility to open our classrooms this September to deliver the in-person education students deserve and parents expect. And we are planning to do just that. Unfortunately, some want us to ignore our unambiguous authority and duty under Wisconsin law to protect the “health, safety, and welfare of the university.”
Wisconsin Colleges, Universities Using Federal COVID-19 Relief To Pay Off Student Debt
As the fall semester approaches, more Wisconsin universities and colleges are looking at ways to reduce debt that could keep students from continuing their education.
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee announced Friday they had forgiven more than $5 million in outstanding balances owed by students from the 2020-21 school year.
‘Get out of my way’: Tommy Thompson says UW won’t submit COVID-19 safety policies to lawmakers for approval
Republican leaders have said they’ll be filing a lawsuit in an attempt to force UW and the former Republican governor to comply.
‘If they sue us, we’ll fight it’: Thompson says UW System moving forward with pandemic rules
A defiant Thompson said repeatedly during a call with statewide media he believed the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR), which sets policy for state agencies, does not have the legal authority to dictate how the university system enacts rules that address campus safety.
UW System, lawmaker trade shots in COVID-19 policy battle
The war of words between the University of Wisconsin System and a Republican lawmaker heated up Tuesday after System President Tommy Thompson told lawmakers to “get out of my way.”
State news
Wisconsin Businesses Step Back From In-Office Work Plans As COVID-19 Delta Variant Spikes
Quoted: Steve Deller, an applied economics professor with University of Wisconsin-Madison, said for some businesses, not leasing office spaces has allowed them to bring down operating costs.
“I think three things are happening: a lot of businesses are embracing telecommuting as an alternative to maintaining office spaces; businesses are allowing greater flexibility for some of their workers to continue to telecommute; and finally, some workers are still uncomfortable returning to the office,” Deller said in an email.
But Deller said it’s “too soon to tell” whether shifts to remote work will continue in the long term.
Community
Big Brothers Big Sisters partners with UW to distribute more than 200 backpacks at Back to School event
Littles in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and their families got to see the UW campus, meet new UW Athletic Director Chris McIntosh, watch UW football and volleyball practices and get a backpack full of school supplies on Aug. 21 at the Big Brothers Big Sisters Back to School event held in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Health
Healthcare Workers Join Indigenous Activists Protesting Line 3
Noted: We discuss the public and mental health ramifications of climate change and climate advocacy among health professionals with Dr. Claire Gervais.
Claire Gervais, MD is a family practice physician and is a Clinical Associate Professor with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a member of the Wisconsin Environmental Health Network and actively works on a number of environmental issues including climate change and eliminating fossil fuel dependence.
Athletics
Big Ten’s alliance with Pac-12, ACC seeks to address ‘turbulence’ in college sports
The alliance announced Tuesday by commissioners of the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC pulls the college conferences together on scheduling, NCAA governance and athlete welfare issues.
Opinion
Ivermectin for Covid-19: abundance of hype, dearth of evidence
Ivermectin proponents haven’t been content to wait for that research. In striking testimony before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in December 2020, Pierre Kory, a critical care physician who formerly worked for the University of Wisconsin Health University Hospital, described the “immense potency” of ivermectin, characterizing it as effectively a “miracle drug.” “All studies are positive,” he testified, “with considerable magnitude benefits, with the vast majority reaching strong statistical significance.”
UW Experts in the News
A native plant designer?s memoir reflects on a life in the field
The topography of the Midwest was always in his DNA — he grew up a farm boy in southwestern Iowa — but it wasn’t until he arrived at the University of Wisconsin at Madison as a graduate student that he began to see what was lost and how to revive it in some measure.
Obituaries
Ekleberry, Jo Ann
She found family in her career as a histologist at the UW-Madison Neurophysiology Department, where she worked for 37 years.
UW-Madison Related
Wisconsin’s Taylor Amann was eliminated on ‘American Ninja Warrior’ in the semifinals. Here are her future plans.
Noted: “I had a lot of close calls,” said the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate. “But I ended up making it to the fifth obstacle, which is not bad.”