UW exceeds vaccination rates of some Big Ten institutions with vaccination mandates.
UW-Madison announces 90% of campus fully vaccinated despite lack of mandate
Badger Herald
September 3, 2021
Top Stories
UW-Madison students cautiously optimistic as another pandemic semester starts
Wisconsin State Journal
Excitement was the prevailing theme for Hall and the nearly 8,500 other students moving into UW-Madison dorms this week. Nerves were also on hand, but more often because of typical college concerns — grades, classes and finding one’s way around campus, for example — than reasons related to COVID-19.
Research
Report: For working Wisconsin, ‘new normal’ must mean big changes
Wisconsin Examiner
More jobs, but not a full recovery. Better wages, but fewer unions — and, as a consequence, weaker protections for workers. And gaping inequalities by race and ethnicity.
That’s the picture painted in the 2021 edition of the State of Working Wisconsin, an annual assessment that COWS, a University of Wisconsin research and policy center, has been producing for more than two decades.
COWS Associate Director Laura Dresser acknowledges a widespread urge to get “back to normal” under those conditions.
“But ‘normal’ for low-wage workers has long been unsustainable, leaving too many families struggling to get by,” she writes. “Adding jobs is important, but ensuring strong job quality and supports for low-wage workers is equally important.”
Higher Education/System
GOP divided over whether to push UW System on COVID rules, with Nass digging in and others siding with Thompson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Republicans already appeared divided over how far to go in confronting the University of Wisconsin System — specifically former Governor Tommy Thompson — over setting its COVID-19 policies.
Nass urges legislature to sue UW System over COVID-19 policies
NBC-15
The University of Wisconsin System could soon face a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin legislature over whether university administrators or an Assembly committee have the final say over mask and vaccine restrictions on the UW campuses.
Another Republican says don’t sue UW over COVID-19 policies
Associated Press
Sen. Robert Cowles issued a statement Thursday saying he wouldn’t support a legal challenge. He said tying the system’s hands isn’t in the best interests of local communities or businesses.
Campus life
The end of the ‘student-athlete’
Isthmus
You can see the face of college football changing right there in the Wisconsin starting backfield this Saturday when the Badgers take on Penn State.
UW-Madison students, staff react to high vaccination rates
NBC-15
“I feel pretty comfortable being back in school, especially with the high vaccination rates,” Andrew Geng, a UW-Madison Graduate Student said.
UW reports nine in ten people in campus community are fully vaccinated
Madison365
As of Sept. 1, 88 percent of students are fully vaccinated and 91 percent of students have received at least one dose, verified by either documentation of on-campus vaccination or the upload of off-campus vaccination records, UW said in a press release. The number is based on those students coming to campus for in-person learning.
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences dean at UW-Madison stepping down at end of year
Wisconsin State Journal
Kate VandenBosch, who has served as dean since 2012, will either return to the faculty or retire, UW-Madison spokesperson Greg Bump said. She announced her resignation as dean to give the university time for a national search to launch. An expected timeline for when a new leader would be hired was not available.
State news
Nass says some Republicans have ‘gone soft,’ asks legislative leaders to sue UW over COVID policies
WISC-TV 3
Sen. Steve Nass, co-chair of the Legislature’s rules committee, has threatened to sue system officials if they don’t submit their COVID-19 plans to the committee for approval by Thursday. System President Tommy Thompson has refused to capitulate, saying the system has the right to manage itself.
Arts & Humanities
From HBO/Showtime production to UW Health doctor; how witnessing 9/11 changed her life
WISC-TV 3
Dr. Lisa Arkin, the Director of Pediatric Dermatology at UW School of Medicine, says working with children and their families is what she was put on this earth to do. A career she only discovered after the terrorist attacks in NYC on September 11, 2001.At the time of the attacks, Arkin was working as a story editor for HBO and Showtime. But on 9/11, she was called in for jury duty.
Health
One year later: An update on the UW Health AstraZeneca trial
NBC-15
On September 2, 2020, participants in Dane County became some of the very first to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Jeff Pothof, the Chief Quality Officer for UW Health, was one of them.“It was impossible to predict all the twists and turns that would happen in the next 365 days,” said Pothof.
Athletics
Former Badgers running back upset as Paul Chryst sidesteps disciplinary process
WKOW-TV 27
“Loyal’s disappointed that he didn’t have a chance to go through the process,” Crawford’s attorney, Chris Van Wagner says. “Even though he had involvement in an altercation, he didn’t have the chance to give his side of the story.”
Here’s what to know if you’re going to a Badgers football game at Camp Randall Stadium in 2021
Wisconsin State Journal
Many of the changes Badgers fans will see were inevitable as new technologies move into the in-person game-watching experience. The pandemic, which prevented UW from offering admission in 2020, just advanced the timeline for UW.
Attorney: Badgers football coach Paul Chryst reached out to dismissed running back Loyal Crawford
Wisconsin State Journal
Former University of Wisconsin running back Loyal Crawford said through his attorney Friday that Badgers coach Paul Chryst did reach out to him to discuss the incident that led to his dismissal from the team, but Chryst had the wrong phone number for Crawford.
Athletic discipline procedure supplanted by Paul Chryst’s decision to dismiss Badgers freshman accused of disorderly conduct
Wisconsin State Journal
The University of Wisconsin athletic department established a player punishment policy in 2003 to investigate and hand out discipline when Badgers athletes face criminal charges.
Opinion
Letter to the Editor: UW’s theatre department perpetuates rape culture
Daily Cardinal
I’ve been warned about rapists – one is even a part of the UW-Madison theatre department. And this year, I’ve written this in response to UW-Madison theatre’s sexist play Rashomon as it ultimately supports this rape culture I’ve run from.
UW Experts in the News
The Idea of Reparations Is Not New, But Big Questions Remain
PBS Wisconsin
The making of the racial wealth gap starts with slavery, but University of Wisconsin-Madison history professor Steve Kantrowitz said after the institution was formally abolished, it manifested in other ways.
Many Black Americans could not qualify for Social Security, as jobs typically held by Black workers, such as agricultural and domestic positions, were excludedfrom the program. Black residents also were blocked from getting some home loans and from living in the types of neighborhoods where home values were steady or rising. Such barriers made it nearly impossible for Black people to acquire and accumulate wealth at the rate of white Americans, Kantrowitz said.
“So the end of slavery didn’t mean that, that Black and white people were suddenly on an equal economic, political, civil footing,” Kantrowitz said. “It meant instead that the institution of slavery had been formally abolished, and disabilities that followed from slavery were supposed to be abolished.”