“The children that we’re talking about are oftentimes children who really for their day-to-day care need a lot of hands on, support, wearing a mask might be really difficult and maintaining three feet of distance or six feet of distance might be almost impossible,” Division Chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Dr. Ryan Woller said.
October 25, 2021
Research
Dane County judge temporarily bars Wisconsin’s wolf hunt, orders DNR to set quota of zero wolves
Noted: Researchers and conservation groups have feared the February wolf hunt and the fall season could dramatically reduce the number of wolves and threaten the sustainability of the state’s population. A recent University of Wisconsin-Madison study concluded that hunters and poachers might have killed a third of the wolf’s population since the animal’s delisting.
Yes, There Has Been Progress on Climate. No, It’s Not Nearly Enough.
Quoted: “We know there are these big tipping points in the climate system, and once we get past them, it’s too late to go back,” said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison who co-authored a study finding that a 3 degree trajectory could lead to an abrupt jump in the rate of Antarctic melt as early as 2060.
Higher Education/System
ALERT TOP STORY Gateway officials outline plans for new associate’s degree programs, reduce 2021-22 tax levy
Noted: Gateway officials announced plans to introduce the pair of university-friendly programs at the beginning of the year, and multiple steps had to take place, including approvals from the local District Board, as well as state-level approvals from officials within the Wisconsin Technical College System and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.
Students taking either of the associate’s degree programs will be able to seamlessly transfer their 60-credit degrees to four-year schools within the University of Wisconsin System and apply them to bachelor’s degrees.
Campus life
Homecoming festivities return to UW-Madison
UW-Madison’s homecoming week kicks off Monday, and the university has a variety of events planned throughout the week leading up to Saturday’s football game against Iowa.
Check out the drawings of new Camp Randall club seats as Badgers plan groundbreaking
Renovations to the south end zone seating at Camp Randall Stadium are scheduled to start in a month, and the University of Wisconsin has put some of the new premium seats on sale to the public.
‘It’s time for someone else’: Chancellor Blank meets with student newspapers for one last annual address
Reflecting back on her tenure, Blank is especially proud of the strides of Bucky’s Tuition Promise, which grants free undergraduate tuition to hundreds of Wisconsin students annually, as well as record-breaking class sizes and increased diversity on campus.
Moving on: Blank reflects on challenges of her chancellorship and where UW goes from here
“There is a sense after nine years in one job that you get a little stale, you know, you get a little jaded about some things,” Blank said. “And it’s been a wonderful place, but I do feel like you go through a five- to 10-year agenda, and either then you’re going to really develop a whole new agenda or it’s time for someone else.”
State news
Wisconsin’s Place in Supply Chain Delays
Jake Dean, director of the Grangier Center for Supply Chain Management at UW-Madison, discusses why the flow of consumer products has slowed across the nation and how it is affecting Wisconsin.
How dry was the 2021 growing season?
Noted: Joe Lauer is an agronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Madison Agronomy and UWEX state corn specialist
Wisconsin apple orchards seeing a shortfall this year
Quoted: For many growers and researchers, this points to one thing.
“That is definitely the expression of climate change,” said Professor Amaya Atucha, a fruit crop specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She said increasingly extreme variability in temperature and precipitation is making it difficult for fruit trees to thrive.
Agriculture
Check runoff risk before spreading manure
Quoted: “About 31% of preventable transportation-related manure spills are due to operator error,” said Kevin Erb, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension conservation professional training program director. “An accidental spill is not illegal, but failing to properly report and clean it up is.”
Community
‘Sisterhood of traveling scarves:’ Breast cancer survivor shares her special pay-it-forward effort
A breast cancer survivor found a special way to help other women cope with the debilitating illness through a special scarf sharing project.
UW Madison professor Emerita Gloria Ladson-Billings said she discovered scarves after chemotherapy left her with hair loss.
“And in some ways, I didn’t think anything about it, except I’m going to do for me; I’m going to wear a scarf,” Ladson-Billings said.
Athletics
Colin Kaepernick Netflix series: A call from ‘Coach Alvarez’ and 4 other Wisconsin moments of Ava DuVernay’s ‘Colin in Black and White’
Noted: During his senior year, he waits for offers from prospective college football programs, including one from the University of Wisconsin. (His father playfully warns him that, if he goes to Wisconsin, he’ll be “surrounded by line dancing and cowboy boots.”)
Then, he gets a call from “Coach Alvarez” — presumably Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin’s football coach and athletic director at the time. As the actor playing Colin gets on the phone, Kaepernick himself interjects: “This moment right here? This is one of the happiest moments of my life.” Then he finds out that Wisconsin isn’t going to make him a signing offer, either.
Alvarez retired as coach after the Capitol One Bowl on Jan. 2, 2006. Current Badgers coach Paul Chryst handled quarterback recruiting for Wisconsin that year. In February 2006, Kaepernick signed an offer with Nevada, the only school to make him one for football.
UW has sold out many premium seats that will be part of new south end zone in Camp Randall. Ground-breaking set for next month.
University of Wisconsin officials had to delay the renovation of the south end zone at Camp Randall Stadium by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UW Experts in the News
UW Health gives safety tips for trick-or-treaters this year
“Kids are more than twice as likely to get hit by a car and killed on Halloween night,” UW Health Kids’ Rishelle Eithun said. “We need to be more mindful.”
Halloween spending expected to hit record high this year
UW Madison Consumer Science Professor Cliff Robb says it’s likely more people are planning to host or attend events this year. Another reason for the increase he says is more adults without children are celebrating Halloween.
The Amish in Wisconsin
Noted: Shereen Siewert welcomes University of Wisconsin Professor Mark Louden, director of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies. Louden is an interpreter and cultural mediator for Amish and Old Order Mennonite groups in the legal and health care systems. They discuss the history and cultural heritage of Amish Country in Wisconsin, debunk common myths and learn about the Amish community.
UW-Madison Related
UW-Madison turns to real estate development as new potential revenue source
The UW Board of Regents earlier this month approved a general framework agreement allowing UW-Madison to sell its land to University Research Park, which would in turn lease the land to developers to build housing, retail or commercial space. Revenue from rent would flow into an endowment, a percentage of which UW-Madison would receive each year for university operations.
A Banking Regulator Who Hates Banks
Noted: “I was an undergraduate student at Moscow State University and there was at the very end of the Gorbachev era an exchange program between Moscow State and University of Wisconsin Madison,” she told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. She attended Madison for a semester in 1991 and while there “the Soviet Union fell apart. So there I was, a student without anywhere to go back.”
Vision mission: Madison nonprofit brings door-to-door eye exams to rural India
Noted: Combat Blindness International was founded in 1984 by Rajpal’s father, Suresh Chandra, an ophthalmologist and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus. Before founding the organization, Chandra traveled the developing world — including his home country of India — performing complex, technologically advanced retinal surgeries and training other doctors to do the same.