The University of Wisconsin System early this year came out against a mandate, a stance that frustrates some students and staff who believe a requirement would not only provide a much safer environment for working and learning but also increase overall vaccination rates. The System instead requires unvaccinated students to test regularly. It has also incentivized students to get the shot by offering $7,000 scholarships to 70 vaccinated students enrolled at a campus that reached a 70% vaccination goal by Oct. 31. At UW-Madison, which did not participate in the incentive campaign and does not have a mandate, 95% of the student body is vaccinated, far and away the best outcome statewide among responding campuses that followed neither route.
November 15, 2021
Top Stories
Research
After more than 40 years, UW-Madison map project is nearly finished
After more than 40 years of extensive research, UW-Madison’s History of Cartography Project is nearly complete. We talk with the director of the plan about the contents of the six-volume set, what he hopes people gain from the project, and his love for maps.
Campus life
Two candidates make it as finalists for Chief Information Security Officer position at UW
Two finalists, Jeffrey Savoy and Damon Armour, have been selected for final on-campus interviews for the chief information security officer position. Savoy previously served as the interim chief information security officer at the University of Wisconsin Office of Cybersecurity, and Armour was the director of information security and risk and assurance at North Carolina State University.
UW faculty, student organizations celebrated Veterans Day
The events began with a 6 a.m. run and potluck, followed by a veterans recognition gathering 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. The gathering included remarks from the Color Guard, Marine Corps veteran Lorence Ayag and Director of Veteran Services Joe Rasmussen.
State news
UW Health says people who want an organ transplant must get COVID-19 vaccine
Hospitals in Wisconsin and across the country have implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their staff. Now, UW Health Hospitals is requiring some patients to be protected against the disease as well.
Republicans are trying to gerrymander Wisconsin again. Partisans shouldn’t have the power to warp our elections.
Written by Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of a new book “Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything Else,” Penguin Random House, May 2021.”
Crime and safety
24 people arrested, including 22 students, during UW game against Northwestern
Twenty-four people were arrested, including 22 UW students, during Wisconsin football’s 35-7 win against Northwestern on Saturday, UW-Madison police said.
Athletics
Badgers fire men’s soccer coach John Trask after failing to top .500 for 3rd straight season
The University of Wisconsin fired men’s soccer coach John Trask on Friday after the Badgers failed to post a winning record for the third consecutive season. Trask is in the final year of a three-year contract after it wasn’t extended by the Badgers in the last two seasons.
UW Experts in the News
In Scrutinized Kyle Rittenhouse Trial, It’s the Judge Commanding Attention
“Anytime a judge opens his or her mouth while on the bench, that’s just another opportunity for an appellate attorney to use that down the line as evidence of the judge making a mistake,” said Steven Wright, a clinical law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been following the trial.
UW Health gives deer hunters gun safety tips
“We do still want to take precautions when it relates to COVID-19,” Dr. Jeff Pothof said in a statement Monday, “and make sure we are mindful of tree stand safety, firearm safety, and our physical conditioning.”
Explainer: Could jury weigh lesser charges for Rittenhouse?
Adams said prosecutors most likely will seek second-degree versions of the intentional homicide charges. Such charges could apply if jurors determined that Rittenhouse sincerely believed his life was in danger but used an unreasonable amount of force, University of Wisconsin-Madison criminal law professor Cecelia Klingele said. Second-degree reckless endangerment could apply if jurors found that he put someone in harm’s way but did so without showing utter disregard for human life, she said.
Law professor discusses Kyle Rittenhouse trial with closing arguments set to begin Monday
Closing arguments are set to begin Monday in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys were in court Friday hashing out the details for next week’s jury instructions. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and injuring a third during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Steven Wright, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor, joined CBSN to discuss the proceedings.
Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial: What we learned from Week 2
“It feels like the case is very, very close. And in very close cases, the defendant should win,” said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
California and Colorado Bypass CDC, Recommend Boosters for All Adults
“We have a choice as we look into the winter,” David O’Connor, a pathology professor at the University of Wisconsin, recently told Insider. “Down one path, we have being reluctant and living with waning immunity, living with cases and the problems that brings with it. Down the other path, we have something that looks more like Israel, where a large fraction of the population is highly protected from being infected in any way with Delta. I don’t know why you would choose the first path when the second path is right in front of us.”
How Pearls Obtain Their Remarkable Symmetry
While pearls lack carefully planned symmetry that keeps brick buildings in order, pearls will maintain symmetry for 20 layers at a time, which is enough to accumulate consistency over its thousands of layers. In a way, the pearl “self-heals” when defects arise without using external scaffolding as a template, comments Pupa Gilbert, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved with the study, to Science News.
Can lucid dreaming help us understand consciousness?
“There’s a grouping of higher-level features, which seem to be very closely associated with what we think of as human consciousness, which come back in that shift from a non-lucid to a lucid dream,” says Dr Benjamin Baird, a research scientist at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And there’s something to be learned in looking at that contrast.”
Kenosha hopes for calm as Kyle Rittenhouse trial nears end
John Eason, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said closing arguments and the verdict will be a pivotal moment for America.
“I think the mood in Wisconsin, not just Kenosha, is that they’re over the whole racial awakening. All signs are this is going to be the case that vindicates white people,” Eason said, adding: “If the peak of the country’s social justice reckoning was George Floyd, then this is the pendulum swinging back. This is the tipping point back.”
As Rittenhouse trial winds down, polarizing judge lashes out
Steven Wright, a clinical law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, disagreed with Dean’s characterization, but said that judges have a responsibility to be neutral so that people have a sense that a trial is being conducted impartially and fairly under the law.
Boom cycle: Economic recovery, home deliveries fuel demand for recycled materials
Each year the world produces about 100 million tons of this multilayer plastic, which can’t be recycled with traditional methods, said George Huber, a professor of chemical engineering at UW-Madison who is developing techniques to separate those layers with solvents. “Plastics are a very complex chemical material,” Huber said. “There’s not one easy way to recycle all plastics.” As a result, only about 13% of consumer plastic actually gets recycled, Huber said. The rest ends up in landfills, incinerators and the ocean.
Watch now: Alliant Energy puts finishing touches on $670M natural gas plant
When burned for fuel, natural gas releases roughly half as much carbon dioxide as coal and a tiny fraction of pollutants like sulfur and mercury. But the production and transportation results in release of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas, negating most of the environmental advantages. “It’s a little better, but not much,” said Morgan Edwards, an assistant professor of public affairs at UW-Madison who studies the impacts of energy use.
Obituaries
Ragotzkie, Robert A.
After running the Marine Studies Institute on Sapelo Island, Ga., for five years, he moved the family back to Madison, where he began his teaching career with the UW Department of Meteorology. His work as a scientist and teacher took him to remote areas of the earth, including Antarctica, where he studied lakes in dry valleys, and the Northwest Territories of Canada, where there was more lake research to be done.
Jaeger, James W.
He taught in UW zoological courses for several years and was a researcher in the Porter Lab for 30 years until his retirement in 2006.
Martin, David W.
David graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctorate in meteorology in 1968 and had a successful career as a research meteorologist at the UW Space Science & Engineering Center for over five decades.
UW-Madison Related
Ways To Verify Knowledge Transfer And Skills When Training
Though the world’s first distance learning institution was established in 1906 by the University of Wisconsin, the first learning management system was developed only in 1924 when Sidney L. Pressey invented the first “teaching machine.” Learning management systems have since gone through significant improvements and during this evolution and the arrival of e-learning courses to verify skills, the most integral part of a learning ecosystem has been forgotten, and instead, we began focusing on course completions.