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October 23, 2023

Higher Education/System

“That is not the Wisconsin that I know:” Universities of Wisconsin President on pay discrepancies threatening diversity & inclusion funding

WTMJ

The Republican led Joint Committee on Employee Relations voted to separate employees of the University of Wisconsin system from other state workers who will receive a pay increase.

UW System President Jay Rothman is disappointed with the outcome and says they will make the best of this difficult situation.

Pell grants give inmates another shot at college

Wisconsin State Journal

“There was a general feeling nationally that incarceration needed to be about punishment and deterrence, and that was going to be ultimately the key to reducing incarcerated populations in the country,” said Peter Moreno, director of UW-Madison’s Odyssey Beyond Bars and the Prison Education Initiative. “In the past 20, 30 years, people were coming to prison and many, many of them were returning to prison after they had left because they weren’t prepared for success when they got out.”

Campus life

Zoe Bayliss co-op celebrates new home on Langdon Street

WKOW-TV 27

Angela Maloney, former president and now the co-op’s move in officer, shared why the co-op’s structure is so successful. “We essentially act as their own landlord, so you’re paying the money back to yourself.” she said. “As a community, we decide what we spend our money on, which makes it affordable for people because we’re not making profit.”

Health

Wisconsin health sciences consortium gets federal innovation funds to accelerate biotech industry

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Consortium members include GE HealthCare, Rockwell Automation, Exact Sciences Corp., Accuray, Plexus, Employ Milwaukee, Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee and Madison area technical colleges, Milwaukee 7 and the Madison Regional Economic Partnership.

Athletics

Opinion

Tom Still: Need for skilled workers justifies investment in campus tech buildings

Wisconsin State Journal

In Madison, 322 corporations and other major employers attended a three-day “career fair” in September to compete for upcoming graduates of the College of Engineering. More than 235 of those mostly large employers have operations in Wisconsin. Why were they there? To find and recruit talented workers from today’s limited engineering pool. A new building would accommodate about 1,000 additional graduates per year.

Before Trump, before Agnew, Hate Mail Reveals Long-Simmering Hostility to Journalists

Scientific American

Looking beyond published records to private discourses provides a fuller portrait of the U.S. at midcentury and the resentments that linger. Handwringing about the low trust in journalism that social media and online comments make visible today is justified as long as we acknowledge it has deep roots, ones that will not disappear when Trump rallies stop.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)Kathryn J. McGarr is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She earned her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University and is the author of City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington (University of Chicago Press, 2022).

UW Experts in the News

Milwaukee homicides 4th most in nation per capita: study

Fox 6 Milwaukee

“Mayor Johnson is doing some really interesting things, trying to bring in business and economic activity into the city,” said Alvin Thomas, an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “That is going to be necessary to afford people the opportunities to take care of themselves.

“At the core are things like mental health, access to jobs – jobs that will allow an individual to respectively be able to care for their children and family and community.”

Mississippi River basin residents worry about the environment and want change, study finds. But many don’t know they’re in the basin.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“If you had asked (about environmental changes) 20 years ago, it would (have been) really different,” said Dominique Brossard, chair of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who reviewed a summary of the study’s findings.

“I think it’s promising that people are realizing there are environmental issues impacting their region as a whole,” she added.

Burying power lines for wildfire prevention is effective but expensive

CNBC

“So one option is to essentially just shut down the power line, because if there is no voltage and no current on the line, there is no chance of this release of energy happening and then there is no chance of an ignition,” explains Line Roald, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose work includes modeling the risk of wildfire ignition and power outages in the electric grid.

Obituaries

Sara G. Tarver, Ph.D.

Wisconsin State Journal

She was born an ordinary little girl in Mississippi, to the Gambrell family, and she became an extraordinary scholar and researcher at the University of Wisconsin, focusing on the application of effective instructional practices. Sara was a tireless advocate for evidence-based teaching methods and her legacy in this area continues to grow.

Donald Lee “Don” Michalski

Wisconsin State Journal

In March of 1983, he was called back to Madison and the University of Wisconsin, which was building a new School of Veterinary Medicine, as the Director of Pharmacy. Don was there for 25 years until he retired.

UW-Madison Related

Know Your Madisonian: UW-Madison professor says forgiveness begins at home

Wisconsin State Journal

It’s not hard to find situations in which forgiveness might make the world better. For Robert Enright, a professor of educational psychology at UW-Madison and pioneer of the scientific study of forgiveness, the first step starts at home. Only by forgiving those close to us who have harmed us can we become strong enough to think about forgiving more distant enemies, Enright said.