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December 15, 2023

Top Stories

UW system is committed to DEI, despite deal with Republicans, UW-Madison diversity chief says

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison’s chief diversity officer on Thursday tried to allay concerns that the Universities of Wisconsin is stepping back its support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, despite UW system President Jay Rothman and legislative Republicans brokering a deal that authorizes about $800 million for the UW system in exchange for DEI changes.

Research

UW-Madison Researcher: AI holds promise in schools

Spectrum News

A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who studies technology in education said artificial intelligence holds promise in schools. David Williamson Shaffer is the Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics at UW-Madison. He got into this work after being a teacher in the 80s and 90s.

“Graphing calculators and computers were just starting to come to the place where they were impacting the classroom, were a kind of change agent,” Shaffer said. “They were a way in which the old system was disrupted just enough that we had a chance to rethink a little bit about what we were doing.”

Tantalum cold spray boosts potential of fusion reactor chambers

New Atlas

“These hydrogen neutral particles cause power losses in the plasma, which makes it very challenging to sustain a hot plasma and have an effective small fusion reactor,” said Mykola Ialovega, a postdoctoral researcher in nuclear engineering and engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW–Madison). Ialovega has led research on a coating that has demonstrated the ability to line fusion reactor chambers and capture this rogue hydrogen.

Higher Education/System

UW faculty advocacy group responds to board of regents DEI vote

WISC-TV 3

“I can imagine that this was an incredibly difficult decision for members of the board of regents, as is evident from the fact that they had to do the vote twice,” Bernard Donals said. “The arrangement provides some good things for the Universities of Wisconsin, but Representative [Robin] Vos made it abundantly clear that he has it in for diversity, equity and inclusion at the universities and he forced a decision that I think is going to set us back some in that area.”

Campus life

State news

Rep. Fitzgerald says Congress shouldn’t play role in certifying elections despite his 2020 objections

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Fitzgerald’s remarks misconstrue that process, according to former University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor David Canon, whose research focused in part on election administration.

“He has it exactly backwards,” Canon said. “They don’t vote individually to certify the results in all 50 states.”

After Months of Political Pressure and a Failed Vote, Wisconsin’s Regents Approve Deal on DEI

Chronicle of Higher Ed

After a months-long standoff between the University of Wisconsin system and the Republican-controlled Legislature, the two parties brokered a deal to release $800 million in state funds — for long-delayed UW pay raises and key campus building projects — if the system agreed to realign dozens of diversity, equity, and inclusion positions and support several other Republican-backed priorities.

Agriculture

Health

Underage nicotine sales in Wisconsin have more than doubled since 2019

Wisconsin Public Radio

Underage sales of nicotine products have more than doubled in Wisconsin since 2019, the year when the federal age for purchasing tobacco products was raised to 21. Wisconsin has kept the minimum age at 18 in spite of research showing that raising the smoking age reduces nicotine addiction. Dr. Michael Fiore, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, explains.

Athletics

Opinion

UW Experts in the News

Why is the US far right finding its savior in Spanish dictator Francisco Franco?

The Guardian

Stanley Payne, a revisionist historian of Spanish fascism at the University of Wisconsin Madison until his retirement in 2004, has penned a string of recent articles in rightwing outlets like First Things which invite readers to compare the US with Spain in the 1930s. He has reiterated a line that Franco’s hand was forced by leftist violence and promoted the work of other revisionist historians like Pio Moa, who many professional historians dismiss as a “pseudo-historian”.