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March 19, 2024

Top Stories

Kathleen Gallagher: We need to rethink the role of UW-Madison and Wisconsin’s economy. Chancellor Mnookin seems to be on the right path

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Republican legislators’ assault on University of Wisconsin System campuses’ diversity, equity and inclusion offices failed to address the problem the politicians purportedly wanted to solve: Ensuring the state’s universities, particularly UW-Madison, help grow Wisconsin’s economy.

Research

Fresh. Buttery. Soapy. Astringent. Enter the world of professional cheese tasting.

Green Bay Press Gazette

It’s quiet as a group of eight people stand bent at the waist, intently staring at a pizza sitting on a gleaming stainless-steel counter.

It’s an early March Wednesday morning, and they are in the Hilmar Cheese Dairy Applications Lab of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research.

Higher Education/System

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Lakeland University enhance collaboration efforts

Wisconsin Public Radio

Multiple universities in Wisconsin have announced staff reductions over the last year, from public universities like UW-Oshkosh and UW-Green Bay to private colleges like Concordia University and St. Norbert College. And several Universities of Wisconsin System schools have announced plans to stop in-person classes at their two-year branch campuses.

Why Scholarships for Students of Color Are Under Attack

Chronicle of Higher Ed

Meanwhile, Wisconsin lawmakers are considering legislation that would eliminate race-based criteria in scholarship, grant, and loan programs. A University of Wisconsin system spokesperson told the news site WisPolitics that its campuses would remove race as a factor in most scholarships by the end of the academic year, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

State news

Wisconsin plants ‘confused’ by mild winter, now freezing temps

Spectrum News

“For the staff here, it’s tracking these events over time, and seeing how they differ between different years,” said UW-Madison Arboretum ecologist Brad Herrick.

He’s worked there for 17 years, so he’s able to compare each season. He said this year is a weird one.

“We’ve had really sharp temperature swings from February on,” he said.

Arts & Humanities

Ceramic Artist Toshiko Takaezu Gets a Posthumous Reappraisal

The New York Times

The Noguchi retrospective — which will travel to the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Mich; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Chazen Museum of Art, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and the Honolulu Museum of Art — includes about 200 works in ceramics as well as the artist’s paintings, weavings and bronze-cast sculptures.

UW Experts in the News

Opinion: How to make sure the 6% real estate home commission really does die

CNN

It might seem like the National Association of Realtors, which in the past few years has been the target of antitrust lawsuits and whose former president resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, is in crisis. Last year, a federal jury in Missouri found that the NAR, along with private brokerages, had colluded to keep broker fees artificially high and awarded nearly $1.8 billion to hundreds of thousands of home sellers. And on Friday, the NAR announced that instead of appealing it would settle the lawsuit. (Max Besbris is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the author of “Upsold: Real Estate Agents, Prices, and Neighborhood Inequality.” )

Obituaries