Starting this fall, UWPD has the ability to quickly press a physical “panic button” that would automatically trigger a WiscAlert emergency notification to all UW students and staff.
March 21, 2024
Top Stories
How campus orgs connect UW-Madison with broader community
“Community outreach, community engagement and community service are central to the university’s guiding principle, the Wisconsin Idea, which sets forth that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom,” UW-Madison Media Relations and Strategic Communications Director Kelly Tyrrell said in an email. Tyrrell said the university’s South Madison Partnership and the Morgridge Center for Public Service reflect these ideas to foster mutually beneficial relationships. Class projects, internships and other extracurricular opportunities are meant to help students “make lives better for people,” Tyrrell said.
Research
Student podcast recognized by NPR, America’s hardest jobs, Research on daddy longlegs, Carbon neutral parks
A UW-Madison student tells us about his podcast on changing technology. Then, a Washington Post columnist and a member of the Milwaukee Fire Department talk about America’s hardest jobs. Then, we explore new research on daddy longlegs. Then, we discuss efforts to make national parks along Lake Superior carbon neutral.
Members of UW-Madison community visit Washington, D.C. for annual lobbying day
Members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison community descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to make the case for more research funding.
“We can create jobs. We can create innovation, new technologies, and improve human health and improve the human condition,” said Charlie Hoslet, the vice chancellor of university relations at UW-Madison.
Higher Education/System
4 Wisconsin teams are on their way to March Madness
Get your brackets ready. Four Wisconsin teams are headed to college basketball’s ultimate arena, the NCAA Tournament.
The Marquette and Wisconsin Badgers men’s teams and the Marquette and UW-Green Bay women’s teams are each vying to win it all.
Campus life
UW-Madison center builds inclusive space for religious students
The Center for Interfaith Dialogue works with its fellows and other faith organizations to encourage open conversation and create safe spaces for students of faith on campus.
Slow Food UW fights food insecurity with community
The smell of tostadas drifts under your nose as you watch the people around you smile. You’re eating with friends, family and people you’ve never met before. It’s nice to share a meal, easy to connect over trying something new. This is made possible by Slow Food UW, a student-run nonprofit organization dedicated to providing good, clean and fair food for the Madison community.
State news
With maple syrup season coming early, Wisconsin specialist wants to tap into state’s full potential
During a strangely warm winter that made maple trees ready to share their sap earlier than usual, a Wisconsin forestry outreach specialist found a constant: The state still has a lot of trees ripe for tapping.
While Wisconsin trails Vermont, New York and Massachusetts for maple syrup production, Wisconsin has more untapped maple trees than any other state, according to Tony Johnson, a natural resources educator for the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
“There is a lot of room for growth,” Johnson said recently on WPR’s “Central Time.”
‘Cripes!’: Superior leaders approve contract with Charlie Berens to draw tourists
Berens previously produced a video with former interim Universities of Wisconsin President Tommy Thompson during the COVID-19 pandemic in a “smash off” contest, urging residents to get tested for the virus.
‘It’s desperate’: Thousands of immigrants in Wisconsin are in court without lawyers
As part of that initiative, Dane County received a $100,000 grant from the Vera Insitute in 2017. That pilot program, which has since ended, helped fund attorneys through Community Immigration Law Center and the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic for people facing deportation.
Pretending local elections aren’t partisan is actually making voters angrier
Written by Benny Witkovsky, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. His dissertation examines nonpartisan politics and polarization in small cities in Wisconsin.
Crime and safety
UWPD to test WiscAlert upgrade over spring break
One-touch “panic button” technology for 911 dispatchers part of ongoing efforts to mitigate active threat situations.
Arts & Humanities
Ajibola Tolase wins the 2024 Cave Canem poetry prize
Sitting in class on his first day at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Ajibola Tolase thought: I don’t stand a chance in this room.
UW Experts in the News
Planet-Eating Stars Are Surprisingly Common, New Study Suggests
Numerous unanswered questions remain, such as what sorts of planets tend to be consumed and how to know with certainty whether any given star has wholly abstained from devouring members of its brood. Even so, “this work is super compelling,” says Melinda Soares-Furtado, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “I’m excited about what we’re starting to find.”
5 Tips for a Healthier Relationship With Your Phone
If you want to peacefully coexist with technology, you need to get a handle on those impulses. Start by noticing when you have an urge to lift your phone or open social media on your browser window, said Richard J. Davidson, the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Obituaries
Frans de Waal, Who Found the Origins of Morality in Apes, Dies at 75
He and Ms. Marin married in 1980 to make it easier for them to move to the United States as a couple. The next year, Professor de Waal took a job at the Wisconsin Primate Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW-Madison Related
Child care in Wisconsin can cost more than college. Why is it so expensive?
The average cost of infant care in Wisconsin, whether center-based or family child care, exceeds in-state tuition at University of Wisconsin-Madison for the 2023-24 academic year. Tuition for this academic year is $9,646, according to the university bursar’s office’s website.