The number of financial aid applications is down across the Universities of Wisconsin system, an early indication that enrollment may be down this fall as well.
July 31, 2024
Top Stories
Research
Indigenous ingredients for meals, snacks, even ice cream? This Menominee chef is showing it can be done
A 2018 study published by University of Wisconsin and Dartmouth professors found tribal forests, such as the Menominee in northern Wisconsin, maintained their diversity of native plants beneath tree canopies much better than non-tribal forests.
Can Thunderstorms Spoil Milk?
By 1927, Edward Holyoke Farrington was presenting this explanation as a matter of fact in A Guide to Quality in Dairy Products, published by the University of Wisconsin. “A thick, sultry atmosphere usually precedes thunder showers and provides favorable conditions for the growth of milk-souring bacteria,” Farrington wrote. He also noted another significant factor: “the condition of the milk cans.” If milk is stored in unsanitized vessels that already harbor bacterial cultures, it will curdle even faster when exposed to the warm, wet air bacteria love. “No effect from thunder and lightning on milk and cream will be noticed,” Farrington assured readers, so long as the milk was chilled, and “if the cows are clean, the milk cans are clean, and all the utensils carefully sterilized.”
Fusion Closer to Reality as Scientists Smash Density Limit by Factor of 10
A previously theorized barrier to tokamak fusion known as the Greenwald limit has now been smashed by a factor of ten, thanks to the efforts of a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin.
Higher Education/System
UW pauses Title IX changes amid legal challenge to federal sex discrimination rules
The Universities of Wisconsin is suspending work on required changes to campus Title IX sex discrimination rules after a federal judge in Kansas blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from expanding the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity.
Milwaukee Common Council members raise red flag about for-profit colleges
Be aware of slick ads and false promises made by for-profit colleges in Milwaukee.
That’s the message members of the Milwaukee Common Council sent Monday in a joint statement about colleges that they said try to guarantee a quick degree or employment, in industries like health care.
Campus life
LOVB Madison to play home games at UW Field House
Madison will soon welcome a new professional sports league to the community. Wisconsin Athletics and League One Volleyball (LOVB) announced Tuesday that they will play their home games at the UW Field House, starting with their first game following the Olympics.
Trees and clouds woven of wool at new UW-Madison art installation
Your eyes are drawn to the ceiling when you enter through the doors of Nancy Nicholas Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Community
Can Dane County’s long push for regional transit get out of neutral?
Madison is one of the most populous areas of the country where the local transit agency is run entirely by a city, according to Chris McCahill, managing director of the State Smart Transportation Initiative housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Madison Metro is not necessarily in a sustainable position, especially as we face population growth,” McCahill said. “But that is true of all major transit agencies across the country.”
City of Madison adjusts large item disposal for August moving days
Most leases expire around Aug. 15, and the move-in-move-out period affects communities beyond the downtown area. The city estimates nearly 35,000 UW students live in the neighborhoods on campus. Every year, the moving period generates over 1 million pounds of garbage that crews work to collect, large items requiring the most effort.
Health
UW-Health gives a lung transplant patient a new lease on life
Devon Osborn is a husband, father and grandfather, and for some time that was put in jeopardy due to his need for a lung transplant. Thanks to UW-Health’s lung transplant program, he’s still able to be here for those he loves.
Lung transplant program at UW Health earns top ranking
The probability of UW Health lung transplant recipients surviving one year post-transplant is about 95%, which is higher than the national average rate of a little more than 88%.
Athletics
MLB commissioner emeritus Bud Selig celebrates his 90th birthday
While a sophomore at UW-Madison, Selig traveled down the road back to his hometown to ensure he was in-person to see the debut of Milwaukee’s first MLB squad, a 10-inning thriller ending with a Billy Bruton home run and a 3-2 Milwaukee Braves win over St. Louis.
“I teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as Marquette Law School and Arizona State University. And then at night, I still find myself in front of a television set watching every game of baseball I can. It really has been a remarkable journey.”
Walk-off victory gives USA women’s rugby, UW alum Alev Kelter first Olympic medal in USA history
University of Wisconsin alumna Alev Kelter and her USA teammates pulled off an incredible upset Tuesday at the Paris Olympics in women’s rugby sevens, a buzzer-beating victory over favored Australia to land the bronze medal and net the first American medal ever in rugby.
UW-Madison alum Alev Kelter helps USA rugby team win first ever Olympic medal
UW-Madison alum Alev Kelter brought home the bronze with her Team USA Women’s Rugby teammates on Tuesday — and she made history.
Opinion
Response to Letter to the Editor from Jewish UW Faculty, published May 2, 2024
The undersigned members of the Board of Visitors of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies are writing concerning a Letter to the Editor of The Daily Cardinal from Jewish UW Faculty and Students published by the Cardinal on May 2, 2024 (“May 2nd Letter”).
Business/Technology
State task force recommends using AI technology in classrooms, support for businesses
Somesh Jha, a computer science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison researching artificial intelligence, said the rapid development of AI is expected to lead to more efficiencies in the workplace. But he said it could also lead to job losses in some industries, as well as lead to the creation of new jobs.
He praised the task force for taking on “questions, like, ‘okay, what are we doing now that can be done much more efficiently using AI? And what new positions which we might need, given that new capability?’”
UW Experts in the News
What’s wrong with ‘The Most Studied Lake in the World’?
On a sunny fall morning, as he strolled to work along the Howard Temin Lakeshore Path near the Memorial Union, Jake Vander Zanden looked into the water and noticed something you don’t typically see in October: the beginnings of an algae bloom. The director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Limnology was both fascinated and concerned.
“That’s really unusual — even for Lake Mendota, which has a lot of algae blooms — to see significant blooms late in the season,” Vander Zanden says. “We’ve been seeing that more lately.”
UW-Madison Related
Harris gives Democrats a jolt in a critical part of swing-state Wisconsin
Dane County, which includes Madison, is the fastest-growing county in the state, fueled by the combination of the University of Wisconsin and the state capital’s workforce.