175 years after UW-Madison was founded, it continues prioritizing teaching, research and public service across the state. Now, the university is celebrating its impact while thanking Wisconsinites in the Chippewa Valley and beyond for their support.
August 15, 2024
Top Stories
Research
UW-Madison students work to improve water quality in Lake Altoona
Students have been working on various projects that have to do with river bank stabilization, conservation plans for the next 50 years, and green technology to prevent blue-green algae blooms.
Higher Education/System
Here’s when UW-Milwaukee, Marquette, MATC and other local colleges start this fall semester
Summer is wrapping up in Milwaukee, and tens of thousands of students will soon return to the area’s numerous colleges and universities for the fall 2024 semester.
Campus life
How making presumptions about rural American politics can be harmful
Kansas author and journalist Sarah Smarsh comes to Wisconsin to talk about issues facing rural America in the upcoming presidential election. As an upcoming guest of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Morrill Lecture Series, Smarsh will talk about how class and rural issues intersect with the upcoming presidential election.
State news
Tribal Elder Food Box program plans to increase production
In 2021, the Tribal Elder Food Box program began in response to a shortage of food for Native elders, said Carolee Dodge Francis, who chairs the department of civil society community studies in the school of human ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Crime and safety
Man formally charged with hate crimes in November incident on UW-Madison campus
A Madison man has been formally charged following an incident last fall inside a building on the UW-Madison campus where he’s accused of making threats and racist comments.
Man accused of making threats, racist comments towards UW students in 2023 charged with hate crimes
A criminal complaint filed in Dane County alleges that on Nov. 28, 2023 at around 11 p.m., Nowak and another man barged into a classroom where a group of sorority sisters were studying and practicing a dance.
Madison man charged after making racist threats at UW-Madison last November
Lukas Nowak was one of three men who entered several rooms in the Humanities building on November 28, 2023 and disrupted a student organization meeting by making threats and racist comments.
Madison man charged in November hate crime
On November 28, the man, 20, and two other men disrupted a student organization meeting in the Humanities building, making racist and profane comments and threatening people in multiple rooms, according to UW-Madison Police spokesperson Marc Lovicott. The man was originally arrested Dec. 1.
Health
The U.S. has plummeted in happiness rankings, raising the question: Do we know what real joy is?
For more than a decade, Christine Whelan was known around the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus as the “happiness professor.”
Now, “happiness” is one of Whelan’s least favorite words.
Athletics
Here’s how much it’ll cost you to attend the Wisconsin vs Alabama football game next month
Wisconsin Badger football fans probably already have the Sept. 14 matchup with SEC powerhouse Alabama circled.
And if you’re interested in seeing that game in person, you’ll be paying a premium for it. The cheapest available tickets, according to online resalers, are about double the usual price.
Opinion
Letter | GOP has undermined UW system
Letter to the editor: Why on Earth would this not be supported? It benefits the schools and students. My siblings and my son went through this system. The difference between them was my siblings graduated without debt, while my son has debt. I’m especially disturbed reading that over 30 tenured faculty are slated to be laid off. Majors have been cut.
Business/Technology
With available housing at an all-time low, Madison city planners look to increase density to accommodate rising population
Kurt Paulsen said he can understand that perspective, because for current residents, the market seems to be in good shape.
“We’ve lived in our house for a long period of time, it’s gone up in value,” said Paulsen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of urban planning. “And we refinanced our mortgages at less than 3%. So for the majority of people who are already here, it does not look like there’s a housing crisis, right?”
But Paulsen, who researches housing policy and has written two of Dane County’s housing needs assessments, has many data points ready to illustrate the extent of the housing problem.
UW Experts in the News
Study: JD Vance Couldn’t Have Been More Wrong About “Childless Cat Ladies”
To experts, the findings are not surprising. “It makes sense that women without children would support policies like affordable childcare and paid family leave because they recognize that care links all of our fates,” said Jessica Calarco, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the book Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.
Obituaries
Legendary actress Gena Rowlands was one of the most famous people to come from Wisconsin
Rowlands grew up in Wisconsin and later attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here’s a look at her ties to the Badger State, and the career that paved her legacy as one of Hollywood’s legendary actors.
Gena Rowlands, actress of lacerating intensity, dies at 94
After graduating from Washington-Lee High School in 1947, she attended the University of Wisconsin and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She met Cassavetes, a struggling actor who had admired one of her student performances and wooed her ardently for three years.
Gena Rowlands, Actress in ’The Notebook’, Dies at 94
Virginia graduated from high school in Arlington, Va., and attended the University of Wisconsin, but she dropped out to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where she began her acting career.
Gena Rowlands, acting legend and star of “The Notebook,” dies at 94
Rowlands quit the University of Wisconsin in her junior year to pursue an acting career in New York. Like other actors of her generation, she gained invaluable experience in the thriving field of television drama in the 1950s, appearing on all the major series.
UW-Madison Related
Madison seniors celebrate 89th anniversary of Social Security, Wisconsin ties
It was the middle of the Great Depression when millions were unemployed, including the elderly with little to no help from their families. When President Roosevelt took office, he organized a committee to come up with a solution, headed by University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members Edwin Witte and Arthur Altmeyer.
New Madison charter school would teach skilled trades, personal finance
In 2011, the Madison School Board rejected the proposal for what has now become One City Schools. The board rejected a different charter proposal in 2017 for what now is the Isthmus Montessori Academy.
Both those schools, and the Milestone Democratic School, now operate through a charter with UW Office of Educational Opportunity.