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Author: gbump

The 100 Best Public Colleges in America

Newsweek

13. University of Wisconsin- Location: Madison, WI- Students: 30,157- Acceptance rate: 54%- Graduation rate: 88%- Student to faculty ratio: 17:1- Median earnings six years after graduation: $56,200- Employment rate two years after graduation: 95%Established in 1848, Madison’s University of Wisconsin sits on over 900 acres, with plenty of greenery and easy access to amenities. Educational opportunities are plentiful here, and students can choose from more than 120 undergraduate majors within eight schools. Students who attend enjoy a variety of academic programs, scenic campus views, and an active Greek life.

Is a Fair Title IX System Possible?

Chronicle of Higher Ed

When Laura L. Dunn was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, two of her crew teammates sexually assaulted her after she’d gotten drunk at a fraternity party, she said. Dunn didn’t know where to find support, how to get a rape kit done, or how to report it to the university.

Research paints disappointing picture of online internships

Inside Higher Education

Academics at the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, which is housed within the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research, published the findings of their research into online internships yesterday.

The study, which included survey data from nearly 10,000 students at 11 colleges and universities, found just 22 percent of respondents participated in an internship in the past year. Of these internships, half were in person and the remainder online. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Rapid Response Research program, known as RAPID.

Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060, with catastrophic melting if carbon emissions aren’t cut quickly

The Conversation

While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken draws attention to climate change in the Arctic at meetings with other national officials this week in Iceland, an even greater threat looms on the other side of the planet.

Bigger event on hold but Casting for Kids organizers hope to raise $100,000 for charities

Wisconsin State Journal

A scaled-down version of Casting for Kids returns to Madison’s four lakes on Saturday, with the Green Lantern Restaurant in McFarland as the post-fishing headquarters. University of Wisconsin men’s hockey associate head coach Mark Osiecki hopes to raise $100,000 for the American Family Children’s Hospital and the UW Carbone Cancer Center through the outing and an online memorabilia auction.

Madison woman dies from COVID-19 she contracted after full vaccination

Dr. James Conway, a UW Health pediatrician and vaccine expert, said breakthrough cases and deaths are a reminder that the vaccines, while highly effective, aren’t a complete guarantee infection won’t occur. “People who are vaccinated need to remember that it doesn’t make them superhuman,” Conway said. “Especially if they’re in a high-risk category, they should still practice some moderate avoidance of activity.”

22 Worst Foods That Are Never Worth Eating, Say Experts

Eat This, Not That

Drink This Instead: If you’re going to drink beer, choose Guinness. Despite its heavy, hearty dark appearance, this stout has 20 fewer calories per 12-ounce serving than a Bud. But there’s more: A University of Wisconsin study found that moderate consumption of Guinness worked like aspirin to prevent blood clots that increase the risk of heart attacks. That’s because the antioxidants it contains are better than vitamins C and E at keeping bad LDL cholesterol from clogging arteries.

Great Lakes water levels drop 2020 record-breaking highs

USA Today

Typically the Great Lakes follow a specific seasonal cycle, said Adam Bechle, a coastal engineering specialist with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute. The lakes bottom out in the winter when there’s more evaporation occurring as cold air moves in over the warmer water. Lake levels are highest during the summer, after snow melts and runs into them and rain falls.

Is this a new moment for prison education?

Inside Higher Education

“I think everything seems to be aligning both in terms of the national interest in prison reform and prison education, changing rules about Pell Grants, increased awareness of racial discrimination, and I guess just a widespread understanding that change needs to happen,” said Emily Auerbach, founder and co-director of the Odyssey Project, which houses the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s prison education initiative, Odyssey Beyond Bars.

As the West Faces a Drought Emergency, Some Ranchers are Restoring Grasslands to Build Water Reserves

Civil Eats

“The more you’ve allowed your grassland to invest in its roots, the better off it is going to be during a drought,” said Randy Jackson, a grassland ecologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Perennial plants—which stay in the ground year in and year out—continue to “photosynthesize and put their carbon and nutrients below ground, which is really their savings account.” In times of drought, it will draw more on the savings in the ground.

UW math professor Jordan Ellenberg whips geometry into ‘Shape’

The Capital Times

What do Wisconsin gerrymandering, the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, the migratory patterns of ants and the debate over whether a straw has two holes or one have in common?

They have all occupied Jordan Ellenberg’s brain at some time, and they all make appearances in his new book, “Shape,” which comes out May 25 and is available for pre-order. Ellenberg, a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, even drew a convoluted flow chart that appears at the front of the book connecting all of the book’s disparate topics. It was his homage to the intricate maps that often appear at the front of epic fantasy novels.

Dane County No. 1 in COVID-19 vaccination among large U.S. counties

Wisconsin State Journal

With nearly 63% of Dane County residents receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and new cases down, “we’ve temporarily reached a point where there’s adequate immunity and not a ton of new disease being reintroduced … but it’s a moving target,” said Dr. James Conway, a UW health pediatrician and vaccine expert.

“We’re getting really close” to herd immunity, said UW-Madison infectious disease epidemiologist Malia Jones, but “there’s no way to figure out exactly what it is until after the fact.”

Workforce shortage challenges reemerge as Wisconsin businesses dig out of the pandemic

Wisconsin State Journal

Laura Dresser, associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a UW-Madison liberal think tank, agreed, adding that limited access to child care has kept many individuals, largely women, from returning to work. “The pandemic exposed and exacerbated every underlying inequality that this labor market generated and this is especially true for leisure and hospitality workers,” Dresser said. “These workers work at the bottom of the labor market, with the lowest wages around, and they have the weakest benefit packages.

UWPD officers shave heads for cancer research

WISC-TV 3

Not all heroes wear capes — some shave their heads instead.That’s what these folks did today in support of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Five UW police officers as well as some student athletes shaved their heads to raise awareness and much-needed funds for pediatric cancer.

Wisconsin GOP leader cites bogus COVID info to nix request

AP

“I don’t know what research they are reading. But COVID-19 can clearly be transmitted via airborne spread,” said Patrick Remington, a former epidemiologist for the CDC and director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

“It might not be the predominant mode of transmission, but it is clearly able to be transmitted via small particles through the air,” Remington said.

Why Liz Cheney Matters

The New York Times

Provisions that target heavily Democratic areas — like Georgia’s limits on drop boxes — are particularly blatant. “The typical response by a losing party in a functioning democracy is that they alter their platform to make it more appealing,” Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, has told The Times. “Here the response is to try to keep people from voting. It’s dangerously antidemocratic.”

Setting the record straight: There is no ‘Covid heart’

STAT News

In January 2021, University of Wisconsin researchers studied 145 student athletes who had Covid-19 and found myocarditis in only 1.4% of them, none of whom required hospitalization. In March, a group of sports cardiologists reported on nearly 800 professional athletes who had tested positive for Covid-19. Less than 1% of these athletes had abnormal findings on cardiac magnetic resonance scans or stress echocardiography. None of these athletes had cardiovascular trouble when they returned to play.

How President Biden’s rescue plan could help poor kids in Wisconsin

Journal Sentinel

These measures make public investments in children’s economic well-being, adding to those made for them in health care and education. The nation and our state are sure to be better off.

Tim Smeeding is the Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the La Follette School of Public Affairs and former director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

AAPI Month: What kids, parents should be reading

USA Today

Leslie Bow, English and Asian American Studies professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, says, “It’s important to expose children to racial diversity in children’s books because studies have shown that familiarity with children of color in stories reduces negative biases against racial groups.”

5 Happiness Hacks That Take 5 Minutes Or Less

HuffPost Life

In a December study led by a team of researchers with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, experts broke down the four pillars they believe are essential to cultivating mental well-being: awareness, connection, insight and purpose. All these sound pretty lofty, but the pillars can be broken down into small daily habits that, over time, train the brain.

$450,000 Homes in Wisconsin, Florida and Kentucky

The New York Times

A few blocks south is Atwood Avenue, a fount of eating, drinking and entertainment venues, including the historic Barrymore Theater, which will be resuming live performances in July. The University of Wisconsin campus is an easy bike ride (about four miles) southwest.

Some call it pop others call it soda

The Washington Post

The DARE project is overseen by the University of Wisconsin at Madison. (That’s in Dane County, a rare Midwestern outpost of pop/soda parity, according to popvssoda.com.) An online subscription to the dictionary is $49 a year. There’s more info at dare.wisc.edu.