Skip to main content

Author: gbump

UW-Madison reports nearly 1,400 COVID-related sanctions this school year

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Messages sent to UW-Madison students last fall, like “Follow public health guidelines or risk suspension,” laid out the high stakes for students weighing whether to break COVID-19 rules. Disciplinary data show UW-Madison went to that extreme just once, suspending a single student last fall. The university sanctioned nearly 1,400 others for COVID-related public health violations so far this school year.

Spotlight dims on donor plasma treatment for COVID-19

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, UW Hospital joined select medical centers in treating severely ill patients with antibodies from donors who had recovered from infections, with five of the first six patients in Madison improving enough to be released from the hospital … But since late January, the spotlight on convalescent plasma has dimmed.

Wilson, Sharen

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Sharen embarked on a new career path, as a medical researcher with the UW Pulmonary Department. She ran clinical studies focused on cystic fibrosis and lung disease.

UW research projects to deploy strategies to lessen racial inequities

Posted on
WKOW-TV 27

“The proposals we received are evidence of the exceptionally wide breadth of research on our campus targeting inequalities based on factors such as race and ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation and geography,” says Lonnie Berger, associate vice chancellor for research in the social sciences.

WASB strives to connect students, campus community

Posted on
Daily Cardinal

WASB is the UW-Madison student organization in partnership with the Wisconsin Alumni Association that focuses on campus engagement and community involvement. The “All Campus Party” is WASB’s annual week-long initiative to gather “the nation’s largest cost-free and alcohol alternative campus celebration.” This year’s events feature a virtual drawing class, a REDTalk discussion and a virtual concert.

Should All Schools Teach Financial Literacy?

Posted on
The New York Times

And more teachers now say they feel confident teaching the material. A study released in March by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Montana State University found significant increases in teacher participation in professional development.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers clawing back Foxconn state tax breaks

Posted on
MarketWatch

In 2018, Foxconn said it planned to invest $100 million in engineering and innovation research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Since then, the research center and off-campus location have not been established. Foxconn did sponsor a $700,000 research project at Madison, and university officials said in March that talks with Foxconn were ongoing.

Herd immunity in US likely impossible, but vaccines can control COVID

Posted on
USA Today

More people may yet decide to get vaccinated as it becomes clear how much protection it provides, said Ajay Sethi, a professor of population health studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I try to be an optimist,” he said. “I don’t want to write off rural areas saying they’re forever going to be the communities refusing vaccination. Over time, that will change.”

Opinion | What American Workers Really Want Instead of a Union at Amazon

Posted on
POLITICO

Research has borne this out. In a landmark 1994 survey, Harvard professor Richard Freeman and University of Wisconsin professor Joel Rogers asked more than 2,400 nonmanagement workers whether they would prefer representation by an organization that “management cooperated with in discussing issues, but had no power to make decisions” or by one “that had more power, but management opposed.” Workers preferred cooperation to an adversarial stance by 63 percent to 22 percent, a result that held even among active union members.

Best vaccine: How Pfizer became the “status” choice.

Posted on
Slate

As the vaccines have rolled out, many experts have strenuously rejected the idea that there’s any “best” vaccine. “The best vaccine is the one that goes in your arm,” said Mary Hayney, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy who researches vaccination. “I truly believe that there is not a big difference among the vaccines, or a discernable difference. Whatever one is offered to you, take it.” (Again, Hayney spoke to Slate before the latest J&J news.)

Voter suppression bills are the first move in a bigger battle

Posted on
The Hill

Fighting for the rights of African American voters is a task that is both daunting and never-ending. Discriminatory redistricting creates a cyclical process that weakens political power for Black voters and political officials. This tactic is as discriminatory and as noxious as any other suppression legislation used during Jim Crow.

–Steven Wright served in the Voting Rights Section of the US Department of Justice for five years. He’s a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

Flagship universities say diversity is a priority. But Black enrollment in many states continues to lag.

Posted on
Washington Post

Among major public universities, U-Md. has one of the highest six-year graduation rates for Black students: 81 percent in 2019. That’s just behind the University of Michigan — 84 percent — and ahead of the University of Florida’s 77 percent. Black graduation rates for the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin were 76 percent

Toffoli’s 2 goals lead Canadiens past Flames

Posted on
AP

The Canadiens announced they called up F Cole Caufield from the AHL’s Laval Rocket and placed him on the taxi squad. Caufield, who played for the University of Wisconsin, won the Hobey Baker Award last week as the top player in the NCAA Division 1. … The Canadiens also called up G Cayden Primeau from the Rocket on an emergency basis to back up Allen.

The Most Challenged Books of 2020

Posted on
New York Times

Out of almost 4,000 books geared toward children and teens that were published in 2019, 232 were written by Black authors, and only 471 featured Black characters, according to data from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Plant a Love of Nature in Your Kids

Posted on
The New York Times

“Miss Carson” was Rachel Carson, who would later make history with her book “Silent Spring,” about the dangers of the pesticide DDT. Stanley Temple would become Dr. Temple, a well-known bird conservationist and a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ashman, Dr. Hubert C. “Hugh”

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Dr. Ashman joined the Jackson Clinic in Madison in 1948, working in the Internal Medicine Department until his retirement in 1983. He also was a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and was on staff at Methodist Hospital.

Experts say mass shootings take emotional toll but political action unlikely

Posted on
NBC-15

The shooting in Indianapolis is just one of 45 mass shootings across the country in just over four weeks. UW-Madison communication arts professor Joanne Cantor said people are feeling the emotional impact. “There’s a potential with one after the other after the other to be desensitized,” Cantor said, adding, “On the other hand, it can make you feel worse and worse and worse.”

Earth Week kicks off at UW-Madison

Posted on
Daily Cardinal

Now in its fourth year, Earth Week was started by a group of student organizations and the UW Office of Sustainability in 2018 with the goal of educating students, staff and community members about environmental issues.

Book review of Assignment Russia: Becoming a Foreign Correspondent in the Crucible of the Cold War by Marvin Kalb

Posted on
The Washington Post

In 1957, when Marvin Kalb joined CBS Radio in New York to write local news, television was called “electronic journalism,” and the backdrop for the “CBS Morning News” was a cardboard sign hanging above a desk on the fifth floor of the Grand Central Terminal building. The United States had yet to recognize what it referred to as “Red China” diplomatically, and Edward R. Murrow still worked for CBS

-Kathryn J. McGarr is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the author of “The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics.” Her forthcoming book is about Washington foreign policy reporters in the early Cold War.

I’ve always wondered: Should there even be billionaires?

Posted on
Marketplace

But visualizing or trying to understand “how many” a billion dollars is doesn’t really help us understand any better how much money a billionaire has. Jordan Ellenberg, professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else,” said thinking about “how much” a billion dollars is is more useful. Basically, how rich is a billionaire?

Reduced funding for history education is extremely problematic

Posted on
Badger Herald

As a history student at UW-Madison, I have seen many of these issues first-hand. Because of fears that the recent economic crisis would cause a new round of sweeping cuts to history departments, almost every major history PhD program in the country accepted almost no new graduate students, or far fewer than usual. Declining opportunities for history teachers have caused many bright and wonderful students to seek other career paths.