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Author: gbump

Reopening US schools is complicated.

MIT Technology Review

Balancing different needs can be particularly difficult in larger, more diverse districts, says Thomas Friedrich, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, part of a team at the school’s AIDS Vaccine Research Laboratory that is sequencing virus samples from Wisconsin.

Pulling racist Dr. Seuss books makes kids? literature better and more inclusive, writes Meena Harris

The Washington Post

But the problem isn’t just the presence of stereotypes in children’s literature. There’s also an absence of inclusion. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of education, about half of new children’s books in 2018 centered White characters while about 1 in 4 focused on people of color.

Advances in Scaling and Modeling of Land-Atmosphere Interactions

Eos

Every second, an extraordinary number and variety of organisms on land leverage the resources of soil, water, and air to function, grow, and reproduce. These individual actions by plants, fungi, microorganisms, animals, and humans across the Earth’s surface have wide ramifications on Earth system processes. Among those are the transfer of heat, water vapor, and momentum between surface and atmosphere, hydrologic flows in rivers, streams, and groundwater, and mineral transformations in the lithosphere. However, observing and predicting how these processes evolve continues to be challenging.

-By , Brian Butterworth, Stefan Metzger, and Matthias Mauder

Column: A Mexican cultural center welcomed homeless people. Then came the fines – Los Angeles Times

LA Times

“A lot of folks are confused why a Mexican cultural center is with this fight,” said the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Carolina Sarmiento, who isn’t related to the Santa Ana mayor. “We’re not just a facade of Mexican culture. The question of displacement is at the heart of who we serve. It would be a contradiction to be talking about housing rights and immigrant rights and talk about not treating these folks as part of our community.”

UW-Madison seniors struggle to secure jobs

WKOW-TV 27

Jobs are hard to come by for college seniors with fewer entry-level opportunities available. Noah Williams, a UW-Madison economics professor, says the job market it is “difficult” to find entry-level positions.

Blank: Normal fall semester at UW hinges on vaccinations

Channel 3000 (via AP)

Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in remarks to the Wisconsin Counties Association’s annual Legislative Exchange meeting Wednesday that the university hopes to vaccinate all faculty and staff before the spring semester ends. She said students who haven’t been vaccinated by the start of the fall semester will need to get vaccinated on campus.

Wisconsin launches vaccine registry with just 1 county, more sites to come

Associated Press

In other pandemic-related developments Wednesday: UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in taped remarks for the Wisconsin Counties Association’s annual Legislative Exchange meeting that a normal fall semester hinges on the pace of vaccinations for faculty, staff and students. She said the university is an authorized vaccinator and hopes to vaccinate all faculty and staff by the end of the spring semester. 

Foseid, Thomas “Tom”

Wisconsin State Journal

Tom was also honored several times by the Madison Police department during his career as the building manager at the UW Madison Chemistry building for multiple acts of heroics, being the first to respond in lab fires and saving lives in the process.

LeBron James Voting Rights Group Partners With NBA To Fight GOP-Backed Voter Restrictions

Forbes

CHIEF CRITIC: “The typical response by a losing party in a functioning democracy is that they alter their platform to make it more appealing,” Kenneth Mayer, an expert on voting and elections at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the New York Times last week. “Here, the response is to try to keep people from voting. It’s dangerously anti-democratic.”

‘If It’s Not A Financial Issue, Then What Is It?’: Evers Proposes Money To Help Schools Change Mascots | Wisconsin Public Radio

WPR

But rebranding isn’t exactly simple. Before officially changing its mascot, the district had been using a ’WF’ logo. It attempted to copyright the design last year, but ultimately it was too similar to the “Motion W” used by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now, the university is helping the district design a new logo, Tubbs said.

Bauer, Trisha

Wisconsin State Journal

Trisha loved her job at UW-Madison as a Human Resource Manager and all of the friends she worked with.

UW-Madison Faculty Senate pushes for UW Foundation to divest from fossil fuels

Daily Cardinal

The resolution, which was originally proposed at their February 1 meeting and passed at their March 1 faculty senate meeting, urges UW-Madison to disclose their current amount of investments in fossil fuels, make a plan for the University’s full divestment and to work with the UW-Madison Office of Sustainability to reduce its carbon impact. The resolution passed in a vote of 149-13.

UW-Madison Pharmacy students help with COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Daily Cardinal

The UW-Madison Pharmacy school designed courses to train younger students how to vaccinate to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts. The School of Pharmacy class, Comprehensive Immunization Delivery — which includes training on vaccine administration — is now available for first-year PharmD students.

Fragile X researcher takes on COVID-19

Spectrum News

Fragile X syndrome usually arises from mutations that silence the FMR1 gene, curbing production of a protein called FMRP and leading to runaway synthesis of other proteins. SARS-CoV-2, which contains a single long stretch of RNA, hijacks the same protein production machinery to crank out more virus, making people sick in the process. Could drugs designed to thwart protein synthesis help with both? “The idea kept me awake at night for a week,” says Westmark, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Developer proposes $22 million housing project for University Avenue

Wisconsin State Journal

MSP Real Estate of Mendota Heights, Minnesota, is looking to raze the Don the Car Care Man auto repair shop and replace it with a building offering 79 apartments, 750 square feet of first-floor commercial space and underground parking for 79 cars and 87 bicycles on a narrow, half-acre lot at 2208 University Ave.

More UW students volunteering to vaccinate than shots available

WKOW-TV 27

“It has been a little bit frustrating,” Hoernke said. “We’ve been needing to even cancel volunteers because they’re not getting enough vaccines. (Pharmacies) have had to cancel appointments for their patients to come get their first vaccine… For once, I’ve coordinated something that has more volunteers than we need.”

With pandemic’s increased risk of stress, loneliness, UW encourages employees to take time off for well-being

Badger Herald

The University of Wisconsin released a statement Feb. 9 encouraging employees to take time off for well-being. The statement said employees were deferring time off because the pandemic prevented them from traveling, spending time with family and friends, or getting away from managing pandemic-related issues. UW Chief Human Resources Officer Mark Walters said employees are also busy triaging issues caused by the pandemic to help keep the campus safe.