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Author: gbump

Dollars bring new era to University Opera

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

In 2007, Karen Bishop took fellow opera fan Dan Shea aside and broke the news: She was ill, and had to step away from her role with UW Opera Props. In January, Bishop, 54, died after a 20-year fight with breast cancer, leaving behind a family and a gift expected to change the history of opera at UW-Madison. A gift of $500,000 from Bishop’s husband Charlie, along with a matching grant from the John and Tashia Morgridge Foundation and funds from University Opera supporters, has ushered in a new era for the art form on campus, supporters say.

Yeazel, Louise M.

Posted on
Madison.com

She taught elementary school in Milwaukee, math education at UW-Madison, and aviation ground school at MATC.

Erika Bach: Everett Mitchell is right about race and crime

Posted on
Capital Times

Reverend Mitchell’s comment, taken irresponsibly out of context, offered that these arrests are predicated on the poverty in which three out of every four black Madison youth live. While large insured entities can cover the fiscal loss, the real cost is to Madisonians, as the homes they return to after arrest are primarily within black communities.

Halsey, Linda Diane

Posted on
Madison.com

Fifteen years ago, she joined the UW Foundation where she helped grow a highly successful development program within the UW School of Pharmacy. Linda was promoted to UW Senior Director of Development in 2013.

Wisconsin athletes get extra scholarship money to cover cell phone, laundry

Posted on
Capital Times

Football coaches at Virginia Tech and Cincinnati created a stir last week when they said they were considering withholding some of the stipends for disciplinary reasons such as missing team meetings, committing academic fraud or getting called for a personal foul penalty. Some schools have been accused of inflating their cost of attendance estimates for all students to be able to use a higher value of the new scholarship money as a recruiting tool for athletes.

March, Robert Herbert “Bob”

Posted on
Madison.com

Bob had a long and fruitful career of more than 40 years as a professor of physics at UW-Madison, where he was a researcher on international high energy and astrophysics projects, taught a popular course called “Physics for Poets,” and authored a textbook with that title that has been published in seven languages and has been read worldwide. He had a knack for explaining difficult concepts to a general audience, which made him a popular teacher and frequent commentator on science issues on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Arboretum night walks

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The UW-Madison Arboretum offers 17 night walks a year, including one on each month close to the full moon, walks near the summer solstice and other changes of season, and one on New Year’s Eve, outreach and education manager Molly Fifield Murray said. On average, about 40 people attend each walk — accompanied by two naturalists funded by Friends of the Arboretum — though weather is a factor in attendance. The walks are free.

Saliva-based fertility test wins Madison pitch contest

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Katie Brenner, a biochemistry postdoctoral fellow in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, won the 5X5X5 pitch competition held Thursday by the Doyenne Group, a Madison organization that advises and encourages women entrepreneurs. It is the second contest that Brenner and her company, bluDiagnostics, have won in two days — both as part of the Forward Fest — and their third victory since June, when they won the 2015 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

Tom Oates: Paul Chryst’s low-key personality works just fine

Posted on
Madison.com

When Paul Chryst was the critically acclaimed offensive coordinator for the University of Wisconsin football team from 2005 to 2011, the offensive players thought so highly of him they almost viewed him as their head coach. Now Chryst really is the head coach, returning to UW this season after a three-year job-training program as the head man at Pitt.

FluGen adds investors

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FluGen’s Redee Flu vaccine is based on research by UW-Madison scientists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Gabriele Neumann, licensed exclusively to the Madison company by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

UW-Madison move-in days to bring heavy traffic, street closures

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The big move-in days will be this coming Thursday, Sunday and Monday, according to UW-Madison. Traffic around all residence halls will be extremely heavy on those days, the university said in a press release. Students can begin moving in on those days any time after 8 a.m. on their assigned day.

UW official draws fire over remarks critical of prosecuting shoplifters

Posted on
Capital Times

Everett Mitchell, director of community relations at UW–Madison, made comments critical of prosecuting shoplifters at “big box” stores. Mitchell, a pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church and a former prosecutor with the Dane County District Attorney’s Office, made the comments on Aug. 18 during a discussion on best policing practices at Vilas Hall, which also featured former Madison Police Chief David Couper and Young Gifted and Black organizer M Adams.

Gray, Julie A. (Chase) (Ruskosky)

Posted on
Madison.com

Julie started her career as the house manager of the Olin House (the UW-Madison Chancellor’s residence) in 2008. Her love and passion for her job was evident in her preparation for the many events hosted at the Olin House both by Chancellor Biddie Martin and Chancellor David (Judith) Ward.

UW System announces listening sessions across state

Posted on
Madison.com

University of Wisconsin System officials will visit nine UW campuses over the next two months for a series of listening sessions they say is aimed at hearing what people around Wisconsin want out of their higher education system. The sessions will help inform the UW System’s strategic plan for the coming years, officials said Monday, and will be aimed at making the system more responsive to the needs of the public.

On Campus: Badger athletes to receive more money for school; tenure task force meets

Posted on
Madison.com

This year’s Athletic Department budget includes an additional $2 million that can be distributed to athletes to pay for expenses such as transportation, school supplies and cellphones — costs universities had previously been barred from funding. The changes mean full-scholarship Badger athletes will get an additional $3,800 to $5,200 per year from the university, associate athletic director Justin Doherty said.

ESPN reporters detail Chris Borland’s place as a source of conflict in football

Posted on
Capital Times

Over the course of five months, a pair of investigative reporters trailed former Wisconsin football player Chris Borland, whose decision to give up the game just one year into a promising NFL career drew national attention. Their conclusion: “In many ways, Borland is like any bright, ambitious recent college graduate who is trying to figure out the rest of his life. In other ways, he’s the most dangerous man in football.”

UW System tenure task force gets to work under pall of mistrust

Posted on
Capital Times

The 20-member tenure ask force, with members from university campuses across the state as well as UW Colleges and UW Extension, is to report by April to the Board of Regents, which will have final say on the policies. The panel will recommend procedures for determining when the criteria for an economic or program change warranting layoffs is met, and who has the power to make that determination.

Harris, Marjorie

Posted on
Madison.com

In the 1960s … Marj was asked by Professor Phil Curtin to join the staff of the newly developed African Studies Program at the UW. Marj took on major and minor administrative duties until her retirement in 1990 at the age of 70.

Tech and Biotech: Burrill contest canceled for 2016

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Leaders of Madison’s entrepreneurial community say they are surprised and saddened to hear the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition has been called off for 2016. A highlight of the UW-Madison’s School of Business for the past 18 years, a notice on the contest’s website says “due to budgetary constraints,” the Burrill competition is being “suspended.”