Noted: Story includes comments from expert Jordan Rosenblum, an associate professor of classical Judaism at UW-Madison, on why female scribes are rare.
Letter to the editor from University of Iowa associate professor emeritus. “When a top-tier university such as UW-Madison abandons tenure, other universities can almost overnight build stellar departments by hiring departing UW-Madison faculty.”
For nearly 50 years, Mary Rouse has been employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first in the admissions office, then in the Dean of Students, which she led from 1987-2000, and then as director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service. She has worked for the past 10 years as a community liaison with the center.
“Recent action by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has the potential to threaten that longstanding commitment to fearless inquiry. I am worried about the risk this creates for UW-Madison, by alienating and demoralizing the faculty who have built this into one of the world’s finest education and research institutions. Abrupt changes to tenure and shared governance — another historic underpinning of UW-Madison — could drive away the people we most need to attract and retain. That these changes are being recommended without public discussion or consultation from those who will be most affected adds to our collective concern.”
Contrarian columnist’s take on tenure debate.
Column by Sen. Vinehout, D-Alma, on the proposal to suspend the the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau’s requirement to to conduct an annual financial audit of the UW System.
The UW Foundation announced on Friday that the Nicholas family committed $50 million this week for scholarships to undergraduates, student-athletes and graduate students. The gift is the second-largest household gift in UW-Madison’s history, second only to the $100 million gift from John and Tashia Morgridge in December to help build faculty at the university.
Wide swings in the wolf numbers aren’t unexpected, said Tim Van Deelen, a UW-Madison wildlife biologist who has studied the state’s wolves extensively and who has said a higher population goal would be more appropriate. “I would expect some unpredictability in the population response because we have not had a constant yearly harvest rate and even if we did, it would take some time for the population to come to a new equilibrium,” Van Deelen said.
Illumina, a San Diego-based company that moved into the Madison market in 2012, unveiled Thursday an $8 million, 13,000-square-foot addition to its University Research Park facility on the West Side.
The Faculty Senate overwhelmingly approved a resolution asking Chancellor Rebecca Blank, UW System President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents to use “all means at their disposal” to remove a provision giving UW authorities more leeway to dismiss faculty from a motion inserted into Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee.
In what may be the first study of its kind, Anita Mukherjee, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, compared average time served and recidivism at public and private prisons. She found that the lower costs that make private prisons attractive are undermined by longer stays.
Letter to the editor from parent of incoming freshman from New Jersey.
Column by Kirstie K. Danielson, who received a Ph.D. from UW–Madison and is currently an assistant professor in the Division of Transplant Surgery at the University of Illinois–Chicago, and Scott Wittkopf, who attended UW-Madison and is a political communications consultant and co-founder of public policy think tank Forward Institute.
Video commentary from local radio personality Mitch Henck on state budget provisions that would hit tenure at UW-Madison.
Story about Katie Brenner, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biochemistry, and her invention of an app-based device that would help women track their day-to-day fertility levels, helping them hone in on when they would be most likely to conceive, and alerting them early on when they become pregnant.
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members upset about what they consider to be a coordinated political assault on the UW System spent nearly two hours in a packed lecture hall Tuesday afternoon, reiterating that tenure isn’t about a guaranteed job for life, but about protecting academic freedom.
After earning his doctorate, Herb joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the departments of curriculum and instruction and educational policy studies in 1963. He never fully retired, and was professor emeritus in the School of Education until the time of his death.
Letter to the editor from Madison resident Teloh, professor emeritus from Vanderbilt University.
Profile of the junior discus and shot put thrower.
The city Plan Commission on Monday night approved a 12-story project proposed by developer Core Campus with 11,740 square feet of commercial and flex space, 367 apartments, and parking for 152 cars, 66 mopeds and 408 bicycles at 510 University Ave.
Blogger contends that proposed change is aimed at “UW-Madison, UW Extension Centers, Dane County and college campus towns around the state.”
The Wisconsin Senate has voted to confirm Gov. Scott Walker’s appointment of Michael M. Grebe to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
Conservative academics might be in greater jeopardy than the liberal-leaning colleagues who outnumber them if tenure is removed from Wisconsin state law, says John Sharpless, a longtime UW-Madison history professor and former Republican candidate for Congress
Two UW-Madison professors serving as interim associate vice chancellors in the Office of Research and Graduate Education have been named to the post. Norman Drinkwater and Jan Greenberg were selected as the permanent associate vice chancellors following the university’s search process.
The UW-Madison Faculty Senate was nearly unanimous Tuesday as it called on lawmakers to strike budget language that would decrease faculty influence and make it easier for tenured professors to be fired. But faculty members appeared to be of two minds on the tone they should take with a Board of Regents that many don’t trust to do what they believe is the right thing.
The Champions Tour golf tournament, coming to University Ridge Golf Course June 22-26, 2016, is expected to carry with it an economic impact of $10 million to $15 million. The tournament, the American Family Insurance Championship, will include 81 players competing for a share of $2 million in prize money. Three rounds of play broadcast on Golf Channel will follow two days of Pro-Am competition. The tournament is confirmed for 2016, 2017 and 2018 with an option for 2019.
Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee plans to open a pharmacy school in 2017 or 2018, adding to Wisconsin’s two pharmacy schools at UW-Madison and Concordia University.
A no-confidence vote in UW Colleges chancellor Cathy Sandeen failed to win support last week, with just 38 percent favoring the measure among the Colleges’ nearly 300 faculty. The vote was considered a long shot from the beginning, partly because of logistics: faculty were off-contract with the school year done and less likely to cast a ballot.
Wisconsin State Journal editorial from May 28, 1915 on maneuvers of then-Gov. Phillips to create a new governing board made up of his appointees. “Where is the alumni of Wisconsin. Where are its officers? Why are they not engaging in the activities of the defense of a university which needs no defense, before the eyes of the civilized world; needs defense only before those who would cripple it for political purposes, cripple it to gain support of the thoughtless and those who may hate it because it has never preached the right of predatory powers to rule American people.”
Column from Downs, professor of political science, law and journalism: “With increasing frequency, especially on college campuses, speakers presenting unpopular views — or views unpopular with a vocal minority of the audience — are being disrupted or ‘shouted down’ until they leave the stage. This has happened at UW-Madison, where I am a professor, and at many other universities.”
Noted: Aaron Olver, managing director of UW Research Park, agreed with several economic development experts who said Wisconsin also should focus on supporting small, start-up and high-tech businesses, which generate most new jobs.
Other than a short stint at the University of Illinois, John’s academic career was spent at UW-Madison in the Biochemistry Department, where his research focused on fermentation. He developed several new fermentation techniques that he shared with his colleagues and which benefited numerous lines of research.
He was a senior research scientist at the Land Tenure Center and taught at both the Department of Economics and the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until he retired. He and his wife, Mimi, are still affiliated faculty in the African Studies Program at the UW-Madison.
Hundreds of people, including many of Madison’s top business and community leaders, gathered Friday night to hear how a group of influential African-American residents calling themselves the Justified Anger coalition plans to lead a broad-based attack on pronounced racial disparities in the city. … “It’s African-Americans coming together in ways I’ve not seen in my 30-plus years in this community,” Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for finance and administration at UW-Madison, told the crowd in his welcome.
The University of Wisconsin System would be able to authorize independent charter schools in Madison and Milwaukee under a proposal by Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee.
Lawmakers on the Legislature’s powerful budget committee trimmed Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million two-year funding cut to the University of Wisconsin System to $250 million, which if it stands would be tied for the largest cut in System history and would mark the fifth time in the last six budget cycles that the universities took a significant funding cut. Of perhaps even more consequence, the committee approved significant changes to faculty tenure, removing it from state law, and to shared governance that would take away some decision-making power from faculty, students and staff and give more sway to campus chancellors and the UW System Board of Regents, who are appointed by the governor.
Applicants for coaching jobs at the University of Wisconsin, and other positions, would no longer be subject to the open records law under a proposal approved by the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.
Column about Guy Lowman, who died in 1943 after having served as head coach of Badgers teams in three sports, winning conference championships in two.
University of Wisconsin student-athletes who are on full scholarship in 2015-16 are projected to receive among the largest, most varied cost-of-attendance stipends in the nation. The final totals are still being determined for the coming school year, but UW Athletic Department officials expect the range for each case to be between $3,800 and $5,200. That translates to an anticipated annual bill of $1.35 million to $1.5 million for UW Athletics, which has approximately 150 student-athletes on full scholarship and hundreds more on partial tenders.
For Malone, a Portage native and a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this year could be one of those moments. She has a big summer ahead of her musically, with shows scheduled in Denver and Chicago, all booked around festivals she will perform at.
Editorial: The governor proposed the $300 million cut to UW System as part of a larger plan to give the state’s 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges more autonomy. Freedom from state purchasing rules and construction fees could have saved UW significant money to help offset the state cut. But lawmakers have largely rejected that flexibility. So they also should reject most of the cut, especially if tuition is frozen. That’s only fair.With the economy improving, Wisconsin shouldn’t be skimping on higher education. Other states are wisely investing in their universities. Ten chambers of commerce representing thousands of businesses across the state sent a powerful letter to the Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday, urging it to reduce $300 million cut to UW. The letter stressed the positive impact the System has on the state economy and jobs.
At $209 a pound, the cheese won’t be a wish every food lover will be able to fulfill. Yet, it’s something that will benefit the state. Cheese makers Tony and Julie Hook are donating $40,000 from the cheese sale — half its revenue — to the Center for Dairy Research and Babcock Hall building project underway on the UW-Madison campus.
Without scientific study, the state would return to the practice of stocking lakes with fish based on politics, said John Magnuson, professor emeritus of zoology and director emeritus, UW-Madison Center for Limnology.
The committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Friday, but its last several sessions have been postponed for several hours each. All remaining items in the budget are listed on the agenda, including a proposed $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System, the Department of Transportation budget and a proposal to partially fund construction of a new Milwaukee Bucks arena.
According to multiple college hockey sources, Eaves has tabbed John Hamre as his director of hockey operations pending administrative clearance from UW Athletics. Meanwhile, more than seven weeks have gone by since Eaves fired assistant coaches Gary Shuchuk and Matt Walsh and, so far, those positions remain open and three known targets are no longer in the mix.
The UW cut up for a vote Friday is one of the most controversial pieces of Walker’s two-year state spending plan. Republicans who control the budget-writing committee have already said they won’t go along with Walker’s plan to give UW more independence from state laws and oversight.
University of Wisconsin senior Alex Thompson booked his ticket to the national championships by placing fourth in the discus at the NCAA West preliminary round track and field meet on Thursday in Austin, Texas. He’ll be joined by sophomore Malachy Schrobilgen, who squeaked into the field for NCAAs by grabbing the last qualifying spot in the men’s 10,000 meters.
The University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team will play at Wake Forest in next season’s Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the Big Ten announced on Wednesday. The game is set for Dec. 2 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Noted: Howard Schweber, UW professor of political science and legal studies, offers expert insight.
Among other actions Wednesday, the Joint Finance Committee approved $86.2 million in bonding to renovate and expand UW-Madison’s outdated chemistry building.
Story of a man whose partial bridge got painfully lodged in his lower gum. He went to UW Hospital emergency room for relief. As he waited to be seen, the hardware dislodged and he left. He later received a $143 bill, and contacted the newspaper to express his dismay. UW Hospital spokesperson Lisa Brunette quickly responded that “under the circumstances,” the man’s co-pay of $75 would be written off “as a goodwill gesture.”
A group of Madison-based scientists is forming a team to find the remains of long-lost World War II veterans and bring them home for proper burial. If private fundraising goals are met, the Missing In Action Recovery and Identification Project would meld the skills of UW-Madison scholars of history, genetic analysis and archeology.
The Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that a detective took a report Friday of a man with an accent who called a UW student and claimed to be a representative of the Sheriff’s Office. The student said her caller ID showed the Sheriff’s Office reception number, which can be done by a method called “spoofing.”
Michael M. Grebe, son of Michael W. Grebe, president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation, was appointed Friday to the Board of Regents.
Letter to the editor from mother of Henry Mackaman, a 21-year-old UW-Madison student who died two years ago of meningitis strain B. “At the time, there was no available vaccine in the United State for this particular strain. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved two vaccines to help protect against Type B meningitis. However, not many parents and students know about them. Colleges are treating the new Type B vaccines in different ways. Some, like UW-Madison, make the vaccines available to those who ask. I commend UW-Madison for doing this, and I encourage other colleges in Wisconsin and elsewhere to follow that lead.”
Mark Gehring, a serial entrepreneur who is co-founder and chief strategy officer of HealthMyne, a Madison startup with technology to better analyze tumor images, said investors have come to realize Madison has unique health IT expertise — in large part because of the monumental growth of Epic Systems Corp., the Verona electronic health records giant, as well as longtime expertise from UW-Madison.
Athletic Director Barry Alvarez is considering a novel scheduling option whereby Big Ten schools could elect to play conference members that aren’t part of their assigned nine-game lineup.
To honor the centennial of the Boaz mastodon, which went on display in 1915, Carrie Eaton, curator of collections at the museum, began researching the elephant-like creature, looking for more information about one of Wisconsin’s most famous fossils.
Langdon Street on the UW-Madison campus will be closed beginning Tuesday so restoration work on the Memorial Union can continue.
The University of Wisconsin’s network of two-year colleges plans to slash its administrative ranks — in the process cutting nearly 10 percent of its overall workforce — in response to Gov. Scott Walker’s historic $300 million proposed cut to the University of Wisconsin System.
