MADISON – Roslyn Kopelberg (nee Lassen), age 85, passed away after a prolonged illness on Monday, March 26, 2012, at Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg. Roz had a beloved career as an administrative secretary for plastic surgery at UW Hospital for more than 30 years and was an integral part of the department even long after her retirement.
MADISON – Paul Samuel Boyer of Madison departed this life on March 17, 2012, at Agrace HospiceCare, following a three-month bout with cancer. In 1980, Paul was called to teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where, as a member of the history faculty, he held the Merle Curti Chair in American History. In the 1990s he served as director of the UW Institute for the Humanities. A celebration of Paul?s life will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 27, 2012, at the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison.
“The mystery of this campaign will be how these candidates play outside that energized, engaged, group of Democrats,” says the pollster, Charles Franklin, a visiting political science professor. “We expect to see some of the lack of name recognition disappear fairly quickly as they now begin to campaign, but name recognition is going to remain the biggest problem for the Democrat who heads into the general election against Walker. It won?t be where the candidate wants it to be by Election Day.”
Wisconsin kids enrolled in private school choice programs aren?t performing as well as their public school counterparts on standardized exams, according to data released Tuesday by the state?s Department of Public Instruction, sparking another round of partisan debate about whether taxpayers should be funding voucher programs. John Witte, a UW-Madison political science professor and a national expert on voucher programs, counters that some of his most recent research is suggesting that while math scores between public and voucher school students in Milwaukee are similar, kids attending the private schools are starting to make strides in reading.
One of Wisconsin?s leading exports offers an encouraging sign. It?s not cheese, motorcycles or football. It?s high-end medical equipment. Think MRI, CAT scan, colonoscopy and ultra-sound. Thanks in part to the presence of GE Medical and spinoffs from research at UW-Madison, Wisconsin is third in the nation in electromedical equipment manufacturing employment, with 6,100 jobs. Only California and Minnesota employ more in the field.
A UW-Madison student committee has voted to end a long-standing service that provides late-night cab rides for stranded students. But the decision may be revisited Thursday. The Student Services Finance Committee voted Monday night to eliminate the SAFEride cab service, citing cost inefficiencies and declining use.
About 150 people gathered Tuesday on the UW-Madison campus to call for repeal of a state law that allowed a homeowner to claim self-defense in the March 3 killing of Bo Morrison, a 20-year-old from West Bend. Morrison?s shooting death came roughly a week after a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, in another disputed case of self-defense. Both young men were black and unarmed, which has ignited charges that the shootings were racially motivated.
….the Badgers are going through spring practices with only two healthy quarterbacks: sophomore Joe Brennan and redshirt freshman Joel Stave.Yet UW coach Bret Bielema said on Monday he will not alter the team?s recruiting strategy of signing only one quarterback in each class.
University of Wisconsin quarterback Jon Budmayr was not made available to reporters during offensive player interviews on Saturday, but spoke with UWBadgers.com and said he would know more about his injury situation after spring break. The junior-to-be visited a specialist in Michigan last week and was scheduled to visit the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on Monday.
Former UW-Madison and NFL cornerback Troy Vincent has been named a 2012 national recipient of the Jefferson Award for his community outreach work.
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas will hold a public rally in support of his presidential run at UW-Madison on Thursday night, his campaign announced.
The UW-Madison campus can be a hotbed of political activity, but there are limits to what you can do in promoting one candidate or another, or in gathering signatures for causes. The university issued guidelines on Monday on what?s allowed on campus, eight days before the presidential primary is held in Wisconsin on April 3.
UW-Madison officials say they will try to make it easier for students to report incidents of bias ? conduct, speech or expression motivated by prejudice ? and they are working on a better system for tracking such reports. The university is currently investigating an allegation that members of the UW-Madison chapter of Delta Upsilon yelled racial slurs at two black women and threw a bottle at them.
Kevin Helmkamp, associate dean of students, said the current reporting mechanism is ?not the easiest.? A student needs to fill out a paper form and drop it off at the Dean of Students Office. He said the university is working on a system that will allow students to send complaints electronically, likely through a website.
Editor Steve Lovejoy of The Journal Times in Racine is the winner of the first Anthony Shadid (shah-DEED?) Award for Journalism Ethics. The Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced the award Monday.
When Rosita Gonzalez proposed an after-school enrichment program for Thoreau Elementary School students this year, she wanted to make sure anyone could participate….Thoreau also formed a partnership with UW-Madison computer science department students, who were led by professor Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, to teach the elementary students about computer programming.
A decade ago, three-quarters of the world?s solar panels were manufactured right here in the U.S. Today, China is making 75 percent of them and it didn?t happen via the free market. The Chinese government made a conscious decision to grab control of the clean energy industry, subsidizing production of photovoltaic technology even as its own coal-burning power plants pump carbon emissions into the atmosphere. That production shift, says former White House ?green jobs? czar Van Jones, should alarm anyone concerned about the direction of this country.
When a permit for beer sales at last year?s Mifflin Street Block Party opened the way for drinking on the street and sidewalks, that?s the only message that got out about the already troublesome annual gathering, said Mark Woulf, the city?s alcohol police coordinator. The results, said Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, were among the worst in the 42-year history of the event, with unprecedented levels of alcohol, two stabbings, three sexual assaults, numerous fights, strong-armed robberies and reports of property damage, and three officers injured. This year, police, city officials, neighborhood residents and students are putting out a decidedly different message.
“It?s remarkable the kinds of absurd questions you get asked,” said Andrew Maxfield, 31, a UW-Madison graduate student. He developed a good-humored campus seminar in response to the increased curiosity, dubbing it “Mormonism 101: What the Heck?” The title refers to the Mormon aversion to swearing. About 35 people attended the event earlier this month.
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said Monday that it won?t happen overnight but he hopes to see an end to the annual spring Mifflin Street Block Party in years to come. Madison police said last year?s event was one of the more violent, troublesome Mifflin Street Block Parties in years.
When UW-Madison officials recently announced that they?re investigating a report of racial harassment linked to a fraternity party during the early morning hours of March 16, some within the campus community admitted to reflexively wondering how such an occurrence could take place these days. But others found the incident troublingly familiar. ?This type of stuff happens all the time,? says Niko Magallon, who chairs the Associated Students of Madison?s Diversity Committee.
Everybody knows by now that spring has sprung early this year. But nobody expected summer to be coming along right behind. From blooming magnolias ablaze in the UW Arboretum to maples and oaks unfurling their leaves everywhere, the changes on the landscape and the activities of everything from birds to bees suggest we?ve missed a month or more from the calendar. The UW Arboretum looks more like May than March, said Molly Fifield-Murray, outreach and education manager. Insects are buzzing earlier than normal, too, said Phil Pelletteri, a UW-Madison entomologist.
People know me as: Greg Grube. I jokingly refer to myself as a man about town, primarily because I am currently taking a bit of a break from the real world….I?ll perform with the improvisational dance group the Red Herrings, in tandem with the Madison aerial dance company Cycropia, in a free half-hour show Thursday at 5 p.m. in Paige Court of the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Ave. The performance intends to welcome hundreds of dance students from universities across the Midwest as part of the American College Dance Festival?s North Central Regional Conference, hosted this year by the UW-Madison Dance Department.
The Los Angeles Police Department has started a criminal investigation into the allegations that John Chadima, former UW-Madison Senior Associate Athletic Director, sexually assaulted a student Athletic Department employee while in a Los Angeles hotel during the Rose Bowl Weekend. The LAPD initially stated they would not conduct a formal investigation into the incident. However, the department confirmed Friday that a criminal investigation is in the works, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
….A UW-Madison lecture series focusing on hip-hop as a educational tool will feature Professor Marc Lamont Hill of Columbia University. Hill has appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. The series focuses on how hip-hop culture and culturally relevant teaching can be used to help bridge the achievement gap in schools. The lecture is at 7 tonight in Room 1101 of Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave.
Puzzled by the sight of empty seats in the student section at University of Wisconsin men?s basketball games, athletic director Barry Alvarez is considering a change in how season tickets are allocated starting in 2012-13. He?s thinking about a return to the format where all 2,100 student season tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis and they encompass all of the games at the Kohl Center.
It began with James Abrahamson and concluded 13 minutes and 78 names later with Ronald Zielinski. UW-Madison medical student Lauren Brown read each name Saturday afternoon, memorializing people who donated their bodies for medical research in an annual ceremony at a packed auditorium at UW Hospital.
The Pro Arte Quartet concert Saturday night in the Wisconsin Union Theater was among the most poignant of this year?s centennial performances. According to Union Theater director Ralph Russo, an early iteration of the Pro Arte helped open the theater 73 years ago, at a spring arts festival. (The theater will soon close for a two-year renovation, set to be complete in fall 2014.) After a discussion with guest composer William Bolcom and New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini, the concert itself opened with a dedication to violist James Crow.
As the April 3 presidential primary approaches, the Republican candidates are bringing their campaigns to Wisconsin, including U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who will visit the UW-Madison campus Thursday. Paul, currently lagging in the polls behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., will hold a town hall meeting on Thursday at the Stock Pavilion.
One can see why Laurel Rice does not follow politics closely, considering that what she calls her ?day job? is performing gynecological cancer surgery. Dr. Rice is chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Who better, I thought, to ask about the bill that majority Republicans in the Legislature recently passed requiring that doctors take unnecessary steps and abide by new restrictions before performing an abortion.
A: No, says Lyle Anderson, master carillonneur at the School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The bronze bells in the carillon tower were cast in England and the Netherlands, and were tuned at the factory before delivery to the new carillon on Bascom Hill on campus. The tower was completed in 1936.
A. What an amazing warm spell! March 14 was the first day of five consecutive days in which record-high temperatures were set in Madison. This matches the longest consecutive-day streak for setting record highs in our city?s history (the other two times were in the 1950s).
MADISON – Neil L. Whitehead passed away peacefully surrounded by family, early morning, Thursday, March 22, 2012. In 1993 Neil accepted a post at the University of Wisconsin in the Department of Anthropology. A brilliant scholar, he was well known for his significant contributions to Amazonian anthropology, historical anthropology and shamanism, as well as his pioneering work in the study of violence.
MADISON – Paul Samuel Boyer of Madison departed this life on March 17, 2012, at Agrace HospiceCare, following a three-month bout with cancer. In 1980, Paul was called to teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where, as a member of the history faculty, he held the Merle Curti Chair in American History. In the 1990s he served as director of the UW Institute for the Humanities. Following his retirement he became a series editor at UW Press, and a co-author for several college textbooks.
Madison police say it is likely that the same robbers struck three times early Sunday morning, targeting people walking near the UW-Madison campus. “Based on the similarity in the suspect and vehicle description it appears likely that the same suspects were involved in a total of three robberies overnight,” Madison police Sgt. Ann Lehner said in a news release.
Neil Whitehead, a long-time faculty member and chairman of the UW-Madison Department of Anthropology since 2009, died Thursday in Madison following an illness. Known for his study of the human propensity for violence, Whitehead focused much of his work on the Amazon basin and the Caribbean and, more recently, on U.S. involvement in war and terrorism.
Republican presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas plans to campaign in Madison next week. Paul?s campaign said Friday that he would hold a town hall meeting Thursday on the UW-Madison campus.
The first spring practice for the University of Wisconsin football team on Thursday was notable for who was missing, or not taking part. Given the way the offseason has gone so far for the Badgers, that was only fitting. UW lost six assistant coaches during the five weeks after the Rose Bowl and coach Bret Bielema said the first day of spring practice ?seems like it?s been forever to come.?
BOSTON ? One thing a program finds out as it climbs the ladder of success in college sports is that the bigger the game, the more it hurts to lose. This one will hurt the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team for a long, long time.
BOSTON ? Time after time during his brilliant four-year career with the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team, Jordan Taylor made 3-pointers late in the shot clock to demoralize the opponent. There was Taylor again Thursday night with the ball ? and the Badgers? season ? in his hands. The final possession was hardly a thing of beauty, but at least UW had a chance because its best player had a look at the basket, albeit a contested one from 26 feet away.
Wisconsin will play host to former Gov. Tommy Thompson and two Republican presidential hopefuls over the next week, as pivotal primary elections loom ahead. Thompson, one of the frontrunners in the Republican U.S. Senate race, will be on campus Saturday to speak to College Republicans from across the state about his campaign….?We are extremely excited to host a fellow Badger at his alma mater,? UW-Madison College Republican Chairman Jeff Snow said. ?Governor Thompson?s appearance has garnered a lot of intrigue and enthusiasm.? The event is part of a larger Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans? campaign weekend in Madison.
From 2009-2011, I walked rent checks over to my landlord at The Rifken Group on Madison?s Capitol square. Write the checks to Central Focus LLC, they told me and my two roommates. We didn?t realize the significance. As graduates of the University of Wisconsin in 2007, my roommates and I had a genuine affection for living in downtown Madison.
A UW-Madison fraternity had just recently come off “alcohol probation” when it was temporarily suspended this week because members allegedly yelled racist slurs and threw a bottle at two black female students. The probation, which was lifted March 1, meant that Delta Upsilon fraternity couldn?t hold events, including parties, with alcohol.
Before leaving town on spring break, UW-Madison students and city residents have eight more days to vote by absentee ballot for the spring primary on April 3.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison officials said they are investigating a report of a racial incident involving two African-American female students and members of a campus fraternity. UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam and Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate Damon Williams called the allegations against members of Delta Upsilon “deeply troubling.”
Former Maryland quarterback Danny O?Brien has scheduled a visit to the University of Wisconsin this weekend, a UW source confirmed on Tuesday. O?Brien visited Penn State last weekend, according to FightOnState.com, and Mississippi on Monday, according to CBSSports.com. He has two years of eligibility remaining and because he will graduate this spring, he will be able to play during the 2012 season as long as he enrolls in a graduate program not offered at Maryland.
Seamus Malone just finished his freshman year of high school in Naperville, Ill., but the highly regarded hockey prospect already knows where he?s headed for college. Malone, a forward with the Chicago Mission Midget Minor program, commited to the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team, according to his father, Patrick. “We?re thrilled,?? Patrick said. “It?s a premier program in the U.S.??
BOSTON — Contrary to how it may have sounded, it wasn?t ?Rip On Ryan Evans Day? Wednesday afternoon at TD Garden. Greg Gard, the associate head coach for the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team, was actually dishing out a compliment when he had this to say about junior forward Ryan Evans: ?He?s persistently stubborn at times,? Gard said. Not only did Evans agree with that description, he took it one step further. ?It?s stubbornness (and) arrogance,? he said.
UW-Madison?s School of Business is ranked 24th in Bloomberg Businessweek?s annual listing of the top undergraduate business schools. That?s a jump of three spots since last year and the highest UW-Madison has been ranked since the list first started coming out in 2006.
UW-Madison Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell defended the university?s process for coming up with new work rules for UW-Madison?s 17,000 employees in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. His statement is in response to an allegation that the school may be violating the Open Meetings Law by holding committee meetings in private.
STOUGHTON – Sheldon E. ?Shel? Lueck, aged 62, of Stoughton, bravely left this life on Tuesday March 20, 2012, after a lengthy battle with cancer in his Stoughton home in the arms of his loved ones. After leaving military service, Shel found a career in medical technology at UW Hospital in Madison, where he worked from 1989 to the present.
Paul “Rufus” Terry?s first WIAA state boys basketball experience was hard to top. Terry was a senior at Beloit Memorial High School and sitting in the University of Wisconsin Field House on March 22, 1969, when Lamont Weaver launched the most famous shot in tournament history. Terry, 60, has had an affinity for the state tournaments ? and state sports teams ? ever since. He works for UW-Madison, in Arena Control at the Kohl Center. His duties include working the state football, wrestling and girls and boys basketball tournaments.
All of us well-educated Madison liberals can “tsk, tsk” at the regular bashing our beloved UW-Madison takes from the likes of such “anti-intellectuals” as Republican state Rep. Steve Nass. But for being so smart, university types sometimes seem dumb enough to bring it upon themselves.
A UW-Madison fraternity has been temporarily suspended as the university investigates allegations that fraternity members used racial slurs and threw a glass bottle at two black female students. The investigation stems from a March 16 incident at the Delta Upsilon fraternity, 644 N. Frances St.
If a UW-Madison student government committee is going to keep interim Chancellor David Ward from increasing some segregated fees against its recommendation, the panel is going to need an assist from the UW System?s Board of Regents.
MADISON (WKOW) — Badger fans in Boston for the NCAA Men?s Basketball East Regional are encouraged to join fellow Badgers for a Wisconsin Basketball Sweet 16 Party. The fun begins on Wednesday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m. ET at The Baseball Tavern. The UW Spirit Squad, UW Band and Bucky Badger will be on hand to entertain those in attendance. Free Wisconsin Basketball Grateful Red T-shirts will be available to fans while supplies last courtesy of adidas. Plus several door prizes will be awarded throughout the event including official Wisconsin Basketball gear and an autographed Bo Ryan basketball.
Despite her popularity with organized labor, UW-Madison?s teaching assistant?s union decided not to endorse former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk Tuesday, at least for the time being. The UW-Madison Teaching Assistants? Association voted against two gubernatorial recall-related resolutions at its general membership meeting Tuesday: one to establish the terms of endorsement, and a second on endorsing Falk.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said this week his department is in the process of crafting written procedures for serving alcohol at off-campus functions. Without a written policy, Alvarez said the department?s oversight of alcohol at events had “probably” become lax.
One year ago, Wildwood Family Clinic, 4901 Cottage Grove Road, started turning away new patients covered by Medicare, the national health insurance program for senior citizens and the disabled. Wildwood is the first clinic in Madison and maybe even the entire state to bail out of accepting new Medicare patients. Dr. Tim Bartholow, a senior vice president with the Wisconsin Medical Society, fears it might not be the last. “This is the canary in the mine,” he says. A massive report released just last week by the federal commission in charge of Medicare suggests he could be right.
When University of Wisconsin-Madison officials embarked on developing a new personnel system to govern the work lives of more than 15,000 people across campus in the wake of the end of collective bargaining rights, those taking the lead on the project promised it would be ?transparent and collaborative.? But an organization that advocates for the rights of faculty and academic staff at the university argues the process has fallen well short of that ideal, pointing out that meetings of the Advisory Committee to the Human Resources HR Design Project have — for purposes of the state?s open meetings law — been closed.
Gary Sandefur, the dean of the College of Letters and Science, who chairs the Advisory Committee, says the body decided to close its meetings for two main reasons after the university?s office of legal services advised that the state?s open meetings law applies to gatherings of governmental bodies — and that this committee doesn?t meet the definition of such a group.
The state Medical Examining Board decided Tuesday to investigate 11 additional doctors for writing sick notes during Capitol protests last year. The doctors are not among the nine the state sanctioned last year. The additional doctors were named in records the Madison School District released to the State Journal and other media in December after a lawsuit by the newspaper.
