….I?ve been job hunting like crazy for four years. I?ve submitted thousands of applications, have had probably 25 interviews but no offers, despite holding two current teaching licenses. Most school districts are so strapped for funds that they can no longer afford to hire teachers with advanced degrees and decades of experience.
Bobbie Kelsey is bringing in a couple of familiar faces in her University of Wisconsin women?s basketball coaching staff. One is familiar to Badgers fans, another to Kelsey. Kyle Black Rechlicz, who played for the Badgers from 1998-2002 will join Kelsey?s staff, as will Stacy Cantley, who coached along with Kelsey at Virginia Tech. Also named to the new staff is Alysiah Bond, a former point guard at Ohio State who most recently was on the staff at Arizona.
The University of Wisconsin women?s rowing team earned an at-large berth to the 16-team NCAA championships on Tuesday night. The Badgers will make an unprecedented fourth straight trip to the championships, slated for May 27-29 at Sacramento State Aquatic Center in Gold River, Calif.
Oties Epps wasn?t sure where his coaching path would lead after he lost his job when the University of Wisconsin fired women?s basketball coach Lisa Stone. But he was eager to find out. Despite some initial pain and several weeks of uncertainty, Epps said he never lost faith that there was an appealing basketball destination in his future.
Two weeks ago Jordan Smith thought his future for at least the next four years was clearly mapped out. He was going to attend the University of Wisconsin, where he would major in business and walk on to the men?s basketball team and hopefully work his way into earning a scholarship.
Edward F. Acker, age 82, of Waunakee, died on Saturday, May 14, 2011, at Fort Atkinson Hospital in Fort Atkinson following a brief illness. Ed was employed at the University of Wisconsin and retired in 1991.
Gail Jeanne Irwin Petersen died on Sunday, May 15, 2011, after a courageous battle with cancer. She received her M.A. in 1988 and her Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in comparative literature and was later on the faculty of the Department of Comparative Literature for four years.
Gov. Scott Walker has yet to implement any of his major economic initiatives. Thankfully. Yet the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau announced May 11 that, because of improved tax collection projections, Wisconsin has an extra $636 million for budgeting purposes. That?s a 1.6 percent increase in tax revenue over the next two years.
The Tenant Resource Center has been awarded a contract with Associated Students of Madison to provide housing counseling services and outreach to University of Wisconsin-Madison students for the upcoming academic year. In addition to services currently available at TRC?s Williamson Street office, TRC will have an office in the Student Activity Center. The room will be in the ASM Office, Room 4301 at 333 East Campus Mall.
The journal starts with this: “The first night I was here, I didn?t sleep well.” They are the words of a young Dane County woman, a victim of domestic violence.
“I felt intimidated,” she continued. “I was ashamed that I ended up here.” The woman writing in her journal was staying at the emergency safe house of Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS), which since 1977 in Dane County has been providing support services to victims of domestic violence and their children.
This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.
UW-Oshkosh leaders argue they could save $20,000 a year by buying cheaper trash bags. UW-Madison officials say they could complete a $400,000 remodeling job in Sterling Hall in four months, rather than a year-and-a-half. And the UW-Parkside chancellor contends she would have an extra $50,000 each year in tuition revenue.
These are examples offered by University of Wisconsin System leaders of ways they could save money and time ? if only they had more freedom from state bureaucracy.
An old gun may be replacing the rising star among a growing field of candidates in the race to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
The University Square Food Court closed indefinitely Tuesday, according to a sign on its door on East Campus Mall.
“In a nutshell, it was not performing as forecast. It never took on the life we intended,” property manager Todd Greenwald told Isthmus. Greenwald could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
This week, catapults will storm the walls of UW-Madison buildings. Robots will wrestle at the Field House. Rubber-band helicopters and bottle rockets will zoom into the university?s airspace. And there will be about 6,000 extra people on campus.
Starting Wednesday, students, parents, and teachers will stream into Madison from all over the country for the Science Olympiad National Tournament, the Olympic Games of middle and high school science.
The medical director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene says women will likely die of cervical cancer if Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposal eliminating $266,400 for cervical cancer screening prevails.
“I see at least 1 – 2 high-grade lesions every day during cytologic evaluations,” Dr. Daniel Kurtycz says in prepared remarks to be given Wednesday to the Joint Finance Committee, which will consider Walker?s budget request.
The 34th annual state convention of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, entitled “Moving Wisconsin Forward,” takes place this weekend in Madison, and readers of The Capital Times can get a special registration discount to attend. The two-day convention will include addresses by U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, former Gov. Patrick J. Lucey and Elizabeth Warren, head of the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Laura Ann Fraser, 48, passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends in hospice on Saturday, May 14, 2011. In 1991, Laura became an alumni housing board member for the Chi Omega sorority, where she remodeled and preserved the chapter house on Langdon Street.
Thousands of protesters massed at the Capitol on Saturday in an effort to show that outrage over Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposals is not dead, three months after he unveiled his plan to curtail collective bargaining rights for public workers.
Rep. Pat Strachota, R-West Bend, is working on a compromise proposal that could keep UW-Madison within the University of Wisconsin System — but would grant Wisconsin?s flagship institution its own board within the Board of Regents. The details of how such a body might be set up and operate, however, remain in the development stage.
This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.
Fitchburg city officials say a 383-acre expanse now open for development could change the way people think of Dane County?s business hubs. They are ready to move forward with Nine Springs of Fitchburg ? a plan for a technology campus with housing, stores, restaurants and hotels that could be an express bus ride from Downtown and UW-Madison, built under terms of Fitchburg?s new SmartCode regulations.
Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business associate professor Morris Davis
“What I saw early this year (in Madison) was not our Wisconsin. You clearly had ideological forces trying to divide rather than bring us together.”
Another example of dividing people is Walker?s effort to try to split the “flagship university” from the rest of the system, a reference to the plan Walker developed with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to separate the UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System. Walker is acting more as a king than a governor, according to a Barrett speech line.
The reconstruction of Lake Street from University Avenue north to Lake Mendota on the UW-Madison campus could cause traffic delays during peak commuter times, city officials said. The Madison Traffic Engineering Division said work is scheduled to begin Monday, May 16 on the project, with construction expected to continue until the end of August.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s student government voted Saturday to stress it neither supports nor opposes Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to grant Wisconsin?s flagship institution public authority status and break it away from the rest of the UW System.
The 18th session of the Associated Students of Madison?s Student Council passed a resolution which reads, in part, that it “remains neutral on the New Badger Partnership until the 18th session feels sufficient dialogue with (the) student body has been accomplished.”
Dear Editor: I did a Jericho march on Sunday ? seven times around the Capitol Square. Many UW-Madison graduates were out being photographed by their proud parents. I congratulated them, the grads and their parents. Also congratulated them on possibly being the last class to graduate from the UW. All but a very few of the grads knew exactly what I meant.
….the chancellor is pushing a new argument, insisting that the only way to save UW-Madison from certain peril is to split from the UW System, creating an independent governing structure for the flagship campus. This is a major departure from the earlier argument, and many people think it is a bad idea ? both for UW-Madison and the other UW campuses.
I write as a longtime administrator at the UW-Madison and former chief of staff to Chancellor Donna Shalala. For eight of those years, I spent a great deal of time lobbying in the state Capitol for the university. I strongly agree that the restrictions on construction, hiring and budgeting should be changed. A separate governing board for the UW-Madison, however, would be harmful to my university.
It?s easy to claim some Norwegian pride this weekend when up to 30,000 people flood Stoughton streets to sample lutefisk and admire rosemaling during the annual Syttende Mai celebration. But maintaining that heritage the other 51 weeks of the year has been difficult as fewer people in this city south of Madison identify with Norwegian ancestry and local Norwegian groups face declining and aging membership.
….Part of the challenge could be that young people with European ancestry are less likely than their parents or grandparents to immediately associate with their ethnicity – a trend Jim Leary, who teaches folklore and Scandinavian studies at UW-Madison, has noticed in his classroom over the last decade.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is urging state lawmakers to exempt university property from any legislation allowing residents to legally carry concealed weapons.
“All grounds and facilities are already off-limits to the open carry law currently in effect,” Martin said in a news release Thursday. “It is a long-held tradition that no weapons should be allowed on campus.”
Granting public authority status to the University of Wisconsin-Madison would help us provide a better, richer and more valuable experience for our 29,000 undergraduate students. With public authority, we would offer more of the kinds of educational experiences that students ? and employers ? want us to provide.
Elizabeth Warren, the creator and presumptive head of President Barack Obama?s controversial new consumer finance protection agency, has been invited to headline UW-Madison?s annual spring conference on housing and the economy. If she can make it — she?s been invited, and by now must be expected, but hasn?t yet formally agreed — Warren will discuss how her agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will affect the housing industry, according to the agenda for the June 9 event, dubbed “New Partnerships: Government and Real Estate.”
Families in town for college graduation ceremonies this weekend can check out or join protests at the State Capitol, where a big “We Are Wisconsin” rally is set for Saturday afternoon. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is calling on its union members to rally again against Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican-dominated Legislature and legislation drastically limiting collective bargaining for public workers.
Florida State University President Eric Barron has written an op-ed defending FSU taking $1.5 million from a foundation backed by Charles Koch. A remarkable article in Tuesday?s St. Petersburg Times indicates Florida State made some significant concessions to secure the gift.
After nine years on task, Sharon Cole will graduate Friday from the University of Wisconsin.
?Just insane,?? she said with a laugh. ?Just shy of a decade.??
Four years after getting her undergraduate degree in biology, a 3.8 grade-point average to boot, Cole will get her doctorate from the school of pharmacy and start making a living as a pharmacist with a Walgreens outlet in Madison. Cole isn?t out the door and already she?s giving back generously to her alma mater in a way that might surprise you.
Mark Johnson is glad he looked into the opportunity of becoming the first men?s hockey coach at Penn State and is content with how the process played out. Contrary to a report last last month, Johnson said he wasn?t offered the job to take over in Happy Valley, where brand-new men?s and women?s programs will debut in 2012-13.
?It never got to the point where, ?Yes, I want the job? or ?No, I don?t want the job,? ? Johnson said Wednesday after taking part in a ground-breaking ceremony for LaBahn Arena, the $34.09 million hockey and swimming facility being built adjacent to the Kohl Center.
A man who told police he was “just trying to impress some girls” was arrested after dumping a non-swimming canoeist into Lake Mendota off the UW-Madison Memorial Union Terrace on Tuesday afternoon, Madison police reported. Barry Richardson, 24, of Madison, was arrested for disorderly conduct, police said in a news release.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
** Leaders from across the University of Wisconsin System — at least those not affiliated with UW-Madison — continue to push hard for statutory changes which would allow all UW campuses some long-sought freedoms from state oversight.
** UW-Madison is closing in on hiring a new dean of its Law School.
** Song Jin, an associate professor in UW-Madison’s department of chemistry, was honored as a Scialog Fellow and awarded a $100,000 grant for “enabling solar energy conversion using rational and scalable growth of 1D nanomaterials made of inexpensive semiconductors.” According to a news release, these solar energy grants are designed to fund innovative research that can be quickly applied and developed by business and industry.
** It’s hard to believe it’s graduation time once again. Philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge will deliver the charge to the graduates at UW-Madison’s four undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday at the Kohl Center.
After learning in March that the National Writing Project had lost its federal funding, Melissa Tedrowe remembers feeling “fear” and “uncertainty.”
“I just wondered, what does this all mean?” she says. “It was a bit of a dark time.” That was a stark contrast from January, when Tedrowe enthusiastically explained how she?d spent the past 18 months spearheading an effort to secure funding and pull together a range of educators from around the area to get the Greater Madison Writing Project up and running as the newest member of the National Writing Project.
If being stuck in traffic is your idea of a good time, head down to Dayton Street this weekend. The annual UW-Madison graduation weekend, coupled with thousands of students moving out from dormitories, will cause traffic woes on Dayton Street and the surrounding area.
The wheelchair and walking cast of Omar Tavizon-Ramos were found Tuesday night on a Madison street, but the man accused of killing two people while driving drunk in Janesville on Easter morning remains missing, authorities reported.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain told madison.com the wheelchair and cast were found by someone on Hancock Street, with the find reported to police at 6:37 p.m. DeSpain couldn?t confirm the items were the same ones used by Tavizon-Ramos, but Janesville Deputy Chief Danny Davis told madison.com the items found were those used by the suspect.
The board of directors for Madison-based American Family Insurance decided Tuesday that current chief financial officer and treasurer Dan Schultz will be the company?s new president and chief operating officer.
Another faith-based student center at UW-Madison has plans for a major redevelopment project, although this time the result would be less square footage for the student center, not more.
St. Francis House Episcopal Student Center wants to redevelop its property near UW-Madison?s Grainger Hall by selling off part of the site and downsizing itself to make way for a privately owned, 12-story student apartment building. The apartment building would be unconnected to the student center and have no religious orientation, said attorney Bill White, who is representing developer LZ Ventures of Madison.
First, let?s pause to celebrate. Over the past two decades, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has come to deserve the descriptor ?world-class research institution,? one that attracts more than $1 billion per year in grants.
And let?s stipulate to this: Really smart people agree that to protect and extend UW?s top-tier stature, its chancellor and other campus leaders need to have operational flexibility to compete in the global arena. And, further, let?s agree that other UW System schools would benefit from freedoms scaled to their situations.
….Martin clearly believes in her cause, that only through her version of change can UW-Madison succeed as an international player, but it appears to be time to punt.
UW?s players should let bygones be bygones and hope that the university?s brain trust ? which aptly describes the intellect and energy on campus ? can reunite to effectively confront the grave threat posed by dwindling state financial support and Capitol meddling.
So let?s applaud Martin for placing the issue in the brightest of lights and then turn quickly to achieving greater flexibility not only for UW-Madison but for the entire system, keenly mindful that Madison is vastly different from other schools.
Quoted: Former UW-Madison chancellor John Wiley.
Public universities across the nation continue to be hit hard by budget woes. And in an effort to retain quality, many institutions are focusing more time and energy on partnering with the private sector and wealthy philanthropists. But as desperate as some are to land these additional dollars, doesn?t a university owe it to its faculty, staff and students to say “no thanks” if too many strings are attached to these funds?
Quoted: Brad Barham, UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics and incoming chair of the University Committee; Ananth Seshadri, chair of UW-Madison’s economics department; Dean of Letters and Science Gary Sandefur. Also mentioned: Richard Avramenko, an assistant professor of political science.
Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs during his four years as governor providing he makes it that far and so he?s got his staff trumpeting every small sign that he may be on his way to that goal. Trouble is, in his zealousness to pat himself on the back at every uptick in the economy, he?s making himself look foolish ? even more so than he?s already done in just four months in office.
Mentioned: Professor emeritus of economics Don Nichols
After hiring away the University of Wisconsin men?s and women?s swimming and diving coach, Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne called and offered support in the Badgers? search for a replacement. As it turns out, the Wildcats also provided the new coach. In what amounted to a swap between programs, the Badgers on Monday announced the hiring of former Arizona assistant Whitney Hite as the replacement for Eric Hansen, who left a month ago to become the Wildcats? coach.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez released a statement Monday night pledging support for women?s tennis coach Brian Fleishman after questions were raised about his treatment of players. Alvarez?s vote of confidence came in the wake of a report in Thursday?s Badger Herald in which four unnamed members of the team alleged Fleishman subjected players to unhealthy eating habits and psychological abuse.
Gwenn Joanne Opsal died on Sunday, May 8, 2011, surrounded by her family. She worked at the UW-Madison Air Force ROTC for 29 years before retiring.
Lucille A. Alt, age 95, of Madison, passed away on Monday, May 9, 2011. She worked for many years for the State of Wisconsin, retiring in 1981 from the University of Wisconsin Library School.
A 21-year-old man accused of killing two people on Easter morning when his vehicle hit a van in Janesville left UW Hospital in Madison on Monday night to get some fresh air and never came back. Police are looking for Omar Tavizon-Ramos, the suspect in the crash on April 24 in Janesville that killed Jeffery Bauer, 19, at the scene. Bauer?s grandmother, Margaret Worden, 61, died on May 6 of injuries from the crash, according to a news release from the Janesville Police Department.
(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal.)
With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the verge of removing the gray wolf from endangered status, more calls are being heard in Wisconsin for a hunting season on the once rare animal.
Adrian Treves, a researcher with UW-Madison who surveys public opinion on wolves, said his work shows growing concern about the number of wolves and their presence in populated areas.
“There is a dramatic increase in the number of people who have heard or seen wolves on their lands,” Treves said. “That’s feeding their fears.”
If a city is facing a major budget problem, should it start forcing tax-exempt entities such as universities, colleges and hospitals to start paying property taxes? Providence, R.I., Mayor Angel Taveras thinks so.
The Providence Journal reports the city faces a $110 million deficit and enormous pension problems as the recession continues to take its toll. To help fix these problems, Taveras unveiled a plan earlier this month to tax nine tax-exempt hospitals, colleges and universities, including Brown University, Providence College, Johnson & Wales University, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
….Like Madison, Providence is a capital city. Its population is about 175,000, although the Providence metro area is home to 1.6 million.
Jim Delany calls the Nebraska Cornhuskers the Green Bay Packers of the Big Ten. The Big Ten commissioner said Wednesday that the Big Ten?s attraction to Nebraska went beyond geography and a shared culture with member schools.
Every year after the spring game, University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema gathers the seniors, plus a select group of juniors ? and their parents ? to discuss the NFL draft process.
Tom Loftus turned to international affairs in a commencement speech Friday. Loftus, a member of the UW Board of Regents, suggested that UW institutions reconsider their increasing involvement with China because of that country?s human rights record. Loftus, a former ambassador to Norway and former speaker of the state Assembly, made the comments to graduates at UW-Richland.
….The Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin grant program was part of former Gov. Jim Doyle?s 2008 budget and was designed to connect local food producers with local buyers. It has awarded about $220,000 annually in development grants over the past three years. Recipients in 2010 included the Bayfield Apple Co., Perfect Pasture in Ashland, the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition and Green & Green Distribution in Mineral Point.
Quoted: Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison
But the grant program is on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget chopping block and was not included in his proposed 2011-2013 budget ? a development that some are calling short-sighted and contrary to Walker?s goal of growing the private-sector economy.
Wisconsin?s technical colleges help keep the economy humming. They are responsive to business leaders? needs and provide students with bang for their buck. They?re so popular, in fact, that enrollment is up 40 percent statewide in the last decade.
There?s only one problem. The state is in a budget crisis, and technical colleges are facing cuts just like many other state agencies, communities and schools.
….Wisconsin?s bill, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, would cost more than $5.7 million to implement. The measure would require voters to use a driver?s license, state ID, military ID, passport, naturalization papers or tribal ID at the polls. Student IDs would be allowed, but would have to include a current address, birthdate, signature and expiration date. Currently no college or university ID used in the state, including UW-Madison, meets those standards.
STEVENS POINT ? Imagine living in a country where parents don?t take their sick kids to the doctor because it costs too much. Turns out, we do ? even if parents have health insurance coverage. Call it America?s working-class lament.
A research team from the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health told us this in a recent report.
Fans of Madison-area artist S.V. Medaris can view her work, including “The Handbook Said…” (above), in two spots this week.
Tired of reading stories about the ever-escalating costs associated with higher education? Here?s something different: Texas Gov. Rick Perry challenged universities in the Lone Star state earlier this year to create a bachelor?s degree which will cost students only $10,000 for four years of tuition, fees, and textbooks.
That might sound impossible considering just one year of tuition, fees and textbooks at UW-Madison now tops $10,000. But last week the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board indicated it?s moving “aggressively” to tackle Perry?s challenge, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh this week passed up a golden opportunity to shine a light on the inner workings of academia and foster an intelligent, informed discussion of academic freedom and politics at the university.
