Apple, over the past couple of weeks, has begun to unveil its strategy for getting into the textbook business. It hopes to electronically transform this industry, similar to the other sectors it has systematically revolutionized since the turn of the century. It is no secret that educators and academic institutions are looking for ways to invigorate the classroom experience and to capture the attention spans of today?s students.
City officials heard a proposal for improving the downtown area Tuesday, including possible plans to demolish Mifflin Street housing, replacing it with high rise apartments. In addition to the Mifflin neighborhood changes, aspects of the Downtown Plan that affect students directly include paths along the Lake Mendota shoreline and behind Langdon Street.
State Journal reporter Deb Ziff?s Sunday article, “Paying for college: Tough lesson,” did a great job of capturing the tribulations of a student trying to finance a UW education. But people should know there is something students can do to avoid high costs and heavy debt. The UW Colleges ? the UW System?s network of 13 freshman-sophomore campuses ? offers the first two years of a UW liberal arts education at a much lower cost, $4,503 per year in tuition.
MADISON (WKOW) — More than a week after former UW senior athletics administrator John Chadima?s alleged sex assault of a student at a Rose Bowl party, follow up by a UW police official was declined on the behalf of the victim by two unnamed UW employees.
“I provided them with a business card of our detective to contact should anyone need to talk to the police,” Lt. Jason Whitney states in a police report on his contact with the UW staff members. “I was informed that the information was passed along to the victim and no one had any further questions or concerns,” said Lt. Whitney. Reports show Whitney first contacted the UW employees about the alleged assault in southern California five days earlier.
MAZOMANIE – John Joseph Denu passed away quietly at his home under the care of Hospice Care, surrounded by his wife and children, on Saturday, Jan. 28. John lived 77 years. He was employed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he had worked as an animal lab technician for 33 years.
….It required a sense of bravery on the part of the alleged victim, a UW student employee, to speak out immediately about being sexually assaulted and verbally threatened by Chadima, a high-ranking athletic department official who has since resigned in disgrace. That the student, a 22-year-old man, insisted the incident be kept quiet until after the bowl game, lest it be a distraction to the UW football team for its Jan. 2 game vs. Oregon, strikes me as an extraordinary personal sacrifice. The same goes for his desire not to make a criminal complaint against Chadima.
In the wake of an allegation that a then-senior UW athletic official sexually assaulted a student, some people have wondered why police are not investigating the incident. The answer is simple, said UW Police Chief Sue Riseling: the student did not want to file a police report about John Chadima, former senior associate athletic director.
“We allow victims in our society to decide, especially if they’re adults, to decide what they want and don’t want,” she said.
Colton Boettcher released a pro-gay, anti-bullying music video on YouTube Thursday set to the Lady Gaga song “Hair,” and in less than 24 hours, Lady Gaga herself was lauding it and promoting it via Twitter and Facebook.The UW-Madison senior is amazed at how the video has gone viral. “It happened really fast. We weren?t expecting it to happen that fast,” he said Monday.
….”That?s the new frontier,” said Gary Radloff, director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at UW-Madison. What?s exciting for ethanol plants is that much of the progress is taking place under their roofs. “So the ability to take advantage of that pre-existing infrastructure is good business and good environmental consideration. We don?t need to reinvent the wheel,” said John Greeler, director of education and outreach at the UW?s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
Local educators are being encouraged to submit applications for the Greater Madison Writing Project?s annual summer institute. The writing project is designed to help teachers at all grade levels, from kindergarten through college, learn effective techniques for teaching writing. The local initiative housed at UW-Madison is tied to the National Writing Project, which is a network of 200 sites anchored at colleges and universities across the country. UW-Madison’s Mark Dziezdic, one of the GMWP’s directors, says the program hopes to assemble a cohort of about 15 teachers for this year’s summer institute.
UW-Madison is beginning to build an “Athletic Village,” a $76.8 million hub around Camp Randall stadium where student athletes can study and train together. The project involves adding a new, three-story academic and strength training center onto the north end of Camp Randall Stadium and renovating locker rooms for university sports teams. The initial phase of the project ? remodeling at Camp Randall, new turf and a tunnel onto the field ? is already under way. Additional work will require city approval.
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse say students were evacuated from a residence hall after an early morning fire in a basement recreation room. No one was injured in Sunday?s fire at Drake Hall. The school says on its website that smoke alarms went off at 4:23 a.m. and the students were evacuated.
Anya Covington has always known she has the sickle-cell trait. But for most of her life it was a non-factor. That all changed one day during her sophomore season while running sprints along with her University of Wisconsin women?s basketball teammates.
A staff member at the UW-Madison Chemistry Building was injured Monday morning in an explosion in a laboratory in the building. The explosion was reported at 9:34 a.m. Monday in a laboratory at the facility at 1101 University Ave., authorities reported.
An explosion was reported Monday morning in a laboratory at the UW-Madison Chemistry Building, 1101 University Ave., authorities reported. The report came in to the 911 center at about 9:30 a.m. Monday, and Lori Wirth of the Madison Fire Department told madison.com that fire and EMS units were heading to the building. There was a report of a person injured in the explosion, but no details were immediately available.
An explosion has occurred at the Chemistry Building on the University of Wisconsin campus on Monday morning, according to UW police. The building is located at 1101 University Avenue. Emergency dispatchers said that the call came in at about 9:34 a.m. The extent of the explosion is undetermined at this point. There?s no official word on any injuries.
MADISON (WKOW) – Madison fire officials were called to the Chemistry Building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus after the report of an explosion Monday morning. UW police confirm that they received a report of an explosion at the UW Chemistry Building.
The new show “Battleground” is being touted as the first original scripted series for Hulu.com, a website better known for putting popular TV shows online. But for Madison viewers, “Battleground” provides an extra dose of entertainment: The 13-episode “dramedy” series about a youthful band of campaign workers was filmed right here, against a backdrop that includes Capitol Square, well-traveled Madison streets and iconic Madison restaurants.
Because they come along only once every four years, exhibitions that showcase works by the entire faculty of the UW-Madison art department are always an event. But the 2012 faculty art quadrennial offers new surroundings, new faces and new sensibilities as well. Arcing through many of the old and new galleries at the Chazen Museum of Art, “Compendium 2012” will feature works by 34 current faculty and staff, and 12 emeritus faculty.
A. Long before computers, the Weather Channel and the Internet, humans needed weather forecasts. Farmers and sailors particularly needed to know if storms were approaching. Over time, various folklore forecasts, often in the form of short rhymes, were devised and passed down through the generations. Although memorable, the folklore forecasts are of uneven quality ? some good, others bad. Groundhog Day is an example of predicting the weather based on folklore. If the groundhog comes out of its hole and sees its shadow, we are in store for 40 more days of winter.
You can expect to see a plume of white vapor escaping from the masonry stack of UW-Madison?s renovated Charter Street Heating Plant in the coming week. The university announced officials are scheduled to conduct a “steam blow” at the plant Monday through Friday. The procedure is used to clean steam piping that connects new boilers to the plant?s steam turbine generator.
Few Madison City Council members have seen their fortunes change more than Bridget Maniaci….Maniaci, who graduated from UW-Madison with degrees in political science and economics, is mulling graduate school and “keeping an open mind” about seeking another term. In the long term, she is pondering a run for mayor or working as a staff member in that office.
Following the alleged sexual assault of a student by an athletic official after a night of drinking at the Rose Bowl, UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward said Friday departments campus-wide need to review their off-campus alcohol policies. Ward told the UW-Madison Athletic Board while the “2012 Rose Bowl Incident” brought light to the issue of off-campus drinking, it is not unique to the athletic department.
By now, everyone has heard that Senior Associate Athletic Director John Chadima resigned after he allegedly sexually assaulted a student employee at a Rose Bowl party. Quickly forgetting the fact that senior athletic officials, including Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, knew of other parties, the athletic department and university handled the situation well. An investigation was completed and released in a timely fashion, and offices are considering multiple alcohol policy changes. These changes need to come from top officials.
People near the Charter Street Heating Plant, located on the intersection with Dayton Street, will hear bouts of loud “steam blowing” beginning 7 a.m. Monday that will continue until 7 p.m. Friday. The plant will undergo a cleaning process to remove loose material in the plant?s steam turbine generator by blowing high-pressure steam through the piping, creating the noise.
The new DNR wolf regulations have led to speculation about the creation of a public wolf-hunting season. Despite opposition from some groups, UW-Madison Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Adrian Treves said he believes legislation will be passed in 2012. According to his research, most Wisconsin residents endorse a wolf hunt. Treves warned that while the state needs to have some authority over the wolf population, “the successful conservation of wolves depends on people tolerating them, accepting them, and that tolerance has been declining,” Treves said.
If sexual predators can strike at prestigious universities such as Penn State, Syracuse and UW-Madison, it can happen anywhere. Because of the recent news about these and other incidents across the country, we should make every effort to protect children from this crime.
A UW-Madison student and filmmaker wants bullied teens to know that life gets better after high school. UW-Madison senior Colton Boettcher unveiled a music video on Thursday, Jan. 26, that promotes the message of the “It Gets Better” Project, an Internet-based support group for LGBT teens that arose after a series of gay teen suicides in 2010.
JEFFERSON, Wis. — A research and policy group aimed at improving teacher quality is suing to get access to course outlines at the University of Wisconsin?s schools of education. The National Council on Teacher Quality is reviewing teacher colleges around the country. The nonprofit group has met resistance from UW, which has refused to hand over course outlines. The group is suing the UW System Board of Regents for not complying with information requests the organization made in November under Wisconsin?s open records law.
MINNEAPOLIS – Could there be a reverse Sports Illustrated curse? After being held up for ridicule for its offensive ineptitude in last week?s edition of the magazine, the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball team has put together its two biggest scoring games. The Badgers got big games from Anya Covington, Taylor Wurtz and Morgan Paige en route to their greatest offensive game of the season in beating Minnesota 78-72 in a Big Ten Conference game Thursday night at Williams Arena.
High-risk surgeons can get caught in a “Catch-22” when trying to save a life: what if the patient doesn?t want extraordinary measures taken to keep living? A new study from a UW-Madison surgical professor suggests advance directives, or “living wills,” don?t work in the surgical suite. Dr. Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, assistant professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, discovered that only 50 percent of surgeons who do high-risk operations discuss advance directives with their patients before surgery.
A UW-Madison professor received one of South Korea?s highest honors earlier this month for his work on a multibillion-dollar initiative to restore the area surrounding four major rivers in the country. The honor, called the Order of Service Merit, is comparable to the U.S. Medal of Honor. The professor of civil and environmental engineering, Jae Park, is a top academic advisor for the an ongoing collaboration called the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which is dedicated to cleaning and restoring the watershed surrounding the Han River, Nakdong River, Geum River and Yeongsan River in South Korea.
A UW-Madison student suffered several facial fractures after being robbed and attacked early Sunday morning. According to Madison Police Department spokesperson Joel DeSpain, the victim was returning to his place after walking his girlfriend home when he was blindsided with a blow to the head on Broom Street.
The Student Services Finance Committee passed the Associated Students of Madison?s internal budget of over 1.3 million dollars on Thursday, striking over $90,000 from the $100,000 ASM alumni training request. SSFC Chair Sarah Neibart said $100,000 was too much money to go towards training.
STOUGHTON – James A. “Jim” Steele, 59, lost a 25-year hard-fought battle with CREST (Scleroderma) on Tuesday, Jan. 24. He passed peacefully, surrounded by his loving family. From April 1993 to the present, Jim worked at UW-Madison, where he became an associate registrar. He enjoyed his work at the UW. He was especially proud to serve on the Academic Staff Executive Committee for the past year.
Additional sick notes from last year?s Capitol protests released Thursday by the Madison School District reveal two more doctors who provided excuses the district deemed “fraudulent.” That brings to 15 the number of doctors who signed such notes but have not faced sanctions from the state Medical Examining Board. A board committee plans to decide next month whether to investigate additional doctors.
A report released Tuesday night by UW-Madison chronicling allegations of misconduct by a top athletic department official shed plenty of light on why John Chadima abruptly resigned his $129,000 post as a senior associate athletic director. And as an added bonus to media websites across the country, the “2012 Rose Bowl Incident Review” contained all the elements necessary to guarantee any online coverage of the topic would be a click magnet.
A 20-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student contacted the Madison police Wednesday afternoon wanting to report a strong-armed robbery that occurred around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. The victim said he was walking on North Broom Street, just south of State Street, when he was blindsided with a blow to the head. The man told police he thought he was punched, but he said he was definitely knocked to the ground.
Maurice Meisner passed away at his home in Madison on Monday, Jan. 23. Mauri began his long academic career in the field of Chinese history at the University of Virginia where he taught for five years in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he moved to the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his career there as the Harvey Goldberg Professor of History. For over four decades, Mauri established himself as a leading figure in the study of Chinese Marxism, Maoism, and the history of the People?s Republic of China.
STOUGHTON – James A. Steele, age 59, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, surrounded by his loving family. Jim was the associate registrar for student records. A full obituary will be in Friday’s paper.
Chancellor David Ward asked campus officials to examine UW-Madison?s sexual assault reporting process and alcohol policies Wednesday, addressing gaps identified in a recent report that revealed sexual assault allegations against former associate athletic director John Chadima. In the wake of allegations against Chadima, UW officials are investigating the ?lack of clarification? for off-campus alcohol policies and procedures, Vice Chancellor for University Relations Vince Sweeney said Wednesday.
A couple of days ago, out of the blue, Eric Suomi got a call from NASA. The space agency wanted permission to name its newest Earth-observing satellite after his dad. “Of course I said yes,” said Suomi, an electrical engineer at Electronic Theatre Controls in Middleton. “My father would have been thrilled and honored.” The late Verner Suomi, a UW-Madison professor, was known as “the father of weather satellites.” So now the Suomi satellite orbits the Earth, predicting weather conditions, collecting climate change data and monitoring natural disasters.
The American Red Cross is utilizing the iconic Badger-Gopher rivalry to help increase participation in a two-month long blood drive that began Tuesday, by holding a competition between the two universities called the ?2012 Border Challenge?.
A UW-Madison scientist, testing how bird flu could spread in nature, mixed a bird flu virus with a swine flu virus to create a bird flu strain that spread among ferrets in the lab, he reported Wednesday. The research, embroiled in international controversy, should continue despite an agreement last week that it will be halted for 60 days, Yoshihiro Kawaoka wrote in a commentary in the journal Nature.
My take earlier this month on the then-unspecified allegations of misconduct against UW-Madison senior associate athletic director John Chadima was that anyone with that many words in his title can?t be high enough on the totem pole to merit much of a scandal ? especially since he wasn?t charged with a crime. Boy, was I wrong. We don’t yet know the extent of the fallout from Chadima’s alleged sexual assault of a student employee during the football team’s trip to the Rose Bowl. But I feel pretty confident a primary factor behind the incident and the university’s response to it is clear enough: hubris.
UW-Madison has no clear policy governing the presence of alcohol at university events off campus, an omission revealed Tuesday night with the release of a report that found a former senior UW athletic official had supplied alcohol to students ? some under the legal drinking age of 21 ? at a Rose Bowl party. The report released Tuesday night said John Chadima, former senior associate athletic director, resigned this month after a student employee accused him of sexual assault after an alcohol-fueled party in Chadima?s hotel room.
Rummel, a school psychologist, is president of the Madison Astronomical Society, which he said is one of the oldest such groups in the United States. It operates a “dark sky site” near Brooklyn for members to star gaze. Rummel also volunteers at the planetarium and observatory at Madison Memorial High School, where he works, and at UW-Madison?s Space Place.
Longtime NFL tight end Dan Campbell has had discussions with University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema about the vacant job as tight ends coach on his staff, footballscoop.com reported. Campbell has been coaching for only two years after an NFL career that spanned 11 years and four teams. He joined the Miami Dolphins’ staff before the 2010 season, serving as an offensive intern with an emphasis on the offensive line. He coached the tight ends last season.
University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials are pursuing a solution to a scheduling conflict with the WIAA over its future access to the Kohl Center. UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said there is growing sentiment in the Big Ten Conference to reconsider its playoff model for men?s hockey when its sanctioning of the sport begins in 2013-14.
The Student Judiciary denied the Multicultural Student Coalition?s request for an appeal Tuesday, upholding the decision to deny the group funding eligibility. MCSC requested the judiciary reconsider its decision in the group?s original appeal challenging the Student Services Finance Committee?s decision to deny it funding.
University of Wisconsin-Madison student John Magnino announced his candidacy for the Dane County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. If he were to be elected, Magnino said he would focus on securing the necessary resources for public protection, campus safety and social services, for which the Board is responsible for funding. He also emphasized the need to increase student participation in local government, but acknowledged the obstacles presented by Wisconsin?s Voter ID law.
John Chadima made unwanted sexual advances to a University of Wisconsin Athletic Department student employee and threatened to fire him after he spurned the early-morning overture at a Rose Bowl party. That?s according to a report released by the university Tuesday night. The report was commissioned by interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward after Chadima, a former senior associate athletic director, resigned amid charges of misconduct earlier this month.
Former Dane County executive Kathleen Falk — who is among the Democrats seeking to unseat Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election later this year — spoke for nearly an hour Tuesday afternoon on the UW-Madison campus. The event, titled “A Career of Politics, Service and Leadership: The View from the Executive?s Chair,” was held at Ingraham Hall and attended by about three dozen people, mostly students. Although Falk was energetic, entertaining and informative, the event was devoid of bombastic sound bites.
A judge issued a temporary injunction Tuesday against UW-Madison?s doctor group in a lawsuit filed by Physicians Plus, the insurance company owned by Meriter Health Services.
New hires at the University of Wisconsin could opt out of the state retirement system under a proposal being floated in the Assembly, though it?s not clear that they would want to. The measure would allow the UW System to let covered employees select a defined-contribution plan ? like a 401(k) ? rather than participating in the state pension system.
The top returning receiver for the University of Wisconsin football team, and one of the best punt returners in the nation, finally has a scholarship. Jared Abbrederis tweeted Monday that after three seasons with the Badgers ? including a redshirt year ? he has received a tender.
If University of Wisconsin men?s basketball coach Bo Ryan had his way, star quarterback Russell Wilson never would have ended up playing for the school?s football team. Ryan made it clear on Monday he?s very much against an NCAA rule that allows student-athletes who have earned their undergraduate degrees to transfer to another school and play immediately if they have eligibility remaining.
If you?re looking for some good news regarding the funding of higher education in Wisconsin, you can stop reading. The annual Grapevine report, which tracks the funding of higher education across the United States, indicates three states slashed state appropriations for colleges and students by at least 20 percent between 2010-11 and the current academic year. As you probably guessed, Wisconsin (20.9 percent cut) is one of those three states — although state support for higher ed took an even deeper cut in Arizona (25.1 percent) and New Hampshire (41.3 percent).
It?s an age-old question for teachers: how do you capture students? interest in subjects that seem to have little relevance to their daily lives, such as history or art? For some educators, the answer is superstar rapper Jay-Z (Or, to put it more generally, hip-hop). A free 15-week lecture series at UW-Madison will bring in national experts to talk about how educators are using hip-hop as a culturally relevant teaching tool, especially to reach students under-served by traditional schooling.
“This is a viable educational pedagogy,” said Willie Ney, executive director of the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives at UW-Madison. “It really helps engage students. It’s going to help close the achievement gap. All these things are big ticket items for education.”
Two former members of Congress will lead the list of speakers at a presentation on Thursday honoring one of the UW-Madison?s most influential economists. Building Management and Worker Partnerships for a More Prosperous America is the theme of the event to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of John R. Commons. Known as the “spiritual father” of Social Security, Commons, born in 1862, worked closely with Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator Robert M. La Follette to draft the Wisconsin civil service law in 1905 and the public utilities law in 1907.
