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Author: jnweaver

Where are we headed?

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If you take a look around Wisconsin, one thing is apparent: The land is continually changing. Housing replaces vacant lots and farm fields; farm fields have replaced prairies and savannas – grasslands with oaks. Cities, of course, arise and expand.

Two Midwestern scientists have edited a book that takes a close look at the ecological changes Wisconsin has experienced over the past decades.

“The Vanishing Present,” published by the University of Chicago Press and due out this fall, presents a picture of what has been lost, “how the land has been shifting under our feet in ways that don’t get much attention,” said Donald Waller, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Waller worked on the book with Thomas Rooney, formerly a scientist at UW-Madison and now an assistant professor of biological sciences at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Steve Miller Still Sings the Blues

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Wall Street Journal

Best known for such 1970s mega-hits as “The Joker” and “Fly Like an Eagle,” Steve Miller played the blues in Chicago in the mid-1960s after attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Copenhagen. “After I got back from Denmark, I didn’t have a band for the first time since I was 12 years old,” he told me when we spoke recently by phone. “The call of the blues was pretty strong.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Judge upholds constitutional ban on gay marriage

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Capital Times

Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban does not violate the state’s constitution, Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess ruled Friday.

In his decision, Niess said the two questions contained in the constitutional amendment “are two sides of the same coin. They clearly relate to the same subject matter” — the preservation of marriage. Niess rejected the argument by plaintiff William McConkey that the amendment violated a constitutional prohibition against a referendum posing more than one question to voters.

….McConkey, a father of nine and an instructor at UW-Oshkosh, filed a lawsuit challenging the amendment in Dane County Circuit Court in July.

An Openly Gay Chancellor Heads to Madison

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Chronicle of Higher Education

Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin is about to become the nationâ??s most prominent openly gay college chief. The Cornell University provost is the choice to be the University of Wisconsin at Madisonâ??s next chancellor, university officials announced on Wednesday.

No honeymoon for Biddy

Posted on
Wisconsin Radio Network

She hasn’t even been confirmed for the position yet, but the next possible Chancellor at the UW-Madison is already attracting controversy.

State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) is raising concerns about Biddy Martin’s support for bringing domestic partner benefits to UW faculty and staff.

Editorial: Chancellor’s challenge

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Under John Wiley, the University of Wisconsin-Madison burnished its reputation as one of America’s leading research institutions and built a broader and deeper pool of resources. The university is an international leader in stem cell research, pre-eminent in biosciences and is poised to be a leader in bioenergy research. Among his major accomplishments, Wiley oversaw planning for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, a new hub of interdisciplinary learning.

UW weighs extra degree fees

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison students looking to score high-paying jobs as engineers after college may have to start paying more for their undergraduate degrees under a proposal the Board of Regents will consider next week.

The flagship’s College of Engineering wants to charge undergraduates $700 per semester on top of base tuition to help make the college more competitive with other engineering schools and to help offset the higher cost of engineering education. The differential tuition policy is similar to a plan approved for the UW-Madison School of Business last year.

Group: UW-Madison Could Become Largest School With Gay Leader

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WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — A gay rights group said that Biddy Martin would be the first openly gay person to lead a university as large as the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Candace Gingrich, of the Human Rights Campaign, said that about eight gay people have become university presidents and chancellors in recent years, but mostly at small schools.

She said that the nomination of Martin to lead UW-Madison is a milestone and reflects the increasing number of openly gay professors and administrators in higher education.

Tom Minser: Police err in focus on fake IDs

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work at a bar on campus. I have witnessed the Madison Police Department at work. On a normal weekend there will be six to eight officers patrolling the bars for underage drinkers. On at least one occasion I witnessed them in an undercover sting operation with plainclothed officers waiting to ID suspected underage drinkers. Typically these officers will only find one or two people who are not of age.

The problem I am baffled by is that at a time where there are two unsolved murders, the department has decided that instead of focusing on problem areas they would rather find those two 20-year-olds with fake IDs.

Dan Sebald: Camp Randall project ill conceived from outset

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: I’m responding to Mike Ivey’s May 21 story “Camp Randall hotel on hold again?”

As a former Vilas neighborhood resident, I opposed Bob Sieger’s original Fieldhouse Station condominiums proposal. I saw a poorly planned project with major retail and traffic details left unaddressed. Pitched as a hundred-year building, the all-glass structure would have looked out of place in the near term and faded and run down 30 years from today. Little mention was made of mixed use other than some occasionally open party bar (as if Madison doesn’t already have enough of those) and possible second-floor office space.

UW grad has appetite for success

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Capital Times

Even a rising young star on the Food Network met her culinary match when she tried to grill an octopus.

“It was tough as a tire,” said Mary Nolan, a 2004 University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism graduate, and host of the new series, “Chic & Easy,” which airs locally at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays on the Food Network, which Charter subscribers can find on Ch. 38.

Plenty of chefs have their own kitchen disaster stories, but fortunately for Nolan, she’s had a string of exciting successes lately.

L.A. Times: Madison casts a cold eye on its homeless

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Capital Times

MADISON, WIS. — There was a time when residents in this liberal college city would greet homeless people by name.

They’d stop to chat with Scanner Dan, the grizzled guy with a walkie-talkie buzzing at his hip as he asked for change. They’d offer odd jobs to a man known as Snowball, who was rumored to have been a smuggler for the Chicago mob during Prohibition.

Then two violent slayings in less than three months shook residents in the state capital, which is also home to the main campus of the University of Wisconsin.

Martin set for challenge to lead UW-Madison

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Capital Times

Carolyn “Biddy” Martin isn’t unfamiliar with the numerous challenges she’ll face when she becomes the next chancellor at UW-Madison.

In fact, the current provost of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., is keenly aware that some at UW-Madison are concerned about a range of issues that potentially threaten the university’s ranking as one of the premier public institutions of higher education in America.

But instead of focusing her energy on the many concerns — such as relatively low faculty pay, the sometimes contentious relationship between the university and state Legislature, and the uphill battle to create a more diverse campus — Martin seems determined to focus on the positives.

Martin would be first openly gay chancellor to lead UW-Madison

Posted on
Capital Times

Back in 1994, Carolyn “Biddy” Martin was part of a Cornell University committee that was in charge of drafting a policy to make health insurance and other benefits available to same-sex partners.

At the time, Cornell was joining a growing number of universities and businesses that were recognizing homosexual couples.

Flash-forward 14 years, and Martin now finds herself days away from being appointed the next chancellor at UW-Madison — the only school in the Big Ten that does not offer domestic partner benefits.

Extra wait for extras

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sarah Ripp, 33, can barely believe she was cast as an extra in “Public Enemies.” Ripp, an undergraduate adviser and outreach coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spent a glorious day in May in the company of Billy Crudup and Christian Bale. Actually, most of it was spent getting ready for a few moments charged by the star power.

Q&A: The Man Behind Embryonic Stem Cells (Forbes)

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Forbes

Ten years ago in a small, closet-like laboratory, James “Jamie” Thomson, an embryologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, changed the world by creating the first human embryonic stem cells. Few research experiments have generated as much hype or controversy. More recently, he played a key role in creating induced pluripotent stem cells, which might someday provide the benefits of embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos.

Update: Cornell provost chosen as UW chancellor (AP)

Posted on
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Cornell University provost Carolyn â??Biddyâ? Martin was recommended today as the next chancellor at the University of Wisconsin.
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A Board of Regents committee and UW System president Kevin Reilly recommended Martin, a professor of German studies and womenâ??s studies, for the job out of three finalists. The regents are expected to confirm her appointment next week.

New chancellor recommended for UW-Madison

Posted on
Wisconsin Radio Network

A search committee is recommending that Cornell University Provost Dr. Carolyn “Biddy” Martin begin leading the UW-Madison this September, when current Chancellor John Wiley steps down after seven years in the position. Martin says she’s eager to get started working with the faculty, students, and the community surrounding the UW.

UW-Madison to revisit idea of raising tuition for engineers (AP)

Posted on
Chicago Tribune

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is reviving a proposal that would require engineering students to pay $1,400 more in tuition than other undergraduates.

The Board of Regents is expected to vote on the proposal next week. If approved, tuition for engineering majors would go up $600 next fall and $400 in each of the following two years.

U. of Wisconsin at Madison Hires Cornell U. Provost as Chancellor

Posted on
Chronicle of Higher Education

The next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison will be Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin, university officials announced today.

Ms. Martin, 57, provost at Cornell University since 2000, earned her doctorate in German literature at Madison in 1985. She will succeed John D. Wiley in September, pending her approval by the universityâ??s Board of Regents this month.

Martin is UW’s choice

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The top pick to lead Wisconsin’s public flagship university plans to make higher faculty compensation one of her first priorities so the school can better compete for quality instructors and researchers.

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Wednesday recommended Cornell University Provost Carolyn “Biddy” Martin as the next chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, bringing the Virginia native back to her doctoral alma mater and ending a monthslong search to replace Chancellor John D. Wiley.

Two UW-Madison profs among 7 new Wisconsin Academy Fellows

Posted on
Capital Times

Two nationally renowned science professors, evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll and biochemist Laura Kiessling, who teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are among the seven new fellows for 2008 named by the Madison-based Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

In addition to Carroll and Kiessling, the new fellows include conservationist Michael Dombeck, former Supreme Court justice Janine Geske, mixed media artist Anne Kingsbury, art educator Barbara Brown Lee and historian Kerry Trask.

Mexican cops give details on Melton-Smyth’s murder

Posted on
Capital Times

A well-known AIDS activist vacationing in Mexico was murdered by a man angry that she refused to pay for sex, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

The murder devastated Madison’s gay community, where Felicia Melton-Smyth was a fundraiser for the AIDS Network and a fixture at the gay-friendly Shamrock Bar. Friends were already working Tuesday to set up a charitable foundation in her name.

….She worked during the day in the billing department for the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation.

Lawmakers approve smaller raises for state employees

Posted on
Capital Times

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s budget shortfall will hit state workers in the pocketbook starting in July.

A legislative committee has decided to give thousands of university employees and nonunion workers a 1 percent raise in July instead of the 2 percent bump approved last year.

The Joint Committee on Employment Relations also wiped out a 1 percent raise scheduled to take effect in April 2009. The committee replaced that with a 2 percent raise in June 2009.

Well-known pianist Kautsky leaving UW

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Capital Times

Catherine Kautsky, a well-known pianist who teaches at the University of Wisconsin School of Music, is leaving the UW after six years to return to Lawrence University in Appleton.

Kautsky, a specialist in French music, has also been known for creating outreach programs that saw her students perform in schools, prisons, retirement centers and hospitals. She also served as chair of the piano department.

$1.9 million in Evjue grants awarded

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Capital Times

Gifts and grants to area educational, cultural and civic organizations totaling more than $1.9 million were announced by The Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times.

The grants, which are made possible by the will of the late William T. Evjue, the founder and longtime editor and publisher of The Capital Times, includes $818,400 to the University of Wisconsin for 29 special projects and programs during the coming year and $1,097,524 to 87 cultural and nonprofit organizations, mostly in Madison and Dane County.

UW-Madison chancellor search: Mulcahy withdraws name

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Capital Times

The list of potential candidates to become UW-Madison’s next chancellor is down to three.

Tim Mulcahy, who spent 20 years in Madison before leaving to become vice president for research at the University of Minnesota in February of 2005, has withdrawn his name from consideration.

Are low salaries causing a brain drain from UW-Madison?

Posted on
Capital Times

When Alta Charo received a job offer in February from the University of California at Berkeley that included a raise of roughly $45,000, many assumed the high-profile law and bioethics professor would join the list of talented people leaving town for seemingly greener pastures.

Even Charo, a native of New York City, figured it might be a golden opportunity to ditch the small-town feel of Madison for something a little more fast-paced.

Martin named next UW-Madison chancellor

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Capital Times

Carolyn Martin has been named the next UW-Madison chancellor, pending Board of Regents approval, an informed university source told The Capital Times.

Martin, the provost at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., is expected to be officially approved at the next Board of Regents meeting June 5-6 at UW-Milwaukee. A Board of Regents search committee and UW System President Kevin Reilly decided Tuesday to offer the job to Martin.

Ethanol Group Responds to Criticism with Radio Campaign

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Wisconsin Ag Connection

The Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance also recently publicized a study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor indicating that ethanol production has not been the only cause of sharply rising corn prices. That study, by Renk Professor of Agribusiness Randall Fortenbery and a graduate student, found that export demand and speculative trading are among reasons prices have spiked.

Drug-makers, high-tech companies clash over patents

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Pharmaceutical companies and even some high-tech companies such as General Electric are pushing back – countering that some of the changes their opponents want could reduce protections for patent-holders by limiting the damages innovators could seek from copycats.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which patents the discoveries of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, has some of those same concerns.

Mann’s vision

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Public Enemies,” about gangster John Dillinger, has several of what have become UW-Madison graduate Michael Mann’s signature touches: filming in the area where a story is set, material of a biographical nature and characters that are outsiders.

Changes in Antarctic ice come as warning

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Anchorage Daily News

Fifty years ago, Charles Bentley and five other young men chugged across the ice of Antarctica in three tracked vehicles, exploring the mysterious white continent.

In those days when frontiers existed on the planet, Bentley — a UW-Madison emeritus professor — and his comrades saw a mountain range ahead of them that had Rocky-Mountain-size peaks with no names.

New funding high on UW finalists’ lists

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Each of the four finalists vying for the chancellorship at Wisconsin’s flagship university describes the position as a dream job.

And why not? The new leader will sit at the helm of one of America’s great public universities, a lakefront campus that enrolls 40,000 students and ranks No. 2 in research and development

911 call may get scrutiny

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The 911 call received from the cell phone of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student slain last month may contain additional evidence that hasn’t been explored yet, which has police considering whether a forensic analysis of the call would yield more information.

Louisville dean picked for top job at Parkside

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A University of Louisville dean considered a leader in education is the top pick for chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

UW System President Kevin Reilly and a regents committee on Thursday recommended Robert Felner, dean of Louisvilles College of Education and Human Development.

Dane County error suggests ongoing risk

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I know there’s been a lot of discussion regarding the 911 call made from Brittany Zimmerman’s phone in Madison on the University of Wisconsin-Madison student was murdered. Rightfully so, as I think this is a much bigger issue than the Dane County executive has been making of it. Kathleen Falk apologized for the errors made by the dispatcher and the call center. Is this enough?

UW is No. 2 in car competition

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The hybrid-electric sport utility vehicle re-engineered by students at University of Wisconsin-Madison took second place Wednesday in a national competition with 16 other universities.

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No Cause of Fatal Crash Found

Posted on
NBC-15

A preliminary investigation was unable to pinpoint a cause of the fatal Med Flight cash that killed three men near La Crosse May 10. The helicopter was destroyed during an in-flight collision with trees and terrain.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the helicopter was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) tracking equipment that provided departure, arrival and en route position information to the operator’s Operations Control Center. Flight progress was automatically updated every thre minutes. According to the GPS flight-following data, the flight stopped for refueling and no further position updates were received after that.

Investigators Release Report But No Cause Of Med Flight Crash

Posted on
WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — A preliminary report released Wednesday offered no cause for why a University of Wisconsin Hospital Med Flight helicopter crash two weeks ago, killing three crew members.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued the report Wednesday, but it offered few new details. The report indicated that the helicopter collided with trees and terrain southeast of La Crosse on its way back to Madison.

The report said that the flight was conducted in accordance with federal aviation regulations, and gives no indication that there were any violations with the flight plan or equipment on board.

Bielema has soured on new rule that keeps him from spring recruiting

Posted on
Capital Times

It’s not like Bret Bielema has been chained to his desk on the eighth floor of Camp Randall Stadium the last month, although it’s probably felt that way at times for the University of Wisconsin football coach.

A new NCAA rule has grounded Bielema and other head coaches during the important spring evaluation period, which runs from April 15 to May 31. Assistant coaches are still allowed to visit high schools and evaluate prospects.

It’s been quite a change for Bielema, who spent all but a handful of days on the road during last year’s spring evaluation period.

UW-Madison’s newest residential community focuses on entrepreneurial living

Posted on
Capital Times

To some people, entrepreneurship is a dirty word.

“I used to have a piece of paper on entrepreneurship and on one side it said ‘greed’ and ‘exploitation’ and on and on,” said Anne Miner, a professor of management and human resources at UW-Madison’s School of Business. But the other side, she said, had terms like “‘creativity’ and ‘new forms of values’ and ‘self reliance’ and ‘autonomy’ and ‘taking responsibility.'”

Being entrepreneurial is not all about making money or knowing how to develop a business plan, added Miner, who also is the director of the cross-campus Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship. It’s also about looking for creativity and innovation in one’s personal life and across a wide range of disciplines, she said.

And that is the underlying philosophy behind UW-Madison’s newest residential learning community.

Federal report mum on Med Flight crash cause

Posted on
Capital Times

FAn initial report released today by the National Transportation Safety Board gave no indication why a UW Hospital Med Flight helicopter crashed near La Crosse May 10, killing all three aboard.

The preliminary report said the flight of the helicopter was in accordance with federal regulations.