DES MOINES, Iowa – Big Ten officials will likely discuss expanding to 12 schools to accommodate the new Big Ten Network, commissioner Jim Delany said.
The network, which is scheduled to launch Aug. 30, would benefit from an additional big-name university in a large television market, Delany said.
“I think we need to look at it in the next year,” he told the Des Moines Register on Wednesday. He offered no specific candidates.
A self-identified “Christian, straight, married” father of nine and grandfather of seven said today he is filing what is likely to be the first lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s recently passed constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Bill McConkey, an instructor of political science at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and resident of Baileys Harbor, was planning to drop off his 14-page complaint this morning at the Dane County Courthouse. McConkey, who is not an attorney, prepared the lawsuit on his own.
As dozens of Hmong met with University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley Thursday night, one of them asked for a public apology for remarks by law professor Leonard Kaplan that offended some students early this year. Others said Kaplan should be fired.
All the prognosticators and futurists agree: Classical music is in deep trouble and probably belongs on the endangered species list. It may even be quietly but inexorably threatened with eventual extinction. By silence.
CLEVELAND — Offensive tackle Joe Thomas agreed to terms on a six-year contract with the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night, ensuring the No. 3 overall pick will be at the opening of training camp.
University of Wisconsin secondary coach Kerry Cooks can still recall the anxiety and culture shock that he experienced when he left home for the first time as a college freshman. Cooks, an Iowa football recruit, was a long way from his roots and comfort zone, too. Home was Irving, Texas for Cooks, the product of a middle-class upbringing. While making the adjustment to a different environment and lifestyle in a different region of the country, Cooks, an African-American, didn’t see many people who looked like him in Iowa City.
Not guilty pleas were entered for UW sophomore running back Lance Smith to charges of misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct (Thursday) stemming from a July 14 incident between him and his girlfriend at his Randall Avenue apartment.
Wisconsin’s attorney general issued an informal legal opinion Thursday that the UW System freshman admissions policy does not violate the state law prohibiting the use of “tests based on race.”
But Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen cautioned the University of Wisconsin System to ensure that each application for admission is given individualized consideration in order to comply with federal constitutional requirements.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Thursday the University of Wisconsin System’s new admissions policy does not violate anti-discrimination laws.
The attorney for University of Wisconsin running back Lance Smith-Williams entered not guilty pleas on the player’s behalf to misdemeanor charges of battery and disorderly conduct Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. The charges stem from an incident with his girlfriend on July 14.
One of the gaming design group’s lead instructors at a New Berlin technology camp for youth was the aptly named Alex Games, a former high school teacher and software engineer. Now he’s researching the educational application of video design curriculum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“This is more than playing games,” said Games, who explained that students had to work on their own, then team up and decide how to combine their products to make a more effective and complex game. Students also had to write critiques.
Wisconsinâ??s families want, and deserve change. But instead of charting a new course during this budget season, the Republicans who have been running the State Assembly since 1995 are up to the same old tired budget games they have been playing for the past 12 years, the Assembly’s Assistant Minority Leader Jon Richards says in a column.
They passed a state budget in the Assembly that is chock full of accounting tricks, bad policy and pork-barrel spending and deep cuts to vital services. It contains off-the-wall ideas like ending state support for the University of Wisconsin Law School and for the AMBER alert system. At the end of the day it will threaten the long term financial stability of our state and force cuts to the priorities that middle class families in our state care most about.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced the availability of $450,000 for 16 agricultural development projects ranging from renewable energy to specialty potatoes.
Included are $22,500 to the Horticulture Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, to research the economical feasibly of large-scale organic vegetable crop production, another $15,000 to the Horticulture Department to promote and develop specialty potatoes for the fresh market, and $22,500 to the West Madison Agricultural Research Station, Verona, to grow and test production methods for seedless table grapes for the fresh market.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley Thursday asked Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) to consider the effect of short-term budget relief on the strength of higher education in Wisconsin.
Quoted: Scott Craven, a University of Wisconsin wildlife ecologist.
A few phone conversations with a counselor might help patients, who abuse or who are dependent on alcohol, cut back on their drinking, at least in the short term, a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests.
Researchers found that after just six telephone sessions with a counselor, men and women with alcohol problems were able to reduce their drinking.
“The study shows that we shouldn’t just give up on those alcohol-dependent patients who cannot or choose not to get treatment,” lead study author Dr. Richard L. Brown said in a statement.
Samantha Petroski of Green Bay likes to play the piano and is really into music, but if her rock star dream doesn’t pan out she wouldn’t mind being a doctor.
At age 13, Petroski’s dreams are clear cut thanks to a little push from the Wisconsin Covenant, a program that asks students to sign a pledge in eighth grade affirming they will earn a high school diploma, participate in their community, take a high school curriculum that prepares them for higher education, maintain a B average in high school, and apply in a timely manner for state and federal financial aid.
Mentions that Karen Dion and Ellen Berschied, from the University of Wisconsin, published a paper showing that children aged 4 to 6 asked to judge classmatesâ?? desirability assessed it on appearance.
They’ve seen it all, from the “happy days” of the 1950s to the war on terror. Along the way, they launched their own careers, married, raised children, dealt with prosperity and heartbreak, with growing older and death.
Their story is the story of millions of Americans, but there’s something different here.
For half a century now, they have been followed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin, who have compiled a unique record of the lives of about 10,000 people who graduated from that state’s high schools in 1957.
The steering team recommended hiring the Applied Population Laboratory, part of the University of Wisconsin- Madison, to conduct the study, which would include enrollment projections of high school and younger students.
Two of the scientists questioning the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s key embryonic stem cell patents tried to patent similar discoveries themselves, the foundation said Wednesday.
Their patent applications were made after the foundation filed patent applications on the work of James Thomson, the first person to isolate human embryonic stem cells.
Neither of the scientists disclosed their patent applications when they filed declarations in April in support of two foundations on the coasts that are trying to have the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office overturn WARF’s patents, the Madison-based foundation said.
The Legislature’s conference committee on the budget made little progress in its first meeting Wednesday.
The four Democrats and four Republicans met for about 2 1/2 hours. They talked of the need to work together for the good of the state, laid out their differences and took aim at each other’s proposals.
Elliott Russell, a student at Oconomowoc Middle School, can only speculate what college might be like.
But if it resembles the summer science academy in which he and 21 other middle-school-age students are participating at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha this week, Elliott can’t wait.
James Thomson has added a part-time position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to his current position at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The new post is raising eyebrows because of recent strains between his home institution and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in San Francisco.
Russia’s youth admire the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin – who presided over the deaths of millions of people – and want to kick immigrants out of Russia, according to a poll released yesterday.
When asked if Stalin was a wise leader, half of the 1,802 respondents, aged from 16 to 19, agreed he was.
“Fifty-four per cent agreed that Stalin did more good than bad,” said Theodore Gerber, a sociologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who presented the poll.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Police have warned building managers on campus that thefts are on the rise.
“The hot items seem to be electronics, purses and wallets,” Officer Erik M. Pearce, southeast campus community officer, wrote in an e-mail.
The UW System budget proposed by the Republican-dominated Assembly would slash administrative and public relations positions — cuts that legislators say would save tax dollars but university leaders say would weaken their ability to perform their mission.
The proposal would eliminate 17 high-level administrative positions — including several at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — for a savings of $4.6 million in state funding. It would also cut one-fourth of the funding for university relations and communications functions “not directly related” to instruction, research and public service, a $2 million reduction.
Charter Communications will be adding ESPNU, ESPN2 HD, and several religious channels as part of a series of lineup changes that take effect Aug. 21.
“We’re just tremendously delighted to make the announcement,” said John Miller, Charter Central Division spokesman. “It’s a significant addition to add additional sports value to our lineup.”
Dear Editor: Madison Metro’s No. 80 bus route sounded like a dream come true for a University of Wisconsin-Madison student: A free bus that circles the UW campus and comes around every eight minutes sounds like a blessing since the UW campus is almost 1,000 acres.
Being guaranteed not to have to wait more than eight minutes before another bus arrives means the world when a student is at the bus stop in below-zero temperatures. However, actual experience may bring a change of view of the No. 80 bus route.
Dear Editor: As both a Wisconsin taxpayer and a tenured UW-Madison faculty member, I was saddened and disgusted to read the latest attack on our flagship research university by state Rep. Steve Nass.
It came in the form of ridiculing the important media and education investigations of fellow faculty members Erica and Rich Halverson….
The Big Ten Network is drawing fire on a new front. EchoStar Communications, parent of satellite TV provider DISH Network, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to declare the Big Ten Network a regional sports network, which would allow it to seek arbitration so that it can secure carriage of the service “on reasonable terms,” Multichannel.com reported.
EchoStar filed a 19-page petition with the FCC last Friday seeking expedited treatment regarding Big Ten Network, a joint venture that is 51 percent-owned by the Big Ten Conference and 49 percent-owned by Fox Cable, a unit of News Corp.
A powerful Republican lawmaker is trying to use the power of the purse to eliminate academic programs he disagrees with philosophically and make cuts that would punish university administrators he does not like.
Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said he proposed cutting funding for a University of Wisconsin-Madison center that studies social change because it is “too far to the left.”
But the most troubling finding from the University of Wisconsin survey is that people who hold fatalistic beliefs about cancer are more likely to put their lives at risk by smoking, not eating enough fruits and vegetables, and making other unhealthy choices.
Quoted: James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Ed Jesse, a dairy and agriculture policy economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Next season, for the first time, the Madison Opera will charge more than $100 for a seat. Opera-goers can’t get enough of them.
….In fact, the opera company’s success is mirrored widely among most of Madison’s prominent arts groups. With about a month to go before single tickets go on sale, most of the groups are reporting brisk subscription sales that rival or surpass last year’s by substantial percentages.
According to the various arts groups, such increases provide more proof that Madison is continuing to buck the national trend of subscription sales flattening or, in fact, declining.
Dear Editor: UW-Madison is enduring a devastating financial crisis. Recent articles have focused on the exodus of many top faculty, but another aspect is equally important: Our ability to fund graduate education is collapsing. UW-Madison has some of the world’s premier graduate programs, and to continue to excel at teaching, research and service to the state of Wisconsin, we must continue to attract and keep top graduate students.
Monica Macaulay, UW linguistics professor
Joseph Salmons, director, UW Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
UW-Madison officials complain frequently about raids by other universities that pay more to steal key faculty, leading Gov. Jim Doyle to include a $10 million faculty retention fund in his proposed UW System budget earlier this year.
But the University of Wisconsin-Madison takes as well as gives.
Statistics from the UW show that faculty received 116 offers from others in 2005-06, and 78 of those were retained — 67 percent. But the UW-Madison offered 176 positions and 116 accepted — 66 percent — during that time.
While (Alando) Tucker was still at Wisconsin, it was often suggested figuratively that he walked in the same shoes — which would be the adidas brand in the UW context — as Outland Trophy winner Joe Thomas, the All-American left offensive tackle. Tucker and Thomas were not only marquee players in their respective sports but they were priceless goodwill ambassador’s for the athletic department, the school and the state of Wisconsin.
Upon embarking on pro careers, Tucker and Thomas anticipated being in a state of flux. But whereas Tucker is now working for his employer, Thomas is still unsigned and his NFL career is on hold. A recent headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer — “Trouble looms in signing Thomas” — spelled it out.
A pre-training camp rookie orientation got under way Monday and the Browns were minus their top three picks: Thomas, the No. 3 selection overall in the draft; Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn (No. 22 in the first round) and UNLV defensive back Eric Wright, a second-round pick.
The opening of University Hospital’s new standalone children’s hospital in August means better facilities for young patients and their families as well as more space for treatment of adults in the UW Hospital and Clinics building.
It will also provide a more visible hospital that can better compete with the well-known Wauwatosa-based Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
Dr. Ellen Wald, physician-in-chief for the new American Family Children’s Hospital, said the new building — which will cost $117 million when a second phase is completed — is better for the children.
Fears that teenagers using the social networking website MySpace are exposing themselves to sexual predators by disclosing too many personal details are probably overblown, researchers say.
Criminologist Assistant Professor Sameer Hinduja of Florida Atlantic University and Justin Patchin, a political science researcher at the University of Wisconsin, randomly selected 9282 profiles out of the 100 million purportedly available on MySpace.
Washington-based Child Trends, in a research brief published in May using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, finds that 52 percent of nonmarital births are to cohabiting couples. The University of Wisconsin’s Center for Demography and Ecology reached the same conclusion in a working paper it expects to publish this summer after analyzing data from the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Survey of Family Growth.
Quoted: Bruce P. Barrett, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin
Mentions Jamie Peck, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has written that the pursuit of the creative class “has become a cliche of contemporary urban regeneration.”
In July 1971, Henry Kissinger, acting as President Nixon’s special representative, secretly traveled to Beijing. Kissinger’s voyage provided the basis for a dramatic opening in relations between the United States and China – two nations estranged from one another for more than 20 years. A column by Jeremi Suri, UW-Madison history professor and author of a just-released book on Henry Kissinger.
Quoted: Frank Greer, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The energy-efficient nano computer is inspired by ideas about computing first put forward nearly 200 years ago.
Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the scientists say the machine would be built from nanometre sized components, just billionths of a metre across.
Chips based on the design could be used in places, such as car engines, where silicon can be too delicate, they said.
“What we are proposing is a new type of computing architecture that is only based on nano mechanical elements,” said Professor Robert Blick of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the authors of the paper.
Quoted: Deborah Carr, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Rutgers University
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has recruited the chief economic development strategist from Mississippi State University with the goal of transforming UWM into a research-driven institution that can catalyze job creation in the Milwaukee region.
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) – A 59-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point died from a heart attack in Krakow, Poland, during a group trip to Europe.
David Pupp of Marshfield had been participating in the annual summer College of Natural Resources European Environmental Studies Seminar, a six-week program. He enrolled in the fall 2006 semester at UWSP as an urban forestry major.
….”Feingold: A New Democratic Party,” published by Simon & Schuster, comes out Tuesday. It is the culmination of 14 formal interviews with Feingold, as well as scores of informal ones, in between listening sessions, an examination of the historical record, and interviews with his siblings, friends and foes, journalists and other impartial observers.
Excerpts from the book will run Monday and Tuesday in The Capital Times.
RONALD REAGAN was famous for liking jelly beans, but he may have also been partial to ice cream, since in 1984 he named July “National Ice Cream Month” and the third Sunday of the month “National Ice Cream Day.”
This week, the Sacramento Bee ran a nearly 3,000-word story titled: “Here’s the Scoop: Everything you need to know about ice cream as its big day approaches.”
….In a section of the piece titled “Great scoops in history,” there was this: “1881 — The owner of a soda fountain in Madison, Wis., placed a scoop of ice cream into a soda glass, topped it with chocolate sauce and called it a sundae because it was sold only on Sundays. The price was 5 cents. A historical marker was erected in 1973 to mark the site.”
(UW’s Stephen Babcock and Babcock Hall are mentioned in this column.)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A problem with Duke University’s wireless network caused outages at the school, officials said Friday, exonerating the initial suspect, Apple Inc.’s new iPhone.
“A particular set of conditions made the Duke wireless network experience some minor and temporary disruptions in service,” Duke spokeswoman Tracy Futhey said in a written statement posted on the university’s Web site. “Those conditions involve our deployment of a very large Cisco-based wireless network that supports multiple network protocols.”
The other day on his Web site, waxingamerica.com, a tongue-in-cheek Paul Soglin suggested that we move the University of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall to Belmont, the little southwestern Wisconsin town that was the state’s first capital.
His remarks were aimed at the difficulty that architect Bob Sieger is having trying to get the city’s Plan Commission to let him construct a building at the corner of Regent and Monroe Streets, smack dab across the street from the Field House and football stadium.
A week from today (July 30), University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema will honor the Harry Caray tradition by singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs will be opening a seven-game homestand against the Philadelphia Philles (6:05 p.m., ESPN), while Bielema will be in Chicago for the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon and media days, which get under way Tuesday, July 31.
Bielema has no known musical skills beyond having an ear for reggae and playing the tuba in his high school band.
….At about the same time that Bielema is warming up his vocal chords at Wrigley Field, the conference will be pitching its Big Ten Network at a media reception designed to show off its fall line-up and new studios and win over critics.
Mary Lu Anderson has been waiting for years to accompany her granddaughter to Grandparents University on the UW-Madison campus.
This week her dream came true.
“Ever since Amira was born I’ve been waiting to do this,” said Anderson, 65, an alumna of the University of Wisconsin. “I postponed knee surgery to be here.”
Recently, the Wisconsin Population Health Institute issued its State Health Report Card, giving Wisconsin a B- for overall health and a D for health disparities. Didn’t a federal agency only a month ago say our health care system was No. 1 in the country in terms of its quality? How can we have the best health care but medium to poor health outcomes?
….How can Wisconsin raise our grades? We should continue to improve access to quality medical care, and we must increase our emphasis on the other determinants of health. Reducing smoking rates, controlling obesity and reducing substance abuse are among the most important overall strategies.
(David Kindig is an emeritus professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.)
Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch says: We increased funding for the University of Wisconsin by over 3 percent and targeted resources to students and the classroom, not to administrators in Madison.
Not since the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay was formed has a budget appropriation been as important to the campus as the one in the 2007-09 biennium, says Chancellor Bruce Shepard.
Shepard said that was how some UW-Green Bay board trustees described the situation last week after the state Assembly scaled back proposed increases to the campus’s growth agenda over the next two years.
Quoted: Tom O’Guinn, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business.
