UW-Madison?s Bassam Z. Shakhashiri is canceling his long-standing and popular holiday chemistry show this year for the first time since 1994 due to a family medical issue. “It was a hard decision. We?re very sorry to do it,” said Cayce Osborne, outreach specialist for the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy.
Two young men were taken to a local hospital early Thursday morning after being beaten by another man while leaving a State Street bar, Madison police reported. Police said the 21-year-old and 23-year-old victims from Madison were knocked unconscious and suffered head injuries.
Many employers don?t think college graduates today have the necessary skills to fill job openings. According to a survey conducted by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, only 7 percent of hiring decision-makers believe the higher education system does an “excellent” job of preparing students for the workplace. Similarly, only 16 percent reported that applicants are “very prepared” with the knowledge and skills they would need for the job.
GEORGETOWN, Texas – Howard John Schwebke passed away peacefully on Nov. 11, 2011. In 1953 he moved with his family to Monona to begin his career with the University of Wisconsin as a professor of engineering. He retired in 1983.
The current and former Editors in Chief of The Onion, Joe Garden and Carol Kolb respectively, spoke of the ins and outs of their satire news organization at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Monday evening. A part of the Distinguished Lecture Series, Garden and Kolb gave students not only the chance to learn of The Onion?s print and multimedia workings, but, of course, a few laughs.
If our nation?s future depends on college graduates, UW-Madison is doing its part. The university announced on Thursday that more students graduated in 2010-2011 than any other academic year, with 10,099 degrees conferred. It?s the first time more than 10,000 bachelor?s, master?s and doctoral degrees have been issued in one year by the university, according to a press release from the UW-Madison news service.
A UW-Madison student was knocked unconscious walking through a West Johnson Street parking lot early Saturday morning.
Any college campus has a drinking scene, but UW-Madison is particularly known for its party school status. Here at Madison, students take the expression “work hard, play hard” seriously. But some worry an alcohol-based culture leads to expectations that pressure students to drink. Although the 2012 U.S. News & World Report ranks UW-Madison among the top 10 national academic institutions, UW-Madison is nonetheless stereotyped as the party school full of beer-guzzling students living for the weekend.
Two brothers in town for some laughs at a comedy club weren?t laughing early Wednesday morning after being pulled over for drunken driving with two parking meters discovered inside their car, police reported.
The annual “Once Upon a Christmas Cheery” science shows, which have been produced by UW-Madison chemistry professor Bassam Shakhashiri for more than four decades, will not take place this year. The university announced in an emailed news release Wednesday that the programs scheduled for Saturday and Sunday have been canceled “due to a family medical emergency.”
Seven protesters from Wisconsin, one of which is a UW-Madison student, were arrested in Washington, D.C., Wednesday after demonstrating with Occupy protesters, according to Dane 101.
A new state policy that governs protests and other gatherings at state buildings, most notably at the Capitol where the “solidarity singers” meet daily to peacefully protest recent Republican policies and Gov. Scott Walker, appears destined for a legal showdown.
Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science professor who teaches a course on the First Amendment, says he is not aware of any other state that requires a permit for four or more people. Downs says any law or policy that affects First Amendment rights tends to be legally sound if the rules aren’t overly restrictive as to the time, place and manner the speech occurs. For example, there is a policy on the UW-Madison campus prohibiting megaphones from being used at Library Mall because classes may be going on, making it a “reasonable” restriction of free speech, Downs says, adding “It is a balancing act.”
Fans are already making plans to follow the Wisconsin Badgers to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Phones have been ringing regularly at travel agencies across Madison on Monday, with eager fans wanting more information about the packages available. “It?s kind of a bucket (list) thing,” Mike Hagen said. He and his wife, Mary, booked their trip to the Rose Bowl even before Saturday?s big win in Indianapolis.”My idea was to go to the Rose Bowl, and the Badgers winning was just a bonus,” Mike Hagen said.
University of Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst has talked to Kansas about the head coaching vacancy at the school, a source close to Chryst said. The Jayhawks fired Turner Gill on Nov. 27 after going 2-10 overall and finishing last in the Big 12 Conference at 0-9. Chryst attended the Broyles Award luncheon in Little Rock, Ark., on Tuesday, where LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis was named the nation’s top assistant coach. Chryst was a finalist for the award for a second straight year.
A University of Wisconsin System spokesman says election officials have approved nine campuses? designs for secondary college ID cards for voting. A new state law requires voters to show photo identification at the polls starting in 2012. College IDs qualify if they expire within two years of being issued. Many institutions, however, typically issue four- or five-year IDs.
The consumer affairs major in UW-Madison?s School of Human Ecology is likely to be cut due to a lack of funding, the Daily Cardinal reports. The student newspaper states that the more than 160 students currently enrolled in the major will be allowed to complete their degrees.
First, the White House got its Christmas tree from Wisconsin. Now it will get some holiday tunes from here, too. The UW-Madison singing group “MadHatters” will perform at the White House Wednesday at a holiday reception for guests held by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
Dane County Board member Analiese Eicher is stepping down from her seat representing the county?s fifth district, saying she wants the position to be an outlet for a student voice. Eicher, who was elected in April 2010, said she will not seek re-election, in hopes that a student may continue to represent the district.
Friends and family attended funeral services for Zach Zenk in La Crosse Tuesday after the UW-Madison senior?s death early last week. Zenk, 23, was found dead in his home Tuesday, Nov. 29, after going out drinking with friends earlier in the week, sister Rebecca Zenk said Monday. The death is under investigation, the Madison Police Department said, and investigators are awaiting results from toxicology tests.
?After we got the confirmation on it, it was just thrilling,? MadHatters Music Director Miles Comiskey said. ?I don?t know if there is some Badger in the White House that is looking out for us, that asked us to apply initially, but we are excited.?
Regarding the legal conflict between UW Medical Foundation and Meriter Hospital, I?m a family physician and employee of UWMF. I practice at UW Health Sun Prairie Clinic, and admit my patients and deliver babies at Meriter Hospital.I plead with both sides to step back from the courtroom.
Overall, things are better for Dane County businesses this year, but company executives are not so optimistic about 2012. That?s the gist of the 2011 First Business Economic Survey of Dane County, being released Wednesday. Of 3,584 surveys sent, 337 were returned. The sample size has a margin of error of 5 percent….The survey was conducted by UW-Madison’s A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research in September and October.
University of Wisconsin junior running back Montee Ball wasn?t even in the Heisman Trophy conversation entering the month of November. On Monday, Ball?s 21st birthday, he sat in front of the television and heard the news he is headed to New York as one of five finalists for the prestigious award, which will be handed out Saturday night. “Best birthday ever,” Ball said at a hastily arranged news conference.
Physicians Plus is suing UW-Madison?s doctor group, saying the doctors? threat to stop treating the insurance company?s patients is illegal. Physicians Plus, owned by Meriter Health Services, says the doctor group, UW Medical Foundation, demanded fees that are too high. After Physicians Plus refused to pay the fees, it says the doctor group threatened to stop serving most of the insurance company?s patients starting in 2013. Both sides say they?re still negotiating.
Appreciation to reporter David Wahlberg for continued attention to conflicts of interest in health care. Community interest helps a profession adhere to its higher values. Doctors are human ? the struggle to balance self-interest with altruism lives on.
When Tim Gehrmann washes windows as part of his job on the UW-Madison campus, he tackles one pane after another, until finally the payoff emerges: a wall of gleaming windows that makes life better for those looking out and those looking in. Gehrmann is one of more than a dozen campus facility repair workers who contributed more than $100 this year to Partners in Giving, the annual workplace campaign for state, university, and UW Hospital and Clinics employees that benefits more than 500 charities.
The workers? gifts were inspired in part by a challenge from their boss, campus services director Dave Grueneberg. Since 2005, Grueneberg has matched half or all of every dollar given to charity by his crews. This year, Grueneberg, who works two other jobs, will write a check for nearly $1,800.
Eight state legislators mailed a letter Friday to members of the Madison Area Technical College District Board asking that they listen to a proposal from the school?s part-time teachers union to create a member-owned, nonprofit corporation that would provide adjunct faculty staffing and support services for the college.
“It’s an interesting concept and as a board member I’m always interested in learning about efficiencies,” says Noel Radomski, a member of the MATC District Board who is director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, a higher ed think tank on the UW-Madison campus.
One of the best ways of ensuring the integrity of our elections is to have an independent, nonpartisan watchdog. Wisconsin already has that, in the form of the Government Accountability Board. The GAB is made up of retired judges and a nonpartisan staff charged with keeping elections clean. But now the independence of the GAB is under threat.
(Donald Moynihan is the associate director of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs and a professor of public affairs.)
UW-Madison law professor Jonathan Lipson wants to correct what he says is a big misconception about where he works. The university?s law school isn?t anti-business, Lipson said, and it does a lot more than try to help the disenfranchised and free the wrongly convicted.
Microloans are common in developing countries to help the poor start a business. A Wisconsin micro-lending organization started by UW students operates on the same principle.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee?s chancellor is expected to sign an agreement in Beijing, China Monday that?s aimed at increasing the university?s international profile. Under the recruiting agreement, UWM would be marketed throughout China, Milwaukee?s third-largest trading partner.
UW-Madison should put Badgers uniform provider Adidas “on notice” because of alleged worker rights abuses, a campus committee recommended on Friday. At issue is a factory owner in Indonesia who reportedly failed to pay more than 2,800 workers an estimated $3.2 million in severance, according to a university news release. The payments equal nearly one year?s salary per worker at minimum wage.
A word of warning to excited Wisconsin Badger football fans hoping to head to sunny California for the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2: Avoid the thorns. The state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) is cautioning people to be careful when booking trips to Pasadena for the game because some packages might not include everything you need, such as tickets to the game between the Badgers and the Oregon Ducks.
Physicians Plus is suing UW-Madison?s doctor group, saying the doctors? threat to stop treating the insurance company?s patients is illegal. Physicians Plus, owned by Meriter Health Services, says the doctor group, UW Medical Foundation, demanded fees that are too high. After Physicians Plus refused to pay the fees, it says the doctor group threatened to stop serving most of the insurance company?s patients starting in 2013. The doctor group says it?s still negotiating.
Pasadena proved to be an easier sell to University of Wisconsin football fans than Indianapolis. The school announced Monday morning that it has sold out its allotment of tickets to the Rose Bowl, where the Badgers will face Oregon on Jan. 2.
In the wake of scandals over child sex-abuse allegations at Pennsylvania State and Syracuse Universities, many colleges are reviewing their policies on the oversight of minors and how they deal with abuse claims, while some institutions are wrestling with the proper role of governing boards during crises. On a conference call Friday, some 20 Division I athletics-conference commissioners and senior NCAA representatives discussed compiling a list of best practices for dealing with allegations of abuse.
People know me as: Stew, fall 2011 artist-in-residence at UW-Madison, performing Monday at Vilas Hall with The Negro Problem featuring Heidi Rodewald. We are singers, songwriters, theater makers and adults.
Most inspiring moment at UW-Madison: The most inspiring moment I’ve had during my residency comes once a week when I get that songwriting assignment back from that student who is stretching her/himself as an artist in brave and challenging ways and not just coasting on their talents. Teaching is as rewarding to me as creating art, and far more heartbreaking.
While the governor suggests his ?reforms are working,? education officials report otherwise. Budget cuts impact every level of education. Local schools, technical colleges and UW campuses are all coping with changes required by deep budget cuts.
A UW-Madison office in Shanghai could be open as soon as June, according to officials who just returned from a trip to China to explore the possibility of the university?s first foreign outpost. Gilles Bousquet, dean of the division of international studies and vice provost for globalization, said that would be the “ideal” timeline but it hinges on continued support here and getting the necessary permits in China. He said UW-Madison is convening a planning team to determine next actions.
Ken Streit, a clinical professor at the UW-Madison Law School said while he?s not in favor of people packing heat at church, he doubts a sign would really stop anyone intent on doing harm. His primary objection is that the law?s advocates have forced churches and other organizations to react to their agenda.
Members of the student governing board of UW System schools proposed legislation that would support a student strike if the state makes additional budget cuts to the system.
A university committee recommended Friday UW-Madison put top apparel manufacturer adidas on notice after an allegation of workers? rights abuses in Indonesia. The Labor Licensing Policy Committee, made up of student representatives, faculty and administrators, voted university officials propose a 90-day deadline for adidas to make $3.2 million in legally mandated severance payments owed to displaced factory workers in Indonesia.
Former Badger football lineman Jake Wood, the co-founder and president of a nonprofit organization that deploys military veterans to aid in disaster relief internationally, will be this year?s mid-year commencement speaker at the ceremonies taking place on Dec. 18 at the Kohl Center.
While the market for owner-occupied housing remains weak, the interest in new apartment construction in Madison is soaring. A number of major projects are envisioned, including plans for a 12-story apartment tower near the UW-Madison campus and an architecturally intriguing 115-unit project facing Monona Bay.
Members of UW-Madison?s AHA (Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics) will square off against those from Badger Catholic in a debate at Union South on Wednesday. The discussion will touch on issues such as stem cell research, abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage.
A: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s Climate Prediction Center issues seasonal climate outlook maps for the nation. The organization?s forecast for Wisconsin?s 2011-12 meteorological winter (which started Thursday and runs through Feb. 29) is for below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation.
A. “The size and shape of bubbles and balloons are determined by a competition between their surface tension, which makes them contract, and their internal pressure, which makes them expand,” said UW-Madison physics professor Clint Sprott, who is founder of “The Wonders of Physics” campus and traveling show.
Even though UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said the field is “wide open” for a Democratic contender to face Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election, he asserts that no potential candidate stands out. Despite popular opinion from supporters, former Sen. Russ Feingold has reiterated that he will not run should the recall bid prove successful.
Ten doctors at UW-Madison received $48,000 or more from drug or medical device companies last year, a State Journal analysis of campus disclosure records found. Six of the doctors were orthopedic surgeons, and each made $99,000 or more in consulting or royalty fees on top of their salaries averaging $750,000. The top earner ? Dr. Thomas Zdeblick, with nearly $1.7 million in medical industry income ? has been the subject of investigations and media reports about conflicts of interest in medicine. But he?s not alone in earning large sums, according to university records that only recently have included specific amounts of income instead of broad ranges.
To go, or not to go? That is the question UW-Madison student Molly Trerotola posed on Twitter wondering whether she should follow the Badgers on their second consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl. The scent of roses still smells sweet, but some fans may not be as quick to book a trip to Pasadena this year with the memory of last year?s experience still fresh. Trerotola said she went last year and initially decided not to go again.
No one was more surprised than Forest Shomberg when he was suddenly released from the Dane County Jail after serving six years for a wrongful conviction for sexual assault. The Wisconsin Innocence Project presented evidence including DNA results that the Madison man was the victim of mistaken identity, but Shomberg was told not to get his hopes up.
?The sad irony is that if you?re guilty of a crime, the state provides a lot more support upon release from prison than if you?re innocent,? said Keith Findley, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. ?If you?re innocent, you?re just set free.? Findley is working with state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, on legislation that would provide ?meaningful relief to help innocent people get back on their feet.?
The acoustics of a cave made for an unusual performance of a popular UW-Madison a cappella group. Eleven members of Tangled Up in Blue sang for about 50 people Sunday in the depths of Cave of the Mounds, a natural limestone cave here designated a National Natural Landmark in 1988 by the United States Department of the Interior and the National Park Service. After an 11-song concert lit by 300 votive candles and strings of Christmas lights, members of the group agreed it was the most unusual place they?ve performed.
Jake Wood, a 2005 UW-Madison graduate and president of a veterans? service organization, will speak at UW-Madison?s winter commencement ceremony on Dec. 18. Wood played on the Badgers offensive line from 2001 to 2004. He served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps and was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He co-founded Team Rubicon following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti to provide military veterans with an opportunity to use their skills in disaster zones.
Science reporters and bloggers are lighting up the Internet with posts noting the creation of a genetically modified version of the deadly H5N1 bird flu which can be easily transmitted among ferrets, which closely mimic the human response to flu. Although many of these reports focus on the work coming out of this Dutch medical center, most also note University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka conducted similar work. Sources within the university confirm that’s true.
Upon further review, as they say, the seat filler ad for Saturday?s Big Ten Conference football championship game was an Internet hoax. The author of the Craigslist ad offering $75 to anyone willing to don red or dark green clothing and fill empty seats at Lucas Oil Stadium came clean to the website SBNation.com, explaining that he was miffed at the massive collapse in value of the tickets he purchased long ago with the intent of scalping them.
Representatives of UW?Madison student organizations met with members of the student government to discuss concerns, challenges, suggestions and future goals of their respective organizations Thursday. Much of the town-hall-style meeting focused on the issue of communication between the Associated Students of Madison and the student organizations.
The UW-Madison Vote Coalition kicked off a campaign to mobilize student voters Thursday. ASM Legislative Affairs Committee Chair and Vote Coalition member Hannah Somers said the group?s main goals for the year are to register students to vote, make sure students are informed on new voter identification laws and motivate students to vote.
After months of dropping hints and generating speculation, former Gov. Tommy Thompson officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate Thursday night. UW-Madison College Republicans Chair Johnny Koremenos was in Waukesha to introduce Thompson, revving up the crowd with a speech and chants of ?Tommy! Tommy!?
A 2008 UW-Madison analysis of Downtown bars found that things were little different there: noise complaints and assaults rose precipitously as the night went on, peaked between 2 and 3 a.m. after most bars closed, then fell.
Much to the delight of birders, snowy owls, rarely seen in these parts, are making their way by the hundreds into Wisconsin and other upper Midwestern states as they do every few years, journeying south in search of food from their normal wintering grounds on the Arctic tundra….This year, the birds are appearing not only in Wisconsin but in Minnesota, Michigan and North and South Dakota, according to maps kept by Jesse Ellis, a UW-Madison zoology student.
