In some ways, Barry Alvarez is no different than the rest of us when it comes to dealing with the awful revelations seeping out of Penn State. “It?s something that you have a hard time getting off your mind,” the University of Wisconsin athletic director said. “You don?t quite understand it all. You don?t have all the answers. It?s very disturbing.”
Quarterback Russell Wilson, whose Heisman Trophy candidacy is being promoted by the University of Wisconsin, was asked Monday who he would vote for if he had a say. His answer: Teammate Montee Ball, the Badgers? junior running back who set a Big Ten record with his 27th touchdown of the season on Saturday.”He?s the man,” Wilson said. “?Money Ball,? I guess they call him.”
….College students at University of Wisconsin schools, who have long benefited from a world-class education, keenly feel the effects of a state administration which refuses to put education among its priorities. The Walker administration has cut over $300 million from the system – and at least $125 million will come out of UW-Madison. UW System spokesman David Giroux responded with the reality of the situation: “We do not know how we can take these cuts without negatively affecting the education of our students and the expectations of their families for a quality experience.” Students will be forced to bear the brunt of these costs in higher tuition bills, less financial aid, more student debt, and fewer course offerings with larger class sizes.
UW-Madison police arrested a man on charges of battery and disorderly conduct outside a North Frances Street bar Saturday.
As Democrats begin gathering signatures Tuesday in hopes of holding a recall election for Gov. Scott Walker, both parties can anticipate a taxing battle to rally constituents in their favor.
Quoted: Dietram Scheufele, professor of life sciences communication
As of Monday, the results of a student government survey indicate a majority of students want the Mifflin Street Block Party to continue. The Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee said they plan to present the results to city officials in discussions about the future of the block party.
The UW-Madison Academic Staff Assembly passed a resolution Monday calling recent budget cuts to the UW System too large. In October state legislators announced $65.7 million in cuts to the UW System to make up for a lapse of expected state revenue. The UW System accounts for 38 percent of total cuts included in the state?s lapse. About $25 million of these cuts will go to UW-Madison over the next two years.
Dr. Robert “Bob” Tomesh, age 63, passed away peacefully after a courageous battle with cancer on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011. He recently retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension as a senior lecturer in horticulture and outreach specialist. He was very involved with the State Master Gardeners program as its educational director and changed the quality of life for many gardeners in the state.
The Madison area pretty much stinks compared to several peers when it comes to creating private sector jobs and generating new companies, according to a $140,000 study. It found the Madison region lagging in income growth, ethic diversity and the number of young people putting down roots here. Other black marks include the high cost of living, lack of broadband access and limited access to investment capital. But the report lauded the area for its high quality of life, the easy availability of health care and the large amount of research and development at UW-Madison.
?American culture is better off for Pleasant Rowland and the creation of American Girl,? said Deborah Mitchell, UW-Madison School of Business senior lecturer in marketing. ?There?s never been a time in our history when there?s been a greater need for girls to have an expanded view of who they are, where they?ve been and what they could be.?
….In English, “Wisconsin Idea” is said to be the tradition of a university system offering its services and expertise to government, making it more transparent and responsive to the needs of citizens. I?m sure there?s a Chinese way to say the definition, too. It?s just that given China?s autocratic regime and shoddy human rights record, it probably wouldn?t be of much practical use.
Quoted: Laurie Dennis, associate director of the UW-Madison Wisconsin China Initiative. Edward Friedman, a UW-Madison political science professor who has been active in advocating for human rights in China, agreed that engagement hasn’t produced democracy there.
The University of Wisconsin-Extension can move forward with broadband Internet expansion projects in four areas of the state after a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Wisconsin Independent Telecommunications Systems.
The number of international students enrolled at colleges and universities across the country jumped by another five percent during the 2010-11 academic year according to the annual Open Doors report. There were a record 723,277 international students enrolled at higher education institutions, according to the report that?s published annually by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of State?s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. That figure marks a 32 percent increase from a decade ago. There were 9,248 international students studying in Wisconsin in 2010-11, an increase of 3.9 percent from the previous year.
A feud between UW Health and Meriter Health Services has escalated into a court battle, with UW?s doctor group filing a lawsuit Friday against Meriter over Meriter?s decision to stop providing doctors to oversee patients at night who are treated during the day by UW doctors. The UW Medical Foundation filed the suit in Dane County Circuit Court. It says Meriter made it harder for UW to fill the night coverage gap by refusing to let more UW doctors work at Meriter and by hiring some of the UW doctors.
In America, in theory, life is good, just and equal for all. The reality, of course, is riddled with contrasts and complexities. That?s what Kanopy Dance Company and its guest artists brought to the stage Saturday night ? lots of sharp contrasts and deep complexities. ?This is Not America,? which featured Kanopy, Winifred Haun & Dancers from Chicago and former UW-Madison dance program chair Lonny Joseph Gordon, wasn?t, as the title implies, all social and political musing.
A: The massive storm that struck the west coast of Alaska last Tuesday and Wednesday was truly an amazing meteorological event. The entire Bering Sea coast was under the threat of hurricane-force winds, with many areas facing heavy snow and zero visibility. Importantly, this storm is able to exert hurricane force winds over a much larger area than the typical tropical storm.
….College seniors in Wisconsin who graduated with student loans last year owed an average of $24,627, according to an analysis by The Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit that gets money from the Ford Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates, and others. Something has to change because the cost of a college education is growing so much faster than incomes and inflation.
The Chinese Champions program hasn?t gotten a lot of attention here, but it has been crucial to bringing the UW-Madison brand to China. Last year, the first of three groups of Olympic-caliber athletes came to UW-Madison through a partnership with Beijing Sport University and the China Scholarship Council to study English and kinesiology.The second group ? including gold medal winners in skiing, table tennis, swimming and more ? is here right now. A third group will come next year.
They?re here, they?re hungry and they need haircuts. The explosive growth in the number of Chinese students at UW-Madison has created boom times for Chinese-owned businesses near campus.
A: These boulders are a legacy of the ice age, when the climate in southwestern Wisconsin resembled that of present-day northern Alaska, said James Knox, Evjue-Bascom professor emeritus of geography at UW-Madison.
Eighteen-year-old Xinyi Wang?s bus rolled up to Memorial Union on an August night. After a 14-hour plane ride from her home in Eastern China, then a 3-hour bus trip from Chicago, she stepped onto the UW-Madison campus for the first time. She plans to spend at least the next four years here. ?It is my dream, when I was young, to study in the U.S.,? said Wang, a UW-Madison freshman.
UW-Madison sent four official delegations to China over the last two years, accelerated research connections with the country and aggressively recruited Chinese students to study here. Now, UW-Madison leaders are laying the groundwork for a physical foothold in China in what would be the school?s first foreign office.
….Not everyone believes UW-Madison should be establishing close ties with China. Tom Loftus, who until recently served on the UW Board of Regents, has called for the university to be more cautious.
?China isn?t Iowa ? there is censorship, human rights abuse, jailing of artists, defense lawyers and dissidents of all types,? Loftus wrote in an email to the State Journal. ?And, the Communist Party government has no compunction about punishing those countries and institutions that offend.?
UW-Madison faculty discussed ways to improve programs for first-year and transfer students at the annual First-Year Conference Friday. Dr. Jennifer Keup, director of the National Resource Center for First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, said universities nationwide should integrate learning communities, diversity training and undergraduate research into their curriculum. She said these are among guidelines that can help first-year students succeed.
LaMarr Billups, a former Madison community leader and special assistant to two UW-Madison chancellors, died Friday at his home in Falls Church, Va., after a short illness. He was 59. At UW-Madison, Billups was director of community relations from 1996 to 2007. He served as a special assistant during UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward?s first term and during the tenure of former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley.
?LaMarr provided an essential bridge between university and community,? Ward said in a statement. ?All who knew him will miss him deeply.?
UW-Madison representatives met Friday to discuss the future of the “Wisconsin Idea” as well as the relationships between the university and state and local communities. According to the UW-Madison website, the Wisconsin Idea is “the principle that the university should improve people?s lives beyond the classroom.”
Wisconsin Democrats will begin circulating recall petitions for Gov. Scott Walker across the state and on the UW-Madison campus starting Nov. 15. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin, a political action committee organized around recalling Walker, will have until Jan. 13, 60 days, to collect the 540,208 signatures necessary to prompt a recall election. College Democrats Chair Jordan Weibel said the student group plans to raise awareness about the Walker recall effort on campus.
We have a budding superstar in our midst, and among other things, that means if you have a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal in the cupboard, you might want to check to see if it?s still there. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the favorite food of Eric “Silo” Dahl. At least that?s what he told me. He once told another reporter it was pancakes. Dahl is the No. 1-ranked collegiate competitive eater in the country. He’s a new student at UW-Madison ? studying computer engineering ? which is fitting because Madison is where Dahl first discovered his genius, if that is the word, for gluttony.
When Rocco Landesman was an English major at UW-Madison in the late 1960s, he starred in Shakespeare?s “Richard II” and worked as the fine arts editor for the Daily Cardinal. On Tuesday, he?ll return to Madison ? now as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Tony-winning Broadway producer, investor and co-owner of the one-time Kenosha Twins minor league baseball team will be part of an afternoon panel at Goodman Community Center discussing how Madison can better leverage the arts for economic development.
China may be 7,000 miles away, but it?s one of UW-Madison?s closest research partners. There are hundreds of collaborations as university faculty regularly beat a path back and forth to China, working on such areas as blindness, the milk yield of dairy cows and the impact of climate change on deserts. As UW-Madison considers opening an office in Shanghai ? its first foreign outpost ? the potential for developing even more research partnerships is at the forefront of administrators? minds.
“Although we are there every six months, it’s not a continuing presence,” said Gilles Bousquet, dean of the Division of International Studies and vice provost of globalization. “If we had somebody on the ground, they could take advantage of those relationships.”
Bobbie Kelsey may be the new kid on the Big Ten women?s basketball block, but that doesn?t mean she?s a total stranger to the neighborhood.
Philip E. Miles Jr., age 81, died on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, at Agrace HospiceCare in Madison. Phil joined the mathematics faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1960 and was an active faculty member for 40 years. He had a deep interest in mathematics education, and was an early advocate of the use of some new kinds of technology in teaching.
Thursday?s 37-degree high was only half the temperature American alligators generally require. So John Boyko?s reptile friends arrived in Madison prepared. Boyko got donations from Petco Foundation to fly the alligators to see McFarland veterinarian Dr. Michael Wenninger. Wenninger, a 2004 graduate of the UW-Madison veterinary school, now practices at Spartan Animal Hospital in McFarland and has surgical expertise in reptiles.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, one of Newsweek?s “Most Important People in 2010,” will speak at Union South Nov. 15. Jackson will discuss challenges facing environmental laws as well as the EPA?s efforts to respond to President Barack Obama?s request that federal agencies work with American businesses to help create jobs.
The Student Services Finance Committee discussed employing a controversial fund that would allow student groups to hire non-university-employed staff members Thursday. SSFC Chair Sarah Neibart said the committee could amend the Campus Services Fund to allow the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG) and other student groups to contract non-university employed staff members.
Members of UW-Madison?s Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) fraternity began the first leg of a 268-mile philanthropic run from Camp Randall to the University of Minnesota?s TCF Bank Stadium Thursday. About 35 participants in the third annual Fiji Rivalry Run, which raises money for the American Red Cross, will take mile-long shifts toward the stadium with the game ball in hand.
As an air traffic controller in Chicago for nearly 24 years, Will Crump made a lot of money. He was never exposed to the hopelessness of alcoholics, addicts and the homeless. “They were not part of my world,” said Crump, 59. But in 2009, Crump, a divorced father of four, moved to Madison to overcome his own addictions to alcohol and drugs and, eventually, homelessness. “It was my first exposure to a segment of society I never knew existed,” he said. “It was a stark and rude awakening.” A Wisconsin native, Crump said he started drinking as a freshman at UW-Madison.
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (CNN) — The child sex abuse scandal at Penn State bringing down legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and his vaunted reputation smoldered on Thursday. Angry hometown students rioted in support of Paterno overnight, a state legislator issued a call for tougher state law on reporting abuse and a wave of soul-searching permeated the nation?s airwaves and sports pages.”In less than once week, the Penn State we knew unraveled,” reported the Daily Collegian, the school?s newspaper.
The price of laptops continues to fall. But for owners it?s not the plastic and metal that make these portable computers valuable; it?s the data they contain. Until recently, if your laptop was stolen the odds of you getting it back were slim. Detective Shane Driscoll with the UW Police Department says some crooks may be specifically targeting laptops. But most thefts are crimes of opportunity. To help curb the problem, the UW Police Department teamed up with the Computer Sciences Department. That partnership lead to the creation of Themis and the Bait Lap Top program. Themis is an asset location program that relies on a computer?s GPS and other sensors to track the machine.
An oil spill off the shore of San Francisco in 1971 sent John Francis on a journey that led him, four decades later, to the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is leading graduate students in rethinking what the environmental movement is all about. On the way, he lived without speaking for 17 years, walked across America, and came to view the environment in a holistic way that he says is the future of the movement — and the planet.
….The refusal of these pillars of the Penn State community to act on their knowledge and their callous disregard for the victims since Sandusky?s arrest last week have resulted in a mad scramble to pin the blame on someone, or everyone, at the school. However, the truth is we are all a little bit to blame for this mess because we are the ones who exalt college sports figures and encourage them to think they are above the law.
….For years, athletic and school administrators, local and university police, alumni and fans have served as enablers for college coaches and players by sweeping their dirt under the rug in the name of the program. That has created a culture of entitlement in which coaches think they are no longer bound by the rules of society.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra, housed in the Overture Center for the Arts, is considered one of the best regional orchestras in the country, and lucky for UW students, it is welcoming Badgers with open arms.
It took a couple of years to complete the deal but a new $5 million, mid-rise apartment is going up behind the historic Acacia fraternity house on the UW campus. A groundbreaking ceremony is Thursday at 229 W. Lakelawn Place, just off Langdon Street at 4 p.m. The five level building has 14-units and 59 bedrooms of student housing, along with 20 moped and 61 bicycle parking spots. No vehicle parking is provided.
A block-long stretch of North Mills Street will be shut down Saturday and Sunday so crews can complete installing utilities in the street. The block is between Spring Street and Dayton Street, next to the UW-Madison Charter Street Heating Plant. The plant has been undergoing a retrofit, with coal-fired boilers changed out to natural gas-fired boilers.
Last week?s Associated Students of Madison decision to reinstate two former representatives was determined null and void Wednesday, meaning ASM Vice Chair Beth Huang and Nominations Board Chair Niko Magallon are back off student council.
UW-Madison opted against using stickers on identification cards, which means students will likely receive updated forms of identification to accommodate stipulations in the law that require voters to show valid forms of IDs at polling places. After months of going back and forth on whether to allow stickers on student IDs, the Government Accountability Board concluded Wednesday that stickers would be allowed. As a result on the decision, individual schools can decide what to do.
Here?s what we know: In June 1975, a disgraced former President Richard M. Nixon testified before a grand jury about Watergate. What exactly he said has been sealed for the last 36 years. That will change today when the records will be released, thanks to the efforts of UW-Madison emeritus professor Stanley Kutler.
The files will be available on the National Archives website at 11 a.m. CST.
There?s a good deal of crisis management going on in the Big Ten Conference these days, something Joel Maturi knows something about. The Minnesota athletic director may not have the pulverizing agendas on display at Penn State or Ohio State ? an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse by a former football assistant and major NCAA rules violations, respectively ? but Maturi could argue his crisis has had a much longer shelf life.
Milwaukee is developing a reputation as a leader in freshwater research and technology. The Chronicle of Higher Education is the latest publication to take note. An article posted over the weekend states Lake Michigan is not “just a pretty backdrop and source of recreation here but a strong economic driver, with more than 130 water-technology-related businesses in the region bringing in $10.5-billion annually in revenue.” That number is huge. UW-Madison, for example, is one of the leading research institutions on the planet, and it brings in only a fraction of that — approximately $1 billion per year — in research dollars.
For the past six months, the Associated Students of Madison?s 18th session has received a constant barrage of criticism from all sides pertaining to the organization?s general internal ineffectiveness. Any member of ASM knows and understands that the concerns for the organization put out by the media and general campus avenues are valid, at least to some extent. General student body members who are versed in the history of ASM also know that these concerns are not unique to this session. So how do we mitigate these issues, and stop them from reoccurring in future sessions?
In the year since his death in a Sun Prairie home explosion, family and friends of Andy Manley have turned their grief to good works with a training academy in rural Uganda and a scholarship honoring him and his late nephew. The School for Andy in Buyaya, Uganda, was made possible in part by donations made to memorialize Manley, a 26-year-old aspiring teacher who died a year ago Wednesday when the home he shared with two friends exploded as a result of an apparently faulty furnace installation.
UW-Madison will test its emergency notification system between 12 p.m and 2 p.m. Wednesday (today) as part of a National Emergency Alert System Test. The trial will test many of WiscAlert?s newer systems, including text messaging, e-mail and voice lines, along with social media sites. Students and staff do not need to respond to the message, which will read, “WiscAlert: This is a test of the WiscAlert system. In a real emergency, more info would be posted at wisc.edu.”
“The only saving grace [Act 35] had was the fact that there were these requirements,” UW-Madison Young Progressives Vice President Sam Gehler said. “The elimination of those requirements does not bode very well for the safety of the people of Wisconsin.”
Gehler compared hurdles to receiving a driver?s license to the “less stringent requirements” now in place for permits to carry concealed weapons, “which are designed to kill people.”
After 35 years of being kept secret, a UW-Madison professor is helping bring to light documents and recordings related to former President Richard Nixon. The documents, which will be available online to the public Thursday, will include a transcript of Nixon?s grand jury testimony related to the Watergate investigation given in 1975.
The earth?s population hit the 7 billion mark last week. Perhaps just as eye opening is the fact that the planet is adding more than 200,000 people to that total every 24 hours. That?s nearly another Madison each day.
“We need to start thinking proactively about energy use and other sustainability issues, or we?ll be forced to face the consequences of having to be reactive,” says Craig Benson, who this summer was named UW-Madison?s first director for sustainability research and education. “Resources are no longer plentiful, so it behooves us to think much more strategically about our energy resources.”
LEÓN, Nicaragua ? Seven doctors and a surgical tech from Madison plunged into a sea of need: parents clutching toddlers with cleft lips and cleft palates, women hiding faces with grotesque bumps and birthmarks, men whose crooked noses suggested car crashes or bar fights. More than 70 patients gathered, most sitting on wooden benches in the hot, cramped, open-air waiting room of León?s public hospital. Some had traveled from hours away. They were waiting for the American doctors to join Nicaraguan doctors and perform the transformative magic of reconstructive plastic surgery. By the end of their visit last month, the UW-Madison doctors would be reshaped, too.
Sellery Hall will house a mini art colony next year when UW-Madison opens its newest residential learning community, the Creative Arts and Design Community. Starting in fall 2012, students interested in art, dance, design, engineering, fashion, film, music, theater and computer science can live among like-minded individuals.
UW-Madison?s largest food drive, The Red and White Hunger Fight, is underway. More than 70 campus organizations will help collect food. Students began placing grocery bags and flyers on porches in campus neighborhoods this week and will return on Nov. 13 to collect bags of food.
Many attendees at a Memorial Union open forum Monday were happy to see compromise and clarity as members of the Memorial Union Design Committee introduced updated renovation plans. Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management, introduced an alternative proposal for the union theater addition after a slight majority of students recently voted against the original proposal in an Associated Students of Madison referendum.
The Student Service Finance Committee decided Monday to delay the ruling on the Multicultural Student Coalition?s appeal for funding eligibility until next week. After SSFC ruled MCSC did not spend more than 50 percent of its time directly serving students and was thus ineligible for funding, MCSC appealed the ruling last Thursday. MCSC members said SSFC did not have a standardized process for determining what constitutes a ?direct service.?
The UW-Madison Faculty Senate passed a resolution officially addressing recent budget cuts to the UW System Monday. The legislation asks the governor and the Wisconsin State Legislature to reduce the UW System?s portion of budget cuts to a more proportional level and ?renew the state?s investment in education.?
