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Author: jnweaver

Shari Julian: Disaster has created diaspora that will challenge entire U.S.

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Capital Times

Imagine sending people who have been assimilated into the most stable demographic population in America into cities and towns all over the United States that are as unprepared as the victims to understand their sense of dislocation and their support needs.

….The University of Wisconsin anthropology and sociology departments may have a role to play in helping the community understand the new cultures moving into their midst.

(Shari Julian earned her doctorate in public/educational administration UW-Madison in 1979. She also earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees here. She later earned a post-doctorate degree in clinical counseling and has been a hospital clinician for 20 years. She is now a faculty member in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Texas in Arlington.)

UW takes 12 displaced students

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Capital Times

Twelve students from colleges in the hurricane-stricken New Orleans area have enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as full-time undergraduate students, and another 64 have enrolled in a continuing education program as visiting students.

The 12 full-timers were previously accepted as freshmen at UW-Madison but chose another college instead. Most had enrolled at Tulane University, which has been closed and will require rebuilding.

Legislators question UW payroll project

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Capital Times

Top University of Wisconsin officials were grilled by state legislators Tuesday regarding the cost and management of developing a new payroll system that is not usable.

The Appointment, Payroll and Benefits System for the 26-campus university system has already cost $25 million over a five-year period. And UW System President Kevin Reilly and Executive Senior Vice President Don Mash told the Assembly’s Colleges and Universities Committee that they could not at present say how much more it will cost because there are too many unknowns.

UW lashed for pricey new payroll system

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin System came under fire Tuesday for spending $25 million in taxpayer and tuition dollars on a payroll system that may never materialize. Speaking at a state Assembly hearing, UW System leaders said they had taken steps to get an overhaul of the payroll system back on track after five years of mismanagement and $5 million in excess spending. They insisted that even “with its fits and starts,” the project “wasn’t too far off the mark in terms of time and cost.”

80% of UW officials have fallback jobs

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The president of the University of Wisconsin System released on Friday the first official numbers on back-up appointments – a university perk that has inspired much controversy this summer, saying the release was part of an ongoing commitment to university transparency. Nearly 80% of university administrators – 1,092 employees – have been guaranteed fallback jobs should they decide to step down from their current jobs, according to data compiled by the system. Many work at UW-Madison.

Where’s the party?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Colleges across the country are bombarding incoming freshmen with more and more activities to address a serious problem. Stripped of hometown friends and parental supervision, students are more susceptible to high-risk drinking when they first arrive on campus than at any other point in college. But visit UW, recently ranked the top party school in the nation by The Princeton Review, and you’ll find that structured events can only do so much.

Haunting images

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Maytee Aspuro’s mother was a Milwaukee high school teacher who, at age 59, began showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. “She was starting to experience memory loss,” Aspuro recalled. “They were surprised she still was teaching. But she was a very intelligent woman, and she used her intelligence as a way of coping.” Eventually, the disease won out and at age 62 her mother, Acacia Aspuro, had to leave her teaching job at Washington High School. She died in 1993 at age 69. So when University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers asked Aspuro if she wanted to take part in a brain imaging study involving middle-aged people whose parents had Alzheimer’s, she did not hesitate.

UW stock pavilion reopens

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has reopened its stock pavilion as a place where groups can meet and eat, four years after an E. coli outbreak at a pancake breakfast there sickened 35 people.

Workers fare better, worse

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin has been adding jobs better than most of its neighbors have. But income and wages are sagging, medical benefits are waning and racial inequality continues to mount – all of which helps explain why the state’s poverty rate has grown more than anywhere else, according to a new report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alvarez’s impact on UW undeniable

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Standing amid the functional splendor of the completed $109.5 million Camp Randall Stadium update, one thought comes to mind: No matter what you think lately of Barry Alvarez as a coach, athletic director or a combination thereof, and no matter what you might have thought about him as a person during the last 15 years, the man has done his job.

College students sort out lives dispersed by killer storm (AP)

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Andy Kinnear of Waukesha moved into his dorm and briefly met his new roommate at Tulane University in New Orleans on Saturday, but Hurricane Katrina sent him packing again a few hours later. Five days, a 1,000-mile trip home and a whirlwind of phone calls later, the 18-year-old has decided to enroll at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the only college he found that had dorm rooms available. Hoping to soften the blow, Wisconsin universities say they are extending deadlines so displaced students can enroll for the fall semester, promising to streamline paperwork and make their transition as smooth as possible.

UW-Madison stars in telescope construction

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

For astronomers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and around the world, the stars just got a lot brighter. The first stunning images from the world’s largest optical telescope, which UW scientists played a major role in building were released Thursday.

Charlene Phillips: Molester on UW payroll alarming

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: While watching the “O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, I was appalled to learn that there is currently a UW-Madison professor still on the payroll even though he has been convicted of multiple child molestations.

In light of this, we have decided to remove the UW-Madison from our daughter’s potential list of colleges to attend. I find it ironic that an institution of “higher learning” can be so idiotic.

John Nichols: Suder’s definition of hate speech awry

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Capital Times

….So when does Suder get hot and bothered about “hate speech”? When the University of Wisconsin hosts prominent speakers who dissent from the official line of the Bush White House and its allies in this country’s conservative media.

….The reality is that this appearance by Fonda and Galloway, controversial figures with something to say, is in the very best tradition of a university that has for more than a century declared: “Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

Barrows ‘outraged’ at wait for report

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Capital Times

Former UW-Madison Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Paul Barrows says he’s waiting to get a copy of the report that addresses his behavior that led to his demotion last year.

“I’m outraged that they refused to share this report with me immediately,” said Barrows, who added he was concerned the university was taking the time to develop a strategy to further discredit him. “Are they in a cooperative mode to let me look at a report that has more to do with me than anyone else? No.”

Barrows said in an e-mail that the university told him he would have a chance to review the report next week. The report is expected to be publicly released in mid-September.

UW offers hurricane aid to students

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Capital Times

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is prepared to educate and help find housing for Wisconsin residents whose colleges and universities were shuttered by Hurricane Katrina.

Chancellor John Wiley announced that Wisconsin residents who were previously admitted to UW-Madison and are freshmen at a closed institution can be enrolled as a UW-Madison undergraduate. Those students will be encouraged to return to their original institution at the semester’s end or when the original school reopens.

Others at closed institutions, including upperclassmen from Wisconsin and freshmen from Wisconsin who were not previously admitted to UW-Madison, can take classes through the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, he said.

$24.3M upheld on appeal: Worker injured in UW building

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Capital Times

A Dane County jury’s $24.3 million award in a 1999 construction accident was upheld today by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Terry Staskal, a construction worker for Kramer Brothers, was trapped for three hours and 15 minutes on June 9, 1999, by a collapse of a section of the fourth floor during construction of the University of Wisconsin Pharmacy Building.

The Dane County jury had awarded $8.8 million in compensatory damages, another $500,000 for his wife, and a $15 million punitive damages award.

Storm wipes out plans of college students

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

UW-Madison is offering enrollment in its undergraduate programs to Wisconsin residents whom it has previously accepted. Freshmen and upperclassmen not previously accepted to UW-Madison can continue their education through the university’s Division of Continuing Studies.

State retirees’ cost for Medicare falls

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Capital Times

Retired state employees will see an 11 percent reduction in the premium for the popular Medicare Plus $1 million insurance program for 2006, the Group Insurance Board decided Tuesday.

….The state employee health insurance program for active workers will see an 9.8 percent increase for single coverage and 9.9 percent for family coverage.

….Those increases won’t affect what employees will pay out of pocket for 2006.

Report on Barrows complete

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Capital Times

Susan Steingass has submitted her report on the Paul Barrows matter. The university announced late Tuesday afternoon that Steingass delivered the report of her investigation to University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly and UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear on Tuesday. The UW has not yet released the report to the public.

Reilly and Spear will review the report and “make decisions on an appropriate course of action,” the UW said. After a notification period, the university will then release the report, related documents and the decisions on the case, the UW said.

Faculty concerts not just weekends

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Capital Times

In what appears to be an attempt at “branding” (the marketing strategy to build long-term reliability and broad public recognition) the University of Wisconsin School of Music has scheduled most of its faculty concert series for the upcoming season on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 p.m.

“It’s an experiment,” said concert manager Richard Mumford of the popular series, which opens on Monday, Sept. 5, with the traditional Karp Family Labor Day Concert at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. “The proof will be in the pudding when we count up the final numbers. I think it makes sense for someone to opt for a different night that isn’t in competition with other local groups.

IBM, WARF settle patent dispute lawsuit (AP)

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Capital Times

International Business Machines Corp. on Tuesday became the latest company to settle charges of infringing a patent involving making computer chips owned by the the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

WARF, which owns and licenses patents based on research at UW-Madison, had accused IBM in a federal lawsuit of infringing on patented technology in making and selling copper-based chips.

The patent in question covers a metal barrier that prevents conductive metals from getting into the silicon that stores data in computer chips, stopping them from overheating or malfunctioning. It was granted in 1986 to John Wiley, an engineering professor who is now the school’s chancellor, and his colleague John Perepezko.

GOP lawmaker rips UW event as ‘hate-fest’

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Capital Times

A Republican lawmaker is ripping the University of Wisconsin-Madison for its plans to bring two high-profile anti-war speakers to campus.

The UW will host actress and activist Jane Fonda and British Parliament member George Galloway at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. Fonda is expected to give a 20-minute introduction and speak out against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. She was a prominent anti-war activist during the Vietnam years.

Higher scores, larger gaps

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The scores of Wisconsin students who took the SAT college entrance exam continued to inch up during the last testing period, the College Board reported Tuesday.
But even as scores were rising overall, a large achievement gap remained between Wisconsin’s white and minority students. Even though the state’s minority students averaged scores that were 74 points higher than their peers across the country, the gap between whites and minorities has grown broader for blacks, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanic students.

Susan Michaud: Why does the UW fear animal rights groups so much?

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: As an observer of the story regarding the attempted purchase of property by animal rights groups near the primate center, I find myself amazed by the University of Wisconsin’s response.

First of all, a number of people have questioned what goes on at the primate center. If the UW has nothing to hide regarding their practices at the primate center, why don’t they just say, “Fine, go ahead, buy the property and build. We have nothing to hide. We will even engage in dialogue with you. We will even offer to do presentations in your building and present our side of why our work is so valuable and the steps we take to ensure animal welfare.”

Students miss out on tax breaks

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Capital Times

WASHINGTON – Confused by multiple deductions, credits and savings accounts that help pay for college, students and their families miss out on hundreds of dollars in tax benefits, a government report said Monday.

The Government Accountability Office, an independent arm of Congress that studies government programs and spending, analyzed the problem by examining about 1.8 million tax returns.

About one in four taxpayers eligible for an education tax break failed to claim one of the available credits or the tuition deduction, the analysis found.

Professor becomes freshman again

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Capital Times

PHOENIX — As a professor at Northern Arizona University, Cathy Small was baffled by undergraduates. They seemed less engaged, less likely to do assigned reading and more likely to ask questions such as “Do you want it double-spaced?”

So she decided to study them as anthropologists research any foreign culture — she lived among them. After moving into a dorm, eating cafeteria food and struggling with a five-course schedule, the 50-something Small said she empathized with students who struggle to balance chaotic class and work schedules.

UW was designer of Katrina images

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Capital Times

As people around the world watched Hurricane Katrina unfold, many turned to computer-driven storm images designed by University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorologists.

Tim Olander, a researcher who studies hurricanes, opened CNN.com on his computer. There, on its front page, was an infrared box showing the storm in bright red, white, green and blue.

“That little image there, that’s ours,” Olander said.

Close quarters at UWM

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Kalyn Selissen stepped into the room that would be her home for nine months and gasped. “Oh my God!” she shrieked. “Look at how small it is!” The room in Sandburg Hall, the only dormitory at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, typically fits three students. But this year, a host of factors has caused a housing crunch on campus. As a result, some singles have become doubles, some doubles have become triples and some triples have become quadruples.

Report details TABOR impact

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Capital Times

State government will spend $600 million more over the next two years than a proposed constitutional amendment would have allowed, according to a new report by the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal analysts.

The proposed amendment – dubbed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR – is designed to limit how much state and local governments can increase spending each year.

Had it been in place for the $53 billion budget the governor signed into law last month, it would have required a cut equivalent to what the state will spend over the next two years to run the Legislature, the governor’s office and the court system.

New UW lab helps with product ID (AP)

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Capital Times

Alfonso Gutierrez smiles as boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese tagged with tiny chips zip around a conveyor belt and pass under a reader that instantly displays information about the product.

“It’s going fast,” said Gutierrez, who heads a new university research lab dedicated to helping businesses deploy the technology that could one day replace the bar code.

Gutierrez was referring to the speed of the conveyor belt – 600 feet per minute, the speed Wal-Mart uses in its warehouses – but he could have been talking about the rapid acceptance of radio frequency identification, a technology that can revolutionize business but also erode privacy.

Audit rips UW over privacy (AP)

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Capital Times

Some University of Wisconsin campuses routinely violate a federal privacy law in asking students to disclose Social Security numbers without explaining how they will be used, according to an audit.

Some students at UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison also continue to use student ID cards that contain their Social Security numbers despite a state law requiring campuses to have randomly generated student ID numbers instead, the audit by the UW System found.

And some class rosters and grade reports that contain Social Security numbers are publicly posted, which may be a violation of a separate federal privacy law, the audit found.

Editorial: Creating Wisconsin’s future jobs

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Think of venture capital as a combination of milk money and those quarters you shove into the slot machine. Without milk, young lads don’t grow into strapping lads. And if you don’t gamble those quarters, the jackpot is ever elusive. In the world of venture capital, Wisconsin is a 98-pound weakling. And, alas, the people willing to gamble on poor ol’ Wisconsin have to play the nickel slots.

Editorial: Continue embryonic research

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The news that a group of Harvard University researchers has managed to turn ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos has some people already shouting that they told us so. Unfortunately, they’re getting ahead of themselves.

UW unveils improved Camp Randall (AP)

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Chain-link fences and barbed wire. Dingy, dusty passageways. Bathroom lines that stretched on forever. They’re all history. After four years of work, the new-and-improved Camp Randall Stadium opens for business Sept. 3.

On full display for fans – and potential recruits – as the Badgers take on Bowling Green will be the first renovations to the storied stadium in four decades, including dozens of new luxury boxes, wider concourses, a new scoreboard and – yes – more toilets.

Alvarez: Camp a success

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Shortly after holding the last open practice of his 16th and final pre-season camp as University of Wisconsin football coach, Barry Alvarez pronounced the 17-day session a success, with at least one qualifier:

The decision to hold all practices on campus was embraced overwhelming by the players and coaches; UW’s defense is as well prepared as it can be at this point for the dynamic and diverse offense Bowling Green will bring to Camp Randall Stadium next Saturday; and several freshmen, led by defensive end Matt Shaughnessy, should contribute this season.

However, Alvarez still wonders how some of the young players and / or first-year starters will respond under pressure in the opener.

Man puts car, fake missile on eBay

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A man is selling his 11-year-old rusty car – complete with a roof-mounted missile. Dave Beck is selling his Pontiac Sunbird on the eBay Internet auction site. The car comes complete with the fake missile made from yellow “Support the Troops” magnetic ribbons as well as pipe and wood. Beck is an artist and teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [Last item]

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Weekly laurels and laments

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin-Madison makes the top 10 on many lists, but one list officials don’t brag about: the ranking of party schools. [Third item]

Fonda will introduce Galloway at UW union

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Capital Times

In an introductory speech in Madison for anti-war British politician and author George Galloway, actress Jane Fonda will make her first public statement against the occupation of Iraq.

Fonda is scheduled to give her 20-minute introduction for Galloway, a member of Parliament, at the Wisconsin Union Theater Sunday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. She is also scheduled to speak the following night in Chicago as Galloway continues his national speaking tour.

Chris Dols, the local organizer for Galloway’s tour, said these two speeches are the only ones that Fonda will give with Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party after making remarks opposing the Iraq invasion in 2003.

UW students to join Day of Caring

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Capital Times

University of Wisconsin-Madison freshmen will have a new opportunity to perform community service projects before they begin classes.

Student move-in began Thursday, and student orientation begins on Tuesday. On Wednesday, up to 79 students will have the opportunity to participate in the UW-Madison’s Day of Caring.

The event will be held in conjunction with the United Way, which is holding community Days of Caring this week. This is the first year the Days of Caring will be a part of freshman orientation, although the event has long involved volunteers helping out in the community.

B-Schools With A Niche (BusinessWeek)

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BusinessWeek

Two years ago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business was in trouble. Like many of its peers, it had seen full-time applications drop 30% in three years, and the situation was likely to get worse. So Michael M. Knetter did something a lot more deans are doing these days: He specialized.

ACT gap indicates blacks less prepared for college

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It’s not just about getting more kids to graduate from high school. It’s also about the caliber of the work they can do when they graduate. That’s true for most students. It’s especially true when it comes to closing the achievement gap between white students and minority students.

Of specific urgency in a city such as Milwaukee, with large numbers of minority students, were strong indications that even when minority students are very successful in high school, they are not graduating ready to do the same kind of rigorous college work that white students are.

Metro talker: Galloway to speak here

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Capital Times

Scotsman George Galloway, a member of the British Parliament best known in the U.S. for ripping into GOP Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota at a Senate hearing in May, will speak in Madison at 7 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

“I have met with Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times that Donald Rumseld met him,” Galloway, an outspoken critic of Great Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war, told Coleman. “The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met to sell him guns.”

Corridor of care: Planners see city as medical destination

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Capital Times

It’s arguably the largest industry in town, employing nearly 20,000 people.

Some $500 million in new construction is currently in the works – including a $78 million UW Children’s Hospital, a $134 million Interdisciplinary Research Complex or “IRC” and the $174 million expansion at St. Marys Hospital.

Yet when it comes to talking about economic development strategies for the Madison area, not everyone thinks of the health care industry.

UW much more than parties

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Green Bay Press-Gazette

Enough, already! Princeton Reviewââ?¬â?¢s ranking of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the top party school in the country is the type of thing that belongs in Mad Magazine or one of the sensationalizing tabloids in the supermarket checkout lines. We agree with UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley who tossed the ranking aside and called it ââ?¬Å?junk science that results in a day of national media coverage.ââ?¬Â

Editorial: Reilly right to back audit

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Capital Times

It took a few weeks of hemming and hawing, but at last the University of Wisconsin System has come to see the wisdom of having a full-fledged outside audit of its employment practices.

Anyone looking for an explanation for why the UW System has a hard time winning legislative support for its finances need look no further than the early responses of UW officials to requests by members of the state Assembly and Senate for information on how many system employees have been convicted of felonies.

Governor endorses UW audit request

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Capital Times

Gov. Jim Doyle welcomed an audit of the University of Wisconsin System’s employment practices, saying recent media reports have noted “outrageous” wastes of taxpayer dollars.

UW System President Kevin Reilly asked a legislative panel on Tuesday to authorize the audit, about a month after outraged lawmakers pressed for a similar review.

Dave Zweifel: Don’t slam state workers over pensions

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Capital Times

The people who work for Wisconsin government are being demonized once again.

Government workers are either – take your pick – lazy and shiftless or coddled and overpaid.

The latest fuel for state worker bashers came from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which last week issued a report that shows Wisconsin public employees pay a smaller share of their retirement costs than those in other states. Plus, they then receive higher pension benefits than nearly everyone else when they retire.

Sterling Hall bombing, 35 years later

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Capital Times

The T-shirt is a faded lavender, well worn and three decades old. The word “Florida,” in tiny and off-white script, is nearly unreadable. Still bold is the black stenciling. “Free Karl,” it demands, and this is why the garment has survived its original owner’s changes in size, address and attitude.

The T-shirt is one artifact in “Resistance or Terrorism? The 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing,” a case exhibition that opens today at the Wisconsin Historical Museum, 30 N. Carroll St. The opening coincides with the 35th anniversary of the Sterling Hall bombing by anti-war activists.