Author: jnweaver

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz isn’t trained in architecture but he knows what he likes. Now he’d like to know what you like – and don’t like.

At the March 16 meeting of the Urban Design Commission, the mayor said the current building boom offers Madison “a chance to reshape and redefine the city.”
He said he would like to see citizens weigh in on their favorite and least favorite buildings as “a useful (and fun) exercise … to develop democratically a reflection of our tastes.”

(Among his favorites is the Memorial Union. His least favorites include the Mosse Humanities Building.)

Karen Ryker is a star theater professor who wins praise for her teaching of Shakespeare’s plays.

Larry Wu is a professor of sociology who generates millions of dollars in research funding. And Christine Saulnier is a talented academic administrator.

All three openly gay scholars left the University of Wisconsin for other schools in recent years, each citing the state’s policy to refuse health insurance coverage for domestic partners.

UW-Whitewater Chancellor Jack Miller says the university paid a price for allowing a controversial lecture to go forward, but he still believes in his decision.

In the March 25 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Miller outlined his thinking in allowing the Ward Churchill lecture on March 1 to take place.

Madison Police Sgt. David McCaw is sensitive to situations where phony weapons appear real.

McCaw was not involved in the incident Wednesday in which five men were tentatively charged with disorderly conduct after filming a university project that involved a gun in a downtown parking ramp. He was, however, intimately involved in a similar event two weeks ago when police were called to the Atwood Community Center….

THE NEW issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, dated March 25, includes a lengthy and intriguing feature titled “My Favorite Building.” As the title indicates, prominent university educators around the country were asked to name the structure on campus they most admire.

…I think a case could made that one building on the UW-Madison campus, soon to be visited by the wrecking ball, bulldozers, and thousands of voices shouting “good riddance” in unison, is the worst building in the history of American universities.

A UW-Madison professor arrested last week while allegedly trying to meet a 14-year-old Greendale boy for sex admitted sending the boy nude pictures of himself over the Internet, but maintained he didn’t intend to have sex with the boy.

Lewis Keith Cohen, a 59-year-old professor of comparative literature, was formally charged Tuesday with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and child enticement. Both counts carry maximum sentences of 25 years in prison.

University of Wisconsin-Madison financial aid director Steve Van Ess says he will retire on Sept. 1.

….UW officials also credit him for speeding up the financial aid application process, and for shining a light on the challenges facing students with low-income backgrounds.

University of Wisconsin-Parkside has the highest percentage of minorities of any UW campus and in recent years has won state awards for its diversity efforts. But in the past 20 months, two minority faculty members have filed discrimination complaints against the school and others complain there is a negative atmosphere on campus that promotes discrimination.

An ambitious plan is unfolding to reduce stormwater runoff into Lake Wingra while mitigating the environmental impact of the new power plant on the UW-Madison campus.

It also might make it easier to find an errant tee shot at the Odana Hills Golf Course.

Property tax relief and higher education tuition waivers were proposed Wednesday to help veterans injured in the line of duty.