The most frightening situation for a firefighter can be getting lost in a smoke-filled building. But, three students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, hope their invention will stop that situation from ever occurring again. Nick O�Brien of Apple Valley, Chandler Nault of Bloomington and Mitch Nick of Green Bay, Wis., designed FireSite and won the $10,000 first prize in UW-Madison 2005 Schoofs Prize for Creativity competition.
Author: jnweaver
Finley pitches local campus merger with UW-M (Waukesha Freeman)
Greater Milwaukee Today
The UW-Waukesha campus may be graduating to a new mission sooner than people have anticipated. Waukesha County Executive Daniel Finley testified in Madison on Wednesday in support of merging the two-year campus with UW-Milwaukee. It would be part of a larger plan being considered by the state Legislature to merge all 13 two-year campuses.
Has biodefense gone overboard? (Science magazine)
Patricia Kiley is wondering whether to hop on the bandwagon. As a young microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Kiley is making a name for herself studying some of the most basic life processes–for instance, how bacteria sense changing oxygen levels in their environment. But lately, she has felt the oxygen being sucked out of her own field, as funding has become increasingly scarce.
Hoping to harness technology talents
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin, and the Milwaukee area in particular, host a patchwork of medical technology researchers and companies. A key challenge facing the region’s array of emerging biomedical industries, some of them argue, is the disjointed way they pursue new technologies.
Global warming debate is over, UW prof says; calls new study as solid as proof that smoking causes cancer
Capital Times
A new study out of California makes it clear that human actions are causing global warming, said a University of Wisconsin-Madison specialist in atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
The study, which shows people are responsible for the increase in temperature in the oceans, is another piece of strong evidence that global warming needs to be addressed, said Galen McKinley, an assistant professor at UW-Madison.
TAs want to keep status quo: Health costs still sticking point
Capital Times
Ten months after their last negotiations, the Teaching Assistants Association is back at the table with the state. But there does not yet appear to be any real progress toward a contract.
By this summer, the term of the contract they are now trying to settle will be over. With that in mind, the teaching assistants said they pitched a new proposal at Wednesday’s meeting with state negotiators: maintain the terms of the interim contract they’ve been working under.
Six women earn YWCA’s award for making a difference
Capital Times
It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes just one person at a time to make a difference in a community. Multiply that by six, and you’ve got the concept behind the YWCA’s annual Women of Distinction Awards.
Among the honorees are: Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, manager of interpreter services and minority community relations at UW Hospital & Clinics; Martha “Meg” Gaines, clinical associate professor of law and director of the university’s Center for Patient Partnerships; and Jeanan Yasiri, a senior lecturer in the Department of Consumer Science.
So many movies … 7th annual Wisconsin Film Festival to feature 151 world, national and local works
Capital Times
Madison film fans, get your economy-sized bottles of Visine now. With 151 films spread over just four days, the Wisconsin Film Festival won’t give you much time to blink.
The seventh annual festival, which runs from March 31 through April 3, will kick off with an opening night screening at the Orpheum Theatre of maverick director Samuel Fuller’s 1980 World War II epic “The Big Red One.”
Editorial: Defend UW free speech
Capital Times
Ward Churchill, the controversial University of Colorado professor who has been the target of so much right-wing wrath, spoke Tuesday night at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. And his talk drew far more attention than it would have, thanks to the screeching of media windbags like Bill O’Reilly and politicians who have grown a bit too comfortable in the bully pulpit, such as Wisconsin’s own state Rep. Steve Nass.
… Unfortunately, the Churchill controversy has brought to Wisconsin an example of the worst sort of academic witch hunting, as Nass and his allies have attempted to advance the notion that the University of Wisconsin System should get into the business of censoring ideas.
Public sector fights to effect IT efficiency
Capital Times
Thanks in large part to the use of cutting edge information technology, American business has realized impressive productivity gains over the past decade. Productivity in the U.S. economy is up 26 percent since 1994, outpacing both Japan and Germany.
“That kind of performance is unheard of, especially when you consider the U.S. economy was already in the lead,” said Michael Knetter, dean of the UW-Madison business school. But realizing the same kinds of productivity improvement in the public sector will prove much more challenging, he told business leaders Wednesday at a forum hosted by WTN Media.
Ryan a finalist for coach of year
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan was one of 20 finalists named for the Naismith Coach of the year Award Wednesday.
Power should be OK in summer
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin has built a more reliable electrical system and there are no fears of widespread power losses during the peak summer season, a state Public Service Commission official told legislators Tuesday. Mentions West Campus Cogeneration Facility.
Halt of UW-Waukesha project criticized
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin-Waukesha campus got a vote of confidence Wednesday from Waukesha County supervisors who voiced disappointment that classroom renovations were being temporarily halted.
UW officials debate changes to system
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A handful of University of Wisconsin System officials are speaking out against a legislator’s proposal to make the system’s 13 two-year college campuses satellites of its 13 four-year schools, but they’re getting plenty of push back.
Hate crimes hard to prove, DA says
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Donald Downs, a law and political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Journalist details career
Badger Herald
Students gathered in Chadbourne Tuesday afternoon to discuss careers, journalism and politics with political writer and Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet. She is on campus as part of the Public Affairs Writer in Residence Program.
Churchill defends Sept. 11 essay in speech at UW-Whitewater
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Ward Churchill, the strident University of Colorado professor, dealt with his own “blowback” in an appearance Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
UW women’s basketball: Anderson named Big Ten’s top freshman
Capital Times
Jolene Anderson, who led the University of Wisconsin in scoring this season and set the school record for freshmen, has been named the Big Ten Conference freshman of the year.
UW and NCAA reform: Football, track lag behind at Wisconsin
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin came in above the national average in the NCAA’s new academic progress rate, although football and men’s track lagged behind.
The new calculation is a measurement of success in the classroom by student-athletes and will be used by the NCAA to levy punishment – in the form of lost scholarships and, in extreme cases, bans on postseason competition – for those programs which lag behind.
Setting the standard at UW
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Badger men’s basketball team’s next victory will be their 87th in four years, making that stretch the best four-year period in school history.
Does structure of UW System still make the grade?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
As Wisconsin’s state-funded institutions fight for ever-scarce taxpayer dollars, discussions are under way about whether it’s time to give the University of Wisconsin System a major overhaul.
Churchill speech puts Whitewater in spotlight
Capital Times
A month ago, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Native Pride Week was expected to be a mostly low-key affair with a series of speakers, including a little-known Colorado college professor.
On Tuesday, it is expected to be the latest stage for the controversy over Ward Churchill’s essay comparing some of the “technocrats” killed in the World Trade Center to Nazis.
Editorial: Fools on the hill
Capital Times
State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Palmyra, got his Assembly resolution passed last week recommending that the UW-Whitewater cancel a scheduled address by controversial University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill. In so doing, he proved that, while the State Capitol does not sit upon much of a rise, there are many fools on the hill.
…University of Wisconsin political science professor Donald Downs, who has raised legitimate concerns about Churchill’s record as a defender of free speech, may have put it best….
In Store: Lands’ End, Sears/Kmart a matter of fit?
Capital Times
While everyone – from people on the street to analysts in Timbuktu – ponders the fate of Lands’ End as its parent Sears prepares to join with Kmart next month, one question remains. With an expanded market for their goods in Sears stores, why aren’t people buying from stores or directly from the Dodgeville-based division?
Quoted: UW-Madison consumer science professor Cynthia Jasper
Review: ‘Misalliance’ is hilarious
Capital Times
“…Student and professional actors, designers and directors form a successful alliance as Madison’s University Theatre and Milwaukee’s Chamber Theatre collaborate for this production of Shaw’s classic play….”
Man on a mission: Doyle says Democrats can be progressive and hold the bottom line too
Capital Times
As the first Democratic governor of Wisconsin after 16 years of Republican rule, Jim Doyle admits he’s on a mission. Doyle says he’s fighting to preserve the state’s progressive tradition while convincing voters he’s not a wild-eyed tax-and-spend Madison liberal.
Forum to feature S. African envoy
Capital Times
The first Laurie Carlson Progressive Ideas Forum will celebrate the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s constitution by featuring South African Ambassador Barbara Masekela, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and UW-Madison constitutional expert John Kaminski in a conversational discussion on the UW campus (on Friday, March 11).
UW could expand role in Waukesha
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The largest two-year campus in the University of Wisconsin System could be about to graduate into a four-year university or perhaps even a marriage with UW-Milwaukee.
Standing by academic freedom
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Jack Miller says he gets offended when he hears people say that Ward Churchill should not be allowed to speak on his campus because it would poison the students’ minds.
Classified research seen as boon
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
To those who believe Wisconsin must accelerate its knowledge-driven economy to keep pace in the 21st century, it was a breakthrough to learn that university leaders broke an anti-war taboo and will pursue classified federal research.
Rounding out new doctors’ training
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mentions that in 2003, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s medical school began offering a class to help future doctors focus on qualities its instructor says are often lost in the science and technology of medical school.
Bankruptcy reform spurs fierce debate over ‘fresh starts’
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Bernard Trujillo, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
State audit finds big cell spenders
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Nearly 400 state employees in a recent month racked up cell phone bills of more than $100 each, including two university coaches who each made $1,400 worth of calls, according to an audit released Friday.
UW profs oppose ‘honorable’ conduct policy: Nass proposal called ‘McCarthy-like’
Capital Times
University of Wisconsin-Madison professors are frowning at the idea of holding faculty members to new conduct standards. In the wake of controversial remarks made by Colorado Professor Ward Churchill, state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, wanted the Assembly to ask the UW Board of Regents to review its hiring and tenure policies to make sure they adhered to “honorable academic standards of conduct.”
(Professors Murray Clayton, Mary Metz and James Jones are quoted.)
Developers urge UW involvement
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin should direct some of its large dollar donations into subsidizing affordable housing in the central city, local business leaders were told today.
While there’s no shortage of luxury condominiums going up downtown, local developers said the public sector needs to play a larger role in providing homes working people can afford.
State covets classified research
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Several of Wisconsin’s institutions of higher education have agreed to organize a consortium designed to attract classified and sensitive federal research funds to the state. The Wisconsin Technology Council will be the administrative headquarters of the Wisconsin Security Research Consortium, according to a memorandum of agreement. Representatives of the University of Wisconsin System, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic have signed the agreement.
Students rally at Capitol against tuition increases
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Nearly 150 students from universities throughout Wisconsin converged on Madison, rallying for drops in state tuition or tuition caps. They complained about Gov. Doyle’s budget proposal, which calls for tuition hikes of up to 7 percent in each year of the biennium.
Edward Baker ‘Takes Five’
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Giant tube worms and underwater volcanoes are among topics that Edward Baker, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, will discuss today at a public lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Journal Sentinel interviews Baker.
ATHENA nominee profiles
Capital Times
Robin Douthitt, dean of the School of Human Ecology, is among this year’s 12 nominees.
Jacqui Sakowski, owner of Sakowski Consulting and an adviser for the Women in Business Council at the UW School of Business, has also been nominated.
Molly Carnes cares
Capital Times
Providing medical care for women combat veterans is very rewarding, says Dr. Molly Carnes, director of the Women Veterans Program in Madison.
In addition, she directs the Center for Women’s Health Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also is a professor in three departments: medicine, psychiatry and industrial systems engineering.
Douglas Elliott: Zapping the prof would provide better study for Taser use
Capital Times
Dear Editor: What’s this crap about using pigs to test the casualty rate regarding the use of Tasers? What’s a pig going to tell you after being shot up with drugs, then zapped by a 50,000-volt electrical charge?
If it’s not dead, it’ll just squeal like hell to register a relative discomfort at being electrocuted.
Recycling firm owners aid UW biz students
Capital Times
Neil and Jessica Peters-Michaud, owners of Madison electronics recycling firm Cascade Asset Management, have given the UW-Madison School of Business $100,000 to help students learn about entrepreneurship.
Mock interviews help job seekers
Capital Times
Upper Midwesterners tend to speak modestly of themselves, Vickie Bortz says. That may be good in many situations, but not for job interviews.
Bortz, a legal assistant for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said people need to set aside their shyness in a job interview. She was one of about a dozen interviewers at Mock Interview Day, sponsored by the UW College of Letters and Science Career Services Office, Wednesday at the Memorial Union.
Progressive, but more to do, mayor says
Capital Times
If Madison is not yet the most progressive city in America, it is well on its way. That was Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s message to UW-Madison students Wednesday night during a State of the City event in Science Hall.
….Madison’s high-quality schools are a direct result of UW-Madison’s highly regarded School of Education, he said.
$17 million verdict has many concerned
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Peter Carstensen, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Research kindles hope for strokes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In what could become the first major breakthrough in the treatment of the most deadly and disabling form of stroke, doctors reported today that a hemophilia drug substantially reduced death, disability and bleeding in the brains of patients. Doctors at the UW-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin say they hope to get the drug into an upcoming phase 3 trial, needed for FDA approval.
MGE: Contractor caused blackout
Capital Times
Madison Gas and Electric officials have traced the cause of two underground fires Monday to a campus area substation.
….The problems were set off by a contractor hired by the university, who was working on university equipment at the station.
Roy Schenk: Feminist Studies already at height of self-righteousness
Capital Times
Dear Editor: A master’s program in feminist studies is being proposed for the University of Wisconsin. This seems rather redundant. For over 20 years the current program has successfully taught that it has the total truth about gender issues.
Binge-drinking students follow in adults’ footsteps
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A national study released Tuesday gives weight to what Wisconsin universities have long suspected: The state’s adult binge-drinking rate – the highest in the country – is a major reason why
Late-night move stalls voter ID measure
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Includes coverage of Assembly vote on resolution criticizing Ward Churchill’s March 1 speech at UW-Whitewater.
Film fest to salute UW grad Landau
Capital Times
Long before Michael Moore took the nation’s temperature with “Fahrenheit 9/11” and Errol Morris cleared away “The Fog of War,” Saul Landau had a camera on his shoulder. The UW-Madison graduate has made over 40 films looking at social and political issues around the world….
Because of his particular devotion to issues affecting Latin America, the Cinefest Nuestra film festival has decided to make this year’s event a salute to Landau’s work.
City: 57 more liquor licenses available Review of law finds permits
Capital Times
The city of Madison might not be as close to running out of combination liquor and beer licenses as officials previously thought.
Although the city still has only a handful of “reserve” licenses left, the City Attorney’s Office has now determined there are 57 additional Class B licenses that can be granted to new applicants.
In the dark once, twice: Two underground fires disrupt downtown
Capital Times
Things were back to normal this morning on State Street after two underground fires Monday blew off a manhole cover, snarled traffic and knocked out electricity for thousands.
Prof warns of global warming health impacts
Capital Times
Global warming fed by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide could be hazardous to your health because of the “extreme” weather it will bring, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty member who is an authority on the subject.
“Averages don’t kill people – it is the extremes,” said Associate Professor Jonathan Patz, citing heavy rains, flooding, heat waves and drought.
Tickets all gone for Churchill talk
Capital Times
All of the nearly 400 free tickets available for the Ward Churchill lecture next Tuesday at UW-Whitewater are gone.
Tickets to see the controversial University of Colorado-Boulder professor were claimed by 3 p.m. Friday, the first day of availability.
UW prof will test Tasers on pigs: He suspects drugs, not shocks, caused 70 deaths
Capital Times
The recent controversy over whether Taser guns can kill justifies the use of pigs in a study, said a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher.
Over the past three years, more than 70 people in North America have died after being shocked by Tasers, according to the human rights group Amnesty International. But John Webster questions whether Tasers were really the cause of death. Many of those people were high on drugs, namely cocaine, argued the emeritus professor of biomedical engineering.
Former Gov. Dreyfus has bypass surgery in Waukesha
Capital Times
Former Gov. Lee Dreyfus had quintuple heart bypass surgery Monday at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. His family said Dreyfus, 78, was in intensive care and a full recovery was expected.
….Dreyfus had been on the University of Wisconsin faculty here and served as chancellor of the Stevens Point campus before resigning to run for governor. He played a large role in 1971 in helping Democratic Gov. Patrick Lucey win legislative approval of the merger of the University of Wisconsin and the old state university system.
Panel to Advise Testing Babies for 29 Diseases
New York Times
Quoted: Professor of pediatrics Dr. Norman Fost, director of UW-Madison’s medical ethics program.
UW-Madison vehicles now using soy diesel
Wisconsin Ag Connection
The exhaust fumes from trucks on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will be cleaner and greener this year. Last week, the University began filling the tanks of its truck fleet with a blend of ultra low-sulfur diesel mixed with a fuel made from soybeans.
Targeted messages spur healthy eating in young people (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
‘Eat your fruits and vegetables:’ Most Americans know that’s good advice, but are the nation’s college-age adults listening? Story focuses on UW-Madison nurtitional scientist Susan Nitzke’s study, designed the increase fruit and vegetable consumption among economically disadvantaged young adults.