While the Wisconsin Historical Society contains one of the largest American history archives anywhere, fewer people have visited in recent years – 40 percent fewer than in 1987 – as more of them, including students at the nearby University of Wisconsin, turn to the Internet as their basic research tool.
Chris Trumbo’s one-man show about his Hollywood screenwriter father, Dalton Trumbo, is drawn from published letters housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Cites a University of Wisconsin-Madison study in which elementary students were asked what came to mind when they thought of American Indians. They said teepees, feathers, and bow and arrows. When the same group was later asked in high school, the answers were identical.
Quoted: Barry Orton, a UW-Madison professor who consults local governments on cable franchising.
Proposed changes in the federal guaranteed student loan program for college students could save $12.3 billion over 10 years, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. For example, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a low-income student eligible for a Pell grant would get an estimated $1,000 to $1,500 increase in aid.
The Illini circled the Wisconsin game on their schedule long ago, but so did a number of fans who are pushing ticket demand so high that it will cost at least $225 to get into the building, 10 times the face value of tickets. The media have been looking forward to this one, too. A record 217 journalists and rising will be in attendance.
State Rep. Rob Kreibich has gotten lots of attention with his proposal to cut out the costs of two-year colleges now placed on our state�s university system. His proposal deserves a lot of attention and consideration.
…Over one 36-hour period – from Wednesday evening through early Friday – 27 tickets to the Illini-Badgers game were sold on eBay.
The best pair available on eBay – in the front row, behind the scorer’s table – sold for $1,250. To be fair (wink, wink), that price also included a parking pass.
All human embryonic stem cell lines approved for use in federally funded research are contaminated with a foreign molecule from mice that may make them risky for use in medical therapies, according to a study released Sunday.
Researchers at the University of California-San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego report that if the stem cells are transplanted into people, the cells could provoke an immune system attack that would wipe out their ability to deliver cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
FORMER MADISON multimedia guy Steve Marmel has a chance to win an “Annie” award when the Oscars of animation are handed out Sunday night in a ceremony at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, Calif.
Marmel attended UW-Madison in the 1980s and ran a joke campaign for Wisconsin Student Association president (his party: The Bob Kasten School of Driving).
Quoted: Allan Odden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and a nationally known school finance expert.
The human embryonic stem cells available for research are contaminated with nonhuman molecules from the culture medium used to grow the cells, researchers report.
Despite a lack of agreement among Republicans on the wording of a proposed state constitutional amendment to limit government spending, three legislative leaders said Friday that they have no doubt the Legislature will approve the measure this year.
Quoted: Harold Scheub, author of “A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller,” and an African languages professor at UW-Madison.
The soaring price of natural gas has hit home for both consumers and businesses. Mentions that more gas-fired plants will open this year, including three in Wisconsin – the first of two We Energies plants in Port Washington, a Madison Gas & Electric Co. plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and a Calpine Corp. plant in Kaukauna.
Madison-based Virent Energy Systems this spring will build a hydrogen generator that will supply a small amount of electricity to the power grid. The move is another step forward for the renewable-energy firm that was hatched in a University of Wisconsin-Madison laboratory.
…There are other ways to address the problem of escalating property taxes and the never-ending need for education dollars, our investment in the future. Two state commissions have made some suggestions, but legislators have simply put them on the shelf, opting instead for a simplistic solution they call a Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
What it really should be called is the Taxpayer Bill of Frights.
LINCOLN, Neb. – Forget course catalogs and colorful pamphlets. Think sex, skiing and rock ‘n’ roll.
When it comes to recruiting students for college, admissions officials are turning to increasingly outlandish stunts to get the attention of high schoolers. Birthday cards, ski weekends and even reality TV shows are being used by colleges and universities to get an edge. (1/20/05 Capital Times print edition)
LINCOLN, Neb. — Forget course catalogs and colorful pamphlets. Think sex, skiing and rock ‘n roll.
When it comes to recruiting students for college, admissions officials are turning to increasingly outlandish students to get the attention of high schoolers. Birthday cards, ski weekends and even reality TV shows are being used by colleges and universities to get an edge. (1/20/05 Capital Times print edition)
Their dance is a celebration and an offering, both personal expression and public prayer, a rite of passage and a demonstration of poise.
Bharatanatyam, also referred to as Bharata Natyam in some circles, is a classical dance style that girls in south India study from childhood into womanhood. Unlike their mothers, some no longer give up the dance after they marry and have children.
THE JAN. 24 Sports Illustrated takes note of the basketball Badgers’ 38-game home winning streak, noting that the crowd at Sunday’s Michigan State game made “the bland Kohl Center sound like a rollicking German beer hall.” So what IS the home court advantage?
Not to be outdone by Hollywood and its dazzling array of award ceremonies, Madison has its own recognition programs. Among them is The Business Forum’s annual ATHENA Awards.
This year’s list of nominees includes Robin Douthitt, dean of UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology.
University of Wisconsin hockey star Ryan MacMurchy was put in the first offender’s program Wednesday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from a Sept. 5 fight outside the Kollege Klub campus area bar.
The University of Wisconsin System president wants to merge the UW-Extension and the 13 two-year colleges under a plan he says would save taxpayers up to $1.5 million a year.
UW System President Kevin Reilly said Wednesday he will recommend his plan to the Board of Regents in February.
Coverage of La Follette School conference on taxing and spending. Quotes Donald Nichols, the school’s director.
Republican legislators disagree, but the executive director of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, Todd Berry, told a conference conducted by the La Follette School of Public Policy Wednesday that the drive for a constitutional amendment on taxes and spending is politically dead.
La Follette director Don Nichols said Wisconsin has neither runaway government spending nor runaway taxes, but warned that “the train wreck coming in state and local finance is medical costs.”
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor.
With state lawmakers debating the need for a constitutional amendment to control government spending, a national advocate of spending limits told a conference Wednesday that a well-designed plan would cover state – but not local – government. Coverage of a Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs conference on government spending.
Inside France, director Maurice Pialat was considered a genius, the heir to legendary French auteurs like Bresson and Renoir. When he died in 2003, he was honored by French President Jacques Chirac, and one critic grieved, “French cinema has been orphaned.”
Outside France, even among Francophile film buffs, few people really know Pialat’s work. This sounds like a job for the UW-Cinematheque.
For the first time, audiences who attend the Wisconsin Film Festival this year will get to honor the films they liked best. Now in its seventh year, the popular festival has given out prizes to filmmakers who were chosen by a jury of filmmakers and film professionals.
For this year’s festival, which runs March 31 through April 3 at several downtown and campus venues, the public will get to hand out an Audience Award as well.
Two grand masters of political filmmaking will be in Madison next month as the CineFest Nuestra Film Festival devotes itself to a retrospective celebration of their work.
Saul Landau and Haskell Wexler, who have both devoted a significant portion of their long careers to making films about Latin American issues, will be the focus of this year’s festival, running in several venues on and off campus Feb. 24-26.
Landau is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s history program.
The Badger with the biggest snarl in the Kohl Center isn’t the one that taunts the visiting team’s fans. It’s the one under glass in a suite rented by Gorman & Co., the Madison developer. The burrowing carnivore is real, stuffed, and looks poised for attack. It’s a talker among sports fans, but not the only one.
Children who are too big for a car seat and too small to safely use a seat belt are at risk of serious injury and death, according to studies published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
Children ages 4 to 8 have a significantly reduced risk of injury if they are restrained in booster seats instead of adult seat belts, one study found, but only 10 to 20 percent of them are properly restrained.
Gov. Jim Doyle has rejected a request by the Wisconsin State Employees Union for a mediator to help settle negotiations over contracts that expired about 18 months ago for more than 24,000 employees.
The chairman of the state Assembly’s higher education committee wants to restructure the University of Wisconsin System by making its 13 two-year colleges satellite campuses of its 13 four-year universities.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor.
Articles looks at “Wisconsin, Land of Change: An Illustrated History,” by Shiela Reaves, associate professor of life sciences communication at UW-Madison.
Mentions that a new policy for using cell phones for all state agencies and the University of Wisconsin System takes effect Monday. Previously, the university and individual departments had set their own policies, creating different rules for employees’ personal calls.
For the first two years of his term, the Democratic governor’s greatest struggle was tackling a $3.2 billion budget deficit without raising taxes or gutting government services. Now entering the second half of his term, Gov. Jim Doyle faces still another deficit and growing challenges to his agenda by Republicans who control the Legislature and who already are gearing up to unseat him in 2006.
A former University of Wisconsin-Madison student committed suicide in the Dane County Jail early Monday, one day before he was scheduled to go on trial in the slayings of three people, the Sheriff’s Department said.
Quoted: Cynthia R. Jasper, a consumer science professor at UW-Madison.
Mentions the late UW-Madison art historian Jim Watrous.
Quoted: Charles O. Jones, presidential scholar and professor emeritus at UW-Madison.
President Bush proposed Friday an increase in the government Pell Grants that help lower-income students afford higher education but said he would shave the cost out of a federal student loan program that also provides college aid.
Former University of Wisconsin basketball player Boo Wade failed to meet the terms of a plea agreement he made last year in Dane County Circuit Court and thus faces sentencing on charges stemming from a fight he had with his ex-girlfriend and bail jumping.
Quoted: Susan Nitzke, a professor in the Nutrition Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quotes: Tino Balio, UW-Madison film historian.
The village of Cross Plains has chosen (UWPD Assistant Chief) Todd Kuschel to serve as the village’s interim police chief. Kuschel fills the vacancy created by Chief Douglas Clemens, who retired at the end of last year after 15 years as police chief.
…It is a primal human response to melt and stretch that attracts humans to pizza, says Professor Sundaram Gunasekaran.
A cheese expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gunasekaran has worked with the pizza industry to develop more efficient ways to measure that melt. There is a scientist for every art, and when it comes to the way cheese melts, “Dr. Guna” is your man.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly sounded optimistic after the governor’s State of the State address.
“This is a time when the governor is trying to reinvest in the university for the future. And that’s the theme we want to keep talking about,” Reilly said in a phone interview this morning.
Former UW basketball player Boo Wade, who quit the team for good last week after taking time off for what was described as personal reasons, will be back in criminal court to face sentencing on charges from last year of fighting with his girlfriend and bail jumping.
Wade has been ousted from the county’s First Offender Program for failure to keep appointments and failure to follow through on an anger management program and thus will face sentencing on charges of disorderly conduct and bail jumping.
Under heat from political opponents on the property tax issue, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday night kicked off his re-election race by outlining his State of the State plan to hold down local levies.
Governor’s plans for public K-12 schools are outlined in State of the State speech.
Gov. Jim Doyle offered Wisconsin an ambitious plan Wednesday night to hold the line on taxes yet achieve meaningful improvement in education and health care.
Transcript of Gov. Jim Doyle’s annual assessment of the State of the State before a joint session of the Legislature.
Qouted: Patrick Remington, a professor of public health at the UW Medical School.
Interview with former UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward, president of the American Council on Education.
(AP) The NCAA approved the first phase of a landmark academic reform package Monday under which about 30 percent of Division I football teams would have lost scholarships had it been implemented immediately. The Division I Board of
Directors approved the Academic Progress Rate (APR), the standard teams in every sport must reach beginning in the 2005-06 school year to avoid scholarship reductions. Schools will receive warning reports in the next few weeks that let them know which of their teams fall below the APR set by the Division I Committee on Academic Performance.
Are wealthy elderly people taking advantage of a state law by moving into really nice retirement facilities that are tax exempt while poorer people continue to pay taxes on their homes? Or is a move to tax such “benevolent” facilities merely attacking old people instead of trying to make large tax-exempt facilities pay their fair share for city services?
Far more valuable and costly to city services, says Earl Thayer, are university, city and county government properties, and hospitals.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s State of the State speech tonight (at 7 p.m.) will alternate between the conciliatory and the contentious, aides say.
….Doyle is likely to offer some boost to the University of Wisconsin System, which absorbed more than $150 million in budget cuts over the past two years. Aides say Doyle is still looking to university officials to trim administrative costs, but he has already proposed a $750 million building initiative to encourage biotech research.
