Test scores should not be the central marker for university admission because a test score is only a number. It does not tell about the person, about the endurance to get to UW-Madison.
With the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the midst of tackling several significant challenges while also implementing a range of institutional reforms, faculty leaders on campus are asking that interim Chancellor David Ward be allowed to stick around for more than one year.
The spider mites were bountiful this summer in south-central Wisconsin. And the millipedes were “almost science fiction-like” in their numbers, said UW Extension entomologist Phil Pellitteri on Tuesday.
“One person could fill three 5 gallon pails with dead ones every morning out of his driveway culvert.” OK, that?s gross. But who cares! We?ll take all those creepy crawlies ? and then some ? just to savor another summer like this one without Wisconsin?s unofficial state bird: the nasty mosquito.
A family of UW-Madison boosters have come up with a novel way to give scholarship money while also increasing support for the university on social media. Will and Jenny Hsu, of Minneapolis, pledged to give $1 to the Great People Scholarship for every new person to follow UW-Madison or the Wisconsin Alumni Association on Facebook or Twitter — up to $50,000. Will Hsu?s parents, Paul and Sharon Hsu of Wausau, Wis., will also contribute.
MADISON (WKOW)- Men?s Health magazine described Madison as the city “where the average household has more degrees than a thermometer”, and that?s one of many reasons it ranked Madison at the top of its compilation of most educated cities in America.
Move over, Bucky. Two mascots will be on the UW-Madison campus today to call for lower textbook prices. ?Mr. $200 Textbook? and ?Textbook Rebel? are on a six-week, 40-campus tour to gather petition signatures and distribute information about making textbooks affordable. They represent a national coalition called Textbook Rebellion.
Daryl Buss, 65, announced he is retiring as dean of UW-Madison?s School of Veterinary Medicine in June.
It should not come as any surprise that the objection to diversity on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus comes not from a Wisconsin group but from an organization headquartered in the cradle of the Confederacy.The Virginia-based ?Center for Equal Opportunity? sent a representative to Madison this week to claim that the UW is ?discriminating? against white people because its officials and students have worked in recent years to increase the presence of African-American and Latino students on campus.
The Center for Equal Opportunity, which accuses UW-Madison of “severe undergraduate admissions discrimination,” is a right-wing think tank that opposes bilingual education as well as affirmative action and takes a hard line on immigration policies.
Imagine if the Wisconsin Alumni Association planned to build a surface-level parking lot on top of a lakefront park next to the Memorial Union in the heart of the UW-Madison campus.The public outrage would be loud and furious. Well, the good news is that the WAA just proposed doing the opposite.
The most striking thing about Tuesday?s press conference on UW-Madison?s alleged affirmative-action-driven bias against white and Asian applicants was not the loud, mildly violent protest that overran it. It was the university professor who publicly touted the rising admission rate for white students and the declining rate for blacks. This from an institution that only 11 years ago was so worried about its less-than-diverse image that it Photoshopped a black student onto an admissions catalog.
Dear Editor: The citizens of this state who applauded the increase in health insurance and retirement payments for state employees can now consider this fact: Wisconsin businesses are losing over $155 million a year in income.
….Despite perceptions of a bloated public sector, Wisconsin has actually had fewer government workers per capita than the national average since at least 1993, according to an analysis of the figures from the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.
Mary Ellen Phelps, age 84, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011, at her home in Stoughton after a brief battle with cancer. Mary worked in Hector DeLuca’s biochemistry lab at the University of Wisconsin. She and her husband moved to Stoughton in 1974, and Mary continued working as a biochemist in the DeLuca lab for more than 20 years.
Students were evacuated from the Phillips Hall dormitory on the UW-Madison campus late Tuesday night after smoke was reported in the building, but the smoke turned out to be leaking Freon from the hall?s cooling system. UW-Madison police and the Madison Fire Department answered the fire alarm call at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, police reported.
A sometimes tense but mostly uneventful press conference late Tuesday morning at the DoubleTree sprang to life after a diverse group of some 150 people stormed the downtown Madison hotel?s lobby, then forced their way into the adjacent banquet room where the press conference was wrapping up. The 11 a.m. press conference featured Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity. He was formally announcing two studies by the CEO that purport to show whites and Asians aren?t getting a fair crack at being admitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison moved up a couple spots in this year?s U.S. News & World Report rankings of America?s Best Colleges. UW-Madison tied for 42nd in rankings of 268 national doctoral universities, a jump of three spots from a year ago.
New University of Wisconsin women?s basketball coach Bobbie Kelsey will make her regular-season debut on Nov. 11 at UW-Milwaukee, while her first game at the Kohl Center will come two days later against Oral Roberts. The complete UW schedule, which was released Monday, will feature games against four teams that finished in the Top 25 last season and seven that competed in the NCAA tournament.
For University of Wisconsin football fans hoping to see the team play its first game away from Camp Randall Stadium this season, it?ll require more than sitting down on their couch and picking up the remote control. Saturday?s non-conference game between No. 7 UW (2-0) and Northern Illinois (1-1) at Soldier Field in Chicago will be live-streamed on ESPN3, an online-only channel.
Student identification cards will be allowed under a new law that requires Wisconsin residents to show photo IDs at the polls to vote, the Associated Press reports. Many were concerned that campuses across the UW System would spend a good deal of time and money issuing new photo ID cards to students because the new law requires the expiration date to be no later than two years after the card was issued. Typically, when students register at a UW System school they are issued IDs that are valid for four or five years.
Whites and Asians aren?t getting a fair crack at being admitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That?s what two studies released late Monday night by the Center for Equal Opportunity indicate. The organization states in a press release accompanying the studies that there is “severe discrimination based on race and ethnicity in undergraduate and law school admissions” at Wisconsin?s flagship institution of higher education.
Bobbie Kelsey didn?t assemble the schedule that the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball team will face in her first season as coach, but says she enjoys the challenges it presents and visibility it offers.
We fashionably compress our commemorations of 9/11 events into a neat triangle to include the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. But in accepting this, we terribly distort our history, for any link between 9/11, the present Afghanistan war and the Iraq war is patently false.
(Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus, is the author of “The Wars of Watergate” and other writings. This column first appeared on Truthdig.com.)
In 35 years of public service for the city of Madison, Dean Brasser earned a reputation for being a straight shooter. He served under five different mayors, starting in 1976 fresh out of UW-Madison after one of his favorite professors there, city comptroller Paul Reilly, let drop that there was an opening at city hall for an accountant.
Dane County?s commemoration on the roof of Monona Terrace featured dozens of police officers and firefighters. Tom Cleary of New York recounted the frantic days after the World Trade Center collapsed when he and other family members searched local hospitals in vain for his brother, Kevin Cleary, 38, a UW-Madison graduate who spent part of his childhood in Maple Bluff.
A study released Sunday shows embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are almost identical. Since human IPS cells were first produced from mouse cells in 2006 and from human cells in 2007, it has been thought they were equivalent to embryonic stem cells, which are controversial because they are derived from human embryos. But new research, directed by Josh Coon, a UW-Madison associate professor of chemistry and biomolecular chemistry, shows the proteins in the two types of cells are almost identical.
Dogs are getting plenty of chances to stay fit this time of year in Madison. Sunday was the fifth annual Dog Paddle at the Goodman Pool, sponsored by Capital K9s and the local pet store Animart. And this coming Sunday is the 28th annual Dog Jog benefit race, sponsored by the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
Dave Arnold knew things were getting strange when he found himself talking on the telephone with Matt Lauer. It wasn?t just that he had the anchor of NBC?s ?Today? show on the line. While Arnold was talking to Lauer, he had Barbara Walters of ABC on hold. At the same time, he was fielding an email from Wolf Blitzer of CNN.
?It was a little surreal,? Arnold said last week. It was happening in the spring, when Arnold, 26, a Rice Lake native, UW-Madison journalism graduate and former Wisconsin State Journal intern, found himself at the center of a true media maelstrom.
STEVENS POINT ? Autumn is at the doorstep again, and across much of the state, corn crops are bursting with promise, soybeans are yellowing out in their patient manner, alfalfa and pasture lands are lush and emerald green. Grain prices are high, boosting land values and yielding profits for farmers. In a difficult economy, agriculture seems to be thriving. That?s good news for this bedrock Wisconsin industry, at least for the short term. Not to look for clouds on a sunny day, but the words ?short-term? are important markers for some analysts.
The city Urban Design Commission has approved plans for a new UW Health clinic on a portion of the vacant Bancroft Dairy site at Fish Hatchery Road and South Park Street. The panel on Wednesday voted 7-1 for the $17 million project, which includes a four-story building and some 375 parking spaces in a combination of a ramp and surface stalls.
The Badgers are taking heat again for their less-than-rugged non-conference schedule. The weekly football release trumpets their 29-game non-conference winning streak in the regular season.
Is it time for Neighborhood House, Madison?s oldest neighborhood center, to cash in on its valuable property and build a better community center somewhere else?
….Neighborhood House was founded in 1916 in the storied melting pot of Greenbush as part of the settlement house movement of the early 20th century that helped immigrants acclimate to America. In the decades since, the center adapted to changing needs but has struggled in recent years after urban renewal sparked a mass migration of families from much of the neighborhood and UW-Madison students replaced many others.
….Heidi Fassnacht?s beautiful letter of thanks to all who helped her family following the death of her father, the brilliant young scientist Robert Fassnacht, in the Sterling Hall bombing is a classic in the making.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez isn?t necessarily concerned about all the expansion developments going on around college football, but his job demands that he be engaged.
Federal budget cuts threaten to shunt the 10,000-member Wisconsin National Guard back into the minor role it played as a weekend warrior force with second-hand equipment before 9/11 thrust it into Iraq and Afghanistan battle zones, a top general said Wednesday.
Quoted: UW-Madison military historian John Hall
A new park will get prime lake frontage on the UW-Madison campus, displacing about 70 parking spots and resculpting the lakeshore along Memorial Union ? one of a handful of major changes planned for the campus landmark. The Wisconsin Alumni Association announced plans Wednesday to donate $8 million for a park between the union and the Red Gym, adding a pavilion and temporary boat parking for the public on Lake Mendota.
SAN FRANCISCO ? Yahoo?s stock rose more than 5 percent on Wednesday after the company fired its CEO following more than 2½ years of financial lethargy.The ouster, which became public late Tuesday, came as investors were convinced that Carol Bartz couldn?t steer the Internet company to a long-promised turnaround.
Ideal Body Shop, which has operated in a brick building on South Park Street since 1924, could be replaced by a five-story apartment building with commercial space on the ground floor. A meeting of the Greenbush Neighborhood Association at 6 p.m. Monday at the Neighborhood House, 29 S. Mills St., will hear plans to raze the iconic garage and replace it with roughly 75 apartment units. Three adjacent rental houses on Drake Street would also come down.
Nearly 300 musicians will gather on the Overture Hall stage on the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 11, to commemorate the terrorist attacks that shook the country 10 years ago on that day. But though the program acknowledges the fear and sorrow surrounding those devastating events, organist and director Gary Lewis hopes the concert?s ultimate message will be one of hope for a peaceful future.
Former UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin appears to have voted to remove the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from an elite group of universities, according to an article that ran in the Lincoln Journal Star over the weekend. That was after Martin advocated for Nebraska?s entrance into the Big Ten athletic conference in part because of its strong academic record, the newspaper reported.
Ronald D. Bauer, age 74, of Lake Delton, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011, at his home. From 1959 to 1991 he was employed by the University of Wisconsin Police Department, retiring as captain of security.
….Part of the reason MMoCA chose 2011 to hail the Imagists was a gift of 100 works, received earlier this year, from longtime patron and collector William McClain. An emeritus professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in bacteriology, McClain grew up in the Chicago area but didn?t begin collecting until after he moved to Wisconsin in the early 1970s.
A 21-year-old Madison man was mugged while walking on Park Street early Wednesday morning, Madison police reported. The mugging was reported at 1:59 a.m. Wednesday at 35 N. Park St., according to a police news release, which reported that the victim heard voices and footsteps behind him.
Local law enforcement agencies, fire departments and military units will gather Sunday morning on the rooftop of Monona Terrace to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001.
An Iowa man who apparently didn?t want to be arrested during a melee in a block of bars on University Avenue early Saturday morning ended up having himself and five friends who tried to help him in his struggle getting arrested. Daniel Rodgers, 22, Dubuque, was tentatively charged with battery to a police officer, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct and resisting following his arrest at about 2:23 a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of University Avenue, Madison police said.
STEVENS POINT, Wis.– The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and community leaders plan to create a task force to deal with alcohol and drug abuse. A survey last spring found that nearly three quarters of UW-Stevens Point students reported drinking within the last month. Nearly half — 46 percent — reported binge drinking over the last month. Forty-four percent said they suffered memory loss.
Take a stroll along Midland Street, a shady two-block stretch between Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street on the city?s near south side. The mix of apartments and single-family homes, most with porches out front and garages behind, seems right out of the New Urbanism planning book. If you were going to create an affordable, walkable neighborhood, it?s already there.
UW-Madison students planning to snooze, er, study at the Memorial Library on Wednesday will have to make other plans. The Madison Fire Department will be conducting final testing of a new fire alarm system installed at the library, so it will be closed to users from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, the university said.
MADISON, Wis. — With the Badger football season opener just hours away, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is establishing its rules for the state?s new concealed carry law. For months now, the university?s legal team has reviewed the legislation regarding campus buildings and has recently come to a decision over how it will handle the law when it goes into effect in November. Signs alerting people that guns aren?t allowed inside will soon be posted outside academic buildings and residential halls, as well as athletic buildings like Camp Randall and the Kohl Center.
To heck with academics and drinking honors. UW-Madison is beautiful. The popular website The Daily Beast ranks UW-Madison as the second most beautiful school in the land, right behind the University of Mississippi. It?s not just the campus, mind you. This poll takes into consideration the “hottiness” of the student body.
Movers and shakers with a stake in Wisconsin education met this week in Madison, ostensibly to begin creating a method to ensure state students are college- or career-ready when they graduate from high school. Given the facts that student needs are rising ? poverty rates across Wisconsin have been rapidly increasing, with about 40 percent of schoolchildren now eligible for free or reduced lunch ? while financial support for schools at both the state and federal level is falling, they have a tall order in front of them.
Among the 29 members of the School Accountability Design Team are Adam Gamoran, head of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the UW-Madison, and UW System President Kevin Reilly.
It was two years ago that the Cap Times asked a range of people associated with higher education in the Madison area if there was “something you wish every college student would know before the start of the school year?” We then posted these “words of wisdom” as the academic year got under way.
“Most of us are very far from home, so these are our surrogate families,” said Arij Beshish, 29, a researcher at UW Hospital who grew up in Libya. “We?re one big family, showing our love for each other.” Families will exchange gifts and friends will dine together.
Sadam Issa, 30, a Ph.D. student at UW-Madison, said he will call his family in Jordan and wish them well, then enjoy lots of coffees and teas with friends. Tuesday?s larger gathering was the perfect start, he said.
“It shows we are one community, that we are one group despite our different ethnicities,” he said.
(CNN) — This summer, a group of University of Kentucky students and staff has been patrolling campus grounds — scouting out any student, employee or visitor lighting a cigarette. Unlike hall monitors who cite students for bad behavior, the Tobacco-free Take Action! volunteers approach smokers, respectfully ask them to dispose of the cigarette and provide information about quit-smoking resources available on campus.
….In many ways, college football has never been more popular, UW athletic director and former football coach Barry Alvarez said during a recent interview in his fifth-floor Kellner Hall office, which can double as a luxury suite overlooking the Camp Randall Stadium turf.
?Attendance and TV ratings are at all-time highs,? he notes. And yet, concedes Alvarez, ?There are some things that need to be addressed.? Indeed, despite the excitement surrounding the Badgers? upcoming season, those willing to take off their rose-colored glasses will notice an ominous cloud hanging over the sport of college football as the 2011 campaign gets under way.
Lane closures in and around Madison could make for some slow going in town, but the closures are scheduled to end before the city is inundated with UW-Madison students and football fans later in the week. The state Department of Transportation has issued five traffic advisories for potential tieups on area roads.
In 1962, the University of Wisconsin created the Eagle Heights Community Garden, and it remains one of the oldest community gardens in the country. According to UW, the purpose of EHCG is to give people opportunities to enjoy nature, build community, learn about gardening, and feed their families. The garden brings together a diverse group of students, faculty, and families in the community. At last count, gardeners at EHCG spoke 60 languages.
Ted Crabb isn?t surprised about the outcry over a proposed addition to the Memorial Union which could affect the iconic facility?s popular lakefront Terrace.
“When we expanded the Terrace 25 years ago, there were complaints about what we were doing then,” says Crabb, the director of the Wisconsin Union from 1968 to 2001. “We?d hear how we were using too much concrete or altering someone?s favorite space on campus and turning it into something else. That?s kind of par for the course. Change is difficult.”
The view from Picnic Point is going from barely there to panoramic. Work began this month along the popular peninsula to clear out invasive plants, opening up expansive views of Lake Mendota, Downtown Madison and campus.
Quoted: Gary Brown, UW-Madison’s director of campus planning and landscape architecture.
With healthy rates of volunteering and charitable giving, the people of Dane County have proven themselves a generous sort. We?d better keep it up; people appear to be depending on us. Madison ranked sixth nationally among mid-sized cities for volunteerism, according to a report this year by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Quoted: Jane Piliavin, UW-Madison professor emerita of sociology
