It?s not hard to look at goaltender Alex Rigsby and think of her celebrated predecessor with the University of Wisconsin women?s hockey program. Like Jessie Vetter, Rigsby is a state product who came to UW with a resume of gender-bending achievement. Like Vetter, Rigsby has been asked to play a prominent role for the Badgers as a freshman.
Agatha A. Norton, age 92, of De Pere, formerly of Madison, passed away on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011. She was a professor in the Related Art Department and Environment, Textiles and Design program at University of Wisconsin-Madison for 30 years. In 1956 she accepted an offer from the Related Art Department at UW, where she taught courses relating to apparel design, interior design and textile arts. She served as chair of the department from 1965 to 1972.
Dear Editor: There is great news coming out of a recent study by the UW-Madison Carbone Cancer Center. Researchers found smoke-free ordinances in Wisconsin had no negative impact on businesses, including bars and restaurants.
Early last month I sat in on a discussion UW-Madison School of Pharmacy Dean Jeanette Roberts was having with about 35 high school students who are considering becoming pharmacists. She told the students what it?s like being a pharmacist and what it takes to become one — the classes they?ll need to take, the grades they will need to achieve — and then she answered their individual questions, the first being, of course, how much do pharmacists make?
What was interesting is that Roberts and the students were miles apart from each other. She was in a small sound and video studio operated by Access Wisconsin on International Lane near the Dane County Regional Airport and the kids were comfortably seated in their school libraries. Some were at desks in Mellen, some in Green Bay and Arcadia. Several were in the Adams Friendship High School library, a couple were listening and talking from Grantsburg High.
Madison Area Technical College has done a solid job in recent years landing outside dollars to fund a range of initiatives. But Madison College leaders have decided to team up with the state?s other tech schools in an effort to land some of the $500 million in grants recently made available for community colleges by the Obama administration.
The group that is going to be in charge of ownership and operation of Madison?s performing arts center has changed its name. The 201 State Foundation is now the Overture Center Foundation. The group made the name change at its board of directors meeting Tuesday night.
(Among the new board members is Richard Davis, renowned musician and UW-Madison professor of bass in the School of Music.)
Patricia Jane Carroll Sopsick, age 51, of Madison, passed away on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011, at her home after a lengthy battle with cancer. She had been employed by UW Hospital, UW-Whitewater and the UW Medical Foundation.
Taylor Floyd Shriver Jr., age 90, of Madison, died Monday, Jan. 24, 2011, at HospiceCare, Inc., in Fitchburg. Floyd worked at WKOW-TV and retired from WHA-TV, having enjoyed a long career working and teaching in the fields of radio and television.
?Yeah, yeah, yeah,? he would hear, one navy blue suit nodding to another. They would listen to what Colin Goddard had to say, shake his hand, then open the door for the next Washington lobbyist or constituent.
….But as Goddard was giving his earnest, wonky spiel about banning the kind of magazines that Jared Loughner allegedly used to spray gunfire in Tucson or requiring background checks on people who buy weapons at gun shows, those listening didn?t know there were three bullets painfully worming their way through his body.
(This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
The Chronicle of Higher Education released a nifty interactive map which shows the percent of those 25-and-older with at least a bachelor?s degree in each county across the United States. This remarkable tool, which relies heavily on Census Bureau data, not only allows one to break college attainment figures down by gender and race (Asian, black, Hispanic, white) in each county, but also lets one compare these statistics decade to decade.
The good news is 44.4 percent of all residents 25-and-older in Dane County now have at least a bachelor?s degree. That?s the highest percentage of any county in the state and ranks among the national leaders.
Quoted: Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at UW-Madison.
** President Barack Obama named UW-Madison professor Douglass Henderson one of 15 recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.
** Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop activist and the 2008 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, is speaking on the UW-Madison campus Thursday night.
** Washington State University has lured a professor from UW-Madison out west to take an endowed chair in small grains economics funded by the Washington Grain Commission, according to Washington Ag Today. The report notes UW-Madison economist Randy Fortenbery will start his new post at Washington State in August.
Add the insolvent and still hemorrhaging Unemployment Insurance Reserve Fund ? and a looming $50 million in annual interest payments due the feds ? to the list of economic challenges facing the Walker administration. Due to the high number of applicants and a failure to salt away enough money during the good times, Wisconsin since February 2009 has been forced to borrow nearly $1.5 billion from the federal government to cover weekly benefits for the unemployed.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics
Dr. William Clancy, recognized as a leader in pioneering anterior cruciate ligament ACL and posterior cruciate ligament PCL knee surgery, is returning to Madison to join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Clancy, who founded the sports medicine program at UW-Madison in 1974, is the new chair of the sports medicine division within the department of orthopedics and rehabilitation, the university announced in an e-mailed release. He will help oversee a team of 10 sports medicine physicians.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
** President Barack Obama named UW-Madison professor Douglass Henderson one of 15 recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The award earned by Henderson, an engineering physics professor, is the highest federal honor for mentoring in the country.
** Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop activist and the 2008 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, is speaking on the UW-Madison campus Thursday night.
** Washington State University has lured a professor from UW-Madison out west to take an endowed chair in small grains economics funded by the Washington Grain Commission, according to Washington Ag Today.
Dr. William Clancy, recognized as a leader in pioneering anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) knee surgery, is returning to Madison to join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Clancy, who founded the sports medicine program at UW-Madison in 1974, is the new chair of the sports medicine division within the department of orthopedics and rehabilitation, the university announced in an e-mailed release. He will help oversee a team of 10 sports medicine physicians.
Putting out cigarettes in Wisconsin bars and restaurants did not have a detrimental effect on the hospitality industry, according to a study released Monday. The study, conducted by the Carbone Cancer Center at UW-Madison, looked at five Wisconsin cities, including Madison, where smoking bans went into effect before the statewide ban took hold last summer.
Results showed bars and restaurants in the smoke-free cities continued to do well under no-smoking ordinances, and the number of class B alcohol licenses increased after the ordinances took effect.
Kevin Wayne Ireland, age 51, of Fitchburg, died on Friday, Jan. 21, 2011, from injuries sustained in an accident that occurred in Sacramento, Calif. He was employed as a clinical perfusionist for more than 25 years and spent 14 of those years at University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. He was most recently employed at University of California Davis Medical Center.
UW-Madison stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson is a co-winner of the prestigious King Faisal International Prize in Medicine.A university news release notes Thomson now is one of 57 scientists who have been awarded the Faisal Prize in Medicine over the past three decades. Among all Faisal Prize winners, nine later were honored with Nobel prizes for work first recognized by the award.
The deafening silence from the local medical community in response to UW Health?s decision to disband plans to offer second trimester abortion services still galls one Madison doctor.
?It is just appalling to me that there is not one lick of criticism out there from anybody who represents the physician practices in town,? says Dr. Doug Laube, a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved with UW Health?s plans.
A team of UW-Madison researchers landed a grant worth nearly $4.7 million to teach students in rural parts of Wisconsin how renewable biofuels such as wood or switchgrass can be used to produce energy and thereby reduce the country?s dependence on fossil fuels and imported oil.
“Merging science education with the realm of energy is very important for our students and for our future,” says UW-Madison biochemistry professor Rick Amasino, one of the principal investigators who helped secure the funding along with UW-Madison?s Hedi Baxter Lauffer, the director of the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program, and John Greenler, the education outreach program director with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
Ironically, just two days after this grant was announced, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration killed plans to spend $100 million on a boiler that would burn plant-based fuels at UW-Madison’s Charter Street power plant.
The two most common remarks made by those seeking help at UW-Madison?s Writing Center are “I?m a bad writer” and “I hate to write.””
And sometimes they say both,” says Melissa Tedrowe, the center?s associate director. When it comes to developing strategies to make students better writers, Tedrowe notes there?s “a lot of passing the buck.”
2010 was a good year for Wisconsin agriculture, according to half a dozen UW-Madison agricultural experts speaking to about 150 agriculture folks at the 2011 Ag Outlook Forum.
The occasion was the 25th year of the issuance of ?The State of Wisconsin Agriculture? report compiled by the UW-Madison Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics with the assistance of specialists from a variety of farming enterprise areas.
The Erdman Development Group has scrapped plans for a major real estate development on 15 acres at the corner of Whitney Way and University Avenue. The proposed $7.5 million “Erdman Center” was to have included a six- to seven-story hotel, a restaurant and another building, with space for several retailers.
Instead, the Erdman group has an accepted offer from the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority to purchase the property. A medical clinic had been mentioned during earlier discussions over the site before the Madison Plan Commission.
Edgewood College plans to build a three-story Visual and Theatre Arts Center, finally providing a proper home for the arts on a campus where a hallway serves as the art gallery and the theater is hidden in a dorm basement.
Mike Crane was recently named director of Wisconsin Public Radio after having served as interim director and operations director. He worked in public radio and television in Vermont, New York and Florida before moving to Wisconsin three years ago.
It?s hard to imagine a better representative of the collegiate student-athlete than Alyssa Karel. The senior guard from Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minn., has made her mark at the University of Wisconsin – both as a basketball player and as an honor student in the School of Nursing.
Hey you kids, get out of the street! That old warning from adults to children is being used by UW-Madison officials who are worried about students walking on Linden Drive in a stretch where the sidewalk is closed by construction.
The phrase is “workweek creep,” and no, it doesn?t refer to an obnoxious co-worker. Instead, it?s defined as “the gradual extension of the workweek caused by performing work-related activities during non-work hours.”
Quoted: Joanne Cantor, professor emerita in communication arts and director of UW-Madison’s Center for Communications Research
We Conserve announced it met its goal of reducing UW-Madison?s energy use and environmental footprint by 20 percent. The environmental stewardship program at UW-Madison pledged in 2006 to meet this benchmark by 2010. Program director Faramarz Vakili announced We Conserve exceeded this goal by achieving a 25 percent annual energy reduction relative to 2006 levels.
PLATTEVILLE (WKOW) – It?s been a decade since UW-Platteville hosted the Bears? summer camps, but even today memories of the team?s visits still impact the town. A mix of students on campus have differing opinions on who might come out on top Sunday.
Dear Editor: It is amazing to me how some people who know nothing can spew rhetoric in total disregard of the facts. Regarding the issue before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission of whether some people classified as academic staff are improperly classified to deny union membership, several letter writers have found against the unions just because they are anti-union. So too have Rep. Steve Nass, R-town of La Grange, and other legislators who have chosen to step in with legislation before the issue is adjudicated.
President Obama should get high marks from Wisconsinites for his decision to renominate former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler to serve as chief federal judge for the Western District of Wisconsin.
This is the third time that Obama has sent Butler?s name to the Senate, where Southern Republicans have used parliamentary maneuvers to block approval of a highly qualified African-American who would bring a wide range of legal and judicial experience, a demeanor that has been hailed by conservative and liberal jurists, and needed diversity to the bench.
….The veteran adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School and the current justice-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin Law School has skills so widely regarded that he has for many years been a faculty member of the National Judicial College, where he has provided education for judges from across the nation and around the world.
MADISON, Wis. — A major construction project on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is causing a major headache for transportation officials.
Since last spring, the sidewalk on the north side of Linden Drive has been closed due to an expansion project at the School of Human Ecology. That has led pedestrians to walk in the street, instead of using the sidewalk on the south side of the street. That has created a safety problem, particularly going westbound on Linden, officials said.
That?s why the university?s Division of Facilities Planning and Management is embarking on a safety campaign that asks pedestrians to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk.
Keith R. Sanders, age 71, passed away at his home on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Keith began his career as an assistant professor at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He went on to hold many titles. Some of those were: Chancellor and Professor of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; Senior Vice President for Administration and Chief Operating Officer for the University of Wisconsin System; and Executive Director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Barbara S. Spennetta, age 68, of Madison, passed away unexpectedly but peacefully at home on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. She worked for the university as a lab technician and manager of the Genetics Research Lab. She made many contributions to genetics and animal sciences including creating the first pasturella-free rabbit colony.
Kathleen Loos “Kathy” Bell died on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, from ovarian cancer. As a single working mother, Kathy earned her college degree at UW-Milwaukee and then a master’s degree in social work at UW-Madison, later teaching in the schools of social work at both universities.
Esther Doughty Luckhardt died peacefully in her sleep Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. She was 97 years old. On Dec. 21, 1987, Gov. Tommy Thompson appointed Esther to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. In 1995, he also appointed her to the National Committee on Aging held in Washington, D.C.
Sophomore Justin Schultz is in position to do something unprecedented in the history of the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey program. No defenseman has ever led the Badgers in goals over the course of a season, but Schultz has a good shot to do so.
A 20-year-old economics major at the University of Colorado in Boulder came up with a unique stunt to illustrate just how much it costs to attend college these days. He paid his $14,310 tuition using $1 bills.
Nic Ramos jammed the 33 pounds of cash into a duffel bag and handed it over to the CU business office last Friday, according to a report by the ABC affiliate in Denver.
Dr. Richard W. Edwards, age 80, well-known family physician of Richland Center, died Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. He held key positions directing, teaching and overseeing health care. For 20 years he was on the State Medical Society Commission of Peer Review. He was an instructor in the Wisconsin School of Nursing for nurse practitioners and assistant professor of the Department of Family Medicine.
Curtis Allan Johnson passed away at home Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011, after an inspirational fight against metastatic ocular melanoma. He was a professor in the School of Pharmacy and Department of Medicine (Nephrology) at UW-Madison from 1978-2004 and was appointed associate dean for professional and student affairs from 1993-1996 and associate director of the School of Pharmacy’s Office of Global Health from 2004-2010.
It?s been three years since the Madison City Council passed an ordinance intended to gradually reduce the number of downtown bars and liquor stores and therefore crime, but while crime has indeed dropped, neither proponents nor opponents of the ordinance are able to definitely say why.
….A sober but determined focus on improving, strengthening and assuring the relevance of our educational system, from kindergarten through university or technical college, is crucial. If that means streamlining while strengthening and improving, then so be it.
The often maligned Madison Trust for Historic Preservation has hired a full-time executive director, and he?s on a mission to let the community know that historic preservation and development don?t have to be enemies.
….one of the trust?s most popular activities is the hosting of walking architectural tours downtown and on the isthmus during the summer. Tours include State Street, the Mansion Hill District, King Street, the University Heights Historic District, Bascom Hill, Backstage at the Orpheum and the East Isthmus Bicycle Tour.
UW-Madison likes to trumpet the fact it?s one of the top research institutions on the planet — and has been for the past two decades. This past fall, the university announced its annual research expenditures topped $1 billion for the first time.For a range of reasons, this is good news for the university, the city and state.
But is it possible places like UW-Madison are focusing too much attention on research — and not enough on educating students?
Sharon Versyp has seen enough. Having faced the University of Wisconsin twice in the first five games of the Big Ten Conference season, the Purdue women?s basketball coach is convinced the Badgers are legitimate contenders for the conference title.
Four Republican lawmakers are hoping to keep hundreds of academic staff on six UW System campuses from being absorbed into unions.
Rep. Steve Nass (R-Town of La Grange), Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) and Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) announced Thursday they plan to introduce legislation that would stop the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission from deciding whether UW System staff members can be put into a collective bargaining unit against their will.
Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine has a good read this month from UW-Madison real estate expert Stephen Malpezzi on the state?s 2011 economic outlook, with a focus on housing markets.
The economic recovery is gracing businesses in northeastern Wisconsin more quickly than those in other parts of the state, including the Madison area, according to a survey sponsored by First Business Bank.
Greyhound Express will begin service at the University of Wisconsin?s Memorial Union at 800 Langdon Street starting Monday, Jan. 17. The new bus stop provides passengers a more centralized location for departures and arrivals. Greyhound Express provides direct service to six Midwest cities.
Whenever I?m sad or sick I still want my mom. Over the years I?ve often wondered if this need for mom will dissipate as I grow older. Yet it hasn?t, and I?m convinced that on some level we all go on wanting our mothers in times of need for our entire lives, no matter how far away we live and no matter how different we are. In search of a change in my life, my dog Yoda and I embarked on our road trip over 2 months ago. The road has brought me tears, lessons, exciting new experiences, new friends, adventures I never imagined possible, and, just in time for Thanksgiving, it brought me Mom.
Mentioned: Babcock ice cream, Babcock Dairy Plant and Memorial Union
Ellen F. Buck, age 91, longtime contributor to Madison social support networks, passed away Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011, at Fair View Nursing Home in Mauston after a brief illness. Ellen once taught at UW Extension.
A former UW-Madison student who jammed Madison police radios seven years ago was found guilty Wednesday night of possessing child pornography found on his home computer after police decrypted files they were unable to access for years.
A couple of years ago, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz invited the heads of the United Way of Dane County and the Madison Community Foundation to meet with him to discuss a question he was pondering. Was Madison bumping against its ceiling for charitable giving? Given the array of needs for social services, education and a diverse arts community, were we nearing capacity? Or, more directly, were givers tapped out?
….The question is timely again as the need to raise more private money to operate the Overture Center for the Arts has been added to the civic to-do list. So, can contributions keep up?
(Among those quoted: Former UW Foundation president Sandy Wilcox)
A good showing for the stock market in 2010 has helped boost the state?s retirement accounts for public employees. But it?s too soon to tell if the increase will be enough to avert another reduction in the pensions of some retirees, officials said Tuesday.
….The defense of public employees ? so essential to a functional society, and yet so frequently abused by the powerful players who would diminish the role of government in order to enhance their own wealth and authority ? is as vital a struggle today as it was in 1968.
As Gov. Scott Walker and his legislative allies target public employees for abuse, it is as necessary for the right-minded and right-hearted people of Wisconsin to defend those workers as it was for the right-minded and right-hearted people of Memphis.
Wisconsin Public Radio has named Mike Crane as its director of radio, the top position at WPR. Crane joined the network, which has more than 30 stations around the state, as chief operations officer in 2008 and has served as interim director of radio since July when Phil Corriveau stepped down due to health reasons.
Judy F. Mislivecek, age 66, passed away at HospiceCare in Fitchburg, on Friday, Jan. 7, 2011. She worked as the department secretary for the College of Agricultural Journalism at the University of Wisconsin for over 25 years.
More than a dozen police officers were called to quell a disturbance that erupted early Saturday on Regent Street. At 1:38 a.m. Saturday, Madison police reported, several officers responded after more than 30 people exited a bar in the 1200 block of Regent Street. Several of the people started to fight nearby.
Dear Editor: When you talk to people about politics there is one refrain that comes up over and over again: ?Those on the left and the right are the problem, we should get rid of those extremists.? This simple-minded reductionism leaves the impression that both groups are a negative force and are essentially the same. People who make these remarks view themselves as pragmatic and able to compromise.
(Author quotes UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.)
