Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and UW-Madison graduate Anthony Shadid will speak about ethics and journalism in a lecture on campus in December. Shadid, foreign correspondent for the New York Times, will deliver his lecture “The Truths We Tell: Reporting on Faith, War and the Fate of Iraq” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, in the alumni lounge of the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.
Upon being anointed as Barry Alvarez?s successor in 2005, Bret Bielema set the bar high for his goals as the University of Wisconsin?s football coach.
“I think college football today, yeah, there (are) a lot of different teams that rise up year-to-year, but Wisconsin has stayed on top for a long period of time and it?s doing the right things consistently that will be able to make this program continue,” Bielema said at the time. “I hope to take it to a higher level as well.”
For the first time in his five seasons in Madison, Bielema has the Badgers in position to achieve that subjective and lofty status, though national title hopes are remote at best.
UW-Madison?s Teri Balser, an associate professor of soil science, was named a U.S. Professor of the Year and is being honored Thursday in Washington, D.C. Only four teachers are selected from across the nation — one each from a doctoral, masters and baccalaureate degree-granting institution, and one from a community college.
To say Wisconsin has gone from blue to red may be an understatement. It?s more like a crimson tide has swept over the Legislature, bringing a flood of conservatives to the state Capitol.
….Judging by most Republicans? endorsements and tea party ties, conservative bills will find a receptive audience among members of the new majority.
For example, when the next session starts, 34 Republican Assembly members (and Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer, an independent from Manitowoc) will have been endorsed by Pro-Life Wisconsin, a group that opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. The group, which also opposes embryonic stem cell research and any artificial birth control, also endorsed Gov.-elect Scott Walker ? who will be Wisconsin?s first governor endorsed by the group ? as well as Lt. Gov.-elect Rebecca Kleefisch, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and eight members of the Senate.
….Sundance manager Merijoy Endrizzi-Ray said demand for seeing the new “Harry Potter” movie was huge, and both the film?s midnight screenings sold out less than a week after they went on sale. Both theaters were bought out by UW-Madison dorms who are hitting the movie en masse, Endrizzi-Ray said.
“They?re just at that age, where they started the first books when they were kids, and now they?re in college,” she said.
Greg Russo begins his class with the following instructions: 100 jumping jacks, 50 mountain climbers, 25 push-ups and 10 squat/push-up combinations ? and that?s just the warm-up.
Participants bear-crawl, broad-jump and squat their way through the hour long boot camp class ? a new offering through the Madison School & Community Recreation program and an example of the intense direction many of the program?s adult fitness courses started taking this fall.
Quoted: Ronnie Carda, coordinator of UW-Madison?s physical education activity program
Skaters and swimmers at the University of Wisconsin will be getting a new state-of-the-art facility next to the Kohl Center in Madison that will give them a centralized location for all their events. The State Building Commission approved the project at its meeting on Wednesday.
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in early October, yet the Promenade Room at Madison?s Overture Center had a couple hundred people gathered inside to hear a discussion on religion and science as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival.
That?s just one indication of how lively this subject is these days. One of the presenters that day was Steve Paulson, the Wisconsin Public Radio producer whose new book sheds lots of light on this topic, which often stirs overheated debate.
For more than a decade there?s been a small but vocal group of students, faculty and staff on the UW-Madison campus trying to curb sweatshop abuses at companies that produce college-logoed apparel. To be certain, over the past year alone there have been some noteworthy victories against sportswear giants such as Russell Athletic and Nike.
But as a university official confided over the summer, significant change in this industry seems unlikely until consumers start shunning companies that have little interest in paying living wages — and start buying from those that do.
Through the efforts of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Labor Licensing Policy Committee, T-shirts and hoodies with the UW-Madison and Bucky logos produced by Alta Gracia Apparel are now on sale at University Book Store. The brand, named for Villa Altagracia, the town in the Dominican Republic where the company?s factory is located, is pioneering a new business model that gives the workers who sew the clothing a pathway out of poverty.
Dane County has hired its first medical examiner, beating a state mandate that requires elected coroners to be replaced in counties whose populations exceed 500,000.
County Executive Kathleen Falk announced Wednesday that Vincent Tranchida, a senior medical examiner in New York City, will take the post on Feb. 1, pending County Board approval.He will replace acting Coroner Barry Irmen.
Dear Editor: ….The request to stop the biomass boiler installation is shortsighted and will hurt the state in the long run. Even if the governor believes, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary, that global warming doesn?t exist, there are still important reasons for continuing this project. The ability to supply our own fuel (biomass) rather than sending taxpayer money out of state to purchase natural gas should be the type of policy that we all support.
As a chemical engineering researcher in the field of biomass, I know that Wisconsin and especially the university are world leaders in biomass utilization.
UW-Madison students are studying overseas in record numbers, particularly in China, according to a report this week from a national group. The Open Doors Report from the Institute of International Education ranked UW-Madison fourth among all U.S. research institutions for students studying overseas for a semester in the 2008-09 school year.
The report also placed UW-Madison sixth for studying abroad in year-long programs.
For the first time in memory, state and UW employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System will have to pay into their accounts. Small contributions were deemed necessary by the Department of Employee Trust Funds Board to maintain solid funding of the WRS, which suffered large investment losses during the 2008 stock market downturn.
“The contribution rates were raised effective for 2011 and will be reviewed again prior to the 2012 calendar year,” says Matt Stohr, ETF spokesman.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez will ask for a $2 increase for tickets to men?s hockey games at a finance committee meeting of the Athletic Board on Tuesday, as well as increases to funding for preferred seating and parking programs for Camp Randall and the Kohl Center.
The increase to UW men?s hockey ticket prices would be the first since 2005, Alvarez said in a letter to season ticket-holders and Badger Fund contributors in several sports.
Mary Lou Amborn Taylor, age 83, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010, after a brief illness. She graduated from the UW School of Nursing (1950) and received a B.S. degree from UW-Madison (1952). A born nurse, Mary was an RN for 43 years, retiring in 1993. She served on the Alumni Board of the UW School of Nursing.
Go ahead and send a text message while driving. Heck, feel free to drink alcohol too.It?s allowed – nay, encouraged – as long as you?re at UW-Madison?s new driving simulation laboratory. Located in the Mechanical Engineering Building, the simulator allows researchers to study such risky behaviors with no risk of an accident.
A man allegedly peeping into bedroom windows has been reported in a housing area near the UW-Madison campus.
MILWAUKEE — The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a $1 million grant to train physicians in geriatric care.The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded the grant, one of 10 awarded to medical schools nationwide.
Dr. Mueller was an accomplished professor of cancer research whose career at the University of Wisconsin spanned the years from 1938-1991. He had a passion for science, research and teaching and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors for his work. His role as an academic advisor was something he cared deeply about and he stayed in touch with many of his students over the years. Mueller served three years as UW Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Dr. Charles E. Yale, age 85, died peacefully in his sleep on Nov. 7, 2010, at his home in Mesa, Ariz. Before retirement he had been Professor of Surgery Emeritus at the UW School of Medicine in Madison where he established the Gnotobiotic Laboratory to study bowel obstruction in germ-free rats. He was also one of the developers of gastric surgery for the morbidly obese.
Ask Sonic Foundry CEO Rimas Buinevicius why his company?s share price has tripled this year, and he pauses for a moment. After all, this is the same outfit that broke local hearts ? not to mention pocketbooks ? when the dot.com stock market bubble burst a decade ago. Shares of Sonic Foundry at one point soared to $130 on the Nasdaq stock exchange in early 2000 only to end that year below $1. But Sonic Foundry has quietly rallied.
….Today, Sonic is focusing on what is arguably a much larger market: webcasting of lectures and educational materials for colleges, universities, business or government. Its flagship product, Mediasite, provides live streaming of public events, lectures, classes or other presentations.
The door has been opened once again for thousands of academic staff working across the University of Wisconsin System to be assigned to unions — without getting to vote on whether or not they want to be represented.
The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission ruled Wednesday it has the power to decide whether academic staff working across the University of Wisconsin System are properly classified.
Three cars owned by African-American students at UW-Whitewater were vandalized this week, in what university officials are describing as the third hate crime incident on campus this semester. The owners of the vehicles notified police that the tires were slashed and “KKK” was written in spray paint on the doors and hoods. The cars were parked in residence hall lots and the incidents happened between 11 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Meghan Duggan scored two goals and University of Wisconsin teammate Brianna Decker added a goal and two assists as the United States women?s select hockey team thumped Finland 4-0 at Mile One Centre in St. John?s, Newfoundland, the Americans? second straight victory at the Four Nations Cup.
….A recent report by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds that nearly 22 percent of Wisconsin residents between the ages of 18 and 25 reported alcohol dependence or abuse in the past year, and more than half of young adults admitted to binge drinking in the prior month. Stats for the overall population were dismal, too. Only three states, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, have worst rates of binge drinking for residents aged 12 and above.
WHITEWATER, Wis. — The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater said he?s working with students on strategies to prevent people from committing hate crimes on campus. Chancellor Richard Telfer made the pledge after authorities said a freshman student walking on the north side of campus at about 6:45 p.m. on Sunday was approached by two men, and one of the men shoved her into a fence and called her “gay” before letting her go.
A Madison man who went ?crazy? at a campus-area bar required a half-dozen officers and bar bouncers to get him under control and place him under arrest, Madison police reported.
ABC News posted an eye-opening story about a business professor at the University of Central Florida catching some 200 students cheating on a mid-term exam. The report shows an emotional Richard Quinn telling his business management class that as many as a third of the 600 students in his course had cheated. Quinn was tipped off by a student who anonymously gave him a copy of the exam with the answers.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story is one student at Central Florida telling ABC: “This is college, everyone cheats. Everyone cheats in life in general…”
A new website will serve as a gateway to 70 online degree and certificate programs offered by the University of Wisconsin System. Prior to the creation of the site – ecampus.wisconsin.edu – there was no centralized place to search through all the programs offered by the UW System?s 26 campuses.
Dear Editor: I work for the state of Wisconsin and am very concerned about the incoming governor — a career politician who ironically has bought into the philosophy that government is bad and we should privatize the whole thing. Scott Walker and Republicans, using the mantra ?government is bad,? have made it clear that they want to privatize as many public jobs as possible, and they plan on going after many workers beyond state employees.
Monday was a big day for awards for the University of Wisconsin football team.
For the second time this fall, a UW-Whitewater student may have been victim of a hate crime. On Sunday night, two men stopped a female student while she was walking, according to a message to students from UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard Telfer. One of them pushed her into a fence and made a derogatory comment about her sexual orientation, according to Telfer?s statement.
“UW-Whitewater is a place that values all people,” Telfer wrote. “This incident goes against everything that we stand for as a campus.”
Bill Tracy will serve as interim dean of UW-Madison?s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the university announced in a news release. Tracy, who chairs the agronomy department, will start his new post on Jan. 2, when Molly Jahn steps down as dean.Tracy came to UW-Madison in 1984 and has served as chair of the agronomy department since 2004. His research centers on the breeding and genetics of sweet corn.
The University of Wisconsin football team?s road to the Rose Bowl didn?t change over the weekend. The best way for the Badgers to get to Pasadena, Calif., and a potential berth against TCU — How?s that for tradition? — is to win their last three games and for Michigan State to lose.
The good news for UW is it strengthened its position in the Bowl Championship Series standings, moving up to two spots to seventh, with an average of .7349. Ohio State is the next-closest Big Ten team in ninth at .6613.
Wisconsin?s military veterans looking to take advantage of the generous education benefits they qualify for have a new website specifically designed for them. The new Veterans Wisconsin Education Portal was launched last week by a partnership including the University of Wisconsin System, University of Wisconsin-Extension, and the Wisconsin Technical College System.
I received an e-mail from a reader after the Cap Times posted an article last week which was headlined “Should students ?out? peers who don?t donate to university?”
The article noted how two high-profile institutions are receiving unwelcome attention after the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that students at two Ivy League schools publicized the names of seniors who didn?t contribute to their class gift.
Quoted: Kaylene Reilly, the associate director of annual giving with the School of Business
Louis Butler may finally get a shot at being a federal judge. After two nominations failed to lead to a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Herb Kohl?s office says the third time will be the charm.
?We expect the majority leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. to give Louis Butler a vote and that he will be confirmed,? Kohl spokeswoman Dawn Schueller says in an e-mail.
The senior moments are coming at an alarming rate these days for one of the most accomplished senior classes in University of Wisconsin women?s basketball history. As their final season commences, Alyssa Karel, Tara Steinbauer, Lin Zastrow and Emily Neal take note of each benchmark on their last go-round. And just in case they miss one, Zastrow is quick to point it out.
On the heels of its 12th straight Big Ten Conference championship, the University of Wisconsin men?s cross country team swept the league?s major postseason awards.
Walter T. Bjoraker, age 90, died Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 at home. After earning his doctorate, Walter played a leadership role in the Department of Agriculture and Extension Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, serving as department chairman for 20 years. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1984. Walter was devoted to the Future Farmers of America (FFA) all of his adult life, encouraging young people to serve rural communities.
Given the chance to shoot down a proposed tax hike, voters in the area bucked conventional wisdom Tuesday by overwhelmingly backing Madison Area Technical College?s ambitious expansion plans.
….The latest numbers show nearly 60 percent voted in favor of the referendum, which gives the school the green light to borrow up to $133.8 million to fund new building projects in Madison and upgrades to MATC?s campuses throughout the region.
Madison police are investigating a home invasion early Wednesday morning in which two men, one armed with a handgun, ordered residents back inside their home and took several electronic items before fleeing. The armed robbery was reported as 12:23 a.m. Wednesday at a residence in the 500 block of West Mifflin Street, police said.
It?s enough to make a purist squirm: a cellist playing the scroll or the tuning peg of his instrument, a violinist drawing his bow slowly from the bridge all the way to the fingerboard.
….The group is known for both promoting established, living composers ? they?ll play a piece by UW-Madison professor Laura Schwendinger in the Nov. 10 concert ? and helping students develop and annotate some of the unusual styles of playing that can emerge in contemporary composition. At times, reading through student work, the quartet has found a piece for their permanent repertoire.
For 17 years now, Bob Herbert?s columns in The New York Times have been exposing and challenging the injustices that so many among us endure in their lives. He has long been a favorite of mine, so when he was named to deliver the annual Robert W. Kastenmeier lecture sponsored recently by the UW-Madison?s Law School, I was first in line to get a ticket.
Herbert is, after all, one of the few national political columnists who regularly writes about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the terrible toll they are taking on the small slice of American society that has been sent to fight them. Unfortunately, the wars are flying under most Americans? radars. He used his lecture to encourage the overflow crowd at the Law School to wake up to what?s happening to our nation because of the wars.
….Herbert agrees with what I?ve said in this column over the years — if we returned to a military draft, we could solve many problems. First, if war becomes necessary, everyone would share the burden, not sweep it under a rug while others do the dirty work. But more importantly, if most of America stands to be affected, there would be more restraint on our leaders in starting a war in the first place. And ending it would become a much higher priority.
More furlough days for state workers, fewer people on BadgerCare, lower taxes for corporations, employee contributions to state pensions and a challenge to federal health care reform are all likely to be top items on the state agenda in the wake of a Republican wave that swept Democrats entirely out of power in Wisconsin state government.
….It’s less clear what a Walker administration will mean for state funding for the University of Wisconsin, but with Democrats out of power, education committee chairs will again be Republican and that means that Republican Rep. Steve Nass of Whitewater, a staunch and vocal critic of the university system, could again be the chairman of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee. His spokesman, Mike Mikalsen, on Tuesday said Nass would be interested in reclaiming that role.
If he did, he would push for capping college tuition increases and reducing wages and benefits for teachers, professors and administrators.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin
Patricia Martinson, age 61, of Waunakee, died unexpectedly on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010, at her home in Waunakee. She was employed at UW Letters and Sciences Administration in Madison.
The best cartoons hit a nerve, including one about education in the current issue of The New Yorker magazine.
Sitting in a park, two rather snooty looking mothers with toddlers are having a conversation. One assures the other, “We believe in the concept of public education.” But in reality? Well, they are probably like the narrator of “Waiting for Superman,” the controversial documentary about the failures of urban public education now playing at Sundance theater in Madison and in other theaters around the country.
Quoted: Gloria Ladson-Billings and Michael Apple, UW-Madison professors of curriculum and instruction in the School of Education.
Dear Editor: Regarding your recent article in which UW primate researcher Michele Basso said ?I had right on my side?: She certainly did, seeing as how a UW faculty committee conducted its own investigation.
…This whole research lab is a blight on the UW and Wisconsin. Perhaps Basso would like to take a primate?s place for a month if it is so right.
Could what?s taking place in Missouri be a sign of things to come in Wisconsin? The University of Missouri-Columbia, which is the flagship institution in the Show-Me State, plans to close five programs and reorganize 34 others, the Missourian reported. Public colleges across Missouri are making similar moves after Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon told the Department of Higher Education to conduct a statewide audit of academic programs at public schools.
MADISON (WKOW) — Don?t leave items unattended on UW campus. That?s the message from UW-Madison police who say there has been an increase of thefts.
The UW Police Department says the primary targets are laptop computers, backpacks and purses, and are often in open study areas. Police say nearly all thefts were of personal items left unattended by students or staff.
For the second time this year, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is traveling to China. She is scheduled to leave today, according to a news release from the university, stopping in Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong. Her trip will focus on academic collaborations, raising UW-Madison?s public profile in China and economic development.
Landon Peacock?s mad dash to the finish line to win the Big Ten Conference men?s cross country individual championship Sunday at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course was so dramatic it should take its place as one of the greatest moments of the renowned University of Wisconsin program. But it was a selfless act by sophomore Maverick Darling to set up the Badgers for their 12th consecutive team title that earned the loudest applause from those in the know.
An underground utility relocation project for UW-Madison will shut down the 1100 block of Spring Street through Wednesday. The Madison Traffic Engineering and Parking Divisions announced on Monday that through traffic will be barred Monday through Wednesday but local vehicle access will be maintained.
I wonder if we should stop encouraging our young people to go to college.
It has become fashionable, after all, in today?s American political environment to disparage the educated. For reasons I can?t really explain, folks with college educations are deemed too hoity-toity, I guess, to represent the great mass of Americans. At least, that?s the message being sent by the many angry-at-everybody people in the tea party movement.
Should a college be “outing” students who don?t donate to its coffers? Two high-profile institutions are receiving unwelcome attention after The Chronicle of Higher Education posted an article last week noting that students at two Ivy League institutions publicized the names of seniors who didn?t contribute to their class gift.
Quoted: Mike Knetter, president and CEO of the UW Foundation and former dean of the Wisconsin School of Business.
….Nonprofits building social networks seem to be betting on a lasting connection with their organizations, but that?s not what research on online engagement suggests, says Lewis Friedland, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: “There?s not a lot of evidence that people who click online are more likely to be mobilized to engage in the work of an organization.”
Bicyclists riding without lights after dark Wednesday night got a pleasant surprise when stopped by Madison police: lights instead of tickets. Instead of $76.20 citations for not having proper lighting, the bicyclists received $35 worth of front and rear lights, along with a good talking-to about safety.
….Several officers from the central police district, as well as community police team officers, stationed themselves on bike paths Wednesday night, including the popular path behind the Kohl Center, stopping bikers without lights.
UW-Madison announced in a news release that Molly Jahn will step down as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences on Jan. 1.In the release Chancellor Biddy Martin thanked Jahn — who has led the college since 2006 — for her work. But Martin stated that “now is the time for a change in leadership for the college.”
Did Evan Wynn, a state Assembly candidate running in the 43rd District, lie to the militant anti-abortion group Pro-Life Wisconsin or to the Wisconsin State Journal?
Wynn won the endorsement of Pro-Life Wisconsin, which asks its candidates to support a ban on embryonic stem cell research, which is vital to the University of Wisconsin?s pioneering and internationally respected stem cell research projects.
