UW-Madison volunteers keeping their eyes open on campus have earned national recognition. Badger Watch, which started in 2002 by the UW-Madison Police Department and now has more than 1,400 volunteers, has been named the top neighborhood watch program for 2010 by the National Sheriffs Association.
Dear Editor: The Big Ten athletic conference should be renamed the Big Midwest and should be a conference of big state universities of the Midwest. It should not be seeking new members outside of the Midwest. It should let Penn State go because Pennsylvania is not part of the Midwest and should let Northwestern go because it is a private university with a much smaller enrollment than the big state universities in the conference.
Stumbled across a few interesting higher education-related items, and thought Iâ??d pass them along:
** Is the value of a college education falling? Bloggers in the Chronicle of Higher Education recently made their arguments on both sides of the issue.
Would you sleep more peacefully in a hotel near a busy airport, or next door to the bone-rattling thump and thrum of stereo subwoofers in a student high-rise?
The jet engines are louder, believe it or not, but neither noise problem requires rocket science for a solution, says the architect designing twin 12-story towers â?? one hotel and one student apartment building â?? in Downtown Madison.
A University of Wisconsin doctor who was central to plans to provide late-term abortions is leaving for a job at Harvard University. Caryn Dutton, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UW-Madison, will join the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womenâ??s Hospital in Boston. Sheâ??ll leave UW later this summer.
Dutton performed abortions at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and was heavily involved in controversial plans to offer second-trimester abortions at the Madison Surgery Center.
Dear Editor: I read the article regarding the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into whether scientists should be charged after sheep died in University of Wisconsin experiments, violating a Wisconsin law that prohibits killing animals by decompression. I believe this law was enacted due to the excruciating pain animals endure when put through this procedure. It was made law for a reason. If the UW experimenters broke the law, they should be prosecuted. They are not above the law. The fact that they even think that makes me wonder how many other laws are broken due to the autonomous feelings such experimenters have.
Hereâ??s to UW-Madison professor Tim Smeeding for his comments to the LA Times about the wealthy rebounding quickly from the Great Recession while the rest of us continue to struggle.
Smeeding, a national expert on poverty and income equality, was given top line quote in a story showing the wealth gap again widening.
Door County, with its majestic homes, long stretches of shoreline, boathouses and galleries, conjures a welcoming atmosphere for the soothing harmonies of chamber music. Look to the areaâ??s Midsummerâ??s Music Festival as proof.
….David Perry, first violinist with the Pro Arte Quartet at UW-Madison, has played at the Midsummerâ??s Music Festival for 10 summers.
University of Wisconsin officials keep claiming that they need to hike tuition and otherwise collect additional revenues in order to meet the salary demands of the most talented professors and administrators.
But now comes the announcement that Department of Administration Secretary Michael Morgan has accepted a position as the UW Systemâ??s chief operating officer.
Before the other dominos start falling, before the race begins to see how far east the Pac-10 will grow, whether Texas will choose to save the Big 12 or put it to pasture, and whether the SEC or Big East will step in to claim the leftovers, we should really stop to pause and reflect on what is, by itself, a monumental moment in the history of college athletics.
Folks — Nebraska is about to join the freaking Big Ten.
The president of Wisconsinâ??s largest business group plans to retire. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce issued a statement Thursday saying 65-year-old Jim Haney, the groupâ??s president and chief executive officer, intends to step down in 2011.
…WHY IS IT that so many public sector institutions are absolutely tone deaf and clueless to the economic suffering being widely experienced by the people?
The latest example â?? itâ??s an annual ritual, actually â?? comes from the University of Wisconsin system. It is twofold: (1) The system has unburdened itself of yet another study purporting to show that employees and faculty are woefully under-compensated and deserving of big raises; and (2) UW regents will be asked, again this year, to grossly exceed prevailing inflationary figures by enacting a 5.5 percent tuition increase.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly says the 5.5 percent tuition increase he is recommending for the stateâ??s 13 four-year universities for 2010-11 is â??reasonable and predictable.â? Reilly is wrong.
In a time of economic instability, when unemployment is high, when families are struggling to make ends meet, when young people are having an especially hard time finding jobs, it is not reasonable. In fact, it is unsettling.
From watching the discussion of the proposed BioLink business incubator at Mondayâ??s Board of Estimates meeting and Wednesdayâ??s Madison Development Corporation board meeting, itâ??s almost as if the people involved were talking about two completely different projects.
At Mondayâ??s meeting with city officials, the tone was tense, with strong advocates and skeptics weighing the proposalâ??s economic development potential with the risks in relaxing another requirement of the cityâ??s financial aid policy for it.
The BioLink incubator is a proposal for the cityâ??s southeast side that would bring 31,000 square feet of specialized incubator space for fledgling bio-agriculture businesses, including shared lab and greenhouse space.
For the majority of recreational sports participants, the season ends after the final game. But for the growing membership of various local LGBTQ lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer teams and leagues, the offseason is an opportunity to make Madison a more comfortable, welcoming and fun place to live.
This fall, Jeanet Ugalde will attend UW-Madison on a full scholarship to study nursing. On Saturday, sheâ??ll be among the first students receiving a diploma as part of a Madison School District program designed to give first-generation students the training to succeed in high school.
â??When I got the (UW acceptance) letter … I cried, and I couldnâ??t believe it. I still canâ??t believe it. When I get the (tuition) bill around July and it says â??zero,â?? I will be so amazed,â? Ugalde, the first person in her family to graduate from high school, said of being accepted to college.
The University of Wisconsinâ??s two-year colleges could soon have the power to offer limited four-year degrees under a plan aimed at serving adult students in mostly rural areas.
The proposed bachelor of applied arts and sciences degree would be geared toward “place-bound students” who have earned associates degrees but canâ??t transfer to finish at four-year universities. Courses would emphasize skills like problem-solving and communication that local employers say are needed to improve their work force.
University officials say the degree would be a cheaper and better alternative to distance learning programs offered by for-profit colleges such as the University of Phoenix. The Board of Regents will consider the plan during a meeting at UW-Milwaukee on Thursday.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin called a Dane County Board proposal on monkey research “not a productive one” in a letter to board supervisors.
“The proposal that a panel be constituted to continue a discussion on a topic that has been exhaustively debated – and where reasonable people will continue to disagree – is not a productive one,” she wrote in a letter this week.
LINCOLN â?? An executive at a Big 12 school relayed to The World-Herald on Tuesday that he expects Nebraska to become a member of the Big Ten as early as Friday. NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman has declined all interviews about conference realignment and expansion. He is expected to address the topic with the Board of Regents at its Friday meeting in Lincoln.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department revoked the season ticket privileges of 22 patrons in 2009-10, the most since it instituted a behavorial policy at Camp Randall Stadium and the Kohl Center in 2006-07. All the revocations involved UW students, including 18 for football games, three for menâ??s hockey and one for menâ??s basketball.
By comparison, there were 10 revocations in 2008-09 (six students, four general public patrons), 17 in 2007-08 (15 students, two GPs) and 12 in 2006-07 (eight students, four GPs). All involved football games at Camp Randall.
Is the University of Texas football program the biggest piece in the college expansion puzzle? Bigger than even Notre Dame? The Longhorns think they are. And theyâ??re not alone in that thinking. Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds was asked about the mentality â?? Bigger is better? The rich get richer? Only the strong survive? â?? that may be spurring expansion.
â??We did not start this,â? Dodds told the Kansas City Star recently. â??If we need to finish it, weâ??ll finish it. Weâ??re going to be a player in whatever happens.
â??Weâ??re watching whatâ??s happening with the Big Ten, probably to a lesser degree to the Southeast Conference. If the landscape is going to change, weâ??re going to be a part of it, and be a viable part of it.â?
FluGen Inc. has gotten rights from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation to further develop a new class of antiviral drugs with the potential to stop viruses after a patient has been infected, the Madison start-up said Tuesday morning.
Six rings reported stolen by former University of Wisconsin and NFL running back Ron Dayne were returned to him Tuesday in a plastic bag, police said. Dayne had reported the rings stolen from his home in Waunakee. Madison Police Lt. Jennifer Krueger Favour said they were returned anonymously to Dayneâ??s apartment in nearby Madison.
The high-stakes poker game involving major-conference expansion/realignment continued over the weekend, and the involved parties donâ??t appear to be in a hurry to quit playing.
After a long public discussion, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has a workable plan for its new School of Freshwater Sciences that should keep both the researchers and the schoolâ??s corporate allies happy.
A 22-year-old downtown resident was so ticked off at the loud bar crowd next door he grabbed a bow and arrow and went out to confront the most boorish of the brood, Madison police reported.
Unfortunately for the modern day Robin Hood, the bow and arrow was disturbing to others, with police being called and an officer eventually drawing his gun at the archer before citing him for disorderly conduct.
…the local institution most vulnerable to legislative micro-management is UW-Madison. So much so that former Chancellor John Wiley, on departing two years ago, blasted some state legislators and the stateâ??s big business lobby for doing genuine harm to UWâ??s ability to remain a world-class institution with their small-minded tinkering.
When Wiley visited our offices back then, I inferred from him that he saw an anti-intellectual subtext in the struggle between the two ends of State Street. Looking back, that anti-UW fervor feels now like it vaguely presaged todayâ??s tea party movement.
Inside Higher Ed posted an interesting opinion piece outlining how the United States could go about changing its student loan system. A growing number of college grads are facing mountains of debt upon graduation, are struggling to make payments and are confused about their legal options.
Bruce Chapman, a professor of economics at Australian National University, and Yael Shavit, who will be starting Yale Law School in September, write that “this predicament was addressed and solved in Australia in 1989 — through income-contingent repayment systems that go beyond anything in the United States. The system has been effectively copied in many other countries. The U.S. system remains fraught with problems even though the solution has been transparent for over 20 years.”
In recent years, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly has stressed the need to keep tuition increases “reasonable and predictable.”
On Thursday, the Board of Regents is expected to approve a 5.5 percent tuition hike for state students attending one of the UW Systemâ??s four-year institutions during 2010-11. This proposed increase is part of the systemâ??s 2010-11 operating budget, which is to be voted on during regents meetings hosted by UW-Milwaukee.
Reilly is proposing yet another tuition freeze at the systemâ??s 13 two-year colleges — keeping tuition at $4,268, the same as in 2006. The freeze is an attempt to keep the UW Colleges as an affordable entry point to the UW System.
All of the expansion talk over the past few months might now be coming to a head, with not just the Big Ten involved, but the Big 12 and Pac-10 as well. The Big Ten got the ball rolling back in December with talk of expansion. That started a cavalcade of rumors and reports over the past few months.
Only now it is the Big 12 – and Pac-10 – which have dropped the gauntlet. According to the Austin American-Statesman, the Big 12 has told Nebraska and Missouri to basically put up or shut up, giving the two schools a deadline of Friday to tell the conference whether they will continue to flirt with the Big Ten or stay in the Big 12.
Mentions that on the NuGenesis Farm this month, volunteers and the farm manager, Erin Silva, a PhD who runs an organic agriculture research program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, were focused on the first plantings.
When faculty and academic staff across the University of Wisconsin System were given the right to form unions with collective bargaining powers last June, David Ahrens viewed the legislation as â??long overdueâ? and a â??well-deserved right.â?
After all, most of the 10,000 classified staff working within the UW System â?? including accountants, computer staff and custodians â?? have long been unionized. Ahrens believed it was only fair that the roughly 6,700 faculty and 13,200 academic staff across the system be afforded the same opportunity.
….Less than a year later, however, Ahrens is sharply critical of what he sees as the unprincipled tactics being employed by unions to absorb potentially thousands of academic staffers across the system into existing bargaining units without giving these workers a vote on whether or not they want in.
The way psychopathic prisoners play games resembles patterns shown by people whose brains have been damaged by such medical conditions as strokes and tumors, according to an intriguing set of experiments conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
The research, published in this monthâ??s issue of Neuropsychologia, is the latest contribution to a growing trove of evidence challenging long-standing notions about the nature and roots of psychopathic behavior.
Quoted: Researchers Michael Koenigs, assistant professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Public Health, and Joseph Newman, professor of psychology.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Friday that he has appointed Ted Kellner, chairman and CEO of Fiduciary Management, to replace Ulice Payne Jr., on the Bradley Center board. Kellner is a a well-known supporter and benefactor to the University of Wisconsin-Madison athletic department.
The Madison Sports Hall of Fame added four local notables â?? Dr. Conrad Andringa, Al Hovland, Greg Oâ??Brien and Vince Sweeney â?? to its ranks in ceremonies Wednesday night at Monona Terrace.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists each will receive $200,000 unrestricted research prizes from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. The 2010 Shaw Scientist Award grants will go to Anjon (Jon) Audhya, an assistant professor of biomolecular chemistry, and Eric Strieter, assistant professor of chemistry.
Itâ??s sundown on a beautiful Monday night on the Memorial Union Terrace, and patrons are gathered around tables, pouring each other plastic cups of beer and laughing. But many of them arenâ??t looking at the orange-pink sky above or the silvery expanse of Lake Mendota, or doing the usual people-watching sport of a summertime Terrace night.
Instead, their attention is focused on a screen set up on the Terraceâ??s covered music stage, where Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy are giving Principal Vernon (â??You just bought yourself another Saturday, pal!â?) a hard time in the seminal 1985 teen flick â??The Breakfast Club.â? Welcome to Lakeside Cinema, a Monday night ritual on the Terrace for at least 30 years.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will begin a new search for an athletic director now that George Koonce has officially announced his resignation after a rocky year as the head of the department.
UW-Madisonâ??s Institute for Research on Poverty is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Summer Research Workshop next week by offering five free talks that are open to the public.
The keynote speeches, which take place Monday through Wednesday, will center on issues related to the poor in the United States, and efforts to reduce poverty.
Almost from its inception nearly 20 years ago, University Ridge has been critically acclaimed for its design, playability and ambience. Its greens are another story because they have never consistently measured up to the rest of the course.
It looks like thatâ??s about to change. Officials from the University of Wisconsin athletic department are expected to discuss this month with the Athletic Boardâ??s University Ridge oversight committee a plan to reseed the courseâ??s 18 greens and practice green in front of the clubhouse.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professors will receive the 2010 Shaw Scientist Awards, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation announced on Wednesday.
Anjon Audhya, assistant professor of biomolecular chemistry, and Eric Strieter, assistant professor of chemistry, each will get a $200,000 unrestricted prize from the James D. and Dorothy Shaw Fund. The funding provides needed support to young scholar-scientists engaged in groundbreaking research in the fields of genetics, cell biology and cancer research at critical stages in their careers, according to a release from the UW-Madison news service.
Should I refer to you as Dr. So-And-So if you arenâ??t a medical doctor, but you earned a Ph.D.?
This topic came up while doing a little fact checking with a source for my Tim Cordes profile. This person — who I did not end up mentioning in the article — suggested that I refer to him/her as Dr. So-and-So. Or at the very least that I refer to him/her as So-And-So, Ph.D.
I pointed out that Associated Press style says to generally only use the title of Dr. in front of someone who is a medical doctor.
Dear Editor: As a master chef, I have a developed a unique and innovative approach to cooking and health called Frameworkcooking. How does it differ from other cooking methods? It is focused on creating â??framesâ? instead of recipes and applying them to the targeted culinary or ethnic environment. I apply these concepts daily in my work at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, where patients and staff enjoy my cuisine in the hospitalâ??s cafeteria.
Thirteen Dane County supervisors are co-sponsoring a resolution that would have the county take a stand on scientific research that uses monkeys in experiments on the University of Wisconsin campus. Sound like a frivolous undertaking on the part of elected officials charged with managing the affairs of the county? Not exactly.
Standing up for animals, unfortunately, has seldom been taken seriously by research institutions and since one of the worldâ??s biggest experimenters happens to be right here in Dane County, it makes sense that the locals show some concern and take a peek at whatâ??s going on.
Itâ??s not uncommon for co-workers to stumble upon Tim Cordes sitting in the dark.
â??I couldnâ??t function in the dark, but he â??sees,â??” says Dr. Nancy Barklage, who recalls entering a room prior to a UW Health staff meeting, turning on the lights and finding Cordes quietly working on his laptop while waiting for others to arrive. â??Iâ??ve experienced this a number of times now and it still kind of puts you into his reality.â?
Cordes is blind….Heâ??s now a 34-year-old trailblazing physician who is wrapping up the third year of a four-year residency program with UW-Madisonâ??s department of psychiatry.
â??He has overcome challenges that most of us have just never been faced with,â? says Barklage, an associate professor of psychiatry who has supervised Cordesâ?? work at UW Healthâ??s Psychiatric Institute and Clinic the past three years.
Madison police said they are investigating an arson fire after a vehicle was set on fire downtown early Wednesday morning. The arson happened shortly before 3 a.m. in the 100 block of West Johnson Street, said Lt. Joey Skenandore. No one was injured.
A week ago, UW-Madison police arrested a 21-year-old student for allegedly setting fires in two trash-filled dumpsters and in two university-owned vehicles.
Tom Ragatz is thinking what many longtime UW football season ticket holders are probably thinking about the Big Ten conferenceâ??s possible expansion to as many as 16 teams.
He is skeptical, sees greed as the overriding motive and worries the change will put the rich tradition of UW sports at risk. Ragatz, a well-known Madisonian and retired partner of the Foley & Lardner law firm here, has what must be one of the longest-running first-hand perspectives on the issue.
Barry Alvarez received an unexpected gift while attending the recent Big Ten Conference meetings in Chicago.Wisconsinâ??s athletic director was informed he had made the cut for the College Football Hall of Fameâ??s 2010 class.
As the number of college graduates entering the labor market increases in coming weeks, many will ride out the tough job market with a short-term or part-time internship in the hopes that it will lead to long-term work. The popularity of internships for recent grads and employers continues to grow as the slow economy has forced businesses to be more discerning about the costs of a full-time workforce.
Stemina also said its chief scientific officer, Gabriela Cezar, has taken a one-year leave of absence from her faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to work in Brazil with Burrill & Co., a California venture capital firm that invests in life sciences companies. Cezar will continue to be the companyâ??s part-time chief scientific officer, and she will split her time between Madison and Brazil, Donley said.
Hereâ??s a bit of good news for a beautiful May day. Wisconsin added 16,400 jobs between March and April 2010 – the largest monthly increase in employment in more than a decade.
A new report from the UW-Madisonâ??s Center on Wisconsin Strategy even says the stateâ??s economy “may have finally turned a corner.”
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department said Tuesday that a suspect has been arrested in connection with arson cases. Police said that four fires were reported between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in an area south of University Avenue, north of Regent Street, east of Charter Street and west of Park Street.
** In a key step to creating computers that could work millions of times faster than existing devices, a team of scientists unveiled a transistor that is made up of just seven atoms, according to AFP.
The research was led by the University of New South Wales, with key contributions from those at UW-Madison.
** Just a reminder that UW-Madison will conduct an all-day, full-scale emergency response exercise on campus Wednesday. This training event will take place around Bradley Residence Hall, 1900 Willow Dr., and UW Lot 34, 1480 Tripp Circle.
Called Operation Badger One, the event is designed to simulate an incident on campus that will need a response from a number of emergency organizations in Dane County. The exercise will include actors posing as victims and police officers with weapons drawn.
Firefighters and police were busy early Tuesday morning putting out four fires set on the UW-Madison campus.
The UW Police Department said the four fires were reported between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. in an area south of University Avenue, north of Regent Street, east of Charter Street and west of Park Street. Two fires were in trash-filled dumpsters, and two were set in university-owned vehicles, said Sgt. Anita Kichefski of the UW-Madison Police Department.
Real estate developers have long yearned to create rooms with a view. Penthouse units or those with the best vista typically command top dollar. But some of the swanky new high-rise apartments replacing the aging rental units on campus offer no view. In fact, many of the bedrooms donâ??t even have windows.
“A certain percentage of people like dark bedrooms,” says Jim Stopple, president of Madison Property Management. “I guess you could say they are evening people.”To that end, nearly one-third of the 234 bedrooms in the proposed “Humbucker Apartments” at 1208 Spring St. have no windows.
The expansion of Wisconsinâ??s bear population has motivated researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to initiate a study focused on bear movement at the southern extent of the animalâ??s range. The study, now in its fifth year, tracks bears in the central and western part of the state and the public is encouraged to report bear sightings.
Gov. Jim Doyle says dozens of Wisconsin businesses are interested in supplying biomass products to help fuel a University of Wisconsin-Madison power plant.
A total of 59 businesses have responded to a state request for information regarding the supply of biomass for the proposed Charter Street heating plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
In a full-page ad in Mondayâ??s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, dozens of faculty members at both Marquette University and Seattle University condemned Marquetteâ??s decision to rescind the offer made to Jodi Oâ??Brien to serve as dean of the schoolâ??s College of Arts and Sciences, and called on administrators to offer her the job again with an apology.
One of the schools best positioned to teach student doctors about the new technology appears to be the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which began using a laboratory exercise in genetic testing some 20 years ago. Today, in the schoolâ??s medical genetics class, students sample their own DNA by scraping cells from their cheeks. Instructors then test the studentsâ?? DNA and provide them with anonymous results to analyze. The test, developed at UW with help from a local biotech firm, focuses on one particular gene that determines whether people taste a bitter compound when they eat vegetables such as broccoli.
