The University of Wisconsin football teamâ??s crucial home game against Ohio State on Oct. 16 will have a 6 p.m. kickoff, ESPN announced on Wednesday. The game will be televised by either ESPN or ESPN2. Itâ??s the second straight home night game against the Buckeyes for the Badgers, who lost to Ohio State 20-17 at night in 2008.
Arnold Weiss, one of five recipients of the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Wisconsin Alumni Association, which will be presented Thursday on campus, had an illustrious career in international investment banking.
A company he helped create became the worldâ??s largest private equity firm investing in new markets like Korea and South America.
But the most striking â?? perhaps the real word is incredible â?? aspect of Weissâ??s resume is something that occurred when he was barely into his 20s.
It was a remarkable event. Twenty million Americans came together in small towns and major cities to take action on April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day was the largest grass-roots demonstration in American history. Almost overnight, the right to a clean and healthy environment, championed across time and the political spectrum by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson, became the nationâ??s chorus. A decade of sweeping environmental legislation and reform followed.
Forty years later, coalitions of citizens – concerned about climate change, food security, health, energy supplies and clean water – still work to address local and global environmental challenges. As we celebrate this week the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the past informs our present and future. A column by Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
….I saw young children sprawled on the Capitol lawn. Judging by the school buses parked in the area, it appeared that these young people had traveled from rural areas of Wisconsin to visit, perhaps for the first time, our grand Capitol and to develop a patriotic sense of democracy. Their smiles and enthusiasm were indeed a heart-lifting scene in contrast to the bitterness and hatred on the other side of the building.
Continuing down State Street and through campus, I saw hundreds more people, mostly young, optimistic students, hurrying off to classes and choosing not to participate in destructive rhetoric, but instead choosing to enjoy the day by pursuing the truth through education and civil conversation. They too were a refreshing contrast to the depressing gathering on the other end of State Street.
….In a better economy, the areaâ??s proximity to the Capitol, UW-Madison and Williamson Street businesses might have been enough to spur development, but going forward, observers acknowledge there are physical limits and negative perceptions that must be surmounted. And, with tight financial markets that have dampened building plans nationally, many also suggest that the city may need to provide developers with some financial kindling to spark development.
Does Fidoâ??s breath smell like he just ate a dead mouse?
Well bucko, youâ??re in luck. Learn how to brush your dogâ??s teeth and even how to give CPR to your cuddly canine at the second annual UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine open house.
Wisconsin menâ??s basketball coach Bo Ryan might have to hire a new assistant coach before next season after all. Gary Close, who joined the UW staff in the spring of 2003, is in the running to take over the Cornell program.
Billions of years before last Wednesday night, two asteroids collided somewhere in outer space, sending a rock on a path that ultimately led to Kevin Wasleyâ??s farm field. It took much less time to nudge the orbits of meteorite hunters careening to southwestern Wisconsin where their zeal for tiny black rocks from outer space has created quite a sensation and boosted business in nearby communities.
Mentions the display at the UW Geology Museum, with a photograph from the display.
A negligence claim by the family of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann against the owners and managers of the apartment building where she died will go forward, a Dane County judge ruled Tuesday.
Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi denied a motion for summary judgment that was sought by Wisconsin Management, which managed the apartment building at 517 W. Doty St. where Zimmermann lived, and building owners Russ Endres and Carl Van Rooy. Sumi ruled that there are too many issues of fact that, by law, should be addressed by a jury and not by a judge.
Isadore Fine shakes his head at the sight of some weeds.
“Oh my God, two dandelions. Iâ??ve got to get my spade,â? Fine exclaims in the garden outside his Shorewood Hills home, where visitors are welcome and the brilliant tulips are peaking this week. The garden attracted about 100 people on Sunday, said Fine, a 91-year-old professor emeritus of business at UW-Madison.
** Pieces of the meteorite that fell in southwestern Wisconsin last week will be on public display Tuesday through Sunday at the UW-Madison Geology Museum. At least five pieces, each approximately the size of an “unshelled peanut,” can be looked at.
** A number of UW-Madison programs were recognized in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of the “Best Graduate Schools.”
Two UW programs ranked among the top 10 nationally, with the chemistry department tied for seventh overall and the School of Education ninth.
….”The Princeton Reviewâ??s Guide to 286 Green Colleges” was released Tuesday and is based on a survey of hundreds of colleges nationwide. It “profiles the nationâ??s most environmentally-responsible campuses.”
Locally, UW-Madison and Edgewood College did not make the cut.
The University of Wisconsin Law School moved up several spots in this yearâ??s U.S. News & World Report rankings. The stateâ??s only public law school rose from 35 last year to six-way tie for 28th spot this year. Others at that rank includ Boston College, William & Mary, UC-Davis, North Carolina and Georgia. UW noted its rise on the law schoolâ??s Web site.
The questions facing Wisconsinâ??s defensive line when spring football practice opened last month were serious and several:
How would UW replace four of its top five tackles from last season? Who would replace departed end Oâ??Brien Schofield, the unitâ??s best player in 2009? Would line coach Charlie Partridge be able to develop a rotation deep enough to keep the starters fresh?
After the annual spring game Saturday, a 33-11 victory for the Cardinal team, some questions remain unanswered.
The University of Wisconsin System has spent roughly $2.7 million over a decade on lobbying in Washington. Marquette University has spent $1.2 million. Both educational institutions racked up six-figure federal lobbying tabs last year alone, records analyzed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics show.
A survey of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students shows a majority of those who responded do not support an increase in a student fee to help pay for $75 million in possible renovations to the student Union building.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday got their first look at what they believe to be fragments of a meteor that set night skies ablaze over much of southern Wisconsin and Iowa earlier in the week. The fragment, which measures about 2 inches by 3/4 of an inch and weighs 7.5 grams, was found by a farmer west of Madison on Thursday morning, researchers said in a news release from the university.
When Ruben Garcia saw video of the meteorite that streaked across the Wisconsin sky on Wednesday night, it might as well have been the Bat-Signal. The professional meteorite hunter, known to many as Mr. Meteorite, was in his car the next day, driving from his home in Phoenix, bound for Iowa County to look for every chunk of that meteorite he could find.
The controversy over primate research is not going away any time soon, due to the paradox of primate research — the more similarities between monkeys and humans that are discovered, the more researchers will argue those similarities make it valid to use monkeys in research on human diseases. Primate advocates will continue to ask: How like us need they be before primate research is considered to be unethical?
(Amy M. Kerwin of Madison worked at the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology from 1999 to 2004.)
For low-income applicants to U.S. colleges, April remains the cruelest month. By early April, almost all admission decisions are known. Colleges shift from screening applications to wooing admitted students. Affluent students can attend â??pre-froshâ? events and enjoy being courted.
Most low-income applicants, however, spend April trying to figure out whether they can afford to pursue their dreams.
(Nina W. Marks is president of Collegiate Directions Inc., a nonprofit that works with low-income, first-generation-to-college students from public schools. This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
University of Wisconsin President Kevin Reilly wants to boost the stateâ??s college graduation rate by 30 percent over the next 15 years, and although his goal is laudable his plan is not necessarily the path to it.
….This Thursday, Earth Day will mark its 40th anniversary with celebrations across the country. Events have been going on since last weekend and continue this week. One of the biggest is being sponsored by the UW-Madison program that bears the name of Nelson, who died in 2005 at age 89.
The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studiesâ?? two-day conference, “Earth Day at 40: Valuing Wisconsinâ??s Environmental Traditions, Past, Present and Future,” begins Tuesday at the Monona Terrace Convention Center and concludes Wednesday.
The Wisconsin Film Festival has “summarily rejected” Christopher Ewingâ??s and Jacob Strunkâ??s films for years, as Strunk put it. This year they finally got in: Ewingâ??s “Thru” and Strunkâ??s “This Is the Place” screened as part of a series of five shorts Friday night at the Cinematheque.
Both filmmakers have local connections (Ewing graduated from UW-Madison, Strunk grew up in Oconomowoc) and live in Los Angeles doing film-related work and making shorts on the side.
â??Bel canto” might be nicknamed “opera for divas.” The Italian phrase means “beautiful singing,” and itâ??s designed to show off the best trills, frills and ornamentations a singer can produce.
“It would not be possible to do this opera if it were not for the extraordinary singers that will be performing in it,” said William Farlow, director of University Opera.
Mary “Buff” Brennan, dance professor emerita, remembers when Billie ran the elevator in Lathrop Hall.
“When I came, we had only one elevator,” Brennan said. “It was a cage, and a woman operated it. She would open the door, sit there … and take you in and go to whatever floor you wanted to go.”
From toe-touches on the floor of a gymnasium to world premieres of complex choreography, Lathrop Hall has seen some significant changes in its 100 years. Built as an “activity space” for women in 1910, the current home of the UW-Madison Dance Program originally had a gymnasium, a track and a pool (turned into a studio during an extensive renovation in 1997).
Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the last men to walk on the moon, has nothing good to say about President Barack Obamaâ??s plan to all but ground the Constellation program, which calls for a return to the moon by 2020 and human landings on Mars by the middle of the century.
â??Iâ??m afraid what the president and his administration want is for the United States to no longer be preeminent in space flight,â? Schmitt, an honorary fellow in the UW-Madison College of Engineering, says in a phone interview from Albuquerque, N.M., where he lives. â??And that has very, very serious consequences.â?
“Paddle to Seattle” is one of those movies that is summed up neatly by its title. Itâ??s about two guys who, well, paddle to Seattle. In 2008, J.J. Kelley and Josh Thomas built their own kayaks and paddled 1,300 miles from Alaska to Seattle along the Pacific shoreline, filming along the way.
The feature-length documentary, edited by UW-Madison graduate Ben Gottfried, screened Sunday afternoon to an enthusiastic crowd in the Wisconsin Union Theater as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.
Whether itâ??s to mark Thursdayâ??s 40th anniversary of Earth Day or simply to herald the arrival of spring, now seems like a great time to check out one of southcentral Wisconsinâ??s many nature and environmental centers.
How many of us have a doctor come to our home to check on our family health every week? Every two weeks? Every month?
Probably not a one, unless there is a specific illness that must be monitored and we canâ??t make it to a clinic or hospital. Yet many of Wisconsinâ??s top dairy herds are visited by a veterinarian (who is indeed a well-trained and skilled doctor) on a regular weekly, biweekly or monthly schedule.
One movie that will premier this weekend is not part of the Wisconsin Film Festival, but is very Wisconsin.
The first showing of the documentary “Go West Happy Cow” will be Friday at the Stadium Bar, followed by showings in a barn in Deerfield and a bar in Sheboygan. The 95-minute movie was filmed last fall during a nine-day, 2,200-mile trip through eight states from Wisconsin to California. It chronicles the adventures of two Wisconsinites, one dressed as a cow, promoting the contents of the 30-foot horse trailer they pulled behind their pickup truck.
A Pulitizer Prize winner, a network TV news reporter and a judge are among the honorees to be awarded the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
The awards ceremony will be on April 22 at 5 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater at Memorial Union on the UW-Madison campus.
An army of 205 volunteers are giving their time to the Wisconsin Film Festival this week. Thatâ??s a little fewer than in past years, fest director Meg Hamel explained in an e-mail Wednesday, “in part because we have eight theaters instead of 10, and in part because many returning volunteers are working a few more shifts. Iâ??d prefer to have fewer people working MORE during the festival; their experience matters over the course of the weekend.
To land a spot in the UW Marching Band, Matt Endres made it through the physically exhausting tryout week. He nailed his audition. He beat out other hopeful trumpet players. And he did it with just two fingers on each hand.
Thatâ??s quite a feat, considering the highly selective UW Marching Band turns away about 100 people who audition every year, and director Mike Leckrone isnâ??t exactly known for his leniency.
â??Matt would probably tell you, I didnâ??t give him anything,â? Leckrone said. â??Anything that he did he really earned.â?
The longest-running film series offered at the Memorial Union, Starlight Cinema, is dissolving as the student film committee moves to more flexible one-off programming in the fall.
Other series going away are the “MU movies” — popular current films shown on the weekends in the Unionâ??s Fredric March Play Circle — as well as Reel to Reel and International Cinema.
Add the state high school speech tournament to the perfect storm of traffic congestion in Madison this weekend. With 5,000 students descending on the UW-Madison campus on Friday, campus officials are advising motorists to avoid various streets as dozens of yellow school buses drop off students on Friday afternoon.
An apparent meteor â?? or possibly a piece of space junk â?? shot through and illuminated the night sky Wednesday, spurring dozens of people to flood the Dane County 911 Center with calls.
The object was first reported to the center about 10:15 p.m., and calls continued for more than an hour after that. Calls came from residents in at least five Midwestern states as the object tracked from west to east.
Quoted: Ankur Desai, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and Jim Lattis, director of Space Place
Even the most diehard cinephile is only going to see a fraction of the 192 films that are playing at this yearâ??s Wisconsin Film Festival, which runs Wednesday, April 14, through Sunday, Spril 18, at several downtown and campus venues, including the Orpheum Theatre, Wisconsin Union Theater and Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
All 192 movies â?? thatâ??s a lot of to choose from, and somewhere in that massive schedule at wifilmfest.org is something for everybody.
Dear Editor: As a current Badger, I am extremely supportive and happy with the universityâ??s decision to end its contract with Nike. This is an unbelievable start to addressing the labor rights of factory workers around the world. The university can only be seen as an example of how to stand up for human rights.
However, I am disappointed and disgusted with some of the online comments posted on Todd Finkelmeyerâ??s April 9 article â??UW-Madison ends Nike contract amid labor concerns.â?
Big fun was had by all at the big band dance party on April 7 at Monona Terrace, with the UW-Madison Jazz Orchestra swinging through the sweet sounds of Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller, music that first revved the engines of the orchestra membersâ?? grandparents and continues to keep a stomp in the Savoy step of be-boppers today.
The free event was part of the Tunes at Monona Terrace series, which features local musicians and dancers from a wide spectrum of sounds and styles.
Nothing represents Badger spirit more than the triumphant sounds of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band. Enjoy the sounds of the group off the field at the annual University of Wisconsin Varsity Band Concert Thursday through Saturday, April 15 through 17, at the Kohl Center, 601 W. Dayton St.
….Friends of UW-Madisonâ??s Lakeshore Nature Preserve along Lake Mendota are having a party â?? a garlic mustard control party.
A man upset he couldnâ??t attend a private party at a UW-Madison fraternity on Saturday night took it out on cars parked outside and on windows of the fraternity house, police said.
Nine cars parked in a lot at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house, 644 N. Frances St., were scratched with a key or other sharp instrument, and two windows of the house were broken, according to Madison police.
What better place to hold a “green” running event than the UW-Madison Arboretum?
The first annual Spring Sprint for the Arb is set for this Saturday, April 17, with runners competing on a five-kilometer course that will wind through the Arboretum. Non-runners also are invited to the Spring Sprint to participate in a one-mile trail walk with Arboretum naturalists.
A few notes, quotes and observations from the UW-Madison Faculty Senate meeting held Monday evening at Bascom Hall.
Few topics tend to spark more emotional banter among faculty leaders than the schoolâ??s athletic department. So it was a mild upset when UW-Madison professor Murray Clayton summarized a committee report that examined whether the Athletic Board is properly overseeing the athletic department — and no one stood up to question the findings.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is ending a licensing agreement with Nike because the university says the company has not addressed labor issues with factories in Honduras that make licensed clothing for colleges.
Quoted: Barry Orton, a University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications professor.
Inspired by his solution for one of the computer industryâ??s biggest problems, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Guri Sohi decided to pursue a strategy thatâ??s gaining popularity in Wisconsinâ??s academic circles: starting a company.
Itâ??s not up and running yet, but Sohi says heâ??s deep into the details of a developing a business plan for the firm.”Iâ??m very excited about the technology we have. It goes counter to four decades of thinking,” said Sohi, a computer science professor and former head of the schoolâ??s computer sciences department.
Judging from the numbers, you might think there arenâ??t a lot of Guri Sohis in Wisconsin.Professors at UW-Madison – the stateâ??s biggest research engine – started just six companies in fiscal 2008, according to the recently released Association of University Technology Managers survey of licensing activity.
Over the next 15 years, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly wants to see 33,700 students graduate annually from the system of four-year and two-year colleges, up from 26,000 per year currently.
He says itâ??s a financial investment in the stateâ??s economic future.
Producing more college graduates is a laudable goal â?? and, yes, college degrees give adults an edge in the jobs market. How that growth is pursued will determine how effective such a plan will be.
The state of Wisconsin is finally at the brink of the crisis weâ??ve all seen coming for a long time.
As structural deficits increased each biennium the past many years – with no end in sight thanks to inexorable shifts in demographics and Wisconsin’s economy – blue-ribbon panels and special commissions have tried to come up with ideas that could right the ship of state.
Dear Editor: This time of year, high school seniors across Wisconsin are making their decision about where to attend college. In the midst of all of this excitement, the story that is so often not discussed is that of the students whose options are limited due to a lack of time spent discussing their post-secondary opportunities.
Far too many students are unaware of their opportunities for financial aid and scholarships. Furthermore, the structure designed to give these students the information they need often leaves them with more questions than answers. Much of this is due to inadequate college counseling.
The natural beauty of Wisconsin hides an ugly truth: This state is facing an aging population of non-working retirees while its best and brightest young people are leaving for greener pastures.
This scenario is played out in a new report from Wisconsin Way, a coalition of business, government and educational groups working on solutions to the stateâ??s biggest challenges.
The University Committee released a document Friday to help guide UW-Madison faculty through a discussion of the proposed restructuring of the universityâ??s research enterprise. This paper will get a first reading at Mondayâ??s Faculty Senate meeting.
There are probably a lot of 70-year-old men who owe Bert I. Gordon a big debt of gratitude.
Back in the 1950s, when those guys were teenagers at the drive-in movies, giant bald men (“The Amazing Colossal Man”), giant spiders (“Earth Vs. The Spider”) or giant grasshoppers (“The Beginning of the End”) rampaged across the screen in one of Gordonâ??s monster movies, Those guys probably got some serious cuddle action from their dates.
One out of every four women in America experience some type of domestic violence within their lifetimes, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
To raise awareness, students from the UW-Madison School of Social Work-Community Agencies Field Seminar will host an intimate partner violence IPV fair Monday afternoon on Library Mall.
University of Wisconsin campuses will be required to get student input before recommending special tuition increases but they wonâ??t need studentsâ?? permission under a policy adopted Friday.
During a meeting in Fond du Lac, the Board of Regents approved a policy spelling out the process campuses must follow before implementing extra tuition increases.
If a plan to boost the number of Wisconsin graduates gets a green light, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will have to do the heaviest lifting.
The university would award about 14,000 more degrees by 2025-â??26 than it would if the plan doesnâ??t get funding. Thatâ??s nearly three times the number of additional graduates that UW-Madison would produce under the plan, and more new graduates than any of the other UW campuses as well.
Sixty-nine Wisconsin doctors were on the payroll of the worldâ??s largest drug company, Pfizer, during the last six months of 2009, working as speakers, consultants and researchers and pulling in more than $200,000 combined, according to a list made public by the company.
Itâ??s unlikely that theyâ??ll reveal any substantial spoilers about how the epic television series “Lost” will end (in only five more episodes!).
When “Lost” co-writers and executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis visit UW-Madison next Wednesday, theyâ??ll more likely share how they went from UW-Madison students to major players in show business.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is ending its apparel contract with Nike, becoming the first school to cut ties with the athletic shoe and apparel giant due to alleged labor rights abuses at two factories overseas.
University officials announced their decision Friday afternoon at a meeting of the Labor Licensing Policy Committee at Bascom Hall.
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a bill to bar public access to recordings of 911 emergency calls. These audio recordings would be replaced with transcripts.
As a broadcast news professional, I understand that 911 calls may be painful for families of victims. Thatâ??s why a lot of thought already goes into deciding whether and how to use these recordings.
At WMTV-TV (Ch. 15) in Madison, where I work, these decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. We do not sensationalize 911 calls. We do not air these recordings just because we have them.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students marched on Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s office Thursday and made a simple demand: Take a firm stand against the abusive practices of the Nike corporation. The manufacturer of shoes and athletic wear, which has a licensing contract with the UW, is in violation of commitments it made to respect the rights of workers at two of its Honduran apparel factories.
