Listening to the soft-spoken words of the Somali-born guest stood in stark contrast to the ferocious debate the campus visitor brought with her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Tuesday.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken feminist who is critical of Islam and its treatment of women, spoke to an overflowing crowd of 1,300 people as part of a lecture series.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A University of Wisconsin-Madison senior from Singapore has died after being hospitalized for bacterial meningitis.Neha Suri died Tuesday at UW Hospital and Clinics with family and friends at her side.
The university is remembering her as a writer for The Daily Cardinal newspaper who was active in the campus arts scene, worked at a campus recreational facility and interned at the State Capitol. She was a journalism and political science major.
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Madison student who had contracted bacterial meningitis has died.
A posting on social media Web site CaringBride.org purportedly from the family and friends of Neha Suri said that she passed away on Tuesday afternoon. The 22-year-old journalism student fell ill from bacterial meningitis last week and had been in an induced coma, according to school health officials.
Wisconsin International University could be forced to change its name. So might Heed University. And a job applicant who recently tried to claim a phony degree from Madison Business College could be criminally prosecuted.
State lawmakers are considering a bill that would crack down on the manufacture and use of phony academic credentials in Wisconsin by criminalizing both practices. It would also prohibit unauthorized schools from using the words “college,” â??â??university,” â??â??state” or “Wisconsin” in their names.
Quoted: Former UW-Madison chancellor John Wiley
Today the University of Wisconsin Union Theater will host Ayaan Hirsi Ali as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series. Originally she was rejected as a speaker – too controversial.
….It is sad and even frightening that students, or any one for that matter, would succumb to the notion that the right to speak is measured by the messenger being timid, meek, and boring.
Fortunately there was an opportunity to revisit the issue and the right thing was done.
Thirty years after the “Miracle on Ice,” Mark Johnson returns to the Winter Olympics for another shot at gold.
The No. 1 one issue today for students at University of Wisconsin System schools and across the nation is the inability to pay their tuition. As the amount students pay for their education increases, the State of Wisconsinâ??s contributions to higher education continue to decrease. The systematic, historical and ongoing reasons for this change in our state and society cannot be explained quickly or easily. A column by Jay Burseth, president of the UW-Milwaukee Student Association.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student is in critical condition with bacterial meningitis, UW Hospital spokesman Aaron Conklin said Monday.The student, a senior, is at UW Hospital. Several students who were in close contact with her have been given a course of antibiotics to ward off infection, said Sarah Van Orman, director of UW Health Services.
Bruce Neviaser, along with serving on the boards of companies funded by Continuum, has served on the advisory board for the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business; the deanâ??s advisory board of the business school; and the boards of several Madison community groups.
Dear Editor: I am extremely displeased with the handling of the public skating access and ticket availability for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to skate at Camp Randall Stadium on Feb. 5.
I cannot believe that the UW limited the skating to such so few people and limited access over such a tiny window of time.
It may be cold outside, but itâ??s a hot time for dance in Madison. With four shows in the next three weeks featuring a half-dozen dance companies, both local and national, itâ??s the perfect time to watch bodies in motion.
The outpouring of support that often follows massive disasters inevitably sparks discussion on the psychology of giving. Why do people respond so generously with their money to events overseas or across the country when human needs in their own communities remain unmet? Why do people often make a one-time donation when itâ??s clear the recovery efforts will take years? What motivates people in the first place to help people living halfway across the globe?
Take Melanie Koch, a senior psychology major who, until the Haiti earthquake, hadnâ??t done any volunteer work since transferring to UW-Madison in 2008. But last week, after being moved by the tragic images coming out of Haiti, she was helping out at a donation booth at the Rathskeller at the Memorial Union as part of the Haiti Relief Day of Action efforts. â??This is the first event that really made me feel like I had to get out and help,â? says Koch.
Quoted: Jane Piliavin, UW-Madison professor emerita of sociology
…we think it is especially important to welcome Hirsi Ali to the campus, and we are happy that the UWâ??s Distinguished Lecture Series committee chose to invite her — and that the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has helped to support her visit.
As Hirsi Ali says, â??The message of freedom of expression, womenâ??s rights, the treatment of women in Islam — these are all issues that are relevant for all young people.â?
Hirsi Aliâ??s visit has stirred honest dialogue. Thatâ??s good.
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Madison student is being treated for bacterial meningitis and is listed in critical condition, according to school health officials.
University officials wonâ??t confirm the studentâ??s identity, but a Facebook group identifies the woman as Neha Suri. The group indicates Suri was taken to University of Wisconsin Hospital last week and was placed into an induced coma. She has been unresponsive since last Tuesday, WISC-TV reported.
Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services, said although bacterial meningitis is contagious and can be deadly, there is no real public health threat to the university.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items worth noting …** Raise your hand if youâ??re in favor of a “smart furlough” plan. Many on the UW-Madison campus — especially science researchers, who are paid mostly with federal grants or private funds, and professors, one-fifth of whom derive their salaries from non-state sources — still are upset they are being forced to take furloughs.
The topic will be discussed once again Monday afternoon at UW-Madison’s Faculty Senate meeting at Bascom Hall.
MADISON (WKOW) — A Wisconsin lawmaker plans to introduce a proposal to improve state tuition benefits for veterans studying at Wisconsin universities and technical colleges.
Last year, lawmakers made a change requiring Wisconsin veterans who have served since 2001 to use a new federal benefit program before their state benefits.
A UW-Madison student is being treated for bacterial meningitis at UW Hospital, Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist at University Health Services, confirmed Monday morning.
The student is in critical condition, hospital spokesman Aaron Conklin said.
Several people who were in close contact with the student were given antibiotics last week to try to prevent them from getting the illness, Roberts said.
The university hasnâ??t made a public announcement about the situation because â??the people who need to know do know,â? Roberts said. â??There is no general public health threat.â?
When an urban neighborhood is battling a surge in crime and racial tensions the usual response is to send in more cops. Madison has done that in Meadowood, a community of middle-class white homeowners on the cityâ??s southwest side now transformed by an influx of mainly poor, minority renters. But the city has also dispatched a team of friendly public health nurses to the front lines.
Quoted: Susan Zahner, an associate professor of nursing at UW-Madison
Madisonâ??s storied Greenbush neighborhood is at a pivot point, says Jim Woodward, president and CEO of Meriter Health Services. Unless steps are taken now to stem an emerging trend of property neglect, the neighborhood wonâ??t be as good a place to live or do business 10 years from now, he says.
So Meriter is preparing to step up and jump-start reinvestment in its own neighborhood with a â??workforce housingâ? initiative to lend employees money to enable them to buy houses in the neighborhood and invest themselves in its success.
After numerous failed attempts to push through public financing for all state elections, a new bill making its way through the Capitol would turn willing local governments into â??local laboratoriesâ? for taxpayer-funded elections.
At least thatâ??s how the billâ??s sponsor, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, refers to the counties, cities, towns or villages that could be among the first to contribute public money to candidatesâ?? coffers.
Included in this story: Ken Mayer, UW-Madison professor of political science and chair of Madison’s panel on clean elections
Mentions that the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is studying whether MPS students involved in SAGE programming in the early grades scored higher on state tests in later grades. Results should be out later this year.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Cynthia Jasper, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — To say the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball team has not found success at Assembly Hall over the years would be an understatement.
Heading into Thursday nightâ??s Big Ten Conference game against Indiana, UW was 2-26 all-time at the venue.
But behind double-doubles from forwards Tara Steinbauer and Lin Zastrow and a defensive clampdown, the Badgers added to the victory column with a 55-47 decision over the Hoosiers.
Former University of Wisconsin and Madison Edgewood standout Katie Elliott has been named an assistant coach for the Badgers womenâ??s golf team, head coach Todd Oehrlein announced Thursday.
Elliott, whose UW career ended in 2008, led the Badgers in scoring average her last three years and was a second-team All-Big Ten selection in 2007. Her career average of 77.13 ranks second all-time for UW.
A 22-year-old town of Westport woman who had been reported missing Friday morning was found in a UW-Madison campus building, authorities said.
Melanie Meyer was reported missing at 7 a.m. Friday, and was last seen at her residence at 5001 County M about midnight, authorities said.
Pedro Albiter recalls with feeling the moment at last weekâ??s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day when blacks, whites and Latinos joined hands at the Overture Center to sing â??We Shall Overcome.â?
â??Color didnâ??t matter. It was so emotional, I can hardly describe it,â? says Albiter, a state worker. But the moment was just that, he admits. A lasting bridge over the chasm of race?
â??Thatâ??s going to take more years. Itâ??s very hard to even talk about.â?
Quoted: UW-Madison faculty members William P. Jones; Richard Davis; Katherine Cramer Walsh; and Tracy Curtis
Former Department of Natural Resources secretary Darrell Bazzell has been appointed by Gov. Jim Doyle to the Dane County Regional Transit Authority.
“I am honored to be Gov. Doyleâ??s appointee to this important new authority,” Bazzell said in a news release. “I look forward to working with regional partners in developing a sound transportation strategy that will serve our region well for years to come.”
Bazzell is vice chancellor for administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also serves as a senior adviser to the chancellor and provost.
Would you visit a virtual student union?
In an effort to reach out to its online student population, the University of Wisconsin-Extension is opening the doors to what it is calling a new virtual student union.
No, you canâ??t buy beer, Babcock ice cream or bags of popcorn. But the website — which is partly a social networking site — is being promoted as “a place where students offer each other advice, discuss school-related issues, and connect with employers and faculty online.”
Quoted: Su-Chun Zhang, a UW stem cell researcher and professor of anatomy and neurology.
Quoted: Ken Frazier, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison General Library System
Dear Editor: As an emeritus professor at UW-Stevens Point, I would like to make two points not raised in Cap Times reporter Todd Finkelmeyerâ??s recent article about so-called â??grade inflation.â?
He admits itâ??s foreign territory for an unmarried, childless, 49-year-old man whoâ??s spent the majority of his time in the commercial real estate business, but Tom Baggot seems to have found his calling running Legacy Academy Activity Center, a 6,000-square-foot, indoor playground for children 12 and under.
The Big Ten Network has announced that it will televise both games of the Camp Randall Hockey Classic on Feb. 6.
The University of Wisconsin menâ??s and womenâ??s hockey teams are playing a doubleheader, with the women taking on Bemidji State in a WCHA tilt at 2 p.m. and the men following with a non-conference matchup against Michigan at 5 p.m.
The menâ??s game will be televised live, while the womenâ??s game will follow on tape delay.
Passing along a couple interesting higher education-related items:
** Is the University of Wisconsin-Madison looking out for the best interests of its international students? Or is its decision to keep internationals out of a potential new union for graduate research assistants little more than an anti-union tactic?
“I just want to get the message out: This has nothing to do with being anti-union,” says Stephen Lund, UW-Madisonâ??s interim director of the Office of Human Resources.
….For some, parking illegally has become routine, despite the risk of a $20 citation for a first offense. MATCâ??s own traffic cops wrote 2,927 parking tickets and another 1,500 warnings last year.
Still, that level of enforcement has done little to stop drivers from blocking driveways, pulling up onto snowbanks or just leaving their vehicles parked illegally and taking a chance.
“We could sit out there all day long but we canâ??t spend all our resources just writing parking tickets,” says Jim Bottoni, chief of public safety, whose staff of four must handle calls for 13 MATC facilities across a 12-county region.
To ease the parking crunch, MATC is proposing to build a new 360-space surface parking lot on vacant land next to the schoolâ??s softball stadium.
If grades are any indication of on-the-job proficiency, the students graduating from UW-Madisonâ??s department of curriculum and instruction should be very, very good teachers.
According to a Capital Times analysis of publicly available grade information at UW-Madison, the average grade awarded to undergraduates in this department â?? which develops the teachers of tomorrow â?? is higher than a 3.9 on a 4.0 scale. Similarly, the average grade awarded to undergraduates taking courses in UW-Madisonâ??s School of Nursing last spring was slightly above 3.8. To put these numbers in perspective, if 18 Aâ??s, one B and one C were dispensed to students in a class of 20, the average grade would be 3.85.
The paperâ??s analysis also found that a surprisingly high number of Aâ??s and Bâ??s are being handed out all over campus, mirroring a decades-long trend.
“Fat” and “wanted” are two words that donâ??t often go together. After all, procedures like liposuction are all about getting rid of fat.
But a University of Wisconsin-Madison neurosurgeon and his colleagues think that the fat removed by liposuction and usually just thrown out might be put to good use.
I have wasted years smearing my bread with yellowing stick butter, left out on the kitchen counter to turn rancid. No more. Not after the butter I tasted Monday at Slow Food UWâ??s Family Dinner Night, prepared by Madison Club chefs Dan Fox and Jason Veal.
….More than 110 people turned out at a church basement on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for the locally sourced feast, the kickoff to the semester of weekly Family Dinner Nights that Slow Food UW organizes.
Passing along a couple interesting higher education-related items:
** Is UW-Madison trying to protect its international students? Or is its decision to keep this group out of a potential new union for graduate research assistants little more than an anti-union tactic?
Inside Higher Education reported some graduate students and advocates for international students arenâ??t pleased with Wisconsinâ??s flagship institution.
(WKOW) — The “gender gap” between college men and women has stopped growing and according to new research more men are now attending college than women.
The report released by the Washington-based American Council on Education shows more men are attending college and graduating with a bachelorâ??s degree, reversing a trend of female undergraduates outnumbering men and outperforming them academically.
The University of Wisconsin will host its second “Allergy Friendly” game at the Kohl Center on Feb. 7. The womenâ??s hockey game against Bemidji State will have a number of special accommodations to allow families with food allergies to watch the Badgers play. The game is part of a partnership with the Food Allergy Association of Wisconsin.
It took just 15 minutes for fans to scarf up all the slots for the upcoming public skating sessions at Camp Randall Stadium.
The free tickets for the Feb. 5 evening event were distributed online Monday morning at the University of Wisconsin athletic department website.
The skating sessions precede the Feb. 6 Camp Randall Hockey Classic, featuring the first outdoor collegiate game in Madison in the modern era of the menâ??s program and the first-ever outdoor game for the women.
On the heels of two gritty if not pretty victories, the University of Wisconsin menâ??s basketball team moved up to No. 16 in both major polls.
The University of Wisconsin menâ??s hockey team garnered several first-place votes in both major polls this week after taking three points form the top-ranked team in the nation, but will have to settle for the No. 2 ranking.
MONONA â?? I wonder how many Olympic-bound athletes got the kind of hometown send-off Jessie Vetter did Monday. I would say not many.
I would also say thatâ??s too bad.
In a couple weeks, Feb. 12 to be exact, the Winter Games will begin in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Vetter will anchor the U.S. womenâ??s hockey team as it pursues its first gold medal since 1998.
Oâ??Brien Schofieldâ??s NFL draft prospects took a serious hit Monday when the former University of Wisconsin athlete sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament during practice Monday for the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Iâ??ll admit it. Iâ??m not beyond being sucked in by a memorable movie title. And “Douchebag” is certainly memorable.
….The movie opens with a couple lying in bed — they seem madly in love, and we learn that theyâ??re getting married in a few days. The guy, Sam, has a gigantic bushy beard. And right away, I thought “I think I know that guy.”
As it turns out, I did. Andrew Dickler, a graduate of the UW-Madison, plays Sam.
Darnell Adkins on Monday remembered his 21-year-old daughter, Shanica. He recalled she played the angel Gabriel in a church program.
“One thing I do know,” Adkins said. “She is definitely with the angels now. She is definitely with the Lord. My daughter believed. My daughter is gone, but she is definitely not forgotten.”
About 200 friends and family members attended a tribute at UW-Madisonâ??s Memorial Union for the Milwaukee student. She was killed when an SUV being chased by police rammed into the car in which she was a passenger on Dec. 31, authorities said.
Campus and city police are urging UW-Madison students to be on guard after a student was robbed at gunpoint on campus Saturday night.
The 20-year-old female student was walking on the bike path in the 100 block of North Mills Street at about 7:40 p.m. Saturday when a man approached her, holding a long-barreled handgun.
A high-rise student apartment building is coming to one of the most congested spots on the UW-Madison campus â?? with no new parking spaces.
Monday night, the Madison Plan Commission on a 5-2 vote approved a proposal from landlord Patrick Corcoran for an eight-story apartment tower at 621 Mendota Court.
Algae-choked lakes, dead fish and contaminated wells are sending Wisconsin a warning:
Itâ??s time to do more to protect the quality of our water.
Thatâ??s why itâ??s important for Wisconsin to update its regulations to reduce polluting runoff from farm fields and construction sites.
Whenever newspapers publish findings of their latest poll, they try to persuade us that the poll is honest, conducted without bias, and scientific. The obligatory blurb goes something like this: â??Results are based on phone interviews with X adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan 6-8. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus X points.
â?If a name like Harris, Pew or Gallup is involved, you have confidence there is only one goal: Inform the public. The pollsters have too much to lose to cook the books.
But what if the pollsters are biased — determined to get a result consistent with their agenda? It is vital to know who writes the questions, decides when to poll, and determines whether or not to release the results.
A 20-year-old female UW-Madison student was robbed at gunpoint Saturday night while walking on a bike path on campus, Madison police reported.
The armed robbery happened at about 7:40 p.m. Saturday on the bike path in the 100 block of North Mills Street.
Two bits of news in the past week should give disciples of academic cooperation some encouragement:
University of Wisconsin campuses in Madison and Milwaukee announced a $300,000 grant program designed to encourage intercampus research. Either campus could take the lead on a project, but at least 25% of the work would have to be done at the other school.
The Madison campus, meanwhile, is cooperating with two Wisconsin manufacturers to develop stronger and lighter metals using nanotechnology. Oshkosh Corp. and Eck Industries of Manitowoc are partners with UW-Madison in a five-year research project. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has given the project $5 million. According to an article by the Journal Sentinelâ??s Rick Barrett, the market for nanotech products will reach $1 trillion by 2015.
Mentions that University of Wisconsin-Madison agriculture economists said this week that the farm commodity revenue in the state declined by $1.8 billion in 2009, with most of it coming from falling wholesale milk prices.
An ad hoc committee examining a proposal by the University of Wisconsin-Madison administration to restructure the universityâ??s highly successful research enterprise released its final report to the Capital Times late Thursday night.
In a nutshell, the Academic Staff Ad Hoc Committee on the Research Enterprise found that while some changes could be made to make things run more smoothly, there is no evidence to support the administrationâ??s contention that an organizational restructuring is the answer.
The â??quiet timeâ? in Wisconsin agriculture — from Thanksgiving to New Yearâ??s or so — has given way to â??the meeting seasonâ? that runs hot and heavy through the WPS Farm Show in the first week of April. After that farmers get anxious to head to the fields, weather permitting, and start the cropping season anew.
Madison-area musicians are banding together for several benefit concerts to raise money for humanitarian aid to earthquake victims in Haiti.
University of Wisconsin-Madison student Shanica Adkins, 21, was killed Dec. 31 when the Geo Prizm in which she was riding was struck by a Mercury Mountaineer driven by a man who was fleeing from police.
