The Wisconsin Alumni Association, the National W Club and the Mendota Gridiron Club are going to present their Big Red Rally on Feb. 4 at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee. (Last item).
One Wisconsin Now, an advocacy group based in Madison, says it has evidence that a University of Wisconsin-Madison polling project downplayed state opposition to private school vouchers after a think tank — which helped pay for the poll — raised concerns.
If true, this would be a blow to the credibility of the polling project, which is run as a partnership between UW-Madisonâ??s Department of Political Science and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The project is directed by UW-Madison political scientist Ken Goldstein.
Bret Bielema wasnâ??t stunned that redshirt freshman Erik Smith decided to transfer to Illinois State — not after the running back was leapfrogged on the depth chart by freshman Montee Ball midway through last season. Still, the University of Wisconsin football coach said he made a pitch to Smith to stay in Madison.
Bielema also tried to keep linebacker Leonard Hubbard, who like Smith intends to play for the Redbirds of the Football Championship Subdivision. Per NCAA rules, they will be eligible immediately because they are going down a level of competition. Each has three years remaining.
Below are the remarks made by Shiva Bidar-Sielaff on Jan. 18 as she accepted the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award presented jointly by Madison and Dane County. Other 2010 honorees were retired UW-Madison music Professor James Latimer and Memorial High School student Jarrel Brannon Montgomery.
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff is director of community partnerships and interpreter services at the UW Hospital and Clinics.
If youâ??re looking for a can of freeze-dried turkey tetrazzini that has a shelf life of 25 years or need a handbook on emergency food storage and survival, the website 2012Supplies.com has you covered.
The much-hyped theory that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012 â?? a premise that is often attributed to the fact that the Mayansâ?? 5,125-year-long calendar ends on that date â?? has spawned a virtual industry, including movies, television shows and websites that variously entertain, explain and help one prepare for the impending cataclysm.
Itâ??s not the first doomsday prediction, and likely will not be the last, as Peter Sobol, a historian of science, told an audience of about 50 last week at UW-Madisonâ??s Space Place.
The H1N1 virus has largely disappeared from the front page, but that doesnâ??t mean we are out of the woods — aka flu season — yet.
Itâ??s the prime time of the year for flu, so vaccination clinics still are scheduled for those who havenâ??t gotten shots against H1N1 or seasonal flu.
Oshkosh Corp. said Wednesday it has partnered with University of Wisconsin-Madison and others in research to produce lighter, stronger metals.
The more George Marshall watched the University of Wisconsin menâ??s basketball team play, the more he knew he wanted to be a part of that program.
Marshall, a 6-foot junior point guard from Chicago Brooks, made an oral commitment Tuesday to play for the Badgers, his father said.
“He had a chance to watch the point guards and he had a chance to watch the team and he became convinced he could play for Bo Ryan and he could play in that system,” said Marshallâ??s father, George Marshall Sr.
MADISON, Wis. — The season is over for the Wisconsin Badgers football team, but there is still one Badger you can continue to cheer on this season. On Sunday, New York Jets safety Jim Leonhard will play in his second consecutive AFC Championship game.
MADISON, Wis. — Net farm income dropped in Wisconsin by 56 percent in 2009, according to a new report.
The report by University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural economists notes the $1.1 billion in farm income last year was the lowest total since 2002.
Dear Editor: The UW Animal Care and Use Committee took its usual stance when challenged by Rick Marolt (Cap Times, Jan. 13-19). Prof. Sandgren, a committee member, stated that ethical considerations are built into reviews of proposed use of animals for research, and that the question is asked: Does this research advance knowledge, improvement of human or animal health?
However:
Serious question …Would the University of Wisconsin-Madison allow an experiment in which 29 live pigs are buried under snow to study human survival chances in an avalanche?
After an outcry from the public, scientists in Italy and Austria called off just such an examination, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse.
The new clean energy bill trumpeted by Gov. Jim Doyle has been called everything from a forward-thinking green initiative to a jobs-killing mandate that would cripple the Wisconsin economy.
One thing itâ??s not, however, is a green light for nuclear power. While the measure does modify the stateâ??s quarter-century moratorium on nuclear plant construction, enough obstacles remain that make it doubtful a new facility would be built here anytime soon.
Quoted: Michael Corradini, UW-Madison professor of nuclear engineering and nuclear physics
Growing concern about pollution from coal-powered plants is behind some of the best stories of the past day or so. On page one today, the State Journal looked into allegations by the Sierra Club that the Department of Natural Resources is dragging its feet on investigating charges made over the summer that coal-fired heating plants on the University of Wisconsin campuses in Eau Claire, Stout, Stevens Point and La Crosse are in violation of the federal Clean Air Act and need millions of dollars worth of upgrades.
That all sounds very familiar, of course, because it was just two years ago that the Sierra Club won a case in federal court against the state and UW-Madison charging that they failed to upgrade pollution controls as required by federal law at the Charter Street coal plant. As a result, UW-Madison agreed to reduce coal consumption at the plant and eventually convert it to natural gas and biomass by 2013, a move expected to cost some $250 million.
After splitting two Big Ten Conference road games last week, Wisconsin slipped to No. 18 in the Associated Press top 25 poll and to No. 19 in the ESPNâ??/ USA Today coachesâ?? poll on Monday.
The rise of research efforts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has sometimes put the campus in competition with its larger, older sibling in Madison, but chancellors at the two campuses are seeking ways to get researchers cooperating.
Thatâ??s why the two campuses are putting together a $300,000 grant program to encourage their faculty to work together.
While UW-Milwaukee aims to expand its research capacity as a way to catalyze new jobs and investment – it is adding programs in engineering and water technology – the school barely registers on one of the nationâ??s most crucial measures of innovation: the annual tally of newly issued U.S. patents. In 2009, the number totaled three.
The stateâ??s flagship research university in Madison, by contrast, ranks near the top of the national tables with 117 patents last year. That puts UW-Madison at No. 3 behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at No. 2 (132 patents in 2009) and the entire 10-campus University of California system at No. 1 (172 patents). Californiaâ??s state system, which includes UC-Berkeley and UCLA, assigns patents under a single entity.
Fond du Lac County residents can now find, with the click of a mouse, how the stateâ??s flagship university serves communities, businesses and citizens in their area.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has created an online database that contains more than 1,000 examples of university programs and projects benefiting the state. The information can be found at www.searchwisconsinidea.wisc.edu.
Quoted: Marjorie A. Rosenberg, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Actuarial Science Department.
When Scott Hamel tries to describe the poverty that plagued Haiti even before Tuesdayâ??s devastating earthquake, he always goes back to a young mother he met there a few years ago.
She was living with her six children, two under the age of 1, in a hut the size of a walk-in closet. Her husband had gone to the Dominican Republic for work, and she had not heard from him in more than a year. She had no other family and was on the verge of being evicted.
“Basically, she had the clothes on her back, no income and no way to feed her children,” said Hamel of Madison, who has traveled to Haiti repeatedly as part of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Engineers Without Borders.
A state-funded, $250 million project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison aims to convert a coal-fired power plant on campus to one that primarily burns biomass such as tree trimmings and crops, ideally becoming a model for how the state can reduce its carbon output and its dependence on fossil fuels.
But the massive venture – accounting for nearly one-fifth of the stateâ??s capital budget during the 2009-â??11 budget period – faces considerable hurdles.
Mentions that Terrance Wall grew up in the Madison area and has a masterâ??s degree in real estate appraisal and investment analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison accounting professor Terry Warfield.
A 31-year-old man charged this month with killing a University of Wisconsin-Madison student in another vehicle while fleeing from Milwaukee police has been arrested, the Police Department said Monday.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball coach Lisa Stone saw a different game than Michigan State counterpart Suzy Merchant.
Stone could barely contain her excitement after the Badgers turned up the defense to rally from a 14-point deficit in the second half for a 48-45 win over the 20th-ranked Spartans on Thursday night. Merchant, on the other hand, described the loss as her teamâ??s lowest point.
….Students on campuses across America turned their concern about their future to the biggest polluters on campus — coal-fired power plants that still operate on more than 60 campuses. To end coalâ??s foothold on campuses, Sierra Club and its Sierra Student Coalition in September launched a campaign to educate and enlist hundreds of thousands of students to move beyond coal and fight for clean energy. This campaign has taken off like a prairie fire on a warm, dry spring day.
Although they were the first generation to endure rock concerts, boom boxes and iPods, the baby boomers have lost less of their hearing than their parents, according to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The findings, which are to be published Friday in a medical journal, suggest that hearing can be preserved even as people age.
The economic recovery is under way but muted and fragile, and there isnâ??t much that can be done to hasten it, the dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s School of Business said Thursday.
While the economy should grow at a rate of about 3%, most of the major gains to be had from the stock market rebound already have occurred, Michael Knetter told about 500 business people gathered for the annual Wisconsin Bankers Association Economic Forecast Luncheon at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.
Quoted: Terry Warfield, an accounting professor at UW.
Developers of the hotel across from Camp Randall Stadium have put the stalled 48-room project on the market. Owner Bob Sieger is seeking partners to invest a minimum of $2.5 million in the project.
“Bob has put a lot of time and energy into this and is looking for a partner,” said listing broker David Baehr.
Work was halted in October and the construction company Kraemer Brothers has filed a $3.7 million lien against the developer Sieger LLC.Construction began on the project in November, 2008. The plan was for the 48-room hotel to open in time for part of the Badgersâ?? 2009 football season.
Bold plans for a new kind of middle school in Madison deserve encouragement and strong consideration.
The proposed Badger Rock Middle School on the South Side would run year-round with green-themed lessons in hands-on gardens and orchards. The unusual school would still teach core subjects such as English and math. But about 120 students would learn amid a working farm, local business and neighborhood sustainability center.
Officials at a Florida college continue to pursue “all options and avenues” to locate 12 students and two faculty members who had been staying at a 4-star hotel in Haiti that toppled following Tuesdayâ??s devastating earthquake.
Lynn University President Kevin Ross said the group was registered at Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, a popular tourist destination that collapsed after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake in the impoverished nation. Among the group studying in Haiti were Dr. Patrick Hartwick, dean of the universityâ??s College of Education, and Dr. Richard Bruno, an assistant professor with the universityâ??s College of Liberal Education.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Two volunteers from a Milwaukee church group are safe in Haiti after a powerful earthquake. Volunteers at the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukeeâ??s Haiti Project were trying Tuesday and Wednesday to reach two men who had been working in a small village in the mountains near the community of Jeannette, Haiti.
Seven current and former University of Wisconsin-Madison students were doing electrical work and trying to establish an Internet connection. Five returned already and the other two were to return Wednesday. One is from California and the other from Minnesota. Project coordinator, Jan Byrd, says they posted a Facebook message Wednesday that they were on a roof of a guesthouse when it collapsed and they are safe.
Do you have an opinion on whether or not affirmative-action preferences should be used in determining who gets into college?
Does the following tidbit alter your way of thinking?
The Swedish government plans to end affirmative action at universities since the practice has resulted in male students being given admissions priority for several popular programs, the Agence France-Presse reported.
A group of UW-Madison students in Haiti Tuesday when a major earthquake struck report they are doing fine. A travel blog on UW-Madisonâ??s Engineers Without Borders website states: “We are OK! Donâ??t worry, it was a mere tremor here.”
Mentioons that the groupâ??s chair will be Richard Barrows, a retired associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mentions that members of a student-led group from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who were in Haiti reported on a blog Tuesday that they werenâ??t hurt.
As NBC15 News reported last night, some UW students with the group “Engineers Without Borders” are in Haiti. They posted this message on their blog:
We are ok! Donâ??t worry, it was a mere tremor here. But please do keep an eye on the news for PAP airport as our travel plans may be affected.
A story on coal use at campus power and heating plants prominently mentions that the University of Wisconsin at Madison is taking on an alternative-energy project that might have rewards for the state, but with considerable challenges for the institution. After the university lost its legal tussle with the Sierra Club, it agreed to a series of concessions to reduce the environmental impact of its Charter Street heating plant, built in 1959, which burns more than 100,000 tons of coal a year.
Granted, I hardly ever miss a telecast of Badgers football or basketball, so maybe my complaint is related to overexposure. But am I the only one who finds the 30-second public service announcement broadcast during games to be annoying, even embarrassing, for a world-class research institution like UW-Madison?
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on Tuesday named Rob Phillips as Madisonâ??s new city engineer.
Phillips, who has been the cityâ??s interim engineer since July, succeeds Larry Nelson, who retired last year after 19 years in the position.
Taylor Wurtz from the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball team has been named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, the conference office announced. She is the first UW player to receive the award in its inaugural season.
Wurtz aided the Badgers to two wins on the week, recording a career day vs. Michigan this past Sunday. The 6-0 guard scored a career-high 27 points against the Wolverines, shooting 9-of-12 from the field, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range. Her 27 points ties her for 10th on the UW freshman single-game record list.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items worth noting …The University of Wisconsin-Madison received 117 patents in 2009 according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.
While that number is impressive, the article reports that “Wisconsinâ??s most innovative company doesnâ??t engineer stem cells, create virtual worlds or manufacture touch-screen cell phones.
“Nope, the state company that received the most patents in 2009 is Kimberly-Clark Corp. — which makes diapers, paper towels and toilet paper. Last year, the company received 155 patents.
….The folks at UW Communications posted an article talking about new research led by UW-Madison biochemistry professor Judith Kimble that looks into the biological factors which control how stem cells develop.
A former registrar at UW-Whitewater has been named interim registrar at UW-Madison.
Dan Edlebeck will begin his year-long appointment on Feb. 1, replacing Joanne Berg, registrar and vice provost for enrollment management, according to a release from UW-Madison.
An alert couple on the cityâ??s west side helped police capture a burglary suspect who could be linked to other break-ins.
“Detectives from both the Madison and University of Wisconsin-Madison police departments were interested in speaking with the suspect about possible involvement in recent burglaries and thefts,” (Madison Police spokesperson Joel) DeSpain said.
Four young men were arrested and a fifth remains at large following a crime spree early Sunday morning in downtown Madison.
Before it ended, police said, the spree involved a shooting, a liquor store break-in and a chase with a police dog nabbing a suspect and standing on top of him while waiting for his master to arrive to make the arrest.
A Madison council member, a retired UW-Madison music professor and a senior at Memorial High School are the 2010 recipients of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. awards.
The humanitarian award winners are Shiva Bidar-Sielaff and James Latimer, while the youth leader winner is Jarrel Brandon Luke Montgomery.
Wisconsin college officials looking at how they might handle an expected peak in swine flu cases as the spring semester starts can look to the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a case study.
Mentions that last year, Kimberly-Clark received 155 patents, outstripping the University of Wisconsin-Madison (117 patents) and GE Healthcare Ltd., which has many operations in Waukesha (89 patents), according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data.
University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s top health official said sheâ??s expecting another wave of swine flu cases as students return for the spring semester, although the disease is turning out to be relatively mild and not as severe as initially feared.
Officials at major universities can say they treat academics and athletics with the same vigor. Just not with a straight face.
An Associated Press review found dozens of schools where special rules lowered the admissions threshold to let in star athletes, but those rules helped few others. That, despite the NCAAâ??s requirement that the same opportunities be given to students with other talents.
Sadly, itâ??s hard to imagine weâ??ll ever again get to the point where football and basketball players are expected to earn the same SAT scores as other prospective students. But, if the NCAA insists on handing out special privileges, it should at least hand them out evenly.
Ralph Armstrong, whose convictions for the 1980 rape and murder of a UW-Madison student were overturned in 2005 and charges against him in the case were dismissed in July after he spent almost 30 years in prison, remains in a New Mexico prison on decades-old parole violations.
Armstrong, 57, was transferred in August from Wisconsin to New Mexico after the Dane County district attorneyâ??s office decided not to appeal the dismissal of charges against Armstrong in the death of Charise Kamps.
Is experimenting on monkeys ethical?
Thatâ??s the question Rick Marolt has spent the past four years trying to get someone — anyone — on the UW-Madison campus to answer. Not affiliated with the many groups that oppose animal research, the 48-year-old consultant and part-time business lecturer at Edgewood College and UW-Madison has made it a personal mission to push the university for more public self-examination on this hot-button topic.
Itâ??s a big deal for the university, which houses some 1,900 monkeys, most of them at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Experiments on everything from AIDS to stem cells using those monkeys brought in more than $46 million in research grants in 2008-2009.
For years now, the UW-Madison has tried to portray a cadre of local folks who complain about its animal experiments as wackos.
Well it turns out that the local Alliance for Animals and other people who have been doing the complaining have been right about a lot of things.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claireâ??s plan for a new student union wonâ??t require a tree with historic significance to be cut down or moved after all.
The university said last fall its $48 million union would be built on the site of the Council Oak tree, which once served as a gathering place for Native Americans and later, for students.
Although its office is in the Animal Science Building on the UW-Madison campus, its funding comes mainly from the USDA.
Its mission is a lofty one: to link the dairy industries of Wisconsin and the U.S. with dairy industries around the world to improve the quality of life and foster market development. And to transform emerging dairy industries and strengthen the U.S. dairy industry through international partnership, training and research.
Its name — the Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research and Development — might suggest dozens (maybe hundreds) of Ph.D.s, floors of research laboratories, huge auditoriums and vast libraries of technical papers and even a communications department, with dozens of computers manned by communication experts. Wrong! You can count the number of employees on one hand and have a finger or two left over.
The year 2009, while a bummer in all too many ways, was a good one for local authors.
There were many winners worth recommending, from â??Same Time, Same Station,â? UW-Madison School of Journalism Professor James Baughmanâ??s fascinating history of the beginning days of network television, to Marshall Cookâ??s delightful â??Walking Wounded: A Wartime Love Story,â? a fact-based piece of fiction centered on Madisonâ??s newspaper scene.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (WKOW) — Dozens of volunteers are searching for a missing 52-year-old man after he went snowmobiling Sunday near his home in the Cedar Rapids area and never returned.
Martin Davisâ?? girlfriend says Davis left the lights and the television on at his home and the door unlocked. She assumed he had returned from his trip and ran a quick errand.
….Davis is the brother of University of Wisconsin wrestling coach Barry Davis, who joined the search Monday along with dozens of other friends and family members.
Dear Editor: As an elementary education major at UW-Madison, much of what I study involves big-picture theories of education. What we do not learn about are the day-to-day dynamics of a class full of children — including supervising students with food allergies.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is to provide a federal animal welfare agency a report by April 1 outlining progress in 12 areas of concern in the universityâ??s massive animal research enterprise.
But while officials with the National Institutes of Healthâ??s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare OLAW noted several issues which “need to be addressed and modified or corrected,” the tone of the report, which was obtained by The Capital Times, seemed generally positive and stated: “As discussed in our exit briefing, we found all the animals examined to be in good condition.”
Attempts to reach the authors of the OLAW report have, so far, been unsuccessful.
