….This is a column in praise of two public institutions — one that solicits and deserves a lot of praise and one thatâ??s sometimes taken for granted: public radio and the Cooperative Extension Service, a program of the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
Rob Meyer canâ??t help but get excited when he hears President Barack Obama talking about the need for states to start measuring whether their teachers, schools and districts are doing enough to help students succeed.
“What heâ??s talking about is what we are doing,” says Meyer, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Value-Added Research Center.
If states hope to secure a piece of Obamaâ??s $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” stimulus money, theyâ??ll have to commit to using research data to evaluate student progress and the effectiveness of teachers, schools and districts.
The new website TodaysGIBill.org was unveiled Monday in an effort to help military service members and veterans pick a college and receive their benefits under the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.
A “professor” looking to rent a residence in Madison duped a real estate agent out of thousands of dollars using an old, but apparently still workable, check scam.
Madison police said the unidentified real estate agent lost over $3,500 to the scammer before she smelled a rat.
For decades, when Dane County coroners have needed an autopsy performed, they have turned to experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Despite the perception among many that coroners perform autopsies, they typically are not qualified to do so.
….Under state law, coroners are also elected, just like county clerks and sheriffs. But that is starting to change. Twenty-seven of Wisconsinâ??s 72 counties have abandoned coroners in favor of hired medical examiners, and a state law will force Dane County to be one of them soon.
….Dane County is considering severing its relationship with the UW medical school and hiring its own forensic pathologists even though UW officials are skeptical that the county would save money.
Earlier this year, Minesh Mehta, a cancer specialist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, co-authored a medical article on TomoTherapy, a radiation therapy system developed by researchers at the university.
Any doctor reading the article would have thought Mehta was an unbiased researcher with no conflict of interest or financial stake in TomoTherapy Inc. After all, the journal article said Mehta reported no potential conflicts of interest.But documents obtained from the university tell a different story.Those records show Mehta had told the university he would make more than $20,000 in 2008 working as a TomoTherapy consultant. He also owned stock options in the company.
Mehta was one of at least nine UW physicians whose conflicts listed on financial disclosures to the university did not match what was revealed to the medical world in their published articles.
Here is a little light read to help kick off your Saturday…Have you ever wondered what itâ??s like to work as Bucky Badger?
Bleacherreport.com spoke with one of the students who portrays Bucky and posted this entertaining article.
My favorite part of the story is when the student is asked, “Whatâ??s been the weirdest thing thatâ??s happened to you as Bucky?”
Bill Richardson was a recently retired University of Wisconsin music professor in the summer of 2007 when he found himself at a Dane County Board meeting. The draw was a discussion about whether to signal support to the state Legislature for a regional transit authority, which would have the power to levy a sales tax for commuter rail and other transit improvements.
The state Supreme Court has refused to directly take up a challenge to Wisconsinâ??s domestic partner registry, a move gay rights advocates touted Wednesday as a triumph for same-sex couples.
A conservative group named Wisconsin Family Action said the registry violated the stateâ??s constitutional ban on gay marriage and argued the issue was so important that the Supreme Court should take it up immediately, bypassing the lower courts.
The Supreme Court justices did not explain the refusal in a terse order issued Tuesday and released Wednesday.
One of the hazards of electronic social media is that you never know whoâ??s paying attention – or how theyâ??ll react.
When Biddy Martin, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, revealed on Twitter recently that sheâ??s a Yankees fan, she heard about it.
“I immediately got responses saying, â??Oh no, not the Yankees!â??â??” said Martin, who clarified that her first allegiance is to the Milwaukee Brewers.Why is the chief executive of one of the worldâ??s premier research universities on Twitter? Martin says sheâ??s still not really sure.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is among the top institutions in the country when it comes to public interest measured by media coverage, Internet traffic and social media mentions.
Thatâ??s according to Global Language Monitorâ??s newest Predictive Qualities Indicator — a survey which uses word analysis to measure media “buzz” based on a universityâ??s appearance in a range of media.
With the economy in the tank and the number of yearly state high school graduates in decline, itâ??s no secret that many college leaders were concerned about their enrollment numbers this fall. But preliminary figures are looking solid for the stateâ??s private institutions.
David Wilson, who is chancellor of both the University of Wisconsin-Extension and UW Colleges, announced Tuesday afternoon he is one of three finalists being considered for president of Morgan State University in Baltimore.
During an interview for an article I wrote about Wilson in October, I asked the chancellor if he knew what his future held.
“People approach me all the time about opportunities,” he said during an Oct. 5 interview. “But Iâ??m happy and love what I do. I often say to colleagues that I havenâ??t had a bad day since Iâ??ve been here.”
He added during that same interview: “I am happy and donâ??t want to speculate on anything else but today.
Dear Editor: It would seem to me the people at the two student newspapers responsible for the attempted boycott of the Nitty Gritty would be able to use their college education to evaluate a situation in its entirety.
In the 1960s and â??70s (before the boycott sponsors were a twinkle in their fathersâ?? eyes) the owner of the Nitty Gritty was the host of an extremely popular local childrenâ??s TV program, and later Madisonâ??s No. 1 rated TV sportscaster. He then purchased a run-down bar at Frances and West Johnson streets and built it into one of Madisonâ??s most respected eating establishments.
Jim Fleming has soothed us with the classics, read to us and informed us. Now he is retiring.
Fleming, who started at Wisconsin Public Radio in 1968 while a student at UW-Madison, has announced that his last show as host of “Morning Classics” will be Dec. 3.
Erin Jacobsen scored with 55 seconds left Monday to give the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s soccer team a 2-1 victory over Northwestern and clinch third place in the Big Ten Conference.
Jacobsen turned and fired from 30 yards out as the Badgers (9-5-5, 5-1-4 Big Ten) closed the regular season on a seven-match unbeaten streak and secured third place in the conference, the programâ??s best finish since 2000.
UW bolstered its candidacy for an NCAA tournament bid, which would be the first for the program since 2005.
Biddy Martin apologized to the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Faculty Senate Monday evening for the way in which her administration rolled out a proposed reorganization of the Graduate School.
The round of applause she received following this concession at Bascom Hall would seem to indicate many are ready to forgive Martin for her first significant public relations misstep as chancellor at UW-Madison.
Faculty, staff and students on campus were generally irked when Martin and Provost Paul DeLuca unveiled a plan to create a new office separate from the Graduate School that would manage UW-Madisonâ??s approximately $900 million in research projects.
MADISON (WKOW) — 14 years ago, three lives changed forever. A woman was visiting a friend in Reedsburg. Alone in the house, she laid down to take a nap. When she woke up, she found two teen boys about to steal her car. What happened next, makes Jackie Millar â??Someone You Should Know.â??
(The University of Wisconsin Law School’s Restorative Justice Project is part of this story.)
Two heavy hitters took the time to weigh in on the debate about what the true role of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Athletic Board should be. Steven Underwood and Donald Downs wrote a guest column which appeared on the Cap Times website Monday.
….At the October meeting of the UW-Madison Faculty Senate, the University Committee — the senate’s governing board — announced it had formed a seven-person ad hoc committee composed of faculty members to review the Athletic Board and determine whether it is fulfilling its oversight duties of the athletic department. It will be interesting to see what conclusions the ad hoc committee comes to.
Only one thing seems clear: As long as there is an athletic department on the UW-Madison campus, there will be an ongoing debate regarding the level and method of control that faculty on campus should be exerting over the athletics enterprise.
….The Athletic Boardâ??s self-report, supported by Professor Walter Dickey, current chair of the Athletic Board who replaced Professor Bruce Jones after Jones complained about not being informed of the Bret Bielema hiring as football coach, concluded that the Athletic Board is merely an advisory committee that has no binding authority when it comes to hiring head coaches. These decisions, the report stated, are made by the chancellor and athletic director. In this regard, however, the self-report belies both tradition and the rule of law at the UW-Madison.
As many as 6,000 students from low-income families who graduate from high school in 2011 will be eligible for $1,500 college grants under the Wisconsin Covenant, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Friday.
Doyle in 2007 started the Wisconsin Covenant, an agreement signed by eighth-graders that guarantees them a place in a Wisconsin college if they maintain B averages, take classes to prepare them for college and donâ??t get into trouble. The program also will provide financial assistance beyond the grants announced Friday to those who need it, but the particulars of the aid have yet to be spelled out.
Quoted: Menzie David Chinn, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MADISON, Wis. — The Badgers will be bilingual this weekend. Wisconsinâ??s home football game against Purdue on Saturday will air in Spanish on ESPN Deportes in Madison and Milwaukee besides the usual English versions on the Badger Sports Network.
Quoted: Sachin Tuli, co-director of International Programs and a lecturer in the UW-Madison School of Business.
WASHINGTON, D.C. WKOW — A new report shows more young Americans than ever are in college. It found the number of 18 to 24-year-olds attending college hit a record high in October of last year, at just under 40 percent.
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison expecting to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus on Tuesday will have to wait a while longer.
University Health Services UHS postponed the free large-scale H1N1 vaccination clinic it had originally scheduled for Tuesday on campus because thereâ??s no vaccine available to do a large-scale clinic.
UW-Madison joins a long list of schools, communities, clinics and businesses waiting for more doses of the H1N1 vaccine to be shipped by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
MADISON (WKOW) — UW Police want to spread the word again this week that a more strict carry-in policy is in place at Camp Randall stadium and the Kohl Center, which includes a ban on large bags and backpacks.
With Halloween weekend approaching and Freakfest nearby on State Street later Saturday night, police have clarified that costumes may be worn at either venue, provided the fan can fit into a normal seating-space and that the costume is appropriate. Carry-ins or props that are part of the banned list will not be allowed.
MADISON — UW-Madison does not have enough housing for its freshman students, forcing them to find alternate means of shelter. Whether itâ??s a student lounge in a dormitory or a science laboratory somewhere near campus, many students have to resort to unusual living situations.
Philanthropist Michael Cudahyâ??s financial support has vanished and some faculty are skeptical, but the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee remains committed to creating a science research facility and business park in Wauwatosa.
The State Patrol will team up with the Madison Police Department inside the city on Friday to help enforce traffic laws on whatâ??s expected to be a very heavy traffic day.
Thousands of motorists will be coming to town for a variety of reasons, including Freakfest on State Street on Halloween on Saturday, University of Wisconsin football at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday and Badger menâ??s hockey games at the Kohl Center both Friday and Saturday.
….If the county prevails, all sorts of adjusted pricing structures can be adopted. One or more days a week can be free admission days. There can be a maximum charge for children in a group. School classes can be free or reduced. County residents can get reduced prices or even season passes. UW, Edgewood and MATC students could get special student admissions,
Itâ??s worth a shot.
Lawrence Halprin, the Bay Area landscape architect who pushed the design of Americaâ??s urban spaces in new directions over a career that spanned 60 years, died Sunday of natural causes. He was 93, and a 1941 graduate of UW-Madison.
Most college presidents at schools with the largest athletic programs claim they are powerless when it comes to containing escalating costs associated with big-time college sports.
Really? While such a statement seems absurd, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that is just one of the key findings of a new report released by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics that focuses on the financing of major-college athletics programs.
Halloween costumes might disguise visitors to Madison for the annual Freakfest party on State Street, but a costume canâ??t mask the flu.
University of Wisconsin-Madison health officials are asking partiers who plan to flock to Freakfest to stay home if they have flu-like symptoms as they try to keep the H1N1 flu virus from spreading.
Dr. Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services, the health clinic on the UW-Madison campus, said out-of-town visitors with the flu should stay out of town, and in-town flu sufferers who plan to party should think otherwise.
As the health care debate winds its way through Congress, everyone can agree on at least this much: Bringing more young adults into the health care system would balance out the costs for everyone else because the young use the least amount of care.
Quotes Eric O’Connor, 27, who now gets his health insurance through the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is studying for a doctorate.
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
University of Wisconsin history Professor Jeremi Suri is working on his next book: a history of nation building that will be published around the time of the 10th anniversary of that sad day we call 9/11.
Suri has become one of the countryâ??s leading historians, even before heâ??s reached the age of 40. His most recent major book, “Henry Kissinger and the American Century,” is still getting rave reviews for its insight into what drove the former secretary of state and longtime U.S. diplomat.
Two 18-year-old UW-Madison students were mugged Saturday afternoon by two teens purportedly trying to help them find Halloween outfits, Madison police reported.
The mugging took place about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in a bike path tunnel cutting under the Beltline south of Grand Canyon Drive on the west side. The two freshmen were robbed of cash and a cell phone, with one getting punched, said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.
Itâ??s home to a baseball stadium dubbed the “Duck Pond,” a busy community recreation center and a summer fireworks extravaganza that can draw hundreds of thousands of spectators.
But 180-acre Warner Park, at Northport Drive and Sherman Avenue on the cityâ??s north side, also abuts Lake Mendota, envelops a 28-acre lagoon and attracts a surprisingly diverse assortment of wildlife.
….”I had no idea an urban park could have so much wildlife,” says Trish O’Kane, a graduate student in environment and resources at the Gaylord Nelson Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who moved to the neighborhood a few years ago. O’Kane spent some 130 hours in Warner Park in the past 18 months, studying its wildlife.
Few topics elicit more heated discussion among University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty leaders than the schoolâ??s athletic department. And to a certain degree, says David McDonald, thatâ??s understandable.
“A number of faculty, and this has gone on for 110 years, have wondered what big-time athletics are doing on a college campus,” says McDonald, who chairs UW-Madisonâ??s history department.
“I think a big part of the tension today is the apparent discrepancies in resources. Even though the athletic department is self-supporting, we read the salaries these coaches are making in the big sports and see the money being spent over at Camp Randall, and some feel a certain amount of resentment.”
Even after redshirting last season, University of Wisconsin freshman forward Ryan Evans possesses an offensive game that can best be described as being in the developmental stage. However, Evans showed during the annual Red-White scrimmage Sunday at the Kohl Center that he could contribute this season because of his athletic ability, hustle and tenacity on both ends of the court.
Mentions that the University of Wisconsin-Madison has named Irwin Goldman interim dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
A female student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was mugged Thursday night while walking on campus, University Police reported. The attack took place at about 9:25 p.m. Thursday in the 200 block of North Lake Street near Witte Hall.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering alumni have been named as two of Popular Science magazineâ??s “Brilliant 10” shaking up science today.
J. Adam Wilson has been tabbed by the magazine as a genius for his work in brain-computer interface technology. He demonstrated the technology when he posted a Twitter update by thought. Wilson earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering from UW-Madison in May. He is now doing research in New York.
Dennis Hong, an associate professor in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, is on the “Brilliant 10” list for his work in robotics. Hong got his bachelorâ??s degree in mechanical engineering from UW-Madison in 1994.
In one of the only examples Iâ??ve seen of collaboration between UW-Madisonâ??s Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal student newspapers, both papers put out an editorial today calling on students to boycott the Nitty Gritty. Yes, the Nitty Gritty — where you can get free soda/beer and a small sundae on your birthday, and thereby one of the most popular downtown bars.
What was the cause of this call to arms? Nitty Gritty owner Marsh Shapiro, the non-voting Tavern League of Wisconsin representative on the cityâ??s Alcohol License Review Committee, came out strongly against an initiative from Ald. Bryon Eagon to add a permanent, voting student member to the committee.
The meek might inherit the Earth, but the geeks are taking over Friday in Madison, where the Geek.Kon convention of science fiction, anime, steampunk, gaming and many other nerdy diversions gets under way.
The event, in its third year, is the homegrown effort of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and alumni who wanted to create a convention with a little something for all the subgroups of geek culture, including those who like to dress up in costumes, roll dice, play videogames, read comics and collect toys.
MADISON (WKOW) — Madison Police are investigating a sexual assault that happened on University Avenue around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday evening.
Several concerned citizens called 911 to report hearing a woman screaming. A short time later, the victim, a 21-year-old Madison woman, called police to report what happened.
She told officers she was walking along the 2000 block of University Ave. when a stranger approached her from behind, lifted her skirt and touched her inappropriately.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly wrote an opinion piece for InsideHigherEd.com titled “So what do they want from us, anyway?”
In this column, Reilly identifies “four essential items that America wants and needs from its public universities in todayâ??s globally competitive knowledge economy.” He refers to these items as higher educationâ??s “Four Pillars of Promise.”
Stem cell pioneer James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison told members of the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine that techniques that allow scientists to change human skin cells into something almost identical to embryonic stem cells will change the way new drugs are developed in the next 10 or 20 years.
Bret Bielema is filling two jobs this week: University of Wisconsin football coach and counselor.
“The part that we have to understand and get across to our players is: â??Youâ??re a very good football team. Youâ??re a 5-2 football team that has done some good things,â??” Bielema said after UW limped into its bye week with a 20-10 Big Ten Conference loss to Iowa. “Unfortunately weâ??ve played two very good opponents that we didnâ??t play well in the second half.â??.â??.â??.
“Our guys are very hungry. And Iâ??ll have to make them understand where they can finish.”
Some on the Left Coast are miffed at the University of California-Berkeleyâ??s plan to start admitting additional out-of-state residents and international students — who pay higher tuition than the in-state students — to make up for state budget cuts.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau told the San Francisco Chronicle that his campus will be admitting as many as 600 fewer “unfunded” California students a year to offset a 20 percent cut in state funds. Those openings then will go to out-of-staters.
….Closer to home, nearly a quarter of all undergraduates on the UW-Madison campus already are paying out-of-state tuition.
In conversation, David Wilson uses many of the same buzzwords college administrators across the country are turning to these days.
He speaks about the need to make college “accessible” and “affordable,” especially for groups who traditionally havenâ??t pursued a secondary education, and says the University of Wisconsin Systemâ??s two-year UW Colleges can serve as a “gateway” for students of all backgrounds and ages to pursue a baccalaureate degree. And he talks about the importance of “lifelong learning” and the role UW-Extension plays in helping people from all corners of Wisconsin access university resources.
Behind the jargon, however, is a genuine, lifelong love of learning and devotion to education.
MADISON, Wis. — Officials with the University of Wisconsin System are defending its decision to condemn a Madison bar as part of a plan to build a $43 million music performance hall.
The owners of Brothers Bar & Grill on Tuesday sued the UW System Board of Regents, seeking to stop the condemnation and keep the bar theyâ??ve operated for 15 years.
Most mothers with depression in the United States do not receive adequate treatment for their disease, according to a new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
The problem is greatest among working mothers, the uninsured and minorities, according to the paper published this week in the Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research.
The number of reported cases of influenza-like illness on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was up slightly in the seventh week of the fall semester, according to the latest report from University Health Services UHS.
Forty-nine students with flu symptoms were evaluated by UHS Oct. 11-17, a half-dozen more than the 43 students evaluated with the flu the week before.
The campus started out with 198 flu cases the first week of classes in September, with cases jumping up to 345 the second week, then falling back to 168 the third week, 94 the fourth week and 58 the fifth week.
University of Wisconsin Law School Professor Ann Althouse is, like Madisonâ??s ever more digitally inclined Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, a busy blogger.
Althouse tends toward the right edge of the ideological spectrum, although she is adventurous enough in her thinking and her interests to avoid the easy compartmentalization that is the fate of so much of the blogosphere. She links to my columns now and again, which is either a sign of her good taste, open-mindedness or sense of humor.
Of late, however, Althouse has been taking something of a battering not for something she wrote, nor even for some crazy article she linked to, but for the responses to her blog posts.
* The University of Wisconsin-Madison put out a press release Friday noting that, according to statistics compiled by the National Science Foundation, the university is the nationâ??s third-largest research institution as measured by dollars spent.
….Other than Johns Hopkins, UW-Madison is the only institution that has ranked among the top five research universities for each of the past 20 years.
Due to this success, itâ??s at least somewhat surprising UW-Madison Provost Paul DeLuca is proposing a potential restructuring of the universityâ??s research enterprise.
Leave it to sophomore defensive end J.J. Watt to describe succinctly and accurately where the University of Wisconsin stands entering a bye week.
“Weâ??re not in the position we want to be in at this point,” Watt said after UWâ??s 20-10 loss to Iowa.
After the loss, UW sits in fifth place in the Big Ten Conference with a 2-2 mark, 5-2 overall.
Dear Editor: An animal biosafety laboratory for the purpose of studying bird flu and other highly infectious diseases will be built by the University of Wisconsin-Madison two blocks east of Camp Randall Stadium.
UW-Madison has been cited by the National Institutes of Health for violating the stringent regulations for the safe handling of infectious disease agents.
A 19-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student was mugged early Sunday morning, but the alleged thieves only got away with the studentâ??s backpack, which had a couple of cans of soda inside.
The mugging happened at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday on South Charter Street between Bowen Court and Regent Street.
