Dear Editor: One of the biggest sources of waste I have ever witnessed is student move out on Aug. 14 and 15. During the week preceding move out, the streets of downtown Madison gradually become lined with piles of garbage and abandoned furniture. A large portion of this stuff is still in perfectly good condition, but unless someone walks by who wants it, it is destined for a landfill.
MADISON, Wis. — A former University of Wisconsin-Madison basketball recruit has pleaded guilty to burglarizing dorm rooms.
A judge on Thursday placed 18-year-old Diamond K. Taylor in a first-offenders program. If the Bolingbrook, Ill., native completes the program the burglary charge will be dismissed.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin System says it has received $83 million in federal stimulus money so far and that saved or created 137 jobs.
The university reported Thursday that through September it had only spent about $5.2 million of what has been sent in 263 awards. The Madison campus received the most money at $75.4 million followed by Milwaukee at just over $4.4 million.
….Ballroom has a following here at the University of Wisconsin, too. Many of the couples that competed Saturday are members of the UW-Madison Ballroom Dance Association and Badger Ballroom Dance Team, like 26-year-old grad student Karla Esbona. She found the group while looking for an after-class social activity. She danced the merengue and salsa socially in her native Peru, but competitive ballroom was new to her.
Happy birthday “On, Wisconsin!” UW-Madisonâ??s fight song is turning 100. The UW Marching Band will commemorate the occasion with a special half-time show at Saturdayâ??s Homecoming game.
The UW-Madison has been named “Developer of the Year” by Wisconsin Builder magazine.
The university is in the middle of its biggest building boom since the 1960s, with the new Union South, Chazen Museum of Art expansion and the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, among other projects.
Much of the work was laid out in the 2005 Master Plan for upgrading campus buildings. Some historic structures are being renovated while 1960s-era buildings characterized by poor construction and excessive energy use are being replaced.
Wisconsin Builderâ??s honor is a deserving one for UW-Madison, reflecting perhaps the struggles of the private sector as much as anything.
Win or lose, football Saturdays provide Scott Tolzien with moments that are poignant and memorable – and offer a reminder that life is meant to be cherished.
Before kickoff, the University of Wisconsinâ??s starting quarterback checks his voicemail for a weekly pregame pep talk. After the game, win or lose, Tolzien returns the phone call to discuss the game.
The voice on the other phone is that of 6-year-old Jaxson Hinkens of Appleton, who loves football, worships quarterbacks, is a fervent fantasy league competitor and has moved Tolzien with his courageous battle against cancer. Jaxson has Stage 4 neuroblastoma, the highest and most serious classification of the disease, which is the most common extracranial solid cancer in children.
After more than two decades of studying the interplay between education and economics and seven years as president of Minnesotaâ??s Macalester College, Michael McPherson knows a lot about higher education. But his latest book generated eye-openers for him and his co-authors.
MADISON – Margaret Louise Hopkins Duwe, age 60, died at home in Madison on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009….She attended UW-Madison, where she earned a B.S. in physics in 1970, an M.S. in meteorology in 1975, and pursued doctoral research for several years before deciding that it was more important to spend the time raising her kids. While at the university, she greatly enjoyed her many years as a teaching assistant in both meteorology and Afro-American studies. She conducted hail research in Colorado for her master’s degree and lightning research at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for her doctoral program.
MADISON (WKOW) — University Police are banning fans from bringing all bags, backpacks purses and other carry-ins into Camp Randall stadium for the remainder of the UW football season.
These restrictions, which were also in effect for the September 23 home game against Michigan State, will stay in place through the end of 2009.
The Big Ten Conference football championship wonâ??t be decided when the University of Wisconsin hosts Iowa Saturday. Nevertheless, it is difficult to overstate the importance of the game for UW (5-1, 2-1), which has a bye after this week.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries quickly jumped on board the newest trend in the technology era, digital reading.
Thirteen months ago, Blake Geoffrion walked into the office of University of Wisconsin menâ??s hockey coach Mike Eaves and said something profound.
A captain and highly regarded center in the midst of his junior season, Geoffrion told Eaves he intended to return to UW for his senior year.
Geoffrion, a second-round NHL draft pick of Nashville, had talked it over with his parents during the holiday break and decided he would make a pretty unusual commitment.
What appeared to be a suspicious package on campus at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point this morning turned out to be a prop for a class.
Shortly before 9 a.m. maintenance workers observed a student crossing campus with what looked like a rifle bag. The workers followed the student and watched him enter the Noel Fine Arts Center, while campus security was on its way.
PORT EDWARDS — A closed south Wood County facility has attracted the attention of two University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point professors developing a process to turn wood pulp into biofuel.
Don Guay, assistant professor of paper science and engineering, and biology professor Eric Singsaas said the project would greatly benefit from use of the closed Domtar paper mill in Port Edwards.
The number of students with flu-like symptoms continued to decline last week on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, according to the weekly report from University Health Services.
In the sixth week of the fall semester (Oct. 4-10), 43 students were determined to have an influenza-like illness, down from 58 students in the fifth week of the semester.
“Influenza activity on campus seems to be pretty quiet right now,” said UHSâ?? executive director, Dr. Sarah Van Orman. The 43 cases are the lowest since school started Sept. 2.
Metro buses will be detouring off of Lake Street and part of State Street on Friday because of the University of Wisconsin-Madison homecoming parade.
The detours will run from 3:30 p.m. through 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The dean of the University of Wisconsin – Madison school of agriculture and life sciences has been appointed to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Molly Jahn will be deputy undersecretary of research, education and economics, a position that will make her responsible for ensuring a safe, healthy and affordable food supply.
The dean of UW-Madisonâ??s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has been appointed to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to university officials.
Molly Jahn will serve as deputy undersecretary of research, education and economics, where she will be responsible for leading three units within the USDA.
Jahn will begin her new duties Nov. 9. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has granted her a one-year leave of absence from her duties as dean.
I was saddened greatly by the opinion piece “UWM as economic engine? Dream on” by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine (Crossroads, Oct. 4). The central theme of that piece is disdain for Chancellor Carlos Santiagoâ??s leadership and vision of what UWM can do for Milwaukeeâ??s and Wisconsinâ??s economic futures.
It would be a tragic shame if anyone used Levineâ??s analysis as an excuse to deflect UWMâ??s current trajectory. I am absolutely convinced that UWM is on a path to become one of the nationâ??s great research universities and that the achievement of that goal is critical for the economic future of Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin (including, let me add specifically, the futures of Madison and UW-Madison), says former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley in an op-ed column.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are lashing out at new recommendations from an influential federal panel that could dramatically weaken patent protection for the universityâ??s genetic research.
Among other things, the panel recommended essentially exempting genetic tests for cancer and other diseases from patent protection – meaning that anyone could use genetic diagnostic research from UW-Madison or any university without obtaining licenses.
“They are making reckless policy recommendations,” said Andrew Cohn, who spearheads government lobbying efforts on behalf of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, UW-Madisonâ??s patent-management arm. “This is an incredible precedent, a bad precedent.”
The Legislature is flashing a big red light at local officials who want to install cameras to catch drivers running stoplights.
Facing increasingly tight city budgets next year and likely beyond, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett sees red-light cameras both as a way to boost safety and as a source of cash for traffic enforcement. Also mentions a 2006 study doen for the City of Milwaukee by UW-Madison students.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students are being warned by both the Madison and the UW-Madison police departments to keep their homes secure after a couple of burglaries were reported.
Both burglaries happened Sunday night, Oct. 4, in the 500 block of West Doty Street. UW-Madison students were the break-in victims in both burglaries.
UW-Madison scientists plan to build a plasma dynamo to explore magnetic fields.
To be constructed over three years, with the help of $2.4 million in stimulus funding from the National Science Foundation, UW-Madisonâ??s Plasma Dynamo Facility will allow scientists to explore the self-generation of magnetic fields.
The first of its kind in the world, the facility will be located in Sterling Hall, and it will contain the same kind of plasmas observed in space.
University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema studied the statistical evidence – which reaffirmed his view of the Ohio State defense – and reached an obvious conclusion.
“It doesnâ??t take a rocket scientist to figure out that weâ??ve got to be able to run the football to be able to win,” he said.
Good luck.
In a fresh demonstration of scienceâ??s newfound ability to alter the basic units of human life, researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have turned the cells in human skin into those in the liver, work that opens new avenues for treating diseases of the liver without relying on organ transplants.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Ehlke has been appointed Dane County Circuit Court judge by Gov. Jim Doyle, six months to the day he lost an election to become judge.
Ehlke will fill the vacancy in branch 15 created by the retirement of Circuit Court Judge Stuart Schwartz, who stepped down from the bench on Oct. 2.
IS IT possibly true a conservative student group could have been denied funds from University of Wisconsin-Madison student fees because of objections to its political viewpoints? Oh, surely not.
Just because the group engages in such things as a planned protest against an Al Gore speech in Madison, how could anyone believe decision-makers on the liberal campus might object and pull the plug on money? The rejection, supposedly, is because the club â?? Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow â?? does not provide enough â??direct servicesâ? to students.
Besides, university rules state the fees are to be disbursed in a viewpoint-neutral manner. Itâ??s hard to believe the good folks controlling the pursestrings would consider bending that rule just to stick a finger in the eye on some annoyingly conservative kids.
Another day. Another ranking of colleges and universities.
This time, the University of Wisconsin-Madison checked in at No. 61 tied with University of Auckland in the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. Thatâ??s a drop of six spots from last year, when UW-Madison was ranked 55th.
UW-Madison law students are some of the most liberal in the country, according to a ranking by the Princeton Review. They were ranked #8, based on student answers to a survey question about the political bent of the student body.
MADISON (WKOW) — Eight years after the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, more veterans are dropping their weapons and picking up their textbooks at college campuses nationwide.
Despite its reputation as an anti-war campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has seen a significant increase in its student veteran population. That number doubled between 2004 and 2008, and the university says 600 students claimed to have military experience on their applications.
David Thompson wipes his damp forehead and adjusts his glasses. He’s dressed as if for a long hike – khaki hat, sturdy shoes – because he just never knows. A stroll around the west Madison neighborhood where he lives could turn into an afternoon of scrambling through overgrown ditches and ravines, snapping photographs and hunting for clues to buried streams.
Quoted: Ken Potter, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and William Cronon, Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas research professor of history, geography and environmental studies.
Doctors should not be paid to promote drugs or medical devices by the makers of those products. When they accept such payments, they risk their credibility with patients, risk clouding their judgment, risk overusing a treatment and risk driving up the cost of medicine.
For months, Journal Sentinel reporters have uncovered blatant conflicts of interest involving drug and device makers at the University of Wisconsin. UW has tightened guidelines in recent months and plans to ban doctors from giving talks for drug companies about medications, the Journal Sentinelâ??s John Fauber reports. But despite all the revelations, UW officials risk doing too little.
Fans eager to see the University of Wisconsin upgrade its non-conference football schedule got their wish Tuesday.UW and Washington of the Pacific 10 Conference have agreed to a home-and-home deal for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, the schools have announced.
The number of cases of students with the flu continues to drop on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The weekly status report from University Health Services (UHS) showed students coming in to the health clinic with flu-like symptoms was almost cut in half in the fifth week of the fall semester (Sept. 27-Oct. 3), with only 58 students evaluated, down from 94 the previous week.
The 58 cases was the least seen on campus since school started Sept. 2.
A growing number of veterans are trading their uniforms and weapons for Bucky Badger sweat shirts and books, transforming this campus that was once a hotbed of war protest. As thousands of veterans return home from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many are taking advantage of generous educational benefits through the G.I. Bill. And as veterans flood campuses around the United States, theyâ??re changing and diversifying the student population in ways not seen since the end of World War II.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison received a “B” on the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, which is to be released Wednesday by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The report card includes data, profiles and grades for 332 schools.
“Surprising the skeptics, most schools we surveyed did not let financial reversals undermine their green commitments,” Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, said in a press release. “New financial realities encouraged saving money by adopting environmentally friendly innovations.”
“Revolt of the Beavers,” the season opener for University Theatre, turns the phrase “busy as a beaver” into a singing, dancing socialist parable for kids.
“The Revolt of the Beavers” succeeds in being educational, fun and high-energy, woven around lessons about conservation, teamwork and social responsibility. With 8 and 9-year-old protagonists, itâ??s aimed at elementary through middle school students, but the “Beavers” serve food for thought for grown-ups, too.
State legislators grilled UW System officials this morning during a hearing on its $81 million payroll system, asking how the System will prevent cost overruns and calling for the removal of top administrators if the project fails.
MADISON (WKOW) — For the third straight week, the number of students contacting University Health Services (UHS) with influenza-like illness (ILI) has declined.
Health officials on campus say that Week 5 (from September 27 to October 3), UHS examined 58 students with ILI, down from 94 in Week 4, which was down from 168 students in Week 3.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin Systemâ??s chief financial officer said his job might be on the line if an $81.4 million information technology project fails.
UW System Senior Vice President Tom Anderes told state lawmakers on Tuesday he is responsible for the project to install a new payroll and benefits system and assumes he will be fired if it doesnâ??t work.
The University of Wisconsin football team managed to keep its cool in a heated rivalry game against Minnesota on Saturday.
The Golden Gophers did not. That certainly played a role in the Badgers winning 31-28, their sixth consecutive victory in the series.
“An official came up to me during the course of the game and made reference to how well our players were handling the business that was going on around the plays,” UW coach Bret Bielema said at his Monday news conference.
A couple notes, quotes and observations from Monday nightâ??s University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Senate meeting — the first such gathering of the 2009-10 academic year at Bascom Hall.
Somewhat surprisingly, few faculty senators appeared to have a burning desire to openly discuss the pros and cons of unionizing.
UW System faculty and academic staff were given the right to form unions under the state budget signed by Gov. Jim Doyle in late June. This provision doesnâ??t mean unions must be formed — simply that both faculty and staff at each UW System institution can vote to form bargaining units if they so choose.
A new state poll has found that more than a third of Wisconsin adults are mostly opposed to President Barack Obamaâ??s proposed health care reforms, with another 28 percent of adults saying they support the reforms. The poll, conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s political science department in partnership with the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, found that more than 35 percent said they donâ??t know enough about the proposed reforms to respond to survey takersâ?? questions.
A majority of residents living in Milwaukee County support the plan for a mayoral takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools, while most residents statewide generally oppose the plan, according to poll data released Monday by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The poll, which was made possible by a partnership between the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and University of Wisconsin-Madison, did not separate out responses within Milwaukee city limits, said UW-Madison political science professor Ken Goldstein.
University of Wisconsin-Madison guru Joel Rogers, noting the loss of 130,000 jobs in the last 20 months, told Competitive Wisconsin recently that the state economy is in “very bad shape.” His graphs show the most cruel impact is on Hispanics and African-Americans.
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) – The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh newspaper has rejected an anti-abortion advertisement as too controversial.
The Advance-Titan decided not to run the 12-page insert from the Human Life Alliance. The advertisement, called iCare, contains information about abortion, its side effects, contraception, the development of a pre-born child and adoption.
A 19-year-old Madison man biking home early Sunday morning was knocked off his bike by a mugger who stole his money and fled.The mugging happened at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday on Randall Avenue. Madison police said the victim was tackled by the suspect while he was on his bicycle.
It came as no great surprise that President Obama turned to former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler as his choice to serve as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Butler is uniquely qualified to replace Judge John Shabazz. While others who applied had significant legal skills and important areas of specialization in the law, Butler brings remarkably broad experience to a courthouse that has not seen the appointment of a new federal judge in 28 years.
A Madison native was named Friday to a high Defense Department post as chief adviser for procuring equipment that protects U.S. forces from roadside bombs that have killed scores of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Brian Detter was sworn in by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus as the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for expeditionary warfare.
Many may have pushed it to the back of their minds since last spring, but the H1N1 virus flu is here again.
Infection rates for the H1N1 virus are much higher among university students than that of the general population. Given the close quarters in which students live, and the myriad social events on campus, the university seems like a breeding ground for flu.
Since the fall semester began, University Health Services (UHS) has evaluated hundreds of students with flu-like symptoms, many of whom have been diagnosed with swine flu. The health center eventually stopped diagnosing students in their offices, instead opting to conduct an evaluation of studentsâ?? symptoms by phone. After getting hit hard at the start of the semester, however, the number of UW students sick with the flu seems to be tapering off.
A bill that would ensure geographic diversity on the UW Board of Regents moved one step forward Wednesday.
The state Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee voted to approve the legislation on a vote of 8-4.
The bill creates seven regional districts and would require at least one member of the Regents to live in each district.
Twenty-eight years ago, Dave McClainâ??s University of Wisconsin football team helped close Memorial Stadium with a 26-21 victory over Big Ten Conference rival Minnesota. The Gophers moved off campus and into the Metrodome beginning with the â??82 season.
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler was nominated by President Barack Obama Wednesday for a federal judgeship. Butler is the justice-in-residence lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
MADISON, Wis. — Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler Jr. has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. District Judge for Wisconsinâ??s Western District.
….Butler has served as a lecturer at the UW law school since he was defeated by Justice Michael Gableman in last yearâ??s race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Worried about finding a job after you graduate from college? During this Great Recession, there are no guarantees. Or are there?
The University of Regina, which is located north of the border in Saskatchewan, has introduced a unique program guaranteeing students a successful career launch following completion of their undergraduate degree.
….Business is bad, with the market for Badgers tickets as soft as it has been in recent memory.
“Terrible,” said a scalper named John, who declined to offer his last name but is known to his customers as Ticket JJ. “Itâ??s very, very bad.”
As of a half-hour before game time against the Spartans on Sept. 26 – regarded as the tail end of the high point of sales – none of the eight well-traveled scalpers interviewed for this story had sold a ticket for the $46 face value. And that price doesnâ??t reflect the mandatory annual donation to the BadgerFund required of most seats at Camp Randall. Good seats were selling for as low as $25 through the professionals.
Mike Bellman got more than he bargained for when he purchased a box of old cell phones from the University of Missouri athletics department.
Bellman bought the cell phones earlier this year at a university surplus sale with the intent of reselling them for parts. He paid $190 for 25 old cell phones, figuring heâ??d sell the parts for around $1,000.
Turned out the information on the phones might be worth more than the hardware. No one at the university had deleted the text messages, e-mails and contact numbers from the phones.
Until now, the fearsome reputation of Tyrannosaurus rex has been pretty solid. Seven tons. More than 40 feet long. Huge head. Powerful jaws and meat-shredding teeth.
What could possibly pose a threat to such a beast, the king of the dinosaurs?
Ewan D.S. Wolff, a vertebrate paleontologist and a veterinary student at the UW-Madison, has discovered a surprising answer. T. rex, a new study by Wolff and other researchers has shown, may have often been laid low not by deadly combat with other dinosaurs but instead by a tiny parasite.
Wisconsin has become the regional biotech equivalent of traditional high-tech powerhouses like Boston, Silicon Valley and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, thanks to strong political support, an influx of investor capital and what is arguably the most formidable university technology transfer program in the country.
