Here are five players who could make or break UW’s season with their performance in 2011. If enough of them take a step up, the 10th-ranked Badgers might just live up to the lofty expectations they and others have for this season.
Two major personnel changes have altered the makeup of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board heading into the new school year. Law School professor Walter Dickey stepped down as chairman of the body that oversees the UW Athletic Department to step across the administrative aisle to work for UW athletic director Barry Alvarez. Dr. Dale Bjorling, a professor in the UW School of Veterinary Medicine, was appointed the new chair by interim chancellor David Ward, who was acting on a recommendation from the university committee.
Noted: Sara Goldrick-Rab, associate professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, emphatically agreed. ?I found it hard to believe we sociologists would come to a place that clearly thrives on the exploitation of people?s financial and emotional insecurities,? she wrote in an email.
Noted: Perhaps his own closest international collaborator is Harold Tobin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He?s more optimistic that something good can emerge from the NSF?s review – perhaps a structure that can even lead to the ships spending more time on science than on commercial contracts. But he has concerns too.
Quoted: That?s Charles Franklin, a political scientist at UW-Madison. He says while in Congress, Nuemann built a reputation as one of the most fiscally conservative members of the House, and someone willing to dissent when he did not believe Republican leaders were being frugal enough. Franklin says Nuemann also has been staunchly conservative on social issues, such as abortion.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is reminding drivers to plan ahead if you?re driving to and from Madison for any Badger home games.
It?s no secret that public colleges are struggling with huge fiscal problems. Nor that they are facing new political pressures as legislatures and governors in Florida, Ohio, Texas, and elsewhere become more interested in issues like faculty productivity, assessment, accountability, and bottom-line budgeting. With the new academic year about to begin, The Chronicle asked several key people on campuses what they think will happen as these two trends collide. Are times different than in the past? Are there lessons from history?
James Perry?s bosses at the University of Wisconsin decided that Perry could no longer be the dean and campus executive officer at UW-Fox Valley in Menasha because of his actions on a UW-sponsored trip to Namibia.
Quoted: “I?m cautious about the conclusions because the HLA system is so variable in living people,” commented John Hawks, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US.
Quoted: “The idea that schooling is a local matter has been changing significantly for about the past half century and that shift has accelerated with increased state and federal involvement,” said Adam Nelson, a professor of educational policy studies and history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students from across the country began moving into University of Wisconsin-Madison dorms Saturday, and many said political protests this spring didn?t impact their decision to attend the university.
“The idea behind Sconnie Nation is simple. Anyone from Wisconsin, who attends school in Wisconsin, or just loves the dairy state in general can identify with Sconnie.
Jobs was born out of wedlock to two wizards, a.k.a. graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison: Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian immigrant pursuing his doctorate in political science, and Joanne Simpson, who was studying for her master?s in speech.
Wisconsin senators are known for their longevity, according to UW-Madison Political Scientist David Canon. He says for example, Herb Kohl and his predecessor William Proxmire served a combined 56 years.
Professor Jonathan Martin chairs the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UW Madison. He?s closely watching the development of Hurricane Irene. ?This storm seems destined to affect areas of the eastern United States that, though historically they?ve been subject to visitations by severe hurricanes, it?s been a long while since that?s happened,? said Martin.
Sarah Omernick maybe describes it best when she says: “its insane.”
Long before 9/11, America was struck by a domestic terror attack in the name of peace. Forty-one years ago this week … at the height of the Vietnam War protests … an explosion rocked the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Peter Greenberg was a student there, and this morning he reports our Cover Story:
We?ve asked the question before, but with the 2011 season opener four days away, it seems timely to ask it again: Why not Wisconsin?
Bret Bielema and Paul Kujawa, friends since they first joined forces at Iowa in 1989, have shared good food, laughs and a few tears over the years.
Kujawa, from Cudahy High School, shared something else with Bielema several months ago, the book “Good to Great.”
“The main emphasis is that a lot of people settle for being good and get complacent and accept being at a level that is (slightly) better than everybody else,” Bielema, entering his sixth season as Wisconsin?s head football coach, explained. “But to get to an elite status, to get to the great level, you have to continue to research within yourself what you can do better.
For more than 40 years, Paul Soglin – born and raised in Illinois – has been an almost constant presence in the city?s affairs. He was a leader of student demonstrations in the 1960s at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, member of the city council, and later mayor over 14 years in two stints, one that began in 1973 and another that began in 1989.
In honor of dorm move-in days, check out this photo album UW-Madison Archives created of “100 years of student housing at UW-Madison.” It includes photos of Leila Bascom arranging photos and decorative dishes in Chadbourne Hall in 1898. We?re guessing fine china is off the “must-bring” list for most students these days.
At a time when Congress is considering big cuts to social programs to deal with record budget deficits, it can?t be just my personal aversion to time-sucking high-tech distractions that makes me wonder if spending taxpayer dollars on the development of a shoe-based cell-phone charger is really all that great of an idea. Last week, UW-Madison engineers Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor unveiled their “reverse electrowetting” technology and its potential for recharging cellphones and other electronic devices by transferring the energy created by walking into electricity.
Citing increased violence and cost to the city, Madison police say the annual Mifflin Street block party “simply cannot continue.” The statement, made in a Madison Police Department report on the 2011 event, echoes the call Mayor Paul Soglin has made to end the annual bacchanal. The 42-year-old event occurs annually near the end of the UW-Madison school year ? with or without official sanctioning. This year?s block party in April was marred by a large, drunken crowd and violence that included two stabbings, three sexual assaults, three substantial batteries, four strong-armed robberies and numerous reports of property damage during and after the event, according to the report. Police arrested 162 people, including 37 UW-Madison students. Soglin said he wants the event to occur on its traditional date ? the first Saturday in May ? when students will be studying for final exams. Ald. Scott Resnick, who represents the student-dominated 8th District near UW-Madison, said he believes the party needs to be more “Madison-centric.” He said he would like to see less advertising of the party on social media sites to people outside of Madison.
As union members proclaim “solidarity,” the state?s new law prohibiting collective bargaining is hitting public employee pocketbooks this week. The state started making payroll deductions for pensions and health insurance for tens of thousands of employees Thursday, and some municipalities and school districts will do so for more employees on Friday. Most state employees, except State Patrol troopers and inspectors, began paying 5.8 percent of their earnings for their pensions. They?re also paying 12.6 percent of health care premiums. Sandy Rindy, a union member who has worked at UW-Madison for 30 years, most of it as a payroll and benefit specialist, said deductions will have a real impact, especially for those living paycheck to paycheck and single parents struggling with day care and health care costs.
The inaugural Big Ten 7s Tournament, featuring a faster-paced game than traditional rugby, will be held Saturday in Madison. The one-day tournament features eight club teams from Big Ten Conference schools, including the University of Wisconsin, with matches starting at 9 a.m.
A UW-Madison scientist whose studies of freshwater lakes, including Wisconsin?s, are known and used around the world has been presented one of the highest awards in his field. Steve Carpenter, a professor of limnology and zoology, received the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday.
The idea that higher education is creeping toward an all-digital future has turned textbook season into a spectator sport. Will this be the year e-textbooks make their move?
Quoted: Donald Downs, a professor of political science, law and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the ruling essentially means the media can report on games but cannot broadcast or stream them from beginning to end.
Will you be able to charge your next mobile phone simply by walking around? A group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hope so.
Perhaps the Northwoods? most abundant crop is potatoes.To keep business sprouting, UW-Madison has planted a research facility in Rhinelander to keep moving forward.
Quoted: In general, such restructuring is expensive, but it provides companies with the flexibility to deal with debt issues in an orderly way, said Jim Seward, an associate professor of finance and academic director of the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Michael Stier, associate professor of forensic pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, testified that Christine Staeven died of homicide by undetermined means.
The chancellor of University of Hawaii?s flagship Manoa campus announced Wednesday she will leave the post after her five-year contract ends next year.
Everyone wants a seat at the table when a campus picks a new leader, and it?s rare that groups say they have enough representation. With so many campus constituencies — including faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, and community members — finding enough seats is tough, and more often than not, faculty members say they?re not given their fair share.
Lawmakers and political groups like to point to government spending that seems wasteful ? especially in tough economic times. And one popular target has been scientific studies that either sound silly or involve foreign countries or have to do with sex. Looking at past examples, however, shows that there seems to be a pattern to how research gets singled out ? and what happens after it?s put under the spotlight.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is honoring the first woman judge in Milwaukee County and the first African-American judge in Wisconsin by renaming one of its dorms after Vel Phillips, according to the university.
A $25.2 million redevelopment of a prominent and long-blighted site is stalled before the city?s Urban Design Commission, largely over a parking lot demanded by the main tenants of the project for safety reasons.But Ghidorzi Cos. of Wausau, which has been working with the commission since May, has already altered its proposal for parking and most recently sought a three-story, 235-space garage and 70 surface spaces. The surface spaces, which are cheaper, are needed because the clinic for safety reasons wants a well-lighted lot next to the office building for use by physicians and patients, said Alan Fish, vice chancellor for facilities at UW-Madison.
University of Wisconsin senior quarterback Russell Wilson?s superb numbers in play action are due to his work ethic and ballhandling skills.
Here are a couple cool discoveries that came out of UW-Madison recently. One looks to the future and the other looks to the past. Foot power: Walk, talk AND charge your cell phone at the same time? Two scientists at UW-Madison may have come up with a device that takes the mechanical motion from walking and turns it into electrical energy.
Beer origins: A UW-Madison researcher helped find an elusive species of yeast in Argentina that was key to the invention of lager beer 600 years ago in Bavaria. Chris Todd Hittinger, an evolutionary geneticist, co-authored the paper about lager beer?s missing link.
A Madison police department reports cites binge drinking and other increasing problems as reasons to end the Mifflin Street block party.
MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Police Department is recommending the city shut down the annual Mifflin Street Block Party after recent violence and overconsumption of alcohol.
Quoted: UW-Madison earthquake expert Cliff Thurber said that because of the ground and solid rocks between here and the East Coast, just about everyone east of the Mississippi River had the chance to feel Tuesday?s quake.
How did lager beer come to be? After pondering the question for decades, scientists have found that an elusive species of yeast isolated in the forests of Argentina was key to the invention of the crisp-tasting German beer 600 years ago, according to Chris Todd Hittinger, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW-Madison has a new director of its Environment, Health and Safety Department. Paul F. Umbeck, who founded a University Research Park-based consulting firm on biosafety and biosecurity issues, will be in charge of general campus safety.
A woman now serving her third stint in prison for a 1996 fatal drunken driving crash was convicted Tuesday of her third drunken driving offense, which happened during a brief period of freedom earlier this year. Lori Kasten, 45, of Madison, was back behind bars on April 23, when she was arrested in a UW-Madison parking lot. Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.25 percent, just over three times the 0.08 limit for Wisconsin drivers without a previous drunken driving conviction.
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson isn?t a declared U.S. Senate candidate yet, but that hasn?t stopped Club for Growth, a national conservative group, from preparing a statewide TV ad attacking the Republican. In additions to charges about his support for health care reform, the commercial also alludes to tax increases under Thompson?s watch but it doesn?t elaborate. Club for Growth Action provided AP a list of spending hikes, including increases in cigarette taxes and tuition hikes at most University of Wisconsin campuses.
Midwest prairies are often misunderstood communities, in part because these complex ecosystems are also called grasslands. There is much more to a prairie than big bluestem and prairie dropseed grasses. The prairie plants at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, for example, number 360 native and introduced species. One of the biggest groups of prairie plants includes non-grass herbs, also called forbs.
In the midst of revising plans to build new headquarters for 800-plus student-athletes, University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials thought about using one of the last bits of green space in their campus footprint. A grassy area near Camp Randall Stadium was considered for a place to put a football practice facility with a complex of locker rooms, sports medicine and weight training beneath it. That idea for the Athletic Performance Center was ultimately rejected because of potential cost overruns and the disruption to the adjacent Breese Terrace neighborhood.
Remember the last time the battery on your cellphone died in the middle of a conversation? Tom Krupenkin, a UW-Madison physicist and researcher, sympathizes. Actually, he?s done more than that. He and another university scientist may have come up with a way to dramatically extend the life of a cellphone battery. And here?s the really nifty part: Their invention will allow you to keep your phone charged simply by walking.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor, said interest in the event may be fueled by the massive protests at the Capitol this spring over Gov. Scott Walker?s efforts to limit public sector collective bargaining, concern about the economy and a sense that President Barack Obama is not progressive enough.
The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee has gone public with its efforts to contact about 75,000 people to let them know they may have had their names and Social Security Numbers accessed by cyber-criminals.
For students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, going to class has taken on multiple meanings. Since Rabbi Mendel and Henya Matusof moved to campus in 2005, it?s just as common to find Jewish students studying for their final exams as delving into a classical work of Jewish thought.
A stowaway strain of yeast, crossing the Atlantic centuries ago, may be responsible for a cool quarter-trillion-dollar beverage industry today.
Quoted: The aggregate vote in the nine recall elections was 50.7 percent Democrat, 49.3 percent Republican, close enough that the outcome could have gone either way, said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The long-missing parent yeast of lager beer was newly discovered, and is believed to have sailed 7,000 miles from Patagonia in South America to Bavaria, to make a fortuitous microbial match at the birth place of the most popular alcoholic beverage of today, which underpins the $250 billion-a-year industry.
Under the collective bargaining law, also known as Act 10, all public sector unions have to recertify each year. It?s a new requirement under law, but one local union is opting against recertification.
Numerous residents in south-central Wisconsin said they felt a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered roughly 700 miles away, near Mineral, Va. The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake struck at 12:51 p.m. CST. It took 2.5 to 3 minutes to reach the Madison area, according to UW-Madison geoscience professor Charles DeMets.
The Obama administration announced on Tuesday the final form of new rules governing financial conflicts of interest in federally sponsored medical research, saying it hoped to boost public confidence after years of scandals tied to corporate influence.
WASHINGTON — For the first time since 1995, the federal government has revised its policies governing researchers? financial conflicts of interest, in ways that federal officials said would build public trust in the integrity of biomedical research by strengthening transparency and oversight.
As of this month, state workers start paying more for health care through increased premiums. In addition, they?ll pay more to see a doctor in 2012. Shamane Mills reports.
