BARABOO – Buddy Huffaker will remember Nina Leopold Bradley as a visionary who inspired many to respect the world in which they live.
Author: jplucas
Walker signs Voter ID bill into law
WKOW-TV 27
The controversial voter ID bill is now law.
Committee votes to end tuition reciprocity
Wisconsin Radio Network
Funding for a tuition reciprocity agreement between Wisconsin and Minnesota will be phased out, under a plan approved Tuesday by the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee.
Committee approves concealed carry
Wisconsin Radio Network
Legislation that would allow anyone who can legally own a firearm to carry it concealed is headed to the Senate floor, after a committee approved the bill Wednesday on a party line vote. Democrats raised numerous concerns about the lack of training requirements or permits in the bill legalizing what?s called constitutional carry.
Duke’s China Plan Sparks Doubts on Campus
Chronicle of Higher Education
Duke University?s decision to build a campus in Kunshan, China, has run into a snag, as a small, but growing number of Duke academics are raising questions about how the venture will be carried out.
UW-Madison has unique mission, needs
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
I joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a faculty member in 1973, two years after the merger of UW-Madison with the UW System. The merger was met with much apprehension.
“The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1945-1971” notes that the 1971 merger was “imposed by state political leaders over the deep misgivings of most UW regents, administrators and Madison faculty members, alumni and students.”
These misgivings were well-founded. In the 40 years following the merger, UW-Madison has been less than it can be. The reason is straightforward. [A column by Ronald Kalil, a professor of neuroscience in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Madison.]
Wis. lawmakers agree to change Minn. tuition deal
Madison.com
Wisconsin college students will soon have to pay more to attend the University of Minnesota under a change to the popular tuition reciprocity agreement approved Tuesday by the Wisconsin Legislature?s budget committee. The 43-year-old reciprocity program allows Wisconsin and Minnesota college-bound students to pay instate tuition even if they attend public universities in the other state. Currently, Wisconsin makes up the difference between the resident tuition rate for a Wisconsin student to attend a comparable institution in Minnesota. Under the change approved unanimously Tuesday by the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee, that difference would have to be paid by the student.
Woman Facing Charges In Crash That Killed UW Student
WISC-TV 3
A 20-year-old Sun Prairie woman is expected to be in Dane County Circuit Court on Wednesday for charges stemming from a fatal crash in October.
Local Hospitals Prepare For Disasters
WISC-TV 3
All hospitals in the Madison area, including University of Wisconsin Hospital, participated in a nationwide natural disaster drill just last Wednesday. They?re all part of a communication system called “Wi Track,” which helps medical emergency crews know what works and what still needs improvement.
Wis. lawmakers agree to change Minn. tuition deal (AP)
BusinessWeek
Wisconsin college students will soon have to pay more to attend the University of Minnesota under a change to the popular tuition reciprocity agreement approved Tuesday by the Wisconsin Legislature?s budget committee.
10 Schools With Fewest Cars on Campus
U.S. News and World Report
Georgetown University, the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, and the University of Wisconsin?Madison?reported that none of their students keep cars on campus. Georgetown, for instance, does not allow students who live on campus to have cars there, though the school?s Washington, D.C., location allows access to a vast public transportation system, as is the case for NYU-Poly students in New York City.
Wis. committee votes to end Covenant program
WKOW-TV 27
The state Joint Finance Committee voted Tuesday to end the Wisconsin Covenant program.
Medtronic?s Infuse Can Make Men Sterile, Study Says
New York Times
Noted: The new study is likely to intensify a debate over whether industry-financed researchers present study findings in ways that favor the interests of corporate sponsors. Dr. Burkus, who practices in Columbus, Ga., and Dr. Zdeblick, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, have each received millions of dollars from Medtronic in consulting fees or royalty payments.
Universities Expand Research Space at Faster Pace After Years of Slower Growth
Chronicle of Higher Education
The University of Wisconsin at Madison is notable among research universities: It lands in the top 10 for institutions that constructed the most space and spent the most money in 2008 and 2009, as well as in the top 10 of institutions that are planning major expansions in 2010 and 2011. Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities at Madison, said that the university is consistently in the top five in federal research grants and that the university has made it a strategic priority to stay there through building.
College mental health screenings going high-tech
USA Today
To help deal with high demand, more campus counseling centers are using computerized questionnaires, some that generate color-coded charts, to help them flag a serious problem more quickly than traditional paper-and-pencil evaluations. Though they stress that these evaluations are not a replacement for in-depth questioning or counseling, many counselors say high-tech methods like these appeal to students, who are often more comfortable communicating with smart phones, iPads and laptops.
Madison Metro bus directions come to Google Maps
Wisconsin State Journal
Metro Transit?s embrace of green technology keeps rolling as riders can now plan their trips using Google Maps and use GPS data to track bus locations and arrival times on smartphones and PCs. Metro is also promoting applications created by third parties. Aleksandr Dobkin, a UW-Madison graduate, developed a Bus Radar application for Android, while Jignesh Patel, also a UW-Madison graduate, developed an app called Locomatix for iPhone and Blackberry.
Man who allegedly fired gun on Willy Street was in prison for crime he didn’t commit
Wisconsin State Journal
Madison police have identified the man taken into custody after he reportedly fired a gun on the porch of a Williamson Street residence Monday as Forest Shomberg, who spent six years in prison for a sexual assault a judge determined he didn?t commit. Shomberg was released from prison in November 2009 after the Wisconsin Innocence Project presented DNA and other evidence that raised doubt about his conviction for a March 8, 2002, incident in which a UW-Madison student was pulled from State Street and violently groped.
Analysis of 171 college majors puts engineers at the top
USA Today
Just one word of advice for the nation?s 2011 high school graduates: petroleum. An analysis of the projected lifetime earnings of 171 college majors provides a clearer picture of what one bachelor?s degree means compared to another in the labor market. And the answer can be as much as $3.64 million.
Pressing ahead: Suttle-Straus makes major investment despite recession
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business professor Ramon Aldag.
Losing tax-exempt status could be problematic for Pres House
Wisconsin State Journal
The Presbyterian student center at UW-Madison is scrambling to convince state legislators its 51-unit apartment building deserves to remain off the tax rolls. The Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee on May 12 voted 14-2 to strip Pres House Apartments of its tax-exempt status as part of the 2011-13 biennial budget. The ministry was granted the exemption by the Legislature in a controversial move two years ago. Pres House now is rallying students, parents and alumni to contact state officials before the full Legislature votes on the budget in the coming weeks.
Wisconsin lawmakers consider changing tuition deal
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin college students would have to pay more to attend the University of Minnesota under a proposal up for approval before the Wisconsin Legislature?s budget committee. The Joint Finance Committee planned to vote Tuesday on the change backed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. His plan would save the state about $17 million over the next two years.
Prosecutor won?t file charges in UW-Madison sheep deaths
Wisconsin State Journal
A special prosecutor has declined to bring charges against nine UW-Madison researchers and officials responsible for experiments in which sheep died of decompression sickness. David Geier, a Madison attorney, wrote in a report filed Friday that university employees did not violate a state law that bans killing animals through decompression. Geier wrote that the university should not ?receive a free pass,? however, because officials should have a better system to keep track of state and federal laws. He found that university employees he interviewed were either unaware of the state law or did not think it applied to them.
College Researchers Avoid Prosecution in Sheep Deaths
Wall Street Journal
A special prosecutor in Wisconsin has declined to charge University of Wisconsin researchers who animal rights groups accused of breaking the law when sheep died undergoing experiments in a hyperbaric chamber.
NHL notes: Rafalski ready to retire (Toronto Sun)
Defenceman Brian Rafalski appears set to end his 11-year NHL career.
Cutting to mediocrity at UMass
Boston Globe
The University of Massachusetts is on course for permanent mediocrity. The Globe reported this week that UMass campuses are likely headed for another 6 to 8 percent increase in fee hikes, on top of the nearly 16 percent increase two years ago. UMass Amherst?s in-state tuition, fees, room, and board are already among the highest in the nation for flagship universities, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. They are $1,726 more than the in-state charges for the University of Texas, and $4,838 more than the University of Wisconsin.
Expert look at cause of deadly storms
WKOW-TV 27
MADISON (WKOW) — Experts say this is probably the most violent year of storms in half a century. That is not necessarily because there have been more storms but because those storms are hitting more populated areas. Greg Tripoli, UW-Madison Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences Professor, says there is a “perfect storm” of factors that explain what is happening.
Solon’s high school and middle school are National Science Olympiad champs
Cleveland Plain Dealer
SOLON, Ohio — Take dozens of hard-working students, combine with two committed coaches, and add in a few involved parent-volunteers.
Geo Stalking
NBC-15
Jignesh Patel is a professor of computer science at UW-Madison. He says after 9-11 the FCC enacted the E911 mandate, requiring wireless carriers to provide emergency personnel with more precise location services.
There’s an app for that
WKOW-TV 27
MADISON (WKOW) — From the simple, to the creative, to the bizarre. There are hundreds of thousands of smart phone apps available on the iTunes and Android markets, and some are made here in Madison. UW-Madison grad student Matt Luedke and his company, SnowShoeFood, have developed a new app to help customers shop local.
New deans appointed at Wisconsin, Arkansas (National Law Journal)
The University of Wisconsin Law School has name Margaret Raymond as its next dean.
New UW Law dean faces challenges of economics, autonomy (Wisconsin Law Journal)
An accounting background might come in handy for the recently named next dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Study: College Men Who Post About Alcohol Have More Facebook Friends
Time NewsFeed
If you tend to mention or post photos of alcohol on Facebook, you?re likely to have more Facebook friends ? at least if you?re a college-age man. That?s what a recent study, to be published in the American Journal of Men?s Health, suggests. Researchers Katie Egan and Megan Moreno studied the profiles of 225 male undergraduates from a university, between the ages of 13 and 17, and found that 85% of the profiles contained at least one reference to alcohol.
Foreign policy expert leaving UW Madison for TX (WTAQ-AM)
UW-Madison is losing one of its most highly-regarded foreign policy experts.
The Dancing Mad Scientist (KPLR-TV, St. Louis)
ST. LOUIS, MO (KPLR)? As the school year winds down its hard to keep kids interested in school. The dancing mad scientist Jeffrey Vinokur has some creative ideas to make science fun for all ages.
Wisconsin recall effort could affect redistricting
Appleton Post-Crescent
Quoted: In effect, a Democratic senate takeover would “put the brakes on what otherwise would be a runaway train,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison political expert Charles Franklin, referring to a Republican-dominated redistricting process.
Developmental Disabilities on the Rise in U.S. Kids (Reuters)
Quoted: “We need to plan for this proportion of children needing services,” Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Reuters Health.
Growing Brains in Bio Labs, One Cell at a Time (LiveScience.com)
The most common brain cell, called the astrocyte, is often overlooked in the face of its cousin, the neuron. Researchers are finally realizing their importance and have, for the first time, been able to grow them in the lab.
Human stem cells programmed as brain cells (COSMOS Magazine)
LONDON: A novel method for producing large amounts of astrocyte cells – which assist in regulating the extracellular composition of brain fluid – from human stem cells has been achieved by scientists in the U.S.
Researchers Generate Functional Astrocytes from hESCs and hIPSCs (GEN)
Scientists have developed the chemically defined conditions necessary to prompt human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to differentiate into immature astrocytes. The University of Wisconsin-Madison team claims the immature astrocytes readily develop into mature astrocytes when implanted in the mouse brain, by forming connections with blood vessels. Writing in Nature Biotechnology, Su-Chung Zhang, Ph.D., and colleagues, report on their achievement in a paper titled ?Specification of transplantable astroglial subtypes from human pluripotent stem cells.?
UW-Eau Claire doubles retirements this year
Wisconsin Public Radio
The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire says there?s a 77 percent jump in retirements at the campus this year, and opinions vary as to why.
Popular history professor to depart from UW
Badger Herald
As a lack of decisiveness at the state and University of Wisconsin levels concerning the proposed public authority model continue to fuel uncertainty among the campus community, one highly-regarded history professor announced he will not be returning to the Madison campus in the fall.
UW to ban bicycles from Picnic Point path
Wisconsin State Journal
Bicyclists will be banned from riding along the dirt path that leads to Picnic Point, starting May 28. UW-Madison officials said they made the decision because people complained about reckless bikers riding too fast among pedestrians and off the designated trail.
Catching Up: Seventh-graders who went to New Orleans to share experience
Wisconsin State Journal
A group of Sherman Middle School seventh-graders who recently traveled to New Orleans on a rare service-learning trip are sharing their experience at UW-Madison?s School of Education on Monday.
Science Olympiad shows off some of brightest middle schoolers in nation
Wisconsin State Journal
Dozens of middle schoolers launched bottle rockets Saturday morning on a patch of grass at UW-Madison, some of the rockets soaring as high as the towering Engineering Research Building next door and taking nearly half a minute to return to earth. These weren?t the exploding rockets you buy at a roadside stand, but creations hand-built by physics whizzes in town for the city?s first turn at hosting the National Science Olympiad.
Doug Moe: Solution to budget goes down the drain
Wisconsin State Journal
Several European cities are making money by offering tours of their sewer systems, according to the Wall Street Journal. Because we are always looking for city-university partnerships, we could package the city sewer tour with a tour of UW-Madison?s underground steam tunnels. The labyrinth of campus tunnels was first constructed in the late 1800s. They are not open to the general public, but people have been known to explore them anyway, most famously a guy nicknamed “Tunnel Bob,” who startled students across several decades when he stuck his head – adorned with a Packers cap – out of various tunnel entrances.
YWAM also could lose tax status
Another faith-based organization at UW-Madison also could lose its tax-exempt status for its housing component. Youth With A Mission Madison, part of a global Christian volunteer organization, owns a former sorority house at 602 Langdon St. that provides housing for about 20 people, most of them UW-Madison students, said Warren Keapproth, director of YWAM Madison. The state law that gives Pres House its tax-exempt status also grants it to YWAM Madison.
Ask the Weather Guys: What is the outlook for hurricanes this year?
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Curiosities: Are there any emerging diseases in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Tony Goldberg, an expert on emerging diseases and a professor of pathobiological sciences in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
On Campus: UW-Madison names new law school dean
Wisconsin State Journal
Margaret Raymond, a University of Iowa law professor, has been named dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Alvarez: A scholarship’s a fair deal for athletes, but stipend isn’t objectionable
Madison.com
When Barry Alvarez attended Nebraska and played football back in the late 1960s, his full scholarship included a monthly stipend of $15 designed to pay for things beyond room, board, books and tuition. That memory came to life to this week when Alvarez, now the University of Wisconsin athletic director, listened with surprise as Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany broached the topic of augmenting athletic scholarships during a meeting in Chicago. A full tender still covers the basics ? room, board, books and tuition ? but research suggests there is roughly a $3,000 gap between that value and the actual cost of attendance, which includes travel, clothing and living expense.
All UW schools push for flexibility as Madison-only plan looks unlikely
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A three-month debate over the way the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the rest of the UW System are run has shown that all state universities are going to need more freedom from state rules to remain competitive and to offset deep proposed budget cuts, state lawmakers say.
UW-Madison loses 2 highly regarded faculty members
Wisconsin State Journal
Two highly regarded UW-Madison faculty members are leaving the university for jobs on other campuses. Jeremi Suri, a history professor, is taking a faculty position at the University of Texas at Austin. Teri Balser, an associate professor of soil science and director of the UW-Madison Institute for Biology Education, will become dean of the University of Florida?s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Graduation advice: Take charge of your student loans
USA Today
This year?s college graduates will get a lot of advice over the next few weeks from a parade of commencement speakers. Find your passion. Believe in yourself. Take risks. But here?s something graduates probably won?t hear from the dignitary at the podium: Pay your student loans. That?s too bad, because the consequences of defaulting on student loans are nothing short of catastrophic.
Foreskin may be reservoir for HPV
USA Today
Experts says the study results do not necessarily warrant any reversal in thinking among those opposed to the procedure. “What this doesn?t tell us is anything regarding the relative risk of having a partner who?s circumcised vs. uncircumcised,” said Dr. Jonathan L. Temte, professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and a voting member on the CDC?s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “I don?t think this changes the argument very much regarding pros vs. cons on circumcision.”
How To Create a Job | This American Life
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs.
Study: Lichen can help fight chronic wasting disease in wildlife
Wisconsin State Journal
The lichen ? hardy, humble and ubiquitous ? was spotlighted this week as an addition to the very limited potential arsenal available for war against chronic wasting disease in wildlife. In Wisconsin, the fatal disease has led to massive culling of the whitetail deer herd and perennial political wrangling about how to control it. The science, however, has been fairly clear: The prions that cause it are almost impossible to exterminate.It turns out that types of lichen degrade prions, the infectious brain-perforating proteins responsible for CWD. The laboratory research results were made public this week by scientists with the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, in Madison, and the UW-Madison.
Legislature passes voter ID bill; Walker to sign it Wednesday
Wisconsin State Journal
The state Senate on Thursday gave final approval to a controversial bill requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The measure now heads to Gov. Scott Walker, who said he plans to sign it next Wednesday. Under the bill, a voter would have to present a driver?s license, a state ID, a passport, a military ID, naturalization papers or a tribal ID. College students could vote with a school ID as long as it has their signature and an expiration date within two years of the card?s issuance. University of Wisconsin IDs currently do not meet that criteria and would have to be updated to comply before students could use them to vote.
Lynn DuPree: Keep graduation focus on students
Wisconsin State Journal
Last weekend I attended one of the commencement ceremonies at UW-Madison and, while I was very proud of the students, I was disappointed with the graduation itself.
Leslie Bow’s book partly Colored (The Capital City Hues)
Leslie Bow, professor of English and Asian American Studies at UW-Madison ? and a 2011 Outstanding Woman of Color awardee at the university ? grew up in the social cauldron that was the San Francisco Bay area in the 1970s. She was attracted to literature as much by what she didn?t see as much as what she saw.
Former Wisconsin AD takes shots at UNC coach Roy Williams
USA Today
Back in 2000, when Roy Williams was the head coach at Kansas, he took a subtle shot at the University of Wisconsin basketball program.