The University of Wisconsin Multicultural Student Center celebrated its 11th annual graduation by honoring more than 100 students and naming the inaugural honorees of the McDowell Alumni Achievement Award.
If you know just one thing about Gabe Carimi, it?s that he?s the star University of Wisconsin lineman who the Chicago Bears chose as their first round pick in the NFL draft last month.
It takes something special to bring the community together. This week, it was compassion. Not the practice of it, exactly, but the concept. It gave everyone something to think about.
The state Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill that would require Wisconsin voters to show photo identification during a ragged session Thursday, clearing the way for Gov. Scott Walker to sign the measure into law next week.
Noted: At The Neural Interface Technology Research and Optimization (NITRO) Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brain-machine interfaces have been used in conjunction with social media. Through the noninvasive EEG devices, researchers were able to send tweets via thought.
WHITEWATER ? State Rep. Steve Nass on Tuesday said Republican lawmakers favor keeping UW-Madison linked to the state system, and will instead work toward giving some financial flexibilities to all UW campuses.
First, full disclosure. I am a UW?Madison grad, as are my three kids, my bride, her mom and my dad. And several of my siblings, nieces and nephews are System grads or current students.
Thousands of Husker fans will make the trek northeast to Madison, Wisconsin to see the Huskers open their Big Ten career.Also attracting many of those fans is the idea of visiting a city that?s new to Husker Nation.
When we learned Nebraska would be joining the Big Ten Conference, excitement spread past our state borders.We went to Madison, Wisconsin, where the Huskers will kick off their first Big Ten tour, to see what fans there are saying about their newest rival.
Academic staff at UW-Superior voted to unionize today, the first group of academic staff to do so in the University of Wisconsin System.
A Saturday morning session, ?Morning with the Experts: Healthy Minds and Education,? will include speaker UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson and a panel discussion with teachers who have participated in research at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. The panel is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon.
UW-Madison continues to try to strengthen ties with China, sending a delegation there for the third time in the past 14 months. This time, Gilles Bousquet, dean of International Studies and vice provost for globalization, will lead a group to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hong Kong and Beijing.
At the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, a research hub founded in 2008 within the Waisman Center at UW-Madison, researchers probe positive attributes such as compassion and contentment. A Waisman preschool study is attempting to determine whether children can be taught, in a statistically significant way, to be kinder. It is among the main research projects under way at the center, and it has hit a nerve with parents. “They?re wildly enthusiastic,” said UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson, center founder. “I get barraged by requests on a weekly basis from parents wanting to know if they can enroll their children in this program or if we can come to their school.”
As the search for the next dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School draws to a close, one of the three finalists has withdrawn from consideration.
Photo: Jerry Kelly as SuperFrog on the tee box.
SUPERIOR-A historic vote Monday at the University of Wisconsin-Superior poises the campus to be the first in the UW-Superior with a unionized academic staff.
MADISON, Wis. — A Madison man has donated his kidney to a stranger he might never meet.
Noted: UW-Madison?s Prof. David Canon, an expert on election law, says those opposing the voter identification bill may have “a credible, strong case.”
The New Badger Partnership has sparked serious discussion about the future of UW-Madison and many questions remain unanswered as summer approaches.
The individual stories are familiar. The chemistry major tending bar. The classics major answering phones. The Italian studies major sweeping aisles at Wal-Mart.
It has come to my attention that the nomination of University of Wisconsin law professor Victoria Nourse to the 7th Circuit is unlikely to be approved by the U.S. Senate.
MADISON ? Democratic state senators tried Tuesday to derail a Republican-backed measure that would require Wisconsin voters to show photo identification at the polls starting next year, arguing there is no need for the measure that would be one of the most restrictive such laws in the country.
Quoted: “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.”
Quoted: Rising export demand for dairy products including dry-milk powder and butter from buyers in Asia and Mexico also is fueling the jumps in prices and production, said Bob Cropp, an economist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who has been studying the industry since 1966.
In a recent guest column (Opinion, May 10), a University of Wisconsin System regent and member of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Advisory Council stated her case against the New Badger Partnership. As an alumnus of UW-Madison, I would like to offer a different perspective.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator has been named to lead the University of Florida?s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. UF officials announced this week that Teresa Balser, director of UW-Madison?s Institute for Biology Education, has been hired as the UF college?s new dean. She starts July 1.
Quoted: ?There is a non-trivial percentage of the state that has never voted for Thompson,? said Charles Franklin, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, referring to young voters. ?The party has shifted to some extent in its policies.?
APPLETON ? Dr. Richard Davidson toured the Trout Museum of Art on Tuesday, drinking in the spectacle of row upon row of 6-by-6-inch panels ?more than 10,000 of them.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the race could be an interesting look at the dynamics of the state Republican Party.
The Voter ID bill debated into the early hours of Wednesday morning ended the night without a final vote.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison Political Science Professor, said, “The trouble is having come so close and backed out at each previous time.. it?s very hard to know whether this time.. he?s finally serious… if he is serious, he?s a formidable candidate.”
It?s a first for American Family Children?s Hospital, as the facility has made an appearance in U.S. News and Worlds Report?s Best Children?s Hospitals Guide.
A late night debate on a bill that requires voters to show photo identification ends with Senate Democrats delaying its passage. During debate, Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) was among Democrats who expressed concerns about rural citizens not having access to a DMV to get a state issued ID. She says in some areas, the service centers are only open once a month.
A somewhat ugly and unfortunate debate has occurred in the national press in recent weeks over the use of freedom of information laws. The controversy began when the Wisconsin Republican Party asked the University of Wisconsin for e-mails of William Cronon, a history professor at Madison, whose records, as a state employee, are subject to Wisconsin?s open records law.
Quoted: Barry Gerhart, a professor of management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Numbers from the state Department of Administration and the University of Wisconsin-Madison show how important the dues of public-employee union members are to those unions – dues Walker?s changes would dramatically cut, if not eliminate.
In one year, UW-Madison unionized workers and workers in agencies of state government controlled by the governor, paid $13.9 million in union dues, And, of that total, $8.2 million – or 59% – went to the Wisconsin State Employees Union.
State support for the UW System now makes up less than a quarter of the system?s total spending, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Decades ago, state dollars funded almost half of the university system?s needs, but today, the colleges are far more dependent on tuition and fees paid by students. Lawmakers are considering Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to split off UW-Madison as a public authority.
The (Sunday May 15) paper has a full page ad by the Wisconsin Alumni Association pushing the New Badger Partnership. As a life member of the Association I am more than angry about this ad and other activities by the Association promoting this initiative.
Breakups are always hard, and UW-Madisons request for a split from the rest of the UW System through the proposed New Badger Partnership has evoked passions worthy of an epic love affair. Of course, in every breakup, friends are asked to take sides, and one might fairly ask whose side Madisons and Wisconsins business communities should be on.
At least two of our major health care systems are doing their part to champion bare-knuckles competition: UW Health is planning a Far East Side hospital to compete with Meriter?s hospital, and Meriter is opening clinics to compete with UW?s clinics while increasing the size of its doctors group in part with doctor?s poached from UW.
Also quoted: Donna Friedsam, a health care policy researcher at the UW-Madison Population Health Institute.
Quoted: Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
UW-Madison benefactors John and Tashia Morgridge shared the dais at the Kohl Center on Sunday, delivering the commencement address to graduates, taking turns speaking from two different lecterns. The high school sweethearts said they shared a rich and unique experience with graduates, with some key differences. The Morgridges spoke at the weekend?s four undergraduate ceremonies for about 6,000 graduates.
Frequent UW-Madison donors John and Tashia Morgridge have pledged to match gifts that this year?s graduates give the university. Through Dec. 31, the Morgridges will match gifts ranging from $20.11 to $120.11 to support a graduate?s college, school or department, or the university as a whole. The couple made the pledge during remarks at Saturday?s undergraduate commencement ceremonies.
The National Science Olympiad Tournament runs Wednesday through Saturday and will bring more than 6,000 middle and high school students, educators and parents from all over the country to the UW-Madison campus for a variety of science and engineering competitions.
UW-Madison MFA student Hongtao Zhou, the artist who in 2009 built an enchanting set of ice furniture from the frozen waters of Lake Mendota behind Memorial Union, has now ?Reconstituted? discarded belts and wooden chairs into powerful sculptures on display in the Union?s Porter Butts Gallery through Saturday.
Noted: Research by three UW-Madison professors on election fraud in Wisconsin
Technology companies helped create 500 jobs in the Madison area last year and the industry now represents 10.5 percent of the work force, with 31,000 jobs.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a founder of pollster.com and a University of Wisconsin political science professor.
At UW-Madison, it doesn?t take much to create a registered student group. All a student needs is three other people with a common interest. That means ? among some 830 registered student organizations ? there are groups that fill even the most quirky and bizarre niches.
Senate Democrats have unveiled a package of tax credits they say are designed to create jobs. Their plan includes 15 health and bioscience positions at the the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Institutes for Discovery. The package has little chance of becoming law.
Quoted: That uncertainty and disbelief is likely to continue until most Republican leaders and candidates publicly affirm that they believe the issue has been settled, says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin: “Partisans are rarely convinced by partisans on the opposite side.”
CORAL GABLES ? Miami athletic director Shawn Eichorst is bringing one of his former colleagues from the University of Wisconsin down to work with him.
Quoted: “We?ve seen the state tilt both directions rather sharply in just a two-year period,” said Charles Franklin, a founder of pollster.com and a University of Wisconsin political science professor. “This is the tie breaker, the chance for the state to decide whether it wants to reconsider in either direction.”
Quoted: “It?s the perfect storm,” said Michael Jacob, project coordinator at Covering Kids and Families, a grant-funded project through the University of Wisconsin-Madison that works to reduce health disparities.
Quoted: But this legacy has some scholars wondering whether the connection between airwaves and mass graves has been overstated. Scott Straus, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, has raised doubts about the potential culpability of the media in large-scale violence. In a 2007 paper drawing on the content of RTLM programming, interviews with perpetrators, and an analysis of RTLM?s broadcast range compared to where violence occurred, Straus concluded that the station had, at worst, a “second-order impact” on the genocide that could not be equated with the influence of other factors, among them face-to-face mobilization by local leaders.
But this spring?s graduates, like many of late, face a hard reality once they?ve returned the caps and gowns: the persistently brutal job market. Nilesh Patel, JD career advisor with the University of Wisconsin Law School, said that in the past two years, about half of the school?s graduating class did not have positions lined up. While the numbers aren?t yet in for the Class of 2011, he suspects that figure won?t be dramatically different.
Noted: Nike actually said it heard about the situation and told the WRC, who were among a few groups to put pressure on them last year to remedy workers pay in Honduras when two subcontractors failed to make employees whole. Nike eventually paid $1.54 million, but lost its licensing deal with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the process.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed. He said Kohl?s retirement “had been rumored for some time.”
ALBANY — The career paths of the three stem cell scientists awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize on Friday shifted in directions they never expected.
