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Author: jplucas

Once-forgotten 1909 carriage house gets a modern-day makeover

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Wisconsin State Journal

It?s hard to fathom how the garage of a national landmark mansion that?s considered a masterpiece designed by ?the father of modern architecture? could be lost for almost a century. But that?s what happened to the carriage house that once belonged to the 1909 Bradley House in the University Heights neighborhood on Madison?s Near West Side. Bradley House, designed by Louis Sullivan, the mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright, is one of the few residences designed by Sullivan still standing. Recently, Sue Thering, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at UW-Madison who has lived there for a decade, was nominated for a Madison Trust for Historic Preservation award.

At UW clinic, horses and dogs are the most likely to have insurance policies; cats, cows ? not so much

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Wisconsin State Journal

Faced with the increasing price of medical care, more pet owners are pulling out insurance cards when visiting the veterinary?s office. Pet health insurance has been available in the United States for almost 30 years, but expanded veterinary treatments and changing attitudes toward the family pet have bolstered the number of policies over the past decade, even during the economic downturn. Available to Wisconsin pets for several years, insurance probably covers about 1 percent of the animals seen at the UW-Madison Veterinary Hospital, estimated Steve Wall, assistant hospital director. The hospital logged 21,406 ?patient visits? in 2010.

The missing link in job growth chain

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Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin families may wonder how the state can afford to create programs to boost business growth when the governor and lawmakers argue it is imperative to cut back on almost everything else. The answer is because we can?t afford not to invest in business growth, not only to create the jobs we need but also to bring in the tax revenue to support the government services we want. Wisconsin has come far in creating hotbeds for new-business formation. Atop the list is Dane County, where UW-Madison is spinning off the talent and ideas that are creating one of the Midwest?s largest collections of young biomedical businesses and other technology-related companies.

Research debate hits close to home

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Wisconsin State Journal

While opposition to the use of animals in research has gained momentum in Madison in recent years, there has been little change involving the use of monkeys and other animals in scientific studies.The efforts of local animal rights activists have been buoyed by high-profile cases at UW-Madison, where two federal agencies found violations of animal care requirements and a researcher was suspended over her treatment of monkeys in 2009. Last year, a UW-Madison committee approved a statement essentially saying research is ethical given local and federal oversight. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin called the use of animals in scientific research “indispensable, because of its life-saving benefits to human health,” saying, “Wisconsin would not be the leader in the stem-cell universe without animal research, nor would stem cell research anywhere hold the promise it now does.”

Andy Baggot: Like Packers, UW should spring for loyal fans

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Madison.com

No matter how many people show up Saturday to watch the University of Wisconsin stage its annual spring football game at Camp Randall Stadium, I?m pretty sure I have an idea that will boost future attendance at the event. Call it what you will ? an investors? convention, a stockholders meeting, an address to Badger Nation, whatever ? but there should be an organized opportunity for season-ticket holders to get pertinent insights about the Badgers and ask questions of UW athletic director Barry Alvarez.

Change would make school more affordable

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Some suggest that the New Badger Partnership will limit access to an education for students because tuition will not be affordable. We refute this.We want more people to know that they can afford to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The New Badger Partnership is going to make UW-Madison more affordable, not less accessible. [A letter to the editor by UW-Madison officials Joanne Berg, Adele Brumfield and Susan Fischer, see fifth letter].

UW’s Watt sparks debate

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The rags to riches saga of Pewaukee?s J.J. Watt is as inspiring as any in this National Football League draft class. On Thursday night, the journey that has taken Watt from a season as a Central Michigan tight end to a year schlepping pizzas to pay his way to the University of Wisconsin and then two seasons of exceptional play as a Badgers defensive end will culminate with his name being called high in the draft.

Three who are politically ‘all in’

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In poker, there are gasps when players go “all in,” pushing all their chips forward to bet on the next card. By the end of that hand, they either bust and leave the table broke or sit there much richer. This season, at least three Wisconsin leaders are “all in”: Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican Gov. Scott Walker and UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.

UW-Madison celebrates 40 years of Afro-American Studies

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Madison Times

Black students at the University of Wisconsin? Madison reacted to the murder of Dr. King by orchestrating a series of strikes intended to force the university?s administration to institute a program of study about African Americans. A year later, in April 1969, then UW Chancellor Edwin Young appointed a steering committee for what would become the Department of Afro-American Studies, which, after being approved, offered its first classes in the Fall of 1970.

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Administrative Excellence initiative Biddy?s back-up plan

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Badger Herald

Last week was bad for the New Badger Partnership?s prospects in the state Legislature. Reps. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Robin Vos, R-Burlington, each said they had doubts that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will garner the votes to split from the UW System, casting a pall over Chancellor Biddy Martin?s hard-won successes thus far.

UW students take sides on new plan

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Badger Herald

As debate surrounding the proposed New Badger Partnership has continued to intensify, University of Wisconsin students have organized to raise awareness of the plan?s possible implications for students in an attempt to sway popular opinion.

Union South gets it right

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Isthmus

Living in Madison, it can be easy to take the University of Wisconsin?s Memorial Union for granted. Doesn?t every college town have a massive student center perched on a glorious swath of lakefront, with sailboats lazily gliding by in the summer? (I love to sip a New Glarus brew and watch for the Holstein-spotted one to go by.)

Craver: Union South example of collaboration? Says who?

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Isthmus

I?m glad Isthmus dedicated a cover story to the opening of the new Union South. Its a big project worthy of big print space. It?s a helluva upgrade from the eastern european airport terminal that we used to call Union South. Essentially, it looks like a facility built by rich people, rather than students.

Wendorff Honored by State Cheese Makers

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Wisconsin Ag Connection

A professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s food science department has been presented with the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association?s Distinguished Service Award. Dr. W.L. ?Bill? Wendorff is being honored for his contributions in helping develop dairy manufacturing trends and helping to establish a trusted partnership with dairy processing companies.

Mitman: Jobs grow in a healthy environment

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Yet as we celebrate the 41st anniversary of Earth Day – founded by Wisconsin?s own Gaylord Nelson – the jobs-vs.-environment argument has surfaced again. It is a more dubious claim than ever.

Case in point: recycling, mandated by the state in 1990 after a long, contentious political battle. Just 20 years later, Wisconsin municipalities recycle more than 700,000 tons of material each year – waste that otherwise would go to landfills. The environmental benefits of keeping plastic, metals and other materials out of the ground are many and obvious, including protecting the quality of our groundwater and conserving valuable resources. [A column by Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison].

A shack in the woods

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

You can?t see the Shack from the road. It sits hidden amid pine and hardwood on a winding path that leads to the sandy shore of the Wisconsin River. You may be disappointed when you do see it.

The Shack isn?t much to look at – just an old reformed chicken coop that a University of Wisconsin professor and his brood cleaned up years ago and made into a weekend haunt. But, of course, the Shack has a deeper meaning for those of us concerned about the land. It?s a metaphor for the simple yet powerful ethic that conservationist Aldo Leopold came to understand and then express so clearly.

State budget rouses faith leaders

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Gov. Scott Walker knew he was going to the mat with unions when he announced his budget-repair bill, but he probably didn?t know he was picking a fight with ministers, rabbis and priests when he released his two-year budget. [A column by UW-Madison history professor Nan Enstad].

Journals: USA, others need to re-tool their science programs

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USA Today

The system of awarding science Ph.D.s needs to be either reformed or shut down, a provocative series of pieces in one of the world?s pre-eminent scientific journals says this week. According to the multipart series in the journal Nature, the world is awash in Ph.D.s, most of them being awarded after years of study and tens of thousands of dollars to scholars who will never find work in academia, the traditional goal for Doctors of Philosophy.

State Legislature: Put up or shut up

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Daily Cardinal

It?s really that simple, legislators. Give UW-Madison the autonomy it desires or give us $25 million. The third option is to turn UW-Madison into the Midwest?s pre-eminent safety school. It?s obvious to us that last option is one to avoid. Trust us, we get a pretty good education here?at least, for now.

Allegiance to Regents? bureaucracy is baffling

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Badger Herald

I predict in 40 years, the differences between what society will want from UW-Madison and want from the other UW System schools will be even more stark than it is today. Already, the crushing debt burden and limited opportunities afterward are leading many to ask, ?Is college worth it?? Each campus may adapt to answer that in a different manner, and Madison?s path forward will likely be unique among the System schools. I believe a board with the expertise and time to focus on UW-Madison is crucial for our continued success, and if the best way to achieve that is a standalone board, then so be it. I hope the Legislature comes to that conclusion, too. [A column by Erik Paulson, a disseratator in computer sciences]

County Board holds off on taking UW-Madison stand (Portage Daily Register)

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The Columbia County Board of Supervisors is holding off, at least for a month, on taking a stand on the proposal to split the governance of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System. The proposal is directly relevant to Columbia County, and other Wisconsin counties, because it could affect the future of the University of Wisconsin-Extension, which is governed by the same Board of Regents that oversees the rest of the system.

UW group ends drug firm funds

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health organization that has been criticized for its advocacy of controversial uses of narcotic painkillers says it has decided to stop taking money from the drug industry.

UW made the announcement after an April 3 investigative report in the Journal Sentinel revealed that its UW Pain & Policy Studies Group had taken about $2.5 million over a decade from companies that make opioids. The money came while the group pushed for what critics say was a pharmaceutical industry agenda not supported by rigorous science: the liberalized use of narcotic painkillers for non-cancer chronic pain.

The new Union South: A UW-Madison student’s perspective

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Isthmus

There?s no question that Union South is an enormous upgrade for the southwest side of campus, but the question remains: Will students use it? It will surely settle into being a prime meeting spot for the engineering community that lives and attends class nearby. The building is a convenient thirty-second walk from Wendt Library.

But the building also has enough features not found elsewhere – bowling, the climbing wall, and The Marquee – that it will probably draw crowds from other parts of campus, as well it should. The building definitely deserves the student body?s attention, so here?s hoping that the openness of the new Union South never feels like the emptiness of the old.

Seven misconceptions about value-added measures

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Washington Post

Douglas N. Harris, an associate professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is among the legion of economists who have provided some of the most interesting takes on the national school debate. I like his stuff because it often challenges prevailing wisdom, and is usually free of jargon.

Editorial: Chancellors Summit needed

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WISC-TV 3

The proposal to create a new, independent authority to run UW Madison is getting a robust debate in the court of public opinion. Some students are now speaking up in support, faculty seem generally cautious, we know where the Regents and System administration stand, and politicians have their fingers to the wind – which is as good a reason as any to create the new authority.

Island study of mice yields virus clues (UPI.com)

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United Press International

A study of deer mice on islands off the coast of California has provided new information on the rodent-borne infectious disease Hantavirus, researchers say.

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied wild deer mouse populations on the Channel Islands off the southern coast of California that carry a variant of Hantavirus called Sin Nombre virus.

Chancellor Remains Confident In Plan To Spin Off UW-Madison

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WISC-TV 3

Critics of a plan to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison off from the rest of the UW System believe they are gaining traction as lawmakers express their doubts, but UW-Madison?s chancellor says she remains confident.

“There?s a lot of support out there. It?s not as visible as the opposition,” said UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin.

Finalists named for Governor?s Business Plan Contest

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Wisconsin State Journal

Nine Madison area applicants are among 21 finalists in the Wisconsin Governor?s Business Plan Contest, and their business proposals range from a new diabetes treatment to wireless Internet access on buses. The 21 finalists, and winners of the UW-Madison Burrill competition, Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan Contest, Marquette University Kohler competition and the BizStarts collegiate competition will all vie for a total of $150,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.

On Campus: Separate bill is needed for UW System autonomy, Rep. Nass says

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Wisconsin State Journal

The proposal to split UW-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System should be taken out of the budget and the state Legislature should instead work on a separate bill to give all UW System campuses flexibility, said Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater. Nass, chairman of the Assembly Colleges and Universities committee, wrote to the co-chairs of the state Legislature?s budget committee Tuesday with a “path to resolving the current controversy over the New Badger Partnership (UW-Madison split from the UW System).” Nass is opposed to the split. He suggests that his committee — and the state Senate?s higher education committee — work on developing a comprehensive bill to give statutory flexibility to all the UW System campuses, with a goal of having the new bill take effect by July 1, 2012.

UW System split not likely to move forward, lawmakers say

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Wisconsin State Journal

Lawmakers expressed doubt this week that Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposal to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System has the support to move forward. “I think its highly unlikely that the Legislature at this time is ready to grant that authority,” said Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, co-chair of the state Legislature?s powerful budget committee. The governor?s proposal would make UW-Madison into a public authority – separate from the UW System – with its own 21-member board of trustees and more autonomy on issues such as tuition, money management, purchasing and building.

Around the Bubbler: Art of Hair, Reel Film Fest, East Hat Parade

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Wisconsin State Journal

Weavers who use a combination of new and old techniques are showing work in the Common Wealth Gallery, which celebrates with an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, April 22. Included in the ?N[e]W[e]ave: Five Contemporary Weavers? show are Katie Glusica, who makes lovely, delicate waffle-weave drapes, Christy Madson and her detailed ?loomscapes? of oceans, forests and mountains, and Claudia Herbst-Tait, who uses 3D animation technology to make abstract works. The gallery is located at 100 S. Baldwin St. The show runs through April 27 and is sponsored by the Design Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Andy Baggot: Greinke holds key to Brewers’ success

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Madison.com

In this raging debate over whether UW-Madison should become a public authority and separate from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System, a smaller model for such a concept might be the UW Athletic Department. In the early 1990s, UW Athletics became a separate item in the state budget after years of being lumped into the overall UW-Madison budget appropriation. That separation initially led to greater scrutiny of athletic department spending by state lawmakers, but eventually gave way to less intrusiveness once Richter and Co. led the department out of debt and began building what is now a profitable, self-sufficient entity. Speaking of the current separation proposal, it?s interesting to hear members of the UW Board of Regents oppose the move on the grounds that it implies a second-class attitude toward the smaller campuses. A show of hands, then, on who followed the Badgers to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and who was there to see UW-Whitewater win its second straight NCAA Division III title in Salem, Va.

On Campus: Legislator says UW-Madison split may be ‘too big’ for budget

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Wisconsin State Journal

Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, and a co-chairman of the Legislature?s budget committee, said on Upfront with Mike Gousha on Sunday that Gov. Walker?s vision to spin off UW-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System may be too big “to digest in one budget cycle.” “I am positive that we are going to give some additional flexibility, but probably not go all the way to allow Madison to spin off and set its own tuition and all the things without more oversight.”

Organ donors may be denied health insurance

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Washington Post

Quoted: Under federal rules, every transplant center must have an advocate for living donors. Health insurance problems do come up, says Rebecca Hays, a living-donor social worker at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. Sometimes, Hays said, donors tell her about insurers that refuse to cover anything related to the organ donation for a year. ?More often I hear from people who have been denied insurance and they don?t know what to do.?