Everything?s coming up Roses this week for one Wisconsin woman: she?s a Manitowoc florist in Pasadena to help put the finishing touches on many of the floats entered in the Tournament of Roses parade on New Year?s Day.
Revenue from 2011 Rose Bowl merchandise is expected to bring a boost to not only UW athletics, but also student financial aid, according to a news release from the university Wednesday.
Mississippi had a problem born of the age of soaring student testing and digital technology. High school students taking the state?s end-of-year exams were using cellphones to text one another the answers.
The Rose Bowl remains a gift that keeps giving, even in the days after Christmas. Local retailers and UW-Madison will get a boost from brisk sales of Rose Bowl items, with the potential for another little lift if the Badgers beat Texas Christian in Saturday?s football game in Pasadena, Calif.
To the Editor: Yes, Shael Polakow-Suransky is right. One can design tests that are worth teaching to, but they are more expensive and harder to grade.When money is tight, cheaper tests will be multiple choice, teachers will teach test-taking skills, the curriculum will narrow to what is tested, and the risks of cheating will rise. Test-based reform has turned out the way critics anticipated, not the way the reformers intended.
Francis Schrag
Madison, Wis., Dec. 15, 2010
The writer is professor emeritus of educational policy studies, University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: Douglas N. Harris, an economist affiliated with the center at the University of Wisconsin that produces the city?s rankings, called the science behind them promising, and said that they had jump-started a wider effort to come up with better measures of teacher performance, which was long overdue.
The state?s bleak budget outlook brightened a bit Monday, as state officials projected that Wisconsin will take in $57 million more in taxes this year than previously expected and $235?million more over the following two years.
Tayne Murphy and several other La Crosse area college students will leave today for Christmas break at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. They won?t just watch the Badgers play TCU in a BCS game. They will be part of the action.
Wisconsin?s latest big man up front is Gabe Carimi, who might be its best after joining Thomas, whom he succeeded at left tackle in 2007, as Outland Trophy winners.His talents will be on display Saturday at 2 p.m. when Wisconsin faces Texas Christian in the 97th Rose Bowl Game.
Freshman James White, sophomore Montee Ball and fourth-year junior John Clay, who has recovered from a late-season knee injury, all ran for more than 800 yards during the regular season.
Several of the Wisconsin and Texas Christian players who will be competing Saturday in the Rose Bowl can expect to play on Sundays, in the NFL, next season.
First you couldn?t believe it when Gov.-elect Scott Walker turned away $810 million in federal money, even though that was one of his major campaign issues. Now you believe that Biddy Martin wants more flexibility in state purchasing and hiring rules to “deal with cuts.”
According to a recent campus update from Chancellor Biddy Martin, Wisconsin state tax dollars make up about 18 percent of UW-Madison?s operating budget.
It?s not often that Pat Richter shows emotion, but when UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook decided to scramble with no timeouts left and the clock running down on the 1994 Rose Bowl, the University of Wisconsin football legend let out a whoop.
Charlie Partridge was a 28-year-old director of football operations at Iowa State when, following the 2001 season, he decided he wanted to get back onto the field as an assistant coach.
If TCU vs. Wisconsin doesn?t have that old “Granddaddy of them All” ring of, say, Southern California vs. Ohio State, it?s a statistically compelling Rose Bowl matchup. On paper, here?s how it will end up: TCU 43.3, Wisconsin 43.3.
The Rose Bowl ring is kept in a jewelry case in University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema?s house and never gets worn.
“It?s nothing I would wear around because that Rose Bowl (emblem) on the side wasn?t a winning performance,” Bielema said.
Bielema was a sophomore reserve defensive lineman playing for Iowa in the Hawkeyes? 46-34 loss to Washington in 1991, the highest-scoring game in Rose Bowl history.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin: What do you give a Big Ten Conference chancellor whose football team is playing in the Rose Bowl? How about a new research building to rival anything on the east or west coasts? Nope, she?s already got that: It?s called the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. What Martin really needs is management flexibility for a campus unlikely to see a state budget increase. A gift certificate for yoga lessons will help her limber up.
If there is some dirty work to be done for the University of Wisconsin football team?s offense, senior wide receiver Isaac Anderson is a leading candidate to do it.Need someone to throw a block downfield to spring a running back for a long gain? Anderson will do it.
University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema doesn?t expect any academic issues prior to the Rose Bowl, although it?s always an issue in the back of a coach?s mind this time of year. The players finished finals on Thursday and also had their last practice early in the afternoon before flying out on Christmas Day for Pasadena, Calif. The players were given the rest of Thursday off, as well as Christmas Eve. They are scheduled to report back for conditioning Saturday morning, prior to a 1 p.m. departure.
“In scientific controversies, fights that challenge existing knowledge take several years to settle, at least,” says scientific communication expert Dominique Brossard of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: Donald Downs, a professor of political science, law and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of a forthcoming book on the military and universities.
We know what the UW Madison wants for the New Year – if not for Christmas – the freedom and flexibility to operate more efficiently and effectively with fewer state resources. Chancellor Biddy Martin calls in the Badger Partnership and it?s a new business model that would give the UW greater freedom to generate and manage resources on its own.
When your primary task is to back up J.J. Watt, you are certain of two things:
First, you aren?t going to get a significant amount of playing time because the fourth-year junior defensive end is too dynamic and too valuable to spend too much time on the sideline.
Second, your contributions are going to be overshadowed because of Watt?s impressive numbers – seven sacks, 21 tackles for loss, 10 quarterback hurries, eight passes broken up, three forced fumbles and one interception.
If Wisconsin fans want to participate in the “Jump Around” which has become tradition at Camp Randall Stadium between the third and fourth quarters, they?ll have to sing the song in their heads and jump on their own.
U.S. researchers say the trick sea urchins use to keep their teeth razor-sharp could lead to tools for humans that never need sharpening or honing.
Sea urchins can use their teeth to eat into stone, creating pockets where they can hide from predators and protect themselves from crashing waves. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say despite constant scraping and grinding into rock, urchin teeth never get dull, a university release said Wednesday.
Badger Quarterback Scott Tolzien has a special connection with some younger Badger fans. The kids are showing their support for the Badgers by writing a song in their honor.
Quoted: “He?s not going to be around next year or the future to affect green energy in the state,” Charles Franklin, a UW political science professor, said, questioning what a lame-duck governor could accomplish in a trip during his last few weeks in office.
The cost for Madison police to staff the city?s annual Halloween party has dropped dramatically since the first year.
Married parents bankrolled 77 percent of their children?s college costs, while remarried and divorced parents footed only 53 percent and 42 percent of the bill, respectively, according to a joint study by researchers at Rice University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: In Wisconsin, all public university employees are being required to take eight unpaid furlough days this year, one of them on 30 December. The other mandatory furloughs are scheduled during holiday periods, too. “These days were chosen to avoid interfering with any instruction and to minimise disruption to the university community,” said Dennis Chaptman, a spokesman for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As Badger fans gear up for this year?s Rose Bowl concerns about phony tickets are growing. College football bowl season is the ideal time for scammers to take advantage of fans.
AN extraordinary underground observatory for subatomic particles has been completed in a huge cube of ice measuring 1km on each side deep under the South Pole, researchers said.
Noted: Diana Hess, professor of education at University of Wisconsin at Madison, has been chosen as senior vice president at the Spencer Foundation, in Illinois.
Quoted: Anthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, Madison says DNA evidence is changing the way anthropologists work. “It?s so much more than we knew from the fossil record. It?s really like discovering something for the first time,” he says. Hawks says genetic analysis will provide a much richer picture of life in the distant past.
Badger fans unable to make it to Pasadena can instead fire up their PCs or hand-held devices to keep tabs on the 2011 Rose Bowl. A team of UW-Madison developers have launched an interactive website that aims to connect Badger fans from all over the world for the game.
With the state facing a projected budget deficit of as much as $3.3 billion and considering past rifts between Republican lawmakers and the university, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin could be forgiven for sounding pessimistic about the future of her campus.
Here in her lab on the University of Wisconsin campus, chemist Helen Blackwell and her colleagues are eavesdropping on the chatter among single-celled organisms. For a long time they just listened. Now they actively interrupt the rumble of bacterial communication for a variety of practical purposes?such as augmenting the good works of friendly bacteria and thwarting the designs of dangerous ones.
Expect to see a flood of college football fans dressed in red and white if you?re in Downtown Santa Monica on Dec. 30 ? the date when the Big Ten co-champion Wisconsin Badgers will hold a pep rally at the Santa Monica Pier ahead of their Rose Bowl appearance opposite Texas Christian University on New Year?s Day.
Late last week construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory wrapped up at the National Science Foundation?s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. The team of international scientists behind the effort have come up with something truly remarkable in building the world?s largest neutrino observatory. The massive telescope, which is the size of a cubic kilometer and located 1400 meters underground, took a decade to build and cost approximately $271 million. Oh, and if you lined up the world?s three tallest skyscrapers, their collective height would be shorter than this telescope.
Noted: UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin: What do you give a Big Ten Conference chancellor whose football team is playing in the Rose Bowl? How about a new research building to rival anything on the East or West coasts? Nope, she?s already got that: It?s called the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. What Martin really needs is management flexibility for a campus unlikely to see a state budget increase. A gift certificate for yoga lessons will help her limber up.
Quoted: Kenneth Mayer is a professor of political science at UW-Madison. He says losing seats can set up a potentially bruising redistricting battle ? one where an incumbent can be literally written off the map, or where two incumbents can be forced to run against each other in a newly drawn district. While the number of seats here will stay the same, Mayer says political lines will almost certainly have to be redrawn based on population changes within Wisconsin.
The University of Wisconsin has set up a new website designed specifically for fans who want to experience going to the Rose Bowl without ever leaving the comforts of home.
The Senate vote to repeal the 17-year old ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy against gay men and lesbians serving openly in the armed forces removes a reason that many elite colleges have cited for barring the Reserve Officers Training Corps from recruiting on their campuses.
UW-Madison Political Science Professor David Canon says that will have a big impact on the political landscape over the next decade. Largely because it will allow Republicans to pick up even more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than they would have under the current district lines.
Wisconsin center Peter Konz is finding bowl preparation more grueling, physically and mentally, the second time around.
The redshirt sophomore from Neenah savors every ache and pain that comes with getting ready to face No. 3 Texas Christian (12-0) in the Rose Bowl.
When UW was preparing last season to face No. 14 Miami in the Champs Sports Bowl, Konz was a spectator. His season had ended hours before UW?s regular-season finale at Hawaii when doctors discovered blood clots in his lungs.
A new website run by UW-Madison — rosebowl.wisc.edu — will track the Rose Bowl experiences of Badger faithful.
Badgers backers heading to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl should be thankful the game isn?t this week. Southern California is being soaked with record rains, which are frustrating tourists, causing headaches for holiday shoppers and even triggering fears of mudslides.
It?s easily the most expensive Ford Fusion on the highway today.Except it?s not on the highway. It?s parked in a carpeted room in the Mechanical Engineering building on the UW-Madison campus in front of a 24-foot wrap-around screen. The vehicle is part of the university?s new $500,000 driving simulator and will allow researchers to study everything from driver distractions such as cell phones to the safety of highway exit and entrance ramps.
“Hi, I?m Kathy. I?m from UW-Madison. Do you mind if I join you?”
Those words, or some variation, provided an introduction at gas stations, coffee shops, cafes and churches across small-town Wisconsin.While those of us ensconced in Madison scratch our heads about why so many in Wisconsin appear to dislike or distrust us, associate professor Katherine Cramer Walsh ventured out to hear it first-hand.
So how did people respond? They were uniformly friendly, she says, but bewildered as to why she was there. “You should have seen their faces,” she says, smiling.
Dakota State University will now be teaching courses offered by the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. DSU announced the partnership with the school on Monday afternoon.
A report is released by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute on administrative flexibilities for UW and accountability measures.
Chancellor Biddy Martin made the announcement Monday: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the university a $10 million grant as part of an effort to preserve and enhance the humanities at research universities.
UW-Madison will work to strengthen humanities education with the help of $20 million coming from a $10 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and matching funds from the state of Wisconsin.
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Tyche, the Greek goddess of chance, smiled on the University of Wisconsin at Madison this week.
The university announced Monday that it had received a $20 million grant — $10 million of which will come from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with the remainder matched by the state of Wisconsin over much of the next decade. The money will allow Wisconsin to hire new faculty members and support postdoctoral and graduate students in the humanities. None of the disciplines within the humanities have been specifically designated to receive money, save one: a $2.5 million endowed chair in ancient Greek philosophy.
The largest study of the popular herbal remedy echinacea finds it won?t help you get better any sooner. The study of more than 700 adults and children suggests the tiniest possible benefit ? about a half-day shaved off a week-long cold and slightly milder symptoms. But that could have occurred by chance.
(The study was led by Bruce Barrett, School of Medicine and Public Health.)
As the profile of many college football assistant coaches rises, so does their pay. Led by the cash-rich, football-crazed Southeastern Conference, the number of high-dollar coordinators and other assistants is growing.
Thousands of Badgers fans will get pumped up for the Rose Bowl at the Santa Monica Pier. That?s the location of the pre-game Rose Bowl pep rally on Thursday, Dec. 30, the UW Athletic Department announced today. The free event will begin at 3 p.m., pacific time. It will feature the football team, coach Bret Bielema, the UW Marching Band, spirit squad, and more.
Since the peer mentor program was created at UW Hospital in 2004, 76 of the 84 spinal cord injury patients there have met with a volunteer who knows firsthand what it?s like to live with a spinal cord injury. The program pairs mentors and patients by gender, age and level of injury. Questions tend to be about medical issues, everyday logistics and the impact paralysis can have on personal relationships.
