This summer, it’s hard to miss at the neon signs, chain fences, and huge bulldozers around town.
It seems like half of downtown Madison is torn up.
27 News asked Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz why all the road projects seem to be happening at once.
“We decided it would be better just to get it all done in one year,” he said. “The reduction in disruption by delaying wasn’t going to be that great.”
Amidst the hubbub surrounding colleges’ attempts to curb excessive drinking on college campuses, one surprising finding has come to light: drinking-related deaths have actually increased. The number of alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths among college-age students between 18 and 24 rose from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, according to a study released Monday.
Philip D. Curtin, a wide-ranging and influential historian whose pioneering use of modern statistical methods to determine the extent of the Atlantic slave trade suggested that far fewer slaves were transported from Africa than had previously been thought, died June 4 in West Chester, Pa. He was 87 and lived in Kennett Square, Pa.
At the University of Wisconsin, where he began teaching in 1956, he and a colleague, Jan Vansina, started a department of African languages and literature, helping to establish African studies as an academic discipline in the United States. From 1975 until his retirement in 1998, he taught at Johns Hopkins.
Invasive quagga mussels are replacing their equally destructive cousin, the zebra mussel, in calmer waters in the Great Lakes, Wisconsin researchers said.
While zebra mussels still dominate in fast-moving streams and rivers, the larger quagga mussels prefer soft lake bottoms of sand and silt, said Suzanne Peyer, a doctoral candidate in the zoology department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: America is behind the rest of the world when it comes to bilingualism, with only 9 percent of the population reporting fluency in a second language, compared with 52 percent of Europeans, according to a research review by University of Wisconsin professor Francois Victor Tochon.
English is spoken by about 15 percent of the world’s population, but its “postulated ubiquity” is a “myth,” writes Tochon. “On average, bilinguals earn more in the United States and, more recently, in the United Kingdom.”
Delivering the commencement address last month at the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, President Obama told graduates they were a generation who must â??find a path back to prosperity.â?
Graduates heard a similar message at hundreds of colleges this spring, as commencement orators â?? including actors, executives, poets and heads of state â?? leavened their congratulatory messages with acknowledgment of the bleak marketplace outside campus.
â??We are living in the most difficult economic environment since the Great Depression,â? Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, said at the University of Wisconsin.
Jack Ikegwuonu wants both his legal and his leg problems behind him, and it’s possible they could be in his rearview mirror by the time he arrives for the start of training camp late next month at Lehigh University.
The Eagles’ second-year cornerback is scheduled to finally get his day in court July 2 in DeKalb County, Ill., where he and his twin brother, Bill, were charged with residential burglary and criminal trespass Nov. 26, 2006.
Dr. Norman S. Greenfield died on June 10, 2009, at his California home at age 86. In 1954 he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, where he was one of the founders of the Department of Psychiatry. The early values he brought to the Department of Psychiatry, using rigorous scientific methods to integrate psychology with psychiatry to improve the lives of those suffering from mental illness, continue today as the Department of Psychiatry’s guiding principles.
When Suzanne Fields’ son died of an alcohol overdose last year, a few days after completing his first year of college, she decided she wanted to keep other students from suffering the same fate. The result was the Red Watch Band movement, which aims to give students the skills to intervene when someone passes out from binge drinking. Students volunteer for the program, which involves 2½ hours of CPR training and an hour of alcohol-related emergency training.
“Adam’s off ox” is one of the phrases included in the Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume I: Introduction and A-C , part one of a multivolume effort to capture regional expressions.
The DARE project, as it is known, was initiated in the 1950s by Frederic Cassidy, a well-known linguist who sent field workers out across the country in “word wagons” to interview people. Cassidy’s catalogers talked to nearly 3,000 people over six years, making recordings along the way in order to capture pronunciations.
Quoted: “People are turning to things that remind them of simpler times,” said Ron Kean, a poultry specialist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “If you’re smart, you can save money doing this.”
The nation could see a much needed housing recovery sometime in 2010, but unemployment and foreclosure rates will likely worsen between now and then as the economy struggles to get on track, according to experts at a housing conference Thursday at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Just try to hang on for another year,” keynote speaker Richard Green told an audience of about 100 bankers, developers, real estate agents and other housing professionals gathered at the Fluno Center.
The Badger Bus Company plans to close its intercity bus terminal at West Washington and Bedford. The best site for a future central transit hub should not be permanently lost. When the issue comes up at its June 15 meeting, the City Planning Commission should withhold approval of the redevelopment plan until viable plans for intercity bus service have been made.
No plans have been offered for future service other than to pile Madison’s intercity bus activity onto the curb at Langdon Street and have the Union service the passengers. UW-Madison has said it will not cooperate with this development, and the added bus traffic is likely to make worse an already crowded location. But a worse alternative would be for bus service to be completely dispersed to peripheral locations.
In this, the International Year of Astronomy, there may be no better way to explore our solar system than by bicycle.
Itâ??s just a little more than 23 miles to Pluto, which is in a marsh near Mount Horeb. Neptune is between Verona and Riley, so you can plan a stop at the Riley Tavern to toast your departure from the realm of the inner planets.
Welcome to what its originators are calling one of â??the largest scale models of our solar system in the universe.â?
Jim Lattis, a UW-Madison astronomer and director of UW Space Place, said the project may be one of his all-time favorite outreach efforts.
Last week, the University of Wisconsin Credit Union and our esteemed university formed a partnership that will allow our Wiscards to double as debit cards. Finally. For too long, college students have struggled with this notion of â??I like money, but I wish it were easier to spend,â? and now, thanks to this historic marriage of interests, we can rest easy knowing our student IDs go to a greater use that once-a-month library and SERF visits. Yes children, now instead of using your parentsâ?? money to buy pizza from Edâ??s, you can use it wherever Visa is accepted.
Q: Why do cats seem compelled to eat some plants, like my poor aloe, and ignore others?
A: Cats may devour some plants but ignore others as a simple matter of taste, says Sandra Sawchuk, a clinical instructor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UW-Madison. “Itâ??s each to his own. I like romaine lettuce over iceberg; cats can have their own desires.”
The University of Wisconsin System is as close as it’s ever been to offering full benefits to domestic partners, which it considers a critical factor in the increasingly competitive faculty hiring process.
The UW System has pushed for full benefits during the past two state budget processes. Both times, the measure was removed, once in the Joint Committee on Finance and once by a special conference committee after it had been removed by the Finance Committee and then reinserted by the Senate.
Quoted: Joanne Cantor, a professor emerita at the UW-Madison who studies the psychology of media and communications, leads seminars with titles like “You’ve Got (Too Much) Mail! – Preserving Productivity under Information Overload” and “This is Your Mind on Media: Staying Sane in a Crazy Culture.”
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board approved multiple changes to its bonus policy for coaches Friday, including the creation of some gray area in an otherwise black-and-white formula.
The revised policy eliminates the words “exceptional achievement” from the title; downgrades the payout for three lower-tier football bowl games; and acknowledges two other postseason men’s basketball tournaments outside of the NCAA and National Invitation Tournament.
The artist known as R. Crumb likes New Orleans food more than he likes museums or galleries. He got a lot of the former and a little of the latter on a recent visit to Madison.
In an article in the London Guardian a few years ago, the longtime Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes called Crumb “the one and only genius the 1960s underground produced in visual art, either in America or Europe.”
With no support from Republicans, the Wisconsin Assembly passed a state budget early Saturday after an all-night session.
The budget plugs a record-high $6.6 billion shortfall over the next two years through tax and fee increases, spending cuts, borrowing and accounting moves.
Under the budget, up to 1,400 state workers could lose their jobs. Most state agencies will be cut 6 percent.
After an hours long overnight debate which saw minority Republicans offer more than 100 amendments to a state budget bill, the Wisconsin Assembly passed the two year spending plan early this morning.
A Broome County native was named the University of Wisconsinâ??s provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. Paul M. DeLuca Jr. was appointed to the post by Chancellor Biddy Martin on June 11.
The provostâ??s office is responsible for faculty and staff programs, diversity initiative, enrollment management, and articulating and implementing the universityâ??s research and education goals. The provost also acts as the universityâ??s chief executive in the absence of the chancellor.
Quoted: Gerald Kulcinski, a nuclear engineer and director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison, has been researching the possibility of mining the moon’s helium-3 for decades. He is, along with Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the concept’s most prominent advocates. (Schmitt wrote an article for Popular Mechanics in 2004 that describes a harvesting operation much like the one Bell manages at Sarang.)
The Wisconsin state legislatureâ??s Joint Finance Committee has approved 36 projects in the University of Wisconsin system, the Associated Press reports.
Quoted: Information technology industries appear the most likely to lead the United States out of the recession, said Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. A Rhinelander native, Knetter said Marathon County is positioned fairly well, with a diverse economic base on the doorstep of what he envisions as a booming tourist destination in years to come.
Kayla Jenerson of Green Bay, an incoming University of Wisconsin-Madison freshman, will sing the national anthem during President Barack Obama’s stop at Green Bay Southwest High School this afternoon.
Jenerson told UW officials that she received a phone call from the principal of her alma mater, Preble High School, offering her the opportunity.
Caroline Mack, 100, passed away on Thursday June 11, 2009. Caroline attended Madison Vocational School, learning typing and bookkeeping. She worked in those professions at Quality Service Laundry, and later at UW Heating Plant, from which she retired.
The wretched economy has taught many of the nation’s college-bound seniors a hard lesson: You can’t always get what you want. In a survey to be released Tuesday, 71% of high schools reported that more of their students are forgoing their “dream schools” this year than in previous years. And there is little doubt money is a big reason.
After a year and a half, the state’s Public Service Commission has approved a route for the highly debated American Transmission Co. through Dane County.
The three-member commission on Thursday unanimously supported the building of the high-voltage line through Madison, along the Beltline and above ground with 120-foot poles.
The decision is a big victory for farmers and rural residents who were fighting proposed routes that would have disturbed farms and landscapes.
The state budget begins debate on Friday at 10:00 a.m. in the State Assembly.
The Assembly was supposed to start budget debate on Thursday morning but Democrats have been meeting in secret all day on possible changes.
The Public Service Commission voted to approve the controversial 32-mile power line project on Thursday proposed by the American Transmission Company.
“This is extremely disappointing,” said Kevin McSweeney, director of the UW Arboretum. “The negative reverberations of this will continue for years.”
The reason given by state officials for including the UW System in the furlough of all state employees – that it would be “too complicated to assign days off proportionally based on where a state worker’s paycheck comes from” – is ridiculous.
Picnic Point has been a favorite spot of mine for years, so I’m glad there are plans to clear invasive species and make the site more accessible.
However, I was puzzled that some people involved in the planning process think handrails would make the steps too obtrusive.
People who visit Picnic Point all share one characteristic: they don’t know at what age they might need a handrail. Balance problems can affect the young and fit as well as the elderly and disabled.
Chancellor Biddy Martin appointed Paul DeLuca Jr., vice dean of University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, as the universityâ??s new provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs Thursday.
Selected from a pool of three finalists recommended by a search-and-screen committee, DeLuca assumes the provost position with 36 years of experience on faculty at UW.
UW-Madisonâ??s No. 2 post will be filled by Paul M. DeLuca Jr., vice dean of the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, the university announced today.
Chancellor Biddy Martin chose DeLuca as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs after an internal search, citing the significant growth he has helped achieve in the School of Medicine and Public Health and his â??great sense of humor,â? according to a university news release.
Democrats who control the Assembly did not make any changes to the state furlough plan in their amendments to the state budget, despite a proposal by a legislator earlier this week.
Rep. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) this week proposed an amendment to the state budget that would only furlough state employees if doing so would result in a net savings to the state.
In unusual move, UW-Madison officials apparently asked legislators to remove a $47 million School of Nursing building from the state budget, said Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison.
Assembly Democrats voted to cut funding for the project during a closed-door meeting Wednesday night, following a motion sponsored by Black.
The Assembly has put off action on the state budget for another day.
After meeting behind closed doors for much of the day, Assembly Democrats announced they would not be bringing the budget to the floor on Thursday after all.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department will have to turn over nearly $3 million to the state to cover the cost of furloughs and pay cuts for its employees over the next two years.
John Jentz, the UW associate athletic director for finance, said Wednesday the department will pay the state $1.499 million in 2009-10 and 2010-11. That total is comprised of a 1 percent government efficiency fee, a 2 percent pay cut for employees and 3 percent reduction for 16 furloughs for each employee.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department is in the process of changing its Exceptional Achievement Award Policy, which came under fire recently when football coach Bret Bielema earned a $100,000 bonus for leading his team to the Champs Sports Bowl.
The proposed changes, which must be approved by the Athletic Board on Friday, would lower the bonuses football coaches receive for the two lowest bowl games.
The University of Wisconsin athletic department’s contribution to the state’s effort to trim its $6.6 billion deficit will be about $3 million.
The state informed the Badgers athletic department that it must pay the state $1.499 million in each of the next two years, said John Jentz, UW’s associate athletic director for business operations. That money will cover Gov. Jim Doyle’s mandated 16 furlough days, the 2% raise state employees were scheduled to receive as well as a 1% operating expense fee imposed on self-funded state agencies.
A new $47 million nursing school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison would not be funded in the state budget if Assembly Democrats get their way.
Democrats voted to remove funding for the project from the budget during a closed door meeting Wednesday night. The full Assembly is to take up the budget on Thursday followed by the Senate next week.
The proposed nursing school was not requested by the UW or included in Gov. Jim Doyle’s original budget.
When University of Wisconsin-Madison students return to school this fall, the residence halls will no longer offer kosher dining.
The university ended a short-lived foray into kosher food service in November when the last of a string of Mashgiachs, or kosher supervisors, left the university.
Replacing an outdated, bursting-at-the seams facility, the new four-floor University of Wisconsin-Madison Hillel has a kosher cafe, a rooftop basketball court and room to grow.
The Barbara Hochberg Center for Jewish Student Life, 611 Langdon St., is now the largest Hillel in the country, said Greg Steinberger, executive director.
If you smoke, if you send your children to public school or if you and your spouse together earn more than $300,000 a year, the $62.2 billion state budget to be taken up today by the Democratic-led Assembly will affect you.
Highlights for the University of Wisconsin System and UW-Madison:
â?¢ Allows faculty and staff to unionize.
â?¢ Provides health insurance benefits to domestic partners of university and other state employees at a projected cost of up to $6.7 million annually.
â?¢ Provides $113 million for tuition grants for System students, reducing grants by about $300 per student this fall from Gov. Doyleâ??s proposal.
â?¢ Borrows $978 million for construction projects, including a new nursing school building at UW-Madison.
â?¢ Provides $15 million to retain talented faculty.
Q: Why do the blue eyes of babies often turn brown after a year or so?
A: Melanin is the pigment that makes body parts dark, said Burton Kushner, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “Melanin makes freckles brown, hair brown and pigmented races brown, and it can make the iris brown as well. Melanin is not fully developed in newborn babies, so the iris is relatively devoid of whatever melanin pigment it will have, and that gives the eye its baby-blue eye color.”
Gov. Patrick J. Quinn of Illinois appointed a panel on Wednesday to investigate accusations that the University of Illinois admitted hundreds of applicants based largely on their political connections.
Noted: How have some departments sliced up the pie? At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, out of the 45 history faculty members listed (many with overlapping interests), one includes diplomatic history as a specialty, one other lists American foreign policy; 13 name either gender, race or ethnicity.
Quoted: “People pay attention to the stock market whether they’re in it or not. They watch those ups and downs, they hear the press everyday talk about the dow is up, the dow is down,” says University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.
Rep. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) has proposed an amendment to the state budget that would only furlough state employees if doing so would result in a net savings to the state.
University of Wisconsin System officials have questioned furloughs for researchers and other staffers whose salaries come from federal sources — cases where unpaid time off for these workers might not actually save the state money.
The State Public Service Commission is expected to make a ruling Thursday on a new high voltage power line that would run across Dane County.
Sarah Justus of the American Transmission Company says they’ve made a compelling case for the 345 kilovolt line, which the company says is needed to serve massive growth in the region over the last 30 years. The line would run near the UW Arboretum.
A number of academic, engineering, and scientific organizations are urging the federal government to take more-aggressive steps to speed up the delay-plagued visa-application process for foreign students and scholars, including the creation of a high-level panel to review the more-restrictive policies and procedures put in place after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Noted: Recent work, notably by economist William Brock of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues, incorporates adaptive models of agent behaviour to suggest that classical economics might have got things backwards. People participating in markets will quickly copy investment strategies that seem to be working, creating swings in the future price of assets that are actually fundamentally destabilising.
Noted: A reinstated route 10 will provide additional mid-day service between the Isthmus and the UW-Madison campus after the original route was lost in August 2006.
Plans are in the works to rebuild one of Madisonâ??s popular outdoor treasures: Picnic Point on the University of Wisconsin campus.
The nearly mile-long peninsula along Lake Mendota’s southern shore attracts thousands of visitors each year, and has been one of Madison’s most distinctive landmarks.
â??It is being loved to death,â? said Al Fish, UW-Madison vice chancellor of facilities. â??It’s being trampled, [has] a lot of erosion. The roots are being worn out.â?
Whether the money is flowing or being cut, one constant of public higher education discussions is the question of who is getting more money from the state — and why. Presidents, trustees and alumni debate the equity of funding formulas, and plot strategies so that their institutions might also be favored by those who control the purse-strings.
Two new studies suggest that strategy may go only so far and that, in some respects, public universities are like real estate: They benefit from location, location, location. The best locations may be in states led by Democrats (and with other political conditions) and in cities in or near statehouses. The studies don’t contest the way research universities receive more per student than do other kinds of institutions, although they suggest that in states with a flagship and multiple research universities, flagship status may be less important than believed, and that research universities tend to be favored.
Research by botanists at the UW-Madison has revealed a disturbing secret lurking in Wisconsin’s forests.
Suspecting that increasing development might be affecting forests in ways we cannot see, UW-Madison botanist Don Waller led a study of plants on the floor of forests throughout the state. Comparing those surveys with data collected in the 1940s and 1950s, the researchers found far fewer species of the shrubs, grasses and herbs that have traditionally been found in the understory of Wisconsin forests.
A groundbreaking on Tuesday marked the next phase of building a new Union South on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The new building is being built at the site of the old Union South at Dayton and Randall streets.
The old union south was built in 1971 and was torn down to make way for a new, larger building that will better serve students, staff and alumni.
Philip D. Curtin, an internationally recognized scholar of African and world history, died Thursday, June 4, 2009 at age 87 in West Chester, Pa. He taught at Swarthmore College, the University of Wisconsin, and the Johns Hopkins University. The author of 14 books and numerous articles, his work focused on cultural, economic, social, and epidemiological history.
