Most of the UW-Madison graduates who accepted their diplomas at the Kohl Center last weekend weren’t born yet when Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios led the Badgers to the 1983 NCAA hockey championship.
Fishing isnâ??t an exact science.
But Ben Hobbins, 49, has spent the past few years, with help from the University of Wisconsinâ??s Polymer Research Center, using it to develop an environmentally friendly soft plastic fishing bait.
And the scientific community has taken a liking to the IronClads brand, which was launched last year by Lake Resources Group, Inc.
Quoted: â??Heâ??s been waiting a long time for this,â? said David Canon, a political scientist who specializes in Congress at the University of Wisconsin. â??Heâ??s clearly exerting so much more influence over the economy than any of his predecessors.â?
It’s curious that, in a time of belt-tightening, the state Legislature is considering allowing the University of Wisconsin System to unionize its faculty and academic staff, which could cost the System $2.2 million per year.
What’s even more curious is that this proposal is included in the state budget.
The Joint Finance Committee voted to allow professors, researchers, instructors and other university employees in the UW System’s 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges the same right to collectively bargain that other state workers have.
Gov. Jim Doyle said up to 1,400 state employees could be laid off under his new budget-balancing plan that cuts funding for state agencies, schools and local governments.
Doyle stood with the two Democratic co-chairs of the budget-writing committee on Thursday to announce a deal that he said will close a $1.6 billion budget shortfall.
Up to 1,400 state employees could be laid off under a new budget-balancing plan announced Thursday that cuts funding for state agencies, schools and local governments.
Gov. Jim Doyle stood with the two Democratic co-chairs of the Legislatureâ??s budget-writing committee to announce a deal that he says will close a projected $1.6 billion budget shortfall without raising sales or income taxes.
The state will spare universities but slice money to schools and cities and lay off up to 1,400 workers â?? 300 more than announced earlier this month â?? under a budget agreement unveiled by Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders.
The plan cuts spending, squeezes more out of a state hospital tax and refinances state debt to solve a $1.6 billion budget hole opened by falling state tax revenues. Doyle said it holds up his promise to solve the deficit without raising taxes more than the $2.9 billion he has already proposed or signed into law since February. Republicans disagreed.
After a first effort failed, Madison police are again threatening liquor license renewals of troubled Downtown bars.
But one targeted bar owner calls the efforts â??selective enforcementâ? and a â??fascist state action every person in the city of Madison should worry about.â?
State agencies, local governments and even education will make sacrifices.
The struggle to fill the ever-expanding state budget hole, calls for even deeper cuts.
“Now in order to address this larger shortfall, in addition to cuts I’ve already proposed, we will cut another $1-billion from state government.”
Dr. James Shull has been named chairman of oncology and of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at UW-Madison.
Shull, chairman of genetics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, will replace Dr. Norman Drinkwater, who stepped down as oncology chairman last year. Shull got his Ph.D and did a fellowship at UW-Madison
Employees at state prisons and hospitals will be furloughed along with all other state workers under a cost-saving plan being drafted by Governor Jim Doyle’s office. The inclusion of those employees is a step back from what Doyle originally announced, and will likely drive up overtime costs for state government.
The furloughs will force state employees to take eight days of unpaid leave in each of the next two years. The Governor had said he wanted to exempt workers who have to staff state institutions like hospitals or prisons around the clock. But now, Office of State Employee Relations Director Jennifer Donnely says these furloughs will apply to everyone.
When a committee at Washington State University picked The Omnivore’s Dilemma as this year’s “common reading” selection for all incoming freshmen, faculty members effusively praised the award-winning book and hoped that people at the land-grant university were ready to have a serious debate about the practice of agriculture in America.
“Because this book deals with the food we eat today, it is likely to engender lively discussion and even disagreement,” wrote one professor who had recommended it to the committee. “But discussion and disagreement are the bread and butter of academic discourse.”
Mentioned: Dr. Michael Stier, a forensic pathologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Luke Swan liked his chances in the latest reality TV show after the first day of practice at the historic Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
The Fennimore, Wis., native and former University of Wisconsin captain is one of six wide receivers and six defensive backs featured on “4th and Long,” which made its debut Monday night on Spike.
Quoted: Shawn Francis Peters, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who teaches about religion and the law, said these cases are difficult for all sides because they involve value disputes over what the term “best interests of the child” means.
The University of Wisconsin-Parksideâ??s teacher education program could lose its state accreditation because of â??serious deficienciesâ? in its ability to prepare teachers and meet state requirements, according to the results of a state investigation released on Wednesday.
Parkside staff allowed some students into the teacher education program before they completed the required coursework and allowed some to student teach without passing required tests, Department of Public Instruction officials found after they investigated a complaint about the program.
People who already speak two languages are more adept at learning a new foreign language than their monolinguists, U.S. researchers say.
Study co-authors Viorica Marian of Northwestern University and Margarita Kaushanskaya of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said the bilingual advantage persists even if the new language they study is completely different from the languages they already know.
Quoted: In Wausau, Dr. Michael Stier, a forensic pathologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Madeline lacked insulin, which would have allowed glucose, a simple sugar, to go from her blood to tissue. Instead, the glucose built up in her body, which began to break down fat and produced acid.
Quoted: James Seward, an associate professor of finance, investment and banking at UW-Madison, said if GM files for bankruptcy, it likely would terminate the pension plan and offload its obligations to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
Three campus-area bars might not have their liquor licenses renewed because of alleged violations, according to papers filed by city officials.
The city attorney’s office filed the formal paperwork on Monday. The complaint alleges that Ram Head, Johnny O’s and Madison Avenue Bar near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus had repeated violations during the past year that led to the formal police complaint.
During the weekend, a fight broke out inside Madison Avenue Bar on University Avenue. According to the police report, it took 17 officers from four departments to bring it under control, WISC-TV reported.
The H1N1 influenza epidemic has had a devastating impact on Mexico’s fledgling internationalization efforts, with more than 30 percent of foreign students fleeing the country since news of the virus broke just four weeks ago, according to university administrators.
Some universities report an exodus of as much as 60 percent, said Thomas M. Buntru, president of the Mexican Association for International Education.
Editor’s Note: G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company was recently in Madison, Wisconsin to honor the UW-Madison students that competed in the annual G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition. WTN News had the opportunity to talk with Burrill about the origins of the contest as well as his thoughts on entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges in Wisconsin in this edited interview.
A big piece of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department’s revenue puzzle moved into place Tuesday when it was announced that 94 percent of general public football season ticket holders renewed for the 2009 season.
While that’s the smallest renewal rate since Camp Randall Stadium was renovated in 2004 – when capacity increased from 78,000 to 81,000 – it’s considered an upbeat development in the face of a tough economy and growing skepticism over the direction of the UW football program.
A $2.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow UW-Madison to hire 12 faculty members, with a focus on connections between the West and Asia.
With the first $400,000 of the grant in hand, officials in the College of Letters and Science will begin searching for the first four professors this fall, said Dean Gary Sandefur. The rest of the money will come in over the next three yea
A 30-point boost in math and critical-reading scores on the SAT reasoning test is statistically meaningless yet could make or break a student’s chances of admission at “a substantial minority” of colleges, a research paper says.
Human embryonic stem cell research rules unveiled by the Obama Administration may prevent federal funding of more cells than the old rules, suggests one report.
Most borrowers are required to start repaying the loans within six months after graduation. If you’re unemployed or suffering other economic hardship, you can apply to have payments deferred for up to three years. But depending on the type of loan, interest may continue to accrue during that period, which means you’ll have an even bigger balance when you resume payments. Starting July 1, borrowers will have a new option: a repayment program that caps monthly payments based on income. It targets borrowers who would have a hard time paying basic living expenses if they had to make standard monthly payments on their loans, says Lauren Asher, acting president for the Project on Student Debt.
When two first-year French horn players in Southern University’s marching band were beaten so badly they had to be hospitalized in intensive care, it exposed a dirty secret: Hazing isn’t reserved for fraternities.
Included in list of incidents: The University of Wisconsin-Madison last year briefly suspended its marching band after allegations that underclassmen were forced to drink huge amounts of alcohol.
Human embryonic stem cells, with their ability to turn into every kind of organ tissue in the body, have tantalized biomedical researchers ever since their 1998 isolation by University of Wisconsin scientists. Organ replacement tissues free from immune system rejection, grown from embryonic stem cells or from more recently discovered “induced” stem cells grown from skin cells, have been envisioned for a decade.
The new law, which could potentially more than double the amount covered in the current GI Bill, could open college doors to thousands of veterans, many of whom would not otherwise have considered college because of the expense.
The law provides the equivalent of in-state tuition at the highest-priced public college in the state where the veteran lives, based on undergraduate tuition and fees. There is also a monthly housing allowance and a $1,000 stipend for books and supplies.
Researchers have known for decades that rising education levels positively influence a host of social factors: income, health, voting rates and even the likelihood that a person will stay out of prison.
Education matters. A new website seeks to quantify just how much.
University of Florida president Bernie Machen didn’t grow up poor, but he remembers juggling multiple jobs while working his way through college. The dental surgeon says he’s inspired by students who have it even tougher than he did. So he donated his entire $285,000 bonus last year to a scholarship program he founded for low-income students at risk of being shut out of a college education.
Scientists from around the country are scrambling to get a share of new federal stimulus funding designed to enhance innovative research. The Challenge Grants, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are among the $2 billion in stimulus funds for new research, equipment and construction.
The staff at Scholarship America, the nation’s largest scholarship administrator, fielded more phone calls from families this year and noticed a heightened sense of urgency among callers. Berea College, the Kentucky campus that gives every accepted student a full-tuition scholarship, saw a 15% uptick in applications for this fall. And the number of families who filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid jumped almost 21% the first three months of 2009.
Benjamin Bruce Marsh, age 82, of Madison, died on Sunday, May 10, 2009. Bruce was appointed professor of meat and animal science and director of the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971, and he spent the remainder of his career studying, writing, and teaching at the University, until his retirement and appointment as professor emeritus in 1992
Of the 700 or so commencement speeches Cristina Negrut estimates she has found on the Internet, only about one in 20 “is really inspiring,” she says. Those are the select few that make it onto a website she created three years ago called Graduationwisdom.com. Combing the web for “little treasures” is a hobby for Negrut, 39; by day, she works in product development for a medical equipment company in Madison, Wis.
2. Jerry Zucker, film director/producer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003. “It doesn’t matter that your dream came true if you spent your whole life sleeping.”
A good commencement speech walks a fine line. It addresses graduates but will be heard by family, friends, faculty and the wider community. It should be memorable â?? but only for the right reasons. As college commencement season begins, USA TODAY asks students, faculty and others for advice on how to strike the right balance.
Stories appeal to our emotions and our ability to empathize. In 2003, film director and producer Jerry Zucker engaged University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates early on in his speech with a few simple words: ‘One day, when I was a kid, our house caught on fire â?¦’
Thousands of college graduates are facing a student loan crisis.
The job market is shrinking, and the sour economy is preventing employers, parents and relatives from helping those who are behind on payments. Student loan defaults are at their highest rate since 1998, and likely will go higher. And though federal student loans offer some payment modification options, private loans are far more onerous, because even filing for bankruptcy rarely wipes out the debt.
Arnold P. “Arnie” Federer, age 91, of Madison, passed away on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Arnie worked in building maintenance for the University of Wisconsin.
Rollan A. “Rollie” Endres, age 82, died on April 24, 2009. From 1972-76 he was the concert tuner and technician for the University of Wisconsin School of Music
Eunice L. Boardman, age 83, of Rock Island, Ill., died Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Among several other positions during her career in music education, Professor Boardman served as director of the Music Department at the University of Wisconsin.
Joyce A. Pernot, age 80 of Brooklyn, passed away on Thursday, May 7, 2009. She retired after working 37 1/2 years as a secretary at UW-Madison in the departments of agricultural journalism, extension and computer sciences.
Shauna J. (Thompson) Schullo passed away on Thursday, May 7, 2009, at home after an extended fight with cancer. Professor Schullo was program director for Distance Education Professional Development for the University of Wisconsin.
Janice Mary Friis, age 71, passed away at Oak Park Place in the Memory Care Unit due to cancer on Saturday, May 9, 2009. Janice worked for the University of Wisconsin Extension System for 40 years almost entirely in Extension Engineering (now Engineering Professional Development), where she loved mentoring students and arranging conferences and seminars.
Patricia D. Francois (O’Neill), age 79, passed away on Friday, May 8, 2009, in Madison. Pat retired after 25 years of service with the State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin in 1996.
Curtis H. “Rattler”, “Tiny” Adler, age 68 of Middleton, passed away on Wednesday, May 6, 2009. Curtis was employed as a painter at the University of Wisconsin Physical Plant for more than 20 years, retiring in 2003.
Alumni service days are fast becoming a rite of spring for colleges and their graduates across the country. At least 10 schools have launched such days in the past two years and plan annual events.
Tuition will rise sharply for the next four years for most University of Wisconsin-Madison students under a plan approved Friday to improve quality at the state’s flagship university.
The UW System Board of Regents approved Chancellor Biddy Martin’s plan to add a tuition surcharge of $250 next fall for in-state undergraduates and $750 for students from other states.
The University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents approved the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates on Friday.
The plan is the first major initiative by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, who replaced John Wiley as leader of the state’s flagship university on Sept. 1.
“I’m delighted and really happy,” Martin said after Friday’s Regents meeting at UW-Milwaukee’s student union. “I really do think it was critical for the quality of the institution — for the education we provide and for being able to start building up need-based financial aid that is so essential.”
Martin’s initiative features a supplemental tuition charge that grows by $250 in each of the next four years for in-state students and by $750 per year for those paying out-of-state tuition. The plan will start with the 2009-10 academic year.
Less than nine months after arriving from Cornell University, Biddy Martin is on the verge of pushing through her first major initiative as chancellor of UW-Madison.
On Thursday, the UW System Board of Regents’ Business, Finance and Budget Committee debated the merits of Martin’s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates before easily giving the plan the green light to move forward.
The proposal will likely be approved when the full board meets Friday at UW-Milwaukee.
A question about whether Facebook use has any impact in college students’ grades continues to create debate. A small study presented at an education conference last month showed a link between Facebook use and lower grades â?? but stressed that the findings don’t prove that one leads to the other. It unleashed a media frenzy across the globe. Now, a new study, published this week, finds the two variables are “likely unrelated.”
Quoted: “It will look substantially different. All types of securities markets will be a lot more regulated and less vibrant. â?¦ The trade-off will be fewer crises,” said Menzie Chinn, associate director of the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin.
J. Ben Rosen, a pioneer in the area of mathematical programming who helped establish computer science departments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota, died of a heart ailment April 28 at an assisted living facility in San Diego, where he had been living for the past few years. He was 86.
Quoted: “It’s likely farmers have been getting influenza from their pigs infected with the disease for more than 60 years, says Dr. Bernard C. Easterday, University of Wisconsin-Madison veterinary scientist.”
There is a stem cell research project under way in Wisconsin that could change almost everything about that field.
It could lead to medical breakthroughs without the ethical concerns that often surround stem cell research.
But what may be more incredible is the local man who’s helping to make that project possible.
Less than nine months after arriving on campus from Cornell University, Biddy Martin is on the verge of pushing through her first major initiative as chancellor of UW-Madison.
On Thursday, the UW System Board of Regents’ Business, Finance and Budget Committee debated the merits of Martin’s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates before easily giving the plan the green light to move forward.
This proposal will almost certainly be approved when the full board meets Friday at UW-Milwaukee.
The largest long-term health and development study of children ever conducted in the United States is ready to begin in Waukesha, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison one of the research partners.
The National Childrenâ??s Study will start recruiting volunteers on Monday to be part of the long-term study, which intends to track 100,000 children from birth to 21 years old in 105 study locations across the country.
Emergency medical services in Dane County are reducing requests for Med Flight, UW Hospitalâ??s helicopter service, in the wake of a deadly crash a year ago.
Paramedics are no longer asking Med Flight to respond to some cardiac arrests, said Dr. Paul Stiegler, medical director of Dane County EMS.
A major tuition increase is one step closer to reality for University of Wisconsin-Madison students.
A Board of Regents committee on Thursday approved Chancellor Biddy Martin’s plan to increase tuition for in-state undergraduates by $250 per year for four years and $750 per year for students from other states.
Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday that up to 1,100 state workers could be laid off to deal with an ever-growing state budget shortfall.
The governor also said Thursday that most state workers will have to take 16 unpaid days of leave over the next two years starting in July.
