Embattled Chancellor Linda Bunnell announced Wednesday that she will step down from her leadership of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on May 31.
The decision comes after nearly a month of controversy in which the university’s Student Government Association passed a unanimous vote of no-confidence in Bunnell’s leadership, and UWSP Foundation leaders criticized her spending and her poor relationships with some members of the community.
Chancellor Martinâ??s proposed Madison Initiative for Undergraduates will supposedly close the gap in funding created by the recession and will magically make college more affordable while increasing tuition. While this may seem like a reasonable solution to the universityâ??s money woes, it is merely a short-term patch for a problem that is continuously ignored.
Lois Gilmore canâ??t remember the last time she placed second in her age group in a footrace.
Thatâ??s not a boast, she assures. Often, there simply arenâ??t many other runners her age.
“I think Iâ??ve eliminated a lot of the competition by now,” she says, laughing.
I would like to respond to the Opinion piece by Dan Walters on April 23 (â??Cynicism justified on conduct codeâ?) regarding the proposed changes to student conduct policies for the UW System. Mr. Walters is wrong when he argues students have the right to full representation by an attorney at a formal misconduct hearing. There simply is no such right, as a review of case law will attest.
Still grumpy because your dream political science class is full again? The school has something more to offer: UW-Madison just launched an iTunes page last week, featuring a series of podcasts and videos, including a political science talk show. For an institution of global ambitions, there couldnâ??t be a better way to extend its outreach.
Quoted: Nearly a dozen people who attended a meeting last night on Madison’s West Side claim their pets have been attacked by coyotes in recent weeks. “It’s almost impossible to assess a risk factor,” said UW-Madison urban wildlife expert Scott Craven, who addressed the residents. “The threat posed by coyotes is infinitesimally small, but not zero.”
Does your dog brush his teeth before he circles three times and goes to sleep? Should you help?
Proper pet teeth brushing is just one of the topics to be covered Sunday at the UW-Madison Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospitalâ??s open house. From noon 4 p.m., there will be tours through the large and small animal hospitals, CPR demonstrations and a live echocardiogram of a dog.
Controversy over a Madison abortion clinic reemerged on the state Senate floor Thursday. West Bend Republican Glenn Grothman explained his no votes on the appointment of Roger Axtell of Beloit and Mike Weiden of Madison to UW Hospital and Clinics Authority Board. “In February, these gentlemen voted to have the Madison Surgery Center . . . begin to do abortions all the way through the fifth month,” said Grothman. “This is a total disgrace, it’s a barbarity.”
As the federal government prepares to pour billions of stimulus dollars into increased broadband Internet access, universities are trying to claim much of the money and shape the emerging national networking policy.
Their focus is $4.7-billion that will be doled out under a new grant program administered by a small Commerce Department agency called the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In Congressional testimony this month, a senior official with the agency, which is known as the NTIA, described the project as “the first step in realizing President Obama’s vision of bringing the benefits of broadband technology to all Americans.”
Adam Wilson posted two messages on Twitter on April 15. The first one, “GO BADGERS,” might have been sent by any University of Wisconsin-Madison student cheering for the school team.
The brain-computer interface allows people to compose a tweet by focusing on the desired letter.
His second post, 20 minutes later, was a little more unusual: “SPELLING WITH MY BRAIN.”
Wilson, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering, was confirming an announcement he had made two weeks earlier — his lab had developed a way to post messages on Twitter using electrical impulses generated by thought.
The Associated Students of Madisonâ??s Student Council voted to endorse Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, which will raise student tuition and provide additional aid and services.
In a statement, Martin said she was deeply grateful for the councilâ??s endorsement.
â??As you know, I am deeply committed to ensuring the quality and affordability of a UW-Madison education and the long-term value of our degree,â? Martin said. â??To members of ASM, I thank you for the effort and commitment that you have demonstrated. I look forward to bringing this proposal to fruition.â?
The progressive tradition that Stern noticed was legendary in an earlier era. Tony Michels, a professor of Jewish and labor history at the University of Wisconsin, said that in the â??30s, labeling a union as Jewish was often a shorthand way of describing its socialist politics. A number were further to the left, which is to say, communist.
The Chancellor of University of Wisconsin Stevens Point says she knew she was wrong when she left the scene of a hit and run accident in Madison in February.
The University’s leader says she began the evening of February 17th, 2009 at The Madison Club, a members only establishment.
Bunnell says she ordered a mixed drink and two glasses of wine at the club, but only had time to drink one glass of wine before driving to a speech given by Wisconsin Governor Jim
Madison-area workers looking to retool in a harsh economy will have one new option this summer â?? and another one likely next year â?? as Minnesotaâ??s Globe University spends $12 million to open two branches of its for-profit, career college network here.
First up is Middleton, where campus director Brock Vander Velden said the 31,000-square-foot building under construction at 1345 Deming Way, east of the Marriott Madison West, is â??on trackâ? to open in mid-June. Degree programs in business, health care, criminal justice and other high-demand areas such as massage therapy and veterinary technology will start July 20, he said.
Quoted: Some residents asked about the safety of children. Scott Craven, a UW-Madison wildlife ecologist and expert on dealing with urban wildlife, said any such threat is very small.
“In the bigger scheme of things, the threat posed by coyotes is infinitesimally small, but not zero,” Craven said.
The Associated Students of Madison voted to fully endorse the Wisconsin Initiative for Undergraduates Wednesday despite uncertainties about student support.
The initiative, drafted by Chancellor Biddy Martin, would raise tuition to increase financial aid and academic support. According to Martin, the initiative would help UW-Madison remain competitive with other Big Ten schools. It will go before the Board of Regents May 7-8.
â??I think weâ??re at a tipping point in terms of faculty hired and the quality of this institution relative to our peers,â? ASM representative Jeffrey Wright said. â??Something needs to be done and itâ??s certainly not going to happen, at least in short term, out of the Capitol.â?
Theyâ??re playing in rain-sodden fields near the University of Wisconsin-Madison Natatorium, not in the airspace next to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
And instead of zipping loop-de-loops on bewitched broomsticks, they trot doggedly with kitchen brooms between their legs.
Youâ??ve got to hand it to Bo Ryan.
When the University of Wisconsin menâ??s basketball coach doesnâ??t like what is happening, he doesnâ??t just sit back and gripe about it. He does something about it.
The announcement Wednesday that Duke will play UW in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge Dec 2 at the Kohl Center was the culmination of more than a year of serious arm-twisting by Ryan.
For the first time, recent Wisconsin college graduates will be able to stay in state this year while participating in Teach for America.
The service program will put 30 to 40 teachers in Milwaukee schools this fall, said Garrett Bucks, executive director for Teach for America Milwaukee.
Teach for America recruits college graduates to work at least two years in urban and rural communities with high poverty rates.
UW students have crowned a new All-Campus Idol.
Of the top ten finalists, Cari Rongstad of Eau Claire received the most text-message votes from the audience.
“I was really excited.” Cari said after the win. “I’m really surprised. This is my first time playing a big crowd, I’ve played coffee shops. But, I’m happy. I’m excited. It’s cool that people got to hear me sing and they liked it!”
Celebrity judge Michael Johns, who was in the top ten American Idol – Season 8, called Cari’s voice ‘pure’.
College is an investment in a student’s future. That’s a good thought to keep in mind as financial aid offers arrive this spring. The high school class of 2009 is the biggest class of entering freshmen ever; at a time when there’s less money being made available to pay for school.
“First we’ve seen a lot in the news about private lenders withdrawing from the student loan funding side. There’s been a reduction in the amount of money available for basic student loans, ” notes University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators announced a host of recommendations on Wednesday for improving the countryâ??s financial-aid system.
In a report, â??National Conversation Initiative Preliminary Recommendations,â? the group calls for dozens of changes, including a simpler federal-aid application, adjustments in the Pell Grant and federal loan programs, and a government college savings account for every child. The report draws on input from thousands of student-aid professionals, data from 40 research reports, and the suggestions of public-policy experts. The group gave it to the Obama administration the day before it was released to the public.
Budget-strapped public universities are predicting significant tuition increases at a time when private universities are doing everything to maintain or even lower tuition rates during the recession, experts say.
Though 2009-2010 tuition rates have not been set for most public universities, increases of at least 5% to 6% â?? and in many cases higher â?? are expected as university administrators struggle to maintain quality education amid state budget cuts.
If you’re one of those students afraid standardized test scores don’t paint the full picture of your potential, your options are growing. More and more colleges don’t require the SAT or ACT exams. Wake Forest and Smith just admitted their first class of applicants who could decline to submit SAT or ACT scores, while Sewanee and Fairfield will do the same next year.
But is the “test optional” movement gaining steam, or running out of it?
The Wisconsin Alumni Association announced its endorsement of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates Tuesday, adding one last vote of support before the finalized proposal goes before the Associated Students of Madison tonight.
â??We think itâ??s a very smart plan, an important investment in undergraduate education,â? WAA President and CEO Paula Bonner said. â??We just wanted to make sure, as an organization, the students and the regents knew the association supported it.â?
The University of Wisconsin menâ??s basketball team is finally getting a member of Atlantic Coast Conferenceâ??s elite to come to the Kohl Center.
The Badgers will play Duke in next seasonâ??s ACC/Big Ten Challenge, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on its Web site late Tuesday night. UW coach Bo Ryan hinted at the matchup at the teamâ??s reception Tuesday night.
UW and Duke last played in 2007, with the Blue Devils winning 82-58 in Durham, N.C.
P.J. Hill remade his body, but nobody cared. During three seasons at the University of Wisconsin, the Poly Prep grad established a reputation as a bruising tailback, using his 240-pound frame to barrell through defenders and become the third-leading rusher in school history.
Jesting aside, the work of the Neural Interfaces Technology Research & Optimisation Lab at the University of Wisconsin is pretty sweetâ??especially if you’ve seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and have had nightmares like I have of being “locked in” due to a brain injury of some kind. But where Jean-Dominique Bauby had to blink out his incredible novel from his hospital bed, this EEG-controlled interface, examples of which have existed for some time, would make things considerably easier to write your locked-in masterwork.
It sounds so sci-fi, yet researcher Adam Wilson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison demonstrated earlier this month that he could â??tweetâ?? by using his thoughts.
Wouldnâ??t you like to do that?
The work shows that people with a variety of disabilities, ranging from paralysis to an inability to speak, might one day use such a brain-computer interface to communicate, according to a news release posted on the universityâ??s site. His message was â??using EEG to send tweet.â?
Noted: For example, Iâ??m writing this from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where Iâ??ll be knocking around for the next couple of days and speaking on Thursday. The university is really kind of awesome, full of museums and theaters and grand buildings, packed with bright, energetic people trying to make the world a better place.
But thereâ??s a downside to all of this: Institutional and societal interests arenâ??t always aligned. For example, itâ??s good for a universityâ??s reputation and bottom line to focus on enrolling lots of rich smart kids, but frankly what we need are more colleges that are good at, and want to be good at, teaching students at the median (among the population of potential college students, which isnâ??t the whole population) or below.
A doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is developing a way for those whose brain function normal, but bodies don’t work can communicate better.
Using an electrode-studded cap wired to a computer, Adam Wilson can update a Twitter status by just thinking about it, Wisconsin Technology Network reported.
The electrodes detect the brain’s thoughts and translates them into physical actions, such as a cursor motion on a computer screen.
“We started thinking that moving a cursor on a screen is a good scientific exercise,” Justin Williams, a UW-Madison assistant professor of biomedical engineering and Wilson’s adviser, told Wisconsin Technology Network. “But when we talk to people who have locked-in syndrome or a spinal-cord injury, their No. 1 concern is communication.”
The late Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson fostered the idea of a day dedicated to awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, devoted to “understanding the relationships between people and the planet, and on seeking solutions to environmental problems at all scales,” is hosted by UW-Madison. It came about through the contributions of Wisconsinites Nelson, John Muir and Aldo Leopold.
The owners of a local music and event promotion company told city officials Tuesday they are dropping their bid to host the annual Mifflin Street Block Party this year.
DCNY PRO, operated by Ny Bass and Dave Coleman, had proposed setting up a stage for musical acts and possibly bringing in food vendors but withdrew their street use permit application because there wasnâ??t time to properly organize for the May 2 event, said Kelli Lamberty of the city Parks Division.
After they took an important state exam last fall, some of the students at Marquette Elementary rolled off the post-test stress with a little â??completion yoga.â?
Teachers in Marquetteâ??s nine classrooms now integrate the occasional yoga move into their curriculum, thanks to a contact the schoolâ??s principal made last year at Healthy Classrooms, a symposium on public health in education put together by a team of UW-Madison medical students.
The University of Wisconsin plans to cut its lab technologists program at a time when health care officials say the profession is in growing demand.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health said the program will end as part of reductions required under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed budget, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
John Whittier works in a lab at the Health Science building during a class in the Western Technical College clinical laboratory technician program. Erik Daily
Yet the decision comes as clinical lab work employment is expected to rise by 14 percent from 2006 to 2016, faster than the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Quoted: Dr. Sarah McAchran, with UW Hospital and Clinics’ department of urology, said Botox injected into the wall of the bladder using a cystoscope has helped people with such neurological disorders as multiple sclerosis or Spina Bifida, reducing the frequency of catheterization. She said more recently it’s being used for people with overactive bladders when anti-leakage medications fail. This can prevent the need for surgery.
Twitter has popularized short blurbs of online conversation. Now the free social messaging service is being tested as a way to help disabled people communicate.
For years now, researchers have helped those unable to talk or write communicate in alternate ways. For instance, those with cerebral palsy can control a special keyboard with eye movement or by activating a laser attached to their head. Technology is now advancing to help people with more severe disabilities speak. Those who are unable to move their head â?? such as those with ALS or high spinal chord injuries — can create short messages simply by thinking. What’s on their minds, or literally their scalp, –electrical impulses– are transmitted to a keyboard pictured on a computer screen. That keyboard that allows that to do what millions of American are doing: sending out short messages in real time, using Twitter. (7th item.)
It’s a day where we plant a tree, maybe even hug one.
We can thank Gaylord Nelson for Earth Day, slated again this year on Wednesday. Wisconsin called him ‘Governor’ and ‘Senator.’ Tia Nelson calls him ‘Papa.’
“He used to follow me around the house, and turn off light switches and lecture me on why that was important, long before people were worrying about energy independence and climate change,” she said during an interview earlier this month at her Madison area home.
Writing emails is all well and good, but now brain-computer interfaces have made the big leagues: a BCI has been used to Tweet. Earlier this month Adam Wilson, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sent â??using EEG to send tweet.â? He used what has become the standard methodology, in which EEGs pick up electrical signals from the brain and translate them into movements of a cursor, in this case on a screen with the 26 letters of the alphabet, as the scientists show in this video.
They bought into the notion that if they went to college â?? never mind the debt â?? their degree would lead to a lucrative job. And repaying their student loans would never be a problem.
But the economic crisis has turned those assumptions on their ear as thousands of recent graduates have been unable to find jobs or are earning too little to cover the payments for loans that are sometimes as high as $50,000.
If the United States is going to change its energy use habits, research coming out of places like the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at UW-Madison will surely help.
So says Molly Jahn, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the university.
Scientists and engineers at the bioenergy center â?? funded by the Department of Energy with a $125 million, five-year grant â?? are conducting basic research on new technologies to help convert plant material such as cornstalks, wood chips and perennial native grasses to sources of energy for everything from cars to power plants.
Early on the afternoon of April 1, Adam Wilson posted a message to Twitter. But instead of using his hands to type, the University of Wisconsin biomedical engineer used his brain. “USING EEG TO SEND TWEET,” he thought.
That message may be a modern equivalent of Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” Brain-computer interfaces are no longer just a gee-whiz technology, but a platform for researchers interested in immediate real-world applications for people who can think, but can’t move.
“We’re more interested in the applications,” said Justin Williams, head of the University of Wisconsin’s Neural Interfaces lab. “How do we actually make these technologies useful for people with disabilities?”
We’ll be honest, we’re always on the lookout for faster and better ways to annoy our Twitter followers with hopelessly mundane status updates, and this brain-control interface from the University of Wisconsin’s Adam Wilson seems to be the perfect to get all Scoble on it with a minimum of effort — you think it, you tweet it.
Quoted: Bob Plankers, a VMware customer who is a senior systems engineer with the University of Wisconsin in Madison, says the new “internal cloud” feature might appeal to companies that are skittish about letting outside companies, like Google or Amazon, take control of all their internal data. “We are definitely worried about that,” he says.
Charisma. Energy level. Passion. All were mentioned Monday as a presidential search committee looking for Florida International University’s next president pared the list down to four candidates.
On Monday, the remaining of 11 candidates walked into a ballroom at Hotel Sofitel and tackled the first question from the 26-member Presidential Advisory Search Committee:
“Why do you want to be FIU’s next president?”
Megan Rebers will have something equally important to go with her degree when she graduates next month from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
A job.
Rebers, 22, of Campbellsport, who launched her job search in earnest last fall and accepted an offer from Target Corp., is one of the fortunate grads this year. CareerBuilder’s annual college job forecast, which polled about 2,500 employers, learned only 43 percent of them plan to hire recent grads this year, down from 56 percent in 2008 and far lower than the 79 percent the year before.
Chancellor Linda Bunnell wants to move fundraising for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point under the supervision of the university.
That would leave the current body in charge, the UWSP Foundation, in a mostly passive role, as university staff members assume primary responsibility for fundraising.
Noted: Before they arrive, the local district has submitted a wish list of jobs to be done and, in this case, raised $16,000 to pay for the materials.
â??Itâ??s just neat to see 180 people working together on one project,â? said Jared Marx, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student from Antigo. He had spent his time pruning tree limbs, helping to move monkey bars and hanging a new classroom door, among other jobs.
Marx said his roommate did the Outreach program last year.
â??He said some phenomenal things about it,â? Marx said.
Adam Wilson posted the 17-character message using a brain-computer interface (BCI) that he is helping to build for people whose minds function but whose bodies do not work.
Mr Wilson, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first wrote: “SENT FROM BCI2000”, referring to the model number of his machine.
Quoted: John Sturdk, a UW School of Business professor, said the magazine story might be frustrating for some to hear as Madison is rising up when many other cities are falling down rapidly.
“You see a lot of interest in non-profit innovations and non-profit organizations, as well as in the traditional medical device and bio-technology arena’s here,” Sturdk saod. “And so, you see this incredibly diverse pool of talent that have opportunities, custom made for them — and that’s pretty rare.”
As a graduating senior, I have not paid as much attention to the Initiative for Undergraduates as I perhaps should have. However, Chancellor Martinâ??s last e-mail compelled me to look more closely at the plan that is being proposed, and I was somewhat surprised by the similarity to the Growth and Access Agenda proposed by UW-La Crosse in 2007.
Over the last two decades, colleges and universities doubled their full-time support staff while enrollment increased only 40 percent, according to a new analysis of government data by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a nonprofit research center.
During the same period, the staff of full-time instructors, or equivalent personnel, rose about 50 percent, while the number of managers increased slightly more than 50 percent.
Rich Mintz thinks college fund raising needs serious help.
Bureaucracies are byzantine, messages leave alumni cold, and methods of delivering them are ineffective.
“Frankly,” says Mr. Mintz, a bushy-haired fund-raising consultant who once aspired to be a medieval scholar, “I think that a lot of institutions have probably simply given up on getting anything valuable out of their alumni under 40.”
His attitude could come across as off-putting, but Mr. Mintz boasts a unique calling card: The company he works for built the new-media arsenal that helped catapult Barack Obama into the White House.
Chancellor Martin, Iâ??ve read with great interest your Undergraduate Initiative. Enhanced student services are mentioned several times. I think that is code for better academic advising. As someone who spends a lot of time â?? and I mean a lot â?? talking to students, I am thrilled to hear that.
A Dane County Judge will rule soon in a lawsuit challenging a fund the Governor and legislature created to retain University of Wisconsin faculty.
The lawsuit goes after administrators at the U-W Platteville for the way they divvied up their share of the University’s new faculty recruitment and retention fund. The Governor and legislature created the $10-million fund in 2007, saying it would help campuses hang on to faculty in high-demand fields.
U-W Platteville Foreign Languages Professor Ray Spoto is a past president of the Association of University Professionals. Spoto says he thinks the Governor had good intentions when he created the fund. But in practice, Spoto says it’s been doled out arbitrarily, without faculty input. Spoto says that’s unfair, and it drives down the morale of professors who don’t get a share. (Third item.)
UW-Madison could soon be home to the funniest college student in the country, according to one measure.
Sophomore Adam Voll from Wheaton, Ill., is one of four finalists for the national â??Funniest College Student on Campusâ? competition sponsored by Twix.
UW-Madison is putting the â??public healthâ? in the School of Medicine and Public Health.
Dr. Patrick L. Remington has been appointed the first ever associate dean for public health at the school.
University of Wisconsin students are throwing a huge party this week. That’s nothing new — but this bash has all of the activities without the alcohol.
A kind of springtime serenade greeted students at Engineering Mall on the UW campus.
“Excellent bands,” said Drew Deitz, All Campus Party Week co-director. “They braved the weather — it was a little cold and windy out there.”
It’s been a rough couple of months for University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Chancellor Linda Bunnell.
Directors of the university’s fundraising arm have rebelled against her leadership. Student leaders voted no-confidence in her and accidentally posted her credit card number online. She got into an accident in her state vehicle and later acknowledged she had been drinking a bit beforehand.
Former State Representative and political activist Marjorie “Midge” Cavins Leeper Miller passed away at home on Friday, April 17, 2009, at the age of 86. Midge moved to Wisconsin in 1957 and was an assistant dean at UW-Madison.
