Retirement accounts have taken a brutal beating over the past year. Not only have many lost substantial value, what’s left is being raided by the people who put the money there in the first place.
“If you really have no other source of savings, tapping your 401k or retirement account may be your best option. But, you should think about that as a loan to yourself and that you’re going to pay that back,” advises University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.
University of Wisconsin evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll talks about his new book, Remarkable Creatures, which chronicles the daring-do of some of natural history’s brightest stars. (Audio.)
The Freedom of Choice Act that is waiting in the political wings will provide an opportunity for all Americans of faith to shake out their spiritual cobwebs. They will be called to act in accordance with their consciences against the forces who would love to see Americans subjugate our tradition of faith and belief in natural law to a sense of political correctness. This political correctness has led this country (and by our financial support we’ve helped lead other countries) to accept that one human life has value over another.
Before President Obamaâ??s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, the White House compared the purpose of the event to Franklin D. Rooseveltâ??s fireside chats during the Great Depression. But for higher education, Mr. Obama was more like John F. Kennedy when he issued the challenge in 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
This presidentâ??s goal was equally daunting: for the nation to have the worldâ??s highest proportion of college graduates by 2020. â??That is a goal we can meet,â? he said to applause in the chamber.
The federal government has quietly increased its support of the student loan market to such a degree that the real question may be whether there is a role left for private lenders at all.
The Education Department agreed in the waning days of the Bush administration to expand its commitment to buy student loans to keep the market working, much as the government has agreed to buy up all manner of loans, from mortgages to commercial paper, to unfreeze various credit markets.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that Barton’s comments on Twitter border on risky.
“The comment that’s intended to be humorous, but if you don’t hear it right, you don’t read it right, it comes across in a very negative light,” Franklin said.
As badger fan Margaret Hiebing sues three UW-Madison police officers after she was tasered at camp randall last fall, she no longer faces a disorderly conduct ticket.
The ticket against Hiebing, 54, has been dropped. That follows the dane county district attorney’s decision not to charge Hiebing criminally.
Lee Hawkins, a UW-Madison graduate and former Wisconsin State Journal reporter, will anchor an hour-long documentary, “NEWBOs: The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass,” which looks at the challenges and opportunities facing a generation of young blacks, many in the sports and entertainment industries, who have made a lot of money in a hurry.
Not much else seems to be helping keep down college costs, so maybe this will: a three-year college degree. It’s an idea that’s never really caught on, at least in the United States, but it may be gaining traction with the economy in deep recession.
The nation’s colleges and universities set another fundraising record last year, but nobody expects a repeat in 2009, a survey says.
Charitable contributions grew 6.2%, to $31.6 billion, based on a survey of 1,052 colleges by the Council for Aid to Education, a New York-based non-profit that tracks private giving to colleges and universities.
Kevin J. Renken learned the limits of his academic freedom the hard way.
As an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Mr. Renken says he felt obliged to speak out about his belief that administrators there were mishandling a National Science Foundation grant to him and several colleagues. When the university subsequently reduced his pay and returned the grant, he sued, alleging illegal retaliation.
From Broward County, Fla., to Flint, Mich., homeowners might be facing exorbitant hikes in property taxes. In one of the more extreme cases, residents of West New York, N.J., are fighting a planned 27% bump in their property tax rates.
What gives? Squeezed by foreclosures and falling revenues, many local governments are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls. To fill some of the gap, more municipalities will have to raise property taxes, says Sharon McCabe, associate director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin.
The random, symmetrical beauty of snowflakes has been recreated in a computer program, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
It took four years for two mathematicians from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of California, Davis, to develop the computer model’s theory and perform the computations.
“Even though we’ve artfully stripped down the model over several years so that it’s as simple and efficient as possible, it still takes us a day to grow one of these things,” Wisconsin researcher David Griffeath said in a statement.
When they are up and running in 20 months, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery should be a â??cauldron of exciting interactionsâ? between researchers, social scientists, artists, educators and the public, former UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley said today.
â??Ten years from now, I hope weâ??ll look back on a lot of great new stuff and say this is where it started,â? said Wiley, who is the interim director of the public half of the new research center that backers hope will be a model of interdisciplinary and collaborative science.
Wiley was joined at a Wisconsin Innovation Network luncheon by Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF’s managing director and board chairman for the Morgridge Institute for Research (MIR), the private half of the $150 million, 165,000-square-foot WID project. It is going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue between Randall Avenue and Orchard Street and is expected to open in the fall of 2010.
Boosted by a healthy year-end finish in 2007, private giving to colleges and universities remained strong in fiscal 2008, according to a report to be released this morning by the Council for Aid to Education. The past few months have battered hopes that this trend will continue, at least in the next couple of years.
Colleges brought in an estimated $31.6-billion last year, the highest total ever reported in the council’s annual “Voluntary Support of Education” survey, which included 1,052 institutions. That represented a 6.2-percent increase over the previous year, and the fifth straight year of increases.
Gifts to colleges and universities broke all records in 2008, but began to decline as the recession deepened, and will most likely continue to do so for the next two years, according to a survey by the Council for Aid to Education.
The University of California, Los Angeles, raised the most of any public institution, coming in sixth on the list, with $456.6 million, followed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ranked eighth with $410.2 million.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Stephen Malpezzi said that house prices could stabilize by this summer and a broader recovery could follow. But Malpezzi said it could be the summer of 2010 before things fully turn around.
“Who knows,” said James Johannes, associate dean for executive education at UW-Madison. “November 19, 2009 — that is my over/under date on the end of the recession, and if I am wrong the reporters do not have to pay for me for my forecast.”
Jim Seward, associate professor of finance, investment and banking at the UW-Madison School of Business simply said, “We’ll know when we know.”
Tim Riddiough, director at the UW-Madison Center for Real Estate said that, realistically, to get the economy back on track, it’s going to take the stabilization of the banking industry and the bottoming out of the real estate market.
Quoted: Al Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities.
Professor Millard W. Johnson Jr., age 81, emeritus professor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Engineering Mechanics and Department of Mathematics, passed away at HospiceCare in Fitchburg on Feb. 20, 2009. Many students and colleagues described Millard as a gentleman who cared deeply about every one of his students.
Clarence Alvin Disch, age 88, of Oregon, passed away on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009. While farming, Clarence was employed from January 1964 until retiring after 22 and a half years at UW-Madison Sellery and Ogg student residence halls as a maintenance facility worker in 1986.
A Dane County judge is expected to rule in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann in May.
A pre-trial and motion hearing was held Monday afternoon. Zimmermann’s parents and her fiancé, Jordan Gonnering, filed suit against Dane County and the 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling a call from Brittany’s cell phone sometime before she was killed. The call came on the day she was killed in her West Doty Street apartment last April.
University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin announced her selection for chief of staff Monday morning.
As chief of staff, Becci Menghini will manage office projects and act as a liaison internally and with the public.
The University of Michigan announced on Monday that it was ending its apparel licensing agreement with the Russell Corporation, becoming the 12th university to do so in response to the companyâ??s decision to close a unionized factory in Honduras.
University of Michigan officials said an agreement under which Russell made T-shirts, sweatshirts and fleeces with university logos would end as of March 31 because Russell had violated the universityâ??s code of conduct calling on licensees to guarantee the basic rights of workers.
Providing college students with ways to make the most of their money, especially during a recession, is the focus of a seminar being held this weekend at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison Business School professor Ron Smith says the financial independence seminar will give students advice on how to budget, save, and invest their money. He says students approaching graduation are often uninformed about financial issues and have a lot to learn before they start their career. (Final item.)
Theodore Morgan, age 98, died peacefully on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009. Ted joined the Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1947, and with the exception of nine years abroad, served as professor of economics there until his retirement in 1980.
Sloan Fellows
Four UW-Madison faculty members are among 118 scientists, mathematicians and economists from around the country who have been awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. The Sloan Fellowships, which come with two-year, $50,000 grants, were awarded to: Shuchi Chawla, computer science; Karsten M. Heeger, physics; Song Jin, chemistry; Tehshik Yoon, chemistry.
Climate seminars
A series of free public seminars beginning Thursday at UW-Madison will address how the state of Wisconsin can respond to climate change. “Bracing for Impact: Climate Change Adaptation in Wisconsin” is the theme of the nine-part series, to be held in room 1111 Genetics-Biotechnology Center Building, 425 Henry Mall. Each seminar will start at 7 p.m. and last about an hour.
Finance seminar
Undergraduate students at UW-Madison can attend the annual Financial Independence Seminar on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave. Hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Student Board and the Wisconsin School of Business, students can get expert financial advice about managing student loans, improving credit scores, investing money and more. Registration is required by Wednesday at www.uwalumni.com/wasb.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal has state traffic forecaster William Gavinski thinking about retirement.
Augustine Tatus, a children and families policy analyst, wonders how he’ll keep up with rising housing, utility and food costs.
And revenue agent Wayne Mertens foresees fewer salaried state workers and more private contractors.
“Tears, harm and fear to sum it up,” Mertens said of state workers’ reaction to Doyle’s budget. “And no faith in the governor or his party that usually promotes workers.”
Quoted: Al Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, serving with the state’s Office of Recovery and Reinvestment.
Twelve UW-Madison faculty members have been named finalists to compete for five spots in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the public part of a $150 million public-private research building going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue.
The institute, to focus on biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology, is expected to open next year.
Quoted: William Jones, an associate professor of history at UW-Madison who has studied Depression-era government programs; and Bill Tishler, an emeritus professor with the UW-Madison’s Dept. of Landscape Architecture.
Modeling it after a program she started at Cornell University, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is launching a common book project in Madison called Go Big Read.
Starting in fall 2009, Martin and others will choose one book for the campus community and beyond to read.
Nearly 40,000 college students would get enough financial aid to offset tuition increases during the next two years under Gov. Doyles budget proposal. Doyle has promised that University of Wisconsin System tuition increases will be moderate, and in line with recent hikes of 5.5% the past two years. Students from families with an income of $60,000 or less would be protected from the increases.
Presidents of a number of colleges vowed in November to take a pay cut or otherwise give back part of their earnings as a way to help buffer their schools against the struggling economy. Now, an analysis of tax filings of more than 4,000 other employees at 600 private colleges shows that presidents’ earnings are relatively modest.
For example, the head football coach at the University of Southern California and a Columbia University dermatologist each earned more than $4 million in 2007, making them the highest paid employees at private colleges.
With the global financial crisis bearing down, study-abroad officials are considering changes in both their immediate and long-term strategies for sending students overseas. They are budgeting more conservatively, seeking out cheaper destinations, and weighing collaborations with other colleges or private study-abroad providers.
At the same time, international educators need to remind campus leaders about the valueâ??in today’s economy more than everâ??of gaining a global perspective, said speakers at the annual conference of the Forum on Education Abroad, which ended here on Friday.
Two more universities have joined the growing list of institutions that have cut ties with apparel maker Russell Athletic over the companyâ??s alleged mistreatment of unionized workers at one of its plants in Honduras.
On Friday, Cornell University and Pennsylvania State University announced that they have terminated their licensing agreements with the Russell Corporation and will not renew the contracts when they expire, in both cases, at the end of March.
Congress and other watchdogs have grilled colleges in recent years for what some regard as the excessive pay of their chief executives. But presidents and chancellors are a minority of the highest-compensated college employees, a Chronicle analysis has found.
Recently, the Star Tribune reported good news for Carleton College when StateUniversity.com “quietly slipped” the Northfield school in at No. 15 in its ranking of the best 2,000 universities in the country. What was not reported was the bad, even ominous, news that the University of Minnesota ranked 199th in the same survey — a ranking that places the university 10th out of the 11 schools in the Big Ten (add Penn State). This is very sobering news considering that on the same day a report from the Federal Reserve indicated that Minnesota has the highest unemployment rate in the upper Midwest, trailing only Michigan.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Allan Odden, co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, said the plan would be a good compromise in allowing schools to raise more money but ensuring it was better spent.
Same-sex couples could form domestic partnerships and receive dozens of the same legal benefits as married people under a proposal by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.
Supporters say it’s a step forward for gay and lesbian couples who would get the right to visit one another in hospitals, make each other’s end-of-life decisions and inherit their partner’s homes and cars.
But critics question whether the plan, which Doyle included in his two-year state budget proposal, conflicts with a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. One conservative group promised a lawsuit if it is approved.
There was no mention in Jerry Vogt’s obituary about the true love of his life or his home away from home, which were one in the same.
It’s understandable because there’s only so much room in those things. Vogt’s vast legacy had so many high notes that it’s hard to reach them all in a modest swatch of agate type in the newspaper.
Vogt had a 20-year love affair with the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program, which took him from being one of the “Faithful 5,000” at the old Field House to having a courtside location at the Kohl Center.
A Madison woman who was shocked with a Taser and arrested at a UW football game after police said she caused a disturbance, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Friday against three UW-Madison police officers, claiming the officers used excessive force.
Margaret Hiebing, 54, who attended the Oct. 11 game with her 65-year-old husband, a retired longtime Madison advertising executive, said she did nothing to warrant the response she received from police after complaining someone else was sitting in her seat.
Once she regained her seat at Camp Randall Stadium, she alleges, police dragged her away and up a flight of stairs before using the Taser on her, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
Nearly 40,000 Wisconsin college students would get enough financial aid to offset tuition increases during the next two years under Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.
Doyle promised that University of Wisconsin System tuition increases would be moderate and in line with recent hikes of 5.5 percent the past two years. But he said all students from families with the state’s median income of $60,000 or less would be protected from the increases.
Governor Doyle says a proposal to create a statewide domestic partner registry would not violate Wisconsin’s Constitution.
A provision in the proposed state budget would allow same-sex couples to register as domestic partners at the county level. The budget language says registered domestic partners would be extended certain dependent or survivor benefits for employee benefits, health and mental health and after-death decision making, probate matters, property matters, and motor vehicle titles.
Governor Jim Doyle says it would give legal rights to couples who are often lifelong partners. He says they deserve to have more control over decisions that could impact the life of a person they love.
In his budget plan, Governor Jim Doyle promises to protect education.
“We’re off to a good start, that all students from Wisconsin no matter where they go to school can look forward to some help.”
Rolf Wegenke Ph.D., President/CEO of Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU), says he’s pleased with the proposed 3% increase in the student grant fund for the state’s private colleges.
On his way to claiming third place in the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, a 23-year-old Christopher Taylor impressed the jurors and the rest of us in attendance as much for his enterprising spirit as for the security of his playing. The competition eliminated its repertory requirements that year, allowing players to roam far beyond standard competition fare, and Mr. Taylor responded imaginatively with Bachâ??s â??Goldbergâ? Variations, Pierre Boulezâ??s Second Sonata and other adventures.
Q How do antidepressants work?
A Depression is caused by lower levels of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters that influence mood, known as dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. They work by helping to regulate the traffic in nerve signals between cells, say Ron Diamond and Jack Nitschke, psychiatrists in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and the College of Letters and Science.
A Madison woman who was shocked with a Taser and arrested at a UW football game after police said she caused a disturbance, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Friday against three UW-Madison police officers, claiming the officers used excessive force.
Margaret Hiebing, 54, who attended the Oct. 11 game with her 65-year-old husband, a retired longtime Madison advertising executive, said she did nothing to warrant the response she received from police after complaining someone else was sitting in her seat.
Members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) traded megaphone-delivered rally cries for a relatively quiet Thursday as they staged a sit-in at the office of Penn State President Graham Spanier.
More than 10 USAS members entered Spanier’s office one by one and asked if they could meet with the president to talk to him about cutting the university’s contract with Russell Athletic.
Dozens of commercial and residential infill developments are itemized in this report about the ongoing construction boom on Madison’s isthmus. But these private-sector developments are dwarfed by what is taking place on the UW-Madison campus, where two dozen significant projects have been completed since February 2005, are now under construction or have been proposed for the next five years.
Though fewer in number than the noted private-sector projects, these UW developments are larger in scale: In total, they represent almost $1.5 billion (with a b) in value — about three times the total invested in private-sector developments for the same period. (See related Isthmus story.)
Noted: Did I mention that the UW has almost $700 million in new construction in mind through 2011? â??Itâ??s the complete rejuvenation of big chunks of the campus,â? notes Al Fish, UW-Madisonâ??s associate vice chancellor.
Quoted: â??It’s a very clever idea,â? said François Ortalo-Magné, a professor and chairman of the real estate department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. â??In today’s market, given the fear and uncertainty, we’re looking for things to get the market flow going again
If you are one of the thousands of people who moved to the Hudson area because you wanted â?? fill in the blank â?? a town not suburb, a good school district, a thriving independent business community, safety, sports leagues, riverside location or access to parks, then you owe it to yourself and the Hudson community to attend this presentation.
â??Where we Spend our Money (and how) Makes a Differenceâ? is a free event open to the public from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, at The Phipps Center for the Arts, 109 Locust St.
â??Anyone who cares about the quality of small-town life is the audience we want to attract,â? said Rick Brooks, the presenter who specializes in community development, marketing, health and social change. He is currently the outreach program manager in the Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies at UW-Madison.
Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday signed into law a fast-tracked bill designed to help the state start to solve its $5.7 billion budget shortfall.
The measure Doyle signed Thursday raises a host of taxes on everything from large multistate corporations to Internet downloads, cuts government spending and also allocates $300 million in federal stimulus money for roads projects.
A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student from Sun Prairie who was reported missing on Thursday was found safe.
Campus police had issued an alert on Thursday for freshman Jessica Malecek, 19, after she hadn’t been seen for two days. She was last spotted at her residence hall on Downer Avenue in Milwaukee on Tuesday afternoon.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will likely cut $5 million from its budget in the next two years.
UW-Lâ??s administration had been planning for cuts anywhere from $2 million to $6 million.
UW-La Crosse senior Nicole Holden takes notes during her Program Planning in Recreation class Wednesday at Wimberly Hall. UW-la Crosse is expected to cut $5 million of their budget over the next two years but aims to preserve a quality classroom experience when doing so. PETER THOMSON photo
â??It is like going to the doctor when you have a problem,â? said UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow. â??You hope itâ??s not as bad as it might be â?? our problem is: It is as bad as it might be.â?
Gow said while he canâ??t rule out staffing cuts, he hopes enough savings can be found elsewhere.
A UW-Madison business school faculty member told 27 News President Obama’s $275 billion mortgage plan to try to stem the tide of home foreclosures neglected the next wave of distressed borrowers.
“It is an unmitigated disaster,” business school real estate division assistant professor Morris Davis told 27 News, as Morris attended a professional conference in Atlanta.
Same-sex couples could form domestic partnerships and receive some of the same benefits as married people under Gov. Jim Doyle’s new budget plan.
In his budget address Tuesday night, Doyle made mention of the plan that could make domestic partner benefits a reality for state workers in Wisconsin.
Partners would have a right to make hospital visits and end-of-life decisions and inherit property. Public employees would be able to add partners to their health insurance coverage.
Giving patients genetic tests to gauge their dose of a widely used blood thinner could reduce the drugâ??s sometimes deadly side effects, a new study involving University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers suggests.
The drug, warfarin, was discovered at the university in 1948 and is named after the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF.
Violinist Benjamin Seeger, 18, knows the math on winning music competitions. Last summer, he was among 100 young musicians competing for a four-year scholarship to UW-Madison for 2009.
Ten students won the prize, including him.
Quoted: Andy Reschovsky, a UW-Madison economist.
