Missouri lawmakers cut $113 million in university building projects from a $335 million higher education bill Wednesday, as The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported. Their reason? As the Post-Dispatch puts it, â??The committee chairman, Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, said the projects that had been cut had been identified as possibly housing stem cell research in the future.â?
An oft-heard complaint about UW-Madison, justified or otherwise, is that its academic and research fruit falls close to the tree. It has world-class scientists and well-developed mechanisms for turning their best ideas into products or services, but most of that commercialization takes place within a half-hour drive from campus.
Q: What’s going to happen when all the TV stations go to HDTV?
A: By Feb. 17, 2009, all over-the-air TV broadcasters will be required by federal law to convert their current analog signals to digital high definition television, says Barry Orton, a UW-Madison consumer science professor and expert on the telecommunications industry.
The reality might be distressing, but it’s not unprecedented where the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team is concerned. A year after winning the sixth NCAA title in program history, the Badgers are a long shot to make the 16-team national tournament field.
In Wisconsin, not only is she close to her family, but she is working with UW-Madison on developing pet-food formulas and testing their palatability.
Quoted: R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Two UW-Madison students were robbed in their dorm room Tuesday night by a man who grabbed one of the two women by the throat before fleeing, UW-Madison Police said.
The robbery occurred at Witte Hall about 11:45 p.m., police said. The women were in their room when a man entered, put his hand on the throat of one of the women and left with an undisclosed amount of money.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Bo Ryan is the son of a Chester pipefitter named Butch. So it’s no surprise that a fire, one as red as his team’s road uniforms, burns in the belly of the University of Wisconsin’s basketball coach.
“My dad’s a tough guy,” Ryan said earlier this week as his fourth-ranked Badgers prepared for last night’s game at Penn State. “He never finished high school. They kicked him out of St. James [High] because when a priest asked him if he knew the Apostles’ Creed, he said, ‘Can you hum a few bars?’ ”
Butch Ryan, now 83, passed that blue-collar, riverfront atty-tood down to his son.
Quoted: Joy B. Zedler, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the authors of the NRC report.
LANSING, Mich. – A Michigan appeals court ruling that bans public universities and state and local governments from providing health insurance to partners of gay employees has alarmed gay rights advocates nationwide.
They fear the decision could encourage similar rulings in 17 other states whose bans on gay marriage could be interpreted to prohibit domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.
Quoted: R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Dr. Milo Wiltbank, professor of dairy science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison atmospheric scientist Pao K. Wang, who studies ice and snow crystals in clouds.
One of New Zealand’s greatest scientists, a Nobel Prize winner, has died at 79.
Alan MacDiarmid was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000, along with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa, for discovering a way to make plastics conduct electricity.
He won a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study for a PhD, which he received in 1953.
Quoted: Eric Sandgren of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a degree in veterinary medicine and genetics and oversees animal research at the university.
UW-Police are looking for a man whom they say walked into a dorm room, grabbed a girl by the throat and then demanded money.
It happened just before midnight Tuesday in the “A” tower of Witte hall.
Police are currently looking at surveillance video to see if they can find how the suspect got in the building.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison dorm residents are being warned to not let strangers in after police said a man got into Witte Hall and attacked and robbed a female student on Tuesday night.
UW police and housing officials are reviewing security camera video of an emergency door that the attacker might have used to flee to dorm.
UW police said that at about 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday, a white man who is about 40 years old got into Witte Hall, walked into an unlocked dorm room with two women inside, choked one of them, demanded money and then fled with an undisclosed amount. (Video)
MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of patients had to reschedule their appointments at the University of Wisconsin Health Clinic at University Station on Tuesday after the building was flooded.Authorities said there was a break in a valve in the sprinkler system at about 6 p.m. on Monday that flooded about a third of the building.
Whatever Ody J. Fish did, he appeared to do very well, and that included serving on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents even though he never went to college.
Ody J. Fish
Photo/File
Ody J. Fish (right) and former Gov. Warren P. Knowles (center) greet President Gerald Ford on a visit to Wisconsin in 1976. Fish served as manager of the 1976 Republican National Convention.
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Fish died of esophageal cancer Tuesday at his Pewaukee home. He was 81.
Name: Tony Simotes
Age: 55
Occupation: University Theatre director, professional actor, UW-Madison associate professor who teaches acting and stage fighting
\ Originally, I wanted to be a drummer. When I was kid, I would bang on coffee cans with pencils in our grocery store, driving my parents crazy. My prayers were answered at age nine and I joined the school band. From there it was a short leap to concert band, high school marching band and rock and roll. At 16 I landed a job with a rock and roll tour — “Shindig 67!” as a side drummer and played backup to Del Shannon and others. Next came speech class where I was cast in a high school play and realized what I wanted to do. I loved the process and loved being in the theater.
A larger, more racially diverse pool of public high school students in the 2006 graduating class took Advanced Placement courses compared with the class of 2000, and more passed a standardized exam in at least one subject, a report says. Nearly 15% of 2006 public high school graduates earned a passing grade on an AP exam, compared with 14% in 2005 and 10% in the class of 2000, the report says.
On the field, Badgers defensive lineman Justin Ostrowski is interested solely in stacking up opposing players, but Tuesday night he devoted his time to stacking words as a literary-physical fitness exercise for Woodridge students.
Ostrowski, who attended Woodridge Primary School 15 years ago, returned to the school this week with a contingent of UW-Madison football players to promote reading to local students. The program involved signing autographs, posing for pictures and a word or two about the importance of words.
APPLETON ââ?¬â? A 2001 Fox Valley Lutheran High School graduate who loved nature and adventure died Sunday after suffering multiple broken bones while climbing in Californiaââ?¬â?¢s Owens River Gorge.
Ian Mack, 23, a 2005 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied environmental conservation and biology, had hiked and climbed in places as far-flung as Europe and the Pacific Coast.
Madison, Wis. – Wisconsin officials and investors who are trying to come up with the financing that will enable a Georgia life science firm to relocate here have a fight on their hands.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison, $1.864-billion as of December 31 (increase of $15.4-million in the last month); the goal was $1.5-billion by 2007.
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) — Indiana wants its best students to stick around for college and afterward — and Governor Mitch Daniels proposes paying them to do so.
Daniels wants to offer $20,000 scholarships over four years. But there’s a catch — recipients who leave the state less than three years after graduation will be required to repay the money.
Numbers released Tuesday afternoon to Isthmus in response to an open records request show that the cost of running last year’s Halloween party in Madison, or FreakFest, topped those of past years, despite intense planning that reduced crowd size and disturbances.
Even with the revenue generated by the event’s new $5 admission fee, the 2006 event was more costly than in 2005, in part due to a sizable drop in revenue from citations, and in part because of higher costs to other police agencies.
One of the best wide receivers in University of Wisconsin football history was Al Toon.
Four years from now, his son is hoping he can say the same.
On Wednesday, 18-year-old Nick Toon is expected to officially join the Badgers family when he signs his national letter of intent to play at UW.
Quoted: John Magnuson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is studying climate change. Magnuson is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group studying the effects of global warming in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region.
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. That’s how you could describe the past year when it came to the state’s farm economy in 2006.
According to the latest Status of Wisconsin Agriculture Summary from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, total net farm income in the Badger State dropped by more than 40 percent during the past 12 months–which was the lowest level since 2002.
As the UW Board of Regents prepares to vote on a new freshman admissions policy this week, state Rep. Stephen Nass, R- Whitewater, said the policy’s inclusion of race and ethnicity among its admission criteria is “ill-advised and possibly illegal.”
The budget President Bush proposed Monday would increase federal grants to low-income college students by 33% over five years and pay for it by reducing subsidies to private lenders. The Bush plan calls for raising the maximum Pell grant, which hasn’t been increased since 2003, to $5,400 from $4,050 over five years. To offset the cost, the administration proposes reducing interest-rate subsidies to private lenders by half a percentage point. The reduction would save the government an estimated $12.4 billion over five years, the Bush administration said.
Quoted: Dr. Jonathan Martin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison weather expert and the father of two school-age children, said that he sees the new rule as good public policy.
As promised, President Bush delivered a 2008 Education Department budget proposal on Monday that would increase the maximum Pell Grant to $4,600 in the coming fiscal year and to $5,400 by 2012. And as expected, he proposed doing so partly by reshuffling funds from several other grant programs for low-income students, and partly by further cutting into the profit margins of banks and guarantee agencies in the student loan industry, drawing howls of protest from lobbyists for students and lenders alike.
The rivalry between two, auction-style websites run by UW-Madison students is getting as intense as Pepsi versus Coke.
Microsoft versus Apple.
The financial stakes at the student-run sites appear high. The measures to get ahead, drastic.
The sites are competing for the same customers-students-to buy and sell books and tickets to athletic events.
MADISON, Wis. — UW students are sending a cold letter of concern to the chancellor after classes were not cancelled on a day when wind chills dipped below -35.
“I had to skip my first class,” said UW freshman. “It was far too cold. I didnââ?¬â?¢t want to get up and go out in -18.”
Bitter cold coupled with wicked wind chills caused even the most diligent students to have doubts about going to class.
Last week, higher-education lobbyists got the good news on President Bush’s proposed budget for the Education Department in 2008. He would increase spending on the maximum Pell grant to $5,400 over the next five years.
On Monday, they got the bad. He would pay for it by cutting lender subsidies and eliminating the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which augments Pell Grants for low-income students.
Local lawsuits and challenges over illegal downloading have increased in southern Wisconsin.
Bret Bielema claims he’s an unlikely prom king, but the constant attention he got Saturday night at Frostiball from partygoers who stopped to congratulate him on his excellent first season as the Badger head football coach proved otherwise.
The commander in charge of this operation is Col. Joe Brandemuehl, who grew up in Lancaster and graduated from UW-Madison.
Quoted: Dr. Diane Heatley, an associate professor of otolaryngology at UW-Madison who performed the three-hour operations on the boys.
It’s stated right there in the undergraduate catalog: “Admission to UW-Madison does not necessarily guarantee admission to the major of a student’s choice.”
That didn’t ease the shock last year when Gillian Vig received notice that she had been denied admission into UW-Madison’s School of Nursing.
Quoted: Norman Fost, pediatrician and bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
A recent report noted that Wisconsin lost five percent of its farmland from 2000 to 2005 and that the loss was at a faster rate than any other state in the region.
State Agriculture Secretary Rodney Nilsestuen worries that this loss of crop production threatens our future in the biofuels industry, which he characterized as “ââ?¬Â¦the biggest opportunity for rural development I’ve ever seen.
Wisconsin would become one of a handful of states allowing some 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections, under a bill introduced by a Madison lawmaker.
What is reciprocity?
It’s an agreement under which students who cross the Minnesota-Wisconsin border to attend college pay basically what it would cost to go to a comparable school in their home state. The states settle any costs at the end of the year. Despite some bumps, it has worked well for 40 years.
Quoted: John Milton Cooper, a Wilson scholar at the University of Wisconsin.
Public schools are gaining ground as CEO factories. Here’s a trend sure to humble private-school alumni clubs everywhere: The University of Wisconsin churns out more big-time CEOs than Yale.
WESTCHESTER, Ill., Feb. 2 (UPI) — A U.S. study found that the “quality” and “intensity” of wakefulness can affect slow-wave activity, or SWA, during subsequent sleep.
Dr. Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin-Madison says the paper demonstrates that the crucial factor linking physiological waking activity to sleep SWA is synaptic plasticity, notably synaptic potentiation, mediated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling, or BNDF.
Quoted: Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The University of Minnesota may be losing the most money in the tuition pact between Wisconsin and Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean the U has the most to lose in the newest battle over the pact’s future. Thousands of undergraduates in the region’s smaller public schools depend on the deal that keeps college affordable for interstate students.
Quoted: Dr. Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
Michigan’s public universities and other state-government agencies cannot provide health-care or other benefits to same-sex partners of their employees, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled.
In an opinion released on Thursday, the court said that such benefits violate an amendment to Michigan’s Constitution that bans gay marriage. A three-judge panel interpreted language in that amendment as barring public employers from recognizing same-sex unions in any way, including offering benefits. Institutions affected by the ruling include the University of Michigan, and Michigan State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Michigan, and Wayne State Universities.
A Michigan appeals court on Friday ruled that public colleges and universities in the state may not offer health insurance or other benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. The ruling said that a state ban on gay marriage, approved by voters in 2004, barred such benefits.
Since the spread of state amendments to bar gay marriage, a concern of many gay and lesbian college employees had been that the measures would be used to limit their employee benefits, and the Michigan ruling may be the most dramatic evidence yet that those fears reflect a real danger.
Bucky Badger, that candy-striped fellow from Madison, and Goldy Gopher, the dentally challenged pet from the Twin Cities, have a problem.
If Bucky and Goldy were to enroll in, let’s say, a Medieval Mascot History course at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, the Wisconsin-bred Bucky would pay less than the Minnesota-born Goldy, even though they are sitting in the same class in Folwell Hall in Goldy’s maroon-and-gold home state.
Quoted: Craig Werner, the author of ââ?¬Å?Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soulââ?¬Â (Crown). Werner is chairman of the department of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: Dr. Diane Heatley, who works in pediatric Otolaryngology at University of Wisconsin-Madison Health.
Quoted: Jim Lattis, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomy department’s Space Place.
Quoted: Ed Jesse, dairy marketing and policy specialist and editor of the UW-Madison report.
Madison, Wis. – Ed Meachen has an interconnected vision for the University of Wisconsin System, one that would be impossible to imagine and execute without technology.
