Nearly 10 million Americans claimed a federal higher-education tax break in 2002, more than double the number who did in 1998. But hundreds of thousands of families who may be eligible for such breaks aren’t taking advantage of them, a federal report says.
This Labor Day, it is heartening to note that jobs – especially high-income jobs – are returning to Wisconsin.
Key economic sectors, including manufacturing and high-tech, are rebounding and developing. Wisconsin’s businesses, workers and government deserve credit.
The state’s July unemployment rate of 4.6 percent was better than last year’s rate of 4.8 percent and well below the national rate of 5.2 percent.
Wisconsin has to do more to invest in existing high-tech industries and attract others. While Madison, with its university and highly-educated workforce, is a natural draw for high-tech business, other areas of Wisconsin can compete through tax and other incentives.
Colleges and universities across the United States are offering admission for the fall semester to undergraduates and graduate students whose hurricane-battered campuses will remain closed for months.
As federal and state officials continued to recover bodies and clean up the wreckage from Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans announced that they would close for the fall and reopen for the spring semester. Several other colleges on or near the Gulf Coast announced they would reopen within the week.
Scott S. Cowen, president of Tulane, said in a statement released on Saturday that the university had suffered water and roof damage, broken windows, and downed trees. He said the campus could be repaired in a matter of weeks, but that his decision to close the school for the semester was based on the crisis in New Orleans.
An ominous tally of flooded buildings, ripped roofs, and shattered lives emerged on college and university campuses throughout the Gulf Coast region last week as officials began to assess the extent of the damage from Hurricane Katrina.
In New Orleans, where authorities say thousands of people may have died, no one could guess when colleges would be able to reopen. Along the coast of Mississippi, where entire communities have disappeared, the outlook was also grim.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Friday released information requested by lawmakers showing that about 80 percent of administrators — more than 1,000 of them — have guaranteed backup jobs required by state law or individual contracts.
Reilly’s three-page letter to the leaders of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee also provides some explanation of how a person with rights to a backup job could be paid for a period of time after leaving the System — but it did not include a count of former employees who received such a benefit in the past three years, as lawmakers had requested.
I am writing in response to Mary Cruz’s Aug. 29 letter, “Students need to think about their future,” and I would like to address a few of the concerns brought up about my quote in the Aug. 23 article she cited.
Quoted: Hemant Shah, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Marlene Lee, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied poverty in Louisiana
Services were held Saturday in Washington, D.C., for Dr. Allen Ryan of Edina, whose pioneering work in sports medicine included establishing a college for it at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He died of congestive heart failure Aug. 14 at age 89.
Quoted: Charles O. Jones, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin
Quoted: Charles O. Jones, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Lori Thein Brody, a physical therapist at the University of Wisconsin Clinics Research Park in Madison, Wis.
One of the central tenets of stem cell biology has been shaken.
An international team of researchers has discovered that human embryonic stem cells do not indefinitely self-renew without modification. Instead, they appear to accumulate changes in their genetic material over time.
An animal rights activist accused of freeing thousands of mink around the Midwest pleaded guilty Friday and faces two years in prison.
Peter Daniel Young, 28, admitted his role in the raids of fur farms. He was convicted of two counts of animal enterprise terrorism as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
A friend told me that at a recent UW-Madison orientation, freshman students were advised not to use pepper spray because an attacker might take it and use it against them.
A rush of help for hurricane victims has jammed telephone lines at Red Cross offices in Madison and across the country and prompted relief efforts by local groups ranging from Methodists to pagans to Hindus.
“This is a huge, huge outpouring of support,” said Jane Richardson, director of community development for the Badger Chapter of the American Red Cross.
From Iraq war veterans like Kulla, to UW-Madison students, such as molecular biology major Tim Connolley, the group appeared anxious to leave but determined to make a difference.
The sun shone out of a cloudless sky and down through Rincon’s straw hat, making a latticework of light and shade on her face and glinting off the wispy silver earrings that she laid on several tables. On a good day on the UW-Madison campus, this graduate of an administration program at a Mexican university sells $200 worth of her ethnic jewelry, she said.
Twenty minutes before the 11 a.m. game time, a stream of red-shirted students began flooding into Gate 5 like blood to the heart.
Once inside, many clapped and let out war whoops for no particular reason – just happiness at heading up the stairs to the student sections at Camp Randall Stadium for the first football game of the year.
UW-Madison students and professors return to school this year to find the university squirming under a level of state scrutiny not seen since the 1960s, when the flagship campus was ripped apart by war protest and civil unrest.
On Friday afternoon, SEIU organizers – clad in trademark purple and yellow – visited Yeshi Jinpa, a 36-year-old janitor and Tibetan refugee, at his Butler Street apartment.
The union has stayed in close contact with Jinpa after organizers first met him on the job at a Downtown office building, where he cleans for the janitorial contractor CleanPower.
Lead organizer Leone Jose Bicchieri depends on sympathizers like Jinpa to spread the message to employees as they continue a long, slow struggle to be recognized at CleanPower.
Jinpa works for the company 15 hours a week to supplement his job as a full- time janitor at UW-Madison. But he likes his job at CleanPower. It’s convenient and close by, but it doesn’t pay as much as his university job.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Nicole Hernandez arrived at Syracuse University recently for freshman orientation, but she already knew the place well. She spent two summers here during high school in a program that gave her college credit, and a program in her New Jersey school district has close ties to the university.
More than a week ago, thousands of college students were busy buying books, setting up their rooms and meeting new friends in the streets of New Orleans. For many, the biggest problem was waiting for the elevator or standing in line to change a class schedule.
Now they’re scrambling to gain admittance to other schools or to find jobs. Tulane University has canceled its fall semester.
In community theater, Vicky Selkowe often portrayed the empathizer.
“I once played Anne Frank’s sister, who had no lines and stood there and looked sympathetic,” she said with a laugh about her part in a play about the 13-year-old girl whose family was forced into hiding by the Nazis in World War II.
In reality, Selkowe, 31, is more than a sympathetic bystander.
Nobody has to tell Kathy Poi how much the parents of many college-age students care about getting quality health care for their children on campus.
She’s heard all the questions, many times over, in her six years leading University Health Services, the primary-care clinic that serves about 20,000 UW-Madison students per year – most of them women. Only about 33 percent of campus men ever visit the clinic, which is based at 1552 University Ave. and has a separate mental health counseling office at 905 University Ave.
With Chancellor John Wiley, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and other local notables on the podium, the campus’ top student politician gave about 4,000 freshmen some provocative advice
Almost 1,100 administrators in the University of Wisconsin System have backup positions waiting for them in case they resign or are fired, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Friday.
It’s party time again at the Stock Pavilion.
Four years after an E. coli outbreak at a pancake breakfast there sickened 35 people, the University of Wisconsin – Madison has taken steps to prevent a recurrence and has reopened the storied facility as a venue for dining.
On August 30, Judge Susan Steingass delivered her final report to UW System President Kevin Reilly and UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear concerning the Paul Barrows investigation. (Under Top Stories tab.)
Tulane University announced Friday and Loyola University on Sunday that they would not open for the fall semester in the wake of the damage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The universities� announcements came as leaders of key higher education groups issued guidelines for colleges to use in helping students unable to attend college in New Orleans.
With Chancellor John Wiley, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and other local notables on the podium, the campus’ top student politician gave about 4,000 freshmen some provocative advice.
Ivy on the walls at Camp Randall Stadium?
No, it didn’t happen. And in reality, it didn’t come all that close to happening. But at one point in the nearly decade-long discussions about the next generation of Camp Randall, plans were in place for a three- or four-foot wall along both sidelines. So, the natural suggestion during one of the free-for-all sessions was to give the stadium the signature of another place that John Chadima admires
The last project he oversaw was the renovation of the State Capitol, a task which took 11 years and cost $144 million. His next is the second phase of the Epic Systems campus on the west side of Verona.
So Jim Schumacher is no stranger to massive, deep-pocketed undertakings that draw heavy interest from the general public.
Because Jim Schumacher was front and center for two of the most prominent building renovations in recent city history, he’s often asked to compare them.
The restoration of the State Capitol building and the renovation of Camp Randall Stadium are similar in that they house well-known entities and attract thousands of observers on an annual basis.
Quoted: Dr. Scott Spear, chairman of the National Medical Committee of Planned Parenthood and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin
A Dane County jury’s $24.3 million award in a 1999 construction accident was upheld today by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The U.S. Education Department announced on Thursday that it would waive several regulations governing federal student-aid programs for students and colleges affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Badger fans asked for it and they’re getting it. Fans can now say “Happy Birthday,” “Happy Anniversary,” and “Will You Marry Me?” in front of thousands of people
The University of Wisconsin is welcoming students displaced by Hurricane Katrina back to Madison.
Back to school means time to tailgate. ââ?¬Å?As the college football season starts, what better way to spend an autumn afternoon?ââ?¬Â author Dave Hollingsworth asks. Here, he shares with USA TODAY’s Shawn Sell tailgate spots for pre- and postgame festivities.
University of Wisconsin
Madison
ââ?¬Å?Beer and brats are Wisconsin staples, and brats soaked in beer are preferred,ââ?¬Â Hollingsworth advises. ââ?¬Å?Arrive early for breakfast at Mickie’s Dairy Bar, a block or so from Camp Randall Stadium, then stay after the game for the 5th Quarter, the legendary irreverent postgame party with students, fans, football players and the Wisconsin band.ââ?¬Â Top 2005 tailgate game: Wisconsin vs. Michigan, Sept. 24. 608-263-2400; wisc.edu.
Colleges and universities nationwide, many of them swamped by calls from anxious parents, are opening doors ââ?¬â? at least temporarily ââ?¬â? to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The storm disrupted the start of school for an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 students enrolled at more than 30 colleges in the New Orleans area.
An ominous tally of flooded buildings, ripped roofs, and shattered lives emerged on college and university campuses across the Gulf Coast region on Wednesday as officials began to assess the extent of the damage from Hurricane Katrina.
In New Orleans, where authorities say thousands of people may have died, no one could guess when colleges would be able to reopen. Along the coast of Mississippi, where entire communities have disappeared, the outlook was also grim.
Susan Crowley directs the University of Wisconsin’s Pace Project, aimed at reducing high-risk drinking on campus. She describes the ranking as a wake-up call, in the sense that university officials know there’s still work to be done to curb student drinking. “We’re also pleased that we’ve seen some improvement in terms of our culture around excessive drinking that causes harm to students in the community,” Ms. Crowley says. (Audio.)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Gee, an expert in video games.
Madison, Wis. – The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has reached an out-of-court settlement with the information technology firm IBM over charges of patent infringement, it reported on Tuesday.
ON Halloween 2004, a block party on a street of houses rented to students at the University of Colorado ended with people in costumes running through the streets of the University Hill neighborhood, throwing bottles, setting fires and overturning cars.
In Madison, Wis., home to 41,000 University of Wisconsin students, David Worzala introduces himself each fall to the new students who move into the rental houses on his block, which includes five single-family homes and seven student rentals. His neighborhood association also sends representatives to the student houses each fall, accompanied by a police officer, to explain that they are living in a mixed community.
Even bathrooms are being designed for sociability, said Laurence Booth, a Chicago architect whose firm, Booth Hansen, is designing a new dorm at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Mr. Booth said his firm considered providing access from each of four double rooms on a hall directly into the shared bathroom, but university officials said no. Now, “in order to get to the bathroom you have to go through the hall,” Mr. Booth said. “They wanted that social interaction.”
MADISON ââ?¬â? A state lawmaker complained Wednesday that a planned speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by an anti-war member of the British parliament and activist Jane Fonda was in poor taste.
UW officials defended the appearance by George Galloway as a matter of free speech, consistent with the university�s mission as a marketplace of ideas.
As legislators are criticizing the University of Wisconsin System for giving paid leave to outgoing administrators, the provost at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Peter D. Spear, says he will not consult for the university after retiring — as he had intended to do — to avoid the controversy. (Second item.)
Public officials and educators reached out yesterday to offer classroom space to students whose public schools and colleges and universities were shut down by Hurricane Katrina.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas invited students from Louisiana and Mississippi left homeless by the hurricane to enroll in any of his state’s 7,000 public schools. Some Texas school districts reported that they were already receiving inquiries from storm refugees yesterday, state officials said.
In the hours leading up to kickoff at Camp Randall, Jason and Mark Seefeldt and their roommates did what many college students do to get ready to cheer on the Badgers: drink beer, grill some brats, crank up some music and toss the football around.
Several years ago, Jennifer Connor was watching the Green Bay Packers tackle the Denver Broncos when something caught her eye — cowbells. Bronco fans were ringing them furiously to cheer on their team.
What does a coffeehouse in Madison have to do in order to be considered new and fresh? At the corner of University Ave. and Charter Street, a new coffeehouse plans to use a mission of social justice in order to stand out in the coffeehouse crowd.
“We want this to be not just a place to eat or grab a cup of coffee. We want this place to be one with a mission,” says Phil Kollmeyer, project coordinator.
Officials of the U.S. Education Department promised that they would not let bureaucracy get in the way as students in the areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina seek to continue their higher education and colleges in and around the area try to help students do so.
The catchiest quote from a public meeting on paid sick leave last week in Madison helps show why city leaders should not force employers to offer the benefit.
A UW-Madison teaching assistant said the university pays him for days he misses because of illness. But the tavern where he works as a bartender at night doesn’t offer sick pay. So he stays home sick from his day job but goes to his night job because he needs the money.
Poverty hit its highest mark in a decade in Wisconsin, where it rose faster than in any other state, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
A 1.9 percentage-point increase in the poverty rate left 11.0 percent of Wisconsin residents poor in 2003-04, raising concerns about vulnerable residents and questions about the state’s recovery from the national recession.
Despite what would seem an apparent connection, hurricane researchers say the frequency of killer storms such as Katrina that have smashed ashore cannot be linked by science to a warming climate.
Recently, however, scientists have made important connections between the severity of hurricanes and climate change, said Jim Kossin, an atmospheric research scientist at UW-Madison.
An investigation of UW- Madison administrator Paul Barrows’ seven-month personal leave was finished Tuesday and could be released to the public by Sept. 23, leaders from UW- Madison and the University of Wisconsin System said in a statement.
Copies of the report compiled by Susan Steingass, a UW-Madison law professor and former Dane County circuit judge, were given to UW- Madison Provost Peter Spear and System President Kevin Reilly, who will review the report and make a decision about what to do next. Barrows being fired is one possible result, officials have said.
A new study confirms that coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet. UW Madison Nutritionist Donna Weihofen said that doesn’t mean we can stop eating healthy fruits and vegetables, but “coffee in moderation — moderation being two to four cups a day, maybe even up to six cups a day — may provide antioxuidents.”
