Madison: The Mifflin Street Block Party is one of the largest keg parties in Madison, and Alderman Paul Skidmore would like to know where all the beer comes from. (Video included.)
Councilman Wants Keg Registration in Madison
NBC-15
Author: jplucas
Athletic Department Helps With Second Annual Dane County Food Drive
UWBadgers.com
MADISON, Wis. – Last week the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department gathered and donated 360 pounds of food during its second annual week-long Spring Food Drive. The food is contributed to the Community Action Coalition for South Central WI, which will distribute the donated items to 36 pantries in Dane County as needed.
Keg-Buying Ordinance Proposed
WISC-TV 3
MADISON, Wis. — The city of Madison is trying yet another measure to try and curb binge drinking on the UW campus, and it starts at the source of the alcohol.
Bacteria Use in Nanotechnology, UW-Madison Breakthrough (WPR)
Wisconsin Public Radio
(MADISON) A team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a new way use bacteria to build tiny electronic circuits. Eventually, the discovery could lead to the creation of micro sensing devices that could warn of the presence of dangerous biological agents such as anthrax. (Third item)
Partner benefits at UW opposed
Wisconsin State Journal
Two key lawmakers said Tuesday they would recommend removing a provision of Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed budget extending insurance benefits to the domestic partners of unmarried University of Wisconsin System employees.
Rep. Dean Kaufert, R- Neenah, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, and committee member Rep. David Ward, R- Fort Atkinson, said the $1 million proposal was ill-timed.
Rutland commission expected to vote on controversial tower
Wisconsin State Journal
The story quotes urban planning professor Brian Ohm.
UW-Madison poised to admit freshman class
Wisconsin State Journal
Another 5,500 lucky contestants – whoops, make that “college applicants” – will fill out the freshman ranks at UW-Madison this fall.
While existing students returned from spring break Monday to complete the last six weeks of the academic year, admissions officials are putting the finishing touches on next school year’s incoming class.
“It’s shaping up,” associate admissions director Tom Reason said. “We’ve reviewed all the applications which have been submitted.”
Gain for Cisco chairman’s foundation (San Jose Mercury News)
Cisco Systems Chairman John Morgridge this month cashed in $143.6 million of stock in the San Jose networking giant held by the charitable foundation created by him and his wife, Tashia.
Last year, John and Tashia Morgridge gave $31 million for the renovation and completion of an education building at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where the two earned bachelor’s degrees in 1955, according to media reports. In another donation, the Tosa Foundation provided equipment valued around $10.8 million in 2002 for upgrades of the school’s computer network.
Columbia Rethinks Journalism Education (Inside Higher Ed)
Inside Higher Education
Quoted: Sharon Dunwoody, a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and president-elect of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Data on pet vaccine duration available (Blethen Maine Newspapers)
Dr. Ronald Schultz of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine is one of the world’s leading experts on veterinary vaccines, at the forefront of vaccine research.
Going for the code
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Harmless Fluffy Bunnies are on a mission.
This little-known University of Wisconsin-Madison team hopes to use its problem-solving and code-writing skills to make a big splash at the Big Dance of the college computing world: the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals.
Shared Road… Safer Road
NBC-15
“The cars are stopping, or not stopping, and then the bicyclists are stopping, or not stopping, and then pedestrians are stopping, or not stopping. It becomes a mess,” says UW Police Officer, John Deering.
But, beginning this week, University of Wisconsin Police in the campus and downtown areas aim to do a little spring cleaning.
Kyrgyz study abroad trip to continue despite upheaval – The Daily Cardinal – News
Daily Cardinal
Political unrest in Kyrgyzstan could affect an upcoming UW-Madison study abroad program in Bishkek, the nation’s capital.
Uli Schamiloglu, UW-Madison professor in the Languages and Cultures of Asia department and chair of the Central Asian Studies program, said the three-week international seminar, at the American University in Central Asia, remains scheduled to begin in late May.
‘Fluffy Bunnies’ ready for Shanghai programming competition
Wisconsin Technology Network
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? While Easter has come and gone, the University of Wisconsin-Madison still has rabbits aroundââ?¬â?rabbits that can solve complex equations.
Harmless Fluffy Bunnies, a team of three computer programming students at UW-Madison, will be traveling to Shanghai, China, from April 3 to 7 to compete in the world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest. The team entered the finals by taking first place in the North Central regional contest last November.
Madison-based Mithridion seeks to capitalize on Alzheimer’s breakthrough
Wisconsin Technology Network
Springing out of a promising research breakthrough on Alzheimer’s disease, UW-Madison researcher Jeff Johnson has co-founded Mithridion Inc. in hopes of commercializing an Alzheimer’s-inhibiting drug.
New Guidelines Are Intended to Help Public Colleges Avoid Disputes With Their Private Foundations
Chronicle of Higher Education
Two higher-education professional organizations have jointly created guidelines that may help stem the growing controversies surrounding the relationships between public institutions and their affiliated private foundations.
Starving for Attention
Chronicle of Higher Education
It was impossible to walk through the main square of Georgetown University’s campus last week without noticing the 20-foot banner that read “Hunger Strike,” and the white, domed tent beside it. Inside, a group of students huddled in sleeping bags and vowed they would not eat until the university gave its janitorial workers a “living wage.”
Grad-student walkout: first step to getting a union? (csmonitor.com)
Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK ââ?¬â?? When David Wolach arrived at Columbia University in 1999 to pursue a PhD in philosophy, he didn’t anticipate any conflict other than a few departmental squabbles.
“I entered Columbia with the expectation that I would bury my head in my studies,” says Mr. Wolach. “I did not expect to be involved in anything political.”
Wis. Professor to Test Stun Guns on Pigs
Yahoo! News
MADISON, Wis. – A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to study whether stun guns alone can kill pigs ââ?¬â? or whether other medical factors must be at play ââ?¬â? as part of an effort to understand why 70 people have died in North America since 2001 after being shocked by Tasers.
Buying kegs may get tough
Wisconsin State Journal
Only one form of identification and a boarding pass are needed to get you past security and on to a flight from Madison to Chicago.
That may be easier than buying a keg of beer in Madison.
Increased identification requirements, sworn statements, even a demand to know where the beer will be consumed, are included in a proposed change to the city laws that currently regulate only sales of delivered kegs.
Campus a good arena for watching spring arrive
Wisconsin State Journal
Monday’s spring sunshine flowed down on Madison like a benediction, washing away the old sorrows and snow.
The UW-Madison campus was the perfect place to watch the transformation.
Sweatshop panel irked at Wiley
Wisconsin State Journal
Half the members of a committee that advises UW- Madison Chancellor John Wiley on labor licensing issues resigned in protest Monday, and the other half may step down pending the outcome of a planned meeting with Wiley.
Members of the university’s Labor Licensing Committee, made up of eight students, professors and academic staff, are upset because they believe their recommendations on sweatshop labor issues are not being taken seriously, said Liana Dalton, a student member of the committee.
Some schools have separate tech systems
USA Today
Colleges’ rapidly rising technology costs have been driven even higher by the patchwork of disparate systems on most campuses.
Gadgets rule on college campuses
USA Today
The American college campus, long an oasis of scholarship and coming-of-age, is now being transformed by a more palpable force: an armada of laptops, cellphones and perpetual connectivity.
Thanks for the basketball memories
Let the disappointment be short-lived. The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball season may have ended Sunday with a loss to North Carolina, but Coach Bo Ryan’s team deserves big-time celebration.
Discovery Institute well worth the cost
Wisconsin State Journal
Gov. Jim Doyle is seeking $19 million in his state budget for a project that, by comparison to its cost, has the potential for a gigantic payback.
The $19 million would help build the first phase of the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, an ambitious research center for biotechnology that would rise on the UW-Madison campus over the next 10 years.
Some people think their very lives might be riding on this project. That’s because stem cell research at the institute could someday help cure diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Neutrinos beamed beneath the state
Wisconsin State Journal
Careful, depending on where you live in Wisconsin, you may be stepping on a very expensive and very complicated high energy physics experiment.
An invisible beam of mysterious particles called neutrinos, shot from an accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in northern Illinois, is passing beneath the state at this very second.
In fact, according to UW- Madison physicist Albert Erwin, who has worked on the experiment for the past five years, the beam passes just east of Madison.
Gender, attitude, aptitude and UW
Wisconsin State Journal
If you want to get a rise out of Louise Root-Robbins, just ask what she thinks of Harvard University President Larry Summers’ theory of why few women are among the nation’s top academic scientists, mathematicians and engineers.
In now-infamous remarks at a diversity conference in January, Summers speculated that men may have more “intrinsic aptitude” for those fields – in other words, that women, due to biologically based brain differences, can’t handle the analytical thinking demanded by the hard sciences.
Badger fans disappointed, proud of team’s showing
Wisconsin State Journal
While Badger fans were disappointed the men’s basketball team won’t be playing in the Final Four, they remained proud of the team’s strong performance in the NCAA tournament, right up until the final buzzer of its loss to No. 1 seed North Carolina.
“I’ve never been more happy about a loss before in my life,” said Brian Lowe, who watched the game with some friends at State Street Brats. “I feel like the program has gained a lot of respect tonight.”
Sex assault case to be reviewed
Wisconsin State Journal
The state Supreme Court will review a Madison man’s 2003 sexual assault conviction and decide whether he deserves a new trial.
Among other issues, Forest S. Shomberg, 41, contends that Dane County Circuit Judge Patrick Fiedler erred during the trial two years ago by not allowing his attorney to present expert testimony about the reliability of eyewitness identification. Shomberg was convicted for the March 9, 2002, assault of a UW-Madison sophomore near the Lower State Street Parking Ramp.
College graduates see their debt burden increase
USA Today
Geoff Tam-Scott probably will be paying off his college education until he’s 35, but at age 22 he considers himself lucky: A year after graduating from Amherst College, he shells out only $125 a month on about $20,000 in loans. ââ?¬Å?I have friends who have like $100,000 to $120,000ââ?¬Â in debt, he says.
House Leaders Agree to Vote on Relaxing Stem Cell Limits
Washington Post
The House leadership has agreed to allow a floor vote on a bill that would loosen the restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research imposed by President Bush in 2001, according to members of Congress and others privy to the arrangement.
Proposed Legislation Threatens to Slow California Stem Cell Rush (Science)
Although California voters last November approved a proposition that promises to push the state to the forefront of embryonic stem (ES) cell research, legislation introduced in the state senate last week may significantly constrain the way that the new California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) conducts business.
Quoted: R. Alta Charo, a lawyer and bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
The Dynamic Gut (Science)
Quoted: William Karasov, a physiological ecologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Illegal immigration growing, study says
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Bernard Trujillo, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
UW proving it’s no joke
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Syracuse, N.Y. – We all know the guy.
He’s the butt of jokes and never quite gets his just due but always gets invited to the party. He’s nice but not really someone you want to hang out with all night.
If he were a basketball player, he would be a perfect fit for the University of Wisconsin program.
A Strike in Ann Arbor (Inside Higher Ed)
Inside Higher Education
Graduate teaching assistants at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor staged a 12-hour strike Thursday in the hopes of disrupting the campus and pressuring administrators into concessions at the bargaining table.
Amid the usual disputes over numbers of protesters and canceled classes, leaders of the Graduate Employees Organization described the day as a ââ?¬Å?success,ââ?¬Â while a Michigan spokeswoman said the strike had resulted mostly in ââ?¬Å?inconveniences.ââ?¬Â
American Association for Higher Education Will Shut Down
Chronicle of Higher Education
The American Association for Higher Education announced on Thursday that it will close at the end of May, disbanding an organization that has been an advocate for the scholarship of teaching and learning for almost 40 years.
Madison Police Reflect On A High-Profile Case
WIBA Newsradio
A year ago Sunday began the odyssey of a U-W co-ed…who was reported missing…claimed to have been kidnapped…then admitted she made the whole thing up. Madison Police Sergeant Emil Quast coordinated the volunteers who searched for Audrey Seiler.
US Loses Foreign Students to Post-9/11 Competition (Reuters)
Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Buoyed by tough U.S. visa policies after Sept. 11, countries from Europe to Asia are eating into the United States’ multibillion dollar business of educating foreign students, academics and officials said on Thursday.
Discovery Institute well worth the cost (WSJ, 3/25/05)
Gov. Jim Doyle is seeking $19 million in his state budget that for a project that, by comparison to its cost, has the potential for a gigantic payback.
The $19 million would help build the first phase of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, an ambitious research center for biotechnology that would rise on the UW-Madison campus over the next 10 years.
Police prepare for May 7 bash, but Mifflin may party April 30
Wisconsin State Journal
Madison police and city officials say they aren’t budging on the date for this year’s annual Mifflin Street Block Party, despite complaints from some students that the May 7 bash will conflict with their studies.
“I’m sure in the history of Mifflin Street this has come up before,” said Mike Hanson, spokesman for the Madison Police Department, on Thursday. “To start changing the date now sets a bad precedent.”
Scoring a financial education: Colleges, high schools place more emphasis on money matters
USA Today
About 500 student-athletes across the country have participated in a series of seminars co-sponsored by the NCAA and The Hartford Financial Services Group. They are aimed at teaching the basics of managing money. Good thing, too. More than one-third of 1,000 NCAA athletes surveyed said they expect to be millionaires.
My Favorite Building
Chronicle of Higher Education
Some of the most distinctive and influential features of any college are its buildings. In fact, many people carry with them lasting images of a specific campus building, one that resonates with personal meaning. We asked people in a variety of fields to name their favorite building on any campus.
Whitney Gould, urban-landscape writer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
“It was the building we loved to hate –Ã? a redbrick colossus, its turrets and battlements evoking a Norman castle.”
Eaves Selected USOC Ice Hockey National Coach of the Year
UWBadgers.com
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves has been selected as the Ice Hockey National Coach of the Year for the United States Olympic Committeeââ?¬â?¢s Coach Recognition program, covering the dates of Jan. 1ââ?¬â??Dec. 31, 2004
Reader views: Bar recruiters from campus?
Wisconsin State Journal
We asked readers to react to law schools, including the UW-Madison’s, that bar military recruiters because the military discriminates against gays and lesbians. Here is a sample of readers’ responses.
Freshmen get a crash course in NCAA tourney 101
Wisconsin State Journal
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Even though their minutes might be minute, the NCAA tournament experience is gigantic for the University of Wisconsin’s young players.
“They get all this extra practice time and just going through the warm-ups in an NCAA tournament is something, whether they get in (the game) or not,” Badgers assistant Gary Close said. “The preparation, the travel, seeing everything. Next time they go through it … it will help, no question about it.”
Ice cream maker hopes everyone will scream for Schoep’s (WSJ, 3-24-05)
Dairy economist Ed Jesse quoted in a story about Schoep’s and the state ice cream market.
PD vs. WSJ
WIBA Newsradio
Quoted: UW-Madison journalism professor James Hoyt.
Plan tweaks panhandling ordinance
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison officials participate in panhandling task force.
High court ruling lets caucus cases proceed
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Law Professor Frank Tuerkheimer comments on state Supreme Court ruling regarding criminal proceedings in the caucus scandal.
Student acting job has price: $412
Wisconsin State Journal
Five UW-Madison film students were only acting, but the $412 disorderly conduct tickets they got from Madison police Wednesday morning were real.
In the second such incident in as many weeks, officers were called to the top level of the Overture Center Ramp, 318 W. Mifflin St., at 11:18 a.m. after a woman in a nearby building, the Madison Public Library, saw what appeared to be an armed assault taking place.
“They were acting confrontational with each other,” said Madison Police Sgt. Richard Scanlon.
Fewer start-ups spawned on university campuses
USA Today
Amid scarce start-up money, the number of young companies spun off by universities is tumbling ââ?¬â? pinching revenue needed to dampen tuition increases.
College professors should be made to teach, not preach
USA Today
By now, we’ve all heard how Harvard President Lawrence Summers, a former member of President Clinton’s Cabinet and a distinguished scholar in his own right, made a politically incorrect point at a faculty seminar recently.
Opinion column by David Horowitz
Needy students left behind
USA Today
Another revolution is stirring at the influential University of California system. A faculty committee there concluded this week that National Merit Scholarships ââ?¬â? the academic plums that high school strivers dream of winning ââ?¬â? should be abandoned.
No Need To Accommodate Students’ Drinking
Wisconsin State Journal
After 35 years, the date of the annual Mifflin Street Block Party in Madison is being contested. Why? This year, if the event is held on the traditional first Saturday in May, it will fall on May 7, the study day preceding the first day of finals for UW-Madison students. Students are lobbying for the party date to be moved to April 30.
Q&A on potential private account annuities (Scripps Howard News Service)
knoxstudio.com
Quoted: University of Wisconsin benefits expert Karen Holden.
Lawmaker Wants Ban on Emergency Contraception on UW Campuses
NBC-15
Madison: It all started with a University Health Services ad in the Badger Herald telling students not to forget their emergency contraceptives when they left for spring break.
“I thought that was inappropriate,” says Rep. Daniel LeMahieu (R-Oostburg). “I thought that was stepping over the line. I thought it was promoting irresponsible behavior.”
Because he’s a legend, that’s why!
Wisconsin State Journal
Some questions should be easy to answer. This seemed to be one such query. Last fall the UW-Madison Athletic Department cut way back on the number of courtesy cars and car allowances it provides, so that most of the 46 still getting such a perk were coaches or assistant coaches. Others lost their wheels.
Birth control ban a backward idea
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison women are adults who deserve easy access to sunblock, aspirin and, yes, birth control, before leaving town for spring break.
They also deserve and might need cautionary advice about the dangers of skin cancer, binge drinking and casual sex.
That’s exactly what University Health Services, a clinic for students, provided with a series of advertisements in campus newspapers leading up to spring break this week. The ads advised students to protect their skin from the sun, drink in moderation and practice safe sex.