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Author: jplucas

All Terrorists Great and Small

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Chronicle of Higher Education

In the wildlife clinic at Tufts University’s veterinary school, Mark Pokras is slicing into the stomach of a North Atlantic seabird to see whether it might have succumbed to environmental or biological toxins. After getting past the snowy-white feathers of the emaciated gannet (similar to a pelican), he pokes around for signs of poisoning or accidental ingestion of foreign objects, like lead fishing sinkers or plastic fragments. (Subscription required.)

Ending Bitter Fight, PeopleSoft Agrees to Merge With Oracle

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Chronicle of Higher Education

After resisting for 18 months, PeopleSoft Inc. agreed in December to merge with the Oracle Corporation. The news came as a disappointment to many college officials, who are wary of Oracle’s gaining control over PeopleSoft’s human-resource and business-finance software products, which are widely used in higher education and which compete with Oracle’s own offerings. (Subscription required.)

Outlook 2005: A Year of Recovery

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Chronicle of Higher Education

Higher education has had a nasty headache, like the one that follows a night of partying. The headache stemmed from state budget problems, a depressed stock market, and anemic donations that followed the flush years of the late 1990s. But the pain is fading, and the New Year has a healthier glow. (Subscription required.)

Online, but Not In Line, for College

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Washington Post

With each failed click of his computer mouse, Glenn Paetow grew more concerned.

On Dec. 1, with a midnight deadline looming to submit online applications to the University of Maryland, Paetow kept getting blocked from the school’s admissions Web site. In his bedroom, he shot off instant messages to friends who were also applying at the last minute to the College Park campus, and they were having the same problem.

USATODAY.com – Smoking makes the campus scene

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USA Today

College life has long provided young people with a smorgasbord of late-night diversions. But now students have been flocking to bars, nightclubs and campus parties for a new kind of social event: tobacco-industry-sponsored parties, complete with complimentary cigarettes. A new study suggests these parties are a powerful marketing tool that encourages some to start smoking.

Awaiting word, sharing horrors

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jennifer de Silva of Racine has spoken with her husband by phone five times since he was swept up in the earthquake-driven waves of death that hit the coast of Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. …

On Tuesday, a day when the death toll soared above 58,000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison had not yet confirmed the whereabouts of 19 students who were studying in India.

Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a…(Isthmus)

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Isthmus

The UW-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center does a higher volume of interesting work than most of us can comprehend — especially those of us who could muster no better than a merciful C in high-school physics.

Joe Flad, architect

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Wisconsin State Journal

Joe Flad, who built a regional family business into an award- winning national architectural firm, died Sunday. He was 82.

Flad & Associates designed many area schools and churches, including the biochemistry building, Van Vleck Hall and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Building.

Foreign Student Support Services (Voice of America)

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Voice of America

This week in our Foreign Student Series, we examine support services for students who come to the United States to study. We will use a major university in the Midwest for our example.

More than three thousand foreign students attend the University of Wisconsin at its campus in Madison. Most are in graduate programs; twenty-eight percent are undergraduates.

Transition to freedom can be difficult (El Paso Times)

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El Pasoan Christopher Ochoa knows firsthand what Moon will face as he rebuilds his life. Ochoa was freed from prison in 2001 after DNA evidence and another man’s confession proved he was wrongly convicted of a 1988 killing in Austin.

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Students to Bear More of the Cost of College

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New York Times

College students in virtually every state will be required to shoulder more of the cost of their education under new federal rules that govern most of the nation’s financial aid.

Because of the changes, which take effect next fall and are expected to save the government $300 million in the 2005-6 academic year, at least 1.3 million students will receive smaller Pell Grants, the nation’s primary scholarship for those of low income, according to two analyses of the new rules.

Nanotech exhibit opens at UW-Madison (WTN)

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Wisconsin Technology Network

Madison, Wis. � Imagining the effects of being able to manipulate materials just atoms at a time got a bit easier with the opening of Exploring the Nanoworld, an exhibit on display at the University of Wisconsin-Madison�s Engineering Centers Building.

University researchers hope efforts such as this one can make nanotechnology, the study of things on a scale of individual atoms and molecules, easier to grasp.

Alumni Association extends database help to university (WTN)

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Wisconsin Technology Network

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has dropped a PeopleSoft database for tracking alumni in favor of a system the Wisconsin Alumni Association has used for 12 years.

Schools and colleges can access alumni information through the association�s database, a custom software system based on a database from 4D, Inc.

Only UW won’t offer same-sex benefit

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Wisconsin State Journal

Starting next month, UW- Madison will be the only Big Ten university that does not offer health insurance for the partners of its gay and lesbian staff. It’s a distinction school officials say will hurt the university’s ability to recruit and retain employees.

Penn State University, the only other holdout, will add it as an official benefit, likely in January. Penn State now offers such coverage using private donations.

Health insurance for domestic partners is not allowed for state employees, including at the university, under Wisconsin law. Coupled with the state’s long-standing, lower- than-average salaries, it hurts the university’s competitive edge, school officials said.

UW librarians implement reading program at Allied Drive center

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Wisconsin State Journal

The ground remained barren Monday afternoon as snowstorms continued to miss Madison after pasting cities to the north, south, east and west.

But inside, there was a blizzard of white-coated floors and tables as about 30 children made paper snowflakes and enjoyed snow stories at the Madison School District’s Allied Learning Center.

“We could put them on the window so it looks like it’s snowing outside,” JoAnn Savoy, head of the UW- Madison Water Resources Library, suggested to the children.

They happily obliged.

Monday’s event was part of a monthly reading program created by UW-Madison librarians to bring books and learning excitement to Allied Drive, on Madison’s southwest border with Fitchburg, where students post the lowest average state reading test scores in Dane County.

Writer proud of ‘weird’ career

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison writer David Tenenbaum has never been conventional.

He’s never had a “real” full- time job and he hasn’t officially made use of his undergraduate major.

But none of that bothers the 55-year-old writer.

In fact, Tenenbaum relishes the opportunity to come up with his own projects, and he loves his part-time job as a science writer for the UW- Madison Web site, where he has the freedom to cover any number of scientific matters in a creative way.

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States play catch-up on stem cells

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USA Today

Three years after President Bush announced restrictions on federally funded medical research using stem cells from human embryos, a California panel will meet today to begin the process of granting $3 billion in state money to stem cell researchers.

Fish: What Did You Do All Day?

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Chronicle of Higher Education

Of the many complaining questions that faculty members ask, the one I used to hear most often was, “Why do you administrators make so much more money than we do?” The answer is simple: Administrators work harder, they have more work to do, and they actually do it. (Subscription required.)

Johnson Named Head Coach at Iowa State

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UWBadgers.com

MADISON, Wis. – Christy Johnson, an assistant volleyball coach at the University of Wisconsin has been named the head womenââ?¬â?¢s volleyball coach at Iowa State, Cyclone athletics director Bruce Van De Velde announced today. (Athletic Communication)

Calif. moves fast on stem cell grants

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USA Today

Three years after President Bush announced restrictions on federally funded medical research using stem cells from human embryos, a California panel will meet today to begin the process of granting $3 billion in state money to stem cell researchers.

Stealth Fund Drives: Where The Real Money Is (Business Week)

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BusinessWeek

Last May, the University of Michigan pulled out all the stops when it announced its drive, dubbed The Michigan Difference, to raise $2.5 billion. More than 1,000 wealthy alums and friends packed the glittering kickoff, while former President Gerald Ford — a Michigan grad — and his wife Betty were introduced as honorary chairs of the campaign. But for all the hoopla, the real drive had been under way for almost four years and had already netted $1.3 billion.

War protesters target military recruiting (Chicago Tribune)

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Chicago Tribune

MADISON, Wis. — Besides minor traffic tickets, Nick Limbeck, 19, says he hasn’t had many run-ins with the law.

But last month he skipped his philosophy class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to intentionally get arrested with three other students during a sit-in at a military recruiter’s office near campus. (login required.)

Indiana U. and Creighton U. Each Announce Gifts of About $50-Million

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Chronicle of Higher Education

Two Midwestern universities announced on Thursday that they had received gifts of about $50-million. An anonymous graduate of Creighton University, in Omaha, Neb., pledged $50-million for “emerging national leadership among faith-based universities,” while the Lilly Endowment gave Indiana University at Bloomington a $53-million grant for life-sciences research.