A pair of bills being advanced by Wisconsin Republicans that bar transgender athletes from participating in school sports for girls and women would directly affect very few — if any — athletes, according to high school and collegiate sports officials.
Noted: Rawan Hamadeh of Brookfield, who just finished her freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was at the festival surveying people about their vaccination status.
“There are a lot of rumors being spread about the vaccine and how safe it is,” Hamadeh said. “Our goal is, if they aren’t vaccinated and they don’t want to be vaccinated, to try to educate them and inform them that there is nothing in the vaccine that can harm you.”
Quoted: “I think it actually is the day we have been waiting for, the day we feel good and safe gathering indoors,” said Patrick Remington, a former epidemiologist for the CDC.
“The pendulum has really swung back,” added Remington, who directs the preventive medicine residency program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Now the benefits of gathering in person for fully vaccinated people clearly outweigh the risks.”
Noted: Those who get their news from national outlets on the so-called Christian right likely are hearing at least some vaccine skepticism, said Daniel Hummel, an evangelical scholar and director of university engagement at the Upper House, a Christian study center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Outlets with large evangelical audiences have been blending typical evangelical messaging with right-wing views about COVID-19 that can dip into conspiracy theory territory.
Noted: Battino has done extensive work with the nonprofit RAD-AID International, which according to its website “brings radiology to low-resource areas by delivering education, equipment, infrastructure, and support.” According to an online biography, Battino “led the development of Guyana’s first Diagnostic Imaging residency while building Guyana’s CT and breast cancer screening programs.”
She also co-founded the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of RAD-AID.
The leader of the state Senate’s higher education committee is recommending sweeping changes to the University of Wisconsin System, including grouping campuses into four regions and eliminating a longstanding tuition freeze.
Noted: The two-year state budget plan also won’t allow the University of Wisconsin System to borrow for operational expenses, restore collective bargaining for public employees, make Juneteenth a state holiday, create a so-called red flag law for gun owners or adopt maps from the governor’s redistricting commission, among other proposals.
While the northern half has seen a smaller increase, Dane County has seen a 20% increase and Milwaukee County has seen a 15% increase, according to data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Scientists started keeping records of precipitation levels in the 1890s, said Steve Vavrus, a climate professor at UW, and since then, all records for the state have been broken.
Climate change explains the rising amount of rain falling from the sky, Vavrus said. As temperatures rise, warmer air can hold more droplets of water.
“More moisture can be wrung out of the air than 100 years ago or so,” he said. “And climate models have been projecting that for a long time that as the climate warms, we’ll get more heavy rains.”
Written by Tim Smeeding, the Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the La Follette School of Public Affairs and former director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In March, The Washington Post reported that University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank sought to move a conversation around the COVID-19 pandemic and students returning to campus in the fall to a private portal used by presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities.
Quoted: “If it’s going to be dry at any point during the growing season, this is a good time of year for it to be dry,” said Mike Ballweg, Sheboygan County crops and soils agriculture agent at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension.
Quoted: The new maps are supposed to be in place for the 2022 elections. But the delays could be so severe that Wisconsin’s existing, Republican-friendly maps will have to be used for those elections, said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It seems unlikely I think that the litigation would be resolved in time for elections to happen in new districts in 2022,” he said.
Keeping the old maps for another cycle “doesn’t feel right,” he said. “But I think courts often view it as the least bad option, as opposed to forcing candidates to make very quick decisions or changing the dates of primaries or something else.”
Noted: The two-year state budget plan also won’t allow the University of Wisconsin System to borrow for operational expenses, restore collective bargaining for public employees, make Juneteenth a state holiday, create a so-called red flag law for gun owners or adopt maps from the governor’s redistricting commission.
Quoted: Republicans in Wisconsin first took their stance when Scott Walker was governor, contending that the federal government eventually could stop paying as much as promised for the expansion.
“There might be a little bit of Scott Walker legacy in all of this,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Out of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, Milwaukee County ranks 70th in both health outcomes and health factors, according to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Health outcomes measure length and quality of life, while health factors account for things that can improve health, such as access to education, quality clinical care, healthy food or affordable housing.
Noted: The prime injury culprits are specialization — which the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health defines as participation in a single sport for more than 8 months of the year — and overtraining.
A groundbreaking 2017 University of Wisconsin study of 1,544 Wisconsin high school athletes found that those who specialized were 70% more likely to sustain a lower extremity injury than athletes who played multiple sports.
“Should we really be asking our young kids to do what we’re asking our collegiate athletes?” asked David Bell, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Wisconsin Injury in Sport Laboratory.
UWM’s Sandra McLellan and MIT’s Eric Alm are among the world’s foremost experts at detecting very small organisms in very large quantities of sewage — a useful tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. But despite their similar research capabilities, Alm’s work is having a wider impact and creating more economic value and high-paying jobs.
It’s been 10 years since University of Wisconsin pass rusher J.J. Watt was selected with the 11th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, brought into the league by the Houston Texans on April 28, 2011.
Quoted: “People who wear masks in close settings have a lower risk of being infected than people who don’t,” said Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s preventive medicine residency program.
The University of Wisconsin athletic board on Friday approved one-year contract extensions for six coaches, including Paul Chryst (football) and Greg Gard (men’s basketball).
Noted: Fishman grew up in Milwaukee on North 14th Street, served in the Army in the mid-1940s and went to college at the University of Wisconsin, according to a Jan. 15, 1997, airing of the PBS TV show I Remember Milwaukee. Fishman started a real estate company, building Cape Cod-style homes for the Baby Boom generation.
Noted: Clinical trials included the same number of participants as are required for any vaccine trial, said Dr. James Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute.
For the Class of 2021, graduation may have felt like a long time coming, but the COVID-19 pandemic is leaving one last reminder of how little has been normal in their recent college years.
Noted: Foxconn has worked to try to create goodwill with other parts of the state by signing agreements with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and local governments in Racine, Eau Claire and Green Bay to establish “innovation centers.”
The company has signed a $100 million agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology within the College of Engineering.
A political science professor is seeking to challenge Attorney General Josh Kaul in the 2022 election to be Wisconsin’s top attorney.
Ryan Owens, 44, who has taught law and political science courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the last 10 years, is the second Republican to announce a run against the Democratic incumbent.
Written by John B. Diamond, the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education and a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s education school, and Jennifer Cheatham, a senior lecturer on education and the co-chair of the Public Education Leadership Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and former superintendent of the Madison school district in Wisconsin.
Noted: The PGA Tour Champions and American Family Insurance have developed a safety plan approved by UW-Madison, which runs University Ridge.
Quoted: According to Lori Kido Lopez, an associate professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison, the reduction of that identity to “something that can be consumed in a mainstream way erases the radical roots of that history,” which was born out of anti-imperialist and civil rights activism in the 1960s.
Former Middleton High School volleyball standout Molly Lillard, the daughter of University of Wisconsin football great Al Toon, reportedly was shot to death in what police are describing as an apparent murder-suicide Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Gov. Tony Evers authorized emergency work on the 19-floor Madison building that houses the University of Wisconsin System’s headquarters Thursday after two precast concrete railing slabs fell from the third floor.
The 10-by-6 foot slabs fell from Van Hise Hall on UW-Madison’s campus Sunday, landing directly in front of the building’s entrance. No one was injured.
Quoted: “I think we’re all at the edge of our seat, fingers crossed we don’t experience that, but all the signs indicate that we could experience it,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Although vaccines appear to be highly effective against new variants of COVID-19, not enough of the population is yet vaccinated to prevent a surge without other precautions, Sethi said.
Noted: A graduate of Brookfield East High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Olikara launched the Millennial Action Project in 2013.
Quoted: “I think it’s safe to say Wisconsin elections are now going to be mixed-mode operations for the foreseeable future,” said political scientist Barry Burden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“A good chunk will vote on election day, as they always have, but there will also be a good chunk voting earlier,” either in person or with a mail ballot, Burden said.
Donna Shalala was born in Cleveland in 1941, served as the editor of her high school newspaper, graduated from the Western College for Women and joined the Peace Corps in 1962.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank understands the importance hiring the right person to replace University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez.
“Leadership matters,” Blank told reporters Wednesday after UW officials announced the formation of a nine-member search committee. “And leadership matters for maintaining the culture and the ethos and the quality of programs we have here.
With college-age students now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, University of Wisconsin campuses have a new rule that leaders hope will encourage young adults to get their shots.
UW System interim President Tommy Thompson asked campus chancellors Wednesday to allow students who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 to be exempt from the weekly COVID-19 testing regimen.
“One of the inducements, encouragements to not to have to go through testing is to get vaccinated,” Thompson said.
Noted: University of Wisconsin students who get their vaccines will be exempt from weekly testing requirements under new system guidance.
UW System interim President Tommy Thompson asked campus chancellors Wednesday to allow students who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 to be exempt from the weekly COVID-19 testing regimen.
“One of the inducements, encouragements to not to have to go through testing is to get vaccinated,” Thompson said.
Noted: The DNR worked with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, the United States Geological Survey and the University of Wisconsin System to complete the research. The agencies looked at several different potential impacts, including recreation, fish, aquatic plants and water chemistry.
Noted: Jon Lampman moved to Vancouver Island in the late 1960s and established a law firm in the region. He sustains his father’s efforts to end poverty with the annual Robert J. Lampman Memorial Lecture on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Barry Alvarez’s arrival at the University of Wisconsin was unquestionably a turning point for Badgers football, just as Alvarez himself proclaimed it would be.
Reaction rolled in, including from former players, with the news that University of Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez would be officially announcing his retirement Tuesday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Monday it will give students the option to take eligible courses on a pass-fail grading system this semester, in an effort to alleviate student stress and burnout.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, who has decided to step down before the start of the 2021-2022 academic year, is set to retire on June 30.
Quoted: It’s a step in the right direction, according to Barry Orton, a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications professor who has helped local governments with telecom issues.
“The words are good,” Orton said, but the proof will come in the details.
Noted:
Also included in the budget: $100 million in borrowing for clean energy conservation projects at state agencies and the University of Wisconsin System, helping to meet goals of energy reduction and reduced utility costs. The savings on utility prices would be used to pay off the bonds.
Yesica Hernandez feels like her head is about to explode.
A healthy sleep schedule is nonexistent. She’s always struggled with anxiety, especially when it comes to taking exams. And as she spends day after day alone in her apartment, it has become even more difficult.
Noted: As it turns out, however, Einstein was not particularly astute when it came to matters of finance. Not knowing how much to charge for an appearance, he asked the University of Wisconsin for $15,000—“which at that time was just an absurd amount,” says Gimbel. The university said no, and when other schools also started to say no, he revised his figures downward. Some universities agreed, but Wisconsin “simply had nothing else to do with him.”
Noted: An increasing number of studies support the effectiveness of financial literacy education when taught by well-trained teachers, said Nan J. Morrison, chief executive of the Council for Economic Education. And more teachers now say they feel confident teaching the material. A study released in March by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Montana State University found significant increases in teacher participation in professional development.
Yesterday, President Joe Biden unveiled a massive, two trillion dollar plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure. For more on what the plan entails, and what it means for Wisconsinites, WORT Producer Jonah Chester spoke with Greg Nemet, a Professor of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Basically, capital and investment are the main ingredients in economic growth, said Charles Engel, a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But capital and investment can only take you so far. Simeon Alder, a visiting assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said exponential economic growth requires exponential new ideas, as new ideas are the fundamental engine of growth. (Think about the economic growth and improvement in standards of living that occurred during and since the Industrial Revolution.)
“The challenge with that is the more ideas you already have, the more new ideas you need to create in order to sustain that growth rate,” he said. “To get these extra ideas, you just need more and more people as sort of a general result.”
Quoted: When a national tour of the musical came to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2019, Lori Kido Lopez — a media and cultural studies professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison — protested outside of the theater. As she told TODAY over Zoom, “Miss Saigon” embodies “the classic story of the self-sacrificing Asian woman.”
Kim, the protagonist, is a sex worker who falls passionately in love with an American GI — a romance that is, as Lopez pointed out, “already extremely uncomfortable because there’s a power dynamic where he’s paying her for sex.” He promises to take her back to the states; she promptly becomes pregnant. But the plan fails, leaving her languishing in war-torn Vietnam with a child to raise on her own.
Quoted: Dr. Jerlando F.L. Jackson described mentoring as “the sharing of information and guidance that helps demystify a pathway, whether that’s a pathway to and through a graduate program or a career pathway.” He’s the chair of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a Vilas Distinguished Professor.
For him, a meaningful mentee-mentor relationship means the two “walk together through one’s journey,” sharing successes and concerns.
Noted: Jumping worms were first identified in Wisconsin in 2013 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. Just eight years later, the worms have been reported just about everywhere in the state and are highlighted as an invasive species by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
“They are, if not in every county, close to it,” said Brad Herrick, an ecologist at the UW Arboretum.
Noted: Wes Schroll founded the consumer loyalty and reward app while he was a business student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. Schroll thought it made more sense for brands to reward customer loyalty than most store-based models. He dropped out of college to work on Fetch Rewards full time.
Quoted: “They didn’t give these news outlets a chance to engage this ethical reasoning, and I think that’s a problem,” said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. “But I can see how this person thought it was not a problem” because such journalistic standards are not widely understood by the public.
Quoted: Buying products with racial equity in mind can make some people feel absolved from doing harder anti-racism work, like attending protests or advocating in their workplaces, says Aziza Jones, an incoming business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But Jones says other people respond differently. “Other people will see what they’ve done, this purchase of a product from a Black-owned business and take that as a signal to themselves, as a symbolic signal, of how important this cause is to them,” she says.
Noted: At the dawn of the 21st-century, researchers at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Texas A&M University sought the opinions of 137 scholars of American oratory on the best speech of the 20th-century. The experts were asked to evaluate the silver-tongued on the basis of social and political impact, and rhetorical artistry. The top spot went to Dr. Martin Luter King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered of course, during the August 1963 March on Washington.
Quoted: “We’re going to miss the excitement with this batch,” University of Wisconsin entomologist PJ Liesch said. “If Wisconsinites really wanted to see these, you could drive a couple hours and get to parts of Indiana or Illinois and be able to see them, but it’s going to miss us here.”
Quoted: Moses Altsech, an expert in consumer behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business, said if the price increases are small enough, some consumers might not even notice.
Altsech added that the company might also not have to worry about their customers buying different products because Kimberly-Clark’s competitors might take the opportunity to increase their prices, too.
“If commodity prices are the reason, the same reason that hurt Kimberly-Clark hurt its competitors, too,” Altsech said. “So everybody’s motivated to increase.”
Quoted: Gerrymandered districts are “the most important driver of election outcomes,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Although there are improvements to be made in the campaign finance system and in other election rules and practices,” he said, “the configuration of districts has proved to be the most powerful determinant of state legislative election results.”
