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Author: knutson4

Got cheese? UW-Madison’s Badger Cheese Club hosts first meeting of semester

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The Daily Cardinal

One of the University Wisconsin-Madison’s largest student organizations packed a lecture hall in Ingraham with over 200 students in attendance last week. The Badger Cheese Club’s goal is to bring Wisconsin’s cheese culture to their 500 official members.

The club of cheese connoisseurs — established in 2006 — offers its members a smorgasbord of cheese each meeting, educates its members on the differences between all the unique types of cheese made in Wisconsin and builds a strong community among its members with a variety of special events.

Former UW chancellor returns to campus to speak of importance of higher education

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Badger Herald

Current University of Wisconsin Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin hosted former Chancellor Dr. Donna E. Shalala on Monday for a conversation on the future of higher education in Varsity Hall.

Shalala and Mnookin were introduced via remarks by Interim Provost John Zumbrunnen. Shalala and Mnookin took the stage for their conversation, which included questions directly from Mnookin as well as pre-submitted audience questions.

Will Camp Randall keep moonlighting as a music venue?

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Madison Magazine

The success of this summer’s Morgan Wallen and Coldplay concerts suggests that the stage is set for the University of Wisconsin’s football stadium to continue serving as a venue for big-name acts.

The comeback is nearly three decades in the making. Before this summer, Camp Randall Stadium last held a major music concert in 1997: the year Princess Diana died, the first “Harry Potter” book was published and the WNBA debuted. On Oct. 6, The Rolling Stones thrilled more than 27,000 local fans at Camp Randall as part of their Bridges to Babylon Tour.

Linda Gentes

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Linda Gentes died September 6, 2025, unexpectedly, at home, as a result of a rapid infection.

In Richland Center, Linda was an outspoken advocate for the University of Wisconsin Richland Campus – acting as Director of Continuing Education from 1986 to 2004. During this time she earned her Master’s degree in Continuing and Vocational Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1999.

UW-Madison climbs again in national Best Colleges rankings

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison continued its rise in the latest U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings for 2026, moving up one spot this year to 12th among public colleges.

In the national rankings released Tuesday, UW-Madison also swung up by three places as 36th overall out of 438 universities across the country. UW-Madison previously has ranked higher and also lower — in the 2025 rankings the university was 39th overall and it was 35th overall for 2024.

Anti-war group calls for end to Israeli war funding during Willy St. Parade

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The Daily Cardinal

Janet Parker, who leads World Beyond War’s Madison chapter, said the group’s main goal was to “abolish war” and push the University of Wisconsin System to “divest from all weapons manufacturing.”

The group’s march was part of a global movement created by World Beyond War, an international organization with chapters campaigning against issues like war profiteering, police militarization and starvation.

Free speech isn’t free

Posted on
The Voice of America

In October 1990, the Chicago Sun-Times came to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus to see how students there felt about the new speech code, which could lead to suspension of students for “creating a hostile environment” by making remarks about another person’s sex, race, class, religion, or sexual orientation. Years later, the UW’s then-Chancellor Donna Shalala would tell The New Yorker that she pushed for the speech codes because the students wanted it.

But the Sun-Times headline told the truth: “Students cool to hostile-speech ban.” As board chair and former editor of The Badger Herald student newspaper, I was interviewed for the article and tried to make the point that the speech bans were self-defeating. I told the Sun-Times, “To shut off racial speech you’re actually feeding it. The whole point of a university is to educate the person to be a better person, and here’s the university saying, ‘Here’s a problem, we can’t handle it, send them [offending students] back to the farm.”

How one university is reimagining a humanities Ph.D. program

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Inside Higher Ed

“We’re thinking about how we can distribute historical thinking skills as widely as possible across as many sectors of industry as possible,” said Matt Villeneuve, an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of the Doctoral Futures postdegree pathways subcommittee. “Because we believe that historical thinking skills are good for individuals and society. So why would we not want to deploy them as far and wide as possible?”

Historic UW-Madison frat searches for new house after plans get pricey

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The Cap Times

A chemistry fraternity is again looking for a new home at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alpha Chi Sigma is a professional co-ed fraternity founded at UW-Madison in 1902. With about 80 active members, the chapter supports Badger students entering STEM fields — in science, technology, engineering and math.

Members of the Alpha Chapter lived and met in two houses at 619 and 621 N. Lake St. for decades, near Lake Mendota and UW-Madison’s Memorial Union.

UW-Madison’s first African American research lab conducts survey on Black affirming spaces

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WMTV - Channel 15

University of Wisconsin-Madison’s first research lab in the African American Studies department is collecting data on spaces where Black people thrive throughout the city.

The UW-Madison research lab, Soulfolk Collective, partnered with the Center of Black Excellence and Culture to determine how to amplify Black voices, stories and lived experiences.

Badgers partner with MMSD to get students excited about reading and develop better literacy habits

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WKOW - Channel 27

Badgers were spotted at Sandburg Elementary on Monday helping students get excited about reading.

The partnership between the Wisconsin Badger football program and Madison Metropolitan School District helps UW athletes give back to the community through the support of the district’s reading literacy initiative.

Federal cuts to foreign language grants leave UW-Madison programs, students in limbo

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison graduate student Olivia Kusuma received a competitive federal grant allowing her to study advanced Indonesian this fall for her research on Southeast Asian American communities.

Kusuma is one of more than 50 UW-Madison students who, after weeks of waiting in limbo, got notice this month that the Trump administration canceled the university’s federal Foreign Language and Area Studies.

Barry Alvarez says Wisconsin fans are ‘spoiled rotten’ after ‘Fire Fickell’ chants

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Barry Alvarez is not a fan of the “Fire Fickell” chants that occurred during Wisconsin’s Week 4 loss to Maryland. The revered former Wisconsin football coach and athletic director made that abundantly clear during the Sept. 23 episode of ESPN Madison’s Barry Alvarez Show.

“I think it’s embarrassing,” Alvarez said. “I think it’s terrible, despicable. They’re spoiled rotten.”

Wisconsin chancellor weighs in on AD after Chris McIntosh gives support to Luke Fickell

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Wisconsin State Journal

Chris McIntosh expressed his confidence in University of Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell after a second straight blowout loss Saturday.

UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin now has given McIntosh, the Badgers athletic director, a public vote of confidence. Mnookin declined an interview request by BadgerExtra through a spokesperson Monday but issued a brief statement.

“We all know what a complicated time it is for college athletics,” Mnookin wrote in the statement. “Our Athletic Director, Chris McIntosh, has my full confidence as we navigate these challenges here at UW-Madison.”

How Kirk’s campus work will go on

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Politico

“What happened to Charlie Kirk was a tragedy, it was wrong,” Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said last week.

“The fact that it happened on a college campus is even a step worse,” Mnookin said during a panel discussion at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education. “Because college campuses should be part of the places within society where ideas are explored and bump up against each other, and the ways that we should be disagreeing with each other should never include what happened there.”

UW campuses awarded $4.2M in grants for freshwater research

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Wisconsin Public Radio

The Freshwater Collaborative has awarded Universities of Wisconsin schools $4.2 million to support water education and research programs across the state.

The funding will target already successful programs at universities including undergraduate student freshwater research. It addresses some of Wisconsin’s most pressing water issues — freshwater contamination, data centers and lead pipe replacement.

The only alternative to political violence is civil dialogue, Wisconsin experts say

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Michael Ford is Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue at UW. As his organization works to encourage healthy political dialogue on Wisconsin’s college campuses, he worries that people are beginning to see civil discourse as a sign of weakness.

“My real fear is that the next generation of leaders are going to think politics is all about threats of violence and what-about-ism,” Ford said. “And when we get to that point, we’re ceding the space to the most extreme elements of our society.”

Free speech expert weighs in on ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel

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WKOW - Channel 27

“The First Amendment only prohibits actions by the government,” said Anuj Desai, a Volkman-Bascom Professor of Law and First Amendment expert at UW-Madison’s Law School. “So, generally speaking, if you are employed by a private employer, as Jimmy Kimmel was — or is — it does not regulate the relations between your employer and you.”

Can University of Tennessee fire professor over Charlie Kirk comment? Free speech experts weigh in

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Knoxville News Sentinel

Donald Downs, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led the charge to successfully fend off speech codes in the 1990s that would have disproportionately targeted conservative ideas at the historically liberal Madison campus. Downs thinks UT is overreaching if it tries to fire Shirinian.

“Who is threatened by what this professor said?” Downs said. “I think what she said was deplorable, and I think there are too many academics that are running around with those kind of ideas that are detrimental. But she’s got due process protections, she has certain academic freedom protections and extramural speech, and those have to be respected, too, especially because of the consequences of not doing that.”

‘A full-blown mosquito invasion’: Milwaukee area residents report relentless mosquitoes after floods

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Inland floodwater mosquitoes are poised the thrive in the wake of heavy rainfall or flooding, according to P.J. Liesch, director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.

“Then the larvae have to feed and grow and develop, which takes a bit of time,” Liesch said, “so that’s why when we have a heavy rainfall event, it’s often 10 to 14-ish days later, and boom, the mosquitoes are out in full force.”

Regents OK more money to expand UW-Madison’s cyclotron lab project

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison is getting an extra $13.5 million to add two floors to the lab it’s constructing for a new cyclotron particle accelerator, which can be used to help detect cancer.

The UW Board of Regents approved the revision to the project Thursday, which will create more space to treat patients for cancer and other diseases at the facility, amid a booming biotech industry.

Insurance provider will stop offering Affordable Care Act coverage in 11 Wisconsin counties

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Dan Sacks, an associate professor of risk and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said the expected end of enhanced tax credits likely factored into Common Ground’s decision. That’s because subsidies help people who wouldn’t get insurance due to the cost gain coverage, he said.

“Generally, when they take away the subsidies, it’s less profitable to offer insurance,” Sacks said. “It makes sense that an insurer would want to drop out.”

Aaron Perry strives to keep health care free and growing in Madison

Posted on
The Cap Times

Perry didn’t set out for a career in health care. But while working as an officer with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, he found himself repeatedly looking in the rearview mirror when transporting men — especially Black men like himself — and wondering, “What could be different to keep you from being in the back seat of this cruiser in the future?”

Charlie Kirk’s death increases interest in GOP student groups

Posted on
WKOW - Channel 27

Charlie Kirk’s death is resonating across college campuses. In Madison, College Republicans are thinking about where their own movement goes next.

“I didn’t even believe it when I first saw the news that he got shot. It really took me hours for it to even register that he was really gone,” said Courtney Graves, president of the UW-Madison chapter of College Republicans.

Kirk visited UW-Madison last fall as a part of his ‘You’re Being Brainwashed Tour,’ leaving an impression on young conservatives there.

After roadside violence in Islamabad, Taha Siddiqui fled to France—and built a watering hole for all

Posted on
Vanity Fair

Exile was once a common punishment in ancient times. Now, more and more journalists and other dissidents are going into self-imposed exile in order to avoid being imprisoned or otherwise targeted in their home countries, says Tomás Dodds, a University of Wisconsin–Madison assistant professor who has researched exiled journalists. “You live in a constant state of dissonance.”

Middle Earth in Madison? UW exhibit honors the legacy of fantasy map maker Karen Fonstad

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

Hundreds of community members poured into the sun-soaked cartography library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Science Hall in the last 10 days of July, gingerly perusing through decades of fantasy maps, all created by one woman.

The exhibit, curated by UW-Madison alum and University of Oregon professor Mark Fonstad, showcased the maps, annotated books and meticulous research notes behind Karen Wynn Fonstad’s, his mother, atlases of worlds including “The Lord of the Rings” and “Dungeons & Dragons.”

Madison schools reduced teacher vacancies by 72% over two years

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The Cap Times

Following that high, Bradley Carl, the co-director of the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Education Research, said the Madison Metropolitan School District’s reduced staffing vacancies are “obviously good news.”

“There’s some pretty good evidence that COVID led to a spike,” Carl said. “It might turn out to be a short-term spike, but COVID was very challenging for a teaching profession in lots of ways.”

UW system adds security screenings at Board of Regents meeting

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Wisconsin State Journal

People attending the UW Board of Regents’ meeting last week will go through a security screening to enter the venue.

Under the new measures, attendees will be required to walk through metal detectors, and anyone who refuses a screening or has a prohibited item will be denied entry to the venue, according to Regents meeting materials released ahead of the meeting.

UW-Madison proposes $13.5 million expansion of cancer research, treatment hub

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Wisconsin State Journal

Patients with cancer could be diagnosed and treated in one building if UW-Madison gets approval for its expanded multimillion-dollar cyclotron lab.

Construction for a $48.5 million cyclotron lab between two research buildings next to UW Hospital was expected to start this year, but the university now is seeking the green light from the UW Board of Regents to add more space for patient treatment and research.