The University of Wisconsin System is considering automatically admitting high school graduates to its campuses in hopes of stemming enrollment declines and boosting college access.
Explore John Bascom, the colorful President of the University of Wisconsin from 1874-1887 who championed women’s rights, worker’s rights, temperance, the pursuit of truth, and a notion that would go on to earn fame as “The Wisconsin Idea.” Professor Emeritus of History J. David Hoeveler, of UW Milwaukee, whose most recent book is John Bascom and the Origins of the Wisconsin Idea, sheds light on the important Wisconsin figure.
The University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball team unveiled itself during its annual Red-White Scrimmage Saturday at the UW Field House.
The White squad, led by sophomore Julia Orzol and freshman Ella Wrobel, scored a 2-1 win that was capped by a deciding third set that needed seven set points to complete.
Nothing says welcome to college football like 316 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame.
Gio Paez is still building a name for himself with the University of Wisconsin football team, but the junior is a certified load. Freshman Joe Brunner experienced that firsthand early into his first fall camp with the Badgers.
Noted: One of the beneficiaries will be Travis Higgins, who was drawn to the Madison campus in 2009 because ITT staff secured a loan for him within 30 minutes of him visiting the school.
Higgins said he studied criminal justice with plans to transfer to a technical college or University of Wisconsin System campus. Then he learned his credits wouldn’t transfer. With $24,000 in debt already accumulated, he dropped out.
Under the new Wisconsin Tuition Promise starting next fall, in-state students from low income families will be able to attend any school in the University of Wisconsin System for free.
The program, announced this week, will waive the costs of tuition and fees that remain after receiving financial aid for UW System students whose household incomes are less than $62,000 per year.
The University of Wisconsin System is seeking $262.6 million in additional state funding in its two-year budget request and plans to use the bulk of that to boost employee pay by 8 percent by 2025. Regents passed the proposal unanimously even as some expressed concern that it could be a tough sell with Republican state lawmakers who increased the system’s base funding by $16.6 million last year.
Noted: Dr. Damadian took an early interest in music and studied violin with some boyhood classes at the Juilliard School. He decided to shift to medicine after winning a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating in 1956. He received a medical degree in 1960 from New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Written by Kenneth R. Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of “With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power” (Princeton, 2002).
Quoted: “Catching the star engulfing a planet is going to be difficult to do” because it’s “a short-lived event,” said Melinda Soares-Furtado, a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a co-author of the study. “But the signatures that are left behind can be observable for much, much longer — even billions of years.”
Imagine all public high school students receiving a letter informing them of acceptance to a slate of Wisconsin universities in the fall of their senior year — without even submitting applications to those schools.
The University of Wisconsin System is considering the idea, known as direct admissions, as a way to simplify the complex college application process, foster a stronger college-going culture and boost enrollment at institutions struggling to fill seats.
Quoted: Temperatures in Wisconsin won’t match the extreme highs of states farther south, but Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute’s Center for Climatic Research, said the consequences will likely be worse.
“The places that have the greatest mortality during heat waves are not the hottest places,” he said. “It’s not Arizona and Louisiana that have the most heat-related deaths. It’s places that are not accustomed to it, that don’t have the infrastructure.”
Laurie Carter is the 17th president of Lawrence University and the first person of color to hold the position. We chat with Carter about the importance of liberal arts education, how the pandemic has changed higher education, and the efforts to address equity.
Quoted: Healthy plants and trees block harmful runoff from flowing into lakes — an increasingly important task as climate change intensifies rains, said Donald Waller, a retired professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“People don’t understand the intimate connection between forest and water. But forest and forest quality affects not only the quality of the water, but also the amount of water and how it is released from soils,” Waller said.
Noted: The non-scientific survey the Ideas Lab has been conducting as part of its Main Street Agenda project has spotted a similar partisan breakdown, with Republicans far more likely to rank inflation and the state of the economy as their top concern heading into this fall’s midterm elections. The project is a collaboration between the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Radio and the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Thanks to Cami Kronish, art and hockey will merge.
The senior goaltender for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team has invited fans entering the eighth grade or younger to design the mask she’ll wear during the upcoming season.
The mask design should incorporate the University of Wisconsin, city of Madison and state of Wisconsin on all three sides. The deadline for entries is Sept. 1, 2022.
Quoted: “We’re looking at 18 different varieties from around the world and which ones can maybe produce the best grain or the best for future use if industrial hemp becomes more of a mainstream crop,” UW-Madison Extension Chippewa County Agricultural agent, Jerry Clark, said.
UW-Madison Extension Buffalo County Agricultural Educator, Carl Duley, says the fiber and grain produced from industrial hemp has many different uses.
“Right now they are approved for human food, not for animal feed at this point, but they are used a lot in health food stores like granola,” Duley said. “There’s a lot of flour made after the oil is squeezed out.”
Quoted: “What any curriculum should be is thoughtful, give students something they don’t already have, and make them into what we may call critical democratic citizens,” Michael Apple said. He’s the John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Apple says the efforts to ban “Flamer” and other books centered around the LGBTQ+ experience are part of a well organized campaign.
He adds that “Flamer” is an award-winning book about acceptance and self-discovery.
Climate change is an issue that scientists across the globe have been trying to combat since the late 1800s.
Warming temperatures and increased rainfall over the past few decades have brought uncertainty to Wisconsin’s agricultural sector. One of the major causes of this erratic weather is the greenhouse gasses that continue to warm the planet.
But a small group of scientists at the University of Wisconsin are working on a solution.
Noted: Burns lives in Rhinelander and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, New York University and the University of Wisconsin Law School. She has deep ties to the community, having raised her family in Rhinelander, served on the boards of the Northern Arts Council and ArtStart, and volunteered for many local organizations.
UW-Madison’s new chancellor visited Milwaukee Wednesday, Aug. 10 to meet with dozens of new and returning students at 3rd Street Market Hall.
Quoted: For people who don’t qualify for such visas, “if they have a desire to remain here in the United States indefinitely, asylum’s going to be their best option,” said Erin Barbato, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“But the process – it’s a heavy one for everyone involved.”
Noted: When President Franklin Roosevelt worked with his New Deal team to design Social Security, our forebears — Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and Emergency Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins — looked especially to Wisconsin for help. Their top aides included University of Wisconsin professor Edwin Witte and UW graduate Arthur Altmeyer.
When a second generation of New Dealers in Congress created Medicare in 1964, Wisconsin also played a decisive role. Milwaukee-born Wilbur Cohen, another UW graduate, was among Medicare’s lead architects.
Quoted: “We’re seeing an increase in activity and I don’t think it’s a blip,” said Alexia Kulwiec, professor and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School for Workers – Department of Labor Education.
“I think that it is forward movement and traction toward improving working conditions. Whether it will be truly transformational and create the kind of economy that we would rather see, I’m not convinced of, but it’s certainly possible.”
Will Wisconsin’s tuition freeze enter its second decade?
The undergraduate tuition freeze for in-state students attending University of Wisconsin System campuses will continue through the end of this coming school year, marking a full decade that the freeze has been in effect.
Daniel Grabois, an assistant professor of horn at UW-Madison, joins the show to tell us what electro-acoustic music is, and to tell us about the Electro-Acoustic Research Space that makes it possible for him and his students to experiment with instruments.
Medtronic this summer rolled out a program to pay all undergraduate college tuition costs for employees in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Since the program started in early June, the company has seen more than 1,100 applicants from 44,000 eligible employees. They can choose any course or degree program at six universities, including Arizona State University and University of Wisconsin-Madison, with online learning.
Noted: Sabor said her PhD in Forest Ecology and Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison would also help her make responsible decisions on the board.
Quoted: “Making the world better for monarchs is going to bring a lot of other species along for the ride,” said Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.
Oberhauser was a part of the IUCN team that added monarchs to its “Red List,” which highlights how organisms are threatened and what actions can prevent their extinction.
Noted: That is why rather than skyrocketing, food insecurity rates remained largely unchanged during the pandemic, said Judi Bartfeld, project coordinator for the Wisconsin Food Security Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said the “robust” federal response kept people fed, despite widespread unemployment.
Quoted: “The winner in this race will probably get in the 20s I’m guessing in terms of percentage of the vote, because it is so widely split,” said David Cannon, UW-Madison professor.
No. 20 will have to do for now.
The University of Wisconsin football team debuted at the No. 20 spot of the USA Today America Football Coaches Association poll that was released Monday.
Quoted: The timing of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and other government grants is good for companies like Charter as they transition from legacy cable television service to broadband, according to Barry Orton, professor emeritus of telecommunications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Cable television isn’t going to last forever. People are cutting the cord like crazy,” Orton said. “But what they’re not cutting is their broadband connection.”
Dr. Jennifer Mnookin, the incoming chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses her intentions to address challenges facing the institution, including the cost of attendance, student diversity and relationship with state government.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center, said bringing the convention to Milwaukee is a strategic move by Republicans to take back the state.
“It has a lot of political value being in a key battleground state and in the Midwest, where there are other states up for grabs,” Burden said about the pick.
Noted: He ran a successful restaurant for five years and then went to work for the University of Wisconsin- Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty, where he was part of the DreamUP Wisconsin initiative, a community-University collaboration to expand economic opportunity.
Preliminary budget numbers show the University of Wisconsin System’s unrestricted fund balances topped $1 billion at the end of June. It’s the first time those funds have hit the billion dollar mark since state lawmakers railed against tuition reserves in 2013.
With water issues a concern for much of the country, Wisconsin is also taking a look at how to protect the state’s water quality.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension has created four new roles within the Agriculture Water Quality Program to promote outreach and environmentally-friendly farming practices. The program is led by co-program managers John Exo and Amber Radatz.
The incoming chancellor of the state’s flagship university officially started working on August 4 and already had a long “to-do” list for the campus – from ensuring tuition affordability, to working to attract and retain more students of color, to planning for any spike in COVID-19 infections among incoming students and staff. Perhaps the most vexing of issues before Mnookin, the former UCLA School of Law Dean, is the university’s relationship with the majority Republican Wisconsin Legislature, whose Assembly Speaker criticized her appointment because of what he called “her whole-hearted support of Critical Race Theory” and support for vaccine mandates. Mnookin said she has not yet met with Rep. Robin Vos R-Rochester, but looks forward to doing so.
Quoted: Stephen Kantrowitz, a professor of American history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there was a brief period not long ago in which political leaders had a general agreement about race in American history. They believed the country had a history of racial injustice, that this was a bad thing and that the country had a collective responsibility to do something about it.
Kantrowitz said those who disagreed with the consensus generally used coded language — or “dog whistles” — to articulate their resistance. Otherwise, he said, they knew they risked being dubbed racists and therefore outside the consensus.
“What we’ve seen in the last decade,” the professor said, “is the collapse of what remained of that consensus and the rise of an overt language of white racial resentment … as a respectable (or anyway matter-of-fact) political position.”
Quoted: “Given the importance of getting election administration right and the suspicion these candidates continue to express about the 2020 election, it is surprising that their plans for replacing the WEC are not more specific,” said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center.
Interview with Diana Hess, dean of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education and a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction.
Photo story.
Over 80 UW Madison staff members and community members have signed an open letter calling for increased COVID protections on the UW-Madison campus.
As thousands of would-be attorneys anxiously await their scores after slogging through last week’s bar exam, law grads in Wisconsin are already beginning their careers as full-fledged attorneys, blithely unburdened by the need to pass a test.
The only state in the nation that still offers “diploma privilege,” Wisconsin allows people who graduated from either of the state’s two law schools — University of Wisconsin Law School or Marquette University Law School – to skip the bar, provided they successfully completed specific law school classes.
On her first day as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jennifer Mnookin said she is working to build a “bold vision” for the state’s flagship campus by connecting with stakeholders, including state lawmakers who opposed her chancellorship.
Noted: Beyond Usona, the Midwest has been waking up to psychedelic medicine’s potential. UW-Madison and University of Michigan both started research centers for psychedelic drugs in 2021. Ohio State launched such a center earlier this year. University of Chicago has a leading researcher in the field in Harriet de Wit. And the Medical College of Wisconsin has one of the best serotonin-based pharmacology researchers in John McCorvy.
Guests include assistant scientist Tyler Lark and Yanhua Xie, a postdoctoral research associate, both at UW-Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE).
Noted: The American Institute of Architects Wisconsin bestowed honor awards, the Wisconsin Architectural Awards program’s highest recognition, on four projects designed by its members.
Another eight projects received merit awards including:
• Hamel Music Hall, Madison. Strang Inc., Steinberg Hart.
University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music’s concert and performance space uses the “warmth of precast concrete (which) echoes the limestone of other iconic campus buildings, but the form of the Music Center reflects the forward-thinking, progressive ‘Wisconsin Idea,'” the nomination said.
Quoted: “In the absence of any maternal illness, genetic abnormalities in the fetus — including those that would not allow the fetus to survive outside the womb — do not constitute a life-threatening condition for the mother,” Dr. Lisa Barroilhet, interim chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said in a written statement. “Because the abortion is not being performed to save of the life of the mother, it would not be legal in Wisconsin per the 1849 statute.”
Quoted: Steve Deller, ag economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said agriculture experienced the same supply chain issues that almost every industry faced in 2021.
“A lot of the stuff that farmers need to operate were in very low supply. So essentially it’s more expensive for farmers to operate,” Deller said. “It’s like any business. You know, I need to buy a new piece of equipment, but I can’t find it and prices go up.”
Noted: As absentee ballots are being cast across the state for Aug. 9 primary elections, Robert Yablon, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, recently joined Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time.” He said leaving the voting rule debates unsettled amid an election is essentially asking for controversies.
Interview with Steve Deller, Professor, Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
The coaches in the Big Ten had their say Monday when the conference announced the Wisconsin volleyball team as the favorite to win its fourth straight title.
We’ve never seen anything quite like this in our politics.
There have been bitter divisions in the past — the Civil War and Vietnam Era come to mind — but at no time in our history has politics been so fraught with anger, distrust and disinformation — and turbocharged by algorithms that reward fighting and conflict and discourage deliberation.
We need to find our way through this thicket, and I think it begins with encouraging thoughtful discussion.
That’s why we’re collaborating this year with the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Public Radio on a project we’re calling Wisconsin’s Main Street Agenda.
Quoted: “Younger generations keep seeing this message of doom and gloom and the end of the world in 12 years, 15 years and so on,” Dominique Brossard, professor and chair in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said. “We know from research in the psychology of risk that if you keep on talking about doom, what you end up doing is fueling a feeling of helplessness, anxiety.”
Over the past few weeks, the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) in West Bend has opened two new exhibitions by indigenous artists to the public.
On July 23, the museum opened Ho-Chunk photographer Tom Jones’s first major retrospective, which features 120 photos from sixteen bodies of work over 25 years.
“There’s something that a friend of mine said once,” says Jones, a professor of photography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “She came to a show, and she’s like, ‘Your work is so beautiful, but then when you really look at it and get up on it, it slaps you in the face.’”
Kevin Zeitler is preparing for his 11th NFL season.
He has started all 140 games in which he has played.
The graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran High School and the University of Wisconsin has played for four NFL teams – Cincinnati, Cleveland, the New York Giants and Baltimore.
The most demanding, most detailed coach for whom Zeitler has played?
Bob Bostad, who is back overseeing Wisconsin’s offensive line.
Noted: A University of Wisconsin economics professor estimated an annual loss of more than 6,000 jobs and roughly $5 billion in lost economic output due to reduced production or closure of refineries in the Upper Midwest. Experts for the tribe dispute those findings.
Quoted: “When we get that high community level CDC indicator, that’s when community-wide masking is really necessary,” said Ajay Sethi, a University of Wisconsin epidemiologist. Even at lower community levels of COVID-19, “people who are especially vulnerable to severe disease should always be wearing their mask indoors,” he added.
