Students can expect construction on the new Gordon Commons and Lakeshore residence hall to begin in the coming weeks as part of a vast University of Wisconsin Division of Housing plan to overhaul the campus neighborhoods.
STEVENS POINT ? A recently completed gig called Voices of Rural Wisconsin sent me to all corners of the state and points between for conversations with rural folks. The project, sponsored by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, was simple in scope: We asked participants to talk about their life experiences and to envision what is needed to ensure a healthy future for rural Wisconsin.
….As state and local elected officials deal with tough budget challenges in the coming days, one can only hope they?ll recognize the value of this outreach arm of the UW System.
Of the 150 or so people in the room attending the annual Quality Milk Conference in Madison this week, most were employees of dairy processing plants across the state. They were members of the Wisconsin Association of Dairy Plant Field Representatives. These are people who are milk quality experts who work closely with dairy producers to ensure that milk meets the highest standards for consumption in the form of milk, cheese, ice cream and a wide array of dairy products.
Biddy Martin?s actions to hire a firm for what is estimated to be $3 million dollars is not the wise way of figuring out how to save money.
President Obama has appealed to the goodwill of the business community, asking the Chamber of Commerce to do its patriotic duty and hire more workers. Gov. Walker has proclaimed Wisconsin “Open for Business” and is offering up tax breaks for companies that add more employees. He has also vowed to reduce regulation.
But ask local businesses what matters most and they will tell you: it?s the revenue, stupid.
After the arrival of Greyhound Bus Lines caused the the elimination of several parking spaces along Langdon Street throughout the past several weeks, city officials have intervened to begin solving the controversy.
As the University of Wisconsin invokes the Wisconsin Idea to justify its growing scientific collaboration with corporate America, and the once famously publicly oriented government of Wisconsin declares itself ?open for business,? it may help to revisit the true spirit of Wisconsin?s progressive idea.
In 1912 Charles McCarthy, head of the state?s Legislative Reference Bureau, wrote a short book explaining ?The Wisconsin Idea,? the state?s innovative effort to counteract a growing corporate tyranny.
If UW-Madison is looking for ways to save money by becoming more effective and efficient, should it be relying on a consulting firm that has a history of accounting errors?
Campus Connection reported Tuesday that UW-Madison is moving forward with plans to hire the Huron Consulting Group to study if the university is truly a lean and mean educating machine — or whether in can find savings by streamlining certain aspects of its operation. But a few readers pointed out Huron?s past is littered with questionable decisions and legal woes.
Some UW students are worried a developer?s plan to build a new apartment building in the Mifflin Street neighborhood will drive up the cost of rent in the campus-area neighborhood.
The plans call for turning Mifflin?s vacant Planned Parenthood building into a 4-story, 45-unit apartment complex. While developers are hoping to offer something new, a group of student residents said that offer may compromise the character of the neighborhood.
Watching the crowds before the Super Bowl and major away games for the Packers and Badgers, I note a significant indicator: Most of those people live there. Many of these vital, prosperous people have left Wisconsin and emigrated to lands of economic and personal opportunity. UW-Madison has thwarted much of the exodus through UW Research Park and other vital activities, but Madison has done nothing.
As a result of city operations closing down following the season?s largest snowstorm, a proposal for a new limited service hotel building near the University of Wisconsin campus was delayed in passing through the City?s rezoning process.
The concern over texting while driving, emphasized in recent Opinion page articles, is being addressed by Scott Tibbitts, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Scott is president of Katasi, a company formed from a team of entrepreneurs to solve the texting problem. This company has developed a small device that can be installed in a car that notifies the cell phone carriers that a particular cell phone is being used by a driver of the vehicle.
The success of the Green Bay Packers has been a green and gold mine for local retailer Sconnie Nation, which has made fans of the very players they feature. The Madison-based outfitter has sold 3,000 Packers shirts since the team beat the Bears in the NFC Championship game on Jan. 23.
?We?re getting a much bigger boost from the Super Bowl than we did for the Rose Bowl,? company co-founder Troy Vosseller said. Sconnie Nation was founded in 2004 by Vosseller and Ben Feitchner while they were students at UW-Madison. The apparel and products all have Wisconsin themes.
Perhaps he?s hung around too long with those high-rolling supporters of his who have a habit of living only for the next quarter?s financial results while demonstrating little concern for the long term. Because, if Scott Walker hasn?t already demonstrated he?s shortsighted, he hasn?t done anything at all.
….During his first month in office, Walker has proposed strict rules that could hamper the wind power industry, nixed the Charter Street Biomass Project on the UW-Madison campus and returned more than $800 million in federal money for upgrading Wisconsin?s passenger and freight rail infrastructure. There?s also talk about limiting embryonic stem cell research, an issue that?s more symbolic than substantive.
Put together, it?s not exactly what economic development advocates were hoping to see from a governor who?s vowed to create 250,000 new private sector jobs.
Quoted: Brian Hellmer, director of the applied securities analysis program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Almost as fast as the high-speed rail scuttled by Gov. Scott Walker have been his actions to dismantle the biofuel project for UW-Madison?s power plant and the discouragement of wind power project construction throughout Wisconsin.
As I listened to the president?s State of the Union speech, it became clear how at odds our new governor is with the initiatives that will shape our country and return us to a sound economy. I believe the president has it right in looking at innovation, technology and new green industries as having a huge and saving influence on our long-range future. Gov. Scott Walker, however, does not seem to understand or appreciate these issues…UW-Madison planned to add a co-generation power plant, giving the state an opportunity for new markets in biomass fuels and energy research, while providing clean energy. Walker turned it down.
Our governor is dealing with the Madison liberal left problem about as rapidly as can be expected. He is looking into all the high-cost foolishness of past administrations…Walker also eliminated the proposed biofuel boiler at the Charter Street heating plant for a substantial cost saving. UW-Madison gets rid of its dirty coal pile and the planners want to replace it with piles of wood chips, corn stalks and the like. Using home-grown products as a fuel source may be desired, but it can be just as effective at a rural location as it would be near the center of our capital city.
In a forum Thursday night between the candidates for Dane County?s top job, economic development was what everyone was talking about. The five candidates in attendance talked about how to protect vital social services, hold the line on taxes, stimulate the economy and produce more jobs. Candidate Zach Brandon said the county needs to grow its economy and create the right jobs ? not just jobs for people who make $100,000 a year or are UW graduates. “Leadership doesn?t mean waiting to see what (Gov.) Scott Walker does.”
Stevens Construction Corp. won a competitive bidding process to serve as general contractor for a private residence hall to be built on the edge of the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. Company president Geoffrey Vine told Property Trax the construction contract for the 14-story building was around $42 million.
….Building in and around university campuses isn’t new for Stevens Construction, which has a staff of more than 140 who can do carpentry as well as concrete work on sites. Last year, the company finished two multimillion-dollar, mixed-use projects in Downtown Madison that cater mainly or partly to students.
Dear Editor: There is great news coming out of a recent study by the UW-Madison Carbone Cancer Center. Researchers found smoke-free ordinances in Wisconsin had no negative impact on businesses, including bars and restaurants.
Plans to build a biomass boiler on the University of Wisconsin campus were nixed Thursday, leaving proponents of the plan dismayed at the loss of a potential new energy industry in the state.
With budget cuts likely for county and university services throughout the next several years, the candidates for the highest office in Dane County have a wide range of opinions on how the county should interact with the University of Wisconsin.
Putting out cigarettes in Wisconsin bars and restaurants did not have a detrimental effect on the hospitality industry, according to a study released Monday. The study, conducted by the Carbone Cancer Center at UW-Madison, looked at five Wisconsin cities, including Madison, where smoking bans went into effect before the statewide ban took hold last summer.
Results showed bars and restaurants in the smoke-free cities continued to do well under no-smoking ordinances, and the number of class B alcohol licenses increased after the ordinances took effect.
James Thomson, a pioneer in stem cell research at UW-Madison, has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine.The prestigious award was established in 1977 by the King Faisal Foundation to recognize outstanding contributions to medical research. Award winners receive $200,000 and a 24-carat, 200-gram gold medal.
Thanks to the efforts of chief executive officer Trevor Twose and Venture Investors, Mithridion survived the potentially game-ending development and is now moving forward, with 12 employees and a total of $8.4 million in financing since 2005. Twose did post-doctoral research at UW-Madison in the early 1970s and, 30 years later, returned as a biotech consultant and helped UW-Madison professor Fred Blattner start Scarab Genomics, a Madison company that makes drug development tools, before creating Mithridion.
Among the priorities for the year: Create more jobs. Cheerleading is fine. Controlling taxes is great. But our new governor also needs to get solidly behind Wisconsin?s growing technology sector while working closely with UW.
A plan to spend $100 million on a boiler that would burn plant-based fuels at UW-Madison?s Charter Street power plant was axed Thursday by Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch. The DOA is overseeing the rebuild of the plant. Work will continue on outfitting the plant with new natural gas boilers. According to a 2008 university study, converting the plant to burn biofuel was the most expensive of the options considered and would be about twice as expensive as using other coal-burning technologies or natural gas.
Gov. Scott Walker scrapped plans Thursday to convert a power plant to run on natural fuels such as wood chips and paper pellets, a move that could save up to $100 million but drew stern criticism from at least one environmental group. The decision affects the Charter Street Heating Plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Its coal-fired burners will be retired next year and were to be replaced with two boilers that run on natural gas and a third that would burn biomass, state officials said.
2010 was a good year for Wisconsin agriculture, according to half a dozen UW-Madison agricultural experts speaking to about 150 agriculture folks at the 2011 Ag Outlook Forum.
The occasion was the 25th year of the issuance of ?The State of Wisconsin Agriculture? report compiled by the UW-Madison Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics with the assistance of specialists from a variety of farming enterprise areas.
The Erdman Development Group has scrapped plans for a major real estate development on 15 acres at the corner of Whitney Way and University Avenue. The proposed $7.5 million “Erdman Center” was to have included a six- to seven-story hotel, a restaurant and another building, with space for several retailers.
Instead, the Erdman group has an accepted offer from the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority to purchase the property. A medical clinic had been mentioned during earlier discussions over the site before the Madison Plan Commission.
Nasser Abufarha was sipping coffee at a Madison (Wis.) café called Michelangelo?s a few years back when it dawned on him how he might help struggling olive growers in his native Palestine. If the crowd could derive virtuous pleasure from mugs of “fair trade” organic coffee, they might be convinced of the superiority of organic oil pressed from West Bank olives.
Abufarha, a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, wrapped up his dissertation on suicide bombers and headed home to the West Bank. The olive farming industry there was in a shambles. Yields were low due to poor soil treatment, and farmers were barely breaking even?leading many to abandon their fields and migrate to Palestinian cities, where unemployment hovered around 40 percent.
Quoted: Mark Stephenson, a dairy expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Bob Cropp, a professor emeritus at UW-Madison.
“2010 for dairy was a mediocre year,” said Ed Jesse, the report?s editor and a professor emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW-Madison. “Milk prices were higher, but feed prices remained high and, as a result, profitability has not been as high as it was in the good years for dairy, 2007, 2008.
It?s been three years since the Madison City Council passed an ordinance intended to gradually reduce the number of downtown bars and liquor stores and therefore crime, but while crime has indeed dropped, neither proponents nor opponents of the ordinance are able to definitely say why.
….A sober but determined focus on improving, strengthening and assuring the relevance of our educational system, from kindergarten through university or technical college, is crucial. If that means streamlining while strengthening and improving, then so be it.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, an economist with the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs.
AquaMost, a Madison company with a new type of water purification system developed through UW-Madison research, has obtained $1 million from investors, including Wisconsin Investment Partners, Madison, and the Golden Angels Network, Milwaukee.
Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine has a good read this month from UW-Madison real estate expert Stephen Malpezzi on the state?s 2011 economic outlook, with a focus on housing markets.
The economic recovery is gracing businesses in northeastern Wisconsin more quickly than those in other parts of the state, including the Madison area, according to a survey sponsored by First Business Bank.
Greyhound Express will begin service at the University of Wisconsin?s Memorial Union at 800 Langdon Street starting Monday, Jan. 17. The new bus stop provides passengers a more centralized location for departures and arrivals. Greyhound Express provides direct service to six Midwest cities.
Whenever I?m sad or sick I still want my mom. Over the years I?ve often wondered if this need for mom will dissipate as I grow older. Yet it hasn?t, and I?m convinced that on some level we all go on wanting our mothers in times of need for our entire lives, no matter how far away we live and no matter how different we are. In search of a change in my life, my dog Yoda and I embarked on our road trip over 2 months ago. The road has brought me tears, lessons, exciting new experiences, new friends, adventures I never imagined possible, and, just in time for Thanksgiving, it brought me Mom.
Mentioned: Babcock ice cream, Babcock Dairy Plant and Memorial Union
Madison and a coalition of community partners have far surpassed a clean energy goal of reducing carbon emissions city wide by 100,000 tons over four years, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced Wednesday. The coalition, known as MPower, includes Madison Gas & Electric, UW-Madison, Sustain Dane, UW-Extension and others, and documented eliminating 324,443 metric tons of carbon monoxide since the initiative was launched in 2007, Cieslewicz said in a statement.
A Monroe steel manufacturer is helping UW-Madison pursue advances in clean vehicle technology using a new Ford F-150 pickup truck that will be reconfigured for researchers as a rugged, experimental electric vehicle. Engineers at Orchid Monroe will work with a team of graduate students and professors in electrical and computer engineering to convert the truck, which the company purchased.
Quoted: UW-Madison economist Andy Reschovsky.
Listening to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and some of the candidates for Dane County executive it might seem their opponents for the area?s top elected posts are new Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-led Legislature. With the possibility of cuts in local government aid, public employees facing job losses and pay cuts and the possible reversal of policies backed by liberal Madison and Dane County residents, the anti-Republican rhetoric already is a theme in local races. Cieslewicz called potential cuts to civil service workers, whose wages help fuel the city?s economy, ?particularly troubling.? He said restrictions on stem cell research would slow medical breakthroughs and undermine a critical piece of the region?s economy. And he said efforts to cut education funding, whether 4-year-old kindergarten or UW-Madison, a ?tremendous mistake.?
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
Some experts believe there might be more organizations in the state that could use their investment muscle in a similar way.
“The SWIB announcement may start a new Wisconsin trend toward increased venture investing among public endowments, such as the UW Foundation and WARF the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation,” said Tom Hefty, former top executive of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Wisconsin and a longtime advocate of strategies for luring more venture capital to the state.
Virent last year opened a pilot-scale refinery in Madison to develop “green” gasoline in conjunction with a key funder and partner, Shell, to create gasoline from plant sugars. The company was formed in 2002 to deploy technological innovations developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Plans to build a six-story building with residential units, retail space and an outdoor eating area on University Avenue will move forward after the City Council unanimously approved the project Tuesday night. The Mullins Group proposed the project on the triangular site between University Avenue and Campus Drive west of Highland Avenue.
You?ve seen the ?For Sale? sign lingering in front of a neighborhood house longer than those signs once did. But did you notice the darkened house where no one seems ever to be around? Or the duplex down the street that?s not kept up the way it used to be?
What?s the story on these properties? If you?re like a lot of your Dane County neighbors, you?re not sure. But if the properties were foreclosed on, they could be costing you.
For big-time college sports, late December is more than the season of holiday basketball tournaments and myriad football bowl games. It?s also the time for making tax-deductible gifts to the booster club of your favorite college team.
These gifts don?t get mentioned much when we hear talk of the excess costs of college sports, but they play a surprisingly large role in the college athletics business, and at considerable cost to the taxpayer.
(Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book ?Big-Time Sports in American Universities.? This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
Gov. Scott Walker has released more details about what he wants Wisconsin lawmakers to do in a special session he?s calling that will officially begin on Tuesday.
Seventeen chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies hold degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison, making the Badgers one of the largest producers of today?s corporate leaders, according to U.S. News & World Report. Only three schools awarded more degrees to Fortune 500 CEOs than UW-Madison: Harvard University (58), Columbia University (21) and University of Pennsylvania (20).
Aggressive. Powerful. Goal-oriented. Cut from Tommy Thompson?s mold. That?s how people are describing the governing style of Republican Scott Walker, who hasn?t exactly sat around waiting to be sworn in as the state?s 45th governor.
On the contrary, he instructed the current Democratic administration to halt negotiations on state union contracts and traveled to Washington to tell the Obama administration he wasn?t interested in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail previously secured by Gov. Jim Doyle. While the move cost the state thousands of potential jobs, it was an early political win with his base.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
It may still be sinking in for many of you Badger fans who watched the Rose Bowl. They came so close to winning it all, but fell short two points.
Noted: The University of Wisconsin System will get more freedom to manage its own resources. A decade ago, state taxpayers were responsible for 33% of the University of Wisconsin System?s budget. Today, taxpayers pay about 24% – and it?s a smaller percentage on major campuses like UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee.
A trademark dispute between the University of Wisconsin System and a private software company appears headed to trial in federal court, after an appeals court ruling this week.
The University of Wisconsin says that 58 companies have licensed trademarks to produce Rose Bowl memorabilia of everything from shirts to Christmas ornaments.
The holiday shopping season isn?t over yet, thanks, in part, to the Badgers.
