As new University of Wisconsin apparel produced by a Dominican Republican based Alta Gracia is sold at the University Book Store, a worker from the factory advocated for a living wage and unionization Thursday night at Memorial Union.
They come from the United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Finland, Germany, Sri Lanka, and the list goes on. They run businesses ranging from a social-network application that is claiming 20,000 new users a day, to a company that turns the scraps from textile processing into rugs sold around the world, to a company that arranges travel and accommodations for college football fans headed to away games.
For more than a decade there?s been a small but vocal group of students, faculty and staff on the UW-Madison campus trying to curb sweatshop abuses at companies that produce college-logoed apparel. To be certain, over the past year alone there have been some noteworthy victories against sportswear giants such as Russell Athletic and Nike.
But as a university official confided over the summer, significant change in this industry seems unlikely until consumers start shunning companies that have little interest in paying living wages — and start buying from those that do.
Madison was judged one of the safest places in the U.S. to buy a home in this story in the Wall Street Journal this week. The write-up cited several “economic anchors” that contribute to a stable economy. It said the biggest factors were UW-Madison employment and construction projects, the presence of several startup companies linked to the university and major long-time employers including Oscar Mayer. Quoted: UW-Madison real estate professor Stephen Malpezzi.
Madison hasn?t felt the downturn as intensely as Midwestern neighbors like Milwaukee or Detroit, leading some to declare the city recessionproof. ?It?s not,? says Stephen Malpezzi, a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin. ?We just didn?t boom and bust as much.? Part of that is due to Madison?s economic anchor?the 42,000-student University of Wisconsin.
On Wisconsin! Those words greeted me during my ascent of the Great Wall last summer while studying abroad in Tianjin, China. After I was mobbed by Chinese tourists eager to take a picture with me and get an autograph from a “real” American, those two words were as welcome as an Ian?s pizza on Friday night. What made me more ecstatic was this person, one of the few foreigners I saw outside of Beijing, was an alumnus of UW-Madison.
Through the efforts of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Labor Licensing Policy Committee, T-shirts and hoodies with the UW-Madison and Bucky logos produced by Alta Gracia Apparel are now on sale at University Book Store. The brand, named for Villa Altagracia, the town in the Dominican Republic where the company?s factory is located, is pioneering a new business model that gives the workers who sew the clothing a pathway out of poverty.
Stratatech Corp. said Tuesday it has received a $3.5 million federal innovation grant to expand development of its anti-infective living human skin substitute.
The privately held Madison company received the fast-track Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Stratatech was one of just a few companies that received awards to develop therapies and diagnostic tools for drug-resistant bacteria with selected partners.
The company will partner with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility.
Wisconsin has shown a clear, downward trend in employer-sponsored health insurance over the past decade, according to a study from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
The Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee unanimously recommended plans for a new UW athletics ice hockey and swimming facility Monday.
The city of Madison Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee reviewed and approved the new University of Wisconsin hockey and swimming facility plan Monday.
Scott Walker, please get the biomass boiler for the Charter Street heating plant up and running with your enthusiastic support. Gov. Jim Doyle, please support clean energy as much for the rest of your term as you did at the start. Businesses small and large, from farms to trucking companies, loggers and feedstock processors, are depending on your vision for a vibrant economy to support their job creation and innovation. Don?t pull the plug on the world-class research that UW-Madison can do on the innovative biomass part of the system.
Ask Sonic Foundry CEO Rimas Buinevicius why his company?s share price has tripled this year, and he pauses for a moment. After all, this is the same outfit that broke local hearts ? not to mention pocketbooks ? when the dot.com stock market bubble burst a decade ago. Shares of Sonic Foundry at one point soared to $130 on the Nasdaq stock exchange in early 2000 only to end that year below $1. But Sonic Foundry has quietly rallied.
….Today, Sonic is focusing on what is arguably a much larger market: webcasting of lectures and educational materials for colleges, universities, business or government. Its flagship product, Mediasite, provides live streaming of public events, lectures, classes or other presentations.
For advocates of cows grazing on grass rather than eating silage, the benefits to the environment, farmers and cows are clear. But the million dollar question is, how does the milk these cows produce taste? Will people want to buy and cook with grass-fed dairy products? In late October, a group was invited to UW-Madison?s Arlington Research Station for a ?Grass-fed Dairy Tasting,? as part of a three-year project aimed at working with farmers, dairy processors and chefs to build a market for grass-fed milk.
Governor-elect Scott Walker?s order Thursday to axe a biofuels boiler for the redesigned Charter Street Heating Plant was met less with surprise than discouragement by supporters of the plan. “It?s disappointing,” said Jennifer Feyerherm with the Sierra Club. “I think we?re missing a great opportunity to invest in Wisconsin?s future.” In a letter to Daniel Schoof, secretary of the state Department of Administration, Walker said he wants to shift plans to installing a natural gas boiler rather than the boiler that would burn alternative naturally grown fuels such as wood chips or switch grass. Such a move, Walker said, would save the state $100 million of the total $250 million cost of rebuilding the university?s central heating and cooling plant so that it no longer burns coal.
Gov.-elect Scott Walker is determined to bring major changes to Madison ? seemingly even before he takes office next year. Walker, a Republican, has asked Gov. Jim Doyle?s administration to immediately stop some of its key policy initiatives, signaling that he wants to block the Democratic administration from any last-minute political maneuvering that could hamstring him later. In a letter sent Wednesday to Department of Administration Secretary Daniel Schooff, Walker urged the current administration to start revamping the Charter Street power plant.
The 36-month project to build a market for grass-fed milk, which began in the fall of 2008, is funded by $148,133 from the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Grant Project. Project partners include owners of five farms in the Edelweiss Graziers Cooperative, cheesemakers, chefs, researchers from UW-Madison?s departments of Food Science, Dairy Science and Agronomy, and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
A Madison man who went ?crazy? at a campus-area bar required a half-dozen officers and bar bouncers to get him under control and place him under arrest, Madison police reported.
A group of University of Wisconsin engineers have teamed with Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corp. to aid in the development of the company?s latest bicycle products, gloves to help alleviate cyclist?s palsy.
NanoOncology is looking for its first round of financing to finish initial studies on an ovarian cancer drug.
Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker asked higher education leaders for help Thursday balancing the state?s tight budget and fulfilling his campaign promise of creating 250,000 jobs.
University of Wisconsin System leaders on Thursday will tell Governor-elect Scott Walker that the state?s $1.3 billion-a-year investment in public universities is worth increasing.
Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker asked higher education leaders for help Thursday balancing the state?s tight budget and fulfilling his campaign promise of creating 250,000 jobs.
The University of Colorado on Wednesday announced two finalists who are being considered for the dean position at the Leeds School of Business. David Ikenberry, associate dean of the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Kenneth Kavajecz, associate dean for full-time masters programs and associate dean for the undergraduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are in the running for the position, which is expected to be filled this spring.
For the second time this year, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is traveling to China. She is scheduled to leave today, according to a news release from the university, stopping in Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong. Her trip will focus on academic collaborations, raising UW-Madison?s public profile in China and economic development.
….Nonprofits building social networks seem to be betting on a lasting connection with their organizations, but that?s not what research on online engagement suggests, says Lewis Friedland, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: “There?s not a lot of evidence that people who click online are more likely to be mobilized to engage in the work of an organization.”
There?s not much good news on the job front and a switch from Democrat to Republican won?t likely make much difference, a new report suggests. Wisconsin lost nearly 10,000 jobs from August to September, with manufacturing and construction sectors posting the biggest losses, according to the latest report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
UW-Madison was one of seven schools to earn the top grade, an ?A?, in an independent college sustainability ranking. The College Sustainability Report Card graded 322 schools in the U.S. and Canada. The other schools that earned an ?A? are: Brown University, Dickinson College, Oberlin College, Pomona College, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and Yale University.
The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery held a preview Tuesday to explain the creator?s goals and showcase the new building?s facilities before the grand opening Dec. 2.
It wasn?t so long ago that Madison would compare itself favorably to Austin, Texas. Both are state capitals, home to a major public university, with a reputation for liberal politics and a soft spot for street people. But the latest economic performance report from the Milken Institute suggests the similarities end there.
Six years after it was first proposed, a cutting-edge, $150 million building that could lead to important discoveries in human health is nearly complete on the UW-Madison campus. The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building is set for a Dec. 2 grand opening. A glimpse inside the building reveals an environment ready-made for science ? both in the state-of-the-art research labs and the architectural design, which features wide-open spaces and flexible rooms.
Embryonic stem cell researchers stepped away from their microscopes Tuesday to dispute gubernatorial candidate Scott?s Walker?s statements about their work and oppose the Republican?s positions. Scientists at a news conference held in a lab at embryonic stem cell company Stemina never mentioned Walker?s name, but they said they wanted to set the record straight about the promise embryonic stem cells hold and what it would mean for Wisconsin to ban their work.
The aging Catholic Student Center on Library Mall will become a large high-rise learning community in the future if Madison officials approve a plan to rehabilitate the facility.
Twenty UW-Madison MBA students lunched on New York strip steaks, french fries and root-beer floats with billionaire Warren Buffett in his hometown of Omaha last Friday ? on Buffett?s tab. And they came back with lessons to chew on about business, investing and life. The School of Business graduate students were among 160 students from eight colleges and universities around the country who were chosen for a chance to meet with Buffett and ask him questions.
A medical device industry consortium has been established by the Morgridge Institute for Research, the new private, nonprofit organization that will make up half of the UW?s Institutes for Discovery. “The idea is to have a consortium whereby common technology can be developed together, and we can jointly go after federal grants and share knowledge from one member to another,” said Thomas “Rock” Mackie, director of medical devices at Morgridge.
Marking the beginning of the end for coal power on the UW-Madison campus, Gov. Jim Doyle and other leaders broke ground Monday on a $250 million upgrade to the Charter Street Heating plant. The mostly coal-powered plant, which provides heating and cooling for UW-Madison, will be converted to run on natural gas and farm-grown fuels, known as biomass. It?s the most expensive single project in UW-Madison history. Doyle said that when it is completed in 2013, it will be one of the country?s leading biomass power plants.
Rogers Memorial Hospital will be opening a mental health facility today in Madison, becoming the city?s only daytime hospitalization program for adults with eating disorders and mental health issues.
Retired business executive Michael Cudahy, who last year dropped plans to help fund University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee?s Innovation Park development, has agreed to donate $2 million for the effort.
UW-Madison students from the Energy Hub student group will offer a free conference for students on transportation and energy in the upper level of Monona Terrace from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will cover issues including the challenges of enabling the nation?s power grid to handle electric cars and understanding the supply chain for biomass fuels.
Metro Transit Bus 007 has a secret weapon. Code name: WiRover. Tucked inside a locked cabinet in the lumbering blue and white city bus is a small black box. It?s part of a UW-Madison research project that could one day lead to Internet access in every car, truck, mini-van, bus and train. Starting now, passengers on two of Metro?s 200 buses can get free Wi-Fi while they ride. WiRover was developed by the Wisconsin Wireless Networking Systems Laboratory, known as WiNGS, founded and run by Suman Banerjee, associate professor in the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences.
The nation?s economy is on an upswing, speakers agreed at a conference in Madison on Friday. But how high it will swing and how soon it will get there brought very different expectations at UW-Madison?s Economic Outlook seminar at the Fluno Center. Quoted: Michael Knetter, president of the UW Foundation and former dean of the UW-Madison School of Business, and Donald Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of economics and public affairs.
City officials remain confident Madison will become the test city for Google?s approaching ultra high-speed Internet experiment.
Twenty students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Master of Business Administration program will travel to Omaha on Thursday to share a meal and an experience of a lifetime with Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world?s most successful investors.
Christmas came early for a computer science lab at the University of Wisconsin thanks to a multimillion dollar investment from software mogul Microsoft Corporation, UW officials announced Tuesday.
Football season is quickly morphing into basketball season and still no opening date for the “Hotel Red” at the corner of Monroe and Regent streets. But a DeForest-based management firm is interested in trying to get the 48-room boutique hotel up and running.
Microsoft Corp. unveiled a $3.5 million upgrade to its database research lab near UW-Madison on Monday. The Jim Gray Systems Lab reopened at 634 W. Main St. with three times the space, new equipment and room for 30 researchers and staff. It had been running with nine staff members. Quoted: David DeWitt, who directs the lab and is an emeritus UW-Madison computer science professor.
When Steven Mixtacki became chief operating officer for one of the partners in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, he quickly learned what some of the unscientific requirements were for the new facility. “I was told researchers want good coffee, beer and a place they can collaborate and get together,” said Mixtacki, who joined the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in February. Those elements are part of the plan. A new venture by the restaurant group Food Fight called Discovery Culinary Collaborative will run two restaurants in the center that is scheduled to open in December on the 1300 block of University Avenue.
Should folks in Wisconsin be paying attention to a higher education debate across the pond?
Tuition at some British universities could jump up to a level charged by top private institutions in the United States if the proposals by a government-authorized committee released last week are adopted, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The assessment, which could help the government devise a plan to tackle a financing crisis facing British universities, “encourages a market-oriented approach toward higher education,” according to The Chronicle.
….This trend away from federal support of higher education as a public good and a shift toward market forces as a private benefit also could be playing out much closer to home. In fact, UW-Madison this week will host a series of forums to discuss Chancellor Biddy Martin’s vision for a new business model for Wisconsin’s flagship university.
Clare Zempel, principal at Zempel Strategic, Fox Point, and Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust Advisors, Wheaton, Ill., will headline UW-Madison?s Economic Outlook seminar on Friday. Michael Knetter, president of the UW Foundation and former dean of the UW-Madison School of Business, and Donald Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of public affairs and economics, also will be among the featured speakers.
…According to the state?s economic recovery website ? www.recovery.wisconsin.gov ? Dane County has been awarded more than $352 million in Recovery Act funding, a figure that includes aid for school districts and local units of government.
Of that, $62 million is going for transportation improvements such as the Badger Interchange. Other local transportation projects using stimulus funds include the extension of taxiway B at the Dane County Regional Airport $3.69 million and reconstruction of University Avenue $3.6 million.
The rest of the money is divided among the UW System and other government or nongovernmental agencies.
Madison will be one of 50 U.S. cities participating in ?China Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections? at 5:45 p.m. Monday at the Edgewater Hotel. The event is sponsored internationally by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and locally by the Madison Committee on Foreign Relations and the UW-Madison?s Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy.
The Wisconsin School of Business? MBA program ranks 37th out of 80 top programs in North America according to the QS Global 200 Top Business Schools Report 2010.
Epic Systems in Verona has supplanted American Family Insurance as the region?s largest private sector employer. Fueled by demand for its medical records software, Epic now counts nearly 4,000 employees at its sprawling headquarters on Verona?s west side. That?s up from 3,450 in 2008. That compares to the roughly 3,600 employees at American Family on Madison?s far east side.
….In either case, government remains the top employer in Dane County. UW-Madison is the largest, followed by 2) the Madison Metropolitan School District and 3) the Department of Corrections, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
The University of Wisconsin System is coming under fire from the state?s largest association of telecommunications providers for planning to use millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds to expand high-capacity broadband Internet services in communities across Wisconsin.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor Barry Orton
Letter by Tyler Lark, student, UW-Madison.
The state of Wisconsin filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to join an amicus brief in the case that will determine the state of stem cell research nationwide, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday Wisconsin has officially filed to join a lawsuit challenging the injunction banning federal funding for stem cell research.
The state of Wisconsin wants to file a friend-of-the-court brief to uphold federal funding for stem cell researchers. Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that the state filed a motion to join an amicus brief in Sherley v. Sebelius, a case challenging the National Institutes of Health?s embryonic stem cell research guidelines. At a news conference last month, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said as many as two dozen UW-Madison stem cell researchers face disruptions in their research.
The Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, refused to say Tuesday whether he favors a ban on embryonic stem cell research — even though he previously told an anti-abortion group he does. Embryonic stem cell research was pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and millions of dollars is spent on it each year in the state. During a Tuesday campaign stop in Madison, Walker said he would direct state money to stem cell research that doesn?t use cells obtained from embryos.
A study released Monday says the University Research Park in Madison contributes more than $825 million to the state?s economy each year.
