MADISON, Wis. — Officials with the University of Wisconsin System are defending its decision to condemn a Madison bar as part of a plan to build a $43 million music performance hall.
The owners of Brothers Bar & Grill on Tuesday sued the UW System Board of Regents, seeking to stop the condemnation and keep the bar theyâ??ve operated for 15 years.
UW-Madison ranks third in the nation as one of the top research universities, according to new statistics from the National Science Foundation. UW-Madison ranked behind Johns Hopkins University and the University of California at San Francisco.
The University of Wisconsin announced another jump in research expenditures this year â?? as well as the earning of another top three national ranking for research institutions â??amid contentious talks about the proposal to significantly restructure the graduate program.
The UW-Madison has been named “Developer of the Year” by Wisconsin Builder magazine.
The university is in the middle of its biggest building boom since the 1960s, with the new Union South, Chazen Museum of Art expansion and the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, among other projects.
Much of the work was laid out in the 2005 Master Plan for upgrading campus buildings. Some historic structures are being renovated while 1960s-era buildings characterized by poor construction and excessive energy use are being replaced.
Wisconsin Builderâ??s honor is a deserving one for UW-Madison, reflecting perhaps the struggles of the private sector as much as anything.
I was saddened greatly by the opinion piece “UWM as economic engine? Dream on” by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine (Crossroads, Oct. 4). The central theme of that piece is disdain for Chancellor Carlos Santiagoâ??s leadership and vision of what UWM can do for Milwaukeeâ??s and Wisconsinâ??s economic futures.
It would be a tragic shame if anyone used Levineâ??s analysis as an excuse to deflect UWMâ??s current trajectory. I am absolutely convinced that UWM is on a path to become one of the nationâ??s great research universities and that the achievement of that goal is critical for the economic future of Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin (including, let me add specifically, the futures of Madison and UW-Madison), says former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley in an op-ed column.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are lashing out at new recommendations from an influential federal panel that could dramatically weaken patent protection for the universityâ??s genetic research.
Among other things, the panel recommended essentially exempting genetic tests for cancer and other diseases from patent protection – meaning that anyone could use genetic diagnostic research from UW-Madison or any university without obtaining licenses.
“They are making reckless policy recommendations,” said Andrew Cohn, who spearheads government lobbying efforts on behalf of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, UW-Madisonâ??s patent-management arm. “This is an incredible precedent, a bad precedent.”
Last week the Student Labor Action Coalition marched into Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s office, opposing the University of Wisconsinâ??s athletic apparel contracts with less-than-transparent multinational monoliths like adidas. And Biddy sat down and had what one SLAC member called â??a thoughtful and productive dialogue.â?
The University of Wisconsin-Madisons patenting arm has settled a patent infringement lawsuit against computer chip maker Intel Corp. involving technology used in a popular computer processor.
There was a time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when starting a company ranked somewhere between gambling and arms dealing.
Faculty members shunned entrepreneurship because it seemed to conflict with the school’s true mission of conducting research and educating students, a debate that still rages at schools across the country, including the University of Minnesota.
“Prior to 1992, very few faculty started companies,” said Thomas (Rock) Mackie, chairman and co-founder of TomoTherapy Inc., who still teaches medical physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It was almost frowned upon. But now it’s actively encouraged.”
The Student Labor Action Coalition protested at Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s office Wednesday to voice their concerns with UW-Madisonâ??s actions toward sweatshop conditions.
The Student Labor Action Coalition marched on Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s office Wednesday in protest of the University of Wisconsinâ??s agreement with multinational corporations that manufacture UW apparel.
Wisconsin has become the regional biotech equivalent of traditional high-tech powerhouses like Boston, Silicon Valley and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, thanks to strong political support, an influx of investor capital and what is arguably the most formidable university technology transfer program in the country.
Marty Preizler was named the new director of graduate programs for the School of Business at Edgewood College. The college made the announcement in a press release Tuesday.
The UW System Board of Regents has approved a new bachelor of business administration degree in entrepreneurship for UW-Whitewater.
The Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee was presented with renovation plans for the power plant on Charter Street Monday night, including phasing out coal and utilizing more renewable fuels.
Two decades ago, it seemed that not a month went by without some farmer or another challenging the term “sustainable agriculture.” Farmers wrote letters to editors in farm papers asserting that there was no definition for this ridiculous term; it meant whatever a person wanted it to mean. In fact, then as now, sustainable agriculture advanced straightforward principles – of elevating environmentally sound, economically profitable and socially responsible agricultural systems.
Various farmers and more than one agricultural researcher buttonholed me back then to say that agriculture had to feed the world and this fanciful approach undercut agricultureâ??s serious responsibilities. Some perceived sustainable agriculture as anti-technology and opposed to change. It was a contentious time in agriculture, born of the farm crisis – the terrifying hemorrhaging of farmers during the 1980s – and the growing awareness of environmental damage from many federal agricultural policies.
Into this hostile climate was born the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last week.
Four students were awarded the Student Venture Seed Grant Monday for their business ventures as part of the Wiscontrepreneur program. The SVS program will provide each student with $3,000 to help turn their start-up businesses into successful companies. Charles Hoslet, UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations managing director, said the program is designed to support students interested in pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.
Consistent with the spirit of the University of Wisconsinâ??s top-25 national ranking for entrepreneurship last week, the Wiscontrepreneur initiative announced the winners of the Student Venture Seed Grant Competition Monday. According to Allen Dines, assistant director at UWâ??s Office of Corporate Relations, five applicants presented their ideas to a panel of judges that consisted of university employees as well as local business leaders. Four of those five were then awarded $3,000 to help further their businesses.
Four student-run start-ups have received grants from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Corporate Relations to help grow their businesses. The businesses, all run by UW-Madison undergraduate students, each received $3,000 from the officeâ??s Student Venture Seed Grant Program, the university said Monday.
Among the estimated 7,000 students, University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and the public who attended author Michael Pollanâ??s discussion of his latest book, “In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto,” were some 200 Wisconsin farmers.
The farmer delegation came to the Kohl Center on buses chartered by Madison-based feed company Vita Plus to hear for themselves what the much-discussed book was about, direct from Pollan himself.
….Mostly, the farmers attending the Pollan event seemed to be worried about how few of the students know anything about farming and have ever seen a farm up close. They’d like to do something about it.
Some farmers suggested that Chancellor Martin’s next effort might center on “Visit a Farm,” whereby entire classes, special groups or individual students and faculty would take a trip to an actual dairy or livestock farm.
Both UW-Madison graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs within the School of Business ranked among the top 25 in the nation, according to a recent survey.
Wisconsin School of Business professors produced a recommendation based on their recent study to the Obama administration regarding the grave condition of foreclosures across America.
….The Farm Bureau bureaucracy is all hot and bothered because the UWâ??s Go Big Read program – which seeks to promote a campus-wide discussion about a particular book – selected Michael Pollanâ??s “In Defense of Food” as the text students and faculty will be discussing.
“Pollan has narrow and elitist ideas about how you should eat and how farmers should or shouldnâ??t feed a hungry and growing world,” argues the federationâ??s president.
Actually, Pollan, whose work has revolutionized the discussion about food and food production in the United States, argues that Americans should eat locally grown foods – especially plants – and should be wary of the claims of “a 32 billion-dollar food-marketing machine” that keeps telling us the best way to eat just happens to be the way that yields the highest profits for multinational corporations.
….No matter what the motivations, no matter whether the misread of “In Defense of Food” is malignant or misguided, the bottom line is that Pollan is not the problem for working farmers. He may, in fact, be a part of the solution. So it is good that his book is being read by UW students and it is great that he is coming to Madison to further the discussion.
Chancellor Biddy Martin hosted a reception Monday to mark the expansion of domestic partner benefits for UW System employees.
The Faculty Senate and Academic Staff Assembly celebrated Monday Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s signing into law the state budget bill that authorized domestic partner health insurance with faculty, students and Madison residents Monday.
MADISON (WKOW) — Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Business School call it the “perfect storm”.
Home values are declining and unemployment is rising.
Authors of a new study at the business school say President Barack Obamaâ??s foreclosure rescue plan doesnâ??t adequately address both problems.
Authors: Morris A. Davis, Stephen Malpezzi and François Ortalo-Magné
The Big Ten Network announced that it will double its commitment to several Olympic sports this season by streaming at least 200 live events on www.BigTenNetwork.com — more than double the 100 last season.
All events on www.BigTenNetwork.com will be available for just $2.99 per event, which BTN said in a news release was “significantly” less expensive than the cost of most other collegiate streaming services.
Of the 200-plus events, there will be 21 non-conference menâ??s basketball games, plus all exhibition games. Unlike any other conference, the Big Ten will receive TV or Internet coverage for every single home menâ??s basketball game for the third straight year. Once again, nearly 90 percent of Big Ten home regular season games will be televised.
Madison businessman Winslow Sargeant seems all but certain to secure the position as federal Small Business Administration counsel to which he was nominated by President Barack Obama. And rightly so.
Itâ??s no secret farm groups in Wisconsin are in a froth over the UW-Madisonâ??s invite to Michael Pollan to visit campus.
The best-selling author of “The Omnivoreâ??s Dilemma,” Pollan has emerged as the leading critic of mainstream agriculture, factory farming and the meat-heavy diet of Americans. His call to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” has enraged cattle, pork and dairy producers nationwide — not to mention its various front groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom.
Pollan will visit Madison on Sept. 24 for a lecture at the Kohl Center. He also will participate in a panel discussion on Sept. 25 as part of the UWâ??s “Go Big Read” campus-wide book reading program where his 2008 work “In Defense of Food” will be discussed.
Yet while farm groups have openly criticized UW chancellor Biddy Martin for approving the Pollan book for the “Go Big Read” effort, Martin is also taking some behind-the-scenes heat from left-wing foodies.
University Square owner Greg Rice isnâ??t sure where to go next with the large restaurant space at the corner of West Johnson and Lake Streets.
But heâ??s grown frustrated now that Scott Acker has abandoned his plans for a sports-themed bar/restaurant to fill the 24,000 square feet of space in the mixed use development.
“So you’re an actor?” goes an old joke in both Manhattan and Hollywood. “Which restaurant?”
The image of the starving artist may be romantic, but that’s about it. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is combating uncertainty for people contemplating arts careers with a groundbreaking program called Arts Enterprise. It includes a public lecture series.
If youâ??re looking for a place to party on game day, State Street Brats is one of the best, according to Playboy magazine. The Madison bar made Playboy magazineâ??s top 10 list of the best college sports bars.
Badger fans can optimize their game-day experience and support a local high school business club with the purchase of pre-tuned earpiece radios that let users hear the play-by-play in real time with action on the field, court or ice rink.
Hawked by students in LaFollette High Schoolâ??s DECA Club as a fundraiser and a business learning experience, the headsets cost $20 and are good for the current season of Badger football games, home and away, and the home games of the menâ??s hockey and basketball teams.
UW-Madison students could not miss the gigantic hole that replaced Union South last spring, but few have any clue a new union has opened in its place.
UW-Whitewater will offer an undergraduate degree in entrepreneurship after the UW Board of Regents approved the new degree Friday.
UW-Madison is the only other school in the University of Wisconsin System to offer such a degree.
Zachary Glembin eagerly eyed the inflated plastic booth set up in the plaza of East Campus Mall, in the University Square complex.
He would be the first to step inside and make a grab for as much play money as he could hang onto in 30 seconds as it flew around in the portable wind tunnel, dubbed the Tycoon Typhoon – play money that would be exchanged for the real thing.
Wisconsin economic development gurus love to tout Madison as one of the worldâ??s rising biotech “hot spots.” But Madisonâ??s biotechnology scene gets an unflattering mention in a new report detailed in the Scientist magazine – for having some of the lowest life sciences salaries in the nation.
UW-Madison Facilities Planning and Management plans to completely phase coal out of operations in the Charter Street heating plant by 2013, soliciting public feedback at a meeting Wednesday.
The University of Wisconsin System should create seven centers to focus on cutting-edge work in areas such as nanowire manufacturing, creation of drugs from fungi and the conversion of paper mill waste into usable products, a task force report recommends.
The Research to Jobs Task Force, formed by University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly in February, proposed the emerging technology centers and other initiatives for spurring more entrepreneurial education and activity on campuses. The report will be discussed by UW System regents Thursday and Friday, said David Giroux, executive director of communications and external relations at the UW System.
As the University of Wisconsin Badgers struggled to hold off the Huskies of Northern Illinois on Saturday night, downtown businesses are struggling to survive in the continuing recession.
Madison area cable provider Charter Communications announced that it now will be offering four Big Ten Network “overflow” channels. The channels will be at 321-324 on Charterâ??s Sports View digital tier.
Having four BTN overflow channels enables viewers to see up to five BTN games at once, an uncommon occurrence but something that can happen if, for example, five Big Ten schools were holding non-conference games at the same time.
Wisconsin job seekers are used to seeing the statement that employers cannot discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, creed, disability, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, arrest record or military service, among other things, but under a bill authored by state Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, credit history would be added to the list.
The Badger Connection
….Employers looking to fill mid-career, executive-level and specialized positions have a new tool that can help connect them to University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni who meet their qualifications.
The Badger Career Network Job Alerts is a service for employers to advertise jobs via e-mail alerts to UW alumni who have signed up for the recently revamped Badger Career Network program through the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
To product designer Michael Hartzell, one of the most difficult things is telling people heâ??s jobless. Itâ??s especially true in Madison, a city long viewed as recession-proof.
“Being laid off has a real stigma attached to it,” he says. “I havenâ??t even posted it on my Facebook page yet.”
Hartzell, 40, and a father of one, lost his position recently at Pacific Cycle during a companywide reorganization. Although he knew the end was coming, it didnâ??t make it any easier. Heâ??s since found a bit of consulting work, but few firms are hiring, and competition for any full-time openings is intense.
….As the nation readies to mark Labor Day 2009, Hartzell can take some comfort knowing heâ??s not alone. Some 273,000 Wisconsin residents, or 8.7 percent, are unemployed, according to the latest figures from the Department of Workforce Development.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
Bryan Renk grew up with a family seed business, directed licensing activities at one of the worldâ??s biggest academic technology transfer organizations and has overseen a company that makes feed additives with chicken antibodies. Now heâ??s been tapped to grow the organization that represents the stateâ??s biotechnology industry.
Renk, former licensing director at WARF, was named Friday as the executive director of BioForward, which has about 250 member companies, about half of which are biotech firms.
Bryan Renk, a former licensing director at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, has been named executive director of BioForward, a Madison-based biotechnology industry association.
MADISON, Wis. — Campus-area bars are working with the Madison Police Department to prepare for the return of students for the fall semester.
Bar employees attended tavern safety training on Wednesday night in Madison to review the basics of maintaining safe and trouble-free establishments.
“We go into everything. We go into legal issues, what can happen to you; we go into capacity issues,” said Katherine Plominski, the cityâ??s alcohol policy coordinator, who used to work as a bartender herself.
MADISON (WKOW) — If you listen to Badger games on the radio you will hear less beer commercials for the first time in years. The university has ended a long-standing sponsorship agreements with MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev for Badgers sports broadcasts.
The new Loganâ??s, an upscale sports bar in the former Angelic Brew Pub space, 322 W. Johnson St., is beginning to take shape.
….Restaurant owner Jack Bendetti said he was hoping to open late this fall, in time to woo some of the University of Wisconsin football fans who flock to Madison on game days.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency safeguarding American innovation, is impeding the nationâ??s economic recovery with its unprecedented delays and hurdles in issuing patents, said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
Wisconsin would be one of the top beneficiaries of a broad reform of the patent application process on the front end and the court system on the back end. We may need a special court for patent issues. This is a complex field of human endeavor, so reform will not be easy. It may need the talent of a Harvard lawyer, such as Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold. He surely understands that we canâ??t lead in an innovation economy with a broken innovation system.
Toni Gunnison of Mount Horeb was incredulous when she learned she was the United Statesâ?? winner in Ben & Jerryâ??s international ice cream flavor contest.
“My first thought was, â??It canâ??t possibly be true.â?? I â??ve never won anything in my life,” Gunnison said.
(Gunnison is a marketing manager at the University of Wisconsin Press)
An historic plant disease that wiped out the Irish potato crop generations ago has been found in two commercial potato fields in Wisconsin.
The disease, phytophthora infestans, or late blight, has been confined to tomato plants here, so the discovery of the disease in two potato fields in two separate Wisconsin counties is raising concerns from state agriculture officials who are recommending homeowners destroy any tomato plants in their garden that show signs of late blight.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison plant pathologist Amanda Gevens
Unemployed University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates now have a new tool to find job opportunities.
The Wisconsin Alumni Association said on Wednesday that graduates can sign up to receive alerts for job openings through the Badger Career Network.
The network connects employers with 350,000 UW-Madison alumni. The service is available to Wisconsin employers and is expected to expand to companies around the country.
Issued in 1995, U.S. Patent No. 5,443,036 is titled â??Method of Exercising a Cat.â? If you move the light from a laser pointer around on the floor, it says, your cat will chase it.Thatâ??s right â?? itâ??s patented.
Yet when medical professor Janet Mertz applied for a patent on a new diagnostic test for breast cancer in 2002, she waited five years for a ruling â?? and was rejected. The hormone-based test, developed and refined for more than a dozen years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was deemed too obvious to merit patent protection.
Just such a delay doomed MatriLab Inc., a Milwaukee biotech company formed to commercialize a wound-healing gel based on technology licensed from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Backed initially by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which works to commercialize UW technologies, MatriLab won the governorâ??s business plan contest in 2006. It went belly up in 2007, five years after a patent application was filed for the gel, because no new investors would come aboard as the application languished.
As the chairman and CEO of independent film distributor Regent Releasing, Stephen Jarchow watches a lot of movies, trying to decide which ones his company should pick up and release in theaters.
He sees so many that he has a ritual â?? every morning, he gets on the treadmill for an hour and watches a movie while he exercises. His company specializes in foreign films, which is ideal; he can read the subtitles and not have to worry about the sound of the treadmill drowning anything out.
MADISON, Wis. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Capitol Lakes®, downtown Madisonâ??s only retirement community (www.retirement.org/madison), announced today that it has formed a partnership with Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) from the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison.
This is the first time that these two parties have joined forces, and it begins a long-term relationship that will serve seniors for generations to come. Together, they will expand their already extensive lifelong learning programs in downtown Madison and provide special benefits to UW alumni age 55 and above.
â??WAA has searched for and found an ideal partner in Capitol Lakes,â? says Bruce Beckman, Marketing Director for Capitol Lakes. â??Our comprehensive community offers the lifestyle and retirement options UW grads deserve in a cultural, downtown location. We look forward to inviting alumni to reexperience Madison and consider it as their retirement destination.â?
A recent analysis of the food purchased by the University of Wisconsin-Stout’s dining services found that 37 percent of its $1.58 million annual food budget goes to Wisconsin companies, according to a university news release.
The list of companies patronized by UW-Stout includes food producers and processors that have facilities in the state.
MADISON (WKOW) — You probably know U-Haul for its bargain prices.
You can rent a truck for 24 hours for only $19.95.
But 27 News Call for Action has heard from customers lately complaining about rising prices and shirking time periods during this weekend’s campus moving weekend.
“Moving is always stressful. We have everything boxed up. My wife is pregnant. It’s not a good time, a week before the move, to find out everything has been cancelled,” said U-Haul customer Brandon Dybdahl.
Dybdahl reserved a truck a month ago for 48 hours this weekend.
Everything was fine for three weeks. Then, with six days before his move, U-Haul called and said he could only rent his truck for six hours, instead of 48.
Dybdahl says U-Haul blamed busy campus move-in weekend.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison made two significant announcements over the past 24 hours related to research on campus.
First, scientists at UW-Madison have transformed stem cells into progenitors of white blood cells and into six types of mature white blood and immune cells, according to this press release. The technique works equally well with stem cells grown from an embryo and with adult pluripotent stem cells — which are derived from adult cells and have been converted to resemble embryonic stem cells.
The researchers believe this new technique could someday produce cells with “enormous potential for studying the development and treatment of disease.”
….Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Cargill have entered into a license agreement for patented canola breeding technology.
