It sounds like the setup for a dull economist’s joke. Who gets the better deal: the cautious economist who sells his house through a real estate agent, or his risk-taking colleague who finds a buyer on his own?
Two Northwestern University economists used Madison’s real estate market to find the answer.
The UW System Board of Regents today approved new rules designed to eliminate ties between private lenders and campus financial aid officials.
Among other things, the rules bar campuses from accepting payments from companies offering student loans. They also prohibit UW employees from receiving compensation for serving on company advisory boards.
The regents approved the rules with no discussion today during their meeting at UW-Milwaukee.
More than 300 hulking, refrigerator-size “graffiti magnets” could soon sprout in Madison yards if state lawmakers pass a controversial cable TV deregulation bill, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is warning.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton.
The Internet world is overflowing with entrepreneurs these days but few local start-ups have made a quicker splash than Anthony David Adams.
Armed with little more than a laptop computer and a concept, Adams has created a national buzz over his Madison-based company CreditCovers.
Steve Schroeder has been director of the Business Career Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the past year and a half. The center serves undergrad business students as well as students in the five-year professional accounting program and master’s candidates in actuarial science and quantitative finance. The majority of Madison undergradsâ??78%â??find jobs in the Midwest following graduation, with the top sectors being accounting, financial services, merchandising, investment banking, and real estate and appraisal.
Schroeder spoke to BusinessWeek.com reporter Janie Ho. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.
Click through the Internet profiles of attorneys at Madison law firms and a clear picture emerges: white face after white face fill the rosters.
The scenario is different, but not much, at the Milwaukee offices of those same firms. Local law firms say that in recent years they have actively recruited minority attorneys — in state among graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School and Marquette University Law School — as well as nationally.
But even as Wisconsin’s top firms woo minority attorneys, they are leaving the firms during the years young attorneys traditionally have been expected to hustle to make partner.
In an effort to curb drunken fan behavior, the owners of Jordan’s Big Ten Pub must keep 10 off-duty Dane County Sheriff deputies on the premises to monitor its beer garden on UW home football game days this season.
Under a deal approved by the Plan Commission Monday night, the Big Ten Pub agreed to update its conditional use permit for serving alcohol outdoors on football Saturdays. Rules include hiring three more deputies in addition to the current seven, keeping food available in the beer garden and meeting annually with staff to go over safety concerns.
There were plenty of smiling faces around town after Madison-based medical equipment maker TomoTherapy made its initial public stock offering.
Not only was it a home run for the local tech economy, it was a grand slam for those lucky enough to get in on the ground floor.
Among the early investors was UW Board of Regents president and private attorney David Walsh….
Officials from the PGA Tour will be in Madison next week to look at University Ridge and other area golf courses that potentially could host a Nationwide Tour event here starting in 2008.
“They definitely want to bring the event to Madison,” University Ridge director of golf Mike Urben said.
Urben said the Tour officials plan to visit the Ridge with University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez and associate athletic director John Chadima on June 12.
American Transmission Co.’s Mark Williamson announced last week that his power line firm rejects the notion that a new east-west transmission line could be built underground along the Beltline.
….Because the UW’s Arboretum stretches along the north side of the Beltline, the overhead route would have to run south of the highway. The amount of room there, especially since reconstruction of the frontage road, is minimal at best. Go look for yourself. It’s easy to see why Department of Transportation staff is deeply concerned….
Devon Disrude and Erik Tomter work in the small Madison office of Chicago-based Navteq, a publicly traded company that compiles the nuts-and-bolts data that power online mapping services like MapQuest, Google Maps and the navigation systems for BMW.
This week, UW-Madison employees are marking the 100th anniversary of the campus experiment that started a century of vitamin research. On May 31, 1907, agriculture chemist Stephen Babcock launched an investigation on dairy cows called the Single Grain Feeding Study, a bland title that belies its revolutionary impact.
DODGEVILLE — Within minutes of starting her workday, Dr. Amy Robinson plunges her left arm into a cow’s rectum to determine on which side of the bovine’s uterus she will place a frozen embryo.
As a large animal veterinarian in rural Wisconsin, this task is not unusual, and Robinson, 32, goes about it with the matter-of-factness of an accountant creating a spreadsheet.
The two consumer groups that successfully challenged three, broad stem cell patents held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing arm said that it will make a “substantive response” to the university group’s defense of the patents.
Acting on re-examination requests by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the Public Patent Foundation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in early April rejected all claims on three patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. WARF had two months to respond.
(MADISON) The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation or WARF is challenging the federal governmentâ??s preliminary rejection of three stem cell patents. In April, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced it would throw out the patents because discoveries made by University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson were â??obvious,â? given earlier research. (Fifth item.)
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz wants an independent study of the feasibility of burying a portion of a controversial power line that could run along the Beltline.
American Transmission Co. on Wednesday announced preliminary results of its study of the issue, calling it “impractical” because part of the line would have to run through city neighborhoods and because of the huge costs of underground vs. overhead lines.
….Opponents of running the line overhead along the Beltline are concerned about impacts on the UW Arboretum, local businesses and neighborhoods. The line also has opposition from those who say it isn’t needed.
The Milwaukee region, once known as the “machine shop to the world,” must remake itself as the industrial “design shop of the world” if it is to compete in a landscape transformed by global economic forces, civic leaders said Wednesday in unveiling the Milwaukee 7s strategic economic plan.
The report by the seven-county economic development group said southeastern Wisconsins future hinges on its engineering talent, research-and-development capacity, its universities and its collective impulse to generate products and ideas.
Constructing a portion of a controversial power line underground along the Beltline Highway is “impractical” and will not be recommended, American Transmission Co. said today in announcing results of an undergrounding study.
Running part of the proposed Rockdale-West Middleton line along the Beltline is part of one of three potential routes for the controversial 345-kilovolt line, which ATC says is needed to meet growing electrical demand in the area.
….Part of the problem with undergrounding is that the locations identified as the most feasible include routes off the Beltline on city streets and frontage roads, rather than directly adjacent to the highway, ATC said.
Quoted: Jim Seward, director of the UW’s Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance.
Kevin Price, 34, has a doctorate in political science from UW-Madison and worked a couple years for Merrill Lynch.
Just two years after inventing a better keg tap for the stadium market, Matthew Younkle knows it’s time to expand.
Already, the inventor of TurboTap — a nozzle that attaches to beer kegs and delivers a pour with the right amount of foam in less than three seconds — claims to own leases in 30 percent of the U.S. professional stadium market.
“While the stadium market is big and profitable, it only represents a small fraction of beer taps in circulation,” said Younkle, 32, who created a prototype of the product for an investor’s competition in his senior year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
TomoTherapy – the Madison medical equipment company that began selling its stock publicly earlier this month – has opened a training center at its Far West Side headquarters and is about to open a one in Europe.
A new corporate emphasis on a “triple bottom line” is leading to new and varied jobs for University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates, a trend that is expected to grow rapidly.
“The traditional bottom line is that a company has to perform well financially, but now that company has to have a good environmental performance and a good social responsibility record as well,” said Dan Anderson, a professor in the UW School of Business who also teaches at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Dear Editor:
….I have seen firsthand how for-profit business infiltrates academic medicine, to the point where many faculty at the medical school receive tens of thousands of dollars in “consulting” fees from medical industry, for a few hours of time each year. Our new medical school even has corporate names and logos at the entrances to our lecture halls.
….It is time that the UW, with a rich history of integrity and commitment to the public good, follows other universities and bans such compromising industrial ties. Wisconsin deserves more, and we need to lead by setting a more socially responsible example.
Quoted: Daniel Sokol, a University of Wisconsin professor.
The UW-Madison School of Business has been ranked 13th in the U.S. and 26th in the world in the Financial Times’ annual list of executive education providers, up from 14th in the U.S. and 28th in the world last year.
The University of Wisconsin System has responded appropriately to one of the ugliest scandals to break out in higher education: the revelation that private lenders have cultivated cozy relationships with campus financial aid officials in order to take advantage of students.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin School of Business takes top honors again.
The school made the Financial Times annual list of the world’s top executive education providers for the third straight year.
The UW ranked no. 13 in the U.S. and no. 26 in the world in the publication’s overall ranking.
(UNDATED) As thousands of college graduates try to enter the labor force this summer, it may help some candidates to have a background in environmental sustainability.
Home Depot is one of the companies that says itâ??s now taking a long view of the environment and following some sustainable policies and practices. Unless the corporations are engaging in false environmental image- making, known as â??greenwashing,â? the switch could be good news for college grads with experience in energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and certain other fields.
Tom Eggert teaches classes on business and sustainability at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He says the green building movement is another area seeking educated workers. This is not something coming from the industry itself, he says, but rather comes from the people who are having these buildings built or deciding to go in a way that would be aligned with being energy efficient or aligned with indoor air quality. (Final item.)
Wisconsinites have an opportunity to shape the future of agriculture policies affecting the lives of rural and urban dwellers alike.
This message opened the Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin Conference this morning at Monona Terrace. Speakers urged farmers, policy makers and agriculture advocates to use research and recommendations presented at the event to shape a public private partnership to address challenges.
“If you’re looking for slick, that ain’t us, folks,” said Steve Stevenson of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This is an effort to bring people to the table to look at what it will be like five, 10, 15 years down the road.”
A Madison stem cell start-up company will get a $1 million boost from the state, Gov. Jim Doyle announced this morning.
Top University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Gabriela Cezar co-founded Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. in November with Beth Donley, the former executive director of WiCell, the stem cell subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
With the aid of two WARF stem cell patents, the company is developing ways to help drug manufacturers screen drugs for toxicity. The aim is to save millions of dollars in drug development costs by developing a library of biomarkers that discover toxins in the early stages of pharmaceutical development.
Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. will receive $1 million in loans and grants from the state, Gov. Jim Doyle will announce today.
The Madison company was founded in November by a former top executive at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patenting arm and a high-profile UW scientist. It is the third company started in the state that uses embryonic stem cells.
MADISON, Wis. — College graduation is just around the corner and that means the job search is on.
This year, some experts said that there are some good job prospects for graduates in a relatively new sector of the business world called sustainable business, WISC-TV reported.
Sustainable business is a growing area and nonprofit organizations are finding ways to become more environmentally and socially responsible.
University of Wisconsin senior Julia Glad and others like her are signing on with companies committed to helping others. Glad is currently working for Envest, a local financial company that she’s helping launch. She will eventually provide loans to poor individuals in developing nations like Nicaragua, WISC-TV reported.
“Often they are small families or moms who are looking for ways to send their children to school,” said Glad. “With these small loans, individuals have the opportunity to pursue other jobs or careers beyond things like slash and burn farming, which have a really negative effect on the environment.”
UW business professor Tom Eggert said that companies like Envest are part of a growing trend.
Last year, a Seattle-based technology firm was exploring the possibility of expanding operations to Madison, with the potential of bringing hundreds of private sector jobs into the central city.
After it met in closed session last Thursday, UW-Madisonâ??s Labor Licensing Policy Committee has come to an agreement regarding the universityâ??s contract with Adidas and the Hermosa factory situation.
Investors warmly welcomed TomoTherapy’s entrance onto Wall Street on Wednesday.
Shares of the Madison medical equipment manufacturer opened at $24 on the Nasdaq market under the symbol TTPY. That was 26 percent higher than the initial public offering price of $19 a share, which was already up from the estimated $15 to $17 price range when the registration was filed in February.
Citizen involvement has been an underpinning of the two-year Future of Farming and Rural Life in Wisconsin Project. People from around the state had a hand in fashioning the list of recommendations released last week and featured on the front page of The Capital Times.
The recommendations — essentially action steps offered to policymakers, community leaders and interested citizens — will be discussed at the statewide Future of Farming and Rural Life conference May 14-15 at Monona Terrace. Information on registration is available on the project Web site. A report this summer will include the final recommendations.
TomoTherapy Inc. made a big splash today in its debut as a public company.
Even after adding shares and pricing above the previously set range of its initial public offering of stock, the Madison-based maker of cancer treatment systems (and UW-Madison spin-off) opened up about 25 percent as it launched on Nasdaq under the symbol “TTPY.”
With caps and gowns in sight, graduates of the University of Wisconsinâ??s senior class will look to find their place in the professional working world.
Memo to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:
As you consider where to build a $400-million federal laboratory to conduct research to fight animal and human diseases, you should be aware of the public support for putting the lab in Dane County.
The Sundance Kid welcomed everyone to Madison’s newest theater Sunday night. Only he did it by proxy, through Paul Richardson, president and CEO of Sundance Cinemas.
….About 600 people dressed in black and white, the evening’s theme, got a sneak preview of the six-screen theater and restaurant complex Sunday night in a sold-out fundraiser for the Chazen Museum of Art, complete with tours, wine, hors d’oeuvres and music from the UW Jazz Trio.
The California-based group challenging the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s stem cell patents wants WARF managing director Carl Gulbrandsen to step down from a U.S. Patent Public Advisory Committee until the case is settled.
Gulbrandsen was appointed in 2005 as one of 12 members of the committee, which advises the patent office on matters of administration, policy and budget. Another 12-member panel advises the government on trademark issues.
The aging Charter Street Power Plant in the heart of the UW-Madison campus has become a lightning rod for environmentalists looking to reduce the state’s reliance on coal-burning and its growing global warming footprint.
Wisconsin’s greenhouse gas emissions grew at a faster rate than the national average during the 1990s, jumping 26 percent compared to 20 percent nationally. About 70 percent of the state’s electricity is generated by coal burning, with at least three new coal-fired power plants in the works here.
To address the pollution issue, the Sierra Club on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing the university and state of violating the Federal Clean Air Act.
The Sierra Club officially filed a lawsuit against the UW-Madison Wednesday, alleging the universityâ??s Charter Street Power Plant has continually violated the Clean Air Act.
An environmental watchdog group filed a lawsuit Thursday against the University of Wisconsin, citing violations of pollution standards with the campusâ?? coal plant.
The University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Business is just two hours from Chicago, an appealing draw for students who want to secure a job in the Windy City. Couple the location with the school’s innovative MBA specialization programâ??where students pick a concentration before they enter schoolâ??and the school is an ideal fit for many driven students from the Midwest.
“Students don’t have to know exactly what they want to do in life, but they need to be fairly sure how they want to start out,” said Blair Sanford, director of career services.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision could make it more difficult for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation to defend existing stem cell patents that are now being challenged by two national groups and patent experts.
Testifying before a state legislative committee Wednesday, University of Wisconsin System officials said that a multimillion-dollar software project derailed last year due to insufficient planning, nonstandard business practices and poor communication.
A United States Supreme Court decision Monday may have a negative impact on a pending case against three of the University of Wisconsinâ??s embryonic stem cell patents.
Itâ??s a bright Monday morning in the town of Dunn, warm but windy. The sun shimmers on the surface of Lake Kegonsa in the distance and on the hoods of a stream of cars being parked along the shoulder of Schneider Road.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials will visit Dane County today to review a possible site in the town of Dunn for a federal animal disease research facility.
The first-ever Wiscontrepreneur Challenge provided students $10 each to buy materials from a university second-hand store and allotted them 100 hours to turn those scraps into marketable inventions. Twelve teams entered the competition, creating a range of innovations that include a hand-cranking portable power generator and a designer belt-buckle made out of an old cassette tape.
The value of a University of Wisconsin education â?? for students and for the state â?? is huge.
Consider this year’s six distinguished UW-Madison alumni award winners, what they’ve achieved and what they’ve given back:
Joshua Steinberg knows what he’s going to do when he graduates from UW-Madison in May with a bachelor’s degree in communication arts. He’s going to take a nice, relaxing summer vacation – without having to worry about looking for a job.
CHRISTOPHER SCHMIDT, Owner/landscape designer, C & J Natural Landscaping: I graduated from the UW-Madison Business School with degrees in management, human resources and marketing. I knew I wanted to start my own business, so I purposely avoided interviews my senior year.
The 1980s.
It’s when Steve Weinswig walked the halls of Memorial High School and later the campus of UW-Madison all without an iPod, cell phone or laptop computer.
Dear Editor: Although panhandling has been a consistent issue in Madison, it’s time to end it for good.
I am a 21-year-old college student working and living downtown. Being a victim of panhandlers has become a natural part of my life, and I’m sick of this being OK.
No date has been set, but TomoTherapy’s initial public offering of stock could be drawing near.
The Madison-based tech company on Thursday filed an amended registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that it could raise up to $213 million in its IPO. The company has applied to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “TTPY.”
TomoTherapy says its “Hi-Art” cancer treatment system precisely delivers radiation with sub-millimeter accuracy to kill cancer cells while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
Kendl Friedman knows she’s enjoying a lavish lifestyle, at least by college standards.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison freshman has a big bedroom, a private fitness room and even the availability of a personal trainer at her home at the University House Statesider, 505 N. Frances St.
From this experience, she’s become a discerning shopper.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, along with other Labor Licensing Policy Committee members, gathered Wednesday in Bascom Hall to hear findings from Special Assistant to the Chancellor Dawn Crimâ??s recent trip to El Salvador to investigate the Hermosa factory situation.
