A driver convicted of fleeing from police, crashing into another car and killing a college student, was to find out his sentence on Thursday. A judge was set to sentence Johnny Jones in a Milwaukee County courtroom in the case of Shanica Adkins? death.
Ever wonder what students at UW-Madison are working on these days? Sue Robinson — an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication — emailed me a note last week highlighting the work of those in her Intermediate Reporting (Journalism 335) class. For the students? final project, they worked collaboratively to launch a website about education in the state called edUtopia Wisconsin.
UW-Madison may have a reputation as a party school, but its students are some of the most studious in the country, according to a story in the Washington Post. Freshman at UW-Madison study on average 20 hours a week, while seniors study 18 hours a week. That compares to a weekly average of 15 hours nationally, according to the story. The author, Daniel de Vise, notes that?s more than any other public university in the country that he found.
Democratic hopes for toppling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in next month?s recall election may hinge on a strong turnout from young voters, who came out in heavy numbers for President Barack Obama in 2008 but were less active when Walker was elected two years later. Both sides of the June 5 recall pitting Walker against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett are focused on get-out-the-vote efforts because of a low number of undecided voters. But tapping into college-aged voters, traditionally a strong well of support for Democrats, is proving difficult because of a new law making it tougher for those students to cast ballots and the fact that many will have left college campuses for the summer by election time.
….Republicans also have an aggressive campaign to get necessary information to college voters, said Jeff Snow, chairman of the UW-Madison College Republicans. “I think students are pretty aware and I think that Gov. Walker will do very well among student voters,” said Snow, a 20-year-old entering his junior year. “This has been a pretty historic couple of years in the state of Wisconsin politically.”
Its a classic case of virality. Someone takes a picture of a good joke between friends and posts it on Facebook. The jokes so good, so funny, or so topical that Facebook users pass it around and eventually one of them shares it with Reddit or in this case Buzzfeed and voilà: a meme is born. In the instance of David Coppinis business card pictured above which is themed after Carly Rae Jepsens viral pop hit “Call Me Maybe”, it made a leap few memes do: it went IRL Internet-speak for “In Real Life”.
A story in today?s Post talks about a generational decline in study time, the number of weekly hours college students devote to actual study. Since the 1960s, the weekly total has dipped from 24 to about 15. College has become, in effect, a part-time job.
Madison police said that they believe “there were multiple guns present” during a weekend shooting that injured at least three people early Saturday morning on University Avenue near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam described an early-morning shooting near campus on the eve of graduation last weekend as “unsettling.” She said she spoke to a number of students at graduation who were nearby at the time of the shooting on the 600 block of University Avenue.”They were pretty shaken,” she said. “The sentiment was like ?well, it?s not something you expect to happen in Madison.?”
University alumni groups have always eagerly welcomed new grads to their loyal ranks.
But as a stagnant economy and state funding cutbacks up the ante for private fundraising to boost financial aid, development offices and foundations for public institutions are taking a page from private schools that long have connected with potential donors before they even graduate.
How do you teach middle-schoolers about compassion? Create a video game about it, of course. That?s the thinking, anyway, behind a new study at UW-Madison. With a $1.39 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UW-Madison researchers will develop and test two educational games to help eighth-graders develop empathy, cooperation, mental focus and self-regulation.
An 18-year-old Memorial High School student was grazed on the side of his head by a bullet in a shooting early Saturday outside two University Avenue bars that also injured at least two other people. Arlene Kennedy said Monday that Jamar Morris, who is living with her husband, Jim, was “incredibly lucky.”
“He had a guardian angel watching over him,” she said. “He was a totally innocent bystander. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was the keynote speaker at her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison yesterday.
On the day of the recall primary election, Democratic candidates Kathleen Falk and Tom Barrett both made stops at the UW-Madison campus, shaking hands, telling them about the election, and encouraging students to vote.
At UW-Madison, the official document notifying professors and students of when classes start and end is called the academic calendar. It also lists special dates such as when commencement exercises are held, when breaks occur and when exam weeks begin. For years, this calendar has included some of the more well-known religious holidays ? Rosh Hashanah, Good Friday, Ramadan ? so that professors and administrators can avoid scheduling exams or staff meetings on those days. That tradition has now ended; all references to specific religious holidays will be deleted from the calendar.
Three victims were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by gunfire outside of two bars near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus early Saturday morning, police said. Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, said police told him that at least a half-dozen gunshots were fired outside Segredo and Johnny O?s, on the 600 block of University Avenue, shortly after 1 a.m.
Hey, can you give a well-intentioned college kid a ride? Or, more to the point, can you help pay for the ride that kid needs to do much-needed volunteer work in our community? It?s well documented that volunteerism is one of the important civic threads that bind our community together. What isn?t so well known is that an important piece of that volunteer corps resides on the UW-Madison campus. And many hundreds of those college student volunteers could use a lift. Literally.
A Monona teen may be the youngest to walk across the Kohl Center stage and receive her bachelor?s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Less than three weeks after her 16th birthday, Serra Crawford graduated Sunday. Serra says she just enjoys learning. The UW-Madison registrar?s office says Serra is the youngest graduate since 1978, the year records began to be searchable.
A few years ago I was invited to give a commencement speech for Edgewood College graduates. I wasnt invited back. In fact, I was never again asked to give a commencement speech anywhere. I guess word got around.But on Saturday night, I did give a “keynote address” to the graduates of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UW-Madison. Not officially a “commencement speech” and I didnt get to wear a robe or anything, but still close enough. So, I adapted my Edgewood address for that audience.
MADISON (WKOW) — As many seniors get ready to walk the stage this weekend, one graduating senior from UW-Madison is preparing for the longest bike ride of his life. To raise awareness for Parkinson?s disease, Donald Malchow is biking from St. Mary?s Hospital in Madison to St. Mary?s Health Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Russian government is set to pay for up to 2,000 of its students per year to attend top universities elsewhere around the world in an effort to produce more scientists and bolster global research collaborations, Nature is reporting. Students who take advantage of the scholarships, however, will be required to return to Russia to work. Ken Cutts, the recruitment and media services manager for UW-Madison?s Office of Admissions, says he isn?t expecting a significant influx of these students and isn?t aware of any plans by the university to lure Russians to town. UW-Madison?s 2011-12 fall enrollment report indicates there were 37 students from Russia, including 13 undergraduates, attending the university.
Our discussion in class about the influence of both the media and particular people in the media on people in terms of voting really had me thinking about a whole realm of things.
Enrollment of American Indian students in the University of Wisconsin system jumped 50 percent in four years, according to the latest available figures, but graduation and retention rates are well behind the general student population.
Rebekah LaFontant will graduate Sunday from Brandeis University. ?It?s kind of bittersweet,?? the New York City native said earlier this week. ?Brandeis is a bubble – it shields you from the real world. Once I leave, I?ll be a real adult.??
University of Wisconsin System officials say more Native Americans are going to college. Their retention and graduation rates however, lag behind the overall student population.
Noted: She has decided to leave the classroom, and is entering the Ph.D. program in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall.
The voter ID law passed last spring by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature was widely criticized for requiring that voters show a driver?s license or other form of photo identification at the polls. These provisions are now under two court injunctions by judges who found that the photo ID requirements likely discriminate against minorities, the poor and the elderly.
Just down the hall from the reference desk at Emory University?s law library in a room housing antique legal texts is Stanley the golden retriever puppy, barking his head off.
Madison lost one of its saints last month. Not that the Rev. Ed Beers would have described himself as a saint. Nor does Madison exactly have a civic category for sainthood. But for a lifetime, Beers moved between the worlds of sacred and secular, leaving both of them better off for his presence. As a campus minister based at Pres House on State Street in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he breathed in the tear gas of the anti-war clashes. He served as a bridge between students and university administrators. He helped students navigate their way through that turbulent period. In the process, he helped redefine the way religious groups went about serving students and faculty in campus settings.
Spring is here! The birds are chirping, the grass is growing, car horns are blaring and tempers are rising all over the UW-Madison campus. Why? It?s move-out time. This annual rite of spring is like a campus tsunami, with 7,000 students juggling finals and moving boxes at the same time. Add in thousands of family members and friends heading to commencements Friday through Sunday at the Kohl Center, across Dayton Street from the southeast campus complex of dorms, and you can understand why this should be called May Madness.
UW-Madison professor Gloria Ladson-Billings is one of seven education heavyweights from across the country named to a panel that?s designed to accelerate and advise on efforts to close achievement gaps at schools in the United States. The NEA Foundation on Tuesday announced the scholars and practitioners who would serve as the inaugural cohort of its Senior Fellows Advisory Group. Dawn Crim, the School of Education?s associate dean for external relations, says Ladson-Billings and others within UW-Madison continue to work with the Madison schools on a range of issues -? including closing the achievement gap.
Why do we view a K-12 education as so important that we require it and offer it free of charge, but in an increasingly competitive world, we are making it harder to go beyond high school?
UW-Madison alum Carol Bartz, former chief executive of Yahoo!, will be the commencement speaker at the university?s four graduation ceremonies Saturday and Sunday at the Kohl Center. Bartz, who received her degree in computer science, told UW officials that she missed her own graduation ceremony here in 1971, but will enjoy marking graduation with the class of 2012 instead.
As UW-Madison students prepare for their final week of the semester, its also Move Out Week for students in the dorms.
The UW-Madison student unions will stay open until 3 a.m. on four consecutive days so students can use the unions to study for final exams.
UW-Madison students on both sides of the political aisle are making a push to inform classmates of a change in state law that has the potential to prove troublesome to those planning to vote in next month?s recall elections. Under the state?s voter ID law that was enacted last year, one has to establish residency at a given address for 28 days in order to vote from that location. So with UW-Madison?s final exams under way this week — while the showdown between Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is set for June 5 ?- students heading out of town for a different summer residence will not meet the 28-day requirement.
Eliminating loans isn?t an option at most public universities. Substantial state funding cuts are forcing public schools to depend more heavily on tuition payments to cover operating costs. “We just don?t have the fiscal means to eliminate debt,” says Susan Fischer, financial aid director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where students graduated with an average debt of $24,140 in 2011.
Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents. Her mother, who co-signed on the loans, is taking out a life insurance policy on her daughter.
Student parents at the University of Wisconsin have access to programs and services to help them balance the challenges of parenthood with their academic endeavors, but some student parents have said they have trouble at the school.
Seniors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are preparing for graduation. With the economy slowly improving, we checked out the job outlook for them.
Regarding the recent assertion by Rep. Don Pridemore, R-Hartford, that domestic violence victims should not divorce their abusive partners, graduate students in my family problems in social work class composed this rebuttal.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, the charismatic science educator and face of space who was once hailed as the ?sexiest astrophysicist alive? by People magazine, urges graduating college students to aspire to change the world. Tyson delivered the keynote speech at UW-Madison?s inaugural Senior Day celebration Thursday afternoon on the Memorial Union Terrace.
It?s easy to forget that Montee Ball wasn?t the Badgers? featured back at the beginning of the 2011 season. Heck, more fans probably saw him as a true No. 2 than a true No. 1. To be fair, the lightning-quick James White?reigning Big Ten freshman of the year?was a pretty good bet in August.
Late next week, thousands of seniors will graduate from UW-Madison. But for Serra Crawford, this is an especially big triumph as she walks across stage to receive her diploma at only 16 years old.
Students from a UW-Madison program designed to kick-start higher education for economically disadvantaged adults gathered at the Memorial Union Wednesday to celebrate their graduation with a full room of family and friends.
Students, faculty and staff from throughout the UW System presented to a state legislative task force on UW restructuring Wednesday, outlining their hopes for the future of the system.
City officials met with Mayor Paul Soglin at a closed meeting Wednesday to determine how the results of this year?s Mifflin Street Block Party will affect the event in the future.
After receiving pressure from student representatives at the public forum held last week to discuss proposed changes to the Madison bus system, Madison Metro Transit System opened up its second meeting Wednesday night to student input.
After University of Wisconsin System students testified on both advisory boards and tuition increases, a special task force recommended all institutions in the UW System develop advisory boards with Board of Regents members.
?I don?t think there?s any other issue where there?s as big a difference in opinion between those under 30 and those over 65,? says University of Wisconsin pollster Charles Franklin, currently a visiting professor at Marquette Law School. In fact, despite aggressively pushing their agenda in many other policy arenas, state Republicans made no attempt during this past legislative session to pass anti-gay legislation. The domestic partnership registry that Democrats created in 2009 was left in tact. However, Franklin points to a serious problem with championing an issue that resonates most with the youth: ?Even if you motivate younger voters, you?re motivating the segment of the electorate that has the lowest voter turnout,? he said.
Two months ago, after hearing of the passing of his Cardinal colleague, New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, ESPN?s Andy Katz tweeted the following: ?To all those aspiring college journalists. Value the time at the campus newspaper. We had an amazing Cardinal staff. Lifetime of memories.? To the Cardinalistas who made my college experience the adventure I dreamed it would be, I offer my most gracious admiration and love. I hope I have touched your lives in the same way you have mine, and though I am ready to see what the next chapter of my life holds, I doubt I will ever find a group of people as clever and kind as you guys and gals. Thank you all so much, and keep on sifting and winnowing.
One year after opening, Union South was named ?Best in Show? of 30 top Wisconsin building projects at an annual awards show for the state?s construction industry Wednesday. The Daily Reporter, a Wisconsin construction industry periodical, honored the 276,664-square-foot building for its design and multi-purpose spaces. It shares the award with Marquette University?s Engineering Hall. The honor also recognized Union South for student involvement in planning its design.
The iPhone theft craze continued early Sunday morning on West Gorham Street. Madison police said a 20-year-old UW-Madison student had his iPhone stolen while he was texting and sitting on steps outside an apartment building in the 400 block of West Gorham Street.
President Barack Obama talked to students and politicians across the country, including Mayor Paul Soglin and Associated Students of Madison leaders, about the importance of managing federal student loan interest rates on a White House conference call Monday.
With finals week fast approaching, many UW-Madison students will experience stress associated with the pressure to perform well on exams, an unfortunate reality considering the fact that everyone is extremely burnt out from school around this time. Therefore, university students should acknowledge the importance of stress relief options during finals week. I believe that one particular idea, allowing students to interact with dogs as a means to curtail stress levels, is an excellent idea.
Among the sweeping changes made to Wisconsin?s political landscape over the last year was the choice to make voting more difficult under the guise of preventing voter fraud. The voter identification requirement of Act 23 has been widely debated and is now suspended by judicial order. The reason for this suspension is that the law was unfair to the 220,000 or so adult state residents without a driver?s license, who are disproportionately poor, elderly and minority. Receiving less attention was the alteration in our residency requirement, which changed from 10 days to 28 days.
UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam, who gained viral fame for telling students not to attend the Mifflin Street Block Party, said Monday this year?s party was safer than the last, though she is still concerned about the event.
In the weeks leading up to former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz?s speech at commencement, senior class officials and the university have disagreed over the process for selecting future commencement speakers.
This year?s block party resulted in fewer violent crimes this year, but more arrests, according to a report from MPD after the event.
Most University of Wisconsin students view education as their ticket into the job market, with a career beginning just after they obtain their degree. But others are choosing to get a head-start on life outside of college by taking advantage of opportunities found on campus ? by becoming student entrepreneurs.
Most University of Wisconsin students view education as their ticket into the job market, with a career beginning just after they obtain their degree. But others are choosing to get a head-start on life outside of college by taking advantage of opportunities found on campus ? by becoming student entrepreneurs.
