UW-Madison is considering adding an official winter term, which officials say could help students graduate faster and bring in extra tuition dollars to campus. If approved, the term would be the first in the school?s 164-year history. Every other four-year campus in the University of Wisconsin System offers courses over winter break ? sometimes called winterim or J-term (January term).
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin wants to end it. So does Police Chief Noble Wray. So do UW-Madison officials. Even Downtown Ald. Mike Verveer, who has represented the neighborhood and its many college-aged residents for more than a decade, wishes the annual Mifflin Street block party would go away.
….The Mifflin Street party, unfortunately, seems little more than an excuse for heavy drinking, something that spiraled out of control last year when the city tried to add more structure and distractions from alcohol. There’s no easy answer. Yet it’s easy to see more limits and law enforcement are needed ? with elimination as the ultimate goal.
#UWRightNow: UW-Madison?s University Communications office will host a multimedia project to chronicle 24 hours on campus on Wednesday. A special website for the day will feature reporting, photography and video about students, faculty and research. The university community can contribute by using the Twitter hashtag #UWRightNow.
Wireless prize: Nearly 30 UW-Madison students are to compete Wednesday for more than $17,000 in prizes in the second Qualcomm Wireless Innovation Prize contest at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. Students plan to show off their smartphone apps and other wireless technology products.
Six current and former members of the Wisconsin wrestling team and coaching staff hope to earn a spot on the U.S. team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at the Olympic Team Trials in Iowa City, Iowa.
Students will likely not need to show a valid form of identification when at a polling place or registering to vote absentee for the recall elections May 8 and June 5.
UW-Madison administrators said Monday the possibility of offering courses during winter break, which could happen as soon as next January, would give students more flexibility in their college educations.
Since 2009, the number of sexual assaults reported by UW-Madison students nearly tripled. According to Assistant Dean of Students Tonya Schmidt, that increase is a good thing.
University of Wisconsin System schools saw the highest number of transfer students in a decade last year, a trend that appears to be continuing into this year, a recent report found.
Union South celebrated its first birthday Monday by unveiling a new project intended to encapsulate the timelessness of the building.
Student neighborhoods that have witnessed increased burglaries and other criminal activity could be the focus of a city program in the works to foster crime prevention among engaged citizens.
Mifflin Street resident Michael Stulka witnessed the horror of the 2011 Mifflin Street Block Party, and he wants to make sure the stabbings, beatings, sex assaults and other lawless behavior don?t happen again. ?We need to get students more actively involved and turn it around to give it a positive community direction,? he says.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is among a growing number of campuses turning to foreign agencies to recruit new students. UW-Stout is also looking at recruiting agencies to attract international students, which can cost more than $1,000 per individual. But, universities say it can also mean more revenue.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is pleased to announce a special Agriculture Education Town Hall meeting featuring Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, and Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, on Wednesday, April 18, at 12:15 p.m. at the Pioneer Farm.
Who should control mandatory student fees at UW-Madison ? administrators or students? That?s the fundamental question behind a dispute between student leaders at UW-Madison and interim Chancellor David Ward over funding the Wisconsin Union and Recreational Sports.
Student leaders asked members of the Board of Regents Friday to consider increasing avenues for communication with students system-wide.
UW-Madison students could have the opportunity to take in-person and online courses during winter break, according to an e-mail sent to the student body asking them for feedback on the idea.
When Pa Her first started at UW-Madison, her parents didn?t come with her to freshman orientation. They picked her up from campus but never saw the inside of a classroom. They didn?t know what she meant when she said she was stressed out by final exams. “My parents, they don?t speak English,” she said. “They had no idea what this university means. They know it?s a great university.” Her?s experience is common among Hmong students, a campus research team has found.
“It became very clear to us from this research project that we needed to bring Hmong parents onto campus for them to be able to see what buildings were, to see what the resources were, to find out about their son or daughter’s educational experiences first-hand,” said Alberta Gloria, a professor of counseling psychology who leads the Hmong Research Team.
The number of college students transferring into or within the University of Wisconsin System in 2010 hit its highest level in a decade, according to a new report.
Four UW-Madison faculty members have been ranked among the country?s top 300 teachers by The Princeton Review and RateMyProfessors.com.
Progress continued Thursday for construction plans to the west end of the Memorial Union terrace, as the Memorial Union Design Committee discussed the finalized budget for the project that members said should be easily met.
Madison police discussed new safety measures at this year?s Mifflin Street Block Party and the possibility of future alternative solutions at a city safety committee meeting Thursday.
The student government finance committee voted Thursday to reinstate funding for SAFEcab, a campus transportation service that provides late-night cab rides despite new difficulties in finding management for the service.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents deliberated on the challenges of balancing the quality of education and ensuring affordability and broad access to institutions for Wisconsin residents in a meeting Thursday night.
Thursday night the UW-Madison Student Services Finance Committee decided to reinstate the SAFEride Cab service after removing funding from the program two-weeks ago.
After public outcry, a UW-Madison student committee voted Thursday to restore funding for a long-standing campus service that provides free late-night cab rides for students. The Student Services Finance Committee voted March 26 to eliminate the SAFEride cab service, citing cost inefficiencies and declining use.
Many low-income adults have an intense yearning for higher education, but often have never been given a chance in life to obtain it. The purpose of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Odyssey Project, now in its 9th year, is to help people overcome obstacles and achieve those educational dreams.
This is a series of Q&As with young and up-and-coming science, health and environmental writers and reporters. They have recently hatched in the Incubators (science writing programs at schools of journalism), have even more recently fledged (graduated), and are now making their mark as wonderful new voices explaining science to the public.
Students met with Madison officials Wednesday to discuss the city budget and areas where students would like to see greater investment, such as improving safety on campus.
The University of Wisconsin?s Transportation Services is proposing a series of changes that could increase permit costs and reduce services to campus bus services and parking permits in an effort to resolve a $1 million deficit facing the department.
Madison officials and University of Wisconsin students came together Wednesday to give students a venue to voice their opinions of where the city should spend its money.
Plans for expanding the Mifflin neighborhood from a strictly student-residential area to one including commercial office buildings sparked controversy among the Plan Commission at a Wednesday night meeting.
In celebration of the University of Wisconsin Morgridge Center for Public Service?s 15th anniversary this year, a founder of a nonprofit, sustainable food organization shared his philosophy on local development in a keynote speech on campus last night.
In a living room discussion held Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius heard stories from women who have benefited from the reforms brought about by the Affordable Care Act that currently faces a federal Supreme Court challenge.
March Madness, the incredibly successful college sports event that produces hundreds of millions of dollars for the NCAA and many of its member schools, is behind us for another year. This year?s tournament proved once again there are few sports as entertaining as college basketball. Despite all the accolades lavished on the annual tourney, the NCAA leadership has been seething because a New York Times op-ed columnist, Joe Nocera, has been relentlessly questioning how the supposed ?guardian? of ?student athletes? really operates.
After returning from an extended spring break, it?s time to catch up on a couple higher education-related items.
This is a series of Q&As with young and up-and-coming science, health and environmental writers and reporters. They have recently hatched in the Incubators (science writing programs at schools of journalism), have even more recently fledged (graduated), and are now making their mark as wonderful new voices explaining science to the public.
Earlier in the semester, a musician named Stewart Francke visited our class to discuss his music and his connection with Bruce Springsteen, who sings on Francke?s song “Summer Soldier (Holler If You Hear Me).”
UW-Madison junior Jasmine Mans was recently named one of Glamour Magazine?s Top Ten College Women of 2012 for her spoken word and poetry.
UW-Madison graduate students studying the humanities have been leading educational outreach programs at Oakhill Correctional Institution since 2005. Over the past few years, those efforts have centered on a project called “Literature in Life” that has been headed by students from the university?s department of Slavic languages and literature.
The federal student loan program seemed like a great idea back in 1965: Borrow to go to college now, pay it back later when you have a job.
UW-Madison Athletic Director Barry Alvarez apologized in a letter last week for comments that a Dane County Board Supervisor said were ?mocking and belittling? to a sexual assault victim.
City planning officials approved further construction to Camp Randall Stadium and remodeling of the neighboring McClain Center student athletic facility Monday.
A recent spike of crimes in downtown Madison over the past months continued this past week as police logged a higher number of neighborhood burglaries while students were on break.
University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez apologized for comments he made about allegations surrounding former Associate Athletic Director John Chadima after a Dane County official called on him to retract his statements.
Seven University of Wisconsin System campuses pay foreign agencies to help them recruit international students, sometimes spending more than $1,000 per student, according to a State Journal survey of the 13 four-year campuses and the System?s two-year colleges. The practice of paying commissions for each recruited international student is common yet controversial. It?s banned within the U.S. but largely unregulated abroad.
The State Journal found the use of commission-based agents varies widely across the System. Some campuses, such as UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater, don’t use them. It’s far more common for a regional university to use commission-based agents than a university with a well-established foreign presence such as UW-Madison, experts say.
MADISON, Wis. — The Online News Association has awarded a University of Wisconsin-Madison student with a $20,000 scholarship. Emily Eggleston won the money for her plan to combine digital technology, journalism, and geography.
The Online News Association has awarded a University of Wisconsin-Madison student with a $20,000 scholarship.
Almost every night for the last six weeks, Lauren Anderson and several friends have gathered at midnight at Faith Community Bible Church in Madison for an informal, self-led communion service. The UW-Madison students break bread together and pray, believing the intense, focused devotional time elicits tangible results, from deeper personal connections to God to greater unity among believers. In the past, the focus of the prayers primarily was on the UW-Madison campus and the spiritual health of its students. This year, due in part to the partisan rancor in the state, the congregation broadened the focus to include the healing of relationships throughout the city and state.
Listed: UW student Jasmine Mans, University of Wisconsin.
This year?s Mifflin Street Block Party is sounding less and less like a party. City officials say there now will be no food vendors at the party to facilitate policing and lessen the draw after violence and excessive drinking at last year?s event brought calls for an end to the 42-year tradition. Among those not showing up this year will be UW-Madison Police, whose officers assisted in some past years at the annual drinkfest marking the end of the school year for UW-Madison students.
A Marshalltown High School graduate has only been studying journalism for a semester and has already made a splash.
A microchip clinic for dogs and cats was held today at the Humane Society of Portage County in honor of Brittany Zimmermann?s love for animals.
Dear Editor: This letter is submitted as a rebuttal to the recent comments by state Rep. Don Pridemore, R-Hartland, who has gone on the record as opposing divorce even in the event of an abusive spouse. It is submitted by the UW-Madison School of Social Work, Family Problems in Social Work class under the direction of class instructor Darald Hanusa. The idea advanced by Pridemore is that if you are a woman regularly being abused by your husband, you are a bad mother if you seek a divorce.
With spring break in full swing, turnout at polling places on the UW-Madison campus area was dismal ? just 1 percent at Gordon Commons, 2 percent at Memorial Library, Student Services and Porchlight, and 3 percent at the Memorial Union, Holt Commons and the Lowell Center by late Tuesday afternoon.
* Plans to open a UW-Madison office in China by mid-June are on track, university officials say. The Shanghai office will be UW-Madison?s first foreign outpost, and officials are planning a conference on innovation to coincide with the opening.
* Institutions honored for service work: Edgewood College, Madison Area Technical College and UW-Madison all landed on the President?s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which recognizes colleges and universities for community service work.
MADISON, Wis. — Four years later, Madison police are still looking for answers in a killing that rocked the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Police are still trying to find Brittany Zimmermann?s killer.
She was a spirited and lively woman who wanted to be a physician. A dean?s list honoree, she was majoring in medical microbiology and immunology at UW-Madison. Engaged to a fellow student, she was looking forward to being married and having children. Her random murder on April 2, 2008, in her campus-area apartment, would add to a growing Madison homicide count, the most Madison police had seen in decades.
Quoted: Eliott Nardi, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of the ODPhi chapter there
The text message from Danny O?Brien over the weekend was short, sweet and crammed with humility. How does one obtain a college degree in three years all while playing a major role in an ultra-demanding sport? “Nothing special,” he wrote. “Just work and focus.”
A UW-Madison student committee is reconsidering the possible elimination of a long-standing campus service that provides late-night cab rides for stranded students.
