Law schools, once viewed as a guaranteed path to a high-paying career, are coming under fire as disillusioned graduates find a tighter job market than they say they were led to expect. The American Bar Association, which accredits law schools, acknowledges such concerns.
We have some breaking news folks …UW-Madison is a hotbed of liberalism.
CampusReform.org put out a press release Monday which notes it recently “completed an in-depth profile of the political climate at the University of Wisconsin as part of an ongoing project to research the nation?s top 100 universities. The research shows liberal political bias at the University of Wisconsin based on the school?s faculty, student organizations, and administrative policies.”
Some new and returning UW-Madison students will find themselves in freshly-renovated dorms this week when they move into their new home for the school year. But driving near campus this week will not be for the timid or quick-tempered, as construction continues to snarl traffic and promises to add to the move-in congestion. About 6,500 students will move into dorms, mostly on Friday and Saturday, although around 1,300 students have permission to move in on Wednesday because they have campus jobs and need to be trained.
Forget chess club. College students today are attracted to clubs with activities that are more innovative ? maybe even downright wacky. College experts say students who participate in extracurricular activities are more engaged in the college experience, and benefits can be seen both in and outside the classroom. Students who participate in co-curricular activities study more, have higher GPAs and are more satisfied with their social lives, says Kevin Kruger of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. David Bebeau, 20, founded the Humans vs. Zombies club at the University of Wisconsin in 2009. As many as 300 students play the week-long game that goes on 24/7. Bebeau says the club brings together a diverse group of students who wouldn?t otherwise interact.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has agreed to a new, more lucrative contract with Adidas America Inc. The five-year contract approved by the university?s Board of Regents on Friday extends the existing agreement through 2016. Under the deal, Adidas will continue to supply Wisconsin?s 23 athletic teams with equipment, apparel and footwear.
….Ultrinsic, an Internet-based company, is offering students at 36 college campuses ? including those who attend UW-Madison ? the chance to bet on whether or not they?ll earn a certain grade in a given course. The company is promoting itself as a virtual kick in the butt that can help motivate students who might require a little added incentive to get off the couch and into the library.
….At this point, not many administrators, professors or students at UW-Madison appear to know about Ultrinsic. Aaron Brower, UW-Madison?s vice provost for teaching and learning, e-mailed to say he knew nothing about the company. But after glancing at a few newspaper articles about the website, he noted that the company ?trivializes what college should be about ? learning ? for the sake of grades.?
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Thursday approved a budget request that includes $77 million from a variety of sources to build an athletic performance center. The request, which comes just five years after a $109.5-million expansion of Camp Randall Stadium, does not involve any tax dollars. It must be approved by the Legislature next year before it takes effect.
Choosing health insurance coverage could be one of the most important decisions you?ll make. Without adequate health insurance, an accident or serious illness could saddle you with thousands of dollars in medical bills and force you to drop out of school. And even if you think you?re invincible, you may not have a choice: 30% of colleges and universities require students to have health insurance as a condition of enrollment, according to a 2008 study by the Government Accountability Office.
Average scores on the ACT college entrance exam inched downward this year, yet slightly more students who took the test proved to be prepared for college, according to a report released Wednesday. The findings sound contradictory. But the exam?s authors point to a growing and more diverse group of test-takers ? many are likely scoring lower overall, but more are also meeting benchmarks used to measure college readiness.
Wisconsin?s financial aid programs need more money and more clarity. That was the message that a special legislative committee heard Tuesday as it started a review of Wisconsin?s grant and loan programs for college students. UW-Madison financial aid researcher Sara Goldrick-Rab says there is so much uncertainty around aid programs that students can?t count on them.
The University of Wisconsin welcomed a group of elite athletes from China on Monday.The nine athletes, many of whom have won Olympic medals, will be living and studying at the university this fall; working on their English and taking sports leadership classes.
Five minutes into my first three-hour journey to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my parents had already begun monopolizing the car?s air space with truism after reminder after frantic assertion about college life. I zoned out and probably missed some useful morsels of advice.
When it comes to the University of Wisconsin System, Gov. Jim Doyle?s legacy includes increasing financial aid and access, supporting groundbreaking research and constructing new buildings, his colleagues say.
Two men arrested last week for the alleged rape of a Minneapolis woman were charged Monday with kidnapping in addition to several counts of first-degree sexual assault. In addition to kidnapping, Jose L. Bedolla-Calderon, 22, of Madison, was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault, strangulation and suffocation, and misdemeanor battery for the early Tuesday attack on the 23-year-old woman in the 400 block of West Dayton Street near the UW-Madison campus.
The University of Wisconsin System will ask lawmakers for $22.6 million to boost undergraduate enrollment by 5,900 over two years through better retention and recruitment, according to a budget document released Monday. The plan calls for hiring additional instructors, academic advisers and others to teach and serve the extra students. But the money would also pay for programs proven to help retain students, such as first-year seminars and undergraduate research projects, UW System spokesman David Giroux said.
For more than a decade, Beloit College has released the “Beloit College Mindset List” that looks at cultural touchstones shaping the lives of the years college-bound students. The List this year is aimed at the 2 million young people born around 1990. Beloit notes that the class of 2012 has grown up where computer and rapid communications are the norm and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired.”
WITH the academic year about to begin, colleges and universities, as well as students and their parents, are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. What we?ve seen with California?s distinguished state university system ? huge cutbacks in spending and a 32 percent rise in tuition ? is likely to become the norm at public and private colleges. Government support is being slashed, endowments and charitable giving are down, debts are piling up, expenses are rising and some schools are selling their product for two-thirds of what it costs to produce it. You don?t need an M.B.A. to know this situation is unsustainable.
With unemployment soaring, higher education has never been more important to society or more widely desired. But the collapse of our public education system and the skyrocketing cost of private education threaten to make college unaffordable for millions of young people. If recent trends continue, four years at a top-tier school will cost $330,000 in 2020, $525,000 in 2028 and $785,000 in 2035.
The head of the University of California-Berkeley?s Graduate School of Journalism is floating the idea of charging students a $5,000 annual fee — above and beyond what most students pay — for those who enter the program starting in 2011. And why not? (Please turn on sarcasm meter.) Those who hold journalism degrees these days virtually have a license to print money. Right?
Saturday and Sunday were the two days of the year when U-Hauls might have outnumbered Priuses on the streets of Downtown Madison. The annual turnover of housing leases, which peaks each Aug. 14-15, was relatively seamless this weekend because of beautiful weather and many landlords who have relaxed restrictions on how early renters can move in.
MADISON, Wis. — It?s one of the most enduring — and exhausting — traditions in Madison: Move-in day. Over the weekend, thousands of UW-Madison students moved from one place to another in a 24-hour time span.
While nearly everyone was excited about new dwellings and new roommates, safety, both personal safety and property safety, was also on the minds of many, WISC-TV reported. UW-Madison police said that during this annual rite, some students lose their belongings because others mistake their treasure for trash.
A 21-year-old woman sitting on her porch was punched early Tuesday morning by another woman who first told her she was going to take her purse, Madison police reported. The mugging happened at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday at a residence in the 300 block of South Park Street, police said.
According to the police report, the victim — a UW-Madison student — was sitting on her porch when a woman approached, saying she was going to take the victim?s purse.
Perhaps the most important lesson recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Danny Haber learned in his four years did not come out of a classroom but through a run-in with the City of Madison – one that could cost him more than $400,000.
Christmas doesn?t just come once a year, at least as far as some Downtown Madison residents are concerned.”Hippie Christmas” accompanies the turnover of hundreds of housing leases, which will largely happen on Saturday and Sunday this year. This unusual festivity stems from people scooping up household items discarded by outgoing tenants on curbs and in trash cans.
The UW-Madison student whose liquor delivery business was shuttered by Madison officials in April says the city should return any forfeitures ? up to nearly $430,000 ? he would have to pay as a result of alleged city ordinance violations. Danny Haber maintains he was relying on advice given to him by Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th Dist., a member of the city Alcohol License Review Committee, when he opened Campus Drank, which allowed students to order liquor and beer for delivery.
The mile-long corridor of University Avenue between Farley Avenue and Breese Terrace, once the main artery between Downtown, UW-Madison and the West Side, lacks an identity, is uninviting to pedestrians and bicyclists, and has lost businesses since the Campus Drive bypass opened to the north in 1968. The city, residents and others want to transform the street into a green, sustainable place with a strong identity, a ?walkable educational classroom? of best practices that could be a model for older, mixed-use corridors in the city and elsewhere.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student facing more than $420,000 in penalties from the City of Madison for operating an alcohol delivery service says he was told by a city alderman that the operation was legal.
Danny Haber, 22, of Long Island, N.Y., filed a notice of claim with the city attorney?s office Wednesday indicating he intends to sue the city for the same amount they have fined him for operating without a liquor license and selling to underage customers.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
** The Chronicle of Higher Education attended last week?s 26th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning at the Monona Terrace Convention Center, and asked a “half-dozen professors, technologists and administrators to share the struggles of teaching online.”
** Three out of four students and their parents don’t have a plan for how they’ll pay for college when they enroll, according to a new report from Sallie Mae and Gallup.
** Donna Shalala, the former chancellor of UW-Madison and the current president of the University of Miami, was detained and interrogated at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv last month, according to several newspaper reports.
UW-Madison students might have to contend with more than just moving in and classes starting as summer ends. Unforeseen problems underground have delayed the completion of work on the East Campus Utility Project, meaning work won?t be finished by the target date of Aug. 24, UW-Madison announced in a news release.
Students will probably having to contend with road closures and detours when moving in Aug. 27-28, when classes begin Sept. 2 and probably up to Labor Day on Sept. 6.
MADISON. Wis. — A 23-year-old Portage man has been charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment in connection with a series of sexual assault attempts that occurred on the University of Wisconsin campus area Monday. Robert D. Rickaby was charged in connection with an incident that happened on N. Park St. in downtown Madison early Monday, according to University of Wisconsin police. Police said there are multiple additional charges pending which will be referred to the Dane County district attorney on Wednesday.
The man accused of sexually assaulting a woman early Monday morning and who police say may have assaulted up to eight other women has been identified as Robert D. Rickaby, 22, Portage. Rickaby was booked into the Dane County Jail on Monday on a tentative charge of second degree sexual assault and false imprisonment. The charges stem from an early Monday morning assault at 21 N. Park St.
Unlike many who take courses during UW-Madison?s summer session, Peter Owen hasn?t spent any hot evenings catching up on his studies while sipping a cold beer on the Memorial Union Terrace.
Owen is a 24-year-old first lieutenant stationed in Iraq with the 724th Engineer Battalion of the Wisconsin Army National Guard. So instead of sitting near the shore of Lake Mendota while finishing coursework, he?s knocked off some required readings and listened to recorded lectures on an MP3 player while seated in the back of a military transport aircraft waiting to take off on another mission.
A 22-year-old Portage man could be a suspect in nine sexual assaults on the UW-Madison campus and Downtown between Sunday night and Monday morning, police said. All of the female victims reported being groped by a man and gave similar descriptions of their assailant, said Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain. Many of the victims are college-age women, he said. UW-Madison Police Sgt. Ruth Ewing said one victim is a university employee.
Expect the incoming freshman class at UW-Madison to have a little more international flavor. After getting a 21 percent increase in international applicants, the college is expecting about 100 more international students to enroll this year. That means 519 incoming students will be foreign. That?s a trend that is playing out at other colleges, according an article in the New York Times. UW-Madison is on track for a target class of 5,700, said Adele Brumfield, UW-Madison?s new admissions director.
Eboni Turner, a high school student from Chicago, will never forget the six weeks she spent in Madison for the Summer Science Institute. She was doing field research in Lake Wingra when she got stuck in the decomposing material at the bottom. Turner was one of 16 students who participated in the recent Summer Science Institute, a six-week residential program through the Center for Biology Education at UW-Madison. The program gives high school students an understanding of biological and physical research while learning about college life.
UW-Madison?s reputation for wild parties matters, even if the survey is unscientific. That?s because the Princeton Review publicity can affect college recruitment.
We?d love to attract the brightest minds from across the country to Madison for their higher educations. We?d rather not be a beacon for Party Nation. Madison and Wisconsin already have enough problems with heavy drinking, related violence and drunken driving.
MADISON (WKOW) — The next governor is being challenged by higher education leaders to provide millions of dollars for need-based financial aid despite a looming budget shortfall.
It?s hard to believe, but the he University of Wisconsin-Madison Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) program is already 10 years old.
?We started in 1999 with about 66 students,? says PEOPLE program executive director Jacqueline DeWalt.?Right now, we have 1350 students in the program ? elementary through undergrad degree. For those students that have completed our program we actually have 100 percent high school graduation, and 94 percent of our students go onto higher education, with about 50-55 percent coming here to UW-Madison and another 14 percent going to other UW system schools and another 30 percent going to other universities.?
A Downtown Madison church is stepping in to ease a chronic late-summer problem ? university students forced into a night of homelessness because they?re between apartment leases.
The Princeton Review unveiled its annual rankings of the nation?s best colleges earlier this week. Although UW-Madison didn?t earn the No. 1 slot on the Review?s list of top party schools — the University of Georgia in Athens took home that honor — Wisconsin?s flagship institution nonetheless garnered as many kudos for its party scene as its academic rigor. On the positive side, UW-Madison was noted as “a Best Midwestern College.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the #12 party school in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.
The University of Georgia has won a national title this year — top party school.
Quoted: Rashi Mangalick, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group board chairman.
Talandra Jennings and Infinity Gamble couldn?t contain their excitement as the 11-year-olds showed off the zucchini picked from the East High Youth Farm on a recent morning.
It was the first vegetable harvested from their section of the farm, which consists of a number of gardens in an area next to Kennedy Elementary School. The two girls, who will be sixth graders at O?Keeffe Middle School, are working at the East High Youth Farm, which is a hands-on science and vocational program focused on sustainable agriculture and service learning.
UW-Madison sophomore John Zdeblick is making waves as a rising star in the world of competitive collegiate wakeboarding.?It hooks you in because it?s so much fun,? said Zdeblick, a member of the UW Water Ski and Wakeboard Team.
The largest class ever is graduating from UW-Madison?s pre-college program to increase diversity on campus, PEOPLE (Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence). Today, 180 high school students will attend a ceremony to mark their completion of the program at the Madison Marriott West in Middleton. Those students are entering their senior year of high school and will work on their applications to attend UW-Madison.
I got a chance to sit down this week with Ben Herbert, the strength and conditioning coach for the University of Wisconsin football team, to talk about the eight-week summer workout program that concludes on Friday. If talking to Herbert doesn?t get you ready for football season, I don?t know what will. Some people think he looks a little intimidating, with his shaved head and intense eyes.
College students will be able to shop around more for deals on textbooks, thanks to a new law that took effect this month. The Higher Education Opportunity Act requires colleges to release required book lists at the time of class registration. Publishers must disclose prices and revision information to schools.
A fixture of past UW football team trips to play UNLV in Las Vegas may be missing this year – the University of Wisconsin Marching Band .Band director Mike Leckrone told WKOW27 News he?s “pessimistic” about band members traveling to Las Vegas to perform in connection with the Sept. 4 game.
MADISON (WKOW) — Wisconsin lawmakers have created a special committee to review the state?s financial aid programs for higher education. The panel, expected to recommend policy changes, is chaired by Representative Joan Ballweg, a Republican of Markesan.
Ballweg has has been involved in financial aid issues in recent years. She says the goal of the review is to improve access to higher education, make sure resources are being used effectively and retain graduates in the state. The review will look at the Wisconsin Covenant program, the tuition reciprocity agreement between Wisconsin and Minnesota, and loan forgiveness programs.
MADISON (WKOW) — A fixture of past UW football team trips to play UNLV in Las Vegas may be missing this year – the University of Wisconsin Marching Band. Band director Mike Lekrone told WKOW27 News he?s “pessimistic” about band members traveling to Las Vegas to perform in connection with the Sept. 4 game. Lekrone said sources of funding relied on in the past to support the band?s travel to Las Vegas for UW games may not be available.
A move by UW-Madison to cut ties with Nike last April proved fruitful this week — and garnered the university some positive national press. Articles in the New York Times, The Huffington Post and The Atlanta Journal Constitution, gave UW-Madison — in addition to other universities and student groups — credit for prompting the athletic apparel company to pay severance to the workers.
U.S. colleges aren?t doing enough to limit student access to alcohol, a new study contends.College administrators do recognize that student drinking is a major problem, but they focus on individual interventions and campus-based alcohol restrictions. They need to do more work with communities to develop policies to reduce excess drinking by students, such as monitoring of illegal sales of alcohol and limiting the number of retail alcohol outlets, according to study author Toben Nelson.
The University of Wisconsin took a tough stand when it decided to end its licensing agreement with Nike, after complaints arose regarding the company?s treatment of displaced workers who had been employed by Honduran factories that make the company?s athletic wear.
But the bold move has proven to have been exactly the right one.
Tens of thousands of college students have unpaid internships this summer. Even with the recession, students are willing to dish out hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars to cover expenses for internships far from home. In some cases, students also pay hundreds of dollars more for the college credits that employers require their interns to receive. Despite the financial burden, the pipeline is crowded with young people trying to get a foot in the door, especially in a tight economy.
In a move praised by labor activists, Nike Inc. agreed Monday to spend $1.5 million to help workers abruptly laid off last year by two subcontractors in Honduras.
Less than a month after the University of Wisconsin-Madison dropped Nike due to poor working conditions in Honduras, the company is making some changes.
Facing pressure from universities and student groups, the apparel maker Nike announced on Monday that it would pay $1.54 million to help 1,800 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when two subcontractors closed their factories.
MILWAUKEE (WISN) — A 19-year-old UW-Milwaukee student missing from Cudahy has been identified as the body pulled from a creek Saturday night. The Milwaukee Dive Rescue Team pulled the body from the Lincoln Creek near 32nd Street and Hampton Avenue around 8 p.m Saturday. Family members said Kyle Pelesnik has been missing since Thursday.
Quoted: “What our research shows is the more (alcohol) density you have, the more problems you have,” said Dawn Crim, a nonvoting member of the ALRC and the director of community relations at UW-Madison.
Right now there are tons of questions, but University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez expects answers soon. At issue is how the Big Ten Conference will bring Nebraska into the fold in 2011 and how the 12-school league will be aligned. Alvarez said this week the matter will surely dominate two days of meetings when the annual Big Ten Football Kickoff takes place in Chicago Aug. 2 and 3.
