If you are hoping to pick up “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” at the Madison Public Library, get in line. The book by Rebecca Skloot – which was chosen for UW-Madisonâ??s common book reading program – has a hold list of 558 requests. The fact that it was chosen for UW-Madisonâ??s Go Big Read most certainly lengthened the waiting list, said Carla Di Iorio, collection development coordinator.
Students and community members take part in a Wisconsin Union Lakeside Cinema event featuring a screening of the 1971 movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” at the Memorial Union Terrace at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on June 23, 2008. Lakeside Cinema is a summer-long program that features contemporary and classic cinema favorites each Monday evening.
When 2002 Memorial High School graduate Jensena Carlson enrolled in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine four years ago, she knew she wouldnâ??t be the only Old Abe in her class.
Jessica Pharm did not come to the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her father is a truck driver and her mom was a stay-at-home mom until recently when she went to work at Potawatomi. While they would have done so, Pharm was determined not to get support from her parents and become a financial burden to them.
Some of the happiest people to see Rachel McKinsey walk down the aisle to receive her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a major in medical physics were her parents who came all the way up from Louisiana to be with their daughter on her special day. And it wasnâ??t just because of their great parental pride.
The UW womenâ??s ultimate frisbee team pulled out a pair of wins Saturday afternoon to secure a place in Sundayâ??s national quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the UW men defeated Texas State and Pittsburgh to improve to 2-2 on the weekend.
Which organization boasts of possessing the largest nonmilitary fleet in the nation? The UW Sailing Club, which owns 120 boats and sailboards. That group is hosting an event that is as large in magnitude as the club is in stature — the Intercollegiate Sailing Associationâ??s national championship, a 10-day affair that kicked off Tuesday on Lake Mendota.
As the number of college graduates entering the labor market increases in coming weeks, many will ride out the tough job market with a short-term or part-time internship in the hopes that it will lead to long-term work. The popularity of internships for recent grads and employers continues to grow as the slow economy has forced businesses to be more discerning about the costs of a full-time workforce.
Itâ??s graduation time for students across Wisconsin. For some, itâ??s the end of a long roadâ??for others, a door to a new life. Today, producer Cynthia Woodland brings us the voices of some of this yearâ??s graduates of the UW Odyssey Projectâ??students for whom graduation is the fulfillment of a dreamâ?¦(Audio.)
After choosing a college and (hopefully) figuring out how to pay for it, almost every new college student faces a critical decision: which dorm should I live in?
Bad news if youâ??re on the waiting list for UW-Madison and hoping to get in.
The Office of Admissions at UW-Madison announced today that it will not take wait-list action for incoming freshmen of 2010.
Bad news if youâ??re on the waiting list for UW-Madison and hoping to get in.
After choosing a college and hopefully figuring out how to pay for it, almost every new college student faces a critical decision: which dorm should I live in?
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department said Tuesday that a suspect has been arrested in connection with a series of overnight arson fires in the campus area.
Real estate developers have long yearned to create rooms with a view. Penthouse units or those with the best vista typically command top dollar. But some of the swanky new high-rise apartments replacing the aging rental units on campus offer no view. In fact, many of the bedrooms donâ??t even have windows.
“A certain percentage of people like dark bedrooms,” says Jim Stopple, president of Madison Property Management. “I guess you could say they are evening people.”To that end, nearly one-third of the 234 bedrooms in the proposed “Humbucker Apartments” at 1208 Spring St. have no windows.
Interest and fees will inflate the amount you owe. If you default, the government could garnish your wages and withhold your tax refund.These dire consequences are avoidable, at least as far as your federal student loans are concerned. The key is to understand your options and take action before you fall behind on payments.
This growing season, a group of UW-Madison students is bringing new meaning to the phrase â??food chain.â? Members of the F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture haul food scraps by bicycle from Fresh Madison Market to turn it into compost for their garden off Lake Mendota Drive, north of University Hospital.
Noted: Roberto McQuade, who majored in communications arts and political science at the University of Wisconsin, has applied for 20 office jobs with pharmaceutical companies and architecture and real estate concerns.
When he moved to Milwaukee from a tiny town in Mexico, Carlos Torres couldnâ??t speak a word of English. Not even hello or goodbye.
He was a frightened kid, plunked into fifth grade at a south side Milwaukee school. His family – heâ??s the youngest of 10 children – rented a place near 14th and Lincoln. Now, a mere dozen years later, Carlos is a standout graduate of Marquette High School and, as of last weekend, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Faced with an enviable choice among four medical schools that accepted him, he has chosen Harvard on a full-tuition scholarship. Heâ??s the first member of his family to graduate from college.
911 director John Dejung, on the verge of his one-year anniversary in Dane County, is a finalist for a 911 director job in Dakota County, Minn., just southeast of the Twin Cities. Dejung inherited a difficult task after the previous director Joe Norwick resigned amid the controversy surrounding a mishandled call from a murdered UW-Madison studentâ??s cell phone.
This sport is the Ultimate – really – and its national college championships are coming to Madison on Memorial Day weekend. Backyard Frisbee has got nothing on the Ultimate Players Association College Championships, set for Friday through next Monday, May 31, at Reddan Soccer Park in Verona and at Middletonâ??s Breitenbach Stadium. Fans who come out for the UPA College Championships are sure to see the highest level of Ultimate anywhere, said Matt Young, captain of the UW-Madison club Ultimate team, the Hodags.
A Kenosha man charged in a Dec. 31 crash that killed 21-year-old Shanica Adkins is scheduled to stand trial June 1. Johnny Jerome Jones, 32, was speeding away from a squad car that had tried to pull him over on Dec. 31 in Milwaukee because his Mercury Mountaineer did not have a front license plate, and he ran a red light just before colliding with the Geo Prism in which Adkins was a passenger, the complaint said. Adkins, 21, was active in organizations on campus at UW-Madison and was set to graduate this month with a double major in social work and sociology.
In an account eerily similar to previous claims of prosecutorial excess by former Assistant Dane County District Attorney Mike Verveer, a former UW-Madison student claimed to WKOW 27 News Verveer made an unsolicited telephone call to him when the man was a criminal defendant, and may have tainted a prosecution.
As a University of Wisconsin athlete, Lawrence Johnson knew what it took to get to the finish line. And he usually got there before anyone else. He still has the third-fastest time in the 200-meter run in school history.
As a UW student, though, Johnson had trouble finishing what he started. Over 30 years ago, he left school without his degree. And there was little or no commitment at the time to come back for it.
…Given this backdrop, you can better understand what it felt like for Johnson to finally cross the finish line during last weekendâ??s UW commencement exercises at the Kohl Center.
Ben Masel strolls down a downtown street on a cool spring day, takes a hit on a joint, holds it in, then puffs out an aromatic cloud.
â??Iâ??m certainly feeling something,â? he says.
Masel, a longtime marijuana legalization advocate who has provided expert testimony in court on marijuana issues, is aware that he could be approached at any time by a cop. But heâ??s not worried. Heâ??s not breaking any laws.
The party appears to be over for a Madison company that allegedly sold alcohol online and delivered the booze primarily to Downtown UW-Madison students. The owners of the now closed Campusdrank.com could face up to $400,000 in fines for not having a liquor license and selling to underage customers, according to a 575-count complaint filed by the city in Madison Municipal Court against Danny Haber, the owner of Campusdrank.com, and Matthew Siegel, his business partner. Haber, 21, was a UW-Madison student studying business when he started the website as a juice and soda delivery service in November. He began selling alcohol in December, he said.
About 2.4 million students will graduate with bachelorâ??s and associates degrees as part of the Class of 2010, says the National Center for Education Statistics. Those job-seekers will go head-to-head not only with fellow classmates but also with laid-off workers, financially strapped retirees and still-unemployed 2009 and 2008 grads. There are more than five job seekers for every opening, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A Madison company that sold alcohol online and delivered it to University of Wisconsin-Madison students could face some hefty fines. The city has filed a complaint in municipal court against Danny Haber and Matthew Siegel, who operated Campusdrank.com. The store that provided the alcohol for delivery is also facing potential municipal citations.
(Varsity, varsity….)
The pomp and ceremony of graduation day at UW-Madison brought thousands of graduates and many thousands more family and friends to the Kohl Center for five commencements last weekend.
(U-rah-rah, Wisconsin)
But, no matter how many people attended, graduation isnâ??t a group thing.
(Praise to thee, we sing)
Itâ??s a very personal event, as personal as anything you can ever go through. When your son or daughter walks across the stage, name announced, video screen high above the floor showing the brief, shining moment, the memories and tears start to flow.
Google search suggestions have shifted public perceptions about nanotechnology away from science to health worries, finds a science communications study. Search engine reliance on popularity rather than accuracy to steer people to information likely distorts societyâ??s view of science, politics and elsewhere, suggest the study authors.
New data from the University of Wisconsinâ??s business school is providing hope to recent graduates entering an already-crowded job market.Thousands of UW students are marching through graduation this spring and stepping closer toward new careers, but they face a tough economy and competitive conditions to land jobs.
Graduating from college is a landmark for anyone, but itâ??s especially meaningful for 67-year-old Richard Smith, who started pursuing his bachelorâ??s degree in 1960.
From Superior to Kenosha, Green Bay to Madison, thousands of students marched to the strains of pomp and circumstance for this yearâ??s spring commencement.At the UW, more than 6,000 students received degrees over the weekend.U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave the keynote address Saturday, urging students to remember lessons they learned while staying in the capitol city.
Let the commencements commence! The rite of passage from undergraduate to graduate will keep both the Kohl Center and the Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center busy from Friday night through Sunday afternoon, as thousands of students get their diplomas from UW-Madison, Edgewood College and Madison Area Technical College. UW-Madison kicks off the graduation ceremonies Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Kohl Center, with doctoral, professional and honorary degrees being awarded. That will be the first of five commencements for roughly 6,000 UW-Madison graduates.
Find your passion, then follow it â?? thatâ??s what Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of Education, told UW-Madison graduates at commencement ceremonies at the Kohl Center on Saturday morning.
Jessica Schwalenberg has been appointed to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Gov. Jim Doyle announced the appointment Friday. Schwalenberg will replace Kevin Opgenorth as the nontraditional student representative. Her appointment is effective immediately and will expire May 1, 2012.
When Christopher Xu turned 2, his motherâ??s worst fears were confirmed. The other babies at her sonâ??s birthday party babbled, gestured and used simple words as they played and interacted with their parents and each other. But Christopher was different.
Let the commencements commence!
The rite of passage from undergraduate to graduate will keep both the Kohl Center and the Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center busy from Friday night through Sunday afternoon, as thousands of students get their diplomas from UW-Madison, Edgewood College and Madison Area Technical College.
UW-Madison kicks off the graduation ceremonies Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Kohl Center, with doctoral, professional and honorary degrees being awarded. That will be the first of five commencements for roughly 6,000 UW-Madison graduates.
Chavon Robinson has negotiated her share of learning curves since joining the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s track and field team four years ago. She came from Milwaukee in 2006 regarded as a decent talent in the long and triple jumps. Sheâ??s heading for the exit with two school records, having grown into what UW coach Jim Stintzi describes as an “elite, national-level athlete.” Robinson came from Rufus King High School with a passing knowledge of her craft. Sheâ??s since become such a student of her specialties that her tutor, UW assistant coach Nate Davis, came up to her after a practice session this season and, in complimentary fashion, said, “You donâ??t need me as much.”
Dear Arne Duncan: You are off to a great start as President Barack Obamaâ??s high-impact education secretary. Keep on pushing Wisconsin and other states to improve and reform public education in bold ways. We welcome you back to Madison on Saturday for spring commencement ceremonies at UW-Madison, where youâ??ll deliver a morning address at the Kohl Center…Keep pressing for more accountability, higher standards and greater innovation in education here in Wisconsin and across the nation.
Gov. Jim Doyle will deliver the commencement address to University of Wisconsin law school graduates on Friday. Doyle is expected to highlight lessons from his long and distinguished legal career in the 1 p.m. speech at Monona Terrace.
When John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” the message caught fire almost as soon as he uttered it. Nearly 50 years later, Barack Obamaâ??s “call to service” has also spread far and wide, with a modern, high-tech twist. Itâ??s all over the Internet â?? at www.serve.gov, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Gov. Jim Doyle will deliver the commencement address to University of Wisconsin law school graduates on Friday.Doyle is expected to highlight lessons from his long and distinguished legal career in the 1 p.m. speech at Monona Terrace.
A phone call from Mom could be chicken soup for the psyche, according to a study done on stressed kids and the effect a call or a hug can have.
Researchers at UW-Madison conducted the study, with the results published on Wednesday, the university news service said. A simple phone call or hug can release a stress-reducing hormone, with the effect lasting well beyond the immediate comfort right after the stressful event, the study showed.
Quoted: UW-Madison biological anthropologist Leslie Seltzer and psychology professor Seth Pollak
Frustrated with the ever-increasing costs of a college education?
The folks at the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities passed along an interesting tidbit: The “net tuition” tuition minus financial aid to attend a WAICU institution actually went down for 2008-09, the most recent year for which federal figures are available.
Nobody in the after-school cooking class at Toki Middle School really cares when plumes of powdered sugar explode out of mixing bowls as the sugar gets mashed into a pile of ricotta cheese and chocolate chips. Sampling world cuisines is a big part of the weekly “cultural cooking” drop-in class that wrapped up last week at Toki. And so are the relationships that develop among the chefs, not only middle schoolers but also their mentors from UW-Madison. “This group is very animated and theyâ??re lots of fun,” said Kemi Olarinde, 19, a UW-Madison freshman and one of about 35 volunteers for the University Wellness Foundation, a two-year-old community service group composed of recent graduates and university students, many of them college athletes.
Nationwide, about a third of first-year students in 2007-08 had taken at least one remedial course, according to the U.S. Department of Education. At public two-year colleges, that number rises to about 42%. Education observers worry that the vast numbers of students coming to college unprepared will pose a major roadblock to President Barack Obamaâ??s goal for the United States to once again lead the world in college degrees.
Time to catch up on a couple higher education-related items.
** Itâ??s been a month since UW-Madison cut ties with athletic apparel giant Nike due to alleged labor rights abuses at two factories in Honduras. Nike paid UW-Madison nearly $50,000 for the right to use the universityâ??s name or marks — such as Bucky Badger or the “motion W” — on apparel it made during the current academic year.
Anti-sweatshop activists were hopeful other universities would follow UW-Madisonâ??s lead and force Nike to reevaluate how it does business. However, a quick news search shows no one else has followed Buckyâ??s actions on this one — making Nike the clear winner. At least for now.
As Rodney Dangerfield might say, jazz canâ??t get no respect at UW-Madison.
“Personally, I wouldnâ??t tell anyone who wants to study music to come to the UW,” says Alyssa Kroes, a graduating senior who majored in instrumental music education and played saxophone with the UW-Madison Jazz Orchestra. “I came here thinking this is a Big Ten school and the crown jewel of the UW System, but the lack of jazz opportunities and respect jazz gets really bothers me.”
Other students, local musicians and jazz instructors are similarly frustrated with what they regard as the universityâ??s withering commitment to jazz, which many view as Americaâ??s most important home-grown music genre.
Both the menâ??s and womenâ??s ultimate frisbee teams will compete in the national championship tournament at the end of May and theyâ??ll be doing it on their home turf.
A few days back, small groups of college students at Northwestern, Illinois and Wisconsin – angry that Comedy Central had been intimidated into censoring a South Park episode depicting the Prophet Muhammad – chalked their quads with stick figures and labeled these drawings â??Prophet Muhammadâ??.
UW-Madison has chosen a new director of undergraduate admissions, the university announced Friday. Adele C. Brumfield, currently the associate admissions director at the University of Chicago, will lead the office that holds in its hands the fates of thousands of hopeful UW-Madison students.
I would give my state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Gov. Jim Doyle an “A” for helping me raise awareness of meningococcal disease in Wisconsin. Fitzgerald and Doyle were very responsive when I asked for help in declaring March as Meningitis Awareness Month in our state, after the death of UW-Madison student Neha Suri in February from meningococcal disease. This disease also claimed the life of my 20-year-old son when he was a UW-Madison student.
Armed with a new political science degree from UW-Madison, an ability to speak Czech and Polish, and an abundance of confidence, Jerrie Ceplina felt like she could take on almost any job. The one she found paid $8.50 per hour at a Madison tanning salon.”I applied everywhere,” said Ceplina, who graduated a year ago. “I was sending out like nine resumes a day. … I just took the first thing because I was like, â??I have to do something for my own sanity.â??â??” Like Ceplina, those graduating this month may need to reconcile lofty career goals with the realities of the job market. Although hiring of recent grads is expected to pick up by about 5 percent this spring, unemployment is still high. In Wisconsin, it was nearly 9 percent in March when seasonally adjusted.
The UW cycling team finishes 10th overall in the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships.
About 30 University of Wisconsin-Madison students held a rally Friday to protest Arizonaâ??s new immigration law. The students gathered at the bottom of Bascom Hill and held a rally in the rain.
The USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships are be held in Madison this weekend for the first time since 2004. Nearly 500 athletes from about 100 colleges and universities are competing in 18 events beginning Friday. The events are hosted by the University of Wisconsin.
Some parents accused Gov. Jim Doyle of disappointing their children and shortchanging the middle class after he announced his signature college aid program would favor families with incomes of less than $80,000, e-mail messages show.
Thereâ??s been a lot of talk in the media recently about South Parkâ??s second attempt to broadcast an image of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Comedy Central apparently received death threats from a fringe Islamic group and refused to show the image, which the network did in another instance.
