A slew of colleges in the Midwest began administering student swine flu vaccinations Tuesday, highlighting the variety of responses schools have taken to combat the spread of the virus.
The Madison Metropolitan School District, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison Area Technical College have all canceled classes for Wednesday due to the winter storm.
Gov. Jim Doyle has closed state offices and all University of Wisconsin campuses on Wednesday due to the snowstorm.
With classes canceled and more than a foot of snow on the ground, University of Wisconsin-Madison students planned what could-be the worldâ??s largest snowball fight on Wednesday afternoon.
The Associated Students of Madisonâ??s Legislative Affairs Committee met with Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, Monday to discuss the Alcohol Beverage Licesnse Density Ordinance as well as other downtown issues pertaining to UW-Madison students.
The University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate approved Monday a new policy for awarding degrees to students who die before completing all of their course requirements.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a new ad campaign Monday to encourage Americans to get vaccinated against Swine Flu.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, commended the Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee for its increased participation and awareness of city issues and urged the committee to continue their support on upcoming issues.
Students who are applying for graduate school may feel more pressure after 2011, when the Educational Testing Service will revitalize the old Graduate Record Exam with the largest update in 59 years.
No word yet whether classes will be canceled Wednesday on the UW-Madison campus, but students are making plans for a major snowstorm, nonetheless. And that doesnâ??t mean getting their homework ahead of time.
More than 2,000 people have joined a group on Facebook for a campus-wide snowball fight on Bascom Hill at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
When I was back home two weeks ago, my mother mentioned John — the cute boy with red hair and freckles on whom I had my first crush in grade school. I was sorry to hear that he has spent years battling alcoholism. I gather it began in college, which doesnâ??t surprise me, after visiting my sonâ??s college this fall.
We enjoyed so much about visiting Martinâ??s school. The wonderful concert in the auditorium, the birthday messages written by friends on the sidewalk in front of his dorm, the bulletin board notices of creative activities and organizations, the engaging academic community, the sense of belonging. But there was another side to college that Martin said disturbed him, and it too was in evidence — the broken chair in the kitchen, destroyed by a few drunken students a week or two earlier, the bloated face of a hall mate, the beer bottles left in odd places. Even at a college based on principles of simplicity, emphasizing personal restraint and responsibility to community, excessive college drinking is rampant.
Some east side residents welcome a recent change to UWMâ??s student code, which allows the university to punish students for off-campus incidents. The policy took effect Sept. 1 and is part of a continuing effort to curb bad behavior as university enrollment swells.
Noted: Now that the vaccine is flowing â?? 81 million doses had been distributed as of Monday â?? the public seems to be losing interest, despite continuing risk. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, 1,521 students lined up Friday for vaccinations, leaving 2,500 doses on hand.
The Wisconsin Alumni Association is offering a ticket package to the Badgersâ?? bowl game in Orlando.
Go, Bucky, go. Save for a couple minor dings, it was a sweet weekend for the University of Wisconsin marquee sports teams – football, menâ??s and womenâ??s basketball and menâ??s hockey.
To improve campus climate and truly benefit from the wide range of cultures and ethnicities that are represented in our student body, we must create cross-cultural connections.
In a 30-second span between tapings of the campus talk show â??Office Hours,â? host Ken Goldstein thanks guests from the first program, gets a last-second rundown of talking points pertinent to the second show and exchanges a purple tie for the red one heâ??s wearing.
â??Heâ??s gotten lazy,â? one student teases Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor. â??Now he just changes his tie between shows. He used to change shirts, too.â?
At my language table, we discussed â??what is a Coastie?â? Recently, thanks to the MySpace musical sensation â??Whatâ??s a Coastie?,â? this question has once again become the heated topic of a campus-wide conversation. Participating in this debate, a soon-to-be PhD student at the table offered up his definition of a Coastie.
Most students here are familiar with Gordon Commons. Regardless of your love-hate relationship with University Housing, you have to admit itâ??s a homey place to relax during free time. Well, fun at Popâ??s Club and Edâ??s Express will soon come to an end, as UW plans to tear down the building this upcoming summer. Even if you look at the upcoming project glazed with rosy assumptions, the $34 million project is probably unnecessary.
Chancellor Biddy Martin asked Nike, a UW-Madison apparel licensee, last week to begin making progress correcting alleged workersâ?? rights violations within the next four months.
A fulfilling undergraduate experience should extend past academics to issues of importance that will remain with the lives of students for years to come. We may not remember all material from classes taken, but we will remember our relationships with others and how they helped shape who we are today.
Our university strives to set high standards for the values and the recognition of people from all different backgrounds. As someone of mixed race, I have felt completely comfortable and have established a great connection with UW in the four years I have attended this institution.
Depending on how much you read the paper, or how often you feel the need for that two-for-one Long Island special, you may or may not be aware of the lawsuit Brothers recently filed to prevent losing its current location. The suit came after the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents granted the university the right, under eminent domain, to build a performance facility on the property occupied, in part, by Brothers.
This weekâ??s Board of Regents meeting on the University of Wisconsin campus will offer a unique experience for the regents, as they will be paired with various student leaders.
Chancellor Biddy Martin requested in writing Friday that Nike address issues of workersâ?? rights abuses at two of its Honduras-based subcontractors within the next four months or allow its contract with the University of Wisconsin to expire.
Recent UW-Madison graduate Erin Conrad was named one of 35 Marshall Scholars, a prestigious award on par with the Rhodes scholarship. She is the first UW-Madison graduate to get the award in 10 years.
The UW System is joining about two-dozen colleges and universities in pledging to improve graduation rates for two specific groups of students. They want to cut achievement gaps for low-income and students of color in half by 2015.A new report this week shows that collectively, 45 percent of such students earn a bachelorâ??s degree within six years, compared to 57 percent for other students enrolled at the schools. (Second item.)
The average debt for UW-Madison graduates continues to increase, according to a recent report released by the Project on Student Debt.
Diversity issues extend beyond race and nationality. I would argue we are a product of our experiences, and though skin color and nationality play a significant role in influencing our experiences, encouraging a diversity of experiences on campus cannot be measured by admittance data alone. UW-Madison cannot hope to achieve true diversity simply through programs aimed at aiding minority students. A truly diverse campus would embrace students from all walks of life, whose experiences are as vast as they are different and who are united by a common goal: to educate and better themselves.
University Health Services is hosting its first â??FlashVaxâ? clinic today at the SERF, where free Swine Flu vaccine shots will be provided between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to students ages 24 and under.
Developer Patrick Properties presented updated plans for a new eight-story apartment complex on Mendota Court to the State-Langdon Neighborhood Association meeting Thursday night.
A Washington-based investigative journalism organization said in a report issued Tuesday that it found a “culture of secrecy” surrounding sexual assault cases on university campuses across the U.S. The report by the Center for Public Integrity showed that nearly half of the 33 female students it interviewed in the past year about being raped were unsuccessful in pursuing criminal charges. That left the campus judiciary system as their only recourse.
The Badger Yearbook celebrates its 125th edition. Also, “The Trochos” is Latin for badger.
Disregarding former University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wileyâ??s recommendation before his departure, Chancellor Biddy Martin approved one UW student organization to receive funds to pay for non-student professional staff last month.
It was a game few people expected Wisconsin to win.
Instead of losing, the Badgers never trailed Wednesday night at the Kohl Center en route to a 73-69 upset, handing the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils their first loss of the season and first ever in the 11-year history of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
An informational meeting illuminated plans for a new Gordon Commons dining hall to the Urban Design Commission Wednesday night.
How worried should we be that the debt load for college graduates keeps increasing — while job options keep decreasing?
According to this report recently released by the Project on Student Debt, the average debt for graduating seniors with loans rose from $18,650 in 2004 to $23,200 in 2008.
In Wisconsin, 62 percent of the students graduating from a public, four-year institution had debt. And of those, the average debt was $19,789. Of those who graduated from a private, nonprofit institution in Wisconsin, 70 percent left school with debt. Of those, the average debt was $26,802.
Some of the student emcees of First Wave, at its core a bridge between academics and the arts, are putting on an end-of-semester hip-hop show at the Rathskeller on Saturday, Dec. 5. Their efforts are two-fold: theyâ??re using their music as a vehicle for academic inquiry, and theyâ??re also giving Madisonâ??s off-campus hip-hop scene a shot in the arm.
Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison is encouraging all students 24 years old and younger to get a free H1N1 vaccine shot on Friday. University Health Services has about 4,000 doses available and is holding the vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.
Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Campus Center Director Eric Trekell and Dean of Students Lori Berquam hosted a listening session for the UW-Madison community, students, faculty and staff Tuesday.
University Health Services has announced plans for a large-scale H1N1 vaccination clinic this Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Southeast Recreational Facility.
Madison and the University of Wisconsin are continuing their push to vaccinate students and a targeted group of community members against the swine flu by offering new H1N1 vaccine clinics in the next few weeks.
The second round of proposals for Madison Initiative for Undergraduates funds have been accepted and are now ready for review, the university announced Tuesday.
Young people today donâ??t know a world without hip-hop. Itâ??s simply the “mechanism and medium right now,” said Rafael Casal, and as creative director of the First Wave program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, heâ??s pushing to get this recognized on campus.
“Weâ??re trying to make a shift in the lens through which they see the world,” said Casal, a 24-year-old San Francisco Bay Area native who had been a successful touring emcee and spoken word poet for years when he landed in Madison and in his current job.
Some of the student emcees of First Wave, at its core a bridge between academics and the arts, are putting on an end-of-semester hip-hop show at the Rathskeller on Saturday, Dec. 5. Their efforts are two-fold: theyâ??re using their music as a vehicle for academic inquiry, and theyâ??re also giving Madisonâ??s off-campus hip-hop scene a shot in the arm.
Deidre Green got off to a rough start with a bad case of infant jaundice that overwhelmed her mother. She went to live with her grandmother, who showered her with attention that likely changed the arc of her life.
â??I suppose I got pretty spoiled,â? the UW-Madison freshman says with a laugh. â??My grandma played with me all the time â?? she did puzzles with me, read to me. She always told me I was smart, so when I got to school, that was what I expected. It was what she expected, too.â?
For Green, a variety of serendipitous factors â?? her own talent and hard work, supportive mentors in and out of school, a core group of good friends and key opportunities â?? helped her excel in Madison public schools. An educational pioneer in her family, she intends to also do well in college and then go to law school.
Itâ??s the “Dead grandmother problem” — an all-too-common occurrence before a big exam is scheduled. Last spring, students at the School of Human Ecology could walk into their school’s building on Linden Drive and see in the entry an exhibit detailing just how perilous exam time is for the grandmothers of college students.
It was built in 1965 as an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, serving three meals a day to a line of hungry college students. But UW-Madison officials want to build a new dining hall to better feed todayâ??s army of undergraduates. Plans to tear down Gordon Commons, 717 West Johnson St., and build a new $34 million cafeteria next to it will be presented before a city of Madison committee Wednesday.
Four years after Francisco Espinosa took out student loans to attend an Arizona trade school, he had not advanced beyond his job as an airline ramp agent in Phoenix and faced $13,250 in student debt. He declared bankruptcy, and a judge allowed him to pay off part of the loan and wipe out the remaining debt. Tuesday, Supreme Court justices considered Espinosaâ??s case in a closely watched dispute that could affect debtors and creditors nationwide when student loans cannot be repaid.
Zola Jesus is Nika Roza Danilova, an opera-trained caterwauler from Madison, Wisconsin who makes noise music that scrapes and glistens in equal measure. She loves Ian Curtis and Lydia Lunch, and their uncompromising tendencies can be heard throughout her bruising, beautiful recent album, The Spoils. The ambitious 20-year-old is currently studying French and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, but hopes to wrap up her studies “as soon as possible” so she can devote all of her time to creating more haunting atmospherics
The second round of proposals for Madison Initiative for Undergraduates funds have been accepted and are now ready for review, the university announced Tuesday. With 114 proposals coming in this round â?? compared to 29 in the first â?? allocating the limited funds will be difficult and competitive, said Aaron Brower, University of Wisconsin vice provost for teaching and learning.
In the first-ever hockey games at Camp Randall on Feb. 6, the UW menâ??s team will play Michigan in a game preceded by the Badger women against Bemidji State. The dilemma: Be a part of history, or stay warm.
Planned Parenthoodâ??s newest health center is set to open today in a brand new building owned by the Urban League of Greater Madison in the revamped Villager Mall. But at least one Planned Parenthood client is unhappy that the new facility will be supplanting the downtown location. “I feel like there should be a Planned Parenthood on every college campus, especially one thatâ??s rated one of the top 10 for party schools,” says Flannery Pendergast, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who learned of the move in a letter from Planned Parenthood. She says the move will also affect high school students, other college students and homeless individuals.
Although more international students are enrolling at American universities, the UW-Madison has actually seen its numbers drop this year.The Institute of International Education reports foreign student enrollment nationwide has gone up eight percent, for an all time high of about 672,000 students. (Eighth item.)
When Max Love attended the annual International Education Week at Lodi High School as a student there, it fueled his interest in global learning and led to his desire to serve in the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe. A 2009 Lodi High School graduate, he returned to the event this year as a guest speaker on multicultural and international education. Now a UW-Madison student in Middle Eastern studies, he received a scholarship to study Arabic and wanted to let students know about the opportunities that exist.
To help combat the painful symptoms of the H1N1 virus, Sharon Siegel Langer, owner of the brand new â??Cafe O,â? has begun delivering chicken soup with matzah balls by the quart (prepared from scratch in Hillelâ??s kosher meat kitchen) to campus area residents.
For more than a decade thereâ??s been a small but vocal group of students on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus willing to give it the old college try when it comes to tackling anti-sweatshop issues.
Recently, the UW Labor Licensing Policy Committee voted 7-2 to suggest Chancellor Biddy Martin take written action against Nike for their violation of UW labor codes.
The new state-of-the-art Hillel building at the University of Wisconsin, Madison was officially dedicated with a series of special events during UW Homecoming Weekend, Oct. 16-18.
There was an extraordinary number of Ugg boots pounding the pavement of Madisonâ??s State Street this Halloween. The sheepskin boots were part of what seemed like the costume of choice at this yearâ??s Freakfest â?? the Coastie.
Young adults and school-age children are now eligible to receive the H1N1 vaccine, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced Monday.
