Japanese police have launched an investigation into the disappearance of a 20-year-old Menasha man who had been teaching English in Japan before he went missing three days ago. Andrew Lathrop is a 20-year-old who moved to Japan after his freshman year at UW-Madison last August to teach English as a second language through the Labo International Exchange Foundation.
While I was in Chicago last weekend, a group of college kids, including some from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, picketed in front of the Eddie Bauer store on the so-called Magnificent Mile to urge the trendy retailer to pressure one of its Third World suppliers to treat its employees better.
….It’s an admirable cause and involves a practice that needs to be brought to light. But, in this age of the rush to the bottom for workers worldwide, all I can say is, good luck.
Hundreds of thousands of this year’s college-bound high school graduates aren’t prepared enough academically to succeed in college, a new report warns.
MADISON, Wis. — Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s office is trying to get bars to voluntarily stagger closing times on Halloween weekend.
Bar owners and Cieslewicz’s staff will meet in the coming days. It’s just one of the suggestions Cieslewicz is pursuing to prevent another State Street riot.
At today’s Halloween planning meeting, city leaders are planning, and bracing for what they hope will be a successful and safer event. And it’s crunch time for this group — they met today, with just more than two months left until Halloween on State Street.
Two weeks before some 40,000 students begin fall classes at UW-Madison, advocates for cheaper college textbooks released a new federal study today that backs their complaints about escalating costs and questionable extras.
Among the findings of the report, compiled by the Government Accountability Office at the request of U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.:
Textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation over the last 20 years.
Bells and whistles such as CD-ROMs appear to be driving up the price of college textbooks, which, along with supplies, may have cost students nearly $900 a year on average in recent years, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
Elizabeth Waters Hall, a longtime bastion of all-female living, will go co-ed in fall 2006, the university announced this morning.
A smaller building will take over as the sole all-women’s hall on the UW-Madison campus.
Paul Evans, director of University Housing, said demand for living in an all-female hall was markedly down.
The corrupted Latin on Michael Forster Rothbart’s shirt said it all.
Cogito ergo recyclo – “I think therefore I recycle.”
That was the mind-set of the roving group of garbage pickers Rothbart assembled Saturday.
La Crosse has had an alcohol task force that made many recommendations on new enforcement measures to deal with binge drinking and other alcohol-related problems.
Now a Common Council committee is looking seriously at those recommendations with an eye toward putting them into law.
Many students have spent all day packing their moving trucks, so they can move in tomorrow. There are piles and piles of garbage dotted along the streets.
Travis Abell considers himself one of the lucky ones. His landlord allowed him and his three roommates to move their belongings into their new mifflin street home earlier this morning. He won’t be able to stay here tonight, But at least his moving day is done.
Rather than move those old clothes or the sofa, Uââ?¬â??W students toss it on the curb. But the City of Madison wants to change that.
A legislator who earlier introduced a bill that would reduce the drinking age from 21 to 19 for Wisconsin soldiers is now circulating a measure under which soldiers 19 and 20 would be fined no more than $5 for underage drinking.
A Massachusetts judge has handed down a key ruling in a student-suicide lawsuit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stirring concerns among some college officials that the case heralds a storm of wrongful-death litigation.
What part of the brain is involved in the storage of memories and is especially vulnerable to alcohol abuse? If you didnââ?¬â?¢t answer ââ?¬Å?hippocampus,ââ?¬Â you might learn something from AlcoholEdu, an online alcohol education program that is being used by an increasing number of college campuses.
For the last two years, Chelsey Imm has been taking classes at UW Marathon County, but she’s a student at UW Madison.
She has a counselor there, uses the library, even attends some sporting events and sits in the student section, and after two years at the Wausau campus, she’s now on her way to Madison, but she doesn’t have the debt that she would if she started school in the state capital.
City officials are really struggling to come up with crowd control ideas for State Street during the annual Halloween celebration.
The Halloween festivities have gotten out of control in recent years, and there is no question that city and University of Wisconsin officials need to do a lot more strategizing to determine the best way to manage 75,000 people and avoid disturbances. But, so far, the strategizing has a seat-of-the-pants quality that fails to inspire confidence.
….What’s disturbing is that, at this late date, officials seem to be grabbing for straws rather than advancing a coherent plan.
UW-Madison students moving out of their apartments this week can donate clean clothes, quality furniture, unopened nonperishable food and other household items in good condition at several sites. Anything in poor condition should be thrown away.
It seems everyone has a college horror story, and it often involves a roommate. Although my freshman-year roommate actually neared perfection, I do remember a girl on my floor who drove her roommate to the brink of insanity. Her quirks included phobias of fruit, carpeting and taking phone messages. When her roommate spilled juice in the bottom of their mini-fridge, she threw all of the food away and proclaimed the mini-fridge “contaminated.”
As a personal mental health counselor at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, Susan Fee saw the same trend in the students who came to her for help.
Amber Ault, director of diversity at UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy, wants to set an example for future pharmacists by learning the Hmong language and cultural practices using traditional herbal medicine, which could interact negatively with modern drugs.
Katy France, who graduated from UW-Madison’s Law School on Friday and plans to work as a public defender, sees a need for lawyers who can communicate with Hmong defendants. Sarah Allen, who teaches English as a second language in the West Allis School District, is striving to better connect with her Hmong students and their families. And Kazoua Xiong, a student at St. Olaf College, yearns to know more about her Hmong heritage.
For the past two months, they and other students and educators spent four and a half hours a day, five days a week, studying Hmong culture and language at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) at UW-Madison.
Everyone’s heard of the “freshman 15,” that insidious weight gain that creeps up on first-year college students. But is there truth to it?
Researchers say there is. A study at Cornell University found that students gain an average of four pounds during the first three months of their freshman year of college – a rate that is 11 times higher than typical for 17- and 18- year-olds.
Think about it: For every student who maintains pre- college weight, there’s another who is eight pounds heavier by Thanksgiving. And the first semester isn’t even over.
UW-Madison will see a surge of new students this fall in an alternative enrollment program designed to relieve pressure on the freshman class and give applicants what they want – at least eventually.
The initiative, known as the Connections program, offers qualified students the opportunity to be dual-enrolled. That means they are considered to be UW-Madison students from the start – with certain campus privileges like student rates on games and concerts – but they must complete the first two years of general education courses elsewhere before coming to campus for classes starting their junior year.
UW-Madison senior Will Temby, 22, an online poker player who considers it his part-time job, said while poker’s popularity may indeed breed more gambling addicts, these people probably would have become addicts of some sort anyway.
“I think it’s sort of a genetic disposition that some people have to become addicted to things,” he said. “I think that’s a shame, but people who gamble and play poker responsibly shouldn’t be punished by it.”
Brett Hartfiel, 22, is his own boss for the summer. He wakes up at about 10 a.m. and works sporadically throughout the day.
If his friends go to the beach, he can go with them. If he wants to work in his pajamas, he can. That’s because Hartfiel has turned online gambling, a pastime that has recently exploded among college students, into his summer job. In the past six or seven weeks, he has made more than $6,000.
….Professional poker has its perks for the recent UW-Madison graduate. Hartfiel job-hunts and fills out applications online while he plays. Plus he can enjoy the college lifestyle for one last summer.
Dominique Sicard has watched four older sisters and one brother go off to college, and now that it is her turn, she cannot wait.
ââ?¬Å?Iââ?¬â?¢m not really nervous,ââ?¬Â said the 18-year-old Neenah High School graduate who will study ââ?¬Å?something probably math-relatedââ?¬Â at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Proponents of social-norms strategies to reduce high-risk drinking have new data to support their approach
Despite two new dorms opening by 2007, the net gain of rooms will only be about 50. That’s because Ogg Hall will be demolis
Like cockroaches, spam may be impossible to defeat completely. But colleges on Tuesday won an important tool in their quest to limit spam�s intrusions into campus e-mail boxes. A federal appeals court ruled that the First Amendment and a federal law do not limit the ability of a public college to block spam from reaching users� e-mail accounts.
AT a June orientation briefing for parents at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, talk turned quickly to technology. Five students had given up their Sunday afternoon to address issues that the fretful parents might have had about sending their children to college – finding a balance between study and fun, Greek life, campus safety, binge drinking. But many parents had other questions: which operating system is best; is a laptop or desktop preferable; how good is the wireless access; and is it necessary to bring a printer?
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – Class clowns moved into their dormitory rooms determined to reinvent themselves as deep souls. The socially awkward looked ahead to college life as a social butterfly. Everyone sized up one another for potential friendships.
For nearly 200 Rider University freshmen, a day last month brought the usual jitters, along with several wrinkles. Classes did not begin for two months, mom and dad were moving into a neighboring dorm and everyone would be heading home the next day.
DELAFIELD — Anybody who knows Trevon Hughes rarely calls him by his first name. He’s referred to as Cadet Hughes most of the time by the teachers at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy here. His family and friends have been calling him “Poppy” since he was a baby in Queens.
Abortion rights activists have long accused abortion foes of waging a covert war against contraceptives.
Often they were accused of being paranoid.
Now at least one powerful anti-abortion lobby in the state is copping to the charge.
A VIRTUAL LOCKER? Higher ed IT pioneer and University of Wisconsin-Madison CIO Annie Stunden is seeing her visions become realities at UW-M: Everyone should have a Web space for file storage, sharing, and collaboration. This fall, as a new crop of freshmen enter the university, along with their My UW-Madison Web portal they’ll have better- than-ever access and storage for digital files. My WebSpace, a system for Web-accessible file storage, retrieval, and sharing, debuted last
Lilangi Ediriwickrema, 21, peruses summaries of the latest articles about stem cell research. She quickly dismisses the first three articles but pauses on the fourth before clicking to read the entire story.
Right now, Wisconsin students pay up to $2,400 less than Minnesota students to attend state universities in the Gopher State. Some Minnesotans think this is unfair and are asking officials to review the current tuition reciprocity agreement between the states and make changes. (Sixth item.)
….University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo says a number of factors have come together to embolden the Republican majority in the state legislature to push efforts to restrict birth control.
The three most popular fleets rented at UW-Madison’s Hoofers Sailing Club, a local boating hub next to the Union Terrace, are tech dinghies, windsurfers and keelboats.
MADISON ââ?¬â? When Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, got a $20 parking ticket while helping his daughter pack up at the end of a semester at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Schneider did what any good parent would do: He introduced legislation that would suspend all campus parking rules for the week preceding or following a semester.
Raymond McCurty-Smith was a high school freshman in Milwaukee when he first heard about UW-Madison’s PEOPLE program from a teacher in his honors English class.
He said he understood immediately what it could mean to him and his family – what a great deal he could get with a full-tuition scholarship if he finished the program and kept up his grades. The program helps disadvantaged and minority youth prepare for college and, preferably, enroll at UW-Madison as freshmen.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison administrators consider the school’s college prep program a success.
The university started the “People Program” as part of a larger plan to improve diversity on campus by helping disadvantaged and minority students prepare for college and, preferably, enroll at UW-Madison.
If the announcement had been a blitzing linebacker from the weakside of the formation, University of Wisconsin quarterback John Stocco would have been sacked.
“I didn’t see it coming at all, to tell you the truth,” said Stocco after learning that his head coach, Barry Alvarez, would be stepping aside at the end of the 2005 season.
“He’s turned this program around and had so much success here that if he feels it’s time for him to go, then it’s time. We have nothing but respect for the coach, and we’ve got to respect his decision.”
The iPod generation will soon be getting some help in selecting which college is the right fit for their music-obsessed lifestyles. Schools that Rock: The Rolling Stone College Guide, which arrived Wednesday, adds a new dimension to selecting a college. The book details music programs, courses and local music scenes at colleges and college towns across the nation.
Associated Bank is closing its branch in University Square on Friday and will open a new office nearby at at 640 University Ave. on Monday. The new branch formerly was a Burger King restaurant, and is more than twice as large at 3,000 square feet.
Metro Transit, which tonight is holding a public hearing on fare increases, may be the first Madison department to be reshaped under the local property tax limits now signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle.
….The per-ride price under contracts held by employers such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Metro’s largest single customer, would rise from 82.5 cents to 88 cents.
Because city officials want these fare increases to take effect in August before students return and contracts for unlimited ride cards are renegotiated, Metro’s budget looks as though it will take shape before those of other city departments.
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS – Experts say the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. Just jump in and force your ears to listen.
But jetting off to Paris for a French lesson can be impractical. Fluency, after all, doesn’t happen in a week.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened one of the oldest ones, its French House, in 1918,
A combination of law enforcement and peer education has reduced alcohol abuse throughout the California State University System, according to a report prepared for the Board of Trustees.
The exact steps taken vary from campus to campus, but all involve increased enforcement by police and campus security, and ââ?¬Å?social normsââ?¬Â marketing, which teaches students that not everyone drinks to fit in.
The Republican majorities in the state Assembly and Senate cobbled together a budget that was so woefully irresponsible when it came to the setting of priorities and the allocation of funds for basic services that the easiest – and, we would still argue, wisest – response to the document was a full veto by Gov. Jim Doyle.
….But we recognize and respect the governor’s fear that key legislative players such as Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, are so out of touch with Wisconsin values and needs that they might not be capable of coming up with a better budget – even with a do-over.
Quoted: Sam Batzli, an assistant scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Environmental Remote Sensing Center.
Quoted: Raymond Fonck of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a member of the ITER design team
Quoted: Joe Lauer, a UW-Madison agronomy professor.
If you find yourself trying a new frozen breakfast/snack product someday – cute little mini-granola shells filled with yogurt and topped with fresh fruit – you’ll have Rachel Prososki and her trusty team of food science students to thank.
Last weekend, for the sixth time in eight years, the team representing the University of Wisconsin-Madison competed in the finals of the Student Product Development Competition sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists.
Federal funds for academic research rose by 13.1 percent in 2003, the second straight year of double-digit increases, the National Science Foundation reported on Wednesday. The growth, coupled with a continuing drop in funds from industry, fueled an increase in the federal share of academic-research money to nearly 62 percent, its highest level since 1985.
University of Wisconsin System faculty will get a 5 percent raise over the next two years – along with many other state employees – but administrators won’t get a penny more until System officials “get their act together” regarding questionable compensation and leave policies, lawmakers said Tuesday.
“I think the university doesn’t quite get how ticked off elected officials are in this state about what we’ve been reading in the last month,” Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said before a legislative committee that sets pay levels for state employees. The committee later voted to deny the raises to administrators until the university completes an internal investigation.
UW-Madison officials refused to release records to 27 News on a student’s claims about the actions of former Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows.
Last month, UW-Madison officials said Barrows’ failed relationship with the student was part of the reason for his seven months of paid leave.
Quoted: James A. Stewart, an oncologist and professor of medicine at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
As a boy, Kurt Squires admits, he spent “way too much time” playing the video game Pirates!
But when a high-school history teacher asked him about European colonization of the Caribbean, Squires found himself spouting off facts – about Spanish galleons, which countries controlled which islands and the fortifications at Havana and Port Royale.
Where did this information come from? Pirates!
That’s when it dawned on Squires that video games can be teaching tools.
Now 33, Squires is an education professor at the University of Wisconsin, and part of a group of educators at Wisconsin, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California trying to develop video games to teach science, history, and mathematics in middle and high schools.
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? As with campuses across the country, the most controversial prescription medication available to students at the University of Wisconsin is the morning-after pill. (Video.)
A sweeping public records request made by state Rep. Steve Nass has campus staffers throughout the state scrambling to retrieve old e-mails and letters as part of Nass’ probe to determine how honest the University of Wisconsin System has been about its money problems lately.
Nass, R-Whitewater, said he personally had his doubts.
“University officials have never wanted to come clean with pretty much anything,” said Nass. “They think they know better than legislators and taxpayers.”
Quoted: UW-Madison historian Stephen Kantrowitz.
Madison’s LGBT community says its members deserve equal rights.
Sunday marked the end of Pride Weekend for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community. The event culminated in a rally for equal rights at the State Capitol, along with a parade down State Street.
The rally highlighted a recent decision by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, which denies health insurance benefits to same sex partners of employees at the University of Wisconsin.
