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Category: Campus life

How Wisconsin got the nickname ‘Badgers’

NCAA

There’s only one “Badgers” nickname in NCAA Division I college athletics, and it belongs to the University of Wisconsin. The name has deep ties to the state, dating back roughly 200 years.

Here’s everything we know about Wisconsin’s mascot and nickname.

Wisconsin colleges’ fall plans hinge on testing thousands of students for COVID-19. Will it be enough to keep campuses open?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Colleges and universities across Wisconsin have developed a patchwork of plans to prepare for what at its core is an unknown: How to reopen campuses safely during a pandemic.

Quoted: Testing students every week or two will provide a gauge of whether the virus is taking hold on campuses. Many physicians stress this so-called surveillance testing is the only way to identify students and staff who are infected but don’t have symptoms.

“I don’t see how one can not do it,” said Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease physician at UW Health.

The mystery of the missing UW Sterling Hall bomber

Sun Prairie Star

It’s been called one of Madison’s greatest unfinished stories of the last half of the 20th century.

What happened to Leo Burt? Three of the four bombers of UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall in 1970, were caught and sent to federal prison. But Leo Burt, the fourth bomber, 22 years-old at the time, is still wanted by the FBI.

His whereabouts remain a mystery.

UW-Madison Chancellor Blank on comprehensive plan to restart [WTMJ Roundtable]

WTMJ

Quoted: No plan for opening a university can be fool-proof, which leads to UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank being both confident in her campus plan and concerned about the things she – and any university’s chief executive – cannot control no matter how comprehensive a plan’s framework is.

“I admit I am both optimisitc and worried. I think we’ve done everything we need to do. We’ve got a lot of moving parts,” Blank told WTMJ’s John Mercure during Tuesday’s WTMJ Cares Special Roundtable.

Q&A: UW’s Jonathan Temte on status of a coronavirus vaccine and how it will be distributed

The Capital Times

If anyone in Wisconsin was poised to play a part in the coronavirus pandemic, it was Jonathan Temte. A physician and associate dean with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Temte is also an expert in vaccine and immunization policy who sat on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for eight years and is currently a member of the ACIP COVID-19 Vaccine Work Group, a panel that will help inform the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determine how a COVID-19 vaccine will be deployed.

UW-Madison students concerned about university’s reopening plan

NBC-15

A new survey, conducted by the United Faculty and Academic Staff and the Teaching Assistants Association, shows 86.4 percent of UW-Madison workers are uncomfortable with the university’s reopening plan. Most responses came from graduate student workers and faculty, but some undergraduate students feel the same

How to do delivery on a college campus

Food Management

As part of its Back to School webinar series to help college and K-12 dining programs get ready for the fall, Food Management held a session titled “How to Start a Delivery Program on Your Campus” on July 21 featuring Peter Testory, director of dining & culinary services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), and Darin Schluep, director of Associated Students Dining Services at the University of California-Davis (UCD). It was moderated by FM Group Content Director Becky Schilling

The ‘Half-Campus’ Model: Some colleges invite a fraction of their students to live on campus this fall. But is that approach truly safer? And who gets to be on campus?

Inside Higher Ed

Quoted: The effort to de-densify campus could have a public health benefit if the extra space is used to spread people out across classrooms and residence halls, said Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a member of the American College Health Association’s COVID-19 task force.

“If the reduction is being done solely for budget reasons, however,” he said, such as to “keep class sizes the same but have fewer classes with fewer instructors, then I don’t think it’s going to make much difference.”

Trump administration rescinds rule on foreign students in face of firestorm of opposition

Wisconsin State Journal

“Today’s announcement is encouraging news for all college students and for American universities,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a statement. “Universities need flexibility to educate students in the most effective manner possible during the pandemic and international students deserve stability and support as they pursue their degrees here.”

Back to school: As UW plans to reopen, students and faculty have questions

The Capital Times

UW-Madison remains committed to preserving elements of in-person teaching, with physical distancing requirements and widespread testing. However, as families and faculty continue to ask more specific questions about what school will look like, the university has about five weeks to hash out the details. “This is a big lift,” Blank said at a University Committee meeting Monday. “We’re going to be running the university in virtually every area differently than it’s ever been run before.”

“I feel very unwelcome.” Effort to deport international students if classes go online has many worried

Madison365

In the middle of a pandemic, international college students have needed more support and sympathy ever before, especially as many have been stranded in Madison for months. But in the United States the Trump administration added to their stress and anxiety by issuing an order to strip students of their US visas and deport them if their courses go entirely online.

‘I did all the right things:’ College students pivot in job market thrown off by coronavirus

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

For Hannah Arbuckle, a summer internship focused on helping people cultivate wild foods at the Bad River Reservation was an opportunity to help the tribe she belongs to.

It was also the University of Wisconsin-Madison senior’s chance to complete her last requirement for graduation.

But when she called her supervisor at the reservation to ask if her internship was still happening, Arbuckle learned the program had been canceled.

As COVID-19 cases increase, UW-Madison employee concerns about fall semester grow

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas said Thursday the plan to offer in-person instruction Sept. 2 remains in place and he dismissed the notion of finances driving the decision to reopen. He also said the plan may help the city because regardless of how UW-Madison operates this fall, many students will return in August when their off-campus housing leases start.