Starting Friday, downtown Madison’s State Street will be closed to vehicular traffic on eight weekends to accommodate businesses expanding their serving areas outside as a part of the city’s Streatery Restaurant Recovery Program.
At risk is University of Wisconsin-Madison’s plan to welcome students back to campus this fall. Jeff Pothof, University of Wisconsin Health chief quality and safety officer, said if local health officials don’t try to stop the spread of the virus in Dane County, in-person instruction could be called off. “If we’re unable to get on top of this current spike and it continues to accelerate, we may be in a position where it won’t make sense to be holding in-person classes,” he said. “It becomes a risk that most of us shouldn’t be taking with our children.”
Both the city and UW-Madison have similar orders in place to ensure people are distancing properly, which will be especially important come late August when the university’s 30,000 students return to campus. “We have been and will be working to ensure people are abiding by the campus order when they are on campus property,” Marc Lovicott of UW-Madison’s Police Department, said. “We have and will issue citations for blatant and/or multiple violations.”
Last month UW officials released their “Smart Restart” plan for opening campus in the fall. It allows in-person teaching with precautions and with instruction moving completely online after Thanksgiving. But officials made clear that if COVID-19 cases spike early in the semester, that shift could happen earlier.
Instead of a traditional, two-day summer visit to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, incoming students are completing orientation and academic advising online in their own homes.
Some University of Wisconsin-Madison students of color want the university to remove one of its most iconic landmarks, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, because of what they see as the former president’s anti-Indigenous and anti-Black history despite Lincoln’s legacy of ending slavery in the U.S.
The statue, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has sat on top of Bascom Hill, looking down State Street toward the Capitol Dome, since 1906.
While conceding that “like those of all presidents, Lincoln’s legacy is complex and contains actions which, 150 years later, appear flawed,” Blank noted that Lincoln is considered to be “one of our greatest presidents, having issued the Emancipation Proclamation, persuaded Congress to adopt the 13th Amendment ending slavery and preserved the Union during the Civil War.”
“While we can certainly admit that President Lincoln is not perfect when examining him under today’s moral lens over 150 years later, erasing our shared history does not lead to progress,” according to a release from College Republicans.
Abraham Lincoln is the next historical figure whose statue deserves removal, some University of Wisconsin-Madison students say.
Some UW-Madison students of color want the university to remove one of its most iconic landmarks, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, because of what they see as the former president’s anti-Indigenous and anti-Black history despite Lincoln’s legacy of ending slavery in the U.S.
“As the leader of UW–Madison, I believe that Abraham Lincoln’s legacy… should be both celebrated and critiqued,” Blank said in her statement. As an example, Blank argued that while the University relied on “money from land expropriated from Native Americans,” the Lincoln-era land-grant Universities–like UW–have increased access to upward social mobility.
Jake Baggott doesn’t remember precisely where he was or on what day he first heard the term “COVID-19,” but the coronavirus has since consumed most of his waking hours.
More than 20 people attended a town hall Thursday hosted by University Housing to address the hike, which will be effective July 1 and average $50 a month per household across Eagle Heights, Harvey Street Apartments and University Houses. The three buildings house about 2,500 residents across over 1,200 units.
“I just think he did, you know, some good things … the bad things that he’s done definitely outweighs them,” McWhorter said.
Patrick Sims, deputy vice chancellor and chief diversity officer, has taken a position as the executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Sherri Ann Charleston, assistant vice provost and chief affirmative action officer, will become the chief diversity and inclusion officer at Harvard University.
As far as historical figures go, most people might consider Honest Abe worthy of a statue — but Nalah McWhorter would tell you what you probably learned about the 16th President of the United States is only part of the story.
The statue has overlooked Bascom Hill for more than a hundred years and is a staple of graduate photos, but what he symbolizes for marginalized students isn’t land-grant universities or even emancipating slaves.
Cheryl Gittens, an assistant vice provost in UW-Madison’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement, has been named interim leader of UW’s diversity and inclusion efforts, the university announced on Thursday.
When Fannie Lou Hamer spoke to a predominantly white audience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971, the civil rights icon spoke of the time when she was 13 and asked her mother a seemingly innocent question.
“How come we wasn’t born white?”
It was the question of a young teenager growing up in the heart of the South, when ruthless racism was the norm.
Madison has a long history of protests and clashes with police, dating to student-led demonstrations on the University of Wisconsin campus in the 1960s. About 100,000 people protested in 2011 over anger related to anti-union proposals from then-Gov. Scott Walker. Smaller protests are almost a weekly, and sometimes daily, fixture at the Capitol on a host of issues.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Meredith McGlone, a spokesperson for the university, said they are following CDC guidelines, and restroom sinks and toilets are flushed “at least weekly.” As people return to buildings, they are recommending that people let taps run for a few minutes to clear them.
Restrictions in place due to COVID-19 extended from June.
“Life will be different.” This is something you have probably heard countless times over the past few months as COVID-19 has swept through our nation. We’ve had to adjust to very different living styles in order to prevent the virus from spreading.
A report released on Twitter found the department has only had one Black staff member at any given time since 1970.
Chief Diversity Officer and Deputy Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion Patrick Sims has been named the new executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, a top-ranked creative and performing arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Charleston most recently served as the assistant vice provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief affirmative action officer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A historian trained in U.S. history, her research interests focus on law, race, gender in the United States.
The Memorial Union Terrace at UW-Madison opened for the first time this season, at 25% of its regular capacity to accommodate for physical distancing.
“We have worked hard and successfully over these last seven years to help make UW a better place,” Sims says. “Although this work is never finished, I will miss the many talented and committed colleagues and programs that are making a difference in the lives of our community.”
Typically a bustling mainstay of the city’s summer months, the Memorial Union, eerily empty and quiet during the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin a slow reopening Monday as it prepares to welcome campus back for the fall semester.
The business owners who remain on one of Madison’s most iconic streets — stretching from the State Capitol to UW-Madison — are trying to move forward with respect and purpose.
In between strained breaths, German — a freshman from West Bend attending UW-Madison — said he had been running from building to building in an attempt to cast his ballot. “I haven’t missed an election yet,” he said.
Five UW political science PhD candidates released a report on Twitter detailing faculty diversity in the UW Department of Political Science. Using publicly available data, the graduate students found there has not been more than one Black faculty member in any given year since 1970.
Wednesday brought news about UW-Madison and its plans for the 2020 fall semester. In a press release, the university unveiled its “Smart Start” initiative.
The Memorial Union Terrace on UW-Madison’s lakefront will begin a phased reopening on Monday.
Ultimately the group raised $341,000 for Blessings in a Backpack — enough money for the national nonprofit to open up a program in Madison.
The Wisconsin Union’s Memorial Union Terrace will begin a phased reopening on June 22 with new protocols to ensure patrons and team members can practice physical distancing and follow other health guidance related to COVID-19.
The Wisconsin Union’s Memorial Union Terrace, the largest outdoor restaurant in Madison, will start a phased reopening on June 22 with new protocols in place to practice physical distancing and other COVID-19 health guidelines.
Terrace will only have 25% capacity, visitors must stay 6 feet apart.
Summer nights on the Terrace at Memorial Union will return, but they will be much less crowded than in the past.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison says many classes will be in-person starting Sept. 2 but will move online after Thanksgiving. UW-Milwaukee says classes will be a mix of online and in-person instruction throughout the semester.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Milwaukee announced Wednesday that they would bring students and employees back for the fall 2020 semester.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will reopen Sept. 2 for the fall semester with free access to COVID-19 testing, required face coverings and a balance between online and in-person teaching.
Come on back to campus this fall, UW-Madison told its 45,000 students Wednesday.
Instructors will deliver courses in a hybrid of online and in-person instruction until Thanksgiving break. After break, the last nine days of instruction and final exams will be held virtually.
UW-Madison’s PEOPLE Program will offer virtual programming to high school students this summer from June through August because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The program has put forth the motto “Prepare to Achieve Virtually Anything!”
“I like that we don’t know yet because it feels like they’re taking their time to fully understand the situation because it’s very dynamic.” Said Nicole Berdusco who will study her fifth year of engineering in the fall.
Madison physicians joined the Student National Medical Association at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health chapter in vowing to be leaders of that change in this community.
University of Wisconsin System officials are offering campuses guidelines for reopening this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members of the newly formed Campus Neighborhood Association met Thursday night to begin reviewing proposed bylaws and plans for the group, which include securing a larger role in development projects of Madison neighborhoods with large concentrations of students.
The University of Wisconsin will welcome a limited number of athletes back to campus this week, with voluntary strength and conditioning activities to begin June 15.
A UW-Madison student got the chance of a lifetime when she interviewed NAACP President Derrick Johnson on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Thursday.
Fowlkes, joined by student journalists, show moderator Chuck Todd, interviewed NAACP president Derrick Johnson.
University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates Jesse (MD’14) and Joel Charles (MD’14) grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Green Bay and said they quickly learned how race, society and the environment can affect people’s health and access to care.
Noted: Last spring, Milwaukee teenagers Dana Sharqawi and Sumaya Abdi organized protests after mass shootings at mosques in New Zealand.
On Wednesday, they brought people together again at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee — this time to remember George Floyd and to protest police violence. They said they were guided by their Muslim faith.
“Our religion tells us that if one part of your body’s in pain, then the whole body’s in pain,” said Abdi, now 19 and a student at UW-Madison. “So if our black brothers and sisters are in pain, we’re in pain, too.”
Daniel Tokaji, 52, has been a professor at Ohio State since 2003 and served as associate dean for faculty since 2018. Before that, he worked as a civil rights attorney in California for eight years.
Other law enforcement around the state have condemned the actions of officers involved in Floyd’s death, including University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Chief Kristen Roman, president of the Dane County Chiefs of Police Association. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that Roman said the action or inaction by officers was unjustifiable.
After 2 a.m. Sunday, University of Wisconsin-Madison police tweeted the situation on State Street had “stabilized,” but said a significant law enforcement presence remained and encouraged people to avoid the area.
Noted: The problems were concentrated along State Street, the normally thriving pedestrian avenue that connects the state Capitol to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Protesters broke out the windows of Urban Outfitters, an art museum’s gift shop, Ragstock, AT&T and other stores.
UW-Madison has named astronomer Eric Wilcots to lead the university’s largest academic unit, marking the first time an African American will serve as dean of the College of Letters and Science.
The program will be all online from June through August. It helps students from 8th grade to high school prepare for higher education.
