The next generations of potential doctors, researchers and scientists spent the weekend getting a close look at all that UW-Madison has to offer.
The event was part of UW’s campus-wide science open house called “Science Expeditions.” The hands-on experiences showcased dozens of science venues, including the UW Health Carbone Cancer Center.
Now’s your chance to explore UW-Madison and experience science. The UW-Madison Science Expeditions are back April 4-6.
Martin Ventura, the Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens Specialist at UW-Madison Extension, manages and maintains farms in the Milwaukee area, some of which are farmed by immigrants, particularly in the Hmong community. UW-Extension, Ventura said, had a former partnership with the Hmong American Friendship Association to establish a Hmong heritage garden plot, allowing local communities to farm.
How two students from immigrant backgrounds find community and support at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Featured artists and speakers include Armando Ibarra, a professor in the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Tribal Relations Director Carla Vigue describes how a group called “Relatives” offers different types of support to Indigenous students on campus and to student groups.
The Tribal Education Promise at UW-Madison, which provides financial aid to Indigenous students from Wisconsin’s Native nations, is intended to help address a history of coercion through treaties.
PBS Wisconsin spoke with two plant specialists — Lisa Johnson, Dane County Horticulture Educator, and Brian Hudelson, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic — to explore resources that are available to gardeners year-round.
The Wisconsin Film Festival is presented by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Communication Arts and is now entering its 26th year. Ben Reiser, director of operations, said Madison has supported the festival’s growth.
“The film-going community in Madison has embraced it as a chance to see all these films that you do hear about from other film festivals,” Reiser said, and particularly, “as a chance to see them in movie theaters.”
Student athletes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have visited second grade classrooms in the Madison school district every Monday since September 2024 as part of the Role Model Reading Program, a partnership between the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and the 2nd & 7 foundation created by Badgers head football coach Luke Fickell.
It was March 2020 when Dr. Ajay Sethi got a call from his best friend in Maryland. His friend’s father had died from COVID-19, one of the earliest U.S. casualties of the virus.
“Because I’m an epidemiologist and I think about numbers, the emotions behind those numbers, how is it I know someone so early who’s died from COVID-19?” said Sethi, who serves as the faculty director of the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The odds are so unusual, I remember thinking then, it must be big.”
City planners recommend adding a fire hydrant, lighting upgrades and raised pedestrian crossings on State Street, which stretches from the state Capitol to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. They also favor adopting one-way traffic, automatic retractable bollards and bike lanes.
“Having Bucky here was definitely a perk for the kids!” said Kelly Lyke. She stopped by with her two daughters to toss some diapers in the red bin.
Six months ago, UW Health started conducting a diaper needs assessment survey at postpartum appointments at OB-GYN clinics in Madison.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison became interested in this topic because they wanted to understand a puzzling contradiction. On one hand, many people express support for diversity and inclusion. On the other hand, discrimination and exclusion remain persistent problems in society. The researchers wondered if part of the problem might stem from inaccurate perceptions of what others believe.
The study, “Diversity and inclusion have greater support than most Americans think,” was authored by Naomi Isenberg and Markus Brauer.
Patrick Remington, emeritus professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health who began his career at the CDC, said some who oppose fluoride because of its risks aren’t weighing them against the benefits — something people do every day when they choose to drive a car, have a drink or make other choices.
The benefits of fluoride are clear: less tooth decay, Remington said, while the science doesn’t yet show neurodevelopmental problems for children who ingest fluoride at the level in the U.S. water supply.
The UW System is asking for roughly $855 million over two years from the state and urged support for that funding during a discussion with members of the Hoan Group, a private group of about 160 business and community members in the Milwaukee and Madison area.
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, an assistant history professor, revived the Puerto Rican history course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last spring. It hadn’t been taught in seven years, and the university planned to cut it, he said.
This year, he’s teaching Puerto Rican history to a global audience
Luckily, there’s still plenty of children’s literature that can aid in the process, though children’s literature itself has long suffered from a lack of diverse representation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has tracked the number of children’s books by or about Black and Indigenous people and other people of color since 2018, and while the numbers have mostly increased, it remains much harder to find children’s books that are widely representative than it should be.
The study authored by Howard together with Mengqi Wang and Dayin Zhang of the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the “staggered rollout of a national increase in immigration enforcement” could send “negative shocks” through the construction sector.
“If you’re eligible for a subsidy and there’s just no child care in your community, or no providers that accept subsidies, that’s going to make it a lot harder for you to actually participate in (Wisconsin) Shares,” Pilarz said.
The state’s providers could care for up to 33,000 more children if they had staff to operate at full capacity, according to a 2024 UW-Madison study commissioned by the Department of Children and Families. The study found nearly 60% of Wisconsin child care providers had unused space, including closed classrooms.
Medical anthropologist Mai See Thao, an assistant professor in UW-Madison’s Department of Anthropology and Asian American Studies, researches what life is like for refugees long after they’ve resettled in a new place.
Organizers are also seeking a charter agreement with the UW Office of Educational Opportunity, although UW won’t make its decision until May.
For 80 years, Madison’s lakes have gotten saltier, according to Hilary Dugan, an associate professor and researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology.
The salinity of Madison’s lakes was close to zero a century ago and road salting has been the biggest source of contamination, she said. Researchers like Dugan closely monitor chloride levels in local waterways because it’s easier to track the environmental impacts than sodium.
Two years ago, Dr. James A. Bigham, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, began teaching medical students on the issue, not just providing statistics around firearms injury but also arranging for instruction from firearms trainers on how guns function and why someone may want to own one.
Knowing basic math is crucial to set up students for success later in life, according to Lisa Hennessey, a UW-Madison educator helping to organize the tutoring program. Research shows understanding the subject in middle school prepares students for more advanced math in high school and ultimately leads to higher-paying jobs in adulthood.
Meanwhile, about five to 10 University of Wisconsin law students are preparing for a visit to the Dodge County Detention Facility, where people facing deportation are detained. Erin Barbato, director of the UW Immigrant Justice Clinic, said the goal is to be thoughtful in the information they share with clients about the Trump orders.
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Dinner: The MLK Jr. Coalition hosts this annual event and buffet dinner, 4:30 to 7 p.m. Friday at UW Gordon Dining and Event Center, 770 W. Dayton St. Meet neighbors, share in the spirit of Dr. King and hear music from WYSO Music Makers at 6:15 p.m.
MLK Symposium 2025: Donzaleigh Abernathy, the youngest daughter of Civil Rights Movement co-founder Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy and goddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., is the featured speaker in this special event honoring King’s legacy, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, in Shannon Hall, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. Hosted by the UW-Madison Student Affairs and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement.
What sets this apartment complex from others, you may ask? For example, a podcast room and expansive rooftop decks are two additional amenities that will be featured.
Ada Deer was a decades-long champion of Native American rights, Deer was the first Native American woman from Wisconsin to run for Congress. She was also the first Menominee citizen to graduate from UW-Madison and led the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Deer died in 2023.
Founded in 2021, the Eviction Diversion and Defense Partnership is intended to prevent evictions through court navigation, landlord mediation, rental assistance and no-cost legal representation for tenants, according to Hannah Renfro, executive director of the Tenant Resource Center. The partnership is run through the center in collaboration with nonprofit law firms Community Justice Inc. and Legal Action of Wisconsin, as well as UW-Madison’s law school.
The nearly 150,000-square-foot Element Labs opened at University Research Park in March 2024, with space for up to 20 bioscience companies. A similar-size project, called Velocity Station, is slated to replace the former Clock Tower office park at 6411 Odana Road, but no timeline has been announced.
Schuyler, who is an enrolled Oneida Nation citizen, earned a scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1990s. He dropped out when he was 21 credits short of earning his bachelor’s degree.
The radio broadcast described a new UW-Madison program launching in fall 2024.It would cover not only tuition but room and board, books and other expenses, to enrolled members of Wisconsin Native American tribes.
“That was my sign,” Schuyler said.
A new program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is aimed at supporting Indigenous graduate students through the hoops and hurdles of academia.
David Drake leads the Urban Canid Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2014, researchers with the project have studied where coyotes and red foxes live in the Madison area, when they are active and how they interact with each other, in addition to humans and pets. University students help Drake set up traps around the city from November to March, so they can put radio collars on animals and track them.
“We’ve gotten some really good data,” said Drake, a professor and Extension wildlife specialist at UW-Madison’s Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.
One resource people can turn to for their own healing is the Healthy Minds Program, Davidson said. The free, evidence-based app was created by Healthy Minds Innovation, a nonprofit affiliated with UW-Madison’s center.
Fifteen ambulances responded to the shooting. Four victims were transported to St. Mary’s and three to University of Wisconsin-Madison hospitals, Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said.
Officers from the Madison Police Department, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol and Dane County Sheriff’s Department were on site. Barnes said he also had been in contact with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
A new University of Wisconsin project aims to train pharmacists on responding to overdose deaths that, despite recent declines, continue to be seen as a public health issue in Wisconsin.
Miffland, as the neighborhood around West Mifflin Street is known, doesn’t look all that different from a half-century ago. Many of the single-family and multifamily houses with distinctive porches, balconies and yards that were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s are still there — and are still sought after by students. But now the way the neighborhood looks is changing, too.
The 10-story apartment building that Trinitas Ventures of Lafayette, Indiana, plans to build at 619 and 699 W. Mifflin St. would add hundreds of student beds near the UW-Madison campus, where housing is in high demand.
When I ask Sami Schalk, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Black Disability Politics,” how disabled people should prepare for the next Trump term, she says, “The state is going to abandon disabled people more than ever. Informal networks of care and support are the only way we survive.”
Only preliminary possibilities have been floated so far. One idea is to charge for parking at Vilas Park during home UW football games.
In this episode of University Place Presents, host Norman Gilliland and his guest Kasey Keeler, assistant professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discuss the topic, American Indians and the American Dream, which she explores in her book of the same title.
The money that property owners and managers get from packing in cars can add up fast. On South Randall Avenue near the intersection with Regent Street, a landlord had about 35 spaces going for $40 apiece. Some were reserved for friends and one was for the owner’s tailgate party, but it’s still roughly $1,200 of income per game day that goes into the bank account.
Madison Development Corp., a local nonprofit that develops and manages workforce housing, is proposing a four-story, 40-unit apartment building at 423–427 W. Mifflin St. near the UW-Madison campus.
A University of Wisconsin Survey Center poll conducted in the weeks before the Nov. 5 election correctly projected the outcomes of a city of Madison referendum and two Madison school district ballot measures — from the narrowest margin of victory to the widest.
The Universities of Wisconsin’s Office of Educational Opportunity is also evaluating the Forward Academy’s charter application, McKenzie said. Organizers plan to begin holding community engagement sessions for the school in December.
The University of Wisconsin Canid Project, which studies coyotes and red foxes in the area, has also fielded calls about the coyote. In a post on the Project’s Facebook page Thursday, officials said they believe there are two coyotes roaming the West Side: The one with the leg injury and another with an unknown illness. Recent reports with the Project suggest that the animal with the leg injury might be moving better.
Written by Susan Webb Yackee, a professor of public affairs and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
More than two decades of construction on the Near West Side’s main thoroughfare has finally wrapped up, a process that’s certainly added to commutes but is leaving the area better protected from intense flooding.
For many veterans, higher education can seem out of reach. However, a special program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is helping change that narrative.
With increased visibility of women’s volleyball and the success of the University of Wisconsin-Madison women’s volleyball team, the sport has flourished among girls too, said Franco Marcos. He anticipates Madison’s new professional women’s volleyball team, which launches in January, will continue to bolster the popularity.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is, once again, considering whether to light and pave a portion of the Howard Temin Lakeshore Path along Lake Mendota.
Hundreds of UW-Madison students, alumni and Madison community members flocked to campus to watch the 114th UW Homecoming Parade on Oct. 25.
A sea of pink flooded Bascom Hill Friday as Badger donors brought in nearly $511,877 during the annual fundraiser paying homage to one of UW-Madison’s most memorable pranks.
POLITICO columnist Jonathan Martin talks about the challenges of covering Trump, why bipartisanship could be the winning move for Harris
Hands-on science stations lined the street, one belonging to a group working in Song Jin’s Lab at the UW Department of Chemistry.
“Community radio plays a really important role in creating the range of voices … from minority communities who wouldn’t have any voice in mass media at all otherwise,” said Lewis Friedland, an emeritus professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A researcher and clinical psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has made it his mission to focus on the challenges fathers face and rebuke stereotypes around Black fathers. Event co-chair Alvin Thomas told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that it is important to discuss and address the problems fathers face.
“We know that if the parent relationship is not a very strong one or not a very healthy one, that more likely than not, the attachment between the child and the father is going to be compromised,” Thomas said. “Which of course will lead to potential negative outcomes for the child, but also for the dad.”
Yes, inflation has gone down, says Menzie Chinn, a UW-Madison economics and public affairs professor. But there’s a catch. He said that, though the rate of prices going up has slowed, it doesn’t mean prices are coming down. “Prices are flattening out,” Chinn said. “They are not going up as fast as they were, but they are still going up.”
J. Michael Collins, UW-Madison professor at La Follette School of Public Affairs and School of Human Ecology, said inflation hits people differently across the state, with one in four saying they’ve had trouble meeting expenses, especially rent, which can be a third to half of a person’s income.
