Before college is even in session, Northwestern football players spend up to 60 hours a week practicing at a one-month training camp. During the three- or four-month football season, they put in up to 50 hours a week preparing for games. That?s more time than many full-time employees devote to their jobs.
In the fight against poverty, few issues are more contentious than the allocation of the billions of dollars set aside to help those in need. Whether the money comes from private donations or state tax revenues, arguments over how to use the monies arise both in domestic and international politics. This debate usually focuses on balancing two competing interests: providing significant, meaningful help while promoting independence rather than dependence. (John Hoffmire is Director of the Impact Bond Fund at Saïd Business School at Oxford University and directs the Center on Business and Poverty at the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison.)
Noted: The Wisconsin Applied Population Lab, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reports the state is already the 20th oldest out of 50. By 2020, 24% of the state will be 60 and older; by 2030, more than 27% will be 60-plus.
Noted: According to the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (in Ryan?s home state), the gap between the poverty rate in inner cities and that in rural areas and small towns is not as great as one might suspect. The inner city poverty rate is 19.7 percent, and the poverty rate in rural areas and small towns is 16.5 percent.
Noted: Twice, UW officials pushed language seeking to create blanket exemptions for university research. You?d think that after one embarassing beat-down, they would have learned their lesson. Both measures were stopped in their tracks.
What is an acceptable level of loan default? (Nicholas Hillman is assistant professor in the department of educational leadership & policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.)
The Sunshine Week fortune cookies and their messages serve as a reminder to those elected or appointed to do the public?s business that they work for you ? the voting and taxpaying public. UW-Madison and the UW System did not always remember this wisdom.
Dear Editor: UW has not allowed classified research on campus for over 40 years but the Legislature wants to change that with AB 729/SB 578.
Noted: My dream was to study mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as try out for its track team.
In-state tuition for undocumented students became available here in 2009, after years of organizing by immigrant youth. Unfortunately, in 2011 it was repealed by Governor Walker, who effectively shut the door to higher education for undocumented students (called “Dreamers”) in the state. It has been three years since then, and we believe it?s time this door is blown wide open again.
This is a guest post by Steven Wilson, a doctoral student in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
David McDonald is an esteemed Russian history scholar on sabbatical from his job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The SSTI (State Science and Technology Institute) praised the UW-Madison?s investment in its ?Discovery to Product? initiative to help move good ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. That?s an idea funded, in part, by the Legislature?s UW System Incentive Grants. Only this month, the UW System and WEDC announced creation of a $2 million fund to help transfer technology from other system campuses.
Sometimes research takes on a life of its own and becomes more like a Rorschach test for a national policy controversy. That?s what?s happened to a review of the literature on the critical information needs of American communities that I and colleagues from around the country conducted for the Federal Communications Commission in July 2012. The recommendations of the review informed a proposed pilot study in Columbia, S.C., of what, if any, critical information needs citizens have and whether they are being met in our rapidly changing media environment.
Noted: Kelsey Mullane is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying art history and history. After graduation, she hopes to go on to graduate school and pursue a PhD in American history.
Recent audits detail troubles with a University of Wisconsin payroll computer system. More time should have been spent in planning.
The University of Wisconsin?s Natatorium has played host to WIAA state swimming and diving meets since 1966, and anyone who has walked along the deck or sat in the bleachers during any of those championships over the past 48 years knows what makes the venue special.
Any one of the 83 percent of students who stepped foot into any of University of Wisconsin-Madison?s recreational sports facilities last year can tell you they leave much to be desired.
Noted: Bruce Barrett is a tenured professor and practicing family physician with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Margaret Mooney, Pam Kleiss, Dick Smith and Madeleine Para contributed to this op-ed, which is dedicated to physician-activist Jeff Patterson, who died on Jan. 24.
Last week, Nicholas Kristof revived the old canard that academics have removed themselves from the public sphere through obscure prose and interests. Among the problems we might identify in Kristof?s essay — there are, obviously, many — is the irony of a writer with the resources of The New York Times supporting him chiding the rest of us for not writing in outlets such as The New York Times.
Noted: James J. Shaw, PhD, of Lake Mills is an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the retired superintendent of the Racine Unified School District.
Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don?t matter in today?s great debates.
I for one will no longer call myself an alumni. Can I get my tuition back?
After Act 10 went into effect, schools throughout the state were given more flexibility on an array of human resources decisions, including the ability for more teachers to receive merit-based pay
UW-Madison?s new chancellor, Rebecca Blank, came out last week in favor of raising tuition for out-of-state and professional school students, and the administration is making the case for quadrupling a student fee to pay for an overhaul of recreational sports facilities.
Noted: Ken Mayer and Barry Burden, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and redistricting experts, also are expected to speak.
Skloot is professor emeritus of theater and drama and Jewish studies.
The last decade has seen a wave of research suggesting consumer behavior can often be determined entirely nonconsciously. For example, salesmen who subtly mimic a customer?s body language are found more persuasive; subliminal exposure to high- or low-end brands can automatically change consumer?s shopping goals.
Look, an organized attempt by student-athletes to unionize appears flawed and a major long shot for implementation. There?s a strong argument to be made they aren?t employees ? they receive grants in aid ? and their status at a school, both as a student and as an athlete, is voluntary. But the College Athletes Players Association, introduced last week by former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter and lauded by his athletic director, James Phillips, raises a lot of issues that need to be explored.
I disagree with the Jan. 27 letter to the editor objecting to the UW-Madison Student-Athlete Performance Center.
We enjoyed the Jan. 26 State Journal article describing the Memorial Union?s current renovation. The Union, as the article states, is an iconic campus landmark. It has been the second living room and favorite playground to generations of students, graduates and Madisonians.
At its Jan. 8 meeting the Madison Area Technical College District Board, the governing body connecting the college with the community, decided to arm its campus officers with tasers. This is a serious matter that should be discussed more broadly in the community.
Last year, when the tuition freeze was announced by Gov. Scott Walker in La Crosse, like most students, I was excited. … But diving deeper into the numbers, students have to take this freeze with a grain of salt.
The annual State of the State address delivered by Gov. Scott Walker was given amid news that the Wisconsin state budget, like those in many other states, is projected to run a surplus. But for too many hardworking Wisconsin family budgets, there?s not the same good news ? and the $1.2 trillion student loan debt crisis is the reason for hundreds of thousands of us.
Everyone knows the University of Wisconsin-Madison doesn?t do much to work with companies and institutions in Milwaukee, and its relationship with UW-Milwaukee is practically nonexistent. Right?Wrong.
This week, the White House received a report from the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. It offers recommendations on a range of election practices, including how to shorten waiting times, accommodate voters with limited English proficiency, and staff polling places. These conclusions, which may well spark federal and state legislation, would not be possible without research support from political scientists. How did that happen?
New leadership in the University of Wisconsin System ? UW Colleges and Extension Chancellor Ray Cross recently was named system president ? brings with it an opportunity to forge a new relationship with not only the state Legislature but the people of Wisconsin.
Three years into the scorched-earth regime of Gov. Scott Walker and his ruling Republican allies, a first reaction by progressives and moderates to the new president of the University of Wisconsin System might be suspicion.
Are you kidding? Of course, Whitney Hite would love to have a new competition pool for his University of Wisconsin men?s and women?s swim teams.
Over the past few years, instead of highlighting its value to Wisconsinites as an outstanding higher education system and economic engine, the University of Wisconsin System has embarrassed itself by a series of administrative and political gaffes. Consequently, legislators and the public have expressed their frustration and disappointment with what they saw as a pattern of obfuscating issues and ignoring legislative mandates
Madison is a ?nice? place to live. I should know. I grew up in Philadelphia, lived in Baltimore, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area before moving here almost 23 years ago. However, nice Madison, like nice people, is in perpetual denial about those aspects of itself that are not nice.
Entrepreneurs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison soon will have a new advocate on campus that should boost the number of ideas that are commercialized, which we think should, in turn, give the state?s economy a boost over time.
In case you missed it, something remarkable is developing in that athletic complex known as UW-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents went with a more traditional choice for System president in former UW-Extension chancellor Ray Cross, and there?s no reason to believe he won?t end up being an excellent hire.
I hope Bo Ryan is cognizant that he is experiencing one of his finest hours as a basketball coach now that his University of Wisconsin men?s team has set the university?s all-time beginning win-loss record of 16-0.
Nearly every medical advance from the last century is a product of responsible animal research, and animal models will continue to be important to medical progress.
Robin Vos says he?s a big believer in transparency. If that?s true, he can prove it by rejecting an idea to rope off from public view a portion of the selection process for top positions in the University of Wisconsin System.
Long live UW-Madison professor Harold Scheub and his African stories. He was featured in Monday?s story about his retirement.
Transparency. It?s a word Republican legislators in Madison used often and at high volume earlier this year when criticizing the University of Wisconsin System because of its reserve funds.
Dear Editor: I commend my friend and former colleague at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Rev. Alex Gee, for his powerful and accurate analysis in the Cap Times about how we, many Madison residents, are failing the members of our African-American community. Yes, he is not politically correct; he is simply correct. I have two points to make:
Noted: According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison-based Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a nonpartisan national think tank that promotes “high road” solutions to social problems, about 8,000 workers in Milwaukee County would get higher wages as a result of the living wage. For the vast majority of those workers, their standard of living would rise. This would lift them out of a vicious cycle of being part of the working poor who work hard to make a living but still rely on public assistance to keep ahead of the bills.
Column is by John Milton Cooper Jr. is the E. Gordon Fox professor of American institutions emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of “Woodrow Wilson: A Biography.”
Regarding several letters in Thursday?s paper, I understand and accept that some people object to animal research. But I?d bet that no neurologists or oncologists belong to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Madison Metro Transit shouldn?t apologize for running a new PETA bus ad showing us all what terrible things happen to animals inside the UW-Madison?s labs.
There are alternatives to using live animals for medical testing. Science has advanced so that tissues can be cultured and used. Computer modeling is also being used successfully.
Two not-very-breaking-news-like observations from the hoo-ha over Metro Transit?s decision to allow People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to put a graphic ad on its buses: 1. PETA is not known for its subtlety. 2. Humans are not known for embracing ugly truths.
Jim Delany, the $3-million-a-year commissioner of Big Ten athletics, was the central figure in a big New York Times story last week about the conference?s rapid and lucrative expansion.
Noted: Kathryn Jeffers is author of “The Long Trip To Arlington,” a personal memoir of her father’s service in World War II. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business in Executive Education.
My father woke at dawn a contented man on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, at Wheeler Field, 15 miles from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
As predicted, PETA?s ongoing campaign against scientific research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison continues, escalating this week with a striking advertisement on 100 Metro buses. The ad calls for an end to UW research aimed at better understanding how the brain processes sound.
I write regarding coverage of the efforts of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to demonize research at UW-Madison, using disconcerting images of a cat given a cochlear implant.
