If you were going to come up with a list of organizations whose failures had done the most damage to the American economy in recent years, youâ??d probably have to start with the Wall Street firms and regulatory agencies that brought us the financial crisis. From there, you might move on to Wall Streetâ??s fellow bailout recipients in Detroit, the once-Big Three.
War begins Saturday for the University of Wisconsin, albeit a relatively tame war. While the Badgers look to go 1-0 on the football field, the university looks to keep the alcoholic culture associated with football games down to a minimum. In many ways, the war on binge drinking and underage drinking is a futile endeavor, especially when dealing with something as inveterately linked as football and beer. But it is a noble endeavor nonetheless; one that the University has shown it is willing to fight. The concept of â??show and blowâ? was introduced last year to keep underage drinking down, and now UW has dropped radio ads during football games associated with alcohol presumably to obscure the connection between football and beer drinking.
We read Eric Schmidtâ??s recent opinion article regarding the mental health services at University Health Services with great interest. The staff at UHS is interested in providing effective, evidenced-based treatment in a timely fashion and welcome feedback that will assist in providing the highest quality of care possible. Genuine and constructive feedback is the foundation for improvement in any endeavor, but we are concerned that Mr. Schmidtâ??s article contains information that is inaccurate and does not accurately reflect the services provided at UHS. We would like to correct any misinformation which may prevent students from seeking treatment.
….The call was from the College Republicansâ?? national office, asking me if Iâ??d join the campaign to tell President Barack Obama to quit his reckless spending, saddling future generations with trillions of dollars of debt.
When I said “no,” but Iâ??d join a campaign to tell the president to bring the troops home from the wars and use the hundreds of billions weâ??re spending there to pay for a national health care plan, the telemarketer hung up.
The countryâ??s disconnect is frustrating. College Republicans, old Republicans and a lot of Democrats and independents as well get all lathered up over plans to spend money so that 45 million Americans are at least minimally covered by health insurance, but they canâ??t be bothered to even think about the nearly trillion dollars weâ??ve already thrown down the rat hole weâ??ve created in the Middle East.
Ethan Cook has musical goals he’s yet to achieve. But the 20-year-old Appleton native â?? known on stage as American Fiction â?? also has a loftier ambition.
Currently a junior at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Cook is majoring in religious studies and wants to become a pastor.
“I think I’ve realized a true calling that really I feel is transcendental, and it doesn’t matter with this whole music thing,” he said. “(Music) is a huge part of my life, but I mean this is a greater part of my life
If you donâ??t believe this is the most critical year in the modern history of University of Wisconsin Athletics, youâ??re either uncaring, naïve or playing footsie with reality.
Itâ??s not about one sport, although the fortunes of Badgers football in next five months represent the biggest piece of the puzzle.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has lauded its recent coverage of the continuing medical education program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Editorials, Aug. 16. These articles may mislead readers into viewing our CME program as little more than a paid mouthpiece for commercial interests that seek to manipulate physicians.
Nothing could be further from the truth, writes Robert Golden, dean of the school.
Wisconsin would be one of the top beneficiaries of a broad reform of the patent application process on the front end and the court system on the back end. We may need a special court for patent issues. This is a complex field of human endeavor, so reform will not be easy. It may need the talent of a Harvard lawyer, such as Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold. He surely understands that we canâ??t lead in an innovation economy with a broken innovation system.
With endowments shrinking, donations falling and operating budgets squeezed, colleges and universities face great pressure to cut costs. Athletic departments are an obvious target. But, troublingly, men’s sports are disproportionately bearing the brunt.
The year 1969 is in the news these days. Retrospectives 40 years later have focused on everything from Woodstock to anti-war demonstrations and the moon landing.
That year also marked one of the most important moments of modern-day environmentalism, and Madison was at the epicenter. The Wisconsin Legislature in 1969 voted to effectively ban the persistent pesticide DDT from use in the state. The action was a first in the nation.
The same year also marked the end of remarkable hearings in Madison that put DDT on trial in front of the nation. A small group of concerned state conservationists and an old-school professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked the Department of Natural Resources to rule on whether DDT was a water pollutant under state statutes.
Quoted: â??Weâ??re still independent,â? UW-Madison political science professor Kathy Cramer Walsh said of the state electorate Friday.
….When a complication results from a physician’s negligence or not being knowledgeable, it is important to acknowledge this to the patient or family in the form of an apology even though most malpractice insurance companies and their lawyers actually discourage admission of guilt. Under these circumstances I believe an out of court settlement is more likely to occur when financial compensation for lost time, pain and further medical costs are required.
(Pellegrino is an emeritus UW clinical associate professor of orthopedic surgery)
As Congress debates the reform of the American health care system, nurses and the nursing profession must be at the table. Regardless of the health care model that we eventually decide on, nurses can and should be key players in reducing health care costs and increasing efficiency while maintaining the quality of patient care.
The nation is facing a major shortage of primary care and family practice doctors. Health care coverage will potentially be offered to millions more Americans, but the question remains: Who will provide primary care? The answer: nurse practitioners. From private practice to nurse-managed health centers, NPs have proven their capacity to take on this role.
….The UW’s press release on the study cautions that there is no similar study of human subjects under way and that “conclusive evidence of the effects of the diet on human lifespan and disease may never be known.”
….So then what’s the purpose of the study that subjected 76 rhesus monkeys to years of over- and under-eating?
That’s the crux of the questions that animal rights activists have been asking about much of animal research conducted at universities and especially here at the UW-Madison’s National Primate Research Center. The local organization known as the Primate Freedom Project has long maintained that the UW-Madison sanctions numerous unnecessary experiments on monkeys because they generate millions of federal and corporate dollars for the school and help the researchers gain notoriety in their professions.
In our current national economic climate, it is critical we use every tool at our disposal, every advantage we have. Our actions today lay the foundation for the economic climate of our region in years to come.
Our region is unique — and fortunate — that visionary leadership from around the region came together proactively during stronger economic times a few years ago to discuss our future. What is our shared regional vision? What are our assets — man-made and natural? How can we collaborate to reach a strong, shared and sustainable future?
Now is the time that we need to come together as a region. We can no longer afford to think of competition on a small scale — city against city or county versus county. Our competition is now national and international, for resources like workers, capital and innovation.
When a Monona Grove High School football standout graduated and went on to the University of Wisconsin to play tackle for the Badgers, a proud Monona sports bar framed his high school jersey and planned to hang it on one of its walls along with the jerseys of other outstanding athletes.
Because his name was embroidered on the jersey, that, under the puzzling and autocratic rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, would have been a no-no. So the proprietor flipped the jersey so that only the number 71 on the front is visible. The guy who wore it presumably will remain anonymous until his college eligibility expires.
If you think this is silly, you’re not alone. But the bigger-than-life organization that controls big-time college sports, and rakes in tens of millions of dollars in the process, has never risen above silliness.
Whatâ??s life for? That question stirred as I contemplated two rhesus monkeys, Canto, aged 27, and Owen, aged 29, whose photographs appeared last week in The New York Times.
The monkeys are part of a protracted experiment in aging being conducted by a University of Wisconsin team. Canto gets a restricted diet with 30 percent fewer calories than usual while Owen gets to eat whatever the heck he pleases.
Itâ??s a very big day for the nationâ??s community colleges. In todayâ??s Washington Post, our president praises them, and calls for additional funding to support their work. In particular, he writes, â??We can reallocate funding to help them modernize their facilities, increase the quality of online courses and ultimately meet the goal of graduating 5 million more Americans from community colleges by 2020.â?
MENOMONIE, Wis. — A healthy University of Wisconsin System is essential to rebuilding the state’s economy. Yet glaring discrepancies in compensation for the faculty and academic staff who power
UW institutions in the state pose a serious threat to our future viability.
Let me explain: Wisconsin has three broad groups of educators who are paid with public funds: the K-12 teachers, those who work in the Wisconsin Technical College System, and the faculty and academic staff who teach for the University of Wisconsin System.
MENOMONIE, Wis. — A healthy University of Wisconsin System is essential to rebuilding the state’s economy. Yet glaring discrepancies in compensation for the faculty and academic staff who power UW institutions in the state pose a serious threat to our future viability.
The psychology of bigotry is never hard to sort out.
The bigot is scared and weak.
Longtime Madison architect Kenton Peters wrote a column for the State Journal last week lamenting the state Public Service Commission’s decision to allow the American Transmission Co. to run a new towering electrical transmission line along the Beltline.
He criticized the PSC, which is supposed to balance the public good with the interests of the utilities it regulates, for ignoring urban aesthetics in its decision.
….The 345-kilovolt transmission line, for instance, will be squeezed between the Beltline and an array of new buildings that have sprung up along the highway in recent years, not to mention the aesthetic damage to the Arboretum, Odana Golf Course and other scenic venues along the route.
Whenever an artist such as Jim Mott dies, those fortunate enough to own pieces of his work invariably take a moment to quietly reflect upon them.
That was me Monday, a day after one of the great historians of University of Wisconsin athletics passed away peacefully following a prolonged battle with Parkinsonâ??s Disease.
Mott, 79, was the mild-mannered guardian of all things Badgers during his 36 years in the sports information office. He ran the show from 1966 to his retirement in 1990. He was perfectly suited for the job given the fact he attended UW and received two of the most compatible undergraduate degrees imaginable for dealing with sports media: zoology and journalism.
An anecdote told at a UW Foundation-sponsored reception last week for the School of Nursing had a lot of heads nodding in agreement.
It was about the patient who said, “A physician saved my life, but nurses gave me my life back.”
Many people who have experienced the trauma of hospitalization would agree, but inexplicably the nursing profession has gotten short shrift, particularly here in Wisconsin. And now, just as the baby boomers begin to age, we’re faced with what could turn out to be a critical shortage of nurses.
My father loves movies.
The cozy apartment he shares with my mom is inundated with more than 1,000 movies on tape and DVD, films he has carefully catalogued and conscientiously cross-referenced by title, director and actor.
Noted: Bradley is assistant director of marketing and communication for UW-Madison Corporate Relations. His father, Jack, died May 12.
This discussion of furloughs for state employees is right in my wheelhouse because, well, been there and done that.
Like everyone on staff at Madisonâ??s favorite daily newspaper, I was directed to take a weekâ??s worth of unpaid days off to help the company balance the books during this economic hitting slump.
Took one for the team, you could say.
As outgoing President of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, I am reassured and confident that despite the bleak economic times, our public university is on the right track.
Affirmation of this outlook came with the UW System’s latest annual accountability report, “Investing in Wisconsin’s Future.” In its 15th edition, this revised report now aligns directly with the UW System’s strategic plan, and includes several new performance indicators. We’re now tracking and reporting important measures such as the number of degrees conferred in high-need and leading-edge fields. We’re evaluating the university’s community outreach and engagement, as well as overall UW System revenues and our progress toward increasing educational collaborations.
Last week, the University of Wisconsin Credit Union and our esteemed university formed a partnership that will allow our Wiscards to double as debit cards. Finally. For too long, college students have struggled with this notion of â??I like money, but I wish it were easier to spend,â? and now, thanks to this historic marriage of interests, we can rest easy knowing our student IDs go to a greater use that once-a-month library and SERF visits. Yes children, now instead of using your parentsâ?? money to buy pizza from Edâ??s, you can use it wherever Visa is accepted.
The Chronicle of Higher Education took an in-depth look at the downfall of Robert Felner — a well-paid dean at the University of Louisville who was set to become the new chancellor at UW-Parkside before legal issues derailed his career about one year ago.
It’s a well-written article that makes one wonder how such a person could have ever come this close to taking over as chancellor of a UW System school.
The Wisconsin Legislatureâ??s budget-writing committee has approved three measures that will help alleviate Wisconsinâ??s nursing shortage: a nurse workforce survey; a home for the UW School of Nursing to expand capacity; and support for a bachelorâ??s degree nursing program in Rock County.
Piece by piece, a framework of research and development resources is being welded into place in the Milwaukee 7 region. The recent flow of news has been decidedly positive at a time when most economic news has been largely negative.
Unlike Madison, where academic research and development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the main engine, multiple players are bringing intellectual horsepower to bear on revitalizing southeastern Wisconsin. It is the region’s best hope for the future.
It’s going to get ugly out there, folks. No, I’m not talking about gas prices or Beltline traffic. Rather, it’s the looming fight over a shrinking pie.
As much as you wanted to think Wisconsin was going to cruise through this recession unscathed, signs are pointing to a long and painful road ahead. Government officials at the state and local level are now realizing they are going to have to make do with less, lots less.
Quoted: UW-Madison associate professor of business Jim Seward
….almost 3,300 UW football fans failed to renew their season tickets compared to zero menâ??s basketball fans. Not sure about you, but the only logical conclusion I can draw from Alvarezâ??s statements is the nationâ??s economic crunch is having a far greater impact on UW football fans than it is on UW basketball fans.
Of course, that makes no sense. If the sour economy is encouraging people to spend less of their discretionary income, it stands to reason that it would affect more than football. According to Alvarezâ??s math, thatâ??s not the case.
That makes his comments about weathering the poor economy seem a little less rosy and a little more like a convenient excuse for UW losing six percent of its general-public football audience.
….In his grand exchange, the president traded away an essential piece of what he had only recently said he believed. When he campaigned, Obama said he supported the “therapeutic cloning of stem cells.” But as president, he has already traded that position for one that some see as more politically realistic.
Under the compromise plan, the president proposed that federal dollars be allowed to pay only for research on stem cell lines created from surplus fertility clinic embryos, but that funds continue to be barred from stem cell lines created in the laboratory to study particular diseases. Also barred is financial support for creating new, genetically matched stem cells for use in the treatment of disease. That is the very “therapeutic cloning” research that the president supported during his campaign.
MTVâ??s â??College Lifeâ?? might seem like just another venture into the world of unreal â??reality,â?? but a harsher truth belies the showâ??s depictions of the undergraduate experience.
I did a lot of stupid things when I was a freshman.
The Wisconsin State Journal recently endorsed Senate Bill 175. If passed, it would change the rules for math and science teacher licensing in Wisconsin.We strongly disagree with the endorsement.
A column by Peter Hewson, a professor of science education at UW-Madison, and Eric Knuth, a professor of mathematics education at UW-Madison.
…despite past state budget rants, I’m not glad to see anyone take a pay cut. But welcome to 2009. You could be one of the thousands who once toiled at General Motors, Consolidated Papers, Harley-Davidson or GE Healthcare. Those jobs are not coming back anytime soon.
Still, with a $6.5 billion state budget hole that keeps on growing, something had to give. At least 15 other states, including once-envied Minnesota, are also furloughing public workers.
In the continuing fiscal crisis, magical thinking afflicts the State Capitol. Gov. Jim Doyle is again busy pushing — and some legislators are buying into — the politically handy myth that laying off public employees and cutting their wages are effective in helping ease the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Not even close.
Picture this: A university with fewer and fewer quality faculty, students with dwindling access to desperately needed advising and career services, and an ever narrowing of what has historically been a vibrant and dynamic student body. This is the future of the University of Wisconsin-Madison if the Madison Undergraduate Initiative developed and championed by Chancellor Biddy Martin is not supported.
Critics of the initiative appear to be unaware of or insensitive to the critical challenges our university community faces — challenges Martin readily grasped during her short time working and living among us.
Last week, on May 1, we celebrated the 51st anniversary of Law Day. While this celebration didn’t result in a large party or a day off from work, it does provide a good opportunity to take stock of the current state of our legal system.
A recent publication entitled “Civil Justice in Wisconsin: A Fact Book,” authored by two members of the University of Wisconsin Law School, does an excellent job of looking at the civil justice system in Wisconsin. Most readers would be a bit surprised by what it finds.
President Obama has embraced an audacious ambition â?? to renew America’s status as the world leader in college attainment. That goal is daunting, and it leads many people to conclude that we should focus federal investments on four-year colleges. If we want to realize the president’s goal, that would be a terrible mistake.
Located in neighborhoods across the nation, charging lower-than-average tuition, public two-year colleges have the potential to lead the charge to significantly increase the number of Americans holding college degrees. But to succeed, they need a renewed government commitment to their support and leadership. The country has for too long put elite four-year colleges and universities on a pedestal, focusing the hopes and plans of students and families on them. But those institutions reach only a small portion of the populace, whereas community colleges touch much larger numbers of students as well as many other people in their towns and regions.
Influenza. When you normally think about this illness, you picture an annoying sore throat accompanied by a mild fever and head congestion. The current variant of this infection, swine flu, has been receiving considerable attention, now considered nearly a pandemic. The responses to swine flu range from humor to concern with some Mifflin-goers donning masks in the midst of resonating caution as the illness continues to spread across the world.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report, the global temperature could increase by up to six degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Global warming is a serious issue. We need to start combating it now. Here at UW-Madison, we should work toward eliminating all greenhouse-gas emissions on our campus. The College Sustainability Report Card for 2009, created by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, gave UW-Madison a grade of â??B.â? Good, but not great. This indicates that we need to do more on campus to reduce our ecological footprint and create a more sustainable and carbon-neutral environment.
We understand that Dean of Students Lori Berquam, professor Jacqueline Hitchon, Associate Dean of Students Ervin Cox and various student members of our misconduct panels are petitioning the Board of Regents to reject code of conduct changes making it possible for students to be vocally defended â?? not merely advised â?? by an attorney at serious misconduct hearings.
Last month, Kihra Hankins’ two frantic calls to 911 were made public, more than a year after she found the bloody bodies of her boyfriend, her brother and a family friend in her Albany, N.Y., home.
They are chilling recordings — and not just because of death’s details. The 22-year-old’s pleas for help dragged on for more than four minutes. She had to give her address three times. She had to give her name three times, too. Five times she described the horrifying scene. Repeatedly, she said the victims were motionless and bleeding from the head.
Although it may not have been noticeable at first, something was missing at the 40th annual Mifflin Street Block Party. No, it wasnâ??t the blaring music or raucous crowds lining the streets. It wasnâ??t the swarm of police officers and crowd control in place to keep the student-heavy population in check. Rather, the annual bash was missing the usual increased number of handcuffed partygoers and arrested revelers, signaling a marked change from previous years.
The 2009 installment of the Mifflin Street Block Party has come and gone. And to the delight of concerned students on the University of Wisconsin campus, the addition of a sponsor did not turn the event into the spring version of Freakfest.
Last week, students and UW campus leaders came together for a forum titled â??In the Wake: Plan 2008.â? In this particular instance, a â??wakeâ? seems a fitting word to call it, considering Plan 2008 collapsed under its own high expectations.
Hopefully, this doesnâ??t come as a surprise to anyone, but we are nearly at the end of the semester. When we return in the fall, the most important change to campus will be the installation of a new provost.
The ongoing revision process of University of Wisconsin System non-academic misconduct policies (UWS 17 and 18) has elicited a prolonged and lively debate on the merits of these amendments. In addition to a campus forum co-hosted by the Offices of the Dean of Students and the Associated Students of Madison, there have been numerous editorials and individual discussions. While I am glad the university community engaged on this issue, I feel through the course of this discussion, participants have lost sight of a few of key points about the revisions.
April is the month when the University of Wisconsin’s athletic department, apparently oblivious that folks have to pay their income taxes, demands that its football and basketball fans fork over their Badger Fund bucks if they want to keep their seats for another year.
….No one forces people to open their wallets to the athletic department, of course. It’s a choice that college sports fans make voluntarily. You would think, though, that since loyal fans now pay the big bucks, they’d get a little consideration for doing so. But you would be wrong.
The changes Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed for Wisconsin’s welfare-to-work program known as W-2 are long overdue steps in the right direction.
But the real problem with W-2 is, simply, that it doesn’t pay enough.
When instituted in 1997, W-2 provided two types of monthly stipends: one for $673 for beneficiaries who work, and another for $628 for those who, for various reasons, cannot. While those stipends have not budged in the last decade, the price of housing has increased by historic proportions.
Consider the rise in Milwaukee’s fair market rents. Calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fair market rents are gross estimates that combine rent and utility costs.
Desmond is a Ford Fellow in the Department of Sociology at UW-Madison. He is writing a book on landlords and tenants in Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods.
Many people understand and value major research universities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Milwaukee and their impact on economic growth and recovery. However, the â??Greater Wisconsinâ? public universities and colleges that serve more than 100,000 students and 60 percent of the stateâ??s residents are regional educational, research, cultural, and economic bedrocks. These institutions greatly impact the long-term regional economic development strategies for Wisconsin through workforce development, business enterprise services and regional community enhancement.
I never thought Iâ??d hear myself say this, but given a recent discussion with Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp â?? one of the key figures in the revisions to the Student Academic Misconduct Policy â?? Iâ??ve had something of a change of heart on the controversy. Thatâ??s not to say I donâ??t object to a vast number of the proposed changes; I most certainly do. But given Helmkampâ??s statements on the policy, there are a number of points that deserve clarification.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison continued its pledge to provide students with the opportunity to explore new avenues of learning with three important decisions in the past week. History and Engineering department curricula will be augmented with the addition of several new professorships, while an agreement with Tikrit University in Iraq will expose students to academic resources halfway around the world.
The chance this week for visitors to the Wisconsin Historical Museum to make a pair of Bascom Hill pink flamingo sunglasses also provides an opportunity for someone on the Madison City Council to step up and finally do the right thing.
This fall will also mark the 30th anniversary of the original Bascom Hill pink flamingo prank, so the timing is doubly appropriate.
Both candidates for the open seat in District 8 are University of Wisconsin juniors. Both have track records of involvement with important issues. Bryon Eagon has been elected to the ASM Student Council and has served on the Student Services Finance Committee. Mark Woulf has served on UW’s Alcohol and Other Drug Task Force, and he’s got some good ideas about how to promote public safety by having the police change policies on raiding bars and house parties.
We’re convinced that either Eagon or Woulf would serve ably on the council, and that each would give voice to the important concerns of students.
It’s time to give the University of Wisconsin credit for more than beer, beer, brats, beer, a basketball team that scores 43 points, and the Godfather, Barry Alvarez.
There is some real genius at work, and it must be properly recognized.
It seems the school’s football players have figured out a way to use room and board money for way cooler things than chow and a place to sleep.
They diverted the money for mopeds.
â??From each according to ability, to each according to needâ? was Karl Marxâ??s maxim and socialismâ??s guiding principle. UW-Madisonâ??s â??Madison Initiative for Undergraduatesâ? describes the same principle like this:
â??This Madison Initiative for undergraduates will increase tuitionâ?¦ in order to help provide a significant fund for need-based financial aidâ?¦ Students with demonstrated need from families earning $80,000 or less will be held harmless from this Madison-specific increaseâ?¦â? In other words, tuition should flow from each student according to ability to each student according to need.
Tuition in 2000 for a freshman at UW-Madison was $1885. In 2008 it is $3,785, rising 5-6 percent more next year. It seems, as with most things these days, that the cost of education is increasing at a rate faster than the average family and student can keep pace with. Add up all the academic year living costs and the result looks something like this: $7,570 (tuition), $4,050 (rent & utilities), $600 (books), $2,700 (groceries) and $1,500 (SHIP insurance) equals around $16,500. Assuming you qualify for the Stafford Loan program, you are eligible to receive up to $12,500 per year. You are still out $4,000, not to mention any money needed for extraneous spending, like travel, weekends out, a special date, etc.
