Last Friday, Gov. Jim Doyle announced the Charter Street Heating Plant will convert from burning coal to biomass by 2012. The plant is run by UW-Madison and is responsible for the heating and cooling of the UW campus.
Imagine that you are a patient needing routine surgery at an outpatient facility. At the Madison Surgery Center, you receive treatment to enhance your health, while in the next room or down the hall, a fully formed 19- to 22-week unborn baby is being dismembered, experiencing significant pain from the abortion procedure. Your treatment payment is pooled with the abortion money, making you indirectly complicit in the horrendous practice.
The UW Hospital and Clinics, Meriter Hospital and the Madison Surgery Center recently approved such a venture. The second-trimester abortion program was discussed for months, shrouded in secrecy. Since becoming public knowledge, information from facilities’ officials has been incredibly inconsistent and filled with public relations puffery.
President Obama ran on the coattails of the buzzword â??change.â? After unveiling his two-year budget plan for Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle is pushing his budget on the tagline of â??sacrifice.â?
“I just came home, the door was bashed in and my girlfriend has been shot.”
Those were the words of Jordan Gonnering, speaking to a 911 dispatcher last April after he found the body of Brittany Zimmermann in the downtown Madison apartment that he shared with her.
Increasingly, the media use transcripts and audio of 911 calls as part of their coverage of public safety, a strategy that some applaud but others fear harms crime victims and violates their privacy.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly observed recently that the 38,000 research-and-development jobs in the state now outnumber the paper industry’s total.
The observation has great import for a state trying to figure its way out of a deep recession and a heavy dependence on its historic manufacturing sector. The innovation economy is upon us, and Wisconsin, with its world-class educational infrastructure, is well positioned to take advantage of its brain power.
A statement released Wednesday by the University of Wisconsin indicated a sharp decrease in the amount of in-state applications the University has received compared to years past. Roughly 1,000 less applications were received by the Feb. 1 deadline. University officials could not offer any explanation for the dwindling numbers other than the sagging economy. This notion may be a good rationalization, but biased funding among the universities departments â?? among other factors â?? is the likely culprit.
The big news last week was unemployment, which hit its highest rate â?? 7.6 percent â?? since 1992.
I remember 1992 well. That was the year I graduated from the UW-Madison journalism school, entering a tough job market and a profession notorious for low pay. I remember seeing a long list of UW-Madison majors next to their expected annual entry-level salaries.
Journalism was dead last â?? below even philosophy majors.
Quoted: John West, a 1991 graduate of the UW-Madison Law School who now lives in Los Angeles.
When we talk about the future of public universities, we are usually talking about the flagship state universities. They have greatly increased expenditures in the past decade. A case in point is the University of Kansas, which has tripled its spending and raised its tuition and fees by a factor of five since 1988.
Author: Howard H. Schweber is an associate professor of political science and law at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
A few days ago, Chancellor Biddy Martin announced the University of Wisconsinâ??s intent to end business relations in March with Russell Athletics, a clothing manufacturing company contracted to supply apparel donning UW-Madison logos. The reasoning behind the termination of this relationship was the companyâ??s aggressive action against workersâ?? movements to unionize, particularly shutting down a plant in Choloma, Honduras, where workers were beginning to form a union.
Last week, UW Chancellor Biddy Martin announced her decision to terminate UW-Madisonâ??s Russell Athletics contract over worker rights violations in the apparel companyâ??s Jerzees de Honduras factory. The factory was the subject of an investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium, which confirmed that Russellâ??s union-busting behavior clearly violated not only UW-Madisonâ??s Code of Conduct for apparel producers, but also Honduran law and internationally recognized labor standards. Chancellor Martin made the right call.
Biddy Martin needs to start talking.
“Stroszek,” in all its bizarre glory, is going to be featured at the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival, which runs April 2-5 in Madison.
All along, I’ve thought the most important player for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team this season was Keaton Nankivil.
The reasoning went like this: Replacing 6-foot-11 post men Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma was going to be more difficult than anyone imagined and Nankivil, a wide-shouldered 6-8 sophomore, was the best “big” the Badgers had to drop into the middle of their four veteran perimeter players.
Everyone knew what would happen back in the 1960s when a good family from Wausau or Rhinelander sent their son or daughter to school at UW-Madison.
It has become one of the most iconic symbols in college athletics, but few people know its origins, which are fairly humble.
The Motion W came into being, at least in part, because the top executive of an electronics company in Madison didn’t like the helmets worn by the University of Wisconsin football team.
The column got me thinking about some of the iconic events in Madison’s recent past, and how many I attended, or if maybe I only believe I was there. I have settled on six outstanding Madison events, of which I must say I was only at two, although I’m pretty sure I was actually there for those, as opposed to imagining I was there.
A new Donald Lipski sculpture has left the manufacturer and is headed for a sports stadium.
This qualifies as news in Madison, where some of us are still puzzling — to put it kindly — over the Lipski sculpture that was unveiled in front of Camp Randall Stadium in November 2005.
It’s a question we ask ourselves at least once every day of our adult lives.
It’s posed, one way or another, after a restaurant meal or concert, after the driveway is plowed, after a sporting event or vacation, after you visit your financial planner.
Was it worth it?
….Maybe people are too busy to take the time to pay attention to what’s going on around them, even if it is at their own risk. Maybe the corporate takeovers of media have driven deep wedges between citizens and “their” newspapers. Maybe people really believe they can get all they need to know from the Internet and radio and TV talk shows. Perhaps the de-emphasis of journalism programs in high schools and universities across the country has led to a general devaluing of the trade’s important place in society. Whatever the reasons, we are losing or witnessing the downsizing of important sources of information, arguably at a time when we need them more than ever.
During my 14 years at the helm of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council I came to realize that the battle against government secrecy would never end.
As soon as you’d win one open records or meetings fight, another would pop up in a heartbeat.
….When it comes to clean energy, the Badger State has a unique combination of assets that can help us capitalize on such a plan and lead the way into the new energy future. We have vast renewable energy potential from wind and solar power, the research laboratories to develop new energy technologies, the manufacturing base to build them, and the farms to grow the next generation of fuels.
As President-elect Obama acknowledged in his election-night speech, our country is facing some of the greatest financial challenges in our lifetimes.
The next Congress will make difficult decisions about where to invest and where to cut. Leaders in Wisconsin face similarly vexing questions, as Gov. Jim Doyle anticipates a $5.4 billion shortfall for the upcoming two-year budget cycle.
The simple reality: We’re all going to have to do more with less. For years, the University of Wisconsin System has been doing more for our students with less public support. At our four-year campuses, taxpayers today invest $500 less per student than they did 10 years ago, at a level that is now $1,500 below the national average.
To say last year wasn’t the best men’s basketball season for the Big Ten Conference would be an understatement.
Only four of its teams earned NCAA tournament berths. None advanced further than the Sweet 16. Its RPI as a conference was the worst of the six BCS conferences.
ORLANDO, Fla. â?? The University of Wisconsin football team arrived at the Champs Sports Bowl looking for its first signature victory in a season that was supposed to be full of them.
Well, the Badgers have stopped searching for that statement win, but only because their season ended Saturday without a single victory worth texting home about.
University of Wisconsin sophomore left tackle Gabe Carimi wants to be part of the solution.
But it’s going to take a change in the mistake-filled culture that dragged down the Badgers this season, leading to a 7-6 finish and a humbling 42-13 loss to Florida Staten Saturday in the Champs Sports Bowl.
“Spring ball,” Carimi said firmly, when asked how to stop what is now a two-year downward slide under coach Bret Bielema. “I think we need to preach more â?? I feel to the bottom of my heart â?? we’ve never been known for having the best talent. But we’ve been known for doing things right. Too many times this year, we had too many mental errors. That isn’t how Wisconsin has played.
Think Wisconsin is having buyer’s remorse about the multi-million, multi-year rollover contract it gave Bret Bielema?
All the embarrassments of a regular season gone wrong, the kind of mistakes that should’ve been fixed and therefore redeemed with a month to prepare, were compounded and repeated to an astonishing degree Saturday on the final proving ground for 2008, the Champs Sports Bowl.
Just when there was a realistic expectation for a brighter future, the outlook dimmed like sunshine over Citrus Bowl Stadium as the 42-13 beating by a Florida State team that was Florida State in name only wore into the night.
A source close to the toy industry has once again leaked a copy of Santaâ??s perks list for Wisconsin politicians and newsmakers. Hereâ??s what the good boys and girls in Madison and Washington will reportedly find in their stockings this Christmas week. Chancellor Biddy Martin is on the list for a “long honeymoon.”
Even my overactive imagination gets a little boggled at the possibilities awaiting the occupants of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Research. This is where things get a little science fiction-y as scientists talk of cures for disease and improvements in our bodies and brains. Pretty stimulating stuff.
But the real reason Madison is perfect for some kind of event with Michael Mann and “Public Enemies” is that Madison is where Mann first fell in love with movies and made it his life’s dream to be a director.
I had known Mann was a UW-Madison alumnus, but until the other night, when I saw a documentary on his career on the Reelz channel, I didn’t realize the profound impact Mann’s campus experience had on his career.
Last weekâ??s column about the UW-Madison student who a decade ago won a prize on campus for an idea that would allow snowplows to avoid burying the end of peopleâ??s driveways brought a spirited response.
UW System President Kevin P. Reilly says in an op-ed column: As President-elect Obama acknowledged in his election night speech, our country is facing some of the greatest financial challenges in our lifetimes. The next Congress will make difficult decisions about where to invest and where to cut. Leaders in Wisconsin face similarly vexing questions, as Gov. Jim Doyle expects a $5.4 billion shortfall for the upcoming two-year budget cycle.
The simple reality: We’re all going to have to do more with less.
Column about UW-Madison alumnus Peter Parker, who came up with an invention that would put an end to driveways being buried by snowplows. The competition was the 1996 Schoofs Prize for Creativity in the UW-Madison School of Engineering.
The three-month â??interregnumâ? between Barack Obamaâ??s election and George W. Bushâ??s last day in office makes one long for a parliamentary system, where the defeated prime minister leaves and his successor takes over at once.
Author: John Milton Cooper Jr., a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, is writing a biography of Woodrow Wilson.
….In these tough times, maybe we’re ready to listen more closely to advocates of a system called “steady state economy.” It is described as “a transdisciplinary field of study that addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense.” In short, it incorporates ecological principles into economic theory and focuses on sustainability.
One of its foremost spokespersons is Brian Czech, a conservation biologist who grew up in the Green Bay area. He got his undergraduate training at UW-Madison and his Ph.D. in renewable natural resources from the University of Arizona. He is a conservation biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech.
Hopefully, everyone knows by now that the Wisconsin State Journal endorsed Barack Obama for president.
….But all the hullabaloo over Obama by this city’s morning newspaper pales in comparison to its recent audacious demand that the University of Wisconsin needs to fire its marching band director, Mike Leckrone, the next time any member of the band steps out of line.
This isn’t the biggest case I’ve brought before the court of public opinion, but it’s been bugging me for a while, so here goes:
Why doesn’t the most dominant, most successful sports program at the University of Wisconsin draw more of an audience?
The women’s hockey team has been to three straight NCAA title games, winning championships in 2005-06 and ’06-07.
Apparently, Plan 2008 â?? the University of Wisconsin Systemâ??s much heralded diversity initiative intended to eradicate educational disparities in the state â?? came up short.
The financial firms were first, now it’s the automakers. We hear estimates of anywhere from 1 million to 3 million jobs at stake, and other industries are lined up to make their own claims about their importance to the long-term health of the economy.
The U.S. health care system is in a state of crisis. Costs continue to rise astronomically, the public health workforce will soon be unable to keep up with growing demands, over fifty million Americans lack health insurance, and another 25 million are underinsured.
Health care must be seen as a human right, not a luxury. I support the American Nurses Association position that Americans are entitled to ready access to quality and affordable health care services offered by an adequately sized and well educated workforce.
Author: Katharyn May is the Dean of the UW-Madison School of Nursing.
Chancellor Biddy Martin recently made news by rearranging her staff following the departure of former Chancellor John Wileyâ??s top aides, Casey Nagy and Deb Lauder, as well as by establishing a relationship with the controversial Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, a lobby Wiley opposed for its economic and political stances.
If there’s one thing the current financial crisis has made abundantly clear, it’s that “global economic independence” is no longer just a textbook term.
It’s a headline-generating reality — and not only in the international pages, but in the local business section as well. Wisconsin is home to multinational giants such as SC Johnson, Kohler Company, and Kikkoman Corporation. When they suffer an economic downturn, we all do.
There’s a lot of fretting going on in sports pages and at the University of Wisconsin athletic department over those dreadful UW students not getting to the football games on time.
Sorry to ask, but what in heaven’s name is the big deal?
As long as the students have paid their money for the lousiest tickets in Camp Randall, whose business is it but their own whether they get to the game in time for the kickoff or arrive fashionably late halfway through the second quarter?
The digits on the Camp Randall Stadium scoreboard â?? Badgers 35, Gophers 32 â?? told of the University of Wisconsin’s narrow victory over Minnesota Saturday in their annual battle for neighborhood bragging rights and Paul Bunyan’s Axe.
Maybe now isn’t the best time to bring this up, but it’s been on the to-do list for weeks and it really needs to come off.
One of the PR issues facing the University of Wisconsin football program is the fact many of its student season ticket-holders are chronically tardy for kickoffs, especially those that start in the AM.
When Herb Heneman received a lifetime achievement award in Chicago last June for his work in human resource research, he walked to the podium and thanked his colleagues and his family, expressing what he called his “deepest gratitude.”
But then Heneman, 64, an emeritus professor of Management and Human Resources in the School of Business at UW-Madison, said he wanted to thank a second family.
By noon on Nov. 4, you could have asked anyone on the streets in University of Wisconsin campus areas if they had voted and around 75 percent would have answered yes. Nearly every person proudly wore an “I voted” sticker and demonstrated enthusiasm for the night to come. When Barack Obama finally was announced as the president-elect, shouting and screaming could be heard from every direction.
Yes we can. Yes we did. We did manage to get out a huge youth turnout rate. We did change the course of our country’s future with our voices. Our generation has constantly been charged with being apathetic toward politics, but on Tuesday we proved we were anything but.
Few issues are likely to generate more emotional opposition than federal funding of stem cell research. Handled wrongly, it could energize conservative opponents and derail Barack Obama’s presidency. There is no question that we must move ahead, but caution is key.
At long last, a movie based on one of Madison’s most notorious murder cases is finished and in the hands of a company in southern California that is working to place it in theaters or onto DVD.
You can even watch the film’s trailer.
The movie, “Winter of Frozen Dreams,” is based on Madison author Karl Harter’s book of the same name about Barbara Hoffman, a UW-Madison chemistry student who in June 1980 was convicted of the murder of Harold Berge.
At times like this, Barry Alvarez always quoted Spike Dykes.
A former Texas Tech coach famous for his homespun wisdom, Dykes used to say that a coach starts out with 100 percent support and loses 10 percent of his fan base every year.
Approaching City Hall this past Monday to vote early in this yearâ??s presidential election, I was initially repulsed by what I saw. Foolishly thinking that going at 3 p.m. would rid me of the early voter rush due to classes, I was unpleasantly surprised to see the line snaking outside to the bottom of the steps.
My impatience grew quickly, and I could not erase any hint of irritation as I slowly treaded through each section of the municipal building. This feeling of boredom and threat of doom that I would never get out of Madison City Hall alive suddenly vanished, though, when I thought of what such a crowd implied.
UW-Madison has always claimed to be a forward-thinking, progressive school often responsible for shaping new beliefs on the national level. However, within the dialogue of same-sex marriage, UW-Madison has looked almost unrecognizable in its inaction regarding domestic partner benefits. University officials mandate forward thinking in UW-Madisonâ??s strategic plan, claiming, â??as progress is made, conditions evolve and the environment around us changesâ??we need to refresh and update our strategic priorities.â? Still, campus employees are denied domestic partner benefits, despite other universities and groups taking initiative in this area of great concern.
First impressions, second thoughts and the third degree:
When your kid routinely disrespects someone in authority, old-school wisdom says you latch onto an ear, call on the offended party and insist that an apology be made. So grab a lobe, Barry Alvarez, and take Wisconsin Badgers coach Bret Bielema wherever you must to make peace with all game officials. â?¦
EAST LANSING, Mich. â?? Bret Bielema uttered the magic words Saturday, and that was before the University of Wisconsin coach offered an apology to his football team.
Unfortunately for Bielema, the first magic words out of his mouth were directed at an official, presumably linesman Mike Delce, and resulted in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Everything went downhill from there for UW and its coach, which rendered any additional magic words â?? such as Bielema’s apology â?? irrelevant.
They know the drill.
The University of Wisconsin football players are faced once again with the task of picking themselves up off the deck, trying to make something of what’s left of an increasingly disappointing regular season.
As a business leader who strives to hire UW-Green Bay graduates, I have frequent opportunities to observe the high-quality work of the university’s faculty and staff. These professionals are committed to the academic well-being of their students and get the most out of the resources available to them.
But unless and until Wisconsin makes the financial commitment to our universities we see in Minnesota and many other competitively relevant states, the higher educational system in which we take much pride will deteriorate. Such deterioration will have consequences for an economy dependent on a well-educated workforce. The consequences will be especially challenging in our “New North” region, which lags behind the rest of the state in both per-capita incomes and levels of education.
The critique of China in Africa as neo-colonialism is not the total truth and omits that China could trigger an African rise out of poverty. Indeed, World Bank figures already show that Chinese investments have sped Africaâ??s pace of growth
That Chinaâ??s a superpower in Africa was suddenly, painfully apparent to European leaders in 2006.
Author: Edward Friedman is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
CHICAGO â?? The way Big Ten Conference men’s basketball was getting worked over in the national media late last season, you would have thought it was Big Ten football.
After falling to sixth in the power ratings â?? last among the BCS conferences â?? and failing to have a team advance to the NCAA’s Elite Eight, the Big Ten had an image problem. It was getting zero respect. The pundits questioned its recruiting, its style of play, its relevance in college basketball.
The Onion turned 20 this year, and Steve Hannah, its CEO, turned 60, but nobody is looking back. There is no time for that.
As one of Hannah’s talented young colleagues said, “Everybody celebrates 20 years. We’ll celebrate at 22.”
Chancellor Carolyn â??Biddyâ? Martin will address the university at the Kohl Center today, as a matter of formally introducing herself to the campus and outlining her plans for UW-Madisonâ??s future.
