SO THERE is this new novel that’s getting picked up by book clubs out in the Pacific Northwest but hardly anybody in Madison, where the author lives, even knows he wrote a book.
Somebody needs to remind Casey Nagy what the celebrated writer/journalist Jimmy Breslin once said: “If you do not blow your own horn, there is no music.”
“I’m not a self-promoter,” Nagy was saying Friday.
The UW System is attempting revise their process for student transcripts. The new system could very well change what getting a â??college educationâ? means.
When you live in Wisconsin, you accept some inherent facts of life. If you donâ??t eat cheese and drink beer, youâ??re going to be looked down upon. Construction companies make all their money during the summer, making your life hell while they repair roads. And most importantly, get used to snow, especially in February.
Wisconsin has an alcohol problem. According to a 2007 report released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, this state is No. 1 in every type of drinking behavior – teen drinking, heavy drinking, adult drinking and binge drinking. Furthermore, we’ve held that top spot for seven years.
Walking to class yesterday morning was no fun for most University of Wisconsin students who slipped and climbed through messy sidewalks. While it was certainly tempting to silently curse the UW administration as the cold air swept through hats and hoods, it is clear to us that they were justified in keeping classes open until 3:30.
Itâ??s easy, and probably necessary, to be critical of Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc.â??s complaints with regard to alcohol-related problems facing the downtown area. The reportâ??s proposed policiesâ??including tax increases on alcohol and increased underage drinking citationsâ??do everything to inflate the stigma that makes drinking attractive to so many students in the first place.
The best way to learn to lead is to do it. Generation Y has been raised to be great team players in everything from school to work to social lives. But for all the hoopla about being on a soccer team where everyone plays, there has been very little focus on leadership for young people. You can address that deficit by taking decision-making positions in college.
For example, Jay Rivera is president of his fraternity at UW-Madison, and he has already learned that a lot of leadership is not all that glamorous: “Being president is definitely teaching me how to be organized and on top of things. “
Since it began in 1996, the event has raised more than $200,000 to support the work of the UW-Madison Habitat for Humanity chapter.
The death of 22-year-old UW-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan was one of the top stories of 2007 to make headlines in the city of Madison. Police revealed that Nolan disappeared one night when friends left her bar hopping on State Street in June 2007. After two weeks of searching, Nolanâ??s body was found in the town of Dunn, Wis.
The fuel that ignited the Wisconsin rumors was director Michael Mann, a UW-Madison alum, visiting the Baraboo National Bank last month — drawn by its vintage appeal (the exterior hasn ‘t been altered much since the 1930s) as a potential filming locale.
Gov. Jim Doyle warned Wisconsin residents that â??challenging days are aheadâ? in his annual State of the State address held at the State Capitol Wednesday. These challenging days are in reference to the national state of economic crisis.
There are a lot of people who would’ve laughed at, derided or otherwise ridiculed the notion that Wisconsin would be No. 11 in the country the year after Alando Tucker left.
No shock here, but Tucker would not be one of them.
With the news that Chancellor John Wiley will step down next September it seems the future of UW-Madison is at a crossroads. In a presentation given to the UW System Board of Regents last Friday, Provost Patrick Farrell said, while UW-Madison has been an extremely successful university, that success is not guaranteed to continue. Farrell is right, but his solutionâ??to increase tuitionâ??is dead wrong.
MIKE EAVES is mad, and he should be.
The UW-Madison men’s hockey team lost a game last weekend when a referee incorrectly disallowed a Badger goal that tied the game at the last second. The referee misinterpreted a video review of the goal, and Denver won the game, 3-2.
….The episode is bad enough that it just may go down as the second most egregious referee’s mistake in the annals of University of Wisconsin athletics. But as bad as it was, the disallowed goal in Denver is a distant second.
It was unsettling that the e-mail addresses, phone numbers and Social Security-based campus ID numbers of more than 200 University of Wisconsin faculty and staff members had been accessible on a campus Internet site. It was even more unsettling that the UW waited more than a month to advise the victims of a breach of their personal security.
It has won five of the last six NCAA titles, nine of its 10 teams were ranked in the top 20 poll just last week and its programs are regularly raided for talent by the NHL.
Many are roommates, although they work divergent day jobs. Dorfman is a clergy assistant at a synagogue, Gronli works for “The Colbert Report, ” Johnson is working on a yet-to-be-announced project for UW-Madison alum Ben Karlin ‘s production company, Gramstrup is in real estate, Klipstein does graphic design and Beiler is a video producer for the New York Times.
Ten years?
You’re kidding me, right?
I could swear it was just last week that I stood on a patch of dirt â?? surrounded by concrete walls, engulfed by the din of construction equipment â?? and tried to envision what the Kohl Center would look like when it was built.
NOW THAT Paul Buhle has returned to Madison, it makes sense that he’s embarked on a new book project titled “Return to Madison,” about more of which in a moment.
First, it should be noted that this is a big day for Buhle, whom my Capital Times colleague John Nichols has called “the pre-eminent scholar of American radicalism” and who for many years has been on the faculty of Brown University in Providence, R.I.
Today is the official publication date of “Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History.” Buhle edited the new book, and more than that, 40 years ago, he lived it, as a member of SDS on campuses in Champaign, Ill., and Madison.
One of the most meaningful, if under-publicized, events associated with the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department is its annual hall of fame induction ceremony.
It takes place on the weekend of the first game of the UW football season at Camp Randall Stadium. The inductees have their plaques unveiled at Kubly Plaza â?? located on the south end of the Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center â?? on Friday and are introduced at halftime the next day.
There are no absolutes about 2008, only educated guesses from people with varying degrees of education.
Here are some from your classic “C-minus” student.
TAMPA, Fla. — Because nobody does bowls like the University of Wisconsin football team, you’ll have to excuse the Badgers if they didn’t quite know how to act Tuesday.
Another New Year’s Day, another bowl game in Florida against another Southeastern Conference opponent, another half-filled upper deck in a palm-tree-lined stadium, another Ainge beating on another team from Wisconsin.
It’s good that some things don’t change, not so good on others.
I’ve been writing for daily newspapers since I joined the staff of The Daily Cardinal at UW-Madison in 1960. That’s pushing close to a half-century, but who’s counting?
A recent article from The Associated Press cited concerns of University of Wisconsin faculty and administration alike over the state’s pay plan for UW faculty and academic staff. The plan results in a pay reduction when viewed in “real dollars.”
This has raised concerns among many people in the UW community about UW’s ability to stay competitive with peer institutions. It’s no secret that the UW System is facing a crisis in faculty retention. UW-Madison, for example, has a 57 percent success rate in retaining faculty who had received an outside offer, a significant drop from the previous six-year average of 75 percent retained.
I HATE to do this. I mean, I really hate to do this. But in the interest of fairness, I must.
It appears there is a possibility — I stress, a possibility — that there has been a breakthrough in one of the most confounding mysteries of our time.
What ought we do about how badly poor children lag in school?
I can tell you what Annemarie Ketterhagen is doing. She’s helping run a new school at 12th and Garfield.
Ketterhagen, who grew up in the ‘burbs, says she long wanted to be in education. She went off to Madison and got a University of Wisconsin education degree. Then a friend changed her life by going to a Teach for America recruiting talk.
The time for buying a holiday gift is swiftly coming to an end.
Arts-wise, let me offer a few last-minute suggestions.
Robert Maranto’s column “PC University: Data show ivory towers lean left” provides a deeply misleading assessment of sources and consequences of the political affiliations of faculty members.
Maranto cites a number of studies he commissioned to make a case that academia is biased against conservatives. He fails to note that in selecting the authors of the studies, he exclusively chose academics whose views were already identifiable as supportive of claims of ideological bias, and he failed to include any academics who have written critically of such views.
(Steven N. Durlauf is a professor of economics at UW-Madison.
In a word: Wow!
John and Tashia Morgridge keep topping their tremendous generosity to higher education in Wisconsin with bigger and bigger donations.
Scientists and others close to Wisconsin’s research sector often use the term “public-private partnership” to describe a nirvana of converging interests: the power of a public research university paired with the flexibility and rapid response of private collaborators, says a column by Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.
A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all, says a column by UW-Madison professor James Thomson and Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of the journal Science
Is there some great meaning in the fact Scott Van Pelt, a moderately obscure cable TV anchorman, has been asked to deliver the UW-Madison commencement address Sunday?
After all, Van Pelt didn’t attend UW-Madison and has no real ties to the state.
We do not often agree with right-wing state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend. But when it comes to freedom of speech and freedom of association issues, we are more than happy to ally this newspaper with any official who is defending the right of Wisconsinites to be heard and to hear what others say.
Madison, Wis. – Ask the average Wisconsin citizen how the University of Wisconsin-Madison touches his or her life, and you’re likely to hear something about Badger football, perhaps a mention of the UW Hospital, and maybe a gripe about nephew Steve being turned down for admission even though he posted a 3.8 grade point average in high school.
During his tenure as chancellor of Wisconsin’s flagship public campus, John Wiley has done what he could to expand the list of commonly held (and positive) UW-Madison perceptions. He hasn’t always been successful, but he will leave a solid foundation for his successor when he retires in September 2008.
With the news that Chancellor John Wiley will step down next September it seems the future of UW-Madison is at a crossroads. In a presentation given to the UW System Board of Regents last Friday, Provost Patrick Farrell said, while UW-Madison has been an extremely successful university, that success is not guaranteed to continue. Farrell is right, but his solutionâ??to increase tuitionâ??is dead wrong.
As the campus community begins to contemplate who will succeed University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley, questions will inevitably arise about what sort of qualities we should look for in such a leader.
We can all agree that Wisconsin is a great place to live, work and raise a family. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t be here.
We would also agree Wisconsin and Minnesota have many similarities. Both states have a similar climate, and roughly the same population. The residents of both states also have a strong Midwestern work ethic.
But Minnesota outperforms Wisconsin in a few key areas.
What we need to do as a university and a community is quit the posturing and rhetoric. Quit the debating about the necessity of diversity education programs or positions promoting diversity and campus climate. Quit focusing too much on recruitment and start focusing on retention. We need to quit talking, quit stalling and Just Bust.
Dan Trainer was in the front row last month when they named a building for him. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s College of Natural Resources building bears his name today, in honor of the man who oversaw the process of building the largest undergraduate natural resources college in the country.
Hundreds were on hand to congratulate Trainer and his wife, Betty. No one will regret being there, especially since Trainer died in his sleep over the weekend. He was 81.
On Jan. 1, 2001, Chancellor John Wiley took office in 161 Bascom Hall. From his desk, Wiley oversaw a campus construction boom, endured employment scandals, found giant footwear on his doorstep and dealt with a hostile state Legislatureâ??all while loyally observing the universityâ??s â??25-feet-from-buildingâ? smoking ordinance.
There are few state jobs more important or demanding than chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsinâ??s flagship university serves more than 41,000 students, employs more than 16,000 people and has an annual budget of more than $2 billion.
Madison state Rep. Dave Travis, who is hanging it up next year after serving 30 years in Wisconsin’s Legislature, says he’s never seen anything like it. He’s received more calls, letters and, in this modern age, e-mails about the Big Ten Network-cable television brouhaha than any other issue he’s been involved in.
People are just plain angry, he told me last week. They feel betrayed and they’re just as mad at the University of Wisconsin as they are at cable TV.
I agreed that’s about the same reaction we’re getting from readers here at the paper. In fact, it appears that the UW and the Big Ten Network have probably done the impossible — made the typically villainous and arrogant big cable networks the good guys.
What do you expect from the Badgers now that they’ve spent roughly a dozen seasons on the elite stage? Should you just be thankful for, with few exceptions, a sustained level of good-to-outstanding teams since 1993? Or, if you’re a donor paying megabucks for one of those fancy Camp Randall suites, is it realistic to demand an occasional national-championship game participant?
When I was a struggling junior faculty member, every publication mattered so much that rejection letters felt like physical blows. And it wasnâ??t only the brute fact of the rejections that caused pain: Readersâ?? reports on my manuscripts were often written in a tone of sharp annoyance. Touchy and ill-tempered, they seemed to see only the flaws. It was as if Iâ??d somehow insulted these readers, breaking rules that I didnâ??t know existed. Thereâ??s no question that Iâ??ve had much to learn about framing, pursuing, and clinching an argument. But Iâ??ve certainly never had any intention of irritating my readers.
Caroline Levine is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all. Being able to reprogram skin cells into multipurpose stem cells without harming embryos launches an exciting new line of research. It’s important to remember, though, that we’re at square one, uncertain at this early stage whether souped-up skin cells hold the same promise as their embryonic cousins do.
Far from vindicating the current U.S. policy of withholding federal funds from many of those working to develop potentially lifesaving embryonic stem cells, recent papers in the journals Science and Cell described a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions. In fact, work by both the U.S. and Japanese teams that reprogrammed skin cells depended entirely on previous embryonic stem cell research.
This past Tuesday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Conservative Union hosted a speaker by the name of Walid Shoebat. Mr. Shoebat is a self-described former PLO terrorist and was speaking out against jihad. It goes without saying that this contentious topic was not well-received by many at UWM.
The news media have presented Iraq and the war on terror as a disaster. As an American civilian and a soldier twice deployed in this conflict, I see it as an opportunity. Capt. James Pickart, a Madison native and graduate of UW-Madison, is a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves and a veterinarian in Fairplay, Colo.
For the past six years we, as residents of Madison, have been living under a veil. A community so focused on activism in every extreme seems to have let one issue slip to the wayside. The issue at hand is the University of Wisconsinâ??s coal plant located on Charter Street.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will hold its monthly meetings in Madison this Thursday and Friday, and among the topics of discussion will be the high cost of textbooks.
WALTER J. Blaedel didn’t want a memorial service, but he wanted to be remembered. His paid obituary in October said he wished that “family, friends, students and co-workers remember me occasionally, for having shared work, ideals, love, joy and sadness, success and failure.”
Blaedel, who died Oct. 8 at 91, was a brilliant chemistry professor who lived in Madison for 60 years and knew plenty about success and failure. After a bitter dispute with the University of Wisconsin department of chemistry that began in the 1970s and ended with his forced retirement in the early ’80s, Blaedel refused to go quietly.
Ever since last weekâ??s monumental breakthrough by UW-Madisonâ??s own researcher Dr. James Thomson, which turned human skin cells into stem cells without using a human embryo, people have misunderstood its significance.
In the wake of the stunning announcement by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Thomson that he and his team had succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to create new stem cell lines, many people have begun to speculate on the effect that this breakthrough will have on the stem cell debate.
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As the parent of a child with diabetes, it is my hope that Thomson’s breakthrough will allow our nation to move forward with a national policy that increases public funding of all forms of stem cell research. I would like to believe that we will see an end to the contentious debate over this research that has caused years of delay and that too often has left researchers without adequate resources.
I am not optimistic, however.
How could it have come to this? How broken and inept must our governmental and corporate institutions be that, within the span of only a month, both Packers and Badgers fans were unable to get access to two of the most important games of the season?
Here’s a loaded question for you, Barry Alvarez: What’s the biggest problem facing your University of Wisconsin Athletic Department in the coming years?
A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all. Being able to reprogram skin cells into multipurpose stem cells without harming embryos launches an exciting new line of research. It’s important to remember, though, that we’re at square one, uncertain at this early stage whether souped-up skin cells hold the same promise as their embryonic cousins do.
Far from vindicating the current U.S. policy of withholding federal funds from many of those working to develop potentially lifesaving embryonic stem cells, recent papers in the journals Science and Cell described a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions. In fact, work by both the U.S. and Japanese teams that reprogrammed skin cells depended entirely on previous embryonic stem cell research.
MADISON â?? Scientists and others close to Wisconsin’s research sector often use the term “public-private partnership” to describe a Nirvana of converging interests: the power of a public research university paired with the flexibility and rapid response of private collaborators.
But what does such a partnership actually look like? The recent announcement that a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has produced clinical-quality human stem cells from skin cells offers a world-class example.
For several decades, the topic of educational accountability has dominated K-12 policy discussions. The issue is again heating up as Congress considers the reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The six principles of NCLB redesign outlined in the â??discussion draftâ? released by the House Education and Labor Committee all focus in one way or another on incentives for holding public schools and public officials accountable.
Patricia Burch is an assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One of the historianâ??s most important tasks is to teach us things we do not know. One significant form this can take is to complicate our understanding of the past by helping us re-imagine how events unfolded. It is too easy to assume, for example, that events move in a straight line from point â??aâ? to point â??bâ? without divagations or byways, without other possibilities or options. We are all susceptible to the alluring simplicity of history being a foreordained linear process.
David Sorkin is professor of history and Frances and Laurence Weinstein professor of Jewish studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of the forthcoming â??The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Reasonable Belief, London to Viennaâ? (Princeton University Press).
The convergence of science and ethics is beautiful to behold. The beauty is significantly enhanced when science becomes not only more ethical, but more practical in application with great potential for human benefit. That is what appears to be happening with the recent disclosure that two separate teams of scientists have discovered a means to turn ordinary human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells, without destroying living human embryos to do so.
