Gov. Jim Doyle wants to promote embryonic stem-cell research in Wisconsin.
In his recent State of the State address, the governor pledged to spend $5 million taxpayer dollars to “find, fund, and recruit” stem-cell companies. He expects high gains for the state in money and prestige, especially at the University of Wisconsin, a major hub of embryonic cell research.
Student speech codes were supposed to be a thing of the past on this campus. But sometimes the causes of repression continue to rear their problematic heads ââ?¬â? often in a different form.
In order to flush a truly humiliating experience out of your system, you need to tear it down, examine it from every angle, give it some context and move on.
Since disciples of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team have already razed and analyzed that 62-55 non-conference loss to North Dakota State Saturday at the Kohl Center, here is some context: It was the biggest upset loss, in any major sport, in the modern era of UW sports.
When the search and screen committee for a new provost reported back with a list of three candidates that did not include Virginia Sapiro, an active wound was inflicted upon the University of Wisconsin by denying the most qualified applicant the job that she would so ably perform.
A TREND TOWARD privatization and a shift in spending priorities is putting California’s public colleges and universities at risk of forsaking their mandate to deliver a quality public education to the state’s growing ranks of would-be college students.
Author: Paul Boyer is professor of history emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
When Gov. Doyle announced his “Wisconsin Covenant” to help teenagers go to college, Republicans suspiciously asked how he would pay for it.
Nice touch by new University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema to announce his assistants one at a time. Not only does each new face and resume get enhanced, it puts the program on the front page for days at a time when things are ordinarily quiet. …
Mitch, a 2003 UW-Madison Law School graduate, changed his name during college, legally taking the nickname friends gave him by shortening his former last name Mitchell. “I was an orphan, my father passed away when I was young and my mother got sick and passed away when I was a teen. I finished high school, college and law school on my own.”
Although he worked a mere quarter of the year in Madison, Paul Barrows did much to harm the University of Wisconsin in 2005. The actions of the former vice chancellor for student affairs, who spent last summer embroiled in a high-profile scandal over allegations of inappropriate behavior with a graduate student and coworkers, led more than a few officials in the state Capitol to publicly criticize the school.
If ever a school needed a year to end, it was the University of Wisconsin System in 2005. In what will surely go down as one of the most trying and difficult years in school annals, UW became a personal punching bag for the media, lawmakers and others throughout the state as one sordid scandal after another erupted in headlines throughout the year.
If you have the time and know where to look, you can easily find hundreds of statistics to define the now completed career of Barry Alvarez as University of Wisconsin football coach.
Some are obvious: Alvarez led the Badgers to 118 victories in 16 seasons and had a .520 winning percentage in Big Ten Conference games (65-60-3).
It is true that the United States is losing its advantage in drawing foreign students, but a major point was not stressed enough in USA TODAY’s recent article (ââ?¬Å?USA losing its advantage drawing foreign students,ââ?¬Â News, Jan 6).
(In letters to the editor.)
MADISON ââ?¬â?? The world now knows about Hwang Woo-suk, the South Korean researcher whose stem cell work may have been falsified. It was a confidence-shaking revelation for some who support human embryonic stem cell research, and a gleeful ââ?¬Å?I-told-you-soââ?¬Â opportunity for those who do not.
If thereââ?¬â?¢s a positive side to the alleged research abuses in South Korea, it is the contrast with how stem cell science is conducted elsewhere. Hwangââ?¬â?¢s transgressions support what bona fide researchers in the United States have been saying all along: ââ?¬Å?We operate under clear, ethical rules that may take longer to produce research results, but you can count on those results once theyââ?¬â?¢re announced.ââ?¬Â
Legislation championed by Sen. John McCain to stop physical abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody around the world was signed into law nine days ago by President Bush. It marks the third time in 30 years that Congress has voted to prohibit torture. Twice before, in 1975 and 1994, investigations of horrific abuse, secret prisons and CIA complicity led to legislation with hidden loopholes — a history we may be about to repeat.
Alfred W. McCoy is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror.”
Chairman Dick Wagner said that while the committee has learned that Madison has an official flower, the Babcock hollyhock, no one seems to grow them anymore. The plants were named after famed UW-Madison agricultural chemist Stephen Babcock. You can see photos of the tall, deep- pink flowers on the UW-Madison Web site, but no one seems to know where to find any seeds.
It’s the dawn of a new year, when anything seems possible, even reforming our oldest and worst habits.
MADISON, Wis. — Before I transferred to the University of Wisconsin, I had visited the campus several times to see some of my friends who had made the wise decision to attend college in Madison.
David Cox, professor of biochemistry:
Even though the conclusion seemed pre-ordained, it was with no small measure of relief that I read about Judge John Jones’s decision banning the inclusion of intelligent design in the science classrooms of the school district in Dover, Pa. Unfortunately, I know this one decision won’t end the conflict, but it is nevertheless a welcome development.
Christmas is past, and the new year soon to arrive. It’s time for a long winter’s nap and some comforting dreams about how the datelines of 2006 might read. Wake me up Jan. 2, when the Badgers play. Please save some eggnog.
Hmmm, let’s see …
….MADISON – UW United, a new organization comprising University of Wisconsin System alumni, announced today a statewide effort to build support for Wisconsin’s higher education system. It’s time to end decades of erosion in support for the system, organizers said, promising to target legislators who have sought to dismantle the system.
Lawyer jokes aren’t just good for a laugh — they can tell us much about the state of the legal profession. In researching my new book, “Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture,” I found that the preeminent subject of jokes set in large law firms is the tension between older partners and younger associates.
My various mailboxes are not just filled with bills, electronic spam, catalogues, press releases and the stray holiday card these days.
They also are crammed with sarcasm, ridicule, anger, profanity and protest, all in the name of readers blowing off some steam.
Jacqueline King is a researcher who carefully sifts data for the American Council on Education in search of trends that colleges and universities might find helpful. One recent discovery jumped out: Over the past eight years, the percentage of middle-class males on campus shifted dramatically downward. Even more surprising, the sharpest drop occurred among white males.
….If nothing else, the Christmas card tradition seems to force us to renew old friendships, get up to date on growing families and, yes, sometimes hear sad news as we all get a year older. The memories those cards induce are precious.
I can see it on the nightly news:
An army of middle-class people marches on the student neighborhood south of Regent Street. They’re armed with paint scrapers and floor sanders and wearing tool belts and Menards’ hats. And they’re chanting: “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Student housing’s got to go!”
Since UW-Madison planners first talked about a Workforce Housing Initiative to encourage employees to buy and rehabilitate dilapidated student housing in the Vilas and Greenbush areas, they’ve been swamped by people who want to sign up.
The Man of the House was reading the morning sports section when he mashed the paper in his lap and yelled for his wife.
“Honey, get in here,” he said. “Hurry.”
A weary figure, carrying an overloaded clothes basket, appeared in the doorway of the adjacent laundry room.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley made a bold step toward guaranteeing worker rights to collectively bargain in the 3,300 factories around the world that produce UW apparel by announcing Tuesday the university�s plan to begin a pilot program endorsed by the United Students Against Sweatshops. The program will require companies producing officially licensed apparel products to purchase 25 percent of their goods from factories that allow a union.
Column by Adam Edelman, a senior at UW-Madison and an editorial page intern for the Wisconsin State Journal.
Here’s some advice for the Republican leadership in Wisconsin’s Legislature: get serious.
Today, Jim Hirsch will teach his fifth and final class of the semester at the UW-Madison. The Hollywood writer/producer is teaching a screenwriting class as a guest lecturer.
A byline that’s been a familiar one to readers of The Capital Times for just short of 45 years will, unfortunately, go away soon. Matt Pommer, the dean of the Capitol press corps, is retiring.
….He was in the UW’s Commerce Building when the so-called Dow riot occurred, phoning developments back to the newsroom. There were no cell phones then, and a good reporter had to commandeer a land line. When he moved from the copy desk to the reporting ranks, one of his duties was covering the UW Board of Regents.
I’m having a hard time being alarmed by reports of binge drinking at UW-Madison, my alma mater.
What is it about the concept of privatization that makes the brains of public officials turn to jelly?
….Last week I heard Katharine Lyall, former UW System president, push her new book, “The True Genius of America at Risk.” The subhead suggests that our public universities are headed toward “de facto privatization.” It almost sounds like she is opposed to privatization but after listening carefully and looking over her handouts, it was my conclusion that her message really is, “Hey, it’s inevitable so why fight it?”
Monthly book column by Merri Lindgren and Megan Schliesman, librarians at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I don’t recall dorm life as being for the faint of heart.
Apart from hall surfing, contact highs and “the walk of shame” following an ill-advised romantic encounter, living in a dormitory requires young people to learn to put up with beliefs and behavior that may make them uncomfortable.
The New York Times last Sunday printed an expose on a “high school” that turns athletes with poor grades into players with academic records good enough to qualify for a college scholarship.
The school is University High School in Miami, which has no educational accreditation and no classes, but athletes who are struggling at their regular schools are able to take correspondence courses from it which, in turn, are recognized by major colleges for scholarships.
….The NCAA, not surprisingly, is oblivious.
“We’re not the educational accreditation police,” the NCAA’s managing director for membership services told the newspaper.
Who should go away and never again be seen in the public eye? That’s the question UW-Madison professor John Coleman put to the 460 freshmen and sophomores in his Political Science 104 class this fall.
I guess Facebook isn�t only for stalking and poking. As demonstrated by the Student Labor Action Coalition late last week, some people believe the popular website can also be used for pressuring university officials to take action on important issues and proposals. Debatable, though, is whether creating mock Facebook profiles for university administrators is the best way to get them on your side.
Short of No. 1 USC or No. 2 Texas getting upset in the final two weekends of college football or Oregon and the Pacific-10 Conference twisting the arms of Fiesta Bowl officials right off, the Big Ten Conference will get two teams — Penn State and Ohio State — into the Bowl Championship Series.
What better time than Thanksgiving, with its Turkey Day football games, to consider football art, oxymoron that it is.
….The Lipski piece came about because of the state’s Percent for Art program, which requires a certain percentage of a state construction budget, a minuscule one-tenth of 1 percent, go to art for the site. Now, that is an admirable idea, and I would like to see it even more fully funded. And it has worked in various places, including at the UW Biochemistry Building and the UW Engineering School.
But this is, well … not what an athletic stadium really needs.
Short of No. 1 USC or No. 2 Texas getting upset in the final two weekends of college football or Oregon and the Pacific-10 Conference twisting the arms of Fiesta Bowl officials right off, the Big Ten Conference will get two teams – Penn State and Ohio State – into the Bowl Championship Series.
That, of course, would free the Capital One Bowl to snap up the University of Wisconsin and its caravan of fans, something the people who wear Capital One blazers have always wanted.
Yes, on my first day of college, a guy down the hall encouraged me to take a peek at his roommate having sex. Yes, I once heard the thud of a drunken student hitting concrete after he fell from a 12-foot perch in the middle of the night. And yes, during a football game, a tumbler of ice struck my head with such force that the plastic shattered.
So, like most University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, I was not shocked that hundreds of revelers were arrested in Madison again this Halloween, or that UW has again topped the annual list of party schools. Perhaps more surprising to the average Badger is that, in my four years there, I didn’t have a single drink.
I guess Facebook isn�t only for stalking and poking. As demonstrated by the Student Labor Action Coalition late last week, some people believe the popular website can also be used for pressuring university officials to take action on important issues and proposals. Debatable, though, is whether creating mock Facebook profiles for university administrators is the best way to get them on your side.
All my life, I have introduced people to our nation’s public lands, as a seasonal fishing guide in the Upper Midwest, as the head of the Bureau of Land Management and as the chief of the U.S. Forest Service – agencies that manage hundreds of millions of acres of public land. One thing I learned was that Americans love their national forests, parks and grasslands.
Mike Dombeck, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, was acting director of the Bureau of Land Management from 1994 to 1997 and chief of the U.S. Forest Service from 1997 to 2001.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â?? At one level, itââ?¬â?¢s possible to understand why animal-rights advocates passionately oppose experiments involving animals. No one likes to see another creature suffer needlessly.
Beyond the passion, however, exist facts about animal-based research that run counter to the intimidating tactics of some protesters, such as those who recently targeted the homes of researchers in Madison. Information about the true extent of animal research ââ?¬â?? and its benefits for humans and animals alike — deserves to be heard above the bullhorns and protest signs.
They’ll be chillin’ like pie fillin’ at the Capitol under a new order by the governor.
Gov. Jim Doyle figuratively donned Jimmy Carter’s warm sweater on Monday and ordered state government to turn down the heat.
Doyle wants the thermostats in every state building, from the Capitol to the cattle barns on the UW-Platteville campus, reduced to a bracing 68 degrees.
Column: Merri Lindgren and Megan Schliesman are librarians at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at UW-Madison.
The long tale of the Teaching Assistants� Association�s battle for a wage increase without health care premiums is coming to a close. But the moral of this story is not a happy one for teaching assistants or their union. The product of this two-year battle and strike is a meager 8 percent wage increase and a total capitulation on health care payment.
When freshman students begin life on a new campus, safety is of the utmost importance. After a while, the feeling of safety becomes interminable and immunity to danger develops. Crime rates are as low as they have ever been, and the belief that ââ?¬Å?thereââ?¬â?¢s no way anything could happen to meââ?¬Â is overwhelming. Walking home at night alone? No problem. This feeling of safety is what every student deserves to feel while at home at his or her school. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and the root of some problems may be the fault of the university.
At long last, a deal has been struck.
Last Wednesday, the Teaching Assistants Association and the Office of State Employee Relations tentatively agreed on contracts for the 2003-05 and 2005-07 biennia. The contracts, which must still be ratified by the TAA membership, approved by the state Legislature and signed by the governor, represent the latest chapter in the soap opera that began almost as soon as the last contract was signed.
Broadcaster Pat Robertson recently issued a fatwa over the citizens of Dover, Penn., who voted out of office school board members who supported intelligent design in the school curriculum. ââ?¬Å?Iââ?¬â?¢d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, donââ?¬â?¢t turn to God. You just rejected Him from your city,ââ?¬Â Robertson said. Hmm ââ?¬Â¦ is this about science or religion?
With some modest UW alum connections and $168, I garnered four tickets to a recent UW football game for my brother and our wives. Despite the cold, gray weather, it was a grand spectacle with a capacity crowd in an enormous stadium.
While entering the stadium, I mused that Camp Randall should be renamed Fort Randall, what with its now-imposing concrete walls, menacing fences and gate security officers. I couldn’t even bring in an umbrella. This was in stark contrast to the stadium of my youth.
I walked up to Donald Lipski’s sculpture and simply started laughing. I was surprised at my own laughter considering how much I had already pondered and considered the design. So the laughter was a delight – that he had pulled off such a piece of sassy, droll, sly and provocative sculpture. A huge pile of footballs towers in the air where you’d expect to find a mighty bronze football hero.
Next weekend marks the annual flight home of the college freshmen, the midterm migration in which recently fledged students return home to prove their parents are getting their money’s worth.
We have so many questions for these kids. How are they holding up against all those liberal professors we keep hearing about? Is it really possible to live on nothing but Chipotle burritos? And how could they have gone so many minutes over their monthly cell phone allotment without ever having called home?
IT’S ALWAYS news when Rev. Ronald Myers, M.D., comes back to Madison, but he’ll arrive next week with an especially ambitious agenda.
Now that we have a couple of weeks’ distance from this year’s Halloween “festivities” in Madison, during which the police decided to pepper-spray a crowd to pre-empt the drunken rampages of previous years, perhaps we can begin to think seriously about underage drinking.
With tuition costs constantly on the rise, many students worry that there�s no end in sight. Various solutions to the ever-increasing cost of higher education have been proposed, but none seem viable.
Saturday was a great day for Wisconsin. Sure we lost, and sure it would have been much better to present Coach Barry Alverez with a victory at his last home game in an extraordinary career.
Diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, juvenile diabetes and spinal cord injuries affect millions of American families – including my own. Stem cell research, which is being pioneered in Wisconsin, may one day offer a cure to some of these diseases. But these cures will continue to elude us if we allow partisan political ideology to get in the way of the vital work of scientists.
As Madison considers what to do about future Downtown Halloween parties, the city should recognize that the celebration is fun for some and good business for others. But it’s also a huge expense for our community.
Combine the event with the Mifflin Street block party, a similar blend of chaotic celebration and destruction, and the most conservative estimate of direct costs for police are sobering enough:
About $350,000 for Halloween and $97,000 for Mifflin Street.
