When things go wrong, a sense of humor can help.
Like when 83,000 people show up to celebrate your last home game as Badger football coach, and your team, um, neglects to win.
“Barry and I have a strong sense of humor,” Cindy Alvarez, the coach’s wife, said Monday. “And when you’re down, like on Saturday, thank God for a sense of humor.”
Day by day, authorities are building their case that Steven Avery murdered Teresa Halbach and burned her body at the Avery family salvage yard.
Whether he’s legally guilty will, of course, be a matter for the courts to decide.
But the fact that Avery was out of jail and in a position to get into trouble is one of those situations that makes us pause and reconsider our ethical points of view.
Avery, you see, was sentenced in 1986 to 32 years in prison. He was charged with – and convicted of – raping and attempting to murder a Manitowoc woman who was assaulted while jogging.
Two years ago, the Wisconsin Innocence Project used DNA testing to prove that Avery was not the rapist, and he was released from prison.
It must have been a long time since state Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, last stepped foot on a UW campus because his ââ?¬Å?student bill of rightsââ?¬Â is completely out of touch with the students and lacks all practicality. Its chief accomplishment is to be an absolute waste of time and money for students, professors, university administrators, legislators and taxpayers.
Over the course of 16 seasons and 192 games as University of Wisconsin football coach, Barry Alvarez has generated and accumulated countless memories.
The majority of them came to life at Camp Randall Stadium, where Alvarez has won 67 of 101 games (three ended in ties) and sold out the place 69 times going into his final home appearance as UW coach today against Iowa.
Pending a signature from Governor Doyle upon his return from abroad, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will add a second student representative.
Barry Alvarez’s final game at Camp Randall Stadium will be an occasion Saturday for a number of reflections, including whether Alvarez will coach again.
Former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz does not recall precisely who brought Barry Alvarez to his attention when Holtz needed to add a coach to his Irish staff in 1987.
Freedom of choice and the right to privacy are two of the most fundamental principles in our country. Why, then, is a Wisconsin State Representative trying to restrict both of these key constitutional rights for UW women? The Republican-controlled Assembly passed legislation this summer introduced by Rep. Daniel LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, that would prohibit University Health Services from dispensing the morning after pill to students. While LeMahieu claims the bill promotes responsible choices, this gratuitous, offensive and otherwise unconstitutional legislation is nothing more than a malicious attack on the reproductive rights of women across campus.
Holy horns on a heifer, Mildred, that new ag school dean is a girl!
What’s most interesting to me about the appointment of Molly Jahn as dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences isn’t the fact that the Cornell University plant geneticist is the first female dean in the school’s 116-year history.
It’s the fact that the ag college itself has become so girly.
What do you give someone who has everything, at least in the materialistic sense?
If the person is Barry Alvarez, and the occasion is his final appearance at Camp Randall Stadium as University of Wisconsin football coach, then you do what you can.
University of Wisconsin Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam gets my vote for the overzealous, super-mother of the year award.
….(Robert) Kenner’s film, based on David Maraniss’ book, “They Marched Into Sunlight,” forced viewers to confront the lessons of Vietnam that are made even more searing by the war in Iraq.
The television footage from the Halloween street battle, on the other hand, showed what happens when the UW-Madison’s Internet and bar culture reputation as America’s No. 1 Party School turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here are a few ideas about how to make sure future Octobers in Madison don’t end up in a swirl of hard feelings, hangovers and hospital bills:
The Capital Times suggests that I chill out over Halloween. It is true that thanks to an unprecedented level of planning and cooperation among city officials, the Police Department, UW-Madison, students and downtown business owners, this year’s event was an improvement over past years. Most notably, we avoided the kind of serious property damage that has marred the event in the past.
But there is reason to be concerned, and a need to have a communitywide discussion about the future of Halloween.
Ann Althouse, a UW Law School professor, says in a column that when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor decided to retire, it had been 11 years since a president had made an appointment to the Supreme Court.
During this time, political hopes and fears about the future of the Supreme Court had built up. And the O’Connor seat was quite noticeably the most significant slot on the court.
This is how the Wisconsin Idea was described by many people after it was coined in the early 20th century. In order to put into words what was already done in practice, UW President Charles Richard Van Hise and the author of the Idea, Charles McCarthy, worked to describe the relationship between the state and the university.
He�s done it again.
Governor Jim Doyle vetoed AB 499, an initiative that would have banned all methods of human cloning. In doing so, Doyle has once again made the right choice for Wisconsin. Thanks to Doyle, stem-cell research in Wisconsin will continue to prosper and, it is hoped, find cures to life-threatening diseases, as well as continue to help the state�s economy.
After several weeks of waiting, Governor Doyle finally did the expected last week and vetoed AB 499, which would have effectively banned human cloning.
First a bit of boardwalk history. It was built on the advice of famed UW- Madison ecologist Jim Zimmerman.
In offering $1 million to purchase property near the UW Primate Research Center, UW-Madison has become a bullyââ?¬â?overstepping its bounds and recklessly throwing its power around to put down a small group of harmless advocates.
Earning the title of the No. 1 party school in the nation is something that many students here are proud of. Our school is known for being a place where students like to have fun, but lately it seems that this behavior has gotten too out of control and even dangerous.
It was only a matter of time before Barry Alvarez was asked if his University of Wisconsin football team has overachieved this season.
Of course, it has.
Here’s a sobering word when it comes to all the heavy drinking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, especially during the mega-parties like last weekend’s annual Halloween bash and pepper spray festival.
Detox.
In the wake of another Halloween celebration that ended in police force and pepper spray, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has had enough. The mayor, who has crusaded against the festivities for some time now, has already begun to rally support for the cancellation of the annual tradition.
Tens of thousands lined State Street for this year�s Halloween event Saturday night. While this weekend�s party was an overall improvement from past years because there was not a riot, a few thousand partygoers lost their common sense and impeded the evening�s potential to reach expectations of city officials.
Quoted: Ann Althouse, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Whenever a student-athlete at the University of Wisconsin finds the kind of trouble that makes headlines, questions are invariably raised about their perceived lack of awareness.
Doesn’t he know better than to get into a bar fight, especially when he’s underage and everyone knows who he is?
On a cold October evening in Madison some three years ago, a few ordinary people decided that a holiday normally reserved for elementary school children with candy pails should include excessive inebriation, pyromania and looting. These troublemakers were not a representative sample of the city�s population or even the University of Wisconsin student body; they were a group of bad apples with no caramel coating.
When Provost Peter Spear packed his bags and bid adieu to the University of Wisconsin earlier this week, this campus lost an accomplished administrator who helped guide the university to where it is today.
With four games left, Barry Alvarez is approaching his best job ever with the Badgers, which is saying something for the only Big Ten coach to win three Rose Bowls. Even if Wisconsin finishes the regular season 9-3, it would be infinitely better than last year’s 9-3, when Alvarez had much more talent and then made the mistake of saying UW had overachieved when it was done.
For a guy who has dedicated his life to peace and compassion and tranquility, the Dalai Lama sure finds ways to upset establishments.
This time, those upset are scientists who are outraged that the Tibetan spiritual leader has been invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience next month in Washington, D.C.
He is scheduled to speak about research he has done with UW-Madison professor Richard Davidson that purports to show monks who meditate produce very strong concentrations of gamma brain waves, as measured by an electronic scanner.
Last week, the Student Services Finance Committee faced a difficult decision regarding whether the SAFEwalk service was beneficial overall to the campus given its steep costs per walker. SAFEwalk is based on two central tenets: transportation and safety.
A solitary cup defiantly remains across the table, half-filled with warm beer and taunting the player on the opposite side to sink the ball and finish the game. Staring at the hazy cup with glazed-over eyes, the player leans precipitously over the table to steady himself, at the same time releasing the ball in a hurried, erratic motion. The ball sails across the table in a wobbly arc, landing nowhere near its intended target. The ball is picked up and the game continues.
For the past week I’ve been cruising the corner of Breese Terrace and Regent Street, waiting impatiently for the appearance of the giant sculpture that was to be unveiled today to kick off UW-Madison’s Homecoming events.
Where were they hiding it, I wondered? In the Field House? Under the roof of the McClain Center? Behind the steeple of First Congregational Church up the street?
Though the University of Wisconsin-Madison consistently ranks as one of the nation�s finest state universities, this mark of distinction could very well lose all validity in the near future. As the university continues to receive less and less money from the state, it faces the serious possibility of becoming a de facto private institution. Indeed, statistics suggest that the status of many of the nation�s state-financed institutions may be in peril.
The first few days of class are always the same. The professor introduces him or herself, reads through the syllabus (although most students are capable of reading on their own), and discusses the rules of cheating. An especially salient topic that arises in the cheating segment is that of plagiarism.
As we, the university community, come together to celebrate Bucky’s pirate homecoming, let us take a minute to think about where the Bucky Badger T-shirts that are so ubiquitous this week came from. All UW-Madison clothing is made in sweatshops by individuals who in many respects are just like ourselves. Although it is impossible to fully understand the struggles of workers far away, there are parallels between their experiences on the factory floor and ours at the university.
In order to make Halloween a safe, peaceful and enjoyable weekend, the following question must be answered: Who is responsible for the events of Halloween?
A problem that plagues the University of Wisconsin is diversity, or lack thereof.
As liberals lean back and enjoy the spectacle, conservatives are fighting each other over the nomination of Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court, says Ann Althouse, a professor in the UW Law School.
Four Madison researchers have donned green eye shades for a bottom-line look at programs designed to prevent juvenile delinquency: What’s their cost? What’s their yield?
I understand the logic behind banning smoking in Madison bars. I almost understand the threats to stop Halloween. Taking away SAFEwalk, though, is something that boggles my mind.
Malcolm X once said, ââ?¬Å?Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.ââ?¬Â It is very unfortunate that our current Legislature apparently disagrees with the words of this great thinker. As students around Wisconsin head back for another year of higher education at one the 26 University of Wisconsin colleges and universities, Congress will be voting on one of the most detrimental pieces of federal legislation to face students in a very long time.
This pertinent proposal is called Budget Reconciliation. If Congress buys this pitch, it will cut at least $9 billion from student loan programs. Budget Reconciliation is a special process used by Congress to cut and change entitlement programs such as Medicaid, pensions and student loans. The attempt by Congress to use this process to gut federal loan programs will be devastating for students both today and in years to come.
The room in Vilas Hall is full of college students, eager to get in on the gig being described by the panel participants for the UW’s media career day. They’re hearing about staplers being whipped at people, coffee runs for the boss, endless photocopying and derisive taunts.
Oh, yeah, and there’s usually no pay at first.
Most people who live in Wisconsin will tell you that Milwaukee is not exactly a shining beacon on a hill. While its condition cannot quite be described as abysmal, Milwaukee is simply a city that has been left behind. Sadly, if the University of Wisconsin successfully receives something it is currently seeking, Milwaukee will be left behind once more.
Recently, UW requested to rename its medical school the ââ?¬Å?UW School of Medicine & Public Health.ââ?¬Â One could easily dismiss this plan as attempting little more than a rearrangement of the medical schoolââ?¬â?¢s title. However, to do so would be to ignore the impending changes such a shift would bring.
It’s one of those lawsuits that produces guffaws from those who read or hear about it, but it is anything but funny to the people who must bear its brunt.
….It’s the suit that claims the bars near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus conspired to fix drink prices, thereby overcharging money-strapped college kids who wanted to relax with a few drinks now and then.
….The pity is that all the owners did was try to cooperate with the UW and Chancellor John Wiley’s campaign against binge drinking.
After a gruesome afternoon like Saturday’s, when a Northwestern offense once again reminded a Wisconsin defense that purple is among a contusion’s dominant colors, you’ve got to be asking yourself:
Who is this Bret Bielema guy, and why has he already been entrusted with the future of the UW football program?
Before the Badger football showdown with Michigan, AOL Instant Messenger away messages, T-shirts and dialogue among Badger football fans were flooded by puns depicting Ann Arbor as whore-personified -deserving to be beaten, conquered and dominated.
Before the Badger football showdown with Michigan, AOL Instant Messenger away messages, T-shirts and dialogue among Badger football fans were flooded by puns depicting Ann Arbor as whore-personified -deserving to be beaten, conquered and dominated.
Gov. Jim Doyleââ?¬â?¢s 2002-05 budget proposal eliminated about 200-300 courses at the University of Wisconsin in 2003. Students were forced into crammed classrooms far exceeding capacity. Since the proposal was instated, the College of Letters and Science ââ?¬â? the largest school on this campus ââ?¬â? has cut $4.5 million from its program. Such cuts have reduced the number of faculty and staff positions, increased class size and diminished the overall quality of a UW education.
Paul W. Barrows has given 16 years of dedicated service to the University of Wisconsin. No one has ever suggested that he did anything other than superb work. Nor has anyone ever filed a complaint about him.
Yet, because of former Dean of Students Luoluo Hong and her campaign against him, Paul Barrows is no longer the vice chancellor for student affairs. That is a loss for the university and its students.
Guest Column: C. Coe and E. Sandgren
Upon reading Leslie Hamilton’s Sept. 29 guest column in the State Journal, we were struck by the large cultural void that has emerged between people.
We want more beer! We want more beer!
This chant is familiar to all those who dedicate their Saturdays to going out to support our amazing (and undefeated) 2005 football team. The season has started off just like any other; students decked out in their brightest red gear, with beers in hand, tailgating before the games.
While the Wisconsin legislature continues to bungle its way through narrow-minded and politically-motivated debates over stem cell research, it’s important to note the National Institute of Health’s establishment of the first and only National Stem Cell Bank here at Wisconsin’s WiCell Research Institute.
(WISC-TV Editorial)
If you or a loved one has diabetes, Parkinson’s disease or a spinal cord injury, you need to do two things.
First, send Gov. Jim Doyle flowers and a nice note.
Second, look in the mirror and admit you’re a loser.
Hey, I know it sounds harsh, but I’m a loser, too.
Stem cell research has the potential to treat ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Paul W. Barrows has given 16 years of dedicated service to the University of Wisconsin. No one has ever suggested that he did anything other than superb work, nor has anyone ever filed complaint about him. Yet, because of former Dean of Students Luoluo Hong and her campaign against him, Paul Barrows is no longer the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. That is a loss for the University and its students.
The fall term is in full swing now at the UW and at campuses across the country. Students are settling in to the rituals of academia; classes and labs, homework and exams, counterbalanced (or in some cases outweighed) by ball games and the high-tech social life of a new-millennium collegian.
….before I start to sound like a hypocrite, let me make it clear that I believe with all of my being that education is a foremost key to success. It just isn’t the only one.
That said, at what point does education hinder rather than enhance our ability to function in the work world?
(Sarah Botham is the owner of Botham, ink. and a senior lecturer in the UW Department of Life Sciences Communication.)
Chancellor John Wiley addressed the Faculty Senate Monday, speaking to issues important to professors, such as sick leave and vacation policy, in his annual State of the University speech. While these shortcomings are important, we believe a much wider portrait must be painted to fully assess the condition of our great, state university of Wisconsin.
When former vice chancellor Paul Barrows returned to campus Monday morning, the entire community let out a slow breath, hoping against hope that the scandal was now firmly in the past and that UW could begin the slow process of healing.
Other Wisconsin fans at Saturday’s Badger game at Camp Randall Stadium probably saw the empty pedestal at the corner of Crazylegs Drive and Breese Terrace and imagined what I did.
I could just picture a sculpture of old Crazylegs, Elroy Hirsch, doing his famous huck and buck atop the pedestal. He’d look great with the retro- themed renovations just completed at the stadium.
