It’s easy to imagine old hippies around Madison raising gray eyebrows over the Mifflin Street Block Party dispute.
Back in 1969, the party was held in defiance of Mayor Bill Dyke, who refused to give the hippies a party permit.
Now Wisconsin’s utilities are playing catch-up with building projects. MGE’s recent proposed increase, for example, is to cover the cost of a natural-gas-fired power plant to begin operation this summer on the UW-Madison campus and for improvements to the electric transmission grid.
….For decades, many unfairly considered state schools to be, as they say at Oxford, “redbrick” — second rate diploma mills. Now, just as U.S. public universities are finally winning the global recognition they deserve for quality, their very future is suddenly in doubt.
What is happening? State by state, the social compact that supported higher education is being dismantled.
(This Washington Post guest column by Paul Trible, president of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, appeared in the 4/25/05 print edition of The Capital Times)
James Burgess, former publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal, has contributed $1 million to the UW-Madison School of Journalism in efforts to raise integrity and ethics among future journalists who attend this school. Increasing the amount of courses devoted to ethics within the Journalism School will bring to light the importance of responsible writing and the obligation of truth journalists owe to society.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s announcement Thursday morning that the city of Madison had officially set April 30 as the date for the Mifflin Street Block Party came as a huge relief. After months of irrational hope that students would agree to have the party May 7-the eve of the first day of final exams-city officials came to the realization that students would party April 30 whether there was a police presence or not.
The use of animals in research is a socially sensitive issue. The tension between opposing perspectives hinges on the following fact: Certain questions about human and animal health can only be answered through animal studies. No animals, no answers. In this context, “alternatives to animal studies” means asking different questions.
As a large research university, UW-Madison is a magnet for animal rights activists. And this year we have a bumper crop. They are busy dumpster diving, video taping university research facilities and doing their best to intimidate researchers and staff. They also are proving to be artful propagandists.
State employees made a little noise in town this week. Their message was a simple one: We’re tired of all the disrespect.
Government workers have always been easy targets. Because they work for the taxpayers – which, incidentally, includes themselves since they pay taxes, too – they’re subject to more scrutiny than the average worker.
The news media are constantly looking over their shoulders and are quick to point out when they mess up. And there’s a perception, often fostered by our elected officials, that they don’t work hard enough.
This month, more than a million young people will receive letters that will let them know whether they’ve been accepted to the college of their choice. If those acceptance letters are not accompanied by the right financial aid package, some young people will find themselves altering or deferring their dreams. Too many will be low-income students who find the financial aid picture more daunting than in the past.
Commentary By Julianne Malveaux
The University of Wisconsin has strengthened its role in protecting the environment to ensure that we safeguard the quality of our air, water and land for future generations, says Associate Vice Chancellor Alan Fish in an op-ed piece in the Badger Herald.
Professor Ron Daggett was a handy guy: He used to say he could mend everything except a broken heart and the crack of dawn.
Actually, he was being modest. He did mend broken hearts with his invention of one of the first plastic heart valves. And one of my favorite stories about him involves his fixing the organ at his church with a pump he “borrowed” from his wife’s vacuum cleaner.
Elected in 2002, Gov. Jim Doyle’s tenure at the helm of the Badger State has just passed the halfway point. This fact, if converted to the semester time zone in which students reside, would mean that Gov. Jim Doyle has just finished his midterm and is focusing on his final in 2006.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of politics can recognize that an issue deemed ââ?¬Å?plain and simpleââ?¬Â never actually is. For some unapparent reason, politicians remain loyal to this failed rhetorical tactic, as if its clichÃ?© justification will elicit public acceptance. However, this pathetic excuse for an explanation never works and there is no reason to think this time will be an exception as Republicans use it in an attempt to shoot down the current proposal to extend partner benefits to University of Wisconsin employees.
He was told it happened two or three years before he was born in 1978, a wretched fire in his grandparents’ Lynchburg, Va., home that killed both, plus an aunt and an uncle.
Well over 200,000 animals spend their entire lives in UW-Madison research labs. After reading recent media reports about alleged cruel and unnecessary experiments on these animals, I and several other concerned citizens have made numerous attempts to attend the federally-mandated meetings of the UW-Madison’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees.
There are six characters in the world premiere of “The End of the Affair,” being performed by Madison Opera next weekend. In one of those key roles is Thomas Moore, a European opera star who has performed all the principal opera leads from Hoffmann to Faust throughout Germany, France, Austria and elsewhere on the continent.
Moore, who plays Smythe the rationalist in this premiere, lives in Switzerland, but grew up on a farm in Middleton. He got his start here at the UW- Madison, studying under now retired music director and Prof. Karlos Moser.
Was I the only one bothered and dismayed by receiving the campus-wide “pick a prof” e-mail in my inbox?
With enrollment underway, what better way to pick a class than by peering into the future and seeing what grade might transpire? Yet, doesn’t this just put more emphasis on grades in our already grade-obsessed society?
The Mifflin Street Block Party has long served as students� last chance to let loose and enjoy the return of warm weather to Madison before the realities of final exams and summer break settle in. It�s the last hurrah for those graduating, returning home for the summer months or studying abroad for a semester or two. It serves as an opportunity for high school friends and childhood pals to gawk in awe at our university�s renowned social scene and enjoy the atmosphere of a top college town.
Picnic Point is an accessible natural area all of the campus can enjoy. On any given afternoon, students arrive at the natural area by foot, bike and boat from across University Bay. As a peninsula in a city on an isthmus, Picnic Point’s allure is its accessibility.
If a front-row seat at a human science fair won’t soften our skepticism, maybe a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor’s research will. To get a better read on Tasers, John Webster is ready to study how current enters the body, flows through it and affects muscles and the nervous system.
The room was too small. The crowd was too sparse. The applause was too light. The spotlight was too dim.
Other than that, the University of Wisconsin student-athlete academic recognition banquet, held Monday night, was a rousing success.
The U.S. Department of Justice is paying the University of Wisconsin $500,000 to put pigs under general anesthesia, inject them with cocaine and zap them with Tasers.
On Wednesday, the Campus Natural Areas Committee will hear public testimony about yet another rule: this one would ban bicycles from Picnic Point.
Bikes have been allowed on the point’s main trail on an “experimental” basis for about a decade. Retired psychiatry professor Jack Westman wants the experiment ended. He contends that bicyclists ride too fast and are likely to mow down innocent children and the elderly.
Sure, women go into the sciences, but our choices have little to do with aptitude or confidence. We’re simply choosing career paths that we see as less isolating and more helpful to society.
Following are the first two paragraphs of a story that appeared in the Washington Post only a few days ago:
“Gov. Bill Owens has been crisscrossing the country for years promoting the virtues of (Colorado’s) strict constitutional limits on government spending. He has repeatedly urged other states to adopt restrictions of their own, based on Colorado’s ‘Taxpayer Bill of Rights’ amendment, known as TABOR.
“But this summer, Owens, a Republican, says he’ll be traversing his own mountainous state pushing the opposite message.
Starting tomorrow, Badger football fans will be presented with a choice. The student ticket exchange policy will change so student fans must either turn in all tickets a week before classes start in the fall, or will have to exchange ticket vouchers at the Camp Randall gate at game time. Unfortunately, both these supposed solutions seek to change a non-existent problem and would likely only exacerbate current imperfections in the system.
A former colleague, now retired, always referred to the University of Wisconsin as a coach’s graveyard when it came to men’s basketball.
During the Dark Ages of UW hoops, which ran from 1950 to the mid-1990s, Madison was a place where coaches’ careers went to die. Few who came here to coach ever worked again – in this or any other town.
The use of Tasers by law enforcement personnel has evolved into an extremely controversial and contentious issue over the past several months. Tasers fire two small darts carrying roughly 50,000 electric volts that temporarily paralyze a recipient. While law enforcement officials, including Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, laud the Taser for its effectiveness as an alternative to using deadly firearms, groups such as Amnesty International have called for a Taser ban due to the 70 deaths related to electric shocks since 2001.
Column compiled by Megan Schliesman, a librarian at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a noncirculating library of the School of Education at UW-Madison. The CCBC is a library for adults with an academic, professional or career interest in children’s or young adult literature.
University of Wisconsin merchandise is made in sweatshops. What does this mean?
Workers in the factories that make UW caps, hats and sweatshirts are routinely denied their basic human rights. They are forced to work 60- to 70-hour weeks, sometimes 24-hour shifts. They are physically and verbally abused. They are groped and sexually harassed by their supervisors. They are paid poverty wages.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has drawn a thoughtful ethical line with his decision to support one type of human embryonic stem cell research in his state and to oppose another. Although the distinction made by Romney was largely lost in news coverage of his announcement, it could define a more constructive debate about stem cell research in Wisconsin and nationwide.
**This opinion/letter also appears in the March 31 edition of the Daily Cardinal.
The administration�s recent cuts to federal financial aid for higher education send a clear message to students: When it comes to paying for college, don�t count on Pell Grants.
Chancellor John Wiley wrote Monday about continuing to make the University of Wisconsinââ?¬â?¢s campus more diverse. The UW administration ââ?¬Å?[remains] absolutely committed to building an inclusive community free of social bias and inclusion,ââ?¬Â he said. And creating a campus atmosphere free of social bias should absolutely be a priority at this university.
The Labor Licensing Committee, whose ultimate goal is to have university-licensed companies uphold fair labor practices, has commendable ideals. However, the decision of four members to resign in light of a dispute with Chancellor Wiley over his decision to be less harsh with licensees, hurts their worthy cause more than it helps.
Rob Zaleski’s column the other day on UW-Madison Professor Dietram Schuefele’s research on the differences between TV news viewers and newspaper readers underscored just how much this country is changing – and I’m not so sure it’s for the better.
Schuefele is the journalism professor who surveyed nearly 800 residents of Tompkins County, N.Y., in the days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center to determine if they viewed governmental police powers differently depending on where they got their news.
Let the disappointment be short-lived. The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball season may have ended Sunday with a loss to North Carolina, but Coach Bo Ryan’s team deserves big-time celebration.
Gov. Jim Doyle is seeking $19 million in his state budget for a project that, by comparison to its cost, has the potential for a gigantic payback.
The $19 million would help build the first phase of the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, an ambitious research center for biotechnology that would rise on the UW-Madison campus over the next 10 years.
Some people think their very lives might be riding on this project. That’s because stem cell research at the institute could someday help cure diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
* This article also appears in the 3/28/05 Daily Cardinal Opinion Column.
While recent snowfalls might seem to argue the point, the equinox has come and gone, and it�s officially spring. Many see this as a time of renewal, but it is one of reflection as well.
Robert J. “Bob” Schutz, age 50, passed away on Monday, March 21, 2005. He worked for the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 13 years.
We asked readers to react to law schools, including the UW-Madison’s, that bar military recruiters because the military discriminates against gays and lesbians. Here is a sample of readers’ responses.
By now, we’ve all heard how Harvard President Lawrence Summers, a former member of President Clinton’s Cabinet and a distinguished scholar in his own right, made a politically incorrect point at a faculty seminar recently.
Opinion column by David Horowitz
Never one to pass up a scrimmage or a conversation, Bo Ryan stopped on his way to work Tuesday to talk to some kids shooting baskets on a driveway. He said he couldn’t get a game, but he did get some encouragement. The kids told him, “Go Badgers.” Ryan probably told them “Go left,” or something along those lines.
Some questions should be easy to answer. This seemed to be one such query. Last fall the UW-Madison Athletic Department cut way back on the number of courtesy cars and car allowances it provides, so that most of the 46 still getting such a perk were coaches or assistant coaches. Others lost their wheels.
Several times a year, when I enter the Ames post office through the south door of the main entrance, I check to see if Leo is still there, in the glass case where wanted posters are displayed.
Dave Zweifel writes about the “My Fair Lakes” campaign sponsored by the Madison Area Municipal Storm Water Partnership.
“During the next several months, the partnership, which consists of the University of Wisconsin, Dane County and 19 communities in the county, will highlight different ideas that all of us can use to ease the problem (of storm water runoff) and make our lakes cleaner.”
On the first day of February, a rare winter air-quality advisory was issued for Dane County lasting six days, warning everyone not to engage in strenuous activity and advising children and older adults to avoid outdoor activity completely.
Everyone can remember a particular teacher from his or her educational history that simply wasn�t cut for the job.
Promoting academic freedom in the classroom is a responsibility for both the presiding professor and the participating students. If the professor stifles students’ speech to spout an agenda, then students’ academic freedoms are at risk. The same holds true for students-if one student’s discourse threatens the speech of other students or the professor, then the classroom environment is harmed.
Who says that you can�t modernize without sacrificing character? The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus seems to be, from my amateur viewpoint, an eclectic mix of opposing architectural philosophies put into practice. While I would never claim to be well versed in theories of building design, it hardly requires a professional eye to observe, for instance, the disparity between Bascom Hall and nearby Van Hise Hall. Although such structural differences may seem awkward, this type of contrast is what defines the UW campus.
Parents and boards of education probably feel comforted when they see the title ââ?¬Å?Dr.ââ?¬Â preceding the name of the superintendent of schools. Unfortunately, though, ââ?¬Å?doctorates of educationââ?¬Â are relatively lightweight degrees. The dissertation and research expectations are far lower than those required for a Ph.D. in other fields.
Wisconsin’s problem with dangerous and underage drinking has been making news.
The majority of UW students enter the Madison campus at age 18, having graduated from their parents’ houses around the same time as high school, ready to tackle life without the training wheels of a mother and father.
Adidas has been at the center of the campaign against apparel produced in sweatshops. With the arrest of 54 demonstrators, Bascom Hall was the battleground for students and the administration. The campaign reached its climax and sweatshops became a buzzword on college campuses.
You’re going to hear a lot about sunshine this week, but it will have nothing to do with the weather outside. This is “Sunshine Week” across the country and, thanks to a proclamation by Gov. Jim Doyle, here in Wisconsin, too.
It’s a week that’s been dedicated to underscoring the importance of letting the sun shine on our governments, which, after all, belong to each of us.
NCAA schools gladly tap the financial keg of beer companies, as TV ad money flows in like a smooth lager. Meanwhile, drinking problems still plague college campuses. This hypocrisy is hard to swallow.
On Saturday morning, 330,000 American teenagers began their march into meritocratic adult life by taking the SAT. The test was new and improved, the first significant changes to the SAT in a decade. Analogies disappeared. A new writing section debuted. And math got a little harder.
UW-Madison is currently working on creating its Master Plan, which will decide the outcome of construction efforts at the UW for the next 20 years. Considering Wisconsin just issued its first-ever pollution advisory Feb. 1, it is of critical importance to our future and our children’s future to make sure the UW includes green building techniques into its master plan.
Next semester may be a little bit different for many students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as many may not be here. With tuition at an all time high and constantly rising, the question must be asked: how valuable is a Wisconsin education?
The exchanges between students sitting in the O and P sections of Camp Randall during football games in the fall and the treaties negotiated between American Indians and British colonists in the eighteenth century may have more in common than one initially perceives. Indeed, the land that currently bears the name Camp Randall was originally American Indian property. Furthermore, the exchanges between colonists and indigenous peoples probably included a few choice words.
The nation’s high schools are being flooded with AP, or Advanced Placement, courses. You’d think that would be a good thing. Think again.
The whining is loud over the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s unprecedented attempt to tell schools that if they do not educate their players, they will lose scholarships and eligibility for post-season play.
