Tech System president Brent P. Smith:
Technical college students play an increasing role in Wisconsin’s work force. The number of technical college graduates entering the work force has jumped 24 percent in the past five years, with 19,358 program graduates in 2002-03.
Dwayne Smith would like us all to believe that his worries are few, his concentration level is high and his nerves are not the least bit frayed.
I walked away from a conversation with Smith, a junior tailback for University of Wisconsin football team, wondering how that could possibly be the case.
I was honored recently to be elected to the presidency of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board. This leadership position comes at a critical time for a technical college system that we can all be proud of and that has a reputation as one of the nation’s finest.
Today is the third anniversary of the Bush administration’s decision to put the brakes on potentially life saving research using human embryonic stem cells.
lThe last thing I want to do is stir up trouble by mixing politics with sports, but after sorting through reams of data, I feel it’s my patriotic duty to pass this along.
If you really, really want the University of Wisconsin football team – which begins practice today at the O’Connor Center – to have a successful season, you might want to consider putting the donkey in the White House in November.
Gov. Jim Doyle ought to be paying attention to the Democratic primary election results from Missouri. Democratic voters there rejected Gov. Bob Holden in his own party primary because of concerns about his lack of accountability and his failure to make a sufficient commitment to hold the line on tuition hikes at the state’s universities.
As is unfortunately becoming too common for the state Legislature, political ideology is taking the place of substance.
Don Kettl: Wisconsin was once the gold standard for good government. But the raucous debate on TABOR threatens to rob the state of its rich reputation.
I am what you might call a zombie bird-watcher. On summer mornings, caught between sunlight and sleep, I drift awake in a haze of coffee and aimless gazing out the window. Half dreaming, I’ll just catch the smug sideways stare of a robin, the purple dart of a finch, the blaze of a passing cardinal.
In a key sentence in the final and climactic chapter of his book The Moment of Complexity (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Mark C. Taylor declares that “the university is not autonomous but is a thoroughly parasitic institution, which continually depends on the generosity of the host so many academics claim to reject.” (Subscription required.)
The time has come to re-examine the federal policy on stem cell research. Continue reading
I had a delightful lunch this week with the new director of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Ellsworth Brown, who is impressed by what he’s seen so far of Madison. Continue reading
Keep repeating a lie long enough and the public starts to believe it…. The lie is that high taxes in Wisconsin are strangling business development here.
Quoted: UW-Madison economics professor Andrew Reschovsky
Barry Alvarez usually gets what’s coming to him, but a rare exception arrived in the mailbox not long ago.
The time has come to reexamine the federal policy on stem cell research.
Just as the lingering Cold War freeze that hangs over relations between Cuba and the United States is reaching a new low, Secretary of State Colin Powell has warmed things up a bit.
It is a tragic irony that, while Texas’ flagship universities have launched bold, forward-looking initiatives to promote excellence and raise standards, a well-intended state law passed just seven years ago is undermining these worthy objectives. For the good of our students and the well-being of our state, it should be changed.
Eighteen-year-old Jesselyn Allen couldn’t be more excited about heading to the University of Texas this fall. The African-American student graduated from an inner-city school in Houston that traditionally doesn’t place many graduates into the state’s most elite public university.
On Tuesday night, the Madison City Council will consider a University of Wisconsin housing project that I believe will directly and adversely affect Madison taxpayers, UW students and private property owners in the downtown area.
Sunday night, at a popular restaurant off the Capitol Square, the former University of Wisconsin athletes were collectively toasted for their commitment to a W-Club sponsored “Legends” golf event the following day at University Ridge.
Recently, the World War II Memorial was dedicated, and the 60th anniversary of D-Day was commemorated.
Over the last five years, Lee Evans passed Tim Krumrie in the hallway nearly every day. It was a good way to get to know a person. Or about one.
A wave of students moving through the nation’s high schools promises to place unprecedented stress on America’s colleges and universities. We have seen other periods of rapid growth since World War II –Ã? with the GI Bill and the baby boom –Ã? but this is not just another surge, it’s a tsunami. (Subscription required.)
Opponents of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, an idea proposed by some Republican legislators as a way to limit government spending, won a reprieve when Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend) announced that the Senate would not take up the issue this summer
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Don Kettl
Regarding your June 11 editorial “Saying ‘yes’ to parking, regional cooperation” and your cartoon depicting former Mayor John Norquist as Mayor “No,” here are points worth considering.
The university publishing industry has long struggled to survive financially, but the announced closings of two small academic presses this year reflect increased pressures just as publishers had begun to benefit from an improved economy.
A couple items to ponder while lounging around the pool or squeezing in a quick nine holes at your favorite course…
Quoted: Professor Kenneth Mayer and his colleagues at the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Wisconsin State Journal editorial June 17, “Preserve Balance in Student Loans,” cites competition between the Department of Education’s Direct Loan Program and the Federal Family Education Loan programs as producing benefits for students, colleges and taxpayers.
Don’t let the dark suit fool you. Devin Harris is not a gangster. He’s not a gangsta, either.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson called the other day to offer a compliment.
One of Madison’s most venerable bicycling events quietly left Madison last week, the victim of an unofficial no-left-turn policy suddenly enforced by the UW-Madison Arboretum.
Outside his window, the construction team is working on the new scoreboard, which is beginning to take shape above the north stands at Camp Randall Stadium. The workers are dwarfed by the large support beams, extending from the skeleton framework of the scoreboard to the pavement. Barry Alvarez has built his University of Wisconsin football program along these same lines, anchoring everything to a strong base.
Quoted: Pat McBride, who recently was named associate dean for students in the UW Medical School
The last time I talked to Dan Neviaser was at Bill and Lori DiCarlo’s Christmas party at their home near Ashton.
Wisconsin is blessed with large public national and state forests, amounting to about 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of our forested land.
Donald M. Waller is a professor of botany at the UW-Madison
The e-mailer, Leahrae, expressed a sentiment that is shared by many season ticket holders who have grown weary of seeing the same old, faceless exhibition opponents on the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball schedule.
My father’s slow retreat in the face of Alzheimer’s disease was typical of how it robs people of their lives.
When Devin Harris is taken in the first round of the NBA draft Thursday, the former University of Wisconsin point guard will become part of a diverse and curious legacy.
MADISON ââ?¬â?? Katharine Lyall’s legacy as president of the University of Wisconsin System can be told, in part, by the numbers.
This past May, Nancy Reagan said at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation dinner that “Ronnieââ?¬â?¢s long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him. Because of this, Iââ?¬â?¢m determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain. I just donââ?¬â?¢t see how we can turn our backs on this.ââ?¬â?¢Ã¢â?¬â?¢ The former First lady was referring to stem cell research.
Sen. Mike Ellis is threatening to upset the 2004 legislative strategy of many of his fellow Republicans.
Last week Ellis urged an extraordinary session of the Legislature to reduce state spending by $430 million for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. Republican leaders gave the idea the cold shoulder. It was as welcome as a skunk at a church picnic.
No sooner do we win a long struggle to clean up politics and restore democracy in this country than we find the whole thing under attack, and we have to go out and re-fight the same battle all over again. Good thing we’re not easily discouraged.
Quoted: A study done by political scientists at the University of Wisconsin in May of this year
I owe virtually everything successful in my life to my days at the UW-Madison.
When I was a country kid in 1960, a member of a 32-member graduating class from a mediocre high school, with no particular accomplishments in my record, the UW-Madison took me in and taught me about the world.
There was a time not long ago when a meeting of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board prompted a sense of heightened anticipation.
You never knew when the 22-person board, as powerful as it is diverse, would pick up the scent of an issue and really get after it.
