I am a retired UW-Madison academic department manager, having worked for 36 years with the state and managed budgets for over 20 years. This is not an opinion regarding Gov. Scott Walker, but information on how the state budget works. People who say Walker has balanced the budget are stating an untruth.
Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign an executive order that will require more state and university employees to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
Kevin Conroy, president and CEO of Exact Sciences, a Madison-based cancer research company, said Wisconsin has one of the best research institutions, UW-Madison, and does some of the best scientific research, but despite that opportunity, lags in funding and opportunities for venture capital. UW “is consistently ranked No. 2 in total federal research dollars, second only to Johns Hopkins University, and Wisconsin inventors are awarded patents at a higher rate than the national average,” Conroy said. “But we rank very low in terms of venture capital dollars invested and new company formation.”
“If you look broadly across the state, it?s still really rare for a retail establishment to take a stand,” said Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison. The standard business maxim is that there?s little upside to mixing politics and commerce, although there are notable exceptions, Olszewski said.
Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign an executive order that will require more state and university employees to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
There is, arguably, no school in America as connected to an underlying philosophical statement of mission as the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Idea. There are likely very few of the hundreds of thousands of living UW alumni who would not be able to recite the most common definition of the Wisconsin Idea as ?the boundaries of the campus [being] the boundaries of the state.
All University of Wisconsin System schools will issue IDs before next year?s spring elections after Wisconsin?s Government Accountability Board approved voter identification cards designed for UW Colleges Monday.
The University of Wisconsin Colleges — the UW System?s 13 freshman-sophomore campuses — will start issuing ID cards that can be used for voting purposes to students who need them starting Jan. 23.Rich Barnhouse, associate vice chancellor for student services and enrollment management, said in this news release that the state?s Government Accountability Board has signed off on the documentation and card process.
Wisconsin?s twin two-year postsecondary school systems aren?t an efficient use of resources or particularly helpful for students. One two-year system that combines the state?s technical colleges and the University of Wisconsin?s two-year campuses probably makes more sense for students, businesses and Wisconsin?s workforce.
Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday he is appointing Sun Prairie Mayor John Murray as executive director of the Office of Justice Assistance.
UW System President Kevin Reilly remains hopeful the state will decrease funding cuts to the system, he told the Board of Regents Friday.
Nowhere does it say the WIAA state basketball tournaments must be played in Madison and I, for one, say it?s time to hit the road. The hockey tenants at the Kohl Center apparently want to exercise their right to use the building every March for postseason play. We?re told they?d rather have access without tripping over a bunch of high school basketball players or having a hardwood floor cover their ice.
The Teaching Assistants? Association decided to not retain its official status as a union, despite a report showing a vast majority of teachers unions throughout Wisconsin voted to recertify.
I am confused about Gov. Scott Walker?s inspiration for taking money from UW-Madison, one of the premier educational institutions in the world working on advancing human knowledge in breakthrough subjects you can?t even pronounce, then letting Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation give $4 million to a group of overpaid “experts” at Spectrum Brands who can?t make batteries or waffle irons without going bankrupt and losing the stockholders? money.
Pam Oliver, a sociology professor at UW-Madison who studies incarceration, said she believes cost is the driving force behind keeping 17-year-olds in the adult system. ?Honestly, it saves the state a lot of money,? Oliver said. ?The money is what?s really going on.? Nonetheless, the policy of automatically trying minors in adult court is declining across the United States as new evidence emerges challenging these ?tough on crime? approaches.
A University of Wisconsin System spokesman says election officials have approved nine campuses? designs for secondary college ID cards for voting.
The social compact of the last century that promised students a high quality education at a low cost is gone, said UW-Madison Interim Chancellor David Ward in a presentation before the UW Board of Regents Thursday.He said university leaders need to be “extremely prudent” about raising tuition to offset declining state funds.
The composition of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents could be significantly altered after Gov. Scott Walker signed a law Tuesday requesting the state appoint at least one member from every congressional district to the governing body.
A new state policy that governs protests and other gatherings at state buildings, most notably at the Capitol where the “solidarity singers” meet daily to peacefully protest recent Republican policies and Gov. Scott Walker, appears destined for a legal showdown.
Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science professor who teaches a course on the First Amendment, says he is not aware of any other state that requires a permit for four or more people. Downs says any law or policy that affects First Amendment rights tends to be legally sound if the rules aren’t overly restrictive as to the time, place and manner the speech occurs. For example, there is a policy on the UW-Madison campus prohibiting megaphones from being used at Library Mall because classes may be going on, making it a “reasonable” restriction of free speech, Downs says, adding “It is a balancing act.”
A University of Wisconsin System spokesman says election officials have approved nine campuses? designs for secondary college ID cards for voting. A new state law requires voters to show photo identification at the polls starting in 2012. College IDs qualify if they expire within two years of being issued. Many institutions, however, typically issue four- or five-year IDs.
The UW-Madison Faculty Senate passed a second resolution officially addressing the decline in state budget support for higher education Monday.
When Tim Gehrmann washes windows as part of his job on the UW-Madison campus, he tackles one pane after another, until finally the payoff emerges: a wall of gleaming windows that makes life better for those looking out and those looking in. Gehrmann is one of more than a dozen campus facility repair workers who contributed more than $100 this year to Partners in Giving, the annual workplace campaign for state, university, and UW Hospital and Clinics employees that benefits more than 500 charities.
The workers? gifts were inspired in part by a challenge from their boss, campus services director Dave Grueneberg. Since 2005, Grueneberg has matched half or all of every dollar given to charity by his crews. This year, Grueneberg, who works two other jobs, will write a check for nearly $1,800.
Eight state legislators mailed a letter Friday to members of the Madison Area Technical College District Board asking that they listen to a proposal from the school?s part-time teachers union to create a member-owned, nonprofit corporation that would provide adjunct faculty staffing and support services for the college.
“It’s an interesting concept and as a board member I’m always interested in learning about efficiencies,” says Noel Radomski, a member of the MATC District Board who is director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, a higher ed think tank on the UW-Madison campus.
One of the best ways of ensuring the integrity of our elections is to have an independent, nonpartisan watchdog. Wisconsin already has that, in the form of the Government Accountability Board. The GAB is made up of retired judges and a nonpartisan staff charged with keeping elections clean. But now the independence of the GAB is under threat.
(Donald Moynihan is the associate director of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs and a professor of public affairs.)
While the governor suggests his ?reforms are working,? education officials report otherwise. Budget cuts impact every level of education. Local schools, technical colleges and UW campuses are all coping with changes required by deep budget cuts.
Members of the student governing board of UW System schools proposed legislation that would support a student strike if the state makes additional budget cuts to the system.
A: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s Climate Prediction Center issues seasonal climate outlook maps for the nation. The organization?s forecast for Wisconsin?s 2011-12 meteorological winter (which started Thursday and runs through Feb. 29) is for below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation.
Even though UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said the field is “wide open” for a Democratic contender to face Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election, he asserts that no potential candidate stands out. Despite popular opinion from supporters, former Sen. Russ Feingold has reiterated that he will not run should the recall bid prove successful.
No one was more surprised than Forest Shomberg when he was suddenly released from the Dane County Jail after serving six years for a wrongful conviction for sexual assault. The Wisconsin Innocence Project presented evidence including DNA results that the Madison man was the victim of mistaken identity, but Shomberg was told not to get his hopes up.
?The sad irony is that if you?re guilty of a crime, the state provides a lot more support upon release from prison than if you?re innocent,? said Keith Findley, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. ?If you?re innocent, you?re just set free.? Findley is working with state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, on legislation that would provide ?meaningful relief to help innocent people get back on their feet.?
After months of dropping hints and generating speculation, former Gov. Tommy Thompson officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate Thursday night. UW-Madison College Republicans Chair Johnny Koremenos was in Waukesha to introduce Thompson, revving up the crowd with a speech and chants of ?Tommy! Tommy!?
Much to the delight of birders, snowy owls, rarely seen in these parts, are making their way by the hundreds into Wisconsin and other upper Midwestern states as they do every few years, journeying south in search of food from their normal wintering grounds on the Arctic tundra….This year, the birds are appearing not only in Wisconsin but in Minnesota, Michigan and North and South Dakota, according to maps kept by Jesse Ellis, a UW-Madison zoology student.
Aspirus Wausau Hospital is studying the possibility of a third medical school in Wisconsin. Hospital officials and the Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine expect the study on whether to create a $70 million medical school in Wausau will be done in four months.
Add another Gatorade state player of the year to the University of Wisconsin football family. Wisconsin Rapids senior Vince Biegel was announced today as the state winner of the 27th annual award. The Red Raiders linebacker has orally committed to play for the Badgers and is expected to sign his National Letter of Intent on signing day in February.
A new medical school in Wausau would open in 2013, admit up to 150 students a year and reduce Wisconsin?s looming doctor shortage, according to organizers of the plan announced Wednesday. The Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine, likely to be built next to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, would be the state?s third medical school….Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW medical school, said it would be cost-prohibitive for the new school to set up enough residency programs for the additional training required after medical school.
“A brand new medical school at this point would be a bridge to nowhere,” Golden said.
Several state agencies have unveiled guidelines created in congruence with University of Wisconsin researchers to promote the continued use of biomass energy in Wisconsin, despite the state?s current categorization as a leader in the field of biomass crop planting.
Quoted: Julia Isaacs, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
State tourism officials said director David Zucker is slated to return to Wisconsin to film a commercial. Tourism Department spokeswoman Lisa Marshall said Zucker will direct and edit a commercial depicting winter activities in the state.
An Edgewood College student claims another student ripped up a recall petition he was circulating against Gov. Scott Walker. But law enforcement officials have not determined whether they will file charges in the incident.
….for Wisconsinites, the Independent Spirit Awards, which always take place the day before the Oscars to celebrate indie film culture, might be more interesting because of several Sconnie connections.
It?s not uncommon for state and local governments to provide such incentives, said Barry Gerhart, Ellig professor of management at the UW-Madison School of Business. “It is a reality that companies like Spectrum Brands can be mobile. There?s nothing that I know of that requires them to produce batteries here in Wisconsin,” he said.
….Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison, agrees there are areas in southwestern Wisconsin enjoying the benefits of the local food trend, but adds that there is little research proving it?s an economic driver.”Twenty years ago, all the research said local foods was such a small market it wasn?t worth worrying about,” he says. “But over the past five or more years, there has been a ?push back? on large-scale commercial agriculture.”
The student government Legislative Affairs Committee discussed student issues Monday they would like to present at a UW System student “lobby day” at the Capitol.
The Government Accountability Board?s recent approval of another University of Wisconsin System campus? design for student identification cards that comply with the Voter ID law marks the eighth campus to adopt a plan addressing students affected by the new voting laws.
The state?s spring primary is nearly three months away, with more high-profile votes — including a possible recall attempt of Gov. Scott Walker and the 2012 presidential election — even further down the road. Yet major efforts already are underway to make sure college students who want to vote will be able to do so under the state?s new voter ID law. State elections chief Kevin Kennedy says the law is the biggest administrative change for voting since 18-year-olds were granted the right to vote in 1971. Some fear that it could keep students away from the polls.
After watching some of the repulsive antics of many rabid Walker haters over the last year, does anyone think some won?t stoop to voter fraud to get their way? Why give them more of an opportunity?
And for the few technical college students that may actually not have a valid ID, let?s encourage them to get one. It?s free at any DMV, and when the voting is done, they can use it to get into shopping malls. [A column by Jack Bruss, of Elm Grove.]
Some Republicans – such as state Sen. Leah Vukmir and Rep. Jim Ott – are OK with allowing University of Wisconsin System students to use their school identification cards to vote but not with allowing technical college students to use their school IDs for the same purpose.
On this question, those Republicans are flat-out wrong.
Eight of the 13 four-year campuses in the University of Wisconsin System have finalized plans to issue photo IDs so that students can use student identification cards to vote.
Tim Higgins, one of three new appointees to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, will have his hands full when he?s installed next month. Tuition has been rising about 5.5 percent each year, the average debt facing graduates is more than $20,000 and the tight state budget has tied everyone?s hands.
A planned mass deputation organized by members of Student Council on Monday night coincided with the announcement that the University of Wisconsin will be issuing voter IDs to students requiring them.
University of Wisconsin?Madison students without a Wisconsin driver?s license will be able to get a free ID card in order to vote.
Six University of Wisconsin schools, including the Madison and Milwaukee campuses, will issue identification cards to students who want them that can be used for voting and that will be separate from their main student ID cards.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students who do not have valid Wisconsin identification will be issued free IDs to be used for voting.
UW-Madison has solved its ID crisis. University officials announced Monday they will issue free identification cards for voting purposes to those students who do not already have valid Wisconsin IDs. It will cost an estimated $100,000 over five years. The university?s ID cards do not currently comply with a new voting law, which requires all Wisconsin voters to provide a valid photo ID. The university had considered several options, including giving all students a new ID at an estimated cost of $700,000.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will issue free, supplemental identification cards which comply with the state?s new voter ID law to students who need them. Darrell Bazzell, the university?s vice chancellor for administration, said the Government Accountability Board — a panel of six judges that oversees state elections — signed off late last week on a mock-up of a proposed student ID card that could be used for voting purposes.
A 2007 Sierra Club federal lawsuit against the state also compelled Wisconsin to reduce emissions or convert the UW-Madison?s Charter Street Power Plant and the state?s century-old Capitol Heat and Power Plant to cleaner options, such as natural gas. Former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle?s administration promised to study ways to lower emissions at the state?s 15 coal-burning plants at UW campuses, prisons and other state buildings, resulting in the retrofitting or shuttering of some of the facilities.
Dear Editor: I hope we treat our technical school students with the same respect as UW students. This possibility that the state Legislature will not allow the technical school students to use their current student IDs with a sticker to vote seems very demeaning to all the Wisconsin citizens who are working hard to improve their job prospects.I attended UW-Madison and MATC. The students at both schools are hardworking people who deserve the right to vote without additional problems.
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientists Dennis Dresang and Barry Burden.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
Death steals everything except our stories. Jim Harrison once used that line to end a poem. I thought of it last week when Stephanie Golightly Lowden told me how she got her mom on audio tape late in her life and at one point her mom said, “I remember when they burned all the German language books.”
While her mother’s memories inspired “Jingo Fever,” Lowden first learned about anti-German bigotry in Wisconsin when she came to Madison in 1970 with a work-study opportunity under E. David Cronon, a noted professor of history at UW-Madison and later dean of the College of Letters and Science.
In the midst of increased political activity around the state, UW-Madison posted guidelines Wednesday reminding faculty, students and staff of appropriate political activity on campus.
