As I travel around Wisconsin, the question I hear more than any other is, “What does it take to get into UW-Madison?”
It’s not an easy question to answer because earning a seat in our freshman class isn’t an easy thing to do. It takes hard work — over a student’s entire high school career and when completing the application itself.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Michelle Obama says the outcome of the presidential race can be determined by young people and women.
Speaking Monday on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Michelle Obama tailored her speech to the many women and college students in the crowd of about 1,800.
Two groups hoping to stem what they see as a Badger state “brain drain” are encouraged by the results of a recent survey showing nearly 60 percent of UW-Madison graduates now living in five out-of-state metropolitan areas would consider moving back to Wisconsin.
The survey is part of a broader effort by the Wisconsin Alumni Association and Competitive Wisconsin Inc., a private group that promotes economic development, to increase incomes and match UW-Madison graduates with employers.
The two biggest research institutions in the state, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin, each have large portfolios in the biological and medical sciences.
Madison is one of the world’s leaders because of its patents in stem cell research, and the Medical College has staked out areas of expertise such as diagnostic imaging. These large research budgets inevitably lead to patents, licenses and start-ups in Wisconsin.
Co-editors Donald M. Waller and Thomas P. Rooney conclude it is hard to be optimistic.
Waller is a professor of botany and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Rooney is an assistant professor of biological sciences at Wright State University of Dayton, Ohio.
Indoor air quality tests conducted this summer in Fond du Lac found five bars and restaurants where smoking is permitted had levels of indoor air pollution upwards of eight times what’s considered safe daily exposure by the state Department of Natural Resources.
Data analysis and a report on the tests were completed by staff from the Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center at UW-Madison.
Hundreds of scientists, bioethicists, business entrepreneurs and research experts from around the world will congregate in Madison Sunday for the World Stem Cell Summit.
The Dane County Board voted Thursday night to put an advisory referendum question about universal health care on the county-wide ballot Nov. 4.
The referendum will read: “Shall the next state Legislature enact health care reform legislation by December 31, 2009, that guarantees every Wisconsin resident affordable health care coverage with benefits that are substantially similar to those provided to state legislators?”
The Dane County Board voted Thursday night to require companies that work for the county on contracts worth $5,000 or more to offer health benefits to their employees’ domestic partners. The county already offers domestic partner benefits to its own employees.
The ordinance, which passed on a voice vote, also creates a registry for same-sex or other non-married domestic partners, a registry the city of Madison has had since 1990 but no other county in the state offers.
Domestic partners need to have been in a committed relationship for at least 90 days to register.
Dane County is the first county in Wisconsin to require contractors and service providers to offer domestic partner benefits.
The rule passed last night by the County Board only applies to employers who currently offer spousal benefits.
It also creates a domestic partnership registry for heterosexual and homosexual couples in Dane County.
The state Building Commission Wednesday added $15.57 million to the Chazen Museum of Art’s construction budget, bringing the cost of the University of Wisconsin-Madison art, auditorium and classroom facility to $47.1 million.
UW System Vice President David Miller said the 50 percent increase was needed as a 2005 study of expanding the then Elvehjem Museum for an estimated $31.5 million didn’t include space for hallways, mechanical or storage areas.
BARABOO, Wis. — A Libertarian Party candidate for Congress has been charged with disorderly conduct after being accused of hitting his 13-year-old son.
Misdemeanor charges were filed late last week against Kevin Barrett, according to court documents.
Barrett, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer, won the Libertarian primary and will challenge incumbent Ron Kind in the 3rd Congressional District.
A Dane County Board member questions the cost of a plan that would force companies that contract with the county to provide insurance coverage for domestic partners of their employees.
Supervisor Dave Wiganowsky says he’ll vote against the measure this coming Thursday. He says there hasn’t been enough cost analysis of the plan to determine what it will end up costing the county and businesses.
BARABOO, Wis. (AP) — A Libertarian Party candidate for Congress is charged with disorderly conduct after being accused of hitting his 13-year-old son. Kevin Barrett’s wife has also petitioned for a restraining orders that would prevent Barrett from having contact with her, the 13-year-old and an 11-year-old son.
….Barrett is a former University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer who taught students the government was behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Barrett’s campaign manager, Rolf Lindgren, says the incident was a “bizarre publicity stunt cooked up by Dr. Barrett’s wife.”
John Wiley, former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, worked so hard to connect the university to the business life of the state that it was disheartening to see him leave on a sour note.
Wiley loves the university, and he loves the state. His expectations were so high, perhaps, that frustration was inevitable.
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/09/12/asm_nass_in_hopes_of.php
Leaders from the Associated Students of Madison met with Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, this week in efforts to forge a relationship between the University of Wisconsin and the Legislature.
Nass has been openly critical of the universityâ??s leadership and has expressed concerns over the appointment of Chancellor Biddy Martin.
Some 1,200 lucky freshmen enrolled at public universities and colleges in Wisconsin this fall will get a pleasant surprise in the mail next month.
Theyâ??ll be the first recipients of scholarships from the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars, a private, nonprofit foundation created by a donation of $175 million from philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge last year.
Wisconsin is the second-best “bicycle-friendly” state in the country, according to the first annual ranking of states by the League of American Bicyclists. The Badger State was nosed out by Washington, with Arizona third, Oregon fourth and Minnesota fifth.
States were ranked in six areas using 70 factors, including bike legislation, policies and programs, infrastructure, education and encouragement, evaluation and planning, and enforcement.
http://badgerherald.com/oped/2008/09/09/universitys_legislat.php
There is a disease infecting this university, and like many preventable diseases, this one could have been avoided.
The disease is faculty flight, and one cause is the toxic environment established by the state Legislature. For those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, the predominant symptom is an overwhelming urge for talented professors to gather all their possessions and move to universities where they will be appreciated.
As a member of the Executive Board of the Teaching Assistantsâ?? Association, I would like to address some misinformation from the office of state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, which ran in the Sept. 8, 2008 article â??Baldwin, Democrats applaud teaching assistants.â? Nass spokesperson Mike Mikalsenâ??s assertions that the TAA has no business pushing for better working conditions for its members, that domestic partnership benefits are illegal and that such benefits are â??fiscally irresponsibleâ? arenâ??t simply misleading; they are blatantly incorrect.
Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and UW-Stevens Point are organizing a climate change summit at the university in December.
Lawton is asking municipal leaders across the state to assemble regional teams that will gather in Stevens Point on Dec. 12 to create a framework for regional and local responses to global climate change.
“This summit is designed to give local leaders the tools they need to address energy independence and climate change together,” Lawton said in a written statement. “We will develop a powerful statewide solutions network.”
The state’s new commerce secretary, Richard Leinenkugel, must navigate a political climate that lacks consensus on how much – if anything – the state should spend on incentives and subsidies to attract and retain businesses. That discord impedes the work of the 3-year-old Milwaukee 7 economic development agency, the M-7 conceded last week.
That disunity came to the surface last month when John Wiley, the outgoing chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote a scathing criticism of the state’s ideologically split political landscape, which has stalemated tax and economic policy. Asked in an interview Friday what sort of economic climate Leinenkugel inherits, Wiley replied:
“The climate in Wisconsin is bad for a lot of reasons but the worst is the political partisanship,” he said.
Often it is the phrasing of a statement and not its truth that gets the publicâ??s attention.
Take the recent furor surrounding former Chancellor John Wileyâ??s savage indictment of the state Legislature and the business lobby group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. In a massive column, Wiley slammed both, drawing comparisons that made their members appear to be little better than mobsters.
….To better monitor state subsidies to corporations, a UW-Madison think tank has called for a searchable database to track whether that money actually benefits the Wisconsin economy. Patterned after a system recently implemented in Illinois, the database would include how much companies pay in state taxes, how much business they do in the state and how much financial help they get.
In 2003, Illinois passed a Corporate Accountability Act, considered one of the most comprehensive corporate disclosure laws in the country. As part of that act, companies receiving state economic development money must also report on their progress in job creation, retention and wage promises.
“This level of transparency is key for policy makers and the public to better evaluate the tax system and see if it is truly working in the economic interests of the state,” said Kate Gordon, lead author of the report for the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Like Jon Foley, I do environmental work. And just as he is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a better opportunity at the University of Minnesota, I too left Wisconsin at the end of July.
In 1996 I received my doctorate from the UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. I own an 8-year-old environmental management consulting firm.
….Rep. Steve Nass might be driving some academics to leave with his disrespect for UW-Madison, but others in the state are proving remarkably effective at driving some of the rest of us away too — or at least not being very shrewd about how to keep us around.
In December 2006, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents unanimously voted to include domestic partner benefits as part of their pay plan for 2007-08 budget year.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle similarly introduced domestic partner benefits in the last two biennial budgets and plans to include it in the 2009-11 budget.
For the first time since the 1980s, Wisconsin has suffered three years in a row of declining real median wages, according to a report released Sunday by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Adjusting for inflation, the median wage rose 57 cents between 1979 and 2007.
MADISON, Wis. — Carolyn “Biddy” Martin officially takes on the title of chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Sept. 1.
She’s taking over for John Wiley — who, just two weeks before his official retirement, unloaded on the state’s largest business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
It’s all in a column Wiley wrote in this month’s issue of Madison Magazine.
UW System’s ten-year plan to increase diversity on state campuses ends this year.
Some progress has been made after a lot of hard work on recruitment, retention and pre-college programs.
Yet it’s unclear if the System is getting much bang out of tens of millions of bucks it spends on the effort each year.
MADISON (WKOW) — From Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s office:
The Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office and the Wisconsin State Fire Marshal, along with the National Association of State Fire Marshals and the Center for Campus Safety, recognize the month of September as Campus Safety Month. I and the State Fire Marshall’s Office would like to encourage students to keep safety in the forefront as they return to campus. Each year, lives are lost in campus-related fires.
Almost half a billion gallons of urban runoff swamps the UW-Madison Arboretum every year, endangering the restored prairies, savannas and wetlands and gradually overwhelming the stormwater detention ponds that protect the valuable property from erosion.
Five of the six stormwater detention ponds within the 1,260-acre research, conservation, educational and recreational facility have failed, and a concrete gutter that carried stormwater collapsed. As a result, soil has eroded, wetlands have been degraded, and a delta of sediment is settling into Lake Wingra, said David Liebl, the head of a committee that has planned stormwater control improvements at the Arboretum.
Five major projects are planned to help solve the problem over a five-year period, at a cost of $750,000 to $1 million each.
MILWAUKEE — An estimated 4,000 low-income technical college students may get less aid this fall because the state has run out of grant money for them.
High school graduates in Wisconsin taking the SAT continue to score higher than the national average, according to the College Board, which owns the test.
An estimated 4,000 low-income Wisconsin Technical College System students applying this fall for a widely used state grant program wonâ??t get the money, because the state has run out of grant funding for technical schools.
The house of cards known as the state budget is predictably collapsing.
A Dane County judge heard arguments this week on the legality of a $200 million raid state leaders made on a special fund that’s supposed to cover large medical malpractice awards.
John Wiley is leaving his post as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bang. A political bang.
In an article penned for Madison magazine, Wiley takes on the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce corporate lobbying machine in language that rocked the state’s political scene.
It wasn’t that Wiley said anything new. There has for a number of years now been a dawning consciousness among thinking Wisconsinites that WMC is leading a race to the bottom that would have this state define being competitive as being “among those states with the lowest taxes, lowest wages, and least regulation in the nation.”
Steve Prestegard at Marketplace of Ideas has been joining in the sport of taking apart John Wiley, the outgoing UW-Madison chancellor who lately decided that all the political toxemia of Wisconsin can be traced to a business lobby not shutting up.
Spending money to make money is an adage that has fallen into much disfavor as the private and public sector alike are buffeted by a rocky economy whose trends foretell of still more shoals ahead.
Were it possible to improve on perfection, we would update the adage this way: And, often, it’s more necessary to spend this money in the toughest of times – even if you don’t think you can afford it.
When it comes to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and its role in helping southeastern Wisconsin realize its economic potential, that’s what Gov. Jim Doyle needs to consider when crafting his next budget. And, if the governor has the wisdom to include UWM’s latest request for $10 million, it’s what the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee needs to remember as well.
Whether you’re running for the Wisconsin legislature, seeking a chancellorship in the University of Wisconsin System or at home, worrying about job security, hoping Wisconsin can turn its economy around, do yourself a favor: Read outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley’s September “Madison Magazine” essay called “From Crossroads to Crisis.”
Dear Editor:
It’s time for more people, businesses and institutions to come out against the arrogant, anti-people, anti-government, anti-education and often anti-business stands and actions of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. We thank the people at Epic and outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley for taking leadership roles in this.
Gene & Linda Farley, Verona
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse ranked No. 2 on U.S. News & World Reportâ??s list of the best colleges in the Midwest.
We mention that because of the fight thatâ??s going on in Madison between outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and some legislators.
In a 3,000-word essay in the September issue of Madison Magazine, Wiley criticized WMC, the stateâ??s biggest business interest group, as being more interested in right-wing politics than economic development.
WMC has for the past two years spent $2 million to help elect conservative justices to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It also supports conservative Republicans for other public offices.
It’s too simplistic to dismiss out of hand a call by about 100 college presidents to examine the practicality of the 21-year-old drinking age. It’s also too simplistic to embrace dropping the age to 18, and that’s not what the so-called Amethyst Initiative is about.
Young adults of 18 through 20 have been considered underage drinkers for about 25 years, ever since the federal government threatened to withhold 10 percent of transportation funds to states that did not set the legal drinking age at 21.
As you may have read, departing University of Wisconsin-Madison boss John Wiley has undammed the dark waters that had collected behind his reticence. He wrote a 3,000-word essay for Madison Magazine saying why practically everything wrong with Wisconsin politics can be traced to the state’s leading business lobby.
If you haven’t read the piece, you should. It’s weirdly petulant, almost a little Captain Queeq (though the magazine’s editors, if they do say so themselves, call it “extraordinarily honest and poignant”), but it’s a decent exposition of how a certain slice of the state’s political establishment thinks
They say no good deed ever goes unpunished. And so I say to former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, though I know he will grit his teeth to hear it, â??Thank you.â?
Late Thursday night I received a phone message from Matt Nelson, an old comrade from student activism in the 90s: â??You wonâ??t believe what Wiley wrote in the upcoming issue of Madison Magazine!â?
The outgoing chancellor of Wisconsin’s public flagship school is not leaving his post quietly.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley, who steps down Sept. 1 to pass the torch to former Cornell University Provost Biddy Martin, penned a 3,000-word story in the September issue of Madison Magazine blasting Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and what he describes as the hyper-partisan political environment at the state Capitol.
The University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents met Thursday on the top floor of Van Hise Hall, which provides a breathtaking view of the UW-Madison campus below.
And while the 18-member group that governs the UW System’s institutions of higher education has more than 500 pages worth of materials to sift through on a wide range of topics before adjourning Friday, the main focus of this week’s meetings is centered on submitting biennial budget requests to the state for 2009-11.
….The Regents’ Capital Planning and Budget Committee unanimously approved the Design Report for UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art project and gave the authority to increase the project’s scope and budget by $15.6 million, of which $15.4 million will be paid for with gift funds.
People interested in Wisconsin’s waterways will find interest in a UW-Madison employee’s new book that explores the state’s rivers.
Author Doris Green is a university relations specialist in the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology. “Explore Wisconsin Rivers,” published by Madison-based Trails Books, is her third book dealing with the outdoors.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly is aware of a push by some leaders of higher education to ask lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage binge drinking on campus.
And while Reilly isn’t ready to jump onto that bandwagon just yet, he didn’t discount the notion, either.
MADISON, Wis. — Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said the state’s largest business lobby has been taken over by “political extremists” and has become an obstacle to economic development.
Wiley is using a 3,000-word essay in the September issue of Madison Magazine to slam Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and state lawmakers for creating a “toxic” political environment that puts partisanship ahead of the state’s pressing needs.
John D. Wiley, the departing chancellor of the University of Wisconsinâ??s flagship campus at Madison, is not leaving quietly: In an essay in the September issue of Madison Magazine, he denounces a â??toxic political environmentâ? in the stateâ??s capitol, blaming it for wasteful policies and a failure to deal with an ailing economy.
He also criticizes Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the stateâ??s largest business lobby, as having been hijacked by partisan interests, becoming â??the single biggest driver of our toxic political environment and, thus, the single biggest obstacle to the recovery of Wisconsinâ??s economy.â?
Outgoing UW–Madison Chancellor John Wiley has been studying the health of the state of Wisconsin and he doesn’t like what he sees. Almost five years ago Wiley wrote a piece for this magazine he called “a wake-up call to the citizens of Wisconsin regarding our economy and our educational system.” He stated higher education was at a crossroads and he challenged Wisconsin citizens, businesses and elected officials to join in a public dialogue about the future.
Wisconsin has lost its way. We’ve lost touch with our traditions and values. Our politics has become a poisonous swill, and the most influential voice for the business community has been taken hostage by partisan ideologues.
As I leave the chancellorship of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I wish I could paint a brighter picture. It’s difficult when two of the institutions with so much ability to drive positive change and growth–the business community and our university–are stuck in a swamp.
With just weeks to go before he steps down as chancellor of UW-Madison, John Wiley has penned a blistering rebuke of state officials and the state’s largest business lobby for putting Wisconsin on the road to becoming a “permanent third-world state.”
“Wisconsin has lost its way,” opened Wiley in a 3,000-word treatise titled “From Crossroads to Crisis” that appears in the September issue of Madison Magazine. “We’ve lost touch with our traditions and values. Our politics has become a poisonous swill, and the most influential voice for the business community has been taken hostage by partisan ideologues.”
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley is stepping down in less than two weeks and he has a message for the state.
He’s taking lawmakers and the state’s largest business organization to task for creating a political environment he calls toxic. Wiley lays out his arguments in an article in the September issue of Madison Magazine.
The column was written as a follow-up to one five years ago, which sounded the alarm about the state’s economic health and its effect on education. He’s ramping up that concern and taking a stand against what he said is bringing Wisconsin down, WISC-TV reported.
A picture, they say, is worth 1,000 words. The television and print photographers who take them play a vital role in keeping the public informed. It’s a job that requires much skill, and sometimes entails great risk.
News photographers in Wisconsin have been attacked, threatened, arrested, and had their cameras and film confiscated. They have been barred from meetings that were open to other members of the public. The hand held up to the camera is unfortunately a familiar image.
Recently, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and Wisconsin News Photographers Association jointly produced a Bill of Rights outlining where and under what circumstances state photographers are allowed.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee plans to ask the state this week to devote $10 million more in taxpayer funding and fees to fuel Chancellor Carlos Santiagoâ??s $300 million effort to transform the university into a top research institution and economic development catalyst.
Also attempting to differentiate itself for a peer institution is Concordia University Wisconsin, which is working to establish a new pharmacy school in 2010. Currently, Wisconsin has the highest demand for pharmacists in country with a 4.67 on the ADI. Though it has such a high demand, the state only has one pharmacy school, located at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Leaders of more than 100 colleges and universities from across the United States — including Ohio State, Maryland, Syracuse, Duke and Dartmouth — are asking lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
Ripon College president David Joyce, however, is the only leader from the state of Wisconsin who has signed on with the Amethyst Initiative — a movement launched in July of 2008 to provoke national debate about the drinking age.
….UW-Madison officials did receive information about the Amethyst Initiative, said UW Communications director Amy Toburen, but decided not to make an institutional commitment due to the upcoming change in leadership.
MADISON, Wis. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Sen. Barack Obama would “slam the door shut” on additional nuclear power and offshore drilling if elected president.
Pawlenty has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Republican Sen. John McCain and made the remarks while campaigning for McCain at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Monday.
Amy Bechtum has been named the first-ever director of the Wisconsin Covenant, a new program designed by Gov. Jim Doyle to offer eighth-grade students financial incentives for college if they meet certain objectives throughout their high school careers.
