A proposal from Republican legislators would make Wisconsin the second state in the nation to allow complete concealed carry on their public college and university campuses.
Jeff Nass, legislative affairs liaison for Wisconsin Force, said the campus carry act would give a person on campus the ability to protect him or herself from someone who chooses to misuse their size, gender or any form of a weapon. He said the act promotes student safety.
Researchers at UW-Madison created a new social network aimed at keeping elderly Wisconsinites in their homes longer. The researchers explain how this site was developed and how they’re studying the site’s effects.
It’s used to find potential treatments for a wide range of common diseases and afflictions, including cancer, diabetes, birth defects, HIV, multiple sclerosis, ALS, and Alzheimer’s. Unlike adult tissue cells, fetal tissue cells can be manipulated into almost any kind of tissue, are less likely to be rejected by a host, and have the capacity to replicate rapidly — making them perfect for analysis into how diseases work. They are also being tried as actual treatments for Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, and diabetes, with researchers injecting fetal cells directly into organs in hopes of regenerating them. Fetal tissue was also a vital component in the development of vaccines for polio, chicken pox, rubella, and shingles. The polio vaccine alone saves 550,000 lives a year. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says fetal tissue research has benefited “virtually every person in this country.”
The best research yet, published last year out of Stanford University, shows statistical significance for an increase in aggravated assault from “right-to-carry” laws. This outweighs rarer events. I also understand our state government wants to allow people to carry guns into buildings on state campuses.
Since July, an anti-abortion group’s deceptively edited videos targeting Planned Parenthood for allegedly profiting off sales of fetal tissue appear to have prompted at least four arson attacks on Planned Parenthood clinics. And even though the allegations were bogus, the vilification of the women’s health organization has done additional damage: Violent threats and a political chill in the wake of the videos have begun to undermine potentially life-saving research on diseases including diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. Fetal-tissue donation programs essential to such research have been shut down, supplies of the tissue to labs have dwindled, and legislation is brewing in multiple states that could hinder cutting-edge scientific studies.
Quoted: State grand juries will be cumbersome — they require 17 people — and bringing one into court day after day requires space and is expensive, said University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor David Schultz. Still, other states have been able to pursue political corruption cases without the John Doe process. Wisconsin prosecutors still have considerable powers and there are more statutes on the books that can be broken now than ever before, said Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science professor and an expert on criminal law and politics.
The Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education released a report Wednesday detailing additional effects of the Wisconsin state budget throughout the UW System.
The complex process of writing new tenure policies for University of Wisconsin System faculty took a turn this week that frustrated professors and led some to question whether efforts at UW-Madison to write strong layoff protections will be negated by less robust statewide rules.
The Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education released a report Wednesday detailing additional effects of the Wisconsin state budget throughout the UW System.
Noted: The fast-spreading zebra mussel was discovered in Lake Mendota for the first time, by students of professor Jake Vander Zanden at UW-Madison.
The issue of violence and mass shootings in this country is one that needs to be addressed. However, would allowing students to carry guns on campus actually decrease the chances of further gun violence, or would it lead to further tragedy?
Quoted: “I’m surprised (at finding them), but I’m mostly surprised that it’s only showing up now,” said Center for Limnology professor Jake Vander Zanden, whose students discovered the mussels about two weeks ago along the Lakeshore Path, not far from the limnology lab.
Nick Smith is enologist for the UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, an expert on fermented beverages who leads the university’s efforts to support Wisconsin producers of wine and cider.
Concerned that a Republican lawmaker cited an uptick in violent crimes in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee neighborhood while proposing students and faculty be allowed to carry concealed firearms at campuses across the state, UWM officials have produced crime statistics they say contradict the lawmaker’s statement.
The author of a study being invoked in the push to pass a “campus carry” bill in Wisconsin isn’t thrilled about the way his work is being interpreted, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported this weekend.
We, the undersigned collection of instructors from colleges and universities in the city of Milwaukee, feel compelled to speak out against the bill recently proposed by Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) and Sen. Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg).
Facing state budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin system and dwindling federal funding, Robert Golden would love to find a pile of money somewhere.
A new report shows that Wisconsin outperforms the national average on 36 of 54 health measures, but is still behind in the other categories, according to a release.
The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute “Opportunities to Make Wisconsin the Healthiest State” report shows Wisconsin lags behind the national average on 18 measures.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he doesn’t have a problem with concealed weapons in university buildings.
The National Rifle Association and its supplicants in legislatures around the country and the U.S. Congress have a ready and facile answer for the problem of gun violence in the United States:
A state legislative proposal to end UW-Madison’s ban on guns in campus buildings is causing “tremendous anxiety” among faculty, said agronomy professor Bill Tracy.
Wisconsin was one of the last states to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. Now it is in the vanguard of the debate about whether allowing guns on college campuses will protect students or put them more at risk of violence. How did the state get there?
The Republican speaker of the state Assembly says he’s fine with people carrying concealed guns in university buildings, and likened it to carrying smartphones.
Noted: Majid Sarmadi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison textile expert who studied the visibility of blaze pink for Milroy and Kleefisch, told the committee that blaze pink is more visible against the orange fall landscape than blaze orange.
“The pink is more visible when everything is turning yellow and orange,” Sarmadi said. “The orange will get lost between those oranges that are there in nature. Therefore, it will be less safe.”
A bill that would prohibit carrying a dangerous weapon on a university or college campus in Wisconsin bubbled up from state Democrats one day after a pair of Republicans introduced a bill that would allow guns inside campus buildings.
University of Wisconsin student leaders from around the state are speaking out against a bill to allow concealed firearms on their campuses.
Quoted: UW Political Science Professor Mike Wagner is voicing opposition on Twitter.
“Am I worried, about it? Yeah, I would be worried about going into a classroom knowing 120 students are not enjoying a lecture…or worrying themselves, yeah I worry.”
And UW Madison Police Spokesman Marc Lovicott says his department opposes the bill.
“We don’t feel putting more weapons in the hands of our students, even though they legally have a permit to do so elsewhere will make our campus safer.
(Video) The state Senate’s health committee has approved a bill that would outlaw research using tissue obtained from aborted fetuses.
Efforts to legalize concealed weapons in public university buildings across the country — including in Wisconsin — may be more about recruiting youth in a culture war on gun laws than actual public safety, says one law professor.
The leaders of Wisconsin’s public universities and technical colleges Tuesday lined up against a bill that would allow anyone with a concealed carry license to bring guns into campus buildings, classrooms, dormitories and stadiums.
Two Republican lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow guns inside buildings on University of Wisconsin campuses.
Concealed carry permit holders would be able to have their weapons with them on public college and university campuses in Wisconsin, under a bill being proposed by Republican lawmakers.
Noted: Police who protect the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison are urging state lawmakers not to allow concealed weapons to be carried into campus buildings.
UW-Madison Police spokesman Marc Lovicott issued a statement Tuesday coming out against the bill circulated Monday by Republican lawmakers.
Two Republican state legislators have introduced a bill that would allow concealed carry gun owners to bring weapons into public university and college buildings in Wisconsin.
The Republican-controlled committee is slated to consider the bill Tuesday in the state Capitol. Passage looks all but certain and would clear the way for a vote in the full Senate.
People with concealed weapon licenses would be allowed to carry guns inside the buildings and classrooms of Wisconsin’s public universities and colleges under a bill introduced Monday by two state legislators.
GREEN LAKE – The surface of the state’s deepest natural lake was flat last week as Capt. Marty Valasek slowly piloted the 60-foot Escapade dinner boat 150 yards off Green Lake’s shoreline.
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System has approved a plan to lift UW-Madison’s cap on out-of-state students. UW System President Ray Cross told the Regents on Friday that the state’s flagship university faces a demographic reality – a declining pool of Wisconsin high school graduates to choose from.
A state scholarship program for top students would undergo big changes under a bill at the Capitol.
The changes are meant to retain top students in districts across the state by offering a $2,250-a-year scholarship to one or more students, depending on the size of the district. The program allows students to use the scholarship money at any in-state school, public or private.
Noted: UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank told the committee Thursday the waiver would push the institution to recruit harder within and outside of Wisconsin. She added her institution is “uniquely situated” to make sure Wisconsin’s best and brightest don’t leave for colleges in other states, and to bring students from other states into Wisconsin and get them to stay for work.
“I’m looking at all sorts of ways to partner with industry in the state, with professional organizations in the state, to put industry and Wisconsin businesses in front of my students in a way when they get to their senior year, they’ve heard of these companies, they know something about them, they are more likely to go work for them,” Blank said.
A Democratic proposal that would allow student loan borrowers in Wisconsin to refinance their loans at lower interest rates was given a public hearing on Wednesday, but its future in the Legislature is unclear. The “Higher Ed, Lower Debt” bill would create a Wisconsin Student Loan Refinancing Authority, modeled after the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.
MADISON, Wisconsin — A University of Wisconsin System committee approved a plan to lift UW-Madison’s cap on out-of-state students Thursday after the campus’ chancellor and system president insisted they need more freedom to attract fresh talent for Wisconsin employers.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students are blasting a plan to eliminate the school’s limit on out-of-state undergraduates.
UW System rules currently cap the number of out-of-state students to 27.5 percent of the undergraduate population at each campus. UW-Madison officials plan to ask the Board of Regents this week to lift that school’s cap, saying in-state enrollment is dropping and they need new young talent that can bolster Wisconsin’s workforce. They would still enroll and maintain at least 3,500 Wisconsin residents in each new freshman class.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students ripped a plan to lift the school’s cap on out-of-state undergraduates Tuesday, saying the move will lead to larger classes and justifying the change as a way to pump new talent into state’s workforce makes no sense.
MANITOWOC — There are stories hidden below the water of Lake Michigan. That includes shipwrecks – hundreds of them.
An annual update on the University of Wisconsin System reserves indicates overall, there’s less money on hand this year compared to last.
GREEN LAKE — Keeping water healthy in and around Green Lake, was the goal of an environmental field trip Monday.
The University of Wisconsin System’s tuition balance shrank last fiscal year and will drop dramatically over the next year as the system contends with a Republican-imposed tuition freeze and budget cuts, according to system financial reports and projections released Monday.
A bill that would make Wisconsin the first state to allow student loans to be refinanced at lower interest rates will be given its second public hearing in as many legislative sessions on Wednesday.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee spent down more than twice as much money in fund balances as UW-Madison in the last fiscal year, and no longer has money set aside as a rainy day reserve, according to a report that the UW System Board of Regents will discuss at a meeting Thursday in Madison.
Quoted: “It’s in all of our interests to ensure that those who are wrongfully convicted are given the assistance they need,” said Keith Findley, director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project [at the UW Law School], who joined lawmakers for a news conference on the bill at the State Capitol Thursday morning.
UW-Madison isn’t the only university to find the fetal tissue research battle on its doorstep as legislators seek to prohibit the use of tissue from aborted fetuses for research in light of the fallout from the Planned Parenthood sting videos. Since the release of the videos this summer, five states – including Wisconsin – have introduced legislation around fetal tissue donation and research, Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health advocacy group, told ThinkProgress. Arizona is looking at an administrative rules approach.
Officials of the nation’s leading universities have watched with dread as the fallout from the Planned Parenthood sting videos has threatened to engulf labs that depend on fetal tissue for research.
The first of three listening sessions on the faculty layoff protection proposals was held on Tuesday at the Health Sciences Learning Center near UW Hospital. The Faculty Senate approved on the new report earlier this month.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank launched the first issue of a new e-newsletter Tuesday that focuses on the university’s research projects that have a positive impact on Wisconsin communities, according to Blank’s blog, Blank’s Slate.
Russ Feingold may be the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin in 2016, but it was U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who dominated the stage Saturday when she laid out a liberal vision for the country in a rousing speech before hundreds of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Research using fetal cell lines has been going on since the 1940s. The cell lines — samples of cells from fetal tissues that can reproduce themselves in labs, making them essentially immortal — are essential to research toward medical treatments, said Dr. Bob Golden, UW-Madison’s vice chancellor of medical affairs.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s optimistic the chamber will vote on a bill outlawing research on tissue taken from aborted fetuses.
Wisconsin legislators are set to hold another public hearing on a bill that would outlaw research on tissue taken from aborted fetuses.
The Senate’s health committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on the Republican-authored measure Tuesday morning in the state Capitol. The Assembly’s criminal justice already has held a hearing and approved the bill, clearing the way for a full vote that chamber but it’s unclear how much support the proposal has among Senate Republicans, who are concerned the measure’s effect on research.
The authors of a bill that would outlaw research on tissue from fetuses aborted are trying to persuade the state Senate’s health committee to approve the proposal.
Sen. Duey Stroebel and Rep. Andre Jacque, both Republicans, told the committee during a public hearing Tuesday that the bill will stop atrocities and aborted children should be treated like humans, not specimens.
