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Category: Top Stories

In science they trust

Isthmus

Before retiring, Holly Walter Kerby spent her career educating students about the atoms that make up the planet. From the periodic table to the basics of chemical bonding, students in her chemistry class at Madison College were shown the world around them — on a microscopic level.

UW-Madison launches STEM Diversity Network

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison has launched the STEM Diversity Network, a website collecting resources on science, technology, engineering and math to boost recruitment, retention and success of people of diverse backgrounds working and studying in those fields.

Fighting words: The campus free speech battle at UW often focuses on guest speakers

Capital Times

Students who feel marginalized on campus — by race, gender or sexual orientation — and their allies are engaged in a battle over “safe spaces” with classmates who insist they, and the speakers they invite to campus, can say what they like, no matter who finds it offensive.It’s a culture war for the 21st century that some say threatens America’s bedrock value of freedom of speech.

HHS secretary proposes cutting reimbursements that fund university-based research

Inside Higher Education

When President Trump proposed a cut of nearly 20 percent in support for the National Institutes of Health, many wondered how the administration would even attempt to find such reductions. The answer emerged in the congressional testimony last week of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who argued the government could save billions without hurting research by cutting back on the overhead reimbursements to colleges and universities.

Pitch perfect

Isthmus

I’m sitting in a small conference room at the Madison Concourse Hotel with 11 strangers at tables arranged so we’re all facing each other. Under other circumstances, it would be uncomfortable.

Carpenter: How to Protect our Disappearing Bumble Bees

Scientific American

On March 21, the rusty-patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis, officially became the first bumble bee listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. This designation recognizes this important pollinator’s precarious position in the face of multiple threats to its survival. It also provides some of the tools necessary to begin to reverse its decline.

Donald Trump’s budget would threaten research, financial aid at UW-Madison, officials warn

Wisconsin State Journal

Deep spending cuts in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal could threaten the federal funding UW-Madison researchers rely on to investigate Alzheimer’s disease, asthma and other ailments, and slash support for programs that help low-income students afford college, according to scientists and campus officials.

Universities respond to new executive order on immigration with concern

The Washington Post

University leaders greeted President Trump’s revised executive order on immigration with a mix of relief and deep concern Monday — relief that some provisions were eased from his January order, which had been frozen by the courts, and concern that its overall impact will damage the country’s longtime status as a destination for the world’s top scholars.