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Category: Top Stories

‘Substantial gift’ allows new UW School of Music building project to move forward

Posted on
Channel3000.com

A sign has been sitting at the corner of Lake and University Streets in downtown Madison for years, announcing the site of a new UW-Madison School of Music building.

Now, a large gift from the Wisconsin Rapids-based Mead Witter Foundation will allow the sign to finally come down next fall and construction to begin on a new building that will house both music classrooms and a large concert hall.

“This was proposed before the 2008 financial crisis and we had some wonderful, generous donors, but the fundraising effort stalled out for some time,” Director of Jazz Studies at UW-Madison Johannes Wallmann said. “Even the most optimistic among us thought it might be decades away.”

On Campus: Faculty raise concerns about proposed new UW tenure policies

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Faculty are again pushing back against proposals for new University of Wisconsin System tenure policies, saying rules laid out in draft documents last week would violate professors’ rights to due process and threaten academic freedom. The draft policies outline layoff protections for tenured faculty and the review process professors must go through after they have received tenure. They led to a lively discussion Monday at a meeting of the UW System Tenure Policy Task Force, the body charged with writing new faculty protections. The task force will meet again later this month before sending its recommendations for a new tenure policy to the UW System Board of Regents next year.

The University of Wisconsin wasn’t attracting diverse applicants. So it did something bold.

Posted on
Upworthy

Ashley Thomas, a Harlem native and senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, never thought she’d end up in the Midwest.When she started looking for schools, she was interested in diversity. But according to UW’s website, over 70% of the school’s students identify as white. So, why did Ashley choose UW? Because of a hip-hop and urban arts program called First Wave. UW is the only school in the country with anything like it.

We Tried A Futuristic Cranberry. It Was Fresh And Naturally Sweet

Posted on
National Public Radio

Why are cranberries and sugar a seemingly inseparable pair? The typical fresh cranberry is an acrid thing to put on the tongue without sugar to balance it out.But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Cranberry breeders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed an experimental variety that’s naturally sweet. It’s called the “Sweetie.”

Donors give $7 million to UW-Madison computer sciences department

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison’s growing Department of Computer Sciences will benefit from a $7 million alumni donation, university officials announced Friday. The money, including $5 million from Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, will endow two faculty chairs and two professorships, and will establish a discretionary fund “to meet key needs” in the department, officials said.

UW-Madison student from Middleton named Rhodes scholar

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Colin Higgins of Middleton received the honor, becoming UW’s 32nd Rhodes scholar since the program was founded in 1902 — the most among Big Ten schools. The program offers a scholarship valued at about $50,000 per year to study for two to three years at Oxford University in England.

Scientists have grown human vocal cords in the lab for the first time

Posted on
BuzzFeed News

In an experimental first, scientists reported Wednesday that they have grown about 170 human vocal cords in a lab, starting from cells taken from four surgical patients and one cadaver. “We never imagined that we would see the impressive level of function that we did,” said study senior author Nathan Welham of the University of Wisconsin Medical School at a briefing for reporters.

Lab-grown vocal cords offer hope of treating voice disorders

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

From mom’s comforting croon to a shout of warning, our voices are the main way we communicate and one we take for granted unless something goes wrong. Now researchers have grown human vocal cords in the laboratory that appear capable of producing sound – in hopes of one day helping people with voice-robbing diseases or injuries.

Students abroad encourage peers to not let fear tactics deter them

Posted on
Channel3000.com

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has sent a record 2,276 students overseas for study abroad programs in the last year, and in light of recent terrorist attacks, students currently studying abroad are telling their peers those fear tactics shouldn’t deter them.

UW is ranked 10th in the country for the number of students studying abroad, according to the 2015 Open Doors Report on international educational exchange. Daniel Gold, of the university’s study abroad center, said safety has always been top priority.

UPDATE: Madison community gathers in support of France

Posted on
WKOW TV

The French House, near the UW-Madison campus, hosted a gathering in solidarity with the people of France on Monday evening.

UW students and staff members, many of whom have ties to France, said coming together helped them cope with last week’s attacks in Paris, which killed roughly 130 people and were carried out by militants of the Islamic State terror group.

Muslim UW students hope immigration not curtailed

Posted on
WKOW TV

Some Muslim UW-Madison students take personally moves by Governor Walker and other governors to try to suspend the resettlement of refugees from war-torn Syria to the U.S.

“I understand people’s concerns that they don’t want the terrorism attacks that happened in Paris to come back and happen here in the U.S.,” Syrian-American and UW-Madison student Rama Shoukfeh says. Authorities say one of the Paris terrorist suspects had credentials as a refugee from Syria.

UW French House opens doors in solidarity with Paris

Posted on
Channel3000.com

Andrew Irving never imagined so many people would show their support in Madison.

“What’s been nice is the unexpected messages we get from people we barely know just saying we want to reach out and say we’re sorry or we’re thinking of you,” Irving said.

Irving, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison French House, decided the community needed a place to come together to mourn and stand in solidarity.

UPDATE: Gathering in solidarity with France scheduled for Monday in Madison

Posted on
WKOW TV

Noted: Andrew Irving, Director of the French House in Madison, said the attacks have taken a toll on locals who study and immerse themselves in French culture, as well as on French students currently living here in Madison.

“Emotions were very high Friday and also on Saturday. A lot of people just didn’t know what to think,” Irving said.

Irving said the French House, a private residence hall run by the UW-Madison’s Department of French and Italian, houses both American and French students.

“All of our residents speak French here almost all of the time,” Irving said.

UW-Madison students march in solidarity with Mizzou

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Hundreds of people, mostly UW-Madison students, gathered in front of Bascom Hall Thursday night surrounding the statue of Abraham Lincoln in solidarity with their peers at the University of Missouri. After listening to speeches, they marched to Library Mall chanting what has become a common refrain at rallies locally and around the country: “Black lives matter!” and “No justice, no peace!” The group reconvened for more speeches before marching up State Street to the Capitol Square.

Craig Schuff, paralyzed researcher, UW-Madison engineering graduate student, dies

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Craig Schuff’s heart and academic journey carried on more than four years after he was paralyzed in a Lake Monona diving accident that damaged his spinal cord. Schuff, 30, a quadriplegic since 2011, died Oct. 24.His advisers at UW-Madison said he was less than a year from finishing his doctorate in engineering, focusing on innovative nuclear research that deserves to be continued.

Campus carry

Posted on
Isthmus

Brent Eisberner generally feels safe on the UW-Madison campus. But the possibility of an attack is always on the law student’s mind. A former Marine Corps captain and concealed carry instructor, Eisberner selects his seats in classrooms and lecture halls based on what position would best allow him to react to an active shooter.

University of Wisconsin faculty approve tenure protections

Posted on
Associated Press (Channel3000.com)

Faculty representatives at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have approved a new policy that lays out a narrow range of circumstances that would allow firing of tenured professors.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that the school’s Faculty Senate gave unanimous approval Monday to the policy, which would restore many layoff protections erased by state lawmakers in passing a budget this year. The policy goes to the UW System Board of Regents for final approval.

City officials optimistic Judge Doyle Square redevelopment will still happen

Posted on
WKOW TV

Business leaders and city officials Monday remained upbeat about the prospect of a large development at Judge Doyle Square, despite the decision of Madison-based Exact Sciences to opt against moving its headquarters downtown as part of a proposed redevelopment there.

Exact Sciences announced Monday it will instead seek to expand at the UW Research Park on the West Side.

Is Wisconsin System Chief Backtracking on Tenure?

Posted on
Inside Higher Ed

University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross has come under fire from faculty and a high-profile administrator for his changing stance on how the system should address tenure in light of recent changes to its legal status in the state. Faculty members and Chancellor Rebecca Blank of the University of Wisconsin at Madison have criticized Cross’s recent directive that new tenure polices can’t be written at the campus level, saying that the guidance contradicts Cross’s earlier assurances that tenure as it’s known would be preserved at the campus level — even though the Wisconsin state Legislature changed the law to make it easier to fire tenured faculty members.

UW Chancellor visits Juneau County cranberry farm

Posted on
Juneau County Star-Tribune

Northeastern Juneau County boasts some of the best cranberries in the world, and on Tuesday, University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank spent time knee-deep in the bogs, talking to growers, researchers and scientists on the forefront of cranberry production.

Preserve fetal tissue research: Our view

Posted on
USA Today

What began as an uproar over undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials callously discussing how to collect fetal tissue is now threatening research vital to finding treatments for devastating conditions from Alzheimer’s to blindness.

Rebecca Blank: Ray Cross’ 180 on tenure undercuts credibility of Board of Regents

Posted on
Capital Times

UW System President Ray Cross’ about-face on a campus-specific tenure policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison makes the Board of Regents look bad, abets faculty seeking extreme provisions and potentially delays adoption of a policy, threatening faculty recruitment, said Chancellor Rebecca Blank. Cross also undermined her ability to broker agreement on tenure issues among UW-Madison faculty, Blank said in an Oct. 22 email to Regent John Behling.

Reinvesting in the Wisconsin Idea

Posted on
Isthmus

There’s a lot of bad blood between stakeholders in our higher education system. There is tension between the Republicans who control the state Legislature and University of Wisconsin-System leaders, between the Board of Regents and the faculty, and between rural residents and the bigger schools, particularly UW-Madison.