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Category: UW Experts in the News

Study Student Aid Before You Reform It

Chronicle of Higher Education

Noted: Most studies have focused on the factors that shape enrollment decisions, or on the overall impact of specific programs. But few have attended to how the presence or absence of aid actually affects students? decisions about their education. As the researchers Sara Goldrick-Rab, of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Douglas N. Harris, of Tulane University, recently argued in a paper on improving education research, we simply do not know enough about which kinds of financial-aid programs work best, for which students, and in what ways.

Obama keeps state donor edge

Appleton Post-Crescent

Quoted: It?s no surprise Romney is doing well in a state that is home to vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and where poll numbers are much more favorable for Romney than they were for 2008 GOP nominee John McCain of Arizona, said Michael Wagner, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Poll: Romney narrows gap

Badger Herald

A new poll released Thursday showed President Barack Obama is clinging to a narrow lead in Wisconsin over former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., with only a few days left before Tuesday?s election.

Madison visit part of Obama’s key strategy, experts say

Wisconsin State Journal

When President Barack Obama holds perhaps the largest campaign rally of the season in Madison on Monday ? aided by rock legend Bruce Springsteen ? he?ll cap three visits to Wisconsin in five days, a strategy designed to use the state to secure enough electoral votes for a second term and block challenger Mitt Romney?s path to the White House, experts say.

Quoted: UW-Madison political science professors Barry Burden and Ken Goldstein.

Petitioners request details of HR changes

Daily Cardinal

Many University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty, staff and community members have signed an online petition asking the Office of Human Resources to release a list of changes to be included in the personnel system redesign following recent campus feedback. UW-Madison sociology professor Sara Goldrick-Rab created the petition Tuesday morning hoping to urge the office to release the list of the changes they will make before the Faculty Senate will vote to support or deny the HR plan as a whole in a meeting Monday.

Lab develops bacterial test to help fight infant deaths

Daily Cardinal

A University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemistry professor has developed a simple bacterial test that could be used to save infants? lives in developing countries, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted him $100,000 for the project, according to a UW-Madison news release. UW-Madison biochemistry professor Douglas Weibel?s laboratory created a cartridge test to determine if the type of bacteria in a newborn?s stomach must be treated to prevent a common, often deadly, bacterial infection that kills intestinal tissue.

Seely on Science: UW weather scientists at forefront of Sandy forecasts

Wisconsin State Journal

Once again, as a huge storm churned across the Atlantic Ocean, UW-Madison researchers were right in the middle of it ? sort of. As Hurricane Sandy barreled its way toward the East Coast Sunday and an appointment with the history books, about 20 scientists toiled in front of computer screens on the UW-Madison campus at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. Their behind-the-scenes work ? providing startling satellite images as well as detailed analysis of what those images were telling us ? helped the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service provide forecasts that proved remarkably accurate.

?This is evidence of a revolution that?s been going on quietly here for 20 years,? said Jonathan Martin, a professor and chairman of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

Obama maintains edge among Badger State donors

The Oshkosh Northwestern

Quoted: It?s no surprise Romney is doing well in a state that is home to vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and where poll numbers are much more favorable for Romney than they were for 2008 GOP nominee John McCain of Arizona, said Michael Wagner, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Know Your Madisonian: Professor Larry Landweber lauded as Internet pioneer

Wisconsin State Journal

When Larry Landweber was growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1950s, he competed on his high school math team. But he never imagined he would become a leader in a technology that has dramatically changed the world. Yet Landweber, 69, the John P. Morgridge professor emeritus of computer science at UW-Madison, is one of 33 people from nine countries who were the first to be inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame last April in Geneva.

Chris Rickert: Bill for UW-Madison chancellor search firm hard to swallow

Wisconsin State Journal

I know it?s common for major corporations and major universities to hire outside search firms to help them find top leaders. But corporations aren?t spending millions in tax dollars. And am I wrong to wonder why a tax-supported organization such as UW-Madison ? which has its own human resources department and thousands of learned people of sound judgment ? can?t find its own boss? UW-Madison history professor and search committee chairman David McDonald emphasized that “this is a really important position,” and the search firm, Storbeck/Pimentel and Associates, has expertise and connections “that none of us on the committee really has.”He also said hiring search firms to identify chancellor candidates is standard practice in the UW System.

UW police stop bicyclists, give away free bike lights

WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. – Some bicyclists on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus were surprised Tuesday night when they were stopped by police because of safety concerns. State law requires bicyclists to have at least a front light on their bikes after sunset. The fine for not having a bike light is about $160. UW-Madison police on Tuesday stopped bikers who were violating the law, but instead of ticketing them, they educated them and also set them up with free front and back lights for their bikes.

Writing the book, teaching the class: The difference in how instructors use their earnings

Daily Cardinal

At the first lecture for Political Science 103, before explaining the United Nations or mentioning Greece?s economic troubles, Professor Jon Pevehouse announces that he donates the royalties he makes off of UW-Madison students who buy new copies of his textbook to the Red Cross. While instructors like Pevehouse who require their own textbooks say the book is ideal for their class, they differ on what to do with profits they make off their students. Faculty members must disclose outside earnings related to their work on campus, but UW-Madison has no overarching policy telling instructors who use their own textbooks how to use their profits, giving UW-Madison professors a relatively flexible reign.

The Fathers, Families & Healthy Communities project teaches young fathers how to be men

Chicago Tribune

Noted: But after a few years of hard work, Lawrence, who has a master?s degree in community economic development, said he began to feel pulled more toward the trenches. So he started Fathers, Families and Healthy Communities on his own in 2010 and brought in as a senior adviser Kirk Harris, a University of Wisconsin professor and expert on how to help men become more responsible fathers.

In liberal Madison, young Republicans rare, passionate

Wisconsin State Journal

Plenty of research suggests the political views of a city?s adult population will be reflected in its student population, said Kathy Cramer Walsh, an associate professor of political science at UW-Madison. “There tends to be a pretty strong transmission between parents and kids in political leanings,” she said. “It may not be as specific as a candidate or a policy, but it influences who they pay attention to and what news they listen to.”

Curiosities: Why are the US’s coastlines so different?

Wisconsin State Journal

A: The answer resides in the interaction between the giant “tectonic plates” that form Earth?s crust, said Phil Brown, a professor of geoscience at the UW-Madison. “The east coast of North (and South) America are passive plate margins, which have subdued topography on land and broad shallow continental shelves that may extend 200 miles off shore, before diving to the Atlantic abyssal plain.”

Ask the Weather Guys: Are wind turbines detected by weather radars?

Wisconsin State Journal

A: While a single wind turbine is unlikely to confuse a radar return signal, a wind farm, particularly one 20 square miles or larger, will pose a problem. For example, the radar returns from the weather radar in Sullivan continually measures what looks to be a rain cloud to the north. This signal is always there and is the location of a wind farm.

Analysis finds limitations of new public school report cards

Wisconsin State Journal

Julie Underwood, dean of the UW-Madison School of Education, said she was surprised so many charter schools didn’t receive ratings. Private schools in Milwaukee and Racine that receive public voucher funds also don’t have report cards unless a change is made in state law.

“All of the charter schools should be evaluated and we should figure out ways to make valid assessments of them,” she said. “Not only do we need to give parents the information, but we also need good accountability measures because public funds are going to those schools.”

Voter Turnout for Boomers and Millennials

New York Times

Noted: Connie Flanagan, a developmental psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says voting is habit forming. ?Once you?ve made your first vote, it becomes part of your routine,? she said. ?Everyone you know votes. It feels like a moral and civic obligation.?

Going for a swim with the paddlefish

Daily Cardinal

Freshwater fish migrate, but we do not know where and why.According to Brenda Pracheil, a University of Wisconsin-Madison post-doctorate research fellow in the Limnology Department, scientists lack comprehensive knowledge on the habits of migratory fish species.

Badgers men’s basketball blog: High praise for trainer Henry Perez-Guerra

Madison.com

Henry Perez-Guerra, the athletic trainer for the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team, has some pretty good material the next time he goes in for his annual review. Badgers coach Bo Ryan was talking Tuesday about the gruesome injury senior forward Mike Bruesewitz suffered during a team workout Oct. 9, and it quickly became clear that Perez-Guerra, who?s in his 20th year as a trainer at UW, was the undisputed MVP that day.

Health Sense: New study boosts hormone replacement therapy

Wisconsin State Journal

Millions of post-menopausal women were taking hormones to protect their hearts, bones and minds a decade ago when a major study revealed shocking findings: hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of heart disease, strokes and memory loss, along with breast cancer and blood clots. Now a new study, involving UW-Madison, reinforces advice that emerged after the troubling discoveries: hormone therapy makes sense for women with severe symptoms of menopause, but only for a few years and not for other reasons.

Quoted: Dr. Sanjay Asthana, a UW-Madison geriatrician who led the cognitive arm of the study

High temperatures near 80 in October? It’s not as unusual as you might think

Wisconsin State Journal

You could be forgiven for thinking it?s summer again on Wednesday, when temperatures are predicted to climb into the upper 70s. By Thursday night, however, Madison will be back into the fall, with overnight lows in the 30s. The 40-degree fluctuation is the result of a storm that?s going to pass well to our north, but will bring warm air up from the south before pulling down cold winds from the north as it passes through, said Jonathan Martin, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

Strong independent streak makes Wisconsinites fickle voters

Capital Times

Why are Wisconsin voters so changeable? Polling results reinforce our independent streak. The Capital Times asked UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin, who is conducting polls this election season as a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School, to review recent survey results and pull out data on how Wisconsinites say they will vote based on their beliefs on several social issues: the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare”, Medicare, immigration, gay marriage and abortion.

UW officials respond to sexual assault letter

Daily Cardinal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison released a joint statement Monday with University Health Services and the UW-Madison Police Department after a UW-Madison alumna published an account of her sexual assault in The Daily Cardinal. Erin Reilly, a UW-Madison alumna, wrote about her experience with sexual assault on campus, which included being discouraged from reporting the incident by counselors. Dean of Students Lori Berquam, UWPD Chief Susan Riseling and UHS Director Sarah Van Orman contributed to the statement, which expressed the university?s sympathy for Reilly, and detailed the available resources on campus for victims of sexual assault.

Stanley Kutler: Ignore McGovern?s message at your peril

Capital Times

George McGovern lived his public life with an integrity that, in these rancid political times, all of us might envy. He unfortunately is remembered most for his overwhelming defeat at the hands of Richard Nixon in the presidential election of 1972, but it is worth noting that Nixon resigned in disgrace, the only president to ever abandon his office. McGovern was a historian, undoubtedly with profound respect for the presidency; it is difficult to imagine his obstructing justice or abusing his power in the Nixon manner.

(Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus, is the author of the “The Wars of Watergate” (Norton), and with Harry Shearer has written the forthcoming television series, “Nixon’s the One.” This column first appeared on Salon.com.)

Ask the Weather Guys: How were recent heavy rains predicted so well?

Wisconsin State Journal

A: Though we have been relatively dry for much of the autumn, on the weekend of Oct. 13-14 we received a soaking rain of 0.86 inches on Saturday followed by 1.74 inches on Sunday. Two aspects of this heavy rain event are noteworthy to us. First, though Madison averages an inch of rain in a single day about six times each year, the 1.74 inches that fell on Sunday was the most in a single calendar day in Madison since 3.61 inches of rain fell on July 22, 2010. That long stretch includes two full summers (2011 and 2012) in which we never received such a rain. Second, the rainy weekend was clearly in the forecast for almost seven days in advance. In other words, at the end of the prior weekend, it was clear that next weekend was going to be a washout.