Category: UW Experts in the News

Noted: The new numbers are a more accurate reflection of what?s happening, but they still show very slow job growth for the state, said University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky. Since they?re being released early, it?s impossible to tell how Wisconsin compares to other states, he said.

Quoted: Steven Deller, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Walker?s budgetary austerity and a “tremendous amount of uncertainty” generated by the recall “have kind of put the brakes on the state economy.”

Noted: “By that measure, the most popular movies have already won a very big award in the form of lots of cash,” Jonathan Gray, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in an email. “While it may seem elitist and snobbish for other award ceremonies to ?ignore? popularity, I often find myself wondering why something that got half a billion dollars at the box office needs a little faux-gold statuette for validation.”  

Interviewed: UW-Madison Political Scientist Barry Burden describes why the majority of voters have not needed swaying.

Noted: For Carolyn Abbott, the numbers will be little more than a curiosity. She has decided to leave the classroom, and is entering the Ph.D. program in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall.

Noted: Viewers easily absorb health messages that are embedded in a narrative, research shows. Inaccurate information offered in a story format is recalled more readily than the real facts received during sex education classes or from a doctor, said Al Gunther, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Quoted: Colonography “does have some advantages and disadvantages and I think it?s important for people to know what those are,” said Dr. Perry Pickhardt, of the department of radiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

Noted: The Helium-3 fusion process is not simply theoretical ? the University of Wisconsin-Madison Fusion Technology Institute successfully performed fusion experiments combining two molecules of Helium-3. Estimates place the efficiency of Helium-3 fusion reactions at seventy percent, out-pacing coal and natural gas electricity generation by twenty percent.

Quoted: Walter Dickey. “They are the final authority. Since they?re deciders of what the parameters of their authority are, in the event members of the court wish to recuse themselves, they can appoint members of the appellate court to the Supreme Court for purposes of discipline.”

Noted: Being a nanny is like being a second parent. ?Nannies want to form lasting bonds with the children. They recognize they won?t be there forever, but they do want to be recognized for their hard work,? said Cameron McDonald, author of “Shadow Mothers: Nannies, Au Pairs and the Micropolitics of Mothering,” to The Huffington Post.

Noted: The testing found statistically significant improvements in employees? investment knowledge, their establishment of goals and budgets, and an increase in their contributions to retirement plans, according to research by J. Michael Collins, an assistant professor and director the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says people are more likely to do better for themselves — and their children are likely to do better — in states with more educated residents and more dynamic economies, such as those in the Northeast.

Noted: A leading U.S. Pushkinist, David Bethea of the University of Wisconsin, agrees that translations of Pushkin into other languages can be disastrous. Most renderings into English come out like ?a pretty good Victorian poet, maybe Tennyson,? he told me by telephone.

Lawrence Landweber, a UW-Madison emeritus professor of computer sciences, is one of 32 people recently inducted into the newly created Internet Hall of Fame. Landweber is being honored as one of 10 ?innovators.? According to his bio posted on the Hall?s website, Landweber?s ?first networking project in 1977, TheoryNet, involved an email system for theoretical computer scientists.

Quoted: “With Maurice Sendak?s 1963 classic tale of vengeful rebellion, Max and the Wild Things ushered in a new era in children?s literature,? says Kathleen Horning, director of the Cooperative Children?s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin School of Education in Madison.

One of the world?s experts on vaccinations for pets is Dr. Ron Schultz, professor and chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison. He says you?re in a no win situation. He can?t advocate that you break the law, but is hopeful for changes in this inflexible law.

Quoted: The Midwest union battles demonstrate labor?s erosion of influence in the past 30 years, said William Jones, a labor historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Wisconsin?s recall, in which Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will face Walker, is a bellwether for the November presidential election, he said.

So how is Soglin doing on his plan to combat poverty? On the whole, he gets pretty good marks from Satya Rhodes-Conway, who has more expertise in the area than just her five years as a City Council member. In her day job, she is a policy analyst for the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a nonprofit, progressive think tank based at UW-Madison. At the center, she is in charge of the Mayors Innovation Project, a “learning network” of more than 100 mayors nationwide aimed at improving civic policy. Rhodes-Conway says she is aware that Soglin has been thinking about a number of things that fit into a “big-picture” view of poverty, something that is hard to do while actually doing the nitty-gritty work of getting programs off the ground.

Quoted: To Bradley Carl, an associate researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the MacIver Institute?s conclusions are more complex than the data shows.

Quoted: “It feels like all-new territory,” said Kathy Cramer Walsh, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and faculty investigator for the Badger Poll, which annually measures political leanings among other things in the state. “The rest of the nation senses that, too, which is why there is so much attention to our recall races.

Quoted: ?If you build a system to serve 100,000 people and you don?t do too much to change it, it?s going to continue to do that,? said lead author Victor Capoccia, a senior scientist at the Center for Health Enhancement System Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has held various roles in addiction services in Massachusetts.

University of Wisconsin faculty members debated recommendations to revise the campus human resources system in their last meeting of the academic year Monday, including a controversial provision that would eliminate bargaining rights for certain positions.

UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam, who gained viral fame for telling students not to attend the Mifflin Street Block Party, said Monday this year?s party was safer than the last, though she is still concerned about the event.

Quoted: Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

With final exams less than a week away, UW-Madison?s Faculty Senate held its last meeting of the 2011-12 academic year Monday afternoon at Bascom Hall. Following are some highlights: Robert Lavigna, the university?s director of human resources, gave faculty senators an update on UW-Madison?s efforts to construct a new human resources system and personnel policies to govern the work lives of about 16,000 people.

Following Lavigna?s presentation, faculty senator John Sharpless expressed annoyance that few appear to be talking about ?education, instruction or teaching? in relation to the HR Design Project. The history professor says it?s important to find ways to financially reward and retain professors who are top-notch teachers. Sara Goldrick-Rab, an expert on educational policy studies, echoed those comments, adding that the proposed market-based approach to determining a professor’s value isn?t optimal because the current market doesn?t demand good teaching from faculty at top-notch research universities.

Noted: In a meta-analysis of studies based on more than 7 million children in kindergarten through 11th grade, Janet S. Hyde, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found small average gender differences in such areas as activity level (favoring boys) and ability to focus (favoring girls), but no significant differences in mathematics or reading comprehension and “no solid evidence that boys and girls actually learn differently.”

Noted: That?s exactly what Mark Berres, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is trying to do with WeBird. But Berres says identifying bird calls is much harder than identifying popular songs.”When I turned it onto bird songs, it just failed miserably,” he says. But, after a year of work, Berres expects the app to be ready next spring.

Quoted: There is plenty of evidence that students retain more information when they are able to relate their schoolwork to something that?s already familiar. In the field of cognitive psychology it?s known as “activating prior knowledge,” said Gloria Ladson-Billings, professor of curriculum and instruction and educational policy at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Steve Deller, a professor of applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said the discrepancy between the state?s job losses and the improved unemployment rate could be attributed to workers leaving the labor market and others commuting to jobs in neighboring states.

Quoted: ?I think Frank Wu?s take on the issue in the book ?Yellow? is the best I?ve seen,? says Timothy Yu, associate professor of English and Asian American Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?He wrote, ?When someone asks, ?Do Asians eat dogs?,? the appropriate response is not to either defend or disown dog-eating, but to respond, ?Why are you asking???

A proposal to fold academic and classified staff into the same employee category is raising some eyebrows on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The pitch is contained in draft recommendations released in April by one of the 11 work teams helping UW-Madison design a new human resources structure that?s separate from the state and UW System. Among other concerns, such a move would eliminate collective bargaining rights from roughly 400 classified staff on campus.

?That?s the recommendation that?s gotten the most attention during the vetting process the last few weeks,? says Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison?s vice chancellor for administration. ?Most of the feedback, at least anecdotally, tends to suggest collapsing these groups into one is not something staff would support.?

Quoted: Steve Deller, economist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension.