Category: UW-Madison Related

The Wisconsin Technical College System Board approved a 4.5 percent tuition hike for the next academic year at its meeting last night.

Danielle Trussoni and her novelâ??s main character, Evangeline, both had their lives changed by angels and convents.

In Trussoniâ??s case, she was doing research at a convent in her home state of Wisconsin when she stumbled on angel lore so compelling that the celestial beings became the centerpiece of Angelology, which was released earlier this month to glowing reviews. Trussoni is a UW-Madison graduate.

….The Madison Hmong community today is dividing along clan lines over control of United Asian Services, the local nonprofit organization that for 26 years has been the first stopping place for refugees seeking a foothold in a new world. A bitter dispute with allegations of misconduct, incompetence and unbridled ambition is pitting the Vang and Thao clans against each other in a clash one close observer likened to â??the Hatfields and McCoys,â? the bloody feud of American folklore.

….Marlys Macken is a UW-Madison professor of linguistics whose interest in the Hmong community led her to join a Dane County task force preparing for the new arrivals from Thailand in 2004. Macken, brainstorming with others, came up with the idea to use university language teaching capacity and a store of cast-off university furniture to develop a program to teach the refugees English while employing them in a furniture-refinishing enterprise. She secured $100,000 in private funding for the Hmong Literacy, Language and Jobs Program, which would be funneled through United Asian Services, where she served on the board of directors.

Mike Boettcher grew up on his familyâ??s 100-cow beef farm in Fairchild, so heâ??s used to working outdoors.

As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Boettcher had intended on a career in animal science. But on a whim, he decided to take a class in horticulture. Today, he is the landscape manager for the Milwaukee Brewers under head groundskeeper Gary Vanden Berg.

The mayor of Duluth, Minn., threw himself into the ice-ringed waters of Lake Superior. The mayor of Sarasota, Fla., immersed himself in a tank filled with bonnethead sharks, simply to one-up him. The mayor of Wilmington, N.C., said that he would even jump out of an airplane â?? with a parachute, of course. Not to be outdone, a dairy in Madison, Wis., aided that cityâ??s efforts by creating a â??Google Fiberâ? ice cream flavor â?? vanilla ice cream with granola and M&Ms to match Googleâ??s multicolored logo.

The University of Wisconsin System has named the six finalists vying to become the next the chancellor at UW-Stevens Point.

The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee is investigating an incident Thursday in which a studentâ??s disagreement with a faculty member led authorities to be called and to the studentâ??s arrest. Details about the situation are limited, but WISN 12, a local news station, broadcast a video of the arrest (with profanities edited out) filmed by a student who is a WISN employee.

State lawmakers received an update Wednesday on an IT project meant to improve the payroll process at all University of Wisconsin institutions.

All four of the current University of Wisconsin System IT projects are on schedule and on budget, according to a project update by the Legislatureâ??s IT committee leaders.

Dear Editor: Friday, March 19, will mark the seventh anniversary of the â??shock and aweâ? bombing campaign that began the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Each year since 2003, Americans have gathered to remember the terrible costs of war and to call for peace. Wisconsin has led states many times its size in the number of events held on the anniversary.

This year is no exception. Nineteen Wisconsin events are among more than 70 planned nationwide, and include roadside vigils, marches, public prayers and a teach-in at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An administrator at a New York City college will likely be the next chancellor of UW-Platteville. Dennis Shields, acting vice president for student affairs at the City College of New York-City University of New York, was recommended by University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly and a special committee of the UW Board of Regents.

Michael Knetter has been named by University of Wisconsin – Madison chancellor Biddy Martin to be vice chancellor for advancement, the school said Wednesday in a news release.

Online voting is underway to win orchards for Madison and ripe fruit for the picking in a grass roots movement you can read all about here. Madison Fruit and Nuts worked with city officials to get the okay to plant fruit trees in Madison parks and other local supporters of edible landscapes have mobilized to enter five local sites in a national competition for free fruit orchards.

The man appointed to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents says he hopes to be a role model for Native American students. Eau Claire attorney Edmund Manydeeds is an enrolled member of South Dakotaâ??s Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Heâ??s also a 1973 graduate of UW-Superior and the UW-Madison law school.

College applications for the fall are up dramatically nationwide, especially at public universities. But a drop in applications at the University of Wisconsin system has some admissions staff scratching their heads.

From the fight for civil rights to the frailty of his own health, Anthony Brown faced challenges with optimistic passion. A community activist and former director of Madisonâ??s Equal Opportunities Commission, Brown, 59, died Saturday of liver failure while receiving a liver transplant.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is on the cusp of having its first American Indian board member. Gov. Jim Doyle has appointed Eau Claire attorney Ed Manydeeds as its newest regent, pending confirmation by the state Senate.

Diogenes can put down his lantern. A recent deposition secures former UW Chancellor John Wileyâ??s reputation as an honest man.The deposition was taken Feb. 16 as part of a lawsuit filed by the owners of Brothers Bar & Grill against the UW Board of Regents. The owners, Marc and Eric Fortney, are trying to block the regentsâ?? attempt to seize their property through condemnation; the UW wants to use the property for a future School of Music.

Documents from the UW System revealed that the highest paid UW-Madison official makes over three times as much as the governor.

Madison native Kaleem Caire has been appointed the new president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison and will start the job March 29, the League announced Friday. After service in the U.S. Navy and earning an education degree from UW-Madison, Caire co-founded the Next Generation Education Foundation in 2006.

For the first time in 100 years, no coal is being burned at Downtown Madisonâ??s Capitol Heat and Power Plant, said David Helbach, Wisconsinâ??s director of state facilities. The state will spend about $25 million this fall to install gas boilers that will allow the plant to cool and heat Downtown office buildings using only natural gas. The switchover is part of a court agreement between the state and the Sierra Club calling for the elimination of coal at two state-owned plants: UW-Madisonâ??s Charter Street Heating Plant and the Capitol plant. Converting the Charter Street plant from coal to biomass is expected to cost $251 million.

Each year, universities must fend off attacks from poachers â?? outside institutions looking to pick off underpaid or underappreciated faculty members. There were 148 such offers made at UW-Madison in the last academic year, and the university kept about 80 percent of them by making counteroffers. The university also took a more offensive posture than in past years, making 54 â??preemptive moves,â? increasing the pay or benefits for faculty who are perceived at risk of leaving.

If the University of Wisconsin System were graded on its faculty salaries, it would fall behind the class curve. At UW-Madison, full professors are paid about $10,000 below the median at comparable universities. UW-Milwaukee professors earn about $22,000 less than those at peer institutions, and professors at the UW Systemâ??s other institutions make about $14,600 less. â??We found weâ??ve got significant gaps between our salaries and our peer institutions at virtually every level and every type of job,â? said David Giroux, UW System spokesman.

The average welder makes about the same amount of money as the average professor. It pays more to be a faculty member at UW-La Crosse than it does at UW-Stevens Point. Nine of the top 10 highest-paid employees in the University of Wisconsin System are men. These are some of the Wisconsin State Journalâ??s findings from the UW System Redbook, the universityâ??s budget document.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher whose innovations have been licensed to medical imaging companies around the world, and a Neenah company that helps entrepreneurial concerns develop product prototypes, will receive awards from the MIT Club of Wisconsin Friday. Chuck Mistretta, a medical physics professor, developed technologies that gave doctors a better way to look at coronary arteries, dramatically changing the way they used MRI machines and driving many other innovations, said Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the technology transfer agent for UW-Madison.

Gov. Jim Doyle has appointed an Eau Claire lawyer to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Doyleâ??s appointment of Edmund Manydeeds is being praised by lawmakers from northwestern Wisconsin, who have complained their area lacks adequate representation on the board that governs state universities. Lawmakers passed a bill last year that would have required at least one regent to come from seven geographic districts of the state.

The Bay Creek Neighborhood Association passed a resolution asking the Madison City Council and Dane County Board to create a task force of experts to determine if the continued use of non-human primates in bio-medical research is ethically justified, and to postpone the proposed expansion of primate laboratories at UWâ??Madison until the task force issues its final report.

Noted: Babcock Hall Dairy Store is even getting involved. Theyâ??re testing a new flavor of Google ice cream with Google colored candy and granola to represent, of course, the fiber in fiber optics.Store Manager Sara Brummel says, “This is a way to really set us apart by having an ice cream just for them.”The ice cream certainly wonâ??t hurt but city officials hope Madisonâ??s tech savvy population wins out.

The city of Madison is looking for residentsâ?? help to attract Google Fiber, an experiment by the Google Company to bring ultra-high speed fiber networks to residential homes in trial locations around the country.

Madison is the among cities around the country hoping Google will chose it to test its new fiber-optic network, and the city hosted a public meeting Thursday night to garner support and ideas for the Google network in Madison.

“What Google is doing with this project is theyâ??re saying itâ??s not a zero sum game, itâ??s a win-win game. Once this fiber comes into a home, you can be a customer of Charter, AT&T, TDS or many other providers,” said David Devareaux-Weber, of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Department of Information Technology, at the meeting.

The power to unionize may soon be in the hands of faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Superior campuses.

A 26-year-old DeForest man drove into Wingra Creek on Wednesday after arguing with his passenger and then trying to run him over, Madison police said. Dawand L. Washington picked a the 21-year-old passenger from a UW-Madison residence hall and during the ride, the two began arguing over a cell phone.

Faculty at University of Wisconsin campuses in Eau Claire and Superior could be the first to form unions under a new law giving academic workers that right, organizers said Wednesday. Organizers on both campuses said they collected cards from 70 percent or more of faculty members saying they wanted to form unions affiliated with AFT-Wisconsin. They have asked the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to verify that the response meets the 30 percent threshold required and to set a date for elections, which could occur as early as May

Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Babcock Dairy is churning out a new ice cream flavor to help lure Google. The first samples of the new ice cream flavor will be handed out to those who attend Thursday nightâ??s public meeting.

So UW-Madison is having trouble finding top students who want to attend, according to a March 1 article titled â??With less scholarship cash, UW is losing high achievers.â? I wonder where theyâ??re looking.

With the current University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extensions chancellor on his way out, a committee of 23 members has been chosen by the system to search for his successor, UW System announced Tuesday.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan will deliver a commencement speech to University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates this spring. The university announced Wednesday that Duncan will speak at the morning commencement on May 15 at the Kohl Center.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Faculty members at University of Wisconsin campuses in Eau Claire and Superior could be the first professors in the state to form unions.

Organizers on both campuses say they have collected more than enough authorization cards to require an election to decide union representation.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee needs a little more time to close on its 89-acre purchase at the Milwaukee County Grounds, where the university plans to build a new research facility and business park. But there are no signs the delay amounts to anything more than advertised. UWM should move as expeditiously as possible to develop the site.

The cityâ??s Board of Estimates approved a motion Monday night that would loan $300,000 in tax incremental financing to the developer of a Near West Side senior housing project. Gromacki said a similar situation happened with the redevelopment of University Square near UW-Madison.

The Internet has come a long way over the years — and Madison city leaders say theyâ??re ready for whatâ??s next.Thatâ??s why the mayor and others are hoping to get Googleâ??s attention, as the company is working to find a test site for a new ultra-fast Internet service.

To the Editor: It is heartening that Diane Ravitch has felt compelled to acknowledge the gloomy results of accountability and school choice policies that she previously enthusiastically propounded. (The writer is professor emeritus of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)

Thursdayâ??s rally to protest budget cuts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ended in 15 arrests and the detainment of the student government president.

Nearly $9 million in borrowed federal dollars and investment from local businesses and government will go toward expanding broadband Internet access in the Madison, Middleton and Monona areas, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Wednesday. Funding for the work is coming from a $5.1 million grant through the federal stimulus act and $3.7 million from local city and school district coffers; UW-Madison; Dane County; Xiocom Wireless, which operates MadCity Broadband; and others.

The 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet, will visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison May 15 and 16 to inaugurate a new center devoted to the study of healthy mind development, the university said Wednesday.

When Monona residents ask Metro Transit manager Chuck Kamp why Metro buses traveling through the city donâ??t open their doors, he explains that Monona contracts with a private company for its own bus service.

â??Thatâ??s very disappointingâ? from a regional transit perspective, Kamp said.

Discarded smoking materials started a fire that caused about $10,000 damage to UW-Madisonâ??s Grainger Hall on Monday afternoon, according to investigators from the Madison Fire Department.

The fire was reported just before noon on Monday at Grainger Hall, which is on Park Street between University Avenue and Johnson Street.

Two Wisconsin colleges are trying to determine who distributed racist flyers on their campuses. “White pride” flyers turned up at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Monday and last Thursday at St. Norbert College in De Pere.

Two Wisconsin colleges are trying to determine who distributed racist flyers on their campuses.”White pride” flyers turned up at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Monday and last Thursday at St. Norbert College in De Pere.

City leaders want Madison to be a test sight for Google. At Tuesdayâ??s council meeting Mayor Dave Cieslewicz introduced legislation to support the cityâ??s bid to be one of the cities to try the companyâ??s super high-speed Internet service.

Madison firefighters extinguished a fire in an exterior wall of Grainger Hall on the UW-Madison campus just before noon Monday.

Firefighters arrived to find a large room near the entrance filled with smoke, and occupants still in the building, according to spokesman Lori Wirth. “Evacuation was slow to take place, hampering firefighting operations,” she said.

A dozen young alumni of UW-Madison are being honored by the UW Alumni Association for exemplifying the Wisconsin Idea of touching lives here, as well as around the world.

The “Forward Under 40” awards were announced on Monday by WAA president and CEO Paula Bonner.

“We are proud to recognize our younger generation of alumni for their commitment to demonstrating the Wisconsin Idea in all that they do,” Bonner said in a release from the UW-Madison news service.

Barring a small miracle, either in the form of a cashierâ??s check or a change of heart, a planned practice rink for the University of Wisconsin menâ??s and womenâ??s hockey teams wonâ??t be built anytime soon. UW athletic director Barry Alvarez set an early-March deadline for raising $2 million in gift funds toward the $25 million facility, which is scheduled to break ground this spring and be completed in 2012.

Barring a small miracle, either in the form of a cashierâ??s check or a change of heart, a planned practice rink for the University of Wisconsin menâ??s and womenâ??s hockey teams wonâ??t be built anytime soon.

UW athletic director Barry Alvarez set an early-March deadline for raising $2 million in gift funds toward the $25 million facility, which is scheduled to break ground this spring and be completed in 2012.

A motorist died early Sunday after a chase and two crashes just after midnight, UW-Madison police reported.

A UW-Madison police officer tried to stop a vehicle driven by Darrell H. Pantazes, 51, of Skokie, Ill., for going the wrong way on West Johnson Street at 12:10 a.m. Pantazes reportedly failed to stop and struck another vehicle at the intersection of University Avenue and Orchard Street, but continued westbound on University Avenue. The person in the other vehicle was taken to a hospital for precautionary measures.

A motorist who was apparently driving erratically near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was killed shortly after midnight on Sunday after crashing into another car and a traffic pole, authorities said.

A project to convert leftover food into fuel will begin construction in the spring at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and will be the first of its kind nationwide.

On the UW-Oshkosh campus, cafeteria leftovers could soon be used to power the collegeâ??s heat and electricity. The university says its planned dry fermentation anaerobic biodigester will be the first of its kind in the nation, converting campus and community yard and food waste into fuel.

On the UW-Oshkosh campus, cafeteria leftovers could soon be used to power the collegeâ??s heat and electricity.

The university says its planned dry fermentation anaerobic biodigester will be the first of its kind in the nation, converting campus and community yard and food waste into fuel.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison research employee who was convicted of having child pornography has been sentenced to six months in jail. A judge sentenced 41-year-old Sidney Gullens on Friday but granted Huber work-release privileges.