The University of Wisconsin System is seeking approval for a $35.9 million one-year budget for its ongoing plan to install a new payroll and benefits system. The Board of Regents approved the outline of the $81.4 million plan last year, but required system administrators to come back every year for approval of the budget.
Two UW-Madison students woke up with a maple tree in their living room Saturday morning, then spent part of the day replanting it because they were the ones who dragged it there in the first place. Thomas Schroeder, 21, of Menomonee Falls, and Brenton Neuharth, 21, from Eureka, S.D., were issued citations for damage to property for taking a newly planted tree out of the ground on a terrace on West Main Street near South Broom Street.
Seriously, the Silver Dollar may soon have to return to its speakeasy beginnings, because alcohol licenses are evaporating in the downtown area.
Madison police said they are investigating an arson fire after a vehicle was set on fire downtown early Wednesday morning. The arson happened shortly before 3 a.m. in the 100 block of West Johnson Street, said Lt. Joey Skenandore. No one was injured.
A week ago, UW-Madison police arrested a 21-year-old student for allegedly setting fires in two trash-filled dumpsters and in two university-owned vehicles.
A law professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., was arrested in Rwanda Friday for what are considered illegal views on the Rwandan genocide. Peter Erlinder has local ties because his daughter, Sarah Erlinder, graduated from UW-Madisonâ??s law school last year.
State officials wisely prioritized ridership in picking Downtown Madison as the best of several locations for a passenger train station. A station near Monona Terrace should provide passengers from Milwaukee, Chicago and elsewhere with easy access to the state Capitol, State Street, UW-Madison and related sporting events – as well as buses and cabs to get elsewhere in the city.
A Wisconsin prison inmate pleaded guilty Tuesday to helping his cellmate, a convicted killer, commit suicide by hanging himself from their bunk bed. Under the deal, Walters pleaded no contest to one count of assisting in the Jan. 10, 2009, suicide of 20-year-old Adam Peterson in their cell at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. Peterson, a native of Stillwater, Minn., who had dropped out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died of asphyxiation.
A report says the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is addressing concerns about student power on campus, but further clarification is needed in two areas.
The goal was simple â?? consume only as much Wisconsin beer and cheese as I could burn off biking Madisonâ??s omnipresent trails and paths. And though I saw all of Madisonâ??s many attractions from a bike saddle, I came back from my three-day adventure blissfully bloated.
When Scott Haumersen was a student at UW-Madison, he changed his major from social work to business after realizing he wouldnâ??t be able to support a family on a social workerâ??s salary, he said.But when he got his first full-time job as an accountant straight out of college â?? at Madisonâ??s Wegner CPAs & Consultants, where he remains today as managing partner â?? he brought that social-worker sensibility with him and changed the company.
Inmate Joshua Walters called out for help. His cellmate of three weeks, a 20-year-old convicted killer named Adam Peterson, was hanging from a noose made out of a bed sheet tied to their bunk bed. A note tucked in the waistband of Petersonâ??s pants apologized to the family of the stranger he had stabbed to death a year earlier. Peterson grew up in Minnesota and attended University of Wisconsin campuses in La Crosse and Madison before dropping out, developing a mental illness and committing murder.
John W. Vaudreuil, 55, has served his current position as an assistant U.S. attorney since 1980. Vaudreuil also taught as an adjunct professor at the UW-Madison Law School, where he graduated from in 1979. Vaudreuil graduated from UW-Madison in 1976.
Scientific advances and religious beliefs have clashed repeatedly in recent years over issues such as stem cell research and evolution. As nanotechnology becomes a greater part of Americansâ?? daily lives, researchers have asked whether it will face similar opposition. Experts say that the answer lies in finding solutions to the larger challenges of communicating between science and religion.
Today, Medill News Service reported on research by Dietram Scheufele, a professor of life science communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, about how religious values may shape the publicâ??s view of nanotechnology. Scheufeleâ??s continuing work studying nanotechnology and society has resulted in new research, published in the May issue of Materials Today, that addresses how Googleâ??s search suggestions may shape and how people view the field of nanotechnology.
UW-Madison Police arrested a 21-year-old UW-Madison student for allegedly setting fires in Dumpsters and university-owned vehicles early Tuesday morning, police said. Alexandrew Colin Kaufer, of Madison, was tentatively charged with four counts of felony arson and one count of carrying a concealed weapon.
UW-Madison Police arrested a 21-year-old UW-Madison student for allegedly setting fires in Dumpsters and university-owned vehicles early Tuesday morning, police said.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department said Tuesday that a suspect has been arrested in connection with arson cases. Police said that four fires were reported between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in an area south of University Avenue, north of Regent Street, east of Charter Street and west of Park Street.
Firefighters and police were busy early Tuesday morning putting out four fires set on the UW-Madison campus.
The UW Police Department said the four fires were reported between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. in an area south of University Avenue, north of Regent Street, east of Charter Street and west of Park Street. Two fires were in trash-filled dumpsters, and two were set in university-owned vehicles, said Sgt. Anita Kichefski of the UW-Madison Police Department.
Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s “risky” $251 million plan to overhaul a UW-Madison power plant seems a better bet these days after a large collection of state businesses have stepped forward with eco-friendly proposals for running it. Doyleâ??s office announced Monday that 59 businesses responded to his request for information on powering the Charter Street Heating Plant through a combination of natural gas and fuel derived from wood and agricultural waste.
Kudos to Mayor Dave and the Madison City Council for their leadership on â??getting to yesâ? on the Edgewater project this week. The historic Mansion Hill neighborhood, the adjacent University of Wisconsin, Madison residents and visitors to the area will all benefit significantly from this elegant development.
Gov. Jim Doyle says dozens of Wisconsin businesses are interested in supplying biomass products to help fuel a University of Wisconsin-Madison power plant. The governor announced Monday that 59 businesses responded to a state request to gauge interest among the private sector. Under the governorâ??s plan, the Charter Street Heating Plant is expected to stop burning coal next year and switch to a mixture of biomass fuel and natural gas.
Anyone who heard magnificent Russian accordionist Sergei Belkin play at the UW-Madison spring band concert or at the 32nd annual Rudy Burkhalter Memorial Accordion Jamboree in Oregon is aware of the uniqueness of the accordion, which should become Wisconsinâ??s official state musical instrument.
There will be injured victims, squad cars, and police with guns drawn. But donâ??t worry, this is just a test. UW-Madison will conduct a full-scale emergency response exercise on Wednesday, May 26 near Bradley Residence Hall, 1900 Willow Drive.
Companies and institutions looking to brighten their office space on a budget are turning to used furniture as a less-expensive and greener strategy. Affordable Office Interiors recently completed a project for the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health that incorporated reused and remanufactured furniture.Jennifer Quale, facilities planning specialist for the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said the university works with multiple furniture vendors and has implemented a purchasing contract for recycled furniture, both as a cost-savings measure and as a way to work toward sustainable designs.
After a year of passionate, polarizing debate and a final marathon meeting, the Madison City Council approved the Hammes Co.â??s proposed $98 million redevelopment of the historic Edgewater hotel. The council, after an eight-hour public hearing featuring an A list of movers and shakers, historic preservationists, hoteliers and residents, and four more hours of questions for staff and debate, cast five separate votes to move forward one of the most controversial developments in recent city memory. Bob Harlan and Pat Richter — the former Green Bay Packers chief executive officer and former University of Wisconsin athletic director, respectively — praised Hammesâ?? work on the Lambeau Field renovation and the Kohl Center.UW-Madison, the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Trek Bicycles, Downtown Madison Inc., and organized labor also enthusiastically supported the project.
Cooking from scratch takes more effort, but University of Wisconsin-Parkside Chancellor Deborah Ford knows it will yield a better finished product.
Her recommendation to stop accepting new students into the schoolâ??s teacher education program was, as she termed it in a letter, “a bold action.” And a necessary one, as the universityâ??s Faculty Senate affirmed last week.
Last year, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz told us the city scheduled many downtown road construction projects at once to get it all over with.
Congratulations to longtime Madison progressive leader Helen Vukelich and community organizer and advocate for the homeless Cynthia Lin for the honors bestowed on them this week by the Social Justice Center.
….Lin received the centerâ??s Visionary Award. As a young activist, she has served as a volunteer organizer with Operation Welcome Home, a group of people affected by homelessness. Sheâ??s also a board member of Freedom Inc., a group that does community organizing and anti-violence work in low-income communities of color.
Employed by the UW-Madisonâ??s Multicultural Student Center, she trains students on social justice, community organizing and social movement topics.
Immigration reform is back on the American publicâ??s agenda, catapulted into the headlines with the passage of a controversial Arizona law that sent thousands of demonstrators into the streets across the country on May 1. Yet there is no legislation before Congress, and Democrats are floating only an outline for reform in the Senate. Where are these efforts heading, and where does immigration reform fit in American society? Reporter Pat Schneider of The Capital Times talks with Doris Meissner, commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Bill Clinton, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Meissner, a Milwaukee native who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. She was in Madison recently to speak to the Madison Committee on Foreign Relations.
Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, has stated that student achievement is the purpose of education. What is meant by “student achievement?”…If he has an explanation of “student achievement,” itâ??s his duty to explain the means of analysis and policies clearly. Otherwise he needs to have and explain a clearer conception of “the purpose of education.”
The city of Madison said that construction projects that will impact traffic will begin Monday at two University Avenue intersections and on Broom Street.
Madison traffic planners are backing off a directive to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to rebuild streets and intersections surrounding the Charter Street power plant.
The traffic tie-up of the summer, hands down, should be the shutdown of Park Street from Johnson Street to University Avenue.
But thatâ??s only one of a half-dozen street projects beginning Monday in the UW-Madison campus area, projects that will cause a summer of headaches for commuters heading into and out of downtown from the west side.
The work centers around the final phase of the East Campus Utility Project, according to the UW-Madison facilities department.
Converting the aging coal-burning Charter Street Heating Plant into one of the greenest facilities of its kind is coming at a price.
The new facility, which received initial approval from the city Plan Commission Monday night, will have the capacity to burn wood chips, corn stalks or other biomass.
But including biomass in the fuel mix has added at least $50 million in cost to the estimated $250 million power plant, the most expensive single project in UW-Madison history.
If a rezoning amendment approved Monday night by the Plan Commission moves forward, UW-Madisonâ??s Charter Street Heating Plant will be renovated and expanded to burn biomass and natural gas instead of coal. The $250 million project will transform the plant that has been burning coal since the 1860s, said Alan Fish, UWâ??s associate vice chancellor for facilities. The project includes demolishing part of the facility on the south side of the UW-Madison campus and building a biomass fuel handling and storage facility there.
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is considering suspending admission to the schoolâ??s teacher certification program and dissolving the teacher education department.
Chancellor Deborah Ford announced her intent Friday to close admission to the long-troubled University of Wisconsin-Parkside teacher licensure program and dissolve the Teacher Education Department.
A body of a 17-year-old male found on the UW-Richland campus Wednesday night was that of a missing Richland Center youth who apparently committed suicide, according to the Richland County Sheriffâ??s Department.
Crabb, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1962, served in the 1970s as a federal magistrate.
(Also has photo of Ted Crabb.)
As direct witness to the tragedy of heroin addiction among our young, I found the opening of your series on the killer drug lacking in its explanation of significant reasons for its increased local presence. Noted UW-Madison historian Alfred McCoy and others have shown that increased domestic flows of heroin have long been related to this nationâ??s foreign policy and military ventures.
The James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate can be found on the fourth floor of the UW-Madison School of Business building. To the right of the entrance is a montage of drawings of the legendary professor, who died in 1988, interspersed with several rubrics that have guided generations of real estate developers, appraisers and analysts.
The coordinators of the new Charter Street Heating Plant invited the public to voice their opinions after a presentation detailing the projectâ??s environmental impact Wednesday night.
University of Wisconsin System officials have plans to graduate far more students, and now theyll start talking about how to pay for them.
Since U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, critics have declared what they think of her: A Marxist. A moron. A disgrace. Crabb, a 31-year veteran of the bench in this liberal state capital, has faced harsh criticism before. In her ruling last month, Crabb said the law creating the tradition being observed Thursday is an unconstitutional call to religious action. Crabb graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1962.
Easing their way into awarding four-year degrees, some community colleges around the country have begun offering applied baccalaureate degrees with a technical, workforce-ready focus. Two-year colleges in Wisconsin, however, are lobbying the state system to let them offer a different kind of applied baccalaureate â?? one with a liberal arts focus and aimed at rural, place-bound adults.
In June, the University of Wisconsin Colleges, the stateâ??s 13 associate-degree awarding institutions, plan to present a comprehensive proposal to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to introduce the bachelor of applied arts and sciences (B.A.A.S.) degree. If the proposal is approved by the board, the new degree program would be offered on a pilot basis, starting in the fall of 2011, at six of the systemâ??s two-year colleges in cooperation with six of the systemâ??s comprehensive universities.
If you use UW-Madison text messaging, e-mail and the campus phone system, and all three display warnings at the same time, donâ??t panic.
A full-scale test of WiscAlerts, the campus emergency notification system, is coming on Thursday, sometime between noon and 2 p.m., the first time the university is testing all three systems simultaneously. The test will include all 20,000 subscribers to WiscAlerts-Text, 78,000 campus e-mail users and 21,000 Centrex phone users on campus.
The UW-Systemâ??s annual accountability report shows more students enrolled in Wisconsinâ??s public universities and colleges are graduating. But while minority students are enrolling in larger numbers, their retention and graduation rates still trail those of white students.Last year, the UW-System had a record enrollment, with nearly 179,000 students attending its 26 campuses.
Noted: Security officers in such institutions face two crucial problems. One is funding, which ranked first in the survey. The chemistry department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for instance, has one IT person overseeing 1,300 computers used by 500 staff and several thousand students. In such a climate, says departmental chairman Robert Hamers, “itâ??s just very limiting in terms of what you can actually expect one person to do”. Last year, Hamersâ?? department suffered a breach. In the absence of a firewall (now installed), foreign hackers infiltrated 40 computers, installing software that turned those systems into file-sharing servers for copyrighted music, movies and television programmes.
Peter O. Johnson was a relative newcomer to the horse racing industry when he arrived at the sportâ??s mecca on May 6, 2006, and watched Barbaro race to a victory in the Kentucky Derby. As Johnson left Churchill Downs that day, the longtime Madison resident made a vow to sons Peter Jr. and Erik that he wouldnâ??t return until he had a horse in the race. Johnson grew up in Monroe and graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He dated the woman who is now his wife in college, but Peter and Ellen went their separate ways after UW until reuniting some 30 years later following divorces from their respective spouses.
Madison is not merely a transportation hub.
It is a great American city, with a rich history, a bright future and a vibrant heart. That heart is downtown, on the isthmus that separates Lakes Monona and Mendota.
The point here is not to suggest that the cityâ??s neighborhoods to the north, east, west and south are not vital to its character and future. But cities need central reference points, and the isthmus is that for Madison. So the Madison City Council was right to signal that the coming high-speed rail line must have a downtown station.
Public universities including UW-Madison could be required to provide recognition and funds for student groups that limit membership on the basis of beliefs if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of a California campus Christian group.
Phil Porter paints the landscape and buildings of Madison â?? some designed by his great-grandfather, architect Lew F. Porter. The elder Porter supervised construction of the state Capitol and designed buildings at the UW-Madison campus including the Red Gym. Phil Porterâ??s playful paintings often feature two suns â?? one for himself and one for his famous relative.
I recently received the University of Wisconsin Systemâ??s “Fact Book 09-10” in the mail.The publication is designed to “serve as a reference guide to UW System statistics and general information.”
For a stats geek, itâ??s an interesting read.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that Susan Hedman would be the new regional administrator. The Midwest region includes Wisconsin. Hedman graduated from Ripon College in Ripon, and earned a masters degree from the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979. She is also a graduate of the UW-Madison law school and earned a Ph.D. at the schoolâ??s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in 1989.
Arnold Weiss, one of five recipients of the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Wisconsin Alumni Association, which will be presented Thursday on campus, had an illustrious career in international investment banking. A company he helped create became the worldâ??s largest private equity firm investing in new markets like Korea and South America. But the most striking â?? perhaps the real word is incredible â?? aspect of Weissâ??s resume is something that occurred when he was barely into his 20s. It happened in a dry well behind a farmhouse in Germany, far from any bank vault. Arnold Weiss found Adolf Hitlerâ??s will.
Arnold Weiss, one of five recipients of the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Wisconsin Alumni Association, which will be presented Thursday on campus, had an illustrious career in international investment banking.
A company he helped create became the worldâ??s largest private equity firm investing in new markets like Korea and South America.
But the most striking â?? perhaps the real word is incredible â?? aspect of Weissâ??s resume is something that occurred when he was barely into his 20s.
Does Fidoâ??s breath smell like he just ate a dead mouse?
Well bucko, youâ??re in luck. Learn how to brush your dogâ??s teeth and even how to give CPR to your cuddly canine at the second annual UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine open house.
Calling all University of Wisconsin alumni: wear red to show your school spirit.The Wisconsin Alumni Association has designated Friday, April 23 Spirit Day, as part of Alumni Weekend.
….”The Princeton Reviewâ??s Guide to 286 Green Colleges” was released Tuesday and is based on a survey of hundreds of colleges nationwide. It “profiles the nationâ??s most environmentally-responsible campuses.”
Locally, UW-Madison and Edgewood College did not make the cut.
Harrison Schmitt is no stranger to the Capitol City, heâ??s taught graduate courses at the UW. However, Monday night, the astronaut had a different message and a timely one, at that.
