Critics of $20 million in budget cuts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee plan a noon rally Monday. The protesters, which are expected to include students and staff, are calling for a cut in tuition, for rescinding a pay cut for university employees and rescinding budget cuts.
On the first day of classes this fall, some UW-Whitewater students did something no one has experienced on this campus in more than 20 years.
Over $74,400 in inappropriate purchases made by state employees on items, including a vacation package to Las Vegas, a personal laptop and expensive tickets to a theater production, were identified by the Legislative Audit Bureau Wednesday in an audit of purchasing card use.
The Mifflin and Dayton neighborhood could see some major changes in the future, with Madisonâ??s Planning Department considering redevelopment of the historic area.
A group that was hired by the University of Wisconsin System to perform a multimillion dollar overhaul to the Human Resource payroll computer system, and which is currently under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission, presented its case at the UW System Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
A committee of University of Wisconsin System regents approved plans Thursday for an $81.4 million payroll system despite concerns over the cost and uncertainty surrounding the consulting firm on the project.
A key UW Board of Regents committee voted to support an $81 million dollar computer overhaul to the UW systemâ??s payroll program, after the top executive with the projectâ??s chief consultant told members his firmâ??s work was sound, despite a continuing federal investigation.
Almost three-quarters (73%) of American colleges and universities are reporting cases of influenza-like illnesses among students, with the highest rates in the Southeast and Midwest, the American College Health Association says.
A consulting firm set to win millions in business from the University of Wisconsin System is facing an investigation and numerous lawsuits over accounting irregularities, and the systemâ??s top official is reviewing the firmâ??s participation in a planned computer project.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater cannot sue a former dean accused of misusing school money because it waited too long and failed to prove any purchases were for his personal benefit, a judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller last week threw out the university’s countersuit against former College of Letters and Sciences Dean Howard Ross. The judge ordered a trial on Ross’ claims that he was singled out by a racist auditor and later demoted because he is black.
Madison police said a pedestrian who is recovering from injuries suffered in a crash on campus Tuesday could receive a ticket.
Police said the victim was not using a crosswalk and walked into the path of a car at the intersection of Babcock Drive and University Avenue.
Researchers at UW-Madison have discovered that monkeys respond emotionally to music (see www.news.wisc.edu/17030). This study provides more evidence – in addition to very much that we already have about cognition, emotions and relationships – that monkeys are so similar to people that this research cannot be considered ethical.
MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge said the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater canâ??t collect damages from a former dean accused of misusing school money.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said the university waited until after a two-year statute of limitations expired to sue former College of Letters and Sciences Dean Howard Ross over the alleged breach.
A number of higher education institutions have assigned Judge Denny Chin some reading for Tuesday.
Chin, the federal judge who is presiding over Authorâ??s Guild et al. v. Google, Inc., has been inundated with letters and amicus briefs in advance of the September 7 deadline for participants in the class action to opt out of a settlement over the company’s controversial Google Books project that has received preliminary approval from the court. A handful of the documents have come from professors, university libraries, and advocacy groups.
Most — including the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Abilene Christian University, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, the United States Distance Learning Association, and the United States Student Association — have written in support of the settlement.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison, like Michigan a partner library, wrote in support, stating, â??[a]s a contributor to the project for several years, UW-Madison is familiar with the concerns expressed about the settlement and the project overall. We remain supportive, however, of this settlement as a unique compromise providing mutual benefits to the named parties and interested groups that could not be obtained through advanced litigation.â?
The University of Wisconsin System plans to spend $81.4 million to implement a more efficient payroll and benefits computer system, with the majority going to outside consultants, officials said Wednesday.UW System President Kevin Reilly gave lawmakers the price tag and a projected completion date of 2012 for one of the most complicated information technology projects in state history.
There are certain majors students pursue in college that tend to make parents shudder with fear.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow had an unorthodox start to his annual all-university address.
“My parents told me not to use the ‘f’ word in polite conversations and certainly not at events like this,” said Gow. “That word is furloughs.”
A new semester started at the University of Wisconsin Rock County on Wednesday morning, and in 40 years the two-year college has never seen so many students come through the door.
Early Monday morning, a 19-year old downtown resident called for police after returning home to find her apartment on the 600 block North Frances Street burglarized. The victim, and her roommates, had left around 10:00 p.m. to go out. Surveillance footage shows a suspected burglar entering the hallway of the residence shortly after 11:00 p.m. He appears to be turning door handles looking for an unlocked apartment. When he finds the victimâ??s apartment unsecured, he listens to hear if anyone might be inside. Determining not, he enters. The victimâ??s wallet – containing money and credit cards – was stolen.
At a busy Madison Common Council meeting on Tuesday night, council members voted to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.
At Tuesday nightâ??s meeting, the mayor introduced his proposed capital budget and council members discussed funding for the plastic bag recycling program. The new mascot was debated for five minutes, and then the Common Council voted 15-4 to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.
The idea was by a 1979 prank on Bascom Hill when the Pail and Shovel Party on campus put out 1,008 of the birds.
Bravo to UW-Madison for ending their advertising contract with MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev. That decision puts the university and state in a position to deal more effectively with alcohol abuse.
Ending this advertising contract for the radio broadcasting of UW sporting events caused the UW Athletic Department to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in income. However, now the department has advertising space to sell, which gives businesses the opportunity to be good corporate citizens.
Three roads that have been closed for most of the summer due to construction on University Avenue are open, but the overall project will continue to clog traffic through mid-September, city of Madison officials announced.
Madison-Dane County Public Health announced its plans to fight the virus’ spread.
It’s estimated nearly 2-million Americans could find themselves in the hospital this Fall, suffering from the H1N1 virus. The message from Madison-Dane County Public Health – get vaccinated.
“Maybe about 40 percent of people who are recommended to get seasonal flu shot have gotten them historically. We would like to see it much higher than that… hopefully around 70-80 percent.”
Concerns over a massive outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus has Dane County leaders preparing for the worst.
You can tell it’s almost flu season at Home Health United: packets for immunizations are stacking up. They run more than 1,000 mobile flu immunization clinics. This year, there will be double the vaccinations.
Ideally, about 50 new academic staff positions would be crated through a significant tuition increase at UW-Eau Claire so more students could graduate in four years, Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich said after Tuesday’s State of the University address.
In addition to those teaching positions, he said advisers and other support staff also should be hired.
MADISON â?? Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler along with Madison attorneys William Conley and David Jones have been recommended for a federal judgeship. U.S. Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold forwarded the names of the finalists to President Barack Obama on Friday to replace U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, who is taking senior status.
(Butler is Justice in Residence and a lecturer at the UW Law School. He and Conley are alumni of the school.)
Answers for a man suffering from amnesia in Seattle might be hidden in Madison.
Picture waking up: and not knowing who you are. That’s what happened to a man in Seattle two weeks ago.
Family members have since told the Seattle Times they believe he’s 53-year-old Edward Lighthart.
Noted: John Lucas, a spokesman at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said that Edward Lighthart graduated in 1984 with a bachelorâ??s degree in French. Before that, he had attended the University of Arizona and Pima County Community College, both in Tucson. He also attended the Culinary Institute of America.
Madison police want your help to find a bank robbery suspect.
The man is suspected of robbing the UW Credit Union on State Street Thursday afternoon. The man showed the teller a note and said he had a weapon, but didn’t show one.
Here’s a mystery with a UW-Madison connection. This man with amnesia can’t remember his name, but claims he attended UW-Madison many years ago.
When the Seattle Times contacted the State Journal this week looking for help on the story, we checked records and paged through archived newspapers from the mid-1980s, but found no record of him or his Wisconsin wife Tina, who he remembers dying.
According to this press release, attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the University of Wisconsin-Madison on behalf of a student group.
This organization is arguing that the group Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow on the UW-Madison campus was denied access to student fees because of the viewpoints it expresses.
Hereâ??s a mystery with a UW-Madison connection.
This man with amnesia canâ??t remember his name, but claims he attended UW-Madison many years ago.
When the Seattle Times contacted the State Journal this week looking for help on the story, we checked records and paged through archived newspapers from the mid-1980s, but found no record of him or his Wisconsin wife Tina, who he remembers dying.Update: A Seattle Times reader identified the man as Edward Lighthart, an English teacher he knew in China. Iâ??m checking to see if the UW-Madison connection holds up.
Wisconsin is launching an electronic transcript initiative that will allow high school and college students in the state to use Docufide, a secure transcript service, for a discount. The project is being sponsored by a group of higher education organizations, including the University of Wisconsin System, the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Wisconsin Technical College System, the Department of Public Instruction, and Midwestern Higher Education Compact. So far, 13 schools have asked to be pilot schools to try the service.
Waukesha-based businessman Scott Acker admits he was warned about trying to get quick approval from the city of Madison for a giant new restaurant and sports bar inside University Square.”Now I know what everybody meant,” says Acker, who is pursuing a $4 million, three-floor development inside the mixed-use complex at the corner of West Johnson and Lake streets. It would include the Badger Hall of Fame Grill, a restaurant, banquet hall and bar with a 900-person capacity.
Madison Metro buses will be returning Monday to three streets that have been under construction this summer.
Routes 4, 6 and 29 will return to regular service on lower State Street and Lake Street, while Routes 4 and 44 will resume regular service on Mills Street between University Avenue and Erin Street. Route 13 will resume regular service on Lake Street and Mills Street.
UW-Madison will be able to move ahead with a nearly $53 million addition and renovation to the School of Human Ecology following approval from a state committee Wednesday.
The project consists of renovation of the existing building, 1300 Linden Drive, and a 100,000 square-foot expansion to the west that includes an underground parking garage.
Fifty state workers who handle vehicle registrations and titles are being offered overtime to help reduce a work backlog days after all state Division of Motor Vehicles offices were closed Friday for a furlough day.
But the DMV unit in question is still paying less overtime this summer â?? about $8,000 instead of the $17,000 paid last summer â?? said Chris Klein, the No. 3 official at the state Department of Transportation. Klein said the backlog accumulated before the furlough.
Motorists expecting to use Observatory Drive on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will have to wait at least another week and possibly longer for roadwork to end.
The project is one of many on or near the campus that has tied up traffic and given headaches to motorists for the bulk of the summer.
Observatory Drive has been closed between North Park Street and Charter Street and the westbound lane was supposed to reopen today (Monday, Aug. 10), and the eastbound lane on Wednesday, but now it won’t happen until next week, according to university officials.
When Mike Knetter took the helm of the UW-Madison School of Business in July 2002, the nation was still reeling from the technology bust of 2000-01 as well as from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But within several years, Knetter managed to wrangle major contributions to the Business School, restructure its MBA program and raise its standing significantly among influential magazine polls.
Motorists using Randall Avenue should look for an alternate route Friday night into Saturday morning as a construction company removes a tower crane, officials warned.
The 300 block of North Randall Avenue south of University Avenue will be closed beginning at 6 p.m. Friday (today).
The Waisman Center on the UW Madison campus is one of the premier facilities in the world for advancing knowledge about human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases. Its mission of research, training, service and outreach put it squarely in the lives of doctors, students, scientists and especially families with a person with a developmental disability. Despite its profound impact on the quality of life for so many, it remains for most folks an underappreciated resource in this community. And that?s why we so love the annual Films in the Field.
A man suffered head injuries after falling 30 to 40 feet on the UW-Madison campus on Thursday night.
The UW-Madison Police Department and the Madison Fire Department responded to the Wendt Library around 11:30 p.m. for a report that a man had fallen.
The Kollege Klub, a popular campus bar, will close its doors for 30 days this winter.
Madison’s Alcohol License Review Committee suspended the bar’s license on Thursday.
The Downtown bar Kollege Klub would close for 30 days in December and January under an agreement reached Thursday by the barâ??s management and the city attorneyâ??s office in response to a police complaint listing multiple fights and other incidents at the bar in 2007 and 2008.
Police say a man fell 30 to 40 feet in a construction zone on the UW campus overnight.
It happened on the north side of Wendt Library.
Investigators say it appears the 24-year-old was trying to enter a construction site just north of the building when he fell. He was taken to the hospital with head injuries.
A popular bar near the University of Wisconsin-Madison that police unsuccessfully tried to penalize this year for a series of fights and underage drinking incidents likely will still face sanctions.
Madison police have filed a new complaint against the Kollege Klub, 529 N. Lake St., leveling the same charges it did in May when it tried to block its annual liquor license renewal.
Police agreed to withdraw that complaint after learning the city had negotiated a deal with the bar owners to place conditions on their license.
MADISON, Wis. — If you’re a woman and you just don’t get football, University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema can help.
Bielema plans to host an event called Football 101 for Women on Thursday at Camp Randall Stadium. The event is a breast-cancer fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
A University of Wisconsin chancellor says three groups of educators in the state were not treated equally when budget cuts were doled out.
UW-Stout Chancellor Charles Sorensen says itâ??s time someone spoke out against the pay cuts and furloughs imposed on the UW system when higher education plays a big role in the stateâ??s future economic growth. He says someone has to say whatâ??s really good for the UW system is competitive salaries for faculty.
The Chancellor points to technical school teachers and K-12 teachers who are not facing the same salary cuts. He says his concern is that educators are being treated differently, that tech school faculty members are getting raises while UW faculty have taken pay cuts. (Third item.)
A 31-year-old Milwaukee woman was mugged early Saturday morning while walking back to her hotel in downtown Madison, police said.
The incident took place about 2:20 a.m. in the 20 block of Langdon Street.
One of the lasting questions of World War II is, when faced with unimaginable evil all around them, what did ordinary people do?
The consensus generally says that, in Nazi Germany, they did nothing. But a new book about resistance efforts by ordinary citizens of Berlin prior to World War II not only shows that some people tried, but that some who did so had strong Wisconsin ties.
Madison police are looking for two men who allegedly pushed a woman to the ground, displayed a knife and took her purse, identification and cell phone.
The incident occurred at the corner of Spring and Charter streets near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus around midnight Friday, the Madison Police Department reported.
UW-Madison Police and Madison Area Crimestoppers need your help in solving a theft at Grainger Hall on the 900 block of University Avenue.
Police say the incident happened July 17, between 12:30 a.m. and 5 a.m.
The chairs were secured by chain locks but were broken. A small number of chairs were recovered nearby. Sixty-five chairs are still missing. Officials say its at an expense of about $17,000.
Same-sex couples in Wisconsin can begin registering for the state’s new domestic partner benefits registry on Monday.
Experts said that they expect thousands of couples will register in the first year alone.
The registry grants rights to receive survivorship and inheritance rights the ability to visit an ailing partner in a hospital and take family medical leave. These partnerships only provide 43 of those more than 200 rights held by married couples, WISC-TV reported.
MADISON (WKOW) — UW-Madison professor emeritus of computer science David DeWitt is being honored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
DeWitt was named the recipient of the 2009 Emanuel R. Piore Award this month. The IEEE cited DeWitt’s work in developing database architecture and his role in building one of the world’s foremost academic database research groups.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison reported that, to date, it has received 90 awards totaling more than $26.5 million in stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Funded projects range from stem cell research to Antarctic weather stations and bioenergy projects, and more could be on the way.
According to Kim Moreland, director of UW-Madison’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the flow of stimulus money to UW is probably going to increase as more national agencies continue the process of vetting proposals.
New prez affects Discovery Institute: Upon the completion of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery in December 2010, UW-Madison will take over the “public” Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, while the private, non-profit side, the Morgridge Institute for Research, will share the building.
Students registering for fall classes this summer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will see a 30% increase in the number of online classes, but the convenience comes with a price: as much as $275 per course on top of regular tuition.
Currently 14 of the 18 members of the UW Board of Regents are selected by the governor. The other members consist of two student representatives, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction and a representative of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board.
A bill by an Eau Claire representative would require that seven of the 14 members picked by the governor come from separate geographic regions of the state. The requirement would take effect in 2015.
The number of burglaries in Madison so far this year is well below the number for the same period in 2008, Madison police reported Wednesday.
Data released by Madison Police Chief Noble Wray show a 53 percent decline in the number of burglaries â?? from 1,059 burglaries in the first six months of 2008 to 497 burglaries since January of this year.
