Category: UW-Madison Related

The University of Wisconsin Credit Union will donate $215,000 to need-based scholarships at UW-Madison and match contributions from its members today through Dec. 31, university officials said Wednesday.

In addition, the UW Foundation will match total gifts from the credit union and its members. That means a donation from a credit union member of $100, for example, would yield $400 for the university.

This is part of the UW Foundation’s initiative, “Great People. Great Place.” The foundation has set aside $20 million to match private gifts designated to need-based scholarships.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Four University of Wisconsin chancellors will have to wait for raises that had been expected to be approved this week.

University System spokesman David Giroux says the Board of Regents will not take up the raises on Friday because of “turmoil and uncertainty in our nation’s economy.”

Dear Editor:

Science, technology and innovation matter to everyone!

Sixty-one Nobel laureates in science just announced their support of Barack Obama for president. They know how much science matters; and they know that Obama’s science and technology policies are an essential component of any plans to change our direction as a nation and address our critical problems in energy, medicine, climate change, security and economic competitiveness.

We, UW-Madison physics professors emeriti, have watched with great concern the loss of industrial jobs throughout Wisconsin, and the resulting growth of our economic problems.

The people involved in the failed search for a chancellor at UW-Parkside could have done a better job of sharing information about the top candidate, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly said Friday.

Reilly commissioned a review of the search process used to choose chancellors at all System schools after Robert Felner, who was hired as chancellor of UW-Parkside last spring, resigned amid a federal criminal investigation in Kentucky.

The consultant hired to review the University of Wisconsinâ??s screening process after a failed chancellor search at UW-Parkside recommended changes in checking finalistsâ?? references, including possibly visiting their home campuses.

Chadwick Becker remembers the day he was introduced to the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society. He was sitting in his dorm room on the Iowa State campus when his roommate ran in and told him he had to come and check something out.

What he saw were guys and girls dressed in medieval dress, wielding cushioned swords and shields as they fought one another. That was seven years ago. Once he saw it, he was hooked.

“I haven’t been able to stop,” said Becker, 25, of Illinois. “I do it for the physical activity. You have to be fast and quick. It’s like a sport.”

Becker was among a dozen Belegarth members who were demonstrating their skills at the second Geek.kon convention held Saturday and Sunday on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

MADISON â?? Four University of Wisconsin chancellors are slated to receive pay raises of between 3.5 percent and nearly 5 percent.

The Board of Regents will consider the raises at its meeting in Stevens Point next week. The raises would take effect Oct. 3.

Milwaukee chancellor Carlos Santiago, who has held the position since 2004, would see a 4.99 percent raise under the proposal. His salary would go from $280,550 to $294,550 with another $20,000 paid by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Foundation.

Frequenters of downtown Madison will not be able to celebrate the completion of State Street construction for long, as city planners met Thursday to discuss various construction projects that will last until 2013.

Four University of Wisconsin chancellors are slated to receive pay raises of between 3.5 percent and nearly 5 percent.

The Board of Regents will consider the raises at its meeting next week.

A man was arrested Wednesday night after a State Street apartment resident reported that someone was trying to cut or rip his window screen, Madison police reported.

Two officers patrolling the area responded and arrested Samuel L. Coffee III, 39, no permanent address. Coffee was jailed on tentative charges of burglary and six counts of bail jumping.

According to police, a 22-year-old man reported that he was in his apartment in the 500 block of State Street around 11 p.m. Wednesday when he heard someone outside in the area of a fire escape, trying to cut or rip his window screen.

A Dane County jail inmate accused of first-degree intentional homicide tried to commit suicide early Thursday morning, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office reported.

The inmate, described as a 20-year-old man from Stillwater, Minn., fit the description of Adam Peterson, who has pleaded not guilty in the stabbing death of Madison resident Joel Marino.

While many University of Wisconsin students are still waiting to get their 15 minutes of fame, one graduate has already secured herself a place in reality TV history.

A 20-year-old male inmate awaiting trial on a charge of first-degree intentional homicide attempted suicide in the Dane County Jail early Thursday morning, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

The inmate from Stillwater, Minn., attempted to hang himself in the shower with his jail-issued uniform pants, but was rescued by a deputy and was conscious and alert after the rescue, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

….The Sheriff’s Office has a policy of not releasing the names of inmates who attempt suicide. However, 20-year-old Adam Peterson of Stillwater, Minn., is being held in the jail on a charge of first-degree intentional homicide for the January death of 31-year-old Joel Marino.

A science historian at UW-Madison has been named interim director of the University’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

Gregg Mitman, 47, is a professor of history of science, medical history, science and technology studies and environmental studies.

Provost Pat Farrell, who announced the two-year appointment Wednesday, said Mitman will help the Nelson Institute meet the goals of a new university-wide strategic plan while addressing the environmental challenges of the 21st century.

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, ousted in a bitter campaign last spring which featured unprecedented money spent in a court race in the state, will be the next Justice in Residence at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Law School Dean Kenneth B. Davis Jr. announced Wednesday that Butler will return to his alma mater to teach at the school for the next two years.

MADISON, Wis. — Organizers and Madison’s mayor have announced the lineup of bands and entertainment stages for Freakfest, the city-sanctioned Halloween party on State Street.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced Wednesday that O.A.R. will headline Madison’s Freakfest 2008 on Saturday, Nov. 1. This year, the city is again partnering with Frank Productions to feature live entertainment at the event.

Local interest in the latest version of CBS’ hit series “Survivor” will be high starting Thursday night: One of the 18 competitors is a UW-Madison graduate.

Jacquie Berg, a 2005 graduate who originally hailed from Woodbury, Minn., is a member of the “Survivor: Gabon” cast, with the show debuting at 7 p.m. Thursday, the show’s 17th season on the network.

More than 100 Milwaukee Area Technical College students will be offered emergency loans from the school because a private student lender doesnâ??t have the cash to provide loans on time.

Students with Edamerica loans at UW-Madison, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout had three- to four-week delays in receiving their checks but have gotten their money, UW System spokesman David Giroux said.

Under a new collaborative program, doctorate-level students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s art history program and UW-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture can take classes at the other university.

In addition, UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden will speak at 7 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center. He leads a UW research team recently awarded a grant to improve the state’s ability to collect accurate election returns.

State spending on the University of Wisconsin System has trailed inflation and overall state spending, according to a report by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. The report shows state funding for UW nearly doubled between 1983 and 2007. But state aid and tax credits for primary and secondary schools more than tripled, as did overall state spending, while inflation also contributed to the disparity.

Would-be First Lady Michelle Obama also campaigned across the state on Monday, making stops in Madison, the Milwaukee suburbs and Wausau. She targeted women and college students during a campaign stop at UW-Madison on Monday morning before about 1,800 people.

Michelle Obama made a stop in Madison on Monday, and challenged supporters of her husband’s presidential campaign to engage with their friends and neighbors on the issues

MADISON — Michelle Obama didn’t mention John McCain or Sarah Palin in her remarks today at a rally in a park near the University of Wisconsinâ??s football stadium. But she did make it clear that her husband, Barack Obama, is more in touch with issues that affect average Americans than his rival.

Michelle Obama will visit Madison Monday to campaign for her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and to kick off â??Womenâ??s Week of Action.â? The event will be held at 10 a.m. at the GAR Memorial Park at Camp Randall. Doors will open at 9 a.m.

As a Wisconsin taxpayer with a master’s degree in music education, I’m glad to see that UW-Madison’s School of Music will (probably) be getting better music performance halls. These improvements are much needed.

About 100 chronically drunken and disorderly individuals are the main cause of problems in Downtown Madison, and they cost the community hundreds of thousands of dollars in public safety resources annually, according to a new study by the Madison Police Department and United Way of Dane County.

Working with social service agencies, police and a UW-Madison Law School class, Balles compiled reports on people who repeatedly turned up in police reports about incidents Downtown — from disorderly conduct and public intoxication to assault and robbery — and cross-checked them with those who passed through homeless shelter services, the county jail, the detoxification center and other programs.

Michelle Obama will be in Madison on Monday at the Women’s Week of Action rally.

She will appear at Camp Randall where the rally is expected to start at 10 a.m.

Results from the first ever Big Ten Battleground Poll revealed Thursday just how close the presidential race is in the eight states with Big Ten schools.

D.C.A. Hillman isn’t on a mission to change the world. He just wants people to understand it a little bit better.

The Madison author of “The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization” is trying to open a few eyes about ancient history. Drugs were an everyday part of life in ancient Greece and Rome, Hillman writes in the book, and an influence on the arts, philosophy and politics on which our own culture is based.

(Carol Newlands, chair of the Classics department, is quoted.)

More than 600 UW-Madison students are waiting for overdue financial aid and tuition refund checks from the university, a few worth as much as $10,000.

The checks, about $1.6 million in total, are more than two weeks late.

A man who was found naked lying on a couch in the basement of the home of one of Madison’s elite power couples has been ordered to appear in court to face charges of criminal trespass to property and criminal damage to property.

Andrew D. Martin, 28, of 1334 Jenifer St., was found Aug. 27 in the basement of the lakeside Morrison Street home of Alan Fish and Susan Goodwin. Fish is associate chancellor for facilities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison while Goodwin is the chief of staff for Gov. Jim Doyle. Neither was home at the time of incident, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Dane County Circuit Court.

Big Ten Network, most well-known for its extensive college-football and basketball coverage, is leaving the sports arenas and entering the political arena with a new election special.

Big Ten Battleground: Campaign 2008 is a 90-minute program that will air nationally on Big Ten Network Sept. 18 at 4 p.m. (EST). The special is based upon the results of the Big Ten Battleground Poll, a collaboration between a number of the Big Ten universities to measure voter sentiment in the eight Big Ten states, many of which will be key to the election outcome.

The Big Ten Network is offering something other than sports today.

U-W Madison political science professor Charles Franklin discusses the results of a Midwest political poll aimed at determining the attitudes of voters in the eight states where the Big Ten Conference is located. But, isn’t the Big Ten Network all about sports?

The Dog Jog, a two-mile run/walk sponsored by the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine on Sunday, raised $29,000 to help care for homeless animals.

The money goes to area humane society and shelter organizations.

I usually am a big supporter of the SAFE (Safe Arrival For Everyone) Nighttime Services. However, this past Saturday night I had a pretty unpleasant experience with SAFEride. After a house party my roommates and I hosted, everybody was heading home. There were three freshman women remaining who called for a SAFEride to the same Southeast dorm from the Vilas neighborhood. When the cab got here, the third woman was turned away as per SAFErideâ??s policy of no more than two riders to a cab. The woman reminded the driver of the dangerous situation recently developing in the Vilas area, specifically the multiple armed robberies within a few blocks of our house, and asked him to forgive the rule. He bluntly responded with â??I donâ??t care,â? so she returned to our house to seek our help. As my roommate approached the cab to speak with the driver, the taxi pulled away, leaving her on our doorstep.

UW-Madison will continue to be a major center of European studies for at least the next three years thanks to a $450,000 grant from the European Commission.

The grant, to the UW-Madison European Union Center of Excellence, was announced Tuesday. It continues funding the center through 2011.

Five hundred dogs barked, howled, growled, whimpered, ran, sat, panted, sniffed and greeted each other with varying degrees of friendliness.

It was the 25th annual Dog Jog, put on by the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine to raise money for humane societies in the area with registration fees and pledges.

The dogs brightened a cloudy, drizzly Sunday morning with their exuberant energy and varied sizes, shapes and personalities.

Cold weather and the threat of rain didn’t keep more than 1,000 people from experiencing Thai food and culture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens Sunday afternoon for Thai Fest.

The event is hosted by the Gardens as well as the University of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin Alumni Assocation, the Royal Thai Consulate General in Chicago and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Throughout the afternoon, various groups of Thai performers showcased traditional dance, music and even a practice wedding ceremony.

After a rocky period, the UW-Madison political science department is experiencing a revival.
Nine political scientists left last year — more than one-fifth of the department — some to pursue other jobs and some to retire.

“There was a little bit of shell-shock after spring of 2007,” said department chairman John Coleman. “It was a bad coincidence of a lot of people leaving at the same time.”

Thai Fest, a celebration of Thai culture, was brought back to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens on Sunday, Sept. 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Generously funded by the University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Alumni Association, the Royal Thai Consulate General in Chicago, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Olbrich Botanical Gardens, the event was free and open to the enthusiastic people of Madison who bravely trudged through the mud and rain to attend the world-class event.

Audience members who came last Friday to the packed University of Wisconsin-Madison Cinematheque screening of “Singin’ in the Rain” found two new items in this Vilas Hall screening room.

One was a giant carrot cake, there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Cinematheque series, which brings classic, foreign and independent films to town that wouldn’t otherwise even screen at arthouses like Sundance or the Orpheum.

The other new thing was a donation box.

Amid a wave of complaints about Robert Felner, a former University of Louisville dean who is now under federal investigation, administrators supported the embattled dean and even bankrolled a lawyer to defend him from faculty critics. While the universityâ??s president and provost have recently apologized for backing Felner for so long, details emerging from the controversy show a broken grievance process at Louisville that many say favors administrators and leaves professors unprotected from retaliation.

The Krispy Kreme doughnut truck thief is in trouble again.

Warren G. Whitelightning, 36, was taken to detox early Wednesday morning and will face charges on several outstanding warrants from Dane and Marathon counties after being found in the same car driven by a woman arrested for a seventh drunk driving offense.

Whitelightning was arrested Nov. 24, 2007, after leading Madison and UW-Madison police on a variable-speed chase on University Avenue after he stole a Krispy Kreme delivery truck from an Open Pantry parking lot.

Dear Editor:

I am a Fresno State graduate and I will attend the Fresno State/Wisconsin game. Whatever the final score, I wish to thank the Badgers in advance for coming to Fresno and playing in a stadium that some teams (in-state and out-of-state) don’t want to play in. Some have even backed out on their word to play a return game. I’m looking forward to an exciting game and wish both teams the best.

Miguel Lopez, Reedey, Calif.

Construction on State Street, originally scheduled to finish Friday, will continue one more week, but buses will run and restaurants will be able to operate outdoor seating starting Saturday.

Representatives from City Engineering, Speedway construction company and the Business Improvement District made the decision during their weekly meeting Tuesday morning.

It’s a simple economic problem: Supply is not meeting demand. The UW-Madison economics department is struggling to deliver enough course space as the major grows at a heady pace.

In the 1998-1999 academic year, there were 183 economics majors at UW-Madison. Last school year, there were 442.

Some Universities are taking a new stance on campus violence.

They’re telling students to fight back.

NBC 15’s Barclay Pollak has more on this story.

The main reason Candice Beach chose to begin her collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is because she considers it to be a safe campus.

She says, ” Well just being here for the first week I haven’t seen any problems. I mean the people are all really nice here.”

A Doty Street resident who lives about a block from where Brittany Zimmermann was murdered earlier this year, was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly threatened to shoot into neighbors homes.

Paul C. Schultz, 39, of 416 W. Doty St., was charged with disorderly conduct after he made several statements to his next door neighbors at 418 W. Doty St. that he was going to “shoot you through the walls with hollow points,” referring to a bullet that expands upon impact.

Madison police officials said a Madison man died after being stabbed during a fight outside a well known downtown bar.

The victim has been identified as Juan Bernal, 22.   Bernal attended LaFollette High School in 2005 and his friends told 27 News he was the father a three year old boy.

Authorities said the stabbing took place outside The Plaza on North Henry Street just before midnight Wednesday.   “Bar patrons were able to trail some of the involved parties in this,”  Captain Mary Schauf said.   “They were able to detain one individual who had critical information for us.”

Power has been restored to an area of Madison’s west side after being out for about an hour due to a failure of equipment at a substation.

Madison Gas and Electric spokesman Steve Kraus said power was restored at 11:10 a.m. in an area from the Hilldale Mall shopping center east to the UW-Madison campus. The problem was at the Walnut Street sub-station.

Police had been directing traffic at several intersections because of stoplights not functioning.

Craig Gilbert, the Journal Sentinel’s Washington bureau chief, and University of Wisconsin political scientist and convention expert Byron Shafer size up the GOP convention so far from the Twin Cities in this audio clip.

The Badger Herald was wrong to publish the guest column written by Rep. Steve Nass (â??University governance must permit conservative valuesâ?) in its Sept. 1 registration issue.

Printing this article was a mistake that the editors of this paper need not make. Nassâ?? article not only fails to conform to the basic standards of journalism this paper seeks to uphold, but provides no basis for any of its accusations beyond mere speculative leaps of logic and cheap shots at public figures.

“Strawbiddy Swirl” will be the flavor of the day Thursday afternoon during a UW-Madison ice cream social on Bascom Hill, where students, staff and faculty can meet and greet new Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.

At this point four years ago, John Kerry had already been Swift Boated and MoveOn was branding President Bush a Vietnam War dodger, two of the bigger stories to emerge from the 2004 campaign cycle. But to this point in the 2008 campaign, the so-called 527s, tax-exempt groups that throw their weight behind certain candidates or issues during a campaign, have been relatively quiet. Instead, itâ??s been the campaigns themselves doing most of the advertising, according to Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which has been tracking this electionâ??s ads closely.

A large hole and construction fencing will block a portion of Library Mall until October, as the University of Wisconsin works to complete a utility project for the new East Campus Mall.

UW physical plant director John Harrod said Library Mall will be back to normal in time for Halloween festivities on State Street, and pedestrians will be able to navigate their way through a detour on the north side of Library Mall.

Days before a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents committee started meeting to decide on the next chancellor at UW-Madison in May, Gov. Jim Doyle interviewed the four finalists for the position over the phone. He then passed his thoughts about the candidates along to the committee.

The governorâ??s interviews have predictably caused some to speculate that Doyle played a role in the selection process, which ended with the committee choosing former Cornell Provost Biddy Martin to succeed John Wiley.

In one of the last moves of his chancellorship of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, John Wiley took aim at the state Legislature and business lobby group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in a recent column for Madison Magazine last week. Wiley accused the Legislature of producing a â??hyper-politicized environmentâ? and pointed to WMC as one of the main culprits responsible for the lack of funding for the UW System.

In Springfieldâ??s 15th annual community leadership visit to Madison, Wis., business and community leaders saw a city similar to their own, but on a larger scale. And the differences are things Springfield leaders would aspire to.

A group of 45 delegates from Springfield took the trip north Aug. 14â??16 to compare the two cities and touch on topics ranging from business-college partnerships to quality of life issues.

Madison is another Midwest city built around a large state university. However, Madison has nearly a third more residents in its metropolitan statistical area and the University of Wisconsin boasts 41,000 students, more than twice that of Missouri State University.

Hurricane Gustav has not been a significant challenge for New Orleans and its citizens, including Venkat-Ramani. A geophysicist involved in the search for oil and gas reservoirs beneath the seafloor in the Gulf, she is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin- Madison, the president of the New Orleans chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association and member of the alumni board for the universityâ??s geology department. She is also an avid and well-read New Orleans blogger, having covered the impact and implications of Katrina and subsequent storms since first having to evacuate over 1100 days ago.