Category: UW-Madison Related

Gov. Jim Doyle and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly plan to meet Thursday to discuss the state’s $527 million budget shortfall.

The meeting could signal a breakthrough in the monthlong stalemate to reach a deal. It comes just two days after Doyle returned from an overseas trade mission among reports that legislative leaders were close to reaching agreement but awaited Doyle’s approval.

Doyle and Decker, both Democrats, are set to be joined by Republican Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, said Decker’s spokeswoman Carrie Lynch.

A search committee has named four finalists for the chancellor’s position at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha.

The UW System says they are Robert D. Felner, a professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville; T.J. Bryan, an English professor at Fayetteville (N.C.) State University; Gloria J. Gibson, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro; and Maurice C. Taylor, dean of the School of Graduate Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

The candidates will participate in forums with faculty, academic staff, students and community members at UW-Parkside next week.

The University of Wisconsinâ??s controversial relationship with Halliburton Co. again raised eyebrows of UW students this week with the opening of a new research center on campus.

Despite owning a passion for teaching history, Stanley Schultz learned a long time ago that it’s no easy task to keep the undivided attention of the average student. So any opportunity to bring a subject matter to life in a classroom or lecture hall has long been embraced by the emeritus professor of history at UW-Madison.

….A new education project announced Tuesday in downtown Madison could help bring history to life for roughly 50,000 state students in grades 5 through 12.

Called “Life During Wartime,” the $940,000 project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Not only will the project feature an unprecedented partnership among public school teachers and historians from the UW-Madison and Madison Area Technical College faculty, but those associated with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum will use its vast array of resources to help bring history to life in area schools, including those in the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Two former New York police detectives have compiled a list of college age drowning victims which the former cops believe were actually the victims of a serial killer or killers. Madison foreign exchange student Kenji Ohmi is on the list of forty victims.

But a Madison police official said Ohmi’s death was investigated – and there was no sign of foul play.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association has selected UW-Madison history professor Jeremi Suri as the 2008 recipient of the Ken and Linda Ciriacks Faculty Outreach Excellence Award.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association announced Monday University of Wisconsin history professor Jeremi Suri won an award for his efforts in connecting with alumni.

With just over six months until Election Day, none of the three remaining candidates for president has a majority of support in Wisconsin, a poll released Monday showed.

And so, yet again, the race in Wisconsin appears too close to call.

The University of Wisconsin Survey Center’s Badger Poll shows that among likely voters Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has a lead over Democratic New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 47 percent to 41 percent.

Mentions the latest installment of the Badger Poll, released Monday, showed that McCain gets a split decision among Wisconsin voters in matchups with the remaining Democratic presidential candidates. But both matchups suggest a tight race.

In a head-to-head matchup with Clinton, McCain was favored by 47% of those polled, compared with 44% for Clinton, according to the Badger Poll. Obama topped McCain by 48% to 41%.

There is a saying among urban beekeepers: Keep your fences high, your head down and your neighbor’s honey pot full.

It’s a nod, of course, to the undeserved bad rap of honeybees, those mostly docile pollinators of flowers and fruit trees and vegetables, which are lumped more often than not with their ornery cousins, the hornet and wasp.

The University of Wisconsin Extension is aiming to change that negative perception and bring urban beekeeping out in the open with a new program planned for the Milwaukee County Grounds.

Madison, Wis. – For the second time in a week, a major technology firm has announced the opening of an office in Madison.

Last week, it was Microsoft. This time, it’s search giant Google, which cited the local labor pool and the community’s focus on education for the opening of an engineering office that will concentrate on hardware and software systems design.

A Madison man charged with his second drunken driving offense crashed his car into the University of Wisconsin Mechanical Engineering Building and then reportedly tried to steal a bike early Saturday morning.

A 23-year-old Madison man was arrested Saturday morning on a tentative charges, including drunken driving, after the vehicle he was driving crashed on University Avenue.

Defense attorneys say that the brother of the man accused in the 1980 rape and murder of a UW-Madison student confessed to the crime and that state prosecutors have withheld that information for the past 13 years.

In a motion filed April 17 with the 4th District Court of Appeals, attorneys for Ralph Armstrong also say that a state prosecutor knowingly destroyed DNA evidence that might have proved that it was Armstrong’s brother, Steve, who killed Charise Kamps.

A 23-year-old Madison man has been arrested after authorities say he crashed his vehicle into a college building in an apparent alcohol-related accident.

University of Wisconsin-Madison police say the man was driving near the campus Saturday morning about 3:30 a.m. when his sport utility vehicle struck the mechanical-engineering building.

David Umhoefer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times have some striking similarities. Both are distinguished journalists and University of Wisconsin alumni, and both were announced winners of Pulitzer Prizes in journalism earlier this month.

When it rains, it pours for the University of Wisconsin System, which now has open chancellor positions at more than one-third of its four-year schools.

They help young women get prenatal care, and they encourage struggling students to stay in school. One has a background in the military. Another is CEO of the largest woman-owned business in Wisconsin. Two are lawyers.

Social justice is high on their list of priorities, and they believe that all teens, including those from low-income families, should be allowed to pursue their dreams. So it’s not surprising that, individually, they work on various fundraisers for scholarships for children in need.

(Among the honorees is UW Law School adjunct professor and alumna Cheryl Rosen Weston)

The University of Wisconsin System has announced the five finalists for the open chancellor position at UW-Whitewater.

A 22-member search and screen committee recommended the names to University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Monday.

The finalists are: Nancy Kleniewski, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts; Alfred J. Guillaume Jr., vice chancellor of academic affairs at Indiana University at South Bend; Kenneth W. Borland, interim president of East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania; Richard Telfer, interim chancellor of UW-Whitewater; and John W. Folkins, chief executive officer of Bowling Green State University Research Institute in Ohio.

Larger utility customers are putting conservation programs in place that dramatically reduce the amount of water they purchase from the utility. UW-Madison has reduced its use of water by 30 percent.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=742001
Local philanthropists Sheldon and Marianne Lubar are among seven University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni to be honored next month with the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Awards, presented by the Wisconsin Alumni Association. [See Wisconsin news briefs]

One internal candidate and four outside applicants are finalists for the chancellor position at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, officials announced Monday.

When Brittany Seabloom’s entry shared first place for creating the most value in the Wiscontrepreneur 100-Hour Challenge, her project’s value was immediately available.

Shortly after seeing the art student’s “Impregnated Wall Sconce,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley bought it with a personal check for $300.

“I thought it was gorgeous,” Wiley said.

http://wistechnology.com/articles/4694/
Madison, Wis. – In the tradition of squeaky wheels getting all the grease, state technology failures – and the waste in tax dollars that result – have been getting a lot of attention. Media coverage, state audits, and legislative hearings all have accompanied the State of Wisconsin’s technology frustrations.

There are, however, exceptions to the rule. Case in point: the recently completed (almost on time and definitely on budget) PeopleSoft module for grant management and tracking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and UW Extension campuses.

Shuttle bus service is available for people heading to the Kohl Center for the UW-Madison Varsity Band spring concerts.

Madison Metro will start the shuttle bus service at 5:30 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday, with shuttles running every 10 to 15 minutes, two hours before and one hour after the concerts.

Start listing UW grad Allee Willis’ show business credits â?? hit songwriter, renowned artist, acclaimed Broadway tunesmith, multimedia pioneer and kitsch singer â?? and she responds about her behind-the-scenes, unknown status with a big laugh.

“I’m the best-kept secret,” Willis bursts out.

WHITEWATER, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is cleaning up after an explosion damaged the university’s boiler in the power plant on the north side of campus Wednesday afternoon.

The explosion took place at about 12:15 p.m. in the building, which is located near North Prairie Street and Esker Dining Hall. The force of the explosion blew out windows in the building.

The “2008 Southern Wisconsin Farm Fresh Atlas,” which will be available at the Downtown market information booth at the top of State Street and at www.reapfoodgroup.org, lists 41 farmers’ markets, in contrast to 26 in the first such atlas in 2003. That includes twice as many in the city of Madison, where the Dane County Farmers’ Market, Hilldale and the Eastside market were the only 2003 sites.

It’s official: Madison is the smartest city in the United States. Now those of us living here must decide whether that’s a good thing.

A new study by Bizjournals, the online media division of American City Business Journals, ranking the brainpower level of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, listed Madison first, followed in order by Washington, D.C.; San Jose, Calif.; Bridgeport-Stanford, Conn.; and Boston.

University of Wisconsin-Madison student Jordan Gonnering, 22, will be let out of the lease on the apartment where he found his fiancee murdered on April 2. Gonnering had 16 months left on the $790-a-month apartment he shared with Brittany Zimmermann, 21. Under Wisconsin law, renters must fulfill terms of a lease even after a death. But after refusing to discuss the issue last week, landlord Russ Endres said Monday he will release Gonnering from the contract.

The UW-Madison student who found his murdered fiancee in the flat they shared in Downtown Madison may have to keep renting the $790-a-month apartment unless officials are successful in intervening on his behalf.

Kelly Nolan. Joel Marino. Now Brittany Zimmermann. Madison police have been unable to crack those and two other homicide cases in the last 10 months.

Why not?

After some troubling “computer security incidents” on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, it appears that a more serious effort is being made to protect the privacy of faculty, staff and students.

But that can’t be said for the whole of the UW System.

An audit of the state’s public universities says that more needs to be done to defend the great reserves of personal data stored on the computer networks of these schools.

Undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville will pay $100 more in tuition next year to help fund extra services in student retention, mental health, career planning and senior projects under a plan approved Friday by the UW System Board of Regents.

Editorial on patent law quotes Carl E. Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which manages intellectual property for UW-Madison.

Even as advocates for Madison’s homeless population are challenging the larger community to join their battle against the causes of homelessness, anger about the presence of homeless people is bubbling from several quarters.

Service providers, activists and the formerly homeless stood in solidarity in the food pantry of the Community Action Coalition Thursday and, through the local media, challenged Madison to meet the homeless with compassion and work for economic and social justice.

….The news conference was called in response to increasingly hostile public debate over how the city treats homeless people, a dispute magnified by the Madison Police Department’s implication that transients may have been involved in two homicides in recent weeks.

The University of Wisconsin System will soon start a statewide fund-raising campaign aimed at doubling privately funded, need-based financial aid to students to $12 million annually, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Thursday.

MADISON, Wis. — In the wake of the slaying of a college student in a downtown neighborhood frequented by beggars, some said they are concerned that the homeless are being unfairly scrutinized.

Groups that help the homeless said the killing of University of Wisconsin student Brittany Zimmermann last week has started a backlash against the homeless.

MADISON â?? University of Wisconsin campuses should do more to protect the vast amount of personal data stored in their computer networks, according to a recent audit.

Campuses that don’t already have them should hire computer security officers to make sure the issue is a priority, the report by UW System auditors released last week recommends.

Campuses also should follow UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee’s lead and implement written policies identifying data that need additional protection and outlining how to respond to security breaches, the audit recommended. Such policies are important to guarding sensitive data and responding quickly if such information is improperly released, the report said.

In 2005 the University of Wisconsin at Madison adopted a new campus master plan, which called for adding 7 million gross sq ft and 17 acres of green space over the next 20 years.

Since the planâ??s adoption, approximately $600 million in construction has been completed or is under way, and $800 million worth of projects are in the planning stage.

â??This was not a geographical plan but an infill plan to see our capacity for growth,â? says Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management. â??Itâ??s not just about physical development. Itâ??s about a transportation plan, an open space plan, a utility plan and a new development plan all done concurrently.â?

Efforts to curb aggressive panhandling on State Street have shifted some of that activity into residential neighborhoods such as the one where a 21-year-old UW-Madison student was killed last week, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said Tuesday.

While investigators have not identified a suspect or a motive in the death of Brittany Zimmermann, police say they have arrested “a couple of dozen of people, ” most of them transients who frequent the Bassett neighborhood, on warrants and probation holds, as well as for trespassing, menacing, panhandling and having open intoxicants, in the course of the homicide investigation.

A long-time supporter of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine has passed away, leaving the program $6 million in her will. The school says Milwaukee native Barbara Suran became ill with cancer and passed away last month–just three months after signing an agreement to fund the Barbara A. Suran Oncology Research Institute with her estate.

University of Wisconsin River Falls Chancellor Don Betz is leaving June 30 to take over Northeastern State University in Oklahoma.

Betz, chancellor at UW-River Falls since July 2005, spent more than 20 years as a teacher and administrator at Northeastern State.

Several UW System schools still need better-defined policies to protect sensitive data against computer security breaches, an April 4 audit said.

The audit said UW System schools must create policies on what kind of data needs more protection and must perform periodic checks on vulnerabilities in computer networks.

The family of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann has set up a “Dollars for Brittany” scholarship fund drive in her honor.

“In the days since Brittany’s tragic death, we have searched our hearts for answers that we may never receive. We are grieving her death and we are grieving the future events that we will never celebrate with Brittany,” the family said in a statement.

“One event we will never celebrate with Brittany is her graduation from UW-Madison next fall. Anyone who knew Brittany knew of her love for learning and her ambition and dedication to help others. If you knew her, you would also know of her perpetual positive attitude,” the family said.

University of Wisconsin-River Falls Chancellor Don Betz will resign in June to become president of the three-campus Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., university officials announced this morning.

University of Wisconsin campuses should do more to protect the vast amount of personal data stored in their computer networks, according to an audit released Friday.

Campuses that don’t already have them should hire computer security officers to make sure the issue is a priority, the report by UW System auditors recommends.

Campuses also should follow UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee’s lead and implement written policies identifying data that need additional protection and outlining how to respond to security breaches, the audit recommended. Such policies are important to guarding sensitive data and responding quickly if such information is improperly release

UW-Platteville wants to set its tuition $100 higher than its peers in the state.

The school in southwestern Wisconsin is asking the UW Board of Regents for permission to implement the $50 per semester tuition charge starting this fall.

As police combed the Downtown area Friday for clues about the murder of a UW-Madison student, more details were released about another unsolved homicide, that of a 65-year-old South Side motel resident known as the “tire man.”

According to the American Association of University Professors, non-tenured instructional staff now account for nearly 70 percent of those teaching at universities and colleges nationwide. Thirty years ago, they were 43 percent.

At UW-Madison, like many large research institutions, the growth of instructional staff is often far less dramatic. Still, about one-third of those standing at the front of classrooms here are not faculty.

“We’re in a recession, no doubt,” Donald Nichols, a professor emeritus of economics and public policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told about 100 business leaders and students gathered in Madison Friday.

At a semi-annual economic outlook conference sponsored by the UW School of Business, Nichols forecast a long, shallow national economic contraction that will be less harsh in Wisconsin.

Madison police are maintaining extra neighborhood patrols as they investigate the slaying of Brittany Sue Zimmermann, 21, who was found dead in her downtown apartment.

Kristy Ludwig, a third-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lives a half-block away from where fellow student Brittany Sue Zimmermann was killed in her apartment on Wednesday.

Investigators believe the fire that killed three University of Wisconsin-Stout students at an off-campus duplex Saturday was accidental, the Menomonie police chief said Sunday.

“We believe it was nothing but a horrific and tragic accident,” Chief Dennis Beety said, but he declined to discuss further details.

It’s hard for Menomonie neighbors and students to believe: a house, seemingly intact, is the scene of what is believed to be the city’s deadliest fire.

Investigators are still searching for answers one day after a fire filled a duplex with smoke, killing three University of Wisconsin-Stout students.

Friends, neighbors and students reeled Thursday in the aftermath of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s slaying – shocked by a promising life cut short and shaken by a midafternoon homicide without a suspect.

The University of Wisconsin Alumni Club of Antigo welcomed students from the area planning to attend the distinguished school in Madison, share memories and hear an upbeat message from Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for student administration.

Held at Leffelâ??s Supper Club, the dinner drew a full house of U.W. graduates, including the 1954 Bucky Badger, Dr. Ted Fox, and plenty of the universityâ??s friends.

Gary Voytovich, who serves as the president of the aggressive alumni unit in Antigo and the Northwoods, explained that it was a great evening with Bazzell as the speaker and so many students from area high schools planning to continue their education at the university in Madison.

It was a spirited evening with a number of upbeat reports on the local activities with the university and the finances of the local

Among the hundreds of UW-Madison students who trekked to Memorial Union Thursday for the “Jeopardy! ” College Championship tryouts, only one will likely make it on to the show, which will be taped at the Kohl Center next week.

The aspiring contestants had different strategies for conquering the answer-and-question-style quiz — some arrived in the early hours of the morning, others studied in line in last-minute preparation and a few dressed to impress.

Three unsolved killings in less than a year share at least one thread: They’ve spread fear among college students and downtown residents in Wisconsin’s normally laid-back capital.

Madison police are investigating the homicide of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student found dead Wednesday afternoon in her off-campus apartment.