Category: UW-Madison Related

As supporters call it a â??true compromise,â? the Democratic-controlled Senate voted Tuesday to pass its budget plan in an effort to offset the stateâ??s projected $652 million shortfall.

‘The war in Iraq is not coming to an end anytime soon, no matter what any politician says, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions told a Madison audience Tuesday night.

Both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president are lying when they talk about the war, said Reza Aslan during a Distinguished Lecture Series conversation he shared with the Madison-born Gideon Yago, a writer and former correspondent for MTV News. The two men addressed an audience of about 350 in the Union Theater.

“This war is not coming to an end, no matter who the next president is,” said Aslan.

Two UW-Madison projects were approved by a state commission on Wednesday — a coffee shop at Memorial Union and a holding facility for mice and rats at the future Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

Construction on Peet ‘s Coffee & Tea, a national chain based in California, will begin in August on the first floor of Memorial Union, in the space formerly occupied by STA Travel. The shop will open by mid-October, said Paul Brodhead, assistant director of facilities. The state Building Commission approved $550,000 in funds.

Steve Ingham, a 47-year-old food safety specialist at UW-Madison, favors an analytical and collaborative approach to solving complicated problems. His top priorities include addressing traffic concerns, cleaning up county lakes and encouraging smart and orderly growth.

If you thought you saw more TV ads backing Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton in the Dayton area during Ohio’s Democratic presidential primary, you were right.

In the Dayton media market, about $450,000 was spent on TV ads for Obama, compared to about $300,000 on Clinton’s behalf from Feb. 1 through March 4, Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, said Monday, March 17.

Story on Bush’s nominee to be ambassador to Liberia, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin.

At UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Haus Brew Pub, one of the nation’s smallest commercial breweries, hops are measured in ounces, the brewmaster is a retired high school shop teacher and the German-made brew kettles are next to a pair of electronic dartboards.

Hillary Clinton’s “3 a.m. phone call” ad has been parsed again and again since the March 4 primaries, with most pundits using it to launch their quadrennial protests that campaign ad negativity weakens the very fabric of our democracy by manipulating and misinforming voters. But tirades against negativity reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of elections. Negativity is essential to democratic politics and ultimately yields a more engaged and better-informed public. [A column co-authored by Ken Goldstein, professor of political science at UW-Madison]

About 8,000 UW-Madison faculty and staff members who still hold outdated Social Security number-based ID cards will be receiving an e-mail from the chancellor telling them their cards are being phased out.

“Protecting privacy is a growing issue and challenge in our increasingly electronic world,” said Ron Kraemer, chief information officer for the university. “This is one of many steps we are taking in the coming months and years to safeguard our campus community.”

The old cards will be invalid after April 15.

The University of Wisconsin is increasing its stock of courtside seating at the Kohl Center for men’s basketball games by 33 percent, with half of the 16 additions close enough to the Badgers’ bench that you might be able to hear coach Bo Ryan shout instructions during timeouts.

And make no mistake, these $10,000 per year investments — introduced via e-mail alert to fans just three days after the Badgers claimed the outright Big Ten Conference regular-season championship — were not built on spec.

“We’re confident that interest is high enough to put them in there next year,” UW associate athletic director Vince Sweeney said.

Barack Obama lost the key battleground of Ohio on March 4 despite a 2-to-1 advantage in ad spending over Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a new study by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.

Assembly Republicans passed a last-minute plan to plug a hole in the state budget late Wednesday that would reduce state spending by $250 million through mid-2009.

The bill, which passed 51-46 mostly along party lines, would also nearly empty the state’s rainy-day accounts and beef up an accounting trick by $125 million.

Local health-care providers said Monday they support a key component of Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s budget repair bill that calls for an increased assessment of hospitals.

People feel strongly about their religious faith and are deeply offended if you insult it, Oxford University scientist Richard Dawkins told a full house Tuesday night at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

Dawkins asked: Why is it that people are so offended when you insult their religion but don’t get as upset if you insult the music, art or books they like?

“What is so special about religion?” he asked, noting that it’s respected even by the nonreligious among us.

The British biologist and atheist wrote the best-selling book “The God Delusion” in 2006 and is on a university tour speaking out against organized religion.

An evolutionary biologist from Oxford University known for his books on atheism spoke at UW-Madison Tuesday of his goal to “raise consciousness ” and advocated Darwin ‘s theory as a “stunningly powerful ” alternative to religion.

The lecture by Richard Dawkins, given before a full house of 1,300 people at Memorial Union, was part of his university tour for his book, “The God Delusion, ” which has sold more than 1.5 million copies.

A police sketch of the man who police believe killed Joel Marino has already led to “lots of good leads” from callers to Crime Stoppers, Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Tuesday.

There are cheeseheads, and then there are people like Gary Grossen.

Born above a Green County family cheese factory in 1949, he has curds in his genes, one could almost say. He became a master cheesemaker in 1968 and a genuine sense of joy and a deep affection for the process permeate the conversation when he talks about cheesemaking.

Most recently, UW-Madison’s Babcock Hall Dairy Plant has been reaping the benefit of his years of experience, and their list of recent awards stands as proof of his skills.

Gov. Jim Doyle announced his proposal to repair a $652 million budget shortfall Monday, though its effects on the UW System remain unclear.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle announced his plan Monday to offset the stateâ??s $652 million budget shortfall.

Madison police on Monday night released a sketch of the man they believe fatally stabbed South Side resident Joel Marino in January.

Police also say the killer left his DNA on the knife used in the stabbing and on a backpack they believe he bought on State Street and later dropped near the crime scene, a police spokesman said Monday.

Almost all public- and private-sector employees in the state of Wisconsin have the right to organize a union in their workplace if they win the support of a majority of their co-workers.

Every Monday, a group of University of Wisconsin of students and staff meets for about three hours to work on a building project.

Photo caption: Pedestrians brave high winds and blowing snow as they make their way across the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 6.

UW-Madison grad Ben Karlin, 36, faces one of the toughest encores in comedy history.
He left Madison almost 12 years ago, after helping lift The Onion toward its meteoric rise. In early 1999, he became head writer of the new Jon Stewart-hosted “Daily Show,” which raised the bar on contemporary humor.

Milwaukee, Wis. – Private sector leaders in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin are trying to bridge the gap between universities and businesses through more effective use of computing and scientific resources, and their vehicle is the new Milwaukee Institute, a non-profit organization that is building a cyber infrastructure of shared, grid-based computing.

The genesis of the institute dates back to the interest of the Wisconsin Technology Council and individuals like Paul Peercy, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to combine educational and research activities in southeastern Wisconsin with the business community. John Byrnes said this has not been effectively done through existing channels, and the institute’s backers have devoted time to closing that gap during the past two years.

If Boston University wants to improve its standing dramatically among U.S. schools, the university must hire deans who not only keep their colleges afloat but steer them into uncharted territory — no institution of higher education achieves a reputation without innovation. In this spirit, the university search committee saw far ahead by hiring University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Hardin Coleman to lead the School of Education.

The University Research Park and CUNA Mutual Group are working on a land swap that would be the first step for a mixed-use development between Mineral Point and Odana roads.

MADISON, Wis. — Milton McPike is stepping down from the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents after spending four years on the board.

McPike spent 28 years in the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Gov. Jim Doyle is calling lawmakers into special session next week to take up a budget repair bill that would fix the state’s $650 million deficit.

But with just a week to go before the March 13 special session, exactly how Doyle and lawmakers plan to plug that hole remains unclear.

Aides to Doyle and top legislative leaders say the Democratic governor is still negotiating details of the package with Assembly Republicans and Senate Democrats.

Doyle has said he hopes to put together a plan that will win quick approval from the divided Legislature instead of repeating last summer’s partisan standoff in which passage of the budget was delayed by more than three months.

Cancer has caused popular former East High School Principal Milton McPike to resign from the UW System Board of Regents, which honored him today for “his many life achievements” and service to the board.

McPike, a 23-year principal and one-time pro football player, was appointed to the board in 2004 by Gov. Jim Doyle after retiring from East High in 2002. He has missed meetings in the last few months because of his illness.

He was named one of 10 “American Heroes in Education” by Reader’s Digest in 1990, one year after the U.S. Department of Education named East High a National High School of Excellence.

The UW-Madison Faculty Senate approved a resolution Monday to help support need-based financial-aid fundraising.

The University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate passed a resolution Monday to create a voluntary faculty fund to raise money for need-based scholarships in hopes of promoting diversity on campus.

The UW-Madison Faculty Senate today (Monday) approved a campaign to raise money for need-based scholarships for students as a way of resolving concerns about lack of access to the university for low-income residents.

The senate — the governance body of the university faculty — voted almost unanimously in favor of a resolution that would launch a campaign to provide and raise funds for such scholarships.

The University of Wisconsin Foundation would match contributions to the initiative.

Standing before the Faculty Senate, UW-Madison physics professor Dan McCammon said that supporting the faculty ‘s fundraising campaign to help keep the university ‘s doors open to lower-income students was really “a no-brainer. ”

“It ‘s what this university is all about, ” he said. “We help out what we care about. ”

It turns out plenty of others share McCammon ‘s view.

UW-Madison ‘s Faculty Senate on Monday overwhelmingly approved a faculty fundraising drive to raise money for need-based scholarships to the university.

State government needs further study to determine whether 26 maintenance projects at state-run power plants violated federal clean air rules, according to documents made public Friday.

The controversy is the latest of several dust-ups involving the Doyle administration and air quality.

Last year, Doyle was criticized by environmental groups for asking the EPA to declare all Wisconsin counties in compliance with ozone pollution standards, even though subsequent tougher federal standards put several counties in violation.

Also, the Department of Administration and UW-Madison hastened efforts to clean up the Charter Street Power plant in Madison and other state-owned power plants after a successful lawsuit by the Sierra Club.

Some UW-Madison faculty members are so committed to holding the door open at the university to low-income students that they ‘re willing to reach into their own pockets to help make it happen.

The Faculty Senate will propose on Monday a faculty fundraising drive aimed at raising money for need-based scholarships to the university. UW Foundation, the official fundraising organization for the university, has said it will match donations.

Bowlers from across Wisconsin came out to to raise money for colorectal cancer research.

Sunday marked the 7th annual Bowlin’ for Colons. More than one thousand people came out to four different bowling centers in the Madison area.

Last year, them UW Carbone Cancer Center raised $30,000. Organizers expected to exceed that amount this year.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new report gives the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents several potentially controversial options to raise more tuition revenue in coming years.

The regents are expected to consider the report but take no action on any of the options at their meeting in Madison next week.

The options include raising the below-average tuition at some in-demand schools and continuing a trend of charging more to fund specific programs and initiatives.

UW-Madison received more fundraising contributions than any other Big Ten school in 2007. The university raised $325.3 million in funds, according to a survey by the Council for Aid to Education.

There was some controversy on the University of Wisconsin campus this week over the scheduling of a speech by Canadian author Wendy McElroy on the topic “Don’t Vote! Why Voting Is Immoral.”

Some people even ripped up posters promoting the event, at which McElroy argued that voting only encourages a corrupt system and its values.

But there was no need for so negative a response.

It may be the ultimate sign of his youth that Ben Schumaker didn ‘t realize he was rather young to be tackling something as ambitious as his Memory Project.

Schumaker had just graduated from UW-Madison in 2003 when he first came up with the project that by the end of this school year will have provided more than 15,000 orphaned children from around the world with a rare something they could call their own — hand-painted portraits of themselves.

A 25 year-old Madison man is in custody after leading UW police on a chase early Wednesday morning.

Cops say Matthew Hale didn’t stop for a red light at University Avenue and Lake Street.

When an officer tried to pull him over, authorities say Hale drove through another red light, and sped up.

Police say Hale ended-up going the wrong way on West Johnson Street.

Hale eventually crashed.

Could there be a finer compliment for a civil rights lawyer than that paid the late Percy Julian Jr. by his friend and fellow attorney Jeff Scott Olson?

“He started out during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and was one of the people who made the civil rights laws passed in the King era real tools for justice, especially for African-Americans,” Olson said after Julian died Sunday at age 67.

The city of Madison has ticketed 1,300 property owners — starting at $109 — this winter for not clearing snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of their properties, but not the owner of 325 W. Johnson St., where this ankle-bending sheet of ice was photographed Tuesday afternoon.

The owner? The city. The address on a busy stretch off State Street is the home of Fire Department Administration.

Among the Community Comments:

“All the sidewalks on campus are an icy mess. Why doesn’t the city ticket UW and all the landlords in that area of town?”

“The UW campus sidewalks are horrible in many places, but the city cannot touch the UW. And these are arguably some of the most highly used sidewalks in the city.”

Lester Hunt wasn’t expecting hate mail after he sent out an e-mail last week announcing a talk called “Don’t Vote! Why Voting Is Immoral,” being held tonight on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

To his surprise, hostile responses started filling his inbox. “Don’t send me this junk,” demanded one person. Another complained, “It is because of a democracy that loopy liberals such as yourselves can have such ridiculous beliefs and morals.”

Some even used obscenities to describe their feelings about the guest speaker, feminist author and anarchist Wendy McElroy, who argues that to vote to endorse a corrupt system and its values.

Posters for tonight’s event were torn down and ripped up.

Hereâ??s further grist for the mill for anyone deconstructing how Senator Hillary Clinton lost so many states to Senator Barack Obama.

The story is starting to sound the same everywhere: slow start and outspent, if not out-organized. These are the details from Wisconsin, as culled by Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which analyzes political advertising across the country.

MADISON, Wis. â?? How could you do it?

The question dogs Christopher Ochoa. It always will.

In 1988, Mr. Ochoa, then a naive 22-year-old, confessed to a rape and murder he didn’t commit, and accused an innocent friend, Richard Danziger, of the same crime to avoid the death penalty.

The two men were sentenced to life in prison. Twelve years later, they were exonerated by DNA evidence and were among the first of a parade of people who have made Texas the national leader in acknowledging wrongful convictions. Their shocking tale still reverberates around the state Capitol, where legislators keep passing laws to fix flaws that the case revealed in the criminal justice system.

The â??fetal painâ? legislation introduced in Congress and the state legislatures directs physicians to tell women that a fetus can feel pain at a particular time in gestation, often as early as 20 weeks. But science and medicine are uncertain on this point, and as evidence mounts, medical opinion evolves.

It is a fundamental mistake for legislatures to pronounce upon scientific disputes. They have neither the expertise to make such judgments nor a mechanism to revise these judgments as new evidence emerges. Indeed, such legislation is more likely motivated by a desire to halt abortions than by a desire to give women accurate information.

Such interference is an insult to physicians (who apparently cannot be trusted to give women accurate information) and to women (who apparently cannot be trusted to evaluate this information). The doctorâ??s office is no place to play politics with the truth.

R. ALTA CHARO
Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law and Bioethics
University of Wisconsin Law School

UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Administration hosted a town hall meeting Thursday evening at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesâ?? office to address future upgrades to four of Madisonâ??s power plants

Veolia Water SA of France, one of the world’s biggest water-technology companies, spends $50 million a year to develop ways to clean wastewater in a world beset by water shortages. And starting soon, it plans to be spending a share of its research-and-development budget in Milwaukee.

The company, a newcomer to the city, will give a $1.5 million research grant to the Great Lakes WATER Research Institute, an arm of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, company officials said.

In an election season when young voters have made more impact than ever, a quarter of Wisconsin’s eligible voters under 30 participated in Tuesday night’s primary – making youth turnout here equal to Massachusetts and second only to New Hampshire this year.

According to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, 220,200 voters under age 30 cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary – 25% of eligible voters in that age group.

At 16 voting wards at or near University of Wisconsin-Madison, Marquette University and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sen. Barack Obama beat Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton among local college students, grabbing at least 79% of the vote. He was most popular at UW’s Gordon Commons, capturing 87% of the vote there.

At the end of its meeting Tuesday afternoon, the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board’s finance committee voted to do nothing — and it may have been the most welcome inaction to Badger fans in a decade and a half.

The vote was to approve the freezing of ticket prices for a year, something the Athletic Department has not done since 1992. Back then, the department’s budget was $16.5 million; on Tuesday, the finance committee authorized a total spending authority of $89,149,700.

Backed by a strong economy and a growing stock market, American colleges and universities raised an estimated $29.8-billion in the 2007 fiscal year, the highest total ever recorded, according to a report scheduled for release today by the Council for Aid to Education.

Religion is said to be the driving influence behind Americansâ?? low moral opinion of nanotechnology, according to a researcher who surveyed public opinion on science and technology.

Dietram Scheufele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of life sciences, and a colleague found in their study that only 29.5 percent of respondents from a sample of 1,015 adult Americans agreed that nanotechnology was morally acceptable.

When the survey was conducted in European countries, who are reportedly also key players in nanotechnology, the results were strikingly different.

Want to see a taping of the 2008 “Jeopardy! College Championship” at the Kohl Center in April?

Ticket applications for the event, taking place April 11 and 12, will be available Monday at all Subway restaurants in the greater Madison area. All ticket requests must be postmarked no later than March 10.

Last Tuesday, Barack Obama stood in front of 15,000 shouting supporters in Madison, Wis., basking in wins in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. In addition to issuing a classic call to arms for the rest of the campaign, Mr. Obama took time out to welcome any Republicans to his bandwagon.

Quoted: Dhavan V. Shah, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin.

MADISON, Wis. — Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working this weekend to clear up confusion among student voters.

Students are now receiving e-mails with a list of campus polling places after many declared they simply didn’t know where to go to vote. Most UW students living in campus dorms can vote in or near their building, officials said.

The Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee heard budget presentations of University Health Services, Recreational Sports and the ASM bus passes Thursday.

A Madison man allegedly stalked his wife, a Madison police officer, by placing GPS devices in her vehicles, using sophisticated computer software to track her movements through her cell phone and hacking his way into the Madison Police Department’s human resources computer program to learn her work schedule.

Dustin M. Farberg, 38, a former corrections officer who now works as a human resources assistant for UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health, faces charges on felony counts of stalking, identity theft and vehicle theft and a misdemeanor computer crime for the alleged three-month-long stalking of both his wife and another police officer with whom she was having an affair.