Category: UW-Madison Related

Our reference is to the comments made last Wednesday on a Milwaukee radio talk show by a lecturer, Kevin Barrett, at the University of Wisconsin.

Dear Editor: As an attorney and UW-Madison graduate during the McCarthy era, I am deeply disturbed about the provost’s politically instigated “investigation” of Kevin Barrett. When teachers are intimidated against seeking and speaking truth on a campus known for its liberal and progressive traditions, we are in trouble.

I should think the Wisconsin Muslim community would be embarrassed. I should think the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and its administration would be embarrassed.

Seven high school seniors representing five schools in Fond du Lac County are recipients of $1,000 UW Alumni scholarships to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall.

MADISON, Wis. — Two men are in police custody in connection with one of four violent incidents that occurred in downtown Madison during the holiday weekend, police said.

Several letter writers express their feelings on the controversy involving a lecturer in a fall class on Islam.

President Bush has nominated a Wisconsin native to head the U.S. Mint. Edmund Moy grew up in Waukesha, went to Waukesha North High School and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

The Muslim community of Wisconsin should be embarrassed because someone is teaching an introduction to Islam course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is willing to inform his students that the Bush administration was directly responsible for the attack on 9-11-01 that brought the Twin Towers down and resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 human beings.

Gov. Jim Doyle says comments of two Republicans on the State Building Commission show his former top aide was not the one who nixed a company’s bid to do a $68.7 million redevelopment project involving the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Hundreds of limited-term jobs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison would be converted to permanent work under a plan unveiled by the university.

Limited-term employment on the UW-Madison campus has long been controversial because the workers perform work similar to permanent employees without the same pay, benefits and job security. Many of the employees work for the athletic department and Wisconsin Union.

The parking pinch for University of Wisconsin football games has become so pronounced that everyone, including the disabled, will feel it in the coming years.
The UW Athletic Department will lose access to 120 prime spaces in 2006 and at least 55 other slots in 2007 because two properties – the UW Credit Union across Monroe Street from Camp Randall Stadium and Randall School two blocks away from the facility – are reducing the number of parking spots made available to UW Athletics.

Bragging about the employees and students of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is common practice for Chancellor Doug Hastad.

MADISON, Wis. – The annual Halloween bash on State Street may no longer be a free.
George Twigg, spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, says a plan to gate the street and charge admission to Halloween revelers has been seriously discussed as an option.

IT APPEARS the city of Madison is close to settling on a State Street/Halloween strategy that will gate the street and charge admission to Halloween revelers.

On Thursday, George Twigg, spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said the plan is “not soup yet” but added it has been seriously discussed as an option, with an eye toward reducing the hundreds of thousands of dollars the city pays for police, fire and sanitation each year to keep the Halloween party more or less under control.

After reading about tuition increases in the UW System, I was especially disgusted to see the recent report of UW officials receiving raises, regardless of their already shocking salaries.
Students planning to attend any of the two- or four-year UW System schools will face a 6.9 percent increase in yearly tuition, which, on average, will add nearly $300 dollars to each student’s tuition bill. However, at the same time, the System president and numerous other top executives will receive more than a 2 percent pay increase twice within the next year.

Seventeen years ago, Christopher Ochoa told a Texas jury exactly how he and a friend repeatedly raped 20-year-old Nancy DePriest and then shot her dead at the Pizza Hut where she worked.

The details were so gruesome that DePriest’s mother, Jeanette Popp, fled the courtroom and threw up in a bathroom. Ochoa and his co-defendant, Richard Danziger, who steadfastly maintained his innocence, both received life sentences.

Although his complaints in 2004 helped nix a plan to include a dorm at the University Square redevelopment near campus, Steve Brown is now a partner in the mixed-used project and will oversee its 350 apartments.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison team has won its fourth straight title in the National Concrete Canoe Competition. Wisconsin’s 21-foot-long, 162-pound natural gray canoe, named ââ?¬Å?Forward,ââ?¬Â bested 22 other entries from engineering schools in the USA and Canada.

The search for a Japanese student missing since a rainy January morning ended Monday when he was found dead, floating in the white-capped waves of Lake Mendota by a wind surfer.

MADISON, Wis. — Another mugging occurred in downtown Madison during the weekend, according to Madison police.

MADISON, Wis. — The body found floating in Lake Mendota on Monday is that of a Japanese student who was studying in Madison but disappeared last January, according to the Dane County coroner.

As a college student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Norman Bobins didn’t give much thought to what he would do after graduation.

Melany Newby, UW-Madison’s top attorney until her retirement last month, received $90,000 to settle a gender discrimination claim with the university over her salary, according to documents released by UW-Madison on Wednesday.

Olin House may be the most prestigious UW building that nobody knows about. Tucked away just west of campus, it has housed the UW Chancellor since it was donated to the school in 1924.

It was the best money could buy when John Olin built it in 1911, but it needs major renovations. “One of our goals is to not only restore this house but bring it back to the time that it came from,” says UW Associate Chancellor Al Fish.

….Madison police reported a mugging not far from the UW-Madison campus, another in a long line of similar incidents in recent months.

Police said a 32-year-old man was walking in the 1400 block of Chandler Street in the Vilas neighborhood early today when he was punched in the face and knocked unconscious by unknown assailants who took his wallet and other personal items.

A red brick gothic revival mansion that stands on a ridge of North Prospect Avenue is losing its primary occupant, a frustrated handyman, but getting the largest renovation of its 95 years.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley is leaving Olin House at 130 N. Prospect Ave., the traditional chancellor’s home, and moving to a downtown condo while workers perform more than $1 million in privately funded restoration work.

Although the university expects that future chancellors will live in the house after the renovations are completed and Wiley retires, Wiley himself has no inclination to return.

BILL MEUNIER, the 54-year-old lifelong Badger fan from Milwaukee who got famous last week when his $550 donation to UW athletics did not result in a chance to buy football tickets, will be going to at least one Badger football game this coming season.

Meunier will be attending the Iowa-Wisconsin game on Nov. 11. Note that the game is not at Camp Randall Stadium. Rather, Meunier and a guest will travel to historic Kinnick Stadium, for an all-expenses-paid football weekend in Iowa City, courtesy of donations from members of HawkeyeReport.com, an Iowa football fan Web site.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s top attorney turned her legal guns on her employer, reaching a $90,000 settlement of her gender discrimination claim, according to documents obtained today by The Capital Times.

In a notice of claim filed with the state attorney general’s office last month, Melany Newby, 57, said she hadn’t received a raise since 1999, while her fellow vice chancellors, all male, received several large pay adjustments.

Newby, the vice chancellor for legal and executive affairs, departed last month as part of her settlement agreement with the university. She will be on unpaid leave until July 31, which will be her official last day with the university.

There are many places available in Dane County to build new houses. The Arboretum shouldn’t be one of them.

The University of Wisconsin Arboretum is a premier research and teaching facility, unique in the nation, and a source of community pride. The Arboretum also is ecologically fragile, under constant challenge from human traffic and pollution. If we want the Arboretum to serve the role it does today for future generations, then protecting it to the fullest extent possible against present and future manmade intrusions is essential.

(Ron Kalil is a professor in the UW-Madison Medical School and a longtime resident in the Arboretum.)

University of Wisconsin-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell says former Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows did not engage in sexual harassment, but still acted inappropriately toward a female student.

On Monday, Farrell replaced a letter of discipline in Barrows’ personnel file with a “letter of counsel, which is not an item of discipline.” Barrows (yesterday) released the letter to The Capital Times.

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly will receive a 2 percent pay increase next month and a 2.3 percent increase next April.

Reilly, who makes $326,400, will see his salary increase to $332,940 in July and to $340,435 starting in April.

The UW System Board of Regents approved the raises at a closed meeting at UW-Milwaukee last Friday and released the details on Monday. The board split $246,000 in raises over two years among 12 chancellors, 11 provosts and four top UW System executives.

Transcript of an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview with Alfred McCoy, a UW-Madison history professor.

Former UW-Vice Chancellor Paul Barrow had discipline against him reduced by UW Provost Patrick Farrell, but Barrows’ attorney said the decision is a mockery.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has downgraded the action taken against a former vice chancellor after a committee determined there was no basis for finding he sexually harassed two women.

Reilly, other UW leaders to split $246,000 in raises
By Aaron Nathans
UW System President Kevin Reilly will receive a 2 percent pay increase this year and a 2.3 percent increase in April.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell says former Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows did not engage in sexual harassment, but still acted inappropriately toward a female student.

The media are used to criticism from people who donââ?¬â?¢t like the message thatââ?¬â?¢s being reported. This practice is referred to as ââ?¬Å?kill the messenger.ââ?¬Â

But now a member of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents has apparently come up with a new tactic � Don�t talk to the messenger.

Despite wanting more services offered at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, local government and business leaders are not ready to pay for a physical expansion of the campus.

Retired Dane County Circuit Judge P. Charles Jones, who won a seat on the bench with a stunning victory over a longtime judicial incumbent, died Sunday of kidney failure.

Jones, 70, was one of the most respected judges to serve in Dane County in the second half of the 20th century, and retired from the bench in 1999 after serving 28 years.

(Jones received his law degree from UW-Madison.)

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents has approved a plan to revert the land at the Ashland Agriculture Research Station back to the local county government. State Senator Bob Jauch of Poplar stated on Friday that the Regents’ decision to revert the property was made after citizens in Ashland and Bayfield Counties agreed to develop a new mission for the facility.

Americans are in love with their SUVs and even gas prices topping $3 per gallon aren’t convincing enough for many to consider more fuel efficient cars. And probably they don’t have to, if a research project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison makes its way into mass-production.

After three years of effort developing one of the cleanest and most fuel-efficient SUVs in North America, a group of UW-Madison engineering students placed second in the “Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility” contest sponsored by General Motors and U.S. Department of Energy.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=434528
The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says all pay raises he receives from now until his retirement will be given back to the university system. (Fourth item)

Chancellor Carlos Santiago moved closer to getting $10 million in state funding for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s research initiative when the UW System Board of Regents pledged its support Thursday and Milwaukee-area business leaders agreed to lobby the governor and state Legislature on his behalf.

Proponents of converting the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha into a center for multiple higher-education institutions said Thursday their plan includes building a campus addition.

Across the city of Madison and even in Sun Prairie and Fitchburg ââ?¬â?? you can catch a glimpse of 101 specially designed bovines from the cow parade.

But those works of art are also attracting the attention of vandals.

Summer in Madison means that everyone has to make at least one pilgrimage to the Union Terrace to enjoy the sun-dappled waves of Lake Mendota, the company of friends and the joys of hearing live music without a roof over your head.

Get started early with the second annual TerraceFest, running from noon to midnight Saturday on the terrace at the Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. The all-day event is free, mixing live music with street performers and other fun events.

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems (CSCO) said Chief Executive John Chambers will become chairman of the company when current Chairman John Morgridge steps aside on Nov. 15. [Morgridge and his wife Tashia are UW-Madison graduates and major donors to the university]

Members of the UW Board of Regents hope a universitywide committee will help them rein in rising student fees, or at least draft some rules to put tighter controls on a revenue source that raises $100 million a year.

A proposal by the U.S. Justice Department to require Internet-service providers to retain information about their clients’ online behavior has higher-education officials worried that colleges, too, could be forced to do so.

“We favor helping law enforcement,” said Rodney J. Petersen, a policy analyst at Educause, a higher-education technology group, “but our concern is when the help extends to information that we normally don’t retain.”

An appropriations panel of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to raise the maximum Pell Grant next year by $100, to $4,150, but provide no increase for the National Institutes of Health.

The plan would restore funds for several education programs that President Bush had proposed eliminating in his budget for the 2007 fiscal year, which starts on October 1.

Among the programs that would be spared are Upward Bound and Talent Search, two of the TRIO college-preparation programs for disadvantaged students; and Gear Up, another college-preparation program, which focuses on needy middle-school students. Spending for all three programs would remain the same as in the current fiscal year.

Dane County and Madison are joining forces in the battle to keep up with the rising tide of computer crime.

….Computer analysis has been used to resolve sexual assault, financial crimes, homicide, theft, stalking and a variety of other types of cases. It was key to uncovering the fake abduction of UW student Audrey Seiler two years ago, (Madison Police Chief Noble) Wray said.

A decision on transforming the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha into a center for multiple higher education institutions has been postponed at the urging of the concept’s opponents.

Government and industry officials are set to meet in Madison and Toledo, Ohio, this month to talk about the prospects for installing giant electricity-generating windmills out in the Great Lakes.

A University of Wisconsin computer technician who claimed she lost an opportunity for a permanent job for speaking out about conditions for limited-term employees (LTE) will receive $145,000 to settle her First Amendment lawsuit against the Board of Regents.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Bauer said Monday that instead of going to trial last week, the state reached a tentative agreement with Wanda Ashman, who has a permanent part-time job with the UW-Madison College of Letters and Sciences.

Dane County prosecutors said today they will retry Ralph Armstrong, whose conviction for the 1980 rape and murder of University of Wisconsin student Charise Kamps was overturned last year by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said today that “after analyzing all the evidence in the case,” he has decided to prosecute the case again. Under terms of the high court decision, the state had the choice of going to trial again or of dropping the case altogether.

Five hundred dollars doesn’t buy what it used to.

In fact, when dealing with the University of Wisconsin athletic department nowadays, $500 can get you virtually nothing.

Wisconsin has the lowest rates of HIV in the nation, but that shouldn’t lull us into a false sense of security about the virus and the disease it causes.
AIDS remains the world’s No. 1 infectious disease, killing 3.1 million people each year. By the beginning of this year, an estimated 38.6 million people in the world were living with HIV infections or were ill with AIDS.

Half a million Americans have died of AIDS since 1981. There’s no cure, and an effective vaccine is at least a decade or more away, say UW-Madison researchers. This makes it even more imperative that people adopt protective behaviors.

The collaborative approach to expanded educational offerings has become a model for Wisconsin educators who are considering launching a university center in Waukesha County.

Five Big Ten schools, including Purdue, are searching for chief information officers, a position one University official said is difficult to fill.
Steve Tally, spokesman for Information Technology at Purdue, said this position is fairly new and Purdue hired its first and current CIO, James Bottum, in 2001.