Category: UW-Madison Related

The University of Wisconsin System is expected to announce the next chancellor for UW-La Crosse today.

WASHINGTON – Luxuries, such as the Kohl Center’s $10,000- to $12,500-a-year courtside seats and Camp Randall’s $51,000-a-year suites, are coming under scrutiny by lawmakers in Washington, who wonder whether such luxuries enhance a university’s educational mission.

In fact, members of Congress in charge with writing federal tax law may begin to treat big-time college sports like professional teams instead of part of an educational institution.

IT HELPS to have a good memory if you want to really appreciate the astonishing current popularity of University of Wisconsin-Madison men’s basketball.

As a former member of what was once called the “Faithful 5,000,” it is mind-bending to think that this past summer, the UW athletic department offered 48 courtside seats at the Kohl Center at $10,000 a year per seat – and sold them out prior to this Friday’s exhibition home opener against UW-Stout.

Those 48 seat holders are in what is now called the “Courtside Club,” and they have the added pleasure of knowing they have displaced newspaper writers, who were kicked upstairs under the new arrangement.

Some of UW-Madison’s most famous faces spend a little time with a few colorful cows.

Barry Alvarez and Brett Bielema autographed the CowParades’ “looking for Bucky” cow on Wednesday

The University of Wisconsin at Madison, $1.807-billion as of October 17 (increase of $14.5-million in the last month); the goal was $1.5-billion by 2007.

The incoming communications and external relations director for the University of Wisconsin System said it is a ââ?¬Å?privilegeââ?¬Â to be selected, as heââ?¬â?¢ll be part of a collaborative effort to try and improve UW relations.

The committee that oversees the UW-Madison faculty disciplinary process voted to amend a proposal that if passed would expedite suspension without pay hearings for faculty convicted of serious misconduct.

A special Board of Regents committee met Monday in its latest stride toward revising the current faculty disciplinary policy.

Among the kudos the mayor passed out was one to the UW- Madison Intrafraternity Council, which voted earlier this semester to recommend against house parties on Halloween weekend. President Brian Burke said only one house had a party, but with a limited guest list.

Burke said the group will probably propose a ban on Halloween house parties. “It’s really hard to keep property and members safe in that environment,” Burke said.

Of the 243 arrests made at the Halloween event Saturday night and Sunday morning, more than half were not students, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said Monday. Of the total, 68 arrests were UW- Madison students, 21 were from other University of Wisconsin System campuses, and 23 were from other schools.

Not too many cities would count a night with 250 arrests in the plus column, but the city of Madison was willing to chalk this one up in the win column as it closed the books on Halloween 2006.

The University of Florida has rejected offers to enter into an exclusive contract with multimedia provider Ruckus.com, which would have given students the opportunity to legally download music over the Internet.

Madison police confirm to NBC-15 News that the body of a man was found in the pool of the Doubletree Hotel on West Johnson Street early Sunday morning.

Madison investigators say alcohol appears to be a factor.

While Madison leaders are calling this year’s Halloween on State Street a success…police admit they came very close to seeing disturbances similar to those that have shut the event down with pepper spray the last few years.

A Madison alderman says this year’s Halloween on State Street may have been a success, but he still wants the city to back away from the annual celebration.

As part of a plan to revamp their communications department, the University of Wisconsin System announced a new executive director of communications and external relations Friday.

The University of Wisconsin System has promoted a UW-Extension spokesman to a new position designed to improve communications with the public and relations with state lawmakers.

UW System President Kevin Reilly named David F. Giroux, director of public information for UW-Extension since 2000, to executive director for communications and external relations Friday.

The effort to exploit the most lucrative college student demographic backfired recently when a digital music downloading service got ahold of thousands of Facebook users’ emails by falsely setting up their own group profile and luring students to join, reports eSchool News.

A couple items to ponder while searching for a parking spot prior to today’s Illinois-Wisconsin college football game.

** Despite what most would consider a surprisingly good season to date for the UW football team, demand for tickets to Badgers games this year appear to be down.

Yes, for the third straight season the UW basically sold out every home game at 80,123-seat Camp Randall Stadium before the end of summer.

Yet surf the Web, call a ticket broker or walk around the stadium prior to today’s Illini-Badgers matchup, and you might be surprised at all the extra tickets that can be had.

** How bad has the Badgers’ home schedule really been?

In a word: horrendous.

Crowds picked up and became rowdier as the hour approached midnight on State Street on Friday night, but the mood remained mostly calm ahead of tonight’s main Halloween event.

It almost couldn’t have gone any better.
For the first time in four years, the Halloween party on State Street did not end with police in riot gear and clouds of pepper spray.

Relatively calm… that’s how police are describing the first night of Madison’s Halloween Celebration.

Police made 68 arrests on or near State Street overnight. 13 of those people were taken to jail.

The Mayor who says there is plenty of credit to go around. The mayor faced a lot of criticism when he said the city would charge a five dollar fee to enter State Street, but as he told me today: Everyone looks smart this morning.

The City of Madison and local police were prepared for the worst. Unlike previous Halloweens, this year’s Freakfest did not end in pepper spray.

As Kevin Barrett protesters demonstrated outside Reeve Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Thursday, curious minds congregated inside to hear the lecture that may be all too familiar to Madison residents.

MADISON, Wis. — A lawsuit claiming that Madison bar owners illegally conspired to raise prices when they voluntarily banned drink specials on weekends has been thrown out. Madison’s downtown bar owners celebrated the decision Thursday, but they warned that a legal battle that has cost them more than $500,000 is not over.

Madison city officials� say they are satisified a security firm with a checkered past will be able to handle the big crowd expected on state street this weekend.

Dear Halloween revelers, Most of Madison is making a good-faith effort to produce a safer and less costly Halloween bash Downtown on Saturday night. It’s now up to you to make the same effort.

Kevin Barrett wants the world to open its eyes and minds and, at the very least, listen to the theory that our United States government was a co-conspirator in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Most consider that idea poorly-supported nonsense. To a few, it’s a frightening reality.

But to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s credit, it understood the underlying principle that afforded Barrett his local spotlight Thursday: Academic freedom.

The state Appeals Court ruled today that 24 campus-area bars in Madison did not illegally conspire to fix prices by limiting drink specials.

Anthony Shadid made a brief return to Baghdad last week and, as the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post drove into the city from the airport, he was aghast by how much it had deteriorated since his last visit just a year ago.

“Baghdad is a city of ghosts at this point,” the 1990 University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate said in a phone interview Monday from his home in Beirut. “It doesn’t embrace life anymore. I don’t think anybody understands how bad it’s become.”

Shadid spent much of 2003 in Baghdad researching his highly acclaimed book, “Night Draws Near,” which views the Iraq war through the eyes of ordinary citizens and which recently was released in paperback.

It’s ridiculous to believe a soldier, witness to the horrors of combat, can be turned back into a civilian without any psychological damage.

So says a soldier in the film “The Ground Truth,” a new documentary chronicling the lives of several Iraq combat veterans and their coming to terms with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Military Families for Peace, a local veterans group, screened the film and facilitated a discussion about the disorder Tuesday in a classroom on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

(Professor Joe Elder is quoted.)

I applaud the Waukee school district for choosing not to fight the request by the University of Wisconsin to change its school logo (“Pressured, Waukee Elects To Divorce Its Flying W,” Oct. 17).

But it’s no foolin’ baby; Ted Nugent (billed as America’s #1 Pro-hunting Voice) will be at the UW Madison Memorial Union Theater Wednesday night, holding forth on the topic of “God, Guns & Rock n’ Roll”. The Nuge is sponsored by Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow. Will a constructive tomorrow end up looking like an 1978 arena rock show? Or more like an NRA convention?

UW-Madison students want to preserve the past and build for the future.

While only 6.6 percent of the student body voted in the Associated Students of Madison fall election last week, the electors overwhelmingly approved raising student fees to pay for a major renovation of Memorial Union and replacement of Union South.

But another referendum that passed, to bump student wages up to a “living wage” level, could hit a roadblock in the chancellor’s office.

The University of Wisconsin System honored four state professors Friday, commending them for their excellence in the classroom.

A recent Wisconsin State Journal article covered the story of Collegiate Licensing Company ordering the Waukee School District to stop using the “Motion W” copyrighted by University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the article, the person in charge of licensing at UW-Madison, Cindy Van Matre, said, “I wish the school [Waukee] would use it as a learning experience about patent law and copyrights.”

I received an e-mail from the Wisconsin Alumni Association this week seeking nominations for its annual “Badger of the Year” awards.

The release noted: “The criteria for the Badger of the Year awards are simple – recipients are alumni who are making a difference, whether by developing a successful business, serving as an educational leader, being a philanthropist or publicly supporting UW-Madison.

….Unfortunately, when I contacted the Wisconsin Alumni Association Friday, it turned out my nominee failed to meet certain other criteria for being named Badger of the Year. He’s dead, for one thing, and he didn’t graduate from UW-Madison for another.

A man was hit on the head with a glass bottle Sunday night while walking near the UW-Madison campus. The victim told police he was in the 400 block of North Murray Street about 9 p.m. when a man approached him and struck him with the bottle.

The victim fled, and his assailant gave chase briefly before fleeing the area. The victim suffered a minor head injury. It was unclear what the motive was for the attack.

University of Wisconsin students won’t know the results of elections on new student unions and living wages for student workers until Monday night at the earliest, since election officials are working with paper ballots.

The Associated Students of Madison fall election closed Thursday night after two days of voting, but counting the paper ballots, while deemed safer, will take longer than the actual voting took.

UW-Milwaukee froze its student government Friday amidst an ongoing investigation into embezzlement of $10,000 by student officials. The university literally has locked the doors and halted government access to funds in the wake of the investigation.

With Halloween less than a week away, Madison�s downtown bars remain unsure of what to expect.

Wisconsin is not making a legislative effort to keep textbook costs down, but Madison student groups are getting feisty about the issue.
Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, a student- directed, student-funded statewide advocacy group in Madison, is working on local and national campaigns to reduce the cost of textbooks. WISPIRG has joined 14 other state student associations on the campaign.

In July, UW-Madison student Tom Wangard led the charge in decrying Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s plans to tame Halloween on State Street, rallying thousands of students to join a group called Move Halloween to Langdon.

Last week, The Badger Herald published two editorials attacking me. Allow me to play Jesse Ventura (a 9/11 Truth supporter, by the way) and fight off this tag-team of Jeff ââ?¬Å?Butcher of the English Languageââ?¬Â Carnes and Ryan ââ?¬Å?Mistaken and Delusionalââ?¬Â Masse.

It was a haunted house that couldn’t help but stir up a spooky reaction Sunday near UW-Madison.

More than 20 members of the University of Wisconsin Math Department praised the UW System Board of Regents last week for its opposition to the proposed amendment banning gay marriage in Wisconsin.

Google has added yet another university to its digital-library project. The new member is the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which will contribute historical documents for digitization.

A thistle to the University of Wisconsin for a ridiculous legal attack on Waukee High School for alleged trademark infringement. Wisconsin badgered Waukee into dropping the capital W from its team logo because it too closely resembles the university’s “motion W.” The demand is ridiculous not just because it’s picking on a small Iowa high school. There’s also nothing special about that particular W. Variations of that sort of type design can be found in any font case. In effect, Wisconsin is trying to put its trademark on the alphabet. What’s next, the New York Times demanding that no one else can use Old English lettering?

Madison, Wis. – An education research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive $3 million from the MacArthur Foundation to study the impact of digital media on youth culture, learning, and literacy.

Madison, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s partnership with Google to digitize hundreds of thousands of volumes in campus libraries could make one of the best historical collections in the nation available to Internet users.

In the coming months, the popular search engine company, in collaboration with the university and the Wisconsin Historical Society, will make books and rare documents currently available only on shelves and in archives freely accessible through Google Book Search.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, with events planned through the spring to commemorate its half-century history.

Letter-writers vent on the UW Marching band issue.

Carlos Santiago, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, announced Thursday that he will undergo surgery for prostate cancer next week and will be limiting his public appearances for four to six weeks.

The City of Madison is often referred to as a ââ?¬Å?college town,ââ?¬Â where rowdy students crowd the downtown streets on the weekends, innocent residents cringe at the thought of Halloween and not wearing red on game day is a cardinal sin.

Wisconsin’s largest used book sale began Wednesday in UW-Madison’s Memorial Library. The semiannual event offers more than 15,000 books on almost any topic.

It’s been a little over a year since Madison hired an Alcohol policy coordinator. Joel Plant was hired to work with businesses that serve alcohol along with the local government.

BILL AYERS seemed flabbergasted to hear that Leo Burt is still on the run. And I have to admit, I was flabbergasted that Ayers was flabbergasted.

….Ayers and I were chatting in advance of his appearance tonight, with his wife Bernardine Dohrn, at the Wisconsin Book Festival. Currently college professors in Chicago, Ayers and Dohrn are famous – or infamous, depending on your take – for their association, three decades ago, with the Weather Underground, a Vietnam War-era radical group that advocated and practiced violence against establishment targets.

….Burt, of course, is the last fugitive from the Vietnam protest era, 36 years and counting since the August 1970 bombing of the Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall, a blast that did $6 million damage and took the life of a young researcher, Robert Fassnacht, who was working late in the building when the bomb went off.

New Orleans is coming back, just as journalist Chris Rose will this weekend.

He’s back in the city where he began his journalistic career, but New Orleans is home for good, come hell or high water.

For a year, he wrote desperately to help a city that almost died.

Chris Rose believes “something very close to” a hurricane took him to New Orleans for the first time in 1980.

He and a friend, then students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, landed there when a storm foiled their Thanksgiving break and chased them out of Texas and Florida.

More than two decades later, Rose wrote about that trip in one of his many columns for the New Orleans Times-Picayune after Hurricane Katrina.

Two men were ordered to stand trial on numerous felony counts for an alleged gang rape in the campus area on Labor Day weekend. But charges against a third man, who admitted he was involved in the assaults, were reduced to misdemeanors following a preliminary hearing Monday.