Category: UW-Madison Related

As a city with a reputation of holding large protests, it was no surprise Monday�s rally against federal illegal immigration legislation assembled more than 10,000 people in downtown Madison.

The state legislature continues to cast a pretty wide net in its effort to wreak havoc on state institutions. Whether it?s the propensity to micromanage or simply to appeal to the shortsighted tax freeze minority, elected officials seem blind to the impact on schools and colleges among other things. And that includes tech schools.

The University of Wisconsin has responded to public outcry and wisely reversed its decision to close its fertility clinic.

The UW-System Board of Regents approved plans to create two substantial research centers Friday. At the regents monthly meeting, held at UW-Green Bay, the Board approved a measure to allow UW-Madison to exchange land with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and to allow WARF to construct the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Research. The facilities, collectively known as the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, were announced March 3. John and Tashia Morgridge provided a $50 million donation for the proposed Morgridge Institute.

More than one year after being charged with intent to perpetrate a child sex crime, the UW System Board of Regents dismissed UW-Madison professor Lewis Keith Cohen Friday.

According to a Board statement, the unanimous vote immediately dismissed Cohen from his tenured position in the comparative literature department, closing the last of three recent felony cases among UW-Madison faculty.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents voted unanimously Friday to dismiss UW-Madison professor Lewis Keith Cohen from his tenured position in the comparative literature department.

The UW Board of Regents on Friday fired a professor convicted of sending naked pictures of himself to a detective posing as a 14-year-old boy.
Another UW-Madison professor convicted of stalking a former girlfriend last year agreed to resign this week rather than fight to try to save his job, the school said Friday.

University of Wisconsin System regents on Friday fired a professor convicted of sending naked pictures of himself to a detective posing as a 14-year-old boy. (Last item in Regional Briefs)

University of Wisconsin System regents on Friday fired a professor convicted of sending naked pictures of himself to a detective posing as a 14-year-old boy.

Another UW-Madison professor convicted of stalking a former girlfriend last year agreed to resign this week rather than fight to try to save his job, the school said Friday.

Kenji Ohmi is still missing after he first disappeared Jan. 28, over two months ago. Madison Police Department Information Officer Mike Hanson alleged all leads given for the investigation have been cold.

The city of Madison will kick off its weekend-long sesquicentennial celebration today, commemorating 150 years of history and progress at the state capital.

Madison begins a long celebration of its sesquicentennial today, and we are delighted to join in the festivities.

Indeed, we would like to suggest a motto for this 150th anniversary party: Vive le difference!

The University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate passed a motion Monday recommending any change to university policy regarding the suspension of faculty members without pay be limited to those who have been ââ?¬Å?charged with a felony in a criminal proceeding.ââ?¬Â

Dear Editor: So the defenders of Paul Barrows’ message to all who are appalled by his years of unprofessional conduct and ability to milk the system at every turn is this: “Get off poor Paul because he is black.” Message received. Racism is acceptable in certain situations. Wake up! Your arguments are the definition of fascism.

Steve O’Neill, Madison

The man beaten during a scuffle near a University of Wisconsin-Madison parking ramp last week was well-known Madison restaurateur Nick Schiavo, according to statements made Monday in court.

Schiavo and others were at Ian’s Pizza late Wednesday night and as they left a confrontation erupted near UW ramp 46, across from the Nitty Gritty bar, in which Jason Hall, 19, allegedly fired rounds from a sawed-off shotgun.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison, $1.655-billion as of March 3 (increase of $3-million in the last month); the goal was $1.5-billion by 2007.

Blasts from a sawed-off shotgun resounded in a parking lot near Witte Hall early Thursday morning, jolting residents awake and prompting University Police to rush to the scene.

A Madison man has been arrested for allegedly firing a shotgun in a university area parking garage early Thursday and beating another man over the head.

Jason W. Hall, 19, was jailed on felony charges of possession of a shot-barrel shotgun and first-degree reckless endangerment, as well as misdemeanor battery.

“We’re under the impression that it’s just a verbal altercation that escalated,” said Lt. Johnnie Diamante of the UW Police Department.

Jennifer Lord, who has worked in a variety of programs to help prepare young people for college, is the new director of the South Madison Health and Family Center-Harambee.

….Lord has directed pre-college and youth programs at the University of Wisconsin, Beloit College and the Briggs Community YWCA in Olympia, Wash. She has also worked as a research assistant at the UW Medical School Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Medicine.

MADISON, Wis. — Former University of Wisconsin Badgers star running back Booker Stanley appeared in court on Thursday and learned that he will stand trial on sexual assault charges.

Something has gone very wrong with the United States patent system.

Americans think of the granting of patents as a benevolent process that lets inventors enjoy the fruits of their hard work and innovations. But times have changed. The definition of what is patentable has slowly evolved to include business practices and broad ideas. The fact that the Smucker’s company went to court over patents on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches might have provoked chuckles. But it became a symbol of a system gone awry.

As the post-spring break chatter of drunken hook-ups, worm-chased tequila shots and bead-grabbing shenanigans works its way through campus, we�ve been privileged to hear many a rumor over the past several days. However, one particularly far-fetched token of humbuggery has caused us to do a double take.

The Madison Plan Commission unanimously passed a proposal to completely demolish and renovate University Square Monday evening.

The UW makes its case against landmark status for the Rennebohm building…

If the UW is forced to integrate the former Rennebohm pharmacy building into it’s new research facility in the heart of campus…. it would force the university to have a smaller facility.

All universities gain and lose talented faculty and staff. But UW-Madison is losing more than its share of academic stars and having a tougher time attracting others.

Scientists say it’s not a matter of if, but when. And when pandemic flu hits ââ?¬â?? an event that could, at the least, keep large sections of the population from working, shut down travel and public institutions and cause infrastructure outages ââ?¬â?? information technology may be called on to ease the burden of coordinating both public efforts and business.

The Games + Learning + Society conference is being held in town due to the role UW-Madison plays as a vital center of research into the confluence of education and gaming.

The co-sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment designed to hold down state taxes said Friday that lawmakers can’t be trusted to make tough spending decisions on their own and that fewer public services will help the state’s economy.
“I’ve yet to see the Legislature take a hard vote on anything,” said Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, adding that “the press” contributes to the problem by not holding lawmakers accountable.

In other business, the board:
Approved a new policy giving resident assistants at University of Wisconsin campuses the freedom to hold Bible studies or any other kind of meeting in their dormrooms, to the same extent as other students, provided they don’t use their positions to “pressure, coerce or inappropriately influence” other students to attend or participate.

The University of Wisconsin System has met a majority of benchmarks that were established under the orders of former Gov. Tommy Thompson but has fallen short in enrolling non-traditional students, retaining freshmen and sending students abroad, according to a report that will be reviewed by the system’s Board of Regents on Thursday.

In response to a possible security threat, the Division of Information Technology has forced a system administrator to shut down a worldwide academic hacking challenge.

A six-story building with dozens of condominiums, rental space for offices and retail space for entrepreneurs may soon appear across from Camp Randall.

Inviting hackers to infiltrate a computer on the University of Wisconsin network might leave a Department of Information Technology employee subject to disciplinary action.

The University of Wisconsin did not take kindly to a systems engineer using its network for a public Mac security test

A Mac OS X hacker challenge apparently got a systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison into trouble with university administrators.

Mustafa Gokcek isn’t about to deny the obvious.

Thanks mostly to the policies of the Bush administration, the great rift between the Muslim and Western worlds clearly has widened in the last year, acknowledges the 29-year-old Turkish native and UW-Madison grad student.

And there’s no better proof, he says, than the tens of thousands of angry protesters who greeted the president on his recent trip to India and Pakistan. But as worrisome as that may be, Gokcek says it also proves the increasing need for events like the second annual International Conference on Islam, “Dialogue vs. Conflict: Islam in the Age of Globalization,” which will take place March 24-25 at the University of Wisconsin’s Pyle Center.

A new “hack my Mac” challenge has shown that Apple’s Mac OS X might not be such a pushover after all, after the challenger’s Mac Mini survived a sustained barrage of attacks for the duration of the contest.

The military has a right to recruit on college campuses and at law schools nationwide, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, despite the Pentagon’s policy of excluding openly gay men and women from its ranks.

A new Mac OS X hacker competition has been launched at the University of Wisconsin.

Stanley Kutler, the UW-Madison emeritus professor famed for his groundbreaking research into the Watergate scandal, has agreed to plead no contest to a criminal disorderly conduct charge stemming from an April 2005 incident in which he allegedly threatened to blow up a health insurance facility.

A man suspected in the attack and sexual assault of a woman Friday was arrested early Sunday.

Police stopped Steven Lopez-Ruiz, 24, on State Street at about 3 a.m. after an officer noted he matched the description of a man who attacked the 19-year-old woman. The suspect was in jail today on tentative charges of second-degree sexual assault, robbery and violating his parole.

MADISON-A demoted University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dean who is on sick leave will seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages against university officials he blames for ruining his career, his attorney warned the state.

A 19-year-old woman was the victim of a sexual assault in the early morning hours Friday, Madison police said. The woman also suffered a bruised eye, said police spokesman Michael Hanson.

The assault took place at 2:54 a.m. Friday in the area around the intersection of West Johnson Street and Frances Street, Hanson said. The woman was walking home from a bar and the man attacked her from behind, choking and punching her in the face as she was entering her residence, police said.

The American Transmission Company�s proposal to construct a high-voltage power line across the beltline, a major highway bisecting the UW-Madison Arboretum, has Arboretum officials on the defensive.
This proposition is only one of several options being weighed in an effort to connect the substations in Christiana, a town in Dane County, to the substations in west Middleton, one of the major Madison suburbs.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison, $1.652-billion as of February 7 (increase of $9.8-million in the last month); the goal was $1.5-billion by 2007.

Letter writer says: The case of felons on the payroll “is another example of people not taking responsibility for their jobs or positions. It sounds more like the placements were political – based on who you know and not what you know.”

Police have arrested a man they say sexually assaulted and beat up a 19-year-old woman in Madison on Friday morning.

MADISON, Wis. – A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor was allowed to work on campus for months after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting young girls even though some colleagues were threatened by his presence, according to a document released Thursday.

Roberto Coronado, a professor of medical physiology, was allowed to continue to work while he was on bail facing sexual assault charges last year. Coronado pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three girls in March but was allowed to continue working until he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in August.

A UW grad says she’ll use her Powerball winnings to help pay for school.

“Hard to believe, still is I think.”

Maimoona Bowcock, 25, says her dad bought her a ticket when the jackpot had ballooned over $300 million two weeks

IF YOU watch the Oscars on Sunday and like Jon Stewart in his first year as host, you may want to find your way to the Wisconsin Union Theater the evening of April 10, when Ben Karlin, who has been riding shotgun for Stewart at “The Daily Show” since 1999, returns to Madison as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the Memorial Union.

Karlin worked for the Onion here in the 1990s and also freelanced pieces for Madison Magazine and the newspapers. His star has been in quick ascendance since he joined Stewart. Karlin is currently executive producer of “The Daily Show” and its new spinoff, “The Colbert Report.”

Throughout his first term in office, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has made a point of leaving the office. This week, the plan was to venture into the private sector and ride along with Union Cab….

….Cieslewicz, once a regular bus rider who on one occasion said that he preferred not to drive on the Beltline, will ride in a yellow minivan with driver Jen Sutherland, who grew up near La Follette High School and started driving a cab in 1994. She’s also the president of Union Cab’s board of directors…. Sutherland answers some questions about herself and says she has degrees from UW-Madison in math and psychology.

“I’ve found use for them here,” she says.

“I’ll bet,” the mayor says. “One more than the other, probably.”

Dear Editor: Maybe the editors at The Capital Times should write an editorial that would tell Madison citizens how to behave in a civil manner. I can understand if some right-winger was treated the way Sen. Herb Kohl was, but a solid Wisconsin Democrat?

The atmosphere in Madison can no longer be called liberal or ultra-liberal. Your fair city and university are run and overrun by dangerous radicals.

Letter-writer says: When discussing the survey conducted by the Wood Communications Group, doesn’t the quote from University of Wisconsin System spokesman Doug Bradley say it best?
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“This wakes us up even more” (Survey scalds UW System,” Feb. 24). How can one be any more “awake”?

There is broad agreement throughout Wisconsin that the combination of rapidly rising tuition and slowly rising financial aid is shutting low-income students out of the UW System.
Yet, we’re still not doing enough to solve the problem.

With the Madison Fire Department proposing a new capacity maximum on outdoor beer gardens, some Madison bars may have to brace for a drop in income on football Saturdays.

Outdoor beer gardens around Camp Randall may soon face capacity limits if the city passes a plan proposed by the city�s fire department.

Responding to recent decisions made by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, the Academic Staff Professionals Representation Organization sent a letter to UW System President Kevin Reilly Wednesday criticizing their choices.

The Feb. 19 article “UW costs rise out of reach for many poor” is just one more example of how out of touch the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is.

With the help of a $20,000 grant from Milwaukee�s Schoenleber Foundation, the Wisconsin Historical Society will digitalize thousands of pages from two periodicals of Wisconsin History dating back more than 150 years.

MADISON � The last time a 20-year-old college student disappeared in this city, the police led a massive search that cost $100,000 and the national media converged to cover the story.

This time, two police detectives are assigned to the case. The media is paying little attention. And the investigation has yielded few clues three weeks after the student’s disappearance.