Category: UW-Madison Related

Something fishy happened last week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison ? literally. Authorities are currently tying to solve the mystery of the koi fish caper.

UW-Madison Police are searching for eight missing koi that appear to have been stolen from the Botany Gardens.

Dear Editor: When dealing with known quantities like Rep. Steve Nass and the rest, the UW has to be smart enough not to throw them a fat one right over the middle. There is no way to rationalize growing a huge reserve (which UW has never done before) when you are claiming severe budget hardship. It begs all credibility and plays right into their well-known hateful hands. I do not blame the haters for doing what they do. That?s like blaming a wolf for killing sheep. But the UW HAS to be smarter and not make themselves such a fat and easy target. I also think students who paid all that tuition and got nothing in return have been abused, as have the faculty and staff who have been told no money is available. It was available and the UW lied to everyone by omission or commission.

Madison ? The Legislature?s budget committee in a bipartisan vote Thursday froze tuition and tax dollars for the University of Wisconsin System over the next two years and delayed new flexibilities promised in the last state budget, leaving public universities to fund several new initiatives from recently discovered cash reserves that triggered a firestorm at the Capitol.

Thursday will be a day of reckoning for the beleaguered University of Wisconsin System as the Legislature?s budget-writing committee debates how much money to give public universities in the 2013-?15 state budget.

“Bait bikes,” rigged with GPS-tracking technology, are popping up on college campuses across the nation in an effort to reduce bike theft, though the results have been mixed.

Chris Rickert?s May 19 column, “Surplus of blame encircles UW fund,” doesn?t state what he means by “professorial stars.” But data is available suggesting comparisons between CEO and university faculty salaries are ridiculous.

The Legislature?s budget committee Tuesday approved a measure meant to discourage public employees from collecting a pension and a paycheck at the same time.

Scott Johanek is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now, he?s also a co-founder of Muto Brands.

Madison – Following a furor among lawmakers over the University of Wisconsin System?s sizable financial reserves, Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday recommended freezing tuition and scaling back his proposed budget increase for state universities and colleges by $94 million over the next two years.

Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday night that he?ll cut about $94 million out of the $181 million budget boost earlier proposed for the University of Wisconsin System, in addition to freezing tuition as a result of revelations that the System kept hundreds of millions of dollars in cash reserves in recent years.

In a state that is divided on one political issue after another, there?s at least an apparent point of agreement that unites Badgers: freezing tuition at the University of Wisconsin.

On his blog, businessman John Torinus takes a look at the University of Wisconsin System?s many assets and suggests that it work at more transparency and include the balance sheets of such entities as the UW Foundation and WARF, the foundation that markets the school?s patents. It needs to build trust, says Torinus, and suggests that it find a way to work with the state ? ala the Wisconsin Idea ? to help in that regard.

MADISON WKOW– The 66th Alice in Dairyland was announced Friday evening by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. This year Kristin Natzke Olson will be the agencys ambassador as she travels throughout the state.

Three months ago Joan Houston Hall, editor for 38 years of the Madison-based Dictionary of American Regional English, sat down to write what seemed likely to be her publication?s obituary: layoff letters for all six longtime staff. Then one for herself.

One man was robbed of his cellphone when a man pointed a gun at him while he was walking down the street early Tuesday morning near the UW campus.

Here?s how five citizens answered this week?s question posed by Capital Times freelancer Kevin Murphy. What do you think? Please join the discussion.

Mike Ellis, the irascible Republican state senator, provided a revealing window into the GOP?s desired populist narrative in attacking the University of Wisconsin System these past two weeks.

Well, this could end well. Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic freshman Rep. Marc Pocan are set to square off Thursday in a budget debate on the campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

MADISON, Wis. — A former University of Wisconsin-Madison plant researcher who grew marijuana in a campus lab was sentenced Friday to two years of probation after pleading guilty to four charges.

UW-Madison senior Matt Warnert was stabbed at the 2011 Mifflin Street Block Party, but he describes efforts on the part of the Madison Police Department to shut down the annual festival as an “iron fist” approach.

?Federal Spigot Flows as Farmers Claim Bias? underplays the history of racial dispossession, uses cherry-picked examples, and creates needless antipathy to the lawsuit and the settlement with black farmers. Focusing on fraud and invoking familiar, racially freighted stereotypes of undeserving opportunists serve to throw into question all payouts rather than explaining why they were ordered in the first place. Signer includes Thomas Mitchell of the UW Law School.

Eau Claire Leader-Telegram Editor Don Huebscher writes that the state needs to get a full picture of the UW System?s reserve funds and determine how much is enough. It?s unfair to parents and students if tuition costs are higher than they need be, but do we know for certain how much should be held in reserve?, he asks. We should answer that question before making bad decisions.

Think about traveling through the major airline hubs in Minneapolis, Chicago or Detroit. You might hate the airlines stomp out United! and the experience of being packed into the plane, but youd probably have to admit that the airports themselves have come a long way in the last couple of decades.

With the proposed redevelopment by the Mullins Group and Core Campus of Chicago of much of the 500 block of State Street, including the University Inn property (technically with a Frances Street address) and a building at 529 State St., the campus area stands to lose several longstanding and well-loved locally owned restaurants. Kabul Afghani and Mediterranean restaurant, Hüsnüs Turkish restaurant, and Buraka East African Cuisine are at street level or basement level below the hotel. Also located at the street level are Campus Candy and an outlet of Jimmy John?s sub sandwich chain. Roast Public House occupies 529 State.

The origins of a nightmarish last week for University of Wisconsin System officials can be traced to a meeting of accountants earlier this year at the state Capitol.

In the wake of campus shootings the past five years, police throughout the nation are using text alerts to deliver warnings and advice to students in emergency situations.

By all accounts, Gerda Lerner was a serious scholar with a fierce intellect. She was also a trailblazing feminist, a mentor to generations of graduate students, a taskmaster, a poet, a nature lover.

Even though it?s been decades since Louis Uccellini was a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, he vividly remembers the state?s weather and quickly rattles off details of three blizzards that hit his senior year.

Representatives from the city and the UW-Madison kicked off plans to redevelop the 700 and 800 blocks of State Street near Library Mall Tuesday with a public input meeting. The plan is part of a larger movement that will change the appearance State Street, with the 100 block currently under construction and the Mullins Group recently announcing broad changes to the 500 block.

University of Wisconsin?Madison employees will be charged $24 for previously free bus passes beginning in August, according to a university press release.

Unions seek injunction to halt collective bargaining law implementation: Unions challenging Gov. Scott Walker?s law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers have asked a court to stop the state from implementing portions of the law found to be unconstitutional. The request for an injunction was filed in Dane County Circuit Court on Monday.

It took just minutes into Tuesday morning?s appearance by University of Wisconsin System officials before a legislative committee for the fireworks to begin.

Gov. Scott Walker said Monday that he won?t seek to reduce funding for the University of Wisconsin System in his proposed budget amid reports of a $650 million surplus, but he hopes the money will be used to freeze or reduce tuition.

Scrapbook: Honors, donations

The conundrum seems simple enough: Neither Metro nor UW-Madison can live without the other, BUT neither is happy with a partnership that cannot function well without a regional transport authority. Until there is one in the Madison area, the relationship may need to change dramatically from what it has been in the recent past, because Metro should pay more attention to non-UW needs.

Professors and campus police says the student who took a shotgun into a classroom at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is someone familiar to them because of his erratic behavior.

A University of La Crosse student has been arrested after carrying an unloaded shotgun on campus.

Last year, more than 1,000 stories, photos, videos or tweets were collected and curated during #UWRightNow. Framed as a “multimedia project designed to capture the breadth, depth and spirit of the University of Wisconsin-Madison during a 24-hour period,” the 2012 version of #UWRightNow was a crowdsourced social media masterpiece. Combining “staff-produced and user-generated content,” the day-long project provided a snapshot of what it meant to be a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison community.

The wanted poster is thumb-tacked above my desk, next to some other pieces of Madison memorabilia

Renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall will be the keynote speaker at the 2013 Nelson Institute Earth Day Conference Monday.

Mayor Paul Soglin released his appointments Wednesday for the city committees Madison?s alders will sit on for the next two years.

Noted: Previous attempts to map the internet have been from within, using “sniffer” software to report the IP addresses of devices visited along a particular route, which, in theory, can then be translated into geographical locations. But this approach doesn?t work, says Paul Barford at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “After 15 years nobody can show you a map of the internet,” he says.

Town of Madison police are hoping a new $5,000 reward will persuade people to come forward with additional information needed to arrest and prosecute a suspect in the 1986 convenience store slaying of UW-Madison student Andrew Nehmer.

Town of Madison Police Chief Scott T. Gregory has announced the department, in coordination with the Department of Justice (DOJ) ? Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), will hold a news conference Wednesday regarding the 1986 unsolved armed robbery and homicide of University of Wisconsin-Madison student Andrew M. Nehmer.

The Town of Madison Police Department is bringing new attention to the case of a University of Wisconsin student whose body was found in a convenience store parking lot in 1986.Related ContentHouse reported to be fully-engulfed in…Police: Motorist attacked in road rage…Opposition to bill on food stamps for…Rains prompt flooding concerns,…» View More

University of Wisconsin officials are making progress in efforts to develop a flexible degree option, which is aimed at helping hundreds of thousands of residents sitting on some level of partial college credit earn a degree or certification.

The University of Wisconsin Center of Journalism Ethics will honor Milwaukee Journal Sentinel health and science reporter Mark Johnson with the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics at a conference Friday. The Badger Herald spoke with Johnson about the award and his experiences in journalism. 

A convicted burglar tells 27 News he is hiding no information on an accomplice, even though records show DNA from the man?s burglary, matches DNA from the April 2, 2008 killing of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the UW-Extension will host UW Colleges Day at the state capitol Thursday after the previously scheduled date was canceled due to bad weather.UW Colleges Day will present UW-Madison research to Wisconsin legislators and the public since people outside the university typically do not get the chance to see its research, according to a university release.

University of Wisconsin System leaders sent a letter to the Wisconsin State Legislature Monday asking legislators to support funding for Wisconsin?s universities as set out in Gov. Scott Walker?s biennial budget proposal.

The Dane County District Attorney did not charge Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell for disorderly conduct following the actor?s disruption at a February University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meeting.

A UW-Madison police officer is accused of using a law enforcement search tool to track down a woman?s name and address for personal use.

Actor James Cromwell has pleaded no contest to disrupting a University of Wisconsin-Madison Board of Regents meeting last month to rail about cat experiments on campus.

A University of Wisconsin police officer is back on the job after a two-day suspension without pay resulting from an investigation into the use of a law enforcement database to look up the name of a woman he saw at a grocery store.Related ContentFire victim was retired music teacherAssembly Republicans launch new web…Board to meet next week on Wauwatosa…Judge throws out mans arson conviction» View More

A $197 million replacement of the massive Hill Farms State Office Building complex on Madison?s West Side is among nearly $1.5 billion worth of capital projects proposed by Gov. Scott Walker and recommended for approval Thursday by the State Building Commission.

A federal judge says a man exonerated in the 1980 killing of a UW-Madison student can proceed with a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Madison – A federal judge has allowed an amended civil rights lawsuit filed by a man exonerated in a 1980 sexual assault and strangulation to proceed.It?s the third time Ralph Armstrong has filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Madison. Armstrong was convicted in the death of University of Wisconsin-Madison student Charise Kamps – a conviction that was overturned in 2009.

State funding for the UW-Madison Resource Center on Impaired Driving is going to end in October. I am surprised and disappointed by this decision.