Category: UW-Madison Related

Sunday was a million-dollar day for a Madison couple. Well, to be accurate, that winning day was sometime in December, but Madison?s contestants in the CBS show ?The Amazing Race? were officially revealed as the winners when the season finale aired Sunday night. On their way to victory, Dave and Rachel Brown scaled skyscrapers in Honolulu and paddled their way twice across a pond while standing on a surfboard-like raft. The couple won eight legs in all, making them the most successful team in ?The Amazing Race?s? 20-season history.

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is working to get campus buildings back to normal after heavy rains caused flooding.

If you?re driving on the Beltline near the Arboretum Tuesday afternoon, there?s no need to call 911 if you see a field on fire. A controlled burn is scheduled to begin at noon on Tuesday in the Curtis Prairie portion of the UW-Madison Arboretum, an area of the grounds that?s right up against the northern edge of the Beltline just west of the Todd Drive on ramp.

Carol Bartz, the former CEO of Yahoo! and a graduate of UW-Madison, will speak at her alma mater?s four commencement ceremonies on May 19-20 at the Kohl Center.

The former chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is now the chief academic officer the University of Wisconsin System. Mark Nook has been named the system?s senior vice president for academic and student affairs. He has held the position on an interim basis since last summer.

Noted: Kevin P. Reilly, president of the University of Wisconsin system and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, said he saw the pledge as an opportunity to emulate some of his higher-education heroes. Leaders like the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame, were involved in matters of social import, such as the civil-rights movement, in a way that Mr. Reilly sees few college presidents engaged today.

Like the blue M&Ms introduced in 1995, blue chairs have joined the famous traditional orange, green and yellow seats on the Memorial Union Terrace. But unlike the popular candy, the 300 “Mendota Blue” terrace chairs will be in use for only a limited time. The new chairs are part of the public fundraising phase of the Wisconsin Union?s capital campaign, “A Blueprint for the Next 100 Years,” which seeks to raise $25 million by the end of 2015, Union Director Mark Guthier said.

The three newest regents for the University of Wisconsin System are getting set to begin their terms.

An identity theft investigation that stretched back almost five years on the UW-Madison campus ended with the conviction of a Chicago woman already spending time in prison. Katelin Nading, 24, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday by Dane County Circuit Judge William Hanrahan after she pleaded guilty to three counts of misappropriating ID information to get money.

The three newest regents for the University of Wisconsin System are getting set to begin their terms.

The three newest regents for the University of Wisconsin System are getting set to begin their terms.

While terrace chairs in their usual colors are a sign of spring, the blue chairs that appeared at Memorial Union yesterday are a sign of ongoing fundraising for renovations to the building.

As part of the Human Resources Design project, a work team will focus on recommendations to improve the workplace climate and increase diversity for University of Wisconsin faculty and staff

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board approved one-year extensions for UW coaches Friday, including men?s basketball coach Bo Ryan, as well as deliberated on developing new standards for institutional control of athletics.

Wisconsins dairy industry leaders are raising millions of dollars to renovate the aging dairy plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Wisconsins dairy industry leaders are raising millions of dollars to renovate the aging dairy plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The Memorial Union Terrace has a new addition: ?Mendota Blue? terrace chairs.

In the sea of Daily Cardinal alumni who gathered in Madison for the newspaper?s 120th anniversary last weekend, a small group of two dozen, reconnected by hope, comforted each other in a time of tragedy. A group of approximately 50 alumni created the ?Shadid Brigade? on Facebook last spring, after their friend, former Cardinal colleague and The New York Times Foreign Correspondent Anthony Shadid was kidnapped in Libya. But tragedy soon struck when Shadid passed away in February from an asthma attack in Syria.

Five red-tailed hawks in Wisconsin have become worldwide reality stars. Two parents and three chicks live in a nest on a ledge at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Two red-tailed hawks are keeping a watchful eye over their three recently hatched chicks on a ledge outside Weeks Hall, 1215 W. Dayton St., and a webcam is keeping an eye on them. “The chicks didn’t hatch until the last week or so, and the popularity has boomed from there,” said John Lalande of UW-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center.

Nine properties, some publicly owned, will be honored by the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation on May 3. The awards honor building or design that maintain the historic character of a property or rehabilitate them for contemporary use. Among the honorees are North and South Halls and the Chazen Museum of Art.

Madison police found an out-of-state college student who was beaten and bleeding near North Lake and Langdon streets early Saturday morning.

In Madison, Rising Sun is one of the last remnants of the once-thriving massage parlor scene, which appears to have started in the 1970s and once numbered in the dozens. The Downtown parlors drew heavy scrutiny during the 1980 murder trial of Barbara Hoffman, a former UW-Madison student and prostitute ? she worked part time at Rising Sun ? who was charged with poisoning two former customers at another Downtown massage parlor, causing their deaths. She was convicted in one of the murders and remains in state prison today.

Remember guerrilla cookies, a staple on the UW-Madison campus during those halcyon days of the late ?60s and early ?70s? This weekend, they will return.

On Wednesday, the hottest social media ticket was the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The University of Wisconsin System appointed the University of Wisconsin-Madison dean of international studies to serve as interim chancellor at UW-Eau Claire Wednesday, effective following the departure of the current chancellor next month.

What?s the appeal of international students? Colleges say they want to increase the diversity of their campuses to help all students. While UW-Madison may be well-known enough to not need recruiting help, that?s not the case for, say, UW-Superior. But the motive isn?t all about diversity. It?s also about money. International students pay out-of-state tuition, which is significantly higher than in-state tuition. Again, colleges will say the more out-of-state students they get, the lower tuition costs in-state students. The ethics behind commission-based recruiting are cloudy.

The city?s sixth police district would encompass an area south and slightly west of Lake Mendota roughly bordered by Park, Regent and Monroe streets to the east and Whitney Way, Mineral Point Road and Gammon Road to the west, including city property adjacent to UW-Madison.

UW-Madison?s Center on Journalism Ethics concluded its fourth annual conference by awarding the first ever Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics Friday.

In narrowing down the search for the next second-in-command for the University of Wisconsin System, four finalists have been chosen to vie for the Vice President position.

In his first year in office after 14 years away, Paul Soglin has been active and bold, controversial and full of stamina ? like he was as mayor for 14 years in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Nobel Prize winners have walked the hallowed halls of UW-Madison, pondering the big questions of the universe. What to use to dry your hands probably never entered their minds. In an effort to cut costs and promote sustainability, UW-Madison is surveying faculty, staff and students on two major fronts: do you prefer hand towels or blowers to dry your hands in restrooms, and how much of a problem would it be if desk-side trash cans were removed?

If you want to learn more about the issue, you can attend an Occupy Madison Teach-In Saturday at the UW-Madison Humanities Building, 455 N. Park, Room 1651, where at 1 p.m. a workshop on The Occupy Movement and the Homeless will be offered. A full schedule of the teach-in is available here.

The Post-Crescents March 22 editorial raised an alarm about student loan debt. The article stated that “student loan debt at graduation in the UW System has increased from $5,000 in 1982 to $27,000 in 2011.”

Former University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point interim chancellor and provost Mark Nook on Tuesday was named one of four finalists for senior vice president for academic and student affairs for the UW System. Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching & learning at UW-Madison is also a finalist.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig visited UW-Madison Tuesday, where he discussed media?s role in today?s sports and some of the major public relations challenges he has faced as commissioner.

Drawing on his experiences as Major League Baseball commissioner, a University of Wisconsin alumnus came to campus yesterday to address the connection between baseball and today?s changing media.

There is, sadly, a noticeable lack of evidence of much attention paid to ethics in our culture today. It?s not a priority in most schools, and it certainly doesn?t get talked about much in our business or political worlds to say nothing of popular culture.

University of Wisconsin faculty representatives presented multiple annual reports on campus diversity and undergraduate admissions for consideration to Faculty Senate members Monday following challenges to university budgets and independence.

UW-Madison officials have requested permission from the city of Madison to demolish two university-owned buildings on West Johnson Street to expand a parking lot on Clymer Place.

A monthly social outing and fund-raiser that used to attract hundreds of minority adults is making a comeback starting Friday night at a Far East Side banquet hall.”It fills a void,” said Dwayne Williams, a UW-Madison budget analyst who also works part-time as a disc jockey and promoter. “In Madison there aren?t a lot of places people of color can go and enjoy themselves.”

Dear Editor: It was wonderful to see the energy and high spirits of runners in the Spring Sprint for the Arb event on Saturday. The event is a real celebration of our beautiful Arboretum, which hundreds of Madisonians enjoy every day. Therefore it was a surprise to hear some caveman in the parking lot beep his horn loudly and repeatedly and shout, ?What are bicyclists doing here? Runners rule!? He sounded angry, and not one bit as if he were joking.

It was four years ago on April 2 when UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her downtown Madison apartment.

Four years later, Madison police are still looking for answers in a killing that rocked the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to honor two Spanish literary masterpieces and a critic who wrote key reviews of the texts at a symposium later this month.

Is the concept of fair-minded political reporting in today?s social media world outdated? Noted journalists and social media experts will tackle the issues of partisan journalism and “combat” politics at the fourth journalism ethics conference April 13 at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus.

Demand is so high for tickets to hear Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul speak at UW-Madison Thursday that his speech was moved to a larger venue, according to his campaign. Paul will now be speaking at the Union Terrace, rather than the original location of the Stock Pavilion.

Wisconsin will play host to former Gov. Tommy Thompson and two Republican presidential hopefuls over the next week, as pivotal primary elections loom ahead.   

The University of Wisconsin has gained a top ranking in an annual international survey of higher education institutions.

A Madison man was arrested early Saturday morning after he allegedly snatched a purse from a woman walking on Dayton Street. Jerry Lee Jones Hoffman, 19, was tentatively charged with strong-arm robbery and resisting/obstructing following his arrest by UW-Madison police.

The Student Transportation Program introduced its budget, which could significantly increase student fees toward SAFEride services, to the Student Services Finance Committee Thursday.

The daily traffic jam on University Avenue is expected to get much worse on Monday when work begins on the final stretch to reconstruct the major west-side arterial. Work on the two-mile stretch from Segoe Road to Allen Boulevard is expected to continue through the end of October, and while the work is in progress, drivers should expect “severe delays,” according to a news release from the Madison Traffic Engineering Division.

Seven of UW-Madison?s School of Education graduate programs ranked in the top three in the 2013 edition of U.S. News and World Report?s “Best Graduate Schools. “Overall, the school was ranked ninth.

The College of Engineering was ranked 17th overall. Masters of fine arts was ranked 18th. The Law School was 35th and the School of Medicine and Public Health was 27th in research and 12th in primary care. Public affairs was 12th.

U.S. News and World Report released its 2013 edition of ?Best Graduate Schools,? and a number of UW-Madison programs once again earned recognition. The School of Education was the lone UW-Madison program to earn a top-10 ranking this time around, checking in at No. 9 overall. In addition, several specialties housed within that school also earned high praise.

U.S. News and World Report released its 2013 edition of ?Best Graduate Schools,? and a number of UW-Madison programs once again earned recognition. The School of Education was the lone UW-Madison program to earn a top-10 ranking this time around, checking in at No. 9 overall.

A Madison man was stabbed downtown Sunday afternoon, but police said his wounds were non-life threatening. The stabbing was reported at 5:22 p.m. in the 200 block of Langdon Street, according to a Madison police news release.

University of Wisconsin-Madison colleagues participated in the campus? annual blood drive Thursday to honor the memory of Maureen Grant, the victim of a bus-pedestrian crash in Madison last June. Blood drives are an annual event for the staff at UW-Madison?s Memorial Library. But the drive on Thursday was to remember one of their own. Grant, a UW Libraries employee of 26 years, died after being struck by a bus while walking across University Avenue in June 2011. “Maureen was a regular blood donor,” said UW-Madison Libraries Interim Director Ed Van Gemert.” She gave blood not only at the university drives, but also in her hometown in New Glarus.”

After a report found that faculty salaries at UW-Madison are significantly lower than those at peer institutions, members of the Faculty Senate said Monday they feared professors would leave the university for better-paying offers.

Police are investigating the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman early Saturday, which took place in an alley between State Street and the 600 block of University Avenue.

A leader of the University of Wisconsin Police Department presented university police challenges in facilitating and monitoring the crowds at last year?s union protests Saturday.