Assessing their weeklong trip around Wisconsin last week, new faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison kept choosing the same word: passion.

They found it in the farmers and businesspeople and teachers they met across the state. But they also felt it in the history of Wisconsin and in their fellow faculty members – the phenomenal Bill Cronon, a font of knowledge about the state’s history and geology, and the incomparable Ada Deer, a lifelong fighter for American Indian rights – who revealed that history to them while they rode on the bus from stop to stop.

…Tagging along on the trip, I witnessed why the UW-Madison has earned its reputation as a top university. The handful of faculty and staff I met from the sprawling campus astounded me with their devotion to research, their deep curiosity and their dedication, ultimately, to making this world a better place.