Catching up on a couple higher education-related items:
** A months-long battle between UW-Madison student government and the Multicultural Student Coalition over whether or not the organization should receive funding for the 2012-13 fiscal year was finally resolved Wednesday night, the Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal reported.
** President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats continue to push efforts to keep interest rates low on student loans.
** From 1975 until 1988, William Proxmire — the Democratic senator from Wisconsin — made headlines by promoting his ?Golden Fleece Award,? which ripped scientists who used federal funding to produce what he viewed as wasteful research. Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee told the Chronicle of Higher Education he ?pleaded with universities to fight back with their own award to celebrate the widespread societal benefits of research.? Although those efforts fell flat, the Democrat earlier this week announced a new “Golden Goose Award” that?s designed to ?honor research that turns out to have been an especially productive use of federal money.?