UW-Madison in the Media

A selection of media coverage about the university and its people.

• New Dean to Confront Budget Woes Wall Street Journal Aug. 4, 2011 François Ortalo-Magné takes the helm of the Wisconsin School of Business next month following Wisconsin’s contentious battle over collective bargaining rights for public-employee unions, which has presented challenges for the state university system.
• Shiny pests return for more Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Aug. 3, 2011 You can see them glimmering in gardens, nestled in rose blooms, whether at the Boerner Botanical Gardens or in your own backyard. It’s "the bug from hell," as University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri calls it.
• UW study finds large dairy farms produce higher quality milk more often than small operations Wisconsin State Journal Aug. 2, 2011 A UW-Madison study has found that milk produced on Wisconsin’s large farms, including the controversial industrial-size operations, is often of higher quality than milk from smaller farms. Steve Ingham, who led the study while working as a UW-Madison food science professor, speculated that the bigger farms may have more money to spend on equipment or may be better able to identify and remove cows with illnesses that affect milk production, such as mastitis. Ingham, who is now the food safety division administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, added that all of the state’s farms, whether large or small, produce milk that easily meets federal food safety guidelines.
• Carroll: The Call of the Thylacine — Protect the Wild New York Times Aug. 2, 2011 Kakadu National Park, Australia — Eleven thousand miles from my home in Wisconsin, this national park is one of my favorite places on the planet — a vast area of wetlands, woodlands and rock formations that is home to a fantastic array of wildlife.
• Ominous sign from ancient sea level rise MSNBC.com July 29, 2011 In the whodunit-style search for the culprit behind drastic sea level rise many thousands of years ago, new research may have cleared one falsely accused party  —  but, like any good thriller, the story of the exoneration brings with it an ominous twist, and one that has implications for life on Earth today.
• Meditation: Re-Wiring Your Brain for Happiness ABCNEWS.com July 29, 2011 A quiet explosion of new research indicating that meditation can physically change the brain in astonishing ways has started to push into mainstream. Recently, the Dalai Lama granted permission for his monks, who are master mediators, to have their brains studied at the University of Wisconsin, one of the most high-tech brain labs in the world.
• U.S. Judge Dismisses Lawsuit That Threatened Stem-Cell Research Chronicle of Higher Education July 28, 2011 The federal government can continue to finance research into embryonic stem cells, after a judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop such grants from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.
• Social Networking Nudge Inside Higher Education July 29, 2011 Colleges are on social media, regardless of whether they have figured out what it is worth to maintain an institutional presence there. A recent survey by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth found that 98 percent of higher ed institutions are on Facebook, and 84 percent are on Twitter. Those numbers have risen dramatically in the past few years, college recruiters, fund-raisers, and marketers having bought into the value — much of it speculative — of keeping active in those communities.
• Scientists warn that fires could consume Yellowstone forests USA Today July 26, 2011 Increasing waves of severe fires fed by climate change could shift much of the iconic forests of Yellowstone to scrub or grasslands by the end of this century, scientists say. "Frankly, the results really surprised us," says Monica Turner, a professor of landscape ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the authors of the paper. The researchers found "more fire and a more rapid rate of change than any of us had anticipated."
• Skilled masons make repairs to 150-year-old North, South halls Wisconsin State Journal July 25, 2011 Two of UW-Madison’s oldest buildings are being painstakingly restored this summer with masonry work that has drawn crowds. The university is spending $2 million to make repairs to North Hall, built in 1851, and South Hall, built in 1855.
• Linda Greene: A Law Degree Is Priceless New York Times July 25, 2011 A fine legal education may indeed be costly, but I reject the idea that its worth should be determined by the number of jobs available in the lucrative realms of the legal profession.
• Could the moon provide clean energy for Earth? CNN.com July 21, 2011 Gerald Kulcinski, nuclear engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, needs a rare isotope -- helium-3 -- to fuel his research into a fusion reactor. There's plenty of it on the moon, though. "A few years ago we thought we were going back soon, but that's all changed now," he said.
• Economist: Debt Limit Talks Affect Madisonians WISC-TV 3 July 18, 2011 Everyone in south central Wisconsin, from individuals to local and state governments, would hurt if Congress fails to raise the U.S. debt limit, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist said.
• For generation that grew up with Harry Potter, new movie is the big event Wisconsin State Journal July 15, 2011 Quoted: Kathleen Horning, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
• Internet Use Affects Memory, Study Finds New York Times July 15, 2011 The widespread use of search engines and online databases has affected the way people remember information, researchers are reporting.
• Failure to raise debt ceiling could impact everyone WKOW-TV 27 July 15, 2011 Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Justin Sydnor.
• Tech and Biotech: UW grads spin success Wisconsin State Journal July 13, 2011 Three recent UW-Madison graduates found out just how quickly the world of social media commerce can work. Corey Capasso, Andrew Ferenci and Dan Reich created a company, Spinback, whose technology includes EasyShare, a system that lets consumers share products and purchases through social media and then lets companies find out how those communications translate into sales.
• Ocean carbon sinks feeling the heat CNN.com July 12, 2011 The ability of oceans to soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide is being hampered by climate change, according to a new scientific study. A fresh analysis of existing observational data taken from locations across the North Atlantic Ocean recorded over a period of almost three decades (1981-2009) has revealed that global warming is having a negative impact on one of nature’s most important carbon sinks. "Warming in the past four to five years has started to reduce the amount of carbon that large areas of the (North Atlantic) Ocean is picking up," said Galen McKinley, lead author and assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Q&A: Bidding goodbye to Biddy Martin Wisconsin State Journal July 11, 2011 In her final days as chancellor, Biddy Martin’s office in Bascom Hall is flooded with well-wishers, news reporters and campus officials with last-minute business.
• UW-Madison names new business school dean Milwaukee Journal Sentinel July 11, 2011 After beginning as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, François Ortalo-Magné will be the next dean of its School of Business.
• Republicans Release Redistricting Maps For State WISC-TV 3 July 11, 2011 Quoted: "I think the question will be what challenge could be posed," University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin said. "Redistricting is in one sense easy to get equal populations and relatively easy to draw it, so they provide minority representation. But beyond that, it’s easy to move the lines for partisan reasons, and generally partisan reasons are not subject to challenge in court where the population and minority representation."
• Universities, company team up to research 'powertrain of the future' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel July 1, 2011 A wide-ranging partnership between Johnson Controls and the University of Wisconsin will create three energy storage research laboratories in Milwaukee and Madison, in a bid to put the state on the map as a center for development of next-generation batteries. Scientists at Johnson Controls Power Solutions business will work side by side in the labs with engineering students pursuing doctorates at both University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Madison, the company and state officials announced.
• Wisconsin mosquito, tick season starts Green Bay Press-Gazette July 5, 2011 Quoted: But Phil Pellitteri, an entomologist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Madison, suggests that complaining about pesky bugs should be discouraged.
• Outgoing chancellor a UW fan for life Madison.com July 5, 2011 University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin shared a big hug on the Kohl Center stage after he received his diploma in May was a regular visitor to the Badgers’ locker room after games and quickly became a favorite of the players and the coaches. She was the campus boss, which can be unnerving to some, but coaches and players felt comfortable around her.
• Editorial: Welcome Back Chancellor WISC-TV 3 June 30, 2011 It sure is nice to have a bench of former chancellors so deep that we can just pluck one from the list of globally respected education leaders to fill the temporary void on the Madison campus.
• UW-Madison seeks stability with David Ward as interim chancellor Wisconsin State Journal June 30, 2011 UW System President Kevin Reilly lured former UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward out of retirement to serve as interim chancellor of the state’s flagship university, an effort to provide an experienced and familiar leader after a period of contentiousness. “He’s someone who can bring people together on campus, who can reach out to the other UW System chancellors and can serve as a very strong advocate for our flagship, land-grant, global institution that is UW-Madison,” Reilly said at a news conference Wednesday at Bascom Hall.
• Dog found in trash bin makes 'miraculous' recovery Wisconsin State Journal June 28, 2011 Braveheart, the emaciated mutt found in a commercial trash bin in Kentucky with mange and worms and covered with sores, is now strong and healthy and virtually unrecognizable after being treated at the UW Veterinary Care Small Animal Hospital and finding a loving home.
• Engineer Simon Chen built strong connection to UW Milwaukee Journal Sentinel June 29, 2011 With hindsight - and all history is hindsight - it made sense that Simon K. Chen would write a history of his family in retirement.
• Rob Nixon: Slow Violence Chronicle of Higher Education June 28, 2011 Environmentalists face a fundamental challenge: How can we devise arresting stories, images, and symbols that capture the pervasive but elusive effects of what I call "slow violence"? Climate change, the thawing cryosphere, toxic drift, deforestation, the radioactive aftermaths of wars, oil spills, acidifying oceans, and a host of other slowly unfolding environmental crises confront us with formidable representational obstacles that hinder efforts to mobilize for change.
• UW System sees some budget benefit Wisconsin Radio Network June 21, 2011 The University of Wisconsin System has gotten some of what it wanted from the state budget. The Madison campus will not be spun off, although the issue will be studied. Michael Spector, President of the UW System Board of Regents, said the campuses will have some long sought flexibilities in areas including budgeting and personnel management. “Not everything we wanted in those areas, but certainly a significant amount. I think, the way legislation works, it’s a good start for the next biennium,” he said.