UW-Madison in the Media

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

• Union South gets it right Isthmus April 25, 2011 Living in Madison, it can be easy to take the University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Union for granted. Doesn’t every college town have a massive student center perched on a glorious swath of lakefront, with sailboats lazily gliding by in the summer? (I love to sip a New Glarus brew and watch for the Holstein-spotted one to go by.)
• UW-Madison celebrates 40 years of Afro-American Studies Madison Times April 25, 2011 Black students at the University of Wisconsin– Madison reacted to the murder of Dr. King by orchestrating a series of strikes intended to force the university’s administration to institute a program of study about African Americans. A year later, in April 1969, then UW Chancellor Edwin Young appointed a steering committee for what would become the Department of Afro-American Studies, which, after being approved, offered its first classes in the Fall of 1970.
• Mitman: Jobs grow in a healthy environment Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 22, 2011 Yet as we celebrate the 41st anniversary of Earth Day - founded by Wisconsin’s own Gaylord Nelson - the jobs-vs.-environment argument has surfaced again. It is a more dubious claim than ever. Case in point: recycling, mandated by the state in 1990 after a long, contentious political battle. Just 20 years later, Wisconsin municipalities recycle more than 700,000 tons of material each year - waste that otherwise would go to landfills. The environmental benefits of keeping plastic, metals and other materials out of the ground are many and obvious, including protecting the quality of our groundwater and conserving valuable resources. [A column by Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison].
• Scott Milfred: Take your pick in UW split -- Gov. Scott Walker or Rep. Steve Nass Wisconsin State Journal April 16, 2011 Chancellor Biddy Martin and Gov. Scott Walker are an odd pair pushing to give UW-Madison autonomy.
• Big voices on campus: Madhatters sing their way to UW-Madison stardom Isthmus April 16, 2011 Back in high school, not all of the MadHatters were the kinds of guys you’d expect sorority girls to be swooning over in college.
• Robot makes debut at Engineering Expo Badger Herald April 15, 2011 Students, members of the community and James Cameron fans were on hand to witness the debut of a new robot designed by University of Wisconsin students at the biannual Engineering Expo.
• Scott Straus: Gbagbo's Blame Game Huffington Post April 13, 2011 Today Laurent Gbagbo was captured, and at long last the Ivorian political crisis looks ready to subside. "The nightmare is over," declared Guillaume Soro, Côte d’Ivoire’s incoming Prime Minister. But if the past is any prelude, we are likely to see a new war of words in the coming days and weeks.
• UW-Madison's musical 'genius' has visions of an improved double-keyboard piano Wisconsin State Journal April 12, 2011 It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows Christopher Taylor that the internationally acclaimed pianist and UW-Madison professor of music is now inventing a musical instrument.
• New Union South brimming with spaces to entertain you Wisconsin State Journal April 12, 2011 Think of the new Union South as a $95 million tree fort. When you were a kid, and you either built a clubhouse up in the oak tree in the backyard or dreamed of it, you wanted to pack it with every cool thing imaginable. “This will be the crime lab where we solve mysteries, this will be the entertainment area where we play video games, then we’ll put the secret trap door exit over here ...” A tour of the new Union South at 1308 E. Dayton St., which officially opens to the public on Friday, brings that feeling, writ large.
• Editorial: Give UW flagship more freedom Wisconsin State Journal April 10, 2011 UW-Madison needs more freedom and flexibility to remain a world-class institution of higher learning and research.
• A historic opportunity for the UW System Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 7, 2011 Wisconsin faces a historic opportunity to evolve its support for higher education and renew the Wisconsin Idea. After more than a decade of significant cuts in state support and shifting costs to student tuition, it is apparent that the old business model for the University of Wisconsin System and its institutions is broken.
• U.S. nuclear evacuation order based on risk assessment (AP) St. Louis Post-Dispatch April 8, 2011 Quoted: Michael Corradini, chairman of the nuclear engineering program at the University of Wisconsin, said, "You were doing a what-if calculation."Corradini continued, "Thirty-two years ago, if Japan had done a what-if calculation about Three Mile Island and said all the Japanese living within 50 miles of Harrisburg should get out, what would our response be to that?" He referred to the partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979.
• Thrown in a dumpster, Braveheart fights to live -- with help from Wisconsin rescuers Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 8, 2011 A young dog discarded in a dumpster is fighting for survival – a struggle so heroic his Wisconsin rescuers have named him “Braveheart.” The year-old Labrador/shepherd mix rescued by a Madison couple and being treated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Veterinary Teaching Hospital, was discovered in a public trash bin in Kentucky-- starved, sick and suffering from mange and a massive worm infection. He was so weak he could barely stand.
• The Battle for Abidjan Huffington Post April 6, 2011 After four months of torturous political deadlock, an endgame is in sight in Côte d’Ivoire. The internationally-recognized winner of the 2010 presidential elections, Alassane Ouattara, gave incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo every opportunity to bow out peacefully. He refused, and Ouattara and his allies correctly concluded that military force was the only option left.The military offensive proceeded faster than anyone anticipated. From their stronghold in the north, the Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire fighting on behalf of Ouattara rolled. In a matter of a few days, they took key towns in the west, east, and center without major military combat or loss of life. Now they are poised to capture the big prize of Abidjan, the commercial and political heart of the country. [Co-authored by UW-Madison political scientist Scott Straus].
• South campus sensation: New building sets ‘standard for 21st Century’ student union Wisconsin State Journal April 4, 2011 Student unions are called the living rooms of college campuses. But UW-Madison’s new Union South is more like a playground. The opulent, $94.8 million building features a climbing wall, an eight-lane bowling alley, billiards, scores of flat-screen TVs, a 350-seat movie theater, a two-story fireplace, a wine and coffee bar and a banquet hall big enough to seat 1,500 people. The grand opening is set for April 15 with a series of events.
• UW professor discusses spring election WKOW-TV 27 April 4, 2011 Wake Up Wisconsin Weekend spoke with UW Political Science Professor Charles Franklin about the Supreme Court race, voter turnout, and more.
• On Campus: UW-Madison reaffirms commitment to transfer programs Wisconsin State Journal March 30, 2011 UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin promised that students from other University of Wisconsin System schools will still be able to transfer into UW-Madison through existing programs, even if the flagship university splits from the rest of the UW System. She sent a series of memos last week to chancellors of other UW System institutions reaffirming existing transfer agreements and other collaborations in response to concerns that those ties would be severed. Under a proposal in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget, UW-Madison would become a public authority with its own board of trustees.
• UW Dance concert makes evocative movement of They Marched Into Sunlight Isthmus March 28, 2011 It’s sad that the performance presented by the UW-Madison dance department and Jin-Wen Yu Dance was a one-night-only event. "March Into Sunlight" deserves to be experienced by more people.
• Alumni celebrate UW, Peace Corps Badger Herald March 28, 2011 In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps and the University of Wisconsin’s historically strong tradition of providing volunteers to serve abroad, the organization’s national leaders and UW alumni spoke about their personal experiences on campus Saturday.
• Badger Nation heads south Wisconsin State Journal March 24, 2011 A group of 22 first-graders near New Orleans will don their “Teach Me How to Bucky” T-shirts today for a morning pep rally with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, Badgers cheerleaders, band members and their favorite Wisconsin mascot. Badger Nation can thank Woodmere School teacher and Madison native Alissa Schneeberg, 24, for this youthful outpost in Harvey, La., on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from the Big Easy. Schneeberg, a La Follette High School and UW-Madison graduate, is in Louisiana with Teach For America and exposed her class to the Badgers before the football team’s Rose Bowl appearance.
• Computer Chips Wired With Nerve Cells Science News March 24, 2011 Nerve cell tendrils readily thread their way through tiny semiconductor tubes, researchers find, forming a crisscrossed network like vines twining towards the sun. The discovery that offshoots from nascent mouse nerve cells explore the specially designed tubes could lead to tricks for studying nervous system diseases or testing the effects of potential drugs. Such a system may even bring researchers closer to brain-computer interfaces that seamlessly integrate artificial limbs or other prosthetic devices.
• Cronon: Wisconsin’s Radical Break New York Times March 22, 2011 Now that a Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked a state law that would strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights, it’s worth stepping back to place these events in larger historical context.
• Libya releases detained UW grads, other journalists Milwaukee Journal Sentinel March 21, 2011 Four New Your Times reporters, including two graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, were released Monday to the custody of Turkish diplomats, according to the Times.
• UW-Madison ranks high among world's top universities, survey says Capital Times March 14, 2011 UW-Madison’s reputation as a world-class university has been cemented, according to a survey conducted by a higher education publication in England.
• Still: Give UW-Madison a crack at autonomy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel March 14, 2011 Frayed tempers. Strained relationships. And the end of an era in Wisconsin public policy. That’s a fair description of the struggle between Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin’s public employee unions, but it also describes what’s happening these days in the emerging fight over whether the University of Wisconsin-Madison should be granted the freedom to run its own affairs.
• The Science Behind Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami LiveScience.com March 14, 2011 Quoted: In this area, the Pacific Plate, the plate beneath the Pacific Ocean, is moving almost due west and being pushed down into the Earth’s interior along a trench off Japan’s east coast. On average, the Pacific Plate is moving at 3.5 inches (8.9 centimeters) per year, but this process is not continuous, according to Keith Sverdrup, a professor of geophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [The Science behind Japan’s Deadly Earthquake]
• Last Chance in Côte d'Ivoire Huffington Post March 10, 2011 While international attention has been focused on North Africa and the Middle East in recent weeks, the electoral crisis in Côte d’Ivoire has worsened and is entering a new and dangerous phase. [A column co-authored by Scott Straus, UW-Madison professor of political science and international studies.]
• Could gene tests tell if kids can be sports stars? USA Today March 9, 2011 Scientists have identified several genes that may play a role in determining strength, speed and other aspects of athletic performance. But there are likely hundreds more, plus many other traits and experiences that help determine athletic ability, said Dr. Alison Brooks, a pediatrician and sports medicine specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
• Wisconsin’s Legacy of Labor Activism and Conservative Pushback New York Times March 7, 2011 Quoted: “I don’t think there’s a particularly anti-union tradition that doesn’t exit in other states,” said William Powell Jones, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who is writing a history of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and public employee unions. “I think it’s that there’s a progressive, pro-union trend that doesn’t exist elsewhere, and there’s been conflict over that tradition.”
• Editorial: Biddynomics 101: Solving for axe Badger Herald March 4, 2011 There is much to be made of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget and the effects it will have on the University of Wisconsin. But considering the state’s present $137 million budget deficit and Walker’s blunt crusade to tackle it, one thing is clear: It could have been much worse.