Leaders in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison are crafting an undergraduate major in public policy due to increasing student interest, at a time when the general public is polarized or largely turned off by the tenor of politics and government.
March 26, 2024
Higher Education/System
Selling of former UW-Milwaukee chancellor home is latest step in state higher ed budget cuts
The former home of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chancellor is on the market for nearly $1.3 million.
The university announced in January it hoped to sell the house as part of an effort to cut costs. In February, the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved the university’s request.
Here is a look inside the former home of the UW-Milwaukee chancellor on Milwaukee’s east side
UWM is selling the former home of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chancellor on Milwaukee’s east side. Here is a look inside the residence at 3435 N. Lake Drive, listed for $1,295,000. The stone Tudor mansion has six bedrooms, four baths and close to 5,000 square feet. It was built in 1926, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. The listing states the home was designed by architect Charles Valentine.
‘We Were Under So Much Pressure’: Inside Wisconsin’s Tumultuous Budget Deal
A controversial state budget deal hammered out last year for the University of Wisconsin system stoked criticism from all sides — from its original proposal, initial rejection, and eventual passage — according to nearly 1,000 pages of emails, text messages, and other communications The Chronicle received in response to an open-records request.
Campus life
Q&A: Behind the scenes of ‘The Look Back’, PBS Wisconsin Education’s new history series
For a behind-the-scenes look at the series, PBS Wisconsin Education spoke with education producer Ian Glodich along with host Kacie Lucchini Butcher, who is director of the Center for Campus History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What the ‘uninstructed’ movement means for Wisconsin voters, Biden’s chances
El-Hassan, a 24-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison law student, first heard about uninstructed voting on a trip to Michigan. Among a group of law students and professors, conversation swirled around the subject of Michigan’s uncommitted movement, led by a cohort of Arab Americans and Muslim activists.
El-Hassan, who’s Muslim, hoped to find a similar initiative in Wisconsin. Then, Listen to Wisconsin, a group encouraging Wisconsin voters to cast uninstructed votes, emerged. On Monday, 20 state and local elected officials endorsed the campaign.
State news
News from the Upper Mississippi; Weather Guys explain the drama of spring
The Weather Guys, Steve Ackerman and Jon Martin from UW-Madison, are back to tell us why spring is often the season with the most dramatic weather. Plus, they’ll share their predictions for this summer’s heat and explain visibility ratings.
What are the fastest growing counties in Wisconsin? Here’s what census data shows
The official U.S. Census is only taken every 10 years, so estimates like these are “ballpark figures” determined by “symptomatic indicators of population change,” including births, deaths, and domestic and international migration, said David Egan-Robertson, a demographer with the University of Wisconsin’s Applied Population Laboratory. Still, they’re likely to closely reflect reality.
The new estimates reveal that, in the 2020s, some Wisconsin counties have seen significant population growth while others have seen steep declines.
Health
Breast cancer screenings should start at age 40, draft recommendations say
The mixed recommendations are confusing, acknowledged Dr. Mai Elezaby, associate professor and breast imaging section chief at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and medical director of breast imaging at UW Health, during a recent appearance on “The Larry Meiller Show.”
UW Experts in the News
Leading Economic Index went up for first time in two years
Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said even if the economy slows down this year, a recession is unlikely. “At least there’s strength in the economy, probably enough so that you’re not going to go into actual negative growth,” he said.
US housing market faces biggest shakeup in years – here’s what we know
“The decoupling of seller agent and buyer agent fees allows for a lot more flexibility and novelty in how agents are going to get paid,” said Max Besbris, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The possibilities are more open now than ever before. We’re really going to see, generally, a lot more transparency.”
Patients Hate ‘Forever’ Drugs. Are Ozempic and Wegovy Different?
“People think they are doing fine, so they don’t need the medicine,” said Corrine Voils, a social psychologist at the University of Wisconsin who studies medicine compliance. “But the medicine is what is keeping them well.”
Bizarre ‘Hot Jupiter’ Planets Keep Surprising Astronomers
The next step in fully understanding hot Jupiters is to use these discoveries to establish the relative likelihoods of the three possible migration mechanisms in order to determine which systems formed which way. Jupiter-sized planets are the rulers of their planetary system because of their dominant gravitational influence and the way their migration pathway sculpts the architectures of their system. Understanding these worlds is the first step to constructing a unified theory of planet formation that scientists have been seeking for centuries.
-JULIETTE BECKER is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also a founding member of the new Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).
The End of the Eclipse
“To reconstruct the [long-term] Earth–Moon history, we need to see how those periods change,” said Margriet Lantink, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Milankovitch-based reconstructions are more robust” at showing that change than other current methods, especially for the older part of the geological record, she said.