Almanac

(Almanac lists facts, figures and miscellany of campus interest. Know something, or want to know? Call us: 262-3846, or e-mail: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.)

How we stack up
The university tied with Illinois for eighth-best public university in the new edition of the “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook published by U.S. News & World Report. That was the same ranking UW–Madison received last year. Placing first was the University of California-Berkeley.

Meanwhile, the Badgers were completely shut out of the magazine’s online-only rankings of weirdest college nicknames and mascots. But how could Bucky hope to compete with the Wonder Boys, Muleriders, Anteaters, Banana Slugs and, most certainly the oddest, the Poets of Whittier College?

Changes: New ID for PD
Since 1976, campus law enforcement has been known as University Police and Security – “P & S” for short. But that’s university history now. The name has officially been changed to University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department, or UWPD.

Explains Police Captain Dale Burke: “Our department employs both police officers and security officers, but it is first and foremost a law enforcement agency with all of the responsibilities associated with such. While security remains an integral part of what we do, we are best known as a police department.”

Burke asks the university community to revise mailing lists and other references to the department to reflect the new name.

Mark your calendar
Global Connections, an all-campus social event, is a chance for students, faculty and staff to meet students from around the world, exchange travel experiences and make new friends. 8-11 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 9, in Great Hall on the fourth floor of Memorial Union.

Getting around
If you’re wondering why you can’t use the North Shore Trail between Frautschi Point and Fisherman’s Cove parking lot, blame the rain.

An extreme erosion problem, originating from culvert flow from the road adjoining Eagle Heights Apartments, has expanded to the point that campus physical plant workers cannot maintain a safe passageway for pedestrians.

The trail will remain closed until measures can be taken to provide safe access for the public. Peggy Chung, the new Physical Plant senior landscape architect, is working with erosion control experts and the Safety Department to determine how to solve the problem while meeting state environmental protection specifications for any work.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, Aug. 20, 1989: Frautschi Point will be preserved thanks to an arrangement that transfers the land from private ownership to the university. … Fall enrollment is expected to be 42,600, a drop of about 1,000. … Office paper recycling is getting underway campuswide following a successful pilot project. … Two scholars have produced a book of instructional strategies for teaching assistants.

Did you know?
Petri, a test tube monkey born at the university, turned 16 years old Aug. 2.

Quotable
“I constantly ask myself, ‘How can I create some of the emotional despair of real-life ethical quandaries?'”

– Laura Hartman on the effective teaching of business ethics (see page 4).