News in brief
COMMUNITY
Scalia speaks at Law School
Using a combination of earnest rhetoric and humor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a campus audience that the only valid approach to the Constitution is his philosophy of “originalism,” which holds that “what the Constitution means is what it was understood to mean when it was adopted.”
Scalia spoke to about 400 people at the UW Law School March 15 by invitation of students in the Law School’s chapter of the Federalist Society.
“I am not a strict constructionist,” Scalia says. “They give a bad name to all originalists. You shouldn’t be a strict constructionist — you should be reasonable.”
Warning against today’s concept of the “living Constitution,” Scalia asks, “If the Constitution is an invitation to each generation to fill this empty bottle with its own beliefs . . . why leave it to the judges? Why do you want it to be decided by five out of nine lawyers?”
Instead, Scalia says, issues such as the right to die or new questions of parental rights, which have arisen long after the drafting of the Constitution, should be decided by majority passage of new laws rather than seeking to find the answer in the Constitution. “If you want to get rid of the death penalty, fine — pass a law, get rid of it. If you think there should be a right to an abortion, fine — pass a law.”
Liberals should not favor a “living Constitution,” Scalia warns. “It is an equal-opportunity fallacy. Conservatives, too, are willing to distort the Constitution for their own ends. It doesn’t have to do with your political view,” Scalia says.
UW to help develop online athletics compliance courses
The university is partnering with a leading online education firm to develop the nation’s first Web-based curriculum on NCAA rules compliance.
The partnership with Chicago-based Learning Insights, which provides e-learning programs to educational institutions and major corporations, was announced March 13 by Chancellor John Wiley.
Student athletes, coaches and athletic department employees and boosters will be required to complete the online compliance program, including examinations, says Wiley. The program will also cover Big Ten Conference rules compliance.
“The current training materials we use are inadequate from a standpoint of learning,” Wiley says. “The programs offered through this new partnership will be highly interactive and include stories and animation.”
Sidley & Austin, one of the nation’s leading law firms that specializes in sports- and NCAA-related issues, will develop the program’s instructional content. Performance and compliance will be tracked through the program.
Seven modules will be offered: unethical conduct, benefits, amateurism, academic eligibility, financial aid, recruiting and boosters. Wiley estimates it should take about five months to develop the courses.
Wiley says, “not only does it provide a more effective learning environment, it provides a greater degree of accountability and proof that you’ve actually done the training that you’ve claimed you’ve done.”
Hospital union ratifies contract
Members of the union representing support staff and certain health technology workers have voted to approve a contract agreement with UW Hospital and Clinics.
The contract was ratified, 465-163, March 13. The tentative contract was reached in late January between Local 1942 of the Wisconsin State Employees Union and UW Hospital.
Workers represented by the union will receive a general wage increase of 4.25 percent on July 1 as well as a 2 percent pay increase retroactive to July 2, 2000 (the date on which the previous contract ended). All pay ranges will be increased by 1 percent, and night shift and weekend pay differentials will increase.
WSEU represents hospital custodians, support staff and certain health-care workers, such as respiratory therapists and phlebotomists.
This is the second collective bargaining agreement reached between the parties since a public authority was created to oversee UW Hospital and Clinics. The contract covers the period July 2, 2000, to June 30, 2002.
Babcock ice cream ready for spring
It’s now officially spring, a time when people’s fancy often turns to thoughts of love and ice cream, and not necessarily in that order. And despite rumors you may have heard to the contrary, you can trip the light fantastic over to the vicinity of the Babcock Hall Dairy Store for some “academic ice cream,” as it’s called.
As you may know, the store is being renovated and will reopen July 1. In the meantime, you can buy packaged ice cream, cheese and milk at a sidewalk-level location just below the store. As always, you can buy Babcock cones at Memorial Union and Union South.
ON CAMPUS
Chucho Valdes to perform
Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes will perform at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Saturday, April 21, at 8 p.m.
For 25 years, Valdes has led Irakere, the world’s top AfroCuban fusion band. Because of political tensions between Havana and Washington, Valdes is less known in the United States. But like his former Irakere bandmates Paquito d’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval, Valdes is quickly becoming a force on the American scene.
Valdes recent won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for “Live At the Village Vanguard” (Blue Note Records). Last month, Blue Note Records released Chucho’s much anticipated live recording, “Chucho Valdes, Solo — Live in New York.”
For his Union Theater debut, he will perform with The Chucho Valdes Quartet. Members include Valdes as pianist, bassist Lazaro Rivero Alarcon, drummer Ramses Manuel Rodriguez Bazalt and percussionist Yaroldy Abreu Robles.
Tickets: $27 ($26 for Union members, $13 for UW–Madison students), Union Theater Box Office, 262-2201.
Composers convene
Musical compositions by several faculty, staff and students will be included in concerts featured at the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers’ state conference March 30-April 1 on campus.
Hosted by the School of Music and the Madison chapter of Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, the weekend will feature seven concerts and 52 works by 43 member composers, plus two workshops.
The free public events will be at the School of Music in Mosse Humanities Building, with the exception of one concert at the Memorial Union and another at Canterbury Booksellers Coffeehouse, 315 W. Gorham St.
In addition to other composers, the concert Friday, March 30, at 8 p.m. in the Eastman Organ Recital Hall features works by Robert Crane, emeritus, music; and Joel Naumann, music.
Saturday’s first concert, 10 a.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, includes works by academic staff member David Drexler, food science, and music graduate student Elliott Goldkind.
The weekend’s third concert, Saturday, March 31, 2:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, features chamber works whose composers include Drexler; music faculty member Stephen Dembski; dance professor Joseph Koykkar; and staff member and music alum Michael Pare.
The Saturday night concert includes the UW–Madison Symphony Orchestra with David E. Becker conducting and Wu Han as the piano soloist. That performance, at 8 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater, features the world premiere of Wisconsin Alliance for Composers member John Harmon’s Celebration of Earth Day 2001.
Compositions by graduate students Scott Gendel, Dan Maske and Michael Sinshack, and by junior Royden Tull will be part of the 10 a.m. concert of Student Composer Chamber Works on Sunday, April 1, in the Morphy Recital Hall.
Naumann will have another work performed Sunday, April 1, at 2:30 p.m. Compositions by Goldkind, Maske and senior Paula Matthusen will be performed Sunday, 4:30 p.m., Canterbury Booksellers Coffeehouse, 315 W. Gorham St.
Former N.Y. mayor to speak at Law School banquet
David N. Dinkins, former mayor of New York City, will discuss “American Justice on Trial” at the Law School’s annual Legal Education Opportunities Banquet for students of color.
The event is scheduled Saturday, April 7, at the Concourse Hotel in Madison. Dinner begins at 7 p.m.
The annual banquet brings together students in the LEO Program with alumni, faculty and any friends of the organization who would like to attend. LEO was founded in 1967 to provide an academic and social network for the Law School’s students of color, and the program has flourished and become a model emulated by other law schools.
The program currently has an alumni roster of more than 700 legal professionals across the country, many of whom return to Madison for the annual spring banquet.
To make a reservation, call Theresa Dougherty at the Law School, 262-0618. Cost: $30 per person. Deadline: March 29.
Keynote speaker Dinkins was elected president of the Borough of Manhattan in November 1985 and as mayor of New York in November 1989, serving a four-year term. Dinkins also hosts a public affairs radio program and advocates for children, education, compassionate urban policy and tolerance.
Professors prepare forum on Bush v. Gore March 31
A Law School public forum featuring several professors will take a close look at the Supreme Court’s role in the election-deciding lawsuit Bush v. Gore.
The event is Saturday, March 31, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. in Godfrey & Kahn Hall, room 2260, Law School.
Law School professors Ann Althouse, Carin Clauss, David Schwartz, Cheryl Weston and Bill Whitford and political science/law professor Donald Downs will participate in a panel discussion, 10 a.m.-12:15 p.m., and will host an open discussion with students and other audience members, 1-4 p.m.
Historian Kutler to tell about liberating Nixon tapes
Presidential scholar Stanley Kutler will give a talk, “Liberating the Nixon Tapes and Other Encounters,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in the Alumni Lounge of the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.
Kutler, the E. Gordon Fox Professor of American Institutions and emeritus professor of law, will focus on his adventures with the Freedom of Information Act and his lawsuit to force the National Archives and Richard Nixon to release the president’s tape recordings.
He is perhaps best known as the author of “Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes” and writer in a wide number of fields of American history, particularly concentrating on American constitutional history and the 20th century. His other books include “The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon.”
Forensic meet means campus traffic changes
An estimated 6,000 students from across the state and more than 600 judges will be converging on campus April 6-7 to participate in the annual Wisconsin High School Forensic Association State Speech Festival.
Competition will be taking place in about 250 rooms in 15 buildings on or near Bascom Hill, with the headquarters of the festival located in Room 272 Bascom.
Because of the large numbers of visitors and school buses expected, Observatory Drive traffic will be limited to one way westbound from Park Street to Charter Street between mid-afternoon and 10 p.m. on Friday, April 6, and from 8 a.m. to approximately 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 7.
During that time, permit holders or others using Bascom Hill parking lots 9, 10 and 11 will only be able to access those lots by entering Observatory Drive from Park Street. When leaving the lots, they will have to turn left toward Charter Street.
The hill is expected to be heavily congested with bus and pedestrian traffic late on Friday afternoon.
Group named for Union search
The university has named a committee to coordinate a search to fill the post of Wisconsin Union director.
Theodore (Ted) Crabb, Wisconsin Union director for 33 years, plans to retire this year. After receiving applications and nominations and reviewing candidate materials, the search and screen committee will interview candidates. A list of finalists will be forwarded for consideration to Chancellor John Wiley.
Co-chairs of the group are Peter Antaramian, president of the Union Council, the union governing organization, and Paul Barrows, vice chancellor for student affairs.
Members are: Caitilyn Allen, faculty representative, plant pathology and women’s studies; Linda Newman, School of Education, academic staff representative; Eric Olson, Associated Students of Madison representative; Noel Radomski, Chancellor’s Office representative; Jeff Bartell, Union trustee representative; Richard Ralston, faculty representative, Afro-American studies; Steven Bauman, faculty representative, mathematics;. Lamont Smith, Associated Students of Madison representative; Meaghan Brennan, Union Council representative; Lynn Stathas, alumni appointee to Union Council; Mary Anne Clarke, Council for Nonrepresented Classified Staff representative; Andy Wallmeyer, Union Council representative; and Marsha Landretti, engineering academic staff representative.
NOTABLE
Synchrotron to hold open house
Micromachines, a levitating superconductor, the nature of light and new ways to treat cancer will be showcased during the Synchrotron Radiation Center’s annual open house on Sunday, March 25, noon-5 p.m.
Visitors can participate in activities and demonstrations and talk to scientists about their research. The Synchrotron Radiation Center is part of the university’s Kegonsa Research Campus, 3725 Schneider Drive in the town of Dunn, north of Stoughton. This nonprofit facility is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Graduate School. Information: Chris Moore, 877-2000, cmoore@src.wisc.edu.
New center to focus on French
The new Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies will advance the study of French in the arts, education, business, science, technology and literature.
The Department of French & Italian will celebrate the new center starting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27, with speakers and a reception at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St. Speakers include Jean-René Gehan, consul general of France; David Trubek, dean of International Studies and Programs; and Jane Tylus, associate dean for the humanities in the College of Letters and Science.
Funded in part by the French government and a private donor, the center is affiliated with International Institute and European Studies Alliance.
Information: Lori Brooks, 262-3941.