Almanac

Male enrollment in School of Nursing may be highest ever
The incoming class at the UW-Madison School of Nursing has one of the highest percentages of male students ever enrolled, even exceeding the national average for the percentage of men pursuing nursing education.

And, notes Dean Katharyn May, the class also has the highest percentage ever of students coming from small, rural Wisconsin communities.

Of the 144 students admitted to the nursing major this fall, 19 are male (13 percent). Last year’s incoming nursing class was only 3 percent male, and it is believed that male enrollment has never been more than 10 percent in the School’s 80-year history.

In addition, 25 percent of the incoming nursing students come from rural Wisconsin communities (those with 5,000 or fewer residents).

Math department milestone
The Department of Mathematics awarded its 1000th Ph.D. over the summer.

The department awarded its first doctorate to Sheboygan native Henry Freeman Stecker in 1897.

It took 69 years (1897-1966) for the number of Ph.D.s to reach the 250 mark, only nine years (1966-1975) to reach the 500 mark, 16 more years (1975-1991) to reach the 750 mark, and 13 years (1991-2004) to reach the 1,000 mark.

UW–Madison has been one of leading mathematics Ph.D.-granting universities in the United States for years. Its graduates are faculty members at many colleges and universities throughout the United States and foreign countries.

Not only is the UW Mathematics Department a major grantor of Ph.D.s, but UW–Madison is in general near the “top of the doctoral class”‘ according to a recent survey compiled on behalf of a consortium of six federal agencies. UW–Madison was ranked second among 413 universities, by granting 649 doctoral degrees in 2002.

Ask Bucky
Ask Bucky is a service provided by the Campus Information and Visitor Center — a one-stop shop for information about the UW–Madison campus, surrounding community and off-campus housing. Below are real questions asked by real people, and the answers that were given:

Q: How many Nobel Prize winners were UW alumni?

A: Seventeen UW–Madison faculty and alumni have been honored with a Nobel Prize. To find out more interesting facts and figures about the campus, visit the UW–Madison Fact Book online at: http://www.uc.wisc.edu/profile/quickfacts.html.

Q: If you could, please, tell me what the fountain in Library Mall is dedicated to. I have been told it is a memorial fountain, but I am unsure what it memorializes.

A: You are right! The William John Hagenah Memorial Fountain located in Library Mall is a memorial fountain dedicated to educators. The quote on the rim of the fountain reads:

“Teachers and books are the spring from which flow the waters of knowledge.”

Hagenah, who received an honorary degree from UW–Madison in 1958, wrote this quote. For more details about Hagenah or to obtain other historical information about the campus, contact University Archives at uwarchiv@library.wisc.edu.

Your questions for CIVC can be asked in person at its office on the first floor of the Red Gym. Or call 263-2400 or e-mail askbucky@redgym.wisc.edu.