Almanac

Ask Bucky, get answers

Among the reasons why the Campus Information and Visitor Center exists is to answer questions about the university from members of the campus community, prospective students and their families, and the general public.

The office has around 25 student and professional staff who respond to about 500,000 inquiries each year. Staff members take time to answer the questions, or find out who can.

This fall, Wisconsin Week is featuring actual questions—ranging from important and timely to unique or quirky—and the answers.

Q: “How do I safely can meat?”
A: The UW Extension Family Living Programs are a great resource for information about canning, freezing and pickling foods. See http://www.uwex.edu. Successful canning depends on the method used and the acid and sugar content of the product. The UW Sea Grant Institute offers a series of publications to explain smoking, canning, freezing and pickling fish. See: http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu.

Q: “I ate at the Rathskeller last week and the grilled cheese, chili and tortilla soup were out of this world! Do they put out a cookbook?”
A: No, but the Union is considering it now, says Mike Hirsch, manager of the Wisconsin Union’s Restaurant Division. Chili and soup are made daily in the Union’s central kitchen. On the average winter day, the Rathskeller serves between eight and 10 gallons of each.

Your questions for CIVC can be asked in person at its office on the first floor of the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St. Or call 263-2400 or e-mail askbucky@redgym.wisc.edu.

Did you know?
Five UW–Madison faculty members have won the Nobel Prize since 1944. Four were honored in the field of physiology, medicine; and one was honored for excellence in physics. The UW’s most recent Nobel Prize was awarded in 1975.

Power of association
Charles Wakeley, one-half of the university’s first graduating class in 1854, helped found the Wisconsin Alumni Association seven years after his graduation to aid his alma mater in surviving the lean state budgets in Civil War times. In 1861, the organization served 40 alumni; today, WAA provides a link to campus for 338,930 living alumni, including 41,241 WAA members and 116 alumni clubs around the world.

How we rank
The School of Business research ranks 14th in the United States overall, and two individual departments—management and human resources and marketing—were ranked second in the nation, according to the Academy of Management Journal. The study ranked schools according to the number of pages published in top-ranked scholarly journals in each field.

Museum music resumes
Sunday Afternoon Live from the Elvehjem will begin its 24th annual season Sept. 8, a month earlier than usual, with the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society at 12:30 p.m. in Gallery III of the Elvehjem Museum of Art. Information: 263-2246.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, Aug. 12, 1992: Hundreds of fans camped out to get tickets for Irish band U2’s performance at Camp Randall Stadium. … Lori Kay is named director of Transportation Services. … A governor’s commission recommends giving the regents more power to set tuition and university budgets. … A campus committee proposes an overhaul of the University-Industry Relations program. … A report recommends a $10 million restoration of the Red Gym as a student and visitor services center.