News in brief
LEARNING
 Faculty, staff and students, as well as plants, bask indoors in the winter sunlight of the College of Agricultural and Life Science D.C. Smith Greenhouse. Photo: Jeff Miller |
Student inventors prepare for Brainstorm competition
Inspired student inventors are making final adjustments to their entries for the 2000 “Brainstorm: Schoofs Prize for Creativity” sponsored by the College of Engineering.
Now in its sixth year and open to all undergraduates, the contest awards cash prizes to those whose ideas are judged most creative, novel, innovative, patentable and likely to succeed in the marketplace.
Winners will be announced on Edison Day, Friday, Feb. 11. Edison Day is the College of Engineering’s annual celebration of Thomas Edison’s birthday. Students will present their work in 1610 Engineering Hall. Projects will be on display in the Engineering Hall lobby through the day.
RESEARCH
Older husband caregivers face significant changes
A recent study of the caregiving role among older husbands has found that husbands who transition into caregiving are less happy, more depressed and more inclined to think that their marriage is in trouble than married men who do not transition into this role.
The study, based on data from the National Survey of Families and Households, was done by Betty J. Kramer, assistant professor of social work at UW–Madison, and James David Lambert of Edgewood College in Madison. The study was published in the December 1999 issue of The Gerontologist.
The study found that husbands who entered the caregiving role showed evidence of potentially detrimental changes in their marital relationship. They showed a decline in marital happiness and a feeling that their marriage was in trouble. “We do not know how many later-life marriages end in divorce as a result of illness,” but, Kramer and Lambert suggest, more attention must be given to potential implications of these findings for later-life families. While not surprising, the findings do suggest that men caregivers are vulnerable and that caregiving does not come easily to older men.
MILESTONES
Business in Forbes top 10
The School of Business ranked ninth in a national survey of business schools that provide the best bang for the buck.
Forbes magazine ranked 25 national business schools and 25 regional business schools according to the return on investment students can expect from attending those schools.
The overall winner? Harvard. Its grads gained the most from going back to school, notwithstanding that their costs – tuition and pre-enrollment salaries – were the highest. Madison ranked in the top 10 among regional business schools.
To calculate the worth of a university master’s of business administration degree, Forbes compared the salary gains it generated to the cost of getting the degree.
Forbes’ ranking differs from the usual business-school ratings, which compare schools based on salary offers of recent graduates but take no account of the fact that schools vary widely in how much their students were making before they enrolled, as well as five years out of school.
Yale executive to head clinical trials office
The Office of Clinical Trials at the Medical School has hired a new director.
Tesheia Johnson, who had been clinical trials administrator for several departments at the Yale University School of Medicine, was selected by a search committee of UW physicians and administrators. She began work in Madison Jan. 19.
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Johnson also has an MBA and a master’s of health sciences from Quinnipiac College in Connecticut. At Yale, she most recently served as administrator for clinical trials in surgery and pediatrics. Earlier, she was responsible for overseeing the Yale Child Health Research Center, where she coordinated the efforts of more than 70 scientists and oversaw day-to-day operations of the school’s then- new basic-research facility. Johnson also has hospital administrative experience.
OCT, established in 1989, helps UW Medical School faculty obtain, manage and conduct privately funded clinical research. One of the oldest clinical trials offices in the country, it provides budget preparation and negotiation, streamlines the execution of contracts, helps prepare and file regulatory documents and submissions to the Institutional Review Board, and develops communications for people who agree to take part as subjects in research
Business center plans anniversary celebration
UW-Extension’s Small Business Development Center, which provides counseling and management education for small-business owners, has completed 20 years of service to Wisconsin’s entrepreneurs.
The SBDC will mark its anniversary with a celebration at the Pyle Center on Wednesday, Feb. 9. Wisconsin Secretary of Commerce Brenda Blanchard will be the featured speaker.
“Statewide, we have provided one-on-one counseling and have delivered relevant educational programs for nearly 280,000 entrepreneurs in the last two decades,” says Erica Kauten, SBDC state director. “Our network is the largest provider of entrepreneurial services in Wisconsin. Independent studies show that this translates into entrepreneurial success, job creation and community vitality throughout the state.”
Survey unit to close
Because operations by the UW-Extension Wisconsin Survey Research Lab in Madison cost more than its customers pay, will cease operations when current contracts are completed, possibly by June 30.
The extension’ s agency had one of the nation’ s first computer-assisted telephone interviewing systems. The agency has an annual budget of $2.5 million without state funding. It was financed by public-opinion surveys and other research for governments and companies.
The agency is not connected to the UW Survey Center, which will continue operating as usual.
ON CAMPUS
‘Snowflake Bentley’ author to speak Feb. 4 on campus
Before the snow melts, it is being celebrated by campus libraries with a public lecture and discussion titled “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!”
The talk features Jacqueline Briggs Martin, author of the award-winning children’s book “Snowflake Bentley.” Martin will give a reading at 124 Memorial Library at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4.
Martin’s book, which was illustrated by Mary Azarian, won the 1999 Caldecott Medal for the year’s most distinguished picture book. The book chronicles the life of Wilson A. Bentley, a Vermont dairy farmer who was the first person to photograph snow crystals in the late 1800s.
The following campus libraries are hosting related exhibits: Geology and Geophysics, Kohler Art, Middleton Health Sciences, Memorial, Schwerdtfeger Space Science and Engineering, and Wendt Engineering. Each exhibit includes works by Bentley, which were acquired as lantern slides in the early 1900s by a UW physics professor named, ironically, Benjamin Snow.
The lecture is sponsored by the General Library System and the School of Education Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Martin also will give a talk at Canterbury Booksellers, 315 W. Gorham St., at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5.
Lecture looks at art and social morals
Can art be immoral? That’s the question Noel Carroll will pose in a Friends of the UW–Madison Libraries lecture at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9. Carroll, the Monroe C. Beardsley Professor in the Philosophy of the Arts, gives the inaugural talk in the Friends spring lecture series.
The lecture, titled “Can Art be Immoral? The Paradox of Oscar Wilde,” will be accompanied by readings by D. Scott Glasser from Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Glasser is artistic director of the Madison Repertory Theater and is directing the Rep’s upcoming production of “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.”
The lecture and readings will be in the Department of Special Collections, 976 Memorial Library.
WUD seeks officers for 2000-01 academic year
Faculty and staff may wish to recommend students willing to serve as Wisconsin Union Directorate officers. The jobs of president and two vice-presidents are open for the next academic year at WUD, the student-run program council.
Eleven WUD committees consist of hundreds of student volunteers who create, manage and promote more than 800 events and activities each year, including film, art, music, Alternative Breaks, Hoofers, the Distinguished Lecture Series, and others.
Applications, available in 507 Memorial Union, are due Monday, Feb. 7. Officers receive a stipend equivalent to two semesters of in-state undergraduate tuition spread out via monthly payments over the academic year, according to Linda Stitt, WUD program director.
UPDATE
SECC campaign passes goal
It was a banner year for the State, University and UWHC Employees Combined Campaign of Dane County. It surpassed its $2.2 million goal for 1999, thanks to the generosity of more than 11,500 “partners in giving.”
As of Jan. 19, contributions to the annual charity fund-raising campaign totaled $2,258,399, the largest amount raised in its 26-year history.
On the university side, giving was up 10.4 percent over 1998, with donations amounting to $969,159. The number of donors increased by 5.5 percent. There were 3,846 contributors out of the 13,971 UW employees eligible to participate. Their average donation was $251.99, up from $238.04 in the previous year.
At UW Hospital and Clinics, 608 donors gave $85,679, an 8.9 percent increase over 1998. The number of hospital employees participating in SECC increased by 3.8 percent.
“We truly appreciate the employees’ support of the many charities that participate in the campaign,” says SECC Administrative Board co-chair Greg Zalesak. “Their donations help those charities provide vital services in our community, nationally and globally. We also appreciate the hard work of the many volunteers, without whom the campaign would not be possible.”
All 1999 SECC volunteers are invited to the campaign’s annual awards ceremony and reception 3-4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel, 525 W. Johnson St. The awards will be given out starting at 3:30 p.m.
Building Commission funds three projects
The state Building Commission recently approved money for three projects at the university:
- University Housing will be able to expand the scope of the Barnard, Bradley and Chadbourne maintenance projects using $412,000 in program revenue for a revised total project cost of $3.61 million.
- The Van Hise fire safety and building systems improvements project will receive an additional $190,000 to prepare plans and a design report for an expanded improvement project at an estimated total cost of $7 million.
- About $584,000 will be used to prepare preliminary plans and a design report for the Chamberlin Hall renovation project, estimated at a total cost of $19.8 million.
Also at the Jan. 19 meeting, Gov. Tommy Thompson presented an excellence in design and construction award to the university for the Biochemistry addition.
NOTABLE
Madison student selected for first Great Lakes fellowship
A Wisconsin Sea Grant-supported graduate student has been selected for the inaugural Great Lakes Commission- Sea Grant Fellowship.
The new fellow, Lisa Koch, will spend this year at the Great Lakes Commission offices in Ann Arbor, Mich., working on a variety of commission projects and assisting with its intergovernmental relations efforts.
Koch is a graduate student in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and is also pursuing certification in Geographic Information Systems. Her master’s degree study is examining the chronic effects of toxic contaminants on frog populations in Green Bay as a research assistant on a UW Sea Grant-supported project led by professor William Karasov.
Forum planned on smart cards
Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend an open forum on smart cards Thursday, Feb. 10, from 10:30 a.m.-noon at Union South.
The use of smart cards on campus is growing. Smart cards are being used to replace door keys, cash and credit cards, and to store private encryption keys for public key infrastructure (PKI) applications.
Some applications will require significant hardware investments to succeed in getting cards deployed widely on campus, and early cooperation and communication will help these efforts to succeed.
The Division of Information Technology Architecture Department is hosting the forum. Following a brief presentation on the background of smart cards, individuals will have an opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions.
For more information, see the report on the use of smart cards at: http://www.wisc.edu/arch/results/smart_card_report.html
Information on the forum: Rick Keir, keir@doit.wisc.edu
Volunteer fair offers service options
Interested in community service? The Volunteer Fair Tuesday, Feb. 8 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., in Great Hall, Memorial Union, can help match your interests and skills with a range of opportunities with more than 100 community and campus organizations.
Visitors can talk with specialists involved in youth programs, tutoring, child care, advocacy, health care, criminal justice, elder care and environmental issues, as well as working with people with cognitive, emotional and physical disabilities.
“Volunteers gain a sense of personal satisfaction by helping others,” says Randy Wallar of the Morgridge Center for Public Service. “Volunteering can also help students choose a major, build a resume, and obtain course credit, as well as clarify future goals, and gain valuable references in a chosen field.”
The fair is sponsored by the Wisconsin Union Directorate Community Services Committee and the Morgridge Center, located on the fist floor of the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St.
The Morgridge Center is the campus connection with more than 300 local community service agencies. Office hours are 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Information: Randy Wallar at 263-2432; e-mail jrwallar@facstaff.wisc.edu.