While you were out

Emergency workers dug through fresh concrete to rescue a construction work trapped following the collapse of part of the fourth floor of Rennebohm Pharmacy Building in June. Ten employees from Kraemer Brothers Construction were injured in the accident. They were treated at UW Hospital, across the street from the construction site, and work resumed after an OSHA review. Photo: Jeff Miller Researcher Doreen Gillespie collects pinches of soil that are home to millions upon millions of microbes. This dirt beneath your feet holds many secrets, not the least of which may be the next miracle drug. University scientists this summer received a nearly $1 million grant to continue their study of the genetic instructions that bacteria and other soil microbes use to synthesize their chemical arsenal. Photo/Jeff Miller By last spring, Patrick Dougherty’s swirling twig sculpture was beginning to slouch toward the soil. After the decline accelerated in June, university grounds crew members fed the remains of the sculpture to a wood chipper. The sculpture, made mostly of local tree branches wrapped in swirling, intertwined patterns, had graced lower Bascom Hill since last October, when art students helped Dougherty create the work. Photo: Jeff Miller

Were you away this summer, or just on the Terrace a lot? Here’s some of what you might have missed during the past few months at UW–Madison. For more details on most of these news items, visit the UW news site.

Scholarships to offset tuition increase
Tuition increases for the 1999-2000 academic year will be offset for students receiving federal or state financial aid as part of the Madison Initiative. About 4,200 undergraduates – those receiving a Pell grant or a Wisconsin Higher Education Grant – will receive $300 scholarships from the Vilas Trust to offset a $289 tuition increase on the Madison campus. The result: Resident undergraduates would pay $11 less in tuition than last year. The UW System Board of Regents will adjust tuition rates in subsequent semesters after a state budget is finalized.

Bascom elms get special treatment
A towering stand of American elm trees on Bascom Hill that has survived the ravages of development and Dutch Elm Disease received preventive medicine this summer. Where there were once more than 1,000 elms on campus, a new management plan focuses on keeping the remaining 68 survivors in the green for at least another century. Environmental managers administered a fungicide treatment that’s directly injected at the root of trees. (Read more)

Michele Tracy

Students return after bus-train crash
University study tour participants returned to Madison after their 14-member group was involved in a minibus-train crash in Malawi. Funeral services were held July 13 for medical student Michele Tracy, 24, of Middleton, who along with Malawian bus driver Herbert Chissaka died in the crash near the village of Balaka. The group was on a month-long student-organized program in the central African nation. The crash took place as the group was heading for the airport to return home. Also this summer. a multi-car accident in South Africa killed a family of four stationed in the region as part of a campus international program. Scott Kloeck-Jenson, 34, a UW–Madison Ph.D. candidate and leader of a Land Tenure Center program in Mozambique, died along with his wife, Barbara, 34, their daughter Zoe, 5, and their son Noah, 2.

‘Future Car’ wins again
College of Engineering undergraduates logged another national victory this summer in the Future Car Challenge. Team Paradigm was the top performer in gas mileage, acceleration, workmanship, appearance and dynamic handling, among others. The car achieved a fuel rating of 62.7 miles per gallon, which is a 142 percent improvement over the commercial version of the car-an aluminum body Mercury Sable. The team also tied for first place last year. (Read more)

Nursing lands big training grant
The School of Nursing will get just over $1 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop a comprehensive training program in nursing research. The grant is one of fewer than a dozen grants of this type awarded this year to nursing schools nationwide. “This grant is significant because it signals a maturity in the school’s research status,” says retiring Nursing School Dean Vivian Littlefield. (Read more)

Online-only graduate study debuts
The Master of Engineering in Professional Practice program debuted, catering to the working professional by offering an entire advance degree via the World Wide Web. Classmates will share an electronic classroom for the next two years and pursue a master’s degree without interrupting their careers. Karen Al-Ashkar, the program’s adviser, says the program gives people who are juggling professional and personal lives new access to higher education. “These students need to be able to access courses on their time, not ours,” Al-Ashkar says. Employers strongly supported the concept, she adds. (Read more)

Hospital ranks high in survey
UW Hospital and Clinics ranked among the top 2 percent of the nation’s major medical centers in 10 of the 16 medical specialties ranked in U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals” guide. The guide assesses care in 16 specialties at 1,881 major medical centers. The hospital ranked among the top 2 percent in the following categories: ophthalmology, rheumatology, urology, endocrinology, geriatrics, otolaryngology, cardiology/heart surgery, orthopedics, cancer and gastroenterology. Most categories are assessed based on reputation, mortality rates and a mix of other data.

Smoothie pies in national ‘food fight’
Food science students earned an honorable mention in a national competition by inventing a healthy taste treat, “smoothie pies.” The students turned the traditional smoothie into a refrigerated treat made of a thick, creamy strawberry-and-yogurt filling cradled by a crunchy graham cracker pie crust. Six teams engaged in the “food fight” at the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting in July. (Read more)

Plan outlines revitalized State Street
A new report outlines several recommendations to improve the business climate, enhance the physical appearance and streamline the management of one of Madison’s greatest downtown assets: State Street. The State Street Strategic Plan is the culmination of a months-long community planning effort sponsored by Downtown Madison Inc., the City of Madison, the university and private contributors. (Read more)

$6.75 million funds diet-aging study
A decade-long study of how diet affects the process of growing old will continue and be expanded at the university with the help of $6.75 million from the National Institutes of Health. The Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center study of rhesus macaques on controlled diets is one of only two such studies in the world. (Read more)