UW In The News

Voting Early, and in Droves: Nearly 22 Million Ballots Are Already In

Quoted: According to Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, any increase or decrease in early voting between election cycles depends on three factors: whether the availability of early voting has changed, whether the state has become more competitive, and what the campaigns have done to promote early voting.

Apollo 13 astronaut to give UW-Madison’s winter commencement speech

University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Wednesday that an astronaut who grew up in Milwaukee has been chosen as its December commencement speaker.

UW focuses on increasing quality health care in rural areas

Thanks to a four-year grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the University of Wisconsin will increase the number of resident physicians in underserved rural areas in an effort to close the gap of health disparities.

Using wood pulp and footsteps, a professor just found a new source of renewable energy

While thousands of people the world over continue to go solar to generate alternative energy, a lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison just made a major breakthrough on a completely unique new conductive material: wood pulp. While the mention of wood pulp mention leave many scratching their head, the lab found a way to manufacture floorboards out of the commonly wasted material, and did so in a manner that took advantage of its composition of cellulose nanofibers. In other words, the team of engineers managed to develop a flooring material capable of generating electricity by something as simple as a footstep.

Are millennials motivated to turn out to vote on Election Day?

Some polls suggest that Hillary Clinton’s support among millennials may be surging, but there is a lot of anger and disappointment from that huge bloc of voters. In the latest installment of our “Red, White and You” series, NBC’s Ronan Farrow investigates whether efforts to court millennials’ votes will pay off.

How To Take Your Cat To The Vet And Live To Tell The Tale

Noted: “Cats now outnumber dogs when it comes to family pets, but we see fewer cats coming into the vet,” said Dr. Sandi Sawchuck, clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. “It’s not that (owners) feel like they don’t need vet care, it’s the transportation issues.”

Gelbach: Trump helps Putin — and all dictators — when he calls U.S. elections ‘rigged.’

Donald Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, suggested that he would recognize Putin’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, and questioned the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia hacked the computers of the Democratic National Committee.

Greg Gard in law enforcement

Badgers basketball coach Greg Gard once worked part time as a park ranger and sheriff in Iowa County. Lori Nickel

Why Struck-Down Voter ID Laws Trouble Would-Be Voters

Quoted: To Barry Burden, who directs the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, such spats mirror a growing and worrisome use of election rules as tools to win elections, not run them fairly.

Hip-hop education summit creates new beat to learning

The beat of melodies and rhymes is a sound that’s catching the attention of hundreds of classrooms across the nation.

Sims: ‘Bay’ imparted wisdom that shaped grandchildrens’ view of world

My grandmother, whom my family affectionately referred to as “Bay” because she was the youngest of her siblings, was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known—especially when you consider the fact that she only had an eighth-grade education. She would often tell me, “If you don’t stand for somethin’ you’ll fall for nothin’.”

Taking Gard Way a good route for Greg Gard

The Cobb Corn Roast Festival was winding down. The softball, volleyball and bean bag competitions were over. The Texas hold’em poker games, garden tours and 5K run had raised money for the local library. As locals gathered at the burger and brat stand and beer tent on that sunny August afternoon, excitement was in the air. The proud citizens of Cobb—population 458, in the rolling farmlands of southwestern Wisconsin—gathered to celebrate the town’s most famous son, University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Greg Gard.

Wisconsin Science Festival kicks of at UW-Madison

The Wisconsin Science Festival kicked off Thursday morning at UW-Madison.

UW-Madison fraternity runs football to Iowa to support military families

UW-Madison and University of Iowa fraternity chapters are teaming up to run a football all the way to the Badgers-Hawkeyes game to raise money for local military families.

Tips for talking to your kids about elections

UW-Madison School of Education Dean Dr. Diana Hess visits News 3 This Morning to talk about how parents should be talking to their children about this year’s sometimes controversial election.

‘Passing the Mic’ celebrates hip hop in Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives will host its annual Passing the Mic event this weekend that will celebrate the transformational potential of hip hop arts in the Madison community and on the UW-Madison campus. This is the 12th annual Passing the Mic event, which is one of the truly diverse, multicultural events that the city of Madison will see.

Work underway on expanded UW-Madison police headquarters

A $4.8 million project more than doubling the size of the UW-Madison Police Department’s headquarters will improve officer training and make the booking process safer, officials say.

Early voting on campus starts Monday at UW-Madison

Starting Monday, Madison residents will be able to take care of their Election Day duties ahead of time at two early voting locations on the UW-Madison campus.

Officials, analysts say election is not rigged, despite Trump claims

Quoted: “There is virtually no evidence of fraud at the polling places. It’s all myth,” said Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Impersonation of voters, dead people voting, that stuff is outrageously false.”

Even trust in fact-checking is polarized

Noted: But fact-checking itself can be an inherently controversial and “risky” form of journalism, as Lucas Graves, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison and author of the book Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism, told me earlier this summer.

The age of streaming is killing classic film. Can Turner Classic Movies be its salvation?

David Bordwell, one of America’s foremost film scholars, has been thinking back on something the famous film critic Roger Ebert said to him a few years before Ebert died in 2013.

Schools Teaching More Effective Ways to Argue

The third and last U.S. presidential debate takes place Wednesday.

The earlier debates were marked by political nastiness that many historians say is at its worst level in years. Some teachers, however, are working to make debates less angry. They are teaching their students about civil discourse.

Paula McAvoy is the program director of the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 2015, she and Diana Hess published a book called “The Political Classroom.”

Meet the 22-Year-Old Chicago Native Hoping to Tackle Cancer While Inspiring Others

For Keven Stonewall, being a teenager meant embarking on a scientific journey of questions and discoveries. It meant taking risks and not being afraid to stand out from his peers. And it meant working to find a cure for colon cancer at the tender age of 17.

UW-Madison alumni fire up students with entrepreneurship stories

Kenny Dichter was a sociology major when he attended UW-Madison in the 1980s, a “low-SAT, low-GPA guy,” as he describes himself.

Badgers football: Thousands gather for ESPN’s College GameDay on Wisconsin’s Bascom Hill

Yes, Rece Davis confirmed, it is as much fun on the ESPN “College GameDay” set as it looks on TV.

This renowned Wisconsin pianist has invented a way to play two grand pianos at the same time

Though the “Goldberg Variations” by J.S. Bach have been interpreted in countless ways through the centuries, no one has heard the iconic work as it will be performed in Madison on Oct. 28.

UW-Madison surveying students on campus climate

In an effort to gauge how comfortable people from different racial, religious, political and other backgrounds feel on campus, UW-Madison is launching a survey of its student body that officials say could inform changes meant to improve the university’s climate.

It’s Official: Three-Toed Sloths Are the Slowest Mammals on Earth

After seven years of studying three-toed sloths, scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have made it official: the tree-dwelling animals are the slowest mammals on earth, metabolically speaking. “We expected them to have low metabolic rates, but we found them to have tremendously low energy needs,” says ecologist Jonathan Pauli.

UW Carbone Cancer Center doctor, a cancer survivor, leads research

Fight Colorectal Cancer and the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center are working together to train survivors and caregivers to advocate for further research.  The Colorectal Cancer Research Academy has drawn survivors and caregivers from across the country for two days of training.

David Canon and Susan Yackee: The Wisconsin Idea hits the campaign trail

Noted: Canon is a professor of political science and chair of the Department of Political Science at UW–Madison. Susan Yackee is a professor of public affairs and director of the Board of Visitors of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.