Nobel Nobility

Nobel winner gives winnings to 4 schools :

UNC's Nobel Prize-winning professor has decided to give part of his award back to the institutions where he worked and studied.

Oliver Smithies, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UNC, and his colleagues, Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah and Sir Martin Evans of Cardiff University, were awarded a prize of about $1.6 million. The award was given in Swedish krona.

The three scientists were recognized in the field of medicine for their work with genetic targeting that began in the early 1980s.

Their research focused on genetic targeting, in which mice genes are modified to determine the effect this alteration will have.

Smithies has since split his part of the award, about $530,000, among the four universities where he has worked or studied. Each will receive about $130,000.

The universities that received money were Oxford University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Toronto and UNC.

'All four places had something to do with it,' Smithies said. 'Each in different ways have been part of my going to Stockholm, and this is a nice way to recognize them.'

Smithies received his master's and Ph.D. from Oxford, then did some postdoctoral work at Wisconsin.
He began his research for the work he received his Nobel Prize for at the University of Toronto, then returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 25 years and finally settled at UNC for the past 20 years.

The Nobel Prize money is given with no specific stipulations, and each university that Smithies is giving to, he said, will ultimately decide how the money will be used.

"It's for the benefit of the universities, not for my benefit or anyone else's," Smithies said.

On, Wisconsin: "that godforsaken New York cheese..."

Many campus movements aim to boycott certain products. In Wisconsin, a state representative has introduced legislation that would bar any University of Wisconsin campus or state agency acting on behalf of a campus from purchasing cheese or “prepared food product” containing cheese — unless all of the cheese is manufactured or processed in Wisconsin. An aide to State Rep. Jeff Smith, the sponsor, said that while no data are available, the lawmaker has confirmed that some Wisconsin campuses are serving out-of-state cheese. Student opinion appears to be divided — at least judging unscientifically from op-eds in The Badger Herald of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Bassey Etim, a senior, in a column called “Wisconsin cheese not just about pride; it affects the whole damn planet,” argues that buying out-of-state cheese reflects the waste of American society where food is shipped thousands of miles away while local products are overlooked. Etim also does cite the pride factor, writing that “when visiting Dairy State-funded universities, no one expects to eat Californian or that godforsaken New York cheese.” But Tim Williams, another senior, argues in “No matter how tasty, cheese won’t solve problems” that giving Wisconsin cheese producers a monopoly is inappropriate, and that the state and its university system have more serious needs than giving more of an edge to the home-state dairy industry. Williams offers this advice: “Wear the cheesehead with pride, Wisconsin — just as long as there’s a brain underneath.”

How might we count the ways in which this proposal might be unconstitutional, contrary to treaty obligations, otherwise illegal, or just plain dumb?

Long time Wisconsinites might recall prior state legislation, no longer in effect, forbidding oleomargarine sold in this State (in competition with pure Wisconsin butter) to be colored yellow. I am told there was a robust commerce in independently-sold yellow food coloring at the time.

Certain Degrees Now Cost More at Public Universities

New York Times: By JONATHAN D. GLATER

Should an undergraduate studying business pay more than one studying psychology? Should a journalism degree cost more than one in literature? More and more public universities, confronting rising costs and lagging state support, have decided that the answers may be yes and yes.

Starting this fall, juniors and seniors pursuing an undergraduate major in the business school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will pay $500 more each semester than classmates....

Such moves are being driven by the high salaries commanded by professors in certain fields, the expense of specialized equipment and the difficulties of getting state legislatures to approve general tuition increases, university officials say. ...


“This is not the preferred way to do this,” said Patrick V. Farrell, provost at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “If we were able to raise resources uniformly across the campus, that would be a preferred move. But with our current situation, it doesn’t seem to us that that’s possible.” ...

Mr. Kushner [of Iowa State] said he thought society was no longer looking at higher education as a common good but rather as a way for individuals to increase their earning power.

“There was a time, not that long ago, 10 to 15 years ago, that the vast majority of the cost of education at public universities was borne by the state, and that was why tuition was so low,” he said. “That was based on the premise that the education of an individual is a public good, that individuals go out and become schoolteachers and businessmen and doctors and lawyers, that makes society better. That’s no longer the perception.” ...

Officials at universities that have recently implemented higher tuition for specific majors say students have supported the move.

Students in the business school at the University of Wisconsin, for example, got behind the program because they believed that it would support things like a top-notch faculty. “It’s very important to all the students in the business school to sustain our reputation,” said Jesse C. Siegelman, 21, who expects to graduate in December 2008. ...

While several university officials said students in majors that carried higher costs could bear the burden because they would be better paid after graduation, Mr. Lariviere [of Kansas] said he was skeptical of that rationale. He pointed out that many people change jobs several times over a career and that a major is a poor predictor of lifetime income.

“Where we have gone astray culturally,” he said, “is that we have focused almost exclusively on starting salary as an indicator of life earnings and also of the value of the particular major.”

State Official Upholds Race-Conscious Admissions at U. of Wisconsin

Chronicle.com: Peter Schmidt

W

isconsin’s attorney general has issued an informal legal opinion to state legislators concluding that a race-conscious freshman-admissions policy adopted by the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents for the entire university system does not conflict with a state law intended to prevent the system’s campuses from engaging in discrimination.

Soon after the board adopted the policy, in February, 15 state representatives and four state senators sent Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen a letter challenging the legality of the policy, which calls for system campuses to consider race and ethnicity as part of a comprehensive review of applicants. Specifically, their letter alleged that the new policy conflicted with a 1973 law prohibiting the system from making admissions decisions using “sectarian or partisan tests or any tests based upon race, religion, national origin of U.S. citizens, or sex.”

A separate letter, signed by another group of lawmakers, urged Mr. Van Hollen to uphold the policy as legal. They argued that it did not impose any “test,” as described in the 1973 law, and called it “thoughtfully and carefully written to allow admissions officials the flexibility they need to select the student body necessary to ensure the continued success of the institution.”

In the legal opinion, Mr. Van Hollen said the term “test” in the 1973 law was used to refer to an admissions standard that would disqualify any applicants who did not meet it. Because the system’s new admissions policy calls for campuses to consider race as just one of many factors in weighing applicants, it does not impose the sort of racial “test” that the 1973 law prohibits, he said.

Mr. Van Hollen’s letter contained a note of caution for the university system, however, saying that it must make sure applicants are considered as individuals, as required by the U.S. Supreme Court in its key rulings dealing with race-conscious admissions. ...

Free-Market Group Says Wisconsin System's Structure Should Be Changed

The Chronicle :

The free-market-oriented Wisconsin Policy Research Institute has issued a report saying that the governance structure of the University of Wisconsin system is inefficient and needs to be reconsidered.

The report argues that the current structure, which gives the faculties, staffs, and students of various campuses a say in systemwide decisions, is “more oriented to providing reassurance to university constituencies” than providing coherent management. The report recommends that the system’s governance be overhauled to give its flagship campus, at Madison, its own governing board so that it could better compete in the national higher-education market.

There are two quite distinct ideas here, and it's not clear what their relationship is.

Harold Scheub on Doing The University of Wisconsin

Paul Soglin: Waxing America:
Paul has reproduced part of UW Professor Harold Scheub's eloquent welcoming greeting to UW students and their families. As Paul puts it:

Here was a keen and witty analysis of the UW that deserved an audience that includes the legislators and the people of the State of Wisconsin. ... For your enjoyment and edification:

Click the link.

Sierra Club sues Wisconsin, UW on clean air

From The Badger Herald: by Joanna Pliner

The state of Wisconsin — and the University of Wisconsin in particular — could face litigation for violating the federal Clean Air Act.

The Sierra Club, an international environmental organization, held a teleconference and issued a statement Monday announcing its intent to sue the two parties.

According to Jennifer Feyerherm, coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign, coal power plants are the largest sources of soot and fine particulate matter in the air. The Sierra Club’s case against the state of Wisconsin and the university focuses on UW’s Charter Street Heating Plant and the state’s Capitol Heat and Power plant, which both use coal to produce energy.

David Bender of Garvey McNeil & McGillivray, S.C., the law firm representing the Sierra Club, said the environmental organization discovered numerous modifications made to the boilers at the aforementioned coal power plants. Since the Charter and Capitol power plants did not receive permits to make those modifications, he added, the Sierra Club alleged that the plants violated the Clean Air Act.

Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s Midwest Clean Energy Campaign, said UW and the state need to “step up” to put Wisconsin on track for “cleaner air and a better future.”

Defining Privacy -- and Its Limits

From Inside Higher Ed:

"A student in a public university dormitory room had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” for his personal computer and its hard drive, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday. The decision also found that despite that right to privacy, an administrator in the case under review had the right to conduct a remote search of the computer — without a warrant — because of the circumstances involved.

The decision — by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — is among the highest level court rulings to date on a set of legal questions pitting privacy vs. security that are increasingly present in academe. While experts cautioned that the decision involved a specific set of facts, several also said it provided guidance for students on their privacy rights and for administrators at public colleges and universities on setting computer policies that give them the flexibility they feel they need to prevent security breaches.

The ruling dates back to an incident in 1999, and the actions of administrators at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, when they were notified ...that someone on Madison’s network was hacking into the company’s network. Ultimately, a then-student at Madison whose computer was found to be used in the hacking entered into an agreement with prosecutors in which he agreed to admit guilt, received a sentence of time served on federal charges arising from the hacking, and was released after eight months in prison. But ...the then-student, also won the right to appeal the case in the hope of clearing his name, and his appeal focused on information gathered by Madison officials.

There has been a good deal of recent discussion and concern about "reasonable expectations of privacy" hereabouts. This decision may be of some interest. Further comment to follow.