Danielle Lawry
After a career in book and newspaper publishing, I came to On Wisconsin because it aspires to be a world-class general-interest magazine, rather than simply an advertisement for UW–Madison. Along with “reporting news about the university accurately and honestly,” our mission statement requires us to “seek high standards of writing, photography, illustration, graphic design, and printing.”
How to measure “high standards”? Our favorite metric is reader feedback. The discerning UW audience lets us know what’s working and what isn’t, and we take your suggestions to heart. In that way, On Wisconsin serves as a kind of communal Badger project, reflecting UW–Madison values. For example, Kacie Lucchini Butcher of the Center for Campus History argued that our 2026 article “The UW’s Lost Traditions” ignored the “painful histories associated with those traditions” for excluded minority students. Her letter made an impression, and we revised the story online.
We’re grateful for your encouraging letters, too, like a recent one from Thomas Straka ’72, MS’73. “I am not sure how it is possible,” he charmingly wrote, “but lately each issue of On Wisconsin seems better than the last.” Blush!
Awards are another measure of high standards. On Wisconsin competes with alumni magazines around the world in an annual contest sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). We also go head-to-head with the state’s top newspapers and magazines in the Milwaukee Press Club’s Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism competition. We’ve won dozens of honors from both organizations during the past decade, including CASE gold awards for best alumni magazine and best single issue. Credit UW–Madison and its alumni for providing an endless supply of rich material for our staff to dig into.
This year, almost everyone on our masthead — writers, designers, illustrators, photographers — earned state and international awards for articles such as “A New Era for College Sports,” “In the Kitchen with Patricia Wells,” “How to Win a Nobel Prize,” “Quantum Leaps in Education,” and “Paper Magic.” Check them out on our website, onwisconsin.uwalumni.com — not because they won prizes, of course, but because they strive to provide in-depth reporting, stylish writing, dazzling visuals, and insight into important subjects.
And check out our winter issue for the latest reports from campus and beyond. You’ll learn about the UW’s new College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence, the incorrigible Pail and Shovel Party, the Chazen Museum’s innovative reinstallation, and fascinating true-crime studies.
Is this issue of On Wisconsin “better than the last,” per Thomas Straka? As always, we gave it our best shot.
Published in the Winter 2026 issue
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